#amount of times scout has died in my art: 2

[richestindaworld]

happy vally times from heavymedic

and the aftermath

[fanfoolishness]

Time to yell about The Redemption! Din please don’t die ;__;

The other Mandalorians... it’s just not fair dammit

And I’m still not over Kuiil! I will never forget you, Ugnaught!

This is the same bag that Din carries him in later, isn’t it? Reduce, reuse, recycle.

AND DON’T YOU DARE HIT THE BABY

The entire scout trooper sequence is fucking hilarious

[TROOPER 1 BLOWS RASPBERRY, BEATBOXES] 

yes that is the actual subtitle my friends

They’re terrible shots, that’s why they’re stuck on speeder duty

I like that this scout trooper armor maximizes pouches. So many pouches

That’s it, “oh my god” is canonical. It’s still better than “oh my force”, sometimes, you just gotta go with the classics

IG-11 ain’t nothing to fuck with

“I’m sorry, nurse” these guys are so polite when they aren’t beating my son

I love IG-11’s inherent awkwardness, the jankiness of Star Wars is the best

I hadn’t realized that Cara’s gatling blaster was a gift from Din, right? Because she didn’have any on Sorgan. Awww, friend gifts!

Decommissioned Mandalorian hunter Din Djarin has heard the songs of the Siege of Mandalore —

The way Din just startles and stares because who knows that name, why does he know that name —

You always think terrible things live in the dark, monsters that lurk in the shadows where you can’t see them and the mind plays tricks. But sometimes monsters are there, glaringly and awfully, out in the open, beneath a blinding sun on a warm day, and there’s no comforting darkness to hide in anymore.

IG-11 just coming in here to ruin this platoon’s entire career

Greef: spotchkaing on the fly

Grogu: delighted

IG-11: fucking shit up

Din and Greef about to start shit!

Din: master of found weapons

I always headcanon Din as having a fractured skull from the concussive WHOOMPH of the explosion, possibly some damage to the neck and throat as well... dammit inquiring minds that have a disturbing enjoyment of whump want to know the exact extent of this man’s injuries

His hands are all limp and loosely curled when Cara drags him over the threshold :( :( :(

Din’s quiet. He’s calculating. Realizing how badly he’s hurt, how he’ll slow the others down. Doesn’t speak until it’s to say “I’m not gonna make it.”

“Leave me” and the blood on her hand DON’T BREAK MY HEART DIN DJARIN / PEDRO PASCAL

His voice! His voice is killing me! Ragged and breathless and pained and determined and I’m just gonna go... be... over there...

(Crying, I’ll be crying.)

(Rewinds) (watching this whole sequence again)

“You make sure the Child is safe!” *cue me blubbering forever*

[BREATHES SHAKILY] “You tell them it’s from Din Djarin” man whoever was doing these subtitles knew WHAT WAS UP ;_;

“You tell them the foundling was in my protection” he’s so fucking determined even though he can’t hardly breathe, even though he knows he’s dying and knows it’s hopeless, still though, maybe they can get the child out —

(But I have to say the flame trooper is cool as hell)

Did Grogu know how badly hurt Din was? Did he sense it through the Force? Did he understand?

Grogu death count: 1

That meta about Cara asking IG-11 to bring his BODY just kills me

Din’s voice is trying to be all tough now that he’s faced with IG-11, his voice noticeably gets lower and harder — until it cracks into breathlessness again because again, hi, DYING

The gasping raise of the blaster, my god, you are so STUBBORN DIN!

IG-11 actually looked confused, and Din actually was with it enough to understand he needed to give an explanation of “It is forbidden”

“No living thing has seen me without my helmet since I sw— swore the Creed” he gasped brokenly and my heart just shriveled up and then exploded because Pedro’s voice is just a weapon of mass destruction right here

Din: utterly confused to have his face showing

Cara: shoves baby, grabs friend

Thank god for bacta amirite

The way he slowly turns the light on his helmet off when he sees what’s in front of him... oh man this is making me tear up. It was rough when I first watched it, but I hadn’t spent the nearly the amount of time thinking about Din’s role within the covert and what the Mandalorians meant to him and it’s just awful. It’s such a terrible pain he even considers abandoning Grogu — that’s how bad it is. “You go, take the ship. I can’t leave it this way.”

Don’t think about the Armorer in the tunnels in the dark alone among the ruin of her people, both bone and beskar fallen, nope, don’t think about it :)

The Armorer, confused as hell about Din and the kid

“I know of such things”; Din Djarin *confused headtilt*

Ohhhh Armorer why did you say he had no choice but to reunite it with its own kind, this man absolutely will take you literally ;_;

I still want to do a comic or a little fic about Din doing training sessions with the Rising Phoenix

I miss the Armorer

Wonder why Din never brings the Amban rifle to finales

The Armorer’s fight scene is still the SHIT

I forgot about the fucking monstrosity that is an R2 unit with fucking giant long skeleton legs

Awww the fire ferrets

“But you’ll be destroyed”

“I’m not... sad.” Will always kill me. He’s just lost Kuiil and the Mandalorians completely, the idea of losing another ally, even one as strange as this, it’s just too much right now, it’s too much for him, and yes, he’s sad!!!

When I think about how much Din’s head must have hurt doing that maneuver with the Rising Phoenix and Gideon’s fighter, just, OUCH

“Some of my favorite people are bounty hunters!” <3

When Grogu grabs hold of Din’s leg Din just... completely loses interest in Greef and Cara’s conversation. It’s not until Greef physically nudges him that Din remembers to look up and pay some attention. He’s too busy looking at the kid, and about to reach down for him when Greef nudges him.

Kuiil’ s cairn ;_;

“I didn’t think I’d see this again.” You know. Because I almost died. JESUS DIN STOP HURTING ME LIKE THIS

But he gives it to Grogu and I hope Grogu plays with it and looks at it all the time when he’s with Luke ;_;

Seriously though, how did 1) Gideon get the Darksaber, and 2) Din has a silver pram in S2 but Kuiil’s pram should have got blown up in the Client’s hideout, so what gives? They didn’t bring it with them through the lava river sooo?

Thank you Taika Waititi!

This art though 🤩

I’ll admit when I first saw Din’s face I was pretty disappointed. I’d grown to love him just as he was with the helmet, and underneath, he was just some regular man? With, unaccountably, a mustache??? With his hair like THAT and covered in blood and sweat? It definitely wasn’t love at first sight. I was almost disappointed they’d shown his face only 8 episodes in and thought, “oh, great, S2 is going to have him showing his face all over the place like it wasn’t a big deal at all.” And I’m so happy that they continued that conflict and deepened it so that when we got moments like in The Believer and The Rescue it really meant something incredibly huge to see his face again. So curious to see where they take S3.

[inventors-fair]

Shining Stars

So, this contest got pretty wacky and wild. There were a lot of people experimenting with what Characteristic Defining Abilities (or CDAs) could do to a card. I think a lot of people were trying to go as far from the norm as possible without going over, like some card designer’s version of price is right. While I did encourage and appreciate creativity, I wish I had seen a few more people playing it safe and putting new abilities on existing star cards.

But enough of me rambling, let’s get to me talking! If you’re looking for your card, they are sorted top to bottom alphabetically by the name of the entrant. If you were a winner or runner-up, your commentary was on the post marking you as such.

@antmations​ - Keldon Lightning-Slinger

I like what the star does here. If they’re your only shaman (somehow), it’s an aggressive 3/1 that can get in for damage. If you have a board of shamans, it gains enough toughness to be a defensive wall while you use its ability to start controlling the board. As effectively as you used the star, though, the card has two big issue. The smaller issue is that the card doesn’t really seem green at all, but I can understand how the set as a whole would need it to be green to cement the archetype in two colors and encourage splashing. The bigger issue is that the ability is ridiculously strong. Most cards that can repeatably do 3 damage to creatures are either mythics, 6+ mana, or both. At a minimum I think it needs a mana cost or needs to tap itself. As it is now, your opponent can’t play a creature with <4 toughness as long as you have two shamans, and if you have four shamans they’re practically hard locked from playing creatures.

@arakis-selfinsert​ - Krark, Thumbless Gambler

You’ve mentioned that the star is really more of a way to track the activated ability than anything, and I respect that. In silver-bordered land, I also don’t mind as much that one bonesplitter massively changes this guy’s math, because it’s all just coin flips anyway. Also, this card doesn’t NEED to be silver-bordered, since black-border has coin flips, but I doubt this would see print there, so I appreciate the fact you did it preemptively. I will warn you though, I don’t like the last ability. Not only is it fairly weak, it’s really slow and tedious to actually perform, and the phrasing means that all of the damage will go to one target that is picked before you flip the first coin. I don’t blame you for missing that interaction, the rules are pretty awkward when it comes to targeting mid-ability. There’s a reason Karplusan Minotaur and the Battlebond coin-flip guys are phrased the way they are.

charmera - Candle-Wrought Caretaker

I was scared at first when I saw the art the fact that it was a two mana 4 power haste creature, but then I realized it has both a skaab-style additional cost (even if not phrased as one, though it probably should be) and a magmaroth-style shrinking effect. Even so, I think 2 mana is just way too cheap for this kind of effect on such an efficient body. That said, I really like the design of the card, and I love the way it interweaves the downside and upside, and how it has an Endless Horizons type risk where if it dies before it does anything you’re out some important resources. I really like the card, but I wish it cost a bit more mana or was a little less aggressive in some way.

@corporalotherbear​ - Treasure Golem

Seeing this card in the discord made me change my example card, because it looked almost exactly like this, except it was a little cheaper, made one treasure, and counted all artifacts. So that’s a good sign! I like how you make it count itself, and in doing so turn it into a treasure, which seems cool and silly to me. I think this card does have two big issue, though: first, it’s colorless ramp, letting you go from 5 mana on turn 5 to 10 mana on turn two in any color. It’s not too much worse than composite golem or gilded lotus, but it could wreak havoc in some formats. Second, and this is what I was going to bring up in my example, treasures are very fickle. This creature wants you to make a bunch of treasures in your precombat main phase so you can attack with a big creature. However, if it gets blocked, you’e put in a really awkward situation in your second main phase. If you sac too many tokens, your golem will die from the damage marked on it. If you mis-tap mana on a digital client, your golem will die and it won’t let you undo. I think this card is really cool but I worry it might be asking a bit too much from the player.

@dubudder - Chandra’s Firemaw

It takes a little more work than I wish was necessary to play this over spark elemental. I like how the last ability combos with ball lightning effects, but I think most decks playing cards like that are going to have pretty empty boards. I’d really need to know what kind of support this card was getting in the set to know how playable it was. I think the card is a good design, but I think it could afford to be pushed just a little more compared to recent cards.

@demimonde-semigoddess​ - Erupting Wurm 

Wood Elemental… is that you? All joking aside, this card is… weird. I think the two directions to go with this card are either A) ramp a bunch then play this as a massive creature or B) use this to bounce a few lands so you can get more landfall triggers. I think the first version is going to be pretty rare, considering devastating summons doesn’t see much play and would usually be the better card compared to the wurm. The second version, bouncing 2-4 lands, might be nice in decks running llanowar scouts or Azusas, and especially as a flash reach creature to block with. It’s a pretty fringe use card, but not every card needs a perfect home, and I wouldn’t mind this card existing out there in the card pool. You’re also one of the only people to enter a card with a set it and forget it star card, so good for you! That said, if printed it’d probably just use +1/+1 counters.

@dimestoretajic​ - Riodan, Nature’s Watcher

Not much to say about this guy. I like his simplicity, I like how trample is green, crusader text is white, and countering is blue, but they all work with each other very well. He’s also got a crossbow, which is playing to the judge but you didn’t know that. The closest thing I have to a complaint with this guy is that he protects your other creatures even though it seems like he’d be the main target most of the time anyway. Having him and Shalai out seems hilarious though. He’s just a solid dude.

@dont-wanna-wanga​ - Extended Ego

I love how much care was put into this card to make it go in the deck that would use it. It needs to go in a deck that keeps cards in hand, which are usually defensive, so it’s a flying defender. It’s also one mana because most control decks need their defenses early, or to leave up mana in the late game. I’m also glad you let players take it back if they accidentally play it after topdecking or get hit with discard. My only gripe is that I wish the death effect were a trigger not a replacement effect, just because it seems like it should be. I also wish the cycling cost were a little higher, since it seems like it’s there mostly to give it a use if you topdeck it, and it might be a touch too strong otherwise.

@driftingthruthecosmos​ - Mura, the Discerning

An enchantment god that isn’t and enchantment creature. Neat. So this card is based all around enchantments, and being black-white, it cares about them in graveyards as well as in play. I think enchantments is a great thing to track since they are on the board and a lot of enchantment decks need good win-cons, and an indestructible */2 is a good way to get the job done. I don’t understand the combat condition, though. All of the Amonkhet gods had activated abilities that let them trigger attack in some way or another, but yours is about what to do after you trigger it. There aren’t a lot of easy ways to get enchantments to enter graveyards, especially pre-combat (since auras and enchantment creatures can die in combat), and I think the card is just weak enough that it’s hard to justify building around. If she were just a mana cheaper I think she’d be great, and if she had a way to sac enchantments she’d be amazing, but even as is I think she’s very good.

@fractured-infinity​ - Verdant Necrophage

This is one of the first cards that count counters on both sides that I really like. It still encourages filling your deck with -1/-1 counter creatures like channeler initiate, but its focus is on your opponents creatures. Thanks to how -1/-1 counters work, there will never be too high an amount on the board so it won’t be too hard to count, and when it goes down it’s usually from something dying so it’s all upside. I like how you got around the 0 toughness issue by putting -1/-1 counters on non-creatures on cast. It effectively acts like +1/+1 counters but could have fringe benefits being thrown on enemy creature lands or guardian idols. Giving two -1/-1 counters to anything on cast / every turn would normally be way too strong, so the non-creature rider is a clever way around that. It’s also a great way to dodge the 0 toughness issue, and has some fringe use against manlands and guardian idol type cards.

@ghost31415926535 - Apex Hydra

What a big hydra! I like how the base rate is effectively just a hydra with 2*X P/T, which is pretty good. With even some moderate building around this guy gets really big and strong. Normally I’d say counting counter on creatures including itself can make for some difficult math, but the fact that it’s just a vanilla creature otherwise helps keep it from coming up too often. I don’t know why you let it count your opponents’ counters, though, that seems like it won’t come up often but will get awkward when it does. Still, I really like the design.

@gollumni​ - Cymede, Claimed by Keranos

Hey, it’s what happened to Cymede! I like the continuation of the demigod cycle, with the implication that there is one for every two color combination. Devotion to two colors might be a little strong, considering Anax already sees play for practically being a vanilla creature, but it’s forgivable. That activated ability also looks like it could be really really strong in the right deck, though it’s awkward that it is at odds with Cymede herself, who much prefers permanents. Also, neither of these colors should be caring about enchantments in graveyard, even if it is Theros. The cards a bit mixed, but I really like it and I’m happy you picked up a trend and worked with it.

@ignorantturtlegaming​ - Towering Brontodon

What a monster he is! Reach and vigilance make this a great defensive creature while slowly accumulating advantage by dropping lands into play. However, players having extra lands in hand after they hit 7 mana is rare, and can make them feel like they’re wasting an ability. I think this card really needed some way to encourage that last ability to become relevant, either by somehow drawing cards or maybe having an ability that bounces lands to your hand. The dino is nice, and it’s big, but I don’t think anyone would be excited to see this in a booster pack.

@joecurryat​ - Tuali, Attuned with the Horde

So it’s a Heedless One but you get to choose the creature type. That sounds like a great deal, but I’ve got two gripes. First, this card essentially makes you discard a card when you play it, and worse yet a creature. It would need pretty good stats to make up for that. Second, it’s not very strong. Unless you have a massive board of creatures, this probably won’t even be a 5/5 most of the time, and if you’re playing it in a tribal deck, it would usually be better just to play a card of that tribe. At 5 mana, this card is just too much for too little. Maybe with some keywords or another zone to imprint from it might be more playable.

@jsands84​ - Kyuss, the Worm that Walks

Ah yes, eminence, the ability that everyone loves. I love the clear top-down design of this card, and the -1/-1 counter synergy is a cool build-around theme for a worm deck. This card has a lot of overlap with Hapatra as a -1/-1 commander, but the eminence ability pulls it far ahead. Too far ahead if you ask me. A lot of commander players consider eminence a mistake, and a free 1/1 every turn no questions asked is too strong, and making one on every player’s turn is ludicrously broken. A commander deck with Kyuss, 50 swamps, and 50 forests could win a surprising amount of games.

@kavinika​ - Eldrazi Gravelurker

Goyf got Eldrazi’d. While I’m not a huge fan of interacting too much with the exile zone, I think this might be the best way to do it. Making it count exile instead of graveyards fix a lot of issues with lhurgoyf; mainly that the graveyard is so volatile. I also like the ability, giving it some corner cases uses but also letting it interact with itself. I do worry that the card might be a bit too powerful, seeing that it counts ALL cards in ALL exile zones, meaning this could be a 4 mana 10/11 with upside in any color. I still think this would be a great fit for a set aimed at modern.

@legs-diamond​ - Spellbane Blockade

Someone wanted to get wacky! Good job figuring out just about the only way to make a card like this work. I like how, if you put a lot of work into getting a lot of spells on the stack, it limits your mana enough that you can’t just spam the ability and murder everyone. My big issue with this card is that it really doesn’t want to be a star card. If it had said RR: deal damage to any target equal to the number of spells on the stack, it would better serve its supposed function. As it is, slapping a bonesplitter on it just seems so much easier. At uncommon, one +1/+1 counter and waiting for your opponent to cast a spell just lets you pick off everything for little to no investment. I really appreciate you shooting for the moon, but I think you may have shot too far.

mardu-lesbian - Yarr-Harmogoyf

Great name, great creature type. So, let me get this out of the way: the adventure is way too strong. It’s Role Reversal with a free Misguided Rage tacked on and no card type restrictions. The creature half by comparison is just tacked on, and I suspect won’t usually be larger than a 5/5 unless you are already handily winning the game. I also think this isn’t a very good star card, and would probably be better off as just saying “this gets +X/+X” but I know this was a tough contest and you wanted to make to work. I think if you would have swapped the mana costs and dropped the 2s in place of the goyf’s traditional */*+1 this would have been a much more solidly designed card. And no matter what, this card is probably the entry that made me smile the most.

@milkandraspberry​ - Orphanage Watchdog

Good boy, friend of the children. I appreciate the attempt to stop the card from bugging out, though hopefully no one plays sakshima the imposter on it. I love the flavor and the cool effect. I think you could have made it a mana or two cheaper, though, considering it’s worse than crusader of Odric 90% of the time, I’d also be worried about this card dying as soon as it enters play. There’s also going to be awkwardness with it being pumped by your opponents creatures, meaning killing then will shrink your dog. I think this card would be really cool if only it’s power or toughness changed, and it checked creatures for the other stat. You were sadly one of the only people to submit a P/T card before the ask came in about the rules not allowing it.

@nine-effing-hells​ - Vengeance

Wow this card packs a wallop! So all you have to do is lose 10 life all at once and you get a 10/10+ with haste for two mana? Well, that actually doesn’t seem that bad. It can always just be chumped, and you are now at half your life or less. Still, it’s got fling and warstorm surge value. This is a really hard card for me to judge, because it’s sort of a death’s shadow for twice as much mana but with +7/+7, but it’s also sometimes a 7 mana 0/0. It also seems off color, since white usually wants your life high, not low. I think only the most dedicated of Jennies would try and make this card work.

@real-aspen-hours​ - Omnath, Hammer of Life

I like the throwback to classic Omnath, back when he had weird cool abilities instead of generic ones. That said, this card’s got issues. This star can get really high really quickly, and has some very unintuitive interactions with effects like prophetic prism. I also think the mana ability, while nice, is not really needed, since every player is already going to have a way to “turn on” the stars. I like what you were going for, but I think you picked something a little too challenging to keep track of and a little too easy to go off the rails with.

@reaperfromtheabyss​ - Eminent Belphagor

Grave Pact as a flyer with upside. I don’t see why not. A unique star value, to be sure, and I think the card does well to support it. At first the “dies” trigger instead of “is sacrifice” trigger seemed odd to me, since any death triggers the grave pact but only sacrifices change the power, but I can understand it as a way to push the card’s power a little. As much as I like the card, I think the mix of counting your creatures dying versus any creature sacrificing makes the card a little too hard to track, and the fact that it is generically good means it will go in decks that aren’t focused enough on sacrificing to keep track of the number normally. A high pick for most unique star value.

@shakeszx - Knowledge Piercer

I started reading the card and got scared but by the time I got to the end I was impressed. This is a really cool Viashino Sandstalker type ability that just gets bigger and bigger and can be a heavy hitter in the right decks. I think that this card might have a few tracking issues, since a player might draw into it in the middle of their turn, and be confused because they can’t remember how many cards they’ve drawn already. It shouldn’t be too bad, because those cards have got to have gone somewhere, but brainstorms and X costs draw spells can make this really difficult in the decks that need it most. However, I think this one is possibly the most helped by digital formats, since it’s almost closer to a burn spell than a creature, so you don’t really need to know the number, you just want it to be big. There’s also already some precedent, if small, to count card draws because of thundering djinn and thought sponge. I like the card, and could see it being printed and played.

@shandylamb​ - Daghatar, Eternal

I still have my daghatar EDH deck, for some reason, so I’m glad to see some abzan rep. There’s a couple of errors in the formatting (“are each equal” not “is equal”, capitalizing the keywards), but I like what you went for. I think you could have been fine doubling his P/T, considering he’s starting as a 2 mana 1/1 and then a 4 mana 2/2, but he makes up for his small size with his very good activated ability, which is a good way to incorporate his green color identity. I’m a little worried about how he will play, though, since most players will end up putting a die on him when he enters so they know his P/T, then might end up putting counters on him and lose count.

@snugz​ - Realmbreaker Demon

Having to sink 29 mana into a creature just to have it turn into a 5/5 flampler doesn’t seem worth it, especially when it starts as just a vanilla 4/4. Having to spend 54 mana to make it a Marit Lage also seems not worth it. If the level up cost were, say 1BB, I think this card could be really cool. I think it’s cool that the stars let you keep using level up as a sort of Carnivorous Moss Beast ability. I like how you accepted the challenge, I just wish you would have pushed the card a little more.

@socialpoison​ - Lurking Replacer

So, that last ability is clearly the focus here, and buy is it weird one. I like how it plays into the first two abilities, and in general I think it’s a cool effect. I will say it’s not clear to me where this card goes. In theory the star would like it to go in mill decks, but the unblockability makes me think tempo decks, and the last ability makes me think… control decks? I don’t know, it’s hard for me to figure out where that ability goes. I like the card, and the flavor is crazy good, but I just don’t know what to do with it.

@starch255​ - Spirit of Vigor

I figured I’d see a card like this, and you did it in a really cool way. I like how you recognized that a lot of lifegain comes from lifelink, and tried to adjust for that with the ability that I THINK works. Granting first strike is different than a lot of other keywords because there is exactly one point in the turn phase where it is checked. I think it’s one of the only reasons Kwende works. Anyway, the card is cool! I honestly wouldn’t have minded if you just used last strike, but calling out lifelink at least makes deckbuilding with this card clever. And it needs to be, because this might be the most difficult star to track (that doesn’t break the rules) of all the cards entered this week. Life gain regularly happens in almost every phase of the game, and so does life loss, making it insanely hard to remember how much life you’ve gained over the course of a single turn. I still really like the card, but I don’t think it would ever see print.

@teaxch​ -  Spirit of Discovery

Keyword stone soup. You get a bunch of abilities on your 5/5 but only if you put in the work. You listed Matca Raiders and Tek, but this also gives me a strong chromanticore and woodland wanderer vibe. I think this is a solid card that’s very easy to track and is fun to play and likes being put in the right deck. That said, a 5/5 for 4 with a bunch of keywords is just not that exciting. It will either die to removal immediately or run away with the game, but that’s just what green does nowadays so who am I to say.

@tmstage​ - Fiery Orator

This is a fun, very strong card. A couple slower burn decks might run this as a finisher, and in standard this could wreak havoc. I just don’t think there’s any easy way to track this card’s power. It counts all damage to players, planeswalker, and creatures, no matter how much and whenever it happens, which is going to be an absolute pain if you’re playing anything but the most straightforward of burn decks. I also think this card might just be too strong. Compared to war elemental, it trades off the sacrifice downside with having the power be temporary instead of permanent, but also gains trample and a lot of toughness and triggering off of ALL damage, even to you. Maybe I’m overselling this card, but I think at a minimum it would just be unfun to play against and linear when you are playing it yourself.

@wolkemesser​ - The Marovore

So, I’m pretty sure, as discussed in an ask on Tuesday, that this doesn’t work within the rules. The stars are there for humans playing the game: once they’re in the game, the stars essentially stop existing and the P/Ts are just what they are. Ignoring that, I appreciate that you put effort into turning the contest on its head. I think this could be a fun build around commander. “Draw a card when you do thing” is a tried and true commander formula, and the surveil rider is a cool way to make the card work with your theme. I think it may be a little basic, but I could see it being a fun card if the rules allowed it. Also, I like the name.

-

And I think that’s everyone! Thank you all once again for participating in the fair, I think everyone did a great job. It was fun running the fair for a week, hopefully it won’t be the last time.

-Mod @mistershinyobject​ signing off, for real this time

[rat-game]

03: A Showcase of What Makes rat_games Moves Interesting

Unlike my more technical posts, this one is intended to entertain. I talked to someone about the indie game landscape and how small devs are incredibly unlikely to see success with the sheer number of games being put out nowadays and he said: “Ask yourself this: What makes your game interesting, and why is that not something I can get somewhere else?”. Of course rat_game isn’t the first of it’s kind, like all art it is iterative and wether or not it’s interesting will have to be judged when it’s done however today I’d like to show part of the reason I myself was interested in doing this for real: creative and non-basic moves (the attacks entities can use in battle).

As I mentioned before I used to be into competitive Pokémon and what struck me most about that scene compared to the casual crowd is how certain attacks are incredibly obscure and most casual players won’t know they exist while especially in 2v2 tournaments the same moves can shape the metagame and through their depth can become strategies themself. The best example for this is “Trick Room”. I won’t go into detail but just know that I truly believe that not a single child playing through any of the Pokémon games will have used and understood how powerful and interesting this move can be. It was simply not needed until adults competed for real prizes irI.I want almost every move in rat_game to be like “Trick Room”. 

0. A Refresher on how Everything Works

(feel free to skip this section if you are already aware of the basic mechanics in rat_games battle system)

To illustrate what it means “to be like Trick Room” we first need a little refresher on how rat_games battle system works. Don’t worry, no formulas here, it’ll be a quick and easy cliff note version. If you came to this post with literally no context, rat_game is a turn-based jRPG and if you imagine it like 3v3 pokemon battles with no switching for the rest of this post you’ll get a good enough idea of how stuff is supposed to look.

Fig. 1: 3v3 Pokémon battle. Note that in rat_game, there will be (at most) 4 allies and 16 enemies. (source: bulbapedia) A battle consists of 4 player controlled party members (”allies”) vs a lot of enemies. Each entity has “AP”, a resource that moves use up, similar to mana. “HP” are a representation of the entities health. If HP reaches 0 an entity becomes “knocked out” and is unable to move until revived. If an entity that’s knocked out is dealt 1 or more damage they die permanently and cannot be brought back. A the start of the turn all entities are ordered based on their speed stat. The entity with the highest speed will go first, however entities may also have “priority”, meaning they will act before others (or after in the case of negative priority) independent of the speed stats. Moves may “prime” the entity it’s resolving on with a certain “combo type”. If another move is used that “detonates” the same combo type afterwards a bonus effect is applied depending on the move. Priming lasts until the end of the next turn. If the same entity is primed again but with a different type, the priming type is overridden. Entities may be afflicted with one or more status ailments. Depending on the status, different effects will be applied:

at risk: the entity dies immediately instead of being knocked out at 0 HP

stunned: the entity may not act until the end of the turn

asleep: the entity may not act for 3 turns. If 1 or more damage is dealt to the entity, they wake up immediately

chilled: the entities speed is cut in half

frozen: the entity will always go last

burned: the entity looses 50% defense and takes a small amount of damage at the end of each turn

poisoned: the entity takes a significant amount of damage at the end of each turn

blinded: the entities attack is cut in half. They may not use single-target moves (but they can still use multi-target or self-targeting moves) 

1. Moves: A Basic Example

Let’s start with something fairly plain. Note that for the rest of this post I will just assume the user always has 100 attack to make the math easy.

Chain Lightning AP Cost: 10% Stacks: 3 Priming Type: Offense | Detonating Type: None Targets: Single Enemy Deals 50 damage to target enemy. Has a 50% chance to then jump to another enemy and deal 25 damage. May jump multiple times.

This moves is pretty basic, it just deals damage. The jumping is fun but random, if you get lucky you may get 10 successive jumps however note that internally the jump chance is lowered each time to prevent long chains that may slow down the course of battle with all the animations. This attack primes each enemy it deals damage to with the type "offense". Let's look at a detonating ability:

Wave of Lit Matches AP Cost: 0% Stacks: Inf (infinite) Priming Type: None | Detonating Type: Offense Targets: All Enemies Deals 10 damage to all enemies. 60% chance per enemy to set them on fire. If detonating: 100% chance to set each target on fire instead.

Hopefully the combo here is easy to understand, you use “chain lightning” to hopefully prime as many enemies as possible and then use "wave of lit matches" to set all of them ablaze. Being burned means their defense is cut in half making all attacks against them deal more damage so using “wave of lit matches” may setup for a big sweep. If you don’t prime the targets the randomness may make “wave of lit matches” not worth it but with good strategy the randomness is pretty much eliminated and “wave of lit matches” is a very strong option.

2. Moves: The Interesting Stuff

Guard AP Cost: 0% Stacks: Inf Priming Type: None | Detonating Type: None Targets: Self User takes 50% less damage for the rest of the turn. User priority is set to +1 until the end of the next turn.

While not very flashy a move like this has to exist in my battle system. Because of the combo system the order entities act in is incredibly important and “guard” gives the player a quick, easy and reliable way to make one entity go before another next turn. I consider this so important that this move will be available to all allies at all times so no equipment slot will be taken because of this.

Now that we have a basic grasp on what a regular moves looks like, let's look at something less obviously useful:

Wake-up Slap AP Cost: 0% Stacks: Inf Priming Type: Buff | Detonating Type: None Targets: Single Ally or Enemy  Deal 1 damage to target ally or enemy

To understand why this is a) useful and b) actually worth equipping we need to consider the “sleep” status ailment: “wake up slap” is a way to easily wake up your allies and further prime them for a buffing move. Since it has infinite stacks it can be used any amount of times with not costing anything it’s a quick and easy way to set up for a big buff combo or save a stack on a curing ability that would’ve cure sleep in another way. Note that this is not the only way to wake an entity up, maybe your ally that knows “wake-up slap” is currently out of submission, you could also just attack your own party members with a regular attack. You may deal significant damage but the battle may be decided that turn and if they get to move immediately it might be worth it to take the hit.

Fake Death AP Cost: 0% Stacks: 2 Priming Type: None | Detonating Type: Buff Targets: Single Ally or Self If target ally has less than 50% HP: Immediately set their HP to 0. Target may not receive any further damage this turn. Restores 1% of target HP at the start of the next turn. If Detonating: Restore 50% of target HP at the start of next turn instead.

This looks odd but remember that if an entities HP reach 0 they will immediately be knocked out. At first this looks like a bad way to prevent an entity from being damaged, instead of receiving damage from enemies their hp just gets set to 0 and in return they're safe. This is just the most obvious application however because being knocked out means resetting all status ailments (this is to prevent dying immediately after being knocked out from poison damage for example). So let's say a party member is in bad shape, they only have 5% HP left and they're poisoned and burning. The will surely die at the end of the turn if they're not healed. One could just heal them with a potion however then they'd still be poisoned and burned. If instead "fake death" is used on them they'll effectively loose 5% hp, are safe for the turn and all their statuses are reset. If they were primed with “buff” before they gain an effective 45% HP turning “fake death” into a 1-turn invincibility, all-status curing +50% heal. This is more than most heals are able to provide making “fake death” a better option in the right circumstances. It is however riskier as if the target is slow and not primed an enemy might get in between the players party next turn and immediately knock them out for real. Again, on first glance it looks odd and somewhat useless but considered in context “fake death” can become a powerful option worth being limited in number of stacks.

Quick Save AP Cost: 0% Stacks: 2 Priming Type: None | Detonating Type: None Targets: All allies, self and enemies If the current turn number is greater than 5: Save the current state of the battle. If used again at any later point, restore all entities to that stored state.

"State" here means all status ailment, hp and ap values, number of stacks left on each ability, stat changes, inventory, everything. Just like the name implies it’s basically a once-per-battle quick save. Considering the usefulness in a bubble it doesn’t do anything, no entity is damaged or healed and the user just looses 1 turn. The existence of "quick save" however gives players a way to scout a battle, see what the enemy would do and if something went badly they can reset to an earlier state. The turn restriction is to prevent players from just using it at the start of every battle. It's intended for big boss fights that are long and have complex AI that needs to be tested before being overcome. Most battles with smaller mobs will end before turn 5. By the way (and this is true for all similar abilities) if the player uses quick save and the condition of the turn number being greater than 5 is not met, the move fails, no AP or Stacks are consumed and it’s equivalent to the character doing literally nothing that turn (in-game a warning will be displayed before selecting to make the player aware of whether it would fail but they could still choose the option).

Time Loop AP Cost: 0% Stacks: 2 Priming Type: None | Detonating Type: None Targets: Single ally or enemy but not self If the current turn number is greater than 5: Save the current state of target entity. If used again, that entity is restored to the stored state.

“Time loop" works like a single target quick save. If you're expecting an enemy to heal, “time loop” them before that and then afterwards when you're ready to do a big combo reset them to the pre-heal state and wipe them out instantly. Similarly you could save one of your allies state right as they're all buffed up, go on with the battle as normal and if they loose the buff (big buffs are usually time-limited) reset them to the buffed state and make them deal way more damage than they would have otherwise. "Time loop" is very flexible and adds a huge amount of complexity, especially if you imagine that an enemy may be able to use it as well and like I mentioned in my post on AI enemies will plan moves together making “time loop” a huge potential play maker.

Transform AP Cost: 0% Stacks: 1 Priming Type. None | Detonating Type: Buff Targets: Single enemy or ally but not self Sets users current AP to 0. User then transforms into target ally or enemy, copying their HP, stat increases and status ailments. After 3 turns the user looses all current stat increases or decreases (but retains status ailments, HP and current AP).   If detonating: Does not reduce AP to 0 when initially transforming.  

This move is kind of complicated so let's break it down: When entity A uses "transform" targeting entity B, A’s HP is set to the same value as B’s HP, A copies B’s buffs and debuffs as well as B’s status ailments. Then the battle goes on like normal, A may be buffed/debuffed further, knocked out or healed, etc., Then after 3 turns A's buffs/debuffs are reset back to ±0 even if they are now different from what they were when transforming. To illustrate a good way to use "transform" consider the following ability:

Psyche Up AP Cost: 100% Stacks: 3 Priming Type: None | Detonating Type: None Targets: Self Increase users Attack by 300%. At the end of the next turn, user looses all Attack buffs/debuffs and their AP are set to 90%. 

“Psyche up” can be used to setup for a huge move during the next turn (as long as there is some way to restore the users AP so they can use them for a move). To clarify: the user has to be at 100% of their maximum AP to use psyche up, if they have a maximum of 100 and are currently at 90, the will not be able to use “psyche up” rather than loosing 90. Back to “transform”: imagine if an ally  transform into an entity that just used "psyche up". The "transform" user will gain the astronomical attack increase for 3 full turns (in accordance to “transform”s duration) even when the "psyche up" users attack is reset. The attack reset will not afflict the “transform” user as that attack only considers the state of an entity when it’s used, not any turn-timers. Hopefully you can see how “transform” can basically double the parties damage output with this simple 2 move combo, and again: consider that there’s 4 party members and that enemies may be able to use transform in this way as well.

Let’s close this post out with something easy to understand that illustrates the idea behind how I design attacks:

Restore AP AP Cost: 25% Stacks: Inf Priming Type: None | Detonating Type: Heal Targets: Single ally but not self Restore targets AP equal to 25% of the users maximum AP. If Detonating: Restore AP equal to 50% of the users maximum AP instead

At first these look like basic "restore mana" abilities. Take note of the wording though, the ability will not restore 25% of the targets AP. It will restore a flat amount equal to the number of maximum AP of the user. So if entity A has a maximum AP value of 100 and entity B’s is 40, B will gain 25 AP. If B is furthermore detonated they will gain 50 AP setting their current AP to 100%. “Restore AP" kind of trades the users AP with someone elses. The total sum of all AP in the party goes up but only if the user of "restore AP” is the character with more maximum AP than their target. If the user has low maximum AP the total sum of all AP of the party will actually go down. Not that there won’t be a move that just restores AP with no further consideration. I'm not saying AP restoration will be limited to exactly this move, instead I want every "basic" move (unlike what is so common in almost every jRPG) to have a trade-off and more strategic depth than just "this makes you stronger", “this does damage” or “this restores your ally”. In my opinion one of the greatest sins a jRPG battle system in 2020 can commit is falling back on what final fantasy 1 did way back on the NES: Just be about pressing A to heal and do damage and not let your allies die.

Fig. 2: An exhaustive list of all possible active skills of the “Dancer” class in Octopath Traveler which has an estimated play time of over 60h. (image source: shacknews.com) Hopefully this post has illuminated some of my intention behind why I want my moves to be like this. I emphasize again that these moves may be used by enemies too; or maybe multiple party members have the same move. Furthermore you can freely equip moves to any of the party members when outside of battle meaning there’s a huge amount of build-variety and combo paths can be chosen by which move to equip to whom. With this, both enemies and the players party planning moves with each other and the number of interactions between entities, the combo system and different attacks I hope to achieve gameplay where every single attack is not just useful for a single, basic immediately obvious thing but instead demands knowledge, strategy and consideration. I hope that my players will enjoy this fact and the resulting battles as much as I would. 

[0poole]

Man, Netflix is a godly invention

Seriously. Once my generation takes over, the only TVs will exist in restaurants. Once subscription on-demand services take over (assuming they haven’t already) then cable TV will be done for. Literally the only benefit of cable is that, if you’re punctual enough, and have enough free time, you can “technically” watch whatever you want. On the other hand, you could pay less to access a slightly more limited (when it comes to new stuff) catalogue of shows to watch whenever or wherever you want. Obviously, though, you can’t always find the old stuff you’ve never seen before on cable. That’s what this stuff is good for. 

I’ve watched so many great movies that I’ve definitely heard of time and time again, but either never watched, or watched so long ago that I don’t actually remember any of it. Basically, since I have nothing else to do, I’m just gonna talk about the old stuff I’ve watched so far.

Lilo & Stitch: Just finished this one, and it’s the one that made me want to talk about this. OH MY GOD Lilo deserves so many hugs. It was almost bizarre, like this character that, to me, has only existed in merchandise is now... actually... moving? How peculiar, it had feelings all along! 

Seriously, though. I thought I saw this movie once, but it really didn’t feel like I did. I definitely had McDonalds toys of discount Wazowski once, but I don’t really remember anything from the movie. It was surprisingly real. I can definitely see how people can appreciate Nani for being the most real and respectable character in all of animation (and also for being sexy despite not having a beautiful™ face). 

Also, aliens. When are aliens ever bad? I say, only when they’re mindless, killing lizards (excluding el Xenomorph, I can still like him (still need to see his movie tho)). But, I can always love the classic, bulbous alien designs ala. retro sci-fi. My god, they animated discount Wazowski so well... He looked so boneless and floppy. Not to mention Jumbo being so soft and squishy looking. Stitch himself is such an icon that it’s hard to see him as anything other than Stitch, if you know what I mean. 

Anyways, the only Lilo and Stitch derivative I remember was what I remember as a sort of monster-of-the-week series where they had to go around capturing and cataloging the other experiments. It definitely seems like a fitting idea, but of course I really don’t remember any of it. I do remember the yellow stitch-like guy who had a very normal-guy voice and had a thing for sandwiches, though. He was like the comical sidekick to the main baddy.

Bolt: The movie I definitely remember the most of, but wanted to watch again anyways, because I definitely remember liking it. Most of my movie re-watchings are just to solidify my memories of these movies in my current mind, because my past self seriously had a habit of living in the moment so much that I just didn’t bother to remember what I just experienced. 

Anyways, I’m just gonna be honest... I’m not a dog person... but when a dog makes a cute girl happy, I’m happy. Also, I have a habit of never crying at the sad parts, and always at the happy resolutions to the sad parts. Oh my god, I remembered the ending, but I still cried my eyes out. The superbark may not actually be super, but it’s super to him, dammit! Seriously, though. Emotions are always at stake when kids movies get real. That was a real fire, and a real risk of death, and he saved the girl. 

Also, why are so many cute girls named Penny? In animations, that is. Not that... no, not happening. 

I honestly can’t remember any other cute Penny’s (apart from my own Penny) but for some reason that name is eternally one of the cutest girl names out there.

Looking it up though, I can see why. There’s the main girl from the Proud Family (never watched it), the girl sidekick from the Inspector Gadget cartoon (never watched it), and the girl from the Peabody and Sherman movie (watched it and enjoyed it. She was almost a human sacrifice tho). All cute girls.

Atlantis: One of those too-good-for-its-own-good movies. It was seriously cool, but got a criminally low amount of attention. 

Really, the movie stands on visuals alone. The scene with Kida walking across the water to the giant floating carvings of past kings... That was some seriously amazing animation. Then, when she was walking back to shore with an invisible forcefield around her, which you could only see because of the water splashing off of it... That was amazing. 

I’m 0 for 2 in mentioning cute girls so far, so let’s keep going. Kida’s a big one I’ve seen around in, well, art... Meanwhile, Audrey was right there! How come I haven’t seen this chick anywhere? Did Kida steal her spotlight? I’ll tell ya, ancient technology as a whole is totally my style, but Kida herself isn’t pushing any buttons. But, a sun-kissed girl with bushy hair in overalls is my weakness.

Road to El Dorado: Okay, I actually can’t avoid talking about cute girls in this one. Chel is actually criminally sexy. This level of sexiness should be illegal. I’ve already drawn her. I can’t get enough.

You know, sometimes, when I draw or mention cute/sexy girls, I always have a thought in the back of my head: God, some people are gonna think I’m a creep because of this...

No fuckin shame here dog. She LITERALLY FUCKS ONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS TO GET HER WAY. Sexy is one of her character traits, and the designers, animators, writers... they know it. How is this a kid’s movie? 

Anyways, the movie... I’ll be honest, I only remembered to watch this one because of the “Both? Both? Both is good.” meme. Being a part of the “artists who draw cute girls” circle, I can’t avoid that meme. Whenever someone says “Boobs or butts?” I see it. Whenever I see “Which of these cute girls should I draw?” I see it. Seriously, that gif has probably been posted more times than the number of people who actually went to see this movie. Then, there’s the gif of Chel bumping her armadillo pal with her hips... Like, come on. She’s hardly even wearing pants. You can’t do this to me.

I did actually enjoy the movie though. I definitely think the concept of “normal people visit ancient society and are believed to be Gods” has a lot of potential in it, and I love the idea that the king of El Dorado doesn’t actually think they’re Gods, and is just playing along pretty much... That’s really fun. I definitely prefer it to the wholly ignorant, possibly also stupid primitives that are 100% sure that the person is their God. It makes a nice dynamic. 

The Emperor's New Groove: Come on, what else is there to say? It’s the the-teacher-is-letting-us-watch-a-movie-on-the-last-day-of-school classic. It’s hilarious. It’s fun. It’s got the heckin PACHA MEME BROOOS AMIRITE FELLOW INTERNETERS?

I love the nonsense humor in the movie. I LOVE it. I love it when movies don’t take themselves seriously. It’s the time of the Aztecs, and yet they (didn’t) order a giant trampoline. Rollercoasters. Boy scouts. For some movies, it’s lame, but this one was probably the originator of the idea. Oh my god, the cut outs to Kuzco’s narration? I love it. I love it all.

Cute girls? Uhhh... I mean, Pacha’s daughter was pretty cute, but not the soul-wrenching kinda cute. What about ol’ Vexus? God, I rarely look up voice actors, but Eartha Kitt kills it both as Yzma and as Vexus. It’s the absolute perfect evil voice. It matches the stereotypical “evil” people know, but toys with it the perfect amount to make it super fun. Also, whenever I can relate something back to MLaaTR I’m happy. Cute girls, and all...

Song of the Sea: cute cute cute cute Cute CUTE CUTE. 

This is why I watch all movies with subtitles whenever I can. What’s the name of that adorable little girl? Surf-shuh? Shur-suh? It’s Saoirse. I’m honestly surprised I remembered how to spell it. 

Remember when I said I cry at happy resolutions? Well, I ALSO cry at scenes that are so impossibly pure, wholesome, and/or cute that it just pours out of my eyes. An example being Colette’s song in the Les Miserables movie. Gets me every time... Anyways, watch the movie, but also spoilers-that-aren’t-spoilers-because-it-was-obviously-going-to-happen: She gets her voice back, and hoooo boy... I nearly died from dehydration. Not much more can be said without actual spoilers...

Aside from the overflowing levels of cuteness in this movie (there are seals btw), I’d die for the mythical elements in this movie. It scratched every itch that The Book of Kells missed. Watched that one on Netflix too, but the ending was so... Bible-ish that I had a hard time feeling satisfied. Obviously it’s for a good reason, since, you know... It’s about the Book of Kells... But for a movie it wasn’t satisfying.

The animation couldn’t possibly fit the subject matter more, though. It has such a stylized stain-glass painting vibe to it. Isn’t there also another one by these guys coming out soon about a wolf girl? I’ll watch the hell out of that one when it comes out. It’s like Laika, but 2D. You watch it just for the animation, if not for anything else.

Monsters vs Aliens: Again, we’ve got aliens. Also, the birth of the giantess fetish, probably. Seriously, though... how did that dress hold up in that first scene? I’m just sayin

If I’m into retro-sci-fi aliens, then I have to also be in classic retro horror trope references. I should really watch the actual The Fly some time. It’s a creepy idea that I really want to indulge in.

I mean, that’s it for that movie. But, the original BLOB? Holy shit, I wanted to watch that movie just to make fun of it, and turns out the theme song did that for me. Hey, this giant alien monster is swallowing up Earth, what kind of a theme should we give it? Jazz with a touch of Surfer? Sure, why not. I love it. I’m a sucker for slimes, and I swear, if I ever manage to write a story about one of my slime characters, I will make a blood pact to reference that song in the story at some point. It’s so good.

Mune, Guardian of the Moon: I don’t usually rewatch movies, but I’m feeling like watching this one again.

Also, I spilled out my guts on this one a long time ago when I first watched it, and I loved it so much I posted it to Tumblr AND Facebook. Since my Tumblr got deleted, I’ll just link to the Facebook post, so I can give it the full respect it deserves: https://www.facebook.com/0poole/posts/967898463366639

Don’t even think about friending me there, though. Facebook is reserved for family matters only. No pesky tumblrs allowed!

There are also a good few I still need to watch. I’d put them in a different post, but since this blog is really just for me to rant, I’ll just keep going:

Shrek: I mean, I know how it starts for sure. Kinda... hard to forget, ya know? Yeah, “forget.” That’s the word. I really just need a refresher on this one. 

Astro Boy: Hey, what? There’s an Astro Boy movie? Well, if I’m ever going to understand this franchise, It’ll definitely have to be in movie form. I like MLaaTR and to a lesser extent Robotboy, so why not?

The Prince of Egypt: Remember when I knocked Bible-ish movies? Well, apparently it’s not a problem for this one. It’s clearly has great animation, so why not? 

Escape from Planet Earth: I forgot this existed. Everyone did. I saw a trailer for it ages ago, and that’s only how I know it. It’s got aliens, so why not? I remember seeing that Planet 51 was on Netflix too. It’s exactly the same movie but on the other side. I also remember there being an overt penis joke in that one, so...

The Guardian Brothers: What even is this? I don’t know. It’s animation, and not one of those cheap kids shows, so let’s do it.

April and the Extraordinary World: Also don’t really know what this is. It’s 2D animation, and therefore instantly puts it a step above 3D movies in instant interest.

Phantom Boy: I watched A Cat in Paris, and at least didn’t hate the artstyle. It’s a strange look, but unique, so I want to see more.

Look Who’s Back: A story about Hitler being revived in modern times. What could go wrong? Apparently something intriguing enough for people to review this movie well. Or, at least, well enough...

Gnome Alone: Technically these movies aren’t supposed to be Netflix Originals, but, you know... I see cute girl, I click. Looks kinda lame tho

Leap!: I heard that this is a movie with a generic plot, so I kinda left it out of sight. But, might I remind you... I see cute girl, I click. This’ll be my last resort if I’ve exhausted all other cute girl supplies. She is seriously adorable, though.

The Emoji Movie: haha jk we have fun here

There are way too many movies on Netlfix, so there’s obviously more than that. And, that’s not even counting the series... Might separate that into a different post tho

Also, Neflix, my boy... Can we talk about these synopsises of all these great movies? They make each and every one sound like the most generic, pandering bullshit you can think of. Also, I hate how the thumbnails change for some of the movies/shows. To an outsider, it makes it impossible to discern who’s the main character and who’s the bad guy if you don’t already know the content. People make title cards for a reason, you know!

[unpunny]

What's the difference between Neil Armstrong and Michael Jackson?

A considerable amount actually. Please don't begin reading this at work. There is a lot of material here and reading through this will take you a bit of time. If your boss catches you it could get you in trouble.

Besides the reading factor alone however, there is a considerable amount to contrast between each individual. These differences extend beyond merely career, education, upbringing, etc and broach upon the very Weltanschauung of these men. If you operate heavy machinery, you may find yourself distracted when pondering said differences somewhat extensively, and this could be diverting enough to actually put you in danger if your mind begins to wander at work. Please for your own safety, leave this thread until you get home. It's an absorbing topic, but your safety is of higher priority.

A basic cursory outlook at mini bio of the two, immediately presents us with 187 distinct differences, however, these may be simply "cosmetic" so to speak, and appear as the same differences that either individual would have with any other person.

From Armstrong's Wikipedia:

For other people named Neil Armstrong, see Neil Armstrong (disambiguation). Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut, engineer, and the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was an officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the Korean War. After the war, he earned his bachelor's degree at Purdue University and served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station, where he logged over 900 flights. He later completed graduate studies at the University of Southern California.

USAF / NASA astronaut Born Neil Alden Armstrong August 5, 1930 Near Wapakoneta, Ohio, U.S. Died August 25, 2012 (aged 82) Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. Previous occupation Naval aviator, test pilot Alma mater Purdue University, B.S. 1955 University of Southern California, M.S. 1970 Rank Lieutenant (junior grade), United States Navy Time in space 8 days, 14 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds Selection 1958 USAF Man In Space Soonest 1960 USAF Dyna-Soar 1962 NASA Group 2 Total EVAs 1 Total EVA time 2 hours 31 minutes Missions Gemini 8, Apollo 11 Mission insignia Ge08Patch orig.png Apollo 11 insignia.png Awards United States Naval Aviator/Astronaut Insignia NASA Civilian Astronaut Wings Presidential Medal of Freedom Congressional Space Medal of Honor A participant in the U.S. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs, Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962. He made his first space flight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. He performed the first docking of two spacecraft, with pilot David Scott. This mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his reentry control fuel to prevent a dangerous spin caused by a stuck thruster, in the first in-flight space emergency.

Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as commander of Apollo 11, the first manned Moon landing mission in July 1969. Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the Command/Service Module. Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon. President Jimmy Carter presented Armstrong the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978. Armstrong and his former crewmates received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.

Armstrong died in Cincinnati, Ohio on August 25, 2012, at the age of 82, after complications from coronary artery bypass surgery.

Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930 near Wapakoneta, Ohio, the son of Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise Engel. He was of German, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, and had a younger sister, June, and a younger brother, Dean. His father worked as an auditor for the Ohio state government; the family moved around the state repeatedly after Armstrong's birth, living in 20 towns. Armstrong's love for flying grew during this time, having gotten off to an early start when his father took his two-year-old son to the Cleveland Air Races. When he was five, he experienced his first airplane flight in Warren, Ohio on July 20, 1936 when he and his father took a ride in a Ford Trimotor, also known as the "Tin Goose".

His father's last move was in 1944, back to Wapakoneta. Armstrong attended Blume High School and took flying lessons at the grassy Wapakoneta airfield. He earned a student flight certificate on his 16th birthday, then soloed later in August; all before he had a driver's license.Armstrong was active in the Boy Scouts and earned the rank of Eagle Scout. As an adult, he was recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with its Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo Award. On July 18, 1969, while flying toward the Moon inside the Columbia, Armstrong greeted the Scouts: "I'd like to say hello to all my fellow Scouts and Scouters at Farragut State Park in Idaho having a National Jamboree there this week; and Apollo 11 would like to send them best wishes". Houston replied: "Thank you, Apollo 11. I'm sure that, if they didn't hear that, they'll get the word through the news. Certainly appreciate that." Among the very few personal items that Neil Armstrong carried with him to the Moon and back was a World Scout Badge.

In 1947, at age 17, Armstrong began studying aeronautical engineering at Purdue University. He was the second person in his family to attend college. He was also accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The only engineer he knew (who had attended MIT) dissuaded him from attending, telling Armstrong that it was not necessary to go all the way to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a good education.

His college tuition was paid for under the Holloway Plan. Successful applicants committed to two years of study, followed by two years of flight training and one year of service in the U.S. Navy as an aviator, then completion of the final two years of their bachelor's degree. Candidates had to promise to not marry until graduation, signed the "Aviation Guarantee" to serve on Active Duty for at least four years, and would not receive a promotion to Ensign until two years after they received their Midshipman's warrant.

From Jackson's Wikipedia:

"The eighth child of the Jackson family, Michael made his professional debut in 1964 with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson He began his solo career in 1971 while at Motown Records. In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. His music videos, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller" from his 1982 album Thriller, are credited with breaking racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame. Jackson's 1987 album Bad spawned the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana", becoming the first album to have five number-one singles in the nation. He continued to innovate with videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" throughout the 1990s, and forged a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous artists of various music genres.

Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, with estimated sales of 65 million copies worldwide. Jackson's other albums, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995), also rank among the world's best-selling albums. He is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, and was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Dance Hall of Fame as the only dancer from pop and rock music. His other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records including the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time,13 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Legend Award, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 26 American Music Awards—more than any other artist—including the "Artist of the Century" and "Artist of the 1980s", 13 number-one singles in the United States during his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and estimated sales of over 350 million records worldwide."Jackson won hundreds of awards, making him the most awarded recording artist in the history of popular music.He became the first artist in history to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades when "Love Never Felt So Good" reached number nine on May 21, 2014.Jackson traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism, and, in 2000, the Guinness World Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities, more than any other entertainer.

Aspects of Jackson's personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. In 1993, he was accused of child sexual abuse, but the civil case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount and no formal charges were brought. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of further child sexual abuse allegations and several other charges after the jury found him not guilty on all counts. While preparing for his comeback concert series, This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician, Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson's death triggered a global outpouring of grief, and a live broadcast of his public memorial service was viewed around the world. Forbes ranks Jackson the top-earning dead celebrity, with earnings of $825 million in 2016, the highest yearly amount ever recorded by the publication.Jackson is also remembered for his generous philanthropy and his pioneering efforts in charitable fundraising within the entertainment industry.

I look forward to the discussion.