#Sege rants

[sege-h]

SPOILERS FOR THE SHADOW ANIMATION AHEAD

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Ok so I know it happened for literally a split second

But you know that brief flashback Shadow gets to the GUN soldiers?

Anyone wanna talk about how when it began one of the sodliers had a drawn on jagged grin on him?

[robotnikholmescomicblog]

And with that, that’s that

Wow. So, uh, I just finished my quick-fire reviews of each and every Archie Sonic ever released.

I may have skipped one or two, such as the “Sonic & Sabrina the Teenage Witch“ one, but regardless, there’s a sense of finality to having given these issues a close look for so long. Page have been analysed, discussions have been had with friends and followers, and I’ve given my two rings on various Archie Sonic topics and its varying creative team. It’s honestly very strange, having reviewed these silly Sonic comics on and off since 2015, and now finding myself with no more books to read. I was thrust back into the mindset I had back in 2017, where I ranted and raved that the comics were over, but I was a dumb kid back then. Going from this series’ jokey beginning, continuing through to the Ken Penders era, the Dork Age, the much more decent Ian Flynn era, the reboot, Sonic: Mega Drive...seeing the evolution of this book, I feel like I’ve grown as a reviewer alongside it. I hold this comic series close to my heart.

For real though, it’s not just been me. There are a lot of really cool peeps who’ve also shared their own thoughts on the comics, and I love that! Hearing about what others have to say on stuff I am also passionate about is honestly the best. Really gets my hyperfixated brain running! I must give a humble thanks to @scruffyplayssonic, @konnichibot, @kellodrawsalot @firebirdmaximus, @kkobun, @nuttyrabbit, @gojira007, @sege-h, @pc-the-unicorn-reblogs, and every single one of you for sharing my posts and giving your insight on the series and my reviews! I’m often too shy to chat and dm but I hope this post clearly express my appreciation for yall. And big props to you, @robotnik-mun​, for sticking by me for damn near the entire series. You’ve always brought up points I missed, and added to topics I myself frequently had difficulty articulating. Peeps like you guys made the journey a lot sweeter, like a sort of community!

As for the future of me covering Archie Sonic specifically, like with the comics in my heart, they’re never truly leaving. I’m still gonna post about them here and there, reblog awesome art of its characters, and of course talk about the creative team’s other stuff, be it Ken Penders’ aimless spiritual successors or Ian Flynn and IDW Publishing stuff! Come rain or shine, this blog will always exist, so yall ain’t gonna be free from me gushing about the blue hedgehog anytime soon!

Not at the moment though. Now I rest. xD

Until the next time I post!

- RobotnikHolmes out -

[magmahurricane]

A decade of friends - in no order, here’s to all the amazing people in my life old and new!

@shinkumancer : I remember following your work waaay back in the Archie Comic days. I had always been too shy to approach you, but I loved your work. I still remember so much of your Egg Boss art and it’s insane how far you’ve come. You’re still one of the sweetest, kindest people I know and I always enjoy the little drawpile sessions we have! 

@zlatis-art : We haven’t been friends for very long - it’s roughly been a year, now, but it feels like we’ve been friends longer. Something just... clicked when we met, and god I came on strong looking back! I don’t regret it tho - taking the plunge and letting you into my life was such a good call. You’re super patient and you strive so hard to treat everyone fairly and give people so much love. You’ve come such a long way with both your OCs and your art, and our calls are always so much fun! 

@sege-h : Would you believe I actually don’t remember exactly how we met...? I know it had something to do with the Sonic RPC iirc. But you’ve always been such a wonderful source of optimism and joy, and I love our talks! You’ve always been so supportive of me and I don’t know how to thank you for it?? I need to draw Storm and Carey doing more shenannigans when I get better!

@rainingautumn : I also don’t recall how, other than vague recollections of the Sonic RPC I think. I feel like I learned so much from you - you’ve provided me with different perspectives, which really helped me open my eyes to a lot of things. You’ve always been such a warm, positive presence while still standing firm and speaking up for yourself, which is so hard to do. I love your little messages, even if I don’t always know how to respond to them!

@boy-of-silence : You’re legit one of my oldest friends around and looking back on where we started it’s honestly kind of insane? We met on dA and we were practically babies like??? It’s insane, I remember so much and it all blurs together like mad, but we’ve always just sorta stuck by each other and I’m always so happy to see you on my dash. You got me into Homestuck, and you made me curious about Bioshock (I still need to finish Infinite), and I still remember the little art collabs we used to do...! I got nothing but good memories!

@kismeti : We don’t talk much, but I’m hoping to change that soon! I love your work, and you’ve put so much into your OCs. Seeing you tweet about petsites makes me think about Neopets and I age 500 years every time,, You honestly seem so sweet and kind and I can’t wait to see what more you’re gonna share with us in the new year!

@fini-mun : I don’t talk with you as much as I should (purely because I’m shy as all get out) but you’ve honestly been such an inspiration to me. You’re so incredibly kind and patient -- I still have that doodle you sent me while I had been down in the dumps. I remember I found you so intimidating when I first met you on dA, when I first tried to commission you -- and watching you grow as an artist and getting to know you has been so great! You don’t know how much I smiled that night when I expressed how I knew nothing about BatIM and you up and streamed the entire game live. I know we were both excited to play FO76 together and that was a let down for like, the entire fandom. But we should definately hang sometime and do stuff! Give your ratties my love!!

@oddpastrys : JAAADE,,, I vaguely remember meeting you in one of Kaden’s streams,, and then in Joan’s weird campaign. You’ve always been such a fun, energetic person and you always bring the best jokes. Deadass, watching RWBY with you both ruined it and enhanced it. You’re so much fun to be around and you always work so hard to cheer everyone up and please everyone, and we don’t say thank you often enough - I don’t thank you often enough. You’re so sweet and fun to be around and I’m 100% not sorry about all the horrible, horrible things I’ve made you see. 

@calderscauldron : Kaden!!! You’re another one of my oldest friends, and it’ll never be wild to me how insanely lucky it was that I happened to move to the same state as you. I remember when we were dumb kids on dA, and how you used to joke about kidnapping me -- and how my first thought when getting to Texas was “I should see where this guy lives and meet up!” sjkfdjkfs It’s been a helluva ride and I don’t regret it. We had our bumps and fallouts but we’ve always worked through it all -- and your art has come such a long way. You’re always so sweet and so much fun to be around.  You deserve so many nice things and I can’t thank you enough for sticking by my dumb ass for so long!

@haunted-pixel : Yet another decade-old friendship! Bronwyn it’s been such a fucking wild ride. I still remember your old OCs from back in the day; I remember our gryphon friend group, and our lizard group and screaming about digimon, I remember getting really into Kimba/Jungle Emperor Leo cos of you and your OCs, I remember all the drawings of Z and Miki. I remember Nuki and the others. It’s been such a long time and so much has changed around us both. We don’t talk as much anymore but I’m always thrilled when we do hit eachother up on twitter!! I seriously gotta draw more Carey x Zanity sometime. You’ve also just, improved so much as an artist and branched out so much?? Your plushies and your fursuits are absolutely amazing and I can’t believe how far you’ve come! I also still have the sketches you and your sister did for me when I was technically homeless and stuck in the hospital and I’ll always treasure them - and the Nack you made for me is still sitting cozy on my shelf, along with the yeen and Sonic you sent!

@nuttyrabbit : My absolute best friend!!! And probably most unexpected friend! I remember seeing your posts in the Archie Sonic tag way back when, and how my asshole ex used to rant about how she hated you for w/e reason. I used to be so intimidated by you because you told it how it is, and I respected your opinion so I was always lowkey afraid you thought I was stupid and hated my ideas/OCs. But even before we got close, you stuck your neck out for me when things got bad between my ex and me. And in 2018, we finally just started to click with our OC stuff.  Lady Luck became a huge comfort dynamic for the both of us. You always argue against it but I still say you’re one of the kindest people I know. You always try to look out for me and find ways to lend a hand when things get tough, you’re always trying to help me when I’m down and you go out of your way to cheer me up and I can’t thank you enough. Meeting you at RTX this year was incredible.  Thank you so much for being you. <3 

@finitevus : We don’t talk much but I can’t not add you!!! You’ve been so kind and supportive to me, and artistically you’ve always been such a big inspiration. I love your character designs and your writing is so so good, and you always strive to be so positive and warm to others and I promise I’m not ignoring you when you reach out; I’m just very shy and dumb ankjdjkfs I need to,,, say hello on discord sometime. And draw you many things!

@lightdax : You’re always a whole lot of fun and I refuse to apologize for your eyes with half the shit you’ve been exposed to by proxy. You’ve always been really sweet and you’ve really been pushing to improve this past year and it shows! Take time off your mayoral duties for the town of Cuckoldia and put up your OC bios tho! @nvllspace : I,, gotta tag ur RP blog cos IDK ur personal but JACKKIIEE. You’re so sweet and fun and your art is always such a treat. You came through with helping me realize just how toxic a certain person I needed to cut out of my life was, and you’ve always been so kind and supportive. You’re always a blast in our calls and I love your AUs so much! Also you need to stop having so many gorgeous characters cos holy shit,,,

@frecklefacefromouterspace : Nixe!  You’re usually busy these days but whenever we do catch you it’s always fun. If it wasn’t for your old server, the current server wouldn’t have even existed and you brought us all together! You’re always so sweet and bubbly and you have one of the cutest, most distinct styles I know.

And to all my other mutuals - thank you all so much for sticking by me!  I’m having difficulty typing now so I’m sorry I couldn’t get to everyone but sincerely: thank you, all of you, for making these past years such an amazing ride. I’ve learned so much from each of you and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2020!

[sege-h]

Alright this post has been ruminating in my brain for at least 2 months now and I finally have the time/focus to make it.

And it all spawned from seeing Tristamp fans going ‘Old Trigun fans only hate the new one because it changes so much from the manga, as if their beloved ‘98 version didn’t do that too’ so

As someone that’s never read the manga* (*I’ve started reading it but I’m not really far in) that knows that ain’t it and is proof of it, I’m about to go into why I don’t like the latest iteration of Trigun

So like. If you’re a fan and hate perspectives other than ‘Omg I love this show it’s SO good’, probably don’t read this

Creature design

Putting this in first because it’s probably what could be considered my most minor gripe with the show out of everything.

The creature design for the bugs? Excellent! Love it!

But then you get to...the Thomas Look at this, this is a goddamn Creature

They’ve got fun weird designs, and their heads are actually fukken Tiny-located at the ‘beak’ of their masks, and they don’t even look bird-like under there!

So it’s really disappointing when a studio that’s shown they can do great creature design comes up with....this...

Just. A blue emu. With such low color contrast between the beak and the feathers that it could get mistaken for a ‘base texture’ model. Like. C’mon.

But again that’s what could be considered my most minor of complaints so I’ll just move along to my next topics

The Human Typhoon

So. Vash already has a bounty on him at the start of this series- as he usually does. But like...why...?

He doesn’t really do much gunslinging in this series, he kinda just goes around and helps people-- which yes he does in the original series too, and people in towns already know/like him. But the difference is-- the season finale reveals that all the events in Tristamps first season took place before the events at July. So why is Vash already wanted with a huge bounty on his head? The whole ‘oh people keep mistaking Knives for him’ feels pretty flimsy since they don’t really look or act similar- and whole towns seem to know Vash just from him stopping by. He’s kind of just. Some depressed guy that goes around helping people.

Which is another thing. Tristamps Vash really is just Some Depressed Guy.

Yes ‘98 Vash is depressed too, but he hides all this, along with his rage, underneath the mask of a goofy clumsy doofus. It’s part of what makes him so interesting as a character. You watch what he does, you see all the ‘clumsy mistakes’ he makes that end up saving either himself or others that you KNOW are deliberate moves on his part, you see all the moments where you know there’s anger bubbling under the surface that he never lets loose, all the excellent gunmanship that never turns lethal even though it’d be so easy for him to mow down anyone that threatens him. And you have pieces of what’s lying under the mask that you have to start putting together.

You have a man that’s gotten very good at hiding his feelings, and his past and the things that haunt him.

Which is why it was so jarring that at the end of episode one, Tristamp’s Vash gets asked ‘what are you scared of?’ and just immediately answers ‘I have a brother.’ and in the next episode he’s just ready to answer a reporter’s questions about it and about himself.

I was just like...really??? He just immediately spills this to people he met 5 minutes ago???

There’s just so much of Vash’s nuance that’s stripped away completely from his character here- and he’s not the only one but I’ll get into that later.

And he’s just really...timid. Which- there’s nothing wrong with timid characters. But in Vash’s case it’s another case of this show’s ‘nuance-be-gone’ showing.

Vash is a pacifist, refusing to kill people in a world full of people that’d shoot him dead without batting an eye. And as you get a whiff of that rage of his that lies beneath the surface, you wonder why.

Tristamp Vash just really...doesn’t even get comically angry over things- again because he doesn’t even have the emotional mask Vash usually has. And he doesn’t do much gunslinging either, at least not until the final episode of the season.

He’s entirely too trusting for someone that’s been through the things he has. Vash as a character, at least from my POV, is a bit more complex with his trust. He trusts people with the chance to do the right thing. But he doesn’t trust people with himself- again going back to the fact Tristamp Vash just immediately goes ‘I have a brother’. And while he trusts people with the chance to do the right thing, he doesn’t just assume anyone Would take that chance. So Tristamp Vash just going ‘I know Wolfwood is a good person I see it in his eyes :)’ was equally jarring when he’s only known Wolfwood for like 5 minutes, just like with Roberto and Meryl

And I frankly just miss Vash bickering with someone like Wolfwood, instead of whatever’s happening in Tristamp where it feels like Wolfwood keeps trying to start to bicker with Vash only for Vash to be all ‘Wolfwood... <:)’ at him despite having just met him

It was fun, Vash finding a dude who’s so similar to him that he can spot his fake smile from a mile away, yet opposite in some ways and then just bickering with him was fun

Wolfwood has any nuance taken away from him as well-he was a guy that was sent to keep an eye on Vash and to kill him if he got the order to, that spent enough time with Vash that they end up being friends, and he frustrated because that was never supposed to happen.

But Stampede rushes through it’s own story set up so fast that he’s just left being kind of the edgy guy that hangs around and yells at Vash, and they want us to see them as friends because??? I don’t know, because that’s how the story is supposed to go, and we have no time for ‘show don’t tell’.

Vash and Knives

Speaking of lost nuances in relationships. Knives’ attitude towards Vash is a lot less compelling in this show to me.

I can’t speak on anything that goes on in the manga, so again that’s not even my ‘Old Trigun fan hates Stampede because of this’ issue.

To me it just seemed like Stampede Knives saw Vash as less than him. Like something broken that needs to be fixed, or remade into something ‘better’ and on his level.

Which...I don’t know. To me that’s a lot less compelling-- especially as Stampede Knives still thinks plants like him are  superior to humans! But still treats his brother, who’s the same being as him, as less. He even seems to treat other plants as less, as just fodder for his plans.

That’s a lot less compelling than a guy that thinks plants, any plants, independent like him and Vash or not, as superior to humans. The contrast there is just a lot more fun to me- of Vash, who doesn’t think he’s superior to anyone, and Knives, his twin brother that thinks they’re superior to humans and that Vash should just join him in destroying them already. Knives didn’t think Vash needed to be fixed or that he was less-- he saw Vash as his equal, but just thought he was lost in a delusional phase where he tries to live alongside humans. And he did think it was just a fleeting phase- that one day Vash would see his own superiority and abandon them after he’s had all his fun. It was just that that day wasn’t coming fast enough for Knives’ liking, so he tried to break Vash and make him ‘realize’ humans aren’t worth his time and that he should just join his brother already.

The Plants

This maybe could’ve gone under ‘creature designs’ but it didn’t quite fit because the plants are both creatures but also environments.

I don’t quite mind the designs of the plants as creatures in Stampede.

But I don’t like what they did with the environment they’re kept in at all.

I miss the giant light bulbs that stuck out of the remnants of old space ships, and how they both looked fragile due to their design but were also way too big to make stealing them be just a simple feat.

How there was no way to go into a town and be unaware of them, but any regular person would still be unaware of just what plants are

The plants in Stampede are just...they’re just the tumor device from Homestuck. Which I know sounds like an unhinged sentence so here’s a visual for what I mean

Corporate wants you to find the difference between these two pictures

Which isn’t a bad design in general but to me it’s a bad design for something that contains plants

Tropes

That’s what everyone in Stampede is. Just walking tropes without any character actually attached to them-- I keep talking about the loss of character and nuance in this show, and that’s all it really boils down to. It’s not just one or two characters that are stripped of it, it’s all of them. They’re walking tropes, and the writers keep acting like they’re characters with connections that they only ever tell us about instead of showing us or actually developing them like.

Wolfwood is just some edgy guy that keeps being angry at Vash, but no wait actually they’re friends and Wolfwood would go into battle with him.

He and Livio are adoptive brothers but we are told this rather than shown-- I’m a sucker for story beats like these so you know something’s wrong when it doesn’t tug on my heartstrings as much as it should. Wolfwood seems more ready to kill Livio- his childhood friend and adoptive brother, than he is Vash who he met a day ago and is supposed to be ready to kill.

Roberto is a drunkard that keeps not even using Meryl’s name and keeps mocking her for being a ‘rookie’. But no wait actually he cares for her deeply, like an adoptive father would even, and also she respects him too! It means so much to her when he calls her by name!

Like don’t even get me started on Roberto. I hated him, and as a character made up entirely for this show, what the writers do with all of them is the most obvious with him.

Like he spends the entire show being drunk, constant one liners of ‘rookie the world is a shithole’ and burping and lines that make me livid like ‘whoop, noob down’ in Fucking 2023

And then comes the moment where he dies. And he leaves Meryl with some parting advice, and a gun. And you realize. Oh. The writers wanted us to see Roberto as just ‘the tired dad or maybe tired uncle’. But they never actually did any character development or character moments that show this, or even develop it in the first place. They’re jumping straight from point A to point Z

All the characters are just building blocks or crumbs of who they’re supposed to be. I’ve seen so much fanart and memes from people that have only watched Stampede that would fit PERFECTLY with their ‘98 counterparts. Because the crumbs for what these characters are IS there, and fandom is incredibly good at building entire characters out of any crumbs a writer gives them but....that usually applies to like side characters and background characters. Meanwhile these are your MAIN CHARACTERS! You’re supposed to have more than just crumbs for characters when they’re your main cast, especially after a season!

I could say some things about how shipping factors into this, but I’d rather not get viciously mauled by shippers, so I won’t

Episode 1 is just bait for old fans

Literally from the very first teaser for it. You get everything I complained Vash lacked earlier, and then some, and it’s just in this one episode.

You get fun western-y music. You get Vash showing his skills, and actually firing his guns. You get him being a doofus, and pulling expressions like this

Which is like...God. GOD I miss Vash pulling funny and exaggerated expressions! Especially since this shows us they CAN push the models like that, and it looks so fun! And then they just. Don’t do it again.

They pull you in with ‘yes this is a different show, but still has some of the Trigun things you love in it!’ and then they don’t do it again for the rest of the season. No ‘who the hell even is this guy’ feats of gunmanship, no fun times, no exaggerated fun expressions, and no Vash yelling and being a doofus...which is the other thing

Voice acting

Everyone’s kind of. Subdued in that department. Like they could do more but they just don’t do it. And so does Vash. You get Johnny Yong Bosch to reprise his very first VA role, and then you don’t even let him go all out or really have any scenes that’d LET him go all out? I think that should be a crime

You have scenes here and there where you get to hear him do his ‘a panicked Vash is running’ noises and those are good but it leaves you wishing we had more scenes where he could be a goof

And then in the season finale he finally FINALLY gets to yell and have some emotion but even that feels just a tad held back

But the voice acting issue could be entirely because Crunchyroll especially loves to live up to the ‘Crunch’ in its name which is a whole other can of worms that’s not related to Trigun alone so. I’m gonna let it slide

Jesus, Sege, is there anything you DO like in Stampede?

I like the worm creature design! And I like Zazie. Zazie is definitely the best thing about Stampede and I like that they kinda set up a third party in the whole humans vs. plants thing by just being the insect creatures that have lived on Gunsmoke long before the ships crashed. The planet was theirs, and now they suddenly have two new species on it, and one of the new species is trying to wage war and destruction on the other, so they’re just trying to figure out which one will be more beneficial to them. I think that’s fun.

I also like the animation! I love what they’ve done with the 3D-- before this series whenever I tried to get into a series with animation that’s like ‘its CG but it’s looking like 2D animation’ I just couldn’t get into it. I could never figure out what it was about the style that kinda put me off. But I finally did it with this series!

I...like the final season 1 episode? Maybe? I have issues with it but honestly I think Vash getting to yell, and fire his gun as part of a big fight scene was such a breath of fresh air after the whole season that I just didn’t care

I like the music but it also feels like I have to just listen to the OST to actually get to hear music other than the Jenora Rock Resistance and Knives’ theme, it doesn’t feel very prominent in the show

Conclusion

Stampede is just. Not a good show. Not ‘not a good Trigun show’, just plain not a good show. If I’d never seen ‘98 Trigun earlier this year, I’d still have all the issues with it that don’t have to do with Trigun related things like the Thomas or the plant environmental designs or the character dynamics. I’d still think the characters are just walking tropes and that the writers want the payoff without any of the buildup or development, I’d still think it’s jarring how quick Vash is to trust people with his past, or trust that Wolfwood is good. I’d still be glad Roberto is dead because I’d still hate him.

It’s not just me theorizing on ‘what ifs’, I think it’s the most evident that I’d have the same emotions by how I reacted to the Livio episode. I haven’t gotten to him in the manga, and he isn’t in the ‘98 anime. I have nothing to compare that episode to, but it still left me feeling like the writers wanted payoff without development.

If I’d never seen Trigun ‘98, I’d have probably dropped this series after the first season, if not the first few episodes.

But having seen Trigun ‘98, I’m left morbidly curious as to what the plans are for the story. It’s like watching someone put together a puzzle by mixing the pieces around, and they’re still making an image form so you’re just curious as to wtf this thing will look like once it’s completed compared to the picture on the box.

So I’m kind of just along for the ride now even though the ride keeps crashing every 5 minutes

[sege-h]

I still cant believe it took me until last year to watch Trigun

It literally has so many of my favorite things that I even have in my goddamn main OC's story that I've had for over a decade like;

-A guy that hides all his turmoil behind a smile, so much so that there's a noticeable difference between his usual smile and a genuine one

-He that could kill every single opponent if he so wanted. But he doesn't want to, even as they hurt him, even as they enrage him

-Fun prosthetics

-A guy who's outlook on life clashes with the first guy's, but dammit he spent too much time around him and he's been infected with friendship and cant help but do things like care about the guy or help him when he needs it

-A fucked up moon

Like this show is so far up my alley that it's like someone wrote it for me specifically. Its existed since 1998. Ive been on the internet with anime at my disposal since like 2008. How'd I never watch it--

[sege-h]

I was already thinking about Shadow so much today before the animation news, because I watched a Sonic Battle playthru

And just

Do you ever think about Shadow in Sonic Battle? How he says several times that he won't let tragedy repeat. Meaning, his kind of tragedy. The kind where he knows hes made to be a weapon, but doesn't know where from or why, or what his purpose is. And how he does go through with helping Emerl avoid that type of tragedy. He helps him uncover why he was made, so he can know where he came from and then choose his own purpose.

And then tragedy befalls Emerl anyway. The kind where his original destructive purpose is forced on him, and then he dies. And literally his last words are 'Shadow...should I be glad I was born...?'

Because I do, I think about this sometime and im not ok

[sege-h]

People are saying Knuckles and Ariem were heavily implied as a ship in Dream Team and i just wanna say-what the FUCK are you talking about!?!

God this is another consequence of that whole 'people in fandom are looking at things purely from a shipping lens and its making them ignore every other interesting dynamic or narrative' issue

Except now the people doing this have started annoying themselves with ship implications that dont even exist

Do you know what implications actually existed? The implications that Knuckles is the only one in the cast that truly understands what it means to be a guardian and to have a duty that youd sacrifice everything to fuffil.

And if you still think 'yes but thats romantic implication! If a character finds another character relatable its gotta be romantic!' then I cant help you lmao

[sege-h]

Alright I need to talk about this because its been on and off pissing me off for months since I first saw it, and I've seen it crop up here and there more since.

Some recent events have made me think about it again.

And the recent realizations of people like me that had never heard of a certain queer video essayist thief and how much what he's spewed has been parroted by young queers on here has made me think about it AGAIN.

Though hes not the source of this particular take. I don't know who is.

This take being "twink gets used in the porn industry, so if you use twink to refer to a character whos a minor, youre a bad person that's sexualizing that character"

I've mostly seen this take in the Sonic fandom, but then again its the fandom i orbit around the most often so I don't doubt it's made it's way to other fandoms.

I don't know where it's come from. But the fact that seeing people yell about it reminds me so much of how people in fandoms would yell 'you cant call that character ace/bi/pan! It implies theyve had sexual experiences, youre sexualizing minors!' circa 2015 isnt a good sign

That it kinda reminds me of the whole still ongoing "queer is a slur" bullshit isn't good either

And that there's now a dumb take like this that tries to go after a word gay men use specifically, after it rose in popularity, is both very concerning to me, and it pisses me off

"Twink gets used in the porn industry!"

So has literally every queer word we have.

So have plenty of words that are descriptors, because thats what twink is! A descriptor! Or are we gonna start claiming fat is a sexual term too(which some people have but yknow lmao)? Or skinny? White? Black? Blonde? Brunette??

Twink, by it's definition, means a skinny gay boy. That's it. It doesn't say anything sexual about them.

And the reason im getting pissed is that once again young queer folks are spreading views that are evangelical sounding af, but theyre not seeing that. Because they saw someone on the internet say 'actually this word is bad and if you call a character whos a minor it youre sexualizing them' and have decided to parrot it without an ounce of critical thinking

If you're wondering what the fuck im on about, ask yourself this;

Why do you find yourself outraged and ready to accuse someone of sexualizing a minor if they say "Sonic is a twink" but not if they say "Sonic is a skinny straight boy"?

(Yes yes 'actually im outraged someone would call Sonic straight' there I made the joke for you)

If youre about to go "well because twink is a porn term!" I refer you back to the fact that all queer words have been used in porn, as have many other words that are descriptors

Twink means 'skinny gay boy'. 'Skinny' and 'gay' have also been used in porn. So has 'straight'.

So again, I'll ask why a character being called a twink/skinny gay boy outrages and disgusts you, but not calling them 'skinny straight boy'?

And will you still be outraged or are you realizing you sound a bit too close to a bigot that says gays holding hands or kissing in childrens media is too sexual, while straight characters doing the same is fine?

[sege-h]

Alright I've not stopped thinking about this all day because I'm peeved and I guess I have things to say as someone that has been here long enough that they watched the internet go 'OCs are annoying and cringe' for a few years, enough that it scared a bunch of young artists away from ever making OCs without the fear of looking """cringe"""

If you're not someone's friend/it's not an inside joke it's never okay to go 'Kill that [OC]' especially not when you go '[not joking]' at the end of it

That's someone's little guy (gender neutral) that they've made. Something creative they've shared with the world.

Yes you're allowed to find something annoying but like. When you very publicly go 'I think this is annoying' you're telling the someone that made it 'you and this thing that brings you joy are annoying'

You are not critiquing anything by doing this- No one asked you to, and Sonic OCs aren't like a show or a comic anyone can watch and give their negative thoughts on. You're just being a jerk. OCs can be so personal and you never know whose day you might be ruining by basically going 'I hate that you're having fun, I find it and your OC annoying'

Maybe it's a budding artist

Maybe it's someone whose day was already bad

Maybe it's someone whos dealing with insecurity in their work and your words will be the breaking point that makes them quit or makes them too anxious to keep doing something for years to come

Can you tell that last one happened to me once? Lmao

The Sonic OC Tournament was so civil and that's because everyone in that tournament understands what it's like to make an OC and share it with the world. Nobody wants to go 'youre annoying, your OC should get killed in this poll' to someone else, because they understand how rude that is

People are campaigning for that OC to win a general Sonic tournament? GOOD. They're having fun! What do you expect them to do? Go 'hey everyone vote for literally anyone else but my OC, i hate them'????

When you have negative thoughts on someone having fun without hurting anyone, keep them to yourself. Or hell, maybe you have a friend that's also negative, feel free to DM each other over it instead of saying it where the artists can see. Again, the artists of a personal OC, not some piece of media that's free to critique.

I've been in this fandom for a long time. And trust me, if this is you, if you find yourself acting like this. Work on it. Grow into someone better. Because you don't wanna be the person whose impact on someone's time in fandom was 'that one jerk weirdo'

Me and the friends I've grown up along with in this fandom remember all the good times- the time someone did fanart of our OCs unprompted, the times people were nice to us, the times anyones commented so much as a 'hey! I like your fanfic/OCs!' and even though it's been years, we remember the names of the people that made fandom good for us!

But we also remember the jerks. But not their names. They're just a 'hey remember that one time this weirdo said my OC sucks?' or 'hey remember that jerk that kept insisting to critique my art even though no one asked?'

They're nameless, tiny black smudges on our experiences in fandom, people we decided to stay away from going forward. And you don't wanna be that.

I guess all I'm saying is, please learn how to act around people online. We're here to have fun, not put on a show for someone else. We're people, not content machines for you to either show amusement or disdain towards. Someone/something someone made as a fan annoys you? Stay away from it then, and don't kick someone for having fun with the characters they made

[sege-h]

How shit does your reading comprehension and character analysis skills have to be for you to think that Knives' problem was that Vash was Rems favorite? Which isnt even true because Rem didnt play favorites

Like. For all its garbage, Stampede even included Tesla so like how do you look at that and think 'ah yes Knives' hate stems from Rem loving Vash more which was totally real'

Stampede was shit on all other fronts tho, so now we are also left with people somehow thinking Knives wants to hurt plants while Vash is there to save them. Because when a piece of media is shit at conveying characters and telling a story, youre left with fans that either misunderstood things or had to try and fill the gaps. Or both

[sege-h]

The best and only good thing to come out of Stampede is that it caused more people to go watch the 98 anime and read Trimax and appreciate that

The worst thing to come out of it is that people will call any non-Stampede version of Knives, Nai

[sege-h]

I had a dream that a very young looking Mads Mickelsen was in my house and we were in my dining room talking about his Hannibal role?? Which is a show ive never seen

It was kinda funny, my mom was like 'Who are you discussing the 'fava beans' scene from Silence of the Lambs with?' and I was casually like 'With Mads Mickelsen, why?'

Personally I blame @deadpoolian and @peachiesnake for putting Hannibal gifs all over my dash, they finally GOT me

[sege-h]

Just finally fell asleep only to immediately get woken up because i dreamed i was watching a clip of jerma playing Sonic 06 where Elise's face texture broke so bad she looked like a PS1 era model, and jerma was like 'this is like, like those reddit hot girl pics you know the ones chat, the ones like' and then he got up and started walking away from his camera, revealing he was wearing assless chaps

[sege-h]

A couple weeks back, after listening to one too many spooky ghost shows at work, and then waking up to one after a nap, I had a spooky dream with random dudes in it.

Anyway I proceeded to go ‘I should post this’ and kept forgetting about it until now when it’s inevitable because I made art based on the dream and I wanna have the larger context on hand

It’s not one of the dreams I remember in full, I didn’t even right after I woke up, so this is what I remember.

The dream was about two dudes that were in the middle of their beliefs. They were both skeptics that want to be proven wrong. One was a tad more skeptic than the other- that man was more of a mess. He had longer hair, a leather jacket, looked absolutely exhausted

The other dude was more put together and polite. A bit too fancy even because he even wore a bowtie and had an undershirt and a jacket.

And they were skeptic in this way that like...they did believe in the supernatural. They knew how to deal with supernatural things, and knew that there were things like demons out there. But their skepticism came into play when it comes to ghosts specifically, because their question wasn’t so much ‘do ghosts exists’ but more ‘is there proof that ghosts were actually human once’ so that’s what they were looking for

After a ghost hunt, they were reviewing evidence late into the night because they both liked being very through. The Mess of a Guy guy liked to sketch things down in a notebook- it helped him remember things better on top of writing them down.

Since it was very late, the Polite Guy tried to make small talk just to keep awake better, and was like “I watched this one movie recently”

Mess Guy was headdesking on his notebook, raised his head a bit at this and was like “huh, really? What was it about?” and the other guy got kinda flustered and stammered, so Mess Guy was like “oh, was it a gay one?” with a shit eating grin, and he kinda snickered. He continued listening to more investigation audio, and went back to headdesking

But as he closed his eyes he started having sketchy visions of himself somewhere in the woods or something, from the POV of something watching and following him, and he had that feeling of Dream Dread that something bad will happen.

He opened his eyes and was like “fuck. I’ve been at this too long, I can’t close my eyes. I can’t be awake or asleep, it’s all too much” and he slumped down on the floor, kinda curled up

Polite Guy was like “You just need sleep. I’ll keep at this and then we can head home” and he closed his eyes to let out a sigh But he had the same type of sketchy visions, and right after he kinda shakily came down to the floor next to the other guy because he realized this wasn’t just sleep deprivation-something was very wrong. And he like picked up Mess Guy and cradled him in his arms and kept going “It’s alright, I’m here, I won’t let anything get us”

And he looked towards the window next to them. And Mess Guy’s reflection was facing away because he was slumped in his arms with his back to the window. But Polite Guy had that same Dream Dread feeling that something very bad would happen if he saw the face of the other guy’s reflection

And then I woke up

[sege-h]

I’m watching a playthrough of Rise of Lyric for the first time Like I’d watched the cutscenes back when it came out but I haven’t watched a playthrough of it (I’m still on about what I started in 2019 aka watching a playthrough of every single Sonic game)

And...hough...

This got way lengthier than I expected so

The graphics are just kinda. No

Some of the voice acting feels like the actors were given 0 direction and like it was one in one take (A line of Tails going ‘Go buddy bot go’ completely unenthusiastically comes to mind first)

And it just feels like the devs think you;

-Have never played a video game in your life

-Will not learn how to play a video game in the process of playing this one either

Like...you’ll run into the same ‘puzzle’ several times and the characters will explain how to do it as if its the first time

They’ll tell you where to use a mechanic like buddy bot Every Time like Thanks but I think that after one time the played will remember ‘hey this yellow as hell spot is where the robot goes’

Same with the ziplines like they go “HEY A ZIPLINE LETS USE IT” EVERY TIME even though those are like The Gimmick that was brought in with the enerbeams for this game

And like name a game where there’s redhot lasers headed for you where it meant a good thing?

Even as a kid when youre playing some of your first video games, you dont even need anything to tell you that you need to avoid lasers you just DO because its the obvious thing to do

But this game does not trust you with that either. Its not even the first time the player encounters these, and Tails pipes up like ‘WATCH OUT FOR THOSE LASERS SONIC’ and then Sonic might as well insult the player by outright slowly going ‘Right, avoid lasers, got it. Lasers bad’

And the talking. My god. The talking. They Never Shut Up.

Like ok I’d heard people complain about that. But it seemed like one of those things I wouldn’t mind? My first 3D Sonic was Sonic Heroes, where the characters chatter among themselves or comment on their environment- I didn’t mind it there.

But here? Its just. Constant. Constant talking, constant re-explaining of what to do or what theyre already doing (Bounce pads anyone?)

And on that same note- it really feels like just ‘PLEASE game just SHOW and stop TELLING me’

Like the characters will go ‘wow we’re going so fast!’ and theyre really...not...Sonic’s running on water and it feels like the slowest water run the series has ever seen (probably is)

No zipping around obstacles you just. Go around

At one point Tails goes ‘nice design!’ at the enemies and I know its PROBABLY meant as an in universe comment of him as the tech kid liking the technology and the way its designed. But outside of that it feels like just

Where is it, Tails. Show me the nice design, I wanna see it. All I see is mike wazowski worms

And the music...like jfc what a crime for a Sonic game to have bland af music. It all feels like royalty free orchestral music. It doesn’t really fit the feel of the areas or what the characters are doing. With any other Sonic music I can tell what game and what stage theyre from. With this one- i can tell what the game is because its the only bland music. But what areas or cutscenes tracks are from? Nope

Sonic Boom is just. Its The disappointment for me when it comes to these games. I am easily pleased. I like Forces- I didn’t expect anything huge from it and I just expected to make my OC in it- and that’s what the game gave me.

I didn’t expect much from Boom either? I didn’t mind the redesigns- like it’s all an AU with no impact on the ‘main verse’ anyway, it always was, so I didn’t freak out over them like a lot of people

But it did seem like itd be just a bit bigger, and that’s just not what we got.

Remember people being excited over Sticks? She isn’t even IN Rise of Lyric

Remember freakin PERCI??? People were so excited over her!! And then she....was an absolute nobody. She’s basically just a bg character in the show, and in the game she’s just some npc that gives you like one quest I think? And thats it. And like...what a waste. Like ok maybe I’m a bit biased and want more purple characters in the franchise AND more girls but still

I remember we thought we’d get a bit of lore for what this new universe is like because of the statues and stuff. There was none of that, you’re just kinda thrown into it

Shadow is thrown into it too? Like you know he’s just there because he’s popular. But like...it’s a new universe and we have NO IDEA what his deal is

Is he still an artificially created being? Or is he just some random edgelord hedgehog? (Yes, yes he is as far as I can tell)

Like he pops in to be like ‘hey Shadow is here’

And later he pops up again and is like “SONIC YOU’RE WEAK BECAUSE YOU HAVE FRIENDS” and its like

????????????????? hello??????????

I don’t even know if it’s ever explained what his deal was because I haven’t actually gotten to the part of the show where he shows up

Like I wanna guess that they expected you to watch the show to understand wtf his deal is??? But I have a feeling it isn’t???

Plus the game came out before the show and definitely before any episodes with Shadow rolled around so its just like

What the FUCK is happening???

Anyway I’m barely two hours into this game and there’s 7 left please help me

[sege-h]

Based on a weird dream I had last night where Storm just. Said this in an almost melancholy way, like it was nothing

I have 0 idea what he was up against