#but i was hyped my the dlc trailer

[luciasatalina]

young malenia

[fairytalefabel]

[thedestinysunknown]

Mortal Kombat 1 - Lin Kuei Trailer:

"We just got another trailer for Mortal Kombat and OH MY GOD I AM SO DAMN HYPED. Smoke is my favorite character in Mortal Kombat 9, so seeing him looking absolutely gorgeous, I am so ready for this game. Rain being part of a main roster, instead of DLC, is awesome. We also see some more badass kameos, aka Scorpion, Cyrax, Sektor and Frost. I may not be digging the new direction, in terms of story, but at least I am digging the new designs and comebacks."

[abibeur]

So. I played Side Order (or rather I finished Side Order, aside from a few completion marks that doesn't offer any spoiler stuff!).

I've been seeing stuff on Tumblr, on Discord servers, on YouTube comments by people who were… Not entirely happy with it. Or rather disappointed. "They could have done more…", "This character was underused…", "I preferred the Octo Expansion…", "Let's re-write it for something better…". And let me tell you, I was (and still am) infuriated when reading these. Not because those comments and posts and messages were unfair, unjust and idiotic or anything (well maybe the re-writing thing was uncalled for), but because I actually loved that DLC. I think that's pretty normal to be angry with seeing a thing you love being shit on, even if I get what all of you meant. But I still wanted to share my own thoughts (because why not, I like saying what I think).

First and foremost, let me just say that I have a pretty different relation with Splatoon than most people. I was in since the release of the first game. I didn't play it due to a lack of Wii U, but I watched a lot of videos. And I liked it! I even had Splatoon OCs, I could be considered a fandom veteran at this point! But after some years, I put it at the back of my head as something I loved. When the Switch came out, I didn't have the money for it and no one would buy me one, so I continued to be a PC gamer. And when I saw the news of a Splatoon 2, I dismissed it like it was something silly, "what can you say more about Splatoon!?" I knew there was some new idols, some stuff about a DLC, Callie being kidnapped, but that's all. I dismissed all of this, and as a result I don't have much of an attachment for it. But in 2021, when I saw the news about a third game, I was ecstatic again. And in 2022, when I finally could afford it, I bought a Switch. Not just any Switch, the Splatoon themed one, and I pre-ordered the game. And when it came out, I spent less than a day to finish the story mode, and it was one of the best day of my life, I played Splatoon for 16 entire hours. Splatoon 3 is now my most played game on the Switch, more than 300 hours (that can seem not that much for some of you, but I'm a casual gamer, I don't play every day, so that's still a lot!). I even bought Splatoon 2 and the Octo Expansion after that. Splatoon 2 story mode was incredible, because that's the game I never got to play but more mastered. Octo Expansion was incredible, because it was… incredible. But I still liked Splatoon 3 story mode better. Is it because I've played it before? Because I hadn't the one year of unskippable Off the Hook news to make me like them before the DLC (to be fair I didn't know much of Deep Cut too!)? Because it clicked more on me? Honestly I don't care. It's not important, because it's still my preferences. But let met tell you, when the news of Splatoon 3 DLC dropped, I was roaring. Every crumbs of news and trailers widened my life expectancy. I was finally sharing the hype that you felt for Octo Expansion. And…

Two days ago, I played it. And I loved it. Why? Why did I love it where so many people seem disappointed? This will not be an analysis, I'm not good at those, just… Here's how I see things. Also there will be huge spoilers so if you haven't censored the tags for whatever reason, I will hide it beneath a read more because I'm nice.

First, the gameplay. When I heard it was going to be a roguelite, I was intrigued, because it seemed interesting. I was wondering how it was going to play out, more like The Binding of Isaac, or like Hades… Okay I only played those two. And it was like Hades. But I think the best thing to come out of this gameplay is… Well, the fact is every mission from all other story modes (including octo expansion) are pretty much the same in that they have an intended way to be beaten. Sure, for OE and S3 you have a choice of weapons, and there's probably unorthodox ways to finish them (including speedruns), but it's still organised around a specific way to deal with the levels. You go at one point and there you're done. And that's why I will never re-play the story modes I already finished. I know the ropes, so… Why? But here… The gameplay itself doesn't change much. It's an amalgamation of most Splatoon gameplay since now, Salmon Run, Ranked Match, Octo Expansion levels… But the way you APPROACH this gameplay is different and that's why every thing changes. Because you are now free to choose. You don't want a stage? Choose another one, the cost of a good chip and membux not being that punishing, you want a specific type of chip? Go for it! There is so much fun combos to do, I have fun at every run! They told us it was going to be replayable. And they haven't failed to give. Because when I want to replay a game, then I know it's good. Aside of multiplayer games and games made to be replayable (TBOI, Dishonored…), some of favourite games are Half-Life 2 (my favourite game in general), Hollow Knight and Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story. Once you've finished exploring it all, well there is nothing else. But I still want to experience it again. And again. I have tens and even hundreds of hours on each of them. So yeah. If a game makes me want to replay it, I like it! And also… The final fight. The "phase 2" of the final fight. It was probably the most satisfying gameplay in all of Splatoon. Every path you took? Every path you didn't take? It was there. And you could experience it all together and finally finish your first run, empowered by it, in-game and outside. This was so good. I really wish we will get updates like more stages, bosses or even chips, because wow.

Secondly, the atmosphere. This point will be much shorter, but holy shit this game was incredible to be immersed into. The cold and sanitised atmosphere of the Spire? Amazing. Obvious Portal and liminal spaces vibes, but hey. And the music… Really the music makes a lot of it. The final fight music is absolutely incredible, one more time, and the credits theme is probably my favourite credits theme of every Splatoon game and DLC (that VIOLIN, that heckin' VIOLIN). I wouldn't be able to say which one of Octo Expansion and Side Order's atmospheres was my favourite. I guess I'm less sensitive to childhood memories and such but hey. Both DLC's atmospheres were incredible good.

Finally… The sore point of everything I guess, the story. I guess we expected more. Even myself, I expected something darker, deeper, more mysterious and esoteric… Have I been disappointed. No. I understand that some people were, but I am not. And frankly, I feel like I don't have to be. Like what do we really wished for? More octoling lore? Marina's past uncovered? Mature themes and dark atmosphere? I am just describing Octo Expansion. We didn't need Octo Expansion 2.0. Every theme that I've seen wished for? Octo Expansion tackled them, greatly even. So did we really need to do the same thing again? I feel like Splatoon 3 was the great conclusion of the other games' story modes, where all marine life finally united against the common enemy: mammals, the past of Earth's life coming back for its great revival. And it was a spectacular conclusion. And Side Order was Octo Expansion's conclusion. But it wasn't that bombastic, it was more of a calm conclusion, an epilogue of some sort. Marina wasn't in great danger or anything (well she was but less than we expected), we didn't need to expand the damsel in distress role for confirming Marina and Pearl's relation (which was pretty much hinted on greatly without it lmao), we already knew that. We didn't need some dramatic story about Marina's departure's effect on the one she was close to, like some people predicted for Acht. I think some fan comics explored this way better and Nintendo telling their own version would have been disappointing either for it or for the fan comics' versions! We didn't need more insights on Eight, because once again Octo Expansion ALREADY did this. Eight seems happy with their new name and identity, so why should we uncover more? They already won a lot with Octo Expansion and their sacrifices would have been dull if there were reveals on "who they really are".

Nah. Side Order, how I see it, is a story about fixing the damage made in the Octo Expansion. It's a story about recovery. About finally confirming your place in the world and accepting that everything will not be like you think it will. Acht is not there to expose Marina's errors, Acht is there to show how this recovery can work. She symbolises every octoling Marina left when she quit the army and ESPECIALLY every octoling she swore to help. And she's also there because it would have been less interesting to see an octoling we've never seen before, especially since she is an octoling we knew got Kamabo Co.'d! Every palette is someone we already know, an anchor to the world of Splatoon, and for Eight, an anchor to their memories, as the locker was their palette. As they know more and more people, they know more and more where their place in the world is. And the end of your first run? The start of the final boss phase 2? Yeah the music is Pearl, Marina and Acht's. But it is Eight's pulse that got everything back together. Their heart beating made the world beating again. They found freedom, now they found their place in the world. They're finally complete. Like you complete your palette with every chips at once. Octo Expansion final fight was their last fight for freedom. But I think this was their last fight for identity.

But outside of that, I think Order/Smollusk is more than that. More and more we advance through completing the palettes, we learn that Smollusk is the result of Marina's wish for order in her life (and her fellow octolings') and especially the other octolings developers dreams. And I think that's really important, because after that, we learn that why Smollusk still fights us is because it's… alone. And Acht seemingly understands that. You know why this is? Why it doesn't understand Marina's intentions by "betraying" it? Because Marina, as opposed to the other developers and Acht, found someone. She found her partner for life, the love of her life you could say, she found someone else that could offer her something great. And I think the other developers didn't find that companionship, so they had other goals with the Memverse, and Acht, left behind by Marina, felt this loneliness too, taking refuge in music, so that's why she understood what Smollusk felt. I think Splatoon story is a lot about isolation, solitude and loneliness. The (Inkadian) octolings were chased from the surface, living in the underground, isolated and forced into military life. When they risked survival, they stole the great zapfish and we sent then back into the dark. So they retaliated by stealing it again and also kidnapping Callie, separating Marie from the person she holds dearest (while Callie thought she could offer them company and finally uniting back the two people). Octo Expansion was also about isolation from the surface, for everyone involved and Tartar… Well the mammal (and adjacent) survivors don't really have it well, huh? Judd was made immortal, a great lonely situation for one of the last mammals, even if the professor give him Lil Judd for that (isolating the latter from self expression, oops!), Tartar wanted finally someone who could understand the knowledge he was bearing, and in his final instants was longing to return to the professor and for Grizz… We saw what happened in the logs! But this is not where it ends. The first final Splatfest was literally choosing between the Squid Sister, separating one from the other. And when the Splatocalypse happened, we thought it would be the same, that both option were going to be negative. A endless world of anomy where nothing makes sense against a cold and dystopic dictatorship. But we saw Chaos rather meant a world of differences where anyone can be what they want to be and still be reunited with people. So now we see what Order meant: reuniting people by putting them on equal terms. And at the end, that's what you and Smollusk agreed on! He'd be a difficult final boss and you'd be a formidable opponent for him! Splatfests weren't meant to be divisive or anything, it's just a fun way to see what do people choose in their life. So to face loneliness and meet new and fun people, what will you choose? Chaos or Order?

I guess I understand if it wasn't the story you wanted to see. But I liked it either way, as I also struggle with loneliness and finding my place in the world. And as I also like roguelites!

[eatburgir]

Its been 4 days since SO and like heres my opinion:

- for not the best gamers/casual players the beginning will be a pain in the ass and become more fun with hacks later

- alternatively if you only do the easy levels on multiple runs because you suck it will get boring FAST, the issue of there being a set amount of levels is really noticeable if you only play easy levels

- did not remotely live up to the story/lore/atmosphere hype of the first trailer, i Understand the first trailer didn't even show any gameplay so as makes sense. but the art really gave such an edgy atmosphere and made people think of such more scary ideas that were not there, some art felt isolating to me, the theory of Splatoon 3 polution and nuclear waste???? Salmonid lore??? None of that was there.

- one of the most eery things are the audio files of some bosses, see here

- it's fun and sure not all splatoon story needs to have, much story or lore but it really was what I was looking forward to and what OE and ROtM did right to me. In ROtM the last extra entry felt like real pay off but the extra entries in SO? Didn't answer any of my burning questions, and if youre into Acht the way they misstranslated (I think it was atleast, maybe they just updated their lore) in the NA localization fucks up their character (also why are you pale)

-Agent 4 mention was so miniscule </3 had expectations for a bit more, maybe actual Feature

-pearlina is so canon and I nevr was a shipper of them it's just undeniable

Also I've got all the gear with prlz and all hacks I care for and the DLC has been out less than a week meanwhile I don't think I've ever even had 20 golden scales in all of SR. A few people are hoping chance of another story DLC and idk if I see that happening but I was also hoping for that at one point </3

Tl,dr: bit fun, wish it was more edgy with more lore

[waxsuyaaa]

omg side order was so good

my annoying rant about everything down below⬇️ also if you dont have the dlc dont press the keep reading button

OKAY so for starters it was actually kinda disappointing to see that most of the gameplay has been shown already in the trailer, i would’ve liked to have been surprised..

and there is no feeling of progressing forward like any other storymode since you go to the start every single time you lose and all your achievements disappear unless you get into the boss fight, and only if you win you get one singular key

and all the powerups that you’re used to having just gone. poof. disappear.

i would’ve liked to see npcs that you can actually talk to because somehow there is no button to talk to pearl? like maybe they should have made a feature when you’re right underneath pearl to press A and talk to her for a bit, even if its something simple like “yo! let’s get back on track!”

you can’t even talk to marina and all she asks is if you need something to be hacked, which makes her seem as she’s just there for that mechanic and nothing else— as someone who never played splatoon 2 and doesnt know her personality im not sure what the hype is about for her

we should have been able to go into the elevator and actually walk around and talk to the characters and like salmon run, when it says ‘time to go to work!’ for side order it would say ‘arrived at floor’ or smth like that.. i would give anything to be able to walk around and interact with everyone in the elevator, like if the characters pearl, marina and dedf1sh weren’t there it would function the same

why arent we able to talk to them like. dedf1sh is such a cool character where is the lore? they just stand in a corner and is just there…

it would be so amazing if you could slowly befriend dedf1sh and get exclusive gear/random stuff from the metro or smth from them as the friendship points rack up and they become more open to you

and all the bosses are easy to tell apart from the silhouette and you can easily guess how you’re going to fight them, i want that little moment of mystery as well as not knowing how hard it’s going to be

coloured fingertips dont even seem like a thing anymore, it was just for agent 8 and her blue palette things

it looks as if you have to fight many of the same boss to get the locker key and after it just becomes repetitive and there is no story whatsoever, the villain is a glitchy entity called ‘order’??? like if that same glitchy entity thing switched to agent 4 for like half a frame the entire fandom would go WHOAH WHAT WAS THAT and we’d be talking about it for ten thousand days

the only motive is that you have to save everyone from being grayscaled blablabla but you dont even have any evidence of the character even being there, the character palettes are just a cheap way to implement more weapons, like what do you mean we don’t get the actual characters standing around the outside of the spire.. i want to talk to paul and warabi and ikkan (cough cough i mean quinn and mashup???)

we cant even get these extra characters because 3d modelling is SUCH a LOT of EFFORT for such a huge company like nintendo we should feel so sorry for all the work that they had to do, they put in their best effort (sarcasm)

all the enemies/foes are just remodelled salmon run enemies like battering largo or whatever (they could remodel the enemies but not the bands?? what)

also wheres cypher? i thought the shrimpy character would be a main character that wanders around and sells you stuff but theyre not even in sight

so uhh you can say ‘skill issue’ or smth because OHHH I HAVENT FINISHED THE GAME YEAH THIS PERSON IS JUST COMPLAINING BECAUSE THEYRE BAD AT IT or whatever im just disappointed that it was kinda overhyped and i drew art for a character that didnt even exist (skeleton agent 4)

[i-favor-rui]

SCREAMING

(final DLC trailer ‘spoilers’)

OH MY GOD THEY DIDN’T BUTCHER HIM IM DROPPING MY 35 DUE GOOGLE SLIDES TOMORROW WHO NEEDS TO DO WORK RIGHT NOW

I’m so incredibly hyped up! I’ve got energy, literal energy buzzing through my body right now because this is so exciting. I’ll probably finish writing after playing part 2 of the DLC, because it’ll give me more in depth of Kieran’s past experiences and maybe clues as why he acted so shy before and now. His classmates would definitely notice his change in behavior, but this is the Pokémon world so no one would question it too much

Also in the trailer I noticed Carmine looked rather anxious, instead of being her usual bold self. In the ending scene where they have Terapagos in the video then the crystals in the trailer, she seems to be calling out to Kieran. But Kieran has an expression that says ‘I can’t go back’ because he knows what he did was wrong. He even said so before running off after we defeated him to get Ogrepon. But his strong rage he had towards the player overshadowed the guilt at the final cutscene.

I think maybe, just maybe he always felt like that inside. Ogrepon was just the tipping point because it was something he was really passionate about.

(I forgot everything because alas, 35 google slides for geography made me lose focus and maybe Proseka with the anniversary (EN) and collab they had (JP)

[tealmaskmybeloved]

My Unorganized Thoughts About Pokémon Scarlet and Violet DLC: Part 2 The Indigo Disk

PART 2 HERE WE GOOOOOO

The Story

It was fine. There were some moments I enjoyed (especially Kieran) but I just thought it was fine. I do have some complaints, though.

So.... is this tree ever going to be explained? Or at least will we find out why they hyped it so much in the trailers? You can't just hype something up and NOT expect us to be disappointed.

Oh well, I'll add it to the list of "Things that will not be explained"

Another thing. (Getting kinda serious here)

While, yes, I've seen some people who are glad that Kieran wasn't possessed by Pecharunt in the DLC, and who are glad that it was his own toxicity that made him the way he was without lifting him of the blame. I get that, and if you do like how the DLC went, more power to you! It's fine for you to enjoy how things went in canon, I'm not trying to be like "OH YOU CANT ENJOY IT BECAUSE I SAID SO". I'm not that kind of guy. I'm just a guy who likes ramble about stuff I like or dislike. I may not like how things were handled, and I may prefer a certain theory, but I'm open to hearing your opinions and discussions at any time. (My ask box is always open for a reason.)

I do not condone any kind of harassment to others who have differing opinions about the DLC and how Pecharunt was handled. It's fine for you to like how things were handled, it's fine for you to disagree with me. It's not fine to go after people who do like canon. Just respectfully disagree with them, and move on.

Anyways, moving on.

*inhales*

I was hoping that we'd get some toxic chain shenanigans.

(I won't go too in depth here because we still have the epilogue to get through)

I just feel like it makes more sense and is a nice parallel to the Loyal 3.

Okidogi wanted strength

Munkidori wanted wisdom

Fezandipiti wanted beauty

And Kieran wanted power

Kieran would have let his desires get the better of him, to the point where he'd be willing to do anything to get it, even if it involved a certain peach Pokémon.

That scene where Drayton calls Kieran "Ex-Champion", I thought that would've made Kieran bring out Dokutaro, and be like "Help me get revenge on the Player! I don't care how you do it!"

And BOOM, Kieran gets possessed and Dokutaro gets to have fun

(Granted, I'd have to work out how Terapagos fits in with all of this, but bear with me here)

Which reminds me

Terapagos

Terapagos was kinda underwhelming if I'm being honest. Like they hyped him up but shoehorn him in at the last minute.

(Kinda noticing a pattern here.)

Like we have this turtle that has all the types and stuff and is the Hidden Treasure oooooh

But then they just.... shove him in at the last minute.

Terapagos deserved better in my opinion

The Music

Bangers as always. If there's one thing that Pokémon does not disappoint, it's the music. (Kieran's Champion theme is my favorite although it keeps making me cry)

Summary

Plot: 6.5/10

Characters: 8/10

Music: 1000/10

Pokemon Lore: 3/10

Overall: 6/10

[snailvibes]

SPLATOON 3 DLC DIRECT SPOILERS AS WELL AS A FULL ANALYSIS OF MY THOUGHTS AND PREDICTION FOR THE STORY AHEAD/// READ WITH CAUTION AND SCROLL FAST IM NOT PUTTING THIS UNDER A CUT

OK SO AAAUGHRHFHHWHDH SPLATOON ORDER DLC ANALYSIS HERE WR GO MY THOUGHTS IM SO HYPED AND SHAKING AND HAVE A VERY BIG PREDICTION

First and foremost I wanna point out that the area the octoling was in looks a LOT like the square, all the buildings and the shape of the area. But unlike the square there’s a very weird building? The door kinda looks like the door in that one picture shown but I doubt it’s the same thing. The picture of pearl looks like it could be for an opening cutscene, which if so means the whole square being white might not be just for show/some weird dream sequence. I think this is actually what the square looks like right now.

The MOST important thing I want to point out is this weird stuff we’ve been seeing everywhere. The white coral the weird plants and ooze and vines and tentacles. It’s all kinda fungal like, and it seems that wherever we are square or not it’s SPREADING, like a LOT. And whatever it is seems very alive if so.

It’s all also coral looking but still very fungus like with the way it looks like it’s spreading, almost like some kinda of parasite. Going with the coral theme the brain shown is reminiscent of both an actual brain and brain coral. There’s no way a brain would’ve been shown among all this if it wasn’t an ACTUAL brain for this weird new parasite like thing literally taking over everywhere.

I’m very convinced the main story will center around clearing this, kinda like the fuzzy ooze. Both like a parasite they spread, pulse like they’re alive, and possibly both take control of things. Unlike the fuzzy ooze though this fungal stuff spreads FAST if it’s already taken over the square entirely, and we also don’t know who’s made it.

Speaking of paralleling the splat3 storymode, we also have this as a glimpse into the past, only unlike alterna, far FAR into the past. My friend @solsticesailor (you can follow them here, Instagram, and Twitter so pls do) who, who used to study dinosaurs a lot and was there for my live stream reaction, pointed out it seems like the bone structure of an aquatic dinosaur. If true that fits with splatoon, but makes me curious why it of all things was shown. Judd was shown in the first hero mode trailer because he was a mammal, which correlated with the story. Maybe dinosaurs tie in somehow?

Along with paralleling past storymodes this one seems very octo expansion like. A lot of the images do tbh. Wires, abandoned buildings with floating structures (Octarian tech), it’s all very Tartar ish.

I’ve seen some people already jump the gun and say something bad happened to marina but this could easily be maybe a cutscene where she’s just pointing out danger I heavily doubt anything actually bad happened to her tbh, though the glitch in the image has me concerned it’s shown in other pause screens too. Also along with that octoling we keep seeing, there’s someone else standing there.

It’s possible that “someone else” is one of the many other octolings we keep seeing, but that leads me to my next point

I think we’re gonna have two protagonists. This octolings photo was pretty much as clearly shown as Pearl’s and Marina’s in terms of quality, making them suspect to being important. The other octoling also shown in clear pictures looks a LOT like eight, so I think we might be having two protagonists. Agent 8, and someone new who’s also an octoling. Maybe who we saw at the start isn’t eight, as they share more resemblance with the one on the left. Black tentacles instead of eight’s signature red.

with the little info we have so far my storymode predictions are that something is SPREADING. Maybe made by Tartar back in octo expansion, but it’s something alive and dangerous spreading, and it’s up to agent 8 and pearlina to stop it. It kinda seems like we break into a facility of some sort? Could be where it’s being created? They showed clips of the rocket area in the first storymode trailer, it’s not far fetched we’d be seeing the end game point of the lab it was all created at too.

ALSO AUDHEHFHWHD @acid-hues POINTED THIS ONE OUT BUT FOUR??( MAYBE??? DONT WANNA GET MY HOPES UP BUT COULD BE AUEHHHWHXHWH

[wolfmaw]

Elden Ring DLC trailer was hype as expected, big fan of the omen lion puppet thing. But the surprise hit for me today is ENDER LILIES SEQUEL??? MY NEAREST AND DEAREST IS GETTING A PART 2???

I'm sad we won't see Lily again (unless she's a surprise final boss, which I doubt), but I'm excited to explore the world again. It seems markedly less grim than the first game too, with actual people to talk to throughout the journey.

[first-and-last-neocount]

MIQUELLA DLC CONFIRMED LET'S GET THE HYPE TRAIN ROLLING

I'm gonna fucking explode that trailer was amazing. We've had pretty sparse canon information on Miquella up to this point, but given the sinister tone the trailer was leaning into I think he might end up being a new favorite. Also I'm sorry but that fucking lion creature that was breathing what looked an awful lot like deathblight? Godwyn. I'm calling it now, that's Godwyn, or at least some fragment/memory/echo of him that's trapped in Miquella's dream. I think we're about to see validation of a lot of those fan theories about the role that Miquella played in the Night of Black Knives.

I'm on my coffee break right now so I have to leave it at that, but don't worry, I'll be back at lunch to watch the trailer six more times and agonize over every detail. XD

[duhragonball]

The Future of Dragon Ball

I was going to play Mega Man X5 tonight, but it's acting kind of buggy and I'm not in a mood to try to troubleshoot my copy of Legacy Collection 2, so I'll write about Dragon Ball instead. Specifically, what happens next?

Let me make this clear up front: I don't actually know the answer to this. I'm not an "insider" claiming to have "leaked" information. All I want to do is discuss the possibilities, and the culture of speculation that seems to persist in the fandom.

I tend to call this "modern" era of the Dragon Ball franchise a "renaissance", because very little official material came out between 1998 and 2012, and then after Battle of Gods ushered in this new wave of Dragon Ball movies, TV episodes, web series, and comics. I've been covering this all year in the #2023dbapocryphaliveblog, in case you're new to this blog, and while much of it hasn't been very good, there were a lot of bright spots. Battle of Gods, Broly, and Super Hero were classics, the Tournament of Power basically saved and otherwise lackluster Dragon Ball Super anime, and the Granolah Saga in the DBS manga is a fun read with a great cliffhanger.

However, things have slowed down a lot this year. The Granolah Saga ended and the manga began a long, long adaptation of the Super Hero film. There was some hype about a new Tenkaichi Budokai video game, but there's been no word on when it'll come out what we can expect to see. I get the sense that the fans are champing at the bit for some big announcement, like a new movie or anime series, but it hasn't happened.

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but back in my day you just had to wait and see, and accept the possibility that you may never get what you were hoping for. The vibe I get from DBTwitter is that people think they can somehow manifest a new animation through sheer force of will. News will spread of some Toei panel and fans will cling to the hope that there must be some big Dragon Ball announcement, and it must be nothing less than a teaser trailer for Xenoverse 3, a DBZ remake, and release dates for the next five movies. Then the panel will come and go, and it just ends up being a fluff PR thing where a spokesperson says "Dragon Ball is very fun and Goku is cool." and that's it. And all the fans get upset until the next panel, where they put their clown makeup on all over again.

"No, this can't be happening. Dragon Ball 2uper is real..."

When I was still new to the fandom, I always wondered how Dragon Ball AF could be such a potent fantasy for so long. But now I've lived through the Dragon Ball Super era, and seen fans chasing similar dreams. People have been waiting for Xenoverse 3 for over six years. They've been expecting "Dragon Ball Super II" ever since Dragon Ball Super I ended five years ago. And I'd say it's a pipe dream, except fans held out hope for Tenkaichi 4 since 2010, and it looks like we're actually going to get that one? You never can tell with this franchise. My kneejerk reaction to Dragon Ball Magic is to dismiss it as fake, but I can't be completely sure.

The weird thing is that 2uper, Magic, and XV3 have been hyped up during a boom period for the franchise. Dragon Ball Super had a 131 episode run, followed by two feature films. It's still going, but people want 2uper to animate the Moro Saga. People want a new web anime, but there's already a web anime. Super Dragon Ball Heroes has been running since 2018 and it's still going. Xenoverse 2 is still releasing DLC packs. I recognize that some of this content isn't what everyone wanted, but it's weird how fans are demanding new projects before the old ones have run their course. At least when AF became a legend, there weren't any official works to compete for its attention.

It occurs to me that maybe this is just part of the fan culture, and every so often fans will collectively agree on some imaginary premise and Goncharov their own series. Maybe that's what AF was then, and what Magic is today. They're not hoaxes, but rather some sort of mutually-agreed-upon daydream. I'm not sure I get it, but it is what it is.

Anyway, my position has always been that Dragon Ball has ended before and can end again, so there's no reason to assume that there will be some new anime or movie or video game to look forward to. I watched Super Hero fully believing that this could be the last one, even though the box office numbers suggest that a sequel is probably inevitable. But nothing is guaranteed. Dragon Ball GT started strong in the ratings, only to get canceled about a year later.

And yet, there seems to be some kind of guarantee, because of this guy:

I think there are a lot of fans who believe that Dragon Ball Super has a lot of loose ends to tidy up, and the series can't end until Goku and Vegeta surpass Jiren, Beerus, Whis, and Orange Piccolo. And maybe this is true, but I'm not so sure. But Black Frieza isn't just a loose end. This seems like a pretty big honkin' deal, and it would be pretty weak if they wrapped things up without some kind of reckoning here. Frieza's the main villain of Dragon Ball Super now, and in his most recent appearance he revealed he can defeat Goku and Vegeta with frightening ease. And yet, he spared them. Why?

So that seems like the obvious direction going into 2024. This is why fans are so burned out on the manga this year, because they know a Black Frieza arc is coming, but they have to wait for Toyotaro to retell Super Hero before we can even find out when it's happening.

My guess is that Toei/Shueisha decides to tease this out even longer. We get to chapter 100 of the manga and it starts some bullshit arc about Goten and Trunks playing superhero park rangers on 17's island. Or... that dumb android from the Moro Saga comes back and they jerk around with that guy for 18 chapters. They'll get to Black Frieza eventually, but I suspect that they're holding off until they can set up a Black Frieza movie. Then the manga can just adapt that movie and everything gets paid off around the same time.

Either way, I'm a little skeptical about it just being Goku and Vegeta training to beat Black Frieza. I keep coming back to how he let them live at the end of the Granolah arc. Ostensibly, he just wanted to frighten them, and make it clear that he no longer sees them as a threat. But maybe there's more to it than that. Maybe Frieza needs them alive for some reason. Like he plans to use them to achieve some goal, or he needs their help to stop some even greater menace that we haven't seen yet.

Maybe that's what Frieza was talking about at the end of the Broly movie when he said he wanted "one other". I kind of thought he meant to use Broly as an ally against Goku and Vegeta, but maybe he's planning a campaign against some other guy, and he sees Broly as a potential resource. And maybe that's why he spared Goku and Vegeta on Planet Cereal. If he kills them, he might not be able to find Broly when the time comes. Or maybe he just needs all three Saiyans, so he has to pull his punches.

Or maybe I'm overthinking this, and it just turns out that Black Frieza ends with a manga arc where Goku turns "Ultra Instinct (Defined) (Remastered)" and wins a paint-by-numbers battle. Or Roshi beats Black Frieza, because that sounds like something Toyotaro would do.

So what would happen after Black Frieza? See, that's where I wonder about the future of the franchise, because so much work has gone into mining past arcs. The first DBS movie was about bringing back Broly, Bardock, and Gogeta. The second movie brought back the Red Ribbon Army, the androids, and Cell. Frieza will almost certainly get another turn, and then what? What's left?

I mean, let's break this down by the major antagonists we've had so far.

Pilaf Saga. The Pilaf gang are still living in Bulma's house, apparently, so that comic relief bit from Battle of Gods shows no signs of ending.

Red Ribbon Army. DBS Super Hero brought them back and opened some interesting doors for future Red Ribbon stories. It's hard to imagine the Army making another comeback since Cell Max destroyed their secret base and all their top leaders were killed. But the Red Pharmaceutical Company still exists and someone must have taken over after Magenta's death.

Tien Shinhan. Tien never left, and while I'd be down for a Tien-centric saga, it seems pretty unlikely after all these years. At best, he gets a prominent role in a story featuring some more important player.

King Piccolo/Piccolo Junior. Piccolo never left either, and now he's got his own movie in Super Hero.

Saiyans Saga. Vegeta never left, and DBS: Broly pretty much covered the idea of "here are some new Saiyans we didn't know about before."

Frieza Saga. Resurrection F, Tournament of Power, DBS: Broly, this upcoming Black Frieza thing, I think this has been covered.

Androids/Cell Saga. 17 and 18 never left, and the idea of more androids and a new Cell was already covered in Super Hero.

Majin Buu. It's been 27 years and no one seems to want to do anything with this guy. Maybe 2025 is the year when Akira Toriyama finally does some big Buu story to justify keeping him around this whole time.

Zamasu. I mean, the dude got erased, so it'd be pretty bullshit to bring him back. Then again, it was pretty bullshit of Toriyama to create this idea in the first place, so I can't rule it out. "Whoops, more Zamasu" might be the storyline that would force me to quit the Dragon Ball fandom for good.

Tournament of Power. I mean, they could do another Tournament of Power for funsies, but it probably wouldn't live up to the spectacle or the novelty of the original. More likely, I could see some adventures featuring prominent characters from the event, like Jiren, Hit, the U6 Saiyans, etc.

Moro. I did not enjoy the Moro arc much at all, so it kind of bums me out when people suggest that Toei should do an anime adaptation of it. To me, that would be just as big a waste of time as the DBS manga doing the Super Hero adaptation that's going on right now, but it would be even worse because Moro kind of sucks. In the same vein, doing stories that follow up on the Moro arc would be difficult because you'd have to refer back to the Moro arc, which only appeared in the manga, which not everyone read. So it's this difficult spot where you'd have to animate the Moro arc first, just to do a new arc about Merus and Jaco or whatever. It's probably not worth it.

Other Z Movies and GT: The success of DBS: Broly sort of opens the door for similar reboots of guys like Cooler, Turles, Janemba, Baby, etc. But honestly, this seems pretty far-fetched to me. Broly was a much, much bigger star than any of those other characters, so what worked for Broly isn't necessarily a road map for a guy like Bojack or Omega Shenron.

Looking over all of this, I kind of wonder what's left to do. Maybe something with Majin Buu, or the big shots from the Tournament of Power, and after that, I think they'll have used up all the viable nostalgia. After that, Dragon Ball will probably have to come up with something brand new, which is kind of a dicey proposition, because they've been hit-or-miss with that. Granolah and Tournament of Power were good, Moro and Zamasu were bad, so when I hear they're doing something all-new, I get kind of nervous.

But in the end, I don't know what will happen, which brings us back around to where I started. We'll just have to see what shakes out.

[shiny-jr]

ooh wait have you played three houses?? i saw you mentioned it in one of your recent posts and i got curious. can i ask what are your thoughts on it if you have played it?

also also, have you played pokemon scarlet/violet at all? i’d really love to hear your thoughts on it, especially with its latest dlc ^^ (super sorry i’m grouping two different games in this ask, i didn’t wanna send messages back to back, but feel free to only answer one if you want!)

Oh boy, more opportunities for me the spout nonsense and my odd opinions. I will gladly take it. Buckle up, anon and others reading, because I have a long history with both franchises.

I've been playing Fire Emblem since Fire Emblem: Awakening, then Fates, Heroes, and eventually Three Houses. My take: Awakening is still the best one, but maybe I'm biased. I remember playing it and marrying Chrom on accident, whoops.

Anyways, Three Houses was alright, better than Fates but not better than Awakening. I remember it came out, and I was actually upset because I was in another country on the US release date so I didn't get to play it until I got back. Even when I saw the trailers, I knew I was Golden Deers all the way. Odd, I know, most people prefer the other teams. Claude, Hilda, Marianne, Lysithea, my dears. OH, and before I go on, I just want to say, I hate the female MC. And no, it's not what you think, I only hate her because literally why does her outfit look like that compared to the male MC? Robin from Awakening was always the better protagonist anyways.

After completing the Golden Deers route, I decided I wanted to try and complete all the routes because at that point I disliked a huge majority of the characters. I tried Blue Lions next. At first I didn't really have much of an opinion on Dimitri, but he grew on me eventually, because how could I resist such a miserable brooding man that later gets a soft spot for one person (plus his design was kinda badass)? But I will admit, his behavior immediately post-timeskip was kinda annoying. I thought I would dislike Felix, but shockingly, I didn't, I actually liked him. And you know what? Dedue is CRIMINALLY underrated, he's literally probably the nicest and loyalest dude of all time. He got some hate for his race from some characters, and I actually got heated.

After Blue Lions, I knew I had to play through Black Eagles twice if I wanted the last two routes. However, here's the thing. In both previous routes, Golden Deer and Blue Lions, I had loathed Edelgard. But, I thought to myself, I just needed to try her route and maybe I'll change my mind... Well, I was wrong. Edelgard is probably one of the characters I HATE most in any franchise. And I tried so hard to like her, like I would give her gifts and answer dialogue truthfully, only for the relationship thing to go down. Like damn, okay. I just couldn't stand her. The others in her route were mostly fine, I liked Ferdinand, Bernadetta, Caspar, and Petra. But because of Edelgard, I couldn't even finish her route once and it's still uncompleted to this day.

Now... onto Pokemon.

Fun fact, I completed Pokemon Black and White when I was in first grade and couldn't read everything. Don't ask me how I did it, because I honestly have no clue. I've played every gen since then: Black and White 2, X and Y, Sun and Moon, Ultra Sun and Moon, Sword and Shield, Arceus, Scarlet and Violet. I did indeed preorder the game when it was announced, as I have done for the generations before. Where do you think my username comes from? In most pokemon games, I love collecting shiny pokemon. Shiny.

I was hyped for Scarlet and Violet since the first day it was announced. I lost my mind the day it was first announced and eagerly waited months for it. When it came out, I dropped everything for several days. As a regular fan, I always set this tradition for myself to defeat new pokemon games within or around 24 hours and of course, I did so.

The game itself has a lot of issues, namely the glitches and quality of the frames. But, it's on the switch, so that's to be expected. It felt really rushed in that aspect. I just feel like they could do so much better if they really wanted to, like on par with BOTW or TOTK (those games have bad frames too but at least they look a lot better). As for mechanics, I really missed the mechanics from Arceus, but at least Scarlet and Violet improved upon the poor excuse of the open area that was in Sword and Shield.

Story and characterwise, I'm torn.

Here's what I like: (1) the multiple split routes, (2) certain characters.

(1) It made it feel like you really had a lot to do, and that combined with the open area of the entire map made it seem like a lot. It is a lot. So it's really fun to explore and try to complete everything. Even just walking about, you're bound to get distracted, lost, or find something completely new. I was just playing it a while ago after completing everything and there were still little secrets I didn't notice the first time around.

(2) Arven, my god, do I love a guy with mommy AND daddy issues. And he has a dog? I'm hooked. I didn't expect to get attached to him, but I did. I actually prefer his route purely because of the story within it with his companion. I didn't see that coming, and I was so worked up over it. Another character I like, Director Clavell. A good supporting professor, you love to see it. Wish he showed up more though.

Here's what I dislike: (1) the villains, (2) the gym leaders, and (3) other characters, (4) the leveling system. (5) I'll talk about the dlc last.

(1) We haven't had a good villain team in a while. Black and White was super memorable with N, X and Y's Lysandre with Team Flare was a joke, Sun and Moon's Team Skull with Guzma was actually good because they were funny and non-threatening, Sword and Shield with Team Yell was actual trash, and this Team Star being bad guys but not really bad guys was actually so boring. Let's roll it back to Team Aqua literally planning to recreate a great flood or Team Magma planning to create havoc with volcanoes, Team Plasma that wanted to liberate Pokemon, or Team Galactic that were going to harness the power of time/space/universe and their leader is trapped/died in an empty dimension. They don't make Pokemon villains like they used to, huh?

(2) The gym leaders are very forgettable this time around. Like, they don't play much of a role aside battling, and after that you don't really see them again at all. It's a shame, because some of them have potential for greater use and have really good designs. Not to mention, they were all weak as hell.

(3) The Champion was a let down. Geeta (I had to look up her name). I was iffy when I first saw images of her, I didn't like her design but I just decided to go with the flow and I'll probably change my mind. I didn't. She's as forgettable of a champion as Alder and Diantha were. At least we saw Leon in the SwSh a lot and we got to hear from characters about how strong he was. Geeta wasn't like that at all, her team was a joke. Nemona as a rival was annoying, she got on my nerves from the first few moments we met her. I think Penny had potential, but I just didn't like her.

(4) The leveling system was really annoying. What happened was, I tried to complete the other two routes first and save the gym leaders for last. However, when I did this, because I didn't have any gym badges, new pokemon caught wouldn't listen even if my other pokemon were like 20 or more levels above them. So I had to pause the other route, just to do some of the gyms that way I could actually use new pokemon. I know they tried the system to prevent people from just cheating the system by automatically getting high-leveled pokemon from friends, but it just got in the way.

(5) DLC so far... not a fan. I mean, it's something. It's there. It's a thing. But it has nothing so far that makes me like it. The rivals are meh, and the region confuses the hell out of me. I don't get why do Scarlet and Violet region of Paldea based off Spain, but then have a DLC with an island that's so very obviously based off Japan. They could've picked anything around Spain but go back to Japan when 4/9 of the regions are already supposedly based off Japan? Idk, it was kind of a let down to be honest. I haven't completed the dlc, so I still have to do that. The new map is small, but I heard the next dlc is supposed to be huge so here's to hoping that one is better?

[rococospade]

I saw the Elden ring DLC trailer and I’m super hyped, and not coincidentally I’ll be dodging most social media til I can get to play it. I’m really excited but I know I can’t have it for months and I want to avoid any drama or weirdness that might burn me out before I get it. Hope anyone reading this is having a good start of the year! I have been busy with home stuff and am trying to get back into working on my fics and original stories.

[thexenoblade]

I CAN’T FUCKING BELIEVE THEY JUST DROPPED THE TRAILER AND RELEASE DATE FOR THIS DLC LAST NIGHT NO WARNINGS OR NOTHING, I LOVE THESE TWO OH MY GOD, also trans alvis is hype and funny :) 

[sapphire-weapon]

SW trailer literally opened with the words "another way". I'm hyped for a new Ada story. She's actually being given her own arc for the first time, but jesus h christ, all any of her "fans" talk about is Leon this, Leon that. He has absolutely no new scenes in the DLC for all we know!

You're right in saying Aeon stans don't actually value her character and it sucks because I can't find anywhere to be excited about this drop, without having the ship rubbed all over it, y'know... despite the new content completely changing their dynamic. Even her flirting is specifically written to show that Leon has moved on. Re4make is here to write out thier attraction, in turn motivating Ada to make different choices (cough, inevitably drop Leon as her sole cause and actually write a human being cough).

Anyway... SW is gonna be fucking amazing, I can already tell. I'm actually super excited to read all of the spoilers and breakdowns lmao. I am PARCHED to see her dynamic with Wesker and possibly see what's going on between those two. Don't even get me started on her being infected. It's all so askdkdjdkdn.

my fever is back so this might be delirious sounding but lol

aeon stans are so fucking braindead bro like

where the fuck are the new leon scenes going to come from WE'RE LITERALLY WITH HIM THE ENTIRE TIME IN THE MAIN CAMPAIGN, WE SEE EVERYTHING HE DOES, THERE'S LITERALLY NO POINT IN WHICH HE'S ALONE OFF CAMERA DOING SOMETHING ELSE

the sole exceptions to this are while ashley is unconscious on the bed and while he's in the cage but

we already know ada was not with him either of those times lmao

anyway just hang out here anon and when SW drops i will write fever-induced wesker/ada porn and all will be right in the world