#and there are lots of animation errors and inconsistencies

[stellasolaris]

rewatching the earlier seasons of winx club always makes me nostalgic and appreciative of the old animation style

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Theory: LX intended for CXS to dive to save LG

Preface and disclaimer: this is kind of an out-there theory; more a few loose thoughts that I found interesting to think on - I fully expect that some or all of this will turn out to be totally wrong. Link Click loves showing us scenes only to later have them be revealed as either a) shown out of order, or b) recontextualized by further info we weren't initially privy to. I fully expect this will be the case in s3.

For now though, concerning Cheng Xiaoshi's death, Yingdu arc is what we have to work with. And there's a particular scene that really, really bothers me: the very opening confrontation against Vein.

(Actually, there's a lot that bothers me. There are multiple timeline inconsistencies that can't simply be explained by animation error - the most egregious is CXS figuring out his powers by diving alone when he had to figure that out in s1, well after the point many timeline changes had already occurred that would directly lead to the events of s2, our current timeline. It makes my head hurt. That's why this post is not about the inconsistencies, even though it bothers me that I cannot come up with a good explanation for this atm. My best guess is that multiple possibilities or potentials are collapsing in on a singular timeline due to LX, SYY and/or LG's actions but I really don't know. Whatever. On with the theory.)

Let's start with a key assumption. If this assumption is proven to be wrong later, then the theory very much falls apart, but I feel fairly confident about this for now.

Assumption: CXS's death scene from Yingdu episode 1 is the original timeline, as is the dive back to the basketball court.

The reason I think this is from both a narrative standpoint and a character one. From a narrative standpoint, it makes sense to show us either the first timeline or the most recent one after s2's cliffhanger ending. These are the timelines that actually have consequences for our story. Here, we see a lot of focus given to the transfer of Cheng Xiaoshi's power, and his dying request of Lu Guang. This dying request, to save everyone, is referenced in a later nightmare sequence, where Lu Guang is reminded that everyone has died. I don't think it makes much sense to focus on Cheng Xiaoshi's final words in a repeated timeline, unless they were framed as something Lu Guang has clearly heard before, which, they weren't.

Which brings me to the main reason I believe this is the original timeline: Lu Guang's reaction.

He's in shock for much of the events here - doesn't look at all like he knows or knew what was about to happen. If this wasn't the original timeline, I would expect him to look more desperate and sad than shocked. His reaction after diving also doesn't make much sense to me if this isn't the first dive he's attempted. Again, I'd expect him to look more haunted and sullen if this is a repeat. Instead, he looks around at his clothes and at his surroundings for a bit before getting hit by the ball, sees Cheng Xiaoshi, gasps and immediately tears up. <- Not the reaction I'd expect from a man used to diving.

Hopefully, you either agree with me or can at least suspend your disbelief enough to hear me out.

Let's go over what's odd about the initial Vein confrontation, yes?

Vein never actually shoots or even aims at Cheng Xiaoshi

"This is the punishment for you changing the past."

Vein doesn't finish off Lu Guang afterwards

Point 1: Vein knocks Cheng Xiaoshi back and twirls his gun. A few seconds pass in which Vein does not aim at Cheng Xiaoshi at all, just stands there, maybe to make sure he stays down. Lu Guang rounds the corner and Vein immediately fires a shot at him.

If Vein wanted to kill Cheng Xiaoshi, he could've already done it here. He's fast. He fired that shot at Lu Guang in a split second. The implication here is that Cheng Xiaoshi was not the target - the target was Lu Guang.

Point 2: Vein tells Lu Guang that his actions are punishment for changing the past. If we go by the assumption that this is the original timeline, this... doesn't make much sense. Lu Guang doesn't have the power to change the past without Cheng Xiaoshi's ability. It suggests that Vein is not after them here because of Lu Guang's attempt(s) to save Cheng Xiaoshi, but for some other deviation.

Conclusion? This is a shared punishment. In the original timeline, it seems very likely that Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi made some kind of change, or changes, to the past. <- This may actually explain why Lu Guang in the current timeline is so adamant about Cheng Xiaoshi not changing anything.

It is possible that the combination of their powers resulted in some kind of significant deviation, or else that they were mistaken for or had the blame pinned on them for someone else's actions. Either way, Vein seems to only gun for one of them, but it's not the one I'd expect.

After all, if this is a punishment for changing the timeline (and presumably, you wouldn't want them changing anything else), why wouldn't you shoot the guy who actually... makes the changes? Why try to shoot Lu Guang?

Well... maybe you would if you actually wanted the exact opposite outcome.

Vein misses Lu Guang several times in this scene. It's a little strange, given that he's been backed into a corner and his attempt to fight back does him no good at all. You can see in his fight against Shao Yuanyuan/Wang Qing in episode 6 that he does have good aim and is actually fairly efficient with his objectives. You could say he's toying with him, and maybe so! Vein clearly loves a good fight. Much like Liu Xiao, he has the vibe of a "hunter". But Vein also is stated to have a certain set of principles. To me, it feels like he's putting on a show.

This brings me back to the main question: why didn't he try to shoot Cheng Xiaoshi? Why kill everyone connected with them and attempt to kill Lu Guang, ostensibly as "punishment", when Cheng Xiaoshi is the one who can actually dive?

Point 3: Lu Guang helps Cheng Xiaoshi into the darkroom and locks the door. Vein fires a shot but then just kind of... stands there, grimacing. He doesn't even try to break the door down, which I'm sure he easily could. <-This is the weirdest part of the scene.

I don't think this was supposed to happen. I don't think Cheng Xiaoshi was intended to take that bullet.

I think Vein put on that show, wanting Cheng Xiaoshi to see him shoot Lu Guang. I don't think Vein expected Cheng Xiaoshi to dive in front and die.

You could say that Vein just decided to wait outside for Lu Guang to come out instead of exerting energy, but that's strange because in the time afterwards, from 23:11 on September 12th when they stumbled into the darkroom to just a little before 00:05 on September 13th when he leaves, Lu Guang gets injured, but is left alive, and Vein is nowhere to be seen. There is absolutely no way Lu Guang was able to fend off Vein, and the only other possible sign of a continued skirmish is more blood on the photo and its positioning (this could be an animation error, truthfully - everything else in the scene is the same as before - but if it is an error then that helps my point even more - there are no further signs of struggle).

The police didn't arrive and force Vein to leave. The implication is Vein left Lu Guang alive after waiting patiently outside the door for him to come out. Why? Why wait?

Well, one possible explanation: he didn't want to interrupt the power transfer.

Think about it. Why leave one alive, but kill everyone else? If it was to avoid them making changes, only one of the pair with the actual powers needs to die. Not everyone connected to them. This situation seems explicitly orchestrated to make it so Cheng Xiaoshi cannot resist diving back. I suspect he was already intending to - if you look at the scene where Lu Guang glances down at the shattered photo, his breath hitches - I suspect Qiao Ling is already dead and they know that.

Cheng Xiaoshi's last request is to save everyone, since he is now unable to - he cannot take the shot himself, so he passes the ball to the person he trusts most. And I think this was the goal all along. In a situation like this, how could he not try to save them? Especially if, as I suspect, the rules regarding past and future weren't made quite as strict in this timeline as they are in the current one.

Except this didn't go quite according to plan, because in epic Cheng Xiaoshi fashion, he did something that wasn't anticipated and died in Lu Guang's stead. Not ideal, clearly, from Vein's reaction, but it doesn't actually matter.

All that matters is that one of them dives back. The outcome is the same.

Why kill everyone, but leave one alive, and with a power that will allow them and inevitably tempt them to try to save their loved ones? The most obvious answer is if this is exactly the outcome you wanted.

--

Now, why do I say Liu Xiao intended this if the main actor here was Vein? Well, for one, Vein doesn't seem aware in Yingdu arc of changes to the timeline, except in this scene. Needless to say, he is definitely not privy to Lu Guang having future knowledge - Lu Guang is suspicious to him, but it does not seem to occur to Vein that he could be from the future. This information likely comes from Liu Xiao, who Vein works with during the arc to obtain Cheng Weimin's book and who unzips his body bag at the end of the season. Out of anyone who could've orchestrated this, our favourite puppeteer manipulator is the most likely candidate.

I won't claim to know what's going on with Liu Xiao, nor what his goals actually are, but I suspect he has at least some future knowledge or is somehow able to catch glimpses of parallel lines. He comes across as much older in the flashbacks with him and Li Tianchen as children. There is an odd bit in Yingdu episode 2 during the roulette scene where there is a flash to the gun killing him. Metaphor or vision? It's hard to say.

Interestingly, in the Bridon pv, Liu Xiao looks back at Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang in the airport and smiles but does not approach them. Lu Guang even mentions that they didn't run into Liu Xiao in the past timeline.

At the end of episode 1, in the current timeline, Liu Xiao says "Finally, we can start the game." It implies that all the pieces are finally in place. This may be why he approaches Cheng Xiaoshi in the airport and asked Xia Fei to trail him, expecting him to have dived back from the future.

I suspect his knowledge isn't perfect. Liu Xiao is a gambler. He's not like Lu Guang, who needs to have perfect control and anticipate every outcome. He wasn't really paying much attention to Lu Guang at all until he noticed something strange - ostensibly his heartbeat. Again, I suspect the person he intended to have dive was Cheng Xiaoshi. Lu Guang was not expected - but he can still work with this, and clearly does, because at no point does it seem like any of Lu Guang's actions or knowledge disrupted his plans. Instead, it seems like everything is going smoothly because of his actions.

Everything Lu Guang does, including his decision to stall Vein and try to get him killed, seems to work out in Liu Xiao's favour. I suspect, inadvertently, that Lu Guang is doing exactly what he wants him to. Lu Guang's only real moment of "masterminding" is therefore implied to have been anticipated. Liu Xiao smiles when Xia Fei receives the call about Vein's "death", as if he knew.

"You might have seen something interesting."

It checks out. This frame from Train Trail during his verse says "the puppets are standing" over everyone's silhouettes - including Lu Guang. Lu Guang is also frequently shown as either trapped or drowning in official art and in Yingdu - if he was intended to be a mastermind on equal footing with Liu Xiao, I really don't think we'd see so much of his feelings of helplessness, nor his repeated assertions that he essentially has no idea what he's doing and doesn't actually expect the outcome to change. Liu Xiao doesn't seem to have any such compunctions or concerns in this sense.

If Lu Guang does turn out to have been essentially manipulated into this situation, it would follow a particular pattern seen in Link Click. There are characters who enact control over others but are ultimately being puppeteered or manipulated (Liu Min trying to control what is said about him comes to mind, as does Li Tianchen's literal control, to an extent), as well as characters who, through desperation and/or love, and the limited options available to them in their shitty situations, become complicit in something immoral and suffer for it (Emma taking the money from Zhu, Li Tianxi being the other half of the remote control, Vivian becoming a scammer). If Liu Xiao really did orchestrate Lu Guang's dive, then Lu Guang would follow both these patterns, as a puppet with the power of future knowledge that can (and perhaps has) hurt others, and as a victim who made a desperate choice and is now trapped by its consequences.

One last bit of evidence - this time explicitly about Liu Xiao.

^Everyone is familiar with 091305 by now. September 13th at 12:05 am. The date and time Lu Guang dived back from. However, something interesting here: the year is blurred out.

Moreover, I see people say sometimes that this is Cheng Xiaoshi's death date - it isn't. Remember the time from when they were in the darkroom? Cheng Xiaoshi's death occurred on September 12th, just a little past 11:11 pm.

Here's one last fun thing before I close out this post:

Liu Xiao, why does the date on your Tetris game-over say September 12th, 2024 when Yingdu arc takes place in 2019? I wonder whose game-over this could be?

[mysterialistic]

As much as I adore how the Link Click fandom is analyzing every single Yingdu frame because of the "different timelines" theory... I really don’t think that’s the case, guys 😅

For starters, there's consistency in the way Lu Guang acts and thinks—there’s no indication that he’s jumping through multiple attempts. If he were, I’m fairly certain his thoughts and actions wouldn’t align so perfectly. We’re following the Yingdu timeline Lu Guang, and nothing else.

Second, the donghua has already established how changes in the timeline are perceived: the screen gains a filter and glitches, all of this shown through Lu Guang’s perspective because he’s the one who notices the changes. They emphasize this because it’s crucial, and they want the audience to notice it.

Honestly, if they intended to go with the "we're seeing multiple timelines simultaneously" concept, they would have made it more obvious. The inconsistencies people point out could easily be animation errors, since minor background discrepancies are common in animation. Animation is hard, and studios prioritize time and effort. They focus most of their resources on the main elements—the characters and their immediate surroundings—rather than on the blurry background details that only someone pausing every frame or with an exceptional eye for detail might notice.

That said, I still have a lot of fun reading these theories, and I’d love it if, in the end, they did something with this—like if these supposed mistakes actually turn out to be alternate timelines that Qiao Ling is seeing in the present through Li Tianxi’s power. Either way, I’m sure they’ll find a way to surprise us, as they always do, or break our hearts.

[pawborough]

December 2024 Check In

Hello, all!

Happy winter! We’ve been busy at work, and excited to share with everyone some of our progress!

First, let’s look at some art!

Fauna Progress

At the end of last month, we shared to our Patreon an early access look at our next Fauna.

Last week, we invited Patrons to come up with names for this creature and then vote for their favourite one. The chosen name was…

Kerasoar!

Sketch by Hydde

We have gotten inquiries on if the content on this page is entirely exclusive, and the answer is: not always, sometimes it is early access. We will share parts of the Patreon updates at later dates! And the previews we do not share publicly, will still be revealed as the finished pieces.

Accessory Illustrations 

Let’s look at some recolors next!

Iridescent Hanfu Recolors

Illustrated by Hydde and recolored by Emma

Creeping Thicket Recolors

Illustrated by Remmie and recolored by Emma

Protogear

We’ve been illustrating the Protogear! The design underwent simplification and minor shape alteration to better fit multiple cat heads. But, we believe the item to be just as cute!

Illustrations by Rue The Protogear is next in our recolor pipeline!

New Decor

As we mentioned previously, Decor was not working out initially! We’ve since transitioned to doing Decor in the same style as cats, intending to replicate the style of animated stills.

Birds illustrated by Jersopod and Remmie, other items by by Giulia and Remmie

This was an excellent decision. Our team is not only more equipped to handle stylistic consistency, but is much faster at production too.

Development Check In

Aesthetic changes

We’ve been busy hunting down and squishing visual errors and inconsistencies, such as wrongly formatted buttons. Additionally, we managed to do several general reformatting to prevent pages and modules from breaking. 

Mobile optimization

And we made a huge push for mobile optimization as well, below is the user settings page as currently appears on mobile devices.

Forum Crests

We also got the forum crests formatting nicely! In addition, we are playing with the idea of providing a function for users to select the background color of their avatar. We can’t wait to see everyone’s avatars and crest choices!

Premium shop

In addition, we not only have functioning reward codes, but we’ve also added the ability for users to pay for virtual content. Introducing the premium shop! We’ve added a wide range of silver amounts, and you can also custom-select the amount of silver you wish to purchase. Our regular silver amounts also offer bonus silver, depending on the quantity, and the same applies to custom amounts bought. Additionally, we're introducing bundles, which offer silver, copper, and various items at a discounted price! Bundles displayed are currently placeholder previews for testing purposes.

Our next focus is polishing the pelt system, that being said: we are on the right track for closed beta. Thank you so much for all the patience while we do the fixing up for beta. We really want users to have a smooth experience when we pass out all 1500+ beta keys, so we're doing a lot to make sure it's a properly prepared application! We're currently looking at the date being announced somewhere in a month's time, but we'll keep up to date progress on what we're working on in the meantime.

To summarize: We shared accessory recolor and general progress, decors, and a work in progress fauna. In addition, we also shared our current progress in the development, our focus lately laid on visual inconsistencies, getting the reward codes and forum crests working, and creating the premium shop.

What to expect next update: Further asset and development updates, beta progress and expectations. 

[utilitycaster]

your post speculating that the thresher creatures could be due to nuclear testing in the ocean reminded me (extremely lose connection, just like a 'oh yeah' moment) that you had some complaints about the use of radiation in Burrow's End, and I know your background is (iirc?) tangentially related so I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about what bothered you in BE!

Hey anon! Yes, I work in a radiation safety field; mutuals welcome to DM me for more details but I like to keep personal information about myself somewhat vague. I made some posts about it at the time that I do not feel like digging up but in short, I'm not really bothered by, for lack of a better way to put it, Comic Book/Monster Movie Radiation Tropes. Like, Doctor Manhattan, Spider-Man, or Godzilla? Totally fine. Radiation is used as a shorthand to say "some dangerous technology warped this person or creature." It's not really that central to the rest of the story; Watchmen even plays with this.

What annoyed me with Burrow's End is that it kind of tried to be both realistic and fantastical and it ended up kind of being a muddle - the area being an exclusion zone, for example, indicates that it should have been under constant surveillance (ie, someone would have noticed these stoats pretty rapidly); and the radiation's effects are really inconsistent not just with irl effects but also across like, people vs. animals (stoats were made intelligent and also undead but bears were bizarrely warped but humans had normal radiation poisoning except sometimes they were totally fine). I also don't recall the exact details because I haven't revisited it and it's been a while, but the timeline of the meltdown was really weird, and I recognize I'm Radiation Knowledge Georg here but it was kind of frustrating when it felt like a lot of energy and effort was put into the biology of stoats, and none into the science that ultimately served as like, the entire impetus of the story and magic system of the world.

FWIW: Burrow's End is not exclusive to this. I have never played Fallout but I watched my sibling play Fallout 4: Murder, Cheat, and Fuck Your Way Through Boston and spent the whole time being very annoying; I have some more serious critiques of HBO Chernobyl which does a solid job with the history/politics and makes some egregious radiation errors. I also don't like that a lot of the internet has absolutely no nuance re: their options on radiation/nuclear power and are either like "IF YOU ARE WITHIN 100 MILES OF A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT YOU WILL GET CANCER AND DIE" or else are like "this is a clean energy with almost no drawbacks unless you are stupid" when in fact radiation is often best understood as "In energy and medicine, the use of radiation carries risks that are blanced by benefits just like any other option; and also nuclear weapons are pretty unambiguously terrible." So in general I'm coming from a position of "I am an expert in a thing many people get extremely wrong and I am perhaps a little bit tired."

So if Thresher is just like "Operation Fishbowl fallout has created weird sea monsters" then that's cool by me. If Thresher decides to get super into the weeds with radiation next episode (doubtful, seems like they're dealing with Weird Current Controls) I may change my mind, but also I think the scope of the story is currently very good so I'm more inclined to be forgiving.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I don't know if you've discussed this before but I don't really get madols/thaumarks in terms of value.

I thought it was like yen as in the anthology Azul is fretting over a 100(100 yen is 0.65 usd) coin and they all think he's paranoid, making 100 madol seem insignificant.

But then 50,000(yen to usd is 316 usd) madol for an item is supposed to be crazy expensive? As shown in the prologue.

Which isn't much for the exchange rate.

At the end of book 3 it states that the menu in the mostro lounge is then priced at 5-16 thaumark an item????

It makes no sense

I talked about the difference between thaumarks (in EN, similar to the American dollar) and madol (in JP, similar to the Japanese yen) in this post. You will find many examples there as well!

You might be confused about the value of thaumarks and madol because currently the yen irl is weak. For reference, right now 100 yen is 0.65 or 65 cents in USD (not even a full dollar). However, I believe that the “true” exchange rate for thaumark to madol is more accurately described as 100 yen for every 1 dollar/1.00 USD. This results in a "cleaner" converted number and is closer to the value of the yen to dollar (100 yen to 1 dollar) when TWST first came out in 2020–though EN would not come out until a few years later. In 2024, the conversion is closer to 150-160 yen for 1 dollar, and this difference is probably what resulted in your confusion.

Knowing this, a thaumark is actually 1/100 the value of a madol. Just move the decimal point of the number over to the left by two spaces to do the madol to thaumark conversion! This would make the value of a 50,000 yen/madol item actually closer to 500 dollars/thaumarks.

It should be noted that the broken chandelier in the prologue is stated to be worth “a billion” or more in both EN’s thaumarks and JP’s madol. Some numerical values like this are left unchanged between the two servers.

In real life, the value of currencies fluctuates all the time! But in a game like TWST, the currencies can be stabilized and unchanging regardless of what happens in the real world. That's likely the case in this situation.

In the anthology comic you referenced, the whole joke IS that Azul is fretting over what is a miniscule amount of missing money because he is just that stingy. The 100 madol coin and its 1 thaumark (or 100 sorcents) equivalent are supposed to be seen as not a lot of currency. He's overreacting over some change in both JP and EN currencies.

Edit: In the official English localization for the anthology manga, Azul states that “100 thaumarks” are missing. I believe a different translation team handles the manga, so this inconsistency may be an error. The error implies 100 dollars are missing. In reality, it should probably be “1 thaumark”, or a $1 coin, which is the equivalent of a 100 madol/yen:

As for the pricing of menu items at the Mostro Lounge, I don't think the values are strange at all. The prices quoted, however, are a little off. The items mentioned in book 3 actually range from 6-15 thaumarks or 600-1500 madol.

Azul explains that the drinks on the menu are 6 thaumarks/dollars (600 madol/yen). This is even more expensive than asking for a glass of juice or soda at a restaurant (a few dollars or a few hundred yen). It’s about the same price as a specialty drink (think like a mocktail or something). Putting that another way, that’s about the same cost as a tall Starbucks drink.

Azul also says that there is a limited menu with items for 15 thaumarks/dollars (1500 madol/yen), which I imagine are like the lunch sets or desserts. Many cafes and especially anime/manga collab cafes (which are notorious for being costly) have similar pricing for their dishes. Here is an example of a menu from a Tokyo Mew Mew collab cafe (although you can find several others with matching prices or cost even more):

Let's also keep in mind that Azul only stated that items on THIS particular limited collab menu were 15 thaumarks/dollars or 1500 madol/yen each. We don't know if other limited collab menus or if the regular item menus are higher/lower cost. We should be cautious of using the 6-15 thaumarks/dollars or 600-1500 madol/yen range to cover the entirety of the food and drink prices that Mostro Lounge offers. For example, in Azul’s Dorm Uniform vignettes, he specifies that he’s selling the Mystery Drink for 1500 madol/yen or 15 thaumarks/dollars, which is significantly more than (/over double) the usual cost of a Mostro Lounge drink. If you got the mystery drink with your lunch, you’d already be in at $30 or 3,000 yen for a single meal—and again, this is only if you don’t count extra costs for tax and/or tip.

Let's do some math terrifying, I know... Deuce is shaking for what I assume is the regular order for a student dining in. We will order 1 drink and 1 item from the limited menu. Without tax (and tip, if Twisted Wonderland has that), this alone would cost you $21 or 2,100 yen. It'll cost even more if you order extra drinks or dessert. I imagine that just the 1 drink and 1 limited menu item together already cost significantly more than what you can get to eat at the school cafeteria. Because NRC is based on a British boarding school, let's use the irl cost of the average British high school's lunch costs (2-3 pound sterling, according to Google) to compare. 2-3 pound sterling is about 3.70 USD or 370 yen. Even if we were to assume that a private British boarding school would charge significantly more for food (because it's a "fancier" institution)—be it double, triple, or quadruple the price—students would still be paying a fraction of what one casual meal at the Mostro Lounge would cost. Lunches at NRC are actually free and served buffet-style. You’d only have to pay if you want additional or premium items. For example, Ruggie mentions in book 7 that you can get a shrimp gratin set at the NRC Cafeteria for a mere 500 madol (500 yen; this would be 3 thaumarks and 25 sorcents or 3.25 USD). A meal “set” in Japanese terms usually means there is a main dish (in this case, shrimp gratin) served with some side dishes and maybe a drink. It’s a whole meal in of itself, basically.

As you can see, we get a lot more variety and amount of food for much less initial cost or at no cost at all at the NRC Cafeteria. Comparatively, Mostro Lounge is the expensive option 🤡 (even if most of the main cast and NRC student body seem to be from pretty well-off families and could probably afford eating there daily, no problem). The average high school student has no income, has limited allowance, or earns minimum wage, so that cost of a fancy Mostro Lounge meal would take quite a bite from their personal spending budget.

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog: Wakfu Season 2 (episode 17)

I find myself liking Eva a lot, during this rewatch, because I really am realizing that Eva&Joris is a very interesting and insane duo to consider.

If Ankama was wiser, they'd make them friends explicitly. Oh well.

Joris watching Adamai say this (Adamai is living through his worst nightmare of the person who loved him dying and coming back without memories, this time for real): 😬💀🚶‍♂️

This seems like some sort of waiting room for the meeting, judging from the fact that all the participants (as well as Grougal, but, to be fair, he's like a baby, it's logical that he'd be present with him until the very last possible moment, before being passed on to babysitters.)

I think it's interesting that Joris is sitting quite neutrally, looking exactly at Adamai and Armand, while Qilby is turned fully towards him.

...Studying him, perhaps?

Judging from the fact that Qilby was appealing to Sadida royalty by having studied their texts, and claiming to have met their god, he seems interested in learning more about people — maybe to manipulate, maybe simply curious.

Considering Qilby's connection with dragons and millions of years worth of memory, I could wager that he can feel/see that Joris is a bit weird.

(I know I am reading way too much into this, but let me have this lmaoo.)

This is why I find it quite fascinating that Qilby (interested in studying people around him, maybe seeking an advantage) is telling Joris (an old, dragonized Bontarian deligate) about a dragon that razed Bonta before Joris was born (Arty (Goultard's Dead Dragon Husband)).

Trying to gauge if Joris is secretly a dragon? If he knows that dragon? Trying to gauge his age? His opinions? Hmm???

This is one of the most short and uninformative Joris one-liners in the whole franchise. He's so epic for the way he dodges saying anything here.

Considering the fact that Joris is 1. pretty gullable, actually, 2. generally distrustful of people he doesn't know, especially royalty, 3. sounds pretty happy about this interaction here, I think Joris's opinion of Qilby is "this is a foreign leader, and the whole thing is going to cause a lot of issues. Eliatropes' happiness is worth it, though, and also he seems nice enough. But we are not friends."

Basically, I think Qilby has Joris on his side hook, line, and sinker. Lmaoo.

HE LOOKS SO AMUSED BY THE SHENANIGANS.

Joris LOVES Sadida Kingdom.

I'm insane about Brakmar. Of course the prince of Brakmar (a capitalist hellhole) would be the only one to give a lowly servant a coin.

[wipes tear] Tipping culture is real in Brakmar because otherwise people will not survive on their wage alone. Just like in America...

While none of them are shown, this meeting implies the existence of a kingdom for every race. (I need ecaflip lore so bad...)

I love this animation error so much. How did this happen.

Sitting cutely with his hands crossed.

Guys I think Qilby might have supremacist beliefs about his people. Idk, just a hunch.

And in THIS shot, the animation error is gone.

I want so, so bad to know about whatever the Ecaflip equivalent of Cra City/Sadida Kingdom may be...

Kerubim has canonically been to Trool fair and he LOVES fishing for quaquacks, and we know this from the anniversary map commentary (despite his painful and traumatic memories from episode 48 of Aux Tresors de Kerubim. He talks in the MMO about being uneasy about quaquacks since then.)

Another error — Joris sits there quite inconsistently...

@dullard @dullard @dullard @dullard @dullard @dullard @dullard HEY DULLARD HE SAID THE LINE—-

I love this so much. He's been dealing with politics for centuries, and he's so fucking angry that he allowed himself to slip up and say something antagonizing.

This is a bunch of rich people who have not known orphanhood or living in squalor in their entire lives, talking about putting children in mines, and trying to pass off a bunch of children who lost their parents in a war like a hot potato. And one of them, from a country that his country fucking hates, says that this might lead to a war.

I think Joris, with his life story and opinions and the tragedies he's witnessed in life, must be thinking things much harsher than this. Just a hunch.

This "us" doesn't include Bonta, btw :)

While I have issues with season 4, I do like that there was some moral ambiguity to the world leaders: with hindsight, I think we can say pretty easily that Brakmar's concerns are quite valid, even if false this time.

As I've said — Joris, like Yugo and Adamai, thinks pretty simply that everyone should always do good things, and that it's so so simple to be good — you just give people what they need! :) It's literally so so simple.

And that's how he, after becoming the ruler of Bonta in Waven, got to the point of having: cannibalistic wars, using living beings as building material and weapons, having 999 prisoners of war, spies and guards everywhere, implied slavery, as well as—- [I am forcibly taken offstage]

Once again, Wakfu demonstrates that Bonta and Sadida are very closely aligned.

me and @dullard have had countless conversations about this fucking episode, and he said a lot of interesting things. Here are some highlights, which he has allowed me to include:

I literally don't even know how to put my opinions into words, besides including these screenshots.

[artsyjesseblue]

Jesse's Blog Masterpost

Hey people of Tumblr! I've created a lot of art, fics and metas in the past few years. Although I dab into other fandoms too, VLD remains the focus of this blog - in the form of illustrations, fanfics and metas (some artworks are still available as prints in my Ko-fi shop). This is an updated masterpost of links to the most representative artworks and fanfics, as well as every meta I've written. Yup, a lot of Lotura. :)

VLD art (#jesseblue draws) Here are some of my favorite artworks created in the past few years: Dancing Allura Here's Some Alchemy Lotor gets a massage Bedtime Lotura Allura on the Moon Halloween Lotura New Year Lotura Lotura's Alchemy Lasts Forever - my most popular artwork Plance Dance Wardrobe Updates - Lotura Week 2023 entry Beach Day - Lotura Week 2023 entry Wardrobe Updates - Lotor - Lotura Week 2023 entry Wardrobe Updates - Allura - Lotura Week 2023 entry Lotura's Celestial Wedding Lilac Love - Lotura Week 2024 entry Drawings inspired by other writers' fics: "Quiet!" - a Pidge and Keith drawing Lotor clawing his way out of a muddy situation DotU Lotor chopping wood Some art was created for my fanfic "Nothing Ever Truly Goes Extinct": Story banner "Allura, please..." Lotor's Pirouette Space Mouse in Pilot Suit Melancholy Angry Romelle Don't Mess With Acxa She Is Beauty... We Will Win "Though She Be But Little" Acxa and Jesse VLD-TDP cross-art Aaravos and Lotor Find my VLD fanfiction on AO3 here (#jesseblue writes) All my VLD metas (#jesseblue writes) The Two Alluras: An analysis of some potential post-animation edits and errors in several scenes during the last episode, when the Paladins face Honerva in the Connected Consciousness.

Oh No, Lotor: Why Lotor should not be among the Paladins of Old in the final scenes of VLD.

Sleeping Allura: Some logical deductions based on basic rules of cinematography, regarding the very last scene in S8E10 - Knights of Light Part 2.

Decoding Voltron’s Rosetta Stone: My biggest meta (seriously, it’s really long), an interpretative analysis of numerous symbols in the official VLD comics - which, at a first glance look absolutely innocent, yet oftentimes eerily cryptic, especially the Yalexian Pearl book.

Lion vs. Wolf: An extension of the previous meta, focused on a comparison between the White Lion - Guardian of Oriande and Gantomor - Warden of the Sacred Hunting Grounds (comics).

So Safe and Warm: Why “Luxia’s Kingdom” actually reads “Altea” in the last commercial scene of “The Feud”.

Petrulius - What Happened to You?: Questioning the purpose of Lotor’s pods on the moon colony, by comparing the images of Petrulius and the original (doctor) Haggar.

Allura Drawn over Lotor (with gifs): Mostly a visual meta with gifs, showing Allura was drawn over Lotor in the last episode, as part of the post-animation edits.

I Have Beezer Questions: Several observations regarding animation inconsistencies during the Allura and Lance first kiss scene, most notably their flipped placement on the screen and Beezer’s trajectory.

A Noble Cause: An interpretation of Allura’s vision in Clear Day, if we were to start from the premise that Lotor was infusing his moon Alteans with the Entity. The Zarkon-Honerva-Lotor meta trilogy - an in-depth analysis of the profound reasons that led to the tragic descent into madness of these three antagonist characters. Prepare for reading some long metas, especially Lotor's: Slowly Going Mad - Part I - Zarkon Slowly Going Mad - Part II - Honerva Slowly Going Mad - Part III - Lotor I also wrote one short meta about Aaravos, from The Dragon Prince (my speculation turned out to be true, heh).

[adraarts]

...Warning. The following information is classified... Subject SS04: Simela Simeonidis Age: 28 Gender: Female (She/Her) Nun of the Eye of Michael & Gung Ho Gun The Dragon "...Subject was scouted from the orphanage in December for Sister Mirofora's Melee Weapons Project. The fourth subject and only successor to survive and achieve outstanding results from The Spear's training regimens, programs and testing..." ...Error. Board clearance required to read further information. Access denied...

Character Information Spotify Playlist O.C Tag Please click on the images for full view and the ALT text for a little bit more information! Further artists notes beneath the cut!

PLEASE NOTE: - That the head scarf that my O.C is wearing on her head is known as an 'epimandylion', otherwise known as the 'apostolnik'. A lot of her imagery is drawn upon Christian Eastern Orthodoxy (Particularly the Greek Branch). E.g. Her gun lance, Ascalon, named after the spear that Saint George used to slay the dragon. - While the only thing separating Simela's appearances between her Trigun: Maximum/Trigun: 1998 and Trigun: Stampede looks is the Eye of Michael symbol on her nun's habit for Trigun: Stampede, the difference is mainly in the personality. In Trigun: Maximum/Trigun: 1998 she is a lot more reserved with her true emotions, thoughts and feelings, she is a lot more cold. In Trigun: Stampede, she is very open with her thoughts, feelings and emotions, and actively goes out of her way to be assertive and stand up for herself. Not to say that her Trigun: Maximum/Trigun: 1998 self doesn't, it's just that the Trigun: Stampede version is more extroverted and a little bit more brash.

But boy.

What a passion project this was.

I feel like I don't have the words to accurately describe how much this O.C has healed me.

This whole thing was almost a years worth of progress, and one of the many contributions involved in my journey of falling in love with art again and wanting to draw more after many years of not drawing and/or being inconsistent and unhappy with my art. Making Simela after a particularly rough December 2022, and discovering Trigun in 2023, was what I needed. I needed to make an O.C that was equal parts me and the things that I loved; The NieR series, One Piece, Pontic-Greek culture, Greek culture, Dragoons from the Final Fantasy series, strong female characters, the list goes on. There was a time in my life where I was made to feel ashamed for putting cultural and ethnic aspects of myself into my O.C's; what representation was for me out there, as a person of Greek background, in anime? None. This is where my Trigun O.C came in and turned my goddamn life on my head! Thick brows? Check. Dark, thick hair? Check. Hip dips? Fuck yeah!

Making and further developing this O.C (Along with being in the Trigun space in general) has made me discover parts of myself that I otherwise would have never known of/discovered. Fuck, Trigun made me write again freely without any restrictions or rules, it made me make art again.

Thank you Trigun, and the people I have met in the fandom ;v;/

[ribbonstrawberrysurprise]

TMM Weapon and Attack Descriptions

Small followup to the character bios post, featuring the information about each Mew Mew's weapon and attack from the 2002 Fanbook vs the TMM New Artbook (both the 2002 insert and the main section).

See the comparison chart here.

First, one BIG thing to notice right off:

The '02 Fanbook actually spells the attacks as リボン/ribon instead of リボーン/riboon. This is big because there's always been debate on whether they should be transcribed as "Ribbon" (usually spelled リボン, with a shorter o) or "Reborn" (usually spelled as リボーン, with a longer o).

Basically, does the stretched out o sound mean it's meant to be understood as "Reborn"? Or is it meant to be understood as each girl stretching out the first word dramatically ("Ribboooon,") before moving on to the personalized ending section. This is definitely the way they enunciate it in the anime and parallels the way other magical girl shows structure attacks (e.g., Mars... Flame Sniper, Precure... Blue Forte Wave, Hirogaru... Sky Punch). I've weighed in on this here.

So, does this settle it once and for all?

Well… not in my opinion. Like, I do still think "Ribbon" is the correct transliteration! But I don't think the Fanbook is reliable for a few reasons:

1) The editing on the Fanbook is a little spotty, so there are multiple spots of inconsistent formatting/spelling. For instance, in the charts, all items in lists are separated by interpuncts (・) except for Buling's special skills, which is separated with a comma (、). There's also a missing interpunct in the list of Retasu's favorite foods (the other girls' lists do put an interpunct on the end of a line, so it's not a purposeful choice), and Shirogane's name has a space between the kanji of his surname and given name, something done for no other names*

*(Okay.... so it's also done for Buling's, but this is a real thing sometimes done for Chinese names to indicate that the surname is only one kanji instead of the 2-3 you'd expect of a Japanese surname...... But this is also changed/corrected in the New version, though, so???)

In my non-professional opinion, some of the phrasing also feels a little weird, and there's not much care put into text spacing and especially where lines break, but I'm not confident enough in my Japanese skills to state this for certain or put specific examples...

2) There is no other place where the attacks are written as リボン/ribon across the MANY places they are spelled out (e.g., the original manga, a La Mode, ReTurn, the PS game guide, character profile stickers). See above for examples!

3) Even though the TMM '02 insert in the TMM New Fanbook reuses a lot of text from the '02 Fanbook, it does NOT maintain this spelling, which suggests it was another error that was corrected.

So it's net zero information imo 🤷‍♀️

More small things under the cut:

I translated 必殺技/hissatsu waza as "finishing move". It literally means something like "certain kill technique" and is commonly translated as stuff like "special move" or "special attack" as well. 

The '02 Fanbook describes the attacks in terms of what they do in universe, whereas the New Artbook describes what happens in the stock footage. 

The '02 Fanbook also makes a big deal out of Ichigo's attack being the strongest and claims it's the only one that can purify a Chimera Anima and release the Parapara. It's generally true that they have to play her stock footage she has to finish off the big Chimera Anima, but the other girls consistently finish off smaller Chimera Anima, plus instances like Zakuro instantly defeating the big crow in episode 10 and all of the girls (including Pudding, somehow???) managing to defeat a bunch of big Chimera Anima at once when Pie releases them en masse as a distraction in episode 49. The '02 insert keeps the note on Ichigo's attack being able to finish off Chimera Anima but drops the "not that strong" part from the descriptions of the non-Ichigo girls and even adds that Zakuro's attack is "strong enough to surprise/frighten Quiche". The New artbook has no mention of any one girl's attack being more powerful.

The descriptions of the attacks kind of back up my claim that none of the girls except Lettuce have an elemental attack and are instead all light-based and separated by range:

Ichigo: balls of light; final blow on Chimera Anima Mint: arrow of light; ranged attack Lettuce: stream of water; attacks multiple enemies at once Pudding: wave of light that turns into "pudding"; captures enemy Zakuro: whip of light; can be used close or far away, can bind enemies, can cut into pocket dimensions somehow

...Zakuro is clearly way too OP, since she can essentially copy the effects of Mint, Lettuce, AND Pudding's attacks plus having dimensional powers. I mean, the "cutting through dimensions" thing is way outside the range of the other Mews' powers??? And it shows up so little...

Speaking of Zakuro, the New version eliminates the space-cutting power but also describes her weapon as a cross with a ribbon attached to the end instead of as a whip! (It does say she uses it like a whip in the attack description...) She does move it like a rhythmic gymnastics ribbon a little even in her original attack footage, but it's kind of funny to insist the ZaCross Whip isn't a whip!

They sure are caught up on how Lettuce can use her attack even when tied up since she only has to move her fingers. A situation which only happens once.

I find it a little funny that they never really acknowledge how all of the weapons are based on musical instruments. The LettuceTanets are obviously called castanets, and the StrawBell Bell is noted to have a bell attached, but only the the New fanbook calls Mint's weapon "lyre-shaped" instead of "bow and arrow-shaped". Not once are the PuRing Rings compared to a tambourine (although New does mention the bell) or the ZaCross Whip to a flute.

Confirmed that in the anime Buling's attack is not literal pudding but rather something that looks like it. (The manga is still a toss up considering we see it being eaten...)

The difference in phrasing between the '02 Fanbook and the New insert is pretty funny. プリンのようなもの / purin no youna mono, "a thing/object/substance that's like pudding" vs プリン状の物体 / purin-jou no buttai, "a solid object in the form/appearance of pudding". Puddingy thing vs physical object in the form of pudding.

[tobiasdrake]

Regarding the Mimi's hat thing, that continuity error can probably be chalked up to the fact that Our War Game was released three weeks and a day before the final episode of Adventure, and was written by someone who hadn't worked on the series and directed by someone who (aside from the first movie) had only worked on one episode of the series, so they likely weren't aware of the detail of Mimi leaving her hat in the Digital World.

It's quite common for supplementary material that's meant to be canon to the anime, have details that contradict the anime it's tying into due to not having actual staff members from the series working on it. That's why the staff for the 1st two series walked back their initial decision to have two sequels to Adventure about half way through 02 and essentially compressed their ideas that were intended to be spread across both 02 and a hypothetical 03 into 02's back half, cause otherwise they felt they would have been obligated to spend most of their time devoting episodes to just explaining away all the inconsistences between the anime and the various tie-in media.

Hiroyuki Kakudou the series director of both Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 has even said that there's a lore detail in this movie that makes it incompatible with both series despite intended to be canon to them -- although to this day he's never revealed what it is.

I wonder if that's why Taichi's kind of a jerk, too.

Like. Taichi's kind of an asshole in the original. His key character flaw is that he's insensitive to other people's feelings. But it's a flaw he overcomes over the course of his journey. By the final stretch against Piemon and then Apocalymon, Taichi is a much more considerate person.

But in Our War Game, at least this first half... he's kind of a fucking brat. He doesn't tell anyone shit and expects them all to just march to the beat of his drum, up to and including his own mother.

I honestly feel like his behavior in this special is worse than it's ever been in the anime. Though he has the fight with Sora to at least justify why he's in such a foul mood. This is explicitly not his neutral headspace. Nonetheless, he makes me genuinely uncomfortable at certain points.

He seems to have jettisoned his maturity out the trolley window on his way home from the Digital World. "New Writer Who Dis" and the special being made before Taichi's endgame character development would explain a lot of why that is.

[beancansmovieblog]

this is normal, right?

One funny thing about doing this is that I consistently can't tell if something is an error or not. Maybe Mr. No Hands' face is supposed to develop strange line art inconsistencies here. I have no way of knowing...

I just really like the backgrounds here. 's just a really good forest is all.

And 2nd example for "piles of things that are all very clearly the same one or two things": this pile of balled-up paper

And i'm very charmed by this spilled jar of ink very dramatically and obviously changing between cuts.

Also, it's a little unfortunate that i'm restricted to using static screenshots for the purposes of this liveblog, but it's neat to examine the specific ways that characters are animated. They all move a little bit differently, and it's fun to pay attention to.

Also also, when i first got this idea I decided (pretty much arbitrarily) that I'd separate my notes files out into blocks of five episodes, which was actually very smart because it's looking like I'm going to type about 500 words of notes per episode. Most of it is not very interesting or insightful. A lot of it is stuff like this

[moonwaterart]

I’m only on episode 3 of the fallout tv show, but so far none of the inconsistencies from the games that people have bitched about have made sense to be bitched about.

Spoilers obvi.

Why is Cooper/The Ghoul ‘impossible to kill’? Bro uses V.A.T.S. in combat to get his shots. Plus Lucy at this point in time uses a tranq gun and Maximus is a terrible shot. Cooper’s got 290+ years on them! He’s figured out the game!

The hand jets? Did y’all forget The Brotherhood of Steel ALSO invents shit? They don’t just hoard technology they believe is dangerous? Again. It’s been 290+ years since the bombs dropped. After trial and error, they most likely found a way to mod the T-60s to allow hand jets OR jet packs if wanted. Plus Knight Titus, the asshole he was was definitely the type of asshole to think he’s cool enough for hand jets.

Dogmeat being a girl? Get the fuck over yourselves. She’s a fucking dog. Also do you know why most trained stunt dogs are female? It’s because no one wants to look at dog dick in 4K if they’re hired! Plus something about female dogs being easier to train due to their temperaments.

‘But- but the Enclave was destroyed-‘ they were mostly destroyed! The remnants that survived what happened in Fallout 3 -get this- scattered. Some went to the Mojave which we found out in New Vegas which later found their way to the NCR which we jump to in the tv show, some were found in the Commonwealth thanks to DLC for Fallout 4. They weren’t where they were during the events of Fallout 3. Far from it! But because of Dr Wilzig, we got Dogmeat and she’s the goodest girl.

I get some people are newer to the fandom, but also a LOT complaints are coming from older fans who -not gonna lie- forget that Fallout as a series has some wacky shit going on. You have Mysterious eldritch human-like entities with godly weapons who can greatly damage and kill your enemies in one to two shots or bestow misfortune upon who they shoot or help you if you’re downed.

You’ve got a cult who worships atoms because they believe we’re all just different universes waiting to be renewed by a nuke going off. At the same time there’s a cult that worships the 4 horseman of the apocalypse and believe they called each of the 4 groups to bring each of the signs with them (war, famine, pestilence, death).

You get to meat a plethora of companions on the games from humans to animals, super mutants and ghouls to robots! Hell, in the first game you had a hyper intelligent deathclaw as a companion only because when the Enclave made them the group of deathclaws decided they didn’t want to kill humans and instead wanted to befriend and trade with them within the vault they were shoved into after the Enclave slaughtered basically the entire vault.

In Fallout New Vegas in the Big Mountain DLC you can fucking flirt with your own brain if you choose to do so (they will be appalled by your actions to do so).

Yes, the game is anti-war and about how governments are corrupt and War never changes, but there’s so much goofy ass shit in the games and lore that you need to allow yourself to have a bit of fun and use some game logic when dealing with the tv show or you’re just gonna be fucking bitter about everything you find inconsistent with the games. (Remember, they still have yet to tell us HOW exactly a ghoul is created and keep changing HOW they’re created. It’s never been consistent throughout the games)

[luciluck2046-md]

Damn so uhh...

I made the introduction for the Flesh&Sins AU fanfic! It's kinda weird that I forgot to make an introduction part for MD:GF AU, but I can't change stuff now! :3

Feel free to read it if you want, and if the story looks promising, add it to your reading list so you will get notified TwT

I will put the part here too.

(edit: I was wondering why nobody was reading it then I realized it was in my drafts lmaoooo)

Hi! I'm LuciLuck! The author behind this story which you are about to read!

I just thought that I need to explain some things before you start reading/I post the first chapter.

I write in my free time, so there's gonna be a BIG inconsistency in my posting schedule. I am also not a pro at this, nor a native speaker. You might find a lot of expiration errors or typos. Don't judge me too hard for this, but you can tell me where I did wrong or where I could improve. Also, at the end of every "Episode" aka chapter, I will leave a note.

Now enough about me, I need to explain the story. It's going to be relatively gruesome, but I'm gonna put warnings where it will be needed (eg: tw gore, tw depression, stuff like this). I'm also a bit sadistic so of course, the protagonist will go through the 7 circles of hell.

Now I'm going to put the description that is for the book HERE because some of you don't read it.

Uzi Akari Doorman is a "weirdo" and a "freak" (her own description) that loves a bunch of "cringe" stuff like anime, guns, and freedom. In her attempt at killing the first Glavex she met, Nash, she ends up with a new friend and a crush on his sister, Vixen!

But now her planet is in constant threat because of different causes and she is challenging herself to actually do something about her unhealthy habits.

/^ᐠ . .ᐟ\ฅ 𖥂 (<- this is how each scene is going to be separated)

Vixen Elliot is Nash's older twin sister and Jade's little sibling. She is a Glavex - A human genetically modified to kill and survive off blood. Her killing abilities are the highest in her team and she's avoiding her brother almost all the time until she can't do that anymore. While having to fight him, she notices the passion that a petty human has for revenge, who's fighting her older sister.

Now she's helping that "petty" human in her missions, but that doesn't mean that she isn't fantasying some... Unusual stuff about her. This young woman's challenge is understanding her emotions and trying to express them in a less violent way.

At the moment the first chapter isn't finished yet, but stay tuned in!

If you are bored while waiting, I recommend reading Murder Drones: Glowing Future AU! It's another MD AU that you might like! (it's also my most read book...) Please don't judge my writing too harshly. 🥲

[darnestdungeon]

Hello! Hope it's not a bother, but would it be possible to get 3D renders of the enemies from DD2? I know the devs made a Google folder of posed renders but I'd love some proper image reference of them all considering how detailed their models are.

No pressure! Thanks for reading.

Hi there, sorry for the late reply! If you don’t mind, could you share the link to this folder of posed references you mentioned? I feel like this would be helpful for those who never heard of it! I’m not sure if this is something the devs shared on the dd discord, I’ve left the server months ago after one too many bad moderation incidents– which didn’t even involve me, I just lurked and felt bad watching it all.

About your request, I’m afraid I won’t be able to do it– someone else had already asked for dd2 enemy refs two years ago and my answer was the same, there are just way too many models. On the wiki, I just counted 74 enemies (including variations like knight/fallen templar) and bosses (end of confession + warlord), and there will still be more added on the upcoming kingdoms free dlc. 

This is just way too many for just one person to handle, it already took ages to render all the 12 heroes available at the time, the enemies would take even longer due to their drastically different sizes, I’d have to adjust the camera position and keyframes for each of them every time, slowing down even more the already slow rendering process, not to mention the effort of setting up the models in blender with their 2 textures (base color and shadows/lineart).

Another complicating factor: extracting the game assets have become unreliable lately due to some backend changes in Unity, the software dd2 was made in, which messed up a bit AssetStudioGui, the software I had been using to extract assets. For instance, I recently tried to get assets from another game made in Unity (The Pale Beyond) and kept getting errors through the extraction process, in the end there were a lot of missing assets, I had to edit a couple myself to put them in the game’s wiki. This is a great game btw but I cannot rec it much due to how miserable the animal deaths made me feel (rip entire penguin colony, I’m a monster).

Now, truth be told, none of the above reasons would impede me if I really really wanted to do it. Heck, making all those dd1 gifs took way more effort and time than rendering all the dd2 hero refs combined but I still pushed through it because I love dd1. I just don’t feel the same passion and drive about dd2 as a whole. I don’t enjoy the gameplay loop, I don’t like the backstories, I don’t appreciate the inconsistencies, like, Antiquarian was deemed “too evil” to come back as a hero, as said by the devs during a live, then turns out Flagellant was the one torturing Vestal but he gets a free pass? And he comes back as a half-rotten walking corpse? As our ally? While we have to kill other half-rotten walking corpses which aren’t obviously evil and by all means could just be attacking back in self defense (widow and woodsman)? See, I have no big qualms with any of these claims individually (sure, let Flagellant and Vestal put the past behind and get amorous, go nuts), but add them all together in the same game and it starts to feel like an inconsistent mess. 

Also, why did time only seemed to pass for Flagellant? It would be so cool if all the heroes had this crazy treatment, like Crusader coming back as a corrupted Tangle soldier, Vestal (or Runaway for the matter) being a former fanatic cult member, Highwayman as a gaunt, like a collected head that somehow survived and escaped and so on. It just feels odd to me that only one hero came back wrong, you know what I mean?

But oh well, none of this matter to me anymore. I just don’t feel like making dd2 renders for the time being, hope this explains!

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Mega Blocks

Heh, classic bit that shows this author has thought about the dynamics of living in a big Lego house. So we're going with this. Elbaf has a big Lego aesthetic and I for one like it. Classic One Piece, you tend to expect something of these forecast islands that's true but then they have another side. Not unlike Wano having a big theatrical motif when we finally got there. Adds a depth and charm to the environment beyond just a simple Vikingland arc.

One thing I gotta note before moving forward. We do largely continue to focus on Nami for the initial exploration and get some great fun with Zeus. That said...I don't know if Zeus explains the mystery voice who called out. Of course, with the rest of the chapter I could buy that was Chopper. Especially when we're going to focus so much on animal encounters he could have easily solved. Haven't really used Chopper's Dr. Doolittle side in a while but it is a skill he's always had. Also, don't skip the idea some of the locals mentioned a Sun God to report to...that has a lot of potential as this arc unfolds.

Especially when we still have this idea floating around. It's not the only time we bring up the possibility of the absinthe affecting what's going on. Obviously we see that the monsters are not simple illusions but I wouldn't discard this aspect just yet. Likewise with the scale seeming a little off for buildings meant for giants. There's also one really interesting thing about Chapter 1127 that makes me still want to think about stuff like this.

We have an "Adventure in the Land of _____" chapter. That's nothing new. We typically have one starting a new arc. This example is no different than most of its peers. Setting the scene. Light action. However...Adventure in the Land of Mystery? That's odd. I'd have expected something like "Giants" or "Vikings" or "War." We do seem to be in Elbaf, so what's with all the mystery? Still think we could have simple factions here on Elbaf. that works pretty well.

Anyways. The big cat-lion ends up being dealt with. Look at the Viking gang! I know Luffy loves that helmet and Captain Crackhead is out in full force eating all the giant animals he can. Which I'm just certain won't cause any problems with the locals who call them gods.

I'm down for seeing some more of this Lego village, if we go by the formula with everyone together we should probably see some issue crop up soon. But so far this has been a fun twist on the Elbaf we expected.

---

I do want to add one thing here at the end, and sadly despite it being my oeuvre I can't take credit. There are actually several interesting little inconsistencies in things like Nami's outfit sprinkled throughout this chapter. I don't want to track down all the little panels so I'll just link this Reddit thread collecting several of them and you can see for yourself. Like, people are talking about this independently. Errors happen, we bit on one here already tail end of Wano, but it is a lot paired with things like absinthe hallucinations and "Land of Mystery." So it's something we'll keep an eye on going forward.