#introducing my next gameplay <3

[peacheryy]

Jade + Maisy

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

ATHENA CYKES (ACE ATTORNEY)

1.) Despite supposedly being the MAIN CHARACTER of the game she was introduced in, she somehow still always ends up playing second fiddle to Phoenix and Apollo, to the point where she isn’t allowed to take the lead on even so much as a single case. Instead of the senior lawyers standing to the side in a mentorship role like they do for literally EVERY OTHER PLAYABLE CHARACTER, Phoenix and Apollo keep stepping in to outright take over for her. She literally does not make it through even a single case without needing some male character or other to swoop in and hold her hand every step of the way, not only Phoenix and Apollo but once even Blackquill, her rival prosecutor, as well.

Why? It has nothing whatsoever to do with her competence level. It’s a video game; her competence is determined by the player’s, just like everybody else. It seems like the writers just couldn’t STAND the thought of her doing anything on her own, or thought that the players would walk out en masse if it wasn’t the Phoenix and Apollo Show every second of gameplay. (And yeah, it DOES sometimes take me some time to warm up to new characters, but that was the case for Apollo too! At least give me the CHANCE to judge her on her own merits rather than assuming that I’ll immediately write her off!) Like, why did you even WRITE this character if you think so little of her?

2.) WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN. She’s introduced in the middle of a male characters “trilogy” (Apollo justice) so the story is never about her. She appears in aa5 only to NEVER headline her own case IN HER INTRODUCTORY GAME and always fail unless a man comes in and saves her. Her own story is sidelined for Apollos. Next game, she only really appears in one case that’s a throwaway and still can’t do shit on her own. Ugh. She deserved to be treated better, more competent, etc.

3.) my girl is an attorney and a practicing psychologist at age 18 (youngest defense lawyer in the series) & is often shown to be more competent than her male colleagues, and yet is constantly pushed out/sidelined/generally treated like an assistant character rather than a lawyer (the assistant position in these games is usually reserved for characters who don’t have law degrees/are generally not educated enough to understand the courtroom proceedings to their full extent. athena is none of those things but she gets treated the same way by the game because. well. we know why.) Instead of being the main playable attorney in her debut game, the story is taken over by her male colleague (WHO ALREADY HAD A WHOLE GAME DEDICATED TO HIS BULLSHIT BTW) & her development is ignored in favor of his in both her debut game AND her second game. Even when her backstory IS explored it’s done via a male family friend of hers, meaning even when her OWN story is being told it’s not even about her it’s about simon’s lame ass. for extra context here in her debut game she is only the playable attorney in one case out of five, while the other (male) playable attorneys were playable in all or all-but-one of the cases in THEIR debut games. capcom hates women sooooo bad

KOTORI MIZUKI/TORI MEADOWS (YU-GI-OH! ZEXAL)

1.) first: ygo zexal is directed (and partially written) by known misogynist shin yoshida who is on record as saying that he would Never write female characters if he wasn’t being forced to by higher-ups. kotori’s voice actor signed a legal contract forcing him to include her character in Every Single Episode. she gets no duels that aren’t tag duels (2v2 duels), one of those is interrupted in the middle and all others she both loses, aren’t even shown in full, and all happen in the same episode. she is literally contractually required to be a major character and the dude in charge still point blank refuses to do anything with her despite the fact that she’s supposed to be the female lead of the series. please take pity on her for being handed to one of the worst people in the world and how despite the active attempts by other people to make her relevant in the story she was still denied that

2.) She only dueled once in the whole show and it was when she was brainwashed. Her main role is to only cheer the male protag on and say his name during his duels I guess.

[swisccfinds]

Custom Food Stalls to make you gameplay more realistic

Hey guys! I'm taking a break from my build project I currently have going on in the sims so I decided to take my break by posting on Tumblr :) This list will mainly consist of real life food stores.

With that said here are the most realistic food stalls for the sims 4

PS. Please remember to show love and your support to the creators, they are all credited under the screen grab of their custom content/mods

1 . Krispy Kreme Food Stall

mod by ArLi1211_ccsims4

Krispy Kreme? I could really go for some Krispy Kreme doughnuts right now. This amazing food stall mod allows your sim to buy Krispy Kreme products because why not introduce your sims to good ol' Krispy Kreme doughtnuts.

Some of the creator's notes~

New Coffee Stand with Krispy Kreme Aesthetic. Buy coffee and cakes for your sims! Available in the outdoor section as always. Cost: 1800$ Note : You need the University Add-On to use it. This item is a recolor of the Britechester edition of the Coffee Stand. Tell me in comments if you have some ideas/brands you like and you want in your game I will check it . The link is below. Thanks for the visit  and have a great day :)

download + more info

2 . Wingstop Custom Stall

mod by Insimna

I've NEVER had Wingstop. I live in a small town where they just keep removing the food places and replacing them with connivence store, I kid you not we have about 20 in my area. Insimna made this amazing Wingstop food stall with custom food aswell. I really like Insimna for looking for overrides or food stalls for example.

Creator's notes~

*City Living Expansion Pack is REQUIRED for the stall* **Dine Out and Discover University are Optional** ***This amazing lot was built by SimmerFree (The lot in the pictures is slightly modified to include the custom stall)*** Menu: Wing Flavors Combo: Atomic Cajun Garlic Parmesan Hawaiian Hickory Smoked BBQ Hot Honey Rub Lemon Pepper Louisiana Rub Mango Habanero Original Hot Plain Spicy Korean Q Sides & Drink Seasoned Fries Cheese Fries Louisiana Voodoo Fries Buffalo Ranch Fries Soda Compatible with Insimnia Eats 2.0 and Grannies/Zero's compatible version. You must download the updated version to see these items on there!

download + more info

3 . Chick-fil-A

mod by Insimna

Speaking of food stores I've never gotten to experience.. This Chick-fill-A food stall is so amazing and yes it sells Chick-fill-A products! But that download link is separate but for this sake I'll link both of them.

Creator's notes ~

Menu: Entrees  Chick-fil-A® Chicken Sandwich Chick-fil-A® Deluxe Sandwich Spicy Chicken Sandwich Spicy Deluxe Sandwich Grilled Chicken Sandwich Chick-fil-A® Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich Chick-fil-A® Nuggets Grilled Nuggets Drinks Soda Lemonade Iced Tea Features: Children can order! Compatible with Dine Out.  Compatible with the Lactose Intolerant trait from Cottage Living. Compatible with Insimnia Eats. You must download the updated version to see these items on there!

download + more info

4 . Subway Custom Stall

mod by Insimna

Another realistic custom stall is this subway food stall! Also made by Insimna! (she makes a lot of custom food stalls). This will be going into my next build :)

creator's notes~

*City Living Expansion Pack is REQUIRED for the stall* **Dine Out and Discover University are Optional** ***This awesome Subway build is by the super talented Gawdly Sims *** Menu: Classic Sandwiches Black Forest Ham Meatball Marinara Buffalo Chicken Chicken & Bacon Ranch Oven Roasted Turkey Italian B.M.T. Pizza Sub Roast Beef Rotisserie-Style Chicken Steak & Cheese Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Tuna Spicy Italian No Bready Bowls & Soda Buffalo Chicken Cold Cut Combo Chicken & Bacon Ranch Steak & Cheese Oven Roasted Turkey & Ham Rotisserie-Style Chicken Soda Wraps Roast Beef Veggie Delite B.L.T. Tuna Spicy Italian Oven Roasted Turkey Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Compatible with Insimnia Eats 2.0 and Grannies/Zero's compatible version. You must download the updated version to see these items on there! PLEASE MAKE SURE TO DELETE THE PREVIOUS VERSION WHEN DOWNLOADING THE LATEST ONE. HOW TO INSTALL: You will be installing 2 files 1. Download the CustomStall package file  2. For the Recipes, there are 2 versions. Choose ONLY 1. Choose Recipes_FAST if you want your Sims to finish their food quicker. (takes 6 "bites" to finish) Choose Recipes_SLOW package file if you want your Sims to take their time eating. (takes 12 "bites" to finish) 3. Simply drag and drop both PACKAGE File

download + more info

5. Burger King Stall

mod by Insimna

Burger king in the sims? I think YES! I loveeee burger kings burgers, to me they taste so good, and now my sims can enjoy some Burger King food thanks to this mod and CC

Creator's notes~

*City Living Expansion Pack is REQUIRED for the stall* **Dine Out and Discover University are Optional** If you don't have any of the packs listed above, you can only get the food through Insimnia Eats delivery. Menu: Bacon Double Cheeseburger Bacon King Bacon Melt Classic Melt Double Cheeseburger  Impossible Whopper (Vegetarian!) Quarter Pound King  Rodeo Burger Whopper Whopper Jr. Soda Compatible with Insimnia Eats 2.0 and Grannies/Zero's compatible version. You must download the updated version to see these items on there! PLEASE MAKE SURE TO DELETE THE PREVIOUS VERSION WHEN DOWNLOADING THE LATEST ONE.

download + more info

6. Panda Express

mod by Insimna

Here is another real life restaurant that I've never had! Like I said I live in a small town. I'm sure they have this in Albany but that's still an hour away from me. But that doesn't mean my sims won't be able to try it! I cannot wait to place all these in my build!

creator's notes~

*City Living Expansion Pack is REQUIRED* **Dine Out and Discover University are Optional** Super awesome, realistic Panda Express build I highly recommend: Bean's Builds  Menu Meals (comes with 2 sides of either Chow Mein & Fried Rice or Chow Mein & White Rice): The Original Orange Chicken Broccoli Beef SweetFire Chicken Breast Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Mushroom Chicken Beijing Beef Black Pepper Angus Steak Honey Walnut Shrimp Black Pepper Chicken Kung Pao Chicken Super Greens (vegetarian) Drink & Appetizers: Chicken Egg Roll Veggie Spring Roll (vegetarian) Soda Family Meals: Mushroom Chicken & Beijing Beef Black Pepper Chicken & Honey Walnut Shrimp Broccoli Beef & Grilled Teriyaki Chicken The Original Orange Chicken & Black Pepper Angus Steak Note: If you order a Family Meal from the custom stall, it will be in your Sim's inventory! Compatible with Insimnia Eats. You must download the updated version to see these items on there!

download + more info

7. Burger King Food Stall

mod by Insimna

Well we have Burger King on this list we must add McDonalds on here as well!

Creator's note~

Your Sims will definitely be lovin' it :) In honor of this mod, I'm actually gonna have McDonald's tonight lol *City Living Expansion Pack is REQUIRED* **Dine Out is Optional** ***Please take a look at this post if you want Sims to order autonomously*** Menu: Burgers & Fries Big Mac Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe Quarter Pounder with Cheese Bacon Double Cheeseburger World Famous Fries Breakfast Egg McMuffin Sausage McMuffin with Egg Sausage, Egg & Cheese McGriddles Bacon, Egg & Cheese McGriddles Beverages Coca-Cola Sprite Strawberry Banana Smoothie Mango Pineapple Smoothie How it Works: Go into Build/Buy mode and search for the Insimnia McDonald's Custom Stall. Place it on the lot. Click on the stall and click "Hire Vendor" Once the vendor is in the stall, click to bring up the menu Features: Children can order! Compatible with Dine Out  Compatible with the Lactose Intolerant trait from Cottage Living (so basically everything since there's cheese (except the fries) and the smoothies lol)

download + more info

I hope you guys like this thread for custom stalls! Thank you if you have read all the way to the end, I love you guys ❤︎

[jewbeloved]

Team Stan + Butters and Pip playing rainbow friends with their s/o🌈🩸🩸💖

I am addicted to this game so I thought about writing this scenario.

Warnings: mentions of jumpscares

Gender: Neutral

💚💙 The Main Four ❤️🧡

You have been playing this game for weeks and you thought about introducing the game to the boys.

They thought it was just some silly children game because they thought the characters didn't look scary.

They changed their mind when they got jump scared by Blue and his friends.

Now let's move onto the gameplay.

Stan would be the type to listen for the footsteps of the enemies before hiding into his box if they get too close to him.

Kyle would probably never hide into his box unless it's the round where they have to collect batteries or if Cyan is out.

Cartman would definitely rage if he gets caught by the enemies. He then spends a lot of robux to buy diamonds so he doesn't sit out after he has gotten caught.

If Kenny can die and come back to life the next day, he will gladly do the same in the game. Everytime he gets caught he can just respawn with the diamonds he already has.

They would still do their own strategies even if they are walking around the map together with you.

They definitely become addicted to the game though🧡❤️💙💚💖💖

💛 Butters Scotch 🌯

Butters is the type to just freely roam around the map, not caring if he is being chased by the enemies.

He likes the lookies, he doesn't care if others call him weird he thinks the lookies are adorable and nobody can change his mind.

He probably also makes a "Aw man" face everytime he gets jumpscared by the enemies.

Butters likes the game and he probably also gets every box skin.

He likes the birthday cake skin the most!✨ He played the game a lot of games so he could save up enough coins to buy it.

Butters is good at finding the items in the game so you both end up completing the game quickly everytime <3

He personally likes Yellow the most! 💛💛💛💛💛

💛 Phillip Pirrup 💘

Oh! Phillip also loves to play that game! He was about to tell you about it, but he was even more excited when he heard that you also play the game!

You both are addicted to the game and end up completing both chapters quickly without either of you guys dying.

Well....you both DO sometimes die to green or purple.

In Phillip's defend, Green was blocking his way and he simply didn't know that you weren't supposed to step on the water when passing by purple.

With putting that aside, some people like Cartman is pissed at how Phillip can be so good at the game since he thought British people don't play Roblox.

You always laugh at Cartman whenever he gets caught by the enemies because that's what he deserved for messing with Phillip >:3

Phillip's favorite box skin is the cactus one!💛💛💛💛

I wonder how long it will be for people to find my secret blog :> I didn't even change my editing style.

[jadensageillustration]

For some much-needed joy tonight, I'm gonna finally post stuff from a project I started a long time ago. My ideal Dishonored 3 would be a prequel where you get to play as Vera Moray, and you follow her journey to Pandyssia where she's marked by the Outsider, and the rest of her life falls apart. I wanted to explore the idea of the character's hands changing from chapter to chapter to show the time progression. Vera's my pick for protagonist as a natural next step for the Dishonored/Deathloop world for a number of reasons:

Functionally, Granny Rags' regeneration power becomes Paolo's 'has to die twice in one day to really die' charm, which becomes Colt's Reprise slab. It feels right to get to use this power at full strength in a new iteration of the franchise, further playing with the regeneration game mechanics. Perhaps Vera's gameplay wouldn't feature deaths, merely a changed state as a swarm of rats is left, and she can scamper away to strategically regenerate in a place of her choosing.

While there is a 'canon' low-chaos version of events across the Dishonored games, there's nothing stopping the player from murdering everyone and being rewarded with an appropriately dark ending. This means that a prequel would fall under the same rule! Just because we know where she ends up in the first Dishonored game, doesn't mean you can't 'play your way' to wildly different outcomes of the game itself.

No inconvenient questions: What happens to the world without the Outsider? Are the novels canon? Does Emily abolish the Abbey?What about xyz factors?? Shhhh, we're not gonna worry about that because we're in prequel territory!

Technological advances can't outpace the story, meaning that we also don't have to answer any technology-related plot holes that may arise in a game set between DOTO and Deathloop. This would be pre-Sokolov's latest inventions, so no Arc technology, only the very beginnings of whale oil usage, I believe. Opportunity for another stylish power supply, or the obvious lack of one.

The return of some characters, and the opportunity to introduce many more! Young Sokolov making a splash at court, Euhorn Kaldwin failing in his attempts to woo Vera, going on the Pandyssian expedition with her bore of a husband as well as a bright-eyed Luigi Galvani!

The Outsider asking Vera for a dance, which she graciously accepts~

It would be a romantic adventure! And also a descent into madness. A lavish ball, an oversees journey, a day at court, as well as brackish sewer tunnels, stomach-turning potion brewing, and an ancient dark cave...

Maybe we'll never see a game like this, even though it feels like the right direction, to me. Maybe we'll make it ourselves. I hope that we all get to see more of this world together, some day <3

[weirdwyvern]

Collection of observations so far on Pokémon Legends: Z-A

It'd be reasonable to assume that PLZA is going to be based around the same time period as Haussmann's renovation of Paris, a major public works initiative focused on city modernization (by the day's standards). This included taking down a lot of medieval neighborhoods and replacing them with avenues, squares, and parks, as well as installing extensive water-based features such as sewers, aqueducts, and (of course) fountains. Haussmann was eventually dismissed bc he was being way too extravagant with spending (along with other political stuff etc etc), but the modern-day layout of central Paris still directly echoes his designs.

The renovation period lasted from 1853-1870, which would put PLZA in roughly the same timeframe as PLA; the Meiji Restoration (also called the Meiji Renovation, ironically) began in 1868.

However, the aesthetics they've chosen for the announcement trailer are giving me pause. Though the drafting/sketching portion certainly has an old-timey feel to it, the use of a holographic, wireframe style to show the city feels markedly futuristic. In addition, one of the humans we see (the woman sitting at a table next to a Klefki) appears to be using a smartphone. Whether or not we're gonna have another Arc Phone situation has yet to be seen.

This could just be a way of expressing "here's what Lumiose is PLANNED to look like far in the future, and this game is going to be focused on building towards that future." As there was a "Not actual gameplay footage" disclaimer at the beginning there, we can assume that nothing shown in the trailer is necessarily going to appear in-game – tho I'd imagine at least some of the models are going to be utilized (two birds, one stone).

With how Pokémon has played around with ancient/futuristic dichotomies (Unova, Paldea) and time travel (Alola, Hisui, and…many others tbh) in the past, though, it'd be interesting if PLZA wound up being a futuristic isekai to complement the distant-past adventure of PLA.

All that said, if PLZA is set in the past: We are all but certainly going to see young (or at least younger) AZ.

Very interested in this logo! Presumably it's comparable to that of the Galaxy Team, though unlike that one, it doesn't share much resemblance to the logo of its region's future evil team (Team Flare). The most similar organization logo we've seen thus far would be that of the Aether Foundation.

The only theory I have at present is that it could potentially be related to Diancie, which was first introduced in Kalos. The logo could be a stylized version of the incomplete ring & glittering gem around its neck.

Adjacent to that: I get the feeling that the Anistar City Sundial is going to have some level of importance to the plot. In XY, the Sundial allows the player to upgrade their Mega Ring + locate more Mega Stones throughout the region. As the Mega Evolution symbol was prominently displayed at the end of the presentation, we may get to learn some more about it and its origins – especially that bit about how it supposedly descended from space.

Other assorted notes:

We may get to see Camphrier Town – or, at least, Shabboneau Castle – during its heyday!

The A in PLZA's logo shares a similar construction to the marking on Xerneas' chest. It also has a plantlike pattern on it, which would connect to Xerneas' ability to induce life/growth…or it could be interpreted as a veinlike pattern, which would connect to Yveltal's design. It could also be completely unrelated to the Aura Trio lmao

I want to see Emmet so bad. Put both of those muppets in situations. Also I want double battles back please I'm begging and pleading stop making me fight 3+ enemies with only one Pokémon on my side–

[crime-soncloud]

I was recently introduced to, and downloaded, Limbus company, and I've decided to detail my current thoughts on the story and some of the gameplay per Canto. I had decided this in the middle of Canto 2, so I didn't do this for the first Canto, but I'll probably give my thoughts on it at some point in the future. This should go without saying but NO SPOILERS

Now first, I've got a pretty good team (2 star and 3 star identities) and so obviously I didn't struggle at all, and totally did not have two of them die on a single fight, after taking a big risk, and so couldn't fully engage with what I was probably supposed to do (/sarcasm) and also I was so close to winning the roulette event thingy, dammit don quixote you couldn't win just one last round

Firstly, this entire crew is so dysfunctional in yhe best way, I love how quickly the plan went out the window because half of them fucked it up. Between Don Quixote, Ryoshu, Heathcliff, Dante themself, and also Hong Lu and Rodion to a lesser extent, I am amazed they even managed to get the golden branch

Speaking of, I actually thought that the group would fail again, but based on what we saw I expect we'll get both the Sinners and rival(?) group swapping victories.

Now into the actual story. Firstly, I am really engaged with Sonya and the Yurodiviye, I think seeing a group actually trying to improve the standard of living, and essentially being communist revolutionaries is so cool! The theme of Action via words and policies Versus Action via... Well action, violence in this case, is done so well. The fact that both sides are shown as having advantages and disadvantages is really well done, and I think it's interesting seeing how Sonya and Rodion will go from here, especially since it appears the Yurodiviye are working with Hermann and the others. I assume the next Canto is about Sinclair since there seemingly was some ✨ foreshadowing ✨ for what is about to come.

This made Rodya very interesting to me, I was previously fairly neutral but now I'm interested in this. Her singing voice slaps, I think it was the same song that Gregor sung, and from a cursory Wikipedia glance I think I can see the parallels between her and her namesake

Overall really fun, loved getting to see some more stuff, and as for theories I'm not really sure. Dante is clearly important in some way, the characters at the beginning haven't showed up again, and I'm getting curious about Ishmael, i know she's the focus character in a future canto, and we saw Her make several references to spending half her life on a boat, if her backstory is as tragic as Rodion then I will be READY.

(@flextapeyeehaw and @zebrashork If you want to see my thoughts I'll post them here, thanks for the help in understanding this)

[petrichorade]

Hii :D I just wanted to say I LOVE ADORE CRY SCREAM over your Ratiomei art. I love them both sm I wanna swallow them sjsjsksk

But I'm kinda new to the Ratiomei corner of the fandom, and I'm afraid I don't know much about the ship. So I would really appreciate it if you tell me why you ship them and what made you ship them. Or what lore made you ship them. ANYTHING! Lmao just give me more Ratiomei food 😞😞❤❤❤

Awwwww thank you so much for the compliment! And glad that you asked actually! I will answer your question as an excuse to spread the brainrot 😈😈😈

Kind of going chronological starting from here:

They were first introduced when Honkai Star Rail is still in 1.4 version if I remember correctly! 1.6 version Drip Marketing happened on October 31th 2023 11:00 A.M (GMT+7) at that time, and the 5 star Character that were revealed being Ruan Mei (Ice-Harmony) for the first half and Dr.Ratio (Imaginary-The Hunt) for the second half. It's pretty cute that Hoyo dropped them only 5 minutes apart (Xueyi, the 4-star as well though, after Ratio) since they usually postpone 2nd half 5-star for a day or two. This is their early drip marketing banner that some of you are familiar with!

But I really haven't start seeing things here, I love them both as their individual selves and crying a little because I want them both so bad but they literally gonna be released right after Argenti, who's been on my warp list for long long time ever since I saw his leaks ^____T (I'm an F2P Player, and still until now, so yeah)

// long story short, I receive a happy ending by attaining the 3 of them with extreme grinding + Ratio ended up being free :D //

Also I saw some of their gameplay leaks, some beta players weirdly likes to put them together in a team? Makes me goes '...hm?' But I haven't manage to see stuffs yet.

Then it all starts with THIS TRAILER. It was revealed here that there will be a new region being unlocked on Herta Space Station and it's turns out to be Ruan Mei's workspace, the Seclusion Zone. It's all cool until I realized Dr. Ratio were being placed in the SAME AREA.

I compare this trailer to previous character trailers, and literally can sense something.

Taking Imbibitor Lunae and Fu Xuan's trailer for example; them both being in the same planet (Xianzhou Luofu) but their character's animation were taken in different place, Dan Heng IL on Scalegorge Waterscape, while Fu Xuan on the Divinition Commission. Yet both Ruan Mei and Ratio's animation, not only took place in Herta Space Station, specifically the SECLUSION ZONE itself, not other places. I'm starting to lost my shit there, because I'm assuming SOMETHING goes on BETWEEN THEM if they were at the very same place.

Also I'm not sure how it this happens, I might just randomly came up with ship name myself and just search 'ruantio' on Twitter and SURPRISE SURPRISE? THE SHIP EXIST? And starting there I'm finding out they were often being referred as RatioMei instead!

The brainrot being so pure, I'm starting to sketch them out of the blue...and create something decent. But I'm not ready to reveal it yet, letting the art fermented for a while. Until hoyo, again, dropping that they will be the next Battle Pass matching profile pictures :]

Idk if some of people aware of this, but BP profile pictures most of the time always just...pair folks not coincidentally + matching themes as if they were couple. This the list of characters that were paired for BP chibi profile pictures before (also note it's so far always been male-female);

1.0 - Himeko & Welt

1.1 - March 7th & Dan Heng

1.2 - Kafka & Blade

1.3 - Jing Yuan & Fu Xuan

1.4 - Bronya & Gepard

1.5 - Jingliu & Yanqing (this one's questionable a little lol

Therefore, right after this info getting dropped, I'm finally posting the art itself, being my first RatioMei fanart 😂

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Now jumping into when the 1.6 updated + the lore was revealed!

I'm going to be honest as I play along the way (and for those who's interested with this ship but not playing HSR): they basically have zero direct interactions.

But! I may have create a breakdown of they might potentially knows each other a bit, you can read it on my twitter thread here! (and sorry not sorry if everything came out very delusional)

Dr. Ratio also left so much notes on that specific area of the Seclusion Zone that looks like a greenhouse lab and were packed with her critters + the imitation of Tayzzyronth (Aeon of Propagation)'s emanator. Compiling them all ↓↓↓

Besides that, they're also mirroring each other so much;

1. Ruan Mei actually didn't want to be part of Genius Society in the beginning yet gaining Nous' gaze. She even tossed the Genius Society invitation letter to trash can when she receive it. Meanwhile Dr. Ratio completed doctoral degrees in 8 fields and actually wish he could be part of the Genius Society one day, but the moment he receive letter from Interastral Peace Corporation (IPC) instead, he thought he might never be able to gain Nous' attention at all.

2. Related to previous part, there is a literal reason why 1.6 patch were named "Crown of Mundane and Divine". These two were more of a 'two pages in the same book' as what my mutual refers it. If you completed the trailblazer mission for patch 1.6, the reward name being "Mundane Recto, Divine Verso". I want to dig deeper about this Recto-Verso concept since it's a printing terminology and it resonance so much with their overall traits, maybe I'll create separated post for this later!

The 'mundane' and 'divine' crown itself is visible on their head, being their hairpins (this is my personal approach);

Ratio -> laurels/leaves ; grows on everywhere on the branch, unnoticed -> the way Ratio saw himself being a mundane between all the mediocre people, not special. Representing Mundanity

Ruan Mei -> flower ; grows near the tip, most of the time one top of tree branches, eye-catching, facing the sky -> Ruan Mei having a goals to be an Aeon, reaching for the sky and getting Nous (Aeon of Erudition)'s attention. Representing Divinity

－－－－－－－－－－－

Fun Fact Section

Ratio literally have a voice line if he were being put in the same team with Ruan Mei + opinion about her 😂 if you want to listen to his voice, check this out. He talks about fellow Simulated Universe participated Genius Society member as well, though. But it makes me freaking ill with the fact that he CHUCKLES a little in the middle of talking when added to the same team with her like I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE LOVER BOY

And to note, Dr. Ratio belongs to another faction under Nous beside Genius Society, the Intelligentsia Guild. And nope, he's not (directly) part of the IPC despite he works for them according to the storyline. I have a professor irl who also works as a consultant for a corporate company beside his academic career, and that's how I kinda view Ratio 'works for the IPC' wording goes :)

Now this is the interesting part comes! Besides him, there's an eye-catching figure who belongs to Intelligentsia Guild, and it's being...Ruan Mei's grandmother! This fact was written on Data Bank, not the playable character section (where you can level them up etc.)

Another fun stuffs I found on Dr. Ratio's lore is the one I highlighted in red;

My theory is that Ruan Mei's grandma might be also part of the rumored council, supported by the fact that Ruan Mei's intelligence were mostly inherited from her maternal line. I can only assume Ratio and her grandma knows each other, and it's potential that Ratio might have heard/know about Ruan Mei not based on other people's view, but from her grandma herself (judging how eager he learns the truth from credible sources). Also here's more thing that makes me hopeful for them;

Ruan Mei's grandma have been watching her for years, and from this, I kinda feel hopeful we're soon getting Intelligentsia Guild lore + further depth about these two characters as I felt like we've only knew them at the tip of an iceberg.

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Also please please try to read fic series made by @clo-verrr (I'll link it down below this post!) her RatioMei (and the other ships) fics are just *chef's kiss* I love her writings so much, and how her approach on these characters if they ever met/knew each other. It is THAT GOOD, you won't regret the reading experiences. Her fic is my roman empire moment for real. Highly recommended reads 🤌🤌🤌

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This is all I can pretty much provide you of why I like this ship. And again, it's all about matters of preference, I love these two characters both as individuals and as a ship, they're very precious to me and I want to continue drawing them even more TwT so thank you so much for asking this question and make me starts my day with joy! Love you muachhhh

[changingplumbob]

6 months in...

Have a teen Cassandra, Devin and Charlie.

Today makes 6 months since I've been posting, and about a year that I've been playing with my rotational save. I'm so happy to finally have people to talk to about my sims so this post, much like my 3 months post, is here to say THANK YOU

Thank you first and foremost for caring about what I have to share into the void. I really didn't think my little stories would gain any followers beyond the people I migrated here from Spoutible with. After all they're sims living simple-ish lives, making their families with less drama than the average story on here. And no tidying up filters or edits. Somehow you welcomed them into your dash and I'm extremely grateful. Thank you for every single like you give. For those that comment, thanks for the chats. For those that want to comment, I promise not to be scary. For those that don't want to comment or don't have time, guess what? I still appreciate you being on this journey with me!

On behalf of my sims, thank you for accepting them. Thank you for understanding they fall all over the map. They have different body builds, genders, romantic attractions, sexual attractions, woohoo drives, are neurotypical and neurodiverse as well as having different moralities (I have an evil sim and a good sim now? Can't remember if they've ever talked but they certainly know of each other). I'm trying to add in more ethnic/cultural diversity where I can but with long lifespans it can take a while.

Between you and me one of my biggest tumblr fears is getting to part 3 of a household only for someone to comment "These ones are so boring, get back to blah blah blah", but... that hasn't happened? Somehow I've been extremely lucky and landed in the part of tumblr where none of you post mean or rude things on my posts. For this I am incredibly thankful.

Thank you for accepting me being me, and everything that entails. Including days where my IBS keeps me from being overly literate. All the cute cats I have no choice but to reblog. Understanding I have no idea how to play tag properly. Not cutting me off for an excessive love of puns and shoving song lyrics into tags. For including me with the boops, virtual flower bouquets, and asks where I can't seem to give a short answer.

Thanks to you for not minding me commenting on your posts. Extra thanks for reblogging the content and stories you enjoy to broaden my horizons.

So until later today (or your tomorrow) when I introduce which household we'll be heading next I decided to do something different. I have on my external harddrive screenshots from when I decided to start writing alongside my sims gameplay. There was some weird happenings way back when so have a flashback or three.

What's that? A couple of you have followed me in the past three months and haven't seen my cat? Let me remedy that! Here she is with one of her two favourite blankets.

EDIT: I'm super nauseous today and will probably be off tumblr while my IBS settles and I have to take her *points above* to the vet because her arthritis meds have her off her food and I want to make sure we're doing what we can to keep up her food intake because she's a delicate 12 year old lady.

[pepperochau]

hello everyone and good afternoon, my name is pepperochau and i am here to talk to you today about the one, the only, the futher mucker itself: dudunsparce. this will be a bit of the read, so follow the cut to see the rest!

majestic, is it not? personally i was not the biggest fan when it was revealed, but it has grown on me since then.

now, there is at current a very strong, loud refrain in the pokemon fandom that dudunsparce is a joke, and was always meant to be a joke. they say "people have wanted an epic dragon evolution for twenty years, and gamefreak has trolled them"; "dudunsparce is supposed to be a bad/lame/dumb design because it's a joke".

however! i disagree. i have been a lifelong fan of dunsparce, ever since i was a young malformed guttersnipe who thought it was a mythical pokemon, and i can safely say i've never wanted it to become a dragon. however, i also have never viewed it as a joke pokemon. so to hear people write off the design of dudunsparce as simply "a joke" has frustrated me to no end. so to you, reader, i would like to provide an explanation for why dudunsparce is what it is—a mess.

so, let's start at the beginning of the line with dunsparce.

many people will look at dunsparce's name and their mind immediately goes to dunce, sparce. and, fair enough, as it does look a bit dopey doesn't it? Other languages also give it names meaning "dumb" or "oafish" like the German Dummisel and the French Isolourdo respectively. now, I cant speak on how strong brand consistency was back in Gen 2, so maybe they were just aping off the same perception most English speakers had of the name. or it is possible that TPCi had always intended this interpretation. who is to say.

but there is a more obvious, widely overlooked aspect of its name: Dun. as in a subadult version of an insect, traditionally used when describing mayflies.

IN FACT this is such an underacknowledged aspect of its name that even on Bulbapedia, one of the most important secondary sources of information on pokemon next to serebii, i was hard pressed to find any mention of it at any point earlier than 2022, in an article revision that SIMILARLY went unnoted and uncommented on.

future editions of this article maintain both definitions of the word "dun".

but with this aspect of its name in mind, you'll notice that the rather un-tsuchinoko-like aspects of its design become more coherent, like its near-useless bug wings and stripey back. because its not just a snake with a fat tummy, but a fat bumblebee as well! wow!!! so cool!!!!!

now that this preamble is out of the way, we can finally move onto the mon of the hour: dudunsparce

pokedex entries for dudunsparce's 3-segment form mention that "the number of segments a Dudunsparce’s body has is determined by the Pokémon’s genes." at first glance it feels like a bit of a lore cop out for a formchange with no effect on gameplay. but remember how dunsparce has some partial insect inspiration? with this in mind, dudunsparce reveals itself to be, first and foremost, a reference to the Drosophila fruit fly's bithorax mutation:

as you can see, sometimes the genes for the termination of the thorax are copied accidentally, resulting in a copied thorax in the afflicted insect! and with "dun" meaning a subadult insect, we can reconceptualize dudunsparce from a simple joke, to a pokemon species whose inherent genetic mutations have kept it from reaching its true adult form! it even has the stripey butt that a fruit fly has!! so cool!!! a bit sad though, don't you think?

but there are still yet unexplored depths to the design of dudunsparce. for example: why does dudunsparce have a two-layered drill tail? why is there a random spiral on its first segment? well, allow me to introduce you to yet another muckerfuther: the cuélebre.

now i know what you may be thinking: this looks nothing like dudunsparce. and certainly, the resemblance is minimal. but allow me to share with you some mythological information about the cuélebre:

The cuélebre is a multi-winged serpent from Cantabrian and Asturian folklore, both of which are regions of modern-day spain.

The cuélebre's impervious scales grow thicker with age

The cuelebre's only weak spot is its throat

The cuelebre lives in deep caves

The cuelebre retreats to Mar Cuajada in old age, a place with diamonds covering the bottom

sound familiar? it should, because you will notice that dudunsparce mirrors all of these traits almost to a T:

Paldea is based on Spain, and Dudunsparce is a fat snake with multiple wings; or, a winged serpent.

Dudunsparce has much bulkier defensive stats than its preevolution Dunsparce (125/80/75 compared to 100/70/65), and has an extra hard "cap" layer on its tail

There is a seemingly random spiral pattern on the underside of Dudunsparce's first segment, or on its throat, regardless of form

Dudunsparce is mentioned by the pokedex to make sprawling nests in the bedrock, and is only find in the wild in Area Zero

The lowest point of Area Zero is covered in large, diamantine crystals

and for the people who still want dudunsparce to be a "joke": the cuélebre isn't even a very impressive dragon in itself: it hoards treasure and fairy women, and if you encounter it on the night of Midsummer, then you can kill it by tricking it into eating a bread or cake that's full of pins or hot irons. the worst thing it does in folklore that i can find is that it floods a town once because they weren't able to give it its daily cow head. the cuélebre is a nuisance first, and a (sort of) dragon second.

now, i don't want to be raining on people's fun, so i'll take a moment to take my lumps: i wasn't able to find very much information on the cuélebre, so there's a strong chance i am misrepresenting the creature here. aso, people are allowed to view dudunsparce as just a joke pokemon, and to like it as sich, and that's fine! i'm not here to tell you how to engage with your hobbies!

but, when i see that being the only reason that people give for liking the design? when i see that being given as the only reason given for why it looks the way it does? when i see pokemon videos on youtube that quickly bring up and then dismiss dudunsparce as a joke as if that was the only reason behind its design at all, without any kind of additional explanation or exploration of the design? it gets a bit frustrating, and tiresome. i mean hell, i maybe spent about three hours total in researching for this post, and i can confidently say that's far more time than all poketubers have spent on it combined.

the short of it os, that there is always more to be uncovered with fictional material. even with something so seemingly simple as a fat, goofy snake.

[psychhound]

ttrpgs in the classroom (part 3)

back with another ttrpg class update!! this post has been Delayed for a while due to grad school craziness but finally sitting down to type it. another one we DID NOT PLAY (my students were so upset) but read as a piece of art and had a discussion on in class

the game:

for our discussion we read what little the flames leave us by @sprintingowl

it's a game about loss and sacrifice where you embark on a doomed quest and lose parts of yourself along the way. the way this is represented in the game? whenever you push the narrative in the way that you want to, you have to set your character sheet on fire, burning away things like bonds with allies and what you're most proud of

the goal:

introducing multiplayer games, continuing our discussion of genre expectations, pushing the assumptions of the medium's restrictions, generating story ideas within a predesigned framework

the methods:

the students all read the game before class, then wrote a short discussion board post, and then came in ready for a class discussion

the discussion board post asked students to write 200-300 words while considering these questions:

How did it make you feel reading through the game?

How did this game challenge your concept of what a game is?

What do you think the experience of playing this would be like?

How do you think the game's mechanics would affect the tone of gameplay and the story?

What sort of stories do you imagine would work best with the mechanics of this system?

How did your opinion of the game grow or change when you looked at the character sheet?

What do you think the game must feel like from the characters' perspectives?

the results:

the discussion went well after i got the students to stop arguing with me about getting to take a field trip off campus to go play!! next time i'm gonna have to be Really specific that we Aren't playing this game before i assign it as a reading

everyone had very interesting things to say about how this challenged their ideas of a game and why. most of the students werent familiar with ttrpgs at all at the beginning of this class, so some of them were really interested in the rules-lite collaborative narrative aspect of it, and others were really interested in fire as a mechanic, and how that represents loss in game

most of the students thought that in-game, it would feel very tragic and high stakes to the characters, though i did have one who thought the characters may be very apathetic and checked out if they were willing to risk all of this for the goal in the first place

we talked about what stories the students would tell with this system, and we had a good mix of answers! the two that stood out to me the most were "murder house", where the goal youre willing to lose everything for is to merely survive the house, and the second which was "a princess leaving the castle", which we discussed was still very much about loss, but in a different way than the other answers of "bank robbery" and "wild west" that we got from a lot of other students

the first header of "it was a pleasure to burn" was also pointed out by a student, and we discussed the parallels with fahrenheit 451, and how the characters in the book lost more and more when they tried to grasp at autonomy and freedom from the ruling power of the story

overall super successful discussion day and i would absolutely assign this game again!! (with a huge disclaimer that we ARENT PLAYING IN CLASS SO I DONT GET SUED)

our first big essay is due on friday so i should hopefully be back with more soon!

[mrchaosman]

Ohh Boy, this one is (probably) will be higt level crack.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Let me introduce you to:

THE DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE THEORY.

Or just Jekyll and Hyde theory, idk.

In this today's subject, I'll explain that (not really) ch 3 secret boss is gonna have a split personality theme or "Jekyll and Hyde" syndrome.

Well anyway, let's dive in:

1: A temporarily allay.

The Secret boss is might gonna be a temporarily allay throughout the gameplay, where they have their own battle icon and such.

2: The light world item:

For this Theory, I will either go with the Book of Hymns or the butterscotch pie, my idea is the secret boss is "almost" forgotten item, plus I think that Toriel didn't read the book of Hymns for like long time, I don't know.

3: Freedom:

Since Jevil seeing himself as the "truly free one" and Spamton want to reach the heaven to be free, the ch3 secret might want to free themselves from their "Evil side", in the og jekyll and hyde novel, Jekyll created the potion to "free" himself from the Victorian society (by becoming Hyde and do all the vile things he could think of).

4: battle arena:

The battle arena is gonna might be something like similar to 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde movie transformation scenes, which is Make-up was applied in contrasting colors. A series of colored filters that matched the make-up was then used which enabled the make-up to be exposed gradually or made invisible. The change in color was not visible on the black-and-white film, showing a photos of either the secret boss or Kris, who knows.

5: Speech Quirk:

They might speak in an old Victorian accent.

6: other things: the idea that seam has said to us that our next enemy (secret boss) is gonna be much powerful and stronger, sounds like something like Mr. Hyde, Hyde is said to be much stronger than Jekyll, as the formula used to induce him was originally supposed to be a vitamin tonic. The limits of his strength are ambiguous but he can very easily throw other people of the same height and weight aside without slowing down and in a fit of rage he can casually break furniture.

7: Soul Mode: I'm gonna go with the switch soul because it "splits" just like how Jekyll splits himself into two people.

Lore:

Well, the secret was used to be an actor to a movie or something by playing the "doctor" in it, however, the movie didn't make it big at all and that made Tenna kicked them out,

While they in their house, they find someone in the room.

They explained themselves to the stranger.

However, the stranger replied that the movie has failed due to "Evil Inside" them, and said that they have to remove it from them totally.

The failed actor, blindly accepts the offer, and the stranger left a note and a strange crystal, the note is a manual for making a "potion", and the crystal is one of the ingredients to make the potion.

They created it and after drinks it, they felt a bit different but other than that, they felt good.

They have returned to the studio to convert Tenna to hire them again, after a little agreement, something happened.......

The Actor's body start changing and their physical appearance, they become from a good old fella to a monstrous animalistic demon, after that transformation, they attacked tenna, and almost destroyed the studio, but after a long battle, tenna and the crew manged to get rid of them and throw them out of the studio.

They have returned to their original self and after long time, they realised that they have been fired and totally been thrown out.

So yeah, that's best I can do for the lore, anyway, some extras for that thing.

Video game:

If you think a bit, what is one of the most forgotten game ever.

Well....

Yup, this one is basically one of the worst pieces of entertainment media ever made, thanks to AVGN for covering it because no one with half a Brain will do that, so, in the case of video game, they might be an mascot for a failed video game and wanted to be known with the "duality" as a trait of their own and stuff.

Friend inside me.

My idea is that the "Evil side" is gonna be something like FRIEND or something like it.

For example, both of Hyde and FRIEND (probably) manipulative and parasitic creatures with no sign of guilt for regret to anything they do or anyone they hurt and damage.

An example for this is with the chair from Spamton Sweepstakes website.

We see two things, the first chair nice, clean chair, while in the other hand, we see a dark, distorted mess of glitch which what used to be a chair.

And here these come to play out.

Let's all say that the yellow eye is the secret boss' original self and the pink eye is the alter-ego (Hyde/FRIEND), just like some covers of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has a line In the middle to separate the two personalities.

And just thinking about it a bit, it might be true say that FRIEND being an anomaly or a parasite is not really a thing to me, because I remembered a sentience that says: You are your own FRIEND.

Well, I don't know about you guys gonna think but yeah.

The fact that ch3 dark world is a tv-themed world, it can to assume that in TV there's many failed tv movies and TV shows, like the jekyll and hyde mini series from 2015.

So yeah.

The Gaster valentine's card:

The qoute: Now Put on your coat and wash your face or Put on your face and was your coat, is something alot of you have noticed and alot has pointed out that the one who wrote the message isn't actually Gaster but someone else, they seem as if they two or more separate people talking in the same time.

I'm not really sure about this one but I'd like to point it out.

The Flower thing:

If it was right, then the secret boss might be an asriel/Flowey knockoff, having an nice and evil personalities.

Also, in Undertale, Asriel referred to Flowey as a separate person, so it might be true to say that ch3 secret boss is might gonna be a hybrid between asriel and Flowey.

And finally: Gaster motif.

Jevil the Gaster eye thing that it is black and then the pupils appears, Spamton's suit has resembles with Gaster's clothes, so I assume that the secret boss for chapter 3 will a physical resembles to Gaster because you know, the science thing.

And here, I made it, My first theory ever, I hope you like it and now, I'm gonna have some rest

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

ATHENA CYKES (ACE ATTORNEY)

1.) Despite supposedly being the MAIN CHARACTER of the game she was introduced in, she somehow still always ends up playing second fiddle to Phoenix and Apollo, to the point where she isn't allowed to take the lead on even so much as a single case. Instead of the senior lawyers standing to the side in a mentorship role like they do for literally EVERY OTHER PLAYABLE CHARACTER, Phoenix and Apollo keep stepping in to outright take over for her. She literally does not make it through even a single case without needing some male character or other to swoop in and hold her hand every step of the way, not only Phoenix and Apollo but once even Blackquill, her rival prosecutor, as well.

Why? It has nothing whatsoever to do with her competence level. It's a video game; her competence is determined by the player's, just like everybody else. It seems like the writers just couldn't STAND the thought of her doing anything on her own, or thought that the players would walk out en masse if it wasn't the Phoenix and Apollo Show every second of gameplay. (And yeah, it DOES sometimes take me some time to warm up to new characters, but that was the case for Apollo too! At least give me the CHANCE to judge her on her own merits rather than assuming that I'll immediately write her off!) Like, why did you even WRITE this character if you think so little of her?

2.) WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN. She's introduced in the middle of a male characters "trilogy" (Apollo justice) so the story is never about her. She appears in aa5 only to NEVER headline her own case IN HER INTRODUCTORY GAME and always fail unless a man comes in and saves her. Her own story is sidelined for Apollos. Next game, she only really appears in one case that's a throwaway and still can't do shit on her own. Ugh. She deserved to be treated better, more competent, etc.

3.) my girl is an attorney and a practicing psychologist at age 18 (youngest defense lawyer in the series) & is often shown to be more competent than her male colleagues, and yet is constantly pushed out/sidelined/generally treated like an assistant character rather than a lawyer (the assistant position in these games is usually reserved for characters who don't have law degrees/are generally not educated enough to understand the courtroom proceedings to their full extent. athena is none of those things but she gets treated the same way by the game because. well. we know why.) Instead of being the main playable attorney in her debut game, the story is taken over by her male colleague (WHO ALREADY HAD A WHOLE GAME DEDICATED TO HIS BULLSHIT BTW) & her development is ignored in favor of his in both her debut game AND her second game. Even when her backstory IS explored it's done via a male family friend of hers, meaning even when her OWN story is being told it's not even about her it's about simon's lame ass. for extra context here in her debut game she is only the playable attorney in one case out of five, while the other (male) playable attorneys were playable in all or all-but-one of the cases in THEIR debut games. capcom hates women sooooo bad

CARMELITA MONTOYA FOX (SLY COOPER)

1.) Carmelita has always been portrayed as a sexy badass, but the fourth game in the series does her dirty. Throughout the game she’s given the “bitchy ex-girlfriend” treatment and is always regarded as an unreasonable nag. In addition, they put her in an impractical miniskirt (previous games had her in pants), and there is a minigame where she is forced to dress like a belly dancer to distract some guards (including prompting the player to have her shake her ass for extra coins) and when she complains about this, nobody listens to her, and is then reduced to the damsel in distress in the final act of the game, when previously she has always been a major help in taking down the final boss. While not the main reason a lot of Sly Cooper fans hate this game, it’s certainly a factor.

[neoaya]

Hot take!!! (Nuclear tbh)

People are way too shitty to the LW devs, especially Yumeno Rote.

This guy is responsible for every single piece of non-story card character art in the game, that includes units, costumes, alts, expressions, Music Video CGs, etc. Seeing as a new unit is released per week, along with 2/4 event costumes and 2/3 rebirth costumes at the end of the month, this guy is at MINIMUM drawing 8 fully detailed illustrations and backgrounds per month, for three and a half years straight.

The only other gacha to my knowledge that has one artist doing all the character art like this is Limbus Company, which even then has a significantly longer period between new art being added to the game. (I'm aware there are likely a lot more, but most to my knowledge have multiple artists)

So when I see a post criticising Lost Word, what do you think is being criticised 90% of the time?

Is it:

The fact it's a gacha game

Genuine criticism of the game itself and its mechanics or story

Hell, even criticism of the questionable work practice of having one guy do all the game's art

If you guessed 4, "near insignificant nitpick of Rote's art, AUs shown, or a VA (in a game where you can pick from 3 for every character) because it doesn't fit within their headcanon in a game about multiple different universes" you'd be correct!

Don't get me wrong, I have seen the first two plenty of times, but they're always either fair critiques or people who just don't want anything to do with gacha games and don't care which is understandable.

But for 4? The sheer amount of hatred and seething vitriol people express for details most people wouldn't think twice about is insane to me. It never seems to come from a sincere place of disappointment but rather fear to fit in, like "Oh this relates to me, I better lay in to it as much as possible since everyone else shits on it, wouldn't want to give people the impression I'm weird for liking it after all". It just seems depressing to me that people feel the need to act miserable out of peer pressure and not wanting to stray from the popular opinion.

As someone's who played the game since launch at this point I feel more than qualified to tell you it's FAR from perfect, hell I wouldn't even call it all that good. Gameplay fluctuates from playing the game for you to forcing you to have a full understanding of the meta, grinding is a chore, drop rates are far too low, the nature of the game forcing normally evil aligned characters to act more reasonably, and I unironically think the lack of representation and downright bad writing for Aya until now is singlehandedly responsible for making her drop by one place 3 years in a row in the THVote popularity poll.

So why do I still play it after all this time? Because I genuinely just want to see what they do next. I like seeing what new takes on characters they come up with, I like seeing where the story goes, what the next event will be and I love Rote's art and all the other art contributed by the JP community, I even think the Hifuu and RoM section of the story is genuinely good. It's nice to have a constant and reliable stream of Touhou media to read through in-between the wait for actual new games.

Somehow I don't feel that guy in the middle would want to come on livestreams 3 and a half years after launch if he didn't find it fun, same goes for all the artists and doujin circles that have contributed their art and music, especially those with more than one card or song.

If you want anyone to blame, blame GoodSmile for publishing this game and making this the complete extent they're willing to promote it and Touhou as a whole. (Last new character from them was a Reisen nendo from six years ago btw!)

In conclusion, I think LW has objectively done more good for the series than harm. You can not understate the fact that this game is responsible for introducing Touhou to so many new people and giving the spotlight to characters that are otherwise overlooked. Inaccurate character portrayals are rarely an issue when the series embraces differentiating itself from the source material, that's the nature of doujin culture. That and it seems silly to try and gatekeep people who got into the series through Lost Word, telling them they're experincing it wrong only serves to turn them away and I don't blame newcomers when official touhou media is still hard to come across in the west and the three most popular games in the series still don't have a digital release.

As a tangent, I used to have a problem with how Aya was depicted in a lot of fan media, even from people here, but a friend taught me I shouldn't let those alternate interpretations ruin my enjoyment of her and that I shouldn't fault them for seeing her that way. I feel others should be able to learn from that.

(I definitely forgot some stuff but this is ranty enough as is, I just wanted to get it out of my system)

[mha-grievances]

So with the way that I talk about Katsuki and MHA, you’d think that I see myself as some sort of armchair critic, someone who constantly has to pick apart everything about whatever media I consume. Oddly enough, that’s not really true. I know how to turn my brain off and enjoy something. I know how to get so wrapped up in something that I don’t notice any inconsistencies. I know how to simply allow suspension of disbelief to take over and let myself have fun. So why do I struggle with MHA?

Let me describe a Video Game I love: Fire Emblem Awakening. Awakening’s perhaps the most popular Fire Emblem game in the series alongside 3 Houses. Despite this, Awakening does have some glaring flaws. The gameplay isn’t as polished as some of the previous and newer games, parts of the story do drag on, and some lore related stuff are just glossed over. What makes Awakening such a beloved game? Well, despite the flaws of the gameplay, they aren’t enough to hinder the overall experience unless you’re an elitist. The world and most of the characters are all super charming, fun, and deceptively well written. Though the game does take a lighter tone most of the time, when it wants to take itself seriously, it will without making it seem awkward. For those who aren’t aware of Awakening, it was meant to be the last Fire Emblem title and it was meant to serve as a celebration of the Fire Emblem franchise. It does all of this fantastically. Despite a basic story and some hiccups in the gameplay, Awakening’s strong points have such a big presence that it makes the game great to play and even to this day it has a big fandom for a game that was released 10+ years ago.

MHA struggles with its tone. It doesn’t know when it wants to be good ol’ superhero fun or if it wants to be this philosophical discussion about heroics and heroes. Moments that shouldn’t be played for laughs are and vice versa. So much things are introduced into the world that when something becomes big, it feels smaller than it should be. Things that should’ve happened a long time ago only happen now and things that shouldn’t have happened persist in the story with no real reason as to why they should happen. Characters come and go, playing no real role, especially those who should have a bigger role, while characters who should’ve taken the backseat a while ago are hogging the spotlight. Some people might say that due to us following MHA in real time, the pacing may seem slower than it actually is and it’ll make a lot more sense once everything’s published and read in one sitting. This excuse doesn’t sit right with me cause I’ve read Webtoons that have weekly updates and were still able to maintain the pace of their story, where I actively looked forwards to reading the next update and seeing how all the pieces fit together. Sure, they may have had slower parts where the story’s just playing with its side characters, but even then, the story is consistently written well to the point where I’ve eagerly kept up with the journey even when my favorite characters weren’t front and center.

To look at an example of MHA’s awkward focus and pacing, let’s look at the most recent chapter. Katsuki’s alive now, and while you might think I’d focus on this, I already knew he was coming back so I’m not going to rant about that. I wanna turn my focus to AFO. AFO’s someone who shouldn’t have this much influence on the story anymore. Reason why? The series was building Tomura up to be the new big bad. Whereas Izuku was going to become All Might’s successor, Tomura was becoming AFO’s successor. Suddenly though, Hori introduces the idea that AFO can just possess people and Tomura suddenly becomes a puppet. Yeah, Tomura was being manipulated by AFO before, but he was finally developing beyond AFO’s influence to become his own villain. All that character development thrown down the drain. Sure, Tomura eventually becomes free from the possession and is fighting Izuku for his own reasons now, but AFO’s hogged up enough of the spotlight doing nothing of importance that I don’t really care for Tomura vs Izuku anymore. Keep in mind that after a ton of chapters we still know Jack shit about AFO except that he’s a power hungry person and had a brother. At this point going over his backstory would be an info dump.

There’s also the issue of AFO’s character in general, and that’s being a physical obstacle for the heroes. Now, there’s nothing wrong with a character existing solely to be a physical obstacle, but you have to pace them well or else they end up like AFO, a character who somehow not only knows everything that someone can and will do, but also whip bullshit out of his ass that keeps him around longer than he needs to be. There’s nothing wrong with an OP character but AFO’s an example on why OP characters have a bad rep. It only gets worse when you remember that he should’ve stayed down so many times but for some reason he refuses to exit the story. All Might beats him and he’s still plotting. Tomura rejects him, he acts like it doesn’t matter. All Might tries to take out AFO with him, somehow AFO was able to counter that. AFO should’ve handed the spotlight to Tomura, but he instead persists on stealing it all for himself.

Anyways, I just wanted to rant some more on MHA’s pacing. Thank you all for reading 😂.

[ouroboros-hideout]

Project Garmr

This is just a wild list of ideas I had after finishing Phantom Liberty and beeing slightly dissapointed how they treated Kurt Hansen as a character.

- Spoilers ahead -

First of all: I love PL but I think it has its weaknesses. But that's for another post.

I am manly dissapointed, that he was introduced as the main antagonist (Myers is the actual villian if you ask me) but got very little screentime or impact on your choices or story imo. He was there, the quests involving him where epic but in the end he just got low to medium depth lore and an unspectacular death. I could rant about the problems I have with the fight (gameplay was sick but the story was meh) or the not-fight if Alex is taking care of him. But that's for another post aswell.

I just want to write down some ideas and headcanons about how things could have turned out differently, if he didn't die.

- I'll give it to V or Alex, that they're actually able to defeat him

- But he'll survive the attack, badly wounded but alive

- He'll then recover in the hospital, maybe getting new chrome to compensate the injuries

If you leave Hansen alive after the fight, you'll later get informed by Mr. Hands that he was assassinated in the hospital.

But what if that's not true. What if Kurt faked his death and spread this missinformation. By placing a body double at his funeral and asigning Bennett and Jago to give the public some drama to make his disguise waterproof but secretly still pulling the strings in the back.

Why? Because it's an opportunity. An opportunity for revenge. Playing hide and seek spygames against the spies and government, who got him into this situation in the first place.

He failed to kill or capture Myers and that's grinding his gears. The grudge he's holding against her is becoming unberable. After Song and the agents of the FIA screwed him over he's more than done fucking around with the marionetts and wants to start a last attempt to kill the puppet master.

He basically wants Myers head on a silver plate.

- This top secret plan is communicted as 'Project Garmr' within the structures of Barghest and Dogtown

- only Kurts most trusted associates know about his plans and that he is still alive

- the risk of someone spilling the tea in the lower ranks of Barghest are to high

- means he needs to get along without the manpower of his militia. At least in the beginning

- in addition to that he doesn't want that his smuggling business or Dogtown in general gets involved too far

- he worked to hard and is proud of his achivements to throw everything into the trash for his personal revenge

- he reaches out to his contacts all over the world, asking around who'd profit from the death of Mrs. President and shifting powers

- all or most of it undercover, so his disguise stays in tact

- building kind of an army

- the course and outcome of this plan would highly depend on the people or organisations Kurt's siding with

-  because after all he wants Myers dead  and in the best case replace her with someone in his favor

- could mean he's 'accidentally' starting the next war or does it in a more discrete manner

- it would suit his character if he used all his wits, instead of just sending some missels to her face. He would not make this mistake again

If this would evolve into a legit fanfic or what ever there are a lot of possibilities to give the Colonel additional lore and depth. For example:

- Meeting people of his past, friends, lovers or enemies alike

- Showing different sides of him (vulnerability because of a trauma or cyberpsychosis or smth like that)

- more of his top tier interrogation skills

- knife fights! Oh yeah

Yeah that's it. For now. A big 'What If'. Don't know, really like the idea somehow. All of it is a WIP that I came up with in the middle of the night but I would like to make it a little project in some way. Even though Kurt didn't had the impact I'd hoped for in the game, he managed to get into the top 3 of my fav chars within the blink of an eye lol.

Side note: Garmr is a dog/wolf mentioned in norse mythologie (who has a lot in common with Fenrir, who is probably more popular). He's described as a fucking huge, blood-stained dog caught in chains, guarding Hel's gate, the door to the underworld. He is ascociated with the beginning of Ragnarök, the final battle between beasts and gods. Once he breaks free from his chains, he's ultimately responsible for plunging the world into chaos.

Think that's an appropriate name Kurt would choose. He's a mythology nerd lol.

Bark. Bark.