#I am hyped for this set

[heckyeahponyscans]

Prototype pics from HQC1C’s instagram! 

[vaggieslefteye]

♫ TOP 5 FAVORITE HAZBIN HOTEL SONGS ♫ 𝄞 1ꜱᴛ place - Ready For This

― FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OUR LIVES, WE KNOW THAT WE ARE READY FOR THIS ― We'll show Heaven a fight they won't forget! (ah, aah, ah) ― IT IS TIME TO TAKE A STAND ― It is time to lend a hand (HUZZAH!) against the angels and their deadly threat! ― WE CANNOT TAKE IT ANYMORE THE TIME HAS COME TO GO TO WAR PREPARE TO FIGHT WE'RE READY FOR THIS! ― I really hope that I'm ready for this...

‹♪›

[clembian]

i think that nothing could ever be like dsmp again. even if you perfectly recreated it, it would never quite be the same

[midnight-els]

For All Mankind | Aleida & Margo | 1983 vs 2003

2x08 - Here's to You 4x02 - Have a Nice Sol

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

Ok y'all it's time to join the party (very late) on my latest deep obsession, which THIS TIME I am going to allow myself to pursue instead of killing the joy (because of how intense it can get) and share with you!!

And that obsession is Epic: The Musical.

Holy smokes man this thing has remolded my brain, it just somehow hits all of those things which I desperately love in media

Firstly. The music is absolutely exquisite. And not even in the ways you'd normally think! Like--there's such wonderfully detailed soundscaping! The musical follows Odysseus on his journey home, and the songs themselves contain beautifully done effects that basically make the listening experience into a movie in your head. Monsters, crashing oceans, the underworld itself--and not only is this included in non-muscial sound design, it's incorporated into the music itself. The realm of the wind gods uses flutes as the main instrument--because it's a WIND instrument I'm losing my mind

PLUS there's the additional elements of musical "Easter eggs," thematic connections, leitmotifs, instrumentation identification, musical callbacks and even foreshadowing like come ONNNNN it's so well done

All of this with the added bonus that the songs, while cohesive, do not all sound the same, and do not feel like normal musical theater songs. They are the perfect mix between modern music, orchestral arrangements, and a musical theater jam, because they are 1. SUPER great to belt along to, 2. Very much linked together (as explained above) and 3. Very unlike the standard, vocal-focused empty pop sound we're used to (theater) while keeping the innovative, ear-wormy, modern (pop) beat that often feels out of place in theater!

And lyrically this musical is super strong. I spent a ton more time on the music (and will likely write more at length later) because that is what got me obsessed with it, but there's also much to praise lyrically! Unlike most modern "non-theater" musicals, while you can tell at places that it has been influenced by (the ever-present) Lin-Manuel Miranda, it feels authentically unique and independent. So many songs have genuinely profound lines (check out Just a Man, the second song in the saga) and the pop elements never lend themselves to empty repetition. Everything sung or said has a purpose, which I am obsessed with. Yes king go off give us everything

Finally (for now) there's just the genuine love that the creator(s) have for this musical. Jay Rivera-Herrans is the brain behind it (he wrote the entire musical over several years) and like...just look at what he shares about it on his Instagram. He gets so EXCITED!! And not like PR excitement, this is like legit "I'm making silly noises because I can't contain myself" excitement!!! He reminds me of me in that sense because he has SO much love and passion for what he does and the nuance in it and the people who enjoy his work, and he shares that in an unfiltered, real, authentic way, and we need to see more of that in the world.

Anyway, if you haven't heard of it and are now interested, it's pretty easy to catch up--there are 5 of the 9 sagas out right now, but only half of the songs, and Spotify has a playlist or two that has them all in order. It's only an hour and eight minutes worth of listening and I have just listened to it through twice in two days; it really does not get old. And then if you go to Jay's Instagram the rabbit hole is deep!! And he explains a lot of the lore and symbolism and intentionality/Easter eggs in the musical!! I went through all of the content he posted, pretty much...

So there's my official hawking of Epic (if only I had gotten in on this earlier!! The "Get in the Water" song that was trending a while ago?? That's from this!!) and you should go listen to it!!!!

[bluerosesburnblue]

@oveliagirlhaditright I'm putting my Missing Link thoughts in another post because it would be too long, and honestly I have SO MANY thoughts about why the basic premise of KHML was a bad idea (completely separate from my own distaste for the "Ephemer is Xehanort's ancestor" stuff that might be in it)

Because you're right to mention Pokemon Go and it really, REALLY feels to me like it's just trying to ride the hype from the mobile ARG boom that started with Pokemon Go a whole eight years ago. Because KHML as a concept doesn't even seem to be utilizing any of the unique features of an ARG that make them appealing

There's two real franchise-based mobile ARGs that I ever remember hearing about: Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite*. These two projects do make sense to me, as opposed to KHML because of the way that both franchises make use of the central concept of the augmented reality feature. They're additions to reality, which both series already played around with. HP takes place in our reality, but with a "what if magic was real and just hidden" premise, so it's insanely easy to make an ARG that's just "yeah, you're one of the people in on the secret magical society that always existed in the real world." Pokemon takes place in an alternate version of our world; every location in Pokemon is based on a real-world location. So that's also a natural progression for it, and it's easy to pretend that the "reality" you see in the ARG is just the Pokemon world. Other than location names and the presence of Pokemon, the Pokemon world is practically identical to reality

That is literally the central concept of an ARG. To make the game part of reality. And that just doesn't work with KH, a game about flying through space to reach Disney worlds. Sure, some of us might have wanted to pretend to be Keyblade wielders as kids, but did we want to be wielders in our small backyards? Not even imagining that they were another location, but the yards as they were? No! We wanted to be in the Disney worlds! Or Traverse Town! The central facet of ARG gameplay doesn't mesh with the functionality of a story-based canonical title. And so what do they do to force it to work? Complicate the lore with the Astral Planes, which completely take the "reality" out of Augmented Reality aside from... a map? Like, it might have worked with Quadratum depending on how much of "our reality" that ends up being, but that's not at all what they're doing

Additionally, ARGs are not conducive to story-heavy games! You're supposed to play them while walking around town, maybe stopping for a few minutes to take a break. Or you play them on work/school breaks. You need to be able to pick them up, play a bit for 10 minutes, and put them down. The typical gameplay cycle for most ARG players does not include 20 minutes just to watch cutscenes to get the Exclusive Lore before being able to do anything, and the people who like KH for the story aren't going to want to wait all the time for their mobile game energy to recharge before they can get their cutscenes (a thing that even KHUx did away with for story chapters after some time!)

The entire decision to make KHML an ARG, to me, feels like corporate checking off a box of "style of game that got popular in recent memory" and trying to copy it rather than thinking of the gameplay as a medium in and of itself to tell a story. Nothing about the ARG concept works with what KH is at its core, and I honestly feel like they unintentionally admitted that when it was announced that you'd be able to play it without leaving home. What is the point of making it an ARG at all if you're going to remove literally the only benefit that it has as a medium, as opposed to something that could benefit the story you're trying to tell? We are a long way from the days of TWEWY making revolutionary use of the DS technology to have its gameplay tell a significant part of its story

In an ideal world, I think that KHML should have been an MMO like we thought KHx was going to be back when it was announced. They wouldn't have to mess with the lore to make it work, other players running around would help to "populate" Scala ad Caelum in a natural way, people could form "families" with their friends to further the bloodlines narrative, and MMOs can function on the drip-fed narrative style that they wanted. It doesn't even have to be a big-budget MMO like FF14, because I actually do like KH3's artstyle and KHML's simpler usage of it (it manages to be distinctive and colorful, working in hallmarks of Nomura's hand-drawn style while still being more detailed than the PS2-era). It could just be... basically what it is now, but they add in new Disney worlds every couple of months to keep the story going

And now here we are, with a game that was supposed to be out by the end of 2023 still missing (lol) and only having had two betas by the near-midpoint of 2024 because they're having developmental issues that I would personally guess have to do with the game's self-defeating nature. I find it very frustrating

*Adding in, Wizards Unite literally ran for less than three years (June 2019 - Jan 2022) before shutting down so even being tied to a big-name franchise couldn't save it. I have a strong hunch that the Covid-19 lockdowns played a huge part in killing the ARG boom so it's doubly insane to me why Square Enix thought trying to bring it back was a good idea

[roomy-ghosted]

hey, don't cry, blood in the bayou video game okay?

[read tags for actual info]

[vcrnons]

the many faces of hansol vernon chwe.

bonus:

[ace-and-ranty]

Saw a post going around about Legend & Lattes, talking about its genre of origin and how skill progression is a staple of it, but then L&L swaps out "You gained the Extra Cool Murder Skill!" with "You gained scones!" and that's why it's so "painfully boring"

No hate to that post, they're having fun nagging and God knows I have fun nagging, which is why I'm doing this on my own post rather than pooping on their fun, LOL

But I gotta say. I think they're underestimating the existence of a crowd that genuinely prefers scones to the Extra Cool Murder Skill. Have they ever heard of Stardew Valley?.

[shorthaltsjester]

mighty nein two shot im losin my gd mind !!!!! im hoping for uk’otoa and/or orphanage stuff just because a) it’s an easy narrative pick up for it to be something concentrated on one of the little groups that left off and have them reach out to the others for help and b) every other storyline to Me is already very well wrapped up in terms of things worth canonizing or it doesn’t feel sufficient for like 10 hours of content

[mitamicah]

I have a sticker design for Böle ready :D!!! Would you rather me show you now or wait until we get closer to the concert(s) :3?

[formlessvoidbeast]

It is Entirely Plausible that my first tea pet will arrive in the mail tomorrow

[aroninshonour]

VILLIAN JAY??? WHAT???

Okay so I was catching up on some of tannerfishies videos on YouTube(srsly go check him out he's great at keeping tabs and updates on ninjago) just now bc I fell behind AND HOLY SHIT MAN VILLIAN JAY?!? EHEHEHE IVE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS- Although the sources where he got the pictures from arent confirmed, I CAN STILL HAVE HOPE- also idk if someone talked abt this yet or not considering the video was posted 2 days ago- BUT STILL, I HAD TO SAY SUM ABOUT IT-

Anyways, Even if the sources aren't confirmed I STILL HAVE HOPE AND I ALSO JUST RLLY WANNA SEE A VILLIAN JAY- Even if it's just for a bit. cuz then I can say it happened :)

So yeah, idk, just was doing some catching up lemme know what you guys think AND AGAIN go check out Tanner (TannerFishies)on YouTube if you don't already, especially if you wanna keep good tabs on new ninjago stuff :>

[dkettchen]

I am watching cobra kai (season 1 so far) and I just need demetri to understand that if he dressed up as the onceler and went to comic con he would 100% be able to get laid, use that face, boy, use what you have

[dandyshucks]

also i have acquired a second-hand rolling desk chair (no more wooden dining table chair YIPPEE) and it is old and in slight disrepair but OOOHH ITS MAKING SUCH A DIFFERENCE, i can actually sit at my desk comfortably to work on things,,,, sewing the plush dolls is going to be so much easier now :3

[quaddmgd]

SUFFER WITH ME

"What the fuck, Crystal?" "We were set up, thanks to you and your fucking friend, Section. Harry and Thalia are dead. Rainer might join them soon." "Sure. Thought you'll be wiser than to get yourself followed." "No one came to us for about ten minutes, we weren't followed. Their plan was to fucking ambush us and cut off any possible way of escaping, which they managed just fine." "You just killed the only guy who could contradict you. How the fuck am I supposed to believe you now?" "If he was the only one, then you have a bigger problem than your crackhead boyfriend being dead. Ask his Militech contact." "You keep undermining my authority at the cost of our people. I swear-" "Do you even hear yourself?!" "You were supposed to lead this operation! Where's the truck, C?!" "Thalia blew it up, along with herself. And you better be fucking grateful, because if she had made it out, you'd be dead as well." "We have a bigger problem then. And you're leaving, for killing Troy and being a bitch for quite some time now. You can leave willingly or in a body bag. And I'm only giving you this choice out of respect for your parents."