#I’m so defensive over the accuracy of these characters

[moonlit-typewriter]

Thank you for making “I want to watch Percy Jackson” an acceptable statement in my house again

[just-here-with-my-thoughts]

Day 22: Human Weapon / Worked Themselves to Exhaustion

@febuwhump prompt Alt 4: Human Weapon @badthingshappenbingo prompt: Worked Themselves to Exhaustion

Fandom: The Bad Batch Characters: Omega, Crosshair, Hunter Set when they are all living happily on Pabu Word Count: ~2440 Read Here on A03

Synopsis: Omega wants to celebrate her friend's birthday, and finds out Crosshair's thoughts on the subject.

100% inspired by the fact I baked cupcakes for Season 3 launch day

Crosshair leaned against the kitchen counter, watching Omega through eyed narrowed in suspicion. The clone girl was up to her elbows in ingredients, packets and boxes discarded messily around her as she focussed with forceful concentration on the large mixing bowl.

Omega’s hands, arms and apron were all streaked with powdery white debris from where she had tipped the bag of flour with too much enthusiasm, and she spread the mess to her face when she tried to wipe her hair out of her eyes with the back of her arm.

“I don’t know why you’re going to all this trouble,” Crosshair said with a deprecating edge of boredom to his voice. “What’s the point?”

He reached out and snagged a party snack from a nearby platter, cubes of cheese and pineapple skewered neatly on wooden cocktail sticks. Omega smacked his retreating hand with the back of her mixing spoon; he grinned unrepentantly and held her gaze whilst devouring the dainty snack and turning the cocktail stick in his mouth like a toothpick.

“Crosshair! Those are for the party guests!” Omega scolded, putting down her current utensil and whisking the platter out of Crosshair’s reach.

Crosshair merely shrugged, licking the batter residue of her assault from his hand before folding his arms.

“And the point is, it’s Lyana’s birthday! We’re going to celebrate. I told Shep I would make the cake.”

“You don’t know how to make cake,” said Crosshair bluntly.

Omega grit her teeth and returned to her bowl, starting to mix again. “That’s why I’m following a recipe,” she told him, in the tone of voice one uses with someone struggling to grasp a simple concept.

Crosshair scooped up a broken eggshell and inspected it. It had taken Omega five minutes to fish the remnants of the shell out of the cake batter earlier when she had misjudged the force needed to crack the egg into the bowl.

“Still don’t see why you’re bothering,” he said, turning to toss the eggshell into the bin with precision accuracy. “It’s not like Lyana’s ever going to do something like this for you.”

“Why not?” said Omega grumpily.

“You’re a clone,” was Crosshair’s flat reply. “Clones don’t have birthdays.”

Omega paused in her task, looking up at him with wide brown eyes.

“Birthdays are a stupid nat-born tradition,” continued Crosshair, glaring about at the mess in the kitchen. “All this fuss over one day. They get older every day, and yet make such a noise about marking this one day in particular.” He jabbed a finger in Omega’s direction. “You don’t have a birthday. Lyana is never going to make cake for you. So why bother doing this for her?”

For a moment Omega just stared at him, mouth hanging open in shock as she processed his unexpected diatribe. Then she returned to her mix with renewed ferocity, scraping the spoon along the edges of the bowl and scooping the batter out into the waiting cake tin.

“We get decanted,” she said, a little crossly. “That’s like being born.”

Crosshair barked a bitter laugh. “What are you going to do, celebrate your decanting anniversary?”

“I could!” Omega snapped back, fixing him with a glare before returning to levelling the cake batter. “We all could! Some of Echo’s reg friends from the 501st do. I heard him talking to them about it. They invited him to Coruscant, but he couldn’t go because Tech was upgrading the Marauder.”

Crosshair sniffed and tightened his arms across his chest. Omega didn’t miss the defensive movement, or the way his shoulders rose towards his ears with ill-concealed tension.

Taking a deep breath, Omega shook her thoughts and concentrated on the next step in the cake procedure. She carefully sheathed her hands in the protective heat-mitts before opening the oven, and even more carefully lifted the cake tin down onto the wire shelf.

When she straightened up she took the mitts off and threw one of them at Crosshair.

“Why don’t you want to celebrate your decanting day?” she asked, in that special voice he knew she saved for when she wouldn’t back down from a fight. “What’s so bad about it?”

“For starters, I’m an elite clone commando, not a child,” Crosshair drawled, and the second mitt followed the first. Crosshair dodged, but didn’t break a smile. His face had settled into a familiar frown that they had been seeing less of of late, and Omega paused and walked round to stand beside him instead.

“You can tell me, Crosshair,” she said, leaning her shoulder against his side. He didn’t respond immediately, so she let her head rest against his upper arm as well. “Why don’t you want to talk about your decanting day?”

Crosshair huffed and shrugged her off, so she returned to standing, looking up at him expectantly. His gaze was fixed straight ahead, teeth clenching hard around the toothpick as he chewed on his answer.

“I don’t know about the regs,” he said at length, voice soft and sibilant above the hum of the oven, “but for enhanced clones, your decanting day anniversary was a day for the Kaminoans to take you and test you, measure you, make sure you were developing as expected…” He trailed off, shaking his head sharply as though it could dispel the memories. He scrunched his eyes shut, head dropping forwards. “It was a convenient day for them to check you were on target. If you weren’t performing adequately, or if they found a defect…”

When he trailed off Omega reached out tentatively, trying to rest her small, messy hand over his. Crosshair flinched his hand out of reach.

“We were designed to be human weapons,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “Decanting day was when they performed their quality control checks.”

Omega could see the tremor that had set up in his tall frame, and made another attempt to capture his hand. This time she twined her sticky cake-batter fingers through his, taking his arm from where it was folded across his chest and letting it drop between them as they stood side by side, both looking forwards at the messy kitchen counter rather than at each other.

“I’m sorry that you had to be scared of that, Crosshair,” she said softly, giving his hand a gentle squeeze as she spoke.

Crosshair’s fingers twitched in return. He didn’t return the pressure of her hand, but it was something, and at least this time he wasn’t trying to pull away.

“We’re on Pabu now,” Omega continued, her voice lighter. “No more tests. For any of us.” She gave a small smile. “Just Lyana’s birthday party.”

Crosshair grunted a noise that might have been agreement. Then he took his hand back from hers, wiping the stickiness off on her shoulder.

“Ew, Crosshair!” Omega protested. “I’m wearing an apron for a reason!”

“You should clean up this mess before Hunter gets home,” said Crosshair, gesturing at the kitchen. “Maybe wash the flour out your hair too.”

Omega heaved a sigh, brushed her hands down the front of her apron, and began to clean up.

*

“Crosshair, the cake… it’s stuck…”

Crosshair peered over with feigned disinterest. Omega shook the cake-tin hard, only for the top of it to break away and land in a fragmented pile on the cooling rack, whilst the base stayed resolutely stuck inside the cake tin.

Omega gasped in dismay and turned the tin over, inspecting the damaged remains of her baking attempt. Crosshair picked up the datapad she had been using, skimming the recipe.

“Did you remember to grease the cake tin before you poured the batter in?” he asked drily.

Omega groaned, covering her face with her hands. “I’m going to have to do the whole thing again.”

“Looks like it.” Crosshair checked the chrono on the datapad. “Better hurry it up, too. You haven’t got long before the party.”

Reluctantly, but with a sense of urgency, Omega began to retrieve the baking ingredients and equipment she had so carefully stowed and washed up. Crosshair watched with the faintest smile as she began the process again.

*

Lyana’s birthday party went late into the night. Long after the children were dozing the adults sat and talked and drank and laughed.

Omega curled up at the end of Lyana’s bed, both girls chatting before conversation lapsed into sleepy yawns, and eventually quiet. Omega was vaguely aware of the door opening, and being lifted from her position on top of Lyana’s covers and held close against a warm, familiar torso.

“Kid’s tired out,” came Hunter’s voice, his usually gruff tone softened with a smile.

“Worked herself to exhaustion baking two birthday cakes,” came a snarky, sibilant reply, and Omega smiled into Hunter’s shoulder at Crosshair’s presence.

The gentle swaying motion of being carried against Hunter’s body was enough to keep her lulled at the edge of sleep, but the cool night air tugged at her consciousness to stop her dropping off completely. Omega nestled closer to Hunter’s chest and kept her eyes closed as she listened to the brothers talk.

“Omega wants her own birthday celebration,” Crosshair told Hunter after a while. He sounded dubious as he said it.

Hunter breathed a snort. “What for?”

“That’s what I said. She said we should celebrate our decanting day anniversary.”

A ripple of tension passed through Hunter’s body. Omega stilled her breath, listening to the way his heart-rate spiked. Her fingers curled a little in his scarf, and she hoped he hadn’t noticed she was awake.

“Hardly a day to celebrate,” muttered Hunter.

Omega felt them slow to a halt. She risked peeking one eye open, trying to see what was happening. Hunter was staring distantly at the dark ocean around the island, and Crosshair was stood beside him with one hand on the back of his brother’s shoulder, thumb rubbing soothingly up and down the nape of Hunter’s neck.

“You’re still here,” he murmured. The hand stilled, then squeezed his shoulder.

“Almost wasn’t,” breathed Hunter softly.

Crosshair’s voice was neutral. “I know.”

A few moments of silence. Then Hunter drew a shuddering breath and started walking again.

“So Omega wants a decanting day party.”

“Yeah.”

A short head-shake.

“I don’t know. It brings back a lot of memories.”

They stopped again. Now Omega felt herself being lifted from Hunter’s arms, before Crosshair gently laid her down on a bench.

She opened her eyes and watched as Crosshair returned to his brother, folding both arms around him and drawing him into a close embrace. Hunter buried his face in Crosshair’s shoulder, hands grabbing fistfuls of his brother’s shirt, and Cross stroked one hand through Hunter’s hair, humming soothingly.

“We’re on Pabu now,” he whispered, and Omega recognised her own words. “No more tests. For any of us.”

*

Crosshair tilted the mixing bowl towards Omega, an annoyed scowl on his face. “Is this mixed enough?”

Omega rolled her eyes and pushed the bowl back to him. “No! Look, you can still see lumps of butter, and all these sugar crystals. It has to be beaten properly.”

“What does that even mean?” growled Crosshair in annoyance.

“It means mix until smooth and fully combined,” Omega told him patiently. “When that’s done, you can add the eggs.”

“At least I’ll remember to grease the tin,” the sniper muttered as he returned to beating the mixture. Omega leaned her elbows on the counter, watching him with a smile.

“Why did you decide you wanted to learn to bake, anyway?” she asked cheerily.

An uncharacteristic flush spread across Crosshair’s cheeks and he narrowed his eyes, concentrating fully on the task in front of him. “No reason,” he said, a lie so obvious it made it hard to question.

Crosshair’s impatience was clear as Omega talked him through the rest of the recipe, including turning up the temperature on the oven in the hope that the cake would cook faster. Omega rescued the situation when she smelled the charcoal scent of burning batter, turning the oven back down and opening the door to let the curling smoke escape.

Crosshair glared at the finished cake, blackened round the edges, as it cooled on the wire rack.

“It’s awful,” he declared in annoyance.

“It’ll be fine once you cut these bits off,” said Omega, sawing at the burnt sections with a knife. “Or, you could start again–”

“This one will be fine.”

*

Crosshair tracked Hunter down to the docks, where the former sergeant was helping unload the fishing vessels as they came in. He grabbed his brother without explanation, pulling him to one side.

“What’s the matter, Crosshair?” asked Hunter, concerned, a feeling which only grew when Crosshair refused to meet his eyes.

“I made this for you,” muttered the sniper sullenly, extending a shallow card box about a foot across. Hunter took it with a puzzled look.

“Open it then,” snapped Crosshair, turning away and folding his arms. His frame was written with the kind of tension that spoke of protecting vulnerabilities, and Hunter raised his eyebrows in soft amusement.

Cracking open the box lid did nothing to ease his confusion. “You got me a cake?” he asked, then recalled his brother’s words. “You… made me a cake.”

He lifted the lid all the way off, inspecting the trimmed edges, still crusted with a small burnt sections here and there. The top of the cake had been messily iced with an uneven layer of buttercream, but on top of that in a contrasting icing colour was a very precisely piped version of his familiar half-skull tattoo.

“It’s stupid,” said Crosshair quickly, like he needed to insult his own creation before Hunter could. “But I thought…”

He trailed off, then fished a toothpick out of his pocket and chewed on it anxiously.

Hunter waited for him to continue, and when he didn’t he prompted, “What did you think, Cross?”

Crosshair huffed in annoyance, glaring out over the sea as he spoke. “It’s your decanting day,” he muttered. “I thought… maybe if I made it special, maybe if you had a cake, like a nat-born birthday… then it’d be a nicer thing for you to think about than remembering the year you were almost decommissioned.”

Hunter looked at the cake for a moment, then up at his brother, a soft smile touching the corners of his lips.

“Did you bring a knife to cut it with?”

The relieved exhale Crosshair gave released some of the tension from his frame. “You… you want to eat it?”

Hunter grinned and nudged his shoulder to his brother’s.

“Yeah,” he said, “but only if I can share it with you.”

[dark-falz]

PSO1: Tips on starting out

I’ve seen a lot of new people who try out PSO1 ask a lot of questions about stuff and how to get the ball rolling in game. It warms my heart that people are going and trying out this old revolutionary title, but I myself forget this isn’t an easy game to start off in.

This is going to be a nice long post pertaining to the basics with starting off for this game. I’m going to go over, races, classes, mags, quests, and a few random things between them. I play on Ephinea, the most populated server, so a bit of my information may be specific to their server.

*Note - I have never achieved max level in this game. There are other veterans who have like 6 level 200 characters across multiple platforms/servers. I am not a pro-veteran, but I have a consistent 23 years of familiarity with the game, never putting it down for over a year since owning it. It is and has been my hands down favorite game. There are much more knowledgeable people to talk to about this game, I am just providing what basic information I can in hopes of creating an ease of access for new people trying to get more familiar with the game.

Races:

Humans: Nothing special honestly except in classes. Stats: Balanced/Sturdy

Newmans: Regenerate TP standing still. Stats: Squishy & blind but strongest magic

Casts: Regenerate health standing still, cannot use techniques, have access to traps. Stats: High accuracy, high health, high power.

Classes: (in game order)

HUmar - Cannot learn buffs Shifta or Deband. Can learn debuffs Jellen and Zalure. HUnewearl - Worst accuracy, attack, and health among hunters. Highest evade, defense, mind. Can learn all techniques except force-specific. Best jack of all trades class. HUcast - Achieves highest attack among hunters HUcaseal - Best accuracy among hunters, as well as best evade late game

RAmar - Can learn buffs Shifta and Deband, cannot learn debuffs Jellen and Zalure. Highest accuracy among rangers, worst mind. RAmarl - Can learn all techniques except force-specific. Worst health & attack among rangers, highest evade. RAcast - Highest health & attack among rangers, worst evade & accuracy. RAcaseal - Most defense of Rangers

FOmar - Highest attack, worst defense late game. FOmarl - Most health & defense among forces, worst mind & TP. FOnewm - Most TP, mind, & evade at start. Worst defense early. FOnewearl - Lowest attack & defense, strongest mind and most TP.

Mags:

Your mag is your other half. PSO2 kept this concept relatively similar thankfully. Mags evolve at levels 10, 35, and 50. From here you can achieve a 4th evolution mag (also a rare item) meeting specific requirements. Mags are just as in depth in terms of late-game but its important to have knowledge on them. This part is lengthy and I apologize. At the start of Mag feeding, it works like this; when a mag is evolved by a hunter at level 10, it will learn an AOE Photon Blast. by a ranger at level 10, it will learn a linear Photon Blast by a force at level 10, it will learn a healing Photon Blast.................... up to level 35; feeding fluids will grant mostly mind, mates will grant mostly power, antis will grant mostly dex. Atomizers will boost 2 stats at a time.

When a mag is evolved at level 35; if its highest stat is power it will learn a linear Photon Blast If its highest stat is dex it will learn an aoe Photon Blast If its highest stat is mind it will learn a Shifta Deband Photon Blast....................

And the headache part with mag feeding (apart from being fucked if you’re a force lmao) is...the 4th evolution requirements. I only mention this because I do think its important to keep in mind as you’re feeding;

In order to get a 4th evolution mag, you need to have all your stats balanced.

4th evolution mags can also only be achived by certain classes holding certain section IDs. I’d get into more specifics, but its a post on its own and Ephinea’s mag tables can be found here along with this information. You can also find feeding tables for each mag as after level 35 their diets will change drastically and no-longer easy to generalize.

Quests:

If you aren’t playing with a friend, I recommend starting off on the Side Story quests in One Person mode. You select this upon creating a game, just before difficulty selection. Several of the early quests include a buddy that familiarizes you with the game. Monsters on One person mode are also easier to kill and don’t hit as hard.

If you’re starting off with a friend, you just gotta buckle down. Try to pick your classes strategically and just grit your teeth through it, it’ll get better.

If you have a friend that can carry you even in the slightest, I recommend Towards the Future under VR at the Hunters Guild. This is a boss rush quest and starting at level 1 you can end anywhere form levels 8-12. It is common to see an open game titled TTF to join if you’re social. Once TTF starts slowing down I recommend Episodes 2 and 4 if you’re still able to be carried and I mean carried. Episodes 2 and 4 I usually recommend after you’re past the next difficulty requirements, and especially if you’re freshly 80. (I do not recommend Episode 1 Ultimate mode until around level 95 but I, too, am a glutton for punishment) Quests I recommend for grinding in Episode II: Maximum Attack E: (VR/Gal De Val) & in Episode IV: Maximum Attack E: Episode 4

Extra bullshit

Section IDs are how your drops are determined. Example: only certain ID’s get the Red Ring, others would get Rico’s Glasses, and others would get her Earrings instead, all from Falz on Ultimate.

Ephinea has their own wiki, personally I try to keep a drop chart and mag chart on a second screen at all times when I’m playing. I strongly recommend referring to them often.

Consoles all have their own Section ID assigning system, along with their own specific drops. Servers vary between each other in some ways like this too. For a general reference tool, I recommend the ancient site that has everything, PSO-World.

Playing PSO

I find it necessary to say PSO is not similar to PSO2 in the way that PSU is. PSO does not have an in-depth combat system, it can be clunky and still makes me angry sometimes.  Even I have to remind myself this game is over 20 years old. PSO2 is much more similar to PSU, despite its name. Personally I’m not the biggest fan of Universe’s story, but the Portable series absolutely shines and it takes place in the same Universe as...Universe. Characters from Universe are even in it. PSO2 has a lot of Portable 2 Infinitiy’s inspiration in it, but Infinity had PSO characters in it. As far as similarities go between PSO and PSO2 all I can compare is just the mag system, but the combat in PSU/Portable is what PSO2 evolved from.

Playing Phantasy Star

Emulators and private servers are your cheapest option. I have links to all servers on my custom theme, and I can provide roms if needed. Alternatively;

For Dreamcast: Dreamcasts can literally read burned games, assuming you no longer need the key provided that came with the game to play on the original server. (Would assume the current servers would provide those if you still need them). I haven’t played Dreamcast Online since it was alive, I was also 6 at this time. I don’t know shit about burning the games, but the real version of this game retails used for $30-50. You can still use private servers with your Dreamcast! Recommended Emulator: Redream 

For Gamecube: I assume most PSO Gamecube online players kept their games. The GC copy price of this game is all over the place with the regular and plus editions, and it seems the regular editions are running higher online for some reason at the moment, however there are very seldom listings for both. Both copies retail used for over $100 You can still use private servers with your Gamecube! (I believe this can be done with wii too) Recommended Emulator: Dolphin

For Xbox: This is the cheapest copy of the game, retails $15-$30 used. You can now play online with Insignia.Live however you need a modded Xbox, which a kit to do so will run the same price. If you mod your own Xbox and it has PSO data on it, you will lose it forever. This happened to me and I’m still dead inside from it. (but u can use voice chat which is huge friends)

There are also 6 servers to play Blue Burst on which are Ephinea, Ultima, Schthack, Destiny, and Sylverant. Consoles can be connected to several of these servers. You can also connect to Blue Burst servers via steam deck, however this requires your own programming and I cannot help you besides providing links of how to do it.

Ambitions of the Illuminus is playable online through the Clementine server. You can alternatively download a Playstation 2 emulator and I can provide a ROM for this, but I don’t use a Playstation 2 emulator for anything so I don’t have a recommendation. Both the 360 and PS2 copy of PSU retail used for $10-15. I do recommend PPSSPP for emulation of the Portable series. I can provide these ROMs as well. All copies of Portable 1, 2 and Infinity retail used for around $25. There is also finally an English translation of PSP2I. If you need help finding the rom just send an ask :)

Hot take

This biggest thing I have to stress with this game is; if you start off as a Force, you are going to have a very hard time. You constantly need to use money in order to use your techniques, unless you play newman and strategically stand around and feed your mag while your TP comes back. And most importantly, you need a mind mag. Thing is, with feeding your mag fluids, a force gets a healing photon blast to start out. And with mind being the primary stat at level 35, you get the Shifta and Deband photon blasts. You’re stuck with the most useless photon blasts possible for your character. Forces are completely badass, but they’re tricky to learn and start off, especially as a beginner. Example: FOmar was the first class my s/o picked. He is level 35. He has not touched that character in over a year but has a HUmar nearly level 100 and a RAmar over level 50.

Also, standing around in game and feeding your mag for a day is also a PERFECTLY acceptable way of playing the game.

Also my ask box is always open, and I’m happy to help with what I can if you have any questions :)

[satanwritesfanfiction]

Sean Renard x f!reader || Lingering choice ×SMUT×

Title:  Lingering choice

Ship: Sean Renard x f!reader

Triggers: Smut, no bed, feelings, spanking

Characters: f!reader, Sean Renard

Wordcount: 2410

***

Your bare feet moved across the cold floor, satin robe clinging to skin. Choices, that's all life was and you've definitely made some shitty ones, evident from your current living situation. The current lingering choice, however, was definitely on the stupid side. Stupid and cliche, he would never fall for it but even with this in mind, you searched the apartment for signs of life.

You found him hunched over his desk, still sporting a pristine suit despite the hour. His tie was loosened only slightly but other than that, perfectly how you'd picture him. You worried your lower lip, it was still a stupid idea. You stalked closer, footsteps alerting the man to your presence.

He said nothing at first which was slightly disappointing on your end. His eyes looked you up and down, making you feel a little open to interpretation until his attention fell back to his work scattered among multiple papers strewn across the desk.

"Did you need something?" Sean asked, voice even and seemingly disinterested in you.

It was an interesting way of phrasing it, you thought, you definitely had a need but whether he was willing to fulfill it remains to be seen. Under his protection and on his property, you had everything you could conceivably ask for and yet, you'd give away that protection in exchange for something more.. Primal, something only he could supply you with.

"Yes. " you stated firmly, as evenly as you could muster. The familiarity and awkwardness of the current situation mixing into an anxiety you rarely felt. The simple response lead him to glance back up at you as he waited for your demands but it wasn't something you'd like to put into words so clearly. So you moved onto the next stage of this stupid idea.

Your hands reached to the front of your body, fingers working the knot with precision and accuracy like you had done so many times before, the robe tumbling to the floor and pooling at your feet, leaving you only clad in your favorite pair of underwear.

His gaze lingered, you focused on your breathing under his scrutiny. Too much value derived from his acceptance you realized once again. He forced his eyes back to the papers in front of him, finger dragging over the edge of one in hopes to distract himself. "What do you think you're doing?"

You moved a few paces, standing in front of his desk now. He still had to feel something the way he allowed you things, the way you stayed, how he didn't immediately shut you down. A small smile lingering on the edge of your lips as you leaned over the table, propped up by your hands on it.

"Now, I thought the display was pretty obvious, Captain." you stated, emphasizing the last word.

He sighed as he got up from behind the desk, walking around the table so he was standing in front of you, hands placed on your shoulders when he spoke. "You don't want to go down that road again, (Y/n). You know what happened last time..."

You frowned for a moment, taking aback that he didn't immediately accept you serving yourself on a platter for him. You took a breath before looking up at him, taking his tie between your fingers. "That road.. Happens to hold my fondest memories." you responded, perhaps a little defensive. You looked down at where your fingers played with the tie before meeting his eyes again. "Do you regret it then?"

He took a breath. He knew it wasn't a good idea to encourage this line you were both treading and yet, he still lingered.

"No, but you know how it always ends. "

A small smile lingered on your lips, such power in knowing he didn't regret any moment you spent together, that in the end the good had to outweigh the bad. You bit into your lip as you fixed his tie.

"Worries for another time, Sean." you stated, taking firm hold of the tie and taking a seat on his desk, prompting him to follow as you did. "Tonight, I'm just asking you to fulfill a simple need. You can always say no... But you want to know what I think?" you said, spreading your legs a little so he could find his place between them. "I think you want this this just as much as I do."

A few seconds marched by, punctuated by the slam of your heart against your chest and for a moment you thought he might actually surprise you and walk away but then he took your face in his hands and pressed his lips firmly to yours. You smiled into the kiss briefly before diving back in, like being lost in the desert without knowing it to suddenly drowning, gasping for air in a sloppy display of teeth and tongue.

His mouth made a descent down your neck, open mouthed kisses on sensitive skin and you tilted your head back, allowing the man access to whatever he desired.

"This what you want?" he spoke against your skin, hand at the base of your neck and keeping you near him.

You bit into your lip only slightly. "You know what I want... But I'd say its a start. You know you don't have to hide it from me"

You felt him smile against your skin, feeling the change beneath his skin, hands slipping down your body and resting on your hips. "You're incorrigible... But I'll play."

The words barely left his lips before his grip tightened, flipping you over with such ease. Your legs buckled in the process, hitting the desk, a cry slipping past your lips. He pressed your chest into the desk by the hand that he slipped into your hair, scattered paper underneath you seemingly losing its value for the moment. You felt a firmness pressed to your backside as his free hand moved over your back gently and then it stopped just at the dip of your ass, the smack playing against the walls of his office.

You gasped at the contact, biting into your lip as you spread your legs a little more as you moved through the sting it caused. Another sharp smack landing against your skin, a sound slipping past your lips, feeling yourself get wet under his movements.

You anticipated another hit but instead his body moved away slightly so he could move your underwear to the side, pressing his thumb to your clit. He bent over you, clothed chest pressing to your back as he spoke, thumb flicking your clit.

"That a little better for you, sweetheart?" he murmured.

"Yes." you breathed under his ministrations.

His hand stopped moving against your lower region, planting another smack to your thigh. "You're going to have to be a little louder, princess."

You closed your eyes. "Yes, Sean." you cried out and bit into your lower lip..

"Good girl." he responded, tapping against your thigh twice before lifting himself from you. Both hands left your body but you didn't dare move, feeling his fingers slip into the hem of your panties before pulling down, slowly. You stepped out of the material when it pooled around your ankles. His hands covered your legs, spreading over your skin as they made their ascent up your legs until they lingered on your ass, a firm squeeze as he admired the view he had from his position.

He stood, running a single digit through your folds and gathering the wetness there before pushing it into you.

"You're wet." he hummed, pushing the digit in and out of your cunt. It was really not enough to cause sufficient friction but definitely enough to grate on your nerves which had your hips pushing pack on him. "A little needy today, aren't we?" he chuckled lightly.

He removed his finger from you, letting you know just how ready you were for him to take you when you felt the emptiness it left.

He pushed the digit into his mouth, humming at the taste of you. "The one thing you don't think about missing is taste and yet it persists."he stated, promptly followed by the sound of him unbuckling his pants.

You bit into your lip, fingers curling over the edge of the desk as you waited to be filled by one of the few people who really pushed you, who knew you. You spread your legs a little more when you felt his hand placed on your hip, feeling something warm and blunt pressed against your cunt. He ran his cock up and down your folds, grip on your hip tightening as he did before he bent over your body once more.

"Ask me nicely, (Y/n)." he whispered. "Beg if you really want it."

You wanted nothing more for him to plough himself into you, feel him stretch you and use you. You knew he'd give it to you, give into you.

"Please Sean." you whimpered almost pathetically with his cock resting against your entrance, so close to feeling full, so goddamn close to having the itch scratched. "Please, I need you to fuck me."

"That's a good girl." he responded, pressing a chaste kiss to your bare shoulder before standing up straight, one hand on your hip and the other on his hard cock as he pushed into you, achingly slow he pushed until he could no more and was buried fully inside your warmth. You sighed contently at the stretch as he stilled, body quickly giving way to the welcomed intrusion.

The first movement was shallow, front of your legs hitting against the desk but nonetheless, you gasped at the action. He repeated the action once more before moving in and out of you, picking up the pace with every thrust of his hips. He held your hips as he entered you over and over, sharp thrusts that beckoned your cries, his name lingering on your tongue as you craved more of him.

His hand left your hip, taking hold of your wrist and dragging it behind your back and keeping it there as he fucked into you. You could a feel a bruise was going to form at the front of your legs by the way he was pushing you against the desk, not at all an unwelcome thought, a reminder for a few days would be a nice gift to send you off with.

Your entire body was on fire by the time you felt your release fast approaching, shock waves pulsing through each time he'd bottom out.

"I'm close-" you cried out, walls fluttering around his cock. You tried holding on, not wanting the moment to end, not wanting him to pull out of your cunt just yet but it was really not up to you with the way he held your body, way he controlled the movement, the way his cock moved inside of you.

"Come for me, (Y/n)." he grunted, thrusts only slowing for two counts, one hand letting go of you to rub against your clit. "Let me feel you squeeze my cock."

Your release came fast after that, walls clenching around his cock, pleasure running through your body as you submitted to the feeling.

"That's it, sweetheart." he grunted though his pace didn't slow down. "So fucking tight." his hand landed against your thigh again, the sound reverberating as he sloppily thrusted into you until he stilled, pressed deep into your pulsing heat when he released with the sound of your name.

The sound of catching your breath lingered in the air as he filled you with his seed. You whimpered when he pulled out of you, a sudden emptiness as your combined liquids started leaking down your thigh. He turned you around so you were back to sitting on the desk, some of the paper underneath definitely needing to be trashed. You were clad in only your bra while he hadn't really physically removed any of his clothing. He removed some of the hair out of your face in a gentle gesture. It wasn't fair given the weakness it caused to your heart.

"I'll get something to clean you up." he spoke softly, all firmness gone from his voice and expression. His hands left you and he walked out of the room, returning after a few moments with a warm cloth. He pressed it to you, working gently against your sensitive cunt to clean all the remnants of the deed. You watched his face as you did, the thoughts the action brought had trapped you. Unresolved feelings and thoughts. You had some bold words to say before but now it felt stupid, especially how small and weak you felt for needing his approval, his attention, his care.

"Do you really think it all ends in tragedy for us?" you asked, voice hoarse.

His eyes met yours and expression looked more sad and then he sighed, his movements stopping as he regarded you. His eternal weakness. If only he could let go of the things you made him feel, of the attachment he has grown to crave.

He placed his hands on your thighs. "I think everything involving you is complicated."

You nodded, looking down. You couldn't really fault the man for the answer, just look at the current situation you got yourself in... Just look at every choice you made at every step. It couldn't be easy for him but it still brought a sting to your eyes knowing that even when he's forced into such close proximity, it all was still such a dead end.

He placed his hand under your chin, forcing your glassy eyes back up at him. "But I can admit, they're not without merit, (Y/n). I'd make the same mistakes again and again if only you asked me."

There was a moment of silence between you both as you looked into his eyes, wondering if it could be true, if you really deserved to ask that of him in the first place. He excited you and made you feel safe but could you hope?

You pressed forth, hand curling around the base of his neck as you pressed your lips to his, pushing your fears and hopes into that small action. Perhaps there wasn't any hope for people as convoluted and broken as this, maybe there was only heartache and destruction of self and each other, but he was still willing to live through that for a moment, regardless of cost. Perhaps that was enough.

[inca-oc]

Not Ready

She just wanted to help, it was so close to dying, but she was the one who took the fall instead. She's not ready to die, she can't. She won't.

CW: (brief) character death, description of death

It was becoming increasingly clear that the mithril construct was becoming rather worn down from the barrage of attacks levied against it, its silvery form losing some of its previous stability, but it wasn’t down yet. It was still a deadly threat, but hopefully not for much longer.

Seeing little else for her except an opportunity to strike, Keeva lunges forward and tosses her starknife with everything she has, the construct offering a sudden, unlucky strike in return that would have knocked the air from her if she’d had lungs to breathe it. The weapon soars through the air regardless of its owner’s plight with effortless grace, flying between Lancelot and Iris before striking true to its target, but as her weapon returns faithfully to her outstretched hand, she realizes it seemed to have no effect on the construct despite what she’d hoped. It did do one thing, however: she had lost one of the few defenses she’d had, the invisibility that had once cloaked her falling away. She has little time to consider what she should do next before the construct moves to attack again with deadly accuracy.

There’s a faint thunk as she feels the impact against her, a sharp, sudden loss of control of her mannequin, and then… quiet. Everything around her seems to fall eerily silent as the world suddenly goes hazy, her friends becoming less defined, then vague shapes and colors, and then not even that as intense light consumes everything. There’s a faint thought as it all fades, a hope that everyone was okay. Were they all going to die? She’d just wanted to help, and now it was all over.

She’d just wanted to help.

The next and only thing she feels is a sensation like falling, so sluggish and yet so very, very fast at the same time. It wasn’t the kind of falling she was used to, like the countless times she’d flown through the skies with Lancelot and he’d let them both plummet weightlessly before catching her safe and sound again. No, here it felt as though everything was heavy and dark and dreadful. She was a tiny stone dropped into a pool, the current threatening to pull her apart and sweep her away, and there was nothing to catch her here. She was alone.

No, I’m not ready.

I don’t want to die.

Please. I don’t want to die now. I can’t die.

There’s the faint sensation of fear that threads through her being, slowing her descent as she clings to them with urgency. Despite the weight that tries to pull her further down into the dark, the threads somehow hold.

I can’t die right now! I can’t!

The fear tightens its hold on her as it morphs into pure terror, stronger and stronger, overwhelming the sensation of falling until it all but disappears. Everything seems to stop completely, as though the presence around her was holding a breath, watching, waiting.

No! I can’t die! I won’t!

There’s a sickening, painful lurch as she claws her way back to the precipice she’d fallen from, this desperate need to survive, everything in her screaming to live, to please live, and all at once every sensation comes back to her as she painfully crashes to the side. It’s overwhelming and bright and loud and cold, and she’s alive. She shouldn’t be, but she’s alive.

She’s suddenly pulled from the cold embrace of the wall and into the familiar feeling of someone’s arms, although in her dazed state she can’t figure out who, and only vaguely can she make out the words, "Keeva, are you okay?" Despite her best efforts, however, she’s unable to answer. Although it had previously served as the lifeline from which she climbed back, that terror still has a chokehold on her, although slowly it begins to abate. Once the worst of it fades away, she realizes it’s Lancelot who’s holding her.

I guess you caught me after all.

His hold on her tightens the slightest bit as his urgency grows, and she can feel him holding back as though he’s afraid of crushing her. "Don't die on me," he says, his voice pained and wavering.

Keeva’s unable to tell just how much of the fear coursing through her is from herself, or from her eidolon. Regardless of where it originates, she tries her best to push it back just enough to where she can finally speak. "Can't kill me that easily," she manages, followed up with a rough, half-hearted laugh that she can’t quite keep from catching.

There’s the vaguest sense of relief from Lancelot, matched in intensity by the faintest of smiles, but both quickly drop into intense seriousness. "I'm the one who's supposed to take the hits," he says after a moment, unable to match even the scant hint of humor Keeva had attempted to offer up.

It’s now that she finally notices the tears streaming down his face, sudden concern for him overwhelming any worry she had for herself in that moment. "Are you okay?" she quietly asks as she brings a hand up to his face, but of course she knows the answer to that already. They both know he’s not okay, just as they both know she isn’t okay.

She isn’t okay, but she is alive. She’s alive.

‘Please let me protect you,’ Keeva feels through their link. ‘I don’t want to lose you.’

She’s alive.

‘I won’t leave you,’ she promises.

She’ll stay alive. For him. For all her friends. She has to.

She wasn’t ready to die yet.

[livvyofthelake]

alright let’s get into it about king arthur 2004. first of all yes it was bad of course it was bad, it’s a “historical” retelling of arthurian legend and it makes arthur roman and the other knights are supposedly eastern european except that none of those men are eastern european and then also guinevere and merlin were whatever scottish people were in the 5th century but again keira knightly is not scottish. basically it’s very dense on the lore for a movie that didn’t really seem to care about accuracy to the lore. there’s like. there’s words on the screen in the beginning and then there’s also more expositional narration and then there’s also more exposition in the form of bad dialogue and genuinely it does feel like a good 40 minutes of this movie is exposition all for a nothing plot because it’s so reliant on the action scenes you kind of get nothing out of it. however EYE got something out of it because early in the movie arthur is praying that his knights make it back from their last mission so they can live to become free men, and lancelot walks in and says “why do you always talk to god and not to me?” and it made me insane for the rest of the two hour runtime. those men were gay as hell your honor. lancelot dies in the climactic battle and arthur and guinevere both kneel over his body and cry and scream it’s great. i think it was brave of them to kill lancelot before he got to steal arthur’s wife. julian murphy should’ve taken notes wtf.

also i liked that the other knights were like, fleshed out characters. maybe not gawain who didn’t talk very much or hugh dancy who i don’t remember who he was supposed to be. but like tristan was cool i liked his falcon rest in peace buddy. and the other guy with the 11 kids oh my god do i know anyone’s name from this movie. who the hell was that guy. hold on. oh ok bors. was he lancelot’s cousin in this movie i wasn’t paying attention. and hugh dancy was galahad. sorry i didn’t remember that in my defense he had like two minutes of screentime. and dagonet was cool although i think it’s wild that this movie was pulling out niche knights and not like. kay. or bedivere. sorry i’m attached to those guys because of alex that’s not my fault. anyway i liked them they were cool to hang with

ALSO i think it was surprisingly feminist for a movie that came out in 2004 about men. or maybe not feminist exactly but like. not misogynistic. there’s a moment where you think it might be with the one guy’s not-wife (she’s the mother of his 11 children but they’re not married) but it’s not misogyny they’re just toxic hets and i support them <3 and then guinevere is just such a slay but what else did you expect from keira knightly… like yeah i think it’s weird that keira was like 18 making this movie with a hoard of adult men and she’s the object of both male protagonist’s lust but at the end of the day she seems like she made it through that weird phase of her career fine so i’ll let it go for the sake of not going insane. anyway i think it was really feminist of her to want to fuck that gay man so bad. real. but no really i just liked that her character was well done and got to do things. she killed a bunch of guys it was hot what who said that i mean like it was great. and she’s the one that convinced arthur to abandon rome and fight for something he actually believed in, where rome was a lie he believed for convenience.

which brings me to my man <3 you know no critique of a king arthur movie from me is complete without me rambling for a little about how well i think they characterized my special little guy… and i think this movie did pretty good! he’s a good man who cares about people and his most defining enduring belief for the entire story is of freedom which i thought was slay even though um. he’s english. cannot imagine he’d be happy to see what his country came to yikes!! but also i think it was good to show that he also had flaws that tied directly into his strengths and his goodness. how he fought so hard for rome in the beginning because his idea of rome was this ideal society that believed in equality and freedom, and he didn’t realize that that was a fantasy because he didn’t want to realize it so he could hold on to something while he fought their wars. like i think willful ignorance is such a great king arthur flaw that not enough media wants to depict. he’s an idealist at heart and i adore him for it but it means he has a tendency to ignore reality… and then also he had a little red cape which you KNOW i am always a fan of. i LOVE it when they put this guy in a red cape!! seriously! it’s sooo stupid <33 um yeah and then also i think he could have been hotter but i’ll allow mediocrity just this once because he was gay about it. also they killed his celibacy swag which i thought was fucked up but again i’ll allow it just this once because he did think he was going to die the next morning. and they also made literally every word out of this man’s mouth the most intense thing anyone has ever said, which i think was a great choice. he’s literally just like that like he’s literally just. like that. drama queen!!

also i liked that bit of narration at the end when dead lancelot says that none of them who died really died because they live on in stories and legend passed down through generations <3 and finally here is the joke i wasted my letterboxd review on

[over-the-time-flow]

The Hows & Whys of Super Robot Wars

Pilot Stats

Welcome to the first installment of The Hows & Whys of SRW! This is how I'm going to handle explaining the game and its systems in-depth. Today, before we really get into things, I'm going to be explaining pilot stats, machine specs, and what they affect! Since these topics include in-depth explanation of game systems, they'll be split into two parts, with this one covering just the pilots' side of things, but even then both will be rather dense. Other #mechanics will be far less wordy in the future, i promise! The topics just have a lot to go over.

I’m gonna be using the term a lot both in this post and in the future, so let’s get this out of the way: in the MC gender poll I alluded to making a dedicated post for the Super/Real split, but the more I try to write one the more I realize there isn’t really much to talk about there, and it’s really hard to cover it well without being reductive. 

In short, the idea is that Real Robot anime are more grounded and political, while Super Robot shows are more fantastical and focused on spectacle, but it’s harder than you’d think to find shows that map cleanly onto these distinctions; they’re often applied liberally and arbitrarily, and back in the day i’d often see 4 or more pages of heated discussion on places like GameFAQs about whether G Gundam was a Super Robot show or a Real Robot show. While I'd like to believe we as a species have moved past such trifles, I know for a fact people are still arguing about dumb shit like this somewhere on the internet as we speak. Probably on /m/.

In short, for the purposes of this LP, all you really need to know is that Supers are about hitting hard and tanking hits, and Reals are about mobility and accuracy. With that out of the way, let’s actually talk about stats!

On the topmost “box”, we have our character’s name on the top left, next to their portrait. to the right of that, we have their Level. Unlike Fire Emblem, stat growths in SRW tend to be static, and two different players’ save games will always have characters with the same stats if they’re at the same level. SRW R takes this a step further by standardizing stat growths; every level, every single one of the character’s core stats (shown on the box below this one) grows by 1, except SP, which grows by 2. By the endgame, most of your main squad will probably be hovering around Levels 40-45. Below their Level, we have how much experience they need to level up again, noted by the english word NEXT. 

To the left of that, we have the pilots’ Willpower (気力). Willpower is incredibly important! It serves to emulate the Super Robot tradition of your robot becoming stronger just by you being more motivated, and certain moves are locked behind high Willpower, to emulate episodic anime conventions such as a robot having a canned finishing move that it won’t use until the end of the episode (or just for game balance reasons). On top of that, as a general rule, for every 10 Will above the default 100, you gain a 5-10% boost to dealt damage and reduction to incoming damage. From some incredibly surface-level testing, it seems to be around a 6.5% boost in SRW R. Of course, for every 10 points below the default 100, the opposite debuffs apply, but outside of scripted events, it’s rather rare for your units’ willpower to dip too far below 100 in SRW R. 

Now let’s look at the box below. On the top left, we have the Melee (格闘) stat, which affects the damage of Melee-attribute attacks (beam sabers, swords, punches, and even some moves that might look like they belong under Ranged-attribute but belong to melee-centric machines, such as Mazinger Z's Breast Fire); below it, the Ranged (射撃) stat, which does the same for Ranged-attribute attacks (beams, beam rifles, bazookas, guns, etc).

On the second column, we have Defense (防御), which is self explanatory, alongside Skill (技量), which governs how often you land critical hits; the higher it is in relation to your opponent, the easier it is for a critical hit to occur. Crits add a 1.25 multiplier to your final damage, and the formula for the base critical hit rate is the rather simple “attacker’s Skill - defender’s Skill”, though this usually gets compounded upon by various modifiers. In certain games, the Skill stat affects the activation rates of certain defensive actions, such as Counter, Shoot Down, Cut Away, or Shield Defense, but in SRW R, those are entirely determined by the level of the Pilot Skill (not to be confused with the pilot’s Skill stat) associated with the action.

On the third and final column, we have Evasion (回避) and Accuracy (命中), which are also rather self-explanatory. The Evasion stat has a little + symbol displaying Raul’s current unit’s Mobility stat, which is a holdover from back when machines had a Limit stat, which served as a hard limit to the sum of a pilot’s Evasion and the machine’s Mobility. It was used to emulate plot ploints such as Amuro growing too skilled for the (already rather fine-tuned) Gundam’s reaction speed, but in practice it was kind of a hassle to contend with.

Below these six core stats, to the bottom left we have the pilot’s Max SP, next to the pilots’ Spirit Commands (精神). Spirit Commands are basically little spells that act as handy little effects that’ll help your unit, such as healing, extra movement speed, extra damage, etc. These serve to help emulate moments in mecha anime such as a burst of motivation leading a previously unsuccessful move to work, or a robot sustaining serious damage but continuing to function for longer than it should out of sheer determination on the pilot’s part. SP is the resource you cast these with, and some of the more powerful commands can have costs up to 80 or more SP. There’s few convenient ways to regain SP, so managing where and when to use your spirit commands is a big part of the strategy in SRW.

On page 2 of our stats, we can see our pilot’s Pilot Skills, and on the little rectangle on the top right, their Killcount. Not much point in delving deep into Pilot Skills yet, as our protag here only has one and most of them are complex enough to warrant their own “Hows & Whys'' posts later down the line, but the Killcount is a bit important; once you reach 50, the character gets a little A symbol on their status screen, signifying their status as an Ace Pilot. Aces deploy with 5 more Willpower by default, which isn’t the biggest gamechanger, but it’s nice to have regardless. In SRW R, the pilots with the highest 10 Killcounts among your army will also get hefty bonuses to their stats upon starting a New Game +, but… I wouldn't recommend doing more than one or two loops of NG+ in this game due to a pretty funny glitch that I'll explain much later.

This about wraps up our look into pilot stats, but tune in an hour from now for a deep dive into our mechs’ stats!

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Kris

I never did one for Kris?!  God, what was I doing?

General Overview Kris is the forgotten protagonist, lost to time as the HGSS remakes removed her entirely in favor of Lyra.  Kinda rude, Pokemon Company.  This wasn’t like...a huge deal for me at the time, but Masters really made me appreciate Kris as a little Pokemon psychologist, so I’m deeply attached now.  That is my daughter.

In the current meta, Kris’ benefit has been Haymaker.  Regardless of anything else, she at least had a decent sync nuke.  Which is good, because her DPS is Mega Kick, and she’s the only unit ever to not get Piercing Gaze or accuracy buffs with an inaccurate move.  Because god forbid we request strategy exist for high damage moves.  This meant that Kris needed accuracy buffs, and rather than make those a little more plentiful, DeNA decided no, we’re just gonna make it a thing Aaron can do.  So effectively, if you don’t have Aaron 3/5 for Precision Pals, you don’t really have a chance with Kris, because you’re not hitting anything.

With the new grid expansion, Kris’s life changes dramatically.  Precision Pals 2 alone means she’s no longer tethered to Aaron, and can vary her support partners.  Hilbert is on the table, meaning more matched theme skills to push her damage higher.  In addition, she got Critical Focus 1, which means when she crits, she gains a point of crit.  Because of her sure crit effect on trainer move, Kris can reliably get +1 crit, snowballing from there.  Because her trainer move is two use, you can get a flow of TM -> Mega Kick -> TM -> Sync for +2 crit, all but guaranteeing the third point on your next action.  Because of this, Kris can also remove Hilbert/Sonia/Hop from her list of required supports, freeing herself up to anyone who can cap attack.  Super Powered 5 grants a huge bonus to both move and sync damage while on-type, and is a fantastic, effectively free, skill.  Finally, she got Inertia.  This is solid given her trainer move, but she can’t reliably cap it, meaning her partners need to raise attack and speed in tandem for optimal results.  While there are units who can do this, like Support Hitmonchan (Atk) or Support Arbok (Speed), the biggest beneficiary is my girl H!Caitlin, who can cap both with even more accuracy buffs and defense buffs to complement Kris’ Endure effect.

In essence, Kris’ grid expansion goes nuts on raw power.  From 100% bonus damage to 250% bonus damage.  From relying entirely on Aaron’s presence, to being a lot more flexible with her needs.  Kris’ grid expansion is...honestly, possibly the best one yet.  Karen was a huge upgrade, sure, but this really feels like a complete overhaul on a character.  Which is great for Kris, but kinda sad for the PokeFair units who haven’t kept up.

Team 1: Kris, Halloween Caitlin, Winona/Tech Blastoise This is the team.  Kris is capable of handling her own crit rate through her trainer move, while H!Caitlin handles literally everything else.  Even accuracy, if you desire, allowing Kris to potentially drop Pinpoint Entry 2 for First Aid 4, complementing Caitlin’s defense buffs.  All you need from there is Rain support via Winona or Tech Blastoise.

Team 2: Kris, Hilbert, Kukui/Nanu Alternatively, Hilbert can buff crit and attack for her, and even complement the speed buffs.  The benefit of this team over Caitlin is matched theme skills.  Hilbert kicks off Water and Main Character, which gives a sizable boost over Caitlin/Winona combos.  Though notably, Tech Blastoise accomplishes the same thing, so grain of salt.  The bigger, more consistent benefit is that Kris is slow to build up her actual crit rate, and Hilbert removes that concern.  If you don’t want to use your Rain support here, defense debuffs work just as well.

Team 3: Kris, Support Hitmonchan, Crasher Wake Anti-Entei.  Hitmonchan is capable of finishing Kris’ buffing, all Kris needs is two uses of trainer move.  Crasher Wake is the flinch lockdown on Entei, allowing her to break through.

Team 4: Kris, Summer Hilda, Eevee Day Lyra This is an odd DPS focused build that may not be so great.  Eevee Lyra can set Rain each time she uses sync, while Summer Hilda provides both the capping off of Kris’ attack, and defense debuffs each time she’s hit at 3/5.  Defense buffs are helpful, but also notable is Topsy-Turvy, which could break down otherwise difficult fights like Cresselia and Latias.  Lyra completes speed buffing as well, and can take over sync, thanks to a 3/5 grid option that can buff crit each use of sync.  It foregoes a lot of what makes Kris exceptional now, but if you just want to kick stuff, it’s there.

Final Thoughts I really like Kris.  I really liked using Kris before, and now we’re getting this unbelievable upgrade to her damage output, and I’m stoked.  Somehow it even combos best with H!Caitlin, which is something I never would’ve expected but am thrilled to find out.  What a great outcome for like...me in particular.  Also other Kris fans, but the Caitlin thing feels like this was my big break for the month.

[packernet]

New Post has been published on https://www.packernet.com/blog/2023/09/25/bust-not-bust/

Bust, not bust!

Is “character building” a thing? Do we just grow, develop confidence, courage and even a little swagger no matter we’re succeeding or failing? Maybe it’s best to leave deep questions like that to Socrates or Colin Cowherd.

If it is, indeed, a thing, then Sunday’s exciting comeback win over the Saints built a lot of character in the Green Bay Packers locker room.

Defensive coordinator Joe Barry gets savaged by fans and on social media daily. And yet, he coordinated a defense that gave up 10-points missing Jaire Alexander, while also losing his back-up, and linebacker De’Vondre Campbell. I’m no Joe Barry fan, and the Saints offense looks nothing like the Miami Dolphins. No matter, holding any NFL offense to 10 points is plenty good.

The Packers collection of “green as grass”, barely legal, pass receivers dropped passes all over the field for 3-quarters. Then, in the 4th quarter they played like a bunch of savvy veterans pulling down one big catch after another. Jayden Reed lays out for a beautiful 30 yarder down the sideline, Romeo Doubs snatches a back shoulder touchdown for the tie followed by Samori Toure grabbing a “think fast” laser from Jordan Love for the 2-point conversion.

Patient, creative play-calling

Coach Matt LaFleur, was subtly underrated while winning 39-games in his first three-seasons as coach as someone just riding the coattails of Aaron Rodgers. Playing the home opener against a very good Saints defense, missing four of his best offensive players, the offensive mastermind kept throwing plays against the wall. A flea flicker early, an end-around to his slot-corner kick returner, and fade after fade after yet another missed fade, the coach kept on digging into his bag of tricks until he found the right toy.

Then, there was first time starting QB Jordan Love. For 3 quarters his accuracy was not good, his long ball was too long, or off just enough. Early in the game he couldn’t even get it right with his cleats, slipping on the flea flicker/pass back that could have been a 30-40 yard gain. We don’t know if his 4th down miss to Emanuel Wilson was his fault, but it felt like a Wayne Larrivee “dagger” to the Packers chances to win.

Crunch-time

For most of the final 15 minutes Love seemed to channel his inner Joe Montana, Aaron Rodgers and John Elway. He simply made play after play. You could feel his teammates and the fans rallying around him.

The aforementioned Colin Cowherd and a small segment of Packer fans predicted Jordan Love would be a bust. With so little evidence, I’m amazed when people say things quite that stupid. Cowherd saying stupid things is not surprising at all, it’s a matter of seeing his lips moving.

At this point, Love has plenty to improve upon, like his overall accuracy and particularly his long-ball but with training camp and 3-games under his belt, we’ve seen enough to say this guy is not, NOT, a bust. With practice and more character building, he may be a franchise QB.

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

CoH Endgame Play

It’s really interesting to me how many of the problems I see with City of Heroes and its endgame play are largely graphics and UI and conveyance issues.

For instance, it’s confusing to build a powerful character. Sometimes when you level up you get a new power and other levels give you enhancement slots, which you can add up to five of to any power to make it more enhancable. On the power-choice side you can get something pretty solid easily just by picking up the whole kit of your primary and secondary power sets, but on the power-enhancement side it’s kind of arcane.

And like the power-choice you can do pretty okay with this for much of the game by just...adding slots to the powers you want to make better. You want to make your aura of defense less of a drain on your endurance, you add some more slots and put Endurance Reduction enhancements in them. Great.

As you get to endgame, though, you get Invention Sets, and these drive a lot of the power you can gain beyond level 50.

But the sets give specific bonuses, and tend toward generalization of what a particular power might need, and often serve toggle powers poorly and auto-powers even worse. If you have a power that gives you passive dodge chance and you add five slots to it you can make all six slots generic Defense with 25.5% bonuses each, or you can do a Defense Set like Luck of the Gambler, which gives you a set bonus of +10% regeneration, +1.125% max hp, +9% accuracy, 3.5% smashing/lethal resist, 7.5% negative stat resistance, and 4.5% psionic and toxic resist...but instead of 6 copies of “25.5% buff to the power you put it on” you’re getting 15.9% buff to the power and a 26.5% endurance reduction that’s wasted because Dodge is a passive power that costs no endurance anyway 15.9% buff to the power and a 26.5% recharge buff that’s wasted because Dodge is, again, always on... An enhancement that does NOTHING because it’s another copy of both of those 26.5% buffs that are doing nothing... 12.8% buff to the power and then another 21% to the two parts that do nothing... ...I could go on but you get the point. It’s wasting buffs just all over the place. So Dodge with raw defense is getting a total of 153% buffs, while Dodge with a full Luck of the Gambler set is getting 86% buff and then all that wild stuff for the set bonus.

And the thing is, I legit don’t know which of those is better. Or if they’re comparable, which situations one or the other is better for. When we were comparing the math of clear-cut incomparables I actually had information to make my decision: Did I want to improve how long this power holds someone immobile or did I want to improve its damage? Or did I want to put an enhancement slot in a totally different power that lets me increase my own defense? But once they start to tread the same ground, it’s tricky to tell. I presume if I successfully dodge something I don’t have to deal with damage or statuses, so it could be that in terms of how much damage and even how much crowd control you avoid the difference of 67% in raw dodge buff is worth more than all those defensive powers combined (though it gets weird when you add in that flat 9% accuracy boost to all your powers!)

On top of all this there’s some kind of diminishing returns rule, but...it’s not clearly stated. I don’t know how badly they diminish. Is Luck of the Gambler almost just as good as a 6 raw defense boosts in terms of how much it makes Dodge improve your dodge chance, due to some throttle at 90% of bonuses? That’s entirely possible! And I don’t know! And it feels weird to make decisions about how to advance my character in this game without a clue as to whether it even advances the character!

This is what I’m talking about in terms of conveyance.

In terms of graphic design, a really good example is that the colored text indicating the rarity (and therefore power) of an invention set is in some places but not others. This makes it so you have to jump back and forth between menus to keep track of what’s good and what isn’t and can easily lose track (I had both Red Fortune and Reactive Defense for my defense power and ended up overwriting my Reactive Defense because the individual enhancement was giving the same bonus as the comparable Red Fortune but I had all 6 pieces of the Red Fortune set. But Reactive Defense is actually rare, and the set bonuses for using it are notably superior to Red Fortune. How do you know that? Well, you can go down the set bonus lists and compare the numbers, or on some of the menus you can see that Reactive Defense is rare red while Red Fortune is the mere uncommon yellow.

Compare with FFXIV and their system for Materia. Items will have a stat cap interior to the item, and grant some stats inherently, and then you can fill out the rest with materia. And if you’ll overcap (Say, it has 110/120 Crit and you want to add a materia that gives +36 Crit) it displays the result (120/120 Crit) in red. It’s still kind of fiddly, but you know what you’re dealing with. (Maybe this is a bad example at large because the conveyance about what those stats mean is pretty bad, but it’s a good example of using the graphics/fonts to help inform the user)

Honestly some kind of internal system that just tells the user, on all pages where you’re interacting with the Enhancement, This Is An Uncommon/Rare/Legendary Set Enhancement, would be worth a ton.

And this isn’t some design request/petition for the volunteers who are running the servers for CoH now 10 years after the game “died.” This is advice for things to keep an eye on when one is developing new stuff. Recognize how important and valuable it is to keep your user fully informed about what things do and what bonuses they can receive, and how easy that can be if fully considered (it’d be as easy as font color being standardized for the set items across all pages where they show up, for example).

Oh yeah, that’s my other CoH Pet Peeve: On the page where you level up and gain new enhancement slots? It doesn’t show you what kind of Sets that enhancement is valid for. You have to make an educated guess.

[viola-ophelia]

in defense of cutler beckett

it’s kind of a tradition of mine to periodically write “in defense of” essays for unpopular characters (see “in defense of celegorm” and “in defense of bunny corcoran” lol), and idk what it says about me that i frequently feel the urge to advocate in favor of characters that are deemed unlikable/ unredeemable/ unworthy of attention by their respective fandoms, but i’m rolling with it lol. anyway, today, i want to focus on lord cutler beckett from pirates of the caribbean, because the general consensus about him on tumblr these days is… pretty abysmal lol, but i think he deserves a closer look. beckett seems to be the vast majority of people’s least favorite character, and not in an ironic way like some of the characters in POTC are treated online, like oh haha yeah barbossa was kinda annoying for going all ghost zombie mode on everyone but also we love him, weird eclectic uncle vibes, woo!.... no, everyone just straight-up hates beckett. and look: i get it, i really do. beckett is a much “realer” villain than davy jones or barbossa or salazar or any of the other POTC baddies, and that makes him much easier to hate. he’s not a giant octopus or a cursed skeleton or a slimy ghost guy with mystical powers, he’s literally just some guy– and he’s an asshole of a guy, because he’s basically just a random capitalist who wants all our favorite characters swinging from the gallows because they’re getting in the way of his trading schemes. and, if you count the price of freedom as canon, he’s also a slave trader, which is pretty unambiguously terrible. but despite all that, i actually like beckett. in fact, he’s one of my favorite characters in POTC: although it’s important to note that when i say that, i’m in no way saying that i condone his actions or that i think he’s morally good. as i see it, it’s totally valid to enjoy villainous characters while also acknowledging that they’re evil/problematic/whatever and that their actions are not morally acceptable in the real world. but the realm of POTC– where people (including the “good guys,” might i add!) are murdering and backstabbing each other left and right, any and all historical accuracy has to be taken with several grains of salt, and occult magic and sea goddesses and evil fish-men casually exist– is pretty far from “the real world” if you ask me lol. but anyway, let’s get into it then, shall we! (adding a read-more bc this is LONG oop)

beckett gets a really bad rap in the POTC fandom not just because he’s a ‘problematic’ character, but because on the surface, he comes across as a very one-dimensional, and therefore boring, villain. there are certainly other not-so-morally-pure characters in POTC that don’t seem to get the same treatment beckett does… no one really seems to talk about how pintel and ragetti threatened to r*pe elizabeth in the curse of the black pearl, for example. but pintel and ragetti are goofy comedic relief fan faves, and they’re also on the “good side” (aka the side of the pirates), so they have some redeeming qualities. in contrast, beckett is unique in POTC– a franchise famous for morally complex characters– for his seeming complete lack of redemptive nuance. he’s easy to understand as a villain because he’s just one of those villains who’s bad just ‘cause he can be. and he sucks! he’s ruthless, he’s power-hungry and materialistic, he plots against the pirates simply because they’re an inconvenience to him, and he represents the unjust authority which jack sparrow and the “good guys” stand against. the law permits beckett to freely exploit people in the name of the east india company, but does not allow jack and his companions even a chance of survival if they’re caught: and he knows how unfair this is, and doesn’t care. but here’s the thing: at its core, POTC is a pirate story told by pirates. of course we’re going to root for jack, will, elizabeth, and the gang over characters like beckett and norrington… because the pirates are the ones in control of the narrative. if we want, we can choose to believe them when they show us how much beckett sucks (and to be fair, they’re largely right lol), but it’s sort of boring, i feel, to just readily absorb the story that’s made most prominently visible to us and not bother to examine other perspectives. 

so let’s talk about beckett’s motives. maybe he really is power-hungry and exploitative because he just is, and that’s all there is to him… but again, that’s what the pirates think, but it’s worth considering other possibilities too. what is beckett’s backstory, then– what, if anything, prompted him to go on his pirate-killing spree? well, in the movies, he doesn’t have one. he kinda just shows up one day and crashes will and elizabeth’s wedding as an obnoxious power flex, and from that point on, he’s just, like, there and he hates the pirates REALLY bad and wants to kill them all through any means possible, seemingly just because he can. the price of freedom, though, does give beckett a backstory. i’m not going to summarize the entire thing here, but in it, he and jack once worked together for the east india co. before eventually having a big mutual betrayal where jack wasn’t a fan of the fact that beckett was transporting some slaves, so he freed them all, which fucked beckett’s career over so beckett branded him as a pirate and then went on to become the asshole we see in the movies. but to be honest, this doesn’t really compel me all that much. it’s certainly an important moment for jack, but it explains away beckett’s motives the same vague way the movies do, aka by going “well, he’s just evil because he is/always was.”  

what was really going on with beckett to force him through such a transformation had to have been much more than jack fucking up his job one time. the price of freedom tells us that he was a sickly kid not expected to live past childhood and that he was lowkey abused by his family, so i think a desire to prove his own worth was definitely part of it. but i don’t think beckett became evil (or doomed, for that matter) when he branded jack as a pirate. there’s a point in the book (if i’m remembering correctly) where young beckett gets captured by pirates and his dad refuses to pay the bail to have him released. it doesn’t explain how he eventually managed to escape, but i can only imagine that the experience left him with some internal damage… a fear of losing control, most likely, and of being out of his element. that’s kind of a lot for a teenager to take in… not only that his family doesn’t want him and he’s gonna have to fend for himself for the rest of his life, but that the world is cruel and unforgiving to vulnerable people, and the only way for him to survive is to seize all of the power and control he can and never let it go… because, if he doesn’t become the biggest fish, then a bigger fish is going to come along and that’ll be the end of him. beckett never manages to get rid of this fear of instability and vulnerability, which– especially after jack’s betrayal– manifests itself in a hatred of and desire to dominate (perhaps an attempt to conquer or mask a secret, intense fear of?) pirates and the occult. and of course, this eventually becomes his downfall, as he freezes the second he makes a mistake in at world’s end and is so unable to move beyond the loss of the upper hand that he literally just dies. beckett’s death is exactly what he deserves, but it’s also a remarkably devastating moment granted to a character who, up until this point, we’ve been guided to unreservedly hate and root against. in the grand scheme, it represents the fall of the old order, but for beckett himself, it’s his worst nightmare coming true– it’s the loss of control he’s been fighting this whole time and not realized was sneaking up on him till it was literally staring him in the face… and that’s tragic, and we’re meant to think so! we see his fatal flaw laid bare in a way that we would normally only expect the narrative to do so for its heroes, and it’s an incredible and shocking moment, being forced to briefly see things from the other side. 

it’s hard for me to hate beckett as i watch him dying, and honestly it’s hard for me to hate him in general, because tbh i do resonate with him in some ways. obviously, his actions as a character are awful (and in particular, there’s no avoiding or diminishing the unequivocal evilness of the slave trading thing), and that’s what makes him a villain. but at the root of it all, i kinda just see a guy who’s sought to prove himself for so long that now he’s at the helm of this incredibly powerful and dangerous position that he cannot lose because he’s nothing without what he’s worked for, but even as he’s surrounded himself with people he can use as tools he has no one he can truly trust, so he projects this cold and calculating persona at all times because he has to, because it’s how he maintains control and he has to maintain control because without control he knows he’s already lost, but as tightly wound as he must be, he somehow manages not to break his composure even at the very end and goes down with his fucking ship in a moment that’s weirdly heroic… like. you don’t have to like beckett, but i do think he deserves respect. in a fandom full of wacky, fun, exciting characters, i know it’s not exactly intuitive to focus on the one decidedly un-supernatural, un-thrilling character… but in a story told by, about (and arguably for) pirates, beckett maybe rebels the most of all, by refusing, right down to his last moments, to succumb to a narrative that was never for him in the first place. and i think there’s something to be said about a character who-- villainous or not-- sticks by his principles till the end even as the very world around him bends to different rules, who doesn’t run from the law when it no longer benefits him but who acknowledges that he’s lost and owns it. 

[xenoblademisadventures]

I feel like talking about how the dodge tank characters have evolved over the course of the series since I think it’s interesting. The category feels uniquely Xenoblade. Not because the idea of a character who primarily survives by evading hits doesn’t exist in other RPGs, but the way its executed in this game series is unique. It’s also my favorite class of characters. 

Overall

The characters I’m considering as dodge tanks are Dunban, Elma, Morag, and Mio. It’s not that other characters are incapable of also fulfilling this role in their games, but these are the ones who I feel are the main abusers of evasion builds. Generally speaking, these tanks have low HP and defense stats but decent ether defense in exchange for having a high agility and a decent damage output. 

Dunban - Xenoblade 1

Hot take, Dunban’s design is shit. I mean kit wise. Basically, the idea seemed to be for him to be able to be built tank or glass canon with an emphasis on auras. There’s a few problems here. 

First major issue is that tank Dunban is just way better than glass canon Dunban. The main reason for this is how Xenoblade 1′s agility stat work. It’s the strongest stat in the game because it impacts both accuracy and evasion. These stats are calculated additively, which means it is possible to get Dunban’s agility so high that he just has a 100% evasion rate. I remember doing a playthrough of Xenoblade 1 where I was not allowed to equip armor and I managed to get Dunban’s dodge rate up to around 90% before unlocking the 30% evasion boost while naked ability. That’s partially because Xenoblade 1 lets you equip agility gems into both weapon and armor slots. Light gear is typically meant for DPS, exchanging defense stats for more gem slots and more agility typically, but 1 doesn’t really have a ton of damage multiplying gems or anything stopping the player from just giving Dunban multiple agility gems (until he reaches the cap). The other reason why tank Dunban is better than DPS Dunban is that all of his damage abilities are tied to him using Gale Slash. While that ability doesn’t have a long cooldown per say, it does mean his uptime is going to be worse than building damage on Shulk, Riki, or Seven. That said, because of how strong the agility stat is, usually it’s possible to build Dunban for both evasion and damage because agility is also your accuracy stat, which is useful for DPS. 

The characters in Xenoblade 1 all have a main gimmick that they’re designed around. Shulk’s is that his Talent Gauge gives him a second Arts pallet and that he has no customizability in his main pallet, for example. Dunban’s main gimmick is that he has a fuck-ton of auras. In games where they appear, auras are major self buff, but you can only have one active at a time. There’s two major issues with how Dunban’s kit handles auras: the first issue is that his auras tend to have an on-activation effect and a lingering effect but usually each aura is designed to have only one of those two be significant, the second issue is just that he has so fucking many auras and he really doesn’t need that many. He has six aura arts, that’s almost enough to fill his entire arts bar. But functionally, some of these auras are really good general purpose while others have very niche usage. For example, Peerless cures the party of confusion, draws aggro, and gives him a buff to his strength stat. The most noteworthy part, curing a specific status effect, sounds completely useless outside of one specific boss fight while he has other ways of drawing aggro and I can’t see the strength up being significantly useful, meanwhile Jaws of Death revives him if his HP gets below zero during its duration. One of these is better than the other. The issue with the on-activation vs lingering effects is that I think the idea was that the player would have to make a trade off, but there’s no real reason why you can’t just use one aura and then immediately use the next one. Maybe Dunban could’ve been designed so that using one aura puts all of the others on cooldown? But in general, I don’t think the auras were well implemented for him. 

Overall, I get the impression that Dunban’s status as a dodge-tank was an accident as he’s able to achieve that by acting as the best exploiter of 1′s broken agility stat. His main mechanic of juggling aruras was also weakly implemented. As far as I can tell he’s meant to be a tank character who could also be built for damage, but because of how broken agility is, there’s no reason to build defense on him, so the player can just get the best of both worlds.

Elma - Xenoblade X

While I’d say that Dunban was a character who was primarily a tank that could also build damage, Elma is primarily a DPS character who can be built evasion. Because X divided its accuracy and evasion stat and it has more options for DPS augments, building Elma full evasion isn’t as obvious. The main reason why dodge-tank Elma works is because of her tension overdrive builds, where she spam Ghost Factory, which are arguably more broken than anything else in the series, especially in the post-game where the player character can get access to this build plus an status effect stasis art on the same weapon. So technically the dodge tank class would be dual gunners, but it’s done primarily by using Elma’s signature art.

Elma is the first character in the series to introduce the idea of an art that guarantees evasion for a duration. The way X handles this is through its decoy status effect, which guarantees evasion for a certain number of hits. Elma’s signature art is a tension art that spreads decoy to the entire party, so an evasive Elma build ideally wants to enter overdrive with a tension build so that she can spam this art. Overdrive also applies damage multipliers and other benefits, so giving Elma this build allows her to effective solo fights that she shouldn’t be allowed to take, I had to ban overdrive from my playthrough after figuring out this build because it made the game too easy. But even without overdrive, Ghost Factory is still the strongest art in the game arguably due to the high presence of AoE attacks in the game. 

I don’t think Elma is often seen as a dodge-tank by the community because dodge-tank Elma isn’t her standard build and X does such a poor job at communicating its mechanics that most players getting through the game might not have grasped those mechanics well enough to try something creative. 

Side note: I couldn’t find any detailed information about how Xenoblade X calculates its dodge chances. I think the wiki is implying that its additive based on accuracy vs evasion, but either there’s a difference in stat spread or calculations between 1 and X because X doesn’t have the same deal 1 had where its characters can reach below 50% hit rates against higher level enemies that they otherwise probably could have taken.

Basically, this is all stuff related to her dual guns weapons, which are designed around being evasive and landing crits. The best dodge tank build possible in the game would be to use other talent arts from dual guns characters in conjunction to Ghost Factory. Typically Cross builds that use dual guns post-game don’t use dual swords because they provide nothing of value to dodge-tanking. This just means that when Cross gets access to Ghost Factory, they can just combine the weapon with all of the dodge tanking capabilities with a better melee weapon. If I remember correctly, dual guns + greatsword is considered to be the most broken weapon combination due to dual guns having a monopoly on the most busted status effect while greatsword has the best DPS out of any weapon because of Nagi’s talent arts. 

But ignoring post-game builds that combine classes, Elma’s really just a dps character who happens to have access to the most broken buffing move in the game. Like, outside of Ghost Factory, nothing in her kit suggests building dodge tank, which makes me think that Ghost Factory was meant to be a supportive ability rather than a tanking one. Unfortunately, it’s just so fucking strong that her playstyle can be shifted around it. 

We’re still in the area where dodge tanks are really just questionably designed DPS characters. But I think Elma did introduce the most interesting part of Xenoblade dodge-tanks, which are player-actions that guarantee evasion. 

Brighid and Mythra- Xenoblade 2

I’m going to be honest and say that I haven’t really used Brighid much. My main issue with her is that her arts felt like they took a long time to charge, especially against enemies that block her auto attacks. But she is the first instance of a recognizable evasion tank. Brighid’s whip sword is the first instance of an art that’s primary function is to provide guaranteed evasion during its animation. 2 also has other forms of i frames that the player can trigger, such as when completing a blade combo, performing a level 4 blade art, and when activating a chain attack. When combining this with other things, it is possible to defeat the game���s superbosses solo level 1. I like this approach because the player should ideally be holding their evasion art and other key abilities and saving them for when the enemy uses a major art. This is a better approach than Ghost Factory because it makes fighting optimally more reactive and varied. Morag is also the first dodge tank where she is fully mean to be a tank rather than a hybrid between tank and dps. 

The biggest problem is Morag is probably that most of the game’s forms of i frames can be replicated better using other characters, especially Mythra. Mythra is a dps character who happens to synergize with the game’s systems in a such a way that she can act as a drain tank or a dodge tank on par with Brighid while still doing a bunch of damage. The reason for this is that Mythra can recharge arts on crit and her passive evasion buff. Her ability to recharge arts on crit has multiple implications. First there’s crit heal Mythra, which turns her into a drain tank that frequently has chain attack and her level 4 art up. This build allows Mythra to solo most superbosses while underleveled (the exception being the guy in a building because she can’t use level 4 arts while indoors). The second build is max evasion Mythra, where you play the fight on 1HP but it doesn’t matter because you can stack her high affinity evasion buff with low health evasion buffs, which also synergizes with her level 3 Blade Art, which deals double damage when below 30% HP. Basically, Mythra is in the same position Elma had in X, where she was clearly intended to be a dps character, but she has a spread evasion ability that increases her evasion so much that she can be built dodge tank without compromising on her damage output. That said, Mythra is less offensive than Elma because the game-breaking extent of these builds only really shows up after the player has completed her affinity tree, which is typically post-game. But I wanted to bring her up because many of the game’s longest form of i frame is exploitable by Mythra. And that’s before taking into account that the player cannot die while Pneuma is active.

I think 2 did an amazing job at establishing a ground-work for what a dodge-tank should look like with Brighid, while Mythra is a lot more like the older dodge-tanks in the series, which I don’t think are well designed. The main difference between the two is that Brighid’s gameplay loop is centered around identifying key enemy attacks and deciding when the best time to use her key abilities are, while Mythra achieves her status as a dodge tank by exploiting multiple systems in the game while also having an in-built spread evasion buff. Basically, Brighid is about deciding when to best use her abilities while Mythra is more about keeping her abilities up as often as possible. Overall, I’d say that both characters are better designed than previous iterations of dodge-tanks due to both of them having an element of player reaction.

Xenoblade 3 - Mio, Ashera, and Gray

3 hasn’t been out as long as the other games and I haven’t yet looked into post-game strats. But Mio, Ashera, and Gray are all representatives of the classes based off previous iterations of dodge-tank characters.

Mio’s class is mostly similar to Brighid. She’s also got my favorite class in the game. Her class has the highest amount of built-in evasion. Which means Zephyr class is the fastest one the player will have where they can get evasion on every single ability. That said, I imagine that the class itself falls off post-game because its strongest attributes can be spread to other classes and the length of her animations are quite short. She plays sort of similar to Brighid and Mythra where her dodge abilities have a short cooldown but the player still needs to manage when to use the dodge. Part of what makes Mio’s class so engaging to me is that she really doesn’t have the stats to back up being a tank, but the innate attributes of her arts make up for it. But a systemic change to 3 that nerfs this type of class is that the player can swap between characters mid battle. This is a nerf because the AI cannot be trusted to use Mio’s abilities intelligently and it’s a huge opportunity cost to only stick to one character. Overall, I do think Mio is the best designed Evasion tank in the series tho. I also want to bring up that 3 changes how systemic death prevention works over 2. Now chain attacks and manually entering Ouroboros will leave otherwise dead characters at 1HP and there doesn’t seem to be as many drain tank options as in 2, which means other party members will have to heal them (tho in chain attacks, this usually isn’t an issue). But these systems work better in 3 than they do in 2 because of how sparingly they can be used, which makes them good ways to secure safety of non-dodge tank party memebers without turning them into dodge tanks (I could be mistaken tho, especially with post-game builds).

Ashera is more based around Dunban’s concept of being a damage-tank. She has weaker tank stats than her counterparts but she deals more damage and has low cooldowns. I imagine her class is mostly broken during the post-game because her long animations with short cooldowns could probably result in a character who is just untargettable the majority of the time. I can’t give a strong opinion here. Right now, my biggest issue with the class is that it isn’t particularly usable late-game hard mode due to it lacking any arts that specifically make the class tankier. Basically, I’m left at a loss for how to build the class before post-game, but I can see the potential for it to be the strongest class in the game. Especially depending on whether life-stealing effects exist. Her class is definitely built around the concept of becoming powerful by abusing the game’s systems, which is probably most obvious when you look at Ashera’s actual arts pallet compared to what’s available to her class (as the Hero herself can’t exactly abuse the stuff that the class wants to abuse).

Gray is definitely based on Elma mechanically, where he’s a DPS class with some evasive abilities. Because he doesn’t have a Ghost-Factory ability, saying “fuck it” and building his class as a tank isn’t as viable during the main game, but I can still very easily see his class being built dodge-tank post-game because it can take advantage of the game’s systems. Like, since he’s not technically a tank, making him the tank would allow for everyone to build the augment that gives them lower cooldowns when a non-tank is targeted. Because Jaguar has long animations, giving it secondary evasion abilities would give this class the longest period of invulnerability available. Still, I’d say that this is the best execution of a dps class with mild amounts of evasion so far since I don’t see the broken evasion being doable until post-game where you can transfer the necessary arts over. Alongside that, I like that the class is primarily AoE damage, so the evasion is more meant to stall out the time it takes for tank characters to regain aggro. His evasion ability is also very strong on tank characters due to having bonus damage from the front. 

Overall, I just haven’t really seen the extent that these classes can break the game, so I can’t really judge them on that. But I can say that the way 3 handles its classes is that each of the main 6 characters represents a very broad archetype while the hero classes expand on more flavorful versions of that type. Cuz I feel like listing them: Noah represents auto attack crit focused DPS, Senna is ability spam DPS, Mio is dodge tank, Lanz is damage sponge tank, Eunie is healer support, and Taion is buff support. The hero classes all expand on or play with these concepts. Mio’s concept is the most unique of the bunch because her class plays almost like an action game due to functionally having a dodge button, though Gray and Ashera are both expansions of the concept. 

Conclusion

The dodge-tank characters in this series are always interesting. I’d say that they’re typically the most broken class in the series because they often will exploit some system in the game to maximize their effectiveness, which also makes them usually high skill classes to use effectively. Also, since I haven’t really talked about it in the retrospective, breaking the game isn’t offensive in a single player game if doing so is fun. Which I’d say that each iteration of the evasion tank has progressively gotten more fun to use because they’ve been getting increasingly interactive. I think the reason why this class feels so unique to Xenoblade is that the devs keep finding exploits in old games and implementing them as mechanics in new games, and this class was originally more or less started out as major exploits in 1 and X. 

[spocktheestallion]

yeah i never trust a “i’m kinda worried about ricks casting choices” motherfucker bc why are you worried? all the actors he picked are FANTASTIC choices. walker has the PERFECT comedic timing and sense of humor for percy. leah has the ABSOLUTE sass and confidence of a young annabeth. all these actors are so talented. percy and annabeth have always been defined by their personalities. annabeth is not brave bc she is blonde percy is not a hero bc he has green eyes if you are so shallow you cannot comprehend the concept of character and talent over appearance then you didn’t take anything away from the books.

but it’s also definitely tied up more in leah being black and some of you fucks trying to justify your racism with worries about “accuracy”. bc seriously what was the reason you were “so worried about the casting”? what was it? what? tell me. tell me the SPECIFIC reason you were worried about the casting without stuttering or redirecting or getting defensive. and WHO specifically were you fretting and clutching your pearls about bc i don’t recall some of you losing your shit over walker being blond the same way you lost your shit at a black girl DARING to accept a role that she auditioned for and EARNED.

when someone says they “have doubts about the casting choices” all i hear is excuses for being a little bitch baby about annabeth being black. bc seriously what’s the doubt? she’s talented. she’s the right age. she encapsulates annabeth’s character perfectly. so what’s the problem? what’s the fucking problem??

[miraculouscontent]

Anonymous submitted:

Look, That Guy is so far up his own backside that it’s not even funny.  He doesn’t strike me as the sort who thinks before he speaks – at least, not in the sense of evaluating what he’s about to say for pithy things like accuracy, truthfulness or anything of the like.

No, the only criteria he cares about is attention.  Singing his own praises while tearing others down.  Given how often he goes after other works, staunchly insisting that they pale in comparison to Miraculous Ladybug, he’s clearly envious of the thought of anybody or anything else getting attention.

(Again, worth noting that we see shades of Lila and Chloe in his behavior, and the classic bird meme ‘I am feel uncomfortable when we are not about me’.  Small wonder the world of ML revolves around Adrien to the point of 'Where’s Poochy'ing him.  If That Guy had his way, he and his show would get the same treatment.)

Due to this, any claims of 'representation’ – especially of this nature – strike me as little more than him latching like a lamprey onto anything that garners attention.  Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t even read the post he reblogged – he just saw that it was about 'representation’ and went 'Oooh, buzzword!’

Now, I’m not claiming that she doesn’t read as neurodivergent.  I’m simply doubted that That Guy or anyone else involved with ML’s writing has considered the Implications at play here.  Because that would involve actually Thinking About Marinette as anything more than their personal punching bag and chew toy.

To be perfectly blatant, they would – and will – treat her like shit regardless of who she is, what she does, or how she’s wired.  Because she’s not their precious Adrien Agreste.

There is no care or concern for her character.  None.  Marinette does not matter to them enough for that.  She is their toy, their plaything, a prize for the creator’s pet that’s getting tortured because they think it’s funny.  Because it amuses them.

And if this happens to imply anything unfortunate about how they regard girls, or people who happen to be neurodivergent…?  Time to trot out the tried-and-true defense of ’It’s just a children’s show; it’s not that deep.’

They only want it to be seen as having depth enough to impress, without dealing with any criticism.  No matter how legitimate that criticism might be.  They want to soak up any praise they can while ignoring everything they don’t want to hear, cherry-picking what appeals most to them.

They want all the credit and glory without any of the responsibility or accountability.  And my, doesn’t that sound familiar…?

(To be clear, this pisses me off to no end.  I’m not surprised by this development, by any means – again, that utter lack of respect for Marinette and her mental state was clear long before now – but my stomach still turned upon seeing that further confirmed.  Knowing something doesn’t make it any less disgusting.  Hence the venting to get this coiling sensation out from under my skin.)

You hit the nail right on the head, anon, like damn.

They want to have their cake and eat it too. They want all this credit for the show being so amazing or revolutionary, but the second they’re confronted with actual criticism, it’s either, “oops!” or an immediate block.

I’d be willing to let this whole mental healthy thing slide if Astruc wasn’t... well, Astruc, but that’s not the case. He wants the praise, wants the attention, wants everything, but will hide behind any excuse possible for why this-or-that couldn’t happen in the show. It’s basically, “we did the absolute best with what we had and we couldn’t have done it better,” meanwhile their protagonist is over here having a panic attack every other week.

I agree that Astruc basically isn’t think of any implication whatsoever. I mean, even before I thought about the idea of Marinette being neurodivergent, I still thought it was cruel to treat her the way they do. It’s like creating this cute, precious thing just to abuse it, y’know?

[rpbetter]

PTSD or C-PTSD?

Hopefully, you’re not one of the muns out there who has slapped a “PTSD” label on your muse(s) for drama only. You are, instead, treating this topic with respect and the realism that comes with that, not only having it accurately impact your muse when it’s convenient and “fun” for you. Well, that respect and realism includes actually knowing and applying the correct diagnosis and symptoms as well.

In your defense, if you have misdiagnosed your muse, common terminology in media and even among trauma sufferers is often just the blanket-statement of PTSD. Also, as the abbreviations imply, they do have things in common. 

To help, I’m going to break down their differences and similarities, then provide some research links including personal accounts to help you get started.

PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder most often comes from a single traumatic event.

What can be a traumatic event can differ widely, and reasonably so; we’re not all the same person, processing events and emotions the same way, or with the same formative life experiences. What might cause PTSD to develop in one person might be processed by another as a frightening or painful incident, but not one that has left them with PTSD. The symptoms, individual, and incident have to all be taken into account.

That being said, some examples would include:

having a severe accident

being mugged or in a store that is robbed

physical or sexual assault

being involved in a shooting, in any way

death of a loved one

an unexpected explosion or sudden, natural event like a mudslide or tornado

a severe natural or man-made disaster (building collapse, mass flooding)

events outside of oneself like witnessing a violent assault, murder, deadly car accidents, terminal illness or injury

Again, it is important to remember that individuals react in individual ways, and as such, their symptoms can express with some variation. Don’t just mimic the same presentations you’ve seen in media, research a variety of real experiences.

However they manifest, key symptoms of PTSD include:

Re experiencing the event by way of nightmares, flashbacks, and repetitive, intrusive, and intensely upsetting images, thoughts, and sensations. This is the most common symptom of PTSD, in which the person involuntarily and vividly relives the trauma.

Avoidance and emotional numbing, going to extremes to avoid not just potential triggers, but also finding any way possible to push memories of the event out of their minds. When the latter occurs and is extreme, the person is trying to feel nothing at all, seeking a path to emotional numbness. That can include substance use and abuse, self-harming, and other harmful behaviors.

Feeling on edge (”Hyperarousal”) is the ultimate inability to relax, constantly looking for threats, perceiving threats that are not to be found, and being easily startled. Some of the common issues with being locked into this state include difficulty sleeping or even insomnia, severe irritability and irrational seeming aggression, angry or aggressive outbursts, and finding concentration difficult to impossible.

Some other things that might develop with PTSD are:

Other mental health concerns like anxiety, depression, and/or phobias

as said above, harmful behaviors like self-harming and substance abuse

physical symptoms like headaches, stomach and digestive upsets, dizziness, and generalized pain

Like all disorders, PTSD is complex. I, again, implore you to research not only information put out by psychiatric professionals but also the experiences of real people.

C-PTSD

Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder occurs when a person experiences repeated, consistent trauma, especially at an early age.

That doesn’t mean that adults cannot and do not develop C-PTSD, they do, and for a variety of reasons; adult sufferers have the same points of origin in the diagnosis as children do. Additionally, it may take years for someone to seek help, feel their symptoms are severe enough to need to, or be able to extricate themselves from the situation in order to receive help of any kind. They may be an adult by the time this happens.

The important thing to remember about C-PTSD is that it isn’t a single traumatic incident, and you are more likely to have this form of PTSD if the trauma occurred early in life, it was inflicted by someone close to you, and/or was inflicted by someone you still see on a regular basis.

Some good examples to give you the idea include:

ongoing domestic violence

child abuse and/or neglect

being raised by a parent with a severe disorder like Narcissistic Personality Disorder

repeatedly witnessing violence or abuse

torture

kidnapping

being a part of a cult

being a victim of human trafficking or slavery

It isn’t “complex” because it is always across the board “more severe.” This isn’t simply “even worse PTSD,” and shouldn’t be treated like that. Its source is more complex, the development and embedded varieties of its impact are, and the ongoing treatment is.

Particularly when C-PTSD occurs in childhood, there are lasting effects on a person’s development. They have developed in an environment that constantly has them highly stressed both physically and psychologically, and in which they learn many ways of coping, lessening or negating harm, and so on, that leave them less than optimally functional and integrated in life outside the situation.

While the person has the symptoms of PTSD, they will additionally exhibit:

difficulty developing and/or maintaining relationships of any sort

intense, consistent feelings of worthlessness, shame, and guilt

problems managing and even understanding their own emotions

suicidal thoughts

dissociation

increased risk-taking behaviors

Those who have had their actual development rerouted to deal with the situations that generate C-PTSD have a higher incidence of physical symptoms, suicide, self-harm, substance abuse, and are at higher risk of repeat victimization.

They might go for some time without realizing that their daily experiences are neither the norm nor something sustainable, or how atypical their traumatic experiences were compared to those around them. It can sometimes take a serious life-event (suicide attempt, drug rehab, losing too many jobs, homelessness, or finding themselves in a genuine, loving relationship) for them to fully recognize something is wrong, and even then, their feelings of worthlessness, ingrained lack of self-confidence, and belief that they don’t deserve any better can prevent them from seeking help outside of themselves.

They may also believe that something is just “wrong” with them, that they are innately messed up, or that they have a different mental illness. And the unwillingness to open up to people, relieve events, etc. can additionally leave them unwilling to seek or continue care when they believe they have a different, underlying problem. Again, choosing to deal with this themselves through self-isolating, self-medicating, and seeking only relationships and jobs that will work within the framework of the disorder as it effects them.

Additionally, many sufferers of both C-PTSD and PTSD experience the same sense of societal shaming surrounding mental illness. They may struggle with denial, and refuse to seek assistance due to the stigma and all it entails.

Shared aspects of PTSD and C-PTSD

They’re both, obviously, severe, life-altering trauma experiences and resultant disorders. They both easily make the sufferer feel like the trauma and disorder is impossible or undesirable for others to deal with, that they are not worthy of being in close relationships, among many other similarities in experience living with either disorder regardless of widely varying traumas.

They share psychological and physical impacts, and there is a lot of overlap.

The core symptoms of PTSD are shared with C-PTSD:

relieving the trauma(s)

avoiding and emotional numbing

hyperarousal

The shared physical symptoms can include:

headaches

nausea, stomach ache, and digestive upsets

difficulty sleeping and insomnia

sweating, clamminess

chest pain and difficulty breathing

manifestations of low-grade to severe pain

dizziness

Shared behaviors can include:

difficulty concentrating to outright dissociating

self-harm

substance abuse

being hyper-vigilant, easily startled

may seem to be over-reactive to/in situations that others are perceiving as normal or not that big of a deal due to lower perception of personal emotions and lower emotional regulation

including explosive anger or defensiveness

development of anxiety and depression disorders, the symptoms thereof

Again, both PTSD and C-PTSD are serious disorders caused by trauma, and they both need to be treated with respect and accuracy when written into a character - be that an OC or a canon character. It is unfortunate, but these symptoms and the realities of life with either disorder are often portrayed badly in wider media, and the RPC often imitates what it sees.

PTSD and C-PTSD, like the incidents of trauma that created them (rape, child abuse, domestic violence, miscarriage, etc.), are not a plot-point, other point of interest, or a character trait, let alone a “character flaw.” They’re not something you only bring up for attention, to get your muse out of a bad spot, or to add dramatics when you’re bored in a thread. Neither are they something you need to attach to your muse simply to give them A Label. These are, I cannot stress this enough, serious topics, and they deserve to be treated that way.

You can do that by defining which variety of PTSD your muse may actually have, then adding research of both the disorder and how it impacts a variety of real people. Making your muse more realistic and being dedicated to sticking with it.

Below are some links to get you started on research! Please note, the real stories, as well as some information, may be graphic or triggering. Read responsibly.

C-PTSD

Out of the Storm - Personal Stories of C-PTSD 

-Contains real stories from those with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Their experiences have a huge range; bullying, childhood neglect and abuse, and sexual abuse and assault.

 I Have Post-Traumatic Stress and Didn’t Know It - and You Might, Too

-Personal story of living, unknowingly, with C-PTSD. An especially great read for writers who have muses who hold a lot of responsibility in their daily lives, who may not realize their experiences are C-PTSD related, etc. Contains discussion of parental emotional abuse, mental illness and childhood trauma, and rape.

What is C-PTSD?

-Excellent resource for detailed breakdowns of C-PTSD giving without a clinical, impersonal tone. The definitions of the disorder itself, symptoms and how it manifests and impacts daily life, and much more. A highly recommended source, and one with further resources on-site.

 11 “Habits” of People Living with C-PTSD

-Short breakdown of C-PTSD, followed by snippets of specific experiences in the words of those living with the disorder, a relatively short article.

PTSD

Rebecca’s Story: Living with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

-Personal story of a woman living with PTSD from, in short, being stalked by a co-worker. It’s an excellent article, particularly for how mental illnesses sufferers are treated and portrayed, and how that adds another layer of difficulty to their lives. Obviously, this may be triggering to those who have been stalked, and includes mentions of graphic threats.

My experience of PTSD

-A personal story of medical trauma resulting in PTSD. Many of the PTSD stories you’ll find are from women and involve sexual trauma or harassment, in trying to find a variety of stories, I’ve found this one. By this point, you should be noticing many similarities in these stories, regardless of specific trauma.

Leaving the Battlefield: Soldier Shares Story of PTSD

-So many muses experience PTSD through battle-related incidents, and those depictions are not always accurate in media. This is a personal story about one soldier’s experiences. His perception of PTSD, denial, and shame at having the disorder is something that echoes throughout the previous accounts. So do the similarities of daily struggles to maintain to regular life. Before anyone wants to get Tumblr Nasty about it: there isn’t any “war propaganda” present in this story, the location of it is irrelevant to what you’re supposed to be learning here. It’s literally this man’s experience, don’t.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 

-Breakdown of symptoms and causes from Mayo Clinic, so obviously, this is more clinical-minded. Particularly useful for its lists of things like “symptoms of negative changes in thinking and mood” and increased risk-factor for other disorders.

I hope this helps you to assess and write more accurately your muses with C-PTSD or PTSD, and to consider these things more fully when having your muse experience a traumatic event in your plots.

-------

Please, remember when you are reading these accounts, and anywhere you might encounter PTSD sufferers; these are REAL PEOPLE. Treat them and their stories with respect. You’ll note that, unlike other posts on this blog, I didn’t advise you to approach the source. Many trauma sufferers won’t be comfortable sharing their experiences for the sake of your creative hobby. You may, at your respectful discretion, discuss this with close friends you know to be impacted by PTSD, just keep in mind that respect, discretion, and only bringing the topic up when they are comfortable with it, with specific questions, is necessary here. These are not fictional characters! Do not write someone’s real experiences into your character, thread, etc. verbatim, that’s...fucked up. Thanks in advance for being responsible, respectful adults, from a real life PTSD sufferer. -Vespertine

[generation-of-kuroko-and-kagami]

Midorima Shintarō: How Strong Is He?

So, I’m making this post in response to a couple asks I got (one by @taigaakagami and another anonymous one) asking some questions about Midorima:

Do I think Midorima is underrated in the GoM? This question includes Midorima being unable to go into the Zone/analysis on if he even needs the Zone.

What would it would be like if Midorima did enter the Zone? I’ll also talk about why Midorima hasn’t entered the Zone/if he even can enter the Zone.

Do I think Midorima is the best shooting guard in the series, despite the fact that characters like Hyuuga, Tatsuya, and Mibuchi are also strong shooting guards?

I don’t know that this post will be super long, but I’m going to try and answer these questions thoroughly. I’ll say upfront that I do think Midorima is the weakest of all the GoM members, excluding Kuroko. I’ve said this before in my posts, and the reasoning goes beyond the fact that Midorima is the only member of the GoM starters that hasn’t gone into the Zone. Let’s break down Midorima’s skills first, and then we can get into the comparisons.

TL;DR in bold

P.S. For the sake of argument, just know that when I say “GoM members” in this specific post, I never mean to include Kuroko. No offense to Kuroko, but on his own, he isn’t in the same league as the GoM starters.

Midorima’s Abilities & Weaknesses

Midorima’s basic abilities include his shooting accuracy, his defense, his intelligence, and his physical strength. He also improved his endurance over the course of the series to enhance his ability to shoot physically draining shots for longer periods of time. Of course, Kuroko no Basket is famous for naming every advanced ability a player has, so Midorima also has a few of those. His Super Three Point Shot allows him to shoot accurate three-pointers from the half-court and full-court lines, and the Sky-Direct Three Point Shot is a combination shot with Takao where Takao will pass the ball to Midorima’s hands--as he’s already in a shooting form--and Midorima makes the shot. This prevents any opponents from blocking the shot as Midorima can throw it off before the opposing team realizes what’s happened. Unless it’s Akashi, but we don’t need to get into that.

Though Midorima’s endurance isn’t a weakness for him anymore, like it was at the beginning of the series, he is still weak when it comes to the physicality of his GoM skills. Yes, he can make incredible shots that no one else can make, but it will definitely tear up his body in the process. If he’s able to make it to adulthood without seriously injuring his joints and muscles, he’ll be unstoppable, but until then, Midorima has to put limiters on his ability to remain healthy. Additionally, he can’t enter the Zone. Whether he needs to enter it or not is something we’re about to get into, but for now, it’s considered a weakness.

Is Midorima Underrated?

Asking if Midorima is underrated is kind of a subjective question, so really, this answer is up to whoever is reading this, but if I’m trying to be as objective as possible, I’m going to look at the comparisons between him and the other GoM members. How do fans of KnB react to Midorima in comparison to the other members? Do they generally think his abilities are weaker? Are his abilities weaker?

Here’s the thing: from what I know of the fandom surrounding KnB, it seems that people simply find Midorima’s abilities boring. Yes, everyone loves the Sky-Direct Three, but that’s because it’s a Midorima/Takao thing. It’s an awesome skill because it needs both of them. I think the mystique that comes with Akashi, the overwhelming awe that comes with Murasakibara, the amazement that comes with Aomine, and the surprises that come with Kise are too difficult to compete with. Midorima doesn’t have the same wow factor that they do. So, to that end, I don’t think Midorima is underrated because he is what he is. Some people really love him as a character and a player, and some people probably dislike him. But I don’t think people are underestimating his abilities. I think it’s perfectly clear to most people that his abilities are the most vanilla, if you will, despite potentially being the most useful. Plus, there’s the fact that he can’t enter the Zone. So, you’d be forgiven if you thought Midorima was the weakest based on that since the other members have all gone into the Zone.

Does Midorima Need the Zone?

Is Midorima underrated on the grounds that people think he’s weak for not being able to go into the Zone, despite him not even needing the Zone to being with? That is a possibility, yeah. I’ll talk about what a Midorima-in-the-Zone playstyle would look like in a minute, but I’ll agree with the notion that Midorima probably doesn’t need the Zone at all.

When players enter the Zone, you’re basically looking at the enhancement of all basic abilities. You’re faster, your more accurate, you’ve got more power. The downside to the Zone is that it drains the stamina of the player significantly. The requirements for entering are vast amounts of talent and passion for basketball.

The way I see it is that Midorima may actually be hindered by going into the Zone. The endurance training he completed to be able to use his abilities for an entire game would be wasted by draining his stamina in the Zone. Also, Midorima isn’t a very mobile player. He can be swift, and he does use power on defense, but his position as a shooting guard means constant movement isn’t necessary. Aomine, for example, needs to be able to drive and jump and dodge and pivot, so an increase in his physical abilities would only make those things more precise. Akashi needs to outmaneuver his opponents at the top of the key and make the correct passes to get the ball through, so being more agile benefits him. For Midorima, though, those improvements would go to waste.

What if Midorima did enter the Zone?

What would it look like for Midorima to be in the Zone? Why can’t he enter it already? Let’s answer that second question first. If Midorima meets both of the requirements for being in the Zone, why hasn’t he entered the Zone? Is it because he doesn’t have the talent? Well, no, because he’s a GoM member. And we know he loves basketball. So, what is it that keeps him away? I don’t think there’s a clear answer to this, but if I had to reach for one, it would be that Midorima doesn’t go one-on-one with people enough for him to focus in the way you need to if you’re gonna get into the Zone. I know that Midorima did go one-on-one with Kagami, but that showdown never had the same high-energy, high-movement feel that the Kagami/Aomine showdown did, or the Kagami/Kise one did.

As a shooting guard, Midorima is basically getting the ball to throw it off right away. He’s not in a position that favors one-on-one moments. I mean, of course, there’s always going to be some moments like that because shooting guards still have defenders, but it’s nothing like a power forward trying to make it past a center or a point guard trying to shake his defender so he can drive. It’s mostly just a.) the shooting guard gets the ball and b.) the defender tries to block it or knock it out of their opponent’s hands. Without the sense of rivalry being enhanced with one-on-one play, Midorima never really focuses hard enough to enter the Zone.

There is also the possibility that he can’t enter the Zone because he relies on his team more than the other GoM members. Which would also explain why Kuroko can’t go into the Zone. All of the GoM members rely on their teammates--well, Aomine is a work in progress, but he’s open to it, so we’ll leave that there--but Midorima is dependent on his team to perform at his best. Before meeting Takao, this wasn’t the case, but his skills elevated with the Sky-Direct Three, so his best now includes that. Meaning, he needs someone else to achieve it. Maybe that’s a stretch, but nonetheless. Look at it this way: Midorima is the only GoM member that hasn’t done the whole, “No offense to my team, but this moment is just about me” thing. Like, even Kise, who is super pro-teamwork, expressed his immaturity during his match with Seirin because he wanted to carry the burden of winning on his own. Midorima doesn’t do that, though, so maybe his lack of selfishness is why he can’t enter the Zone.

But what if he did?

I honestly don’t know that I can imagine a Midorima-in-the-Zone playstyle. It’s not like his accuracy can increase in the Zone if his accuracy is always 100%, right? I really think the only thing that would be different about Midorima in the Zone would be his speed. Which would, essentially, equate to him being able to throw shots off faster. I guess, potentially, he may step out of his traditional role as a shooting guard if he were in the Zone. Like, maybe he’d steal the ball back after a turnover or something. Takao definitely wouldn’t be able to keep up with him in the Zone, though, so I’m sure a game with Midorima in the Zone would end up like any other GoM-in-the-Zone game: Midorima running the whole thing by himself. I really don’t think it would look much different than the games we’ve already seen with Midorima, though. He’d just be sharper. I guess that’s why he was never written to go into the Zone because his abilities don’t really lend themselves to superhuman improvement. Probably because they’re already pretty superhuman.

Is Midorima the Best Shooting Guard in KnB?

Can I answer this with a short answer? Yes, he is. I’m not gonna front and say that the other incredible shooting guards in the series wouldn’t give Midorima a good fight. Tatsuya and Mibuchi, especially, but Hyuuga has also proven that he’s a worthy opponent for him. But it really comes down to accuracy. Midorima could be tricked by Tatsuya shots or foul off of Mibuchi’s, but they can miss. Midorima can’t. Actually, if it came down to a battle of accuracy, Hyuuga is probably the one I’d pick to go up against Midorima. And we’re talking individual abilities here, okay, not a team verses Midorima. One-on-one, Midorima’s basic abilities as a shooting guard outweigh anything else. That’s what they were designed to do when Midorima was written as a character, so I think it’s accurate to say that Midorima would win against any other shooting guard in the series 9 times out of 10. Now, that tenth time may be an interesting discussion to have, but that’s another post for another time.

Well, sorry this took so long to post. I meant to post it about a month ago, but hectic lives don’t leave room for KnB blogs. Anyway, please let me know your thoughts on this topic as I’m sure there are some of you reading that think Midorima is the strongest GoM player or that he’s so weak, any other shooting guard could beat him. I will try to make time for the pile of asks in my inbox in the future, so please bear with me and keep an eye out for what’s to come!