#also in the screenshot that's the earth it just looks like the moon because of all the clouds

[omeletcat]

SoulShattered is the name of my indie game that i have been working on for a while now!! Its a story driven pixel art bullet hell! This blog is for spreading the word about my game and recording every update and thing i add have for the future!

This post is a little info dump about everything i can share about it at this moment! so if you are in any way interested in a pixel art indie game that is coming out.. some day then follow and read this post!

STORY

The spirit world is a strange place in between earth and the afterlife, when a human is both alive and dead at the same time, they get trapped in the spirit world, A place with no sun or moon but stars lighting up the pitch dark sky. The spirit world is filled with.. spirits, humanoid creatures who just live their lives, but it is also filled with monsters. One day a human named Luca woke up in the spirit world, their soul shattered into pieces not being able to remember who they are. There they meet Rae a girl who has been looking for a way to leave the spirit world for years, Rae helps Luca  To try and find all the pieces of their soul together they will travel the spirit world trying to fix Luca's soul and find a way to get back to the human world.

this is the synopsis for my game! The main storyline is about Luca trying to repair their soul and wanting to fix their memories to remember who they were. But besides Luca there is also Rae the secondary main character. She has been in the spirit world for a long time, and has been trying to find a way to get back to earth but has been unsuccessful.

(here are some animations of Luca and Rae)

GAMEPLAY

I designed Soulshattered around moving the mouse around.

If the mouse is inside the circle it is defined as close, and if the player attacsk it will have a different attack than if it was outside of the circle.

the player has 2 attack buttons, left and right click. then it has 2 variants for both attacks a close and a far version. i am also planning on adding combo's that create a different attack if you click multiple attacks at once. turning it to around 6 attacks. The first game will only have 2 tho, because i wanna give them slowly over time.

Besides the attacks the player can also switch between Luca and Rae. Both have their own hp and energy bar that keep track of their energy, every time you attack the energy goes down and if you go to zero you are forced to switch to another character until it isfilled back up. My idea is that this will force the player to keep switching strategies because Rae and Luca have completely different attacks.

Beside that the player will also have to switch characters to solve puzzle's or for a strategic advantage against certain enemies.

Right now Luca has these attacks

1 Is a gravity punch, enemies that are hit with this get shot away, if it hits another enemy or a wall/object it takes damage depending on its speed. The enemy that got hit with another enemy (or an object like a crate) will also take damage.

2 Is a basic shoot attack where the player shoots a flying fist. the player will also use a flying fist in puzzle's to pick up stuff and move them around.

1 is a blast attack, i WANT to theme it around fireworks! caus thats rly cool but i haven't been able to make it look.. like fireworks so its an explosion rn

2 is a parry, if an enemy hits the sword when it's attacking it gets stunned for a bit and takes a lot of damage.

SCREENSHOTS

because i didn't rly know where else to put this here are some screenshot gifs on how the game looks rn!

WHERE I AM AT IN DEVELOPMENT AND WHAT I STIL HAVE TO DO TO GET CHAPTER 1 OUT THERE

right now i am working hard to get out a demo that contains the combat mechanics and a basic enemy ai, then i can see if people like what i have so far!

RELEASING

The game will be posted on itch.io and maybe steam to! it will however be released in parts! Because i have a very big story i wanna tell and i'm 100% sure i wouldn't be able to make it in one big part i will be releasing it in chapters! every chapter can therefor have a slight theme and semi self contained lesson and story!

the themes that i have in mind right now are these -Steampunk robot factory -disco/rave pyramids -Cloud mountain -Sea/pirate -murder mystery train -knights and castles

These are just idea's tho, don't look too much into them.

these would all have their own chapter of the game with an overarching story.

DEV INFO

For engine i use Godot! and gdscript as my language. for my art i use this website called pixilart.com but i wanna switch to aseprite when i get some money.

WHY

For ages my dream has been to simply make something amazing, i want to make art, or even something more, a piece of content that will inspire people. My ultimate goal with this game is to create something so amazing, that it will inspire people to make things of their own.

A story that will move people and stay with them for longer than the time it took to play the game.

A game that is fun to play and simply enjoyable and cool.

Something like the amazing shows and games that have inspired me over the years.

https://omeletcat.itch.io/soulshattered

this is the link for my itch.io page!

[sag-dab-sar]

⚧️ The Gods & Gender ⚧️

Discussing Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminism and the views of the Gods is not "speaking for the Gods,"—it is looking at facts and information and drawing completely reasonable conclusions that squarely put the foundations of trans-exclusion in opposition to the Gods.

(definitely not audio proof read, sorry for the dyslexia)

🌿Aphrodite & Venus🌿

Aphroditos (or Aphroditus) is Aphrodite with male characteristics including a penis and/or beard.

A cult of Aphrodite included a bearded Aphrodite at Amathus, Cyprus on a high cliff temple. [Wikipedia citing Macrobius, Saturnalia III]

Her relationship with bisexuality (referring to being dual sex not sexual orientation in this paper), androgyny, and transvestism is also documented in Cyprus:

— Aphrodite in the Theogony by William Sale in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association Vol. 92 X

(Sorry for the shitty screenshot JSTOR did not want to work with me)

This worship of Aphrodite with a penis was also seen as equal to Venus:

There's also a statue of Venus on Cyprus, that's bearded, shaped and dressed like a woman, with scepter and male genitals, and they conceive her as both male and female. Aristophanes calls her Aphroditus, and Laevius says: Worshiping, then, the nurturing god Venus, whether she is male or female, just as the Moon is a nurturing goddess. In his Atthis Philochorus, too, states that she is the Moon and that men sacrifice to her in women's dress, women in men's, because she is held to be both male and female." — Macrobius (c. 400s AD), Saturnalia 3.8.2

🌿Hermaphroditus🌿

There is also the "intersex child of Aphrodite & Hermes" named Hermaphroditus.

I have seen many use Hermaphtoditus as an excuse to wipe away the Goddess Aphrodite with a penis that the ancients worshipped. Which doesn't even make sense because I hate to break it to you— Hemaphroditus also opposes TERF ideology by its nature. A God existing as bisexed/dual-sex/bigender (however you'd like to word it) negates the idea that the Gods somehow support the ridged biological essentialism and gender binary that TERF ideology necessitates.

There are different accounts of Hermaphtoditus' creation but one, Ovids, tells of him merging with a nymph and then asking his parents to make the water transformative causing men to have thr effeminate bodies like women:

Her prayer found gods to hear; both bodies merged in one, both blended in one form and face. As when a gardener sets a graft and sees growth seal the join and both mature together, thus, when in the fast embrace their limbs were knit, they two were two no more, nor man, nor woman--one body then that neither seemed and both. So when he saw the waters of the pool, where he had dived a man, had rendered him half woman and his limbs now weak and soft, raising his hands, Hermaphroditus cried, his voice unmanned, ‘Dear father [Hermes] and dear mother [Aphrodite], both of whose names I bear, grant me, your child, that whoso in these waters bathes a man emerge half woman, weakened instantly.’ Both parents hears; both, moved to gratify their bi-sexed son, his purpose to ensure, drugged the bright water with that power impure." — Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 28 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)

🌿More on Aphroditos vs Hermaphroditus read @theoi-crow's excellent post about them here.

Also some lovely statues:

Marble copy statue from a fresco at Herculaneum, Italy. X (left)

Statue from Pergamum, Turkey. X (center)

Statue from Nymph Sanctuary in Lacori, Italy X (right)

Statue from Pompeii, Italy X

🌿Inana & Ishtar🌿

From a hymn to Inana

To open up roads and paths, a place of peace for the journey, a companion for the weak, are yours, Inana. To keep paths and ways in good order, to shatter earth and to make it firm are yours, Inana. To destroy, to build up, to tear out and to settle are yours, Inana. To turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man are yours, Inana. Desirability and arousal, goods and property are yours, Inana. Gain, profit, great wealth and greater wealth are yours, Inana. Gaining wealth and having success in wealth, financial loss and reduced wealth are yours, Inana. Observation (1 ms. has instead: Everything), choice, offering, inspection and approval are yours, Inana. Assigning virility, dignity, guardian angels, protective deities and cult centres are yours, Inana. — A Hymn to Inana (Inana-C) ETCSL 4.07.3 in Lines 115-131.

This shows:

Inana has the power to change a person's gender/sex .... which means people can change gender/sex

This is listed among other normal things such as journeys, wealth, settlements so on. Suggesting that it wasn't super special, it was a part of Sumerian society that Inana was given power over.

This was written by Enheduanna High Priestess of Nanna, Ur's city God, and Inana. Inana was a popular Sumerian deity and Enhenduanna's father, Sargon of Akkad's, personal deity was Ištar. One of Enhenduanna's goals as a priestess was to conflate the popular Sumerian deity Inana with her father's Akkadian personal Goddess Ištar. Then raise Inana (and thus her father's personal Goddess Ištar) to an extremely high place in cosmology and explain just how much control she had in society— including over sex/gender.

Also from @sisterofiris's post on Inana's queer priests here.

🌿Nanaya🌿

In later times Inana/Ištar was equated with Nanaya but in earlier times they were worshipped side by side as separate deities. While Inana's hymn gives her rule of gender, a Nanaya hymn has her directly declaring she has breasts in Dadumu and a beard in Babylon. Leick also mentions here that Ištar was worshipped in both genders.

—Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology by Gwendolyn Leick. Page 125.

🌿Asūšunamir with Ereškigal🌿

In Ištar's Descent (not Inana's) Ea's plan to distract Ereškigal and get her to bring Inana back to life is to make a beautiful being. Ea makes an incredibly beautifully brilliant being that's mere aesthetic presence will make Ereškigal happy and let her defenses down. And Asūšunamir's beauty works..... and he is an eunuch, an effeminate male, potentially queer from the ancient's eyes. And yet he is so beautiful he distracts a Goddess.

— The Ancient Near East and Anyhology of Texts and Pictures, edited by Pritchard. Ishtar Descent translation by E.A Speiser. Page 80.

🌿Eštan / Ištanu🌿

The Anatolians (Hittite in particular) loved to both mix deities and keep them entirely dependent like 8 solar deities and 50 storm Gods. But sometimes Hittite, Hurrian, Hattic, Indo-European, Mesopotamian all meld together making the identification of gender ambiguous or even interchangeable.

Eštan is one example (who has numerous equatings):

—A Handbook of Gods and Goddesses of The Ancient Near East by Frayne & Stuckey. Page 105

You can also learn more about the Ištanu and the Sun Goddess of Arinna and her gender from @sisterofiris in a post here.

__

I'm sure there are more! But this was my quick round up and sources I could put together. To all the trans & non-binary polytheists out there, you aren't abnormal and the Gods see you for who you truly are.

Edit: Want some more? Learn about the feminine qualities of Apollo

[helluvabinge]

Trailer Deep Dive

OK, prediction time. Spoilers if you haven't seen the trailer yet.

Take a look and let me know your predictions.

Let's start with the episode list.

Full Moon is, I think, clearly going to be the Blitz and Stolas breakup.

And I think it's going to hurt, because Blitz is showing up all dressed up and with a candle, that he probably picked out with Fizz's help.

So like... he's finally turning the romance on for once. Has he realized he wants to be with Stolas JUST before Stolas decides to end things? Yup, this is going to rip out my heart.

But also, clearly Blitz says some hurtful things back to Stolas becase next episode is Apology Tour.

Where we get Stolas singing in front of the words "Blitz Sucks."

I'm guessing the stuff where Stolas is in this robe is also from this episode since he looks so irritated with Blitz, but I also have another theory for later...

Because next comes Ghost Fuckers, which is I think where this stuff is going to fit in...

My theory is that the Goetia realize that Stolas has given Blitz and his crew access to the mortal world and try to put a stop to it. They summon Stolas to answer for his actions and, when they try to apprehend Blitz, the crew escapes to the mortal world.

Once there, they find some human disguises and try to lay low, only to find themselves mistaken for ghost hunters at a haunted hotel. (I don't have any screenshots of that because I think it's just going to be a fun and silly episode)

I'm also going to throw out a wild theory that Stolas gets imprisoned and that's what this shot is all about.

I am absolutely LESS confident in this theory than any of the others I mentioned, but it just looks a little mystical prisony. Or it could just be a shot in a musical number. But if it's a prison, I'll circle back to this in the finale.

EDIT - Nope, this is from Full Moon. I just saw the early release of the duet, so apparently I was wrong about this being the prison thing. Though to be fair, I still think Stolas and/or Blitz gets locked up before the finale, but whatever. We'll see.

But before any of that of course, while the crew is up on earth, they have to run into DORKS and (yay!) CHERUB. So excited for this episode. I'm guessing they have another interrogation that will rip our hearts out for Blitz with all of this shit -

But it does seem like our team will get out of it just fine.

So on to the finale!

Sinmas is going to be fun.

Remember how I mentioned earlier I would come back to the Stolas in a bathrobe thing? Well, that area does look vaguely like the possible mystical prison I mentioned earlier. If Stolas does end up in priosn, I'm thinking the parts with him in his bathrobe shown earlier could also be him in this prison, being bitchy to Blitz because they got caught. Again, I'm less confident in this theory. (See the Edit above - I don't think this is what happens anymore) But maybe Blitz shows up to get him out after dealing with all the trauma DORKS forced him to pull back up, because this scene DEFINITELY looks like Blitz finally dealing with his trauma and apologizing to his dead mom.

I'm split on whether this will happen in Sinmas or Mastermind. Makes sense structurally to put it in Mastermind, but it would also be a good emotional beat for the finale to see Blitz finally confronting his guilt over his mom's death.

And as for the action...

Is that Satan?

I'm so ready for this.

[nejishadow]

31 Days of Sonic - Day 23: Space

Creation Date: Jan 25th, 2024

The metal railing was traced over from the Sonic Channel art of Shadow and Maria (see below the cut, but it's a screenshot of my lock screen cause it's been our lock screen for ages), because I was going crazy getting it to look similar.

Wanted this piece to be a parallel to that and the ending of SA2. But instead of Earth, it's the moon. Something about the idea of Shadow going back to where he used to be with Maria, but this time alone with his thoughts looking at things he was involved in, at a place he also died. Brought me some odd peace

No idea what I was doing with the colors, I just wanted high contrast cause I like high contrast

[staghunters]

Melinoe lore that can possibly be in Hades II

A lot of you (like me) are very excited about Hades II. Melinoe is a bit (understatement) of an obscure deity, only appearing in the Orphic hymns once. This is the same collection we got Zagreus from, but he is a much more central figure in Orphism.

The main information thus comes from hymn 71 of the Orphic hymns which I'll outline below for those who may want to know a little more (potential) background for the character. There's no guarantee that everything will be in the game, but Supergiant paid a lot of close attention in the first game.

Here we go!

I call upon Melinoe, saffron-cloaked nymph of the earth,

From the first trailer, we can already see that saffron-cloaked is incorporated into the game. It is an orange-yellow color from the saffron herb.

to whom august Persephone gave birth by the mouth of the Kokytos,

Given the design is similar to Zagreus but with a different parental foundation, Persephone definitely seems to be the mom. The river Kokytos is one of the rivers in the Underworld (not featured in the first game). Some of the dungeon screenshots do show a body of water along with a number of shades (both hostile and non-hostile). I think this may be the Kokytos as this one is frequently called the "river of wailing".

upon the sacred bed of Kronian Zeus.

This is a tricky one because Kronian means "son of Kronos" which applies to the three brothers. Zeus in these times was used more generally for "bigger" gods.

He lied to Plouton and through treachery mated with Persephone,

This line, however, does suggest Zeus is the father (once more). I believe one common interpretation is that he shifted into the form of Hades. More canonically, Zeus is also the father of Zagreus. But I think (also given the changes they made to Persephone's parentage) that they will keep Hades for Melinoe as well to avoid the incest connotation.

Whose skin when she was pregnant he mangled in anger

I doubt this will make it in.

She drives mortals to madness with her airy phantoms,

Could be a boon/power thing in the game, but the hymn does specify just mortals. We do see more interaction between shades and Melinoe than between them and Zagreus.

as she appears in strange shapes and forms, now plain to the eye, now shadowy, now shining in the darkness, and all this in hostile encounters in the gloom of night

Also potential boon/power. Specifically, "shining in the darkness" is an epithet used primarily for moon goddesses (Selene, Artemis, Hecate, f.e.). There are some moon motifs in Melinoe's design that refer to those of Nyx and Artemis in the first game.

But goddess and queen of those below, I beseech you to banish the soul's frenzy to the ends of the earth and show a kindly and holy face to the initiates

I think I saw from some screenshots that a lot of the enemies are seemingly corrupted shades. Look for the white-cloaked figures and you'll see some speared by weapons f.e. This could very well be "banish the soul's frenzy to the ends of the earth".

General Note: In academic circles, there is the interpretation that Melinoe is simply a different name/aspect of Hecate. Supergiant definitely did not go in this direction (and neither do I, personally). Hecate so far seems to be more of a mentor figure, similar to Achilles in the first game.

All in all, I'm very excited!! Melinoe has been a long figure of interest of mine, so I'm glad she'll be brought to a wider public with this. As mentioned before, the "canonical" text we have for Melinoe is very very little, basically what you can read above. I fully trust Supergiant in fleshing this out into a great character and a great game in general.

[dieauster-und-diegarnele]

Best hairstyles in A:tLA

Just our personal favorites.

11 because why not: Mai. Her hair silhouette resembles a Japanese hairdo, which is a nice touch. Simple shapes and graceful lines really suit the character's shut-down attitude, her role of a obedient noble girl who always knows the rules. Could've make it to the top if it wasn't for the buns - they don't match her serious personality. If you don't have hairpins to throw, why do you need them at all?

10: Toph (in her noble look). An elegant hairdo; pretty elaborate to indicate her status but not too much. Also a great contrast to usual Toph's bun, which is less complicated and goes with bangs, because she doesn't need to keep her hair from her eyes anyway. Low position because Toph with this hairstyle is not "true" Toph.

9: Aang. A shaved head! This represents his beliefs and culture, which is great. We know there's not much of hair itself, but still :) Also, shaved head accompanied with a head tattoo - the boy has some style! Not a very high place, though, because it's not fancy enough :)

8: Long Feng. Traditional chinese long braid with shaved forehead, which makes the character look smart and mature. It differs Long Feng from other Earth Kingdom nobility or generals too.

7: Katara (seasons 1 and 2). Perfect hairdo for an action girl plus it's inuit-inspired and just looks really nice. So much better than her loose hair... (which should be way longer btw)

6: Sokka (seasons 1 and 2). Simple, elegant, unique. Season 1 shaved heads aesthetic. To be fair, this guy looks great with his hair both up and down.

5: Avatar Yangchen. Almost the same as the one Long Feng has but more loose, only the tip of her hair is braided; also the tattoo makes it look slightly different. Moreover – a woman with partly shaved head! It's pretty rare. Full of grace and yet simple. She really looks like a spiritual person!

4: Princess Yue. A combination of the moon goddess and inuit-like braids. It looks exotic, regal and is decorated a lot, which suits Yue's high position. Also the hair color is just gorgeous.

3: Prince Zuko (season 1). His hair transformation during the show is great but we like this phase the most. Not only it represents his defeat in the Agni Kai and suits his sometimes childish behavior but it also looks so unique! There are not many popular characters with such hairdo. Zuko looks almost alien, it opens his face, so we can immediately fall in love with his elegant features and expressions. The best shaved head of the first season :)

2 and 2: Lo and Li's official hairdo. Gosh, this is something. They look almost scary. We can guess they are noble or very high-ranked. Yes, maybe not the most beautiful ones but it definitely stands out. The more complicated – the better!

1: Aunt Wu. What a lady! All her look is Heian inspired, including her hair. It shows us her status and her wealth. Plus the headpiece. Plus this majestic gray. Plus the braid on the back! Absolute winner.

Update: it's not a braid, it's a low ponytail, but still.

Yes, braids and shaved heads are the best :)

Bonus: Ta Min's bridal hairstyle. Doesn't add more to the character, since we already are told that she is highborn and is getting married in this scene but is still beautiful and epic.

Screenshot source

[violetshadow9]

HONKAI 6.4 SPOILERS!!

Aight, let's do this. My problems with Herrscher Of Finality

Okay, now first off, I actually love the designs and attack patterns! They look cool and are great. The animations look amazing and they’d be fun battlesuits to play.

They aren’t good for what they’re supposed to be though.

Bronya, Mei, and Kiana reunited! Now, against Kevin and Project stigma, they’re fighting together, getting new battlesuits along the way!

They’re a team again, after so long. A united front.

So why the HELL don’t they look like it!?

Okay so, we just had truth drop, right? She’s PEAK Bronya, they hit the nail on the head with her. She look so good!

Now, keeping in mind the united front, a proper team thing, take a look at these 3 pictures.

If you were to take a guess on which combo look like they’re going to go face the world together as an organized team, which would you choose?

Truth and Flamescoin! They look so much better together than Truth and Finality.

The clothes are similar, like an actual squad and not 2 random characters you’d throw together in a meta team.

We don’t have a good example of Mei matching with them because the whole “I’m now your enemy siding with world serpent” thing, but

ORIGIN IS NOT IT.

I have more problems with Origin than Finality, but we’ll get to that another day.

Clearly, they’re running with a white theme on the trio here, so what’s the design issues?

Well, firstly, with finality, it’s just,,,,, a dress.

I don’t even agree with the whole “Ooooh it just looks like time runner thing.”

It’s purple, and a dress… that’s it.

If anything, it looks more like grieso’s outfit due to the flowers.

But anyway, you’re going to save the world in a dress and not a combat uniform??

ESPECIALLY at the most serious point in the game??

Okay, let’s do a side dive here.

I want you to imagine this, the story is continuing, Kiana, Bronya, and Mei surpass finality, and start rebuilding the earth with everyone, they’re fighting regular honkai beasts and other stuff, and things are a lot calmer than they currently are. There aren’t too many major threats, and because of that no need for her herrscher authority. Kiana gets a new battlesuit changing from armor and power to something more casual.

And this is the result. She looks beautiful and like the moon goddess she is, with self-assured almost cocky attack patterns like stretching in the middle of battle because she knows the enemies before her will be no threat.

It’d make so much more sense for the Finality battlesuit’s appearance and attacks in that context rather than the “We’re going to war for the fate of the earth” context we currently have. 

Her battlesuit would be so much better in that context, in my opinion.

At this time, in current context, honestly, Flamescoin is perfect for it, the armor fits, and the white and red looks great with Truth. 

Having attacks ripping holes into reality like the charged attack of finality does would look cool and powerful as she’s sorta… ripping holes into reality sooo…

I just don't understand how they messed this up so badly.

Yet, trying to beat Flamescoin's visual fitting with Truth would have been very difficult to do.

Not like they're going to try though. :/

Thanks for sticking through long post, thanks everyone! Let me know what you guys think, or if I should do a Origin post like this!

(Also, screenshots of HoFin are from Marisa Honkai's youtube)

[hangedmanrui]

With just 2 days left to order the Revue Starlight Enactment Zine (order here!) and less than 10 orders left to unlocking the bgumi pin (which I also designed), I thought I would post my thought process behind the bookmark I made for the zine. It's long, so... more under the cut

starting with the arcana arcadia side - i wanted to try to depict the entire story so I split it up vertically into 6 parts.

act 1

pretty self explanatory - the magician summoning the devil, the hanged man saying he won't stop walking, high priestess being sent to hell

act 2 - is a depiction of these two moments in the screenshots

act 3

also self explanatory... the trial. hermit's eyes are closed, still in denial of the truth

act 4

this one i struggled with a bit initially - because conceptually they're also the wild pirates but Evolved in the "play part" of act 4, at first i wanted to include that, but i couldn't figure out a clear way to do so. the paper moon is aruru:

act 5

this was the easiest to come up with - i was just like OK. STAR WAR. (though i did mess around a lot with the directions they faced) the escape pod is taking star girl away from the battle.. the bottom 3 are cheering as they crash to their deaths. the effects on ai/hologram hikari were fun to do. it was inspired the most by this poster:

act 6

and so the girl arrives at her destination - the moon, a desert of bone and ash. where arcana go to die and be reborn. the fool sets off on his new journey, the world teaches the star of her identity, and the moon passes on her brilliance... ah... i can't put a succinct story screenshot in here. go read act 6.

I wanted to include some imagery from the star tarot card. here's a description of the jugs of water i just stole from biddytarot:

She pours the water out to nourish the earth and to continue the cycle of fertility, represented by the lush greenery around her. The other container pours the water onto dry land in five rivulets, representing the five senses.

instead of water, I wanted it to look like paper, like a long scroll overflowing from the jugs. and they're gold just to match the #aesthetic. the star, brimming with hope and brilliance, continues the cycle of death and rebirth by continuing to write stories. :)

now for the stage play side:

originally i just thought of this as the blue glitter side to include seiran - but then i was like what the heck, there are so many other stageplay characters and i want to draw them. but i think it's still representative of the plays as a whole because seiran were the school born on and for the stage exclusively.

i was thinking of the platform stages that you see in the anime, big round things. i didn't actually cross reference but that's how they were in my brain

the jhs are just jumping (diving) into this world of the stage (they did appear in delight first and foremost after all)

as follows from Diving, i was thinking of limitless when i drew this because i looove the lyric that goes "Limitless, into this strange phenomenon / The one who plunged in was me" and the whole underwater theme of seiran esp in the blue glitter manga. i considered replacing the three musketeers tagline with some form of that lyric, and playing with some underwater themes - but it proved to be too messy and difficult. but we still have this kind of jumping down feeling which is really one of my fav expressions in revue starlight

only the actors show their faces to the audience.. (on stage, everyone minus sakura the stage production stage girl)

guess who's in the audience! well i'm going to tell you. from left to right:

souda-sensei

layla (#3 growth)

namie (#3 growth)

kirin

saegusa chizuru (saikai eyes, movie) (grownup form)

saegusa ichika (saikai eyes) (student form)

yakumo-sensei

i think i wanted to have chizuru and ichika in these not necessarily linear ages because first of all it's the most recognizable, but also because you could say it's them in the point of their lives where they're the most invested in the stage. also I guess the teachers are not in the audience they're the . revue masters calling the curtains to open

anyway that's it, if you read this far, i'm sorry and thank you. please check out the zine and order if you're interested, there is so much cool stuff, and the proceeds go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDs!

[risingfire17-the-weeb-trash]

40 Day Anime Challenge Day 18: Your NOTP (that regrettably became canon): All of the Sailor Senshi with all of the 4 Heavenly Kings from Sailor Moon Crystal (2015)

Synopsis (from Wikipedia): “Usagi Tsukino, a middle school student, is given the power to become a Pretty Soldier. Joined by other Sailor Soldiers, she defends Earth against an assortment of evil villains.”

(Art credit in photo- I couldn’t find a screenshot of all of them but I love the merging that this artist has done)

I love SMC for fixing a lot of the flaws of the 90s anime, cutting out unnecessary villain of the week filler, better developing the characters, and following the manga better. And I know that in the manga, the 4 senshi and the 4 kings are a thing. But look, it’s lazy writing. How tf do not only the moon princess and the earth prince fall in love, but also each of their soldiers pair off nicely with each other? No one looks for love anywhere else? No love triangles? No complications of any kind? Unrealistic. Lazy. And outside of Venus and Kunzite (which is a ship I actually love in SMC), we are not given any reasons for why any of the others fell for each other, we’re just supposed to accept that it happened. Which is bad enough, though I still probably could have let it go, HOWEVER:

The original anime may have gotten a lot wrong but THEY GOT THIS RIGHT AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL!!!!! Nephrite x Naru forever!!!!!

Also:

Zoisite and Kunzite being so in love despite being “unloving villains” (and then the English dub trying to make it look like they were brothers and making it even weirder...ah I love SM English dub backfires lololol)

And:

Jaedite being a strong independent man that don’t need no woman, because not everyone needs a partner!

[tiffanylamps]

this doesn’t really feel like anything huge but i did want to show this to you because i was thinking about them (jwds) for the millionth time 💛

relating these two to my favorite art style, dansaekhwa. (sorry for the bad cropping, there was only one website to find it on and i had to screenshot 😅) this piece—‘Pray VI20’ by hyun ae kang—in particular reminds me of them…

it’s literally named ‘pray’!!! need i say more? 😳

HEYYYYY!!! I'm so excited right now because this is some cool shit!! Thank you so much for sending me this, I LOVE this piece and the fact that you decided to send it to me, of all people! 🥰🥰 I'm going to put a page break/read-more divider here because... well, my response is looong and barely makes any sense 🤦‍♀️😂 I apologise in advance, and please ignore/forgive my dyslexia (it's rampant this evening)

I see so much symbolism to jwds here. I often associate cool tones (like navy blue) with Joo Won and warm tones (like yellow or orange) with Dong Sik*. Obviously, the colour palette (for their attire) the show creators put them in has influenced this thought process, but I also view them in this way because I see Dong Sik as the sun and Joo Won as the moon. *I would be remiss to not point out that in colour theory blue and yellow are *almost* opposites on the colour wheel. But they are oftentimes seen together; almost every day, in fact, when the sun is out shining bright and beautiful against the brilliant blue sky. (I could go on about light waves and how the sky is ever-changing, and how that relates to Joo Won... but it messes with my moon symbolism lol) I hope you don't mind but I'm going to share with you some quotes that I think are very fitting for this subject The moon is a loyal companion. It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human. Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections. ― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me (hello han joo won)

“Even After All this time The Sun never says to the Earth,

"You owe me."

Look What happens With a love like that, It lights the whole sky.” ― Hafiz (hello dong sik)

Love is the great unifier of both light and darkness, aren't the luminaries beautiful? I choose to walk with the brighter one to unveil the mysteries of the darker one. ― Patricio Telman Chincocolo (hello jwds) Anyway, the first thing that came to mind when I thought of this beautiful artwork is the symbolism of light and dark, and how the lighter parts of the artwork are encompassing and almost smothering the darkness. I think this is a beautiful representation of the story of Beyond Evil, and how the good outweighs the bad; how jwds chose to focus on the good, instead of the bad and together, they bring forth lightness in a world of dark (brb i'm crying) Also, I love the crackling of the paint (?). It shows that even beautiful things can break, or, better yet, there is beauty in breaking apart. I adore that the colour melds together into a concoction of purple hues and that when the two colours overlap, they don't necessarily cancel each other out, but instead, bring forth a new element to the piece overall. But the second thing that came to mind is autumn sunsets. This scene looks like the early-evening sky during a bright October day... and then I thought that's very apt, considering what time of year Beyond Evil is set in.... but then I remembered episode 2.... and just-

⬆️⬆️⬆️ helllooo?? It's the skyline at the reed fields in Manyang!!

Another thing this artwork reminded me of is this BEAUTIFUL piece by @micah-lat!! The colour palette and how it ties in with the reed fields, and how that ties in with marrying of light and dark, life and death, and how one can lift the other up from darkness or nefarious intent.... how Joo Won is Dong Sik's "saviour"** but really, they saved each other. ** as quoted from the script book: "Han Joo Won, my saviour, who came to ruin my life" (the actual quote might be slightly different, I'm basing it off memory)

Also, I am going to be self-indulgent and share with you a little thing I wrote last year when I was on a bus during an autumn sunset-

That time of dusk when tropical meets marigold and they kiss like lovers do; with an envious display of earning, for - through tragedy and design - they can only meet once a day. It is a fleeting romance, only lasting a few moments before it is gone. Their kiss is beautiful, and they meld together like the wrong paints on a canvas, growing in saturation and passion until they are cobalt and vibrant tangerine. From their love blooms a smattering of bruised purple and with it, the beauty is over. Night-time has arrived.

(idk, it feels fitting) Whilst we're here, I going to also point out the beauty of jwds being represented by an "in-between" state of being, such as dusk. They aren't a definite, but instead, a fleeting moment that rapidly changes and morphs into something beautiful; and is itself beautiful. They aren't black and white, summer or winter, altogether good or bad. Instead, they are autumn and spring, dusk and dawn. They are twilight and the seasons of change; they are the guarantee that the day kisses the night as they meet once again. They are intersection and connection; a light breeze in early fall.... the quiet comprehending of the ending of it all***... light, warmth, touch, trace, memory- *** I don't know why this came to mind but it's a beautiful lyric

Oooooh, and the fact that it is called 'pray' is just SO GOOD! Perfect, even. One day I will write a think piece on the religious symbolism in Beyond Evil and the folly of man praying for better days in a world of bad, but how that's juxtaposed against the beauty of putting one's faith in another person, and how a person can be a religion, a deity, the symbol for hope and justice, if one chooses them to be, because faith is all about choice, and jwds chose one another, and, and andnand !!!!!!!

Sorry, I literally just sat with my head in my hands because I needed a moment.

I need to stop; I have gone past the point of comprehension (was it there, to begin with though?) and just end with this: Thank you. I love this ask and I appreciate you so much for sending it to me. I did have other points to make but I have forgotten them along the way haha. This made me so happy, and I really enjoyed word-vomiting at you in my response. I hope there's something of interest here in my reply- I'm not entirely sure if I'm making sense, or what point I am trying to make. But know that this is awesome. Thank you once more, and goodbye! 😊

[rubykgrant]

Because I've mentioned it here and there, here is just a collection of my Sailor Moon thoughts from between the ages 10-14 (keep in mind, back then we never got a translated version of Stars, and the original manga wasn't widely available. I had like, 2 whole friends with computers, one who could look up random manga scans, and one who found some screenshots of the anime, so we sort of just pieced together random info... and created fan-fiction before we knew it was called that. so, some of this isn't accurate/impossible, but whatever)

-The evil force that causes so much trouble in the series, Chaos (for simplicity), was original just an opposite reaction to the Galaxy Cauldron; one is for beginnings/rebirth, the other consumes/destroys. However, specific individuals through the universe tried to use the power of Chaos for their own purposes, and in doing so, started to give Chaos a "sense of self". It grew an awareness, and the basic nature to consume/destroy became more of a desire or goal, and Chaos started to manifest in physical forms

-As Chaos moved through the universe, it would devour entire worlds, sucking up all the life. Sometimes, the Guardians of these worlds could still be reborn if their Starseeds were strong, but if the royal family that held the magic jewel of that planet was completely absorbed by Chaos, nobody else on the planet would be revived. Several "ruined worlds" with only one Guardian were the result, and this was what happened to Sailor Galaxia (originally, she had the name of her planet, but it has been so long, her first life has been forgotten, and she only has hateful memories of being alone, thus working to re-make herself as Galaxia)

-When Chaos reached the solar system ruled by the Moon Kingdom, it was finally pushed back... briefly. It still manifested in some form (the sun spots, and the beginning of Metalia). It took Sailor Saturn and the power of the Silver Crystal to defeat Chaos, and while the planets all "died" in the process, because Chaos had not absorbed Princess Serenity, she and the others were able to be reborn on Earth

-Most of the Princesses/Guardians were reborn around the same time on Earth (when they would need to awaken their powers and fight new forms of Chaos), but all the people from the other planets have had new lives on Earth at some point (the people of Jupiter, the people of Venus, etc. it just doesn't happen all at once. there are also plenty of NEW people, who make more new people, and so-on). Earth itself actually started it's whole evolutionary cycle again (this was also part of Saturn's power, her Silence Glaive is for both death AND rebirth). The Four Generals were reborn as well, meant to find their Prince and protect him as well as Serenity, but Beryl had also returned, once again following Metalia, and they joined her as well (their new lives destroyed, and forced to "follow their roles" of the past that lead to ruin)

-When Saturn uses her full power, it not only ends her life and the lives around her, it takes up SO much energy, she sort of has to "skip" a couple life-times before being re-born. In a "worst-case scenario" time-line, the events with Professor Tomoe happened differently, Hotaru didn't survive, and there was no Saturn. Another Guardian had to assume some of her roles, and while nobody could use the same power of death/rebirth, other abilities could be learned. This is why there is some "blend" between the time/death powers of Pluto and Saturn (Pluto was also always a solitary and powerful Guardian, so sharing certain responsibilities with Saturn was easy, but it also meant she was even more lonely). In the past Silver Millennium, Saturn had not yet been reborn from a previous event, and so young Pluto was asked guard the door of Space and Time (Saturn basically woke up right before she had to end everything again)

-Because Chibiusa's time-traveling changed a few things, including Pluto leaving behind her watch, thus having a life as a normal person... until her powers as a Guardian awakened again, and this also brought out Neptune and Uranus (who hadn't been part of things in the previous time-line). Hotaru is also able to survive, but is stalled from awakening by Mistress 9 and Pharaoh 90. Thanks to Chibiusa's love, Sailor Saturn and Sailor Moon are able to defeat the enemy without fully ending everything again (in the previous version of events, without help from the Outer Senshi, much of the planet was wrecked even after the enemy was pushed back, eventually leading to Wiseman manipulating more people into working for him. Wiseman was another form of Pharaoh 90, which were both manifestations of Chaos). In the time-line Chibiusa came from, Crystal Tokyo had become the only safe place for anybody to live, but in this new reality, the world is saved, and Saturn is able to be reborn then awaken much sooner (joining everybody again, and finally having a regular life as Hotaru)

-In another time-line, even further in the future, Chaos has attacked and killed the Earth so many times, trying to get the Silver Crystal, all the Guardians have gone through death/rebirth multiple times... until finally, none of them had enough energy to return, except for Sailor Moon. She continued to fight alone, becoming Sailor Cosmos, but slowly lost hope. She eventually tried one last-ditch effort to change things, returning to the past (as Chibiusa had once done), disguised in a smaller form, and attempted to comfort her past self before everything fell apart... but ultimately, it was her old self, Sailor Moon, that reminded her to never give up. Cosmos saw that this version of Sailor Moon had become stronger than she was, and it inspired her to return to her own reality, perhaps find a new solution. Once again, Sailor Moon pushed back Chaos and saved the world where all the people she loved could live

-The reality with Crystal Tokyo had Serenity becoming the new Queen very young, but she now has the chance to live a full life as Usagi, growing up and marrying Mamoru, being "regular people" for a while. If Chaos doesn't resurface for a while, they even have the possibility of reviving life on the rest of the planets in their solar system, and welcoming survivors from across the universe (all the lonely Guardians that had nearly been absorbed by Chaos). If Chibiusa chose to keep living here and growing up with them all, she would simple be "reborn" as herself in her previous time-line (the memories of this "other life" slowly awakening in her mind as she grows and matures, until she simple "knows all of herself"). Instead of Chibiusa, in this "normal life" timeline, Kousagi is born as Usagi and Mamoru's child (but because they have known Chibiusa for so long, they think of both as their daughters)

[cringywhitedragon]

Update on the upcoming Miku game

So we’ve gotten some brief yet interesting gameplay footage, mostly showing off a follower/pet friend mechanic which is cute and also a glimpse at our first view of gameplay/overworld footage that looks very good but not what really I’ll be focusing on:

My biggest interest has to do with this:

A very small detail, but a major one. Let’s break this down

First off is the large Star shape with five distinct pieces. Since we do know that there is going to be a story from some intro screenshots my best guess is that this might be some sort of major collectable (Possibly a means of getting back to Earth from what I get?) I was correct, It’s story driven

Second, a pretty obvious night/day system ala Gen 2. How will this work and what is it doing here? Is it tied to your switch’s internal clock or does the game have its own day cycle? How will this impact gameplay? Is it a simple cosmetic change? Will it only impact certain aspects? Is it similar to any Harvest Moon-likes in which time is a major integral part to gameplay? This we do not know yet. I was right on one of the guesses, it’s merely a cosmetic change. While nothing over the top crazy like being the only way to catch/evolve certain Pokémon or risk fainting (Let’s face it, the farmer’s kind of a wimp), it’s a nice sight on the eyes.

Lastly, a visible currency system is present. This will likely be obtained from mini games but what it is used to buy is currently unknown. Possibly songs or cosmetic items? Or will we get something similar to the Diva Room and get to decorate it like Animal Crossing (get it?). Semi-right: It’s used for music, followers, and some cosmetics for a few mini games.

A bonus point cause why not: How will this Friend/Follower Mechanic work? Is it an equipable or recruitable NPC/Animal or something along the lines of a dog or cat from Zelda that may just follow you around if you are ion close enough range? I do have a feeling that there are going to be multiple different ones of these. I was correct looking back, while not anything crazy it’s just a companion feature. Also you can have a Capybara (Aka giant chill water rats)

And another now because I’ve just noticed it: There also appears to be a control prompt for the “B” and “+” buttons on the bottom. I’m not the best at Japanese and plan on translating it later but for the time being my best guess is a menu and likely map button if any prior switch game knowledge comes to mind (Quite a few games like to bind their map keys to the “-“ or “+” button) Looking back: It’s a menu and run button

That’s about it for now. Just a little details on this game Crypton is working on since it’s radio silent on our end of things. I’ll post more when there more interesting info

[lyxiannnnnn]

Cardfight!! Vanguard screencap redraw <3

(without the red outline)

music to go with the art (aka one of the BEST cfv openings ever) highly recommend if you have the time,,

[midbus8]

The Soulmates - The Gift of Light (The Christmas Gift of Light). Lore and theories.

Hey, yeah, so I know I’m a Care Bears archiver, but recently I’ve been becoming very interested in an old cartoon called The Soulmates - The Gift of Light. You’ve probably heard about it, it was lost media for years and was recently found and people are talking about it. In my spare time I’ve been doing a little bit of digging on this cartoons’ lore. The Soulmates, Angris McBragg, Doubting Thomas, and after some closer looks at what’s going on, there seems to be more to this cartoon than I actually thought there would be. Definitely seems like they were going to launch a series that would’ve cleared a bunch of stuff up. Well, it was confirmed that they were, but the company involved with the series went bankrupt, so that sucks..

First, let’s start out with The Soulmates themselves.

The Soulmates seem to be two alien creatures that surf the universe, but if we listen closely to some of the Moons’ dialogue, it’s made pretty clear that they’re not the only Soulmates in the universe. He refers to the Soulmates by their actual names (Orion and Orillia) in a way that makes it obvious that there’s more of them.

In the scene where Orion is trying to communicate with Orillia telepathically, the communicators on the side of his head state “The Soul you are trying to reach is currently under a spell and thus out of our service, thank you for using SoulNet.”. This could mean that the Soulmates all communicate with each other in the same way, why else would there be a whole service dedicated to them communicating telepathically?

There’s more evidence that there’s more Soulmates, which leads us perfectly into Angris McBragg.

Not much else is known about him either, apart from that he’s Santa’s rival, as said in his dialogue “It took years of work, but it finally paid off!”. Meaning that he’s been trying to take his place for years. They are also not related, because Angris’ last name is McBragg, not Claus. Plus they look nothing alike.

Angris and Thomas seem to know what a Soulmate is, even though the Soulmates we watch have never even been to earth, and they haven’t even done their first mission! This could mean that Angris and Thomas have met other Soulmates in the past who have tried to stop them from doing something bad. They also don’t refer to the Soulmates we see by their actual names, just “Soulmate”, which adds to this.

Going back to Angris McBragg as a character, I’m not sure what his backstory is. My only guess is that he isn’t some massive evil mastermind, but rather a very resentful guy with a short temper and a lot of intelligence. He doesn’t really act super evil, he treats his henchman Thomas with respect, bosses people around, and does petty bullying and causes chaos in local towns just to ruin someone’s day for no reason. On the other hand, his goal isn’t to take over the world or destroy the universe or whatever, he just wants people to doubt themselves and be miserable, which is still pretty bad, but not “Mastermind” evil.

Next we’ll look at Doubting Thomas. The first thing I noticed is that he doesn’t have elf ears (as seen in this screenshot with Pops, yes the polaroid photo elf is named Pops according to the cartoon), at first I thought that Thomas was a disgruntled elf, but that’s obviously false. Thomas is a dwarf, and that’s all we really know about him. It’s possible that Angris could’ve hypnotised him into being Doubting Thomas, but that part is just a theory.. One little trivia fact is that Doubting Thomas means someone who doesn’t believe in something until they see it for themselves, and it’s also a reference to the bible, which may be why he turns good in the end.

Edit: I've just noticed that Thomas still has 4 fingers, not 5 like the other humans. So what is Thomas? Is he actually an elf? Is he a hybrid? Or are his normal looking ears or 4 fingers some kind of deformation? I'm not too sure, but it's fun to headcanon about!

That’s basically all I have to say. I am interested to see if anything comes out of this cartoon. The creator Gabrielle St George is very active on Social media and talks to her fans a lot, and I do wonder if a reboot will happen, or at least some merchandise. Imagine a Halloween special where the Soulmates fight an evil pumpkin man who steals candy and makes monster ornaments come to life. That’d be sick, lol. Thanks for reading!

[gemkidsau]

Season Three

I made some posts on Tapas about this but I guess some people missed them, so the confused people in that crew, here is a screenshot of an explanation:

The original plan was to draw the entirety of season two before scheduling it all to post. But a handful of episodes in I got caught up in something else and by the time I had time to work on it again, I just couldn't. I tried and tried but I really just could not get back into it.

So continuing in my promise, here is season three:

Super watermelon island

Garnet sees Malachite surfacing on Mask Island so they go there and ambush her. Peridot stays behind to work on the drill and Rose volunteers to supervise her. Alexandrite defeats Malachite. Jasper is lost in the ocean again and Lapis is brought home, passed out.

Gem drill

Same plot but replace Steven with Rose.

Same old world

Lapis wakes up and Amethyst helps her process what she went through and finds a new home for her (similar plot but Amethyst has a different approach cause of her personality). She chooses the barn.

Barn mates

Peridot insists the barn belongs to her because she’s already been using it. Lapis insists it was promised to her even though Amethyst never actually said that and doesn’t own the barn in the first place. Amethyst decides this is going to be hilarious and makes popcorn. She soon realizes she’s too close to it for it to be funny so goes to solve the problem, but it’s harder than she anticipated. It generally follows the same plot though. The red eye shows up at the end and lapis flicks it.

Hit the diamond

Yeah this one’s the same.

Steven floats

Rose learns she can float.

Mr greg

Steven & Connie’s backstory (Never fleshed this out)

Too short to ride

TBH the same but replace Steven with Rose.

The new lars

Rose wakes up in the middle of the night in Pearl’s body. Terrified, she shakes herself awake, which triggers the switch back. Pearl wakes up groggy and asks Rose why she’s awake. She says she had a bad dream and they go back to sleep.

Beach city drift

The cool kids invited Lars to a party and he’s bragging about it. When Pearl and Amethyst show interest, Lars says little kids aren’t allowed. They fuse and try to keep Opal stable so they can attend the party.

Monster reunion

Rose figures out that she does, in fact, have healing powers. She’s sure it’s a Diamond thing, but thankful as heck it’s also a Rose Quartz thing. Rose says she should try and heal one of the monsters and Pearl says she should do corrupted Rose Quartz. Once CRQ is half healed, it’s the same plot switching Steven for Pearl. We get to learn about the Crystal Gems’ demise. They were fighting at the beach and where Beach City would eventually be built. A Quartz fusion chucked the warp pad to prevent further backup from arriving. Rose notices a Nephrite receiving orders to retreat and looks up to see the diamond attack. The warp pad lands on the Nephrite. Rose doesn’t have a means to protect her friends(sword instead of shield), so they all succumb to the attack. (exit flashback) Rose runs to the temple, but can’t get in. Pearl lets her in. Pink Rose is in there like “wat happen why.” (Maybe CRQ finds something in the chest? IDK where to go from here.)

Alone at sea

Peridot is sad because Lapis is sad and she can’t figure out how to make not sad so she asks Garnet for help. Garnet takes Lapis into the ocean and does her best to show her more of the beauty of Earth. Lapis is finally starting to cheer up when Jasper sneaks up on them and begs on her knees to become Malachite again. Lapis tells her no and makes her leave. Garnet and Lapis go home wary.

Greg the babysitter

Sour Cream is excited because his baby brother is being born today. The gems are like what is a baby. We learn that gems don’t start out quite that small. They theorize that since humans only incubate for 9 months, they don’t develop as far. Gems incubate for years. They come out as 5-year-olds ish. Then Connie wonders if gems were to incubate for a very long time, would they form as adults? The gems laugh at such an idea. :^)

Gem hunt

Connie is getting very good at being close to danger even though she can’t fight or anything, so when she hears the gems are going to the frozen North, she insists on tagging along to supervise. The gems think that’s stupid but they aren’t gonna say no to Mom. Connie and Garnet get separated from Pearl, Amethyst, and Rose. While separated, Connie actually helps Garnet take out one of the beasts. Pearl, Amethyst, and Rose encounter Jasper, who poofs their beast and walks off menacingly as Connie and Garnet find them. (Rose summons her shield for the first time when trying to protect her teammates)

Crack the whip

Amethyst loses a sparring match to Pearl for the first time and is super self conscious about it.

Steven vs amethyst

Amethyst internalizes the problem instead of confronting Pearl.

Bismuth (This is out of order. Should happen before Monster Reunion)

Rose asks why she doesn’t have a room in the temple yet and the gems are like yeah that’s chill we have another spot go for it. She makes her room and to her surprise there’s already stuff in it. The other gems are like yeah there were a few things in our rooms too. We think they’re left over from the previous owners. Stuff like swords and relics. But Rose has some peculiar items in her room. There’s a chest, a sword, a flag, and a bubble. Rose likes the sword and wants to use it in battle.

Beta

Amethyst still feels like shit so Rose takes her to Peridot and Peridot takes them to the beta kindergarten. Same plot.

Earthlings

We find out that even though Jasper was originally made for Yellow, since she was young when PD emerged she was actually training to be given to Pink.

Back to the moon

Same plot mostly. The other gems hear for the first time (from the rubies) that Pink Diamond was shattered on Earth. ‘Who would do such a thing?’ It was a Rose Quartz. All eyes on Rose. Not having planned for this, she panics and runs downstairs. Pearl says she’ll talk to her since she’s closest to her and asks the other to continue helping the rubies without her.

Bubbled

Pearl talks to Rose about what they’re going to tell the others. They decide Rose was bubbled and when Pink returned to Earth in search of her Pearl, she released Rose. Rose asked who she was and she told her she’s a Diamond. Rose is a Crystal Gem so she identified her as a threat and took the opportunity to strike. Soon the others return but their cover (pretending to be homeworld gems for the rubies) is blown at the last second. Rose opens the airlock to blow them into space and one of them grabs her, trying to pull her with them, but she escapes the ruby’s grasp safely.

[commenter2]

“The Circus” breakdown and review

A new season of Helluva Boss means the return of my reviews. For those that are new, this is a series of literatures where I talk about what is happening in a Helluva Boss episode as I watch it and do a review of it at the end. Though rated M for Mature and contains major obvious spoilers I hope you enjoy it.

I like how the screenshot of the episode just has a golden 1 instead of the usual “Episode #”, showing that this is an episode of a different season.

Aww young Stolas looks adorable and I like how in the series of portraits of him growing up, we see him featherless just like actual birds. I also like seeing that “piranha” plant of his being around when he was young.

Stolas really loves that bunny. Meaning it must mean something, maybe a gift from his mom.

Stolas has siblings! We also never see Stolas’ mom in the episode, so I wonder what happened to her? Also why do I have a strange feeling Paimon has multiple wives, it doesn’t help he seems like that kind of guy.

So we now know what the Grimoire (or “The Book” as like to call it) is for but I still wonder why Stolas needs it on full moons? Could full moons be the only day he can go on Earth to study it and humans?

Aww man there going with the “loveless arranged marriage” trope with Stolas and Stella. I mean there were signs that this was going to happen, but I know I’m not alone when I say the series and the character of Stolas and Stella would have been more interesting if the two either did like each other a little bit before the marriage or were optimistically open minded about the marriage. I do want to make it clear that though I don’t like this and how I will bring this up in later works, I’m NOT hating on VIviziepop or the writers for doing this as it is Vivzie’s show after all and she can do what she wants. In the end this is just a personal opinion but still, I hope they can take this as artistic criticism for the future of the series. Also though Stella shown being a jerk while young is a bit of a letdown, I still have some hope for her character later on.

Also not liking Paimon’s attitude so far as this is something I’m hoping Stella’s parents are like, but it does give me hope that he specifically arranged the marriage with Stella BECAUSE he liked how similar they are to him. 

Paimon likes the circus, interesting. Also I like how he is acting like Stolas did in episode 2.

BLITZO’S DAD, BARBIE WIRE, AND FIZZ awesome. Wait a minute!

Ozzie: Blood is disgusting

Blitzo: No its cool

I bet Blitzo is going to change his mind on later on.

Whether an Imp or a Goteia, anyone can have parent issues which fitting cause again this is the theme of Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel.

Honestly, though it’s nice seeing them be friendly I’m not liking how Stolas and Blitzo met when they were young but I’ll go over that later.

I wonder if adult Blitzo can still hold himself with his tail. If so, I can see a lot of Spider-Man like Stolitz kiss art in the future XD.

So Stolas can see prophecies. When episode 2 came out people theorized in his song to Octavia that he saw his/Hell’s death so I wonder if this is true or not. It would explain his affair as if he is going to die, then why not live it up?

Blitzo hiring Stolas is interesting and it gives me another idea that I might talk about one day.

Given she got under 70 seconds of screentime in the entirety of season 1, I think we should make this episode Stella’s “honorary” debut.

The marriage was that bad huh? Poor Octavia. I do strangely see this being a common party theme in Hell.

Goteita of all species cool. I wonder if any of them are OCs of the staff? I do feel like they missed out on a chance to have other royals at the party, like seeing Lucifer and Lilith flirting in the background XD.

It’s those Goetia from the pilot. I’m guessing there Stella’s best friends.

Can you TONE DOWN the nastiness of Stella! I do NOT want her to be the main antagonist of this series!

Though besides the sex joke from Stolas, I like seeing him just talk to Blitzo for a change instead of just wanting to have sex with him. 

And that is how it all started. I’m guessing Stolas didn’t have a prediction about his death, but maybe about something else.

So Stolas is bi/pan confirmed? I mean he did say he wants to “do it” with people that care about him/ have passion which compared to Stella seems like anyone. I personally like the idea and hopefully people can be mature on such a concept.

So they are fully divorced? Bummer but more on that later. Wait if he is happy here then why was he so nervous and apologizing in S1E2? Not that great of a retcon.

Now we get to the aftermath of the season 1 finale.

Stolas has a pill addiction! That won’t be good as I could see someone switching them out for something deadlier in the future.

So the song seems to confirm my theory that Stolas was bored of his royal life until Blitzo came into it.

Can’t wait to see what that page in the book translates to but it seems obvious. Since the Asmodean crystals has most of Asmodeous’ name in it followed by images of his other heads, I bet they are related to lust. Since I saw a necklace and ring in them, I feel like there some kind of either “love spell” kind of thing or whoever wears it wants to be with the wielder.  I defiantly see this playing a role in a future episode but hopefully not in a “Stella forcing Stolas to love her and thus stay in royalty” plotline.

Guess they didn’t get divorced after the pilot but its interesting seeing that she is still living at Stolas’ place from time to time. It is nice hearing that Stolas tried in the marriage and I wonder what the marriage would have been like if Stella was a bit nicer.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out in the next episode that Octavia was in the room when she heard Stolas and Stella’s argument and being heartbroken by hearing things like Stolas saying they were just there to raise her and being “done” with everything, especially that last part as in episode 2 he said he wouldn’t leave her. Though I don’t think he meant it that way, Octavia is going to think otherwise and thus leads to (spoilers) her running away in episode 2.

Nice catch Stolas. Shows that he is standing up for himself now, which I wonder what things would have been like if he did so earlier in his marriage. It is a bit much for Stella’s first true appearance though.

Andrealphus reference and from what Stolas said, it sounds like he was affected by what Andre said in the past but doesn’t seem care anymore. I wonder if it is because Andre has a lot of influence in Goetia society?

With the way Stella said Stolas would pay, I’m guessing that means Stolas doesn’t know about her hiring Striker.

Gosh this was admittedly a tough episode for Stolas and its going to get worse in the next episode which hopefully will come out soon. For a season premiere, the episode was pretty good as along with the typical great animation and backgrounds it was filled with all kinds of lore, character development, reasons why characters are the way they are, and finally explaining how all of this started. It was also interesting even though I’m not a big Stolas or Stoliz fan. I also like how Stella FINALLY got screentime but that is bitter sweet.

It does have its problems, big ones like I feel like the flashbacks should have mostly focused on a young Stolas since its rare to see him be on screen WITHOUT Blitzo and it would have been interesting to see more about him as an individual or interacting with other characters. This also just makes the episode feel like another Stolitz episode and again just hammers in that the two are destined to be together, which now I feel like will be a bit less (very less) exciting when they eventually do get together. Plus were are getting a Blitzo flashback later in the season so they should have just saved all the plot lines about Blitzo till then. 

My biggest problem with the episode was how mean, rude, and selfish they made Stella. Ever since she appeared, people have been making her out to be just that but over time I (and others) saw potential with her as a character especially as the series went on as we learned more about other reoccurring characters (like Fizz) who also got more developed, so it was a bit of a bummer that the writers just gave her a 1D personality. I feel like this would have been okay if they showed this in season 1, maybe thats why they went a bit overboard in this episode? I strangely still have hope for Stella as this is the first episode of a new season and her first TRUE main appearance, so they could have been doing this to show how much she will change in the future. It has also been shown that the writers like to clearly show things about characters and the world so fans don’t get confused so again maybe they did this on purpose. We are starting a new season and usually around season 2 in shows like this, characters start to change and if other heartless characters like her can change for the better (some slightly better) than so can Stella if the writers play there cards right.  I still hope something interesting can happen between her and Stolas later in the series. If I could rewrite the episode I would have made it be about Stolas’ birthday party where Paimon still gives him The Book but doesn’t want to spend time with Stolas as he is talking to some people, bumming out the young prince.  This leads him to meeting Stella where they interact a bit and though they have their differences don’t hate each other. We also could see them doing fun things that are not royal (like go to the circus where we see Blitzo and Fizz being friendly) but this gets them in trouble though they don’t regret it and are soon shocked to hear that they are to be married in the future. The episode then cuts to them being married where we (and Stolas) see Stella has changed but isn’t that angry at Stolas until things happen after Octavia is born which leads to a big fight resulting in Stolas meeting Blitzo and see how fun he is compared to his wife as she is now. Then we get that season 1 aftermath scene with some changes like no attempt slap from Stella.

Again I just want to state that I still respect the writer's choices and I'm still gonna watch the show but I hope they can see this as just feedback at the end of the day.

What did you think about the season 2 premiere of Helluva Boss? As always I would love to hear your thoughts and if you liked my review, give me a follow to keep up with them as well as my future Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel related content.