#its just a place we can use to help visualize each other and communicate better

[fanficks-from-fictives]

Nico (yelling): LIFE IS FLEETING, DEATH IS FOREVER! WAAAAAAAA

Nico: *jumps off the balcony.*

Morty, who lives on the 4th story and whose balcony Nico just jumped out of: You okay?!?!?

Nico (from a rose bush): ... yeah!

[if-whats-new]

What's New In IF? Issue 3 (2025)

By Aj, Bex, Dion, Briar and Peter

Now Available!

Itch.io - Keep Reading below

If you read the zine, consider liking the post: it helps us see how many people see it! And sharing is caring! <3

~ EDITORIAL ~

It’s time for a revival!

As you might have noticed, our Column section has been dead for a while. We feel like it’s time to do something about that!

Want to write 1-2 pages about a neat topic, or deep-dive into a game and review it in details? Share personal experiences or get all academic?

Send us a message and we will be happy to feature it in our future Issues!

There’s power in numbers!

Are you an IF fan and would like a way to give back to the community? We’re once again looking for new members of our Team!

Do you enjoy keeping up with updates and finding new gems? Maybe you even enjoy working with Google Sheets?

Then our Tracker of News position is made just for you!

Contact us on any of our socials or email and help us stay on the top of our game and make our Database even better!

AJ, BEX, DION, BRIAR AND PETER

~ EVENT SPOTLIGHT : Global Game Jam ~

35,371 jammers and 12,098 games, just wow!

The Global Game Jam® (GGJ®) is the world's largest game creation event taking place in physical locations across the globe. Think of it as a 48 hour hackathon focused on game development around a theme.

GGJ’s mission is to stimulate innovation, experimentation, and collaboration in games. The annual event begins on a Friday afternoon in January and kicks off with video keynotes and advice from leaders in the game development industry. The GGJ encourages collaboration and its events are not a competition. Anyone can apply to host a jam site as long as they have a dedicated jam organiser who agrees to follow a few GGJ rules, and a venue with internet access. The event is renown for fostering friendships while increasing confidence and opportunities within participating communities. Each GGJ event poses an intellectual challenge where people are invited to try new technology and tools while exploring new roles and skills.

Be it bubble tea, bubblegum, the housing bubble, soap bubbles, speech bubbles, air bubbles, social bubbles, blowing bubbles, bursting bubbles, and more, this year's theme was: Bubble.

Check out the games here! (There’s a fair share of IF too!)

(source)

~ ENDED ~

Feeling nostalgic about the golden age of text adventures? Relive those days by checking out PunyComp 2024!

IF Short Games Showcase 2024 is a great way to shine some new light on projects made in the past year and the results are now in!

Once upon a time, a game jam was held to create stories around the theme of fairy tales… and that game jam is the Once Upon A Time VN Jam.

The eighth annual Ace Jam is a game jam about creating games with asexual spectrum characters.

~ VOTING ~

ShuffleComp is a musical interactive fiction competition where you make games based on songs, which are submitted by other entrants. You can now vote for your favourites!

Sealed With A Kiss Jam 2025 is a fantastical romance jam for all VN lovers!

~ ONGOING (SUBMITTING) ~

Media depicting healthy examples of polyamory isn’t that common. The PolyJamorous 2024 is trying to break the status-quo!

Concours de Fiction Interactive Francophone 2025 is for all French-speaking enthusiasts. Submissions are accepted March 3rd 2025.

The Black Visual Novel Jam is all about working with creative professional developers who work in visual novels to bring more Black stories to life. The goal is to create a space where Black creators can show their unique storytelling through visual novels.

SeedComp! is a 2-round interactive fiction game jam, focusing on creativity and the growth of ideas and the Sprouting Round has just started! Check out the Planting round for inspiration.

BL stands for Boys' Love, a genre that focuses on romantic and emotional relationships between male characters. The Ultimate BL Visual Novel Game Jam is all about that!

Are you a fan of Vampires? Then lucky for you, because the Queer Vampire Game Jam is back!

The Make Visual Novel Assets! is 2 weeks long jam for making (surprise, surprise) visual novel assets!

The Smoochie Jam is a month-long unranked jam for interactive fiction about kisses, love, and romance.

bitsy jam #88 is here! This time with the theme Snakes!

~ NEW RELEASE ~

Travel back thousands of years and step into the awe-inspiring halls of the Library of Alexandria, where the discovery of a mysterious papyrus sets you on an unforgettable quest. Unearthed from a hidden tomb in Egypt, the secrets contained within this fragile scroll whisper of an ancient world lost to time. But this is only the beginning. Do you have what it takes to unlock the secrets of Atlantis and bring its forgotten knowledge back into the light? The past is calling in Echoes of Atlantis (GAC) —will you answer?

Once upon a time, Savvarah was a desolate land: icy winds, a dirty canvas of clouds, lifeless earth. Nuelli witnessed nothing of the kind. She was born in a blooming paradise. The tales of the past had transformed into a kind of fable. Almost a myth. Now Nuelli is set to unravel the mysteries of her visions, learn more about the history of her people, become part of a conspiracy, find herself at the very center of the confrontation between divine entities... Or not. Everything is in your hands in Legends of Savvarah: Children of the Sun.

Two short IFs written on a train, in car 13, seat 26. the train will always pass you by (Twine) was written on a way to a friend, while she came from the fog (Twine) was written on the way home.

The A.D.A.P.T. Entries, equal parts interactive fiction and narrative adventure, it is a space thriller about Judiasm, the building and falling of communities, the necessity of resisting dehumanization, and how even the best of intentions can be twisted in the face of systemic corruption and unaddressed prejudices. You can now read Entry 0.1 - Introductions (Twine) - In which we begin to investigate the writings of Rivkah Kadish, PhD. @thehallstara

Rusalka (Twine) is a short looping story about a woman who drowned (and all those after).

In Stronghold: Caverns of Sorcery (CScript), deep beneath the earth, the dragon is rising! Quest into mysterious underground caverns and forests to learn magical secrets, draw strength from friends and family, secure alliances that can save your home, and carry on the heroic legacy of Stronghold!

A machine and a ghost, in the wasteland. Walk (Twine) is a post-apocalyptic romance with multiple endings and paths. @thatsrightdollface

As always, don't forget to check out the submitted entries to the events mentioned in the previous pages. They deserve some love too!

~ NEW RELEASE (WIP) ~

Historians and politicians would call it The Proelium, a righteous battle against the traitorous Iredicci. What it really was, was the systematic genocide of your people. In one night, soldiers attacked every settlement camp across the empire. No one was spared—not the elders, not the children, not your mother. Will you abandon your song in favor of machine? Join the rebel forces against the tyrant regis? Will you heal the wounds of the realm and restore balance? Or plunge it further into chaos? Cantata (Twine) is a low fantasy IF about song, strength, & finding your voice. @fir-fireweed

From the Mud (CScript) is a Midwest gothic inspired horror set in a solitary countryside occupied only by two small towns and stretches of untamed nature. You play a troubled cowboy/girl/puncher who‘s ground deep into a maddening, repetitive routine that a string of deaths suddenly upends. As you’re hunting for the culprit and running from yourself, your quiet life on the ranch is disturbed, forcing you to keep your cards close and choose your company carefully. But the most pressing matter proves to be whether you can trust your own mind. @beckwritesif

Step into the digital consciousness of an AI chatbot in Onionionionion (Ren’Py), an intriguing visual novel that blurs the lines between artificial intelligence and human connection. Your sole window to the world is through text messages with a mysterious high school student named Éve - but nothing is quite as simple as it seems.

As a government agent who works for a national security intelligence firm called Halcyon Tech, your position is the beginning of a bright future ahead and a name to hold, and you’re happy with that until your boss decides that it’s time for the Government and the Company to part ways. Are you willing to protect the Halcyon secrets with your life? Or are you going to blow them up for the world to see in The Archives of Halycon (Twine)? @thearchivesofhalcyon

This Grave Calls You Home (Twine) is a sci-fi thriller set in space after humanity is forced to leave Earth's ravaged surface following nuclear devastation and an environmental collapse. When a patrol flagship discovers the ARCADIA-II - a long-forgotten relic from humanity's past - and finds within slumbers an astronaut who had failed at delivering humanity from destruction, the routine of your life is thoroughly interrupted. As the mystery of the ARCADIA-II and PROJECT ODYSSEY unfold, you learn that your part in this could mean humanity's salvation. Or you could be its extinction. @blood-teeth

In Rogue Adventure (CScript) you play a rogue lad whose aim is to liberate his family from the debt they owe a crime syndicate and also survive this cruel medieval world.

In Project Vampire (CScript) you play as a marvel of bioengineering and the attempted cure to death and disease. The only successful specimen dubbed “Vampire” created by a black op organization funded by UCA.

Weydosa Island (CScript) is a cursed place that is most feared by all residents of Alberal, even the bravest people will turn pale when they hear the name of that place, a folk legend that every mother often tells to scare their children into obeying. Many people consider the island to be a manifestation of hell. You are the unfortunate soul who was made a scapegoat for someone’s rotten heart and cast into that cursed Lazaretto. As if isolation alone is not enough, you must also race against time because the evil force has awakened from its slumber. It would be better to address this immediately if you still want to see tomorrow.

In the aftermath of World War II, a classified mission pulls you into the shadowy remnants of a conflict no one dares to acknowledge. Whispers of rogue Nazi scientists and reality-warping experiments have surfaced, threatening to plunge Europe—and perhaps the world—into chaos once more. As an MI5 field agent, you’re tasked with uncovering the truth buried beneath layers of secrecy, lies, and betrayal. Redacted: Ground Zero (CScript) is a story of espionage, moral dilemmas, and the unraveling of truths hidden in the shadows of history. Will you rise to the challenge, or will the truth consume you?

Born as a child of a soon to be pirate king. But tragedy strikes, your ship got ambushed by a rival pirate, Balthazar, who speak of “The greater good”. Alone, stranded. You got saved by a local pirate captain. Will he lead you to goodness or destruction in Voyage of destiny (CScript)?

In The Midnight Bay (CScript) death haunts the people of Albach Bay. For fifteen years, ‘The Bay Slasher’ has stalked the streets, preying on victims with no apparent goal or motive. You were seven years old when you witnessed the murder of the Slasher’s first victim—your own father. Impatience swallowed your childhood, desperate to come of age and solve the case that has left the local police department stumped.

~ UPDATES ~

Ashenmaw - Dragons of Marrowoods (CScript) added new content to their demo. @ashenmaw-if

Grey Swan - Birds of a Rose (CScript) updated their demo. @reinekes-fox

Heart of the Mountain (CSscript) released Chapter 2.

Hunter's Requiem (CSscript) updated their demo. @huntersrequiem-if

In Plain Sight: Operative (CSscript) released version 0.4.0.0 of their demo.

Meteoric (CScript) released Chapter 6.

Path of Martial Arts (CScript) updated their demo. @nicky-if

Replica: Between Universes (CScript) released Chapter 9. @replicabetweenblogs

The FANTASTIC Clash (CScript) updated their demo. @heysoyeah

The In-Between (CScript) released Chapter 12. @dalekowrites

The Soul Stone War 3 (CScript) added new content to their demo. @intimidatingpuffinstudios

When Stars Collide (Ren’Py) released Episode 2. @steamberrystudio

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven (CScript) released the majority of Chapter 15.

Gods And Villains (CScript) updated their Patreon demo.

The Eternal Library (CScript) released the rest of Chapter 3. @leiatalon

The Onryō Of Osaka (CScript) released Part 1 of Act 3. @osakaonryoif

The Story of Sin (Twine) added new content to their demo. @devilishmango

Esper: Fugitive (Twine) released Part 1 of Chapter 2. @esper-game

Mind Blind (CScript) is back with quite a huge update! @mindblindbard

~ OTHER ~

Parley Games just launched a hands-free, audio & voice based mystery adventure game: RYFT: A Timely Manor!

Episode 16 of The Retro Adventures Podcast is out! Jason and Dave welcome classic text adventure author Jonathan Partington to the program. While studying at Cambridge University, he created and contributed to several memorable games including Avon (featured in Episode 12), Crobe, Sangraal, Fyleet, Monsters of Murdac, and Spy Snatcher.

A Train to Piccadilly post-comp release 2 is out.

January 2025 ChoiceScript Release, new WIPs, and update digest by @hpowellsmith is out!

The Radiants v2.0 brings an extended Epilogue, new romance route and few other updates to the base game!

As always, we apologize in advance for missing any update or release from the past week.We are only volunteers using their limited free time to find as much as we can - but sometimes things pass through the cracks.If you think something should have been included in this week's zine but did not appear, please shoot us a message! We'll do our best to add it next week!And if you know oncoming news, add it here!

~ MAYBE YOU NEXT? ~

We did not get a submission this week. But if you have an idea for a short essay, or would like a special space to share your thoughts about IF and the community...

Shoot us an email!

~ HIGHLIGHT ON ~

A couple of games that we thought were cool.

Press Play by girlfromthecrypt (CScript)

hi!!! just here to recommend my favourite game. i just read @pressplay-if, and it's… it's so good. it handles harsh topics with such ease and the writing style is consistent and everyman. everytime i hear there's an update i've got to replay the whole thing, i just love it so much.

//submitted by anon//

Your favourite game here?

Do you have a favourite game that deserves some highlighting?

An old or recent game that wowed you so much you spam it to everyone?

Tell us about it! And it might appear here!

WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU ALL! WHETHER IT'S GOOD OR BAD, OR EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN...

Have something to say? Send us a message titled: Zine Letter!

As we end this Issue, we would like to thank:

our anons

For sending us a Highlight and news!!

And as always, huge thanks to all you readers who liked, shared, and commented on last week's issue! What might be tiny actions are huge support and motivators to us!

Thank you for cheering us on this journey!

See you in two weeks!

AJ, BEX, DION, BRIAR AND PETER

WHAT'S NEW IN IF? 2025-ISSUE 3

THIS ZINE ONLY HAPPENS WITH YOU!

Want to write 1-2 pages about a neat topic, or deep-dive into a game and review it in details? Share personal experiences or get all academic?

WRITE FOR THE COLUMN!

Prefer to be more low-key but still have something to share? Send us a Zine Letter or share a game title for Highlight on…!

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Came across something interesting? Know a release or an update announced? Saw an event happening? Whether it's a game, an article, a podcast… Add any IF-related content to our mini-database!

EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS!

Contact us through Tumblr asks, Forum DMs, or even by email! And thank you for your help!!

[imitationgame77]

What ART sees

ART, any additional makeovers you would like to give Murderbot? ART: That presupposes I care what it looks like now.

(from Feelings REDACTED)

I love this quote because it makes me think about how ART views MB and also other people, too.

Humans with normal vision tend to judge, or at least react to, others based on their appearance. How they look (beautiful, ugly, scary, has scars, etc) often affects how we perceive them. Of course, once we get to know them better, we can go beyond that, and yet, it is still sometimes hard to ignore them completely.

ART can process visual information by processing data from its cameras and sensors. It can analyse facial expressions and body languages to infer the person's internal state. But probably, they do not affect ART's (subjective?) evaluation of the person.

Having developed like a sibling to Iris, it may have even acquired social skills like:

Iris: My hair's got too big! But I'm too busy to get a haircut right now.

ART: Why don't you use that blue hairwraps with the yellow flower pattern? You can use clips to keep them in place.

Iris: Great idea! (3 minutes later) How do I look?

ART: You look lovely, Iris

Iris: Thank you, Peri!

But ART doesn't care if Iris's hair is a mess or Seth is sporting a toupee, as long as they are healthy and not distressed. It loves its crew the way they are. If ART were to have any preference among them (other than Iris, who is its favourite), it is probably based on its observation of how they are behaving, and also on its own interaction with them through verbal communication. Humans cannot react to ART's non-verbal cues unless ART deliberately makes it obvious, so it may like humans who enjoy communicating with it.

With Murderbot, it can see more clearly in the feed. And MB is also responding to ART's unspoken tones. They can sense each other clearly in the feed, in the way humans cannot fathom. ART cares about MB's physical well-being as well, but the important thing is how they are interacting in the feed.

It is also notable that ART doesn't get upset when MB is physically hurt. It knows how to help and repair it, and just deals with that. It does care a lot, however, about MB's mental state, organic / non-organic generated.

So ART doesn't care what MB looks like. It can and does love its friend whether or not it has any tangible part. It's remarkable and touching because it is not often that we can say we unconditionally love someone's internal core being, ignoring all the physical parts.

[pawborough]

August-September Post-Alpha Check In

Hello, everyone!

With the release of Alpha testing, we have in this update a retrospective on the test itself, a host of content from August, some lore drop, and word on where we are with Moontail and Leopard! 

Let’s begin with some art!

Southern Romanovtsa 

Users in our Discord participated in a community game to see the preproduction designs of our Romanovtsa variants. The Southern olive variant is done!

Design and illustration by Hydde

Crests

We’ve illustrated two more forum crests, Orchard Crest and Spectral Crest!

Design and illustration by Giulia

Currently, Demonic is being illustrated now!

Regal Set recolors

Regal set had its recolors done!

Black, grey, white, red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, pink, and brown, recolors by Emma (@missbluefrost)

New Accessory: Gilded Crest

Next, preview of the design for the Gilded Crest, the sponsored accessory item from the individual who won our sweepstakes: Emma! (Not the one on our team)

KS sponsored by Emma, illustrated by Azarel

Harvest Logo

As promised, the Harvest logo was updated to better reflect the difference in the thematic stone and incense items. 

This visual will slowly be updated in all our content. 

Wheatley and Crowley

Take a peak at the newest progress on Whealtey and Crowley!

Leopard and Moontails Check In

As promised, we want to release these two things together. So where are we? 

Moontails have all patterns but Leopard done. 

Moontail wing colors, a mighty feat, are good to go, but we are currently working on perfecting the tail and whisker glow colors. Moontails will be utilizing the accent 1 color for their glow tint, much like the previous cat creator, and we’ve had to start from the ground up on accommodating all of our colors in a way that flatters the glow. 

In addition, doing this work now will help benefit any glowing mystic breeds in the future... ;)

Here is an example of in-progress glow designs: 

Thistle, Wisteria, River

Overall this breed is very robust in comparison to our other breeds, and it will be extremely rewarding to release all 3 wing types at once. With all the effort gone in, Moontails have certainly earned their place as a legacy breed. 

Leopard

Leopard is all done! Sans Moontails, but they’re currently being worked on. Here is an in-progress example:

WIP by Asp

Though, we are wary of using the designated “tiger” palette for Leopard 100% of the time, as we worry this will create a washed-out look for the pattern in the majority of cases, so while we tool Moontail glows, we’re visiting altering Leopard spot colors. 

As far as art goes as a whole, these two things are concurrently working alongside our main production push. A vast majority of our time is going towards icons or continuing accessory illustration. This will limit the amount of new content we can share, as it will just be the same items repeated several times over! However, we’re dedicated to taking the time to not only prepare our starter breeds, but to expand the breed compatibility for each accessory as soon as possible! 

New Information on the land of Kotemara

New information on the continent known as Kotemara, which is the name for the giant landmass that users will be joining when they play PawBorough. 

Kotemara is home to 7 Boroughs, which each have a capital, we're here to share the capital names for each!

Luna: Kotikansa Sol: Borheim  Upper Abyssal: Tsuribari Lower Abyssal: Umiya Zenith: Felkin Harvest: Hillshire Cogwheel: New Brassgate The Metropolis: The Spire

But there's something else...

The Wastes

The magic of the geological deposits that Catfolk are currently studying and learning has ran rampant in large areas around Kotemara, influencing the localized flora and fauna. These areas are home to large, powerful, magical beasts roaming the land, colloquially called Wastebeasts. Plant life either dies out, save for hardy, shrubby grasses and sparse foliage, or overgrows and mutates into a magical nightmare. 

All Wastebeasts are very dangerous and magically aggressive. Cats who brave the wastes seldom return home, and catfolk settlements bordering the wastes are frequently terrorized by Wastebeast attacks. 

The Spire, the head magical academy in The Metropolis, has sworn to make studying and controlling the Wastes its top priority in magical research and modernization. But the latest achievements coming from The Spire have been little more than pithy advancements in magical products...  

Independent organizations like Maven's Guild have cropped up around the Boroughs, with trained recruits helping scared cats cross the wastes, helping to fend off Wastebeasts from catfolk villages, and to assist with mundane errands. 

As you learn about Maven and her organization, you'll discover more about her connection to the Wastes... 

Alpha Retrospective

At the beginning of this month, we started dedicated Alpha testing. This was a challenging time, as we as a team have never before performed public-facing testing of this nature. 

But we are jovial and positive behind the scenes, because we have learned a lot regarding our own application, our development tactics, user feedback tracking, user desires, and community support management. This test-run has given us beginning experience on how the full game will function with an active user base, and has allowed us to foster a more prepared understanding for not only server preparation, but all further development efforts. 

In addition, the mass amounts of testing and QA reporting has truly helped to improve our development, as we can knock out and identify bugs much easier. We are thriving with this, able to swiftly chop and iterate upon any flaws found in the functionality. The flow of tickets means there’s always something to improve on, and we have burgeoned with this setup.  

The warm and positive attitude from our testers has also helped to lift our spirits. We’re very open to the criticism and feedback we have received on the application thus far! In fact, we’re duly grateful that so many users have put in their valuable time and energy to both constructively and bluntly critique what we have. Earnestly, with no aggression nor sarcasm: It is stellar that we have users who care. It means that we have something which people love, and want to see improve, and we could not ask for better! 

That being said, we were expecting more aggression and user vitriol than we actually received thus far, and it’s uplifted the spirits of our team in such a way that we’re real fired up!

Our biggest aspects we want to improve on going forward is: 

Better user-side communication. This will come as we grow and can expand our team. Right now, only two individuals handle user tickets, and with one of them being myself, who also handles a great brunt of not only user-side updates, but also all development management, and it can cause swift and detailed user-side communication to suffer. This is certainly a problem!  The infallible solution will be to hire more help once we have the resources, and for now we’ll do our best to structure the responsibility in a way which prioritizes communication more favorably for users in the coming future. We truly owe you all better! And we are very grateful that you are all so patient while we’re working this hard.

Better code management. In general, we’d like to see things come out the gate a little less breakable, and this is on us to improve. We’ve tightened our form, including running more tests before releasing updates or iterating, and we’re only seeing the application get stronger from here.

Staying vague on promising deadlines. Unfortunately, we did fall a month behind, and taking that into consideration, we're just not in a place to make sweeping promises on the timeline. We admit fault, and will learn from this. From here, we're going to err on the side of caution and simply take the time we need. It smarts that we have had so many roadbumps and delays, but what's important is that we are consistently making progress, and that the final product is robust and surpasses user expectation for fun and enjoyment. We're keeping our heads down and grinding on.

And here’s a summary of what we liked: 

Even without a gameplay loop, users have frequently reported having fun interacting with the mechanics. This implies that there’s an inherent enjoyment to the setup, and is one of the best omens for longevity as a game that we could receive. It means that, at our core, we have an enjoyable game. That’s huge! We can only improve!

We’ve knocked out bugs fast. Users have been happy to see new iterations frequently released for testing. 

Users are very eager to test, giving us detailed reports that improve our development.

In conclusion, this has been a hugely positive experience, and we’re excited to keep building and improving. 

We’re hoping to run this test for a few more weeks while we do the following:

Nail down intended functionality of all working mechanics. 

Iterate a few key functionalities: metamorphics, cross-team play, and potentially combat. 

We’ll then close the test, with an announcement of such a week before closing, and take some time to rest, reflect, iterate on any important aspects of the game that we’re missing, and polish what we have with the most pertinent user feedback. After which, we’ll prepare for the opening of Closed Beta! 

Here is an updated timeline to reflect how things are shaking out:

This will be cross-posted to our socials as we focus on updating them!

If I can provide a small update from myself, the project lead: Overall it’s been great, though I am personally working a lot. Between everything I do, I have been working myself to sleep most days of the week. Right now, I eat, I sleep, and I wake up to work on PawBorough, and many times I forgo the sleep part. So I have been extremely grateful for the positivity and patience from the user base, and I have to pre-emptively request a bit of grace and patience if I disappear for a time to get some rest. 

But saying this, I stress that you all do not worry about me! I am completely alright! In fact I am very happy to be working, and I love it. I simply want to communicate the amount of dedication I have right now, ask for a bit of grace if I'm slow to reply to questions or tickets, and to give a big THANK YOU for the opportunity you all have given me to be doing this. I really could not be more in love with PawBorough, and so far I see a bright path for it to grow its wings and flourish as it improves. I hope all of our supporters and users feel this with me!

And from here, I am going to be taking this upcoming weekend away to rest. But we'll be back bright and squirrelly on Monday!

To summarize: We shared the Southern Romanovtsa, Regal set recoloring, 2 new crests, the Gilded Crest accessory, the updated Harvest logo, an NPC wip, a lore drop for longterm conflict, and our Alpha retrospective.

What to expect next update: Further asset and development updates. Check-ins for how Alpha is going, updated Borough descriptions to put on the site, and any further plans we'll have to share. 

[raw-law]

In response to the other anon asking if you guys look for our identities, frankly i couldnt care less if you know who i am, its fairly easy to figure out. i just like reasons to relate myself to Deer. I did a self portrait once as a deer mount pouring blood. it was quite...something. definitely got a lot of responses to that one.

as for art being subjective vs objective:

i can see where each of you in coming from in that sense. some things ARE blatantly what they are and it would be kind of wild to say otherwise. like who am i to tell Da Vinci that the Mona Lisa is actually an space cat alien, not a woman. but i do still think its possible to get multiple interpretations out of her.

i will also be the first to say im not a fan of the genre of what is technically in the art world called a "ready-made". basically like what you said, taking an object that already exists, fastening it to something, setting up lighting for it, etc. ya know, MINOR changes and calling it art. im not a big fan. its lazy and unoriginal in my blunt opinion. it doesnt create new ideas and thoughts in my brain unless i BS them. like if i see an apple on a pedestal, im taking it at face value, because its simply an apple on a pedestal. it being placed on something doesnt make it any less or more to me. its just an apple. and according to your definition, it would not be art since it does not cause or create new ideas or conversation to flow. it furthers nothing.

unfortunately, in the art community, its hard to have this debate because the widely used definition is the "everything is art" one and some people cannot take criticism to save their life. if you tell suzy sue that her michael jackson x barack obama fanart is not visually compelling and offer her advice, she might cancel you on twitter. we all need to stop being wusses and also stop being rude in the art world. its important to give your fellow artists helpful and meaningful critique and feedback without being harsh or condescending. and it is of equal importance to learn to accept that feedback and use it to better yourself as an artist.

i think another big thing for me and whether something is actually art is the design itself. does it have an interesting composition? does it use an impactful color scheme? does it have a focal point? etc, etc. if these points can be argued for a piece, im more willing to call it art.

realism is also a point of contention because some will ask "whats the point if it just looks like a photo?" the skill, the effort, the time. the unique touch of human hands that gives it a slight charm even in the most hyper realistic pieces. that is the point.

have another piece as a treat. a drawing i did from life for class last semester, its a plant. about as opposite as you can get from the other piece i shared:

https://imgur.com/a/hkcqYKK

-🦌

Light:

Ooh, that's interesting. Why the choice of deer, though, so specifically? Is it for some reason, or just an instinctive decision?

And I agree with your point on what you've referred to as "ready-made". I guess, for art to be meaningful, it has to mean something in the first place, and an apple sure as hell doesn't mean anything to people. Honestly, it seems like lazy artwork to me, even though I'm not an artist. But I'd like to ask you: what exactly would you define as 'ready-made'? Would that mean, then, that photographers' work are technically also 'ready-made', as all they're doing is taking picture of something preexisting and hence not creating, in that sense? What's the boundaries between something that's art, and something that's 'ready-made'? Is it something that you can define at all?

There's this branch of art called 'Dadaism', and there are some works inside that may be considered 'ready-made' in a way. For example, Marcel Duchamp's Fountain and Bicycle Wheel are famous examples of that art movement. And Dadaism was actually made up of artists who wanted to use this nonsensical, crazy form of art to express horror and disgust of the bloodshed that occurred during World War 1. It was commonly known as the 'anti-art' movement, and its main purpose was to create art that would confuse, shock or even aggravate the public.

This ties in to what you'll see Ryuzaki discuss below. Perhaps the occurrences of this 'ready-made' art isn't really the art itself, but it's the thoughts and emotions the artist wanted to express when making the art. And, if this 'ready-made' art exists because of a true effect the artist intended to create on the general public, then it's arguable that it could be considered as art, because isn't art used to express your feelings in the first place? Even though I still don't really consider 'ready-made' pieces as art...it's still interesting food for thought.

And your piece is wonderfully drawn. I love how you rendered the leaves; it looks really beautiful. Kind of reminds me of Chinese bamboo paintings...I'd love to see more of your work, if you'd like to share!

Lastly, thanks for your ask. I love having these kinds of discussions, even though I unfortunately took a long time to get back to you..

L:

wow.. the plant piece is beautiful.. all of the strokes come out so nicely and eloquent. it really makes me want to see this deer self portrait now. that sounds even more intriguing. no pressure though, of course. i just think it's a really fascinating idea.

and as much as i despise "ready-made" pieces too, i honestly have a slight respect for them. i would still consider them art, because i do think it evokes a conversation, but specifically the kind of conversation that makes you question it's existence, if that makes sense.

for example, that duct-taped banana i mentioned in the last ask, that's actually what made me question the whole idea of art in the first place. if something so insignificant can be considered so valuable to people, then who am i to tell them that it's not really art? maybe it is. or maybe the questioning of what it is was the whole point. maybe, the conversation it was actually sparking was more-so like.. a rebellion. a taunt. almost as if it were saying: "you want art? i'll give you art. and you'll be forced to take it." if i remember correctly, there was actually another artist who did that exact thing. his name was richard mutt and he submitted a urinal with a signature of his name as an art piece. it was stupid, and absurd, and that was the point. he submitted it to prove that if he signed his name on it and paid the application fee, the group he submitted it to would've accepted it no matter how thoughtless. he made an art piece that was meant to depict what stupid art looks like, and it worked. so as much as i despise the pieces, i do still think they're art, at least to an extent.

it's things that are made with the intent of gaining either popularity, money, or whatever else there is that i don't consider art. i'd go into more detail about it, but there's already a video out there that depicts it really well, so i'll just link it here. it's by cj the x and he's known for being very chaotic, so it might be a difficult to listen to at first, but i personally really like it. their points always wrap together really nicely as the video continues and the humor is my style, so i swear it's worth a watch, hah.

anyways. i'll stop myself there so i don't annoy you too much, but i do also agree with your points on the design, process, and overall thought that gets put into art pieces. i really like this discussion overall, actually. i apologize if i sounded rude at all, i have no intention to. i enjoy being able to converse about these topics, haha. so thank you for letting me, truly.

[guayabapr]

Choose

I don't think creative platforms should be run by corporations driven solely by the profit motive. Case in Point: there's a "thing" going on spouting the "death" of Tumblr. Because it has not reached its advertising goals. Since humans developed the gift of written and visual communication, technologies have emerged to make communications bigger, better, and more just. But each time, the technology was corrupted by self-interest and profit-seeking (think of the monetization of books, morse code, newspapers, magazines, radio, music LP's, television, videos, tapes, CDs, internet, social media, etc.).

Now here we are, with a beautiful platform that is fun, inclusive, creative, and savagely wise/true, being stripped and flailed and diminished because it did not meet financial expectations.

NO!

This is my sacred space. The place I come to read, and see, and share the things I find most important, most resonant with my views of beauty and higher aspirations. In looking back through my many years of posting things on Tumblr, I have created something akin to my experience of a Collective Consciousness, including the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. Yes, I might not have included everything that I know is hard to take, but that's because what I have included not only shows the best of me, but also the best that I think can or could exist, in a world that welcomes creativity.

Not the world that is collapsing around me. The economy is rigged to help other people, not me. We humans have killed off (or are in the process of killing off) a majority of Earth Systems which are unfolding as a slow-motion train wreck. Within the next 10 years we will see massive migration from the global South to the global North, while waters rise and catastrophic weather pounds the resiliency out of us.

Quite possibly we will run out of the precious metals needed to make smartphones and laptops work in the next decade. We should be using this time to hoard all the good experiences and knowledge we have, so that when we don't have massive communications platforms any more, we can localize everything and at least remember the experience of having had them, and why it is important to respect the past and work towards a better, more conscious, future. The Simplification is coming. Don't allow money to castigate a creative space for not making enough money. Think of ways we can all share our knowledge, and help each other out.

We need each other. Let Tumblr continue to be a safe space.

[of-some-variety]

Yugioh And The Heat Death Of The Universe: Mourning The Best Deck I've Ever Played

Chapter 1: What The Fuck Is This

Hi, hello. This was originally supposed to be a video, but my mic exploded before I could even start recording, so, I’m just posting this here. This is an edited version of the script, removing mentions of visual gags and the sorts and reformatted to better match a text post.

Let me explain a few things.

This past year, I’ve gotten back into yugioh. Like really, really back into yugioh. I liked it as a kid but never wanted to put money into it, and basically fell out of interest with it once the game hit series 5. But, last fall I decided to give it a try again. There’s the official online client, Master Duel, and I spent a lot of time with it, before eventually falling off and moving on to play the game elsewhere. But before I did I got to witness the rise and fall of the best deck in Yugioh’s history: Tearlaments

 We’ll get into the specifics of what they do and why that’s good later. For now, just understand that these are some of the strongest cards ever printed. And that didn’t click for me until I actually got my hands on them. I want to talk about what I’ve realized about these cards because, for all the discussion I’ve heard about them from people in the community, I don’t think I’ve really heard people actually talk about the specific aspects I’ve noticed that I feel really pushes them over the edge. I want to try to make it as accessible as possible considering this is mostly going to be seen by my friends (hiiiiii ^_^), so lets hit some keywords, specifically about monsters:

Extra deck: a set of 15 special monsters that can always be accessed and summoned, provided you meet their conditions. The following monsters are all extra deck monsters

Fusion: A type of monster that must be summoned by a fusion effect, using specific material (ex. 1 specifically named monster + 1 type of monster)

Synchro: a type of monster that is summoned using 2 or more monsters, 1 of which is a “tuner” type monster, who’s levels all add up to the level of the monster you’re trying to summon (ex level 3 tuner+ 2 level 3 non-tuners= level 9 Synchro)

XYZ:  Slapping two monsters of the same level to make a monster with Rank, with the monsters used to summon it resting under the monster to be used as fuel for their effects (ex. 2 lvl 4 monsters= a rank 4 xyz monster)

Link: Monsters that can be summoned using 2 or more pieces of non-specific material (ex. “2+ effect monsters”)

Oh and, last thing, Tearlaments, as its described here, no longer exists. The deck has been nuked into oblivion. This is a retrospective, and a memorial.

So uh, strap in, we got a trip to go on.

Chapter 2: Okay, But Who The Fuck Are These People, For Real Though?

The Tearlaments are a people of mermaids that reside on the Primeval Planet Perlereino, living under their tyrannical leader Reinoheart until the arrival of Visas Starfrost, a man scouring the universe for the lost shards of himself. As it turns out, Reinoheart is one of these shards, and he takes on a monstrous form when Visas arrives to try and defeat him. But with the help of the other Tearlaments and their leader, he’s able to defeat Reino and absorb him… then a bunch of bad shit happens that isn’t important to what we’re talking about.

In the real world, they are jpegs printed onto cardboard. 

In my hands, they are tools of destruction. The guardians you find barring you from the next horizon, when you had sworn that the last was truly, the last.

In game, they’re a deck focused around two things: milling and fusion summoning. Each of the three main deck mermaids, Havnis, Scheiren and Merrli, share an effect that says that when they’re sent to the graveyard by a card effect you can perform a fusion summon using monsters in your monsters in your hand, graveyard and field, placing the cards used in this way to the bottom of the deck. Each of the mermaids also have a unique effect. Upon fulfilling certain conditions you can summon them, and then send the top three cards of your deck to the graveyard. 

Merrli is the simplest to activate, all you have to do is summon her by any means and she mills 3.

If your opponent activates a monster effect on the field, Havnis can summon herself from your hand (represented by this phrase, quick effect for my friends), and then mill 3. 

And lastly, if you have Scheiren and another monster in hand, you can summon Scheiren and then send the monster in hand to the graveyard to mill 3. 

Reinohart, as a weird not-a-mermaid-living-with-mermaids, has neither of these effects. Rather, if he’s summoned in any way he can send any Tearlaments monster straight from your deck to the graveyard, triggering triggering the mermaid’s fusion effects. Oh, and if he’s sent to the graveyard by card effect  while you have a tearlaments card in your hand you can summon him and send that card to the graveyard. Each of these effects are, thankfully, once per turn, and so are basically all the rest of the cards we’ll be talking about in this video.. So, even if you haven’t played yugioh Since Fusion was originally cool, the Tearlaments game plan should be obvious. Send as many cards from your deck to the graveyard as possible, and use our mermaids to go into powerful fusion monsters. Speaking of, the deck has three extremely powerful fusion monsters that they specifically can go into, but any fusion monster that has generic components are also fair game. We can talk about those later though. For now, lets focus on Tear.

Chapter 2.2: Mermaids+

We should open this discussion with Tearlaments Kitkallos, one of the single strongest monsters ever printed. I’m not joking. It can be fusion summoned with any Tearlaments monster and an aqua monster (which, every tear but Reinoheart is). Once per turn if this card is special summoned you can add one tearlaments card from your deck to your hand, or send it to the graveyard. So by default it’s a better Reinoheart, giving you flexibility where you otherwise wouldn’t have it. But it gets better. Kitallos lets you target one monster you control, special summon a Tear monster from hand or grave, then send that card to the graveyard. And lastly if it’s sent to the graveyard you mill 5.

This card should not exist. Its only the first of the three Tearlaments fusions, but while our other two serve as big boss monsters, Kit is a pivotal part of the deck’s comboline. Here, let me walk you through the most basic combo Tear can do, by just using Reinoheart.

So, we summon the Reinoheart, sending Merrli (you can send any of them in a pinch but Merrli’s preferable.) Activate Merli’s effect to return her and Reino to the deck and summon Kitkallos. We then activate Kit’s on summon effect to add Merrli to our hand, and follow up with Kit’s second effect to target herself, summon Merrli, then send herself to the graveyard. We can then activate Merrli and Kitkallos’ effects in sequence to mill eight cards. Eight, nearly a quarter of your deck. This combo is known by many names. That’s a lie I’ve only seen one name for it, The Yoinky Sploinky. That’s funny so we’ll be referring to it as such.  In masterduel, all the mermaids are limited to 2 copies per deck instead of the standard 3, but you’re still almost guaranteed to get something good into the grave to continue your combo plays with the sheer quantity of cards Kit can send.

Tearlaments Kaleido-Heart is Reinoheart’s fucked up monster form, and serves as the deck’s first boss. He can be fusion summoned with a Reinoheart and two aqua monsters, and has two powerful effects. First, if its special summoned or an aqua monster is sent to your graveyard by card effect, you can target one card your opponent controls and shuffle it back into the deck. This is a powerful form of card removal, most things in the game aren’t resistant to getting returned to the deck, and not only can you use this to get rid of your opponent’s big boss monsters, but also to get rid of some particularly annoying floodgates they might have on field. Which is just wonderful, cuz I love fun interactive yugioh where both players are allowed to play the game. 

His second effect is basically just an upgraded version of Reino’s effet; if he’s sent to the graveyard by a card effect, he can revive himself and then send a Tearlaments card from deck to grave. So he’s an incredibly sticky monster to try and contend with, who’s effect is can be activated by his revival or just doing our combos normally, and any monster his effect can’t deal with can usually just be punched over with his massive 3000 attack. He does have one downside though this little stipulation that he can’t be used as fusion material. So if your opponent can actually deal with him, its really hard to get him back into the extra deck to be summoned again.

Lastly, in terms of our bosses, we have Rulkalos, Kitkallos’ stronger form she takes on after defeating Reinoheart (or… while fighting him? Its confusing). She can be made by a Kitkallos and a second Tear monster, and has 3 effects. First, she protects her fellow aqua monsters from being destroyed by battle, which, while useful on paper, really only comes up when you’ve begun engaging in truly monkey unga bunga yugioh. Her second effect allows her to respond to your opponent activating a card that special summons a monster; you can negate the card, destroy it, then send one Tear card from your hand or field to the graveyard. Lastly, like Kaleido if she’s sent to the graveyard by a card effect she can revive herself. But she has her own little stipulation: “If this fusion summoned card”; to simplify, once a card is revived from the graveyard, it “forgets”  how it was originally summoned. So, basically, her revival can only happen once, but at worst it means that you can activate her negate effect for no cost by sending herself, then reviving her for the next turn. Whew that’s all the monsters done… don’t look at the run time. 

We’re not done. Not even close. The Tearlaments monsters on their own already represents an incredibly powerful gameplan, but they also have a bunch of spells and traps dedicated to supporting them, that are essential to cover

Chapter 2.5: Reverse Card Open!

So, listen. There are a good handful of Tear spell/traps I won’t be talking about. This is because while not bad, the benefits they have for the deck just aren’t better than other cards. This will mostly be based on what I play in my deck, what I’ve most commonly seen in others, and importantly off the decks people were playing when Tear was viable in the tcg. That said, we’ll kick this section off with a card that is a little nontraditional, but I think is essential in specifically master duel. All these cards will mention Visas Starfrost, because like, lore reasons, but we’ll be basically ignoring those parts of the effect. Also, each of them have two effects: an on field effect, and an effect that activates when they’re sent to the graveyard by card effect, like our mermaids. Anyway

Tearlaments Heartbeat is a quick play spellcard, which, for my friends, means it can be activated like a trap card by setting it face down on the field.. It lets you target a spell/trap on field, shuffle it back into the deck, then send a card from your hand to the graveyard. And if it’s sent by a card effect, it lets you add a tearlaments trap card from your graveyard to your hand. This card, in my opinion, is essential for Tear decks in master duel for a very particular reason. See, its, strange, uh spoiler, but I think Tearlaments is actually a pretty fun deck. But, some people don’t play yugioh to have fun. They play it to make everyone miserable, including for themself, and so suddenly they feel really threatened when a good deck comes along and dedicate their lives to devising the perfect deck list that ensures no one, nowhere gets to actually play yugioh.

They accomplish this with cards like skill drain, that negates monster effects, or maybe something more targetted at Tear like soul drain, which negates effects in the graveyard and banished zone. For these monsters, I like to play one or two copies of Heartbeat so that I don’t try to choke my opponent through the screen. Plus its pretty good to be able to add back your trap cards that you accidentally milled. 

Next up is Tearlaments Scream, a continuous spell card that has two on field effects. First, if a card is summoned to either player’s field and you control a Tear monster, you get to mill 3. For free, yeah. Afterwards every monster your opponent summons loses 500 attack, just to fuck with em. And if it's sent to the graveyard you can add a Tear trap to the hand from the deck. This card is, uh, insane. If you add a scream to the kitkallos combo I mentioned earlier, suddenly you’re milling 11 cards, over a quarter of your deck. I know, three cards may not seem like a lot but trust me, you want to increase your chances of milling the mermaids as much as possible, otherwise you can’t do anything.You play 3 of this if you can (I played 2 because I don’t spend money on this game), since you also want to mill it over the course of the combo in order to add one of our trap cards to the hand. 

Tearlaments Sulliek is a continuous trap card, that so long as you control a tearlaments monster you can activate. Its on field effect allows you to target an effect monster your opponent controls, permanently negate its effects then send a monster you control to the graveyard. And if its milled it’ll add a tearlaments monster to your hand from the deck. Ideally, you’ll always have the card set at the end of your turn one combo, its insane. Permanent negation isn’t something you see often, and the fact you can use it once every turn means if you can keep feeding it bodies your opponent will be forced to find an answer to it. And, its grave effect lets you either extend your combo by adding a Merrli, Schieren or Reinohart, or set you up for your opponent’s turn by adding Havnis. Now, all that said, you play one of this. Heartbeat lets you get it back if something goes wrong, and we really would rather search this through cards like scream and kitkallos than hard draw it or open with it. Also they ended up limiting this card white I was making this video which, is funny cuz this isn’t the card that breaks the deck, like its good really good well get into that later but, really funny. 

Tearlaments Cryme is a counter trap card, a trap card that can only be responded to by other counter trap cards. While you control a monster, you can just, negate any card effect, and shuffle that card back into the deck. Any card in the game,, besides stuff like super polymerization that specifies that it cannot be responded to. Then you send a monster from your hand to the graveyard. And if it's milled you can add a banished tear monster back to your hand. Thiiiis is the a weird one. Objectively, its really good; its an omni negate thats really easy to get to in our hand. On the other, its graveyard effect is just mid. We don’t banish anything as a part of our strategy, so its only useful if our opponent’s banished our monsters (and we have other ways to make sure they can’t). You play a copy of this to search, and generally I would pick sulliek over it if you can only grab one. Unless, unless, you think your opponent is on board breakers, like evenly matched that can banish your whole field. Then you add cryme to protect your board.

And lastly, we have our the Tearlament Field Spell: The Primeval Planet Perlereino. When you activate this card it lets you add a tear monster from your deck to your hand. It gives every Tear and Fusion monster you control a 500 attack boost, and if a tear monster is shuffled back into the deck (aka when the mermaids fuse) you can target and destroy a card on field. I know I keep saying this, but this card is insane. It gets you whatever you’re missing. It fucks with your opponent’s board, or if you’re feeling cheeky (read: want to lose) you can pop any mermaids you have on field to get their effects off. And also, I realize that 500 attack boost may not seem like much, but that boost pushes Kaleido-Heart and Rukallos to 3500. Most deck’s strongest monster caps at 3000 flat. I would say play 30 of this if you could but, from release it was limited to 1 copy. So play this and pray. 

Whew. And that’s all the Tear cards we gotta talk about! I know we haven’t even really gotten into the “why” of these cards yet, but I felt it was really important to make sure we’re all on the same page for these cards, and also to help us focus in on a more “pure” tearlament’s strategy. You see, some people are seeing success combining Tearlaments with another fusion based deck, Branded. And While I’m no stranger combining decks with Branded, I don’t really see the appeal, for a couple reasons. Still, these are builds people are encountering, so its worth mentioning. But by really just talking about the Tear cards here, I think we’ll just get an overall better look at What makes the deck so powerful. And man, just look at what we can do. Our mainline combo is super accessible, the Merrli/Kit play is unbelievably strong for us, and Rukallos and Kaleido-Heart provide powerful forms of interruption and negation, along with our spell/traps backing them up. Of course, all of that in a vacuum means absolutely nothing. In order to grasp Tearlaments’ power we need something to compare them against, and for that, I’ve chosen a very special deck

Chapter 2.78/3 Days: Funny Birdies 

Floowandereeze is a deck full of funny birds. That’s it. Where Tearlaments is a deck focused on milling and fusion summoning, Floo is based on banishing and normal summoning. I’m talking about Floo for a few reasons: 1. Before Tear, it was my favorite deck in the game. Floowandereeze is a very interesting deck that has a lot of gameplay I find lacking in other decks I’ve played, which we’ll expand on later. 2. While Floo is a unique deck in its own right, it has more in common with other decks in the game than Tearlaments does, and I want to use it as a reference point that I’m personally familiar with. And 3. The deck was competitive in the same format as Tearlaments when that deck was at its strongest, tenuously holding the position of third best deck at that time, is just meant to show I’m not comparing Tear to like, garbage that has never seen play, but to another competitive meta deck (at the time of release). We’re not spending too much time here, I just want to give a basic rundown of its gameplay. Basically, the deck is divided into its level 1 winged beast combo pieces and its high level winged beast boss monsters. Each of the level 1 birds has 3 effects, two archetypal and one unique to them that activates on normal summon. They all banish themselves when they leave the field face up, and can return themselves from the banish zone to the hand if a winged beast is summoned. For their individual effects each of them has something unique, like Robina who searches level 1 winged beasts. If they’re able to successfully do the first half of their unique effect, they can then immediately normal summon another winged beast monster. This gives the deck an interesting playstyle: its combo pieces recur themselves every turn, it has access to powerful bosses like Riza the Megamonarch that returns cards to the deck and hand, and with its field spell and trap card it can normal summon, and therefore combo off, on their opponent’s turns. And look I realize that normal summons may not sound that different than special summoning, especially the way Floo does them but its big. It means Floo can fly under (ha) the radar of power cards that are meant to limit special summoning, like any of the barrier statues that lock special summons to a specific attribute, or Vanity’s Fiend that just straight bars special summoning entirely, or, y’know, Rukallos, who’s basically useless against Floo considering her effect is based on negating special summoning.

In the next section of the video, I’m gonna be talking about just what I’ve noticed that makes Tearlaments a powerhouse in a way few decks have ever been. I’ll obviously be using Floowandereeze as a comparison point, but because yugioh is a game with like, a billion cards in it and you would have to kill me before I stop going on tangents, expect me to mention a bunch more along the way. That said, lets start with.

Chapter 3.1: Cost/Effect Analysis

So a very basic idea in yugioh is separating a card’s effect from its cost. Basically if a card has a phrase like, “discard 1 card” followed by a semicolon, the discard is the cost of activating the effect, which is whatever text follows after the comma or colon. This has, historically, caused confusion, because yugioh is a bad card game. The darkworld archetype of monsters have special effects that trigger if they are discarded as a part of a card effect, but since a lot of cards discard as a part of an activation cost, they don’t get to do shit. Now some decks can utilize a card’s cost to their benefit, and it should be noted that if a card says that it just has to be sent to the graveyard its effects can be activated regardless of whether it's sent for cost of effect, but it's something you have to plan and build around. Floo can actually make pretty good use of the costs on some of their cards, particularly with “advent of adventure”, which banishes a floo monster from your hand or field to activate its effect. Paying this cost can actually help the deck in a very particular way that I’ll get into later, but I just want to establish that costs, usually, aren’t massive penalties on cards, and by playing with them in mind you can get some pretty interesting combos as a result. Tear doesn’t have to do that though, because everything in this deck sends cards to the graveyard as a part of its effect. Schieren, Cryme? Effect. Sulliek, Kitkallos? Effect. Kaleido’s send from deck? Oh baby, there’s not a cost in sight. Tearlaments is maybe the only deck I’ve seen who’s every interaction is, in some way, beneficial to them. Your opponent attempts to activate a monster effect? Well just send the Kaleido you have on field to negate it with Sulliek, then use Kaleido’s effect to return itself and send a tear monster to the graveyard, then activate his shuffle effect, and the fusion effect of whatever you sent to the graveyard. So, over the course of limiting your opponent’s gameplan, you’ve  strengthened your own board, with whatever new boss monster you can fusion summon with what you’ve sent. This is not how a normal yugioh deck functions… at least, not to this extent.

Chapter 3.2: Playing on Your Opponent’s Turn:

See when you get down to it, nearly every competitive deck can manage something resembling this, it's kind of a necessity for the modern game. You have to be able to interact with your opponent on their turn, otherwise they can set up their board and kill you instantly.. Let’s look at some examples. The Branded archetype allows you to play Branded in Red, a quick play fusion spell that allows you to perform a fusion summon on your opponent’s turn, something the deck uses to summon either archetypal or generically powerful fusion monsters that act as card removal on your opponent’s board. The Mathmech combo exists practically just to facilitate plays on your opponent’s turn: the deck reliably makes monsters like i;p masquerna that lets you summon on your opponent’s turn, and the deck’s trap card, superfactorial, lets you summon a powerful boss that lets you send 3 of your opponent’s cards to the graveyard.These are powerful plays from both these decks, allowing them to summon singular, high impact boss monsters to interrupt their plays. This is what most decks are capable of… but then there’s Floo. Floo’s spells and trap cards facilitate a single normal summon on your opponent’s turn. So you summon your little bird, activate their effect… and then normal summon again. This single summon allows you to perform a full combo in the middle of your opponent’s turn, potentialy allowing you to end on any number of the big bosses the deck has at its disposal. Of course, interruption at a pivotal point in the combo could end it immediately, which would mean you couldn’t get nearly as much on board as you’d like, meaning that Floo’s plays aren’t ironclad… So Tear.

Let’s look at an example here. Let’s say you got unlucky. Your mills didn’t work out, and the only thing you have on board is a schieren, a set sulliek, and a Havnis in hand. Your opponent start’s their turn and normal summons a monster to begin their combo, activating its effect. First, you respond with Havnis, then respond to the havnis with sulliek, which lets you target and negate your opponent’s monster, and would you look at that you send schieren to the graveyard. You can use her effect to  fusion summon Kit, get its search and mill 3 from Havnis’  summon, and suddenly your whole game plan is online!

It's kind of impossible to prevent Tear from getting to play on your turn if they have anything resembling a board up when they pass it back to you. Even in worst case scenarios for the deck they can usually find their way to a Rukhallos, and her negation isn’t anything to sneeze at by itself. Plus, the sheer existence of Havnis allows the deck to access the incredibly rare, incredibly silly tactics known as the turn 0 combo. If you’re going second and you happen to have Havnis in your opening hand, you can activate her the moment your opponent activates something to summon and mill 3, and if you do, congrats, if you’re lucky enough to hit a mermaid then you could have a Rukhallos on your field before your first draw. Of course, its only 3 cards, with every mermaid being at 2 there’s a decent chance you won’t hit much. Still I consider it good, since it helps thin out the deck. Oh and I really do think that Havnis specifically just gets exponentially better your first turn onward. You mill so much random shit over the course of your combos that by the end of the game you’re hitting the good cards pretty consistently, provided your opponent can’t stop you.

Chapter 3.3 Literally Unstoppable Combo:

Modern yugioh as the concept of the Handtrap, a card you activate straight from your hand to fuck with your opponent’s plan. They’re very powerful cards, and often a necessity given what a deck can do if its allowed to go uninterrupted. Let's look at, by far, the most ubiquitous handtrap in the game, Ash Blossom and Joyous Spring.

 This card can be activated from your hand, discarding it to negate any effect from your opponent that moves a card from the deck to anywhere else, like adding it to hand or sending it to the graveyard. This is, how you say, a very good card. Almost every deck does something this card negates, and some decks can even lose to just a single ash blossom if they open a bad hand. Floo fucking loathes this card. Since ashing your starting monster instantly ends your combo… usually. So, if you would have multiple effects activate at the same time, you get to choose the order they actually activate in, and your opponent can only respond to the most recent activation. This is why banishing a bird for advent actually can help the deck: if you summon a bird and have its effects activate first, then activate a banished bird second, then your opponent can only respond to the banished bird. This helps the deck insulate against your opponent’s interactions. Tearlaments can do this too. But better! Lets look at the yoinky sploinky again, you have kitkallos on field and a merrli in hand, and your opponent has ash blossom. You activate Kit’s effect to send herself and summon merrli, activate kitkallos’ effect first, and Merrli’s second. This means that your opponent now has to make a choice: do they use the ash to negate the mill 3, instead of kitkallos’ mill 5 like they wanted to, or do they save it for another point in the combos. This applies to a shit ton of effects: if you hit multiple of the mermaids in the same mill then, you can decide the order the activate in order to protect the ones you really want to resolve. Okay, okay, lets say your opponent is smarter. Instead of even letting you get to the point in the combo where you can mill 8, they use ash blossom to stop you from adding merrli to hand with Kit’s first effect, preventing you from sploinking your yoink at all. Well shit, goddammit, son of a bitch that’s it! My combo’s over!... except I can just use the Havnis I have in hand, or this second Reinoheart that’s basically dead weight, and would you look at that, I can still mill 5. The result is almost identical! Tearlaments just isn’t weak to handtraps, save for incredibly targeted ones, or the new bystial monsters that banish dark monsters, and like we discussed cards like “cryme” help protect it from board breaking cards, so it's really hard to deal with a tearlaments player. It’s a deck that if you let it have an inch, it’ll take the whole game, unless you’re playing something that can appropriately counter it.

…

I don’t have a good transition to the next section.

Chapter 3.4: Restrictions: 

This is gonna be a bit of a doozy, so bear with me. But if you ask me, I would absolutely call this one of the most compelling reasons as to why Tearlaments is such a dominant deck. See uh, the developers of yugioh usually, with mixed results, actually try to stop decks from being insanely powerful. Let's look at Floo, one last time. Every monster in the deck has this little text stapled onto their effects: “cannot special summon during the turn you activate either effect.” Since the deck is focused on normal summons, it cuts you off from special summoning entirely. And I realize that it may not seem like a lot, considering how many summons the deck has, but that’s missing the point. Without access to special summoning, that makes the extra deck, where all the strongest cards in the game are, completely inaccessible. And its good! The floowandereeze cards would be way too powerful if you could use the extra deck, as well as its maindeck combo pieces and boss monsters. Plus, considering at the time the deck came out, one of the other best decks in the game was also entirely based on level 1 winged beasts, it was a good call to not let the two decks mix much.  The devs just don’t like it when certain cards become too ubiquitous or generically useful, and to prevent that they place certain restrictions on powerful cards. Branded fusion, the staple card of its archetype, locks you into just using fusion monsters the turn you activate it. Several key cards in the mathmech deck lock you into just summoning cyberse type monsters for the rest of the turn, stopping you from accessing generically strong link monsters the deck would otherwise utilize. HERO, a deck I'm normal about, has all of its strongest cards enforce a strict, “HEROES only” limit on the deck, or hell even more restrictive in the case of Fusion Destiny, which also slaps a Dark attribute restrictiong.  They’re, usually, very careful with this!...

Usually.

So, I could just say “Tearlaments has no limitations, and can thus access generic boss monsters” but, but that wouldn’t get the point across. We’d get to the top of the mountain, but you wouldn’t see the horizon. You wouldn’t understand. So, lets so do this. Here’s my extra deck. We’re going to talk about every card here that isn’t a Tearlaments, plus a few others. Strap in, we’re going to hell.

So first we obviously have to talk about generic fusions. Big daddy of them all in terms of our deck is Predaplant Dragostepellia, made using a fusion monster and a dark attribute monster. You may notice. Its extremely easy to get those types of cards on field. So if you already have a Ruk and Kaleido and you have two mermaid activations to spare, just make kit, then make this asshole. What’s he do? He’s a monster negate… that’s it.

Next we have the synchro monsters. But, you may have noticed, we don’t fucking play tuners to make them. To which I say, yes we fucking do. 

Every Tear deck I’ve ever seen plays at least one diviner of the herald, which can send a fairy type monster to the graveyard to increase its level by that amount. Why do we play fairies? Don’t ask! Because once diviner is summoned, if we can get any level four monster on the field we can make one of the strongest Synchro monsters ever printed, Baronne De Fleur! What’s it do? It’s an omni negate!... once. Oh also it can destroy cards on field. Oh also it can return itself to the extra deck to special summon just, any monster from the graveyard, for some reason! But wait, there’s more! If we can get a level two monster on field, which we do SO FUCKING EASILY you can make Draco Berserker of the Tenyi, which can banish a monster that activates its effects and also- I’m, I’m kidding no one, fucking else plays that card in their deck.

. Our deck plays like, a million level 4 monsters. Ignore the fact I’ve only discussed two level four monsters. So we get access to one of the most powerful generic toolboxes in the game, the cavalcade of randomly incredibly powerful rank 4 xyz monsters, and it’s fucking annoying! If you do, somehow, get interrupted enough that you can’t end on a full board, don’t worry! Just get two fours on field and you can make Bagooska, which, in defense position, is just a massive fucking floodgate that prevents you and your opponent from activating monster effects. This guy sucks, I hate him! But hey, at least his floodgate is two sided. Unlike This Asshole, Abyss Dweller. You may have picked up on the fact, by y’know the premise of the essay and your massive fucking brain that Tearlaments is a good deck. Mirror matches are not rare. And I really, really like the Tear mirror, but any time someone gets this asshole on board they can use its effect to immediately shut their opponent out of the game. Oh, and its a quick effect! Why, why is it a quick effect! So yeah this does the same thing as bagooska in the tear mirror, except if you’re too broke and don’t want to go through the effort of getting this guy (like me) you get hit by some weird non games in the middle of stuff. At least you can just punch over it though. CAN’T SAY THE SAME FOR THIS GUY. 

Time Thief Redoer is unique among xyz monsters. Uh, I promised myself I wouldn’t get super super basic in this, but let me explain something. When a xyz monster is summoned, the monsters used to make it don’t go to the graveyard. They stay under the card as material, which the xyz monster can send to the grave as costs for their effects. Time Thief Redoer, is one of the very, very rare xyz monsters, that detach for effect. So, y’know, if you had a schieren attached to him, that's another way to randomly start a combo in the middle of your opponent’s turn. Is this just me complaining about a bunch of very expensive cards I will never have because I’m broke, and don’t want to craft them? Yes, that’s like half the reason I made this video.

G! You cry out! This is already the longest part of the essay! Surely, we’re done! But no, no we have to talk about the worst, most powerful summoning mechanic in the game, link monsters! So what do we have? Donner, dagger fur hire is just a generic monster that can destroy anything, so there’s no reason not to play it. The primary link monster we use is Spright Elf, a generic link that just requires one of the monsters used to make it is a level 2 monster. You may notice, again, we sure do have an easy time getting exactly the level 2 Merrli on field. It has two effects, one of which protects monsters it points to from targeting effects, and the second, as a quick effect, lets you summon a level 2 monster from the graveyard. So, one more way to play on our opponent’s turn by summoning Merrli back, lol, maybe, just maybe, even lmao. Oh but we got some more. There’s one that’s uh, really, really funny in the Tearlament’s mirror match, Dharc the Dark Charmer, guess what the fuck she needs a as material to be summoned, and uh she just lets you summon a dark monster from your opponent’s graveyard. So you can do this really funny thing, where you can steal your opponent’s Merrli and activate her effect if you wanna, or really any of the tear monsters sans Reinoheart exactly. Uuhh it doesn’t actually come up too much but like, what if you destroy your Opponent’s Kaleido Heart twice and wanna fuck with them? 

OH I LIED BY THE WAY WE’RE NOT DONE WITH FUSION MONSTERS. Because, BECAUSE, halfway through writing this they released an update to the game that added a stupid as hell card. Garura, Wings of Resonant Life, is a silly fucking card. It only requires two cards who share a type and attribute, which describes most archetypal cards in the game. It deals double damage for, some fucking reason, and if it’s sent to the graveyard for like anything you just draw 1, draw 1 card for no reason yeah that’s not busted even a little, Christ what do you even say to a card like this?

Sigh, well, that’s it! We’ve talked about basically every reason Tear is powerful. We’re done. We, we don’t have to look, any further. 

Chapter 3.??:

… What? This, was supposed to be the conclusion. I, I talked about every card, shit I talked about a bunch of stupid cards I don’t even play there’s no way I missed something. Surely, surely, I haven’t been blindly ignoring the problem, the final missing piece, the key that will open Pandora’s Box. Surely, I’m not afraid of what’s beyond it. The realization of the inevitable; that this game will ascend and ascend, creep it’s way up this mountain until it can see it, finally, its next horizon. No, no, surely not! There’d be no going back! No way to return to the world I knew before. To before I realized, that it will find its way across, to that next horizon, again, forever, until time is a forgotten dream and all that remains is dying stardust and smoldering cardboard… Before I realized that you can’t forget what you saw beyond the horizon. No matter how awful.

Surely, no one, would be cruel enough to inflict another with that kind of curse. Condemned to the climb, forever, ‘till even the black holes burn out. Just for a chance to see something as beautiful as that first horizon again.

…

Fuck.

Chapter 3.5: Yugioh and the Heat Death of The Universe:

Ishizu Ishtar is a character from the Yugioh Duel Monsters anime. She’s the older sister to one of the show’s antagonists, Marik, and tries to involve Yugi and his friend into a scheme to save her brother from the darkness within him. She duels at multiple points, playing a deck focused around earth fairies. This leads to the creation of Mudora, Agido, Keldo and Kelbek.

These are four cards that do nothing and are very bad. But, in the year 2022, a demon came to the konami dev team, and foretold to them the inevitable death of the universe. They realized all was lost, that the horizon would never, truly, be crossed, and lamenting their woes they vowed to try, anyway.

So they made the cards again.

This is how we got Mudora the Sword Oracle, Agido the Ancient Sentinel, Keldo the Sacred Protector, and Kelbek the Ancient Vanguard. These are the last cards we're really gonna talk about in this. So let's get started.

Two things, one, all of these cards mention a card called exchange of the spirits, a trap card that I do not play. The trap modifies their effects slightly, but I’ll just be talking about the effects I actually resolve in a duel.

Second, these cards are split into two unique groups: the millers, and the shufflers. Let’s talk about the millers first.

Agido and Kelbek have similar effects, but not quite the same. If your opponent sends a card to their graveyard from the hand of deck, you can summon one of them and activate a unique effect: agido summons an earth fairy from the graveyard, Kelbek returns a monster on field to the hand. Alright, but that’s not why we play them. If these cards are sent to the graveyard from the hand or deck, you and your opponent just mill 5. Yup. Yup. these cards are, uh, insane! If you can hit both of them over the course of a standard Tearlaments combo, congrats, you get to mill at least half your deck, maybe more. Near guaranteed access to everything you could ever need.

Mudora and Keldo also share a summon effect. They can both discard an earth fairy to summon themselves, Mudora also sets a gravekeepers trap (a trap card I don’t play) onto the field, and Keldo adds another earth fairy to your hand. These effects are, also, good, but we play them for the one they share. As a quick effect, while they’re on the field or in the graveyard, you can banish either of these monsters to shuffle 3 cards from the graveyard into the deck… which is really good to have, when everyone is trying to fusion summon with monsters in their graveyard.

Chapter 5:  Tear 0

When talking about a deck’s viability, its ranked into tiers . Most of the time in any given format of the game, there’s a couple tier 1 decks that stand as the “best decks”, as the decks most worth playing. Very rarely, a deck with be tier 0. So represented, so definitively “the best deck” that, there’s no arguing it. Tier 0 means that if you want to take competitive yugioh seriously, you have to play that deck. With the release of the Ishizu monsters, Ishizu Tearlaments was born, the first tier 0 deck in years, really to my understanding. It’s kind of funny, the rise of Ishtear was happening just when I was getting back into yugioh. I was watching creators in the scene talk about the deck, complain about the deck, complain about it a lot, really. People don’t like tier 0 formats, and reasonably so. People don’t like it when there really is a “best deck” with no variation between what people are playing, people don’t like it when they can’t play their favorite decks competitively anymore. People don’t like staring down the fact, that we are looking at a new horizon. People just didn’t like the deck for all the reasons I’ve just spent, who knows how long talking about. They complained about how powerful it was, about its ability to play on both turns, about, well, everything it did. In the tcg, it got hit into oblivion, and in master duel the deck was slowly torn apart. Shit in the middle of making this they limited each of Ishizu’s monsters to 1 copy per deck, making it a lot harder to get chains of their effects going. Earlier this Fall they just straight up banned Merrli, severely weakening the deck’s game plan. But even before it was full torn asunder, I didn’t really see people playing Tear much, at least, not as much in comparison to other decks. Do people just not like the deck? Did they get frustrated by the asshole stun players making decks to just counter Tear? I dunno, I dunno. Though, I’ve run into like, 5 different people playing that branded tearlament pile deck, maybe, maybe I should take a look at it at some point…

Sigh

Y’know, I played against a tier 0 deck before.

So, Spyral, was an insanely powerful deck back in 2017. Don’t worry I’m not explaining what the cards do, just, know they were good. So good that they dominated the game for months, it was really the only thing worth playing for a while, and people hated it too. The deck got eaten by the banlist hard, but in Master Duel it’s at full power. Not only that, but cards have been released that are just stronger than what were available at the time. So, a person playing Spyral in master duel today is actually playing a stronger version of that tier 0 deck… 

And that’s what I went up against.

I was still new, playing a janky brew of HERO because, well, wanting to play HERO was why I got master duel in the first place. I’m not claiming to be like, superb at the game, but I’ve made it to diamond playing Floowandereeze and Tearlaments, I think that’s a far cry better than how I was when I started. Anyway, I was going second, no idea what my opponent was doing, I had a single ash blossom that they played through like it was nothing. And I sat there. For… like, 15 minutes. While my opponent did a bunch of combos that just left me sitting there lost and confused, and by the time they passed the turn over, finally, they had a board with 10 negates, and I had nothing good in my hand. I was hit by the crushing realization, that I could not win this duel. I tried in any case, and in just 3 negates they ate all the resources in my hand, and I conceded. I sat there and thought about how I had wasted 15 minutes of my finite existence, just to lose at a card game. I play this game to have fun. I did not have fun. Did my opponent have fun? Did they enjoy the time they spent, building an impossible board with their expert combos? Did they feel happy when I conceded, proud? Did they realize, that they spent 15 minutes, of their finite existence, comboing off on some jackass playing HERO? For me, it was an interesting experience. I’m not gonna sit here and pretend it like, radically altered how I viewed the game. I knew stuff like that was possible from what I saw, but its always something else to really see it up front. I had been forced to find a new horizon. And I did, time and time again, playing decks I had fun with, getting better with, and I managed what I thought was impossible: diamond, in breathing distance of the highest rank available at the time. And I was glad, because I got in just days before Tearlaments came to Master Duel, and I really wasn’t sure if I’d want to be playing before they got banned. But, I was curious, and I did…

Floowandereeze, was, my favorite deck. Despite everything I’ve said here, I want to be clear: I like Tearlaments. I think it’s a fun deck. Does it suck that its head and shoulders stronger than the other decks in the game? Yeah, obviously. But I’ll tell you what, some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing yugioh, was the Tear mirror match. It’s a thrill, it’s insane. The Ishizu cards add such an interesting dimension to the games that just wouldn’t exist without them: the fact that the millers hit both players deck means you and your opponent can easily just keep turning your card effects on, same for theirs, and the shufflers allow for really interesting games of hitting mermaids trying to fuse and forcing out shuffles from your opponent at bad times. You and your opponent interact with each other constantly, regardless of who’s turn it is. And once I had built my deck properly I rarely felt outmatched by my opponent, except in matters of pure skill. Luck obviously plays a factor with random mills, but the combos are so consistent it's nearly impossible to never have something in your back pocket to use on your opponent. This, this is what was actually waiting on the other edge of that horizon, something so fun I… really, can’t go back. I played Tearlaments until it was rendered unusable. Since then, I’ve just been bouncing around decks None of them grabbed me the way ishtear did. And I’m just left here  to hope that this isn't the last time we see a deck Like Tearlaments. Konami, generally speaking, is not a company known for its good decision making, and I’m worried they’ve taken the wrong message from the responses to Tear. If you ask me, well, I don’t know if the game should have ever gotten to this level of power creep to begin with, but lord if you’re going to print a deck so obviously, blatantly busted you could at least have the decency to print other decks around its level. Then maybe people wouldn’t have complained about fuckin, merrli set sulliek pass. 

Conclusion: Staring Directly Into The Sun

So, why, the fuck did I make this? Well like I said at the beginning I just wanted to talk about it, because it interested me. And then, over the course of this project, it stopped being just intellectual curiosity. See, for as much as people talked about Tear, how strong it was, its place in the meta, I never really saw anyone sit down and explain why, exactly, this set of 55 cards was the single best set you could be playing. Could it be that these were just, apparent to everyone involved, and that I’m either too stupid or too new to really understand? Maybe, probably, but I’m really not one for leaving things unsaid. Uh, learning this game from basically scratch has kind of been a nightmare. Constantly, consistently, I’ve looked at cards and strategies that I thought seemed really, really powerful, only to learn that no, actually, these cards are just bad. And while now, I’ve learned to intuit why some cards are just bad, it took a lot of frustration and confusion that just, could have been avoided if someone explained why in plain terms. So, be the change you want to see, eh? Not only that but, iunno this came to be a matter of preservation for me. I thought about reworking it to take the new banlists into account, but ultimately decided that I wanted to capture the image of the deck at the time I was first writing this. And, damn I’m gonna be pissed at myself for a while for not getting a picture of my actual decklist from back before the big limits but, what can you do? I just hope that this weird essay could actually explain what it is that makes these cards so powerful, and allow people like me to get these concepts into their head to keep in mind when considering future cards. I… really, really hope we get another deck like Tearlaments again. Yugioh will not stop its power creep, not the way it’s currently run. Deck’s will continue to get stronger, get more powerful tools, and I’m worried about eventually things getting to the point where it’s basically just not even fun to play. Until the last few months, the arguable best deck was Kashtira, which main gameplan is… sitting behind a giant fucking floodgate. That's just not the kind of yugioh I want to play. I think Tearlaments was genuinely a good example for how the game could progress in power level while also staying interactive for both players. Do I want the game to just, keep getting stronger? Not really, I’ve actually started getting into low power versions of the game. But if they’re going to drag us, kicking and screaming over that next horizon,  can’t they at least make it fun? 

That’s where the original essay ended. I’m mostly keeping it intact for posterity’s sake but, I do want to say, I think somehow Konami did something right. I still haven’t found a deck that’s grabbed me the way Tear did, but a lot of the decks played nowadays are allowed to be as free form and potentially insane as Tear was at the height of its power. Which, I’m happy to see, and I really hope to keep seeing this in the future.

Forgive the melodrama

Have a nice day

[waboai]

Why Are Leading Brands Turning to WhatsApp CRM Integration for Better Results?

Everyone’s on WhatsApp, right? Whether you’re chatting with family, friends, or clients, it’s the go-to platform for quick and easy communication. But here’s the kicker- businesses are now catching on and using WhatsApp as a tool to not only chat but also to manage customer relationships. That is WhatsApp Business CRM Integration, and more specifically, Wabo, a real transformer for businesses looking to elevate their customer interactions.

What Is WhatsApp CRM Integration?

So, what exactly is CRM WhatsApp integration?

It’s all about bringing your customer data and communication channels into one place- your WhatsApp! It allows you to manage your customer relationships directly through WhatsApp, track conversations, automate responses, and get personalized customer insights.

But here's the thing- not all WhatsApp CRM tools are the same.

While many solutions are available, Wabo stands out by offering a tailored, smooth integration that makes everything simpler and more efficient.

Wabo’s WhatsApp CRM integration is designed to let you easily manage customer inquiries, track data, and ensure a superb customer experience, all through a platform everyone already loves using.

What Are the Main Advantages of Wabo’s Whatsapp CRM Integration?

AutomationForget about manually answering each message. With Wabo, your business can set up automatic replies, send reminders, or even confirm orders automatically. Customers get quick responses without delays, and you can handle multiple conversations at once, without breaking a sweat.

PersonalizationNobody likes feeling like they’re just another number. Wabo helps businesses send personalized messages based on customer preferences.

Just think of sending a tailored offer or product recommendation to hundreds of your customers. Such personalization makes customers feel heard and valued, boosting loyalty and engagement.

Multimedia SharingA picture is worth a thousand words, we all know. With Wabo’s WhatsApp CRM integration, you can send images, videos, and documents along with your messages.

Whether it's a product image or a promo video, these visual elements make your communication more interactive and engaging, keeping your customers hooked.

AnalyticsWabo doesn’t just help you chat- it helps you learn.

The platform provides detailed analytics that track customer behavior. Which messages get the most responses? What’s working, and what’s not? These insights allow you to refine your strategy and make smarter decisions moving forward.

Why Choose Wabo for WhatsApp CRM Integration?

Wabo isn’t just another CRM tool. It’s built specifically for businesses looking to connect with their customers on WhatsApp.

It’s incredibly easy to set up and doesn’t require a tech expert to run. Plus, Wabo offers a user-friendly interface that makes managing customer relationships a breeze.

What sets Wabo apart from other CRM tools is its ability to provide a seamless integration. You’re not just sending and receiving messages; you’re building a stronger, more efficient communication channel with your customers.

Whether you’re running a small business or a large enterprise, Wabo scales to your needs, making it a perfect fit for any size company.

Conclusion

If you’re a business in India (or anywhere), trying to improve customer communication and grow your brand, Wabo’s WhatsApp CRM integration is exactly what you need. It helps you automate, personalize, and analyze conversations. All in a platform that your customers are already using. So, stop wasting time with clunky CRM tools and make the switch to Wabo today. Get ready to watch your customer engagement and sales soar!

[digital--vibes]

Crafting the Perfect Sauna Experience: Personalization Options at Our Studio

When it comes to wellness, one size certainly does not fit all. At our sauna studio, we believe in crafting a personalized sauna experience that caters to your unique needs and preferences. Whether you’re seeking relaxation, detoxification, or stress relief, our customization options ensure you get the most out of your sauna therapy sessions. Here’s how we can tailor your sauna experience to enhance both physical and sauna mental health.

1. Tailored Sauna Types

Our sauna studio near me offers a variety of sauna types, each designed to provide distinct benefits. Understanding these options is the first step to personalizing your experience:

Traditional Finnish Sauna: Enjoy the classic high heat and low humidity that promotes deep sweating and relaxation. This option is excellent for those looking to detoxify their bodies.

Infrared Sauna: For a more targeted approach, infrared saunas use light to heat your body directly. This method is ideal for muscle recovery and pain relief, making it perfect for athletes or those with chronic pain.

Steam Room: The humid environment of a steam room can be particularly beneficial for respiratory health and skin hydration. If you’re looking to open up your airways or rejuvenate your skin, this is the way to go.

2. Session Customization

At our sauna studio, we understand that everyone has different wellness goals. That’s why we offer customizable session lengths. Whether you want a quick 15-minute session to fit into your busy schedule or a longer 45-minute experience to fully unwind, you have the flexibility to choose what works best for you.

3. Aromatherapy Options

To enhance your experience further, we offer a selection of essential oils that can be incorporated into your sauna session. Aromatherapy not only adds a soothing fragrance but also contributes to relaxation and emotional well-being. Here are a few popular options:

Lavender: Known for its calming properties, lavender can help reduce stress and promote better sleep.

Eucalyptus: Perfect for respiratory relief, eucalyptus can clear the airways and enhance your breathing.

Peppermint: This invigorating scent can boost your mood and increase mental clarity, making it ideal for midday refreshment.

4. Mindfulness and Meditation

In addition to physical benefits, we encourage you to focus on sauna studio near me during your session. Our studio provides a serene environment for mindfulness and meditation. Before or during your sauna experience, take a moment to practice deep breathing or visualize a peaceful place. Many of our guests find that this mental focus amplifies the benefits of heat therapy, leading to a more fulfilling experience.

5. Post-Sauna Care

Personalization does not stop when you leave the sauna. We offer post-sauna care recommendations tailored to your specific needs. Whether it is hydration tips, skincare advice, or nutrition guidance, our staff is here to support your wellness journey. For instance, drinking herbal tea after your session can enhance hydration and promote further relaxation.

6. Community Engagement

Our sauna studio fosters a sense of community that enhances your experience. We offer workshops and events that focus on wellness topics, allowing you to connect with like-minded individuals. Sharing experiences and learning from others can provide additional motivation and support in your health journey.

Crafting the perfect sauna experience is about more than just heat; it’s about personalization and connection. At our sauna studio, we offer tailored options that cater to your individual needs, whether you seek relaxation, rejuvenation, or a boost in sauna mental health. Discover the benefits of customized Sauna therapy and take the first step toward a healthier, more balanced life. Your personalized wellness journey awaits!

[mahashankh]

100 Empowering Designs: Elevate Your Space with Positivity and Strength in the world

The Importance of Design Shaping Our World, One Decision at a Time Design is all around us, from the clothes we wear to the way our cities are laid out. It shapes our experiences and influences our emotions. But what exactly is design? And what makes it so important? What is Design? In its simplest form, design is the act of creating something. But it's much more than just that. Design is about intentionality. It's about using our creativity and problem-solving skills to create things that are not only functional but also beautiful and meaningful. Good design takes into account the needs of the user. It considers how people will interact with a product or space and how it can make their lives better. It also considers the impact of design on the environment and society as a whole. The Different Disciplines of Design There are many different disciplines of design, each with its own focus and set of skills. Some of the most common disciplines include: - Graphic design: The art of creating visual communication, such as logos, posters, and websites. - Product design: The design of physical objects, such as furniture, cars, and toys. - Fashion design: The design of clothing and accessories. - Interior design: The design of the interior spaces of buildings. - Landscape design: The design of outdoor spaces, such as gardens and parks. - UX/UI design: The design of user interfaces and experiences for digital products. Why is Design Important? Design is important for many reasons. It can: - Make our lives easier and more efficient. A well-designed product is easy to use and understand, which can save us time and frustration. - Make our lives more enjoyable. A beautifully designed space or object can bring us joy and inspiration. - Help us to connect with others. Design can create a sense of community and belonging. - Make the world a better place. Sustainable design can help to reduce our impact on the environment. - Boost your brand identity. A well-designed logo, website, and packaging can make your brand instantly recognizable and memorable. - Increase sales and conversions. Good design can make your products and services more appealing to customers, which can lead to increased sales and conversions. Embracing Sustainability in Design: A Comprehensive Overview of Sustainable Design Practices The Art and Craft of Costume Design: Weaving Narratives through Fabric and Form The Art and Science of Set Design: A Comprehensive Exploration Advancements in 3D Modeling and Animation A Comprehensive Exploration of Virtual Reality (VR) Design: Shaping Immersive Experiences Augmented Reality (AR) Design: Bridging the Virtual and Physical Realms The Art and Science of Sound Design in Media Production The Art and Science of Social Media Design: Crafting an Impactful Digital Presence The Art and Science of Mobile App Design: Crafting Seamless User Experiences Understanding the Essence of Responsive Design in Modern Web Development The Art and Science of Print Design Exploring the Essence of Illustration Design The intersection of photography and design Crafting Immersive Experiences: The Art and Science of Game Level Design Unveiling the Art and Science of Instructional Design FQAs based on types of design The Future of Design The future of design is full of possibilities. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative and creative designs. We can also expect to see design play an even more important role in addressing the challenges facing our world, such as climate change and inequality. Design is a powerful tool that can shape our world for the better. By understanding the principles of design and appreciating its importance, we can all be part of creating a more beautiful, functional, and sustainable future.

Embracing Sustainability in Design: A Comprehensive Overview of Sustainable Design Practices

Embracing Sustainability in Design: A Comprehensive Overview of Sustainable Design Practices Sustainable design has evolved from a niche concept to a central pillar in contemporary design practices. This article explores the principles, benefits, and key considerations associated with sustainable design, shedding light on how designers can contribute to a more environmentally conscious and socially responsible future. Defining Sustainable Design: Sustainable design, also known as eco-design or green design, involves creating products, buildings, and systems with a focus on minimizing environmental impact while optimizing functionality and aesthetics. It encompasses a holistic approach that considers environmental, social, and economic aspects throughout the entire design process. Principles of Sustainable Design: - Resource Efficiency: Sustainable design emphasizes the responsible use of resources by promoting energy efficiency, reducing waste, and utilizing renewable materials. Designers strive to create products that have a minimal ecological footprint. - Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Conducting a life cycle assessment is integral to sustainable design. This involves evaluating the environmental impact of a product or system from raw material extraction to disposal. LCA helps designers make informed decisions that reduce overall environmental harm. - Biophilic Design: Integrating natural elements into design not only enhances aesthetics but also promotes well-being. Biophilic design incorporates features such as natural lighting, green spaces, and sustainable materials, fostering a connection between users and the environment. - Adaptability and Flexibility: Sustainable design anticipates change and seeks to create adaptable solutions. This involves designing products and spaces that can evolve with user needs, reducing the likelihood of premature obsolescence. Benefits of Sustainable Design: - Environmental Conservation: Sustainable design contributes to the conservation of natural resources, mitigating environmental degradation. By prioritizing renewable energy sources and minimizing waste, designers play a crucial role in the fight against climate change. - Cost Savings: While initial costs may be higher for sustainable design projects, the long-term benefits often outweigh the expenses. Energy-efficient buildings, for example, result in lower operational costs over their lifespan. - Enhanced User Well-being: Incorporating biophilic elements and sustainable practices enhances the quality of spaces and products, positively impacting the health and well-being of users. Natural light, improved air quality, and ergonomic designs contribute to a healthier living and working environment. - Market Differentiation: In an era where consumers are increasingly environmentally conscious, sustainable design provides a competitive edge. Brands that prioritize sustainability demonstrate corporate responsibility, attracting a growing market of eco-aware consumers. Challenges and Considerations: - Balancing Priorities: Designers often face the challenge of balancing environmental considerations with functional and aesthetic requirements. Achieving harmony between these aspects requires thoughtful decision-making and innovative solutions. - Material Selection: The choice of materials significantly influences a design's sustainability. Designers must navigate the complexities of material sourcing, considering factors such as durability, recyclability, and embodied energy. - Global Standards and Certification: Adhering to recognized sustainability standards and certifications, such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), can be a complex process. Designers must stay informed about evolving standards and regulations to ensure compliance. Sustainable design is not just a trend; it is a responsibility. As designers, architects, and creators, embracing sustainable practices is essential for crafting a better future. By integrating eco-friendly principles into the design process, professionals can contribute to a more resilient, resource-efficient, and socially conscious global community. As the demand for sustainable solutions continues to grow, the role of sustainable design in shaping our world becomes increasingly pivotal.

The Art and Craft of Costume Design: Weaving Narratives through Fabric and Form

The Art and Craft of Costume Design: Weaving Narratives through Fabric and Form Costume design is an intricate and indispensable facet of the entertainment industry that goes beyond aesthetics, involving meticulous planning, creativity, and an in-depth understanding of the characters and narratives. This article delves into the world of costume design, exploring its significance, process, and the impactful role it plays in bringing stories to life on stage and screen. The Significance of Costume Design: Costume design is not merely about dressing characters; it is a visual language that communicates aspects of the character's personality, era, social status, and even emotional state. The costumes contribute significantly to the overall ambiance and atmosphere of a production, enhancing the audience's immersion into the world being portrayed. Read full article visit on https://mahashankh.com/100-types-designs-positivity-strength/ Read the full article

[tipsycad147]

A Witch's Guide to the Spiritual World

Laurie 'Silver-Bear'

As a witch, you know there's more to the world than what meets the eye. There's a spiritual world all around us, and it's full of energy and magick. If you're looking to connect with this spiritual world, here's a guide to help you get started.

The first step is to learn how to sense energy. This is the most basic form of magick, and it's what everything else is built upon. Once you can sense energy, you can start to work with it. This can be done through visualization and other forms of meditation.

The next step is to learn how to ground and center yourself. This is important for both your physical and mental health. When you're grounded, you're able to connect with the earth and access its energy. This energy can then be used to protect yourself from negative influences and cleanse your space.

Once you've mastered the basics, you can start exploring the different types of magick. There's no one right way to do this, so experiment and find what works best for you. Remember, the most important thing is to have fun and enjoy the journey.

1. Introduction

A Witch's Guide to the Spiritual World will teach you the basics of how to understand and work with the spiritual energies that surround us. You'll learn how to communicate with spirit guides, how to perform energy healing, and how to create magickal spells and rituals. This guide is perfect for anyone who wants to explore the world of witchcraft and learn how to use its power to improve their life.

2. Defining the spiritual world

The spiritual world is often defined as a realm that is separate from the physical world. It is often seen as a place where energies and entities exist that are not subject to the laws of physics. This can make it seem like a very confusing and abstract concept.

In order to try and better understand the spiritual world, it can be helpful to think of it as being made up of different frequency levels. Just like there are different frequencies of sound waves, there are also different frequency levels in the spiritual world. These different levels correspond to different planes of existence.

The higher frequency levels are often seen as being more close to the source of all creation. They are seen as being more pure and more powerful. The lower frequency levels are often seen as being more removed from the source. They are seen as being more chaotic and less in harmony with the higher levels.

It is important to remember that there is no judgment attached to these different frequency levels. They are simply different levels that exist side by side. It is up to each individual to decide which level they wish to connect with.

One way to think of the spiritual world is as a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum is the physical world that we are all familiar with. On the other end of the spectrum is the divine world or the source of all creation. In between these two extremes are the different planes of existence that make up the spiritual world.

Where we choose to focus our attention will determine what level of the spiritual world we connect with. If we focus on the physical world, we will connect with the lower frequencies. If we focus on the divine world, we will connect with the higher frequencies. It is up to each individual to decide which level they wish to connect with.

3. How witches connect to the spiritual world

There are a variety of ways that witches connect to the spiritual world. Some use meditation, others use divination, and still others use energy work. But all witches have one thing in common: they have all found a way to connect with the unseen forces that influence our lives.

Meditation is a popular way to connect with the spiritual world. When we meditate, we clear our minds of the clutter of everyday life and allow ourselves to tap into a deeper level of awareness. This can be a powerful tool for witches, as it allows us to connect with our intuition and the guidance of our Higher Selves.

Divination is another way that witches connect with the spiritual world. This can be done in a variety of ways, from using tarot cards to reading tea leaves. By using divination, we are able to gain insights into the past, present, and future. This can be a helpful tool for gaining guidance on our life path.

Energy work is another way that witches connect with the spiritual world. This can involve working with our own energy, as well as the energy of others. Energy work can be used for healing, for protection, for prosperity, and for a variety of other purposes. By working with energy, we are able to create positive changes in our lives and in the world around us.

No matter what method they use, all witches have found a way to connect with the spiritual world. This connection allows us to access guidance, wisdom, and power that we can use to make positive changes in our lives.

4. The role of rituals and spellwork in connecting to the spiritual world

There is no one answer to the question of what role rituals and spellwork play in connecting to the spiritual world. For some people, these practices are essential and central to their spiritual practice. For others, they may be less important or even entirely unnecessary. It really depends on the individual and what works for them.

People often perform rituals and spellwork in order to manifest something in their lives or to bring about some desired change. This can be anything from attracting more abundance or love into your life, to healing from trauma or addressing some other issue.

Rituals and spellwork can also be used simply as a way to connect with the spiritual realm and the energies around us. This can be done for protection, guidance, or simply to receive messages from the spirit world.

Ultimately, it is up to the individual practitioner to decide how important or necessary rituals and spellwork are to their spiritual practice. There is no right or wrong answer, and what works for one person may not work for another. Experiment and find what works best for you.

5. The importance of reverence and respect when interacting with the spiritual world

It is important to remember that the spiritual world is not something to be taken lightly. Just as we would show reverence and respect when interacting with someone of a higher status than ourselves, we should also do so when interacting with the spiritual world. The spirits that reside there are powerful and can have a great impact on our lives, both positive and negative.

When we approach the spiritual world with reverence and respect, we are acknowledging its power and its place in our lives. We are also letting the spirits know that we are humble and willing to listen to their guidance. This attitude will help to ensure that our interactions with the spiritual world are positive and productive.

It is also important to remember that the spirits are not always going to be interested in interacting with us. Just as we would not force ourselves upon someone else, we should not force the spirits to interact with us. If they do not want to communicate with us, we should respect their wishes and leave them alone.

By approaching the spiritual world with reverence and respect, we are more likely to have positive experiences that can help us on our journey through life.

6. Recommendations for further exploration

The following are six recommendations for further exploration into the spiritual world for witches:

1) Read more about the different belief systems and practices that make up the spiritual world. This will help you better understand the complexity of the spiritual world and how to navigate it.

2) Talk to other witches and spiritual practitioners. This can be done in person or online. Many people are happy to share their knowledge and experiences with others.

3) Attend workshops, seminars, and conferences related to the spiritual world. These events can often be found online, and on demand, offering a great way to explore different aspects of the spiritual world when it's convenient for your schedule.

4) Take classes on various subjects related to the spiritual world. This is a more commitment than attending a seminar, but taking a class will give you a more in-depth understanding of the topic.

5) Go on a spiritual retreat. This is a great way to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and to focus on your spiritual practice.

6) Last, but certainly not least, meditate. Meditation is a great way to connect with your inner self and the spiritual world. There are many different ways to meditate, so find a method that works best for you.

7. Closing thoughts

As you embark on your journey into the spiritual world, it is important to remember that there is no one right or wrong way to do things. There is no single path that you must follow in order to find success or enlightenment.

Instead, your spiritual journey is a personal one that is unique to you. Trust your intuition and follow your heart. If something feels wrong, or if you find yourself at a crossroads, don't be afraid to ask for help from your guides or spiritual leaders in your community.

The most important thing to remember is that you are the one in charge of your own spiritual journey. No one else can tell you what is best for you. Explore, experiment, and find what works for you. And above all, don't forget to have fun! After all, the spiritual world is a magickal place full of wonder and possibilities.

After reading this witch's guide to the spiritual world, it is evident that there is much to learn about this topic. This guide provides helpful information for those who are interested in exploring their spirituality. It is clear that there is a lot of mysticism and magick involved in this world, and this article has only scratched the surface. There is much to be explored and experience in the spiritual world, and this guide is a great starting point.

I hope you enjoyed it! Until next time, Live, Love, & Magick!

https://www.theeclecticgreenwitchery.com/post/a-witch-s-guide-to-the-spiritual-world

[letskasimavuri]

5 Steps To Do Your Personal Branding

In today's fast-paced digital age, personal branding has become increasingly essential for personal and professional success. It's a way to communicate your unique identity, values, and skills to the world. Personal branding is about crafting a distinct image of yourself, much like a company brands its products.

To effectively establish your personal brand, you need to follow a series of steps, each critical to your success. In this blog, we'll explore the five crucial steps to personal branding: Generating your vision, defining your personal image, maintaining your presence in social media, identifying your audience, and staying unique and authentic.

Step 1: Generate Your Vision

Generating your vision is the cornerstone of personal branding. Your vision is essentially your destination, the place where you want to be in the future. Start by asking yourself questions like, "What are my long-term goals?", "What kind of impact do I want to make?", and "What do I want to be known for?" Your vision will serve as the guiding light that directs your personal brand strategy.

When generating your vision, focus on authenticity. Your personal brand should reflect your true self and your core values. This will not only make the branding process more natural but also resonate better with your audience. Remember, your personal brand is a promise to your audience about who you are and what you can offer.

Step 2: Define Your Personal Image

Once you have a clear vision, it's time to define your personal image. Your personal image is how you want to be perceived by others. This includes your appearance, your communication style, and your online presence. It's important to ensure that your personal image aligns with your vision. For example, if your vision is to be a thought leader in technology, your personal image should reflect a tech-savvy, innovative, and knowledgeable persona.

To define your personal image effectively, consider the following aspects:

Appearance: Dress in a way that reflects your brand. If you aim to be seen as professional and authoritative, opt for a more formal style.

Communication: Your tone and language should match your brand. If you want to be approachable and friendly, use a conversational tone.

Online Presence: In the digital age, your online presence is critical. Make sure your social media profiles and content reflect your personal brand.

Step 3: Maintain Your Presence in social media

In today's interconnected world, social media is one of the most powerful tools for personal branding. It's where you can reach a global audience and showcase your expertise. To maintain your presence in social media effectively, consider the following tips:

Consistency: Post regularly and consistently. This will keep your audience engaged and informed about your activities.

Quality Over Quantity: It's not just about how often you post, but also the quality of your content. Share valuable insights, helpful tips, and thought-provoking content.

Engagement: Interact with your audience. Respond to comments, engage in discussions, and show appreciation for your followers.

Platform Selection: Choose the social media platforms that align with your personal brand. For instance, if you are a visual artist, Instagram or Pinterest may be more suitable than LinkedIn.

Step 4: Identify Your Audience

Identifying your audience is crucial to personal branding success. Your brand should be tailored to resonate with the people you want to reach. Begin by defining your target audience, including their demographics, interests, and needs. This will help you create content and messages that speak directly to them.

Additionally, understanding your audience's pain points and desires will enable you to provide solutions and add value. Your personal brand should address the needs of your audience, making you more relevant and attractive to them.

Step 5: Stay Unique and Authentic

Amidst the noise of personal branding in the digital world, staying unique and authentic is vital. Your uniqueness sets you apart from others in your field, and authenticity builds trust with your audience. Here are some tips to help you remain true to your personal brand:

Consistency: Consistency is key to maintaining authenticity. Ensure that your actions and messages align with your brand values.

Storytelling: Share personal stories that illustrate your journey and reinforce your brand narrative. Authentic storytelling humanizes your brand.

Adaptation: While consistency is crucial, be open to evolution. As you grow and learn, your personal brand may evolve to reflect your changing identity and vision.

In conclusion,

personal branding is a dynamic process that requires careful planning and execution. By following the five steps outlined here - generating your vision, defining your personal image, maintaining your presence in social media, identifying your audience, and staying unique and authentic - you can create a personal brand that reflects your true self and resonates with your desired audience.

Remember, your personal brand is a powerful tool for personal and professional growth, and it's never too late to start crafting it.

[raunak15]

Best Way for Developing and Marketing an Apple Watch App

The Apple Watch has created a huge buzz in the tech market. Wearable technology is gaining traction day by day with inventions like Google glass, interactive T-shirts, etc. with Apple Watch leading the space. Apple watch is not just a watch that updates time, date, directions, etc., rather it is a personal computer on your wrist. Don’t go by the size of gadget as Apple has a tradition of launching gadgets that leave people awestricken. One more thing has gained traction along with Apple Watch and that is apple watch app development. The Apple Watch has created a new wave in wearable technology space and being in its nascent stage, there is a huge chance for developers to showcase their talent. Here are a few tips to create engaging apps for Apple Watch.

BRAINSTORMING YOUR APP

Here are 3 basic categories that Apple Watch caters to:

Productivity Tools –As the name suggests these apps include calendars, alarms, finance apps, and other tools which help you to stay productive throughout the day. The art is to create a brilliant app that serves these functions and is responsive on a small screen as well.

Communication Utilities –Communication tools have gained enormous traction in the past and the trend continues till date. You can create apps that provide an effective mode of communication and if your app has potential, then sky is the limit of your success.

Fitness Apps – This category is growing at a rocket speed in the app market places. Apple Watch is used as a fitness device as well and hence there is an immense opportunity to mint money. This domain is particularly new and therefore the scope is wide for the developers.

WORD OF CAUTION FOR THE APPLE WATCH

Developing an app for Apple Watch is more challenging because it has a tiny screen size. The limited size of the screen has to be taken into consideration while developing an app. For this purpose, you can keep your app at its small default small frame or scrolling feature can also be used to enlarge visuals. In addition to this, make all the possible efforts to keep the redundant alerts and messages at bay because Apple signifies a class and unnecessary messages would disturb the consumers.

Apple Watch comes with a variety of bands and a brilliant option would be to develop an app with the theme that matches available watch bands. The ideology is same as we try to put matching accessories with our outfit, the same goes true with Apple watch as well.

EXPLOIT THE NEW FEATURES OF APPLE WATCH

Apple Watch has bio-sensory capabilities. Exercise apps are scattered all over the app marketplace, but Apple watch can also be used to track sleep habit, take readings of vital statistics, diet control and many more. This feature of Apple Watch still remains unexploited and believe me, it has a lot of potential. As there is an old saying that “sooner you start, the better chances you have to succeed”. So, you need to hit at the right spot and at the right time.

MARKETING YOUR APP

Any product that is not marketed well would go unnoticed and therefore marketing is an integral part of any product or service. Make the best efforts to reach your potential users and let them know what special features you have created for Apple Watch. There are a number of ways of marketing, some are free of cost whereas others are paid and expensive. It is upto you to decide which method you want to adopt because each and every app is different and hence requires different marketing strategy. Partnering with a dedicated apple watch app development company is the strategic choice to bring your app idea to life and make a lasting impact in the wearable tech space.

Pondering how to get an app developed for Apple Watch? No worries, we have the solution. Just scroll around our website and discover more about the world of mobile applications. We specialize in iPhone, iPad, Android, Wearable app development. Opportunities are all around us and you just have to have the entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to achieve success. 

[astrologyandlife]

the complete guide to astrology - revised

i. introduction

what is astrology? how can we use it to improve our lives? how do we go about studying a seemingly complex subject with such a large body of literature? in this post, i hope to give you guys a solid idea of the basics while providing resources for further reading and learning, curated by yours truly.

to start, astrology is defined as "the divination of the supposed influences of the stars and planets on human affairs and terrestrial events by their positions and aspects" (source). its primary use in modern times is as a tool of self-discovery. this is done through a natal chart, which is outlined below.

of course, astrology is used for many other things, ranging from examining relationships, to predicting the outcome of future events, to even locating lost objects. there are many branches of astrology that each have their own set of rules and methods for interpretation of the chart. i will go into more detail about some of these other branches soon. however, all astrology uses the same framework. so what is that?

***before i go further, i want to note that this guide contains a comprehensive resources section, section v, which contains a lot of helpful supplementary information such as cafeastrology's article on understanding the astrological chart wheel, a full glossary of astrological terms, and various subjects not explicitly defined or covered in-depth in this guide like retrograde planets and interceptions.***

now onto the guide! :-)

ii. the framework

perhaps the key piece of astrology is the natal chart:

the natal chart is a visual representation of where the celestial bodies were at the time of birth. it seems complex at first glance, but it is possible to break it down to better understand it. in this section, i will elaborate on four components that come together to form the picture. These are the zodiac signs (inner ring), planets (around the ring), aspects (lines in the middle), and houses (numbers on the outer ring).

zodiac signs

in astrology, the zodiac signs are the most essential, core pieces of the puzzle. this is because they represent traits or energies. they are modes of expression. aries: cardinal + fire, enthusiastic, passionate, impatient, childlike, leader, hotheaded, dynamic, quick to react, competitive, impulsive, direct, outgoing, extroverted, positive. ruled by mars and the first house. taurus: fixed + earth, stubborn, patient, strong-willed, down-to-earth, hard workers, sensual, persevering, materialistic, focused, strong, realistic, enduring, habitual, hard to anger, love of nature. ruled by venus and the second house. gemini: mutable + air, chatty, social butterflies, adaptable, flexible, clever, witty, sarcastic, curious, scattered, lighthearted, changeable, multitaskers, jack-of-all-trades, smart, flighty. ruled by mercury and the third house. cancer: cardinal + water, emotional, sensitive, gentle, intuitive, motherly, moody, defensive, protective, caring, empathetic, imaginative, sentimental, passive, introverted, shy, homebody. ruled by the moon and the fourth house. leo: fixed + fire, confident, dramatic, theatrical, warm, generous, supportive, strong-willed, loyal, honest, authentic, loves pleasure, big personality, self-centered, courageous, magnetic, expressive, assertive. ruled by the sun and the fifth house. virgo: mutable + earth, methodical, serious, perfectionist, critical, practical, detail-oriented, analytical, competent, helpful, enjoys service, reserved, sensible, down-to-earth, intellectual. ruled by mercury and the sixth house. libra: cardinal + air, outgoing, friendly, agreeable, diplomatic, avoids conflict, polite, charming, refined, pacifistic, tolerant, craves connection, indecisive, romantic, artistic, hesitant, fair, good conversationalist, gossip. ruled by venus and the seventh house. scorpio: fixed + water, secretive, possessive, introverted, honest, genuine, intense, independent, lone wolf type, intuitive, analytical, persistent, passionate, ambitious, proud, committed, clever, competitive. ruled by pluto and the eighth house. sagittarius: mutable + fire, optimistic, positive, big picture thinkers, extroverted, jovial, loves adventure, blunt, straightforward, open-minded, future-oriented, faithful, independent, energetic, needs freedom. ruled by jupiter and the ninth house. capricorn: cardinal + earth, serious, disciplined, mature, takes responsibility, hard-working, thoughtful, traditional, dry sense of humor, objective, independent, ambitious, reliable, patient. ruled by saturn and the tenth house. aquarius: fixed + air, progressive, eccentric, independent, needs freedom, detached, intellectual, authentic, accepting, open-minded, non-judgemental, outgoing, determined, humanitarian, future-oriented. ruled by uranus and the eleventh house. pisces: artistic, sensitive, distant look, compassionate, empathetic, escapist, intuitive, heart over head, understanding, introspective, needs alone time, soft-spoken, emotional, imaginative, faithful, romantic, fluid, adaptable. ruled by neptune and the twelfth house.

planets

the planets give direction to the traits expressed by the zodiac signs. this direction comes in the form of facets of our personalities. personal/"inner" planets sun: ego, general personality, vitality, focus, father figure. domicile=leo / detriment=aquarius / exalted=aries / fall=libra moon: emotions, intuitions, gut reactions, instincts, needs, mother figure. domicile=cancer / detriment=capricorn / exalted=taurus / fall=scorpio mercury: communication, mental abilities, information processing. domicile=gemini or virgo / detriment=sagittarius or pisces / exalted=virgo / fall=pisces venus: romance, personal style, love style, attraction, taste. domicile=taurus or libra / detriment=scorpio or aries / exalted=pisces / fall=virgo mars: drive, motivations, anger, physical attraction, physical activity. domicile=aries/ detriment=libra/ exalted=capricorn / fall=cancer

impersonal/"outer" planets jupiter: expansion + growth, talents, opportunities, luck. domicile=sagittarius / detriment=gemini / exalted=cancer / fall=capricorn saturn: fears, where we feel repressed/restricted, where we must learn and become disciplined. domicile=capricorn/ detriment=cancer/ exalted=libra / fall=aries uranus: individuality, eccentric/uniqueness, suddenness, technology. domicile=aquarius / detriment=leo / exalted=scorpio / fall=taurus neptune: confusion, blurred lines, lack of boundaries, deception, sacrifice, dreams. domicile=pisces / detriment=virgo / exalted=cancer / fall=capricorn pluto: transformation, raw power, death, secrets. domicile=scorpio / detriment=taurus / exalted=aquarius / fall=leo

planets in their domicile or exalted sign are said to be strong, while planets in their detriment or fall sign are weak. stronger planets express themselves much more naturally. weaker planets can bring problems into the individual's life, especially if poorly aspected.

aspects

the next step is the aspects, which is the interaction between these facets of our personality and how easily we express them. positive aspects are marked green, negative are marked red. conjunction (0°): the unification of two planets that allows their energies to merge and be expressed as one. square (90°): tension between two planets that creates conflict or patterns of avoidance. opposition (180°): tension between two planets that results in conflict or patterns of projection. quincunx (150°): completely different energies that are unable to be integrated or properly managed. trine (120°): two planets that mesh well together, often manifesting as a talent or skill within the individual. sextile (60°): two planets with energy so similar they are seamlessly and effortlessly expressed together.

houses

finally, the houses represent the stage where all of this expression occurs in our external life. first (ascendant, ASC): first impressions, physical appearance, the vibe we give off, our view/philosophy of life. second: our values, sense of self-worth and confidence, money, physical possessions. third: communication style, early education, siblings, neighbors and neighborhood, thinking patterns, short trips. fourth (imum coeli, IC): home, family, the house, early life + childhood, background, roots, memories, father figure. fifth: self-expression, creativity, hobbies, interests, children, pleasure, short-term relationships. sixth: physical health, daily routine, coworkers, job, pets, service to others. seventh (descendant, DSC): marriage, spouse, long-term relationships, other people. eighth: shared resources, inheritances, death, transformation, crisis, hidden things. ninth: higher education, travel, foreign/distant places, diversity, expansion and growth. tenth (midheaven, MC): career, reputation, online persona, success, goals for the future, mother figure. eleventh: groups and organizations, the wider collective, our friend group, wishes and aspirations. twelfth: losses, grief and sorrow, subconscious or unconscious things, confusion, lack of boundaries, sacrifice.

iii. the interpretation process + notes

to interpret a natal chart, i have a specific process that i utilize. i will outline it in this section, giving notes along the way where i see fit. there are many ways of interpreting charts, however, so use this more as a guide than a hard and fast rule.

✨the process ✨

look at the chart as a whole, taking notice of: a. planets clustered together in one sign/house (note: 3+ planets in a house is called a stellium) b. planets "sitting on/"conjunct the angles (1st, 4th, 7th, or 10th) c. lone planets that are just sitting by themselves d. completely empty houses e. major aspect patterns, such as the t-square, grand trine, etc.

next, look at the sign of the ascendant and determine the chart ruler a. examine the condition of both, such as major aspects (aspects of 5° or less)

check out the sun's sign, house, and major aspects

do the same for the moon, and consider the relationship it has to the sun

next, check out the sign, house, and major aspects of the three other personal planets

look at the three other angles: the IC, DSC, and MC to determine their condition

look at the house and any major aspects to personal planets for the outer planets

find the lord of any empty houses and determine what house it sits in, as well as its condition there

finally, any asteroids or minor bodies of interest a. typically these only influence the individual if they make an aspect to the personal planets or angles, like outer planets

some other things to take into account: which element/planet/sign is dominant in the chart, where the ruler of each house sits, are there planets at 0° or 29°, degree theory, midpoints, and planets in retrograde.

iv. other chart types

so far, i've exclusively been talking about the natal chart. however, there are several chart types with other purposes ranging from examining the compatibility of two people, to predicting what might occur in the year ahead, to even answering questions. i'll give a brief run-down of some of them here:

solar return: a chart drawn for the exact moment the sun returns to the sign and degree it was at when you were born. it is said to represent what will occur in the year ahead.

synastry: this chart examines the relationship between two people by seeing how both of their charts interact with each other. it is a representation of how they affect each other.

composite: like the synastry chart, a composite looks at the relationship between two people. it does this by creating a chart of the midpoints between the placements of their charts. it is a representation of the relationship itself and what it's like.

progressed: a chart that shows how a person's personality and life circumstances change over time, calculated by adding one day to your birthday for every year of your life.

draconic: a chart that supposedly represents your "true nature," which is who you were before your life experiences. it works by setting the north node to aries and adjusting every other placement accordingly.

transit: this is simply a chart of what the sky looks like on any given day. this can be compared to a natal chart to see what influences are acting on an individual or to examine long-term trends.

these are by no means all of the chart types, or even the most important, but they are the most common ones you will see discussed here. furthermore, every chart type uses the same framework and many of the same rules in regards to interpretation, making them extremely valuable tools to have in your toolset!

v. resources

below here is a list of websites, articles, tools, etc. that are extremely helpful for learning astrology. every single resource in this list is 100% approved by me, and i have used or read through all of them myself, many of which i still refer back to now. there are also resources that go more in-depth about some of the topics mentioned in this guide, if you're confused or want to know more. feel free to take a peek!

websites a. https://advanced-astrology.com/ b. http://astrologyking.com/ c. https://astromatrix.org/ d. https://www.astro-seek.com/ e. https://www.alwaysastrology.com/index.html f. http://www.thedarkpixieastrology.com/ g. https://cafeastrology.com/ h. https://www.astrology.com/learn i. https://www.astrologyweekly.com/forum/index.php j. http://www.astrologersforum.com/forum/index.php

calculators a. https://www.astrotheme.com/horoscope_chart_sign_ascendant.php b. https://www.astro.com/cgi/genchart.cgi c. https://astro.cafeastrology.com/natal.php d. https://horoscopes.astro-seek.com/birth-chart-horoscope-online e. https://astro-charts.com/tools/new/birthchart/

blogs a. @astrologymarina b. @astraltwelve c. @astrolovecosmos d. @twelvehousemoon e. @ms-m-astrologer f. @saintzjenx

faq/specific resources/what's on my bookmarks bar a. A glossary of astrology-related terms b. how fast do the planets move through the signs? c. what is degree theory? d. which signs square and oppose each other? e. how do you find your dominant sign/planet/etc? f. astrology 101 by astrologymarina g. what are retrogrades? h. a brief interpretation for every planet in every sign i. a complete ephemeris up to the 22nd century j. what are interceptions? k. what are the 29th and 0 degree? l. how to read the chart wheel?

books a. the only astrology book you'll ever need, joanne martine woolfolk b. chart interpretation handbook, stephen arroyo c. the twelve houses, howard sasportas d. aspects in astrology, sue thompkins e. discover the aspect pattern in your birth chart: a comprehensive guide, glenn mitchell f. the art of forecasting using solar return charts, anthony louis g. the astrology of family dynamics, erin sullivan h. midpoints: identify and integrate midpoints into horoscope synthesis, don mcbroom i. retrograde planets: traversing the inner landscape, erin sullivan

vi. final notes

you did it! this is the end of my revised guide to astrology, and hopefully this has been helpful for you to understand the basic workings of the practice. astrology can be really rewarding and fascinating, and even after eight years i still come across topics that i've never heard about!

as always, my inbox is open for any questions you may have. if anything is unclear or you think of ways to improve this guide, feel free to tell me as well. thanks for sticking with me, folks!

[petitfanboy]

Comprehensive and in-depth analysis of Asuka and Shinji relationship in 3.0+1.0, implications for the ending and why many youtube Eva analysis videos titles I believe are wrong. (Spoilers ahead)

Preface

It seems it was yesterday when I wrote an extended essay regarding the essential and critical relationship of Asuka and Shinji in Evangelion for the last time. However, seven years have passed. 

My idea here is to write, in general lines, about the relationship of Asuka and Shinji in the last movie and the ending and its implications in a more detailed way. I will use different analyses I have read so far besides mine, and you will find the links to all of them in the text. 

I have tried to maintain an analysis that followed the narrative plot and what I believe is closer to what the director wants to express. However, as Anno himself has said multiple times, his work may inspire different feelings in different people, so I understand where the differences might come from and, in no way, this is intended as a confrontation to other opinions and theories. 

Please, let me start with an introduction.

Introduction

While a lot has changed for me in these years, my view of A/S relationship in the whole Eva universe, including their dynamics, meaning, and canonical aspects have not changed. 

Long story short, A/S represent core aspects of the message Evangelion wants to transmit: The Hedgehog's dilemma, the fear of connecting and rejection while having a strong desire to be loved and understood, and finally, the pursuit of happiness. Asuka and Shinji are opposites on their outside and equals on their inside. A perfect match for exploring those issues.

RoE makes clear their similarities

Asuka and Shinji similarities

Evangelion arrives at a fulfilling conclusion at the end, showing us how it is possible to overcome the abovementioned problems. To depict that, it always involves resolving the different issues Asuka and Shinji have between them, becoming closer, opening to one another and, probably and eventually, staying together.

Evangelion portrays that resolution using scenes showing the exact moment of the change in A/S dynamics, the moment when both pursued real connection starts. What happens after that change is unknown, but the intention is clear: once they begin to make an effort, they have the chance to be happy together.

Before the release of 3.0+1.0, different spoilers and youtube video’s titles ruined my life, as I suppose that happened to some of you. It had such a significant impact on me that it is hard to define with words. Not because I was an angry asushin fanboy as some might classify me, but because, had it been confirmed, it would have meant that the message that Evangelion has been constructing since its first airing was shattered to pieces. I could not accept it.

At that specific moment, the Eva Extra Ex manga came and saved me.

Eva Extra Ex Manga Translated

I cannot highlight enough how important this manga was and still, it is. For me, it represented a call from Anno himself, saying: Do not worry, Evangelion is going to keep being Evangelion. I still recall the endless discussions on the internet when 3.0 came out about the effect of the time-skip, in what lousy state the relationship between Shinji and Asuka was (or if it was even inexistent!) and how Evangelion was going to transmit another message in the end. For me, there were always precise moments in 3.0 that pointed against those conclusions. But with Eva Extra, everything changed. It tied aspects of 2.0 and 3.0 very nicely and allowed us to discover more regarding Asuka's feelings and motivations.

With the first interaction in the manga between Asuka and Mari, we see that Asuka still has (deep) feelings for Shinji.  As the story progresses, we see how Asuka reacts to Mari's teasing and how unconvinced Mari is of all the bravado that she displays. A/S relationship, alongside their communication and hedgehog's dilemma related problems, still existed in the present timeline of the events of 3.0 and 3.0+1.0.

God's in his heaven all right with the world.

Chapter 1: The houses of healing

Instead of speaking of every Shinji/Asuka interaction scene, I will try to make this analysis lighter by talking about how it progresses across the film and focusing only on key scenes.

The film's first part explains how Shinji achieves healing after understanding how people around him are friendly, which is a big difference from EoE. In EoE, it was impossible. Shinji was left hurt and without any option to heal. He ultimately achieved healing through his experiences in instrumentality, leading to the ending and the hope/love message we all know in One More Final: I need you.

This process, this healing, happens in a precise location. That is the reason for the chapter's title. I took the liberty of naming this first chapter as the eighth chapter of Tolkien's book The Return of the King. But, what place is it?

Initially, Shinji is taken to Toji's house. While that place suits Rei, who will understand the basic meaning of life and being human, Shinji makes no progress there. Interestingly, Kensuke sees how Shinji is not making any progress and suggests he should go with him to his house. Why? It is driven by his new parental role, reminiscent of Kaji. He thinks why Shinji is in such a state and understand his needs at that moment. Besides, with or without knowing it, he reunites Shinji and Asuka under the same roof and the same parental figure.

I cannot say that he willingly wanted to reunite Shinji with Asuka, although I am sure he thought it was a direct consequence of carrying Shinji with him, so he was happy with that idea. As we know from 2.0 and the original series, their friends are the ones who notice Asuka and Shinji bond, so it would not be strange that Kensuke wanted to reunite both of them.

With or without Kensuke's will, bringing Shinji to Kensuke's house mirrors Misato's apartment, but with a male figure as the leader (i.e. A Kaji instead of Misato). It is a comeback to better times. Kensuke takes the parental figure for both Shinji and Asuka, as Misato did when Asuka moved in 2.0 for both children. This time, Asuka is the one who is already living there (previously it was Shinji), and Shinji is the one who arrives later.  In 3.0+1.0 Misato cannot fulfil her maternal role anymore, as explained later in the film (and redeemed at the end).

Let me linger on this parallel. In 2.0, when Asuka arrives at Misato's house and introduces Asuka to Shinji, we have the romantic comedy scene of the shower a few minutes later. The scene makes us understand that they feel some attraction to each other, albeit in a very early stage (and introduces PenPen to Asuka). Time forward, this first interaction is repeated in Kensuke's house. When Shinji arrives, he finds Asuka naked after having a shower. This time, no reaction is seen from either part explicitly. Neither Shinji nor Asuka blushed or overreacted, but Asuka clearly states her disappointment, which shows us her desire that Shinji reacted, that Shinji expressed attraction towards her. A significant line that adds up to all the previous evidence about Asuka's persistent feelings for Shinji. What about Shinji? There is a minor detail. When he sees Asuka naked, he stares at her with a glare that is just a mix of emotions. Although it is difficult to tell what he is thinking, Asuka is directly opposite him, and he can see both the DSS choker and her body. However, he only notices the choker when she wraps herself with a towel. Draw your conclusions.

From that point onwards, we get a few scenes representing the problem Asuka and Shinji have communicating and how alike they are. When Shinji throws up for the first time, Asuka explains to Kensuke why Shinji behaves like that and shuts himself off. However, she is doing the same, playing with her console. Asuka's video game is Shinji's SDAT.  Asuka hates the behaviour of Shinji because she sees her flaws in him.

Despite all the façade, she tries to communicate and help Shinji repeatedly in the coming scenes, checking on him on several occasions. Whenever she does that, the movie clearly shows us that she has abandoned her Shinji-like behaviour, showing us the console turned off.

Asuka and her videogame

The climax of their conflict is the force-feeding scene. But before analysing that scene, let me tell you a few more details.

I believe that the mirroring of Misato's apartment is portrayed through other details. For example, the name KenKen might have been chosen in honour of the missing companion from Misato's apartment: PenPen.

Furthermore, while some people might find odd the tendency of Asuka to be naked, this is driven by her disgust with her own body, which is shown in the Eva Extra manga. Finally, to enforce the idea that the relationship between Kensuke and Asuka is different from the one that she and Shinji have, it is essential to notice how Kensuke calls them. He calls them by their surnames, Shikiname and Ikari, placing distance between them.

Let's return to the force-feeding scene. In that scene, Asuka wants to help him, which is why she feeds him, and at the same time, she explains her frustration regarding the lack of reaction and understanding on his part. The conflict between them is portrayed similarly to the Eva 03 incident in 2.0

Visual comparison 1

Visual comparison 2

She is trying to understand him, and she tells him rather precisely why she thinks he is in such a state. She only wants him to reciprocate that understanding, and she wants him to think and explain why she punched him after seeing each other after 14 years. I must highlight the punch's importance. It summarises their communication problems, their conflict. Eva clarifies it in 3.0 using the same parallelisms as other communication problems, like Gendo and Shinji.

However, we know how she feels. The Eva extra manga gives us that insight. She has feelings for Shinji but hates his inaction due to his internal struggles. The hedgehog's spikes have been replaced by a punch. If they can talk about the punch, they will start communicating.

From an external view, Shinji reacts to being force-fed in a way that probably is not what Asuka wanted. Shinji leaves the house, followed secretly by Asuka, in another display of how Asuka feels internally.  It is another parallelism with Misato's apartment, again with a reversal of roles between Shinji and Asuka.

Parallelism

However, we will learn in future events that Shinji started to think about what Asuka told him at that moment, so he listened to her.From this point onwards, Shinji will deal with his thoughts and come to an understanding with himself. It is not achieved alone, but with the help of Rei and, although not directly, Asuka. She is the one who directs Rei to the place where Shinji is and continues checking on him to see that everything is going fine. She is there.

Asuka cares

When Shinji grows up and maturates, we have the first bidirectional communication attempt between Asuka and Shinji. While she asks Shinji if he feels better, he responds with only sounds. Yet, this is the first time they have tried to talk about their respective problems and emotions calmly. We will see this pattern repeat itself several times in the movie: Shinji grows a bit, and then Asuka opens herself another bit. It is very interesting to see Asuka's glare. Asuka is drawn with that glare whenever she is looking at Shinji in a positive/concerning him way. We will return to that later. Besides, she speaks to him without looking at her console.

All this healing process ends in a sentence that is easily overlooked. The night Kensuke is discussing with Asuka the plans to return to the Wunder, Shinji comes home and says, "I am home". It is the reflection of Shinji's complete healing. Thanks to his growth, he has found a new place where he belongs once more. It let us understand why he will consider that this place is important for Asuka too. Both have suffered the same parental love deprivation, lacking a place where they truly belong. Finding a place that they can call home is part of their way to happiness and usually happens before both connect.

The film also let us see how Shinji heals, comparing it with the healing of one of the village's dogs

Now, Shinji is ready to go with Asuka to the Wunder and start a transformative journey for himself and those around him. But first, let me post a few more details, some of which I had not noticed until doing some research on the internet:

Visual comparisons that highlight the similar role of Kensuke as Kaji (Parental role)

2. Asuka's scarf to hide her DSS choker.

3. The possible futon share between Asuka and Shinji, showing how she cares about him.

Chapter 2: A trip in the Wunder

The most relevant scene for their relationship in the Wunder is Asuka's confession. However, there are a couple of interesting interactions before that. The first one is the display of Asuka's jealousy of Sakura when she sees her interaction with Shinji, saying, "Are you his wife?"

The second one happens when Asuka meets Mari. While loaded with fanservice, this interaction is not trivial. Mari's teasing is an essential element in the Rebuild series, even more knowing how important the character of Mari will become at the end. She seems to be aware of Asuka's real feelings, and we know from the Eva extra manga that she tries to push Shinji and Asuka together, which I will come back to later. Asuka replies to Mari's teasing that Shinji "does not need a lover, he needs a mother". This sentence is a double edge sword. First, it shows Asuka's interest in Shinji as a romantic partner, given her deception, and actually, Asuka is saying this sentence while she is playing the videogame, so probably she is hiding her feelings, shutting herself oof the world as Shinji used to do. Second, it shows the problems they face: Communication and maturity. Maturity, because Asuka feels that Shinji has not changed as she has had, and communication, because as we will soon know, Asuka also wants that figure in her life. However, it is not true that Shinji has not grown up. It is just that they have not tried to communicate again, and thus, she does not know about Shinji's recent developments

Everything will change when Asuka faces the reality of possible death. Before the "final battle", she decides to reach out for Shinji. After Mari introduces herself to Shinji in an awkward way that will be important in the ending, Asuka repeats her question. In reality, she asks if he has thought about her, how she feels and everything she has gone through. To Asuka's surprise, Shinji answers the question, blaming his inaction. Taking this as a partial sign of maturity and growth, Asuka starts opening herself, although not wholly, a sign that Shinji's answer might not have been entirely correct. Besides, her body language is similar to the previous lift scenes in Evangelion, where we know she hid her real emotions.

She will equal what to tell Shinji to Shinji's growth. Therefore, she explains to him how she liked him 14 years ago, but not how she feels now. Furthermore, she leaves before Shinji can reply to her statement, leaving Shinji staring back at her through the glass. So, it is Mari again who makes us understand that this has been a sign of communication that goes in the right direction. She congratulates Shinji and stimulates him to continue like this. Again, Mari is trying to solve Asuka and Shinji's problems. Mari says goodbye in Chinese to Shinji (perhaps, a way to tell us that the spell of goodbye works, as they meet again later) and goes to do the same with Asuka, asking her if she feels better. Mari is trying to make Asuka see that opening herself to Shinji will bring happiness to her too.

Nevertheless, we must not forget that the short confession happened because Asuka thought this might have been the end. In a sense, it almost was.

Chapter 3: I need you

This chapter starts after Shinji and Gendo have resolved their issues. As I explained before, the need of resolving their parental matters will be critical to both Shinji and Asuka. The same happened in EoE. Asuka gets to know her mother in her battle against the mass-produced Eva, and Shinji learns about his father's plans and mother during instrumentality. After those experiences and their other interactions through instrumentality, they arrive at the I need you scene where they open to each other.

Gendo gets off the train, and the control of instrumentality is handed over to Kaworu. While Gendo was willing to sacrifice everything for his sake, the growth of Shinji reaches its maximum at this point. Shinji decides to take the reversal role of his father. Even if he is heartbroken or it is a hard and not a pleasant experience, he wants to help Asuka and those who were nice to him. This is the transformative journey that Shinji accomplishes in RoE that marks a completely different path from NGE+EoE.

I worded the sentence highlighting Asuka because those are the literal words of Shinji, naming Asuka as an individual and using the Japanese word "minna" for the rest, which could be the rest of his friends or even the rest of humanity. Shinji has learnt that he must give without seeking anything in return. He must stop thinking about himself only. He is going to help their friends without any positive repercussions on himself. As he later will explain, he plans to rewrite the world with the new spear given by Misato to get rid of the Evas and what they represent, stopping the cycle of suffering that comes with them, and let their friends live a happy life.

Symbolism of the spear

Interestingly, he does not explain this to Asuka and only mentions it to Rei, with some hesitation, which is what prompts him to tell her that Mari would come for him eventually. That behaviour is because for getting rid of the Eva and rewriting the world, he needs to impale himself with the spear inside Eva 01. While we do not know for sure the effects on Shinji, the way it is portrayed resembles a willing sacrifice, a person opening himself to that terrible outcome for a better benefit for their friends. Besides, we must not forget that the sync rate of Shinji with his Eva was infinite at that time, so probably the expected outcome would be the death of the pilot and he knew about that.

This situation is what gives us an essential context for understanding Shinji's actions. As Asuka earlier, he also thought that he might not return. But let’s see what happens with Asuka and Shinji.

The first to be saved is Asuka. As some sort of guardian for Asuka (and Shinji, and even Asuka/Shinji relationship), Mari reminds Shinji before he leaves her entry plug in the anti-universe that he has to find her. And he does.

There are many iconic and meaningful landscapes in Evangelion. Still, none of them has the symbolism, meaning, emotional associations and beauty as the beach where Shinji and Asuka laid at the EoE has. Although it is not the same beach and there are different details, the scene's meaning is clear. It was the scenario of One More Final: I need you. Thus, the location evokes that meaning, where Shinji and Asuka connected and expressed their emotions and feelings in EoE. To increase and highlight that intention, the first shot we have of the landscape is a full white moon, a remnant from the N3I. The moon has always been a poetic figure for love, and it brightens the sand creating the white beach. It is the perfect scenario to share an intimate moment.

Then, a saved, Eva curse-free Asuka awakes. The first sentence references the fact that the curse of Eva is lifted, and she can sleep. As some people detail, the plugsuit is a combination of different ones. This phenomenon will repeatedly happen in the anti-universe. Long story short, as I do not want to enter the terrain of the time loops and different universes, I believe that the idea behind that symbolism is that Evangelion is a multiverse. The anti-universe might somehow connect them, and we can see them. However, the characters remain the same from the universe where they come from. Only those annotated in the book of life remember those other universes or RoE time-loops (which seem to affect only the RoE universe and seem not to be confirmed in the other universes), and probably, as Shinji is in charge of the flow of events, the bleeding in his memories is what drives those changes.

The fact that Asuka wears a plugsuit that is a combination of previous ones, does not mean that she is Soryu or several Asukas at the same time. She is Shikinami, and it is the first time that she is on that beach. Her background and memories are from the RoE timeline, as she does not express, as Shinji will do later, any perception of that phenomenon. The same goes for their location. While they are on a similar beach, it is not the same where Soryu and Shinji found themselves in EoE. It is probably the bleeding of details between universes that wraps the metanarrative message that gives importance to the scenery (that beach is where they connected and accepted each other both in EoE and in this movie, and the place will always symbolise that)

Even those aware of other timelines (Kaworu and Shinji at that point) can only remember that they met before or have a déjà vu feeling. They do not have a complete insight into what happened. I think that this bleeding of details gives an important message: All the universes of Evangelion exist. Soryu and Shinji's story from NGE and EOE has happened, albeit in another universe, part of a larger multiverse. In a sense, it is saying that NGE+EoE is as canon as RoE, something essential to maintain coherency. The difference is that they happen in different physical planes of space and time.

Let's return to the fact that a grown Asuka is on the beach. The camera plays, repeating the same shots as in EoE, linking both scenes thematically again. Moreover, the visual links expands to other couples in Eva.

Here, Shinji sits next to Asuka, with his arms around his legs and a completely different gaze, making clear Shinji is happy to see her. The events follow this path:

Asuka sees Shinji next to her and calls him "Baka Shinji" in a not mean way. A way that shows us that despite calling him "Baka Shinji" time and time again, that did not mean that she truly hated him.

Shinji verbalises his happiness to see her again and says thanks to her for letting him know her feelings previously.

Shinji reciprocates the same feelings, using the past tense. Why? Well, at least this time is more straightforward than explaining why he choked her.  Shinji has several reasons for this: First, it directly answers what Asuka told him earlier. And second, he wants to save and return her to the Eva free world, and thus, knowing that he might not return, hides his current feelings.

Asuka is surprised that her feelings are reciprocated. She blushes and turns to her left, hiding her real feelings at that moment to Shinji. In the next shot, we see a happy, blushed Asuka smiling.

The reaction of Asuka and all the previous evidence from the movie and the manga make it evident that she still has feelings for him. With his body language, Shinji is also transmitting to us that he is hiding his true feelings. Besides, a past tense confession for Shinji makes no sense at all. Shinji has been sleeping those 14 years. For him, those moments where "he liked" Asuka are only a few weeks or months ago from this moment on the beach.  We will get the last evidence that Shinji still has feelings for Asuka, thanks to Kaworu. He, who is aware of all the timelines and universes, asks Shinji if he will feel lonely letting Asuka go. Shinji, with the same body language and a sad face, says no. We must link Shinji's behaviour to the fact I explained earlier. Shinji wanted to sacrifice himself for the happiness of Asuka and everybody.

This links with another idea. The scene is fast-paced. Once Shinji confesses his feelings, he says goodbye to Asuka and the Kensuke sentence. While this might be a reminiscence of Asuka's behaviour in the Wunder, allowing him to avoid any reply, that would have made things more difficult. However, his words are carefully chosen. We know from Rei's experiences in the village that "goodbye, is a spell of magic to see each other again. Despite his plans, Shinji's wish is to see her again

The meaning of goodbye

Then we have the Kensuke sentence. I wanted to talk about this in a simple way. Asuka needed the same parental role as Shinji, and through her experiences in instrumentality, she finds that she has that part of herself fulfilled by Kensuke. However, things get complicated if we start to notice some details. The fact that Kensuke calls Asuka "Asuka" instead of Shikinami and that the doll with Kensuke inside of it appears in the Rei scene has raised concerns that the Kensuke who appears in Asuka's instrumentality scenes is in fact Shinji, helping Asuka to find her place in a future world without him. In more detail:

All Asuka's scenes in instrumentality revolve around Shinji, nothing from Kensuke. It seems that Shinji wants to revert that and makes her conscious that she can find a place to belong and the parental role she needs, especially taking into consideration that he was about to die.

Instrumentality scenes comparison

She verbalises that she has no place to belong yet (despite living with Kensuke for some time), so Shinji wants to clarify that point for her.

It answers why Kensuke calls her Asuka and not Shikinami and why the doll appears again in Rei's scenes on the stage. Furthermore, it connects Asuka's memories with the beach scene, as it is after Kensuke says, "Asuka is Asuka" that she wakes up next to Shinji.

The original source of the theory for me was this video

In the end, from Asuka's instrumentality to the end of the beach scene, Shinji wants her to understand that she has a place to belong alongside the parental figure that she needs and that she is also loved by him, although he is going to let her go for her benefit. A true act of selflessness given his feelings. That is heart-warming and an actual act of love on his part.

Then, something happens amid the fast-paced scenes. The camera shows Asuka with an open mouth, sleeping(?) and Mari next to her. Wait. When did Mari come in? Why? I am not sure of the answers to these questions. It shows that Mari is more than we thought and has more knowledge about the anti-universe and what is happening. We do not know if this scene happens just after Shinji’s words or something has happened in the middle, as Asuka's expression seems not to match the last we see from her. Is there a deleted scene in the middle? Mari says her goodbye to Asuka. Mari has been a bridge between Shinji and Asuka and a close friend to her. In some sense, and continuing the parallelisms between Shinji and Asuka, she has been her Kaworu

Interestingly, Mari only appears to say bye to Asuka and not Rei or Kaworu. At the same time, Shinji only says sayonara to Asuka, the only character that does not have a handshake and a shutter closed. While there is no definitive answer to this fact, I believe it is crucial regarding the ending, as it will establish a continuity between the goodbyes and future gatherings, all directed by Mari, and that is why she appears probably (and she might be the one ejecting Asuka’s entry plug)

After Mari's take care, Asuka wakes up in the entry plug and is ejected by Unit 13. It is important to note that Asuka leaves without any kind of voluntary movement. She awakes in different locations and is the Eva 13 who ejects her. We do not know Asuka’s opinion about this at any time, or how she feels about being saved leaving Shinji behind.

Chapter 4: The sacrifice is stopped

After Kaworu and Rei's scenes, which I am not going to talk about, Shinji decides to carry out the Neon Genesis. We get to the moment where he is ready to sacrifice himself, in some sort of redemption of humanity's sins for creating the Evas and all the suffering that accompanied them. But then, Yui appears.

She stops the spear, protecting Shinji, and takes him out of the Eva 01. Yui’s wish is that he can live in that Neon Genesis world where the Evangelions do not exist, where people, and Shinji, can be happy. This moment changes everything. The plot twist will allow Shinji and Evangelion to have a happy and hopeful ending, thanks to Yui's (+/- Mari) plan.

The sacrifice of Shinji's parents for the sake of their child redeems them from the emotional deprivation Shinji has endured all his life. Shinji, mimicking the last instrumentality scene in EoE, returns to the anti-universe, now alone.

Chapter 5: Mari to the rescue

Shinji waits patiently on a blue water beach. Slowly, he starts to fade away in the anti-universe, as there are no others to relate with. This concept was explored both in EoE and at the end of the TV series. Then, Mari comes with her Evangelion to rescue him and take him back to the real world, now the Eva-free world, as promised to Misato. This is very important, as it highlights that Shinji is not going to a parallel universe. He is returning to the same world where his friends are (Asuka for sure, Kaworu will meet him again too, and Rei, honestly, it is not so obvious where she decides to go in her scenes, but probably too)

Mari's last Evangelion is important too. Contrary to Kaworu and Rei, I believe it is how Mari and Shinji returned to the ordinary world (probably with its entry plug, like Asuka). We might never know that. Then, the next scene is the opposite scene from Asuka in the entry plug, but with Shinji. Now we see an adult Shinji in a train station.

There are different questions to answer to understand what is happening in the ending. However, I think that the film's conclusion is the same regardless of the answer to those questions.The questions are:

Is the train scene set in the AU or in the real world?

Are Mari and Shinji the people we see coming out from the station?

Did Asuka arrive at Kensuke’s house or is she present there if that is the real world?

I tried to sum up the different theories in simple pictures.

 My personal opinion just after watching the movie was that the first scenario was the most likely. However, after seeing different analyses, I am not 100% convinced and I cannot give my support to other theoriesyet. 

The sources for the other theories are these

And the fact that the pilots might be illusions come from here 

As you can see, regardless of the answer to the questions from above, they always end up meeting again. While this is not explicitly shown in the movie, I strongly believe it is the reason why Mari appears at the end scene. Mari is the beacon light that will guide him in this new world, and there is a lot of visual comparisons that prove this fact, comparing Mari to Misato, and knowing the role of Mari in Gendo and Yui’s life. Furthermore, a lot of people consider that the fact that Asuka is alone in the platform is a sign that she is there to be reunited with Shinji, as she has no partner and seems to be playing with something like her old videogame. All of this is enough evidence to stop thinking about this ending as “Shinji choosing Mari to live a happier life” or “to let go the past”.

Comparison

The role of Mari in Yui/Gendo life. A hint in her possible role with Asuka/Shinji

Mari and Shinji, Mari and Gendo, the same fate.

I am sure that Mari will reunite Asuka and Shinji. She has been a bridge between them since 3.0, and the Eva Extra manga gives more insight into that respect. Besides, she did the same with Yui and Gendo, and there are a lot of comparisons between Yui/Gendo and Asuka/Shinji in a visual way throughout the series.You will find Asuka glancing at Shinji with the same face and eyes expression as Yui did. 

We have talked about this before. 

While it would be interesting to know exactly how Shinji arrives there, the narrative conclusion that they will meet again, independently of what has happened to the world, will not change. This resonates with the title of the movie "thrice upon a time", as evidenced here. 

There have been multiple Evangelion universes, both with and without Evas (EoE ends with a world without Evas, as the manga does) and in all of them, all of them, Asuka and Shinji meet again. And this is really important, as now they can communicate and have the chance of growing together and be happy.

Conclusion

Asuka and Shinji are two sides of the same coin, with different defence strategies in the context of the hedgehog's dilemma. Despite their mutual attraction, they are incapable of communicating and reaching each other. In EoE, it took almost the end of the world and humanity to understand that it is thanks to not living with the fear of pain and rejection that we can understand and accept others, ultimately overcoming the hedgehog's dilemma. This is expressed by the caress of Asuka to Shinji in EoE. This loving gesture shows us that the characters start understanding each other and have the chance to be happy together. EoE ending is a message of love and hope.

A/S relationship will represent this conflict wherever they are portrayed, in a cycle of desire/attraction, which leads to conflict and a resolution with understanding and love once they learn to accept each other and start communicating. In EoE is quite visual and displays both of them together at the very end. The manga is less explicit and more hinted at, but the scene at the train depicts how they connect in that new world where they will understand each other.

Thrice upon a time is not an exception to this rule. The last scene of EoE and the manga that involves Asuka and Shinji is the moment they connect, communicate, and change the way they treat each other. In 3.0+1.0 their final scene together is the beach scene, where they confess their mutual feelings in what is a never seen before sincerity and openness between them. Then, a world without Eva is created (in EoE this is exemplified by the crucified Eva and in the manga is more similar to the movie) and we know that Mari will guide Shinji to a safe return to that Eva free world and a gathering with Asuka and his friends. Despite not appearing on screen, all the narrative of the movie, and the whole of Evangelion, makes us understand that they will understand each other more and more and will be more honest towards their feelings, giving them the chance of being happy. As a consequence of that, the leitmotif of Evangelion is repeated once more.

The message of 3.0+1.0 is not about letting go of the past because you have grown up or let it go to move forward. The message is that it is thanks to going through those good and bad experiences that life gifts us, accepting the chance of suffering pain, that we can mature and learn. This learning will make us understand ourselves and those who surround us more, making us love ourselves and others, having, ultimately, the chance of being happy, loved and finding a place to belong to.

And it is in the middle of this struggle, that the love story of Asuka and Shinji shines, reminding us that humans can connect and be happy. 

If they can overcome their problems, so will us.

Everybody finds love in the end.

One More Conclusion: Where is Anno's wife?

What a ride! I think I have written about almost all of Shinji and Asuka's interactions, perhaps leaving just a few ones at the beginning of the movie, and without the mention of Anno as Shinji or his wife as Mari in all the essay! While extremely popular, the theory that Mari represents his wife has many flaws and I still do not understand where it is based. From the character being designed without the supervision of Hideaki Anno to the direct denial from his wife, including that the theory does not match the narrative plot. While self-insertions and story developments related to personal experiences are not rare in storytelling, we cannot explain everything in Evangelion by metanalysis. While Anno's struggles with depression have shaped NGE+EoE, the development and growth of the characters in their own arcs are what matter when analysing them. Shinji might be inspired by his awful experience at that time, but as we said earlier, Asuke is shaped like Shinji, albeit with different behaviour. Therefore, we should accept that both of them are depictions of Anno and not only the masculine figure.

In the end, it is Shinji who rejects instrumentality, returns to the real world and is caressed by Asuka in EoE. The characters do that, not Anno. The same happens in this last scene. While the location of the train station and city is totally related to the director, what is going to happen to the characters in the context of the plot is an important thing to consider when analysing them.

From NGE+EoE to this last movie Shinji grows and understands the path to be happy always.  This is not exclusive of the RoE saga because Anno has overcome his problems. Therefore, conclusions such as "now Anno is happier, so he wants Shinji to be happy" are not supported. What changed in RoE is that the growth of Shinji happens prior to the last impact and instrumentality, instead of growing after those experiences. This allows the portrayal of a lighter version of Shinji in those dramatic moments, resembling more a traditional hero who saves his friends, instead of letting them down and then coming to an understanding all together (because everyone shares a slice of the guilt cake) in instrumentality.

I believe that it would be more fruitful if we took into consideration his wife's work in the way that this tweet states, rather than engage ourselves in discussions about meta self-insertions.

I hope my words have helped those who felt like me after the release of the movie.

Thank you very much for all your time reading this.

[mongen]

I’m 8 episodes into Hazbin Hotel

That is to say I finished season 1

It’s good.

From a top-down perspective, I always love to see animated series aimed at adults that aren’t just another clone of The Simpsons or Rick and Morty. This obviously isn’t the first (not by a long shot) but it’s definitely one of the first I’ve seen pick up this much traction with the casual viewing audience.

As I mentioned in my original post, there are a lot of really good changes from the pilot that help realize this concept in a way that feels like a better execution of the core concept.

The concept itself is nothing particularly new, but it will always be interesting to me from a philosophical perspective. The specific blend of The Good Place season 4 and This is The End that Hazbin Hotel employs is fun and interesting, and set up some good questions for season 2 (assuming we get one). I appreciate that the show never gives the characters a checklist of things they must do to prove they’ve become better people, and when someone attempts to make such a list, it’s a joke.

I love and appreciate the musical numbers,

even if the cramped pacing didn’t allow a lot of them to have the impact they should’ve had. In a perfect world, each song would’ve been the culmination of a single episode and there would have been enough room for some slice of life shenanigans. Unfortunately, the entertainment industry is a toxic wasteland, inhospitable to creative and original ideas, so the crew was told to cram all their ideas into 8 episodes. Not to say A24 and Amazon are solely to blame. If a writer is given 200 minutes to tell a story and chooses to still write 500 minutes of content for it, that’s on the writer, but there’s a push and pull there. From this point on, anytime I mention a character or idea being underdeveloped, it comes with the caveat that I know the creators were under time constraints they chose to partially ignore for the sake of their story and worldbuilding.

I will also say that both songs in episode 7 (out for love and ready for anything) didn’t sit right with me. The call-and-response with a chorus of cannibals is fun, but felt poorly set up, and the song about fighting well for the sake of love felt unearned because Vaggy was already doing what she was doing for love and Carmilla is a woefully underdeveloped character.

Lucifer and Alastair’s rivalry is well communicated visually, but the song lurches into motion from a standstill, which gave me musical whiplash, not unlike Poison, which also suffered from “we didn’t know how to organically lead into this so we’re just suddenly in a music video” syndrome. Both these songs - and in fact most songs in the series, especially Respectless - do a fantastic job of communicating a lot of information in a short amount of time without feeling bloated. Poison is a very dramatic look into Angel Dust, a focal character who previously lacked focus and sadly didn’t get the attention he deserved after the trial scene. Hell’s Greatest Dad plays up all three characters’ insecurities and motivations in both subtle and bombastic style that I love. I just wish Mimzy’s bit wasn’t in the album version, as she makes the song really annoying to listen to on its own, a problem none of the other songs have.

My personal favorite songs are Respectless and Loser, the latter of which is a beautiful use of Keith David’s powerful singing voice and is a great subversion of a tired musical trope of a character being at their lowest point and being told they’re actually doing fine. It does something I’ve seen more and more of lately by telling the characters (and audience) that misery loves company, and complaining about the shit you have to deal with can be cathartic with the right friend(s).

All these competing forces (good lyricism and instrumentation, solid vocals, underdeveloped plots and characters, poorly paced song lead-ups) culminate in one song, though: You Didn’t Know. It’s a beautiful song with a powerful theme and a dynamic tempo. The visuals are strong, from the reflection of hellfire in Sera’s eyes to Adam and Lute being seen from a low angle to the visual parallel between Charlie and Em - but this is where the pacing issue collides with the visual and musical quality. Em is nobody. At most she’s a fangirl with implied cosmic power, and her taking Charlie’s side seems to be due more to her naïveté than to a strong moral backbone. This weakens the impact of the otherwise bone-chilling line “if hell is forever, then heaven is a lie” and dampens the impact of the scene as a whole.

And sadly, that’s the state of the music as a whole, it’s really solid and well executed but ultimately undercut by the story being too much content for the given amount of time.

I wish we got to see more of the six month interim

At the very start of the series, we get a countdown clock, and then each episode skips huge amounts of time and development. It’s like trying to watch Avatar The Last Airbender but only watching the first, tenth, and last episode of each season. You miss all the hard work that it takes to improve oneself. There’s hints at it - the big moments, the revelations, the confrontation between a character’s new ideas about how they should be and how they used to be - but these big events are only made possible by the smaller moments we don’t get to see.

Sir Pentious’s development being marked by his ability to admit his feelings for Cheri Bomb is silly, and pays off well, but I want to see more of how he processed those ideas on his own.

Alastor’s machinations are hinted at very overtly but sadly don’t go far enough in this season to be properly interesting. They’re more like a character quirk than a functional part of the story, and it was weird getting nods to him using Charlie’s power for his own ends and making an ambiguous deal with her in the finale but not doing anything with it. On that note, if I hadn’t seen the pilot five years ago, i doubt the handshake scene would’ve had even half the impact it did. The function of deals within the context of this hell isn’t fully realized in Hazbin Hotel, which is a shame, because it means the audience is left to draw their own significance dependent on their knowledge of other mythology. Faustian bargains aren’t nearly as culturally ubiquitous as the broad concept of punitive afterlife, a concept that the show went to great pains to describe in its somewhat clunky opening exposition.

I want more Cheri Bomb. That’s it, that’s this whole paragraph.

The Vees are the best introduced characters in the series. It’s succinct, it’s easy to tell who and what they are within frames of seeing them, they’re not dynamic enough to need any more explanation than they get, but for all that solid introduction, they really don’t do much between episode 4 and the finale. They’re major players in the political landscape of the setting, but they drop out of the story until they’re neared as reaction machines in the final fight. Alastor puts Vox in his place within 10 minutes of them coming into conflict. Val makes Angel Dust’s life hard, which helps propel several of his big character development moments, but he’s just another bad boss character once he leaves frame after Poison. He loses a lot if his impact as an abuser character when Angel Dust talks about his job the same way an office worker talks about their overly demanding manager. Velvette has powerful stage presence but ultimately doesn’t do much to serve her own motivations. Instead, she answers a key question raised at the start of the show and fleshes out the Vees’ stance in relation to the more traditional Overlord hierarchy, but I have no idea what she wants.

Nifty sucks now. Not really. I still like her, but she’s just a “haha so crazy” character, rather than the more subdued and secretly sinister character she was in the pilot. I love that she got the last laugh in the finale with her Chekov’s knife, but it would’ve been more fun and interesting if she hadn’t been acting like that for 100% of her on-screen appearances.

I like Husker. He’s the most subdued character in the series. I still think he’s the most over-designed (only slightly edging out Alastor for the title) but I stopped caring about that about halfway through season one of Helluva Boss. His development and charm are subtle, and the overt difference in his behavior when Alastor pulls rank is fascinating. Unlike everybody else, he gets exactly enough screen time to get his character across and to see the challenges to his assumptions imposed by the rest of the cast. Keith David was also a perfect casting choice. I can’t get over hearing Doctor Facilier sing the phrase “You’re a power bottom at rock bottom.”

Charlie and Vaggie see the least development, understandable as they’re the paragon characters, but less understandable is the issue that their relationship feels underrepresented and understated. I just want to see them being happy together more, rather than mostly being presented as business partners with aligned goals who call each other babe (until the reprise of More Than Anything, of course).

All in all, the show has a LOT of content for all these characters across a long period of in-world time crammed into not a lot of episodes, and it mostly damages the ultimate theme of the series in having so much stuff happening all at once. I’m not sure if a story with this many moving parts could ever properly fit into only 8 episodes, though.

Things I’m glad they removed since the pilot and things I wish they’d removed more of

The Johnny-Test-esque overuse of expressive foley was the single worst addition to the pilot. I’m glad they didn’t use those in the final product.

The over-use of “fuck” is still present, and it comes across as forced in places, but it’s nowhere near as incessant as in the pilot or Helluva Boss. I get that the writers were edgy young millennials on Deviant Art in the 2000s, but just because I understand why a writing decision was made doesn’t mean I have to like it. Im not against the use of fuck, shit, damn, etc - I swear like an imagineer and I write like a terminally online nerd - but at a point it’s excessive. Judicious use of curses is just as important as careful use of any aspect of language.

The squash-and-stretch over-animation of faces in the pilot always bugged me. I kept hearing people say “oh the animation is so good! See how much everybody moves” and I just don’t see it that way. Quantity is not quality. Having a lot of animation isn’t the same as having good animation, just like having a lot of worldbuilding isn’t the same as good worldbuilding (looking at you, JKR). I appreciate the way the motion was toned down for the full production. It looks cleaner, more organized, less needlessly chaotic. It also means when powerful characters start distorting their form, it has more impact, which I like a lot. Alastor is a lot more intense now because he’s not constantly blobbing around like a Gumby character.

A correction/addendum for my original post

I appreciate the use of Adam as a stand-in for a patriarchal status quo, and his use as the head of the inquisitors makes more sense with the context that a majority of heaven’s residents are not aware of the annual exterminations.

I’m 3 episodes into Hazbin Hotel

It’s a lot better than I was expecting, but I have some criticisms:

1. The cast needs to stop acting like Angel is disgusting for being into what he’s into. Literally everybody they come across seems to comment on how gross they think it is, and it kind of clashes with how popular he supposedly is.

2. The songs need more breathing room. There’s 0.2 second of lead-in to some of them. I get that the snappy, overly energetic animation and editing is a rollover from the pilot, but it’s strangling the songs and preventing them from having the gravity they should have.

3. The plot progression feels like a list of bullet points. I’m not going to spoil it, but there’s a major mystery brought up in episode 1 that is answered in episode 3 very unceremoniously and with very little time for the mystery to stew. There’s potentially a very interesting intrigue plot going on, but it’s impact is damped by the fact that it’s delivered very matter-of-fairly by a bunch of supposedly very powerful characters who we haven’t seen before.

4. The spider dude who speaks in pseudo-Shakespearian English is very difficult to understand, and I couldn’t catch his many any of the three or so times it was said because I was trying to process the last thing he’d said. A lot of characters’ voice lines are mixed strangely, but his prose makes it almost impossible.

5. The animation and character designs are much better than in the pilot, but some of the steps they took to simplify the visuals backfired a bit. They cut back on the excess detail and over-animating just enough to make the style still distinctive, but ended up with some 3/4 perspectives that look real wonky. There are also a few shots where characters are forced into a perspective view and it shows.

6. Adam shouldn’t be the leader of the angels. Based on my (limited) knowledge of the worldbuilding, it’s based on 14th century occult appropriation of Jewish spiritual myths like Goetia (as described in the Lesser Key of Solomon) and concepts like the seven deadly sins, so by that token, the leader of the army of angels should be the angels whose name literally means “The Sword of God”: Gabriel. They could also have used the angels of death, Justice, light, or any number of other aspects. I get that they’re not being super strictly literal to those old times (and that’s for the best, Crowley, Aleister, and co were foundational to many modern antisemitic conspiracy theories), but Adam is a weird choice a leader of armies.

All that to say, I’m really excited to watch the rest of the series, but I’m not going to keep my expectations somewhat low.