#and was the best main series gen 4 game

[konotton]

I don't get how there are people who prefer Kirby Super Star to Kirby Super Star Ultra when the latter is just the same game but greatly expanded

Pokémon fans are known for being easily nostalgiabaited but man they're not the only ones

[molsno]

I've always looked back on the johto remakes fondly, as I know most people have. they're very beloved games, and for good reason! they brought johto to life on the ds and added lots of wonderful new features. pokemon fans have long since considered them to be the best remakes in the series, and I think they deserve that reputation. however, I've been replaying pokemon soulsilver the past few days and I've been coming to realize that they still suffer specifically because they're johto remakes.

my main issue with the johto games, a problem that continues to haunt their remakes, is that the variety of pokemon available is very limited. if you want to build a full team of 6, then most of your options are likely going to be pokemon from kanto. in the specific context of gold and silver, this makes sense. they were designed as sequels to the original red and green, with the primary hook being that 100 new species of pokemon have been discovered. the original 151 were extremely beloved, so it makes sense that they would continue to be featured prominently in gold and silver. that way, whenever you did find a new pokemon, it would be exciting for the player! I understand the approach that gamefreak took with the original johto games given this context.

the problem is that most johto pokemon just... aren't very good. most of the new pokemon have very poor stats - made worse by the fact that a significant portion of them are baby pokemon. on top of that, many of the ones that are good are often inaccessible until late in the game; skarmory isn't available until after you get the 8th badge (in an optional route that many players are likely to skip, no less), and tyranitar isn't available until mt. silver, the very last location you get access to. even some of the new pokemon which are mediocre at best aren't available until the post-game; houndour and slugma can only be found in kanto despite being johto pokemon, and misdreavus - the only other ghost type besides the gengar line - also can't be caught until mt. silver.

because many johto pokemon are unusable on a team, whether due to poor stats or inaccessibility, your team is most likely going to consist of kanto pokemon. again, I understand why this is the case given the context that the games were released in, but I find it frustrating! I want to build my team around the pokemon native to the region I'm playing in, and I feel my ability to do so is being limited!

so, did heartgold and soulsilver fix this? not really. the same problems mostly persist. one of the only saving graces is that some of the formerly weak johto pokemon received evolutions in gen 4. and you can obtain some of them! however, most of them are locked behind the post-game once again, and some of them are unobtainable entirely without trading. for example, there's no good reason that you shouldn't be able to evolve eevee into leafeon or glaceon in these games, but you need to trade it to diamond, pearl, or platinum to do so because there is no moss rock or icy rock in johto. they could have added them, but they didn't.

it frustrates me because the context these games were released in was different from that of the games they were remaking. technically, they didn't need to remake them; all johto pokemon were made available in gen 3, albeit many of them were locked behind the paywall of having to buy far too many games and accessories. the primary reason for these games to exist was to make them easier to obtain. it wasn't like firered and leafgreen, which were made specifically because the majority of kanto pokemon were completely unobtainable in gen 3 due to the gba not being able to connect with gb and gbc games.

speaking of which, it feels like they didn't learn their lesson from firered and leafgreen. one of the primary causes of frustration in those games is that you are completely unable to obtain any non-kanto pokemon until the post-game, for the sake of being "faithful" to the originals. this was a problem because they already weren't faithful to the originals, as frlg featured new mechanics from gen 3 such as abilities, but I digress. with hgss, the fact that gamefreak intentionally limited which pokemon you can access until the post-game feels like another attempt at being "faithful" to the originals, but they didn't even commit to it as hard as they did before. in frlg, if you maxed out a golbat's friendship, it would attempt to evolve into crobat every time it leveled up, before stopping prematurely. in hgss, you can evolve yanma into yanmega by teaching it ancient power and then leveling it up. if you want a togekiss though, too bad, because a shiny stone isn't available until after you beat the champion.

by this point in the pokemon franchise, I don't think gamefreak needed to remake gold and silver with faithfulness to their original context. hoenn and sinnoh were both designed to be new and refreshing, so it was reasonable for fans to expect each region to have its own identity, with its own pokemon being featured prominently. they could have adapted johto to suit this new convention for the series, but they chose not to, and I can't help but feel that heartgold and soulsilver suffer as a result.

[bulbagarden]

guess what??? bulbapedia had its 50,000th wiki article created a bit ago, and to celebrate we made a news article celebrating bulbapedia! i'm actually in it, soo... take a look if you'd like!! (this was written by our twitter admin and my overlord wyndoncalling)

Celebrating 50k Bulbapedia articles with our favourite wiki pages!

As one of the world's largest media franchises, Pokémon is monolithic to say the least. Documenting every facet of this gargantuan IP is a task perhaps only the most dedicated and/or foolhardy would embark on, yet that's exactly what our Bulbapedia team and thousands of selfless contributors have done over eighteen long years! With Pokémon now encompassing nine generations of main series games along with dozens of spin-offs, mobile games, movies, anime and manga series, merchandise and much more, the wiki itself has grown in tandem - we recently hit a whopping 50,000 articles!

To celebrate, we've compiled a list from across the Bulbagarden team of our favourite wiki articles. For our non-wiki team members, these might simply be pages that they enjoy reading and help inform their work in other aspects of the site. For wiki Staff, these could instead be pages that they've sunk many productive hours into. Read on for an eclectic collection of articles detailing some of the most obscure corners of the Pokémon franchise!

Credits to Staff artist Sirius for the awesome header image!

WyndonCalling (Social Media) - Tall grass

On the one hand, I think it's faintly hilarious that anyone would go into such detail for a mundane and omnipresent mechanic of the main series games; the tall grass that awaits the player on every starting route just feels so self-explanatory in function. On the other hand, I think it speaks volumes about the commitment and mentality of the Bulbapedia team and contributors that no scrap of information is left undocumented - on the tall grass page you'll find the basic details about how it works, but also variations such as tall grass and seaweed, animations of the Cut mechanic, in-battle effects, and more. Who knew that simple grass could be so fascinating in a world with flame-throwing dragons and electric mice?

Runner-up - List of Pokémon by base stats

As the Admin of the Bulbagarden Twitter account, I'm always on the hunt for interesting trivia to share; having the base stats of all Pokémon in one, sortable place makes it so much easier to make fun comparisons between species (did you know that Krabby has more Attack than Eternatus?).

Maverick Nate - Bulbapedia - Coin (TCG) (and its three subpages: Gens 1-4, Gens 5-6, and Gens 7-8)

This page is what I consider my best accomplishment during my 10 years as Bulbapedia's TCG Leader. There is an incredible amount of research, time, (and personal financial investment) baked into the article, and it always gives me a swell of pride when I update it with fresh images of newly acquired coins. There are over 700 different coins documented here, and I still fondly remember the long-night research sessions I would have with my best friend when we would do things like watch countless YouTube openings to figure out release information, check out endless eBay and Yahoo Auctions listings for never-before-seen coins, hold up physical coins to a spotlight trying to determine the Holofoil pattern. Our other friends would poke fun at us for researching in the field, (which was just our excuse to go shopping for newly released TCG products with new coins or hitting up garage sales and card shops on the off chance they had old ones). All of those years of effort produced what is now considered the definitive list of all coins in existence for coin enthusiasts. Whenever I see people online referencing it and using it for their own collections, I just have to smile, knowing that my favorite article is helping people all around the globe.

Wowy (Bulbapedia) - Red (Masters)

This page is just an example for all the character pages for Pokémon Masters. As one of the main editors covering Pokémon Masters when the game was first released, I feel very content to see many other editors who have taken the mantle to make Bulbapedia's coverage of the game quite comprehensive! I also enjoy the gallery section at the bottom because there are some sweet artwork pieces that come out of the game / the PMEX Twitter.

Runner Up - Face board

An article that was initially written for fun ended up being moved from the userpage to the main Bulbapedia page. Like the tall grass page, it's a niche page that showcases how much we like to document every minor and obscure detail in the franchise (albeit there is still so much to cover)!

Lisia (Social Media) (omg HIIII that's me!!!!) (姉ちゃん見て見て、あたしテレビだ。。) - Pokémon world in relation to the real world

This is a very extensive page, and it's very useful for a lot of different things! I use it for worldbuilding for fanfiction and roleplay stuff usually, but it's fun to look at just in general as well! I remember looking at the page first like... years ago, and it blew my mind to see that the Pokémon world was actually based off of real locations! It's something that I'd call a huge resource for anyone who creates Pokémon fanworks, especially written ones!

Runner Up - Lisia (i had to LOL)

Maybe it's a little... self-serving? But I really like this article of my personal namesake; she's my favorite character after all! She's a relatively minor character within the whole of Pokémon so there's not a whole lot of information about her, so I like reading all the stuff there is about her! It makes me happy that people have put work into articles about everyone, because well... in a way I wouldn't be me without it. I should probably contribute to it sometime!

Orchid (Forums) - Pokémon food

I picked this article because it is astoundingly comprehensive on its topic, and offers a lot of really interesting insight into the Pokémon universe as a whole. From Poffins, to prey, to parasites, to Slowpoke Tails... it's all here! It's amazing how having all this information in one place puts into perspective just how much there is to cover on what, at a glance, might seem like such a simple subject. I find myself coming back here every now and then just out of curiosity (or perhaps to settle a debate about what an Aerodactyl really eats).

Runner-up - Twerp

This page is silly and I love it. I've even shown this one to friends and family who are fellow Pokémon fans, and they've gotten just as much of a kick out of it as I have! But as amusing of a read as it may be, what I love most about this page is the fact that even a short and lighthearted bit of terminology like this is documented thoroughly here, just like anything else would be. All across Bulbapedia, you can find so much care and detail put into the littlest of things, and that does bring a smile to my face

DapperCody (Multimedia) - Ash Ketchum

Like many people, I grew up watching the Pokémon anime as a youngster. I enjoy Ash's article because it is comprehensive account of the quarter century that he has graced our screens - looking it over is very nostalgic. The history section with photos is fantastic, and I love being able to see all the Pokémon he has ever owned or used and their current status. It also has an extensive trivia section like all my favorite articles do. I've fallen down the anime rabbit hole on Bulbapedia numerous times, and Ash's page is a great place to start.

Runner Up - Ash's Noctowl

See all of the above, but from a different perspective. Pages for individual Pokémon from the anime are fantastic to get a glimpse into all the highlights from their time in the spotlight, and what better example of this than my personal favorite, Noctowl? The move history is really neat, especially the fact that it designates the moves recently used (and the illegal ones when applicable). Did you know Noctowl was the first Shiny Pokémon in the anime?

bthrussellUK (Bulbapedia) - Pokémon Battle Chess

I really love this article because I think it’s an example of what Bulbapedia is great at; taking obscure Pokémon topics (especially outside of Japan) and saving them from being lost to the sands of time. The original Pokémon Battle Chess website has been taken offline, so without articles like this one, the game would be forgotten. Instead, because it’s here, I decided to find and buy a copy of both Pokémon Battle Chess BW Version and Pokémon Battle Chess and use them to help expand the gameplay section of the article. They're actually pretty fun games! Now I just need a copy of Pokémon Battle Chess W…

Runner Up - Pokémon games

It looks like it's just a really long list... and it is! But for me it's a really great reminder of how massive Pokémon is, how many games have been released in the last 26 years, and how many different platforms Pokémon games have released on. Ever heard of the Advanced Pico Beena or the iQue Player?

Whether they're popular or niche, wide-ranging or obscure, we hope you've enjoyed our short tour of our favourite Bulbapedia articles! Do you have your own? Are you tickled by the trivia on a given page? You can let us know on our forums or Discord server - or even start editing yourself!

The wiki can never have too many contributors, and if your love of Pokémon is as deep as ours we'd be delighted to have you with us for the next 50,000 articles!

(lisia note: thank you for reading!!!!!!!!!! hopefully you enjoyed it!)

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Lifelines

by SomebodyIUsetoKnow After everything that went down with the Crime Syndicate and then Spyral, Nightwing couldn't do it anymore. Five years after retiring the mask, five years after Bruce had once again cut him out of the family, Dick Grayson returns to Gotham. But Detective Grayson is not the only transfer from Bludhaven. An enemy from across the bay makes an explosive debut onto the scene of Gotham's organized crime that has the GCPD racing against a clock that could cost the lives of thousands. Including one of their own. The Batfamily has only seventeen hours before it is too late to reclaim the piece their family had been missing for far too many years. Words: 4365, Chapters: 1/5, Language: English Series: Part 4 of Must Be Tuesday Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Gotham Knights (Video Game 2022), DCU, DCU (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: Gen Characters: Dick Grayson, Kate Kane (DCU), Renee Montoya, Bruce Wayne, Dinah Lance, Duke Thomas, Tim Drake, Alfred Pennyworth, Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Brown, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Cassandra Cain, Jim Gordon (mentioned), Maggie Sawyer (mentioned), Amy Rohrbach (Mentioned), Harley Quinn (mentioned), Poison Ivy (mentioned), Original Main Villain Character, Justice League Characters (Mentioned and Brief appearances) Relationships: Batfamily Members & Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson & Everyone, Kate Kane/Renee Montoya Additional Tags: Post-Forever Evil (Comics), Post-Spyral Arc (Comics), Dick Grayson is Not Nightwing, Detective Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Dinah Lance is Black Canary, Duke Thomas is Signal, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Barbara Gordon is Batgirl and Oracle, Stephanie Brown is Spoiler, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Damian Wayne is Robin, Cassandra Cain is Black Bat, Non-Consensual Touching, Non-Consensual Bondage, Canon-Typical Violence, Kidnapping, Hostage Situations, Bombs, Dick Grayson Whump, Hurt Dick Grayson, Romani Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne Gets Therapy, Trying to Explain why Bruce is/was a Bad Parent, Bruce Wayne Tries, he's getting better, Batfamily gets their heads out of their asses, Protective Batfamily, Batfamily on the Warpath, Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Language, Alfred Pennyworth is the Best, Alfred Pennyworth is So Done, Protective Alfred Pennyworth via https://ift.tt/8sXa3ED

[oswlld]

oswlld's monthly wrap up: may

note: i am trying something a bit different this year, so bear with me as i figure out how i want to format this. i wanted to spend more time sharing what i consume, beyond what i rb, and put my thoughts in one place. these posts are okay to rb

--

Arsenic and Adobo, Mia P. Manansala [started 05/18, finished 06/03] I didn’t dip my toes into the light murder mystery genre until now and to be honest, I’m not sure if it’s working for me. But I have seen recommendations floating around this series with filipino characters and wanted to check it out. The main character, Lila, is eerily specific to my personal experiences and upbringing, but the writing feels severely lacking because I’m actively looking for more character development and depth. My best friend clarified that this genre doesn’t really flesh out the characters in the way I want it to. In the end, it just fell flat for me. I gave it 3.5⭐️ on storygraph (which might be generous) — Crying in H-Mart, Michelle Zauner [started 05/09, finished 06/09] Have you even got a book that you know that you’ll love, so you just end up avoiding it at all costs? This is a memoir that I needed to read this slowly because it just felt incredibly special. And so painful. If you’re a first gen aapi with a difficult relationship with your mother, this is going to be a LOT for you. Sobbing, snotty, the whole works. Take long breaks in between reads if you need it. I luckily saved the heaviest part of the book for when I was taking an impromptu trip to the lake, surrounded by so much sun, mist, and life. The world was comforting me and wiping away my tears. 5.0⭐️ on storygraph!!

23.5 Degrees, GMMTV [started: 03/08, dnf] I only had time to catch episode 9 in May. I thought I would be able to complete the series this month, but alas it might be a DNF. Please tell me that the adorable teachers got together! — Doctor Who, Disney+ [started: 05/10, in prog] It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that DW is on here. I am a DW blog first, multifandom blog second. I’m loving the spin RTD is taking with the show for this run, having the genre touch on the supernatural/mythical/fantasy. It still has the same DNA but it’s so fresh. I only caught the first two eps on premiere week and haven’t had the time to keep up with the show weekly, but I am catching up soon. — Murderville, Netflix [started 02/10, finished: 05/23] I forgot to include this in my february wrap up, but I watched eps 1-4 back then and finally got around to seeing the last two eps this month. This show is such a delight! I love the unique twist on the concept of procedural improv, where the guest star actually have to solve the case at the end of the ep. They’re not there to just play off the other actors, they invite themselves to interact with the plot without taking it too seriously. If this sounds right up your alley to turn your brain down to like… 25%, please check this out. — Attack on Titan [started: 05/26, in prog] I have quite a journey ahead of me, but I’m happy to report that I LOVED the first ep. What a strong start to my anime era! This is gonna be my summer obsession, I can just feel it. By the time this posts, I will have seen eps two and maybe three(??). Gimme them right now, in an IV please. — Devil’s Plan, Netflix [started: 04/23, ALMOST complete] Bestie and I are OBSESSED with this competition series and we just learned there will be a s2, YAYY! This isn’t a show where you can turn your brain off. Now that I think about it, I don’t think there’s been a challenge I fully understood until ep 10, but man is it fun watching the contestants figure it out. They’re all SO intelligent and SOOO charming. And the games are so creative and elevated, it makes the stakes so charged! We are a few min into ep 11, out of 12, and we are planning to finish it this week. I don’t want this show to endddd!

Whew! I thought I didn’t watch much this month, but I covered a lot of ground on the TV front huh.

Pedro, Netflix [watched on 05/05] First off, you’ll be delighted to know that the artist and subject matter of the film, Pedro Friedeberg, has two cats named Wikipedia and Netflix. What I find so refreshing about this documentary in particular is Pedro, the unwilling participant during the process. The filmmaker, Liora Spilk Bialostozky, takes great care in sharing her insecurities about it. Liora is not shy about her adoration for her favorite artist and Pedro is very firm with his boundaries when pressed about his personal life. It makes for a very delightful, yet tense friendship between the two. — Polite Society [watched on 05/31] This is still fresh in my mind but what a spectacular film! LOVE how it puts the sister bond in the forefront of this classic action film, as well as all the female friendships. It makes the tonal shift flow seamlessly because the heart of the film beats strong. The best scene was the KHAN vs KHAN fight sequence, Ria vs Lena. The bashing, the biting, and the blood! The choice to make the final blow be self-inflicted, especially when it targets my personal experience, really took this film to new heights. I want to just ‘This movie has EVERYTHING’ meme the hell out of this. It has weird girls, judgmental aunties, college dropouts who have an estranged relationship with making art, torture scenes through the use of leg waxing, reproductive autonomy, FEMALE RAGE! It deserves to be up there when people think of 10 Things I Hate About You and Clueless.

GÉNESIS, Peso Pluma [first time listening] Before Coachella, I knew very little about Peso Pluma but his live performance really shot him to the top of my list of artists to catch up on. When I was little, my dad always had corrido playing in his car radio and to this day, he still occasionally plays it in the garage. What I really admire about GÉNESIS is the modern twists the artist takes in the production and writing, perfectly paying homage to the traditional without it sounding dated. I think it’s largely due to his vocals. He doesn’t shy away from perfecting at the cost of being authentic and it shines in songs such as Rubicon and 77. The latter half of the album really packs a punch, it’s so hard to pick a favorite. Everything from Lady Gaga to the end is just banger after banger after banger. Having this album play in my car… I really do take after my father. — LAS LETRAS YA NO IMPORTAN, Residente [first time listening] I first heard of Residente from the song Immigrants (We Get the Job Done) from the Hamilton Mixtape. Even then, I made a mental note to get back to him, but lost track of time until I started listening to Peso Pluma. This compilation consists of 23 songs and it’s such a sublime experience from beginning to end! It’s cinematic, it’s heavy, it’s a party, AND it’s skipless. He has a level of talent that has me raging!!! HE’S SO GOOOOOOD TF?!?!? The first time I heard 313, I wrote a note on my phone with “hhhhhhhh???!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!how dare he” and I stand by that statement. It’s almost six minutes long and not one second was wasted. Where Peso Pluma brings the traditional corrido to the present, Residente brings rap/hip-hop into the future. Whenever I get a chance to jump back into the album in the car, the songs I tend to gravitate towards are Artificial Inteligente, Cerebro, Yo No Sé Pero Sé, Que Fluya, and Las Letras Ya No Importan. This guy doesn’t miss, I hate him (affectionate). — Everything I Know About Love, Laufey [first time listening] This album is magnificent, I am UNWELL. The way I feel about this album is the same way I felt about Five Seconds Flat last summer: a feeling so bone deep, my soul begs for release. Bewitched was such a strong outing for me, so hearing little echos of it in the album before made the listen experience all the more enchanting. I’m so in love with this album. I’m actually convinced that Above the Chinese Restaurant is the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. Ever. If I talk about this album more, it’s going to dig up so much of my deepest, darkest memories. I can’t… but also please talk to me about this album. — HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, Billie Eilish [first time listening] On gawd, what a stellar month for music, I can’t believe it! What a KNOCKOUT!! Billie and Finneas, I feel, have finally come home. They finally own their craft, refined it, and carved it into this marble masterpiece. Billie is more daring with her vocal range and exploring new avenues in her execution. The entirety of L’amour De Ma Vie was just me going “ARE YOU KIDDING ME????” 30 times over in the car. No but for real, is she joking? This is so ungodly, what am I supposed to do with myself?? HELP???? It’s a no-skip album, there is no top 5, no favorites list. It just is and it’s unbelievable that I can’t experience it for the first time all over again.

[crapmagak]

Fe4 Remake Predictions

Alright, yet again, a nintendo direct is around the corner. And yet again, we might get the Genealogy of the Holy War remake revealed. Personally, my guess is probably not, but it’s a soft probably not.

That all being said, every time a direct arrives, I tell myself I’ll post my predictions for what the Fe4 remake will look like, but never get around to finishing it. So fuck it, Imma post my predictions today before it’s too late.

Prediction 1: The map design will remain mostly untouched. Fe Echoes had a lot of respect and reverence for the old game, and those maps arguably need much more touching up than Genealogy’s. 

Prediction 2: Presentation wise, however, I think these maps will be stylized visually in some way. After all, most maps in Fe4 are the size of entire countries. Maybe the overworld units will be sprites again. Maybe the maps will do some fancy HD2D shit. Can’t say it will be either of those for sure, but some kind of visual abstraction will be employed to make the maps work.

Prediction 3: There will be slight adjustments to the trading system. Characters can still only do it with their spouses, but there’d be slight quality of life changes like getting to choose exactly how much money is given. Still gotta due pawn shop shenanigans to give weapons to non spouses, however.

Prediction 4: The love system will be fully replaced with a simple support system. Pretty much everyone is expecting this, though.

Prediction 5: Only the Castle Towns you start a chapter in will have free roaming segments where you can talk to characters, give them gifts, order food, ect. Since usually there’s a bit of a time skip between chapters and all. The castle towns you visit mid chapter will be more like the towns in echoes.

Prediction 6: There will be an avatar character. I know, I know, it’d be for the best that there wasn’t. However, the main reason an avatar wasn’t included in echoes was because of the story structure. It’d be a lot easier to introduce an avatar character in Fe4. And of course, this is the entry in the series that introduced romance. Story wise they’ll be a tactician for house Chalphy. I also think they’ll make the avatar another manakete who never actually transforms, mostly so they don’t visibly age during the second generation (So it’s less weird when they let you romance those characters as well). You will also get your own child unit/ an apprentice character if you haven’t S supported anyone yet. There will also probably be a lot of “I’m sad my S/O died” angst.

Again, this is not the timeline I desire, merely that which I believe will most likely come to fruition.

Prediction 7: There will be a small handful of new playable characters in the game. Most likely there to round out the cast balance wise, so probably a new ax unit for each generation, and maybe a new mage or wyvern knight. Maybe we’ll even get a token good dark mage.

Prediction 8: The replacement gen 2 characters will still be in the game. They’ll probably get their own unique supports as well. 

Prediction 9: The child characters will probably be rebalanced a little, most so the players can sail their favorite ships without crippling the usefulness of their children. 

Prediction 10: Most of the cousin incest will be removed in the english version. This will mostly come in the form of every potential second generation cousin pair having their S support be written more platonically, and if they actually are cousins, they’ll become “companions” instead of married. Think Owain and any of his potential cousins in Awakening. However, some pairs will slip through the cracks. Like a Lissa sired Morgan with a Chrom sired Inigo/ Brady in Awakening. Arvis and Deirdre’s situation will remain uncensored since it’s both plot important and not exactly a good thing. 

Prediction 11: There will be references to Thracia 776, but mostly in Lief’s support. A whole lotta “You remind me of an old comrade of mine” and “Hey Nana, this reminds me of…”.

Prediction 12: The DLC will be some kind of non canon alternate timeline thing where you get to control both the first and second generations, and you get a lot of interactions between them.

Can’t wait to see how wrong I end up being.

[besideprimroseshade]

This is Kanae Yoyume's writing blog, please take your time.

“Come, kneel for me peasants!”

-Riliane

Welcome, welcome to my bookshop, Les mémoires de jaune! Where tales of soulmates and possessive lovers are spun. Where the fates of those destined to love each other and those whom are not collide together. My name is Kanae, the owner and main author, I may not be here all the time as I’ve got classes at NRC to attend. Please, take your time searching for a novel or quick snack that peaks your interest. I’ll be behind the counter-er the table if you need me! You might be wondering, what’s with the shop name? Well I’ll tell you! The name is a reference to the Story of Evil song series, and the yellow roses that Princess Riliane is so often pictured with. Though it is a shame that practically no one here is familiar with the series...

(This is just a little shop that I run inside the school library, it helps paying rent lol)

𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴:

“(Aku No Musume-STUDY WITH MIKU ver. )” 01:23 ━━━━●───── 03:43 ◁ㅤ ❚❚ ㅤ▷ ㅤㅤ ---˖⁺. ༶ ⋆˙⊹❀♡❀˖⁺. ༶ ⋆˙⊹---

While we’re waiting why don’t you check out some literature here? There has to be something to your liking I’m sure. There are changes to our menu depending on my current hyperfixation, as of now that’s twst but it may change so please be aware of that. Thank you for your understanding! Currently writing for Twisted Wonderland

Series/Games that I'm not currently writing for but am a fan of

The Case Study of Vanitas (Vanitas no Carte), Bungo Stray Dogs, My Happy Marriage, Genshin Impact, Evillious Chronicles, Laid-Back Camp, Project Sekai

🃜🃚🃖🃁🂭🂺 - Masterlist

𝒫𝓁𝒶𝓎𝓈 - 𝒜 𝓋𝒶𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓉𝓎 𝑜𝒻 𝒻𝓊𝓁𝓁 𝒻𝓁𝑒𝒹𝑔𝑒𝒹 𝓈𝑒𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓉 𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈~

ᴋɪᴛꜱᴜɴᴇ ʏᴏᴍᴇɪʀɪ - Twst x fem Genshin Impact kitsune reader CH: 1, CH 2: , CH 3: CH: 4

Why did my favorite game turn into a dating sim? Twst x gen reader, CH: 1, CH: 2 CH: 3

ᴳᵒᵈ ⁱˢʰ - Twst x gen reader, intro, CH: 1

𝒜𝒸𝓉𝓈 - 𝒟𝓇𝒶𝒷𝒷𝓁𝑒𝓈, 𝒪𝓃𝑒𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓉𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒~

𝒩𝑜𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑒𝓉 𝓈𝒶𝒹𝓁𝓎, 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉 𝒶𝓈𝓈𝓊𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽, 𝒸𝓊𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓇, 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒷𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓈𝑜𝑜𝓃!

𝒮𝒸𝑒𝓃𝑒𝓈 - 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝒸𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝒹𝒸𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓃𝓈~ 𝓂𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝓅𝑜𝓅𝓊𝓁𝒶𝓇 𝓇𝑒𝓆𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓉𝓈!

Savanaclaw x Fem! Reader who does diamond art

Chimera Falin x Gen! Reader Headcanons

𝑅𝑒𝓆𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓉𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝑜𝓅𝑒𝓃~

🃜🃚🃖🃁🂭🂺 - Rules

What I will write: SFW, Suggestive, Fem reader, Gen reader, Yandere, Dark-ish, Poly

Only around 5-6 characters per request if requesting headcanons please! Only 1 or 2 characters for scenarios.

If you would like the same scenario for different characters you may send them in multiple different requests, please don’t be shy!

(Please note that while I very much enjoy headcanons, I am not the best at writing them myself :<)

I only write reader inserts, so no character x character requests please!

What I will NOT write: 18+, M reader (I can try but it won't be good :<), please ask if I’m comfortable with writing something ^^

Feel free to ask if your request is fine, if it is then you’re good to go, if not then I might have to delete it 𖦹ᯅ𖦹 Thank you if you read all of this, I hope that you have the most wonderful of days, because you deserve it!

Please be specific with your requests, I would like you to enjoy your request as much as possible. (I’m not good with writing general topics but if you request as such then I will try my best to fulfill your wishes ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა).

my main blog is here!

Thank you for reading and enjoy your time here 𖥔

[channel-eclair]

u know i think a big issue with third parties in smash bros and the series focusing almost entirely on third parties these days (aside from the game becoming a huge corporate copyright mess) is that we hardly ever get Not The Face Of The Series characters anymore

imo something that adds so much fun and flavor to smash bros is like.. the "not absolutely main characters". like jigglypuff, rosalina, robin, greninja, bowser jr, sheik, palutena, meta knight, etc

yeah theyre important to their series, but theyre not mario or link or pikachu. and having characters like that land in such a special place like smash bros gives these characters such a special lasting prescence in nintendo history

but then sakurai realized "wow, adding third parties makes me more money" and threw 90% of the series' uniqueness and passion out the window

like almost every new character in recent time is just... The Main Face Of Their Series. and its kinda boring tbh. we just have a boatload of one character series now with a character thats kinda just, whatever

like idk anything about street fighter, tekken, and fatal fury. but ive looked at these games rosters and they have SO MANY NEAT CHARACTERS! street fighters got chun li and juri and an ohohohoh rich lady, tekken has some sorta robot android girl, fatal fury has tons of cool characters

and then we just get...

regular dude mcgee

those sure are uh. those sure are characters i guess. honestly the first time i saw terry in smash i thought he was an alt costume of ken. these sure are regular dudes with regular designs i guess. of all the character designs in video games, these sure are some of them

like how am i supposed to care about sora when aqua is right there. how am i supposed to be invested in cloud when vivi and freya are there.

imo the most interesting characters on the fighters pass are joker, min min, and pyra/mythra (i adore byleth so much 3h is a masterpiece but i do think they shouldve gone with edelgard overall, even if im a golden deer fan forever, byleth is one of the best parts of ultimate to me 100%)

joker is great because instead of just being jack frost the mascot of SMT, or instead of using every persona ever, hes just... joker from persona 5 with arsene. hes not the representative of an entire series, hes just the main character of persona 5 and i LOVE THAT

min min is amazing because she won the arms popularity tournament at the end of the games support cycle. rather than just using spring man, they went with the characters fans loved the most

pyra and mythra are so much more interesting than rex and really represent xenoblade 2 so perfectly and were the best possible choice by far

like they just have so much more Flavor and Passion than just. heres the kingdom hearts guy doing everything youd ever expect him to do i guess.

and i know itd be dumb to expect them to put in a third party side character over the main character, but i think it raises the overall issue that modern smash bros is "quantity over quality". the roster feels messy, the single player feels empty, the game releases without things like home run contest and spirit descriptions (and still hasnt added spirit descriptions even though the fans wrote their own at this point lol)

so honestly i think the ultimate solution is just to reboot the series and focus on fleshing out each series

put nintendo first above all else. flesh out all the nintendo series. give zelda reps that arent the triforce trio, give kirby some modern rep, freshen up fire emblem and pokemon (these two series should still have a lot of reps, but more variety beyond swords and gen 1), rework outdated movesets like luigi and ganondorfs, give pikmin alph as an echo and a pikmin 4 rep

this was the slogan of smash bros. this is what its supposed to be

THEN we can talk about third parties... but honestly like? fleshed out third parties. put sonic first, and then add shadow. then maybe go to mega man, and have protoman or bass as an echo. then the next series. take it one step at a time rather than give us half empty shells of these series

if all smash does anymore is focus on main face "hype" characters, its going to feel like playstation all stars battle royale in no time tbh. honestly it already kinda does and its awful. stop doing that sakurai

also prioritize story mode + more single player content + trophies/spirits with descriptions so that the game isnt doomed to die when its online service inevitably ends please

that is one of my biggest and dearest wishes for the switch 2. smash bros needs its whimsy and soul back

[c7thetumbler]

Quick Game Reviews: August 2024

Continuing on with August! A few days late because I was neck deep in the last game on here. It's very platformer heavy this month as well, but I was on a roll.

image from Steam page

Earth Defense Force 6 (Steam)

EDF! EDF!

EDF is a series that knows what it's about. Having played 4 and 5 on Steam as well, this is just more of that. The game boasts half as many more missions as 5 had, which is astonishing because 5 had 100 and that felt like way too many. I'm playing with friends and still haven't beaten it, but I hope to sometime soon.

The main difference I would say between this and 5 would be the plot. It's still the same tacky, B-movie plot with funny stilted dialogue and crazy scenarios, but they introduced a new element to it that lets it get even crazier but also makes me interested in what's going on past "How are we going to win". Gameplay wise, there's new weapons and enemies of course, and some of those new enemies require much more specific ways of dealing with them, but it still usually boils down to "Shoot them all really fast, and if they have a weak point shoot that." It's good, near-mindless fun and I appreciate that.

If you've played an EDF game before, this is more of the same and definitely best with a group of friends. If you haven't, keep that in mind and maybe wait for a sale.

Screenshot from my switch

New Pokémon Snap (Switch)

I didn't own Pokémon Snap on it's original release; I believe the first time I played it was on Wii VC, if not WiiU VC, so I had gotten far past 1st-gen hype that carried it a lot. It's a fun game, but it's pretty short and the lack of variety on each individual course wasn't doing it any favors. That's not to say I disliked it, but when this new one was announced I wasn't really in any hurry to try it out.

To it's credit, it's done a great job of adding features in a way that solves those issues with the original. You can level up each area as you get more points in it, which unlocks alternate routes and events in each one, and a number of them allow you to go at night which is a completely different experience as well. Your Pokedex also store 4 different rankings of pictures which have their own scoreboard, so you're encouraged to take pictures of the same Pokémon over and over again to get the best you can. I'll say this is a huge improvement, and worth the price of the game in terms of length at least, and that's without me going too far into the "post-game" content.

The game is a lot prettier than its current generation at the time, Gen 8, which is really funny given how poorly that game is run. It does a good job of showing you how expressive, interesting, and deep world that the Pokémon games have built but never have been able to explore upon fully due to the scope of those games and Gamefreak's... development practices. Pokémon's a franchise with a lot of incredibly unique gaming potential and side games like this do a great job of exploring that.

I did however find myself getting frustrated at some points. The Challenge system they have where NPC's give you tasks to try and get unique photos is very finnicky. I've often done pictures that I thought would fulfill their requirements, only for them to not even acknowledge it. I didn't complete a vast majority of them because of this; this kind of game benefits from not having to look things up online because the wonder and discovery is the point, but this could've used some work or an additional hint system for dumdums like me. Some of these challenges can also only be completed after unlocking levels and features and using them correctly, so it's especially frustrating to see the challenge pop up and attempt to do it several times only to discover that it's not possible until you hit level 3 and unlock the special glowy orb.

Overall though, this is Pokémon Snap but much larger and with a lot of great additions to the formula. If you enjoyed the gameplay of the original and want more, this will scratch that itch, but be prepared for some moments where you're confused on what to do next with little guidance.

Image from Steam page

Kitsune Tails (Steam)

I 100%'d this!

This is an adorable, very well done game. It's very much a love letter to SMB3 with some smaller SMW elements thrown in, and they're not only aware of that they've fully embraced it. I'd recommend it for anyone that just loved those classic Mario platformers, as it'll check all those boxes you know and love.

Kitsune Tails also features its own support for importing custom levels or even minigames based off of Lua and its own internal assets, complete with documentation and examples inside the local files for the game. That's something you don't see a lot, and even though I never made anything for it it was fun to mess around with. I will say that they will do themselves some favors if they find a way to make that work with Steam Workshop just inherently so players don't have to hunt around for files or join a discord with no anonymous accessibility (like forums used to do), but I won't count that against them because I have no idea how complicated that is. Update after I wrote this, Steam Workshop is now supported! That's the third time time they've updated the game with design changes and fixes that I was counting against it, which is very rad.

My only real complaints with it come in some more specific issues. A few levels could use some work design-wise; a few vertical levels really enjoy having enemies off-screen jump down to the next available platform to the player which is never fun, and there are some jumps and challenges that just don't feel right. Some enemies have clearly been designed to exploit difficult jumps and player behaviors. Monkeys that throw down diagonally at unforgiving intervals, and then drop down at an unavoidable rate. Ninja raccoons throw 3 projectiles very quickly as opposed to the traditional single projectile from piranha plants, ghosts perpetually chase you rather than being more manageable about directions your facing. It can lead to a lot of frustrating, repetitive fails that don't feel as fair as they could be, but ultimately with enough practice and patience nothing is insurmountable. Midway through my last run to get the hardest achievement they updated some of the problem jumps to be a bit easier which is appreciated, but these enemy issues don't feel addressable in the same way.

The story is adorable and lovely and genuine. Don't let "SMB3 but with fox girl lesbians," while true, color your perception of how the game presents itself or should play. This is a labor of love from a group of speedrunners, Mario fans, and the community that has kept that alive and evergreen.

Screenshot from my Switch

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (Switch)

I wanted to get a game I could chill with on the couch while listening to podcasts with a drink and my cat, so I picked this up again. I had played the original game on DS and remember liking it a lot, and I've played a number of Mystery Dungeon-esque games in various forms so I figured this would be a good fit. The amount of time between then and now of course (20ish years?) allowed me to forget most of the story beats and I'm not sure entirely of everything that changed, but I'll try and recollect as much as I can.

Visually the filter really works for it; the storybook aesthetic is a lot more interesting than just generic Pokémon cartoon looks, and they recreated everything in 3D very well. The inclusion of several Gen 4 Pokémon, something which at the time of the original release wasn't out yet, was fun to see again and made me nostalgic for when Gamefreak actually tried to do tie ins like that. In terms of changes, I wish they had kept in the Basic Attack that was in the base game, as without it PP management becomes a real chore. While it's cool to see some enemies Mega-evolve in the later dungeons as well, it's not really much of a feature because every Pokémon gets that stat bonus if the right conditions are met anyway.

So from my perspective, this is really just an HD port of the original game; if they added new Pokémon or dungeons to it then they're VERY late in the game and I never grinded enough to get to them. So now I have to jump back to my running bit with Switch remakes releasing at crazy prices. This is available for $59.99 digitally, full brand new Switch Game price, despite just being a rerelease of a GBA/DS game. That's criminal; something like this should release for $30 tops, and without any real new content to justify that price increase there's absolutely no reason it should be less. They really undercut my point here though because just after I picked this up, they released the GBA version of the game on NSO+, so like. Just play that. Or if you don't have NSO+, I'll fall back on my previous statement from last month that The value of these 20+ year old games is essentially free given that it's so easy to find them online, they've been iterated on so many times, and the original developers aren't getting a cent of that anyway. I'm not against remakes, but let's start being realistic about it: if pirating the original takes as much effort as buying it and gives you a near identical experience to the remake, then the remake wasn't needed.

Save your cash. If you want a great Pokémon Mystery Dungeon experience, Explorers of Sky for the DS is generally considered the best in series, and I'd like to see them actually make an effort to drastically improve on this side-series next time.

Image from Steam page

Penny's Big Breakaway (Steam)

I 100%'d this as well!

I was super-excited for this when it was first announced. It was developed by Christian Whitehead and the team behind Sonic Mania, which is hands-down the best 2D Sonic game even still, and they proved that they could figure out and distill the formula down to one the best it could be. So seeing them do a 3D platformer that looked like it would build off of 2D Sonic momentum mentality in a way that 3D Sonic never did was exciting.

I may have over-hyped it. That's not to say this is a bad game; far from it! I had a lot of fun with it and enjoyed a lot of the challenges it brought. It's movement is well crafted and a lot of thought clearly went into the different ways a player could move around the world. But the game is less "3D, momentum-Based Sonic" and more "Mario Odyssey with a Yo-yo instead of a cap." There are a few ways to quickly build or gain speed, but overall most of your movement is going to be rolling on your yo-yo until you get to precision platforming, and then you need to take it slower to do your normal jump, swing jump, double jump, forward dive, etc. to get where you need to go.

The game has a combo system that reminds me a lot of Pizza Tower's combo system mixed with a skateboarding game's points. You do combos by doing tricks (any movement that isn't just walking and a normal jump), and the game feels like you can carry a combo through the entire level if you play your moves very precisely. In my experience however, that's pretty close to impossible and it's a little unclear what specifically breaks your combo. Often times I'm left trying to ride my yo-yo back and forth to figure out how to land on ground without actually landing on ground, and it didn't feel great in those moments. When everything worked out though it felt really fun, and I could see how a mastery of the mechanics could really make everything feel good.

Aesthetically the game looks great. Very heavily stylized in a way that reminds me of Sonic 3D blast and well-selected palette's and themes to bring it all together. Character design is a little wacky, but it fits within it and it's a very well executed look overall; something a lot of indies struggle with so it's great to see that they were able to carry over that skillset from how well they handled Sonic Mania.

So in short, if Mario Odyssey-style movement in Mario 3D land type linear levels appeals to you, then this is a good pick-up! It will however take a little while to get used to the movement in order to properly understand how the game wants you to traverse it.

Image from Steam page

Haiku, the Robot (Steam)

I nearly 100%'d this game! There's an achievement for going through it without repairing yourself or getting chips that help with that (ie, only healing at checkpoints), and I ruined that pretty early. I might go back and do that someday though.

This game is the "prequel" to Rusty's Retirement, which I reviewed last post. It's more that Rusty's Retirement just uses the same characters and some of the aesthetics. But it caused me to be interested in it, and I had a good time with it! It's very much a Hollow-Knight inspired metroidvania, right down to the healing ability and "chips" working like badges. It doesn't hold your hand for exploring, but to the game's credit I never felt lost, which is a problem I had with Hollow Knight itself.

The aesthetic is post-apocalyptic, rusty metal underground entirely inhabited by robots under attack from a virus that causes them to attack each other. The color palette is very muted; You're going to see a lot of Oranges, greys, and browns to match the very rusty look. It works well for it and a few bosses make a point to throw in other accents, but I can see some people getting tired of it.

Gameplay wise it's pretty solid! Everything feels pretty good, some of the traversal abilities are fun to mess around with, there's a lot of build options without feeling like some are objectively better than the other. Honestly, it's just a really solid title. If you like Hollow Knight or tried it and were a bit put off by its difficulty, then this is a great pick-up or alternative.

Image from Steam page

Psychonauts 2 (Steam)

I also 100%'d this

I really, really liked Psychonauts when I first played it on steam over a decade ago. It had a few issues, but overall was a really fun and quirky 3D platformer at a time when those had fallen a bit out of favor. The story and visuals were wacky, it was funny, and had a lot of unique challenges. I did not back any Psychonauts 2 funding attempts though due to the things going around about double fine and Tim Schafer's inability to handle scope, so I was never expecting this to come out. When it did I bought it and it's been in my backlog ever since.

I do really want to like this game; the platforming is fun, the progression and exploration are like how I remember. But this game really seems like it doesn't want you to play it. It took half of my time with the game to start to feel like there's more gameplay than cutscenes. Over and Over again it'll remind you how incredibly linear it is as you get to a new obstacle, area, or just story beat and then just say "hey you need to stop right there and listen to the story." It feels like it inherently clashes with the collectathon genre it's a part of; you want time with yourself and the world to go and explore and find things, but you're not sure if you've fully explored an area before you're thrown out of it entirely and usually irreversibly for a long time.

The story itself is interesting. It too a while to get into due to its first half doing some poor setup of the previous game(s) that made me uninvested in the nuance it was trying to get me into. I shouldn't feel like I need to have played Rhombus of Ruin, the VR exclusive game that occurred between 1 and 2, to have an understanding of a lot of these characters, but I feel like I missed out on a lot having not played it. Eventually though it starts building it's own story with those building blocks, and that's when it gets really good.

After I unlocked the real hub world and done about 3-4 sub worlds related to it, it started to feel like what I remember. It'll still do cutscenes to contextualize the strange, psychedelic worlds and challenges you see, but then it will for the most part let you play in them without throwing you into a cutscene and then out of the level entirely again. As I approached the end the cutscenes interruption got a little more bare able as the story's various threads tied together into something that didn't feel like padding, but the rocky start is a big ask and I can see players who haven't even touched either of the original games not being able to get key elements.

Combat is still a little wonky. I find myself mostly sticking to ranged attacks and gimmick abilities that you need to counter with rather than using the melee abilities that much. The PSI abilities themselves really could've used an update in terms of how they're accessed; You can map them to any one of the 4 shoulder buttons, but you'll always want levitation and your hand abilities available because they're just incredibly useful in and out of combat. That leaves you constantly opening a poorly handled radial menu to swap between you fire, ranged attack, and more situational abilities they like to swap between frequently. Given the either contextual nature of the gimmick abilities vs the universal ones, it feels like they didn't need a swap menu at all and could've incorporated the movement ones more easily into a context-specific button. I'm only ever going to need to jump between thought bubbles when there are thought bubbles around, use clairvoyance when creatures are nearby, slow time when a platform nearby is moving too fast etc., and that would free up the remaining buttons for your way more present actions of jumping/rolling, grabbing things, and combat abilities. It would lower the amount of unaccounted for freedom in handling combat and traversing levels, granted, but the game doesn't feel like it has enough depth and isn't open enough for that to feel like a bad trade-off.

If you liked the original Psychonauts and don't mind your gameplay being interrupted, having to to go back to worlds way later to 100% them, and are interested more in story, this is for you. If you want a seamless 3D platforming collectathon experience, I'd stay clear.

Image from the Gamebanana page

Super Mario Eclipse (Super Mario Sunshine GC mod)

This one surprised me; I had heard of a number of great Sunshine hacks that expanded on the game a lot more, but this one combines elements of a lot of them into one to make basically the most definitive Super Mario Sunshine experience + features and worlds that really bring it together well.

For the basics, the game starts out introducing new movement options and changes from vanilla, which is great. The hover burst, basically a double jump that sacrifices the length of the hover for an added boost, and it makes the game play a lot better. The hover nozzle course shows off dive boosting so you can fly crazy distances, and the turbo nozzle no longer has a charge up and controls much easier. Yoshi has also been updated to hatch automatically without fruit, and in this state he can enter water without dying until he eats a fruit, in which case he changes back to normal behavior. It all adds to the controls Sunshine really struggles with, and while the base layer is still there they're vast improvements.

The game contains the entirety of the original Super Mario Sunshine, including the tedious blue coin hunt, but adds quite a few additional levels. The levels are now interconnected, with physical paths between them being separate mini-rooms that add a lot of character to the game and make the world feel cohesive. Delfino also has 4 new levels that tie directly into the game and link nicely as well, though you can clearly tell what is new content and what isn't just because of the way Level geometry works out. Still, it really brings the whole game together, and with additions such as not kicking you out when you get shines that don't require a reload and a pause-menu Shine/Blue coin counter you're not left struggling as much as the original Sunshine had you doing.

Once you beat Bowser, you unlock Daisy Cruiser and a bunch more levels that, while smaller than the Delfino levels, are still pretty fun in their own right. I would've liked it if they had kept with the tropical + interconnected themes with these levels personally, as I think the best one of these levels is Yoshi's Island which actually does, but still it's a great amount of new content. Daisy Cruiser and Peach Beach are brought in directly from double dash, so there's some scaling issues and problems with layout that could've used some work rather than a direct port, but again they're still pretty fun. There's 240 Shines in this game, with 420 Blue Coins, and even after that there's still a large chunk of game for the 100% completion bonus, so you'll be spending a LONG time with this if you really love sunshine.

If you've not revisited Sunshine in a long time or have the itch to pick it up again, this is definitely the best way to do it. Really rounds out what was otherwise a pretty incomplete feeling game into a cohesive world and fun experience.

[azems-familiar]

20 questions for fic writers

i was tagged by @voidcat-senket thank you!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

119!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

alright, this is excluding an approximately 470k-word series i orphaned years ago - 2,453,282

3. What fandoms do you write for?

it depends where the hyperfixation takes me, but it's usually going to be mostly star wars; era varies. right now, i'm actively posting for the Jedi: series games, but i also write for the kotor/swtor eras, and i did tcw fic back in the day. other fandoms i've written/posted for are doctor who, mdzs, and i poke at writing things for mass effect and dragon age from time to time, though i've never posted any of those. i've got a couple other fandoms i've dipped into for the purpose of fusions.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

oh boy. all of these are from like, 2019-2020 at LATEST, there's one on here that's from late 2017, but i wrote for a bigger fandom then and none of my good recent stuff will ever take over these spots because it's for smaller fandoms. alas. please do not take any of these as representative of my current fanon opinions XD

do you love me - this one is never leaving that spot. codywan arranged marriage fic from 2019 that is still very popular. i don't like a lot of the fanon tropes and things we used in that fic these days, but it's one of the longest finished fics i have and i can admit the plot was pretty well done. has 3394 kudos. (that's more than i remember.)

tell the world (i'm coming home) - the one where Vader defects during the events of Twilight of the Apprentice. mostly gen. has 2139 kudos

something inside this heart has died (you're in ruins) - codywan fic where Cody is in Kadavo. has the same issues as do you love me, but definitely has some of the best prose that i'd written at the time in it. has 1752 kudos

follow me (and i will bring you home) - i am not linking this one. a reylo fic i wrote back when tlj first dropped, very old and not among my better works whatsoever, but got popular at the time for being a big ship and posting shortly after a new movie. has 1497 kudos

i just wanna keep calling your name (until you come back home) - post-Order 66 codywan dreamsharing fic that i wrote for an exchange back in 2020. it has 1072 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i used to, and i try to get to them on my smaller fics/fandoms these days, but back when i was writing big tcw fics i got in the habit of not doing it because there were so many it was hard to keep up with, so it's a mixed bag of if i do or not these days. but i see all of them, and they all bring me joy. well, most of them. the ones that don't aren't worth mentioning

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

mmmmm that's a hard one. i tend to prefer angst with a happy ending, or at least a hopeful ending, but back in, idk, 2017? i wrote a rogue one fic based off the song whiskey lullaby that was.... pretty grim, lol.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

lord i have no idea. probably the series i mentioned above that was orphaned? it had a sickeningly sweet ending involving a wedding and a kid for the main pairing, and happy endings for basically every other ship involved.

8. Do you get hate on fic?

sometimes. not often, thankfully, and usually not on AO3 itself, but back in my ffn days i got some, i've gotten a few assholes about stuff before also, and people will sometimes come at me here, but yknow, whatever. i'm used to it by now and i mostly just laugh it off and either ignore it or you get a snarky response

9. Do you write smut?

.....rarely? sometimes? i used to have a hard no policy on it, but i was also raised evangelical with a biiiig taboo on that kind of shit, so i've been slowly working through that and trying to get outside my comfort zone on it for years. i've written a couple smutty things that aren't on AO3, one that is, and i'll be involved in writing smut outtakes for one of my currently-posting series, but i don't tend to enjoy straight up pwp so it'll usually have a character reason for it, or plot. usually.

10. Do you write crossovers?

i do not write crossovers. i do deeply enjoy writing fusions (taking the characters from one franchise and dumping them into the world/plot of the other, but they've always been there). i have a clone wars hunger games au that is still my little baby and a kotor/swtor hp au that is my OTHER baby because it has involved years of work to make the hp universe....functional and not shitty and whatnot.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge, though i've seen a few fics that made me squint suspiciously at them. it's definitely possible that something's been put on wattpad or something without me being made aware, but i don't actively look.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes! the very lovely @anayaghmeya has translated all of my mdzs fics into russian. none of my star wars fics have been, to my knowledge, but i do have an open permissions statement for that sort of thing, so one day it might happen

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

oh yeah, many times. my old tcw fics were cowritten with @thelavenderhimbo; i write a lot of tor era stuff with @ipreferfiction (hiiii beloved) and a little with @sith-shenanigans though none of those have been posted anywhere yet; i'm writing a spyscrapper fic with @dream-of-tanalorr right now, and senket and i are technically cowriting by virtue of posting an RP we're doing to AO3. i like cowriting; when the vibes are good, it works much better for me than doing stuff on my own. i've had it go very badly in the past, but for the most part it tends to work out well

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

i absolutely will not pick one. that being said, the only reason i found my way to fandom at all is Doctor/Rose from Doctor Who, so i feel like i owe them a shout-out for this, lol

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but probably won't?

oh, man, so many things. i really want to eventually finish all my tor-era novelization projects, but realistically those are such huge projects that with the ~mental illness~ it's gonna take a long-ass time if i ever do

16. What are your writing strengths?

these two questions are SUPER hard for me to answer because i deeply struggle with being objective about my own writing. i enjoy writing politics and political intrigue; i'm not so sure if i'm good at it, but i like it. i've been yelled at and informed i need to put "worldbuilding" and "getting deeply into characters' heads" in here as well, so i'm adding it. i like dialogue as well, i find it easier to write than other things, so that's going in here too.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

apparently. lol. ANYWAY i do tend to struggle with combat - sometimes i can really hit it well when it's a strong emotional beat, but writing action scenes that aren't really important for characterization is soooo hard for me i hate it. also, coming up with subplots.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics?

it.... depends. i used to overuse it, now i rarely do; generally speaking, if it's another language entirely that the POV character understands i'll shift it to italics or some other way of conveying that, if it's one or two words scattered in the meaning should be understandable via context and i'll provide translations at the end. i only rarely use non-English words if the character can't understand what's being said.

19. First fandom that you wrote for?

the first fandom i posted fic for was Doctor Who. back when i was a kid and didn't know what fandom was or what fanfic was, i wrote a few paragraphs of a story set in the Eragon universe, lol

20. Favorite fic you've written?

i've got a couple i want to put shout outs to in here. war has let this age begin (it's where we've gone and where they've been) is my dramatization of my Revan's Mandalorian Wars and i'm still really proud of it after 2 years; it was the first solo-written longfic i'd finished in quite a while, and i'm very attached to my Revan and everything i did with it. i really like this mdzs fic, he said, son, can you play me a memory that i wrote last year. and of course in terms of recent stuff: i HAVE to mention do you taste my pain in this bloodstained place for the amount of worldbuilding and plotting davi and i have done on it - it's the spyscrapper Bad Ending villain pov fic that breaks off from canon partway through Jedi: Survivor.

tags: @thelavenderhimbo @ipreferfiction @dream-of-tanalorr @darthsassacre @prowlingthunder and anyone else who wants to do this, feel free to use this as a tag! (io, i tagged you above for things, if you want to do it you Can but i know you don't usually do tag games so i'm not tagging you down here)

[werewolf-kat]

(Pokemon Presents spoilers)

Oh heck, didn't care for any of the other stuff but that final announcement was a total surprise. All the Unowns made me think something Johto-related was coming up. But it's Kalos and bringing back mega evos! (Which I actually do miss after they've been gone for ages now...)

The way the logo animation first showed "Z" alone actually brought back some of that old feeling of speculating Pokemon games and the "Crystal/Emerald/Platinum" entry for having trio versions again. (Though nowadays the novelty of that has died out for me)

I fondly remember people wishing for a Pokemon Z so we could see more love and lore for Zygarde. Gotta say, I am still a Zygarde fan myself.

But then the logo also showed an A afterward!

"ZA" being backwards "AZ" brings interesting story/lore possibilities to mind. I liked Legends Arceus way more than the main series Switch games so far. And with Kalos, X/Y did feel like weak games (to me) that had some lost story potential back in the 3DS days. I'd love to see what they do with that for a Legends game! Maybe stuff they couldn't fit into X/Y at the time?

Still nervous about release dates, though. I uh, heavily dislike TPCI's regulations and deadlines to force big Pokemon games every year or two (and primarily putting that on one dev company). Screw them. I want the franchise to have soul and love again. Legends Arceus really felt like that to me despite it feeling like it released too early too. Let the dev teams breathe, man.

(I have some criticisms toward how Gamefreak manages employees themselves too, though... )

Other than that, Idk if they're gonna attempt to jump onto some X/Y remake to pair with Legends ZA like they did to D/P... -sweats- For better or for worse, B/W would get skipped. With how the climate is right now for Pokemon, I lean on it being for the best. Gen 5 was peak for me. Even then, I don't think any of the original games should "deserve" a remake quite yet unless the development is handed to a different company and given a more reasonable deadline to not release one of the most unfinished games in Pokemon so far.

Felt so bad for a friend of mine who loves Gen 4 and Sinnoh a ton. Man, I'm sorry that happened to you guys in the Sinnoh apprecation/love camp. That was a disaster to witness. At least Legends Arceus was great? (We can pretend the DP remakes didn't happen and all we did need was PLA for a refreshing revisit to a Pokemon region...)

[mono-red-menace]

I also decided that, instead of including what spin-off games are in each generation, to only include the main series games, and just link to the generation definitions here for people who don't know what generation their favourite game/movie/anime/tcg expansion is from. (I'm sorry for the bulbapedia link, serebii doesn't have a nice table like this)

[turtlemagnum]

INTERESTS: writing, music, art in general, anime, games (both video and tabletop), animals, linguistics, mythology/theology, philosophical bullshit, making fun of philosophical bullshit, politics, guns (and other varieties of weapon), tech, vulgarity and misanthropy

writing: i'm a writer!! that's like, what i'm best at at the moment. my Main Project is a fantasy setting that i generally either refer to as Winds of Change (for the whole deal) or Arana (the main continent that i've developed so far). i'm currently developing a game to show it off and make other people as feral about it as i am, so i'm also learning how to make music and draw and such. but, at the moment the only skill i'd consider myself competent in is writing, so i primarily just call myself a writer!!

music: my taste is simultaneously deeply eclectic but also tends towards high amounts of specificity. i would say that my "main" genre is progressive rock and some of its derivatives, but i also love a lot of stuff like funk, soul, a small amount of metal, some IDM, whatever the hell death grips is, some early rap (mostly just NWA since that was what i grew up on), occasional jazz, like 2 indie bands, oldies, and on occasion normal people rock. artists i like include but are not limited to: yes, david bowie, king crimson, jimi hendrix, danny elfman, symphony x, dio, death grips, aphex twin, nwa, nat king cole, marty robbins, lemon demon, tally hall, jethro tull, midas, and masayoshi takanaka. i'm also told i have a nice singing voice, but i'm personally biased against such suppositions.

i like art, if you were to look through my likes (which are NOT VISIBLE ON THE TUMBR) it'd have a good amount of art. what that art is of, i'll leave to your imagination. i'm not great at drawing but i'm getting better!!

i like some varieties of anime and anime adjacent things. i'm not like, one of those anime fans though, y'know. in terms of series i like, i'd say i'm a fan of fist of the north star (i need to pick it up again), cowboy bebop (very controversial, i know(also need to pick it up again)), fullmetal alchemist (good series, one of the few i have finished), jojo (i haven't watched part 6 yet but i read the manga all the way into the end of part 7 just after part 4 had finished airing), early gen pokemon is something i come back to on occasion for mostly nostalgic reasons, i'm getting back into dragon ball (kill me), i liked gunsmith cats (the anime was only 3 episodes, you can watch it on youtube, i need to read the manga though), i somewhat recently read thru the entire original yu-gi-oh manga and was surprised at how good it was, and i read a lot of doujins!

i'm a gamer!!!!!!! i mostly love nintendo shit and PC games, and some series i'm into include zelda (arguably my first game series i was Way Into), fallout (mostly new vegas), elder scrolls (deeply love hate relationship), early pokemon, mario, the first deus ex game, portal, kotor, half life, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., a smattering of indie shit (primarily UTDR stuff), a bit of GTA, thief, pathologic, disco elysium, and MGS. i also like TTRPGs but being Extremely Alone, i'm basically screwed!!

i like animals of basically all varieties. definitely a dog person, though i also love cats.

linguistics is cool but i'm also Fucking Stupid so i haven't really gained much past a fairly surface level knowledge. doesn't stop me from trying!

mythology is cool! philosophy is cool too! to be clear i view the vast majority of it as bullshit and not to be taken seriously, but it's still interesting to think about at least!

like most human beings living in the modern age, i have a lot of very strong political views. however, i don't like to ascribe labels to myself since people generally hear the label and just fill in the blanks of what they already believe and go deaf to everything else you have to say. i feel like my stances should be fairly obvious if you listen to what i have to say, but here's my main deal in regards to this: i like freedom, not in the typical american way that's basically glorified grandstanding with deeply authoritarian tendencies, but in more of a way where i like the idea of people being able to live how they want without a threat of starving and such. i abhor bigotry, though it's very easy to say that i suppose. i try to be open minded and tend towards a live and let live attitude, y'know. i also oppose imperialism and authoritarianism, but i feel as though that should be considered the baseline

huge gun nerd. i've got Gun Autism, babey!!! don't worry, i'm not One Of Those gun people, i mostly just appreciate them from a technical level. i post a lot about guns, so if you don't like that you can either block the tag #turtlegunrant or just not follow!!!!!!!

tech, much like linguistics, is something i like quite a bit but aren't smart enough to Actually Understand. i'm also the variety of tech enthusiast who's a paranoid shithead, so i'm definitely more of a PC guy. i actually fucking hate touch screens, so i hate phones (which i know is rare for somebody born in this century). i love torrenting, piracy, and just generally downloading and archiving shit

[onceuponaswanqueen]

My 2023 Fanfiction Reading Stats

Happy New Year, everyone!

In this post, I'll be giving some stats over my fanfiction reading last year, and under the cut will be my 15 favorite fics I read last year (10 new ones and five rereads).

But first, some stats!

I read 17 890 498 words, that's 6 million words more than last year! I read 593 fics. 110 fandoms and 322 ships! That's double the amount of ships I read last year.

By number of fics, my most popular fandom was Harry Potter with a total of 89 fics. Second popular fandom was Gossip Girl, with 55 fics, and in third place we have Criminal Minds with 42 ships.

That means that Harry Potter is the only fandom from last year to break the top 3 again. Last year (2022) I read zero Gossip Girls fics, and only a couple Criminal Minds fics, so both those fandoms entered with a force.

When it comes to ships and word count, my three most popular ships were Dan/Blair (Gossip Girl) with 21 fics, and Emma/Regina (Once Upon a time) with 21 fics. Ironically enough, 21 was the highest number of fics read with a single paring last year (2022) as well though the pairings were faberry & swan queen. My third most read ship was Katniss/Peeta (The Hunger Games) with 16. Only one f/f ship in the top three, which i don't think has happened to me since middle school.

In terms of words, my most popular fandom was still Harry Potter (3 927 226 words), followed by the Hunger Games (1 274 229 words), and in third place General Hospital (1 006 643 words). And for pairings that is Emma/Regina (Once Upon a Time) at number one with 947 973 words, followed by Jason/Elizabeth (General Hospital) with 889 029 words, and in third place Ginny/Harry (Harry Potter) with 671 844 words.

I mostly read canon divergence (196 fics), then future!fic (not necessarily canon compliant) with 73 fics, and then post-canon fics with 66 fics.

I read 168 fics with f/f pairings, 161 ficswith f/m pairings (which damn, i haven't read this much het since i was in middle school), 166 gen fics, and 72 fics with a M/M pairing. I also read 20 fics with mulitiple pairingtype (ia both f/f and f/m), 1 fic which was nb/m, and 8 fics with a poly ship.

My avarage rating was 4 stars. My avarage number of words per fic were 30 204 words. I also had 55 fics that I had read last year, which is much lower than last year.

And now, my top fifteen fics I read last year, (in no particular order)

The Victors Project by oisin55

Before Katniss and Peeta, seventy-three children won the Hunger Games. Some were brutal. Some were clever. Some were lucky. A few were almost decent. These are their stories. This is the Victors Project. (Hunger Games, mostly gen)

THIS IS THE BEST FIC I HAVE EVER READ. Like it's so good, and yes it's long. Its 311k, but worth every second. It's no longer canon compatible due to Songbirds, but it's still worth the read. You will not regret it.

2. The Mad World Series by crimsonglass

Set in Summer 2003. One night in June, Ric kidnaps Carly and locks her in a panic room, drugging Elizabeth to cover his tracks. Before long, Port Charles is embroiled in scandal, corruption, and trauma that hits home for everyone. It will be a long time before anyone forgets Ric Lansing’s reign of terror or the evil simmering beneath the surface of the city. (General Hospital, Jason/Elizabeth centric, but with other ships as well)

This is a niche fandom and ship, but this was absolutely brilliant. All the parts are great, tho I really love All of Me and This Is Me, which revisits Elizabeth's rape and puts her center in her own story. Which the show just hasn't done in over a decade. And it's just so good. I've read almost all of crimsonglass's fanfic this year but this stands out to me as one I will proabably reread for years.

3. Truth and Measure by telanu

Andy doesn't leave Miranda in Paris, and learns that a single decision can change your life. But the main thing about decisions? You don't get to stop with one. (The Devil Wears Prada, Andy/Miranda)

This is a classic for a reason. I cannot believe I have never read this before. It left it breathless. It was so good, I just couldn't stop reading it. I finished in like two days and it's 271k long. It's just so addicting.

4. Roads Diverged by freelancerrh

The stick had two lines. Four alternate continuations from "Late." (Dawson's Creek, Pacey/Joey)

THIS IS BRILLIANT. It follows four different timelines from Late if Joey was pregnant, one where she keps the baby and raieses it with pacey, one were she has an abortion and tells pacey, one she raises the baby alone, and one where she has an abortion but never tell pacey. All four timeslines are excellent, and I love this kind of multiple timelines stories. Totally worth a read if you know the fandom and ship the pairing.

5. If You Never Bleed, You're Never Gonna Grow by mp143

For three years, she ignored the way she clung to updates about him from her brother, every little piece of his life he didn’t share with her in the course of a hookup. She disregarded the tightening in her chest and the fluttering in her stomach when they were together, noticing that he never stopped noticing her, anticipating her desires and giving them to her without her having to ask. And she refused to acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t only about sex — not for her, and maybe not for him either. And that’s, of course, how she ended up here: huddled over a cauldron in the bathroom of her tiny flat, trying to work up the courage to prick her finger and pinch a drop of blood into the potion.

Best Harry/Ginny fic I read last year, hands down. It was so suprising, deals with why and how Ginny got pregnant so young and in the middle of her career. It also steers away from canon but honestly, it works better that way. Also the romance in this is spot on.

6. To Hold off the Lightning by cinnamonfiglatte

There’s no burst of dust, the way Faith expects. Only blood at her hands and blood at the stranger’s lips and the chilling sound of a death rattle fighting its way from his lungs. Or: Faith kills Allan Finch. The Scoobies offer her the literal crumbs of support she needs in order to not give in to darkness. Yes, this is another “Faith stays (mostly) good” season 3 AU. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Faith/Buffy)

Works perfectly in canon and in character Fuffy fic, yes and thank you. The way the romance develops in this is so natural and organic, and it makes so much sense, and it never puts down on Buffy and Angel and it all just works. It's a slow burn and it so delicious i can't even. Read it!

7. There's a place I call my home by lizwas (Series)

au from 5x21 onward, but takes place years in the future. Jenny comes from London to spend a summer in the Hamptons, and reconnects with her old friend Nate. (Gossip Girl, Jenny/Nate)

I fell into a gossip girl hole this year, no doubt. and my favorite writer for this fandom is lizwas, but this series just stood out to me. i love jenny & nate and they are so underappricated and this series is so good, it treats nate with respect, it treats jenny with respect, it shows how people can grow and how people can grow together, and i just *chefs kiss*, the smut is pretty good too if that's your thing.

8. Who Knows, Who Cares by the_dream_team

Lily Evans liked girls. Well, she liked boys, too. Bisexual. That was the term she’d settled on." After 22 years spent in the closet, Lily is excited to finally start dating girls. In fact, she's quite determined to make up for a lifetime of relationships with mediocre men, and the messy-haired boy who works at the art museum isn't going to change her plans anytime soon. Definitely not. (Harry Potter, James/Lily)

This is a no!magic, coffeeshop au, AND ITS SO CUTE. It's the perfect winter rom com. It has Hallmark Christmas movies vibes but in a good way. It's just such a nice cozy read. And the James/Lily dynamic is spot on and I love it.

9. The Way The World Ends by KidA_666

“Age of Consent” by New Order blares out, loud enough for Jonathan to hear across the room.  He had been there when Steve chose it a few months ago during another war room: “‘Age of Consent’ is good, I guess.”  “It can’t be I guess, dingus!  It has to be enough to save you from a brutal interdimensional death!” Robin snapped.   Steve had rolled his eyes.  “What’s Vecna gonna want with me anyways, Rob?  I’ll do ‘Age of Consent.’”  Jonathan had known, that night, that it might be the wrong choice.  But he didn’t say anything because it had been years and he could be wrong and maybe some selfish, petty part of him didn’t want to give Steve the satisfaction of Jonathan still knowing. Something lifts Steve off of the couch. “It’s not working!” Robin screams.   And Jonathan knows why it isn’t working.  He remembers.  Whatever high school bullshit Steve has put him through doesn’t particularly matter in the face of watching him be destroyed and turned inside out.  So Jonathan, calmer than he feels, says, “It’s Hank Williams.  Do you have Hank Williams?”  (Stranger Things, Steve/Jonathan)

Why does this work so well? I have no clue but it does. It's childhood friends to enemies to lovers and it works so well in canon, like it fits right in and it's so great. I love this. It's not a pairing I usually read, but it took me by such suprise and totally worth giving it a chance.

10. The War is Not Over When The Soldiers Come Home by keepcalmsmile

DeFonda Hepburn had met many parents in her many years as a nanny, but she'd never met parents quite like the Potters. Strangely enough, they have more in common than she thought. (Harry Potter, gen with Harry/Ginny)

Outsider POV of Harry and Ginny as adults and parents. It's so good. It's canon compliant, and it's wonderful. I found a new love of outsider POV this year and this one is the best I read. I just.. wonderful.

Top Five rereads (In no particular order)

- by colormetheworld

No summary available but it's this after Jane's wife dies by Hoyt's hand, Jane transfer to Boston with her kids and moves in with Maura. This is a story about healing. (Rizzoli and Isles, Jane/Maura)

This is one of the most beautiful pieces of fiction I have ever read. This author is my favorite author in this fandom, and this work along with Keys, never fails to make me cry. It's wonderful.

2. I don't know how lovely you are by sungfsongsun

Emily-centric. Set after 1x09. Emily/Alison, implied Emily/Maya.

This fic is super short, 1345 words, but it stuck with me. It stuck with me so much I read it twice last year, and I have read it several times before this. It's just three short scenes with the other liars set after she came out, and an apparence by ali in the end. it's just so simple and so beautiful.

3. Bittersweet and Strange by speakpirate

Emily Fields doesn’t need either of them. But Rosewood is still Rosewood. Their students just might need them both. A story where Paige and Alison discover they have more important things in common than a mutual ex. (Pretty Little Liars, Alison/Paige)

This shouldn't work. I shouldn't love this as much as I do. Like I hate that trope of the bully falling for their victim, but it just works here. Maybe because they're adults, and they've grown, but this just fit so well. Such a treat.

4. Track changes by cairophoenix

Alex is an editor at a New York publishing house, and that means her life is going right. She has her apartment, and the gym, and Kara a subway stop away. So if her apartment’s always empty at the end of the day, that’s just how things are. She spends a lot of time at the office, anyway. She’s making it, and that’s something she can be satisfied with. And then a mysterious book arrives.

This is excellent. The slow burn is wonderful. Alex' journey is wonderful. A lovely little no powers AU with these two falling in love through copy editing. And it's so nice.

5. Game of Stacks by CommaSplice

When the Aegon Targaryen Memorial Library at Crownlands University loses its most recent library director in a tragic accident, President Robert Baratheon turns to his friend and colleague Eddard Stark to turn the library around. (Game of Thrones, Tywin/Olenna, Jaime/Brienne, Sansa/Margaery, Stannis/Asha/Davos/Cercei)

This fic is batshit in the best way. Like it's 100% Game of Thrones set in a university library. It takes turns and twist that you just never see coming. Also the ships are wonderful, the way they handle the Cersei/Jaime thing is so good, the suspense is good still on a third or forth reread. It's such a good story.

[antitheticallyargumentative]

📚💡💭 for the ask game!! i want to Know Everything

okay so:

📚- ngl, I went through a fic reading spree right after i finished the series, read some of the best works i've ever found, and have not been able to find them again, BUT... the most recent fic I've been following is wriggle up on dry land by altschmerzes which is FANTASTIC (i think you've also read this one but...) also held onto hope (like a noose, like a rope) by scarlettroses. there are def more, but those are my two most recent reads on ao3, of gen/platonic relationship centric variety which is what i'm going with since I think that's more your jam and more applicable to Everyone? <3

💡- currently, i have 4 fic-related WIPS, and one other non- fanfic project sort of going! all the fics are ted lasso related and in extremely varying stages of completeness.

💭- i would say i take inspiration from like, three main places: other writers, as in, if i read something i really like, fic or otherwise, i'll try writing something in a similar style. i have a hard time branching out and that's usually what encourages me to. second- psychology. i'm a psych student, and because of that, i tend to write a lot of introspective, character analysis type of stuff. third, other media/music. i take a lot of inspo for my dialogue style from buffy the vampire slayer, and then i usually have very curated music playlists for things i'm writing.

thanks so much for the ask! i'm not used to doing these lol so i get very excited

x

[thebadchoicemachine]

hwat the fuck is tf2 about all the art ur reblogging is making me emotionally invested /gen

Well Tf2 is a shooter game where a RED and BLU team of mercenaries blow each other up over gravel lands.

You can play as offense (Pyro, Soldier, and Scout) defense (Demoman, Engineer, and Heavy) or as Support (Sniper, Spy, and Medic).

However, you don’t actually need to play the game to be in the fandom since most of the lore comes from outside. I haven’t played in like 5 years.

To get to understand characters I’d recommend just watching their “Meet The” videos (each is around 1-4 minutes, and there’s also Cinematics which are like 10 minute short stories). Also, if you’re like me and enjoy just listening to character voice lines then here’s all of them. (Very good. The voice actors are amazing and the lines are so characteristic. Favorite part of the game tbh.)

The deep lore world/lore of TF2 is best summarized by this video and it’s part 2

And/Or if you wanna read the comics yourself then here’s where they are in the website (both silly and ones in the Main Series)

Disclaimer: the final comic is not done yet… and probably won’t ever be at this point.

—-

There’s a lot of things left up to interpretation, especially concerning the gameplay (like if there’s clones of Red and Blue teams or if respawning is canon or not) which is why I love it so much. Fun characters, malleable world. Lots of space for AUs.