#i just think its a lot of missed opportunities

[starwolfskin]

Time to share the Pokemon teams I made for Phel and Sett!

I based Phel's team a lot on his weapons, and for Sett I based it more on his colors, style and skins! More details on each below cause I love to explain things-

PHEL'S TEAM:

Severum (Shiny Absol): an easy choice, really. Absol fits his style imo, and the scythe theme + shiny color being red is perfect for Severum

Calibrum (Inteleon): sniper! It just had to be, coloring may not be perfect, but still fits the team's overall style.

Infernum (Chandelure): well, flamethrower. I picked it mostly for the colors and being fire-type, considered Ceruledge for it but its such a sharp pokemon it wouldnt fit the flamethrower theme much...

Crescendum (Shiny Bisharp): the blade shapes work to fit the chakram! I picked the shiny for the coloring as well, the blades are white anyway so it works!

Gravitum (Galarian Slowbro): my fave of the team, it has the poison type AND an arm cannon, plus it fits the weapon theme of slowing down the enemy! It was a match made in heaven, it was my friend's idea but it really is so good I had to adopt it.

Lunari (Umbreon): I missed the opportunity to make it shiny and name it after Phel's ult, as someone pointed out on twitter (rip), but I like it just being a little mascot for him.

----------------

SETT'S TEAM:

Firecracker (Typhlosion): badger pokemon, there's no wolverine so I'll make do with badgers. Fire type works for him, and the fire on its neck matches Sett's cape with all the fur!

Boss (Incineroar): I mostly think of Sett and relate him to dogs when not taking into account that he is a wolverine/badger, between cat and dog energy I think of him more of a dog, BUT! Incineroar is really good for him due to its style of being a fighter, a big show-off with a soft heart, it just had to be part of the team.

Heartsteel (Shiny Obstagoon): another badger!!!! When I saw the shiny colors matched Heartsteel Sett's hair and eyes I just had to include it on the team. A little rockstar buddy <3

Obsidian (Koraidon): wasn't gonna have legendaries on the teams but I just think it works. Koraidon is the only fighting type I managed to sneak into the team somehow, I wanted it to be his primary type but as it turns out I prefer the team matching in style than picking up random fighting-types to fill the gaps.... anyway, named and designed after Obsidian Dragon Sett!

Truffle & Southpaw (Shiny Lycanrocs): Spirit Blossom Sett has his little badgers, and here I translated it into 2 doggies! I think lycanrocs fit this duality idea well for having different forms, night and day, Akana and Kanmei... And the colors for the regular lycanrocs works too but to fit with the SB badgers I made them shiny!

I had abilities and movesets for all of them but I'm too lazy to detail them rn, just know I thought of them kfdnslgdk

[transmandrake]

Thing that baffles me about Palworld is now its been out a lil and people have explored it more... Apparenlty the whole slavery and animal abuse aspect which is *heavily advertised* as the quirky silly gimmick is... completely optional and often the worst way to play the game.

...

WHY WOULD YOU ADVERTISE IT LIKE THAT??? Oh yeah cuz people who dont like funny haha animal slavery are definitely going to buy the funny haha slavery game. And then its actually like 60% funny haha slavery.

(I'm basing this off the steam page primarily. Its like... Half the description and images. Because surprisingly I expect that to be an accurate representation of the game and if I'm going to like it or not.)

[oddly-casual]

Fiona and Cake spoilers seriously

(Something I noticed abt Betty and Simons relationship)

I love Betty and Simon’s relationship, I think their back story is so cute and romantic and all that lovely stuff don’t get me wrong.

But there’s this under tone of Betty constantly giving things up for Simon and we don’t really talk about it a lot???

Like, Betty let Simon have his moment with the artifact and the pubic, she also doesn’t go to her trip in favor of going on an expedition with Simon. Then when she goes to leave again she stays for Simon.

Even Fiona is like “you went with her on the bus?” And Simon just looks all confused like “what? No, why would I do that?” Like- hello???

Then after that she gave up her entire life and mind to get Simon back to the point where she literally says “I don’t know who I am without him anymore.” And that just sucks! Since the beginning Betty has been the one giving up the most, her mind, her own possible career, and it’s a story of love of course and it’s very sweet but it’s also a story of sacrifice.

Their love wasn’t a perfect solution, it was already sort of imbalanced when it started and I lowkey love how we see those cracks even before they’re together.

Again, I love their relationship and I think it’s sweet. I just think we should talk about Betty’s side more, especially when she tells a story of what most women do in relationships, sacrifice.

[glitchotic]

i think so hard about how emmet is autistic and sorry to everyone who doesnt wanna hear it but i as an autistic am about to talk about why i really like that a lot. something i find about him wanting to preform social interactions correctly and struggling to make friends who are deemed "normal" and think his mask is weird even though hes trying to be normal and following the rules everyone else does already cues off to me as being autistic. but the way he sticks to routine and what's familiar and how he finds not following what he knows freaks him out even in the second movie. the way he constantly was initially telling lucy how everything she was doing was against the rules. even doing things like still continuing to get his morning coffee in apocalypseburg, how hell listen to the same song on repeat and watch the same tv show no matter how many times it stays the same, even his ideas seemingly based only around a few select interests while the others seem to be able to adapt any build into their style. on top of that. the house he designs being based off something hes familiar with already, the yellow house with blue roof that he ran into with lucy. i feel in his mind, he sees that as a dream house for him and lucy because he remembers that from when they first met, he remembers thats when she called him the special.

[holland-vosijk-antari]

i was just reading kell's pov in acol where he goes down to see holland in the cells, how he feels hollands eyes scraping against his own, and back in adsom where its described as two stones sparking together. not only does that make me want to go insane, it also makes me wonder if holland feels that too or if its just kell? its not mentioned as far as i can remember in any of hollands pov and not even in their first meeting flashback. the absence of it from holland's pov is a bit of a shame really though it does suggest that its just kell and the effect holland has on him... its also mentioned briefly when lila gets her antari prosthetic eye (in the sense that kell feels glad that he can look her in the eyes without that friction) which makes me wonder, if lila had both eyes would there be that sparking sensation between her and kell? would it not as their black eyes are on the same side? why would that sensation be only due to the presence of the marked eye? it's clear that kell and lila DO have a connection but then again so would most people who went through what they did together (especially as kell is quite dramatic about what he cares about). it would just be a shame to have this connection between antari be a real thing and it not be developed past a couple of brief mentions one of which to enhance a ship. the antari could be endlessly more strange so it's a shame that, even when bonded with the rings, they are essentially just very powerful magic users and not something altogether else...

[asinglesock]

just realized my fatal flaw and the great struggle of possibly the rest of my life. while watching a cdrama.

[ovalt]

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[2demon2slayer]

“come morning” (wip)

in which it takes tanjirou a little bit longer to return nezuko to a human. in which nezuko can turn back in her sleep rather than while running to a battlefield. in which nezuko does not remember all the years she was a demon.

saafggdaf opening scene of a kind of angsty au fic. idk if i’m gonna finish it ever, so have what i’ve currently written!!!

.....

There is a sort of magic in the space between sleep and wake. Where dreams still linger behind fluttering eyelids, but the tangible begins to encroach on the senses. Everything is a little bit soft and fuzzy around the edges, and yet the world can feel particularly sharp in this rousing hour. Memories take their time to return and nothing seems quite as important as settling right back into sleep.

Nezuko wakes up gradually, drifting in and out of dreams as she does. In those fading moments of sleep, she sees unfamiliar faces, hears snatches of words or sentences, feels cold moonlight on her skin and a burning in her veins. When she wakes up, her body feels sluggish and heavy. It’s alright, though. It feels as though she has all the time in the world.

Well, at least until Shigeru or Hanako come and wake her up. At least Rokuta still sleeps in, and Tanjirou and Takeo are nice enough to leave her be on warm mornings—

Nezuko’s eyes snap open, a gasp tearing through her. She’d forgotten. Oh god, how could she have forgotten? The memories of that night are practically burned into the back of her eyelids. Thorny limbs tearing through their home, cutting into the flesh of Mother, of Takeo and Hanako and Shigeru. Piercing right through her back to skewer Rokuta.

Nezuko twists beneath something heavy and tries to reach for her shoulder and stomach. Surely there will still be hot blood and pain, or at least the remnants of it. But she finds nothing but the soft cotton of a yukata. And something about that, too, feels strange. Shouldn’t she be wearing something else? The thought is preposterous, but Nezuko finds herself almost certain that she was wearing a kimono before…

Before what? Before the attack? No, she was in a yukata then, too. Perhaps her dreams have left her confused.

Nezuko pushes herself upward, leaning hard on shivering arms that feel far too feeble. The covers of the futon she’d been under fall away, and Nezuko takes a moment to look around the room. And strangely, she finds that she has no idea where she is. The room is largely barren with a sliding door cracked open to let in sunlight, and what she can see outside is a fenced-in area that is not her house.

Frankly, it’s far too warm to be Mount Kumotori at all. The temperature reminds Nezuko more of summers in the village at the bottom of the mountain. Her shaking hands begin to pull the cover away when a hand curls around the edge of one of the shogi doors and pushes it further open. Nezuko gasps at what she’s met with, as a ghost steps into her line of sight.

Long black hair glinting red in the sunlight. Tied back, but with a few strands framing a healthy face. Dark eyes with a flash of scarlet in them, looking at her with such love. For the briefest second, she thinks she’s looking at her father, returned to life and health. But then Nezuko looks again, and the face she finds— while familiar— is not who she thought.

One eye too pale and red, a mark like flames curling over the forehead, a haori checkered black and green instead of black and orange. Nezuko blinks, bewildered by the strange man before her who is so familiar and yet so foreign. Before she can voice her confusion, the man steps into the room, a look of unabashed relief on his face.

“Nezuko, you’re awake!”

She jolts at the voice, because— like everything else about this man— it is so achingly familiar that Nezuko finds herself very nearly brought to tears. And even still, she can’t place it. Or at least, not until he kneels before her and takes one of her shaking hands into his own calloused ones. And it’s a feeling like déjà vu. Because she knows that these hands have held her own before.

The missing puzzle piece slots into place and Nezuko looks up at the man before her. He looks tired, profoundly so. And beyond that, he looks so happy, in a way Nezuko hasn’t quite seen in a long time. Because she has seen this man’s face before. Because despite the scars and the blind eye and the height and the- the everything, this man is simply and undeniably her brother.

This man is none other than Kamado Tanjirou.

“How are you feeling?” the man who must be Tanjirou asks, his eyes wide and worried. “Does anything hurt? Are you tired? Hungry?”

Nezuko doesn’t know what to say. She just sits there, gaping at her brother. What can she say? What words can encompass everything she’s feeling in this moment, looking at this… this stranger. This grown man wearing her brother’s face.

After a long moment of silence, Nezuko finally speaks and asks, “What happened?” Because it’s the only thing she can think to ask. What happened to her? To Tanjirou? To Mother and Takeo and Hanako and Shigeru and Rokuta? If she lived, then could they have too? Tanjirou doesn’t answer immediately, looking down at their joined hands with a pensive expression.

“… How much do you remember?” he asks with trepidation in his tone. Nezuko frowns and wracks her brain. She remembers dreaming, certainly, but those memories are fleeting and fading fast. Mostly, she remembers what happened before she fell unconscious.

“There- there was a strange man in western clothing. He came into our home and he- he…” She chokes up then, struggling to voice the words. “He killed them. Takeo and Rokuta and Mother and- and-”

“It’s okay, Nezuko,” Tanjirou says, but he suddenly looks so much more tired.

“I’m sorry,” she gasps out, clinging as tight as she can to Tanjirou’s rough hands, “I’m sorry that I couldn’t- that I was too weak to- to do anything!”

Tanjirou shifts forward and his warm arms wrap around her. And in his arms, Nezuko feels so small. And Tanjirou feels so huge. And in his embrace, Nezuko can feel the musculature to him that wasn’t there before she woke, the strength to him that’s frighteningly new.

As Nezuko leans into Tanjirou’s hug, she whispers into his ear, “How long have I been asleep?”

Tanjirou gives her a squeeze before pulling back to look her in the eyes. “It’s been six years since the death of our family,” he says, voice grave. “You’ve been… asleep for six years.”

Nezuko squeezes her eyes shut, as if it will do anything to hide her from the terrible knowledge that she’d already begun to suspect was true. How else could her brother— the boy who was barely a year apart from her in age— suddenly be so much older? A part of her wishes that she were still dreaming, that this was all just a nightmare.

If only.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[dentist-brainsurgeon]

The older I get, the less I like Halo 3, like gameplay, music and set piece wise it's GREAT and I absolutely love replaying it for those aspects, but the story, slight aesthetic changes and bad characterization is just..... Bleh. The only weird characterization I like is Chief and Arby being bros and that's honestly probably the best thing in the game that unfortunately hasn't been explored much(outside of the books, even then still should be explored more)

Oh and Marty O'Donnell should [REDACTED]

[didsomeonesayventus]

Okay, I trust you as a source for all things Fire Emblem - can you please tell me if Fire Emblem Engage is worth getting? It's a lot of money, and I've seen a real mixed reception for it. I've read reviews that call it uninspired and shallow, storywise, and that some characters are difficult to enjoy. Is it actually worth it, or am I better off just replaying Fates? I am TORN over here.

SO! Good news in brief: if you liked Fates I'm fairly certain that you've got a good chance of liking Engage. I honestly see Engage as Fates 2 with a much better focus on what it wants to be and do! In fact if I HAD to pick a previous entry for fair comparison/vibe similarities, I'd pick Fates, maybe Sacred Stones (though I've yet to finish that one).

Engage is right now my favorite entry of the series.

MORE DETAILED ANSWER UNDER THE CUT (I have only played thru once on normal + casual as of writing)

I still maintain it's a good game and worth it, but you HAVE to be open-hearted about it. It's going to be silly. It's going to be hammy and subtle as a sledgehammer. It will even say the most cringe ass shit with it's whole heart. It's just about the farthest from 3H you can get on the fire emblem scale to the point you could have it sitting next to Kingdom Hearts and I, personally, love that for it, but feel like comparing it to 3H's darker tones is the thing most negative reviewers fall prey to.

Is it simple? Yeah. Absolutely. Terribly predictable, even. Is it heartfelt? YES! ABSOLUTELY! Engage has no time for "wow that was cheesy" because it LOVES cheese and it wants you to know that LOVE IS THE MOST POWERFUL THING EVER. It knows it's running a trite and cliched story and it doesn't care about that so much as trying to hit its notes with just the right vibe- and I argue it does a majority of the time, but can concede some things are rather silly. It's full steam ahead with the power of love and friendship and it does that with about as much reverence as a Sat. A.M. cartoon. A good Sat. A.M. cartoon that you're still thinking of years down the line that was a formative childhood joy.

And it's not about romantic love, actually! Hardly at all! There's a lot more focus on familial and platonic love than romance!! There are explicit "I love you"s regarding family bonds and multiple sibling relationships that make it clear they would do everything for their family. The only romantic aspect is whoever you choose to have Alear S-Rank (the game calls it a ring rank for Reasons but its essentially an S-Rank), and everyone else's supports end at A. Even then there's room in a fair number of Alear's S-Ranks to get interpreted as Really Good Friends, as the focus is not on "I Love You" but moreso the fact Alear and the blorbo in question have a deep, deep bond (though there are S-Ranks that are romantic-tinted and some who will explicitly say they love Alear, and regardless of gender picked! wow! diversity win!). If you were looking for pairing up your sexy chess pieces and getting paired endings, though, there'll be a bit left to be desired.

Again if you like Fates, or Kingdom Hearts, or stories that are cheesy, simple, cliched, but heartfelt, you're going to like this one. The cast is wonderful, and the story has some surprisingly good emotional beats. Oh, and also some of the FUNNIEST supports I have seen. Ever.

Alear in particular has become my favorite lord of the series, just barely scooting ahead of Corrin by virtue of having a more solid characterization and arc that Fates didn't quite let Corrin have. Which, yes, you can rename Alear and give them their own birthday, but there is NO question that Alear is their own character; hats off to Laura Stahl and Brandon McInnis for bringing stellar performances that are essential to the character. Frankly hats off in general to the voice cast as a whole they really bring a charm to the game that cannot be ignored.

I will say that supports are pretty hard to grind out, though, requiring units to be adjacent, and the leveling curve leaves a lot of... wonkiness? It's VERY easy with the rate of receiving new units + leveling funk to have units fall behind, or your army to feel underleveled, if you're like me and mostly skip the side skirmishes (bad gamer, I know). I hear the skirmishes are also kind of wonky and scaled to Alear's level which. Can Be A Problem if you're trying to level or support grind weaker units. Though I will say that playing Normal + Casual playing straight through the main story, while it occasionally made me sweat, it did not make me have to completely redo a map (or, if it did, it was probably only once or twice and I've simply forgotten about the inconvenience). Just made unlocking supports irksome as units fell off and/or made it hard to keep some characters off the bench.

There's also an OBSCENE amount of freedom in what you can do with your units. Go crazy go stupid try not to die. Resource management can get tricky, there's not quite enough gold or bond points to do everything, but you can do a lot of stuff, especially if you find a favorite to focus in on. As for the Engage mechanic: very powerful, but not to the point of sapping all the challenge out of things, and fairly balanced. The Break mechanic introduced I think is a great addition to the weapon triangle mechanics and adds a nicer layer of consideration to unit placement + weapon diversity in your army than before.

Also, if you're worried Engage overly relies on it's intent as an anniversary celebration, don't! Engage still is doing its own thing, and moreso uses references to past entries as spice or flourishes of color. They add some fun easter eggs and flavoring to the story, but it doesn't rely on the emblems or any throwbacks to tell the story it's trying to tell. Are Firene and Brodia a 1:1 for Zofia and Rigel? Yeah! Probably on purpose! They literally got the guy who voices Duma in FEH to do King Morion! Do you need to know anything about Shadows of Valentia to appreciate that? Nope! Just nice to know. Corrin's ring is found in a Northern Fortress, to further help illuminate the cute nods involved.

If you're on the fence, totally get that, especially since dropping 60$ on a game in this economy- ~90$ if you wanna add DLC -is a lot of money to ask for. But I've thoroughly enjoyed what Engage has to offer, and currently am hopping along through playthrough #2 and trying to tell myself to S-Rank someone who isn't Alcryst (I will probably S-Rank Alcryst again). I'd suggest looking into the first few eps of a playthrough if you're still not quite sure, and, frankly, imo there's no shame in just purely enjoying it from a "watched a playthrough" perspective, if you have to.

and, if none of this has persuaded you, please direct your attention to Zelkov and this Honest-To-Alear real support exchange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1_lsOLB68g

[turochamp]

slay the princess was overhyped i think

[kurthorton-moving]

I dont think i have ever mentioned nick on this blog bc hes an oc that has. Nothing to do with kurt or in common w him but looking at him next to kurt actually is so interesting to me because they're both around the same age coming from abusive homes and trying to just do what they have to to survive and theres so many interesting parallels between them

[nuclearnyx]

literally my whole life is going to change in the next year

[in-a-slanted-outhouse]

.

[bmpmp3]

SUCH a shame that the 12 member versions coming out of all those nijigasaki songs don’t really rearrange the solos so mia lanzhu and shioriko can get their own lines. i like the way they sound ‘cause i love the choir-like sound of a 12 member group but like....let tha monster girls have a turn ;-;