#and other games are still using that design even more recently! I remember seeing it in that new Lords of the Fallen game

[the-punforgiven]

I love when you see some armor in like a drawing or a comic or whatever and just have that moment of "I know exactly what real life armor set you based that one on lmao"

[mortalityplays]

Forgive me if I'm mistaking you for another person, but I remember you speaking at multiple points on the unsustainability of free social media services (I think especially in response to the cohost collapse?), and I'm curious on what your thoughts on bluesky are so far. I'm not an expert on the subject, but from what I've read previously it seemed like they were on track to be financially sustainable, but I don't know if the recent floods of users has thrown those projections off. Sorry if I'm mixing you up with someone else on my timeline, in that case just ignore me.

bluesky will almost certainly follow the same trajectory of monetisation => bloat => enshittification => decline as every other major platform built on venture capital and user hoarding. it's a terrible model that only works in the short term as a mirage for attracting funding and making founders look good for a year or two before they sell.

you can see the same effect in the decline of all the subscription box services that came into vogue just before covid: they feel great to use for as long as the initial injection of venture funding lasts, because the purpose of that funding at that stage is to attract users and impress the next round of funders with how pleasant/intuitive/efficient/ethical/good value the service is. that's the stage where they're handing out freebies and bowling over influencers, and every ingredient in the box is fresh and high quality and locally sourced. wow what a good deal, what a great system!!! why hasn't anyone done this before? the answer is because it's unsustainable by design. they rack up good reviews, sign on a billion new users, attract new funding from a bunch of much more credulous investors, and then gut all of the expensive parts. portions get smaller, ingredients get worse, packaging gets flimsier, prices go up, freebies turn into "5% off your first 9 boxes when you invite 3 friends", and customer service vanishes.

with social media (and platforms like discord) the logic is the same, it's just a little less glaringly obvious to the end user because they're not coming home to leaking packages of rancid chicken on the doorstep. bluesky has an advantage over tiny operations like cohost because it was founded by a billionaire making a point for the sake of his own image. it got a really significant chunk of startup funding, and the owner had existing connections and rep in the space to attract more. That's why it has survived the goldrush period, why it still feels good to use, and why users who have been burned so many times before are finally accepting it as a stable, reliable option. It's still in its venture capital honeymoon phase where the only thing worth spending money on is making the service attractive to users.

What I expect we will see next, with another mass influx of users from twitter and new funding from a rogue's gallery of tech venture sickos led by Blockchain Capital is a strong ramp up into monetising that userbase. They've already been pretty forthright about how they plan to do this, and I think it's a solid roadmap of how Bluesky will bloat and decay over the next few years:

this is a huge lol. don't worry, we're not going to hyperfinancialize the social experience through NFTs. the thing even crypto freaks started feigning amnesia about a year ago. real "our health conscious sodas are 100% arsenic free" messaging here. They know perfectly well that rubes users are suspicious of their typical 5 dimensional tech finance chess games and are patting our hands about last week's bogeymen so nobody worries too hard about whatever 'decentralised developer ecosystem' just happens to be helmed by a bunch of crypto guys. this definitely means something good and based and not a google-like single sign on user data harvesting operation.

This is the same shit that's currently rotting the floorboards of discord. Bluntly, there is no way to run a platform on this scale without gating functionality behind paid services. Discord has been squeezing free-tier file uploads and call quality etc. down steadily and cranking up subscription costs over the last year or two, throwing in chaff like animated avatar frames to try and justify the user cost. They're also doing the same misdirection thing again here, pointing to Thing We All Hate to deflect from thing we might not like very much when they do it. Booo elon booo we all hate elon!!! wait how do we feel about subscription models again,

watch out for this to kill porn on bsky like it has killed porn on every other social platform 👍 boooo we hate elon boooo stupid idiot and his 'everything app' booooo wait why do you need my tax information, what's that about mastercard,

Look, we are all aware social media is a money pit. Let's not forget dorsey was looking to sell twitter in the first place, long before elon's very public plunge into total online derangement. Subscription services are not going to plug the hole, so we are gradually going to see more and more spaghetti thrown at the wall while early funders shuffle cards and do their pyramid scheme bit bringing in stupider and stupider investments. this is the window in which bluesky will be temporarily worth using for us, for the idiot public, the poorly rendered crowd jpegs in the background of their venture capital MOBA. it's in their interests to slow and pad the decline as much as possible, because that is how they get maximally paid.

Given the scale of the money involved, and dorsey's weird ego investment, I think bluesky will probably manage a controlled drift for a good few years before it gets really bloated and painful. and by then we will all be so used to the *checks notes* decentralised developer ecosystem that we'll just be posting through it, watching another generation of columnists call another collapsing platform 'their beloved hellsite' and passing around that meme about not getting out of our chairs no sir until idk we all get on a fediverse neurolink alternative to stick it to the elongated muskrat and our brains pop peacefully in our sleep. which I guess is the closest thing to viability any social media platform can achieve.

anyway diogenes the cynic is also on bluesky

[centrally-unplanned]

Academic History YouTuber Premodernist released video recently on "State Flag" discourse, and flag discourse more wildly, that I thought was pretty good! I agreed with 50% of it. For those who don't know, there is a longstanding movement in the vexillology community to push for more simplified flag designs, and they hate the state flags of the US as their antithesis; a movement that catapulted into the internet mainstream when YouTuber CGPGrey released a video riffing on that debate and grading all the state flag designs.

That video is great by the way (it's hilarious, CGP Grey is just very talented as a performer), and the biggest thing Premodernist is wrong about is that the state flags do suck. But what he gets right is that the so-called "principles" briefly referred to in the video are themselves pretty weak; some are fine but others do not hold up to much scrutiny. The state flags largely suck for the boring reason that they just suck; they are shitty designs and often repeat each other in a domain where "standing out" is the point. Like what the fuck Montana:

This is something a 5th grader whips up in PowerPoint for a class presentation. Helvetica Bold?? "Mandated by law in 1985" yeah I didn't need Wikipedia tell me this decision dates to the 80's.

But that is boring and subjective, right? You can't just say they suck. So you had to make a theory about it - and I won't go into too much detail but it generally boils down to:

Make it simple, "something a child could draw"

Make it "distinct at a distance", since it is a flag you are supposed to see it at a distance

Three colors or fewer

No words on flags

Which I think you can get the philosophy for. These principles, which CGP Grey outlines, actually come from the work of Ted Kaye, who is a big figure in the aforementioned flag reform movement and the focus of most of the video. As part of the original CGP Grey video I just rolled with that, but I did remember him showing Utah's newly designed flag at the end which embodied these principles, and uh:

This is kind of mid? Like it doesn't suck, but it looks like a corporate redesign of a hockey team logo or something. A bit of a red flag (hah) if your front-and-center case is weak.

Anyway this is what Premodernist digs into in the video. The stuff I agreed with the most are the parts where he just ???? at some of these rules. "No finicky bits", a "child must draw it", "distinct at a distance"? None of these actually track for say this one:

A child drawing the US flag does not draw 50 stars and 13 stripes unless they are a budding librarian; you absolutely cannot tell if this flag has 50 stars on it from a distance, and that level of detail is clearly some kind of finicky. Of course your response is "okay sure but still, I can tell what the flag is from a distance, I can't count the 50 stars but I get the gist". But that is true for almost all flags!

It's a fern and a peace pipe and a brown thing and the word "Oklahoma" below it, you absolutely, 100%, will be able to tell what this flag is at a distance. You don't need to count the leaves to get the general shape, and when you think about it, it is actually kind of silly anyone would claim otherwise. There just isn't any need to appreciate the tiny details on a flag to understand whose flag it is. (the only valid critique here is that everything should be bigger - too much dead space)

Not to mention the "see from a distance" thing even being a metric. That isn't how you encounter flags most often today? Maybe in the 19th century on a battlefield that was (and even then you had battle standards), but it isn't now. You see it in textbooks, on your computer screen, as an icon for a football game team, right next to you in a government office. Why privilege distance? You just made that up as a value. 99% of "flag consumption" is not seeing it at a distance.

The "only use ~3 colors thing" is the funniest, you can just argue this with...no? No you don't. You don't. What? No. You can...you can just use more colors? Here is an example from the "manual" Ted Kaye wrote on the subject:

And the 5 bands on the chinese flag are fine! They are not "hard to look at" or whatever. Also, I am screenshotting a tiny corner of a youtube video, this image is like 240p, and I can tell its a dragon - and that isn't even the color point it is trying to make, dude just deviates off into another critique. Meanwhile the Amsterdam flag looks like a traffic warning sign. Chinese flag needs to not have the white stripe connect into the white seal background, that is an error, but otherwise I prefer it.

It is annoying how many of the state flags are a blue banners with a round seal in the middle. That does make them hard to distinguish from each other. But that isn't a problem with seal-on-blue, that is just a collective action problem! Flag-reform-favourite the tricolor can run into this too - here are the flags of the Netherlands and Luxembourg:

Like one of your needs to go home and change, that is ridiculous. Though if you had a complex seal in the middle that might avoid this problem! Funny that.

Even the "no words on a flag" argument, which I am more sympathetic to, doesn't hold up too well because too often you find yourself going "unless it is good" which just isn't a rule. The Iranian flag is the stand-out he mentions:

The middle crest is a stylized rendition of the name Allah, and the cursive lining on the tricolor bands are text as well - God Is Great, 22 times, marking the anniversary date of the Islamic Revolution. Stylistically beautiful, also words on a flag. The state flags just didn't try to do anything artistic.

I think the best point Premodernism mentions is a sort of stylistic unity Kaye & Co are pursuing above all else - everything sacrificed for corporate minimalism. Kaye's book will say it respects history and symbols should be meaningful, but then hates any symbols that require complexity. He singles out Turkmenistan as an ugly flag for example:

And as I said I only 50% disagree sometimes, I do think there is a complexity limit, and this flag goes over it, that is too detailed. Though the main reason this flag is bad is the weird choice to not put the banner at the edge, and have the crescent just...float off center? If it was this:

Two seconds in paint, already better, you can play with it. But anyway, you can say the symbols are too complex, but if you also say you care about historical meaning? Turkmenistan is a nation of traditional semi-nomadic tribes, who populated the Silk Road and made textiles as their ultimate expression of art. These carpet guls are traditional symbols used in those carpets that represent the five major tribes that compose the country. You can't just invent new symbols that have equal meaning to these, right? Like you can try if you want, sure, new symbols become meaningful all the time. But a rule that says "all art from before 1950 is tossed in the dumpster because it wouldn't pass muster as a Pepsi logo" is a weird rule to adopt if you say you value historical meaning. Turkmenistan does not have to look like France, and it is weird to want every national symbol to be aesthetically coherent to each other. Let 100 flags bloom! It is certainly "distinct at a distance" lol.

Anyway that is enough summarizing of a YouTube video - as I mentioned, he actually likes the state flags, I don't, I do think you have to balance a lot of this with just "general design principles". Never have your name on a flag in Helvetica Bold, amazing I had to write that one down for you. But a lot of these flag-specific rules derived from Kaye's work I often see bandied about are silly, and I was glad to see someone point that out.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hello! Sending it here again:

I play an mmo game which recently had a big character model update, it's still not perfect but we're getting there! They're sharing behind the scenes work on curly hairstyles, for example, which just... weren't there for the longest time. Oh the beauty of scandinavian white-centering... (sarcasm)

anyway, I'm from eastern-central Europe, I play on eastern Europe servers. Seeing someone with a character that's not white is... pretty rare, honestly. So rare that when I do see someone using a character that's clearly meant to be a POC, they're very often roleplaying. Recently I saw a player whom I know for a fact is white, as I know them irl (we're not friends, don't even talk much but I know what they look like) and their character used to be white too before the big update.

So my question is, does that count as digital blackface, and what even is the consensus on digital blackface as a whole? I used to be in a facebook group about unlearning racism (used to because it got deleted after some admin drama, I think? If anyone knows a similar group, let me know please) and there, most Black members agreed that if someone is white, they shouldn't be using Black emojis for example (the topic of mmos never came up, I think). I don't remember the exact reasoning but I think it was the same explanation as actual blackface. But then there were some Black people saying it's going too far and we should be focusing on "actual issues" instead. I know that's to be expected, I'm trans and I know all too well that a community is not a monolith. But seeing the player reminded me that I don't actually know that much about it, and I've seen you educate people before. I hope it's okay that I'm asking you, I'd love to do some further research as well though (I love learning things, I just also don't yet trust myself to find actually good sources).

I hope this ask makes sense, english is not my first language and all. So if I wrote something wrong, please assume I meant well, as I still don't know how to word things properly in english sometimes.

Thank you for doing what you do, btw. I really appreciate having someone compile everything like you do here, it's one of my favorite creative blogs on here.

Okay so I sat on this one for a minute to make sure my answer wouldn't change.

1) there is no one consensus. White people don't agree on everything, neither do we 😅. This would just be my opinion.

2) I definitely don't think you should be using Black emojis if you're a white person, no. That's overt Blackfacing. DEFINITELY don't pretend to be Black if you aren't!!

3) for me, I think designing your characters as Black for online play can be okay in theory, as long as you're coming at it respectfully. Like, I'd have to trust that you actually wanted to learn how to play as someone that didn't look like you, that you actually cared about Black character features and presence in games as a whole. Especially on a game where you get to design the character, versus when you're forced to play as a Black person. It's hard to trust the intentions of white people online, especially when far more often than not the good intent is just... Not there 😅. So for me, if someone asks you why you designed your character, be ready to answer, answer truthfully and answer well! If you're playing as a Black character design because "big tough guy" or "big dommy mommy" yeah you're just digital Blackfacing amongst other racist issues. But if you actually have good intent, and are willing to learn, then you'll be able to stand on that when confronted.

And again- that's just my opinion! I would listen to other voices on it as well.

[lycapicta]

Siffrin Headcanons bc i cant sleep

As soon as bro said nya in my game he was assigned the required paws and tail

Doesn't unsheath claws unless he's not wearing gloves they dont wanna ruin them :((

Hair does become completely white after a while but he was talked into dyeing it two tone style again since it suits him

Idea stolen from a friend, but I very much like the idea of Siffrin being albino would explain why he's covered up most of the time

He does not tan he burns...

You all know who I am: Siffrin definitely purrs

He continues his touch therapy outside of the loops and is pretty good with it! He does still get spooked sometimes when he's not ready

Still struggles quite a bit with asking for affection or attention (its easier for him to ask for it from Isabeau)

Cried the first time they ate something outside of the loops

Regularly gets combs or brushes from Mira, but he lets Isa do it once in a while bc he gets jealous lol

Sif didn't completely lose his eye but it is dead (i.e. cant cry out of it, cloudy/damaged) he also can't open it fully and usually settles for having it closed

Their eye patch covers it most of the time but in my design his eye scar is star shaped :)

Spoilery headcanons below the cut

Despite Mira’s healing Sif has lots of scars from hurting himself in the final confrontation with his friends

He has a huge star shaped gash on his chest that mimics Loop's, albeit significantly less clean looking

Has small scars on his arms from the self harm event that you can get in act 5 if you interact with the shard of glass (tries to hide them *unsuccessfully* from his family members at first)

Has chronic pain (something i thought of since the pain he goes through for each of his deaths while looping sort of carries over)

They often have spells where they're in too much pain to move or speak. In these cases the family finds an inn or a place to lay low for a while until it passes. He gets lots of pampering and good foods

This is explored in a fic i haven't finished but Mira teaches Siffrin VSL (Vaugardian Sign Language) to help whenever he becomes nonverbal. He uses it regularly but still struggles a lot with matching Vaugardian words to their respective hand signs

Seems to recall more and more things abt his country as he gets older but he never truly remembers everything (Odile writes everything that she can down for him)

I imagine when the party DOES eventually split up Isabeau and Siffrin still travel a lot, but have their own place in Jouvente whenever they need to settle for a while.

Siffrin is excited to see everyone else's hometowns/countries and is always so happy to see everyone again

Siffrin LOVES touch post loops and is usually all over Isabeau (Isa still has not recovered lmao)

For a long time after everything and even recently Siffrin is enamored with the changes in the weather and the seasons (particularly the rain and snow or the rumble of thunder)

The first night that he experienced a storm after the loops he stayed up for a while watching the rain and listening to the thunder (he had to be coaxed to get his butt in bed)

I also headcanon that he enjoys being out in the rain a lot even if he does become a sopping wet cat afterwards

He never truly gets his original hat back and still has remnants of mannerisms he'd done when he had it (trying to pull down on the brim when embarrassed, etc.)

Isa regularly does a bit of maintenance on his cloak to keep it in good condition (no one else is allowed to touch it)

Sif has episodes where he'll stare up at the stars and sob. He's usually inconsolable, and all the others can do is just be there to give him comfort

Whenever Sif has nightmares he has them in that strange shade (red)

[minty-mumbles]

Linked Universe Survey 2023

The long awaited results of the survey. Sorry it took me forever, making graphs is hard.

There were 452 responses to the survey as a whole, which is almost double what we got last year, so thank you to everyone who participated!

If you want to see the raw data, you can find that here. I had thoughts about the data, but compiling that into another post would be too much of a hassle. Feel free to send me asks about it though!

The rest of the post will be under a read more as it it large

Demographics

Other: Demigirl (4), Transmasc (3), Grey genderfluid, Unlabeled, Demiboy, Demiagender

Other: Omnisexual (4), Poly (2), Trixic, Abroromantic or Bellusromantic, Demisexual

General Questions

Other: Quotev, Discord, their own google docs

Other: Discord, Variations of "I haven't posted yet, but I pan to" and "I haven't posted my fics in ages",

Other: Wattpad, Deviantart, Discord

Other: Crochet dolls, Custom dolls, Roleplay blogs (2), Fan translations, Headcanons (2), Piano music

The purple section in the “Warriors vs Warrior” chart is supposed to read “Warrior.” I made a typo.

Favorites and Least Favorites

Selected Free Response Answers

im sorry warriors i just can't play your game (it is very very hard. i am stuck very early on in the game)

I love cats meow meow meow

was extremely tempted to put twilight for least favorite. unfortunately he is my favorite to write from the perspective of (he has taken over most of my wips. help) and that probably counts for something. WILD on the other hand. hooo boy how the hell do i characterize this gargoyle. why is he Like That. least favorite it is

Twiddy

very good fandom to be in :) everybody is very nice

It's a straight up crime that Wars lost the aesthetics poll so quickly. He has such a peak Link design with the best colors. Ugh I'm getting wistful.

FROGS. FROGS. FROGS. ALSO HAPPY PRIDE MONTH. FROGS. FROGS. FROGS. FROGS. FROGS.

I will fight Hylia herself and the next person who implies Twi can't handle spice. If we're going to lean into him being southern/Midwestern, which is an alright stero type for our rancher, please keep in mind the culture you're basing him off. The south and midwest can handle their spice, I assure you. Have you ever had authentic Louisiana gumbo? It will melt you tongue off. Or some good old fashion spicy fried chicken? I promise the real stuff has quite a kick. (In all seriousness, though. It's more important that you're having fun. And even I can admit the idea of Twi being an Ordonian who can't handle his spice is more than a little funny.)

I am an OoT Link edgelord and have been since early 2017. So, in September of that year, when an artist by the name of jojo56830 puts out a lineup of nine different Links and the Hero of Time is there – the oldest, no eye, Hero’s Shade armor? I saw that one sketch and just thought “oh this is gonna be bad.” Yeah of course he has the coolest design. By the way, it’s only a matter of time until Fierce Deity shows up in the comic and I have reason to believe it could be this current Dawn arc. Dawn … Dawn of a New Day … and who brought about the Dawn of a New Day? Fierce Deity. Twilight is recovering but still injured and what will happen if he falls again? Fierce Deity is coming and we need to be prepared. In this essay I will—

Remember that time when someone put the whole script of the bee movie in here? I’m not that dedicated, and I don’t have that time, but let us remember and hope someone else does it again this time. Cause someone is bound too. We’re all crazy enough to do it. Alright, love you and stay hydrated pls!

Hi! I joined this fandom really recent but i’ve always seen LU stuff on pinterest and elsewhere. Only recently have i actually took the time to understand the fandom and get back into LOZ stuff and i adore the characters and story! The more and more fanart, fanfics, and comics i see about the different Links the more i love them all. It’s such a pain to pick just one i like or one i don’t like because they’re all so unique. I love this fandom and hope to get more involved!! Have a wonderful rest of your day :]

Epona is an underrated queen

your mom

I really don't get why Zelda is called Artemis. Athena makes more sense???? It perplexes me

Anyone seeing this should check out Breanna’s E!Wild AU

Something something queer every Link into oblivion!

[anim-ttrpgs]

The Old Character Sheet, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

This isn’t really any new information about Eureka, in fact it’s something very old, but take a look at how far the game has come in the 3-ish years it’s been in development!

This is the old character sheet, from some time around late 2021, and I’m just going to copy-paste some designer commentary from a discussion about it in the A.N.I.M. Patreon Discord server.

“Haunt: What would eventually become the Composure system. I genuinely don't remember how it worked at the beginning but I remember it being rather clumsy. We eventually wanted to include the concept of different phenomena having different modifiers for each investigator, which would eventually become Tiers of Fear.

Obsession: An extremely early mechanic that would quickly vanish when, in the first campaign, it was clear it was too situational to track or use. The idea was that, the farther along to their goal an investigator got, the higher the bonus they could get from their Obsession, which could be applied when the investigator takes a very risky action to forward their goal. As you can tell, this was all very vague. This would eventually be replaced the much clearer Truth system.

Legal changed to Paperwork, just fit more situations better.

History skill: Too broad, so it was taken out. A good example of a write-in skill though, if given a specific area of history.

Rumors: Some sort of "word on the street" skill, but [sirobvious] raised a great point that that should just come from investigators using Personal Skills on NPCs to get that word themselves.

Weird -> ||Blacked Out Skill||

Improv: Honestly very difficult to describe, I think it was a Jackie Chan like thing of using various items around, but it was obviously too vague to use.

A lot of these changes came from [sirobvious joining the team], so big kudos to him!”

Another big change that came more recently was splitting the HP into Superficial and Penetrative, making the way that characters take damage in the kind of grounded, modern noir stories that Eureka is meant to tell a bit more realistic. Just having one type of HP works in most other TTRPGs, particularly ones where deadly weapons are going to be in play more often than not, but Eureka sees a lot of fistfighting.

You can take a look at the latest version of the character sheet in this post.

Check out our Kickstarter page for the best accumulation of info on what Eureka: investigative Urban Fantasy even is! The Kickstarter campaign launches April 10th 2024!

Check out our Patreon to get the whole prerelease rulebook + multiple adventure modules and pieces of short fiction for a subscription of only $5!

If you wanna try before you buy, check out our website for more information on Eureka as well as a download link to the free demo version!

Interested in actually playing this game, and many others, with the developers? Check out A.N.I.M.'s TTRPG Book Club, a club of nearly 100 members at the time of writing this where we regularly nominate, vote on, and then play indie TTRPGs! At the time of writing this, we are playing Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, and sign-ups are closed for actually playing it, but you can still join in to pick up a PDF club copy of the rulebook to read and follow along with discussion, and sit in on and observe sessions! There is no schedule obligation for joining this club, as we keep things very flexible by assigning multiple GMs with different timeslots each round, to try and accomodate everyone! This round, we had over thirty people sign up, and were able to fit in all but one! Here is the invite link! See you there!

[aintgonnatakethis]

Writing Share Tag!

Thank you for the tags! I remember when I had enough free time to answer each tag game separately. Working life is not for me. 😔 As you can see though, I do keep them all and I appreciate being included in the writeblr community! ❤️️ I'm also reading all of them of course, but recently my spoon situation has been disastrous. I want to pick up providing feedback again; maybe this will hold me accountable!

@aziz-reads (x) (x) @gioiaalbanoart (x) (x) @frostedlemonwriter (x)

@willtheweaver (x) (x) @wyked-ao3 (x) @lychhiker-writes (x) @fortunatetragedy (x)

This snippet is from Flu O'Clock, a story in the on your hands and your knees, do you feel in charge? series. Classic sick!fic with my end goal being platonic OT3. Want to see how that's going?

Telford could appreciate the directness, and he wasn't about to do harm to himself just because he didn't like the taste of something. That was more Rush's speed, though he wisely didn't verbalise that thought, accepting the canteen and knocking back the stuff as quickly as he could without risking hurling it up again. "Good boy," Rush said, still in an aggressively casual tone of voice. Everett coughed. Rush did that thing where outwardly he completely ignored the sound, but Telford could see that all of the man's senses were trained with extreme interest on Everett, keenly awaiting any trace of pull on the line. Of course he got exactly what he wanted, because Everett just wasn't able to help himself, in far too many areas of his life. "You said you had work to do?" he asked Rush, proving the one thing he didn't possess was any degree of subtlety. "I think I'll work in here today," Rush said, the way he'd stated it as a fact without even an attempt at the faux politeness of asking if that would be alright designed to press Everett's buttons, specifically his agreeable-unless-you-don't-acknowledge-my-authority one. "Do you really think that's necessary?" Everett responded, overly mild. "He needs his rest." Rush placed the back of his hand on Telford's forehead. Telford heard Everett stand up. That's right, he thought with no small amount of amusement, fight like dogs over me. He relaxed beneath Rush's cool skin, allowing his eyes to drift closed. "I won't be a bother," Rush offered, in a tone far too soft to be used in company, in Telford's opinion. "I just think--" Everett started, only to be immediately interrupted. "I don't care what you think." "Rush." "What?" "You're going to calm down," Everett ordered, doing a terrible job of remaining calm himself. "I'm not the one yelling," Rush retorted, blunt but with a level enough voice that Telford knew Everett would find infuriating. "Maybe you'd like to practice using your inside voice." "Listen!" Everett hissed, clearly restraining himself from moving any closer. "You can't--" "I can do whatever I damn well please." The bed shifted as Rush stood. "You're not going to fucking touch me." Invoking Telford's unspoken protection was an odd play, but one of the best things about Rush was that he never did what was expected of him, always keeping those around him on their toes. Everett let out a warning rumble and Telford cracked his eyes open to see the two men standing nose to nose, staring each other down with no attempt from either party to conceal their aggression. "You know," Telford remarked pointedly. "If you two want to fuck you can have the bed." The twin scandalised expressions he received in response were well worth the headache the argument had set raging inside his skull, a bull deciding his brain would make a nice china shop to run riot in.

Tagging: @moltenwrites @the-golden-comet @finickyfelix @lancedoncrimsonwings @bagheerita + OPEN

[glassxrose]

Nd ask game 1, 2, 26!

Hello, beautiful creature, thank you as well for allowing me to scream about these games that I have been playing for 27 years. 1. Most controversial game you like I feel like I may have already answered this in a previous ask by mentioning that I think Danger on Deception Island is underrated, but also my favorite game, Secret of the Scarlet Hand, doesn't seem to have a lot of lovers. I feel like I hardly see it listed at the top of people's Tier rankings, and I can't say I understand why. At the same time, it's really hard to dictate why it's my favorite, because, and I cannot stress this enough, I don't think it's The Best Game. I think there are other games in the series that do a little bit of everything better - except, perhaps, the educational aspect of it. I can't think of another game in the series that cram-packs it with Actually Pretty Accurate information, especially for the time that the game was made. I am so completely taken with SSH - Music, characters, puzzles, environments, plot. I suppose I want to know what so many others think it is missing that it doesn't belong near the top of their tierlists.

2. Most controversial game you don’t like 

I recently played Tomb of the Lost Queen for the first time, and I gotta say - I cannot figure out why I see so much love and hype for it. I'm sorry, guys, it's just so goddamn unintuitive, the dialogue is all over the place, the progression of the plot, and how Nancy reacts to that progression, feels so awful. So many of the newer (see: after 2010) games really don't allow the player to logic out "what to do next," and Nancy really does just get dropped in a place and the player is kinda promised "there's a mystery here, believe us," and we're let loose with no rhyme or reason to poke around, or know HOW to poke around productively. Nancy acts like she has already met all of these characters-- but the PLAYER hasn't, making a really disorienting introduction to everyone, which is wild because so MANY other games establish that Nancy already knows one or more of the Suspects, but the player gets an introduction to them in a way that allows us to LEARN about them. It's not even the most beautiful graphically, though I remember the soundtrack being Nice. Soundtrack sure was Nice. I felt nothing for the entire game, though I can say that I'm glad that, in the end, the game tells us that No, we're not going to make our Woman of Color a believer in the fUCKING ANUNAKI. GOOD CALL HERINTERACTIVE ON THAT ONE. I thought the twist/reveal with that character was really interesting, I just wish that interest was matched by any OTHER part of the game. I don't get it.

Don't fucking @ me.

26. Most stupid motive

I already ranted about Danger By Design, so now I'm going to yell and scream and shit myself about Warnings at Waverly Academy - A GAME I LIKE AND THINK IS LOVELY.

Look. As a fellow autistic girlie who loves Edgar Allen Poe, I love the culprit of this game, I think it's well written, just not well justified. The culprit's motive to find the treasure/macguffin is just kinda "because," and that's something I can totally respect if... the culprit is... genuinely super smart and would KNOW that, if they get caught at any point while doing this, the future they have worked so hard to secure is completely destroyed. I think it would have been more interesting (though would have changed the vibes of the game) if the culprit was banking in still being able to come back to the school, maybe becoming a professor at Waverly or visiting as an alumni, something that happens ALL THE TIME. She couldn't "search the building" unless the building was all empty, but? The game doesn't impress that the culprit is on any sort of timetable. Obviously, once she would graduate, that would remove a lot of access to the building, but... not necessarily, like I mentioned. At no point is the player told or shown that "oh, the culprit only has until graduation to get whatever she's looking for." Because, realistically, she has much more time than that. It's not like FIN where the building is going to be demolished. And she could have continued her search with an accomplice in a lower grade. There were so many options here!

Like I said, I love this game very much, but the motivations of the culprit felt really empty, which is a shame because "it's my hyperfixation" is a really FUNNY motive that the series has used before. I think this game could have benefited from a touch more work in the writer's room, that's all.

[basil-does-arttt]

DMC Questions Anon here!

As we all know today is the 23rd anniversary of the first Devil May Cry game, and the series as a whole. So I want to hear you talk about DMC 1, what you love about it, headcanons you have about it, alternate scenarios you want to share, anything DMC 1 you want to talk about.

Hello again! This is gonna be a long post i have a lot to say lol

DMC 1 was my introduction to the series way back when as a little kid, when i watched an older cousin play it and eventually tried it out myself. This was also the PS2 version, and i was gifted the disc + console as well at some point.

The Alastor cutscene stuck in my head for literal years after i first saw it as a kid, that and DMC 3's mission 20 arena. Every so often it'd pop into my head as a memory, untill recently when i decided to get back into DMC fully rather than just occasionally remembering it.

DMC 1 holds a very special place in my heart because of that, its a huge nostalgia thing for me and is my favourite game in the series.

I love the setting and tone of the game, its so unique compared to the others, of course all in thanks to DMC 1 starting out as RE4. That whole gothic castle, almost horror vibe is something you dont really expect from hack&slash games these days, and even though it made for some real clunky and annoying moments in game (cough cough Nelo 2 and Griffon 2 cough cough...) to me, the good far outweighs the bad.

Oh and the soundtrack! Its so good, every theme works so well in the scene it's used for, even the abient tracks. I will say however, the bg music got real messed up on the HD remaster which is very dissapointing. (it sounds flat and doesn't have any echoing anymore, specicially the divinity statue room and Phantom's church arena in the start of mission 3). It may not be noticable to some who have only played the HD release, but i noticed it immediately coming from the PS2 version oof. I guess i have to be greatful that a HD release exists in the first place though, and it is a very old game. Still.

The combat also, (and this might not be an opinion shared by everyone which is fine) i feel is the smoothest out of any Dante in any game. All the attacks are so responsive, and although you're limited, you can still style on enemies pretty easily.

Finally the bosses. Arguably the best lineup of any DMC game, every boss is fun in it's own way and brings something new to the table in terms of mechanics. Phantom is a lot of timing correctly, Nelo pushes your fighting style to be more agressive and direct, Griffon challenges your dodging skills, Nightmare is a puzzle solving boss, and Mundus is all three. The designs are also amazing, and most of the arenas are perfect. Griffon 2 and nelo 2 aren't so great arenas but their 3rd arenas more than make up for it.

Okay enough of me gushing about how much i love the mechanics, some HCs i have for it!!

1/ That motorcycle Trish bust the door down with (and then throws at Dante) wasn't hers, right? We see it in the into cutscene before it cuts to Dante at his desk. Well, its my HC that was Lady's bike (she was not happy).

2/ (aside from gameplay mechanic reasons) The reason Dante cant use DT at the start of the game, despite having awakened it in DMC 3, is because Dante wants to push away from embracing his demonic side even more so now after his brother has been "killed". He always disliked being part demon and preferred not to tap into his demonic abilities because of that, demons are evil creatures after all and Dante is far from that, but that hate is even further exemplified after Vergil fell into hell.

3/ When Trish split off to fly solo as a devil hunter, she kept the name "Devil Never Cry" for her business. People do often confuse her for Dante's "Devil May Cry" especially when the names are abbreviated. Dante finds it mildly annoying, Trish finds it hilarious. (Sometimes she'll direct clients to Dante out of pity too when they call her number asking for Devil May Cry rather than Devil Never Cry, instead of convincing them she's the right person. Dante however always sends them over to Trish if they've called the wrong number.)

4/ Dante probably knew Trish was trying to lure him to his death on Mallet island, but he went anyways to avenge his family's death. We know he'd been searching for Mundus ever since DMC 3 (it says so in DMC 5's "history of DMC" cutscene), and he knows that finding and killing Mundus wouldn't be nearly as easy as Trish made it seem. Wether he came back or not, he was going to kill Mundus, or at least try.

As for alternate scenarios, i dont have much in mind. Maybe it would be interesting to see a scenario where Trish never betrayed Dante, and instead she tried to help him during the nightmare fight. It still would've ended the same way for her, but maybe also Dante wouldn't have gotten so angry with her when he saved her.

Ugh i just love DMC 1 so much, like i said before it holds a special place in my heart. I hope that answers everything :> <3

[cerame]

Artisan’s and Archer’s designs

So a little bit ago, I got a compliment on the two designs of Echoes of Courage I'm proudest of. I do love all these characters, but these two took a bit more creativity on my part, so I'm going to explain them because I am a sucker for design. I will try to remember as many of my own details as I can, but no promises.

Let's explain Archer first.

Behold, the most recent Link! Breath of the Wild took a departure from the classic green, so I kept with that and made his tunic the main splotch of color on him. The browns and monotone colors are subdued in comparison so that the blue can have the spotlight.

In regards to the tunic itself, botw and totk both have significant influence from traditional Japanese culture, as seen with the sheikah taking on a more japanese fashion sense and the dragons being eastern instead of european shaped, so I kept that with the design of his shirt. His tunic was originally the shape it was in botw, but after the calamity, it sustained such damage that Impa was only able to save some parts of the tunic. Using those parts, she repaired it as best she could, but Archer took a liking to Kakariko fashion anyway, so he's perfectly happy with it. In addition, with the looser fashion of the ancient clothes, I changed his belt to a more ribbony shape.

Thinking about how his shirt might have worked during botw. Perhaps he wore it as a haori, or maybe it was damaged, of a shorter cut, etc. and his Zelda made him the current one. Nothing is concrete about that yet, and I think it would be neat if it was different than it is post-totk.

The turtleneck and the leather armor from the new tunic in totk is incredibly charming to me, so I naturally had to keep it, but in order to show it off practically over the tunic I'd decided on, his sleeve got pulled down. I also designed him before totk came out but after the first trailer came out, and from the trailers, we could all tell that something was going to happen to his arm. I had no idea what purpose it would serve or how Link would end up by the end of the game, so I kept his arm covered up but outside his shirt. Turned out to be a good call.

As for his hair, I loved seeing his hair down so often in totk. It feels all free and wild and soft, so I kept it, except it felt a bit impractical to have it hanging all around him like that, so I did a half-bun. He gets to keep his hair down while tying it out of his face. This also lends itself further to eastern style inspiration.

A note on the smaller details: he does wear his amber earrings, and he's got scars across his body.

Now, we have Artisan.

It was a bit more difficult to figure out Artisan at first. I took inspiration from as many links meet aus as I could find, but everything for him is so varied, and while it's fun, it does make it difficult to nail down what does work. Unlike with Archer, I had no real direction in the beginning, so I searched for what made him unique as a Link. I also went back to the original ideas of character design, the most prominent being outlines and silhouettes. I'm still a bit iffy on his silhouette, but overall, he works.

First, the albw aspects: His bracelet from Ravio went inactive after the rifts between Lorule and Hyrule closed, but he still wears it. It's becoming comforting to him. As for the clasp on his cloak, it is absolutely the two triforces, and he got it custom-made in Hytopia. His pegasus boots are also from albw, and since Collector and Forge both had their unique pegasus boots, I had to come up with something just as striking for Artisan..... and then, I looked upon none other than the Zelda cartoon of olde, and I decided that Artisan would absolutely wear over-knee boots. So that's what he got.

Now, his triforce heroes parts. I know the green one is player one and all that jazz, but I wanted to see if I could do something not-green, just like Archer or even Piper. The sword suit in the costume catalogue stood out, and not just because the red link is wearing it in the official art. It's more tame than most other choices, and it's casually royal, which is a strange flavor of style, but I discovered after significant experimentation that when you pair it (or the idea of it) with poofy bardic sleeves (yellow, courtesy of albw's blue tunic) and gloves, it takes on an almost roguish look while maintaining the fancier feel. Also, when I lined him up next to Collector and Scout, I found that their colors together were red, blue, then green, and I couldn't not keep him blue after realizing that.

Notes: his cloak is still a bit weird to me, but I've gotten too used to it. Hytopia pushes the boundaries of fashion anyhow, so he can do whatever he likes. His hair is dyed because that's just fun, and it's braided because everyone else in this AU has short hair or a ponytail, and I wanted him to feel more well-groomed than everyone else. He gets to take care of it, and he has gotten hair care advice from Princess Styla. I didn't originally intend for this effect, but the pale outlines of white and gold on his clothing really make his outline pop. The consecutive dark colors of his tunic, pants, and boots would not work without those lines. His eyes are, in fact, purple! Ravio, in turn, has green eyes. I did doubt the choice of yellow sleeves at first, since it's not exactly the secondary color of my choice, but I went with it, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it work so well. Perhaps it was the yellow of his hair and the golden accents, but I am very pleased with it. He only comes a century or so after Collector, so I had to pick a tunic shape that could hold similarities between the two of them, which is why the collar of their outer layer is the same for both of them.

Archive

[blazehedgehog]

Pinned Post

Since Tumblr is moving away from custom themed pages it's easier to just have a pin.

Hi! My name is Ryan, but everybody on the internet calls me "Blaze", as in BlazeHedgehog. I've had that internet username since at least 1998 or even 1997, where I picked it for myself as a high school freshman in the computer science lab. I was trying to fit in with other Sonic fans, you see. I just never felt like changing it (and now it's sort of like "my brand.")

I'm the founder of SAGE (The Sonic Amateur Games Expo), though I haven't had an active role in the event in a good while now. I still occasionally dabble in making games, and depending on who you ask, one of those games changed the face of an entire community.

Since then, I've been growing a slightly popular Youtube channel, and I occasionally stream on Twitch. I've been doing both of those a long time -- my Youtube channel dates back to 2006, and I've been livestreaming games since before Twitch even existed (Who here remembers a service called "Mogulus"?) I even used to run multiple Shoutcast radio stations back in the day!

In terms of this blog, it is largely an ask blog. I try to make sure at least one post goes up every day. Most people ask me questions about Sonic games, but feel free to ask me just about anything as long as it's not rude or too personal. Just be aware it might take a week or two for the answer to get posted, depending on volume and interest.

I wrote a big long intro post for the now defunct Cohost. If you'd like to know even more about me, that follows under the "keep reading" tag:

I still care a lot about fangames, and people's right to make fangames. SAGE was founded on the ideal of normalizing the fangaming scene in the eyes of the mainstream. Back when I first started, fangames were often considered another form of piracy. I wanted them re-categorized to be in the same realm as fanart or fanfiction. Whether or not SAGE accomplished that is anyone's guess, but the world is a lot more accepting of fangames these days regardless. A lot of cool people have featured their games at SAGE over the years, including the developers of Sonic Mania, Spark the Electric Jester, and Freedom Planet. SAGE is genuinely one of the things I am most proud of starting in my life, even if I haven't had a managerial role in over ten years.

I have been interviewed about SAGE and how it relates to the fangaming community. Both times I've been interviewed, I was granted permission to post my (very, very wordy) interview in full, if you'd like to read them:

Cultured Vultures: The Weird and Wonderful History of Sonic Fangames

Le Monde: When There’s No Good Sonic Games, Fans Develop Their Own

I was known for a few fangames in my time. I have a Youtube playlist where I've commentated over some of those games.

I've tried to transition to making original games, the most recent one being OverBite in 2016. OverBite was a game I created for a game jam, with the intent on making it a bigger, more robust thing to sell later on down the line. The game jam version you can download today is a little basic and boring. It was created over the course of 33 days and I did nearly everything alone -- coding, art, level design, all of it. I custom-built the physics engine, I custom-built the AI, almost none of it was using prefabs or existing example code. The only outside help I received was music, which was provided by my old friend Malcolm Brown (who really needs a better online presence for links like this).

Circumstances got weird (it's a long story, and this post is long enough) but the short of it is OverBite is permanently on the backburner until further notice. I'd love to go back and flesh it out some day, and really make it something special (I have a giant design doc for it!), but I have to focus my attention elsewhere.

I registered a Youtube channel in 2006, back in the early days before they were owned by Google. Around 2009, I did my first formal video review, for Sonic Unleashed. I was inspired by the style of Gametrailers (now Easy Allies) at the time. From there, I started taking my channel a little more seriously, and recently I have had the impetus to take it very seriously.

I have been livestreaming since at least 2009, as well. For reference, that's before Twitch.tv existed, back when the site was called Justin.tv, and was pitched more as people livestreaming their bedrooms with a webcam (what is now called "Just Chatting" on Twitch). I jumped around between sites like Mogulus.com, Livestream.com, and uStream. In 2012, I teamed up with a friend, Imran Khan, to stream Sonic 06 for charity. The 18 hour marathon raised more than $1000 for relief after the Japanese tsunami disaster of the same year. When I stream nowadays, I do it on Twitch, here. Archives of past streams can be found here and here.

I used to be a paid, professional games media writer for the niche site tssznews.com, but that site imploded after I worked there for 12 years. It ran out of money, the head didn't want to run it anymore, and after an embarrassing social media gaffe, permanently closed its doors basically overnight without warning anyone else. While at TSSZ, I helped break a lot of their biggest stories. A slowly increasing amount of my TSSZ work has been archived at Last Minute Continue, and you can always use the Wayback Machine. I also have plans to archive my "professional" writing on my own site, bltn.net, eventually. Some day.

(Since writing this, I have also uploaded a large chunk of archived TSSZ articles to The Internet Archive.)

I'm also an artist, or I was. Most of my other creative outlets eventually took precedent, but I still try and retain some artistic skill. There's a very dusty DeviantArt profile out there, and an art tag on my tumblr blog you can check out. Carpal tunnel has made drawing a little frustrating these days, however.

Is that it? I guess that's it. There are even more links to things that aren't necessarily worth a paragraph on the Linktree, and not to hustle you after reading all of that, but boy it would be great if more people supported me on Patreon so I can use all this stuff to help pay my bills and get me to a more comfortable place in life. Twitch subs and Patreon donors get early access to my Discord and yadda yadda yadda...

Oh yeah, and I even turned on Youtube Memberships recently.

[onlyfoils]

Should Secret Lairs Remain Secret?

Magic: The Gathering has always been a game of evolution. From its humble beginnings with limited card art and no foil options, to the explosion of alternate art treatments we see today, the game has constantly adapted to player desires and market trends. But has this evolution gone too far? We've gone from the excitement of pulling a single, rare foil in a booster pack to some cards in the recent Aetherdrift set boasting six different art/printing variations. Is this too much? Are we drowning in a sea of "special" treatments, diluting what made them special in the first place?

Remember when foil cards were a rare and exciting pull? Now, most standard play boosters contain at least one. This wider availability of foils mirrors the trajectory of alternate art treatments. What was once a unique offering, primarily confined to Secret Lair Drops, has become increasingly prevalent within standard set releases. These Secret Lairs, initially a way for players to opt-in to unique and often wacky art styles, provided a dedicated space for the truly out-there designs. They allowed players to curate their collections with the styles they loved, without forcing them upon those who preferred the classic Magic aesthetic.

However, the lines have blurred. Sets like Aetherdrift showcase some of the most divisive artwork in recent memory. While some players embrace the bold, unconventional styles, others feel alienated by them. This has led to a split in the player base, with pre-release events and online forums buzzing with debate. Anecdotal evidence from recent pre-releases suggests that the "funky" artworks and card treatments in Aetherdrift have been particularly controversial, creating two distinct camps of opinion.

This isn’t the first time Wizards of the Coast has tried to inject more "fun" into the game. Project Booster Fun, launched a few years ago, aimed to address a perceived demand for more special artwork cards. However, this initiative was scaled back due to unintended negative consequences. It appears that the initial concept, whilst well-intentioned, began to negatively impact the game as a whole. This scaling back demonstrates that even Wizards of the Coast have realised that maybe they have gone too far in flooding the market with different card variations.

In my opinion, a few special treatments as chase cards are a welcome addition. They add excitement and collectability. However, when everything is special, nothing is special. The value and impact of these treatments are diminished when they become ubiquitous. It's like that old saying: if you shout all the time, no one hears you when you really need to be heard.

Furthermore, while I appreciate artistic expression, I believe that unique or showcase artwork included in standard set releases should still adhere to the templating rules of standard card design and remain in keeping with the set's aesthetic. Whacky, cartoony, sparkly, glittery, or otherwise unusual cards have a place, but that place should be in optional offerings like Secret Lairs. Players should be able to choose to pursue these styles, knowing exactly what they are getting. They shouldn't be forced upon players who are simply looking for the standard MTG gaming experience.

This also feeds into the ongoing debate around Universes Beyond and IPs outside of MTG being included. Many players feel that these crossovers, while sometimes interesting, detract from the core fantasy world and experience of Magic: The Gathering.

The question remains: should Secret Lairs remain secret? Or has Wizards of the Coast lost its focus when it comes to unique card treatments and their use? The Aetherdrift controversy highlights the growing tension between artistic experimentation and the core MTG experience.

What do you think? Are you a fan of the increasing number of alternate art treatments, or do you prefer the classic Magic aesthetic? Share your thoughts in the comments below! Let's discuss the future of card art in Magic: The Gathering!

[emblemxeno]

Have I sacrificed my sleep schedule multiple days in a row to finish Sacred Stones cuz I was so wrapped up in it? Yes!

Here's some of my big thoughts on my replay!

-Game isn't hard, even on the most difficult setting, yeah. But it's not particularly easy either. Pretty well designed all things considered, if we're being honest. I forgot that the maps are big as fuck to make up for how few chapters there are compared to a typical FE game. But it makes for neat environments.

-GOD the music is better than I remember. Makes me wish that Sacred Stones was one of the games represented in the first FE Warriors, cuz it would've been sick to have the high energy tracks made into rock. ESPECIALLY 'POWERFUL FOE' THAT TRACK SLAPS!!!

-I will never, EVER, take criticism of the scene where Lyon takes the Renais stone seriously without some hesitation first. Eirika got manipulated for her kindness by someone wearing her closest friend's face, and Ephraim was pushed into losing his cool and letting his guard down. I don't see why moments where characters get their flaws taken advantage of is something so offensive to certain FE players, but damn is it annoying to see.

-I used characters I don't normally use, like Vanessa and Moulder, and hot damn the entire cast is just stacked I guess! They just have very good supports! Never let first impressions get the best of you like I did, cuz my tendency is to just use Tana and Natasha instead. Of course, characters like L'Arachel, Lute, Artur, Joshua, and Gilliam are forever mainstays for me. ❤️

-LYOOOOOOON😭😭😭I fucking love him aaaaaughhhh I was crying both times when the epilogue CG came up. He's an example of a well-intentioned extremist that I like, cuz fucking with the Dark Stone isn't like, explicitly dangerous at first glance but it's still a risk! He just wanted to help his people and was in a moment of despair when trying to figure out a solution. His character being dark spins on Eirika and Ephraim's traits (too kind for his own good and narrow-minded pursuit for strength) is fucking genius as well.

-Creature Campaign wasn't too bad, when you have bishops, summoners, and sacred weapons for emergencies, monster-only maps are kind of a cakewalk. The difficult part about it is managing resources for the whole tower and ruins.

-High-key Eirika and Ephraim are both in Top 5 FE main characters for me, something about this recent playthrough hit me in the heart more than others. I'm super happy that I played this game again. Now it's back to a regular sleep schedule lol.

[maripr]

Hi Mari! I dont know what you think about me sharing my thoughts with you, but I will do it. I JUST WATCHED SONIC 3! I'm kind of ashamed that I've been waiting 7.5 years for adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2 and watched the movie just now. (actually, I started watching it on December 24th, but decided to wait for good quality and Russian subtitles. As a result, I was too lazy to watch)

So...

SONIC AND SHADOW! Snapcube references!!! (Im crying) Metal Sonic! Amy! Maria was not shot, but blown up :0

Sonic and his friends are a sweet family 💗 Now I'm wondering what Tom and his wife (I don't remember her name) will do with Shadow and Amy. Where does Amy come from anyway?

Have a nice day :3

I heard some people say that there'll be some time travel things in sonic 4 so... Sonic CD? What do you think about that? honestly, I just want to see Rouge & Knuxouge stuff...

And I'm sorry if I send it you twice, me tumblr is broken and I don't know if it worked :/

I always appreciates messages and asks! Thank you for this one as well!

I've waited for this movie... Probably for two decades lmao. I'm pretty sure I was in elementary school when I first played Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, and for years it was my only and universally beloved Sonic experience, until I finally played Mania when it came out, and then Sonic x Shadow Generations. Which finally managed to make me play more Sonic games.

So I've been replaying Adventure 2 a lot and also Adventure 1. And despite having no nostalgia for the latter, these two are my favorite Sonic games. Even beyond the flawless Mania and Gens, which I also love replaying.

I watched sonic x as a child and I remember being disappointed in how they handled the adventure 2 storyline. I've recently watched the original japanese dub and I actually didn't mind it (except for Chris, lmao). Yes it's very condensed, but it more or less hits all the story beats.

But I loved loved loved this movie. The sonic movies have been really a blast to watch, these past few years. It feels like we have hit a point where videogame movies are no longer ashamed of being videogame movies.

And even if this retelling of the story is different, because the established universe of the movies is different, I enjoyed it so much I went to see it 3 times in the theater, lmao!! I didn't have your patience.

I'm so gonna watch it a bazillion more times when it becomes available digitally in Italy. And I'm prov gonna buy the blu-rays too.

NGL a lot of my enjoyment is derived from the Italian actors, which I'm a shameless fangirl of. The Italian dub is, as far as I'm aware, the only dub where every animal character retains their main game voices. And these actors have done a spectacular job portraying these different but still recognizable takes of them.

And also Roberto Pedicini, our actor for Jim Carrey roles, is an absolute god. I think, after all these years of dubbing him, he's slowly been morphing into Jim Carrey himself, he truly doesn't miss one take. It's almost like watching the original 1:1, that's how good he is.

ANYWAYS, not that there aren't grievances I also have with this movie, but right now they're overshadowed by how much I enjoyed it each time I went to see it (and each time MORE THAN THE PREVIOUS). EVEN MY MOM ENJOYED IT SHHDHX.

Stupid meme references and all. Which I also love. And hey, movie 1 also had sanic, didn't it.

I can't wait for movie 4. I wonder if they're really gonna do a time travel story! Maybe the mini black hole Jimbotnik used to destroy the cannon actually somehow made him travel through time??

I do wonder also if the badniks are gonna resemble their in-game counterparts in general now, not just Metal Sonic. I love the egg design, but I want to see Gamma and Omega eventually, if sonic movies keep being made!

To answer your other question about Tom and Maddie, I think they're taking this in strides all things considered, lol! I don't even think they would be angry if Shadow showed up again, they prob know the full story by now and movie!Shadow is as much of a lost child as movie!Sonic was in the first one, so hey! Another furry child collected! 🤣

Anyway thanks for the ask and I apologize for the wall of text. I used it as an excuse to ramble incoherently about my love for the movie! Sorry and thank you again!💙🖤

[litrumi]

(W.I.P. AU Concept Idea) DayNap "Cycled Forms" (AU Name... don't know yet)

Not me procrastinating my basic ass DayNap fanfic with even MORE DayNap ideas suddenly manifesting in my brainnnn. Ughhh. Oh well...

Very long, stupid, unfinished idea ahead. You've been warned.

Anyway, one of my "ddnt" posts (#1 basically) kinda-sorta stuck around in my head a little.

It's still SOMEWHAT like a turn based game, I guess? Fantasy-esque world. The basis of Dogday and Catnap's design is basically still the cartoon variations, probably taller or at least more adapted to the scenario. This is "to be determined still."

Dogday and Catnap are basically some fresh out of training specialized warriors/protectors. Tasked with putting a stop to some recent outbreak with these shadow creatures that are somehow roaming about at any time of day. In any time that is NOT night time (morning/afternoon/evening), these shadow creatures are relatively weakened. Still a nuisance at best, but they're much weaker at these other times of day.

Therefore, Dogday and Catnap can still deal with them with relative ease and their own specialties. (An easy going time inspired by THIS track, against these not-so-threatening foes).

Dogday's capabilities (Not finalized) are best summarized as being good with:

AoE (Area of Effect damage), Buffs (Strength and Defense stat raising for the both of them), himself generally being tankier rather than a damage dealer (potentially a skill that let's him take a share of the damage Catnap would have normally received in full. Noble sacrifice).

Catnap's capabilities (Not finalized):

Single-target damage, speed, maybe some partial healing? (I swear I remember hearing about some concept like moonlight having healing properties before, I dunno where though). Anyway, the trade-off thus being he won't last long HP wise. And he has not-so-great defense per se. Glass-cannon-y.

These basic traits aside, remember how I said the shadow creatures are weaker when it's not night? Well, make it night time and they're much more dangerous foes to do battle against. Larger in size, more damage, the whole works.

But then it stands to reason... that Dogday and Catnap should be able to handle the night shift too. So, what's the best way to let them fight these stronger enemies? Duh, get stronger themselves. In some way.

And that way, I say, is with their Night-time ONLY available "Cycled Forms!" (Get it, DAY CYCLE. HA-). (The alternate version of the previous song really inspired the idea of night-time battles for me. Primarily from 0:56 onwards)

*They don't get forced to change into these forms, but they know it's strategically the right move. So they don't really hesitate to use them in battle. (And I am sincerely hoping I'm not stepping on anyone's toes with any of these ideas. I swear I'm new around here! I don't know all the amazing things y'all have probably cooked up as your own ideas already. I promiseeee!!! *sob*)

Dogday, at Night, can become... EtherealDog! It's basically him with slight changes (that I haven't worked out yet, but maybe star-like pupils) and a flowing aurora borealis just moving along his body. He's still a bright guy, even at night! (Most likely similar to this kind of color scheme or this one... I can't decide.)

He gets to float slightly off the ground, but not "fly" with this form. Now, he manifests different colors of light that shine prettily and spectacularly. And these lights add new things to his arsenal.

EtherealDog can:

Inflict status conditions with his dazzling, brilliant light (and one of them surely is a very strong blinding condition that leaves the enemy seeing nothing but a bright white light), use a light that burns so bright it can melt things with high-degree melting points, or you know, some thick ice, but also he can use a light that makes it very chilly as well, potentially freezing things (at least I'm pretty sure I remember some sort of media that did something like that before). Basically, think "a little" elemental (not all of them though). He does have some of his previous capabilities, but maybe he's "less tanky" to offset for some balance. Idk.

Now, as for Catnap, at Night, he can become... (Dark) MatterCat! He'd also slightly float off the ground, but not fly. His color scheme would be something very much like this here, basically a darker, crimson purple, kinda spacey matter-y thing flowing through his body much like the case with EtherealDog. This form has no mouth, but he can talk just fine (perhaps the sound of his voice just projects off of him?). His eyes are pure white but still express emotions normally (Think like Spiderman's mask, but no stripes or lines or anything. …And also NOT a mask, fyi. He's still just one solid, yet flowing matter color).

Anyway, (Dark) MatterCat can:

Make faux (fake) objects out of matter (like a sword or matter shield) which creates more possibilities for him to defend or develop other strategies instead of only being some big damage attacker, and also he'd for sure have empowered healing by using "pure matter" that could restore HP and relieve either of them from a status effect inflicted on them. He may even have a skill that requires a lot of concentration and power from him that may send an enemy into the vast, dark matter dimension where the pressure there just sorta crushes the foe. Trade-offs being he'd lose some speed and some skills may require more time (turns, I guess) thusly.

The only thing to consciously remember is these special forms are NIGHT-TIME ONLY. So they're way less powerful, themselves, if it's not Night.

That's really all I've got so far. Nothing's set in stone. I barely thought of this today.

Their personalities don't change from being in a different form, just so you know. They're still as they usually are (subject to change).

I think Dogday would be capable of fighting, but also have hesitant thoughts that make him wonder if they really need to be doing this. He'd contemplate other options before understanding there's probably no other way out of the situation they're in (hence the ddnt post where he hugs a Li'l Shado instead of destroying it).

Catnap would rather just get the job done and not think too hard about it. So he's definitely fine fighting if it's called for. But he cares a great deal about Dogday's safety in all of this too, just as Dogday would care for his.

Dogday, watching Catnap attentively because it's the cat's turn: Remember to be careful!

Catnap, focusing but appreciating the other's concern: Don't worry, I've got this!

The duo always work together. They know each other well enough to be great friends because they've been training together and learning more about each other in that time. Still, the adventure calls for blossoming feelings! And being amazed with what the other can do in an actual fight. It's just how I roll.

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Could very well edit these ideas if I wanna come back to this. But it's a placeholder for now until I figure out if I wanna go through with it or not. Even then I have so much to doooo ahhhhhh- Curse my obsessionnnn!!!!!