#i think it also primed me to see the game world and story events as whole and separate from player interaction

[bitchfitch]

I joke about how much playing OFF as my first Proper video game permanently screwed up how I viewed the player & player character relationship, but sometimes i forget that right up until i habitually refer to the player as the puppeteer.

[thequibblah]

wip tag!

i'm here at last! but in my defence, i couldn't spoil a surprise chapter drop through this post, right? ty for the tag @oyprongs @mipwrites @possessingtheproperspirit @emeralddoeadeer @isahorcrux (oh dear)

List the titles your top five priorities for WIP updates (link your fics for new readers!)

An upcoming scene, event, or detail in each fic that you're looking forward to writing

Bonus: make a poll for your followers to vote on which top 5 WIP they are most excited to see an update on!

Then tag 10 writer friends! (so sorry i will not be doing this. so sorry)

we are about to use an incredibly flexible definition of "wip"...

TITLES

come together ch. 53 — sickening number by the way. too high. this fic is too long

save me a place — IF i'm even working on it, it might be a sequel to a certain author favourite

unbecoming: a love story — whatever. prequel spinoff whatever if im doing it

untitled modern AU — i think i had a title for this one but i forgot it maybe. it'll come back to me. anyway i'll keep lily's role in it top secret but it is musician james i fear he's a bassist i fear he's launching his solo career

THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO

susan dennard calls these magical cookies btw that is how i've always thought of them :~)

chiefly, what happened on friday january 13th 1978? but there are a lot of consequences of 52 that will hit the characters like bricks, which i'm overjoyed to write — some of which have been in the works for 2 years, some of which i made up last month!!!! which is nuts if you think about it!! if i had written 52 in 2022 as i meant to, at least two arcs as of now would literally not have happened!

the first line being "It ends with a flash of green light."

i am very excited to play around in the world of CT outside of the hogwarts setting (and with a mature rating...) — there are a lot of minor characters and events i've been sprinkling in there for this exact purpose

this lily feels a little bit more blunt/cynical than most of of my lilys have been because she's been burned before. she's really going to take no shit from james (even more than usual) and that friction will be really fun to explore. i love their childish spats but i'm also interested in writing adult versions of them who can really misunderstand and resent each other. in my head this fic is the other side of the coin to iwnma, which feels very warm and dreamy and sort of rose-coloured; this is the cold-weather 2 am rainy version of that, with the same pressures of fame and personality and art and ambition but in two characters primed to argue rather than merrily embark on an affair.

this poll is a bit cruel to options 2 through 4 i imagine but:

i'm too late to this party to tag people i think. catch you on the next tag game srry

[astorythatwritesitself]

Re-intro time? Re-intro time

About Me & This Blog:

• Paine. Queer, 30, any pronouns. I follow back from dr-paine; and you'll never guess what my AO3 username is.

• Writing for 20+ years in some capacity

• Genre of choice is Fantasy. (High, low, slice of life or ungodly horror, mixed with sci-fi or the most classic Medieval sword and sorcery bullshit, I just need a touch, even if only implied, of magic.) I don't delve much into NSFW but it may come up; in any case: please only follow if you're 18+, and treat this blog with the mindset of 'creator chose not to use archive warnings'.

• I crave interaction, especially via tag/ask games - seriously. I reblog a lot of them. Do Not Hesitate. (And I always try to send an ask if you reblog any from me!)

• Hobbyist writer - I'm not aiming to be published, but I do want to improve my skills and eventually like... 'win a NaNo' in the sense of writing a complete, longform story one of these days. But also having fun is a priority, and ADHD + work is a cruel mistress, so I'll jump between WIPs on a whim, or just. Drop shit for months on end lol.

Vague List of Active Projects

While I have a ton of ideas, these are the ones that actually have like... any sort of substance to them, whether it's actual words or just a solid outline + desire to work on it. Each will eventually get a dedicated links/resource post, but for now, here's the basics!

Relentless As The Tide

(Mass Effect fics (roughly) following canon events/characters)

Adrian Shepard has been primed for heroism her entire life. Her first chance ended in a tragedy, one neither she nor the Alliance has ever properly owned up to. Saren's betrayal and the beacon's vision offer her the chance to atone for her failure at Akuze, and she'll do everything in her power to do so - even (and especially) if it kills her in the process.

Or so she believes - but uncovering the truth means looking for allies, and the more she gathers, the harder it becomes to believe that her death should - or can - be the end; and that perhaps heroism is just a means of distraction from confronting her own demons.

Unnamed Pokemon Project

(Loose follow through/retelling of Pokemon: Soul Silver)

Giovanni Rossi, former leader of the Viridian City pokemon gym, has confessed to heading the infamous Rocket organization, whose poaching and illegal trade has devestated the Kanto ecosystem for the past twenty years. However, he claims it was all for a good cause - just prior to founding Rocket, Giovanni had been part of a team trying to create artificial pokemon... and their most viable subject escaped. Rocket existed for the sake of tracking down and eventually overpowering this creature, but now... well, he wishes those in the Kanto and Johto regions the best of luck.

Following a break in at the New Bark Town lab, an assistant to Professor Elm - a reclusive young man named Linden - tracks down the suspect, only to find it's none other than Silver Rossi, Giovanni's own son. The boy claims he wants to take down the creature his father helped create and clear his own name from the scandal... and Linden has reasons of his own that make him want to see how things play out, even if it means he must shadow Silver's journey by embarking on one of his own.

Unnamed OC Project

(Original fantasy work)

In a world of faded magic, Elora Ryba cares little for talk of soon-to-come saviors or the sightings of dragons. No, she has other things on her mind - return to the town she was forced to leave over ten years ago, and steal its most precious treasure. And, ideally, marry her, as Elora promised that night she was forced to flee.

Which is why Elora's spent the past month searching for a priest corrupt enough to join a pirate's crew, but not corrupt (or worse, moral) enough to turn her in, and she thinks she's finally found one.

And the big list of fandoms/shit I like!

[cts-games]

Game Rundown: Anima Prime

Not to be confused with Anima: Beyond Fantasy.

Anima: Prime is an indie game by Christian Griffen, released in 2011. It also has a free Creative Commons version.

Upfront, one of the things I really like about it is that it includes a section on player discomfort and how to deal with it, which is pretty considerable when this game predates the X-card by about 2 years, well before safety tools were considered the norm.

Overall Camlaign Structure

The game makes use of what it calls 'Seeds' which are short prompts designed to keep the gameplay focused. This is similar to "Story/Dungeon Starters" that have caught on in the PbtA scene, and are mostly a way to keep the campaign focused and interesting. Session Zero (not explicitly called that by the game, but clearly what it is) involves creating both a Setting Story Seed and a Group Story Seed.

The Setting Story Seed is essentially the major current event that is happening in the world, affecting everyone. Basically, "What has changed in the world recently?" The examples given are an invading force, water from the local river has started tasting metallic, or a massive skyscraper has appeared overnight in the middle of the city. The important thing is that this is something that doesn't ONLY affect the PCs.

The Group Story Seed is entirely player chosen, without the GM, and I'd basically a way for the PCs to say 'this is what we want out of the campaign'. It's the reason their group has come together, their motivation as a group. It helps ensure all the PCs have teamwork in mind to at least SOME degree, and are on the same page, as well as giving the GM a carrot to dangle in front of the players when needed.

Character Creation

After going through the usual parts of character creation, like name and core concept, the first mechanical step of character creation is selecting a Passion. There are 9 Passions, each of which has a different mechanical trigger that allows you to Charge your dice (see below), and your Passion can be changed once per session.

Players also create 3 Traits that describe their character, which can be marked off during character scenes where that trait came into play, and then unmarked in order to reroll dice in combat.

From there, players pick 3 Skills from a list of 20 (the list presented in the game is geared for the default setting, Ghostfield, but groups are encouraged to collaborate during session 0 to create their own, more flavorful list of skills to use). These three skills are given a value of 4, 3, and 2. While a higher number is better, having low skills is also quite valuable in the system, as they can combo with other players better.

Next, players select 9 powers they meet the prerequisites for, which is, quite frankly, far too large a number of powers to start with IMO. On my experience this is the part of character creation that overwhelms people the fastest. The game does its best to alleviate this by offering sets of 'Packages' that can be mixed and matched together. 9 'Basic' packages that cover 3 powers needed to be a vague archetype, and 12 'Specialized' packages that each have 6 thematically linked powers. Personally I think the game would have had a stronger presentation by leading with the packages, and introducing classless character building as an advanced option.

After that, players create Backgrounds and Links, which is a subsystem I find quite delightful. These are pretty standard fare, and are just a list of important things from your characters backstory. The only difference between the two, are who that piece of backstory is for. By declaring something a part of their background, it becomes something players can draw on for roleplay inspiration. Things like "Oh, my long-lost brother taught me this trick, before he vanished without a trace." These are just things to flesh out your character, but not concepts you want to fully explore. Links on the other hand are fun bits of backstory for the GM to make use of to make stakes personal for your character. If that long lost brother was a Link instead of a Background, the GM might dangle a clue about his wereabouts in front of you to keep you pushing forward.

Finally, there are Character Story Seeds. These are your characters personal goal, the thing they are trying to achieve outside of the Group Story Seed, that the GM can use to draw you forward through the campaign.

Core Gameplay

The actual gameplay of Anima: Prime is split into two types of scenes: Character Scenes, and Conflict.

Character Scenes are fairly straightforward, with the game mostly disengaged. Players roleplay out their interactions with each other and the world, and once the scene ends, players gain a single benefit from a list of options. This can be healing for yourself or a summon, refilling your Action Pool, or marking one of your traits to give you rerolls next combat.

Some powers can give additional options in character scenes, but for the most part that's as much as the game engages with out of combat scenes.

Conflict

'Tacticle Gameplay' is a bit of a buzzword in the TTRPG industry. In general, its usage is just to indicate 'This game handles combat by using minis on a map'. Anima: Prime does not handle combat by using minis on a map. I would have a very VERY hard time keeping a straight face while telling someone that conflicts in Anima: Prime are not tactical.

Enemies come in 3 flavors, Individuals, Squads, and Swarms. Some powers affect them differently (AoE abilities will typically get a bonus against Swarms, for example), but this distinction mostly matters for Manuevers.

Each player gets one action per turn, typically one of the following: a manuever, a strike, an achievement, or activating an action power.

Manuevers are how you build up resources. They allow you to roll dice in your Action Pool, turning them into Charge and Strike dice, but they don't deal lasting damage. Narratively they can be used to hit members of a Squad, or take our multiple members of a Swarm, but not enough to cause lasting damage to the whole unit.

Stikes are the main way you spend those resources. These are attacks that can leave lasting Wounds on enemies, spending the dice in your Strike pool to do so. These strikes can be further modified by spending dice from the Charge pool as well, activating additional effects based on the powers you have selected.

Achievements also use Strike dice. Each conflict will typically have multiple Goals to go alongside it, which can have lasting effects on the battle. These can be things like "Damage the mechs armor plating to lower its Defense" or "Remove the soldiers gas mask to remove their Immunity from Poison"

And activating powers is just that. You typically use Charge Dice to activate your powers, and they can have a variety effects based on how you build your character.

Manuevers

Manuevers are performed by rolling your skills. You start with a number of free dice equal to your Skill level, and then 1-3 dice from your Action Pool based on the effort your character is putting in.

Dice that come up 3, 4, or 5 are added to your Strike Pool, dice that come up 6 are added to your Charge Pool, and dice that come up 1 or 2 are lost. A trait that was marked during a character scene can be unmarked to reroll all the 1's and 2's for a chance to keep them. If ALL of your dice roll 1's and 2's, you keep them in your Action Pool, unspent.

Each time you make a Manuever, you also check off the skill being used for it. If all of your skills are checked, you gain 2 bonus dice, which are sent to your Charge or Strike pools, encouraging players to make use of all of their skills instead of just whichever has the highest value.

Players can also spend their action to do a Combined Manuever, allowing them to give 1 die to another players Manuever but still checking off a skill for it, which can be a quick way to mark off a characters lower rated skills.

Strikes

Strikes are preformed by spending dice from a characters Strike pool, up to a maximum of 6. Any dice with a result of 3 or over counts as a success, and if they player rolls more successes than their target has Defense, that target takes a wound. This is multiplicative, so if an opponent has 2 Defense and you roll 4 successes, that deals 2 wounds. If you fail, the strike dice are refunded back to you. Otherwise, they all get discarded after the attack. Players can strike together, but ONLY if they have a power that let's them do so.

Achievements

Achievements and Goals are, in my opinion, the aspects of this game that really make it shine, and the entire reason I'm making this post. Mechanically, they work like a mix of a Strike and a Manuever. Players target a Goal, and grab up to 6 Strike dice, and pick a skill and get a number of bonus dice equal to its rating. Other people spend an action and mark off their skills to assist, just like with a combined manuever.

Once you roll, everything 3 or over is a success, and you compare it to the goals difficulty. If you didn't get enough successes to beat the difficulty, you refund the dice. If you did beat the difficulty, the dice are spent and the goal is completed, triggering additional effects. These can be anything from buffing or debuffing allies or opponents, to inflicting status conditions the players don't normally don't have, to entirely alternate win conditions for the Conflict.

Both players and enemies can attempt Achievements. Some Goals may be considered Player Only, some may be Enemey Only, and some may be contested between the two. In this way, Goals can VASTLY expand the utility of Conflict to be much more than just combat. A Race could be resolved by having two parallel 'chains' of Goals, one for players and one for their opponents, each trying to get to the end before the other. A tense conversation with weapons drawn, but has not escalated into full blown combat can be resolved with players trying to hit Goals to keep the other side from attacking and/or sway them over. At any time, either side can escalate the situation to combat by simply spending their dice on a Strike instead of an Achievement.

In this way, Achievments/Goals feel so much better than any other system I have seen when it comes to this type of mechanic. I've seen many games ATTEMPT to do the 'social interactions work just like combat!' thing, but Anima: Prime is the first time I've seen a game succeed at it this well, or something akin to what the Skill Challenges in DnD4e were attempting.

All of this circles back around to Manuevers. In the vast majority of games out there, the most basic action your character can take is some form of attack, with most of the game branching off of and expanding the uses for that action or how it can be applied in different ways.

Anima: Prime does not follow that standard. In Anima: Prime, your most basic fundamental action is the Manuever. The 'I do some cool anime shit while building up resources to meaningfully impact the narrative' action. From there, it branches off in two separate directions, Attacks and Achievements.

By using Manuevers as it's basic mechanic to generate resources, and having Achievements and Strikes be things you can spend those resources on, the game accomplishes a significant amount with relatively little compared to other games, and gives a lot of tactical depth to your choices for relatively low complexity.

This is why, even without miniatures and a map, I struggle to call Anima: Prime anything other than one of the most tactical games I've ever run.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hiya! Love your analyses and writing! I’m watching playthroughs of twst since it’s not available in my country, but reading through your analysis of the manga… do you think people like me would find more enjoyment in waiting for the manga to come out? I think you’ve said before (or someone else), that there’s more content regarding the house wardens backstories (or more nuance and portrayal of Riddle’s past). I can see lots of flaws in game (from the play though), but the way you showed us how much character is portrayed through the manga… I don’t know, maybe twst is better served through a different medium than the game?

Hahahah, I’m actually trying to write my own yuusona into getting isekaid into twst and I already know trying to adapt chapter 2 is going to take a lot of effort because it is by far my least favorite of all the chapters, that’s why I’m asking.

Thank you so much for your insight and I hope that you have a wonderful day!

[Referencing this post, this post, and this post!]

Hello, hello ^^ Thank you for enjoying my works~

I think each medium that Twisted Wonderland comes in has its own unique strengths and differences. I know that I’ve talked about how the manga excels at visual storytelling and conveying character without the same amount of dialogue as the game, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that the manga would provide more enjoyment than the game (though is it slightly more accessible) or that the manga is “better” than the game.

It’s true that we’re able to go into a little more detail about Riddle’s past, but I’d say it’s namely in new visual elements (like actually being able to see kid!Riddle, Chenya, and Trey, as well as a general idea of what Mama Rosehearts looks like; these are just silouhettes in the game). The manga does not provide any significant new information that the game lacks; the dialogue itself is largely the same. The manga is predominantly a lot of new visual information. I’d like to also add that the manga has the benefit of coming out after the game, so people already know what to anticipate from it, and thus are already primed to like or dislike the manga based on how well they received the same plot in the game.

There is a lot of content that the game has that the manga will not cover, such as event stories, vignettes, and homescreen lines, all of which serve to enhance the world and give more lore on each character. That alone is worth keeping up with the game’s content too!

Another thing to make note of is that the manga releases one chapter every other month (not counting for unforeseen or planned hiatuses and breaks), and we’ve only just started on Savanaclaw. With each subsequent episode getting longer and longer, it’s going to take literal years and years to catch up to TWST’s main story in the manga adaptation.

The manga also has a weird quirk where the protagonist seems to change every episode; if you get too invested in a certain Yuu, know that they won’t ever get a full character arc/they won’t be sticking with you until the final episode (Diasomnia). It’s not very good for those wanting a more consistent protagonist to follow.

I would say the manga also isn’t for people who prefer a medium that is more interactive or allows for more self-projection; the game is better for this, as though Yuu’s involvement is minimal, it does allow for players to imagine themselves doing basically whatever in the world of TWST. Of course, the game itself isn’t perfect and has its flaws. It’s definitely not a style of game for everyone.

Ultimately, whether you consume the game only, the manga only, or both… that’s up to you. You know yourself and your tastes the best, not me. I hope that you find my advice helpful and that you can make your own informed decision with it! ^^

[mandalorianbrainweasel]

hello!! I’m reading ‘born to play this game’ and I’m really enjoying it! Love the use of language in the story, every location we visit, the details of the cooking/serving/social behaviour, and every new character we meet!

(Thank you for sending me that way after ‘beautiful without our war paint’!) I will review as soon as I’m done (chapter 19!!!), but I was wondering if you have a tag or more written stuff on Tar vs Ka’ra, or overall a worldbuilding primer? It’s all so interesting, I’d love to know more!

Also, and sorry if I missed this, but ‘born to play this game’ is the first in the series, right? Is it intentional that we figure out Spar’s backstory alongside the main events? I ask because i got the impression that there is an obvious affection between him and Jango but I was also wondering how did Jango get (emotionally) to the point of seeing Spar as a family member? And does he think the same of the rest of the clones? If you ever explored this anywhere else in writing let me know, I’d love to read it! And if it’s just a matter of reading the rest of the series, then I will surely do that!

And thank you ahead of time for writing and sharing such a great story!!!!

Hi! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the fic so far! “born to play this game” is the first one in the series and while I may eventually write a fic about Spar on Kamino in the ‘verse, btptg was as early as I wanted to start the series because in the end it’s a series about Spar’s journey grappling with agency, legacy, and identity. I’ve kind of stopped making unique posts about my AUs on tumblr unless requested, because of lack of interest, but the tag “ssitb verse” has some stuff including stories that don’t quite fit the actual verse so get a “ssitb au verse” tag iirc. But here are a few more details to answer some questions.

Kar versus Tra

Kar and Tra as a system are very much still evolving as I write this series. I have used it in other fics since coming up with it, though. I’m marking down to write a more detailed bit about the mystical world building I’ve used in starstuff in the blood but that’s…a lot more than just Kar and Tra.

Spar’s backstory and his relationship with Jango

The important parts of Spar’s backstory will be revealed as things go on, but how he and Jango got to the familiar relationship they have in btptg probably won’t ever be touched on directly. Grappling with Spar’s issues was a fundamentally intimate experience between them, one that sparked both mutual sibling affection and an absolute mess of other emotions. There’s also some things that will be revealed later in the series that kind of primed Jango to make this relationship as is. But. Basically, Spar knew too much to ever be Jango’s child. They started off way more like a master and young padawan, but Spar’s knowledge of the family and Jango’s history meant he automatically and unconsciously undermined a lot of Jango’s authority over him. He’s probably the only Alpha who can get away with absolute screaming rows with Jango. And Jango kind of saw Spar as his own do-over. Spar never had to worry about being Mand’alor, but had Jango’s experiences, and that also led to a lot of affection. Jango trying to straddle the line between parent and teacher ended up with him falling into more of an older brother (promoted to parent trope) role. When Spar left Kamino, they formalized that.

How Jango sees the rest of the clones

Hhhh okay I’m going to preface this by saying. Spar isn’t a perfect person/character by any stretch. And Jango is even worse. I love him but he’s an absolute dick. Part of his arc in the series is literally learning to care about anyone who isn’t Boba or Spar, including himself.

So. Jango is fond of the Alphas like many teachers are of their students. He doesn’t have nearly the patience with them he does with Spar (who already gets less than Boba, especially because annoying little brother), but he likes them. He absolutely has favorites but will not speak them. As for the other clones…some he likes, though doesn’t really have affection for. Others he doesn’t. And generally he doesn’t care at all about them. And he also doesn’t have much consideration for their agency. Everything he does for them in the series is pretty much because he either sees it as necessary for soldiers’ morale or because someone makes him do it. Or because it serves another purpose for him.

[poppubaburu]

Noelle Holiday Blog and the unusual Blue Circle Pet.

✅Posted originally on Instagram.

🚫Please ♥️, 💬clean comments/compliments, and only 🔁 REBLOG from the original artist (me). ‼️DO NOT repost/claim any of these art as your own, such as an RP avatar, your PFP, or sell as your own. ‼️ Do not edit, trace, or put in a video ad, etc.———————————

✅ On Twitter

I love the fact that prior to in-game story of DELTARUNE Chapter 2 on DELTARUNE website, Noelle must be the one and only Lightner individual who would open spam e-mails in the junk folder of her computer (and later on, laptop) and gave care and attention to them; also minding to avoid links that would send her to anything explicit, scammy, and shady. Honestly, it’s a reason for her game and devices she uses to crash very frequently.

(me: reminisces how my Toshiba laptop went haywire full of malware and it crashed in 2004…wondered if it was Spamton’s doing. RIP that laptop. I always used MS paint to draw zodiacs and made it my Desktop wallpapers when I was a lot younger. And I had really cool rainforest pics and videos I did when I was at Costa Rica. X3)

Grateful and pleased a Lightner like her checks the spam folder of e-mails, Spamton, right before his Big Shot prime time, sent a Pipis (blue circle…egg…?). He valued her so much. She was his first Lightner he actually respected and I had a feeling he still (kind of) did in-game storyline (applies to both routes of gameplay).

Why did Spamton care for a Lightner deer highly as much as Queen did is beyond me; but I will say the theme of Light with Dark helping alongside each other harmoniously stays. He’s like Noelle’s needed lost uncle while Queen is Noelle’s needed lost auntie in some sort of sense.

He does this multiple times, sending his pipis with an attached code for Noelle to interact and care for in Cat Petterz 2 game.

In a Q and A on Twitter, Spamton revealed and reminisced about Noelle. He even went further to not invade on the personal privacies of any of the Lightners’ e-mails and browser history. He respects the confidentiality and makes good business of it. He calls it [charity], but I personally think it was a step for Spamton specifically to find what could’ve possibly be his true and REAL friend, but from a world beyond his own.

—————

Source: https://deltarune.com/bluecircle/

My artwork is also on my Twitter. and Instagram (@Pobbligood) if you’d like what I create and would like to support.

May they find each other in future chapters…maybe…depending how YOU played DELTARUNE so far.

Reblogs, replies with clean comments, and funny tags are always welcome, I DO READ THOSE.

Artist's Note:

I cannot stress this enough. Please, PLEASE reblog from the original artist (me) and DO NOT claim any of these art as your own, such as an RP avatar, your PFP, video ad, etc. I put effort on these and if you really want one; such as these arts, you can ask nicely through DMs, or commission me when it's open. Or you can go to my Patreon (will post those later).

—————

Also, my Spamton plush came in so fast, he must be scampering on all 4s to my mailbox at 200+ mph. He arrived 4 days after its initial launch and advertisement on Fangamer during the Spamton Sweepstakes weekend event.

My very first encounter with him upon his arrival is HE WAS STUCK IN MY MAILBOX for a brief couple of minutes. His BIG head was in the way!

He has a magnetic nose. I tested the magnetic ball chain bracelet on him. He can walk his pipis with his nose and the magnetic chain now.

[natsubeatsrock]

Ranking Fairy Tail Death Fakeouts

I'm not posting frequently enough to make joke posts.

We've had quite many death fakeouts in this series. 

That statement alone is an indictment on Hiro Mashima, who has gone on record to say that he enjoys writing characters in situations where it seems they died but survived.

I figured I'd rank as many fakeouts as I remember from best to worst. 

I tried to limit myself to situations where it was clear that we should think the situation led to death. However, things got out of hand. (You'll see.) Bear in mind that some involve groups of people who we thought died.

While this is my ranking, I tried to stick to these criteria in ranking them.

Should they have died otherwise?

Does their return make sense?

Is the series better for their return?

We're starting with the best version of this trope. 

Fairy Sphere was the best death fakeout, and I'm not sure people would expect it to fit these criteria.

Everyone on the island thought they would die. They accepted their fate in Toy Story 3 style when the Black Dragon came and blasted Tenrou Island, leaving only a crater. 

That's good games, folks.

However, the return makes sense. Those members were at a sacred spot for their guild. While we know Mavis' body isn't on the island now, we've seen her powers at work earlier in the arc. Mavis using one of the guild's most powerful spells is reasonable. It activated because of their shared spirit, leading to the Grand Magic Games.

I've criticized Mashima's handling of training in series, especially in the Grand Magic Games. Their return was a genius idea. Time skips happen often in anime and manga, but few function as this did. The heroes have to play catch-up with the rest of the world. The execution wasn't the best, but this was one of Mashima's best ideas in the series.

Speaking of Mavis, I think her death fakeout was the best individual example. This might be because we didn't get enough reason to believe there was anything past her death. If you could make a phantom image of yourself, wouldn't you put yourself in your prime? We had no reason to believe she died at the age we saw her. 

I'm not the most supportive of Zervis, but I like this as a death situation. The good news is that she didn't die from the curse of contradiction. While it's a bit sketchy, I do like that there are attempts to keep her alive as soon as possible.

Her continued existence as Lumen Histoire (I prefer this name to Fairy Heart) was foreshadowed amazingly. It was a situation that affected all the major arcs from its mention to the end of the main series. Of course, after escaping Lumen Histoire, she continues to impact the series for the better. The Larcade/August situation is a mess, but I don't think it hurts Mavis' return.

Speaking of which, Lisanna's fakeout was also really good. (Shocking, I know.) Let me start by admitting that this one is hurt by her lack of importance in the series. She hasn't taken out any major villains or caused dramatic character changes (unless you read my stories). It doesn't matter since we never really were led to think she would become a super relevant character.

As for the other aspects, she passes with flying colors in my book. She should have died on the mission based on everything we know about the situation. No one in the guild operates under the assumption otherwise, and it is taken for granted for two in-series years.

However, we never see her die in the manga. We hear about the events and get flashes of what happened. However, Mashima never shows us that she died, even after the series was extended past Phantom Lord. While the anime shows more of what happened, the director admitted he never planned to treat Lisanna as dead. Edolas as an escape for Lisanna makes more sense than people give it credit for.

Next up is Irene, whose situation is interesting. I should be madder about how that was handled. There didn't seem to be a reason for her to kill herself, especially given the justification of actually loving Erza. While Acnologia brutalizing her body was too much, that felt like the nail in the coffin. If she wasn't dead before, she was dead then.

However, the return itself isn't nonsensical. Irene was impressed by Wendy's enchanting skills during their battle. No wonder she would want to tag along with her temporarily. I do prefer this justification for Irene. She still wants to find a body of her own to host. I'm glad she's selfish about it.

This aspect was one of my favorite things about the sequel. It was great to see how Wendy and Irene interacted with each other. Often, it would be Wendy accounting for Irene in situations or Irene intervening in places where Wendy needed help. I wasn't a big fan of the resolution, but I did appreciate that it tied into the Knightwalker situation.

The last of the good returns is Gajeel. His death was another situation that was treated as a given. He was being taken to 'hell' at the end of his fight. This was almost a tragic end to the best ship in the Big 4. We recognize their mutual feelings only to be ripped out of their hands just as soon.

The genius of this moment comes in the timing of events. It's hard to explain this, but the events of the arc all overlap in weird ways. This fight happens as Natsu and Lucy hope Brandish can negotiate peace with August and Irene's meeting with Acnologia. While the portal closes, Irene is casting Universe One. The spell changes the continent's shape-up, so it's not out of the realm of possibility this brings Gajeel back into commission.

Honestly, Gajeel doesn't do a whole lot past his return. He certainly puts work in, especially in the sequel. However, he's not impacting the series like several other characters mentioned before, along with others to come. Though, even at this point in the series, he's nowhere near the focus of the series. Not to mention, he's always been a secondary character, so no meaningful change there.

Other people wouldn't count this, but I'm putting Silver next. I say I'm not sure because this is a rare example of a fakeout of a death fakeout. Silver was killed by Deliora all those years ago. However, he was brought back to life thanks to Keyes, who used him as a puppet and experimental rat. This makes sense as a reason for him to return. 

However, the lead-up to this revelation is pretty messy. We're led to believe he's Deliora for some time, among other things. (We'll get to him soon enough.) His most meaningful impact is giving Gray Demon Slaying magic. His role involved setting plot points before their fight, like freezing Sun Village and capturing Natsu.

I'm not a fan of Jellal's return. This could be a higher ranking. The circumstances surrounding his supposed death are reasonable enough to think he died. We'd probably assume he was gone forever if it weren't for Mystogan showing up during Fantasia. Nirvana justifies his return. He's arguably made the most impact of anyone on this list.

So what gives?

Petty as it sounds, this version of Jellal bores me. Look at how Jellal acts before Nirvana and how he acts after it. Of course, this is because of what happened in the Tower of Heaven arc. However, I wish there was a way we could keep Jellal's snarky attitude while also being a heroic figure. Thank goodness Crimson Starbird wrote Kidnapping Erza. Speaking of which, his ranking is saved pending his joining Fairy Tail. It's a cliche ending to his arc, but a welcome cliche for a fan favorite. 

Moving down the rankings, God Serena is up next. This is another situation like Silver, where he died but was brought back to life. I don't like him or his return. I plan to talk about this later, but his death is made worse by the final battle of the main series. We're supposed to believe the power of eight dragons couldn't beat Acnologia. Yet the power of seven fire dragons can get the job done? No dice.

His importance in the sequel is to be noted. It certainly was a shock to see him come back. However, I don't think anyone was clamoring for this former member of the Spriggan Twelve to come back into the series. Brandish and DiMaria were more popular characters. I'd take my chances with the Dragneels coming back again. (You can tell this is a personal list.)

We have another fakeout in this list of death fakeouts because we have Igneel, Metallicana, Grandeeny, Skidarum, and Weisslogia. That's right, I'm putting all the dragons on this spot. This is another spot that feels like cheating because they did die all those years ago. All we saw was their last spurt of energy. That was enough to go toe to toe with Acnologia and destroy all the Face statues.

I want to like this one more. This was one of the best moments in the series. Still, I can't say that it makes sense for them to be back. I appreciate that this was hinted at, but the hints were cryptic. I'm glad the dragons destroyed the Dragon Seeds and Natsu's dreams. I can't put them any higher in good conscience.

I wish this next one was at the bottom, but I can't lie. I hate what happened to Ultear. I've talked about that much already. Last Ages might be the only thing I hate more than Nalu in Fairy Tail. That said, I can't act like it makes no sense to exist or that the results are shocking.

I can say that I'm annoyed by the future implications of this moment. I'd rather Ultear not be an active character in the series than see what's happened. Whenever I see Ultear do something, I can't tell if Mashima regrets his decision or is doubling down on it. This isn't anywhere frequent enough to piss me off more.

I'm going to throw Deliora next on this list. I'm not sure who counts for this list anymore. Let's start with the positives. His death was very well explained. The plot to revive him was interesting. 

However, this arc is among my least favorite in the series because of what happens when the ice melts. Outside of a version-dependent last roar, Deliora was always dead. While Moon Drip and Deliora's legacy matters moving forward, the real Deliora doesn't.

We're in the bottom three now. Fitting that the only man to be guild master three times is up next. Makarov's situation is a bit too weird. He only survived based on the technicality of Tenrou Island joining the continent when he went out. You probably didn't know that was a part of the deal. That's right. The only reason this can be justified isn't even common knowledge.

Honestly, there wasn't enough reason for Makarov to come back. The benefit to his return is that Erza can go on the Century Quest without worrying about being the guild master. I know that the Ghost Dragon Slayer was part of the guild, but that's not enough reason for him to not have passed leadership to the next generation.

This is another shocking addition to this list, but our second to last person is Kageyama. Technically, he was the first instance of this happening in Fairy Tail. During the Lullaby mission, he was about to free them from Erigor's trap, but he was stabbed before he could do anything. I could see this argued as not truly being a death fakeout. However, I'm counting it because it wouldn't make sense to interpret his absence as not being a death. Then again, we are talking about him here.

You could also argue that his situation isn't as bad as other characters we've mentioned. However, he earns this spot because, by coming back, he causes more problems for the Strongest Team. Let's get this out of the way. Natsu should have left him in the trap, regardless of his feelings. But by being brought along, he betrays the group's tenuous trust in him and endangered guild masters from all over the land. If he threatened them, I'd bump him higher on this list. He served as a glorified delivery boy. Erigor could have been in the same place as him, fought Natsu, and lost. Nothing serious would have been lost.

But he's not the worst. The undisputed worst death fakeout was only ever going to one person. You know her. You love her, but nowhere near as much as she loves Gray. That's right, Juvia's death fakeout is the worst. (I can hear the Gruvians coming for me from a mile away.)

I've also discussed this situation too much for any person's sanity to be intact. But let's review what we've gone through in this list. Some character's death (fake or otherwise) makes sense, but not the return. For others, the return is pretty sensible, but not the death. Many characters are saved by their relevance after the fact. Whatever the case, some aspect of their situation has reasonable logic. The best characters make sense on all accounts.

Juvia's in a league all her own. Juvia's death was under ridiculous circumstances that strained believability. Her return was arguably just as bad, if not worse. I've heard plenty of people talk smack about Lisanna's comeback. You can't tell me with a straight face that this is better. At least people didn't expect Lisanna to return at all, least of all the chapter after she was revealed to have died. That would be enough to earn this spot on its own.

What cements it for me is that Mashima decided to shoehorn her into nearly every arc of the sequel. I won't go so far as to say I wish Juvia was dead so the ship wouldn't happen. But is Juvia living to fuel one of Mashima's sloppiest ships ever to head towards being canon that good a tradeoff? By the way, this whole situation shaped Gruvia's current trajectory. Considering that happens to be one of the worst things about the sequel, I feel comfortable putting this return at the bottom of this list.

Let me know what you think. If I left anyone on this list, I'd be shocked to find out.

[kelvinpough]

What are some of your favorite yuri or no-romance otome/transmigration series?

Please Bully Me, Miss Villainess!

Yvonne really doesn’t understand. She’s already in the exile ending, so why is Elsa, the heroine, still getting involved with a villainess like herself?! The villainess who refuses to bully others and the heroine who wants to be bullied by her. This is the story of two girls with vastly differing personalities! (P.S. This novel depicts intense feelings between girls as well as their cozy daily life. Please watch your blood sugar levels.)

A sweet and wholesome Chinese webnovel with an adapted manhua.

I Seduced The Villainess

Waking up inside a game is a dream come true right? Unless the game you’re in was in the discount bin, or you wake up as a maid, or you don't even want to be there in the first place?! Unfortunately for Sybil she has fallen victim to all of the above, and if she hopes to survive she only has one hope. To Seduce the Villainess.

A fun GL webcomic. 

Memoirs of Your Local Small-time Villainess

An editor at the prime of her life—and with maybe just a little too much free time—finds herself waking up in one of her favorite RPGs with no clue as to what's going on or how to get back home.

This might be the part where others rejoice over getting whisked away to a world of wizards and magic, but she certainly doesn't think it's anything to celebrate about.

After all, she woke up in the body of a small-time villain with some severe personality issues.

A great webnovel about a woman transmigrated into a villainess’ body; no romance so far. 

The Saints and the Villainess

When Anne finds herself suddenly reborn as the Saintess, the main character of the novel she had been reading just before she died, she has no interest in fulfilling her original role as the heroine. Instead, she devotes herself to saving her favorite character, the villainous Lady Corvina, from her terrible fate. But she'll need Lady Corvina's help to do so. Can the two work together to change their lives, and their nation, for the better? Or will the pull of the "original novel" prove to be too strong?

A GL webnovel.

Not the Heroine, Not the Villainess, but a Side Character...or not?

Reiré Norman remembered her past life as an eighteen-year-old high school girl. Having these new memories she realized that she was reincarnated into the world of her most favorite light novel, Fight for Love and Acceptance. As a character that never appeared in the novel, she has given up on seeing the story events, that was until fate had something else in store for her. Now thrown into the story’s set environment, Roseward Academy, she had decided to interfere with the plot and save a certain someone from her impending doom. "Why?" you ask. Well, Reiré was a sucker for the tsundere villainess.

Tori Transmigrated

The last thing 40-year-old project manager Tori Felix remembered was scrolling through a wiki article about a dating sim game franchise while on the shinkansen.  Then she was hurled forward to the sound of metal creaking, the smell of smoke, and was knocked out.

When Tori woke, she was in a lavish four poster bed with a splitting headache and in the bruised teenage body of a Marquis' arrogant daughter from the popular dating sim "The Romance of Soleil".  

Problem #1:  There is a possibility she's dead in her world.  This meant she couldn't meet up with her friends.  Also, her tickets to Universal Studios were useless now.

Problem #2:  This body may be young, but weaker than her original.  And where were her boobs?

Lastly, Problem #3: She now inhabited the body of Victoria de Guevera; the villainess of "The Romance of Soleil" whose final ending, according to the wiki article, was a violent death at the hands of sex slavers.  

With just a few weeks before the heroine and the villainess collide, there is no time for an existential crisis.  Tori took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and whispered her personal mantra:

"Assess the situation, then make a plan of action.  You don't want to die like a b-tch."

A wholesome story about an aromantic woman transmigrated into the body of a villainess in a dating sim. 

Fated To Fall: A Transmigrator LitRPG Tale

She had welcomed Death with open arms, and was more than happy to spend her afterlife floating in the void. Until a Goddess decides she has better plans for her and offers her a choice any fantasy loving geek would die for. However after accepting the offer she learned the hard way that one should always read the fine print, especially when dealing with a God.

Now her new life has begun, only she's been dropped into the world of her favorite game. Except, instead of becoming a side character or even one of the heroes of the game she's inhabiting the body of the game's final boss, 8 years before she became the villainess. Now she has to navigate a hostile home where her own father sees her as nothing more than a pawn on a chessboard, and her stepmother wants her dead to free up succession for her son. She has to try to navigate the confusing relationship between herself and her stepbrother, who could be her greatest ally or her most dangerous foe. The original Liliana Rosengarde fell from grace and burned the queendom on her quest for revenge. Can she prevent that fate from happening and save the queendom, and her own life?

And maybe, she's not the only one who needs to be saved.

She'll need to gather allies, both human and beast, if she has any hope of subverting the destiny that was already written for her.

A fun series about a girl transmigrated into an RPG.

Please comment or reblog with your own favorites and suggestions!

[lesvegas]

Question 12/13 for the fallout ask post? Also love ur blog sm <3

12. What’s a quest that everyone hates, but you like?

While I don't think anyone outright hates Come Fly With Me so much as they just find it tedious to do over and over again (and believe me, I Get It), I genuinely do enjoy going through it. Even though I can easily skip over Novac altogether let alone this one quest, I tend to do it when I can anyway because I like the tension that comes with sneaking around in cramped, dark corridors full of invisible guys that can easily kick my ass if I'm not careful. I also like disarming all the traps in the room Hadrian's in. Honestly it feels like a quest that caters to my overly-cautious stealth play style on top of being one of the most interesting side quests in the whole game.

13. Which companion quest did you enjoy the most?

I think it's a tie between Old School Ghoul and I Could Make You Care. I may be biased because Raul and Veronica are my two favourite companions, but imo they're also two of the most well-written companions with equally well-written quests.

While Old School Ghoul physically amounts to dragging Raul around while talking to some old guys, it also acts as a vehicle for him to tell his own stories (which I can listen to all day) and brings up the subject of... well, aging. Of growing up and growing old and changing as your body changes, while remaining who you are despite that. Raul was only around 30 when ghoulification hit, and is basically a young man 200 years older than he should be, and his body began to deteriorate while still in his prime. Despite this, he's tried to make himself Useful TM as both a handyman and a protector, facing the worst of the age of raiders and living long enough to remember it all. When he fails to protect someone, he seems to give in to his perceived uselessness in 'old age', giving up his guns altogether and settling for simply finding purpose in repairing things. It's only when he sees a few older men still doing what they can that he considers not relegating himself to a quiet life, though he still needs the courier to tell him that it's something to admire and that these guys aren't useless or should live a certain way just because they aren't physically the same as they've always been. You can convince Raul to take up his guns again to become a protector during and after the events of FNV, just as he had 200 years ago, and he does a damn good job of it despite his cataracts.

Meanwhile, I Could Make You Care starts with Veronica seeing just how well the rest of the wasteland is doing, from the Followers to the Boomers to even the Fiends (at least in how much trouble they give the NCR compared to the BoS). Exploring the outside world forces her to come to the conclusion that the Brotherhood, her family, is slowly dying because they refuse to change their ways even slightly to become self-sufficient. You have the opportunity to help her find something that will make the Elder wake up, from farming technology to an advanced weapon, but even with evidence the Brotherhood refuses to change. While you can technically convince Veronica to remain, I think it only narratively makes sense for her to leave, whether she ends up joining the Followers or not. She's seen how everyone else has adapted and continues to, and how the quick the Brotherhood is to turn their back on her the moment she challenges their dogma. Even if you can't relate to her on a personal level here, her quest is a powerful conclusion to the Brotherhood's role in Fallout as a whole (by which I mean fo1 and fnv) and serves to symbolize how fast humanity has grown in the last 200 years since the world ended. This quest is so fucking good it makes me wonder why all I ever seem to see from the fandom about Veronica is how much she likes dresses. Sure, it's a cute fun trait and we love her for it, but you'd think that's her main quest instead with how much people sleep on this one.

[cloudsspoke]

Random talks about the Arg NT 🇦🇷 : part 2 - Football & KPop, when my 2 fandoms collide

This is another random Argie talk, but before I get to write about them, first I want to mention my other fandom (outside football), which is KPop, as a prologue.

Yesung from the KPop group Super Junior is my first KPop bias, when I first fell into KPop hole circa 2013 (though I never call myself ‘ELF’, am just a ‘Cloud’, a Yesung-fan). It’s only after I became Shinhwa fan (4 years later, back in 2017) that I ended up 'left' football fandom.

Quick introduction about Shinhwa, they are the longest KPop group that ever exists, the one with no members changing, and never disbanding either. One of the reasons I love them badly is because the bond between members. The way they get closer with each fight (the members fought a lot, and I talk about real fistfight), at the same time use excessive skinship method (kissing, hugging, cuddling, getting naked together, having a bath/poop/pee together) to strengthen the chemistry, and it's been like that since their debut, back in 1997-98. The chemistry which makes the 6 of them a really good pairing, either in a form of a duo (15 OTPs) or a trio (10 pairings consisting of 3 members).

In 2018 this group celebrated their 20th anniversary with packed schedules, that's the major reason I skipped World Cup (other than all my faves played badly; The Dutch didn't even qualify, Germany's early exit and Argentina made you question the coach 'Why???').

After World Cup ended, obviously I still didn't bother to watch football (club-wise, I'm a fan of United and Juve since 2003/2004) because Shinhwa took away all my free time, considering so many stories they've had within that 20++ years and I was obsessed to learn everything about them.

But in the midst of busy fangirling over Shinhwa, somehow, I managed to watch Copa America 2021 semifinal, although I couldn't recall anything about the match, or the players, but my old tweet reminded me that I did watch La Scaloneta unconsciously.

Fast forward to this Qatar World Cup, tbh I only started to watch La Albiceleste until they played against the Netherlands (I need a good night's sleep more than football, so mostly just watched the highlights), and when they advanced to semis I watched their Prime “Camina a Qatar” docu-series, and just like that I am trapped.

It's like, initially I came to see Di Maria (my love since 2008) but ended up stuck with the rest of them. And just like years ago when I ditched football for KPop, now it's the other way around.

Call me crazy but I can't help to feel/think La Scaloneta bears several similarities with Shinhwa.

The way the Scalo boys bonded thru truco games ((jackstones, in Shinhwa's case)), barbecues, drinking mate ((for Shinhwa it's soju or beer)), and using profanities as a way to show affection, not to forget Scalo boys also give kisses and hugs, being playful/cheesy to one another (both IRL and on their SNS), every players is shippable (OTP material, I say), their brutal honesty and willingness to protect and defend the team, Scalo boys just remind me of all the things I love from Shinhwa.

And tbh I don't think I've seen a football team/group like this before ((maybe in the good ol' days of Barcelona. I read my old diary, and there I wrote 'this team is like family, no selfish/individualistic players at all)). But a good thing like this sometimes, unfortunately, doesn't last long, no matter how sure we are that these boys will stay solid like this forever.

This, I learned the hard way from Shinhwa. Even with the 6 of them spending 20++ years together, I used to be so confident their friendship will be eternal, that nothing can break the members' bond, turns out I was wrong cuz time and situation changed it little by little.

(Until today the group Shinhwa is still not disbanded yet, but they've been on hiatus since the pandemic, and only came together twice during the event of their members' weddings.)

Now let's go back with La Scaloneta. The way I see it, it all started with a good internal relationship between players, coaches, and AFA's long-time staff. That positivity, combined with Scalo's ability as their coach, helped them to play well on the field and won some games. The victories then generated public support in which boosted players' morale, till they had 36 unbeaten games, and earned 3 major trophies in just 17 months.

Post World Cup, now they are superstars. All eyes are on them. Enzo already stirred something between him, Benfica fans, and Chelsea fans with his transfer rumor. Lautaro scores a goal for Inter and toxic people won't stop talking shit about him because of his performance in WC, all the while praising La Arana Alvarez. Then there's this growing public opinion about Macca being too good to play for 'small team' Brighton, Dibu too good for Villa, Moli Rodri should leave Atletico, etc.

My question, when there’s a thin line between ‘supporters’ and ‘haters’ since people are so easy to judge, and so quick to switch sides, will that stuff affect them?

Today they all can say it's a healthy competition among players about who gets to play and who stays on the bench. But will tomorrow they say the same too? Especially now they are separated for a while, focusing on their club with each of them pursuing different goals, will they keep the chemistry intact once they back to Ezeiza, or will they start to act more individually as time go by?

That's why the more I fangirl over them, the more I actually feel anxious about the future of Scalo boys (especially if/once Leo no longer there), simply because I want to enjoy this happiness for a bit longer since it's only fair cuz we’ve suffered for a long long time.

[tinseltine]

I realized this is JLaw‘s first official comedy – “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Joy” are each a dramedy. “Don’t Look Up” is funny, but its genre would be cautionary/Scifi. Lawrence was the comic relief in “American Hustle”, but again, a satire, not a broad comedy.  I’m glad she finally found herself here. 

The Blackening’s got the feel of Bodies Bodies Bodies, just not as clever.  You can see the twist ending coming from a mile away. But as someone whose black card is always in threat of being revoked, due to having grown up on a constant diet of corny, white fare; I liked the irony of a board game of actual black cards, where each character has to answer culturally black trivia in order to stay alive!  And yup, if I were playing, my black card would once again have been in jeopardy, cause for a number of the questions, I’d have been about as much help as I’d be in an escape room requiring math. 

Overall I enjoyed the film and thought this fresh take on the Flashpoint event was creative. Just not as creative as the 2013 film, which still had meta-humans and heroes, with each of them in different roles than what they are in the traditional DC’s Earth-Prime version. For instance, Bruce Wayne was killed in the alley that famous night instead of his parents; turning his father into Batman and his mother into the Joker. Superman is captured and nowhere to be found. Cyborg is a resistance leader, giving America a fighting chance within a war between Aquaman’s Atlanteans and Wonder Woman’s Amazonians. Aquaman cheated on his wife Mera with Diana and it led to this major war.

Vibrant all the way around, story, visuals, characters! Although, I’ll admit, I got a little sleepy a few moments before we meet the super cool Spider-man named Hobie Brown, aka Spider-Punk voiced by Daniel Kaluuya, but that could have been due to the heaping portion of Chinese food I ate at the beginning of the movie. This Spider-Punk was my favorite spidey. Kauuya says he: put a lot of emphasis on what matters to the fans when it came to finding his superhero’s voice, so much so that when he first took on the role of Spider-Punk he listened to fan-made playlists dedicated to the character to understand how they saw him rather than choose to base him on any punk rock icons of the past.

Me and my sister came out of Disney’s Live Action The Little Mermaid smiling from ear to ear feeling as though it managed to capture and hold true to everything we loved about the animated original and at the same time, embracing the world of today with beautiful diversity. But then I read The New York Times review by Wesley Morris and he just makes me feel stupid for enjoying the movie. I suppose he has some salient points like “This new flesh-and-blood version is about a girl who’d like to withdraw her color from the family rainbow and sail off into “uncharted waters” with her white prince.” Also, although I loved Halle Bailey’s interpretation of Ariel, his review now makes me question, does she imbue varied enough facial expressions while mute?

The Mother explores themes of family, redemption and identity, as Lopez’s character (with no name) struggles to reconcile her past and present. It’s not a groundbreaking or original movie by any means. It borrows heavily from other action movies like “Taken”, “Salt” and “Atomic Blonde”. The plot is predictable, the villains are one-dimensional and the moments of warmth aren’t very moving. But it’s entertaining, and it’s JLo, so stream it!

I definitely feel GOTG3 has stronger beats than Ant-man Quantumania, but it’s still a little long and lacking a certain spark had by the prior 2 movies of this MCU franchise. I think we need to go back to keeping the films just under 2 hours. Infinity War and End Game each needed to be nearly 3 hours because of so many characters and major story arcs, but with these sequels, no matter how beloved the characters, there’s not enough to fill them. I love superhero movies and particularly the MCU, but lately I can always feel the point in which they should be wrapping up, yet there’s 40-45 minutes still to go. 

THIS WAS TINSEL & TINE'S #MINIMOVIEREVIEW EXTRAVAGANZA #14 for complete content - https://tinseltine.com/minimoviereviewextravaganza14/

[thebreakfastgenie]

None of this is all or nothing, of course. I want to clarify that before going on. For example -- your standalone post about rainbow marketing is a prime example. I would prefer to live in a world with rainbow marketing than a world where it is so objectionable to be queer that it cannot be spoken about publicly; and with modern capitalism being what it is, I don't object to the queer community being a part of that. And sometimes, being marketed to is fun. Sometimes I like to buy rainbows. However, remember when Disney used a queer TV show to advertise Disney Plus, and then relegated that TV show to Hulu because it wasn't "family friendly"? (I know this was a couple years ago, but it's the best example I could think of on the fly - given time to think I am sure I could come up with a more recent example.) That's the kind of thing that makes me at best roll my eyes out of my head and at worst kind of mad and I'm not even particularly invested in that particular TV show and personally probably would not have watched it.

As far as it goes, some of the same things apply to the discussions about slurs. I know you said you do not assume a stranger's identity unless there's very clear contextual details that you should - which is generally good advice, but also has nuance. Like, for example, if someone is making a post about their blorbo being a [slur] there's no way to tell if the OP is part of that community themselves, but if the post is more along the lines of '[slurs] like us' I think it's fair to assume that OP is part of the community, and there's middle ground between those two things.

This is an extremely, extremely niche example but I play a tabletop roleplaying game that was written in the late 90s/early 2000s and has some "edgy" content including a character known as "The [Slur]". I remember discussing this with a friend (both he and I a part of that community) and saying that even though I knew it was "problematic" I have a lot of affection for this character. (But would generally not say so publicly, because I know not everyone would agree). His response really clarified a few things for me about why I felt that way, which was "If I could get a group of people to call me The [Slur] I probably would. THE? You bet your ass I am!"

To address one of your other points; I have personally experienced both d*ke and f*ggot as homophobic slurs and do not see that big a gap between them. However, for full context, I also grew up in a place and time where the three letter short form for the f slur was a general part of common parlance as a slang term for a different thing, and though also occasionally used as a gay slur, there was another gay slur to refer to queer men that was more commonly in use.

It's World Pride at the moment and there are events with titles including words that are often used as slurs. Some of these (like Queer) because as you note, they also have a significant and storied history in academia; others in reclaiming contexts.

All of this together means it rubs me the wrong way a little bit when you say that you think d*ke is okay but f*ggot is not because you perceive one as more homophobic than the other because of your own personal experiences. That's completely fine in the sense that I am not asking you to personally be comfortable with a slur; however, it feels a little like assuming your experiences are more universal and correct than mine.

This post got very long and because I was touching on a lot of different points it feels a little disjointed when reading back over it so if you are unsure about something I have said I would ask that you please say so and not assume the worst. I am again trying to engage in a good faith discussion so if it feels like I have lost the plot a little bit in trying to get my thoughts across, it is purely because I have a lot to say and a limited character limit for expressing it.

I don't have the time to engage with everything right now, but I wasn't saying dyke is okay and f*ggot isn't because I have personally experienced them differently. I was, again, speaking about context. I don't think a black and white okay/not okay dichotomy is productive or functional. However, my default is "assume it is not okay to use slurs and particularly to call people slurs until proven otherwise."

I'm also not comfortable with "blorbo is a [slur]" in most cases but that is a personal comfort level thing. In my experience it's nearly always based on stereotypes and while I'm not saying jokes about that are never fun, I'm just usually not very comfortable with it, especially on the public internet.

[infizero-draws]

Hey! I followed you because I think your art is super funky and awesome and cool and I've been mildly interested in Sonic for awhile now. Most of my content is very secondhand, like commentary videos and the Snapcube dubs.

To make a long story short, I want to get into Sonic. Like for realsies. There's so much content out there and I don't know anyone personally who enjoys it, so how do you suggest I approach this?

Aw thank you so much I'm glad you like my art!!

It really depends on what you're most interested in! Sonic is a franchise that spans different mediums and has been on-going for a long time, so there's a lot of content with very different vibes and varying levels of quality (though that's subjective of course).

I'd say that probably the best way overall to get familiar with the characters and world as a newcomer is to read the IDW comics! They're very well-written, have gorgeous art, and are easily accessible to new fans while still having lots of references to previous installments. They take place directly after Sonic Forces, but they summarize the events of that game so don't worry about needing that context. There's also a couple of mini-series to check out!

There's the games of course, which are the main canon that the IDW comics build off of/are technically a part of. I would personally recommend Sonic Adventure 2, it's my favorite game and though basically everyone calls it their favorite, like, it's for a reason. SA2 for me is the best game overall, as its story is great, the gameplay is fun and works perfectly alongside the story, and it's just full of charm. It's the most cohesive Sonic game imo, everything feels so interconnected and masterfully woven together, I love playing it. Don't be scared off by the "2" in the title btw, though there are some elements from Sonic Adventure that are referenced, you can still totally enjoy it without knowing anything about the first game as it's mainly standalone.

^ (also sidenote but sa2's story got a littleee muddled by the english localization, its not the worst but i'd recommend this video that goes over the story in detail with an emphasis on the original japanese script. there used to be an upload of the jp cutscenes with faithful eng subtitles but unfortunately last year the channel got nuked and there weren't any backups T_T im still not over it)

When it comes to recommending games it sort of depends on whether you plan on actually playing them yourself or just watching someone else play them, because there's a lot of Sonic games that have really good stories but subpar gameplay, or games that don't really have a story but good gameplay. Also everyone has their own preferences when it comes to types of games so there's that too.

Sonic is a franchise that both sort of has an overarching story (or at least they did back in the early 2000s when the games had a story that was built upon with each game, something that we might be finally returning to with Sonic Frontiers!) and also has many games and cartoons where they're kind of separate from all of that and function as standalone stories or just take place in their own universes entirely. There's many different canons across the different mediums, but the main one is the mainline games + IDW + now Sonic Prime on Netflix, which is apparently also canon to the main game canon!

Sorry if this is overwhelming >< it's a big franchise with a lot of different stuff and different canons and a wonky timeline so it's sort of hard to pinpoint the exact things a new fan """"should"""" check out. I'd say check out the IDW comics and then see if any of the games (or just their cutscenes in a compilation on YouTube lol) spark your interest!

And I say this every time I get these kinds of asks about a fandom I'm in, but PLEASE feel free to send me another ask or even shoot me a dm if you're comfortable if you want more specific advice or are confused about something, I literally love nothing more than talking about sonic the hedgehog at length. (Although I'd prefer if you sent them to my main @infizero as I use this account mainly just for art ^_^)

Anyways I hope this helped in some way ToT

[godoftheunknown57]

Explaining the Sonic the Earth's defender Au Characters, Events and Story Part 1!

Welcome to my Au's development and explaining as I guess I could say or how you guys you see it, but anyway let me explain what my AU or Ultimate AU for the Sonic the hedgehog franchise but with some added events, added past events or future events, and characters that are the same but different and characters different from franchises.

What I mean exactly? Well to answer your question I mean by having other types of franchise, movies, games and anime should I say for my Au.

The following media that will be partly used in my AU that you may recognize is: Dragon Ball z, Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball super, Transformers, Steven Universe, War of the Worlds 2005, Adventure Time, Kingdom Hearts, and Star Wars.

Now for everything that you just read and heard is going to take part in my AU as an Ultimate AU for my favorite franchises that I enjoyed watching but its not a crossover, no not a crossover at all, it is its own Universe of mine that I had for years as a fan universe, it may sound like it it may sound stupid or confusing but if you guys listen closely you'll start to get the Idea eventually.

But just for a bit of an idea for the AU that is confusing at this point I will try to give you an brief plot or story that I have so far for the story, so before I get into it I want explain what my version of the hero/defender of Earth is and who he is exactly, He is Sonic of course but not the same blue fast hedgehog we all know but he is a mix of a few characters known as Son Goku/Kakarot (DB, DBZ, DBS, DBGT), Finn the Human (Adventure Time), and Optimus Prime (Transformers).

Sorry again for the confusion if you are but this is my AU I can do what I want with this but back with my version of Sonic is basically has the look of Son Goku but with some differences and here comes the Gem part from Steven universe, now to let you all know I do enjoy Steven Universe's story including the Gem war, the Diamonds, and the different Gems so adding some of this with my AU too.

So Sonic is also mix with the cybertronian stuff too and no I don't mean like he is a giant robot that transforms into a vehicle No, like I said before he is mainly a version of Sonic, Goku, Finn, and Optimus Prime as one person, I know what you maybe thinking "Really!" Well you all don't have to enjoy the Au at all or if you do enjoy it or the sound of it at least I understand.

For my version of Sonic or character is Still named Sonic as his Earth name but his real name is Kakarot Blue Diamond, yep he is a Diamond, throwing some Steven Universe stuff in this B- anyway yeah he is a Diamond that is from Steven universe but he not huge like Yellow, Blue, and White from the show but normal human sized like Goku in Dragon Ball z/Super.

To explain his race and people, also his homeworld that he is from it is a mix of both Cybertron and Homeworld as one planet and ruled by the same alien beings but that is the Sayian race but also mixed as a Gem and Cybertronian I don't know how to explain this but hopefully all of you guys are understanding this but if not like I said I understand.

Sonic/Kakarot's biological parents are infact the Diamonds Yellow and Blue but Yellow Diamond is not female but an male in my AU, yes were going on about this right now but listen, Yellow is a male and Sonic/Kakarot's Father and yes Blue Diamond is his Mother, and he does have biological brothers which is Shadow/Xehanort Red Diamond and Silver/Eraqus White Diamond, yeah don't worry I'll explain about those two a different time.

I want to explain more about this but I kinda ran out of ways to explain everything right now but stay tuned for part 2 that will pop up soon guys and I hope you guys enjoy the little reading of this Au of mine and I assume that you are wondering what the hell is this or whatever, I understand if you don't understand, don't like the Au, and confusing but I will expect to explain more including the ages for my character Sonic/Kakarot Blue Diamond soon, I will be using the images of Sonic the hedgehog, Son Goku, Finn the human, and Optimus Prime for an explanation for his life from a young life to his old life years.

You'll see.

[thewertsearch]

Asks Compilation 13/05

They really are. A lot of these kids seem very isolated (I mean, we know Jade is), and it makes a lot of sense why they’d gravitate to online friendships the way they did. Plus, they subconsciously know they’re going to be co-players, so maybe they were always destined to vibe well together. 

I’ll think about it! Honestly, though, I don’t know if it’d add much. I might try and experiment with different formats down the line, especially for ‘event’ flashes like that - we’ll see. 

[ Super popular (half-serious) fan headcanon  is that Prospit = you make your bed, Derse = you don’t make it. you got lots of asks about this but lots have spoilers so I thought I’d just tell you directly since I know you’d want to know 😂 - Cat ] 

What do ya know, I’m a Derse girl! 

Damnit, I wanted those prophecy clouds. Instead, I’m stuck with an asteroid belt, a sky full of monsters. and close proximity to a gang of murderous Agents. Derse’s perks better be good!!  

Lot of fun Charles Barkley Lore here. I can always count on you guys to explain Hussie’s latest reference to me. 

Now we know where Rose got this enigmatic quote. I like to think that in this world, T.S. Eliot never existed, and Barkley actually wrote all of Eliot’s poems himself, juggling Modernist poetry with his basketball career. 

Yeah, it’s just edging out Doom. It’s a weird pair of elements (aspects?) to be associated with, and I kind of love it.  

Combining the two just makes me think of this guy!

Thanks for the recs, guys! Other than Dumbing of Age, I haven’t heard of any of these, but based on their about pages:

Never Satisfied is a webcomic about politics, and also being a cool wizard. Strangely enough, I think those two would mesh pretty well. 

Sleelpess Domain is a dark magical girl webcomic with an urban-fantasy setting. I really like the artstyle for this one. 

Widdershins is an anthology fantasy series in a Victorian-inspired setting. Anthologies are a lot of fun - I find they really help the worldbuilding unfold. 

Black Book is a card-based RPG, a type of game system that I used to shun, but one that I’ve really been getting into recently. 

Dumbing of Age, which I keep meaning to check out, is, I think, a slice-of-life story about college students. They’re just like me fr

You really have be on the ball with Homestuck. The recap was one of the most information-dense pages in the comic so far, and if I’d been reading casually, I probably would have skipped it!

I guess the character naming pages were Hussie’s author avatar all along. 

This gif kind of mirrors WV’s terminal introduction, and when you think about it, authors are kind of ‘super-Exiles’, sending ‘commands’ which can’t be disobeyed. 

Like, I get it. John has no memory of that timeline, and is already primed not to trust Dave, but it still hurts to see him so dismissive of Davesprite. I think the ‘real Dave’ fuckup was because part of him still isn’t buying it. 

I honestly think one of the Daves might end up snapping eventually, and then John will get his wakeup call. 

Yup, it matches the kids’ introduction order, as most other things do. 

These patterns show up everywhere, and when they do, it’s impossible to tell in advance whether they’re going to be subverted. Hussie caught me out this time!  

.....oh my god?

Sweet!

It’s a good Cal. It’d have been hard to fully capture Comic Cal’s aura in realspace, so changing his design a little was the right move here.