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lafemmemacabre · 1 year

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Goth 101

🦇 tl;dr version for those who prefer that format

Goth is a music-based subculture that started out in the UK in the late 70s/early 80s and spread internationally from there. It spawned from the UK Punk scene, keeping the DIY ethics but turning the music more melancholic, introspective and experimental.

The music genres that the subculture was built around are (dark) Post-Punk, Gothic Rock, Darkwave, Ethereal Wave and a few other smaller subgenres.

While the fashion and other non-musical aesthetics are very prominent and beloved by goths, they're non-essential to the subculture. What defines a goth is the music we listen to.

Our "big 4" bands are The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus and the Banshees. However, 3 out of 4 of those bands are Post-Punk acts (Sisters of Mercy being the exception Gothic Rock band), and while very influential to the rest of the goth music scene, they by no means are the end-all, be-all of what goth music sounds like. The genre has evolved through its over 40 years of existence, creating diverse sounds. Anyone darkly inclined can find something to love, even if it takes a bit of research.

The Dark & Gothic playlist on Spotify is a pretty decent way to get started into goth music. In my old blog I had entire tags dedicated to goth music as a whole, and separately to Post-Punk, Gothic Rock, Darkwave and Ethereal Wave too. I had a few playlists based on popular goth aesthetics here.

The longer description of goth music will include playlists for each bigger goth subgenre, but please keep in mind they're made by me in a way that appeals to my personal tastes for each subgenre. I don't know every band that exists and my personal taste is biased towards the 90s.

Now, to a more detailed introduction to the goth subculture...

🦇 Dark alternative vs Goth

What a lot of people need clarified is that the goth subculture doesn't have a monopoly on the dark alternative world, nor are we the home for everyone sad, spooky and weird who doesn't fit in and might listen to any sort of sad, spooky or weird alternative music.

There are SO many dark alternative music scenes that have nothing or very little to do with the goth subculture. We've influenced a lot of them fashion-wise, but just because they copied us we look alike doesn't mean we're interchangeable.

There's no scale that goes from Prep to Goth and measures how Valid™ your inner darkness is, in which if you're anything below goth then you're a poser and lame. It's perfectly fine and cool to be dark alternative without being a goth. Goth isn't a badge of legitimacy or honor, it's just one specific flavor of dark alternative among so many.

Goth is a very small and obscure subculture despite our superficial hypervisbility (our looks and infamy are hypervisible, what we're actually about is extremely buried underground), and most dark alternative people aren't goths.

🦇 What does it take to be a goth?

There's one rule, and one rule only: LISTEN TO THE MUSIC. You wouldn't call yourself a metalhead without being a fan of Metal music, would you? The same principle applies to goth.

There are many types of alternative subcultures; some examples are fashion-based subcultures, another are lifestyle-based subcultures. A third type of subculture that's very prominent (especially in the West) are music-based subcultures.

Goth is a music-based subculture, just like the metalhead, punk, emo, rivethead/Industrial, hip-hop, rave, K-Pop and grunge subcultures are.

This means that, while the music isn't THE ONLY aspect the subculture has, in order to be a goth you have to listen to goth music, and we have a specific set of music genres that our subculture was built around, so not just anything dark and melancholy will do, as we don't have a monopoly on that, but we do have something closer to a monopoly on a specific sound and musical legacy.

You don't have to listen to goth music EXCLUSIVELY to be a goth, that'd be insane. You don't even have to limit yourself to dark alternative music either. You just have to listen to goth music to a relevant degree and be passionate about it and you're in, the rest is up to you.

This means too that the way you dress has no impact on your validity as a goth, whether you don't have the gothic wardrobe of your dreams yet or you just don't want to dress goth at all. I'm TikTok mutuals with a girl who dresses exclusively in pink-white sweet lolita coords, but who's passionate about goth music. She's a goth, no questions about it. On the other hand, a lot of the influencers you'll see online who look like a lost Addams cousin aren't goths at all, and no house decor or outfit will make them gothier if they don't listen to the music.

🦇 What music counts as goth?

From the previous points I made you probably gathered that Industrial and Metal ⁠– both genres that outsiders usually associate with the goth subculture ⁠– aren't actually part of the goth genre. So, what is goth music?

Goth music developed initially in the UK in the late 70s/early 80s off of dark Post-Punk. Post-Punk itself developed from UK 70s Punk Rock, being also influenced by Glam Rock, experimental electronic music, and many other influences more specific to each band that took part in this musical development (Bauhaus were very influenced by Reggae!).

What characterizes the goth sound are elements such as; being bass-driven rather than guitar-driven (in almost every case), guitars playing more of a decorative or atmospheric role instead of being the main focus (which contrasts starkly against genres such as Metal), preference for voices with a lower vocal range (altos, this is your genre to shine in!), optional use of synthesizers, recurrent replacing of human drummers with drum machines, and common use of lots of reverb and delay effects everywhere for an extra sensation that you're listening to music recorded in a catacomb.

Dark Post-Punk was the starting point of the goth subculture, and from it, all other goth music subgenres developed. Depending on who you ask there's a billion goth micro-genres. In my opinion a lot of those subgenres are rather meaningless (a lot of them are just specific flavors of Post-Punk or Darkwave) but the main 4 subgenres of goth music are:

(Dark) Post-Punk

Gothic Rock

Darkwave

Ethereal Wave

POST-PUNK:

Post-Punk took the standard sound of Punk Rock and its DIY ethics and made the sound more melancholic, romantic, experimental, less angry, and more introspective. Dark Post-Punk in particular was influenced by gothic literature and old horror movies (including their soundtracks, the Banshees created their characteristic guitar sound after the violins in the Psycho soundtrack).

Besides the 3 Post-Punk bands I listed as part of the goth "big 4", there's bands such as Skeletal Family, Twin Tribes, Specimen, She Wants Revenge, Sex Gang Children, Xmal Deutschland, Lebanon Hanover, Cruex Lies, The Secret French Postcards and The Birthday Party.

GOTHIC ROCK:

When goth became slightly more established in sound, Gothic Rock is what happened. Less experimental than Post-Punk, a bit more Rock-based, more decidedly dark and miserable than Post-Punk necessarily is, and finally severed from goth's punk roots. Sisters of Mercy is THE most popular and influential Gothic Rock band; they popularized the use of extremely low baritone vocals and drum machines. Despite existing since the 80s, its popularity peak was in the 90s.

Goth as a whole has its "big 4", but the subgenre of Gothic Rock has its own "big 3", which are Sisters of Mercy, The Mission (UK), and Fields of the Nephilim. Other Gothic Rock bands are Rosetta Stone, Corpus Delicti, Inkubus Sukkubus, Mephisto Walz, Angels of Liberty, Two Witches, Nosferatu, Wisborg and Soror Dolorosa.

DARKWAVE:

Goth going electronic! There's basically two types of Darkwave; the one that's more a combination of Post-Punk + Synthpop (very popular in the past decade), and the one that's more a combination of Gothic Rock + electronic music in general (most popular in the 90s). EXTREMELY danceable, but then again goths can dance to literally anything. This genre has existed at the very least since the second half of the 80s and has never stopped being relevant in the goth scene, save maybe during the Deathrock revival phase.

Clan of Xymox might be the single most influential Darkwave band. There's also The Frozen Autumn, The Crüxshadows, Switchblade Symphony, Collide, Dark, Ghosting, London After Midnight, She Past Away, Drab Majesty and Boy Harsher.

ETHEREAL WAVE:

This genre is heavily linked to Dream Pop, Neoclassical Darkwave and Shoegaze. Like with Darkwave there's basically a few styles of Ethereal Wave, I can pinpoint three; the one that's like, regular Goth Rock/Post-Punk but with a lot of extra delay and reverb and other stylistic choices that make it sound, well, Ethereal, dream-like. There's the type that has lots of Folk influences (be it Medieval/Rennaisance-ish type of Folk or "ethnic" type of Folk), and there's one that's synth-based but, unlike Darkwave, sounds like what ketamine must feel like. This genre has existed since the mid 80s but its peak in popularity and relevancy in the scene was in the 90s.

Dead Can Dance is THE most influential Ethereal Wave band, but there's others such as Cocteau Twins (started as Post-Punk, ended up as Dream Pop and Ethereal Wave), Miranda Sex Garden, Faith and the Muse, Lycia, Claire Voyant, Hamsas XIII, Love is Colder than Death, SRSQ, Black Tape for a Blue Girl and Mors Syphilitica.

What about Deathrock, Gothic Metal and Industrial?

Deathrock is goth's American twin, basically. While in the early 80s in the UK morose ex-punks were playing Post-Punk, in the early 80s in the LA Punk scene morbid and brooding punk kids were playing Deathrock; it's closer to Punk Rock in sound than Post-Punk, being more about being spooky and brooding than about being eerie and romantic. Goth is to vampires and witches what Deathrock is to zombies and werewolves.

To summarize the consensus on Deathrock and its place within the goth subculture; it's rare to find a goth who's not also into at least some Deathrock, and even rarer to find a deathrocker who's not into goth. Personally, I think Deathrock is its own separate though very similar thing, but I don't mind Deathrock being lumped in with goth music.

I made a whole TikTok video on why Gothic Metal isn't a goth subgenre, but in summary; Gothic Metal is a Metal subgenre that was somewhat influenced by goth music in its earliest stage of development, but is for the most part a cross between Doom Metal and Death Metal with lyrics inspired by gothic literature. By adhering to a Metal sound it doesn't fit the type of sound goth music has. The goth influences in Gothic Metal were mostly only present in the earliest bands and a majority of the newer acts are completely disconnected from the goth scene.

As for goth's ties to the rivethead subculture (and thus, Industrial music): We've been sibling subcultures since at least the early 90s. Both very, very small and underground scenes that despite being different, had enough similarities in music, idiosyncrasy and aesthetic sensibilities to comfortably band together for the sake of scene viability. That's why you might hear people talking about the "gothic-industrial scene".

Keep in mind too that 80s and 90s Industrial music sounded very different from how it does now (compare your average Grendel or Combichrist song to your average Skinny Puppy or Die Form song). There was a lot less influence of raver music in the rivethead scene back then, and a lot more influence from 80s dark alternative music and New Wave, which are key influences for the goth scene as well.

As told by goth YouTuber Angela Benedict (goth since 1995), every goth back then listened to at least some Industrial, every rivethead listened to at least some goth music, and they all loved 80s New Wave, so DJs at shared club nights had a very easy time entertaining both audiences simultaneously.

🦇 Trivia & other things to know

The term "gothic Rock" was being used in music journalism as early as to describe releases by The Doors and The Velvet Underground, but the word "gothic" there wasn't so much used to point to a specific type of sound at that stage, it was used to imply the mood of the music and that's not where the subculture gets its name.

We don't know for sure why this subculture began to be referred to as "goth", initially the music was called either New Wave (just a darker and more underground variety of it) or Positive Punk. However, one of the potential roots of this name for our subculture is that it comes from an inside joke from members of Southern Death Cult/The Cult about Andi Sexgang (Sex Gang Children) about how he was a creepy little guy obsessed with the macabre and dark romanticism living at the Visigoth Towers, so they called him a "goth goblin" and if he was a goth, then his fans were goths too.

From the comments that the goth bloggers/vloggers I follow get, apparently it's common for baby bats and people interested in the subculture to think that they HAVE to find a goth "type" to lock themselves into, like "trad goth" or "romantic goth" or whatever else, and if they don't, they're a poser. This isn't true at all. Most goths wax and wane between fashion styles and goth music subgenres. These terms are far more useful to describe aesthetics rather than people or music.

If you ever hear people talk about "1st/2nd/3rd wave goth/Gothic Rock"; that's an (in my opinion) outdated and not too functional terminology to differentiate between "eras" of goth music, 1st wave being between 1975-1985, 2nd between 1985-1995, and 3rd between 1995-? That terminology was used widely when I was a baby bat but not so much anymore.

"Baby bat" is what a lot of more established goths call newbies! It's NOT meant as an insult nor to be condescending. It's a loving cutesy term and while of course most baby bats are very young, it's perfectly plausible to be a very grown adult and a baby bat if they just got into goth instead of getting into the subculture as a teen.

Most goth bands are easily found on Spotify except for more underground ones that haven't been active for a while (I have so many beloved bands and songs that just don't exist on Spotify), but the real goth jackpot is at Bandcamp.

Facebook is still useful for one (1) thing and it's for finding goth events; that's where I've found out about gothic fairs, goth nights and gigs; from the largely popular ones in my local scene to the very underground ones.

The song most of the subculture agrees is THE first official goth song is Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus, which was recorded as a singular take. It was the first track the band recorded together, too.

The Batcave is infamous nowadays as a huge goth night club in Soho (London) during the early 80s, owned by the band Specimen, BUT as told by the very people who used to frequent the nightclub, the whole thing has been a little overblown and its current reputation is more legend than fact. YouTuber Gothcast has a great video on the subject that was praised by members of Specimen itself!

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Most of the most iconic pioneer goth musicians HATE being referred to as goths or to have their music referred to as such. When the term "goth" was first starting to be used to describe our music and scene it was a pejorative used by outsiders and/or mostly associated with the campier and more "low brow" bands (Specimen and Alien Sex Fiend come to mind). Andrew Eldritch from Sisters of Mercy especially hates it, to the point he refuses to even say the word and refers to it as "the G word". Which is hilarious since he sounded the most stereotypically gothy out of the big 4 and looked like this at the time he started to be a piss baby about it:

Goth isn't really a "youth" subculture anymore if you ask people within the scene. Unlike people from many other subcultures, goths have a tendency to stay goth far into adulthood (even if covertly). When you go to any events, besides teens and people in their early 20s, you're gonna see plenty of goths in their 40s and older, a few of them will bring their kids along if the event is family friendly.

Besides the obvious chance of many goths being professional creatives (musicians, writers, artists, etc), for some reason A LOT of goths work in tech and healthcare!

Metalheads headbang, they and punks also mosh. What do goths do to vibe to our music together? We dance! We don't dance the same as non-goths but we LOVE to dance to our music, together or solo. There's no established dance styles to adhere to; it's just letting your body flow to the music. Some goth dancing is very intricate, some of it is very simple, it depends on the goth in question. Just in case, this is NOT like the dance gifs of cybergoths/rivetheads under that damned bridge. Think less that and more Wednesday Addams dancing to The Cramps, or the girl from the Night of the Demons movie. Here's some videos about how goths dance:

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We fucking love 80s New Wave. No, Depeche Mode isn't a goth band; yes, you'll have to dig deep to find a goth who doesn't ADORE them. The only one I've come across who disliked Depeche Mode liked Soft Cell instead.

Goth IS international! Not just in the sense that there's fans of goth music basically everywhere, but that there's local goth scenes with their own local goth bands everywhere. Outside of the US + Europe + Canada, there's huge goth scenes all over Latin América (our Deathrock and Post-Punk are at times even popular among 1st world goths), and there's also smaller but still present goth scenes in Africa, Asia and Oceania. She Past Away is very much one of THE most popular goth bands in recent years and they're from Turkey.

The goth scene has always been in friendly terms with the LGBT community. Not only are many of our biggest icons LGBT themselves (the whole band Specimen, AVC from Sopor Aeternus, both members of Diavol Strâin, the vocalist from Male Tears, Cinnamon Hadley, and many more) but plenty of cishet goths (especially the men) embrace gender non-conformity and/or androgyny. In most local scenes, goth club nights are held at gay bars/nightclubs, as they don't tend to have privately owned venues. And either way, at any goth night there'll be tons of gay and gender non-conforming goths no matter where they're held. To varying degrees depending on the locality of the scene, gay and bi people are completely normalized in the goth subculture, and gender non-conformity and androgyny aren't just encouraged, but praised and coveted.

There's goths of any religion you can think of, but Neo Pagans are somewhat over-represented in our community compared to the rest of larger society (for better or worse). Funnily enough, very few goths are actually Satanists of any sort. I'd say the numbers go more or less similar to our local non-goth peers. In the West and westernized countries I'd say it goes; majority culturally-Christian atheist or agnostic goths (usually not militant about it), a few practicing Christians of whichever denomination (usually whichever is dominant in the country they inhabit), the rare but entirely plausible Jewish, Muslim or Buddhist goth, and a bunch of Neo-Pagans. Probably one (1) or two (2) actual Satanist goths per state/province/etc, tops.

World Goth Day is celebrated every year on May 22nd.

"Mallgoth" isn't a type of goth in either a musical or fashion sense. I made another TikTok about it, but in summary; it was originally hurled as an insult towards a very specific type of poser; the American kids in the late 90s and early 00s who imitated how goths dressed and called themselves goths while only listening to Nu Metal and maybe the most mainstream Industrial Metal. They tended to congregate at malls and behave particularly obnoxious to everyone there, further ruining our already delicate image (especially at that time).

Cybergoths aren't really goths either. Their music scene is centered around EBM, which is basically slightly darker and slightly more aggressive raver music that may or may not have Industrial influences. And to be honest they behaved like a rapacious invasive species in goth club nights to the point that they almost decimated the actual goth scene and it took us a while to recover from that.

Goths are sometimes perceived as too self-serious but honestly? We love making fun of ourselves and we tend to have a very silly or dry sense of humor. We're just tired of the same cheap and inaccurate jokes made by people who don't know anything about us. The best jokes about goths will often come from goths ourselves; you can only properly make fun of something you understand well! The few times outsiders get it right though? (Sad to confirm that the South Park goth kids are hilarious and I wish they were in a better show) You'll see goths sharing the SHIT out of it, such as me being obsessed with the goths from Ridonculous Race, or the clip below:

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#goth music #music #goth #gothic #gothgoth #goth subculture #trad goth #gothic rock #post punk #darkwave #ethereal wave #Spotify #goth 101

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jollyfunvoid · 8 months

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Bucci gang headcanons

Bruno Bucciarati

-Wes Andersson fan (his comfort movie is Grandhotel Budapest)

-fave era is roaring 20s (aesthetic & music wise)

-listens to electro swing, swing, jazz and blues

-has a very strong sweet tooth. His cravings are so extreme he is able to eat whole giant chocolate on one go and not gain a single kilogram. His favorite ice cream is stracciatella and his go to dessert is tiramisu. If you wanna bribe him, use sweets

-loves Golden Girls (Sofia is his favorite character)

-hardcore Eurovision fan, always prepares for the Eurovision weeks in advance, it's like a holiday for him

-brings small camera with him everywhere he goes, gets very emotional and sentimental when taking pictures, loves to keep all the memories

-shares an old record player with Abbacchio, they collects vinyl records together

-in charge of shared Netflix and Disney+ account

-has an ornamental lower back tattoo which matches the one he has on his chest. Has a lot of tattoos all over his body in general

-is very good at sailing and has a captain's licence. As a kid he used to be obsessed with pirates, he still lowkey fantasizes about life at sea

-surprisingly a very good dancer and hella skilled belly dancer. He is also very flexible

-Caterina Caselli number 1 fan

-drinks a lot of coffee, never starts a day without a cup of cappuccino

-obsessed with candles

-as a kid he used to build wooden ship models with his dad. Now as an adult he still does it sometimes, when he is not too busy

-bought himself a sewing machine because he is really into fashion and wanted to start making his own clothes. Isn't very good at it tho, his sewing skills are poor, so he always ends up zipping everything up with his stand and then acts like that's how the "sewn" piece is supposed to look like

-has a sweet melodic laugh

-extremely flirty, he is a snarky little shit who loves to tease others

-"Oh my god look at the sky! The colors are so beautifl!" *takes a picture* "And the clouds? Wow!" *takes another picture* "Guys, come look at the sunset!" *takes 20 more pictures*

-has a very low alcohol tolerance (3 glasses in and he is under the table)

-although he seems like a very well put together person, he is very messy and tends to misplace things, especially when he creates extra storage with zippers he can't find anything. He calls it "organized chaos"

-can easily sneak up on others, he just silently spawns out of nowhere. Is it his natural ability or is Sticky Fingers involved? No one knows

-is able to talk his way out of anything, uses his charm to his advantage a lot. Also the master of puppy eyes

-suffers from PTSD because of the attack on his father, that's why he always sleeps with a knife under his pillow. Everytime he hears noises in the middle on the night he gets paranoid that someone is hiding in or sneaking into his home with the intention of harming him and his love ones. When the panic attacks hit him really hard, he irrationally makes extra safety precautions, such as blocking doors with furniture or leaving the lights on. Also has trouble sleeping in unknown places because he feels vulnerable and exposed to potential dangers, he is always in a state of high alert.

-his favorite season is winter, he enjoys Christmas the most because he loves giving presents and being with his family. He definitely plays an old Ella Fitgerald vinyl records during Christmas time

Leone Abbacchio

-tea lover, his favorite is earl grey

-doesn't like sweets, however he enjoys dried fruit (especially figs)

-Narancia is his favorite kid

-movies enthusiast, has seen sooo many movies and is the biggest critic. He has a Letterboxd account where he writes reviews. Loves watching old horror movies the most because of the gothic aesthetic, but DC movies have a very special place in his heart

-hardcore Depeche Mode, Calabrese and London After Midnight fan

-goes jogging every morning

-after getting sober he tries to look after his diet more, thanks to Bruno

-knows a lot about occult stuff

-secretly watches RuPaul's drag race with Trish

-owns a motorcycle

-named his stand after Bruno's favorite music genre to honor everything Bruno has done for him

-takes very cold and brisk showers

-taught all the boys how to drive

-thanks to Mista he became a huge Gorillaz fan

-since Moody Blues doesn't have lips, she communicates with him via symbols on her digital forehead screen

-never puts down his headphones

-has a playlist for literally any occasion. Tends to gatekeep music, you have to be very special if he shows you his playlists. Has made a playlist for each member of the Bucci gang, the only one who knows is Bruno (Leone created him multiple playlists, they even have a shared one, which they play when they are alone)

-his skin is very prone to bruising

-Moody Blues also allows him to see fragments of the past when he touches various items, he is able to sense the overall vibe and emotions of their owner and the situation they were in while using the item.

-his clothes may be dark, but I know for a fact his socks and underwear are colorful af, wild patterns all over

-his favorite season is autumn, he loves rainy and foggy weather

-the biggest prankster of the group. Everyone thinks either Narancia or Mista are always responsible for the pranks, but it is actually Leone. No one ever suspects him, because he doesn't look like the type of guy who would enjoy such childish things. And thanks to his stoic appearance he always gets away with it.

-true crime podcast listener. Him and Fugo share this passion and often discuss their favorite podcast shows. Sometimes they watch detective movies together and bet on who will solve the mystery first

Pannacotta Fugo

-reads a lot of crime novels in his free time, always comes up with his own theories and tries to solve the case before the detective (got mistaken only once and couldn't get over it for a long time). His favorite author is Sebastian Fitzek

-loves watching cartoons and animated movies, because he didn't get to enjoy them as a child

-hates horror movies because of loud jumpscares, but doesn't mind gore

-drinking green tea helps him to calm down

-gets sunburnt easily

-either never gets ill, or is sick for several weeks straight

-developed not only respiratory, but also digestive problems because of Purpe Haze and feels nauseous a lot (also throws up very often)

-uses make up to cover his facial scars

-his skin is extremely dry

-has a very light sleep, he finds it extremely difficult to share room with others during missions (he is only able to fall asleep with either Bruno or Giorno because they are not noisy sleepers like the others)

-Sheila, Murolo and him have regular sleepovers and movie marathons. They also cook dinner together

-his favorite bands are System of a Down, Slipknot, Bad Omens and Motionless in White

-can't go on rides in amusement parks because he gets sick

-him and Abbacchio visit rage rooms regularly

-always carries a book with him

-chews a lot of bubblegum to release his anger

-everytime the gang travels abroad he is the one who has to translate everything since he knows many foreign languages. He speaks english, french, russian, spanish and norwegian fluently, his pronunciation is so spot on you could barely tell he is not a native speaker. Doesn't have an accent at all. Also knows basics of sign language and cyrillic alphabet. He uses these skills often in Italy too, when he gets approached by strangers on the streets he pretends he is a confused tourist who doesn't undertand italian

-gets overstimulated easily, he is especially sensitive to noises (suffers from misophonia)

-bites ice cream and ice

-"the book was better than the movie" type of person

-picky eater, very cautious with unfamiliar food

-takes extremely hot showers. Whenever he is in the bathroom it ends up looking like a sauna in there. Also the gang has an unwritten rule that if they share a room during a mission, Fugo can use the bathroom first because he hates feeling dirty and has to use the shower immediately, otherwise he will be grumpy and won't shut up about it

-has a nasty skin picking habit, which results in him picking patches of dry skin and scabbed-over cuts and scratches (many of his injuries never fully heal because of this)

-never leaves the house without a hand sanitizer

-fidgets with his hands a lot when he is anxious

-goes to bed first and also wakes up the first

Narancia Ghirga

-vegetarian

-convinced Abbacchio to watch Brooklyn 99 with him (although Leone didn't like it at first, they now binge watch it together). They also watched Breaking Bad and What We Do In The Shadows

-has heterochromia

-thinks Orange Capri Sun is the supreme flavor and refuses to drink any other flavor

-created a shared playlist for the squad, he blasts it everytime the gang travels somewhere (it mostly consist of EDM, trap, phonk and rap)

-always beats everyone in Just Dance game sessions

-wears mismatched socks

-somewhat good at drawing, has a very unique cartoon caricature-like style

-hardcore Marvel fan (loves Guardians of the Galaxy the most), argues with Abbacchio a lot because he likes DC

-Mista, Trish and him had a podcast at some point

-his favorite candy is Kinder Surprise

-makes paper airplanes when bored

-bites people he love

-cries when animal dies in a movie

-suffers from seasonal allergy

-sleeps with tiny Creeper and Enderman Minecraft plushies, he takes them everywhere and even made them an instagram account, where he shares random pictures of them. When someone from the gang goes on a separate mission, he gives one plushie to the group or the individual, so they wouldn't feel lonely. And they also take pictures of the plusie and send them to Narancia.

-speaking of Minecraft, he manages a server where the gang plays together. He even created custom skins for everyone which look like their stands. Since he is the only one without humanoid stand, his skin is Mr. Smith, the pilot or Aerosmith. He wears a jacket with a picture of his stand in the back

-he is afraid of doctors and doesn't like hospitals. Everytime he gets sick or injured, he gets very anxious about his health. He hates dentists the most.

-loves when Fugo reads to him because he has a very smooth audio-book-like voice when he is calm

-experimented with different hair dyes couple of times, Trish and Abbacchio helped him

-die hard South Park fan, quotes the show on daily basis

-steals everyone's clothes. Can't find a shirt? Narancia is wearing it. Your hoodie is missing? It's in Narancia's closet

-has sticky notes all over his room, because if he doesn't have something written down, he will most likely forget it

-surprisingly very strong, the only person from the gang he is not able to lift up is Leone

Giorno Giovanna

-his emotions effect his powers (different flowers grow around him or from his hair when he gets excited, angry or scared), however he manages to control and hide it well

-master builder in The Sims game; doesn't care about the gameplay as such, he just enjoys building the houses and spends hours decorating them. Fugo loves to join his gaming sessions, but he on the other hand doesn't care about the houses or decorations, his goal is to always kill as many sims as possible (he loves to play around with various gruesome mods, which Giorno secretly enjoys watching)

-walking cottage core moodboard aesthetic

-goes on a picnic at least 2 times a week. In general preferst to eat ouside, terrace or garden are his favorite places

-has a very complex skincare routine

-heist movies enthusiast

-Trish got him into astrology and tarot cards

-loves theatre and poetry, even tried to write some poems himself

-writes official Passione documents on typewriter

-installed beehives in the Passione mansion gardens and makes his own honey

-collects dried flowers

-is the best liar in the group

-a bug magnet, there is always some type of insect crawling on his clothes

-him and Fugo have library & bookshop dates, they also visit museums together and exchange random facts about nature. Nerds in love, what can I say

-caramel is his favorite ice cream and dessert toping

-has a small floral tattoo on his wrist

-autistic

-loves taking bubble baths

-takes part in any bet without hesitation, no matter how absurd it is

-very bad dancer, has no rythm, but he is the best singer from the group, his voice is angelic

-very rough driver; hits the breaks hard, pumps up the gas fast and does very sharp turns. Also drives hella fast

-learned how to differentiate the steps of other people (especially the fellow teammates, since they live together). This is an old habit from his childhood.

-he walks very quietly, others barely notice when he walks into a room or when he leaves

-hates the smell of cigarettes

-others think he has a very odd music taste, because he will be singing a song from a Disney movie and within a couple of minutes you can catch him vibing to Banshee. He is forbidden to play his music in the car because it consist of all kinds of genres it makes it almost uncomfortable to listen to. His fellow gang members say his playlists are inconsistent, but they just make sense to Giorno.

-speaking of music, he is a huge fan of Hozier, Die Antwoord, Ghostemane and Little Big

-very creative, his hobbies include all kinds of crafty ativities, such as sewing, embroidering, pottery making, felting, knitting, soap making, candle making…. you name it, if he can create something, he will. And he is very good at it

-extremely fascinated by venomous animals and poisonous plants. The deadlier the better. His obsession with killer plants led to him nicknaming Fugo "his aconito", because he associates the aconite flower with his stand (it disables nerves, lowers blood pressure, and can stop the heart, plus it's purple). His other favorite flowers associated with Fugo and Purple Haze are Nightshade, Love in a mist, Spider lily and Morning glory

-zones out a lot

-sleeps with dozens of pillows, when he sleeps he is literally burried under them

-when he gets overwhelmed he lights up an incense stick and it calms him down. He is very fond of nice smells.

Guido Mista

-enjoys shitty movies, especially buddy commedies and low budget rom coms. Abbacchio hates when Mista picks films for the movie nights. Bruno on the other hand loves it

-Adam Sandler number 1 fan

-signed up for an archery course, also tried to use crossbow at some point

-can fall asleep anywhere, snores very loud

-likes the weirdest food combinations (like ice cream and pickles and stuff), the type of person who eats fries with McFlurry

-kills bugs with Nerf guns, Giorno hates it

-plays airsoft and paintball in free time

-enjoys camping, rockclimbing and rafting. Outdoor activities are his thing

-hella superstitious, made up various rituals he repeats in order to avoid bad luck

-very religious, always says a prayer before every mission

-reggaeton is his favorite type of music

-idk why but him having diabetes makes so much sence, since Pistols have to eat regularly to keep his energy and sugar lvl. stable

-mayo is his go to dressing with everything (fries, hot dog, nachos...)

-him and Narancia have 1am fast food trips

-makes silly bets with others and always challenges them to do something stupid for money, Giorno is always the first one to participate

-the best hugger

-big brother energy, everytime the other teammates screw something up and are afraid to tell Bucciarati or Abbacchio, they go to Mista for advice. He is extremely responsible and can always keep his head clear in stressful situations

-claims to hate drama but is always down to listen to some fresh tea

-loves watching cooking competitions. He is always judging the contestants harder than Gordon Ramsay ever could, Abbacchio occasionally joins him because he finds it amusing

-whenever someone tells him "I love you" he replies "Ditto", referencing one of his favorite movies (Ghost, 1990)

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #vento aureo #golden wind #jjba part 5 #bruno bucciaratti #leone abbacchio #pannacotta fugo #narancia ghirga #giorno giovanna #guido mista #bucci gang #bucci gang headcanons #jjba headcanons #bruabba #fugio

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sociopathicartist · 3 months

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Hey! I was wondering if you could do both fluff and some suggestive or more mature relationship headcanons with Sans?

tysm for requesting! all the suggestive/mature ones will be below the cut

Classic!Sans x reader (Fluff and Suggestive) headcanons.

Not that Sans would be extremely clingy per se, but he is very attached to you. I feel like he’d for sure like to just show up to your work quite often with a lunch or snack for you that he made, always packed with a silly joke written on your napkin inside. He kinda works various jobs and works around town since he’s not a big fan of the boring, same daily routine with his life, so whenever he’s off from work and he doesn’t have really anything to do since almost all his time goes to you, he’ll just show up to surprise you anyways. He likes to just spawn in behind you, sometimes he’ll tap your shoulder and give you a little kiss on your neck as he stands on his tiptoes to let you know he’s there, other times he’ll send you a photo of yourself to be silly. He likes the most though to just stand behind you and wait for you to turn around and notice he’s there, followed by a short scream from the Sans jumpscare. Is that weird? Probably. He doesn’t care.

“Sans! Where the fuck did you come from?”

‘whaaat? babe, it’s just me.’

He’s gotten into the habit recently of bringing you things every time he sees you. The gifts rotate out, and they range in extreme variation, but most of them are just silly things he saw when he was out and he bought it because he thought of you. Sans has found that he doesn’t like showing up empty-handed when he sees you anymore, he always has something to slip into your pocket or tuck in your hair. It’s one of his favorite ways of showing you how much he appreciates you. The gifts range anywhere from your favorite flowers, to a smooth rock he found that he drew a face on for you, and to a little ring he saw at the store that he saved up for and waited until he was able to bring it to you at a fancy dinner together. He just really likes bringing you little things to show that he loves you, and it makes him happy to see you wearing a bracelet he got for you or seeing the flowers he gifted you resting nicely in a vase on your coffee table. Even whenever you’ve been dating for years and you both have moved in together, you’ll wake up some mornings to him tucking a piece of hair behind your ear and slowly bringing up something he cooked for you to rest on your lap.

‘hey there, gorgeous. you want these waffles? made them just for you.’

Sans didn’t have much interest in dating before you and him became best friends, he was always a bit too lazy, a bit too tired, and a bit too occupied with other things. Those and the fact that nobody really suited him well enough for him to be interested romantically. It makes sense for him to be a virgin, sex is never really something he thought he’d be interested in ever trying with anyone at any point. Sure, the jokes are funny to make, and he hears from his coworkers about who got a piece of what last night, but the subject rang pretty deaf on him and he never had many thoughts of ever having sex with someone. It’s a good piece of effort for him too since he’s a skeleton and he’d have to use magic to conjure anything if that’s what his partner wanted. The topic never really was brought up whenever the two of you started dating, so he just pushed the idea aside.

Then when you were both cuddling on the couch like any other night, and your hand that was under his shirt mindlessly tracing along the vertebrae on his spine trailed a little bit too low, your skin felt just a little bit too soft, too nice. You saw his startled reaction, apologized, and pulled your hand away, but the feeling was still implanted in his mind.

He’s awkward to bring it up to you since he hasn’t talked about this with anyone before other than melee jokes and snickers, so whenever he awkwardly suggested that you both should get a bit more intimate, he wasn’t sure how to think on what was happening whenever you tugged him along to the bedroom. Needless to say, he doesn’t become as awkward on the subject or initiating anything around you, but you might have to be the one to tag him in for more a lot of the time since he still gets a bit too awkward to say or ask for anything.

He gets very vocal, which he wasn’t aware that some people don’t like that. It doesn’t make sense to him why you would want someone to be quiet with their noises, doesn’t that tell them what a good job they’re doing? He’s always mumbling something, always telling you how good he feels, how good you’re doing, how much he loves you. It’s a bit weird to see him so focused and into something, since he’s usually pretty nonchalant about 90% of things around him, but it’s definitely a nice sight to see.

‘fuck, sweetheart, i can't-‘

‘wait- do that again, like that, i like that.’

‘holy shit, i love you so much.’

The only time he ever really shuts up is whenever he’s passed out afterward, looking folded over himself in a weird position since he just tumbled onto the pillows in exhaustion before dragging you down to sink into the bed with him.

He always wants to have his hands on you, all the time. This ties in with just him being physically affectionate, but to just be with you like this, getting to admire you and listen to you as you’re over him, he can’t help but keep his hands on you the whole time. They are either wrapped snugly around your waist, running through your hair, or tracing up and down your sides. Sans just can’t help it, his full and loving attention is just on you.

I also just don’t feel like he’d be much into PDA or any exhibitionism. I know there are a lot of fanfics out there where he gets freaky in public with the reader, and this is no diss to them, but I just don’t feel like Sans would be one for that. That doesn’t mean he shuns you in public or anything because his arm is always wrapped around yours, and he’s always bumping into you and giving you little kisses on your knuckles whenever you’re around other people. He’s just not interested in making out or getting frisky in a public setting. He likes to be alone with you, somewhere nice and private where he feels safe just being able to relax, not masked in an alleyway or bathroom somewhere. Sans also just isn’t very open about his personal life or interests with people (other than you after a bit), so it doesn’t make logical sense for him to be so willing to have one of the most vulnerable sides of him able for show of being caught or seen.

#undertale #undertale au #undertale alternate universe #sans #sans undertale #sans x reader #classic sans #sans x you #sap #sans headcanons

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autistichalsin · 7 months

Text

I know I am in the extreme minority, but there hasn't been a single change Larian has made to the game post-release that I have worse than neutral about, and most of them I consider moderate to extreme improvements. There are some added lines I didn't like per se, but I never liked those less than what was (not) there originally. Some examples (most Halsin-focused because those are the ones I pay the most attention to)

Neutral:

Changing Gortash's note

Allowing the Dark Urge to have a flirty line with Gortash (if that has been confirmed)

Changes to certain dismissal lines

Halsin's line if you show him Kagha's letter

Spawn Astarion's response if the player sleeps with Mizora

Some of the new lines for Halsin re: Baldur's Gate, Shadow Druids, etc

Liked:

Additions to the epilogue that let you talk to your (former?) love interest if you went to hell with Avernus, rode dragons with Lae'zel, etc

Other new lines for Halsin re: Baldur's Gate, Shadow Druids, etc

Scenes dealing with Vlaakith path Lae'zel ascending, the implications of this, etc in the end

Loved:

New kisses

Camp idle behaviors

The Halsin-Minthara ultimatum

The epilogue party

Halsin's expanded post-Drow discussion

Halsin's platonic path

The updated lines when spawn Astarion gets burned in the sun

Cuddling cinematic post-Drow foursomes/moresomes

The new bad ending sequence, both in terms of animation, and the fact that now romanced Minthara or Ascended Astarion who encouraged the player to take over are spared by the player (if anything, I feel they could change this bit MORE and give us more of the aftermath of the player thralling their friends and loved ones)

The new note in the epilogue from Archdruid Francesca, mentioning sending Ormn to live with Halsin at his commune

The new Speak With the Dead lines for Halsin if he dies to Orin instead of in the goblin camp

Karlach's ending with Wyll and/or the player in Avernus

The option to tell Halsin you want to join him at his commune

... Etc.

I can think of nothing off the top of my head that I think made the game worse. At worst I might go "strange to add that as it didn't change anything," I.E. Halsin's non-reaction to Kagha's note. I didn't hate it- I just felt it added nothing. (Maybe it's a way of setting flags for the dialogues specific to Halsin knowing about the Shadow Druids in case the player didn't investigate Kagha before finding him?) But I can't think of anything that made the story/my experience worse in any way.

I know people keep complaining that Larian is "listening to some fans over others" and such, but to me, I don't think they have done that? Very few of these seem in any way like they were influenced by fan complaints (and the few that were, were, in my opinion, definite improvements, I.E. the player/Wyll going to Avernus with Karlach, Halsin's additional post-Drow dialogue, etc). And of course, Larian has shown they also have no problem NOT adding things when it goes against their vision- they have repeatedly shut down requests for an expanded evil path, haven't added to Wyll's story despite very loud fan outcry, haven't made Halsin monogamous despite a very vocal group of fans calling for this on the Larian forums and Discord... etc. It clearly isn't number or loudness of the fans influencing 95% of these changes- it's Larian adding things that already fit in their vision.

I guess it is also baffling to me because I'm used to games that are either from series that have been dead for decades or are rushed out just as money grabs (Pokemon) with little attention given after besides minimal bug fixes and content for paid DLCs (cough, Pokemon). To see a game that reflects on their story (or just general experience, like their constantly giving Cazador buffs in tactician mode) and constantly changes what they think should be is, in my opinion, pretty admirable. I truly don't understand all the outrage- to me, it's a sign they care about their story and want it to be the best they can make it, even after people have already paid them for it.

I know i'm in the minority here, but the changes make me respect Larian a lot more than I already did.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3

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miraculouslbcnreactions · 2 months

Note

Just wanted to say that i shared your post about Miraculous being a cross between magical girl (team) and rom-com genres and the failings of it.

It spawned a fun debate as we tried to think of other shows who tried the same thing but stayed in the mid-zone of both genres. All we ended up with was Teen Titans (as you mentioned) and Inuyasha which don't quite fit the bill as they aren't exactly magic girl shows in the traditional sense before we swerved off to try to find examples of other genres that don't mess well but should.

Anyways, just wanted to thank you for the analysis. It spawned a fun discussion.

Thank you for this lovely ask! It really made me smile. I love knowing that my stuff is getting people talking about storytelling! The main reason that I run this blog is not to dunk on Miraculous, but to talk about writing.

I'm a big fan of the saying that "failure is the greatest teacher," but I also like to point out that it doesn't need to be your failure! Talking about the things a piece of media did wrong and comparing it to media that did those things right is one of the best ways to learn about writing and far more helpful than just looking at good stories as there are thousands of ways to tell a good story.

To give my two cents to your debate (without knowing the fine details) the first two seasons of Digimon have some similar dynamics of romance between various leads, though it's also not a magical girl team show and the romance is certainly not focused on like it is in Teen Titans. One magical girl team show that did a great job of having a romance plot play a big role in a story is - strangely enough - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

While it's not really a rom-com (though it could have been and worked just as well), the second season ends with a two-part episode called A Canterlot Wedding and it's very cute. The couple that's established in that special goes on to have several episodes focused on them and their romance.

The reason this worked so well was that the romance was between ponies outside of the core team, so you didn't have to figure out how to make friendship the most important thing while also making romantic love the most important thing. By making both forces important in their own ways, the writers were able to let the couple be extremely close and passionate about each other while also allowing friendship to have a key role.

That's the issue that you have to keep in mind if you want to try to blend the genres: figure out a way to add in a romance without messing up the core team and creating a setup where romance is making friendship take a back seat. You also need to figure out how to deal with someone external to the team warring with the team for narrative importance.

My two cents? Just make some of the magical girls lesbians, bi, pan, or any other sexuality that allows for same-sex attraction. That should allow you to have romance in your team without the nasty complication of trying to make a person external to the team super important. After all, what is a good romance if not a friendship with bonus features? I wouldn't be surprised if there's a story out there that has already done this (not sure if Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus from Sailor Moon count since I don't think that their romance gets a major story line around it, but if it does, then just mirror that!)

And if there's not a magical girl team show that has done this? Then I'm certain that you can find fanfic that has. After all, people tend to ship the characters who get the most screen time together no matter who the canon love interests are supposed to be. That's why shonen anime is dominated by yaoi ships. Those shows rarely develop the hetero love interest the way that magical girl team shows do and so people ship the guys together. Meanwhile, magical girl team shows assume that the audience wants a good romance and so the hetero love interests tend to feel more fleshed out.

#spiritgun92 #writing advice #writing discussion

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meteor752 · 2 months

Text

The Double Life Kids headcanons 3

A whole lot has happened since the last of these headcanon posts, like, a whole lot. The last post was before the kids even went to the Empires server

So, I thought I’d do one of these again, cause I like making headcanon posts

All the kids except Liana share the same birthday, since Liana spawned as an egg and hatched like, a month later. They wouldn’t usually celebrate their birthdays in anyway, especially after their parents deaths, but when they were separated it became a tradition on both ends to get a cake and blow out their candles, celebrating both them and the ones on the other server, counting down the years until they could see them again. Liana gets a cupcake on hers

Zee (The Lizzie + Skizz child) uses She/He pronouns

Skim uses They/Them

Liana, Jekiv, and Gertrude are girlbosses while Johnny, Novo, and Jassy are boylosers. Wes is somewhere in between

Johnny brought Lily the Warden with him to Empires, and later to Hermitcraft, and then back to Empires. She’s his little sister, and where he goes, she goes

Gertrude bites in her sleep. It’s not always aggressive, usually it’s just lil love bites, but if she’s having a particularly vivid dream or is very stressed out, then she can leave pretty extreme chomps. It’s usually just her pillow or blanket, but sometimes Novo falls victim to her sleep biting. He doesn’t mind

Johnny hates using a bed to sleep, and exclusively sleeps in a hammock.

Through trial and error, and many years of work, Wes, together with Jassy, BDubs and one of his many steeds, managed to overcome his fear of horses. He even got his own, an Ardennais named Dweller

Jekiv also got his own horse, but instead of breeding one he kinda, made one. Virgil was his first successful resurrection, that didn’t just crumble into dust immediately. He’s not very friendly and struggles with obeying him, but he’s (mostly) fully alive which is all that really counts

fWhip was the one who made Liana’s prosthetic, and Doc later made improvements to it so it would hold better and be more comfortable. She has many stickers on it, just for funsies

In the good ending, where the kids all got a happy ending together, Gertrude and Jekiv were finally able to meet their other dads. Jek was thrilled to get another chance to bond with his dad, and Gert was just happy to have her dad back

Jassy also got to reunite with her little brother, Hermes

Johnny is very face blind. It usually isn’t a problem since everyone around him dresses and look very distinctively, but in Empires where everyone he knows wore entirely different outfits in varying aesthetics, he struggled a lot. It just became a habit of the kids that if you wore something different than you usually wore around him, you’d immediately tell him who you are and let him inspect you for a bit

Wes has little control over his volume. It’s kinda strange for him, as he doesn’t really take notice of it himself. When talking to him, he can go from almost whispering to straight up yelling without even realizing it. The rest of the kids are used to it, but it’s usually a surprise to any new people

Liana drinks exclusively expensive whiskey, Jassy loves tequila, Novo is a huge fan of cheap wine, Gertrude likes rum cocktails, Jekiv drinks straight Vodka, Wes sticks to cider, and Johnny makes his own moonshine. Drink nights are a mess

Speaking of which, Liana is the messiest drunk to every messy. She has absolutely zero filter, and for some reason loves to spit out random pretty miserable and dark facts that she’s read about. She tends to clonk out after like two hours though, so it’s just to put up with it

Nobody ever calls Johnny Johnathan. Nobody, except Keralis

Liana and Jassy’s first wedding was less because of love and devotions, and more because they were 14 years into life on the double life server and everyone was fucking miserable, so they thought an event could help cheer people it. It did, but like barely

This is why they remarried, to have an honest chance to express their love for each other. Also an excuse to wear fancy clothes

Jekiv and Wes, in the good ending, got married shortly after reuniting with each other on their new server. It was a very quaint ceremony, but still lovely

Gertrude and Novo are still waiting for the other to propose, and they will just keep on waiting

Also, since this will be posted on the two year anniversary of my first ever post about the kids, I thought I’d share some scrapped ideas and other bts stuff. It’s not a lot since I’m one person using Hero Forge and posting stuff on Tumblr, but there’s some things lol

Jassy was first meant to be a set of twins. It was scrapped for many reasons, one of them being the “one child per couple”, but when I was still working on their first designs I had two wips. The original idea was that one of them was going to take inspiration from some other Naruto character, I think Hinata is who I settled for, and the other was going to have more of a fantasy vibe, to fit the theme of Shrek. This was another reason this was scrapped lol, but for a short while the idea of twin sisters Hinata and Princess Fiona excited

The kids were originally going to go to Hermitcraft. This was before we knew the portal led to Empires, so I was planning of having them enter the portal and exit in Grians base. The main reason this got scrapped was of course that we found out that the portal led to Empires, but also because I knew next to nothing about the Ren The King storyline during season nine, which I was planning to have be a big part of it, with Gertrude and Liana taking center stage as the main characters

To piggy back of the last one, I was planning to make a part two to Logbook, Jekiv’s fic where he wrote journal entries throughout their 20 year stay at the Double Life series. The premise of the sequel was that Liana was to have found the journal before he left it behind, and that she was going to keep on writing in it during their time on Hermitcraft. I even started a rough first draft of it, but as the Hermitcraft storyline was scrapped, so was the journal entry sequel.

Novo and Jekiv are both based off of dnd characters I’ve used in the past, a Bard who can’t play any instruments, and a character who picked up and slowly mastered necromancy halfway through a campaign. It wasn’t planned at the beginning, but it felt fun to pay homage to it, even if I would be the only one who understood the reference.

Some scrapped design ideas is that Liana was gonna be part Vex (Scrapped because it was too messy), Novo was gonna have more of a purple shade in his hair (Scrapped because it didn’t look right, but his signature colour is still purple), Johnny was gonna have a blue fire motif (Scrapped because I like the red fire vibe more, fit him better), Jekiv was gonna have red hair (Scrapped because he just looked exactly like Cleo that way), and Jassy was gonna be entirely green (Scrapped because it looked weird and didn’t fully fit since Joel isn’t green and like no one designs him like that, she does still have some green to her tho).

I mentioned this in a previous post but Liana went through many names before I settled on Liana (The first one I came up with lol, it just stuck). These names (Sharina Ace Sage Aurelia Francesca Octavia Monroe) along with Xelqua and Jellie became her middle names

Not a fucking day goes by where I don’t regret having Jassy constantly change her hairstyle. I painted myself into a corner for that one, and by god am I suffering

And, as a final little thing to celebrate my two year anniversary of not knowing peace because of these fucking kids, I thought I’d show you all a little comparison of the first ever hero forge design I made of the kids, and the most recent one, both to show how they’ve grown but also how I’ve gotten better at using the site lol

Ah, my babies

The funny thing is, that while yes they have changed and evolved over these two years, they canonically have not grown at all lol

Anyways, happy two year anniversary kids

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catbountry · 5 months

Text

It's been a year since the premiere of Trigun: Stampede. The series, despite the fears of the fans of the '98 anime, actually turned out really good; Yasuhiro Nightow is a big superhero comics nerd, and wanted to have this new anime adaption be an adaption similar to the adaptions of the MCU, back when those movies were consistently enjoyable, and I daresay a bunch of the people watched Trigun probably were either already anime fans, or they were nomad fans who may have been really into the MCU at one point.

I have a lot of thoughts on an American perspective on Vash the Stampede as a character, with a lot of comparisons to American comic book superheroes. And while Trigun wasn't my first anime, I was hooked on it, as someone who grew up around Batman and Spawn's 90's popularity. During my first Otakon in 2001, I must have seen a dozen Vash's and Wolfwoods. I remember the year there was a Wolfwood cosplayer whose Punisher gun was shaped like the Star of David instead of a cross, making him a rabbi. That shit was amazing. The larger point is that I've loved this character for more than half of my entire time being alive, and I haven't seen a lot of discussion of Trigun viewed from a more political lens, and why it resonates so much with Americans (or at least me, who is an American) in particular

Buckle up, kids, this is gonna be long and rambly.

There was a period of time where I watched nearly every single new MCU movie in the theater. It was exciting seeing adaptions of comic books that would have probably never gotten a movie before the success of The Avengers. And I don't think it's a mistake that the most comic book-y of the movies are usually the best; Guardians of the Galaxy and its sequel remain as probably my favorite MCU movies. Nightow was working directly with the studio making a new Trigun anime and reportedly got the crew to watch a bunch of Marvel movies to set the tone for the anime as an adaption; it's why Vash got a completely new redesign that freaked all us old fans the fuck out. Though it appears that once again, Trigun tried and failed to get that massive Japanese audience that most successful anime have. But boy, oh boy, do us westerners fucking love Trigun, especially us Americans. Nightow's love of superhero comics bled into Trigun, and it just so happened that he was incredibly influenced by Spawn, Hellboy and Batman as much as he was influenced by Akira Toriyama and mechanical art. McFarlane Toys released a Vash figure that is McFarlane'd the fuck up. Nightow loves all superhero comics but especially the Blade trilogy.

Just look at this and imagine being 13 years old and seeing this on a screen for the first time with the instrumental hard rock opening.

Also, I wouldn't actually get around to reading Spawn until I was an adult, but you know what? It's pretty good. The writing is definitely weaker than the art, but holy shit, that art goes hard and I still think that shit's cool as fuck.

As stated before, around the early 2000's Trigun was considered peak anime, though it's been more overlooked in recent years in favor of Cowboy Bebop, an anime that has aged gracefully by comparison. But while Bebop has that sort of timeless cool and level of quality that drew the attention of filmmakers like the Wachoski sisters, Trigun has that very specific kind of adolescent sense of coolness that comic book fans get, especially back in the 90's before this sort of thing would be smothered to death by MCU's Joss Whedoning of superheroes. Spawn, Hellboy and Batman are still cool. And Trigun also has a shitton of guns, obviously, given that Vash being an incredibly OP gunslinger in a world where everybody has guns.

And America loves guns.

I think the contrast of Vash's pacifism while still wielding a gun is extremely interesting because it's not something you see very much (I bet if I watched more westerns, I'd have a better idea if this is a trope in them at all). Batman does not use guns and doesn't kill people, which is why there's still discourse around Tim Burton's Batman films to this day still; I don't think Kevin Smith has budged on this. Other more morally grey superheroes will use guns (by this definition I'm counting The Punisher even if he doesn't have any superpowers, unless you count severe PTSD as a superpower). And a lot of them had huge surges in popularity in the 90's around the time Nightow was making Trigun. Vash posed like Batman or Spider-Man looking brooding (like the gif above) happens a lot in the earlier issues even though that's not really his character.

Several years ago, there was an attempt by a conservative thinktank to discredit a bunch of Hollywood actors saying that gun violence in America is a serious issue and contrasted their statements scenes of them shooting guns in movies, but if we're being real here, gunplay in movies can be really fucking cool. Again I invoke The Matrix, or movies by Robert Rodriguez and John Woo. Look at video games, and compare the decline in violent crime that's been happening here since the 70's and 80's, as culture warriors bemoan movies and video games for becoming more violent. Remember when Wayne LaPierre, vice president of the NRA, brought up fucking Splatterhouse as a reason why Sandy Hook happened? Do you know what Splatterhouse looks like?

It looks like this.

You know how these guys constantly say the only way to counter a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun? Usually, the inference is that if the "good guy" with a gun shoots, he's shooting to kill. Deadpool and the Punisher would shoot to kill. But Vash is constantly trying to avoid it. And I remember as a teenager finding that really cool? And the manga and anime don't shy away from how impractical Vash's pacifism is. It's a bit more realistic than Steven Universe's ending, but also Steven Universe was made for children.

I know Avatar: The Last Airbender is often invoked when criticizing Steven Universe's philosophy, but I haven't really seen Vash's similar philosophy criticized in the same way, and I think a lot of that has to do with the presence of Wolfwood, who is the "I think we're gonna have to kill this guy" guy. I'm honestly surprised I haven't seen art of this yet. I may have to get on that. I already drew Vash horrified at the Trolley Problem.

Vash is a character designed with maximum coolness in mind, but also an overpowered being who is capable of killing millions, and in the anime, he somehow destroys July City without killing anyone directly, but the destruction of the city led to a bunch of people dying. He's so deeply committed to not wanting to kill anyone that he's probably killed more people than he would have if he just shot Knives. The best Batman stories acknowledge that Batman's refusal to kill Joker has similarly results in the deaths of people Batman could have prevented if he killed one guy, and this could also apply to Vash's relationship with his brother Knives, who was kind of destined to be a mass murderer with a name like that, let's be real.

Online, we tend to joke about bringing out the guillotines, or justify not feeling an sympathy for billionaires who die in a sub trying to view the Titanic. But if you were given a gun and a real human person begging for their life, what would you actually do? Do you honestly think that you would be the ethical Death Note user?

Vash has guns but he chooses not to kill people; he prefers to not even use them unless he has to, instead opting to run away and look cool doing it somehow.

He really, really doesn't want to kill people. He doesn't become numb to people dying. It hurts him every single time he watches someone get killed. In reality, most of us that aren't sociopaths would be distressed at the thought of killing someone. The only reason armies in real life work is that they become inoculated to the idea of violence and dehumanize the enemy. Vash is no soldier. He is idealistic, he is empathetic, and he sees every human being as a person worthy of life. Batman refuses to use guns, as that's how his parents were killed in front of him. Vash has to use guns in order to protect people from getting killed. He has the ethics of Superman but the tools of a comic book antihero. He's the logical conclusion of an shonen anime protagonist in a world that chews up anyone with that kind of optimism and hope and spits them out. And yet... he still keeps going. He remains committed. He's still cheery, goofy, lovable Vash.

Batman used to kill people, in the earliest comics. With the Comics Code Authority, no superheroes could kill people. In the 80's, comics were getting darker and edgier, taken more seriously. While Alan Moore's Watchmen delved into the moral complexities in a world with superheroes that was similar to ours, Frank Miller was keeping Batman consistent, even as Gotham got darker and uglier.

Batman is a vigilante. The police can be helpful or they can fuck up everything, depending on what's needed for the story. In Batman Year One, there's a scene where Batman crashes a party attended by the elites of Gotham, politicians and mobsters mingling.

Seeing this during the Bush presidency blew my mind. I don't want to get into just how perfectly the members of his administration seemed to resemble a rogue's gallery of sorts with the shared goals of making a lot of money and bombing the shit out of Iraq and Afghanistan. I was extremely anti-war even before the 2000 election as a very opinionated 14 year-old watching, Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and feeling relieved that a grown-up was able to see through all the bullshit; it helps when the guy who's against the war and killing people is funny. I remember writing in my diary at 12 years old after Columbine happened that I wanted to take all of the guns and melt them down in a pot, similarly to that scene in Superman IV where he throws the entire world's nuclear arsenal into the sun. But also that same year I would fall in love with The Matrix... and not long after that, Trigun.

Again, we come back to the idea of someone using a gun, a weapon designed to kill people, and using it in pursuit of the exact opposite. That resonated with me. I myself was very idealistic, and the political climate of my teenage years seemed to do almost everything to stamp that out of me. Things feel just as fraught two decades later, but in slightly different ways. Pacifism is looked down upon, as indicated by the backlash to the ending of Steven Universe, and how one crazy lady called Rebecca Sugar, a Jewish person, a Nazi for writing it that way. But for Steven, things worked out. For Vash? Well, he still has hope somehow, despite everything. I think the fact that he strives to protect human life, even when someone is a complete monster, is admirable in that it cuts to the very basic desire to not see people hurt. But we're also selfish, and scared, and sometimes it's hard to conceive of a solution to a problem that doesn't involve violence. Seeing dead bodies on TV or the internet upsets us, but we're often paralyzed by feeling like we can't do anything, and even if we tried, we'd likely perish in the attempt. We desire revenge, punishment for those who transgress by inflicting violence, and we can rationalize using it against the right targets. Vash the Stampede would have a fucking breakdown dealing with the state-backed violence that's been a part of geopolitics pretty much as long as there have been states and geopolitics. Vash would try and solve the bombings of Gaza with an impassioned plea for both sides to stop fighting before he would somehow wind up making things worse and it would eat away at him inside, no matter how brave a face he puts on as he tries to find some kind of hope in a hopeless situation. And... you know what? I kind of wish more people would be like that. Maybe if there were enough people like that, these sorts of things wouldn't happen in the first place. I wish more people could look at human suffering and feel compelled to try and stop it, not discriminating against one side or the other, trying to understand why people are doing what they do. Seeing anti-war protestors in Tel Aviv brings back memories of protests against the start of the War on Terror, and how hated America was internationally during those years, even when most Americans approved of the war. Michael Moore was booed at the Oscars for condemning George W. Bush and the War on Terror. It's terrifying that those in power want us killing each other and have conditioned us to support it. I want so badly for human beings to come together to just stop the violence, but it feels impossible, like we're destined for failure, like we might somehow make things worse or become worse versions of ourselves full of hatred and ugliness. But we should want to try, even if it's hard or unprofitable or we have no idea how to even do it. Somebody actually dedicating themselves to trying to fight our violent impulses out of love is appealing, and if they're more powerful than use, and can do more... well, I want the biblically accurate angel with every mental illness willing to martyr himself over and over again. But it is more fun when he's Bugs Bunny about it.

#political bullshit #trigun #comics #tl;dr #not fanfiction #I am high right now I hope this still makes sense when I'm sober

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thewarriorgoddess · 8 months

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While lurking I just read the most disgusting take on Astarion in the main BG3 tag. And holy fuck is it actually disgusting. Like vile.

Like this person takes victim blaming to the extreme. To the point they call him a "spoiled brat" for wanting to be treated like a person and not like an object to be abused and tortured...y'know basic bodily autonomy? Yeah they think he's a spoiled brat for lashing out against Cazador for treating him worse than shit.

This person goes on to say Astarion knew exactly what he was signing up for when he "chose" to become a vampire spawn. (Mind you, he did not. He literally tells you he had no idea what he was signing up for and it isn't even shown in the canon that he did when he took Cazador's offer to avoid literally dying)

It's one thing to like the ascended ending and even to go as far as to make baseless claims about his ascension (ie. he is not manipulating Tav/Durge in the ascension ending, ect) but to go on and say that he deserves to be abused and tortured because he "signed up for it" to y'know.....avoid fucking death. Is sick and fucking sinister and reeks of: "I did not play Baldur's Gate 3, I only watched clips on Youtube and based my fucked up headcanons off of the limited dialogue choices shown in said videos". Because no way does anyone who genuinely interacted with Astarion's character in the game believe this shit. There is no fucking way these "extreme Ascended!Astarion" fans have actually played this goddamn game much less actually read and listened to his dialogue in the fucking game.

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 astarion #astarion #bg3 #i had to fucking vent #holy fuck

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lucrezianoin · 11 months

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ive never ppl who hc astarion as ace be weird about people who dont but ive sure as shit seen a lot of people get mad fucking weird about ace astarion. lmao it genuinely is so annoying, theyll try and find excuse after excuse for why its wrong and bad Actually to hc him as ace. it dont matter. theres nothing saying he is or isnt in canon so why do people get so weird and annoying about it???

i mean i know why...

Yeah, I think there is a lot of weird debate around "sexualization" of Astarion, and somehow ace people or ace headcanons are always dragged into it. There is a lot of defensiveness, I noticed.

Because there is a subsection of fans who are extremely quick to harrass, mainly. On twitter, in particular, there is a group of fans that usually goes around retweeting fanarts of artists to insult them, if the fanart is not "chaste" enough.

This is an example:

It is a type of fandom policing that goes against any kind of fandom etiquette. But also... I like to call it the Frollo from Notre Dame Effect. Because that particular piece of art does not sexualize anything, the character is naked, but the art focuses on how he is treated in game (treated as one of Cazador's treasures and objects to be stored away). It is almost haunting, as fanarts go. But somehow, this group of fans saw it and felt something (apparently they felt it was sexy), and instead of realizing it was their reaction, the uncomfortability of it made them lash out against the art itself.

I am just saying this to explain that sometimes I feel that the backlash against ace headcanons is set in this context. At least the one I got was set in this context, where this user decided that me trying to talk about canon events in the game = me trying to accuse them of being horrible people for sexualizing Astarion.

So in my case, the person immediately used my headcanon as "proof" that I was one of those people who did not want to sexualize Astarion.

The thing is that it kinda sucks (at least for me) that you cannot have an ace headcanon without somehow being labelled as someone who wants full on purity in fandoms.

This is what I think, in particular, regarding the sexualization of Astarion:

I am glad that in game he is not shown in full sex scenes. A part from ascended astarion (and for a reason), we never really see any sex scene with him. His spawn one is one of the least explicit in the whole game, and even his initial one is pretty much mainly focused on the seduction act (compare them with the Minthara one, or Halsin, or Gale or Karlach in act 3!).

Ascended Astarion having the more explicit sex scene is not by chance, given that choosing to let him ascend while in romance is directly connected with the vampire-fantasy the game wants to sell, and passionate sex is part of it.

On the other hand, I really don't care what people do in fandom with characters. That is outside the narrative, and does not change or influence the narrative of the game at all.

#sorry for the long rant

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drspleenmeister · 3 months

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Honestly I do not think they've been as bad as each other.

Sure that "moment of his career" was maybe not needed but I don't think it was untrue either and we do not know how he meant it because like, it is infact fact that it was carlos' last gp with ferrari

and there have been moments where charles has said things about carlos but again they've always been rooted true in fact, be it whether ferrari screwed him over or how some race move carlos did was unnecessary or how carlos raced him harder than he did others (which I'm sorry but is true, you will never see carlos doing that with lando, etc who is his friend)

Whereas for Carlos, he has liked that one iffy post about Silverstone, his family has liked tweets calling charles a rat and honourless (and I'm sorry but carlos is extremely close to his family, it's not that they hate charles while he doesn't to atleast some degree share their opinions)

His own comments that charles always complains too much were what was also unnecessary because more often than not the tag line is that charles should always speak out more, that was more of a personal comment than whatever charles said imo

because again with what charles said, it's been what the fans have been putting meaning to, like he said "ofcourse he wanted to impress" and I think that can just mean as that it was his last grand prix with ferrari and he wanted to put on a good race for his own fans who were there for him even if it meant doing risky driving

and this is not just the first time, this year alone carlos has disregarded orders (like eg who goes out first out of the garage, two of which have ruined charles' prep laps)

charles doesn't do stufd like that, his last moment was maybe the Monza gp last year

And I'm not saying carlos is the spawn of the devil or something like that, I just want to point out his own comments (especially to the Spanish media which are VILE) have always flown under the radar and people give him a leeway which they never afford to charles

I’m not sure that you and I are going to see eye to eye on this, anon, although this has been an interesting debate. In all honesty I just want them to work together for the remainder of their time as teammates, and be able to part company as friends and with mutual respect. It’s upsetting to see them at odds with one another; I know that at the end of the day they are racers, but disharmony does nothing but divide the fans and make for a tense working environment. I honestly hope that we’re all getting bent out of shape over nothing and that they can do the best job that they can, together, for the team and for us.

#carlos sainz #charles leclerc #charlos #carlos sainz jr #anon ask

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athetos · 2 months

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I jumped into Fez with little knowledge of the game (other than that there’s a secret that was supposedly going to be an ARG but was solved through brute force within days of release, so the proper channel of discovering the solution just never released) solely because it was recommended to fans of ‘metroidbrainias’ like animal well and tunic, two of my favorite games that really kind of changed my perspective on the medium of video games as a whole. Games that “knowledge gate” you are fascinating to me.

I’m about 60%ish through collecting all the cubes, and while it hasn’t captivated me as much as the other 2 games, it’s definitely fun and I can see why it’s so highly praised. Interestingly, of the 3, it’s also the one that is the most purely knowledge-gated; with the exception of collecting cubes and keys to open specific doors, there are no upgrades to your movement capabilities, or new weapons that help you get past previous obstacles. There’s zero combat, and beyond jumping, moving, flipping the dimensions, or interacting with objects, there’s no new abilities. The ‘key items’ you collect are artifacts that are clues to understand the world you find yourself in. There are areas right at the beginning you could unlock if you could understand the symbols scrawled on the walls, but until you realize “oh wait that MEANS something,” you can’t progress through them.

I’m having a great time and the sense of discovery and wonder is very cool. I would say at this point in my file, it’s definitely easier than the other 2 games; again, no combat, dying spawns you at the last stable platform you were on, and the platforming isn’t particular challenging. It’s a very chill and zen game, fun to relax playing, lacking the atmosphere and tension of animal well or tunic. And I like that, because that’s exactly what I need right now. TBD if it matches the difficulty in puzzle-solving in the other two. I don’t want to spoil them, but they have extremely cleverly hidden “layers” of puzzle-solving, sometimes being genuinely impossible to be solved by a single player alone, that are so inventive I’m not even sure how they were conceived. I’ve already encountered at least one “layer” in Fez, that is really pushing me to scratch my head but doesn’t seem out of reach, so im intrigued to see if it goes further and reaches the insane Easter eggs in the other games.

#ash.rom #fez #fez spoilers

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crowwolf · 5 months

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Blarg

I've not been functional since last week. Stupid fever. It's not even a high fever, just a lingering make-all-your-joints-hurt-like-fucking-hell fever. I'm so tired.

I want to knit and write. I have no bbrrraaaiiiinnnnssss

I need this guy to stop the evil dead eating the last cells in my skull (gods, Ash, I haven't watches that movie in decades (literally and without hyperbole 😳).

Here lieth my brain. Covered in a fog of fever, ne'er to be seen again.

Ok, I'm being hyperbolic now.

I go through phases in my life where I figuratively ingest every piece of literature I can put my hands on. I'll be that way for months at a time. Then, without any rhyme or reason, my brain goes - ya know, we like this stuff, but we're going to stop. Now. For months, eh, maybe years. It's been probably 4 or 5 years or more since I've been able to sustainably read and entire book without external stimuli (I.e. reading to my son out loud).

I hate it. HATE it. I love to read. I love all the fan-fiction I've been reading, but this stupid fever has my brain stuttering.

Speaking of brains. Autistic ADHDers - I was diagnosed ADHD in my mid-30s AFTER my son was. That's pretty normal for women my age, unfortunately, we were the chatter box in class, the you-could-do-so-much-better-if-yiu-tried ones, the lazy, messy, disorganized ones (I always knew where my stuff was!). Now, here's where I'm feeling like more knowledge is wigging me out. There's a website that is designed for people to seek as a resource for autism. I've had some close to me suggest I could be on the spectrum, but I scoffed cause wouldn't someone had noticed? Except, no one would have cause I've always worn a mask - different masks for different situations. The older I get, the harder it is to hold it in place. I used to hug everyone cause people expected me to, now I barely want to touch unless it's family or someone I've known a long time.

So, that website. I went on and did every tests, long or short. I scored high, like very high, on all of them. I can't afford to get tested. And I don't know why I'm sharing this here (Tumblr feels safe, which is nice, I haven't openly talked about this to anyone except hubs and spawn #1).

So, I've basically lived my life jerry-rigging every aspect. Now, loud noises set me off. Hearing someone chew has always bothered me, but it's rage inducing now to the point I have to put on music or leave or cover my ears. It's so bad that I have started isolating myself from extremes of noise (other than music! Music is life!). My in-laws visit and I'm almost in tears the whole time - they're in my space, moving my things, and so so loud.

Are those autistic things? Or ADHD or both? There's more - I used to be very smooth with dealing with the public. Now, I feel like a nervous teen on the verge of a first date any time I have to. I was a a bartender, a food counter person, a 911 dispatcher. I was public admin and technically still am (though I rarely deal with them anymore). I will physically vibrate from the anxiety and get a massive adrenaline rush that keeps me wired all day. Oh, I also can't take ADHD meds as they interact with my depression/anxiety meds and make me super manic and depressive.

There's more, but I'm freaking out cause I don't want my break to stop again and I can feel it starting and I hate it.

I think I just want to know if anyone can relate.

#adhd #autism #depression #anxitey #anyone else?#brain #fever #fuck this shit #ew people

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videogametako · 7 months

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indie stuff: boardland

cute dice board game. link here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2735620/BoardLand/

[this game is completely free]

the music and art set the really cozy vibe of the game

this type of tutorial is kinda great, works really well for a turn-based game. lacks a bit of flair and flavor but i like how straightforward it is

cute sitting sprite

oh hey, it was published on my birthday

overview

boardland is a turn-based combat dice- board- game where you fight monsters. it's a pretty short game, i got through one run and credits rolling in 30~ minutes, but seems the monsters might be randomized for every playthrough? gonna check again just to be sure.

there's uh not really any story as far as i can tell, so let's just get to the

mechanics

combat takes place entirely on this board. you can upgrade it by using dice while on a tile, sometimes changing the base action of the tile (fire > attack, earth > defense, water > heal). it's got roguelite elements too so, it's what you'd expect, items and blessings. potions aren't too difficult to come by, and a playthrough is short enough that you can be liberal in using them

a player turn consists of you moving, then taking dice actions. you can only use multiple dice on a tile if they're in increasing order (2 > 3 > 4, for instance), otherwise, you have to move to use another action. you draw 5 dice every turn, and leftover dice are discarded. sometimes it seems you can use an action dice at the start of your turn immediately, but sometimes you can't..? i'm a bit confused but it might be dependent on whether you used an action last turn or not

now, by using a set number of dice, you can level up a base tile to upgrade it (its 3 dice for the first level up). this gives you bonus actions, and synergizes with the elemental dice you can find sometimes. this gives you a way to customize your board depending on your playstyle and build.

additionally, every other turn a random event occurs. you have to land on the tile to activate 'em. same goes with curses that enemies sometimes do. if something on the board only needs you to make contact with it, it'll say in the description (like enemy spawns)

the game punishes you for taking too long by giving most (if not all) enemies a passive that increases their stats every 10 turns. this did not become an issue for me (except for that one tedious round where i got to 10 turns because i kept messing up my actions)

you can get buffs and debuffs too. there was one where i was supposedly able to use two dice on one tile or smth, but it was either poorly worded or broken bc i could never proc it. there's a confusion debuff that sometimes makes you move backwards too. the main way to get debuffs on enemies is by using elemental dice on their corresponding tile

OH i completely missed the reroll mechanic, you can spend gold to reroll one of your dice, kinda handy, i suppose? gold is rarely used anyway

aesthetics

this game is pretty slow paced, not to say it can't get challenging, and while i'm more of a fan of faster games, i found this one to be relaxing to play. i'm gonna do one more run before finishing this up.

the music is extremely cozy. even when a bit frustrated, i couldn't find myself getting too worked up, i like it

i enjoy the artstyle as well, the monsters and the player character all have a soft and charming vibe about them (except that frog in berserk mode, pictured earlier, i like that too). very cute!

misc

gimmick fight, i respect it.

another gimmick fight, the reroll mechanic is especially useful here if you wanna fight more efficiently, especially since the opponent just sits there until the tiles get locked (i died bc i didn't realize my health was too low (oh, you can load up the autosave and retry, neat))

closing thoughts

i could honestly see myself spending a lot of time on a fully fleshed out adventure mode for this game. i'm super engaged by the mechanics, and with a bit more content there's room for a lot of strategy in this kind of game. different board lengths, branching paths, character skills.

i already enjoy board-based games a ton (stuff a la mario party or 100% orange juice) and also dice as cards in games (die in the dungeon, is the most recent and only example to come to mind (i haven't played library of ruina yet) i should write about that, i enjoyed the demo and i need the full game) so this game is very much my thing

if the game sounded like fun, give it a try, it is completely free

#video games #boardland #high fish #indie games #game review #free game

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iqxys · 11 months

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HEARTSTEEL members as my Top 5 in Overwatch

side note: I played league ONCE way back and haven’t really interacted with the fandom/lore since then so these are either extremely accurate or extremely inaccurate

Mercy: Yone, Aphelios

Aphelios is a DEMON at Mercy parkour and risky rezzes. Minimum 3 endorsements every match. Duos with Sett and ironically has cringy matching names with him. Loves pulling out the blaster to assert dominance. Actually a flex main but gets forced onto support almost every game. (he just like me fr) Mid GM peak.

Yone plays safer than Aphelios. Max 3 deaths every game. Blue beam king, never under 75%. Dodges Rein shatters and Genji blades like his life depends on it. Also a demon at Mercy parkour. T500 peak. (Highest was 417)

D.VA: Sett, K’Sante, Ezreal

Sett is an ult eater. Enemy threw out a projectile ult? Don’t worry, he ate it. Every single time. Gives his supports aneurysms because of how deep into the enemy backline he is. LOVES dive meta. Mid masters peak.

K’Sante knows every ult spot for D.VA. Either gets one person with self destruct or all five, no inbetween. Always goes back for his Kiriko/Mercy when they’re in spawn. The only ult he consistently eats is Grav and is known by Zarya players because of it. Mid diamond peak.

Ezreal rarely plays but when he does he only plays with Kayn. He tends to play safe and constantly has defense matrix up. Terrorizes Widows with Kayn. Hasn’t played comp but he’d be low platinum.

Widowmaker: Kayn/Rhaast

Rhaast is the one that mains widow. He enjoyed the entire ‘widow shouldn’t one shot’ discourse and defended her HARD. Gets accused of cheating almost every game and has a ‘fan base’ of people who defend him. ‘Skill issue’ in chat after someone complains about him or his character. T500 peak. (Highest was 125)

Sombra: Kayn/Rhaast

Kayn mains her and Rhaast always tells him to spawn camp the supports/widow. Quick play warrior. One of the silly/fun Sombra’s that spams voicelines in the backline to mess with the supports. Huge emps and always combos with Ezreal. Hasn’t played comp since season 6 of Overwatch 1. Low platinum peak, slipped into gold and hasn’t recovered. Could be high diamond if he actually tried.

Ana: Yone, K’Sante

Yone loves playing Ana but he’ll never admit it. Sometimes gets a bit silly and nanos Aphelios as Mercy. Huge anti-nades and sleeps. Could be mistaken for a T500 Ana. Low GM peak. (Has a seperate account)

K’Sante is definitely an Ana player of all time. Misses more than he hits but has great nades. Always nanos Sett as baby D.VA and yells at him if he re-mechs while nano is still active. Tbags slept targets and uses the pillow spray religiously. Spams ‘good kitty’ and ‘You need to learn to relax’ too. Low gold peak.

—

LMFAOO??? I’m in a match rn and we’re losing 😔

#league of legends #kayn league of legends #k’sante league of legends #aphelios league of legends #yone league of legends #ezreal league of legends #sett league of legends #overwatch 2 #heartsteel

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dragon-snoots-a-boopin · 9 months

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I've recently been playing this game, Palia, and while I do enjoy it for the most part, there are some things I am not a fan of. Now, on PC, this game is still in beta but the game is also available on the Switch eshop and doesn't say it's in beta but I have seen Switch players having the same issues as PC players so it probably is still the PC beta build. Anyway, this isn't my typical review thing as I am still playing the game but this is what I like and don't like so far.

What I like:

Growing and harvesting crops is easy and relaxing.

Fishing is so easy to do (take that Stardew Valley!)

The crafting is really fun and very easy to understand. Sure, at first I had to look at the Palia wiki to see how to make some things, like ceramics and glass bulbs, but finding the required items to make them is pretty easy to do. Plus, there's something satisfying when you can look around your house and be like "I made that" and it's true, I chopped down the tree, turned it into planks and then into that piece of furniture.

The NPCs are all very interesting and unique from each other and I love that and Tish needs to be my Palia waifu...oh wait did I type that???

The graphics are not the best but not the worst but I personally like the more simplistic, kind of cartoony style of them over something that is ultra realistic.

What I Don't Like:

The time it takes to do stuff like turn wood into planks or stone into brick is so long that it hinders on absurd. For example, turning 1 sapwood into 1 sapwood plank takes 1 minute so if I am doing 100 sapwood then that's going to take 100 minutes, or around 1 hour and 40 minutes, if my math is correct. That's just one example and there are so, so many examples of how absurd this is.

The in game chat so damn annoying. There's no regular way to disable the in game chat. Like, in The Elder Scrolls Online, I can just press a corner of the chat window and it goes away until I want to open it again. The most you can do it open the chat window and deselect all the chat severs and then close the chat window. The problem is that if you do all that and then decide to go to a different area or to your housing plot or if you do something to have the game spawn you in a safe area, then suddenly all those chat servers will be automatically reselected and I hate it. Sorry, I don't care what other people are chatting about, I just want to relax and do my thing. I event went into the options and enabled streamer mode with the chat off and even had the chat window just turn on like come on people! Make a better way to just close the dang chat window for those people who don't want to see it.

Finally, the quest design is stupid in my opinion. Yeah, aside from fishing, farming, crafting and all that, there are quests related to the central story of where did all the previous humans go and why are they just suddenly reappearing? What I find stupid about the quest design is that say, I need to go talk to Tish, it'll make Tish with a yellow flag or talking bubble and her location will be on your compass and, of course, your map when you press M and open it. On the other side, if a quest needs you to go to the Temple Of Gales and 10 Silverwing egss...good luck finding those without some sort of guide because it doesn't give you any hint as to where those things are and I personally hate that. I get that some people don't like quests in RGPs/MMORPGs that tell you where to go and what to do every step of the way but not me. Like, I get that they wouldn't tell me exactly where all 10 eggs are but like give me one of those search within this area for this egg and I'd have been happy. Plus, given that this game has pretty much no combat, most of the quests are very puzzle heavy too and it just makes the quests feel really long, drawn out and extremely tedious to me.

But yeah, I am currently kind of torn on this game because I like probably about half of it, the nice and relaxing half of it, and I also don't like half of it and really hope that they work on some of the quest design stuff and especially the annoying nature of the chat window. I'd also say that if you wanna try it, try it on PC if you are able to. It's not bad on Switch but it struggles on Switch, which is where I first tried it but swapped to the PC version.

#video games #palia game #palia open beta #palia mmo

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