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spooner-the-trinity · 3 years

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Kyoko Sakura

Kyoko Sakura is one of the main protagonists of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, introduced a few episodes into the series to show someone taking the magical girl job far more cynically than the non-mystery shrouded leads had until that point. Not interested in killing witches just to keep them from hurting people, she's more invested in just keeping herself in top form by leaving them around until the optimal point to kill them to keep herself and her soul gem in top shape. This clashes rather fiercely with Sayaka's somewhat less practical but more moral "kill every witch on sight" stance, and the two clash over it early on. While she initially looks down on Sayaka, as time goes on she comes to want to help the less experienced girl as she realizes there is way more wrong with the system than either of them thought, with the handicaps and downsides of their bargain with Kyubey becoming ever more clear. That, and Sayaka begins to undergo a period of strongly regretting the wish she had made, something Kyoko finds she can relate too. As the daughter of a preacher living in poverty, she desperately wanted her father's word to get out and have what they would need for her family to eat. Wishing to Kyubey for help, she got what she wanted, only for it to backfire horribly when she admitted how she did it. Kyoko was decried as going against the faith and using magic to bring people to him, and once his church collapsed ended up killing himself and Kyoko's little sister, leaving her to come back to the horrid sight. Seeing Sayaka regretting her own wish, Kyoko just tried to help her rebound, only to fail and have Sayaka succumb to her mental state and transform into a witch. Kyoko ended up having to put her down at the cost of her own life, but unlike Mami and Sayaka she at least managed to go out on her own terms. StatsKyoko is not an especially large character, being about the same height as Pit with a slightly less wide hurtbox. Unfortunately, she's rather frail even for her size, having only 80 weight units, the same as Meta Knight and Zero Suit Samus, so she gets KO'd fairly early. Her jumps are quite good and her gravity is about average, giving her a fairly strong basis for her recovery, and both her air and ground speed are also on the high end. She's in the 12th-16th tie for fastest air speed with Mario, Sonic, and a couple others, while her run speed of 2.35 actually puts her in sixth place overall. She has a wall cling and wall jump, a reasonably low crouch, and a crawl, so on the whole her mobility is very good. While her traction is among the worst in the game, everyone in Ultimate has good enough traction that this isn't really going to have her sliding around. Specials Neutral Special - Surging Spear Pointing her spear at the ground at first, Kyoko's spear breaks into segments and begins to wrap in circles around her a short distance away from her body, as she clasps her hands together and focuses. The tip of the spear, now pointed upward forward over her and enlarged to about double its normal size, then smashes into the ground in front of her, dealing 13% and diagonally upwards knockback that KOs at 150%. Kyoko's spear reverts to normal in her hand afterwards with surprisingly low end lag, its parts all just snapping back into place. This has a bit less start lag than the animation might sound like it has, the chain breaking into segments being an almost instantaneous visual, but its still not a fast move and a bit too slow to be worth its startup lag at first. The move covers a pretty big area in front of her due to the enlarged size of the spear point. You can charge this move, as energy flares off the tip, like a flame but a darker red color rather than orange. This also slightly increases the size of the end of the spear over time, eventually about doubling it at full charge, which takes 1.4 seconds. The chain link coils also rise higher into the air, giving the move more vertical range in addition to more horizontal range. The power increases at a consistent rate of 1% every 0.1 seconds, capping out at 27% and being able to kill at about 55%. Given the size of the hitbox and the impressive maximum power this move reaches, its a pretty stellar kill move, but charging 1.4 seconds for it is not something most opponents will allow you to do outside of a shield break situation. The good news is the charge can be cancelled like Giant Punch or Samus' charge shot, but at a bit of a price, you only get to keep half the charge. The half charged version of this move still deals 20%, has nice range, and KOs at about 100%, so its not a bad consolation prize, but it does make the move a bit worse than Giant Punch at the same niche. It does have a few advantages, which we'll go over. The first is that you can actually change the impact point of the spear by pressing forward at any point during the start lag or charge. This will cause the spear to instead lurch forward and slam down about 1.5 battlefield platforms in front of Kyoko, dealing only 0.7x its usual damage and 0.8x the knockback as it launches forward before slamming down. The hitbox where it slams down has the same power as the original move. This version has noticeably more end lag as it takes longer for the spear to retract back to its default state, but the start lag remains the same, giving Kyoko a pseudo-projectile to harass people at a range. There's another layer of pressure to this move if it has half charge or more, as a red shockwave is emitted from the impact point. At half charge, it goes a battlefield platform in each direction from the impact point, traveling at a speed that means the wave will still have the last quarter of its path to cover when Kyoko comes out of lag. Unfortunately the wave only deals 4% and a flinch at half charge, but it adds another layer of pressure to the half-charged version of this attack, as at close range it covers Kyoko's longer range spear attacks, and at long range it will help cover her shorter ranged ones. The red wave goes further at a slightly higher speed with higher charges, though the speed only increases to about 1.2x its base amount at full charge so its not much. The distance, however, is doubled to 2 battlefield platforms in both directions, and the damage and knockback spikes up quite a bit, capping out at 14% and upward knockback that KOs at 140%. This is a pretty scary projectile to have as additional pressure to Kyoko's game at all ranges, and it comes out on top of an already threatening hitbox, but you only get it if you use half charge or better. In the air this move switches to a slightly less flashy version, with the spearhead simply stabbing forward at the end of the charge, either right in front of Kyoko or launching further away depending on if you tilted the control stick forward or not. It deals 2% less than it does on the ground, but due to the slam being less dramatic, the start lag is actually cut noticeably. The half charged version is, even with the slight damage reduction, pretty alarming in this context given you can use it relatively close to the blast zone if you set it up, and that 100% KO percent of the base version is from center stage. Having a decent amount of charge in this move makes Kyoko very scary in the air, given this move comes out considerably faster than Giant Punch in the air rather than slightly slower on the ground. That said, you lose the shockwave and a bit of punch, so there is a tradeoff, and the end lag is actually a bit worse in the aerial version, which adds up to be extremely punishable if you whiff the long range version of this move. In the end, this move serves a couple functions. In the air, its a potentially powerful kill tool that comes out pretty fast, but needs stored charge for you to get much mileage out of. On the ground, it has more power but is less practical to actually hit with, in exchange for creating a projectile if you whiff. The projectile helps a pretty important part of Kyoko's play pattern, however, it allows her to transition from fighting at long range to fighting at short range and vice versa. Given Kyoko is at her best when knocking the opponent back and forth long and short ranges, this is a powerful tool to have wrapped up in just one input. Up Special - Impale Pulling her spear back with red energy forming at the tip, Kyoko's spear breaks into segments once again and launches forward with the tip faintly blazing with the energy. You can angle this move in all eight cardinal directions during the start lag similar to Fire Fox, but the move will default to 45 degrees upward in the air and directly forward on the ground. The spear goes out a similar distance to Fox's recovery, actually, and has quite a bit of start lag. For most of its flight, it deals 9% and pretty underwhelming knockback that doesn't KO until basically irrelevant percents, unless it hits pretty close to a blast zone. At the end of its range, however, the tip of the spear ignites with red energy, and if you hit the opponent with this hitbox, they take 15% and are trapped in a state similar to Corrin's pin. If it hits a ledge, Kyoko will tether to it, so this functions as her primary(and admittedly somewhat underwhelming) recovery move. There are a couple differences, with the big one being that Kyoko doesn't need to pin the opponent against a surface, so it functions a bit closer to a grab hitbox. The amount of time the opponent is impaled for is much less than Corrin's on account of being able to do this in the air, but you'll still have time to use the inputs you have available out of this move. Kyoko has three options out of this move, pressing forward, pressing up, or pressing backwards. As an aside if you do manage to pin an opponent against a surface, this deals an extra 7% to that opponent, which pushes the damage once you factor in the follow up to a pretty astonomical value. Given you need to sweetspot this move that's not especially fast to pull it off, however, its a reasonable payment for the risk involved. The forward option simply has Kyoko pull herself to the opponent, yanking the spear out and dropkicking the opponent once she gets into close range. This deals another 9% and weak horizontal knockback that scales poorly as well, so it serves as a pretty solid combo setup. If Kyoko fired the spear straight upward, she'll kick off to be a bit below the foe and the weak knockback will be vertical, and straight downward she will kick off above the foe and deal weak downward knockback, but the damage will remain the same. The upward version has her flick the chain upwards, sending the foe flying up off the tip of the spear with low vertical knockback that scales poorly, and only deals 6%. What's nice about this, however, is that you can use it to set up Kyoko's other long range attacks to follow up on her pressure at an extremely safe distance. These moves both remain the same on the ground and in the air. The backward option is different depending on if you're on the ground or in the air. If you're on the ground, Kyoko will swing the chain spear overhead and smash the opponent into the ground on the other side of her, dealing 13% and initially weak knockback that scales quite well, killing at about 135%. An important thing to note about this is it will send the opponent flying at a point of impact far behind Kyoko, This actually makes the KO power even better than you'd expect... provided the opponent lands on solid ground. If they just reach the end point of the slam and are in the air, they instead get a pretty weak spike that won't kill until 150% and take 7%, but that still sets up a pretty solid edgeguarding scenario. While this option is definitely the most powerful of the three chain spear tools, keep in mind its also not very easy to follow up on unless you've set up a few specific situations, such as an edgeguard or using the Down Special which we're about to get to. Both Kyoko holding the spear and the opponent will continue to fall at their normal fall speeds in the air. If one falls faster than the other they can't go past the end of the chain spear, which functions as a bit of a tether, and as such will become horizontally closer to Kyoko as the spear bends downward to keep them impaled. If Kyoko or the opponent end up the full spear length below the other, they'll just dangle there. Kyoko will straighten out the spear in front of her before performing a throw, so it'll always be performed from her height, so this stuff is only really relevant in some pretty big corner cases. Given the impale will not hold for very long, pulling off suicide kills with this is pretty difficult. The back throw does allow for some potential gimps, however, and the forward variation can also lead into a gimping attempt off stage, although considering this move is not a particularly great recovery that could easily backfire. Your Side B can compensate for that a little, but not enough that going off stage is great for Kyoko. As a final note, this move has pretty bad end lag if you whiff, but Kyoko resets the spear back to its normal state pretty quickly if you do hit. Down Special - Barrier With a pulse of red energy from her soul gem and a wave of her hand, Kyoko manifests a wall made of red chains, each link a red diamond-shaped object. This wall is about 1.4x Ganondorf's height, and appears a single stage builder unit in front of Kyoko. If you're looking for a durable construct to protect you from projectiles, prepare to be a bit disappointed. The wall will only take two hits to destroy from attacks that deal less than 8%, and one hit from an attack that deals more than that. The rare non-flinching move that also happens to deal less than 5% will take three hits to destroy it, so Fox won't have quite as much luck breaking through, and its not terribly hard to set up given the lag is average. If the first two below 5% and no flinching hits are dealt to the wall, that will allow it to be destroyed by a subsequent hit of less than 8%. That said, you're not really using this as a defensive tool, but it has its niche uses as one to help Kyoko play her longer ranged game if you want to go down that road. Kyoko's spear goes through the wall without damaging it, so it can serve as a sort of "armor" move to defend her while abusing the sheer amount of range her spear has, making life a bit difficult for opponents destroying the wall. The thing is most characters have an aerial or tilt that can smash through it in one hit, and if they do the attack will still go through and hit Kyoko potentially. There is a bit of impact stall upon destroying the wall, however, and the attack's damage is reduced by 8% with a corresponding knockback reduction from the damage lost. This loss of power can sometimes result in an attack being punishable on hit when it otherwise wouldn't be due to just flinching Kyoko rather than doing something more effectual, and combined with the impact stall it allows you to sometimes punish a foe in mid attack or on hit. The real meat of this move is what happens if you hit the opponent and they get knocked flying into a wall. They will be caught on the barrier, causing some of the bindings holding it together to snap but enough will stay around to hold the opponent in place. They will be trapped in hitstun on the barrier for as long as they would take knockback, effectively turning high knockback moves that hit foes into the wall into ridiculous combo setups. If you hit them with something that might KO them but it got intercepted by the wall, don't worry, this is the perfect time to charge a Neutral Special or Smash Attack to get the kill anyway. With less knockback than that it can still prove incredibly useful for combo setups, allowing you to link what would normally be combo finishers into a longer string or turn a KO move into a stellar combo starter. Flinching and weak knockback will not catch the opponent against the wall, rather they will bounce off it and deal the equivalent of 1 of the 2 hits of less than 8% required to destroy it. The wall will crumple completely after the opponent's hitstun ends or Kyoko lands another hit on them, using it up. If Kyoko is hit into this wall, rather than the opponent, it will crumple to catch her fall, reducing the knockback to almost none no matter how much it was initially an immensely reducing the hitstun. This can save Kyoko from death situationally, or interrupt an opponent's combo as Kyoko catches herself out of her hitstun just well enough to reverse it on the opponent. Kyoko can also tether to this wall with her Up Special, as unlike the rest of your spear attacks it will actually hook onto the wall. This does hurt your ability to latch onto foes behind it unfortunately, but it can allow you to get yourself to a nice aerial vantage point with your back to a wall that will cushion you against combos and KO moves. You can also wall cling on this wall, which is a niche but useful ability for amplifying Kyoko's air game. The wall will fade after 12 seconds, giving you a decent amount of time to work with it in all its varied uses. It serves as a powerful reward for Kyoko winning control of the stage, as its a great thing to be backed against in disadvantage state, and a great thing to pressure the opponent into at an advantage state, and is best set up when you've gotten a large amount of space from the opponent. Your Neutral and Up Special give Kyoko powerful repositioning and zoning options to make setting this wall up at an ideal point for you at whatever stage of the game you're in a reality. Side Special - Chain Dance Kyoko swings her spear up in a small arc in front of her, a look of concentration on her face. This deals only 2%, and comes out on Frame 10, one frame slower than Marth's dancing blade, but the sweetspot at the pointy part of the spear deals 3.5% and increased hitstun. This has better range than Dancing Blade's first hit, albeit by a small margin, and I keep comparing them because this move works a lot like dancing blade, with three subsequent follow ups that can each be angled in three directions. Note that the down option comes out a bit slower than the other two after this first hit, and as such it will not true combo out of hitting with the spear's shaft. If you hit with the tip, however, all three hits will true combo, which is a very useful property to have. The forward hit has Kyoko rapidly stab forward twice, once at a slightly downward angle and the second time at a slightly upward angle, dealing 2 hits of 1% and then 3%. This launches the foe forward with moderately strong base knockback that scales extremely slowly, only killing around 300%. This poor scaling is actually pretty important, because subsequent hits of Chain Dance actually transition into much longer range options that can be landed at foes on a wider range of percentages because of this. It also sets the opponent up nicely for the long range version of Neutral Special, not true comboing into it but because Kyoko has a couple options to follow up at that range including other hits of Chain Dance, a charged Neutral Special becomes a very scary alternative option for Kyoko to use out of this. Used in relatively close proximity to a wall the fact that the base knockback is this good also makes it an excellent combo tool, given the foe will be stuck in hitstun for a fair bit longer than most moves would leave them at a low percent. The upward version has Kyoko sweep the spear over her head in an arc from front to back, dealing 3% at the shaft and 4% at the tip of the spear. This move hits in enough of an arc in front of her it will catch people hit by the first strike. If you hit with the shaft of the first hit, you'll hit with it on the second hit, and the same will be true for the tipper. The shaft only deals weak upward knockback that pops the opponent up into the air a bit too high for melee ranged combos, but not far enough for Kyoko's long ranged options. It gets the foe out of your face for a moment at least, but you're not aiming to hit with it. The tipper hit will send the opponent a fair bit further upward, dealing similar knockback to the forward second hit but with slightly decreased base knockback, and at a slight forward angle away from directly above you. Aside from being a good range to put the opponent at for Kyoko's longer ranged upwards options, it also is a good range to play off by jumping up near the top of your wall with your wall cling, as that provides you a fallback point if you want to go into an aerial pursuit of an opponent. The downward hit has Kyoko swing the spear down and stab it into the ground in front of her at an angle, dealing 6% and noticeably increased hitstun. This is a stellar move for setting up melee combos, probably Kyoko's actual best combo starter, but you won't be able to confirm it out of Side Special unless you specifically hit with the tipper. That, being able to start a close range combo is a useful thing to have out of this move, as the long range combo options have a lot greater possibility of failure due to the percentages of the opponents being off from what you need. This is a good place to stop your chain dance if you're not in the right situation for some of the stronger payoffs, and for what its worth you can land this out of a sourspot first hit if the opponent reads you wrong. Once the third hit starts, Kyoko's expression will change from a concentrated one to a visible grin, pleased to have gotten to such an advantage. Her expression will sour greatly if she misses any of these hits however, and she'll audibly grunt in frustration. The third forward hit is where this move gets a little crazier, as Kyoko's spear extends outward, aimed directly at an opponent struck by the previous hit. If the opponent is "pinned" at close range by the downward version, it will just extend to the floor through the opponent for this hitbox. If an opponent was not struck by the previous hit it will just extend forward, as you'd probably expect. It can extend out up to 1.3 battlefield platforms, with the tip of the spear flaring up with red energy around it after its traveled a platform. This deals 5%-12% and knockback that KOs at 250%-160%, growing more powerful the further away from you the opponent was knocked. This is a good combo starter out of the downward variation if you want a foe a bit further forward rather than right at the tipper range of Side Special for subsequent hits, as the end lag of this hit is low if canceled out of at close range. At longer range, the ending lag gets worse and worse, and while its usually a true combo out of the up or forward hits due to its homing properties and fairly fast start lag, the gravity or percentage of the opponent will sometimes mess up the ability to true combo this, and if you whiff its pretty bad. Primarily at high percentages you'll want to be careful of using this as that's when the combos are more liable to not work. That said, given the foe will already be spaced away even before this hit this can get you a massive amount of distance from them to allow you to reset stage positioning. Sometimes in the air, this can also work as a pretty good gimp, as the way the knockback of the 2nd and 3rd hits will stack up in the air becomes a lot scarier closer to a blast zone, and you have to worry a bit less about needing the opponent at a percent where the true combo is less likely. Its a solid default third hit that always combos adequately out of the any of the first 3 hits due to its homing properties, and is situationally very powerful. The third upward hit is actually a similar to the second upward hit, with Kyoko swinging her spear in an upward arc from front to back a second time most of the time. As a small caveat, she'll swing from back to front if she uses this out of the second upward hit instead for the purpose of making the animation a little neater due to where her spear ends after the second hit. The thing that makes this a bit more interesting is Kyoko will hop backwards a bit during this move, and also extend the spear out so that at the apex of the swing the spear reaches up 1.25 Ganondorf heights above her head. This spaces Kyoko back a bit for the rest of the dancing blade combo or any follow ups she commits too after this move. The spear deals 5% and knockback that pops opponents up lightly on the handle, or 8% at the tip with knockback that scales pretty hard, killing at 130% but being not knocking the foe much further at low percents. The tipper hit will combo out of the tipper hit of the second upwards hit, while the second forward hit will just whiff and the second downward hit will hit with the sourspot. This is the least conditional way to kill foes out of your Side Special, only requiring you hit with the spear tip on the first hit, but it doesn't kill especially early and it still requires you to sweetspot it. That said, if you go down second up third, it sets up pretty nicely if you just want to try and string into your aerials out of this. Lastly, if there's a wall in front of you, the forward second hit actually will set up for this, sounds pretty situational and like not the best use of a wall, but its worth keeping in mind for the fourth upward hit. The third downward hit has Kyoko stab forward with her spear three times rapidly along the ground, each time increasing the length of the spear. This deals 2 hits of 1.5% at the handle and 2% at the tip, followed by a third of 3% at the handle and 6% at the tip. The first two hits don't have their knockback depend that much on the tip vs handle hitboxes, each having enough knockback to push the opponent forward about 0.45 Battlefield platforms, which is a tiny bit more than the spear extends each time (0.4 battlefield platforms). The tip of the spear's size is exaggerated a bit more with each successive stab, so you won't accidentally knock the foe out of your range with this with the tipper hitbox, but it gives you a small portion of the handle hitbox that will actually chain successfully into the next tipper hitboxes of the second/third hits. The handle third hit deals low mostly horizontal knockback that doesn't amount to much other than spacing the foe a bit further away from Kyoko, but the tipper hit actually deals greatly heightened hitstun. This unfortunately does not set up into your fourth hits especially well due to their weird hitboxes, but what it can let you do is set up your Up Special or Neutral Special. Its not a true combo, but the window the foe has to get out of the way is extremely small, giving Kyoko the chance to mix it up with a few of her other options to basically always get an advantage out of this, and Up Special combined with this move allows you to switch around positions on the stage exceptionally well provided you got the tipper on the first strike to go into the down hit and then this. Neutral Special, instead, provides pressure even if the foe is missed by the spear itself and kills pretty early provided its charged, and you can fake out the foe's dodges by further charging it. The forward hit can sometimes chain into it via a wall too, at a slightly closer range than the Up Tilt's sweetspot, so it gives a different option for if you used the forward second hit into a wall. As a final note this shield pokes foes really easily, always doing so by the third hit and easily doing so on the first or second hit if the foe has taken even chip shield damage, so this is a very useful move to go into against a blocking foe. For the fourth and final hit, Kyoko's spear starts breaks into chain link segments out of the third hit as she lashes it forward in a slight arc in front of her, the ground shaking slightly from the impact if it hits the ground as this final hit covers a huge range of 1.65 battlefield platforms. This is unfortunately too laggy to true combo out of anything, barring the third down hit's sweetspot, which will always hit with the sourspot of this hitbox. That said, this is the one sourspot in this move with actual power behind it, dealing 6% and diagonal knockback that KOs at 175% which isn't terribly impressive but if you consider the move's range and ability to be used in the air its an acceptable result. If you hit with the sweetspot spearhead at the end of the move, you'll instead get 11% and a hitbox that kills at 95%, but that's not happening unless you have a very well positioned wall. That said, the spearhead is at least big enough to at least give you a bit of wiggle room on the exact positioning, exaggerated slightly on this version of the move. At specific percentages and ranges, you can actually land this move out of the third forward hit, which due to its variable power you won't get entirely consistent results for but chaining from second forward to third forward to fourth forward will specifically give the foe a very small window to dodge the fourth hit at 85%-110%, which makes this something the foe very much has to fear in those ranges. While they can dodge it, predicting their attempt too can allow Kyoko to go for something else. As an aside, while shielding this move is a good option to avoid it if you still end up on the ground after the first 3 hits, but if they're hit by the sweetspot that actually deals an absurd amount of shield damage and quite a bit of shield stun, almost enough to break it in one hit, so be careful reacting like that. The fourth hit's upward variant instead has the spear break into segments and then Kyoko has it lash upwards at a 20 degree diagonal forward away from directly above her, dealing 5% on the body of the spear and weakly bumping the foe upward again. This is a fair bit faster than the forward fourth hit, actually true comboing out of the upward third hit, except for the part that due to only covering a specific angle that will stop working after about 50%. The good news is the sweetspot here is the strongest KO move Kyoko has here, dealing 14% and knockkback that KOs at 60%. This is insanely good, but you're only going to pull it off if you specifically second hit a foe into a wall with the forward version, third hit the foe upward at maximum range, and then they have to be between 60% and 85%. This is a really specific hit to ever land, but on the other hand you're killing the opponent in the 45%-70% range where you're factoring in the damage before this move out of a frame 10 move, and Kyoko's gameplan is all about positioning yourself well in relation to the opponent and your wall. So while situational, this is your big reward, and the nice thing is as mentioned there are a lot of other semi-specific ranges where certain combinations of Side Special hits will leave a pretty solid end result with a wall, so if you don't get the exact range for this right you still have plenty of other potential success cases. The final version of the fourth hit has Kyoko's chain spear get tossed forward in a similar animation to the forward hit at first, before the tip curls backwards and then the chain segments further extend out into a vortex of whirling chain links, turning into a red blur at the end of the spear that covers an area 0.5 battlefield platforms wide, starting a distance 1.3 battlefield platforms from Kyoko. This has much better coverage than the forward version but suffers from similar, albeit not identical lag, slightly faster to allow it to do wall combos slightly easier. The chain slamming down before the tornado of spear parts deals 4% and considerably weaker diagonal knockback than the forward variant, but the whirlwind deals rapid hits of 1% that add up to 12% and a final hit that deals knockback TOWARD Kyoko that KOs at 170%. Like the forward variant, its not a true combo out of anything Side Special does, but what it does do is catch out non-perfectly timed dodges with its somewhat longer duration and as such encourage the foe to shield, while also having slightly different timing than the forward variation to further make avoiding one move or the other a pain. This gives Kyoko a pretty powerful 50/50 tool, one she can potentially mix up her other long range options to remind foes how terrifying she is at this range. The most exciting thing about this move is the result. Knocking the foe back toward you opens all kinds of possibilities, like getting a foe stuck in a wall behind you to pull off a flashy and exotic finisher. Or you bring them back in and because they failed to avoid this move, you get to go for yet another Side Special chain, or just a combo of standards and aerials. Even your smashes and Neutral Special, or slightly charged Neutral Special, can be landed out of this sometimes. This is an exceptional reward if you aren't at the KO range you're looking for, but you do to have to time it right and not just get shielded, as this move does pretty poorly on shields. At least you're far away when it ends. Also if you whiff this one, the extra duration means the potential punishment you could eat will be a lot worse. Standards Jab - Red Combo Kyoko starts off her jab combo with a low kick with her left leg, hitting foes surprisingly close to the ground and dealing 2%. It comes out quite fast, on Frame 3, but has the downside of having shorter range than her spear moves. It is nice that it hits low though, partially because it can shield poke if the foe's shield has taken a decent amount of chip damage and partially because Kyoko's actually a bit lacking for close range low hitting options, so this at least helps. While this has enough end lag if you cancel out of it you'll just be in frame neutral, obviously what you'll want to do is instead go into the second hit. Kyoko's second hit has her rapidly stab up and down, in a manner visually similar to Captain Falcon's Jab albeit carrying a spear. She only does it for a short burst though, dealing 8 hits of 0.5% that add up to 4%, pushing the foe back slightly while she does so. Like the first hit, if you cancel out of this here you won't be at enough of a frame advantage to true combo into anything, but you will be at a slight one, and the foe will be at tipper range of your spear in front of you, so you'll definently be at an advantage. The final hit has Kyoko slide slightly forward and stab as she goes, the spear pointed slightly upward as she does so. This does 5% on the body and 6% at the tip of the spear, and sends the foe diagonally mostly forward with knockback that kills at 170%. You won't really get combos off this most of the time, like the other Jab hits, but it will space the foe decently far away and given how fast the first hit of Jab comes out, this is not a bad end result, and if landing actual kill moves has been going poorly enough this one can kill at the ledge in an emergency. One thing that's pretty nice here is this is one of the best ways to use a wall, because the knockback is high enough the foe will get stuck in it for quite a bit, actually allowing you to combo extend into quite a few things out of a move that comes out incredibly fast, at higher percents even allowing for you to get a kill confirm. So this is one of the best ways to capitalize on a wall's existence in your set, even if it doesn't link into your other moves terribly well otherwise. Forward Tilt - Stab/Reel Kyoko stabs forward in front of her with her spear in a very basic melee move, having good reach for a melee move and also coming out quite fast. She leans forward just a bit in this move to give it a bit more reach, but this is at the cost of ending lag that makes it worse for combos than you'd hope. The hilt of the spear deals 5% and weak horizontal knockback that will never kill, but starts at a slightly more respectable base value than you'd expect to make it not horrible for putting the foe at spear point range. The spear point deals 9% and better knockback, which will space the opponent to about a battlefield platform-1.5 battlefield platforms in the 10%-70% range before scaling to the point its not as good at putting the foe in Kyoko's long range pressure zone. It overall serves the purpose of being a great spacer, but unfortunately doesn't really set up a lot of combos. It at least sets up nicely for Nair/Jab with the sourspot.

While this is good as your basic spacer, there's a trick to it that gives it just a bit more versatility than just that. This move has a follow up where Kyoko actually has the spear break into segments and launch forward from where the move ends, but the spear point seems to just go around foes as it travels through the background instead. No, we're not about to pull some MYM11-12 level garbage here though, this is actually just so the spear can instead go around opponents and, if they're in range of the hitbox, wrap around their body and reel them toward Kyoko. This deals another 5% and pulls the opponent about 0.35 battlefield platforms of width toward Kyoko, and leaves her at a slight frame advantage. This looks like a grab but it won't go through shields, even if the way the foe is pulled toward Kyoko doesn't quite look like normal knockback with the chain wrapped around their body. It comes out fairly quickly after the base attack, and actually leaves Kyoko with a bit less end lag than the other version as the spear is already retracting back to its default state at the end of the move and Kyoko has reset her footing. This allows this move to serve double duty as a spacer. The second hit comes out fast enough that while its a little on the predictable side, you can hit foes with it even if you didn't hit the first hit, and the first hit will combo into it until around 40% at the tip and at any range on the hilt. Of course, comboing into this on the hilt will frequently end up with the foe right back in your face, which you don't really want, but Kyoko is at least at a slight frame advantage. More importantly, this move allows you to just mess with the foe's spacing in a bit smaller increments, which if you're aiming for specific positioning in regards to a wall is incredibly useful. Its also not a bad way to transfer long range pressure into some closer range brawling, being faster and more convenient for this purpose than the fourth down hit of the Side Special. Its a lot less powerful, though, and because you do have to go through the first hit to get to this move the lag will add up to the point foes can definently get out of the way of this if you're trying to reel them in from afar. While the end result is nothing to write home about, this does catch out dodges sometimes at close range, which is a handy thing to have access to. Up Tilt - Overhead Strike Kyoko swings the spear up over her head, stopping a bit behind her. She then pulls her spear back to her side for the ending lag in a very quick motion, actually making this move quite fast on both ends. The tip of the spear deals 9% and weak upward knockback that eventually scales to kill at 235%, while the handle deals 6% and diagonal upward knockback that actually starts a bit higher than the upward hit but scales worse to not kill at any remotely relevant percent. This move comes out fast and ends fast, and serves as one of Kyoko's best grounded close range options for the most part. However, one thing worth looking out for is that its backwards coverage is pretty lackluster, so while it can hit a foe from behind Kyoko they can weave around it pretty easily. This means Kyoko needs to be careful of cross-ups, though you can still certainly land this move if the foe is behind you if you space yourself at the right angle from them, and for what its worth your Nair is a very good coverage tool. The combo applications of this move depend on where you hit with it. The sourspot basically only combos into Nair with any consistency, but it will do so up until around 85% on middleweights, so if nothing else it has a pretty safe follow up. The upwards hitbox is much better, comboing into itself or Side Special at very low percents, and can also link into Up Smash at slightly higher percents and Uair/Nair for a bit longer than that. The problem is this move will lose its combo utility around 50% with the sweetspot, rather just spacing the foe upward, but it still serves its purpose as a juggler. Either hit will at least do decent work as a combo starter though, and it serves as a good tool to throw out in neutral or even when you're on the back foot if the foe mistimes something due to its general speed and safety. Down Tilt - Low Lash Kyoko's spear quickly separates into segments as she sweeps it low along the ground in front of her. This is an animation a bit similar to Ike's Down Tilt, but given much greater reach by the segmented spear. This is pretty quick to come out and has pretty enormous range for its speed, reaching nearly a full battlefield platform forward. The trade off for this is that the end lag isn't great, and the power is generally pretty weak. If you hit with the chain segments, all you're doing is popping the foe up for 5% and weak upward knockback that is barely above a flinch until about 40%. This makes this move actually pretty garbage at most ranges at low percentages, where the foe will actually be at a minor frame advantage on hit. Once the knockback has scaled a bit this stops being as much of a problem, as it will put Kyoko into a frame neutral or advantageous position that sort of sets up aerial combos at lower percents than you'd expect, though the true combos you get out of this move are basically non-existent barring some corner cases. Its not exciting to hit with this sourspot, but at percentages in the 70%+ range it leads into your aerial game pretty well if the opponent doesn't pull off some good predictions. Up very close to Kyoko, there's actually a slightly better hitbox that deals 8% and diagonal knockback that while not comboing into anything or KOing at any relevant time, is safe on hit at all percentages. The fact that it will never combo means the short range in front of Kyoko where this hitbox hits is actually a bit worse than the one slightly further out. That said, you'll appreciate having the safety when the foe is at low percents that you otherwise would not have, even if the safe range has about the same reach as Mario's FTilt. The spear tip itself is actually a pretty decent hitbox, however, dealing 11% and knocking opponents toward Kyoko with low to the ground knockback that KOs at 255%. This is not nearly as powerful of a "knock the foe to you" option as the Side Special's fourth downward hit, partially because of the weaker knockback and partially because of the somewhat annoying ending lag that makes going into laggier options less practical. Still, it can convert into Forward Tilt/Up Tilt easily, as well as your Nair/Side Special/Neutral Special sometimes and at very specific percentages your Up Smash. The slightly shorter range of the tip compared to Kyoko's other long ranged pressure tools is kind of unfortunate, but what this can do is catch out foes rolling closer from Kyoko's long ranged pressure, and provides a fast option to overload the foe's dodges alongside a Neutral Special shockwave for the longer ranged NSpecial. It also gives another place in Kyoko's range that the foe will need to be careful about. This is a pretty good move to poke a foe with from behind a wall, one of Kyoko's best options in that regard. The tips hitbox can knock a foe into a wall, and while the knockback is not good enough for it to lead to a great use of the wall at lower percents it does slightly expand your combo options, and can lead into a kill confirm pretty easily at around 80%-100% depending on the foe's position relative to the wall. Also if you hit with the sourspot, its a bit better in this situation, as the foe's offensive options are messed up by the wall taking one or two of their hits and as such leaves their tools to punish Kyoko or retake control in the air a fair bit more limited. This isn't as powerful as some things you can do with the wall, but it shores up a lot of this move's weaknesses. As a final note, this moves usefulness against shields varies pretty wildly. If the foe has a full health shield, you're going into a worryingly large frame disadvantage if you use this on one, but if they've taken even chip damage they will get shield poked. This means this move's viability to just throw out depends on if the foe has already taken shield damage, something to keep in mind as Kyoko's fast options go. Dash Attack - Serpentine Spear Kyoko lunges up into the air, holding her spear out below her as she travels in an arc that goes approximately 1.25 battlefield platforms. For the first half of the arc, the spear breaks into its segmented form as the spearhead increases in size, as Kyoko grounds herself on the head of it. The spear then smashes back down in the back half of the arc with Kyoko standing on it, a flare of red energy surrounding her as it impacts the ground. Kyoko goes up about a Ganondorf height into the air at the move's peak, and the spearhead is a bit bigger than Wario when it smashes into the ground. This is one the whole a pretty laggy dash attack, taking a bit for Kyoko to complete her arc through the air and having terrible end lag as she has to step off the spear and revert it to its normal size and shape. While Kyoko's going upwards with the spear underneath her, Kyoko's body will lightly knock the opponent forward for 4% and knockback that scales very poorly. The spear is a bit better, dealing 7% and dealing upwards diagonal knockback that kills at 250%. These are not hitboxes you want to hit with, because Kyoko will not be canceled out of her dash attack when she hits with them, which means Kyoko will have to go through all the awful ending lag while the foe recovers from their knockback. If you hit with the spear, at least, you're likely to get punished a lot less badly than if you whiffed entirely, and at high percents you might just be completely fine as it'll start sending the foe a good distance away. That said, if Kyoko's body collides with the foe or this move gets outright dodged, you're definently going to take a big hit. Once Kyoko is actually riding atop the spear, this move gets a lot better, as the power is buffed to dealing 13% and mostly horizontal knockback that KOs at 145%. This knockback has a slightly downward angle to it, which makes it a lot more impressive near a ledge. This is the start of the portion of the move you want to hit with, and its a perfectly acceptable consolation prize if you don't hit with the impact point. Of note, if you have a foe's back to a wall, this gets a lot scarier, as if you have the ranges right you can have both this hit and the final, more powerful hit collide to pile on an additional 13% and get the most powerful hitbox of this move out of the flight path, which as we're going to get to is a pretty impressive reward. You still have to be very careful about throwing this move out, and it'll be a bit predictable that you want too if the wall is there at a foe's back, but the threat being there is absolutely noteworthy. When Kyoko finally lands on the ground, the sides of the spearhead deal 16% and mostly vertical knockback that KOs at 120%. This is pretty good, but what you really want to hit with is the middle of the spearhead, which will deal a terrifying 23% with purely vertical knockback that kills at 60%, obscenely powerful for a dash attack. That said, this only works at near the exact limits of this move's range, so compared to other slow power dash attacks this one is even harder to pull off. With all that said, Kyoko has a number of ways to pressure foes at long range, with the best one to lead into this move being Neutral Special. Putting the foe off balance with shockwaves on the ground makes avoiding this attack a fair bit harder, and the foe really has to be smart to avoid it, because this move has some notable anti-defense properties. It absolutely obliterates shields on the sweetspot, breaking them outright if they've taken more than a sliver of damage, and the flame around the hitbox indicates it lingering for a few frames to make dodging it surprisingly difficult, especially if the foe's dodges are decayed from other long ranged pressure. If Kyoko goes off stage with this move, the result is risky yet powerful. Kyoko will basically activate the final hitbox at the same height she'd collide with the ground, except the sweetspot instead becomes a spiking hitbox comparable to Ganondorf's Dair, only actually a little bit stronger. This is obviously absurd, but landing this hitbox is vastly much predictable than said Dair, and it sends Kyoko falling down 2 Ganondorf heights before she exits her fall, reverting her spear back to normal as she gets off it. This can frequently lead into a gimp in the foe's favor if they get out of the way of this attack, but it is worth mentioning the area covered by it is very big and gives Kyoko's already strong ability to ledge guard an even scarier tool than usual. One nice thing about this move is that in the second half of it with Kyoko riding on her spear, the spearhead is capable of just blocking and powering through incoming attacks. This gives Kyoko the ability to power through projectiles and not eat a fast move while trying to land this attack, meaning once she's reached the halfway point of her travel path, the best way to punish her is just to not get hit, as knocking her out of this move requires you to specifically attack around the spearhead. While the ability to pseudo counter with this by powering through a hitbox will not come up that often, sometimes you will cut through an opponent's aerial attack and send them flying backwards, often putting them at a good offstage angle or sometimes even smacking them into the wall for the ideal hitbox. This adds a secondary purpose to this move beyond just going in off long range pressure in the hopes of pulling off a kill on a good read. All in all this is a very powerful move, but it is a bit miserable at being a dash attack against close ranged opponents, so be aware of that. Smashes Forward Smash - Red Vortex Spear

Breaking her spear into segments, Kyoko spins it around herself in a sizeable vortex, covering both sides of her about a Wario width away from Kyoko on each side. It takes a bit for the spear to form into a large enough amount of segments to form the vortex, with this hitbox coming out on Frame 14 and lasting until Frame 28, at which point Kyoko flings the spearhead forward out of the vortex as the actual "forward smash" part of this attack. There is some pretty high end lag as Kyoko needs to return her spear to its default state, and between that and the duration/start lag this move is on the whole quite punishable. It makes up for this by the huge range on the forward hit, going forth 1.3 battlefield platforms, which is the kind of reach that would make the Belmonts envious. Given the move has an FAF of 85 frames though, it better be making up for it in some other departments, and I assure you this move definitely does. The first thing worth mentioning is the knockback dealt by the vortex, which universally sends opponents forward a set distance forward while dealing 9%-12%. This even includes if you catch foes with the back of this hitbox, offering some rare utility for a Forward Smash in that it actually catches out rolling foes really nicely. The set distance forward is a little over a battlefield platform width, which is the range at which Kyoko's long range moves come into play nicely, and it also means the first hit will line up with the second one rather nicely! The second hit deals 17%-24% while the spear is flying out and 20%-28% at the tip of the range, killing at 100%-65% for most of the hitbox while the tip of the range kills at 80%-45%. The first hit will usually not combo into the sweetspot unless the foe is right at the tip of the range, on top of another factor. You see, the foe will be out of hitstun if this move hits when it first comes out on Frame 14 by the time the spear comes rocketing after them, giving the foe a chance to shield or dodge. The move obviously takes a pretty hefty chunk out of the opponent's shield, and despite the move's bad ending lag a dodge will put the opponent in a position where Kyoko is actually at a bit of an advantage due to the combination of her range and the foe being in their dodge while she's going through the end lag. This leaves the foe with a window to react and only take the weaker hit if they get hit by it, but its not a bad place for Kyoko to be considering she does quite like being able to keep up long range pressure like this. You basically are transitioning from short range combat to long range combat in a single move here. There's a bit of a trick here too, if you want to link the first hit into the second one a bit more easily. Kyoko can actually start charging the FSmash again by holding the input before she would throw the spear out forward, pausing her spin as she does so. The power of the second hit is actually affected by the charge of the first hit, so if its fully charged this is only useful for delaying the attack, but you can actually use this to add a bit more charge to the move mid attack in some situations, which lets it serve as an even scarier KO move. More importantly, given the foe is in a very tight situation in terms of dodging this attack, charging the second hit can screw with the opponent's timing, making linking the first and second hits a bit easier. This move is at its best, however, when its used to punish rolls or approaches. You see, you aren't always going to hit the foe on Frame 14, if they only come into contact with the hitbox at say, Frame 19 or so, they will straight up get comboed into the second hit without question. If the foe is rolling toward Kyoko to get through her ranged pressure or to get behind her, you can turn their invulnerability frames against them by hitting them with this powerful two part combo that they suddenly have no ability to avoid, which is just an exceptionally powerful punish. Its also a nice way to switch from close range to ranged pressure, not as versatile as Side Special in that regard but serving as a decently powerful alternative that discourages rolls nicely, and sometimes works better as a KO move. As a final note, Kyoko is usually at her best trying to hit a foe at melee range or at a specific, a bit over a battlefield platform distance in front of her. While its too slow to be great at it, this is at least capable of covering the space that is normally a pseudo "blind spot" for Kyoko by hitting effectively at basically all ranges in one move. Up Smash - Spear Vault In a rather swift motion, Kyoko stabs up directly above her head with her spear, in a move that animates a bit similarly to Marth's Up Smash, but Kyoko spends a bit less time pulling her spear back to stab it upwards, giving the move a bit less force behind it but also a faster startup time. Coming out at frame 9, this stab deals 9%-13% on the hilt of the spear and upwards knockback that only KOs at around 220%-160%, and 15%-21% at the tip with upward knockback that KOs at 130%-85%. Given how fast it comes out, this can be a nice way to end a stock out of nowhere at higher percents with the tip hit, but unfortunately the handle sourspot only has the kind of power you'd expect of a tilt.

This move still has reasonably long ending lag and poor coverage, only hitting straight above Kyoko and only having an especially good hitbox at a fairly specific range above her, so its fast KO move properties are hindered by a those downsides. With that said, its a better move than you might at first think, because it has a fairly useful follow up. If you press the input a second time, Kyoko will jump up and bring her spear from above her into the ground, in a hitbox that deals 8%-12% and weak diagonal knockback that only kills at 275%-200% on the hilt and 11%-15% and diagonal knockback that kills at 200%-130% at the tip. This leaves Kyoko with her spear planted in the ground with her standing atop it, after which she will vault off it in one of three directions, depending on how this move was angled. This follow up combos out of the hilt hitbox at very low percentages and comes out reasonably fast, mitigating the move's ending lag problem to a degree, but because of the inherent mobility associated with the follow up that we're about to get to, its a slightly awkward option to just throw out every time you use Up Smash. If you angle up, Kyoko will just leap off a Ganondorf height into the air from her point with her spear planted below her on the ground, effectively ending a Ganondorf height above the tip of where the first Up Smash hitbox would end. This can allow you to pursue foes high up from the sweetspot hit to make it a bit more useful at lower percents, and given Kyoko keeps her other jumps after doing this you can actually get a metric ton of vertical height with this move, allowing for a few decent setups involing Nair and Up Special that can lead into a kill with Uair at surprisingly early percentages. While its not the most used direction in this regard, Kyoko can also situationally take advantage of having a lot of distance above the opponent, walling them against the ground with Nair or taking advantage of using Dair/Up Special from above. The other situational options out of this are if you tilt forward and backward as well as upward, which will cause Kyoko to vault forward at an accelerated speed well beyond her normal max air speed in those directions(about 1.35x faster but rapidly decreasing to her usual maximum). Vaulting backwards sets up Fair out of this and vaulting forward sets up Bair, and it can improve the viability of Nair as a combo move(we'll get to Nair soon I promise, its pretty important) just by virtue of Kyoko continuing to move in that direction at a high speed. In general this lets you weave around platforms and your wall immediately after throwing out two fast hitboxes, and combined with the fact that Kyoko wants a pretty specific kind of spacing the burst mobility this provides can really help with optimizing your positioning in regards to the opponent. With all that said, the fact that Kyoko will get launched off in one of these directions is a bit awkward if you don't want to respace yourself, in which case its better to just take the end lag, but that may not be a very safe option if the first hit whiffed. Down Smash - Blade and Chain Breaking her spear into segments, Kyoko begins spinning it around herself like a ball and chain, extending out a massive 1.1 battlefield platforms on each side of her. She will spin the chain around her three times before finally slamming it down in front of her, the spearhead enlarging a bit as she does so. The spearhead is slammed down 0.8 battlefield platforms ahead of Kyoko. This move has notable but not huge starting lag, moderate duration, and massive ending lag, so if you're throwing this move out it is very, very important to know what you're getting yourself into. Considering this is a larger area of coverage than a Belmont FSmash on both sides of you, the commitment is absolutely warranted. The three spins of the spear deal 4%-6% at the tip and 2%-3% at the chain, with the tip of the spear dealing knockback that sends the foe slightly inward, to exactly the point on the ground the spear would impact with set knockback. The chain will deal a flinching hit that will just lock the opponent in place for subsequent chain hits. This means if you hit the foe with either the edge of the forward range or at exactly the point the spear would slam down, you will definently land the final spear slam hitbox. The spear slam deal 16%-22% and diagonal mostly upward knockback that KOs at 90%-55%, serving as an excellent finisher. Because this move does not come out especially slowly with the worst part of the lag being the ending of the move, this makes it a reasonable long range finisher if you hit with the tip. What makes this move a bit more than just a long range finisher, something the FSmash generally does better, is two things. One, it comes out a lot faster than the more powerful hit of Forward Smash, so if you're not landing the initial sourspot of that move this is a fair bit easier to land, especially since the lag is now a lot closer to moves like Up Special or Neutral Special, Kyoko's other long range pressure tools. Its easier to land off a read, especially because this move's duration is such that spot dodging it is incredibly hard, and it also covers two separate, so it can actually be kind of annoying to roll around properly as well. Shielding it is probably the best option, but shielding is poor if Kyoko attempts to rush in with the dash attack, and this will deal quite a bit of shield damage thanks to all of the hits linking into each other on shield, at least making it easier to poke through with Down Tilt thanks to the heavy shield damage they took. This move also serves a purpose of covering two points at once, the edge of the swing which knocks them in wards and the slightly closer point where the spear actually slams down. If you don't hit with either of those hitboxes but still land it far enough away, the massive ending lag becomes way harder for the foe to capitalize on other than say, throwing out a projectile which is usually not nearly as scary as their melee options. If you land it close... you should've probably used a different move. A lot of Kyoko's hitboxes are pretty lackluster outside their optimum range, so covering two optimum points at once while making spot dodging and rolling difficult is a pretty valuable threat to have in your spacing game. Though, considering this swings behind you, this move actually has four points of coverage rather than two. Now, normally the back spear tip hit would not combo the foe into the spear slam, as the slam will take place in front of you and it will just send the foe in as much as the forward hit would, but behind you instead of in front. That said, if you press any input during the swinging process, you can have the spear slam occur behind Kyoko instead of in front of her at the same distance of 0.8 battlefield platforms behind her. This gives Kyoko a good way to deal with foes a large distance behind her, serving a secondary role to Bair in that regard working a fair bit better against dodges than said move. Charging this attack actually has a secondary effect, as it boosts the set knockback of the inward hit with the spear tip, and simultaneously causes the slam down to occur closer to Kyoko. Fully charged, she will slam down the spear within 0.2 battlefield platforms of herself, and this means charging the move allows you to tweak where the inner hit would land to further this move's excellent coverage. Obviously charging this already somewhat laggy to start move is a bit predictable, and you don't want to be predictable with a move that you are quite liable to straight up die if you whiff, but it makes the move just that little bit more versatile in terms of covering space and punishing the foe's mistakes. Aerials Neutral Aerial - Spear Spin Kyoko just spins her spear around herself with one hand, covering a complete 360 degree circle around her. This is one of Kyoko's fastest options, and has coverage over her entire body, even having pretty low ending lag, in exchange for not reaching out as far as even some of her more melee ranged weapon attacks usually do. The tip of the spear deals 9% and radial knockback that does slightly vary on where the spear hits the foe, dealing pretty weak knockback while the knockback is a majority upwards or downwards but improving to solid spacing knockback if it hits the foe mostly backward or forward. The hilt deals 6% and the knockback is always forward regardless of what part of the spin you hit with rather than radial, and a bit weaker than the tipped version. This sourspot is actually not terribly easy to hit with, given the spear spin is centered at a point inside Kyoko's hurtbox and the spear is not at all extended out. The spacing oriented knockback if you hit with the front or back of this hitbox makes it less than exceptional at comboing if you hit from those directions, which is kind of unfortunate. It'd be a great combo starter and probably even chain into itself with lower knockback, but as it stands this is more useful for getting the foe to Kyoko's optimal range. Mind you, that's still a useful property, and because of its fast speed and coverage its actually pretty good at reversing a disadvantage state to suddenly forcing the foe into playing the spacing game with Kyoko again, or converting on any combo opportunity to end with the foe at long range. Also while it won't work at all percentages, there is a percentage range between 30%-60% on midweights where this combos into Fair's sweetspot, which as far as your long range game goes is pretty important. The upwards and downwards part of the hitbox are way better for combos, as their knockback keeps the foe close enough that you can potentially chain this together multiple times for juggles, or easily go into Uair if the foe's above you. The downward version will link quite well above the stage into your ground game, and depending on Kyoko's prediction of the foes movement can sometimes link into itself a couple times to push foes back toward the ground or the bottom blast zone. The upward hitbox actually links into Side Special pretty nicely if the foe is hit at between a 30-60 degree diagonal, which given Side Special's versatility is potentially quite powerful. One thing worth mentioning is that the better comboing options you have to lead into this, Up Tilt, will not lead into the upward version of the hitbox, so you'll need to sweetspot it at a lower percentage if you actually want to go for the longer combo strings the upward version provides. The sourspot is generally not great to hit with, if you hit the foe with the sourspot in front of, above, or below Kyoko, the foe will just not be put close enough to combo except at super low percents and not into your long ranged combat zone until fairly high percents. That said, below 20% you can do some more forward oriented combos with this, and that percent is extended quite a bit if you hit with the back hitbox, which due to its position relative to Kyoko makes the forward angled knockback better for combos. This gives an alternate part of the hitbox to link into Side Special with, giving the move additional chances to lead into one of Kyoko's more powerful tools. As a final note, becuase of the wide variety of angles and knockback distances this move provides, this is one of your best tools for setting up exact positioning for an opponent if you're aiming to do something fancy with a wall requiring exact spacing. The position dependant amount of knockback means Kyoko can get the foe to pretty exact positioning if she predicts the foe's position with this attack, and given its speed that's easier to do when it sounds. Basically if you want to go for something flashy that requires optimized spacing, this move makes that process a fair bit easier, and combined with all of its other utility this is one of Kyoko's absolute most core moves. Fair- Red Lash Breaking her spear into chain segments and lashing it forward as she does so, Kyoko performs what is easily her fastest long range attack in the set. Going forward a full 1.2 battlefield platforms, this move comes out on Frame 6, and gives Kyoko an actual true combo out of some of her spacers that doesn't require the wall. The chain link segment of the spear only deals 3% and a flinch, while the tip deals 8% and slight forward knockback, which can actually at low percents link into itself. Yes, this is a combo move that's good enough to serve as an extender too, which is an immensely valuable option for Kyoko to have against a foe at long range. The problem is as most of her other long range moves are a bit on the laggy end, there isn't a lot to combo this move into, and it does lose its ability to string into itself as percentages get higher, at that point more just serving as a way to maintain advantage at a range. There's a bit of a catch to this move, and its one you should be aware of while using it. The low ending lag it has that lets it combo into itself is not guarunteed, as it will only have that low ending lag if the speartip actually hits the foe. If it does it will catch on their body and allow Kyoko to quickly reset it to its normal state with a bit of hitlag. If you whiff and hit with the sourspot or don't hit at all, Kyoko will instead swing the spear all the way past her before resetting it back to its normal shape, which has actually fairly punishable ending lag. This means sourspotting this attack will outright put you at a frame disadvantage to the foe, which may not be that bad if the foe is further out from you but means you really, really should use Nair instead at closer range. It also makes this move pretty punishable on a whiff, so while its quite good at catching out opponents with its high speed, you actually do need to be a bit careful about when you throw this move out. One thing that will alievate this problem slightly is that like Down Tilt, there's a close range hitbox that sends the foe with moderate but extremely poor scaling diagonally upward knockback very close to Kyoko, dealing 6%. It doesn't really link into anything of value and doesn't cover anything outside a range much shorter than even her unextended spear has, but it means at the very least if you input Fair on a foe in melee range in front of you, you're not just screwing yourself over. There is a specific percentage range a bit after when this move combos into itself, specifically around 55%-75% on middleweights, where it can actually combo into Neutral Special's long ranged version. This is your one true combo into that move, and while that's below its center stage KO range, that's not when you want to go for this combo. No, if you use that near the edge or off stage, you can either confirm a kill or send the opponent very close to the blast zone, which is pretty important given Kyoko is actually really good at edgeguarding so if she gets the foe far off stage this can just serve as the finisher. While a bit position dependant and only working at specific percentages, this makes being at Kyoko's long range with her Neutral Special charged up that much scarier than it'd already be. While the window is extremely narrow, on some characters there's a gap of about 5% where the Nair will combo into this string, so if you get to that specific percentage a charged NSpecial can cause the foe to start playing incredibly scared, and if you condition them to be terrified of you that can make it easier to get exact spacing for something else. While harder to land than Nair, an Up Special's upward flick can also chain right into this combo with vastly more consistency than Nair, adding some fear factor to that move as well. Back Aerial - Reversal Chain Kyoko's spear separates into chain segments as she swings it behind herself, covering a downright massive arc behind herself starting at about her head's height and going down a considerable distance below her. This comes out with above average lag for an aerial on both ends, but the massive range that exceeds Shulk's Bair makes up for this. The spear tip starts pretty near Kyoko, goes all the way out to max length in a flash before being swung down, basically covering a straight line back from Kyoko and then the edge of the arc. It deals 13% and horizontal knockback that KOs at 135% while initially coming out and then 11% and diagonal slightly upward knockback that kills at 180% while traveling along the arc. The chain deals only 8% and mostly upward knockback that kills at 230%, not really great for combos or kills. The power is decent provided you hit with the spear head in one form or another, but the power behind this move is its downright ridiculous area denial. Having such immense range where all the hitboxes are at least acceptable to hit with makes this really good at zone denial, and it edgeguards really well as long as you hit with the spearhead in some form. Just try not to hit with the chain if you're going for edgeguards, as that will let the foe just recover over you. Its bad punishability on whiff is at least helped out by the huge coverage, as at long range the foe will have trouble actually capitalizing on the big ending lag. Kyoko's recovery is kind of mediocre, but for what its worth having this kind of range does make gimps actually somewhat feasible, albeit predictable due to this move's lag. The other primary use of this move is that it really lets you establish some level of stage control just by the sheer coverage it has coming out, and the power of the stronger spearhead hit. Kyoko can control ledges very well with her massive range, this move included in that package, and a wall gives a secondary thing to zone the opponents to if you want an option other than just zoning them to the edge. Of course, its not exactly a perfect tool for this given its lag, but if you're at a decent range from the foe it allows you to make large scale repositioning decisions in the same way Nair and Forward Tilt can force small ones. This is really the best option you have out of the back hit of Nair, at low percents actually true comboing out of it and past that you can instead use it to zone out the foe or edgeguard them after Nair's back hit. As this is unsurprisingly your only long ranged backwards option, it makes hitting with the sweetspot on backward Nair still solid, even if comboing Nair to this at low percentages is actually not that great a combo since it ends there. Up Aerial - Extended Stab Kyoko stabs upwards with her spear, with the spear extending upwards a bit before she retracts it back. This move deals 7% and weak diagonal knockback at the hilt of the spear, but thankfully, because the spear tip extending upwards makes up a good portion of the hitbox as it extends out to double its base length, a large portion of the hitbox is not this lackluster one. The spear tip deals 10% and upward knockback that kills at 175% for most of the hitbox, and 12% and knockback that kills at 160% at the end of its extension. The spear takes about 8 frames to extend out all the way, meaning the hitbox is active for quite a bit longer than average. The downside is the ending lag, which is pretty bad and means while you can certainly combo into this move because of its pretty good start lag, the duration and ending lag make it quite punishable if you whiff it, and it is definitely going to be the end of whatever combo you went for. This is obviously a pretty good thing to combo Nair's upwards hitbox into, which is one of the easier ways to land this move. If you want a kill confirm off Nair late off a high platform, this works fine, especially considering because of the way the hitbox works it true combos out of Nair a fair bit longer than you might at first thing it would. If "a high platform" is not an option, or you want to go for a somewhat earlier kill off one of the lower platforms, launching the foe with Up Smash and then pursuing them into the air with the follow up is a good way to get the Nair/Uair kill confirm a bit earlier. Its hardly a true combo out of the upward launch Up Smash, but the timing window the foe has to avoid it is pretty small so you'll at least pull this off reasonably often, and you can mix up by just going straight into Uair. At high percents, this still works pretty well as a follow up out of the Up Smash lunge, as the foe taking greater knockback means they'll be in hitstun just a bit longer and the massive range of this move makes it continue to be close to a combo. If you predict the foe is going to properly dodge it, you can instead go for an Up Special, which also links well into subsequent Uairs by pulling Kyoko to the foe and then booting them even higher into the air, or possibly just flicking them up off the end of the spear to go for a second attempt at a successful Uair read. This is helped by the fact that the move is a bit hard to air dodge due to its longer duration, though the foe can potentially weave around it with a directional air dodge and if the foe is hit by the spear shaft after its extended upward, they only take the weaker hitbox so you probably won't get KOs off this. At least it means you won't be punished, and directional air dodges leave the foe with worse lag than a regular one, so forcing one of those out isn't exactly bad. Down Aerial - Crash Landing

Pointing her spear downwards and slightly forward, Kyoko stabs it downwards as she plunges toward the ground at a slight forward angle. This forward angle is actually a bit dependant on the momentum Kyoko has going into this move, if she's currently moving forward in the air at maximum speed it will actually have her fall forward at a 45 degree angle forward, though she will cancel backwards momentum at the start of this move. Kyoko falls a little bit faster than her fast fall speed during this move, and deals 11% and upwards knockback that KOs at 190% for the first Ganondorf height worth of the fall. After that she actually accelerates for another 2 Ganondorf heights worth of falling, dealing an increased 15% and now downward knockback that spikes very early and KOs off a ground bounce at 125%, You also, obviously, travel considerably faster than Kyoko's fast fall speed during this time. There's a minor forward angle to this downward or upward knockback if Kyoko is moving forward near or at her top air speed before this move starts. Kyoko catches herself after falling the full 3 Ganondorf heights, still with a bit of downward momentum so this can be pretty dangerous to use off stage. Kyoko cancels out of her fall with relatively low lag if she hits an opponent in the early part of the fall, and while the knockback is too high for combos at most percents she can pull it off at pretty low percentages, going into Nair as you might expect, Uair with little to no forward momentum and Side Special if you have some. If you're past the initial weaker part of the fall however, Kyoko will just plow through opponents and not stop, making it a lot less safe in exchange for more power. The slight forward angle of this downward knockback makes it a bit scarier than most spikes, since the foe does not have to be entirely off stage for this to spike them to their death. This is yet another potential reward for good positioning or another threat to foes near or on edges for Kyoko, serving as powerful stock ender in that position. Just keep in mind the landing lag is kinda bad even if Kyoko hasn't started accelerating, this isn't super quick to come out, and the landing lag and ending lag get a lot worse if Kyoko has reached the accelerated part of the fall. While this is a small thing, it is worth keeping in mind this move has super armor against attacks that deal 11% or less while Kyoko is in the accelerated part of the fall. This at least provides a little safety to that part of the move, potentially plowing through weaker aerials or recoveries to land this hitbox. The Up Smash lets Kyoko have additional forward momentum if she uses this move out of the forward variant, which actually triggers some of the accelerated bonuses without requiring Kyoko to descend at all. Instead her forward momentum will increase a bit and she'll gain some downward momentum as she throws out the spear's hitbox. The damage gets buffed up and the knockback becomes angled downwards immediately when used out of the higher speed you can achieve by vaulting off the spear in Up Smash, and you also acquire the super armor. This is obviously a little predictable, given you have to catapult forward off an attack not designed to entirely be used for momentum, but since the knockback is now angled even further than before it can allow for some shockingly early kills, or lead into them via subsequent edgeguarding. Keep in mind that Kyoko suffers the increased ending/landing lag if your using this, so its a rather risky thing to attempt, but it serves as something to mix up whatever other moves you'd use out of your approach as you're flinging towards the foe, like Nair/Side Special, or if the foe is particularly far away, Up Special/Neutral Special/Fair. You can get an even stronger hitbox if you fall a full Ganondorf height out of Dair used out of Up Smash's added aerial momentum, upgrading to dealing 19%, knockback that kills about 30% earlier than the Dair's accelerated variant usually would, and total super armor, as Kyoko accelerates even further forward and faster downward for those 2 Ganondorf heights of falling. There's a couple problems with this, however. One, you don't get enough height out of the forward lunge of Up Smash to actually pull this off above the ground by default. Instead, you need to jump during the Up Smash's momentum and then use this immediately, which is very predictable, or go off the ledge while you're using this, which is pretty suicidal given how far forward and down you'll be off the edge once that happens. Still, this can be a useful last ditch kill attempt off stage, acting as a pseudo suicide KO, or occasionally cheese out a kill shockingly early onstage off a hard read. The nice thing about this version is its significantly less punishable as Kyoko creates a small explosion of debris around her when she lands on the ground, dealing 8% and diagonal knockback that KOs at 170% that lingers for a moment, making it hard to dodge and covering a sizeable portion of her landing lag. The explosion doesn't cover too far away from Kyoko, but it at least means shorter ranged foes might struggle to punish her. Grab Game Grab - Frustrated Grip Kyoko reaches forward in a surprisingly decent, non-tether grab, having slightly above average range and normal lag for a grab. If she manages to get the foe, she'll hold them in a slightly different position depending on the foe's size. If they're her height or smaller, she'll lift them by their collar or neck, depending on if there's a collar available for her to grab. If the foe is bigger than her, she'll just grab onto their arms and restrain them as her chain spear wraps around their upper body. This is just a visual thing that has no impact on gameplay or her throws. Pummel - Aggressive Kicks Kyoko slams her foot into the opponents gut, in a slightly slow pummel that deals 3%, The animation looks slightly different on smaller opponents as she has to bring her leg up pretty high, but it comes out at the same speed regardless. While not an amazing damage racker pummel, it at least does the job. Forward Throw - Coil Slam Kyoko's spear suddenly bursts into chain form and wraps around the foe if they're smaller than her, before she tosses the spear back behind her with the foe trapped in its coils for a moment. Larger foes who are already ensnared in the chain spear's coils will have the coils tighten around them, and it takes Kyoko a bit longer to heft them behind her, so the animation length remains the same. This throw is actually chargeable if you continue to hold down the forward input, which we'll get to the exact applications of in a second. You will want to be a bit careful while charging this move, as if the foe mashes out during the charging they will be left behind you, which while not terrible at frame neutral is not really the place you want to leave the foe. This input can be charged up to 1 second. When the charge is released, Kyoko slams the coiled spear down in front of her, at a distance depending on how long this move was charged. At minimum it will just leave the foe right in front of her while dealing the foe 7%, and at maximum charge it will leave them 1.2 battlefield platforms away and deal 14%. Regardless of charge, the foe will be left in prone at the end of the throw, unless the spear goes off stage. In that case, the part of the chain that is off stage will swing down a maximum distance of about half how far forward the foe was slammed down before releasing the foe with a weak spike and 5% less damage than this would otherwise deal. The chain operates with somewhat realistic physics, so obviously it can't go down further than the length of it that is offstage. The ending lag on this throw is increased a bit if the foe is slammed down off stage, so its not quite as easy to edgeguard the foe as it otherwise would be given your laggy options are a lot less viable. Still, especially given Kyoko's range alots her so much safety and the fact that the foe will be stuck below the ledge, its a pretty advantageous spot for her to be in, especially at higher levels of charge. There's a wide variety of powerful ways to abuse the fact that Kyoko can leave foes in various ranges with this. If you leave the foe up close, it becomes extremely dangerous for the foe to try and roll behind Kyoko, because you can easily catch them out with a Forward Smash and brutally punish them for their decision. Given the slightly unorthodox amount of coverage Kyoko's UTilt has in front of her and Down Tilt being pretty bad up close, its the better option if the foe stays close, while if the foe rolls away Kyoko can start going for her long range options, albeit at close range the foe rolling away is not something she has amazing response tools for. If the foe is relatively close to Kyoko, Forward Smash can still catch them out rolling toward you and Down Tilt or a Short Hop Fair can catch them rolling away. At more middling ranges, you can catch out the foe rolling either direction with either long ranged moves like Down Smash/Neutral Special that are good at catching rolls or at least hitting with a complimentary projectile hitbox, or if they roll into your face you can go into Forward Tilt/Nair/UTilt. At maximum range, you can instead rush into a foe rolling away from you with Dash Attack or an Up Smash momentum boosted aerial, which are the stronger but riskier options, or just go for a long range Neutral Special and hit the opponent with the further shockwave before trying to get them back to your closer range options, while Down Smash and Down Tilt can be useful to catch out the foe if they try to get closer to you. Get up attacks and just standing up out of prone are pretty immensely risky as they offer less intangibility and are easy for Kyoko to punish no matter where she's left the foe, so all in all this gives you a lot of potentially scary advantage states you can pick and choose from based on charge. If Kyoko slams a foe into a wall with this move, they'll become embedded in it for a set 15-30 frames based on charge. This is more likely to true combo into something nasty than the prone state ever was, but its harder to use with lagger options because of the ending lag of the throw being enough to prevent you from going into most of your power moves that aren't an already prepped Neutral Special. Up Throw - Rising Impact Tossing the opponent from their position lightly above her head, Kyoko rapidly stabs upward and slightly forward for 3 hits that add up to 8%, with the final one dealing upward diagonal knockback that is actually decent at base, but only has the absolute tiniest scaling component so it will not kill until about 800%. This is a pretty basic juggle setup, sending the foe a bit too far to combo into closer options and not true comboing into Uair because of the slight forward angle. That said, its close enough to a true combo with short hop Uair links well enough into Up Smash that as long as you handle your subsequent movements and timings well you're probably going to at least get something out of this, but as a pure combo throw, its not nearly the best Kyoko can be doing. There is actually a follow up to this move if you press up or A during or at the end of the throw animation, which will have Kyoko actually lunge up about 1.7 Ganondorf heights into the air, with her spear shapeshifting into a coil form with an enlarged spearhead in a similar manner to Dash Attack as she does so. She then crashes down on top of the foe, dealing 12% and upward knockback that kills at 110%(102% when you factor in the previous hits), which is a fantastic kill confirm to have out of a grab especially considering it happens even earlier on higher platforms. There's just the one problem, its not guarunteed, there is enough room for the opponent to potentially get out of the way of this move. If you do whiff, Kyoko takes some surprisingly terrible ending lag, enough for the foe to easily punish her, which is definently not the end result you want out of this throw especially considering Kyoko's low weight and underwhelming recovery. One thing worth mentioning is that the timing of this follow up actually depends a little bit on at what point the player inputs the follow up input, giving the foe the smallest window to avoid the move if you input it earlier. If you input it later, however, you can catch out a foe's attempt to dodge it, giving you a bit of a mixup. You can also move a bit back and forth while you're falling to make sure you catch the foe's DI. If you want this to kill confirm properly however, using it next to a wall with the minimum delay will trap the opponent just long enough once you reach a little below kill percentages that this will actually just kill confirm, making it quite scary for the foe if Kyoko lands a grab with a wall in front of her, and it will make the hit harder to dodge before kill percents if you want to go for it for the raw damage before then. At a high enough percent, the foe will be sent too far for a follow up, but honestly if you get the foe to that kind of percentage they should really just be dead already, it only happens around 300% or so. Down Throw - Double Stab Slamming the foe against the ground from their current position, be it out of her spear's coils on larger foes or just with her own two hands on smaller ones, Kyoko plants her foot on them to hold them still and stabs twice. Planting her foot on the foe deals 1%, the first stab deals 3%, and the second stab deals 5% and light diagonal forward knockback, with Kyoko having very little end lag out of this throw. The knockback scales pretty slowly, so this move is exceptional for combos. It can go into most of your close range tools, at specific percents even setting up Dair if you want to try for that, and generally serves as an effective way to start a combo out of a grab, while also dealing a solid 9% to start with. Not a very complex throw, but its not a bad thing to fall back on, especially because it can link into things even at mid-high percents even if the combos will not be nearly as effective from the subsequent hits and you won't be able to pull off Dair or Side Special out of this like you would at low percents. Back Throw - Coil Closer Tangling the foe in the spear's coils identically to Forward Throw, Kyoko instead swings the foe behind her and lets the spear coils fly forward about 1.4 battlefield platforms, before she grips onto the spear to stop the foe's flight before pulling herself right to them. She then plants her feet into the foe's face, bouncing them off the ground slightly but needing a moment to catch herself afterwards, leaving both parties in frame neutral at the end of this move, with the foe spaced near the edge of Kyoko's close range melee options. This deals 4% with the initital throw, 2% when the chains constrict the foe's flight in place, and 7% when Kyoko kicks them in the face, adding up to 13%, a pretty respectable amount for a throw. Leaving the foe in frame neutral with Kyoko facing them is not too bad a place to be, as at the very least you're in range to land the tippers of moves like Forward Tilt and Up Tilt now. The real reason you're using this move, however, is that it deals good damage and serves the unique role of simultaneously spacing the foe and Kyoko at the same time. This might not sound like a big deal, but you can get a foe with their back to your wall to lead into some incredibly dangerous combos you can't access without it. This can also put both of you quite close to the edge of the stage, though it will not technically send you off. This is because Kyoko will catch the spear and pull herself to the foe if they reach the edge, though the kick will send the opponent a short distance forward and slightly down a set amount instead of bouncing the foe off the ground if they reach the edge with this. While this isn't quite as good for setting up edgeguards as FThrow because Kyoko will be closer to the foe, but if the ledge is closer behind you than in front of you or you don't have enough percentage to charge, it will do. In general, this is another tool that lets Kyoko "control the stage", this time by giving you the rather unique option to reposition yourself and the foe at the same time. Final Smash Kyoko's soul gem flares up with the immense power of the Smash Ball, and she summons forth four giant spears in front of her, each twice as tall as Ganondorf and as wide as Wario. If they hit the foe, the opponent will take the initial hit of 10% and be sent into a cinematic, where Kyoko has surrounded everyone hit by this move with a wall of giant spears. She then forms an absolutely massive serpentine spear below herself, standing on the head as it towers over the characters you've trapped in this final smash. The camera zooms in on Kyoko as her spear is now absolutely flaring with energy, red flares pouring off of it. The giant spear then dives forward, Kyoko standing on the head as a massive explosion of red and white energy occurs that obscures everything impacted, dealing 35% and obscene upwards knockback that kills at 50%, or more accurately 40% because of the initial 10% dealt by this move. While summoning these massive spears and performing this huge attack actually cost Kyoko her life in canon, it comes at no cost to her in Smash, as the Smash Ball's energy is used up instead of her own. Up Taunt Kyoko leans back against her spear as she plants it in the ground, taking a moment to recline with a somewhat smug expression on her face. Side Taunt Kyoko just turns forward with an annoyed expression and just says "Could you, like, stop?" This is very useful after you've beaten the same Little Mac 7 times in a row but he just does not know when to quit. Down Taunt

Kyoko takes out a Taiyaki and bites into it, taking a moment to chew it before returning to battle. This actually heals her, but only by 0.4% over a long duration taunt you can't cancel, so don't expect to get much mileage out of it in battle. The food you get is actually randomly selected from one of three options, an apple, a stick of pocky, or the taiyaki shown above, but the healing is the same regardless. Victory Pose #1 Twirling her spear behind herself, Kyoko smirks and says "You losers are all at the bottom of the food chain!" if there are multiple opponents, or just "You're at the bottom of the food chain!" to a singluar opponent. Victory Pose #2 Kyoko is seen walking into view with a bag of apples in her arms, munching on the last bits of a piece of bread in her mouth. She probably did not pay for that, but hunting witches is not a viable source of income, cut the poor girl a break. Victory Pose #3 Seen dancing on what appears to be some kind of Dance Dance Revolution knockoff arcade game, Kyoko briefly dances along for a moment before the song, a slightly more techno version of the usual victory theme, stops with a grade of "Spectacular" displaying on the screen. As it does so, Kyoko turns to the audience and gives a thumbs up. Loss Pose Kyoko just claps as you might expect, though she looks a bit taken off guard to have lost based on her facial expression. If she specifically lost against Sayaka, however, her expression will be a lot happier, as it seems she's proud of Sayaka for actually stepping up and defeating her.

"If you are just living for your own sake, it's all up to you. No hard feelings. No regrets."

#Smash Moveset #Kyoko Sakura #Madoka Magica

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mk-asks-and-headcannons · 5 years

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I was wondering what's your take on the kombat krew having to deal with s/o being held for ransom, fighter or non-fighter is up to you!

Hey, anon! For this one, I may say their fighting ability wouldn’t matter much, but for now, let’s assume they’re non-fighters. This is really interesting and I haven’t written an hc like this before…so get ready!

Scorpion/Hanzo: *inhales* How do I say this gently? This kombatant would teleport to wherever his significant other is, slicing and dicing anyone in his way with his katana and would be like “GET OVER HERE!” when he sees his love. At least that what we’d wager Scorpion would do…hehe…*scratches head*.We could tell you more about how Hanzo would handle this predicament. It would be an extremely emotional experience as well as a triggering one. I don’t care how hardened Scorpion looks with his mask and his rope spear. When it comes to affection seldom does he let people into seeing that side, so love is a rarity. And someone is threatening to take all of that away from him? Taking away your presence is enough but the knowledge of the possibility that he wouldn’t see your smile again breaks him. That is before it infuriates him. He is in a mode where you come first. Himself and his clan are the last things on his mind as Hanzo knows loss, and he damn sure isn’t letting something like that happen again.

Sub-Zero/Kuai Liang: He’s shaken up the situation and almost has a lack of reaction. He distances himself from his emotions because Kuai knows himself well…he’s a worrier (dude would have an iPhone case for his iPhone case). He worries so much despite appearing as calm, cool and collected and practicing meditation regularly. He’s just used to hiding his vulnerability like that and it can easily be confused with insensitivity, but he tries to handle the situation as rationally as possible. He’ll start with a reasonable bargain or two, risking his most prized possessions and secrets in exchange for you in attempt to pay the ransom. But if push comes to shove, he will be willing to get down and dirty if it means having you back at the temple safe and sound.

Kabal: You wouldn’t have to tell him twice to save you. Pre burns, he would be especially furious making sure to make who’d ever dare hurt you suffer. In this stage in his life, he is mighty reckless, so like Hanzo, his own safety has been thrown out and obliterated. Again he is reckless, so he’s in a point in his life where he doesn’t understand the value of the little things, your presence included. After the experience, he bonds to you like glue. Post burns his approach is more different. He isn’t just pissed. He wouldn’t know what he would do if you got hurt…or worse. He would fight for you in a heartbeat but knows there is safety in numbers. Though the black dragon go by a certain code or lack thereof, he’d pay off and pawn anyone he’d have to before paying the jerk who stole you (only if he knew it’d grant him assistance). After the experience post burns Kabal is also more affectionate, but this time he knows that if he has you, he’s definitely a man with something to lose.

Brokeback Mountai – Err I mean McCree – No! Erron Black: Someone had the goddamn audacity to not only steal you, but put you in harms way in the means of money??! Let me tell you something…they have fuckarood with the wrong cowboy as anyone who crosses Erron black should be “as jumpy as spit on a hot skillet” (the cowboy’s words not mine). Little known fact, Erron can be quite the hothead, like almost scorpion level hothead. If you have his love, expect it to be real and intense, but if it’s the opposite of that…hoo buddy is he a force to be reckoned with. In his long life, he has never met someone like you, someone who has slowly taught him that the world isn’t just black and white. Though you’re not as old as him, you’ve exposed him to so many colors, flavors, and textures that life isn’t the same without you. You are his light. And he’ll be damned if he didn’t fight for that.

Kung Lao: The snarkiness has evaporated. The fun and games are just his surface, as he has learned to smile through the painful moments in his life and when things seem the most dire, find something to boost morale. He always loved making you smile. Though you weren’t some defenseless princess, he would remember a running joke between the two of you when he’d tell you that he’d be the Mario to your Princess Peach (regardless of gender). But it is no doubt that he’d rescue you from that castle from Bowser. When the situation calls for it Kung Lao knows when it’s time to grow up and swallow his pride as he’s already fairly disciplined from being a monk. Going off that, he doesn’t particularly enjoy hurting people even if they’re bad. Should there be any physical altercations in the way of collecting you, he will knock out or wound, but killing would be the last resort. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t afraid. For himself and for his beloved.

Jade: Jade is someone who is loyal and kind to the end and that means she will be extra protective, but not to the point where it’s suffocating. When she learns you are being held for ransom, she tries her best to keep cool like Sub-Zero. She has so much love for you that if she let her emotions get in the way of what she has to do, she’d be a wreck. She was an assassin after all and very professional and knows exactly how to handle the matter at hand. She’s also extremely smart, so she may not even need to get her hands dirty. But if she did, you would be more than worth it, as you’re irreplaceable to Jade.

Mileena: Much like Erron, whether Mileena loves or hates you, expect the relationship to be intense. She is probably the most possessive out of the bunch. Because of her femininity, (particularly with her mask on) Mileena is not perceived as much of a threat, but this Tarkatan queen would start a massacre over you. The people holding you for ransom knew what they were getting into for taking the lover of Mileena (and if they don’t she will definitely show them) and will get you back by any means necessary and then some. But fret not, as they will get exactly what they deserve as she firmly holds, the eye for an eye belief (and so what if the world goes blind? Kenshi exists and he’s just fine). After the experience, she’s much more protective and will treat you like absolute royalty.

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itsbenedict · 5 years

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Kingdoms and Koopas: Ep. 6

K&K is a Fate Accelerated campaign set in the Mario universe, which I’m running for three players:

Bee @thebeeskneesocks, playing Kandace Koopa

Jovian @jovian12, playing Cozmo Naut

Malky @sleepdepravity, playing Dr. Chevy Chain

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Previously on Kingdoms and Koopas, the party survived a harrowing underground experience, arrested a bigshot crime lord probably, acquired a magical item, and were in the vicinity of Kandace while she did horrifying things.

This time... we’re leaving the Koopa Kingdom for a fun vacation! Woooo!

So, Kandace wants them there Music Keys, still- and her favorite test subject I mean minion I mean friend, Cozmo, is all too happy to go on a fun adventure to help her get them. Unfortunately, Dr. Chevy Chain would be all too happy to never interact with these chucklefucks again, so she needs an alternate reason to follow Kandace and Cozmo. That reason is... her boss at the hospital has ordered her to make a house call in the Magic Kingdom, which happens to be where the other two are headed!

Unfortunately, the road to the Magic Kingdom has problems on it. One of the problems is bandits. Y’know, Bandits. They’re like Shy Guys, but their masks are more like faces and they steal your crap? Bandits. They’re here to be a random encounter.

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Cozmo and Chevy begin fighting them off, but Kandace has an idea to end the fight quicker than that. Y’know her curse that she has? Her magical talking shadow, Carbonado, who makes her life difficult? Well, she’s prepared to bargain this time around- in hopes that maybe he can actually help.

Carbonado’s terms- in exchange for using the darkness to get very big and scary and scare the bandits off- are that Kandace must behave. This is a bit of a tall order, and she bargains him down to... using manners while in the Magic Kingdom. Which are still, likely, terms she’s going to violate, but hey.

Further down the road, they encounter... someone... they’ve... met before? It’s... a Shy Guy wearing a trenchcoat and a big bushy mustache, who would like to sell them some merchandise. It’s Deals Guy!

Immediate attempts to rip off Shady Guy’s mustache again (isn’t he supposed to be in jail?) are met with failure, as this happens to be... the Real Deals Guy. He actually has decent stuff to sell! Or... would. He’s kind of out of inventory right now, and is actually looking to buy. We try out the new Rich system I threw together (an extra stat you roll, Rich, which depending on the outcome tells you whether you can afford the thing, and whether you need to decrease your Rich to do so). Rolls ain’t great, but Kandace does buy a Super Leaf, once it becomes clear that the random crap off the floor he’s selling does include some useful items.

As they proceed, and as they’re getting closer to the magic kingdom, they meet a wandering wizard- and he has Prophecies for them! One about hearts, one about dreams, and one about paths. He can give them two true prophecies, and another false one- and they have to pick which ones will be true and which will be false. Which... shouldn’t be how prophecies work, but they agree, pick that “paths” should be false, and Merlon gets all SHA-ZIBBY, SHA-ZOOBY on ‘em. The prophecies are as follows:

'Thou shalt never be betrayed by those thou trusteth with all thy heart and all thy mind.'

‘The bow is a truer guide to the arrow's path than the arrow.'

'A dream is a nightmare waiting to happen.'

The second, on the subject of paths, is conveniently the false one- which they can get the true version of just by inverting it. Still... cryptic as hell, though.

Finally, though, they arrive in the Magic Kingdom.

Chapter 3: From the Stars

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Unfortunately- besides Chevy, who has an address she’s meant to head to- they have no idea where to go. The Music Key’s magical signature is just “up”- somewhere in the sky- and they need to find a way to get there. (And, Chevy needs to find a way to figure out how to reach the address in question, since the Mario world doesn’t have GPS.)

So they check an information booth, manned by a Star Kid named Astrid. She gets out a telescope and checks out the spot in the sky they mention- which, as it appears, is a strange ribbon of rainbow light... hm. I wonder...

As for getting up there- well, there’s ways. All kinds of ways! Except, there was recently a large destructive bomb-related accident down at the local Cannon District (where they keep all the Cannons That Shoot You Into Space), and there’s only two cannons left standing. Bullet Bud and Robert Omb attempt to convince the party (minus Chevy, who’s gone off to do her job elsewhere in the city after obtaining a map) that their cannon is the safe one and that the other guy’s cannon is a rickety mess that’ll explode in their faces.

(The paths prophecy, by the way, applied to this situation, though in keeping with Merlon’s “Useless Prophecies” aspect, nobody realized that the “arrow” is the Bullet Bill, and the “bow” is the explosive that fires the bullet- or the Bob-omb.)

No, they solve this dilemma by arbitrarily picking the right cannon- which Cozmo tests first. Unfortunately, they fail to notice a problem in time to stop it (but succeed in noticing it happening at all.) Robert Omb snuck around the side of Bud’s cannon and blew up as it fired, knocking Cozmo off-course. He goes flying up into the sky, and... well, he’ll probably be fine. Let’s assume he’s fine.

Kandace, noticing the sabotage, attempts to... mete out justice? Which is to say... draw a teleportation circle, and attempt to shove Robert Omb into it, to get rid of the cheating bastard. She barely fails the Forceful contest, but Bullet Bud helps her out with sending his rival off to... well, Ted the Storm God’s cloud, is the only place Kandace knows how to make her random-teleport spell come out, right now. Gonna be one confused Bob-omb, suddenly in the middle of Kam Ekademy.

Meanwhile... Chevy has a job to do. She’s arrived at the address, to make the house call she was specifically needed for. See, there was some kind of magical accident that cost everyone in a given radius of the patient to be unable to control their hands, which made things difficult for normal doctors. But Chevy doesn’t even have any hands, and so was considered perfect for the job.

Arriving at Rainbow Cruise Tours, she encounters a crew of concerned Bob-ombs who explain the situation. Their captain, apparently, stumbled in one day with a big piece of magical crystal sticking out of his chest, and fell into a coma on the bed. The crew didn’t have hands, but they also didn’t have surgical training- and most of the surgeons in the Magic Kingdom are Wizzerds, known for pretty much just having hands.

The job itself turns out to be pretty easy, and Chevy successfully removes the foreign object and resuscitates the patient- an odd, stout, yellow man with a heavy accent, a curly purple wig, and an inability to shut up. The Great Flavio invites Chevy on a sky cruise as a reward for her efforts, which she- having nothing better to do, now- agrees to. Like a fool.

Partway through the lovely flight on the sky boat in question, there is a THUMP as something impacts the side of the ship. And then manages to grab hold of the dangling anchor, rather than slide off the ship and fall to its death. This something, as it happens, is Cozmo Naut, who for reasons unknown was recently fired out of a cannon into the sky. Weird. Chevy confirms he isn’t going to fall, and then entirely declines to try and help pull him up.

Kandace, after probably doing a crime by magically banishing someone by force to another Kingdom, climbs into Bud’s cannon and fires herself up there, getting enough altitude that she can reach the Rainbow Cruise and rescue Cozmo using her broom (which would’ve been too difficult to ride all the way up there by herself.)

The cruise, though, appears to be making a stop somewhere else before heading up to... the rainbow ribbon in the sky that you’ve probably already figured out what it is. That they’ve actually figured out what it is, actually, so I’ll just tell you: it’s Rainbow Road, the famous kart-racing track.

But the pit stop is at... oh, just the Royal Castle of the Magic Kingdom. For guests to meet the princess, and stuff. No big.

As they arrive- and Cozmo and Kandace line up to meet the princess, while Chevy hangs back because when can Chevy ever be bothered- they encounter a... familiar face? Sort of? Except for how X-Nauts wear face-concealing goggles and stuff? It’s an X-Naut Cozmo used to know from back during the whole moon thing- Oneiro Naut. They catch up a little bit- apparently, Oneiro is doing some guard duty for the princess’s meet-and-greet, and in their spare time is researching dreams.

Researching dreams...? Dreams, dreams... there definitely wasn’t a prophecy about that...

Anyway, Cozmo and Kandace eventually reach the front of the line, and are face-to-face with Princess Opal herself!

(art by Bee)

Now, here’s a little bit of Kandace backstory that I don’t think I’ve mentioned in these recaps yet: when Kandace was younger, she was experimenting with teleportation spells, and... accidentally teleported herself into this very castle. It was a little surprising, but Opal took it in stride, and told the young magikoopa that she knew she’d be an amazingly powerful witch some day, before helping her get back home.

It was a pretty formative moment for young Kandace- and now, here she is, once again meeting her hero.

Who... absolutely doesn’t recognize her. Which is... fairly crushing, for a moment. But... hang on. This Opal is weirdly... sedate? Very calm, regal, princess-like. Which isn’t at all how she remembers her.

Suddenly, there’s a spark of realization, and Opal tells Kandace- and her friend- to head through a door just behind the throne area. Confused, they agree... and are dropped through a trapdoor and fall and fall and fall through some kind of magical sparkly hole. They land in... what looks like some kind of extremely messy magical workshop. And in that workshop is... the real Princess Opal.

She explains that the Opal doing the meet-and-greet up in the throne room is a decoy, there to handle all the princess-type duties she finds super-boring. What she doesn’t find boring is Kandace, who she does in fact remember. And she... has Kandace look at some weird magic instruments, and pokes her with a glowy detector rod thingy, and has her hold an orb which she then tosses into a machine which explodes, and generally sort of geeks out about Kandace’s nonspecific magic specialness. She’s very excited.

It’s kind of difficult for Kandace to follow a lot of Opal’s projects, which are very advanced and very hard to determine the actual purpose of. It seems there’s a lot of stuff here that’s unfinished, or that was never really meant to do anything besides look cool in the first place. Opal’s running all over the place, unable to stick to a topic for very long- because whose attention span wouldn’t be taxed by the many wonders of magic, right?

Anyway, Cozmo and Kandace tell her about their quest- to find a magical music-related orb of incredible power. Opal tells them that she’s pretty sure the big tournament is going to have something like that as a prize.

Tournament?

Yeah, the kart-racing tournament. On Rainbow Road. That one. Do they want to enter? YES they want to enter.

So Opal- who’s big into kart racing, along with apparently everything else- offers them pick of her old experimental karts, to borrow for the race! (She herself has been, uh, banned from participating, because she kept breaking vehicle regulations and causing magical accidents during races. Apparently the issue was bad enough that they actually banned their own princess, so... well, it’s probably totally safe.)

Cozmo picks out something with flame decals and lots of firepower- just a big ol’ beefy boy of a car, with a high top speed at the expense of handling. (He tests it out by crashing it directly into the wall of Opal’s workshop- pretty good at crashing!) Kandace, rather than pick out an old kart, works with Opal to soup up her broom, giving it a magical bike mode that increases its top speed at the expense of flight capabilities.

Meanwhile, Chevy is approached by a Buzzy Beetle who represents the Rainbow Road course management. Apparently, there are so many outlandish injuries that happen on Rainbow Road that most of their doctors have quit in horror, so they’re really looking for last-minute replacements. And so it is that Chevy takes on a part-time job, and is escorted to Rainbow Road by a Lakitu crew.

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The two racers, meanwhile, are escorted to the track personally, on karts towed behind Opal’s magical royal chariot. It’s a very stylish entrance, only slightly dampened by a Monty Mole mechanic at the track demanding that Opal leave immediately, in a panicked and horrified tone of voice. He can’t do this again! He can’t! (It’s fine, though- Opal’s just going to be spectating, honest!)

So we would leave off there, but... a couple strange things happen. One thing is that... Oneiro Naut is somehow amongst the crowds of spectators, despite having been at the castle a minute ago and not having been aboard the chariot when they left. So that’s weird.

And another thing is that... Kandace can still track the Music Key’s energy signature. And where it appears to be is... still up. Still straight up, in the sky just above Rainbow Road.

...It’s probably fine! See you next time!

Last time | Archive | Next time

#kingdoms and koopas #mario

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sunshine--temptress · 5 years

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Your Arms Feels Like Home - Ziam (4.1k)

Here's some 4k of Ziam fluff. I am sorry for torturing Liam so much.

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Liam met Zayn for the first time at McDonald's, he can't remember why they started talking but he remembers the feels in his stomach when they exchanged numbers. He didn't think about this too much, he was just hungry. They never used it and Liam forgot about Zayn. He thought about texting him the first few weeks but he didn't know how to start a conversation and Zayn didn't text either. Liam forgot about him until they met again when he auditioned for The X Factor a year later. Zayn was auditioning too and Liam felt the same feeling in his stomach but it was just the stress to have to perform in from of Cheryl, she was so pretty, Liam was just nervous.

Liam auditions and it goes well he thinks, he doesn't see Zayn again until they are all on stage. They don't make it and Zayn looks devastated and Liam feels like crying and for a second he wonder if he's more sad for himself or because Zayn is crying. Liam walks briskly to Zayn and takes him in his arms and hugs him tight. Zayn hugs him back and Liam feels his warm breath hitting the side of his neck and he shivers. Zayn's tears are dampening the thin material of Liam's t-shirt but Liam couldn't care less. He don't know what it is but he just want to see Zayn smile again, he can't stand to see him like this.

They are about to leave, they promised each other to use their phone number this time and to stay in contact, when they see Simon walking toward them, looking agitated. He tells them he want to put them in a band and he lead them back inside to meet three other boys. They meet Harry, Louis and Niall. They seems nice enough but Liam stays close to Zayn. He really hit it off with Harry and Niall but he isn't too sure about Louis. Louis is loud and dramatic but he puts this aside for his dream to sing and he has Zayn with him so everything's fine.

The first few weeks at The X Factor’s house are not easy, Liam is still getting used to his new friends, his bandmates. More often than not Liam finds himself in Zayn's bed, his head pillowed on his chest. He likes to listen to Zayn's heartbeat while Zayn plays with his hair. Once Louis found them like that and he spent days teasing them. Zayn just flipped him off and he doesn't seem to care about what the others think so Liam tries to do the same and not let it get to him. He misses home a lot. He miss his mom's food and his dad and his sisters even if he finds them annoying. He never spent more than a week away from home, and when it happened he was at his grandparents house. It was different, they are family. But here he's with thirty strangers, it's weird. Zayn reminds him of home, he makes him feel safe so he tries to not think too much about what Louis said and he keeps snuggling with Zayn.

They don't win, they end up in 3rd position but Simon signs them to Syco and Liam has absolutely no idea his life is about to change forever. Their parents wait for the, to bring them back home for a few weeks. Liam hugs Zayn, his nose pressed against his neck. Liam takes a deep breath. Zayn smells very good and for a split second he is tempted to press his lips to the soft skin. He doesn't want to let go, he knows he's gonna miss Zayn. They pull apart when Liam feels his dad's hand on his shoulder. They keep their forehead pressed together for a few more second.

“I'll text you,” says Zayn and Liam smiles.

Liam feels weird, he thinks he's probably hungry and they went through a lot of emotions today. They've been driving for about thirty minutes when Liam feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. It's Zayn telling Liam he already miss him. Nicola is poking him in the ribs asking him who's making him smile like that, she keeps bothering him until Karen tells her to stop it, Liam obviously don't want to talk about it. Liam's never been more grateful for his mom than at this moment. For some reason he don't want to talk about Zayn to his family, he wants to keep him all to himself. He doesn't understand why but he pushes the thoughts away and they text until Liam goes to bed. It's like that until they are set to go back to London. Liam can't believe this, they will really record an album, people will hear them sing, they might even play show and maybe tour if people like them. It's extremely exciting and nerve wracking but Liam knows Zayn will be by his side. He can't wait to see Zayn again. He can't wait to see the other boys too but Zayn more.

Liam was right, his life change. Everything happens so fast. They release their first single and suddenly everybody knows who they are. They are invited on tv and radio shows. Their album goes number one and then next year comes and they record another album and they go on tour and suddenly two years has passed and Liam barely remembers them. He and Zayn are still as close as ever. This is probably the only thing that haven't changed since this adventure started. Zayn is always there next to him, holding his hand when he gets too nervous or cuddling with him when he misses home. Liam knows he can count on him and Zayn knows it too, this isn't one sided. Liam is always there when Zayn feels sad or if he doesn't feel like going out with the other boys. Liam will always gladly stay with him in the bus or in their hotel room.

One thing changes, one thing that still confuses Liam. He often think about kissing Zayn. When they are laying down in one of their tiny bunks, Liam's eyes are often drawn to Zayn's lips. He hopes Zayn haven't noticed but if he did he's been nice enough to not mention it. Liam isn't sure what it means. He never had these kind of thoughts about another boy. He likes girls. He's had a crush on Cheryl for the longest time but he realise this isn't her he's thinking about when he jerks off in the shower. Slowly his thoughts went from long curly hair to short black hair. Everytime, Liam shake his head to think about something else but he always come with a sigh and Zayn's name on his lips. It's nothing, they are close, they are best mates, it doesn't mean anything he tells himself.

Tonight Niall, Harry and Louis wants to go out but Liam isn't in the mood. It's a rare hotel night and Liam would like to actually have one real night of sleep in a bed that doesn't move. The boys leave him alone, wishing him goodnight. Liam wonders for a second where is Zayn. He probably went out with them. It would be selfish of him to want Zayn to be with him, thinks Liam. He spends most of his time with him but a small part of him wish he was here to play video games. Liam starts a game of Super Mario bros, he's feeling nostalgic, when he hears a soft knock on the door. Slowly he puts the controller on the floor and gets up. Liam isn't sure if he should open the door, he hasn't ordered room service and the boys all left about thirty minutes ago. No one should be knocking on his hotel room door. He's pretty sure it can't be a fan since the hotel takes their security very seriously. The person behind the door knocks again.

“Who's there?” Liam calls through the door, he feels very silly, like he's in a bad horror movie.

“Zayn, now will you open the bloody door.”

Liam let out a sigh of relief and let Zayn in.

“What took you so long? And ‘who's there?’, really?” laugh Zayn.

“Oh shut up, I thought you had left with the others.”

“Didn't felt like it, prefered to stay with you and play video games.”

“How did you know I didn't go out?”

“Louis texted me to say you stayed here too.”

Liam nods and Zayn smiles, he follows Liam further inside the hotel room and sits next to Liam as he take back his spot on the floor. Liam takes his controller and hands another one to Zayn. Their fingers brush and Liam tries to not let it show on his face how much it affects him. Zayn's side is plastered to Liam and Liam takes a deep breath to try to stay concentrated on the game in front of him. Liam feels ridiculous to be so affected by Zayn's closeness, they slept in the same bed many times, they always cuddle but somehow this feels different. After a while Liam realise Zayn scooted even closer. His heart is in his throat beating so fast he's not sure he's not having a heart attack.

They play for a while, mostly in silence. When Liam beats Zayn, finally, he can't stop laughing and chanting “I won! I won! I won!”.

Zayn laugh and drops his controller on the floor and before Liam realise what's going on, he's laying on the carpeted floor. Zayn is straddling him and his hands are tickling his sides. Liam can't breathe and he's not sure if it's because Zayn is sitting on him or because he's being tickled. He tries to bat Zayn's hands away but Zayn doesn't stop.

“Please stop,” laughs Liam, “stop I'm gonna piss my pants.”

Zayn chuckles and finally stops but he stays on Liam, putting his hands on each sides of Liam's head. He leans down and Liam is suddenly aware of how close their faces are. His throat and lips feels dry and he nervously lick his lips, not missing the way Zayn's eyes tracks the movement. Liam doesn't understand what is happening but Zayn's face gets even closer and his warm breath his hitting Liam's lips. Or maybe he understand perfectly because he may or may not have fantasized about this happening not that he would ever admit it. They're best mates and best mates don't fantasize about each others. But this isn't a dream or something made up in his head right now. Zayn is right there on top of him, his nose is bumping against Liam's but he's frozen in place. Half of his brain is screaming at him to kiss Zayn and the other rational part of his brain is scared. Zayn is probably just taking the piss and if Liam kisses him he will probably laugh at him and tell the other boys and…

“C'mon then, c'mon,” says Zayn and Liam is pretty sure his brain just short circuited. Zayn can't be asking what Liam think he's asking. Liam licks his lips again and Zayn does the same and before Liam has time to react, Zayn is pressing his lips against his. It's soft and warm and wet and not that different from kissing a girl except girls don't have stubble that scratch you face. Zayn starts to pull away and Liam realises he didn't kissed him back. Before Zayn can go too far Liam grabs Zayn by the back of his neck and kisses him. It stays chaste for a while, Liam is happy with this, until he feels Zayn's tongue against his lips. Asking permission. Liam timidly opens his mouth and let Zayn’s tongue invade his mouth. Zayn is still sitting on him and Liam has his hands on his hips, his thumbs tracing circles on Zayn's warm skin. Zayn sigh against his mouth and everything is perfect. They kiss until their lips are numb and Liam is disappointed when Zayn breaks the kiss. He keeps his eyes closed but he feel Zayn putting his forehead against his. They stay like that, in complete silence for a while, trying to catch their breath. Liam want to say something but he doesn't want to break the silence. He doesn't even know what he would say. He doesn't know anything and he never felt more confused. He feels Zayn moving until his lips are grazing Liam's earlobe.

“I think I'm the one who won,” Zayn whispers hotly against his ear, sending a shiver down Liam's spine. Zayn takes back his spot on the floor next to Liam.

“Wanna play another game?”

Liam nods and accept the controller Zayn is offering him.

They don't talk about it. Liam's not mad about it, he doesn't know what he would say if Zayn brought it up. But nothing change between them and Liam is grateful, they still play video games and cuddle and stay up late at night, squished in one of their tiny bunks, talking until they can't keep their eyes open. The only difference is now Liam knows how Zayn's lips feels against his, how soft and warm they are and how he wants to kiss him again. Liam keeps telling himself it's normal, mates kiss, and him and Zayn are best mates. Liam also starts to dream about Zayn and he wakes up hard and comes with Zayn's name on his lips. It's not weird or anything he keeps telling himself but he knows it's not normal and he needs to do something about this, whatever this is.

Liam walks into the lounge at the front of the bus, Louis is sitting on the floor, his knees up to his chest and he's typing something on his phone. He's the only one in the bus and Liam sit next to him and let his head falls on Louis’ shoulder without saying a word. Him and Louis grew closer after a few years of always being in each other's pocket. Or well, Louis didn't really gave him a choice and he kept hugging him and trying to include him in all his prank. Liam is glad he gave him a chance because Louis is the best friend he could ask for. It's not like with Zayn, there is only one Zayn and Liam knows he will never have this with anyone else. Zayn is is soulmate or something. But Louis is a good friend and Liam knows he can always count on him.

“Oi,” says Louis when he finally lift his eyes from his phone, “you okay Li?”

“Have you ever kissed Harry?” Liam asks softly.

“What the fuck are you on mate?! No I never kissed Harry. You really need to logged off from Twitter,” reply Louis and Liam laugh.

“T'was just a question.”

“A weird one yes. Why d'you wanna know that?”

“Zayn, he well, I, no, no we, we kissed”

“What? When?” Louis asks excitedly.

“Last week, when you went out and we stayed at the hotel.”

“I can't believe he finally did it, but I still don't see what's the link between you and Zayn kissing and me and Harry kissing,” asks Louis at the same moment Harry walks into the bus.

“We never kissed,” says Harry looking at Louis like he lost his mind and he continue to walk towards the bunks area.

“You'd be lucky to kiss me Hazza,” shouts Louis and laugh when Harry shouts back “Yeah keep telling yourself that Tommo, keep dreaming.”

Liam laughs too, his friends are ridiculous.

“Can you tell me the link now, because I’m confused.”

Liam tells him everything, from the start, from the first time he laid his eyes on Zayn and how he felt to how he felt when they kissed and about his dreams even if it's a bit embarrassing. Louis doesn't interrupt him, he lets him talk and talk and talk. He also doesn't judge and Liam is grateful for that because it's the last thing he needs.

“I'm so confused Lou, I've never felt like that before not even for my ex girlfriends.”

“Let's start with you might not be as straight as you thought you were.”

“But I'm not gay, I still find girls pretty,” whines Liam and Louis rolled his eyes.

“And the thought of being bisexual never crossed your mind?”

“Maybe, but it's scary Lou, what do I do with all these feels?”

“Tell Zayn how you feel could be a good start, if you are ready.”

“I can't do that, I don't even know if he likes boys.”

Louis smacks him on the back of his head.

“OUCH! What was that for?” exclaims Liam, rubbing the back of his head with his hand.

“He kissed you dumbass, what do you think? Also, you don't see the way he looks at you when you're not looking. He looks at you like you hung the moon Li.”

Liam groans and closes his eyes. Why is everything confusing. He hates feeling like this. Why can't love be easy? Wait love? Oh!

“Lou, I think I love him.”

“No shit?!”

“Oh fuck off ok! An hour ago I was thinking maybe he was just being overly friendly.”

“You’re so dense sometimes. Okay, do you trust me?”

It's a trick question and Liam knows he should say no but he nods anyway.

Louis’ plan is stupid, it's never going to work and sphe should never have agreed to it. It's not gonna work. Zayn doesn't have feelings for him there is no way he will be jealous. Liam will only make a fool of himself and maybe ruin his friendship with Zayn. Oh my god this is dumb, Liam needs to find Louis to tell him the plan is not working. Liam is pacing the floor of the changing room when Zayn walks in.

“Hey babe, you okay? You look stressed,” say Zayn, opening his arms to hug Liam as he gets closer. Automatically Liam wraps his arms around Zayn's smaller frame and press his nose against Zayn's neck. Immediately he feels better and forget about Louis’ dumb plan. He takes deep breath while Zayn rub circles on his back. It feels great and Liam tighten his arms around Zayn. If Louis’ plan doesn't work it could be the last time he gets to do this and he's so scared of losing Zayn, his Zayn.

“I don't wanna lose you,” Liam says, letting his lips brushing against Zayn's skin.

Zayn pulls back and takes Liam's face between his hands and looks at him in the eyes before pressing their foreheads together.

“You're never going to lose me babe, I don't know what is going on but you will never ever lose me. You understand that?”

Liam nods and Zayn smiles.

“I love you Liam, okay I love you.”

Liam's heart his in beating so fast he feels dizzy. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a second.

“I love you too,” he replies and Zayn gives him a quick peck on the lips.

“Then we are on the same page, now time to get ready. Show starts soon.” With that Zayn is out the door before Liam has time to say anything else.

Maybe Louis’ plan isn't so stupid after all or maybe he doesn't need it. He looks at his watch and he doesn't have time to fo find Louis to tell him.

The show is going well, the crowd is amazing but Liam is nervous. He knows Zayn said he would never lose him but he still feel anxious about Louis’ plan about making Zayn jealous. This was his genius plan, to flirt with Liam all night. To touch him more than usual to make Zayn feel jealous to get a reaction out of him. Liam still don't know why he agreed to this. Probably because he was desperate. He doesn't feel so desperate now but he let Louis do it anyway, he knows that trying to stop him wouldn't work now and no matter what Liam says, Louis would just think he’s chickening out. He lets Louis run his fingers on his forearm or brush his lips against his ear when he talks to him. According to Louis, Zayn hasn't stop looking at Louis like he wanna murder him but Liam hasn't noticed. It's not until near the end of the show that he sees what Louis meant. Louis is on his right side and Zayn on his left. Zayn is looking at Louis with dagger in his eyes, Louis has a small smirk on his face as they both circle around Liam. Liam never saw his expression on Zayn's face before and he really hope he will never be on the receiving end of it. Louis seems unfazed and he squeeze Liam's shoulder before he runs toward Niall to poke him in the ribs.

The show ends and Zayn is the first out. When Liam finally reach the changing room Liam can’t stop smiling but Zayn isn't there. He showers quickly and Zayn is still nowhere to be found. He finally ask Paul who tell him Zayn felt knackered and he's already back to the bus. Liam suddenly feels anxious, like Louis’ plan backfired on him. He grabs his stuff and runs to the bus. He needs to talk to Zayn. He drops his stuff on the table in the lounge and calls Zayn's name but he gets no response. He gets closer to the bunks and calls Zayn's name again. Nothing. Liam feels his stomach twist in a knot and his eyes filled with tears. He wanna be mad at Louis but he knows he only have himself to be mad at. Louis only wanted to be a good mate and help.

Liam lay down in his bunk and closes his eyes. He want to sleep and forget about all of this and hopefully tomorrow morning everything will be back to normal. He hears Louis, Niall and Harry come back to the bus, trying but failing at not making too much noises. He doesn't care. He keeps his eyes closed and try to sleep. He doesn't know for how long he tries but it's not working.

“Li?” he hears Zayn whisper and a part of him wants to ignore him but he can't, “Li, are you sleeping?”

“No.”

Zayn pushes the curtain open but he stays in the aisle between the bunks, shuffling from foot to foot.

“Can I?”

It's weird, he never asked before he always just climbed in and wrapped his arms around Liam.

“Of course you can.”

Zayn climbs on the small bed but he stays on his back, his hands crossed on his abdomen.

“I'm sorry.”

“For what?”

“I acted like an ass, I uh, I heard you cry.”

Liam doesn't say anything, he just keeps looking at Zayn in the dark.

“This is all Louis’ fault,” they both say at the same time.

“What do you mean?” question Zayn.

Liam sigh. That’s it, that's the moment. He will tell Zayn how he feels and Zayn will tell him he loves him but just as a friend and he will get his heart broken but he's ready.

“Louis convinced me to let him flirt with menso you would get jealous because he got this idea that you have feelings for me, I mean like the one I have for you and that it would make you confess them. Sorry is this is weird and I knew this was a bad idea. Louis's an idiot and I should never have agreed to this.”

“Wait what? No, Louis told me he would flirt with you and to act overly jealous so you would confess your feelings for me. But I ended up hurting you and I am sorry. It's the last thing I wanted.”

“How did Louis...I'm confused.”

“I went to him for advices about my feelings for you after we kissed.”

Liam couldn't believe this and started to laugh. He would need to find a way to get back at Louis and he was sure Zayn would gladly help him.

“I did the same. God, we should just have talked together.”

“Yeah but in the end it worked.”

Zayn turns on his side to look at Liam and Liam immediately wrapped his arms around Zayn.

“Can I kiss you? Been dying to do it again for two weeks now,” admits Liam.

“You never have to ask, I love you Liam.”

“I love you too, Zayn,” Liam says before closing the gap between their mouths.

#ziam #ziam mayne #ziam fic #zayn malik #liam payne #my writing #claudia shut up

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southeastasianists · 6 years

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There is a history of Singapore that is taken as a straightforward truth by millions of people in the world. According to this narrative, up until 2004 the city-state was an unliveable hellscape where violent crime, drug trafficking, terrorism, murder, and corruption ran rampant. Women were practically raped on sight, the streets were strewn with garbage, and traffic was insolubly chaotic.

All of this changed that year, when the new prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, instituted the death penalty for all violent criminals, drug traffickers, and corrupt officials. As a result, the prison population was reduced from 500,000 to 50 within six months (presumably through mass executions). Moreover, in what appears to have been a matter of weeks, crime vanished, Singapore became an economic powerhouse, its universities shot up in the world rankings, and its citizens became trilingual. The draconian use of capital punishment, according to this narrative, is the secret to having a peaceful, developed country.

This narrative was popularised on the Spanish-speaking internet through a postauthored by a Cuban pastor based in Honduras named Mario Fumero. Fumero’s blog, United Against Apostasy, published a series of articles extolling Singapore’s purported crime-reducing policies. Fumero suggests that all Latin American countries should emulate Singapore’s example and exterminate all offenders (either through judicial or extrajudicial means), so that Latin Americans will promptly reach the desired development that Singapore now enjoys.

To get a sense of how widespread this narrative is, Fumero himself comments that these articles on Singapore are by far the most popular posts on his blog, a blog which has attracted over 20 million views. The actual reach of this particular article, however, goes much further. Its text has been copied or paraphrased in various YouTube videos that, taken together, add up to hundreds of thousands of views. It has been reproduced on several posts on Taringa! (an extremely popular Spanish-language “community knowledge” website), and reposted on countless blogs and forums. Its contents have even been copied in printed newspapers (with evidently poor fact-checking standards), and they have been cited as the basis of numerous editorials published throughout Latin America.

The number of Spanish speakers who have been exposed to this narrative through social media can probably be estimated in the millions; for many of them, this portrait of Singapore is axiomatic by virtue of its ubiquity. Few people have sufficient familiarity with Singaporean history to challenge this narrative.

Fumero has a concrete political agenda: the reinstatement and dissemination of the death penalty in Latin America. Although he has stated that he is against capital punishment, he immediately qualifies such statements by arguing that “…there are situations in which it [the death penalty] can be justified even biblically, becoming the only option for instilling fear in a system where impunity prevails, and where there is a lack of respect for life.” In fact, a quick glance at the many columns written on the basis of his article—as well as the comment sections of any of the websites where his article has been reproduced—reveals that the “successful” Singaporean case has become a key touchstone for the pro-death penalty agenda in Spanish-speaking virtual forums. Along with them, Fumero insists on the exemplary success of the alleged Singaporean policy of indiscriminate judicial executions.

For Fumero and his supporters, it is precisely Singapore’s prosperity and rigidity that they find useful in their attempt to promote a particular political agenda. Latin Americans may not know much about Singapore, but they have heard that it is a rich and seemingly excessively disciplinarian country—the ban on chewing gum is well-known. Along with almost complete ignorance of the country’s history, due to hitherto relatively limited cultural and academic exchange, the conditions are perfect for historical visions like that one conjured by Fumero to flourish. With a contemporary Orientalist twist, he fabricates history to create a simulacrum of an “exotic” country to advance his disciplinarian agenda. The fable he creates serves to answer questions such as “why are they prosperous and we are not?”, or “why is there so much crime here and not there?”. These questions correspond to Orientalising impulses which presume that, unlike North America or Europe, Singaporean prosperity is not natural, and there must therefore be some kind of secret to success that Latin Americans could appropriate as a shortcut to “development.”

But why should we care about this? After all, a generation of young Spanish-speakers with a completely distorted view of a remote country like Singapore could be dismissed as a mere anecdote, as a sort of contemporary version of the Prester John myth. However, Fumero’s article is not just a harmless fable; it is the historical narrative that frames a call to action, action which would ultimately promote the judicial or extrajudicial execution of thousands of people. The sobering reality of Rodrigo Duterte’s popularly-endorsed campaign of extrajudicial execution of alleged drug pushers is too blatant, too painful, for us to ignore historical narratives which might justify such policies. Law and order narratives have been successfully deployed time and time again to win elections in Latin America, claiming to end crime and drug trafficking in blood and fire, but without producing significant results.

Like Fumero, the Singaporean state and many Singaporeans have their preferred historical narrative as well, albeit one that is demonstrably less fanciful. It runs something like this: the People’s Action Party (PAP), headed by Lee Kuan Yew, steered Singapore through the chaos of separation from the Federation of Malaya in 1965. Since then, it has, through technocratic competence and indomitable strength of will, propelled Singapore towards a multi-ethnic meritocracy, good governance and a dynamic capitalist economy. If authoritarian-leaning practices were developed along the way, they are dismissed as the price of success in the face of adversity. This narrative is integrated into the national curriculum, espoused by politicians, and provides the thematic framework for performances staged by students and volunteers at the annual national day parade. It pervades journalistic discourse in both Singaporean and international media organisations. Naturally, this treasured mythos of nation-building elides many unsavoury things, but there is more than a kernel of truth to it.

Singapore’s national mythos is primarily meant for domestic consumption, but it is also part of how Singapore projects itself to the rest of the world. Its preferred origin story of chaos to order, of insecurity to wealth, is an integral part of Singapore’s carefully-cultivated image as a good place to do business, park one’s money, and educate one’s children, or even to hold international summits. This narrative is deployed for specifically political purposes: the trope of dependable PAP stewardship leading to economic success is routinely deployed at campaign rallies before each general election.

By contrast, Fumero’s reformulated narrative of Singaporean history deliberately misrepresents the underlying reasons for Singapore’s perceived success to an audience familiar only with a fleeting image of Singaporean “success”. This (ab)use of Singaporean history is instructive, because it sheds light on how powerful a tool history can be in the “post-truth” era—even when it is deployed far from its point of origin and targeted at a very different audience.

Fumero’s article represents an unusual permutation of the weaponisation of history: we are used to the idea that history is weaponised, usually by states (authoritarian or otherwise), for domestic political purposes. We are less used to the notion of history being mined far from its point of origin to generate political gain in seemingly irrelevant contexts, especially by non-state actors like Fumero.

That, however, is exactly the opportunity that the post-truth era of social media-driven news affords, and various actors have not been slow to seize it. The destabilisation of informational legitimacy—which until recently for most people was embodied in whichever newspapers and televised news channels were most readily at hand—is not the heart of the problem. The number of gatekeepers, and the location of the gates themselves, have changed. With the low barriers to entry afforded by internet access, both state actors with modest budgets and non-state actors with virtually no budget at all can now shape historical narratives, with serious consequences for the societies in question.

Fumero’s article may be an outlandish example, but it forces us to confront the reality of how history can be successfully weaponised; the consequences of his historical fabrications are hard to measure and may have yet to flower. How much easier would it be for an organisation with more resources to weaponise history, and what havoc could it wreak? The state’s existing tendency to weaponise history already gives citizens sufficient cause to equip themselves mentally to resist these historical narratives, and the cultivation of citizenries capable of evaluating or filtering information (though inconvenient to the state) has become more important than ever for democracies.

#Southeast Asia #Singapore #Death Penalty #Latin America #History

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coconuggs · 2 years

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Exotics Carts Cartridge Review - Not Known For Clean THC Oil

Exotic Carts are a THC oil cartridge that are sold in a scope of flavors with an asserted THC intensity of 80%-85% that has been "tried" yet these tests aren't confirmed. These experimental outcomes ended up being phony which was uncovered after somebody attempted to confirm from the lab. They have taken over Instagram, snapchats, and some dim web puts yet very few genuine lawful dispensaries. There is a goliath determination of Exotic trucks seasons the general issue with these Carts is that there is a restricted measure of data on the organization, making the data on the rear of the bundling inconsistent on what the truck genuinely contains. There is no fascinating trucks official site except for just is by all accounts promoted via web-based entertainment or discussions.

Exotic Carts Review: Built of the Cart

There isn't anything special about the worked of the truck, a common plan is like Supreme and Mario Carts. This typical colorful truck makes an issue when your oil is low on the grounds that the base part of the truck is thick and the thickness of it makes it difficult for you to utilize all the oil. Another issue that appears to happen with low oil in these cartridges is the expansion in cruelty of each hit which isn't from the strength of the THC. Nonetheless, the shade of the trucks gets individuals' eyes on the grounds that its radiant gold/light yellow. Assuming you like trucks that are smart in variety this is a truck to think about however alongside the variety, there isn't anything to great about it.

Nature of THC Oil

While the bundling claims a high strength of THC oil 80-85%, there have been a few tests that have observed that the THC oil is lower than expressed, and there is no real sticker on the bundling that affirms that the merchant is coming clean. From genuine lab test results the oil is by all accounts around 50-65% max. Also, from what we have attempted prohibited organic product, wedding cake and pineapple express-the oil isn't thick and is extremely runny, demonstrating that the THC oil isn't quite as powerful as asserted. It hits hard however not however much it cases to. One more issue that comes from the lab test results is a sure measure of pesticides utilized in these trucks which could cause medical conditions.

Contingent upon the sort of vaporizer you have, the cartridges will before long give you a consumed taste, so it's prescribed to purchase a modest battery with low intensity to taste the real flavors. On the off chance that you can change the intensity of your vaporizer, we suggest that you explore different avenues regarding the temperature to get the most flavor and not wear out the flavor or change the flavor of the flavor. Sadly, to get a more strong high from the THC you will need to try to have the intensity on high, which will ultimately give you an unforgiving flavor and some have even created a consuming uproar on individuals' throats. The flavors are made with fake flavors and terpene, and the flavors range from sweet, sharp, and gentle flavors. There are many flavors from intriguing trucks and new ones springing up consistently and not from the first maker by the same token.

Exotic Carts Flavors

Through some examination we discovered a few genuine flavors that aren't fakes which we will list a couple underneath (there are around 12 flavors out there):

Gelato

Mars OG

Skittles

Grape Pie

Wedding Cake

Gorilla Glue

GSC

Treats and Cream

Their flavors are quite great and their most grounded quality and most noteworthy score in this Exotics Carts Cartridge Review.

Exotic Carts cost is low in light of the fact that its filthy THC oil

Extraordinary trucks take the cake for being one of the less expensive trucks to purchase from $15 for a gram in So Cal and more costly going towards the east coast $25-60 a gram. Generally, a full gram goes from $25-65 relying upon which state you live and the merchant. While the cost for intriguing trucks appears to be astonishing the exchange would be the inferior quality, a few pesticides, and the vulnerability of what synthetic compounds you might breathe in. In the event that you have the cash it's smarter to stay with more trustable cartridge organizations than risk your wellbeing to several bucks. For more related information go to Coconuggs.

#exotic carts

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xiomisales0258 · 3 years

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Teclast T30 Pro Tablet Review: Good Product 2020

Android tablets make some extreme memories contending at the top of the line; iPads pretty much without any assistance rule that space. However, in case you’re hoping to put in a few hundred bucks on something to watch Netflix in bed, you’re probably not shopping Apple. You’re probably searching for something like Xiaomi’s most recent spending tablet, the Teclast T30 Pro : it’s modest, it has a pleasant screen and speakers, and the battery goes on for quite a long time. There’s not a great deal to disdain here.

Plan, equipment, what’s in the container

The Tab T30 Pro is unassuming in the outrageous. It has a 10.1-inch screen with sensibly measured bezels and a Five-megapixel front camera with LED that is focused when the tablet is held scene. It’s person on foot, coming up short on Xiaomi’s cutting edge tablet configuration prompts like level edges and adjusted camera modules. The dark and gold forms have dark bezels. The T30’s body is aluminum, which isn’t totally expected in this value range. I wouldn’t have been astonished to see plastic here.

The 10.1-inch screen is a TFT LCD board, yet it’s satisfying to take a gander at. It’s 1200p, and the shadings truly pop. It’s feeling the loss of the ideal blacks an OLED would offer, and it doesn’t don a high revive rate. It likewise has an enemy of blue covering that protects your eyes from hurtful blue light.

Likewise loaning to the media experience: shockingly fit sound system speakers. Bass isn’t extraordinary, and sound can get a little unforgiving when you wrench it past around 75 percent, yet beneath that, sound is clear and brilliant. What’s more, there are really four speakers, one at each corner, so sound can keep a sound system picture paying little mind to the tablet’s direction. There’s an earphone jack, as well, in the event that you’d lean toward more close to home tuning in.

In the container, you get the tablet itself, the ordinary documentation, and a cheapo charger — in spite of the fact that the T30 Pro backings up to 8000 mAh Charging Capacity chargers.

Programming, execution, and battery life

On the off chance that you’ve utilized a Xiaomi telephone in the previous few years, you’re truly ready for the Tab T30 Pro. It’s running One UI over Android 9 Xiaomi couldn’t disclose to me when or even whether to anticipate that an update should Android 10, 11, so I wouldn’t hold my breath there), and Xiaomi’s unique changes like Edge board application alternate routes and application windowing bode well on a bigger screen. I don’t think 10.1 inches is very enormous enough to do work area style productivity work , however it’s ideal to have the option to coast media controls or a Better Gaming Experience with T30 Pro.

You’ve probably heard that Android’s tablet applications aren’t excellent, and that is pretty much as obvious as could be expected. Contrasted with iPadOS, there simply aren’t the same number of Android applications that are adjusted for enormous showcases. A few, as Gmail and YouTube, do utilize the additional room to show extra data, yet bounty are substance to awkwardly explode the standard versatile experience to fill the screen.

Incredibly, the T30 Pro’s low-lease specs didn’t bottleneck the manner in which I utilized the tablet to any apparent degree. I wouldn’t have any desire to attempt to take care of my responsibility on it, however that is not why anybody purchases a tablet like this. Web perusing, video playback, and even some light gaming — I tried a couple of less-requesting games like Mario Kart Tour and Dead Cells — all turn out great. Rapidly exchanging between applications is certifiably not an extraordinary encounter, yet the T30 Pro is unquestionably equipped for taking care of each or two undertakings in turn with no difficulty.

What’s more, it can deal with those assignments all day because of its 7,040 milliamp-hour battery. Over a couple of long periods of blended use — perusing, recordings, music, and gaming — I extracted a little more than 10 hours of screen time from the Teclast T30 Pro. You’d need to incredibly attempt to kill this thing in a solitary day.

This is a spending tablet. Its cameras are sufficiently good.

There’s a five-megapixel shooter on the back and an eight-megapixel on the front, and photographs from both are super bad. They’re all around grainy and cleaned out. Actually, that doesn’t trouble me by any means, yet in case you’re obligated to utilize your tablet for a great deal of video calls or to take brisk photos of your children or pets between online media perusing meetings, it very well may be justified, despite any trouble to you to go through additional on something with better imaging.

#android #tablet #xiaomi

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Best Modern Horror Movies

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Every once in a while, someone likes to declare that the horror genre is dead, and so far, every one of those predictions has been wrong.

Horror movies have been around almost as long as filmmaking itself, and while the genre has always been cyclical in nature –dipping, sometimes drastically, in both quality and quantity from time to time — all it usually takes is a well-timed box office hit, a fresh new angle or a hot young filmmaker to reanimate it again.

The 21st century has been, overall, an extremely healthy one for horror. There’s been the usual amount of dross, of course, but the genre has branched out in a number of interesting new directions as well. We had absolutely no problem tallying the initial batch of movies for this article, and have just continued to update it ever since, starting with the newest and going back in time from there.

So here are over 50 terrifying favorites that you can use for your own personal Halloween film festival — and we promise that this lineup delivers. Brace yourselves for a look at the best horror movies of the 21st century.

These are the very best modern horror movies…

Saint Maud (2020)

As our own Rosie Fletcher said in her review, Saint Maud is “a strange, gorgeous, and deeply disturbing chiller which mixes psychological, religious, and body horror to form something that feels utterly original.” She added that the film “messes with your perceptions of what’s real and what isn’t and comes with an ending that’s so simultaneously euphoric and horrific it feels like a punch in the heart.”

She’s right on the money. Morfydd Clark is outstanding in the title role, a private nurse who believes she can speak directly with God and decides it’s her mission to save the soul of the dying, debauched professional dancer (Jennifer Ehle) she is caring for. Maud lives right on the knife’s edge between spiritual ecstasy and mental illness, and director Rose Glass’ debut feature captures the surreal, horrific netherworld that is this tormented young woman’s life.

Saint Maud is out in theaters in the UK now.

Relic (2020)

The horror film at its best allows us to experience our deepest real-life fears in metaphorical terms, which is what the excellent Relic does with specificity, empathy, and atmosphere to spare. Emily Mortimer plays Kay, a workaholic single mom who gets a call from the police that her elderly mother Edna is missing from her home in the Australian countryside. When Kay and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) drive out from Melbourne to the house, Edna (Robyn Nevin) reappears after two days–but cannot recall where she’s been.

Edna’s house–untidy, dark, and littered with odd notes and markings–and behavior lead Kay and a local doctor to surmise that the headstrong Edna is slowly sinking into the grip of dementia. But something else is at hand — an unseen presence that can seemingly bend reality — and the feature debut of director Natalie Erika James works so well because of its complete cohesion between characters, theme and imagery. Grief and loss ooze from every frame of the film, along with an impending sense of dread and claustrophobia.

Watch Relic on Amazon

SpectreVision

Color Out of Space (2020)

Color Out of Space adapts what legendary horror author H.P. Lovecraft considered his personal favorite short story, “The Colour Out of Space.” Although the film is set in the present, it is faithful to the original 1927 narrative, in which a family is both driven to madness and altered physically by the presence of an alien entity that has landed on their farm in a meteorite.

Starring a typically unpredictable Nicolas Cage, Color Out of Space is flawed in many ways, but is distinguished by three things: the return of director Richard Stanley (Hardware) after too many years away from features, a plethora of eerie and downright disturbing imagery, and an overall atmosphere that comes damn close to that of Lovecraft himself.

Watch Color Out of Space on Amazon

Neon

The Lodge (2020)

The Lodge stars an excellent Riley Keough as Grace, a troubled young woman in love with Richard (Richard Madden) a journalist who wrote a book about the suicide cult she is the only survivor of. Their relationship triggers Richard’s estranged wife (Alicia Silverstone) to commit suicide, leaving the former couple’s two children devastated.

Six months later, Richard, Grace and the children head up to Richard’s remote winter lodge in an effort for all of them to heal. But a series of unexplained events occur that may be tied to Grace’s past or the death of the children’s mother — or both. Directed by Austrian filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala (the harrowing Goodnight Mommy), The Lodge reeks with dread and leads to a thoroughly unsettling finish.

Watch The Lodge on Amazon

Wounds (2019)

This Hulu original stars Armie Hammer as Will, a New Orleans bartender whose discovery of an abandoned mobile phone in his place of business portends the arrival of an unspeakable evil, a malevolence that infects him, his girlfriend (Dakota Johnson) and almost everything in his life.

British-Iranian director Babek Anvari (2016’s supremely eerie Under the Shadow), creates an atmosphere of extreme dread and rot here, from the cockroaches Will is constantly killing behind the bar to the frightening images and sounds that keep appearing on that damn phone. Based on a novella called The Visible Filth by acclaimed horror writer Nathan Ballingrud, Wounds leaves much unexplained but that’s kind of the point: horror is often most effective when it can’t be rationalized.

Watch Wounds on Hulu

Tigers Are Not Afraid (2019)

There’s a reason why no less a maestro than Guillermo Del Toro is a fan of this deeply felt and moving film: it covers much of the same territory that he has explored in some of his greatest works like The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth — the place where imagination, childhood innocence and real world corruption intersect in a surreal, dangerous yet fantastical landscape.

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After her mother goes missing in the latest cartel rampage through an unnamed and anarchy-plagued Mexican city, a young girl (Paola Lara) finds herself living on rooftops with a small band of little boys and haunted by an apparition that may or may not be her mother. Director and writer Issa Lopez wrings emotion, humor and even minor triumphs out of this dark scenario, while not shying away from its more disturbing implications.

Watch Tigers Are Not Afraid on Amazon

Ready or Not (2019)

Darkly funny and subversive, Ready or Not is an out-of-nowhere surprise that deftly weds (pun intended) an acidic black comedy about income inequality and the politics of marriage to a more gruesome thriller about being chased around an old, dark house by a deranged family of Satanists. If that doesn’t pull you in, nothing will.

Samara Weaving is an appealing lead as the young woman who marries into a clan of vast wealth and privilege, only to find out where they came from and what the family must do to maintain them. Weaving is excellent at both the comedy and horror, while Andie MacDowell and Henry Czerny lead a sparkling supporting cast of cracked characters. It may not be especially scary, but ready or not, this one’s a real crowd-pleaser.

Watch Ready or Not on Amazon

Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

Who would have thunk that the third time would be the charm for this popular Conjuring spin-off series? First-time director Gary Dauberman — who wrote all three entries in the sub-franchise — rises to the challenge and brings a wonderful sense of atmospherics and dread to the proceedings that was lacking in the earlier films. Anyone who channels the lighting schemes of horror legends like Mario Bava is all right in our book.

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By Aaron Sagers

Annabelle Comes Home also proves to be the sharpest-written of the bunch, as four girls — one of them the daughter of Conjuring ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who cameo here) — try to fight off the evil title doll as she unleashes hell on them over the course of one night. The cast is given depth and agency, which makes us care all the more when Dauberman turns the movie into a full-on monster mash. This one’s old school fun.

Watch Annabelle Comes Home on Amazon

Midsommar (2019)

Ari Aster blew everyone away in 2018 with his writing and directing debut, Hereditary (see below), a frightening tale of family dysfunction, grief, memory and naked witches summoning an ancient demon (Was that a spoiler? Sorry). His follow-up, Midsommar, wears its direct influences on its sleeve and tries a little too hard to signal its own importance, but it’s supremely eerie in its own way and quite nasty in what it shows and what it hints at.

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Midsommar: Florence Pugh Considers Ending Theories, May Queen Fandom

By David Crow

Four college friends — including disintegrating couple Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor) — are invited by an exchange student to Sweden, where they’ll visit the reclusive commune in which he was raised. Fans of films like The Wicker Man will have a pretty good sense of what’s coming, even if Aster doesn’t quite answer all the questions he raises. What he does do, however, is chill the blood with both the way the travelers turn on each other and how the Harga find spirituality and transcendence in their deeply disturbing rituals.

Watch Midsommar on Amazon

Us (2019)

The second feature from Get Out writer/director Jordan Peele still cleverly uses the horror genre for social commentary, but the focus is less directly on race this time and more on class and privilege. Lupita Nyong’o is outstanding as Adelaide, whose well-off family is terrorized by savage doppelgangers intent on murdering them. Who those duplicates are, and what they mean, provides for a biting commentary on the haves and the have-nots.

Some of the story logic is fuzzier this time around, but Peele is still adept at creating a genuine atmosphere of dread while deploying well-worn horror tricks in unique new ways. He also gets tremendous performances out of his cast, including Black Panther’s Winston Duke and The Handmaid Tale’s Elisabeth Moss, in what is ultimately a solid sophomore outing for the director.

Watch Us on Amazon

Halloween (2018)

After years of mostly lackluster sequels and reboots, director David Gordon Green (and his co-writer Danny McBride) take this horror icon both back to the roots and into the future. The result is a direct sequel to the original that ignores all the other films and concentrates, with stark precision, on two ideas: the concept of Michael Myers as a primal force of evil and the theme of PTSD as exemplified by Jamie Lee Curtis’ powerful performance as a permanently damaged Laurie Strode.

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Halloween: Timeline Explained for Horror Movie Franchise

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Both a thrilling rollercoaster ride and a chilling exploration of an unknowable psyche, the new Halloween is also relevant to what’s happening in 2018 — making The Shape a valid and still scary vessel for whatever metaphor you want him to represent.

Mandy (2018)

Dream-like, surreal and hypnotic — when it’s not screaming with rage — Mandy may be more interested in atmosphere and imagery than story (the plot is admittedly far too simple for the movie’s two-hour length) but is an unnerving experience nonetheless.

At the center of this boldly experimental assault from director Panos Cosmatos (Beyond the Black Rainbow) is a primal performance from Nicolas Cage, whose reputation for gonzo performances does a disservice to the raw emotion he can still deliver as a lumberjack out for vengeance against a frightening cult. Mandy might try your patience, but its visual poetry and uncaged (ha ha) star are never dull.

Watch Mandy on Amazon

Hereditary (2018)

It’s still hard to believe that this is the first feature ever from writer/director Ari Aster, who brings a literal parade of horrors to his terrifying exploration of a family’s complete breakdown from forces within and without.

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Toni Collette is off-the-charts stunning as the mother who tries to hold her clan together even in the face of unspeakable tragedy and the knowledge that her own family history is working against them. Harrowing and thoroughly unsettling, Hereditary is perhaps the best example yet of a new wave of genre films that are about something while still scaring the living shit out of you.

Watch Hereditary on Amazon

The Endless (2018)

Two brothers (played by Justin Benson and Aaron Morehead, who also directed, produced, edited and wrote the film) return to the cult they once belonged to as youths, each carrying different memories of their time there and different expectations of what they’ll find in the present. But neither sibling is prepared for the inexplicable events that occur once they arrive.

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Following their features Resolution and Spring, the Benson/Morehead team once again prove themselves adept at creating believable, atmospheric, dread-infused horror with limited resources. These guys clearly know what they’re doing, and the eerie The Endless is a strong next step for them.

Watch The Endless on Amazon

A Quiet Place (2018)

Who knew that mild Jim Halpert from The Office would end up directing one of the most acclaimed and outright scary movies of the past few years? In his third outing behind the camera (which he also co-wrote and stars in), John Krasinski uses silence — which can be deployed to great effect in horror movies — in the most ingenious manner possible. He, Emily Blunt and their three children live in a near-future world overrun by hideous, blind creatures that use their superior hearing to track prey by sound, thus necessitating that the human survivors remain as quiet as possible.

The result is a thriller in which literally every footstep is suffused with dread and a rusty nail becomes an object of extreme terror. While the script creaks a bit and could have used some better development, there’s no doubt that Krasinski directs this for maximum tension while getting terrific work out of himself, his wife and the kids. A Quiet Place is not just compelling horror, but a loud announcement of an outstanding new directorial talent.

Watch A Quiet Place on Amazon

It (2017)

It’s been a long time since a Stephen King screen adaptation really got the author’s work and intent right, but It does so and then some. Full of heart and warmth for its seven young main characters — all of whom are perfectly cast — It sets them against an insidious evil in the shape of Bill Skarsgard’s unforgettable Pennywise the Clown.

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Director Andy Muschietti’s take on King’s masterpiece is humane, moving and even funny — a coming-of-age story that also happens to be an engrossing and unsettling monster tale. It’s very rare that a truly “epic” horror movie is released, but It can stand proudly in that rarefied category.

Watch It on Amazon

It Comes at Night (2017)

Was this movie mismarketed? Or did audiences just reject its overwhelming, unrelenting bleakness? Either way it’s one of the overlooked horror gems of the past few years. Writer/director Trey Edward Shults is not interested in the whys or hows of his post-apocalyptic setting — he just puts regular, fearful human beings into the aftermath and lets us watch them as any chance for survival slowly unravels.

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Understated, incredibly claustrophobic (the house is a character itself) and stocked with great performances from Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, and the rest of the cast, It Comes at Night is as naturalistic as a horror movie gets — and is all the more terrifying for it.

Watch It Comes at Night on Amazon Prime

Split (2017)

This was the film we had the toughest time deciding whether or not to include on this list. Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan gives it the structure, atmosphere and tone of a horror movie, yet it’s clear now that it’s also an origin story for a comic book-style supervillain and a de facto sequel to his Unbreakable.

But for most of its running time, Split is a harrowing, darkly humorous psychological thriller anchored by an incredible performance from James McAvoy as a man with 24 different personalities in his brain — as well as a monstrous 25th that is about to emerge.

Watch Split on Amazon

The Girl with All the Gifts (2017)

Not just one of the best horror movies of 2017, The Girl with All the Gifts was one of the best movies of that year. Moving and compassionate while at the same time frightening and dread-inducing, the movie puts a fresh spin on the zombie genre and creates memorable, empathetic characters who grapple with questions of not just what it means to be human, but what it means to be alive.

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Stars Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine and Glenn Close give top-shelf performances, but the movie belongs to young Sennia Nanua as the flesh-eating yet fully sentient Melanie, who may be a forerunner of a new, unexpected step in the evolution of whatever the human race ends up becoming. Gripping from start to finish.

Watch The Girl with All the Gifts on Amazon

Raw (2017)

Deeply graphic and disturbing, yet also rich with symbolism and subtext, Raw is both as grisly and sophisticated as horror movies come. The movie also touches on gender politics and family dynamics in its tale of two sisters at a French veterinary school who awaken to the power of their own bodies as well as primal, vicious hungers neither one of them thought possible. Director/writer Julia Ducournau stages the film in gritty, intimate style, making the gnawing on human flesh all the more horrific to watch. Raw is a movie that lives up to its name.

Watch Raw on Amazon

Get Out (2017)

The directorial debut of comedy writer/actor Jordan Peele is a sharp, funny and creepy horror satire on race relations, white liberal hubris and socal justice. It’s also a genuinely suspenseful thriller, albeit with nods to earlier movies like The Stepford Wives, and proves that horror continues to be an effective genre through which to tell culturally and socially relevant stories.

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Daniel Kaluuya plays Chris, a young African-American photographer who heads to the country with his white girlfriend (Alison Williams) to meet her parents for the first time. The meeting does not go well as Chris realizes that the seemingly nice yet awkward Armitages (led by an excellent Catherine Keener) are not what they appear to be at all. Get Out is thrilling, refreshing and a nice change of pace for the genre.

Watch Get Out on Amazon

Under the Shadow (2016)

International cinema has been exploring genre with great success in recent years, and this intimate yet mournful thriller, set in 1980s Tehran during the ongoing and brutal war between Iran and Iraq, is one of the more thoughtful and unique horror movies to emerge from that creative wellspring.

Iranian politics and social mores are woven carefully into the plot, which follows a woman and her daughter who are haunted by a djinn (an evil spirit) that may have been unleashed when their apartment building is shelled. The metaphor of the evil set free by war is fairly on the nose, but director Babak Anvari still constructs an atmosphere of slowly ascending terror and macabre imagery.

Watch Under the Shadow on Amazon

Train to Busan (2016)

Just when you thought the zombie genre had been utterly exhausted, someone comes along and reinvigorates it. Director Yeon Sang-ho’s South Korean production brought something back to the genre that had been gradually draining out of it: humanity.

Sure there’s a bit of sentimentality too in this story of a father trying desperately to get his daughter to her mom by train as a zombie plague breaks out, but the movie’s well-drawn characters, subtle social commentary (some on the train feel they are more worthy of survival than others) and frightening action sequences add up to a thrilling and emotionally powerful ride.

Watch Train to Busan on Amazon

The Wailing (2016)

South Korea struck again with this epic-length (156 minutes!) story of possession and exorcism in a small village from director Na Hong-jin. Once again a father must fight to save his daughter’s life: in this case he is a cop (Kwak Dowon) investigating a series of mysterious and violent deaths, only to discover that they have a supernatural cause that soon infects his family.

Despite odd moments of humor here and there, The Wailing is almost unremittingly bleak and its imagery is thoroughly unsettling. Deliberately paced and building an atmosphere of unspeakable dread, The Wailing is a standout of Asian horror.

Watch The Wailing on Amazon

The Invitation (2016)

This intense little psychological thriller from director Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body) starts off as a weirdly off-kilter domestic melodrama and shifts disquietingly into outright paranoia as it explores the dynamics of grief, modern relationships and how well we really know our friends and neighbors.

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Kusama’s deft handling of the material and setting (an angular and eventually sinister L.A. house), as well as a superb cast (led by Logan Marshall-Green and Tammy Blanchard, with support from the always creepy John Carroll Lynch) elevate the standard dinner party thriller into something a bit more special. And the final scene is a knockout.

Watch The Invitation on Amazon

The Conjuring 2 (2016)

The Conjuring 2 is a rare example of a horror sequel equaling or even surpassing the original. This time the focus is more directly on paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) as their skills, courage and faith are tested by England’s famous Enfield Poltergeist.

Director James Wan once again proves himself a master at using negative space, sound (or lack thereof) and period detail to wring goosebumps out of even the most jaded viewer, and the deeper characterizations make the stakes that much higher as well. There are few horror “epics,” but The Conjuring 2 comes close to being one.

Watch The Conjuring 2 on Amazon

The Witch (2016)

A stunning feature film debut from director Robert Eggers, The Witch tells the story of a 17th century Puritan family who are excommunicated from their village and build their own farm on the edge of a vast forest — only to be preyed upon by an ancient, malevolent witch who lives deep in the woods. Touching on themes of religious persecution and mania, sexual awakening and humanity vs. nature, The Witch is a fully immersive and wholly terrifying experience.

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Director Robert Eggers maintains astonishing control of mood and texture throughout, and the entire cast — including newcomer Anya Taylor-Joy as the family’s teen daughter — seems eerily snatched out of the past. The Witch is classic supernatural horror.

Watch The Witch on Amazon Prime

The Visit (2015)

M. Night Shyamalan began a welcome and long-overdue comeback with this quirky and creepy little found-footage experiment, which focuses on a teen brother and sister who make an unforgettable and eventually terrifying trip to visit the grandparents they’ve never met.

Shyamalan seems comfortable working within the lower-budget confines of the Blumhouse scream factory, and he manages to inject both a nice streak of morbid humor and enough of his trademark character touches to keep us off-balance. The movie has an unsettling tone throughout and, for the first time in a long time, the “twist” is well-earned and shocking.

Watch The Visit on Amazon

It Follows (2014)

One of the best horror films of the past couple of years is, like all the genre’s standout entries, rich in metaphor and subtext – is the curse passed through sex among the movie’s characters a stand-in for AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, or is the sex act itself a way to affirm life or at least postpone the inevitable onset of death? Writer/director David Robert Mitchell keeps it ambiguous – much to some viewers’ chagrin – and instead focuses on the movie’s overall atmosphere and tone, which is dream-like and full of dread.

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Lead actress Maika Monroe is a star in the making, but the most unforgettable thing about It Follows is its implacable walking phantoms, who cause your flesh to crawl every time they enter the frame.

Watch It Follows on Amazon

The Babadook (2014)

An instant classic upon its release, this Australian shocker is, astoundingly, the debut film from writer/director Jennifer Kent, who retains the kind of complete and unwavering grip on her story, themes and tone that you would expect from a much more seasoned filmmaker. Essie Davis is outstanding as Amelia, a widowed mother still reeling from the loss of her husband Oskar as she does her exhausted best to raise their troubled six-year-old son Sam (Noah Wiseman), who was born the night that Oskar died.

Enter the Babadook, the subject of a frightening storybook that Sam finds and an entity that is soon terrorizing mother and child. Thoroughly frightening and unnerving, The Babadook is also quite profound as it touches on the nature of grief and parenthood, hinting that both can drive a person to the edge of madness — or into the clutches of the Babadook.

Watch The Babadook on Amazon

Oculus (2014)

Following his ultra-low-budget indie debut Absentia, writer/director Mike Flanagan expanded his short student film into this striking tale of supernatural and psychological terror. Karen Gillan (Doctor Who) stars as a woman who believes that an antique mirror has been responsible for the tragic history of her family, and sets out to destroy it by any means she can. The mirror, however, has other plans.

Set in two parallel timelines that eventually intersect, Oculus is original, creepy and filled with mounting tension; the film is steeped not just in the atmosphere of ‘70s horror cinema but also modern supernatural literature. With more features to his name since (including Ouija: Origin of Evil, his adaptation of Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game, and Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House) Flanagan is a talent to watch.

Watch Oculus on Amazon Prime

You’re Next (2013)

Home invasion movies can kind of be formulaic after a while, but director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett (The Guest) find a way to freshen it up by turning You’re Next into a macabre soap opera as well. In the meantime, however, there’s a ton of suspense and bloody mayhem to satiate fans of visceral horror, and the family dynamics at work make for a nice counterpoint to the terror.

The cast is terrific, a mix of horror vets (Barbara Crampton, Larry Fessenden) and mumblecore regulars, and Sharni Vinson is outstanding as the dinner guest with a secret of her own.

Watch You’re Next on Amazon

The Conjuring (2013)

A film about real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren had been in development for nearly 20 years — outlasting Ed himself — before finally coming to fruition in 2013 as The Conjuring. Based on a case the Warrens investigated concerning the haunting of a family farm by a witch, the film afforded director James Wan the change to take the horror skills he had honed on his previous project, Insidious, and apply them to a larger scale Hollywood production.

The result was a genuinely scary experience with plenty of atmosphere and just enough empathy for the family and the Warrens to elevate the movie about the usual shock tactics. It was also a major box office hit, making it that rare genre entry that was enjoyed by both critics and audiences.

Watch The Conjuring on Amazon

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Both a deconstruction of the genre and one of the 21st century’s best horror movies in its own right, The Cabin in the Woods could only be the work of Joss Whedon (co-writer) and Drew Goddard (co-writer and director), whose love and understanding of both the genre and the wider pop culture context around it make this one of the smartest satires in recent memory. Proposing that the standard template for a horror film is what keeps the real horrors at bay, the movie turns that formula on its head yet works it to maximum effect.

Goddard is assured in his directorial debut, the cast (including a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth and a brilliant Richard Jenkins as one of the weary “technicians” pulling the strings) is game, and the movie nails its meta premise perfectly.

Watch Cabin in the Woods on Amazon

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Adapted from Lionel Shriver’s novel and directed by Lynne Ramsay, We Need to Talk About Kevin is the perennial “evil child” story disguised as an arthouse film. But the combination works, thanks to Ramsay’s striking direction and imagery and two knockout performances by Tilda Swinton as the mother and a frightening Ezra Miller as Kevin. Swinton’s anguished portrayal deepens the film’s themes and offers a searing and complex picture of a parent’s occasional ambivalence toward their own child.

Yet the movie doesn’t skimp on its horrors either, both psychological and physical, and stretches the boundaries of what can be considered a horror movie.

Watch We Need to Talk About Kevin on Amazon

Kill List (2011)

With just one feature to his credit before this (Down Terrace), director and co-writer Ben Wheatley hits his second film clear out of the park, fashioning it into a mash-up of gritty crime thriller and chilling Lovecraftian horror tale. The result is a unique movie that’s not quite like anything else on this list and will you leave you shaken to the core. Two former British soldiers turned hit men (Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley) take a job in which they must kill three people — a priest, a video archivist, and a member of Parliament — but soon find out that they have gotten involved with something far beyond their experience and understanding.

The somber mood, ambiguous plot (Wheatley deliberately and correctly leaves much unexplained) and almost unwatchable bursts of violence come to a boil in the truly horrifying and enigmatic climax.

Watch Kill List on Amazon

Insidious (2011)

After one hit (Saw) and a couple of misses (Dead Silence and Death Sentence), writer/director James Wan and his writing partner Leigh Whannell scored with this tiny ($1 million budget) indie that became a huge hit (and sadly spawned two lousy follow-ups). But Insidious deserved its success: it’s a genuinely scary film, with Wan displaying a tremendous talent for utilizing the camera frame, darkness and silence to create an oppressive atmosphere of dread only enhanced by some truly bizarre manifestations.

In pulling tricks from all eras of horror, Wan came up with something original, terrifying and entertaining – a horror ride that all fans could enjoy.

Watch Insidious on Amazon

I Saw the Devil (2010)

Director Kim Ji-Woon (A Tale of Two Sisters) sends an intelligence agent (Lee Byung-hun) on a mission of vengeance against a sadistic serial killer (Choi Min-sik) in this shocking and stunningly depraved cat and mouse thriller in which all notions of morality go out the window along with numerous bloody body parts. Yet Kim keeps you invested in the characters as well, and this Korean epic has an undertone of sadness that’s hard to shake. Kim holds it all together masterfully, creating a horrifying experience like nothing else we saw the year it came out.

Watch I Saw The Devil on Amazon

The House of the Devil (2009)

Indie auteur Ti West’s homage to the horror movies of the ‘70s and ‘80s is replete with stylistic touches from both decades, ranging from the old-school opening credits to the use of zoom lenses to the 16mm film stock meant to look retro. But this isn’t just a pastiche: while The House of the Devil is the definition of a “slow burn” film — which may leave some viewers impatient — the payoff is worth it as babysitter Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) is subjected to a night of Satanic horrors that will leave you shaken.

West is an expert at leading us along and then tightening the screws hard, and if you told me that The House of the Devil had actually come out around 1981 or so, I just might have believed you.

Watch House of the Devil on Amazon

Paranormal Activity (2009)

For better or worse, Oren Peli’s homemade, shoestring thriller kicked off a tidal wave of films using the “found footage” or “faux doc” style of moviemaking, an esthetic that has proven increasingly confining and exhausted. But there’s no denying the strength of a few early contenders, starting with this. Peli shows us almost nothing in terms of visual effects, which only heightens the experience: you can’t help but feel a powerful sense of dread every time his camera sits and stares into the shadowy abyss of the couple’s bedroom while they sleep.

Tons of sequels, rehashes and rip-offs later, Paranormal Activity remains authentically frightening and deserves its berth on a list of the century’s best horror movies.

Watch Paranormal Activity on Amazon

Let the Right One In / Let Me In (2008/2010)

In an era of endless bloodsucking YA hotties, leave it to an 11-year-old girl to create the best and eeriest vampire seen on the screen in years. Based on a novel by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist and directed by fellow Swede Tomas Alfredson, this is the story of the friendship that grows between lonely, bullied 12-year-old Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) and the little girl who lives in the apartment next door, Eli (Lina Leandersson) — an ancient vampire inside the body of a child. Let the Right One In is scary, funny, romantic and also quite mournful, tackling themes of youth, sexuality, loyalty, loss of innocence and love within a terrific and haunting vampire tale.

The two child actors are outstanding, with Leandersson projecting an otherworldliness and weariness far beyond her years. Credit is also due to the English-language remake by director Matt Reeves, who stayed largely faithful to the original while tweaking its meaning slightly (his actors, Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee, are fine if not quite as good as the Swedish cast).

Watch Let the Right One In here and Let Me In here!

Martyrs (2008)

Brutal and almost unwatchable, Martyrs represented perhaps the apex of the French extreme horror movement. A young woman (Morjana Alaoui) finds herself the subject of vicious “tests” by a secret society, aimed at creating a “martyr” whose suffering can give them a transcendental glimpse into the afterlife. The ordeal she goes through is just the grand finale of a nihilistic exercise in depravity. Director Pascal Laugier’s plunge into unrelieved sadism is given context by its powerful, eerie climax — if you can make it to the end.

Watch Martyrs on Amazon Prime

The Strangers (2008)

Writer and director Bryan Bertino made quite a splash with his debut feature, which relied more on a mounting sense of dread and escalating suspense than violence and gore. The story is a simple, straightforward home invasion narrative, but Bertino keeps it creepy and unsettling throughout thanks to some eerie imagery and his three terrifying antagonists. Bertino has directed some features since – the direct-to-video found footage thriller Mockingbird and The Monster – but The Strangers remains an impressively chilling calling card.

Watch The Strangers on Amazon

Trick ‘r Treat (2007)

Michael Dougherty’s Halloween-themed anthology sat on the shelf for nearly two years until finally (and criminally) getting just a direct-to-home-video release, but the wait was worth it. Dougherty wrote and directed a loving homage not just to the year’s most haunted holiday, but to horror movies and ghost stories in general, delivering four interconnected tales that each serve as a nasty, creepy and thoroughly entertaining exercise in traditional horror, with just the right amounts of atmosphere, scares and gore.

A lot of the best horror movies of this century aim to get under your skin in an unpleasant way, whereas Trick ‘R Treat just wants to have fun – and does.

Watch Trick ‘r Treat on Amazon

[REC] (2007)

This nasty shock to the system from Spanish horror specialist Jaume Balaguero uses the “found footage” style in logical fashion, as it’s told from the point of view of a news team that accompanies a fire brigade to a call at an apartment building. Things quickly take a turn not just for the bad but for the unspeakable as our heroes confront a zombie plague of a horrific nature, and [REC] rubs your nose in every nightmarish moment. The building itself is a spectacular, claustrophobic setting, and what [REC] lacks in meaningful character development it makes up in relentless terror and dread.

Take a good, stiff drink before watching.

Watch [REC] on Amazon

The Mist (2007)

A faithful and pretty great Stephen King adaptation, The Mist is terrifying not just for the macabre monsters that come streaming out of the title cloud to lay siege on a small group of people trapped in a supermarket, but for the way those people turn so quickly on each other as well.

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Writer/director Frank Darabont, nailing his third King-based adaptation after The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, innately understands that King’s stories are often so disquieting because of the human monsters in them as well as the slimy, tentacled ones. In this case the threat is Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), a religious fanatic who quickly does her best to divide the supermarket into two hostile camps — I’ll let you work out the metaphors.

Beyond that, however, The Mist is a genuinely scary monsterpalooza, with one of the bleakest endings ever. When you go even darker than the King original, that’s saying something.

Watch The Mist on Amazon Prime

The Orphanage (2006)

The debut feature from Spanish director J.A. Bayona (The Impossible) was produced by his friend Guillermo Del Toro, and frankly feels like it. It certainly has many of the hallmarks of Del Toro’s own Spanish-language horror films, with its focus on children, its marvelously atmospheric setting, its short bursts of shocking violence and its ghostly apparitions.

Either way, it’s a rich, beautifully crafted film that becomes unexpectedly and powerfully emotional at the finish. Belen Rueda is sensational as Laura, who returns to her childhood home — an old orphanage — with her husband and adopted son, only to find that it is not exactly empty. An English-language remake was planned for a long time, but perhaps fortunately, it has not happened.

Watch The Orphanage on Amazon

The Descent (2005)

Six women go exploring an unmapped cave system, with tragic and terrifying consequences, in writer/director Neil Marshall’s (Dog Soldiers) riveting horror hit. Marshall subverts the genre with his strong all-female cast (not a male hero in sight), refusing to dumb them down, but then puts the screws to them by introducing the blind humanoid inhabitants of the caves, surely one of the most horrific monster creations of the decade.

The movie is unstoppably scary, showing no mercy to the characters or the audience (one shock early in the film makes this writer jump to this day), but also examines how far people will go to survive in seemingly impossible circumstances. The Descent is a harrowing, suffocating masterpiece.

Watch The Descent on Amazon

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

This loving homage to the films of George A. Romero — the father of the modern zombie movie — and to the horror genre in general launched the careers of director Edgar Wright and stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost outside of the U.K. And deservedly so: Shaun is a near-perfect blend of horror and comedy, energized by Wright’s visceral style of directing and flavored with clever pop culture and genre references that are even more delicious if you’re a fan.

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Pegg and Frost are perfect as two slackers who must contend with a zombie apocalypse — two of the least likely but most endearingly goofy heroes you’ll ever meet.

Watch Shaun of the Dead on Amazon

Saw (2004)

Saw is now so closely associated with the torture porn genre that its numerous sequels almost singlehandedly gave birth to that people often don’t remember that the original is more of a suspenseful police procedural and genuinely gripping puzzlebox than an outright exercise in sadism. Not that Saw is a sitting-room drama either: there are plenty of visceral moments in the film, and even in his feature debut, director James Wan (The Conjuring) displays a surprising amount of control and confidence in his handling of the horrors.

Saw may or may not be a truly great film, but its influence is enormous and it still packs one of the best endings the genre has ever seen.

Watch Saw on Amazon

28 Days Later (2002)

Looking at Danny Boyle’s revisionist zombie film now, its grimy handheld video esthetic is getting perhaps just a wee bit dated — but even that fails to dilute the sheer aggressive energy of Boyle’s take on the horror genre.

The movie, like its spiritual forefather Night of the Living Dead, is also rich in political and social subtext, while balancing moments of outright terror with passages of almost poetic reflection. Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland expertly reinvigorated a subgenre that had been nearly moribund, paving the way for both the superb (The Walking Dead) and the silly (the film version of World War Z).

Watch 28 Days Later on Amazon

The Ring (2002)

It was a foregone conclusion that the Japanese horror smash Ringu (1998), after becoming an underground sensation internationally, would be the subject of a big-budget Hollywood remake. But who imagined it would be this good? Director Gore Verbinski and writers Scott Frank and Ehren Kruger retain the original’s focus on atmosphere and creepy imagery over cheap scares, while Naomi Watts — fresh off her sensational turn in Mulholland Drive — is excellent as the reporter and mother who discovers the haunted videotape that causes viewers to die in seven days.

The American version fleshes out a few more narrative points that the Japanese film left ambiguous, but never wavers from its tone of quietly mounting terror. There have been plenty of J-horror remakes in the wake of The Ring, but it remains the first and the best.

Watch The Ring on Amazon

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Debate rages (even now, between this writer and his editor) over whether Mulholland Drive is actually a horror movie, but the simple truth is that filmmaking legend David Lynch has incorporated elements of horror into many of his films. No one comes as close to capturing the essence of a nightmare on screen, and Mulholland Drive contains two of the century’s most skin-freezing scenes: the infamous diner sequence and the discovery of a decomposing corpse in a darkened apartment.

Even if the plot didn’t invoke the genre in other ways — including a supernatural force at work in Hollywood and the Repulsion-like disintegration of a young woman’s mind — those two scenes would be enough to earn a spot on this list.

Watch Mulholland Drive on Amazon

The Others (2001)

Alejandro Amenabar (Open Your Eyes) wrote and directed this elegant ghost story. Nicole Kidman is superb as Grace, who relocates herself and her two small children to a remote country estate in the aftermath of World War II. Their highly structured life — the children are sensitive to sunlight and must stay in darkened rooms — is shattered by mysterious presences in the house. Amenabar relies on mood, atmosphere and a few well-placed scares to make this an excellent modern-day companion to classics like The Haunting and The Innocents.

Watch The Others on Amazon Prime

Session 9 (2001)

“Location, location, location” is what makes this tiny independent chiller from writer/director Brad Anderson (The Machinist) work so well and keeps its reputation intact. A five-man asbestos abatement team is hired to clean out the abandoned Danvers State Mental Hospital in Massachusetts, but the crew, led by the stressed-out Gordon (Peter Mullan), soon finds itself at the mercy of both personal tensions and an unseen force inside the facility.

Anderson shot the movie at the real Danvers, and the empty treatment rooms and labyrinthine underground tunnels create an undeniable atmosphere of disquiet and uncertainty. The nearly gore-free movie is a model of how a fantastic setting, a solid cast and an almost complete lack of jump scares can make for a thoroughly haunting viewing experience.

Watch Session 9 on Amazon

The Devil’s Backbone (2001)

Guillermo Del Toro has made several great movies in his career so far, but for our money this remains his best, scariest and most profoundly affecting work (Pan’s Labyrinth is a close, close second). The Devil’s Backbone is a ghost story set during the waning days of the Spanish Civil War, at an orphanage for boys where an unexploded bomb is embedded in the courtyard and a spirit is wandering the halls at night.

The movie is drenched in both a heavy atmosphere of dread and a blanket of sadness; its mournful elegance counterbalances some of its more chilling scenes of terror. This is dark supernatural storytelling at its finest and a marvelous example of just how high the horror genre — so often maligned by critics — can reach.

Watch The Devil’s Backbone on Amazon

Kairo (2001)

Films like Ringu and Juon were the cornerstones of the Japanese horror explosion of the late ‘90s, but for my money, Kairo is the pinnacle of that era. Director/writer Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film is one of the most unnerving exercises in surreal horror ever made, with one frightening image after another washing onto the screen. Although the movie’s central idea – -that the realm of the dead is infiltrating our world through the internet – is original and compelling, its presentation is somewhat murky. But Kurosawa doesn’t necessarily feel the need to spell things out: he wants to instead lure you into a living nightmare – which Kairo accomplishes over and over again.

Watch Kairo on Amazon

That’s our list — did we miss any of your favorites that you’d like to add? Let us know below!

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