#kinda blended my style with adventure time

[bi-the-wei]

How about a crossover?

Ive been watching adventure time with my wife, so imma blame that.

Fun fact, Lan Zhan is mint gum rather than chewing gum.

[that1emowitch]

Suit Shopping pt. 2

Part 2 of this

A/N: Kinda to the short side but still

Words: 1277

TW: None, I think. It's all pretty fluffy. Lmk if I missed smth

The tension crackles in the air as the Batfamily stands awkwardly before Dick in the grand foyer of Wayne Manor. Two days since their mall adventure, the moment of truth arrives. Cass and Duke hold a large garment bag proudly between them, while Steph, Jason, Tim, and Damian each clutch separate bags, their faces etched with a mix of nervousness and anticipation.

Dick, in a simple t-shirt and jeans, stands in the center, a hesitant smile plastered on his face. "Alright, alright," he chuckles, trying to lighten the mood. "Let's see what you amazing people have come up with for my wedding suit."

Steph, ever the impulsive one, can't contain her excitement. "We'll go first!" she declares, darting forward before anyone else can react. With a dramatic flourish, she yanks the garment bag open, revealing a suit that can only be described as... exuberant. A vibrant purple screams royalty in the wrong carnival. Sequins shimmer across the fabric, catching the light like a disco ball in a bad dream. Tiny, glittery bat wings sprout from the shoulders, adding an extra layer of questionable taste.

Dick coughs, trying to hide a wince. "Uh, Steph... it's certainly... unique."

"Wait—" Jason jumps away from the suit. "That's not the suit we bought!"

Steph's smile falters slightly, but she recovers quickly. "Exactly! Now Dick will be the most dazzling groom Gotham has ever seen!"

"But— What'd you do to our suit?!" Jason scoffs, betrayal clear in his eyes. "Blondie, you are expelled from Dead Robins Club."

Tim, unable to hold back a snort, steps forward. He unzips his bag with a flourish, revealing a sleek, black suit. Red accents run down the sides, and a subtle bat symbol is embroidered on the chest. It's a classic, cool design, a clear nod to Dick's Nightwing persona.

"This is more your style, right?" Tim asks, raising an eyebrow.

Dick nods, a genuine smile breaking out this time. "Definitely a contender."

Damian, ever practical, approaches next. He reveals a simple, tailored blue suit. It's elegant and well-made, the kind Bruce might wear on a more formal business occasion. "This is a timeless classic," Damian states, his voice devoid of his usual sarcasm. "It would be appropriate for any setting."

Jason, ever the drama king, scoffs. "Please, Demon brat. Dickwing deserves something more... modern. Wait one sec while I find what Blondie here has done to the suit he picked." He runs upstairs quickly, then comes back with a bag, showcasing a suit that looks like it belongs on the set of a futuristic space opera. It's a Nightwing blue, with metallic silver accents that seem to glow in the dim light.

Dick whistles. "Wow, Little Wing. Record time for that run."

Damian humphs. "But mine is more practical. Durable enough for any rogue attack, yet stylish enough to turn heads."

Last but not least, Duke and Cass step forward, holding their mysterious bag together. "We designed a suit based on your Nightwing colors," Duke explains. He carefully unzips the bag, and Cass pulls out a suit that leaves Dick speechless.

It's a masterpiece. Made from a midnight blue fabric that shimmers with a subtle sheen, the suit incorporates sleek black accents that run along the sides and down the arms. Designs of a starry night, intricate and beautiful, run across the entire fabric. But the true genius is in the details - a subtle hidden compartment on the arm for Dick's communicators, a flexible construction that allows for ease of movement, and a subtle lining that feels light and cool against the skin.

Dick stares at the suit, a wave of emotion washing over him. It's perfect. More than just a suit, it's a symbol of his journey, a blend of his past and future.

"Wow," Dick finally breathes. "This... this is incredible. Thank you, guys." He looks at each of his siblings, his heart full of gratitude. "Every single one of you came up with something amazing. I honestly can't choose."

Then his eyes light up. "I know! I'll call Wally! Everyone get out of the room, him and I will choose, then I'll announce which suit I'm picking."

A collective groan rises from the bats.  

"Seriously, Dick?" Tim grumbles, already turning towards the exit. "You're letting your fiance be the tiebreaker?”

"Hey!" A voice called from the doorway before they can escape. Wally West, the Flash, in standing there, a mischievous grin plastered on his face. "I got your text. What's the big decision?"

Dick sheepishly explains the situation, gesturing to the remaining garment bags. Wally whistled, his grin widening.  

"Alright, alright," Wally says, holding up his hands. "Let's see what we're working with."  He darts around the room, examining each suit with the practiced eye of a seasoned shopper – or maybe a seasoned costume designer, considering his own flashy getup. 

Steph puffs out her chest as he reaches her mangled creation. "So, what do you think? Pretty dazzling, right?"

Wally's eyes widen comically. "Uh, Steph, that's… Not gonna lie, certainly a statement piece. Take this from the guy people say used to be dressed like mustard." 

He moves on, offering polite praise for Tim’s practical design, a raised eyebrow at Damian’s classic choice, and a snort at Jason’s space opera-inspired suit.  Finally, he reaches Duke and Cass' masterpiece. 

He falls silent for a moment, examining the suit with a thoughtful frown.  Then, a slow smile spreads across his face.  

"Wow, this is incredible," He breathes, tracing the intricate starry night design. "It's perfect, Dick. It's you, it's Nightwing, it's everything. You’re gonna look so hot."

Dick grins, a blush washing over him.   "You really think so?"

Wally winks. "Absolutely.  Besides, can you imagine Bruce's face if you showed up in a sparkly purple suit with bat wings?"

The room erupts in laughter, the tension dissolving almost completely.  Dick claps his hands, gathering everyone's attention.

"Alright, alright," He announces. "Looks like we have a winner. Thanks to everyone for putting so much thought into this. It means a lot."

He gestures towards Duke and Cass.  "And for the two of you… seriously, amazing work.  This suit is incredible."

Cass gives a small, satisfied nod, while Duke beams.  The rest of the Batfamily offers their congratulations, the competitive spirit replaced by genuine camaraderie, though a few glares are exchanged.  

"So," Wally says, slinging an arm around Dick's shoulder and pressing a chaste kiss on his cheek. "Ready to pick out a wedding band that's just as awesome?”

Dick chuckles.  "Maybe we can skip the family vote on that one."

.

.

. 

As soon as Dick and Wally speed out of the room, Jason, Steph, Tim, and Damian turn to Duke and Cass, glaring.

The pair in question only wear a smug grin. Cass holds out her palm, and Duke teases, “Pay your debt, losers.”

Grumbling, Jason presses a fifty-dollar bill into Cass’s hand, glaring daggers at the two. “I used to like you two. No more pancakes for you, and no showing up uninvited at my apartment. Got that?”

Duke’s grin only falters slightly— no pancakes?— but Cass steps on Jason’s foot before he storms off with an “OW!”  to make it even.

Tim pays his loser’s fee with only a slight frown, probably too sleep-deprived to care. Steph tries to give Cass a kiss instead of money, but Cass is too headstrong to fall for that. 

Damian huffs and promised Duke he’d get revenge, in the most haughty and powerful voice a pre-teen could possibly muster. Duke tries so hard not to laugh, but fails, leaving the baby demon to stomp out of the room.

This competition was perfect. Duke knew they’d win.

[amuhav]

Get to Know Me - Sims Style

tagged by @dandylion240 (if anyone else did too I’m sorry, I’m not seeming to get notifs for tags rn???)

tagging @keibea​ because we need more TS3 rep in tag games like this tbh.

What’s your favorite Sims death?

Old age. Because it means my sim actually made it that far and I just love seeing their life play out. Some of the more quirky, simsy ones are great though. Death by Jellybean or Cowplant come to mind lol.

Alpha CC or MaxisMatch?

I... really don’t like the TS4 MM aesthetic 😅 I really don’t like the clay hair look for my own sims, though think some people do wonderful things with it, and I do like certain Maxis Mix styles, good skin details with clay hair, certain stylised MM styles etc. but the default TS4 clay look is literally why I never moved over to TS4 in the first place, and it took too long for the Alpha scene to really take off in the beginning, so by the time there was enough CC for me to feel I would ever want to jump in, it felt too overwhelming to even try moving to essentially a new medium.

For TS3... I also am not a huge fan of the straight “MM” look either, though I think the distinction is less prominent as it is in TS4. You can easily make most “MM” stuff fit in an “alpha” game simply because they aren’t usually full-on clay the way TS4 MM is, they’re just not quite as detailed as full “alpha” CC. Whereas the other way around isn’t quite as true, intricately detailed alpha stuff might look out of place if most of your other content is vanilla or MM. So I think as well as preferring the aesthetic, I like the flexibility a more “alpha” leaning style can bring.

Do you cheat your sims weight?

Storywise, characters are obviously whatever size I make them lol. 

Uh. I don’t know about weight, because I don’t think any of my sims have put on a lot of weight during gameplay. I have definitely cheated muscle levels though. Traumatic flashbacks to Loch suddenly getting BULKED whilst I was letting him run free during Riv’s BC. Absolutely not you little twink.

Do you move objects?

For gameplay, I used to try to minimise doing so just cos it breaks so much routing and stuff. Now I don’t play so I go nuts with MOO. Who needs working doors or stairs or beds anyway?

Favourite Mod?

So many mods for TS3 are kinda essential to even be able to run the game lol, like almost the entire NRAAS suite. I think I’ll have to go with the Remove Stencil mod though, cos being able to undo EA’s weird obsession with shiny clothes by removing the specular is honestly so lifechanging LOL. no more shiny wool jumpers or oil slick jeans 🥰

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack?

My first TS3 expansion was Ambitions, because I skipped World Adventures, in fact, I think it was one of the last expansions I bought lol. 

Believe it or not, I do actually own one EP, one GP, and one SP for TS4 lmao, back when I thought maybe, just MAYBE. the game might get better, and I was still trying so damn fuckin hard to force myself to enjoy the actual gameplay. So I have Get to Work, but don’t even ask me what the other two are because I haven’t a fuckin’ clueeeee. 

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing?

...It just occurred to me maybe it is meant to be “LIV” mode because it’s... like. Living mode. Like, Alive Mode doesn’t make sense. But my brain won’t accept it. doesn’t sound right. Always been “LIVE” mod to me lol.

Who’s your favourite sim that you’ve made?

Oh, jeez. Uhhh, I can’t *really* claim most of my current legacy sims because I didn’t make them, they were born in-game, even if I have tweaked the hell out of them in recent years. So if we’re going for physical appearance, I wanna say actually maybe Sylvie for my TS3 sims? She took so long to get just right, especially because TS3 doesn’t really do curvier sims quite as well as TS4, especially not without a fuck ton of sliders, and I had a really specific look to her face in mind that took forever to get right, had to blend her a custom skin etc. But I am finally super happy with her cute lil sassy round face 🥰 Close runners up are probably Qu or Edge.

God, I’m gonna get so fucking shot for this but here goes. Physically, my fave TS4 sims I’ve made are actually both of Tay’s brothers, Ethryon and Ailos, and also probably father, Qariel. I think because I had a little more experience with using TS4 CAS by the time I got to them, more sliders, more skin details, just generally a fuck ton more CAS CC by then, and more time to tweak them etc. As much as Tay will always be my favourite sim OVERALL... yeah. plznoonekillmebye

Have you made a simself?

Ye. I used to update her like. all the timeee too, whenever I got a new haircut etc. And, ofc, Havoc was my alter ego so she’s like. simself adjacent lol.

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

God I hate EA’s hair colours in TS3. their blondes are so yellow, the highlights don’t blend well etc. always make my own. TS4 hair colours make me want to actually die, but then again, I hate the clay hair and cartoony colours of vanilla TS4 anyway, so.

Favourite EA hair?

Favourite life stage?

Young Adult, with Teens a close second. You can do the most with the YA age, but the chaos of teenage years are real fun too lol.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

I literally can’t play lmao. I have too much CC in TS3 for it to run well enough to play, and TS4... is it even possible to play TS4? joking joking... mostly. I’m in it for the story.

Are you a CC creator?

No. Never. I do not have a CC page I abandoned whatsoever no idea what you’re talking about goodbye. 💀

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

RBSB represent. 

No I hate everyone equally.

@lazysunjade and @thesimperiuscurse have no choice but to be talked at by me every day. I’m inescapable. 

Do you have any sims merch?

I actually had the TS3 Collectors edition that came with the Plumbob USB and I was devastated when it got broken. Like legitimately heart broken lol. 

Miss her so much I just want her back

Do you have a YouTube for sims?

Ew.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

I used to try so hard to stick to whatever gameplay threw at me, following the actual legacy rules, not editing sims etc, all to the detriment of my actual enjoyment of storytelling. Now I care maybe a little too much about how posts look that I get into a rut of not posting oops bye 💀

What’s your origin id?

Probably the same as my username here lol, but I avoid origin at all costs so couldn’t tell you for sure tbh.

Who’s your favorite CC creator?

Oh, way too many to choose. For sims 3 CAS stuff, the still active converters like @rollo-rolls, @vmsims23, @simtanico etc. for build and clutter stuff @kerriganhouse, and @martassimsbookcc for conversions. Honestly, I’m kinda out of the loop atm, but there’s just way too many good creators.

How long have you had simblr?

uh. since 2015, I think? let’s not dwell on it 💀

How do you edit your pictures?

Dunno how to answer this? Photoshop, I guess lol? 

What expansion/ gamepack is your favorite?

It used to be pets, cos I loved having animals in the game. Now I always forget they exist oop lol. Probably Supernatural. 

[repldemiurge]

I went to a few concerts this summer season (though not nearly as many as my partner) and I never take pictures at them, but today since it was an outdoor lawn venue I found it easier and got a pic of each band

Unearth was fine. Generally the highest praise I can give a -core band unless they later go on to have a more interesting career (a la BTBAM or TDEP) I think them being slightly older than most bands in that scene helps a lot? It gave them more of just a melodic thrash vibe that they then still botched with knuckle-dragging breakdowns, in case you forgot they were a metalcore band and started to enjoy them. And yet, I might try a couple albums

Then Kerry King came on. Who the fuck cares.

(Forming your own shitass slayer wannabe band when slayer reformed without you after 5 years because you're too much of a fucking tool is. Sad.)

The only track the crowd got into was Raining Blood. Lol.

Mastodon did all of Leviathan, and like. It's Leviathan it's good what do you want. Honestly, the biggest downside to this was that they played Blood and Thunder to open the night, when by rights that is a made-to-be-an-encore song. Instead we got More Than I Could Chew and Steambreather. Idk I just. Still hate those last two albums. They teased that a new record will be out 2025 and my God I hope they decide to quit it with the fucking hard rock crap.

Then Brann came out after and told a very cute story about the first time he saw Leviathan on sale at best buy, good fodder for a 20th anniversary show like this.

OH they also played Circle of Cysquatch and had a tokusatsu. This thing was pretty cool.

‐-----------------

Then Lamb of God closed doing all of Ashes of the Wake. I had really only heard Redneck, Laid to Rest, and Grace by these guys, on account of the rock I live under. (And Grace only because of the girl who did a hurdy gurdy cover of it. And that's the track I like the most!)

I. Get why they occupy the position that they do. Solid blend of existing hardcore and metal styles while never adventuring into anything *too* experimental or niche. Really solid technique and fantastic stage presence from their front man. Kinda sad I didn't see them before Chris Adler left? I've had respect for him as a drummer for a long time. Overall, good album and solid live performance. I think I liked the first half a fair bit more than the back half, but the instrumental title track near the end was a standout. Did a little bit of moshing during Redneck because I wanted to have a *little* fun tonight, and I knew people would go apeshit for it. Uh, moshing on an angled lawn in the dark is a, *different* fuckin experience than on a venue floor lol. Only stayed for like half the song I guess.

Then I ate a hot dog and chili. Good night.

Anyways what's up with all these tours of bands playing entire albums now? I feel like this wasn't a thing 10 years ago. Maybe it's just that we're hitting a lot of anniversaries for 00s prog-metal boom albums and they want to show their Concept Vision in Full, but I feel like I'm seeing non-progressive bands (Lamb of God???) do it as well, so.

It's not even a bad trend per se, it's just one that feels kinda weird to me. I'm not the world's biggest showgoer though, maybe this has been a thing for a long time and I just never picked up on it.

I should listen to Slaughtersun by Dawn again (Good Black Metal bands do north American tours and stop in Detroit 2025 pleaseeeeeeee)

[slytherinshua]

Hopefully they will get a bit of rest before the show! They definitely need it after the tour though, the schedule seemed brutal. I don't think I'd be able to cope if it was me lol. You'll have to let me know what they are like to watch live, I'm sure they'll be amazing!!

Play is such a comfort song! I have definitely cried listening to it as well haha, also haze. I really do love how they have a song for every mood lol.

I'm honestly so glad that I started to listen to them when I did. I found them at a time when I'm finally starting to think more positively about myself and seeing my own potential, like seeing that I can improve myself but also being kind to myself when I inevitably mess up. I think the messages in their songs are really comforting and make me feel seen. (Although I still remember the night when hug by seventeen absolutely broke me ahaha) Finding a talented violinist who plays music that I like has helped me want to become better in that sense too, although admittedly I have wanted to improve for a while, but Yechan has actually given me a goal which is nice. (I've started to try and learn boogie man and my respect for Yechan has went WAY up).

I have wanted to watch super and for ages!! I never knew where to find it though. I found out about it because I'd started to listen to Hoppipolla and then would watch compilation videos of clips from superband. It seems so fun! And the amount of talent would make me cry ahaha. I'll and Ha Hyunsang's voices in 1000x almost made me cry the first time I listened to it because they blended so beautifully. After getting into Lucy, I was kinda like, the bassist in the awesome cover of the Coldplay song (I can't remember what it's called lol) was Wonsang?! Yechan played viva la Vida?? With Ha Hyunsang?? That made me want to watch it more ahaha (although I don't know if I'll be emotionally prepared to see Sangyeop cry)

I'll let you know if I have any ideas haha, but definitely keep writing for Lucy! I really liked your style of writing and thought you wrote Sangyeop really well!

Enjoy the show!!!!

okay now that I’m back from the show lemme answer this 🥹🥹 I think they did get some rest beforehand they were rly energetic and excited :( moreso than me cause I was so sore it hurt to stand and I was struggling when sangyeop wanted us to jump sigh

You could rly just tell they went all out for their last show of the tour and it was just so special :( I was right by wonsang bcuz he’s my bias and I wanted to watch him up close so most of the videos I took are of him. Whenever I could see sangyeop or get noticed by sangyeop I would die internally idk smth abt him live is just way too attractive and charismatic and he needs to stop being so fucking fine istg??? But wonsang was so cute I was chilling standing by him <33

I swear I can cry to any lucy song cause even the happy ones have sad or relatable lyrics… the sad ones hit so fucking hard absolutely when I need to cry colourless is my go to…. Sangyeop ugh 👹👹👹👹 and when it’s a song like boogie man I just cry cause of how beautifully crafted it is cause I think abt how hard wonsang works on every song LMAO IM SO EMO KILL ME

I also feel like I found them at just the right time but like for the opposite reason. I was going through intense burnout and listening to stove while I worked on schoolwork was the only thing keeping me going :( (along w bambam ty husband <3)

I NEED TO REWATCH SUPERBAND IN FULL TBH CAUSE 😭😭 I went back to watch the lucy stages but I just need to experience the WHOLE thing again… anyway here’s the link to the google doc with the google drive eps for you <3333 AND YES ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME COVER!!!! Absolutely adored it sm I remember how everyone thought wonsang was selfish and trying to make himself stand out by only picking guitarists while he was the only bassist but then he got all 5 votes cause his arrangement was so beautiful and chilling and ethereal and I love him sm I always call him my lil genius :(

Dropping some photos from the concert hehe

[starswordneo]

Thinking about Sonic and its gameplay, read a twitter thread and someome said that Boost and Momentum can't work, and I just kinda thought about it and y'know, disagree? I think they can work if you put enough thought into it. Like, the boost in Unleashed, Gens, Forces and Frontiers are at a constant speed, you can't really gain nor loose speed, but in the classic games, mania, and adventure, rolling and such gets you plenty of speed!

To keep with that, I think boosting is perfect for long flat distances, or upwards, while rolling is great when going downwards.

With that in mind, I think a hypothetical combination is possible, imagine this senario:

You're boosting down a corridor, side-stepping obstacles and even drifting to the side, then, you continue your boost, then you see a slope going downwards, you roll and exit the boost, and you see you're gaining IMMENSE speed, then when the slope finishes, you swiftly continue boosting, keeping that speed you earned from the slope, and now you just need to KEEP that speed, as if you mess up, the boost looses the bonus speed you earned via rolling

Rolling could replace the slide that gens/unleashed had, and the hypothetical moveset could be this:

Grounded:

Left: Boost

Right: Curl/Uncurl

Top: Light speed dash (Pressing left stick to light speed dash in frontiers just... doesn't feel right.)

Bottom: Jump

Left trigger: Drift (I just really love drifting)

Left/Right bumpers: Side-step

In Air:

Left: Air Boost (Would keep the Frontiers & Forces's little arc they had going, REALLY handy little thing!)

Right: If pressed, stomp, but if held, bounce, this would keep half of Sonic's height he had when he started the bounce

Top: Still light speed dash

Bottom: if pressed, homing attack, if held, Drop dash (Perfect if where you're landing is a slope or you wsnt to make a 180)

Also, for level design, a lot of sonic fangames make levels wayyyy too open and wide, to promote exploration, but.. they never feel right to me. Using Windmil Isle and Rooftop run, both levels are more closed in, and use open areas for battling, spectacle, or for places for you to drift with.

I really do think rolling and boosting can co-exist! It may take a little tinkering around and messing about, but if you get my vision, just imagine how sick it'd look, earning speed by rolling and then boosting to keep that speed and just feeling the world breeze by, watching ahead and reacting in time to obstacles that would make you loose your bonus speed you got.

I'm a huge fan of quick thinking and keeping speed you've earned, the classic games always felt great whenever you earned a bunch of speed, and Unleashed/Gens just felt amazing to breeze by, and while I'm not a huge fan of adventure, I do really enjoy rolling about in that game and Frontiers.

Frontiers gets sorta close to what i like, being able to boost and then drop dash down a slop and gaining silly speeds, but you can't exit it, you have to awkwardly jump out or just watch sonic go at a snails pace to exit out of it. To more seamlessly blend the two styles would be really nice, then having levels designed with both in mind would be even better!

Another kinda level design idea: You start with a spindash in a level with a sloped beginning, and after doing a ring quick-time, Sonic starts with a boost of speed, then rolls down a slope.

Once you hit the bottom, you boost ahead with a bunch of bonus speed from your rolls, and you quickly choose a path to go through, which has a rail taking you up high with a horizontal loop, and you have to side-step holes that'd take you down below to the slower route

At the end of the corridor, you hit a ramp and get tossed along a string of springs, going back down to ground and boosting along, with a drift to the side, and a roll under a fallen log, you launch up via spring and defeat a string of enemies, zip-lining upwards and being thrown up high, preparing a dropdash, you land and dash forwards, and you uncurl back into a boost, climbing up a mountain.

once at the top, with a bunch of baddies in the way, you roll down and just start gaining ludicrous speed, tearing eggman robots apart and chaining defeats together for amazing points, and once you get close to the bottom, you boost ahead, climbing up a wall and a dash panel turns you to the side as you wall run to a rail, watching sonic spiral around into a rainbow ring and doing tricks

Then after landing, you fight off some badniks, dodging and parrying, and once you defeat them all, you zipline along to the rest of the level

I could probably go on for hours on this idea for a moveset, I really think both could really complement each other if they were blended together nicely with care!

A couple more thoughts, but in a game of mine I'd like to have, maybe have segments where Sonic gets shot up or ahead, and have Knuckles swoop in to catch Sonic, watching Sonic sway a bit back, and when dashing, just watching Sonic cling on as he gets flung backwards would be really funny to see.

A fun gimmick idea would probably be Amy using her hammer to golf sonic through a level at specific points, or Tails grabbing Sonic in water segments and doing what he does in Sonic 4: Episode 2, propelling along, Silver perhaps building land for Sonic to traverse, or targets to homing attack. Just me spitballing, but if I ever get into making a sonic game, I would try to make it so fucking fun

[radellama]

Heya! Sorry to dip, things went crazy. Anyways.

👻🐌💥 for the writing asks if you are still doing those, thanks!

Haha you're all good! Hope you've been well!

👻 Is there a new genre you'd like to write?

Ohhhh, definitely! Since studying film theory for the past couple years (and thinking more broadly in narrative as a whole) I'm really fascinated by genre and the tropes expected from them. I write a lot of angst, and I'm usually writing sci-fi/fantasy/drama/slice of life style things, and I'd like to try every genre ever if I'm being honest LMAO.

What fascinates me most, though, is the way you can blend genres. Like, you know how action/adventure or sci-fi/thriller can just go hand in hand sometimes? I wanna try out various blends or even try to see if it's possible to make new blends/create something decent in a blend that 'doesn't work,' I just wanna try out all the stuff and push the boundaries, for both my fic and original works. Know the rules to break them yknow?

🐌 What is one of your smallest writing goals?

Make notes!! And I've already kinda succeeded haha.

I noticed when I was writing my hylink fic all the way back when, when I inevitably got busy with life I just couldn't access the same headspace anymore and had to drop the fic, even though I didn't want to. I'm still talking and thinking about it all these years later (and I'd love to restart and eventually complete it in future!) But it taught me that I need to make really solid notes so that I can plot everything to my standards and access that same headspace no matter how much time has passed- cause turns out! I'm really slow and nitpicky!

Some of my fics are 5+ years in the making at this point, and cause I like to let things marinate in my head for ages, making notes for stories and actually going more in depth with them so it's easier to draft later is so important to me these days. That's why, that'll be my little goal >:)

💥Is there a chapter, scene, or WIP you're most excited to write? Share a snippet or tell us about it!

Ahhh man.. all of my fics/original stories??

For now, since I've been talking a bit about it with some friends, he's a snippet of a possible introduction for my most recent OCs/original story, Abe and Orc.

[Also wanna preface this and say it's suuuuuuuper work in progress, and I'm not sure I want to write it write it, as I think it might do best in a visual medium like a web comic haha]

~~~

He tossed some game to the bushes near the orc's campfire, staying hidden up in the trees. He watched with a keen eye as the orc investigated the sound, finding the animal carcass and brushing the dirt off of it.

"Thank you." He called out, to no one in particular.

Abe didn't respond, just looked over him.

He watched as he tried to gut the hare, not doing a very good job it of it. Maybe it was due to the sheer size of this orc, with his huge knife and even huger hands, but he was making a right mess of it.

Abe groaned to himself, before jumping down from the trees and making himself known.

Abe pointed his knife at the orc, gauging his reaction. The orc stayed still in shock, sheepishly raising his hands in surrender and placing his knife down.

Rolling his eyes, Abe stomped over to the stone where the dead hare laid, and started to gut and skin it properly for the orc.

He worked fast, expertly preparing the meat in the firelight while the orc watched in fascination. Neither of them said a word, but Abe would keep a cautious eye on the orc while he worked.

As soon as he was done, he ran off into the trees, ignoring the orc as he tried to shout his thanks.

The orc carefully began cutting the meat, and skewering it on some sticks to roast on the fire. He was thankful for the kind stranger, this was this third day on whatever berries and plants he could find, and it simply wasn't enough for him to keep going. Some meat, however small, meant a lot to him.

---

In the distance, down by the river, he saw that kind stranger. Excited, he ran down to the riverbank to talk to him.

As soon as he heard the ground shake with each step the orc took, Abe panicked and reached for his knife. He didn't have time to recognise that it was the same orc from before, only registering a large being bounding right towards him.

He quickly slashed the orc, cutting right across his forearm. As he recoiled in pain, Abe used the time to quickly climb a nearby tree and gain his bearings.

"Ow!!!" The orc didn't try to attack him back, didn't even turn to look for him in the trees. In fact, he didn't even try to defend himself, or protect himself from another attack.

"I just wanted to talk with you..." The orc sounded on the verge of tears.

Abe watched for a moment, before jumping out of the tree and landing behind him. He tapped the handle of his knife on the back of the orcs head.

"You're dead."

The orc instinctively reached to rub the back of his head, turning to look at the small man.

"Why did you cut me?" He whined.

"Why did you come running at me!?" Abe yelled back. When he saw the orcs lip start to quiver, he regretted saying it so harshly.

"I just wanted to thank you. For the meat."

Abe stayed still, unsure if he'd heard right. Not once had he ever heard of an orc that cared enough to use manners like this...

He began to pick up the remains of his clothes by the riverside and walk off into the forest, but before he could disappear, the orc called out to him.

"How can I thank you!?"

Abe ignored him, and walked away.

To his dismay, Abe heard the orc follow behind him as he walked further into the forest. He glanced over his shoulder, and sure enough, the orc was a few footsteps behind. He picked up the pace, weaving through the trees in the hopes that he'd lose the orc, but he was always right behind him when he turned to look.

"Why are you following me!?" Abe spat angrily.

"I want to thank you!" The orc growled back at him.

Abe stopped running, and turned to face the orc.

"I fed you, and I've cut you. Now don't bother me!"

The two of them stared each other down, neither willing to budge. Abe wasn't willing to back down, not caring that he was barely half the height of this orc- He could, and would fight.

But then he noticed that the orc was still cradling his arm, blood dripping between the fingers that gripped the wound.

Abe sighed. "You're going to get an infection if you hold it like that."

The orc looked down at the wound, removing his hand to see the bloodied mess. He couldn't even see where the gash was amongst the blood the seemed to cover his entire forearm.

"How do I clean it?" The orc asked.

Abe waited to see if the orc was joking, but he was genuine. Blood continued to drip from his arm, and Abe just groaned and led the way back to the river. The orc followed closely behind him, kneeling down by the riverside when the man gestured for him to.

He watched curiously as the Abe washed his hands in the water before grabbing his arm and submerging it in the river. He rinsed the blood away and pulled his arm out, quickly slapping some leaves on the open wound.

The orc gasped in pain as the leaves touched his skin, but the human held his arm still between his knees to continue applying the leaves.

"It stings!" The orc complained, but Abe ignored him.

He watched with a grimace as the human finished with the leaf dressing, and reached out to cut some river weed. He used it to tie the leaves to his wound securely, and walked away to put a few steps of distance between them.

The orc looked his arm in awe, it was so simple and resourceful, and even the stinging was starting to subside.

"Thank you."

Abe grunted. "Don't come running at a man while he's trying to bathe next time."

"Sorry..."

The orc watched the as he grabbed his shirt and shook it, quickly turning his head when he realised he was trying to get dressed.

Abe saw him trying to give him privacy, and waited to see what he'd do. The orc just sat with his head turned to watch the river, once again leaving himself fully open. Why this orc trusted him so much was a mystery to Abe, but he had to admit that he was intrigued by the strange behaviour.

"What's your deal?" Abe asked, and the orc turned to look at him with a flustered expression.

"Pardon?" He asked.

"Why are you out here?" Abe asked flatly.

The orc sighed, fiddling with the hem of his skirt. He didn't answer, and Abe watched as his demeanor changed the longer he played with his skirt.

"Do you even know how to hunt?" Abe asked, rather harshly.

"No..." The orc replied, still avoiding eye contact.

Abe sat down on the riverbank and sighed a heavy sigh.

He didn't want to, but a sense of pity was creeping over him. He remembered how hard it was when he first came to the forest - he recognised that struggle with this orc.

"How long are you out here for?" Abe asked.

"Indefinitely." The orc replied solemnly.

"If I teach you to hunt, will you do everything I say?"

The orc looked up in surprise, a wide smile breaking out across his face. "You'd teach me?"

Abe shifted his gaze to avoid looking at the smile, but he could still feel how excited the orc was.

He instantly regretted offering, but it was too late to back down now. He stood up, dusting the dirt off his pants as he looked to the horizon. It would be dark soon...

"Keep up." He instructed, and headed into the forest.

The orc quickly stood up and followed closely, but this time Abe didn't bother looking to check if he was still hovering behind him. He just walked forward, twisting and turning through the forest as the sun set.

[torchickentacos]

hi i seen your post about pkmn just do pkmn things and if you havent already you should watch the PokeToons on the official pokemon youtube channel! my favourite is " Help! Ive turned into a Gengar" its honestly so cute and you can see the ghost pkmn being menaces ❤❤ and on the " Pokemon Kids TV channel" theres actually a really cute thing i watched were a dude cooks and he has his pokemon just doing everyday things its SO cute! that series is "Pokemon Sweets Paradise" i highly recommend them ! thats on the pkmn kids tv channel

Hello! And yeah, that post was a lot of fun and I just LOVE seeing what people have to add on it, and I always love more of that kind of thing so I went ahead and I just watched the first three poketoon episodes! Blossom's dream is my definite favorite so far! Her mom looks kinda like cheren from BW lol. One, it's just wonderful seeing pokemon do pokemon stuff like you said- I love when they lean more heavily into the 'pokemon are animals' thing. But two, I adore the different art styles they're messing with. From the first one with Scraggy being very reminiscent of older american cartoons like that cuphead game was, with physical comedy/slapstick and no words, to the pancham one with its more geometric, 3D cel-shaded sorta style (you can see that they used 3d models in some areas, with this tree below especially, which looks out of an indie pc adventure game),-

- to the blossom one where the style is somewhere between twilight wings and the regular anime! I spent half the time watching with my sister just pausing it and pointing out the different artistic things they were doing, like where I could see overlay effects or where I could see what kind of brushes they were using. Like down here, you can see a rougher brush was used in favor of a normal hard round brush for the lighting. In my art program there's a few dry bristle brushes that have a similar effect! I know you told me about this because of the pokemon-animal aspect of it but honestly, the art experimentation is what's really kept me hooked on every last frame! They use watercolor brushes and hard brushes and rough ones and it's just so refreshing and fun to watch, seeing them blend textures in a way they don't really budget for in the usual anime.

At first I kind of wrote off the poketoons as more aimed at younger kids (which, ironic given that my blog is based around pokeani but you know what I mean), but honestly? I'm enjoying watching these more than most normal episodes! Thank you so much for telling me to watch them and giving me that push! I'll come back with any thoughts on later episodes if I have them! Also. Random Solidad encounter at the 7-11.

[italeteller]

please assist me! I want to watch a new anime, and you seem fairly well-versed. What are some of your favorite shows? I very much liked Spy X Family: A blend of comedy and action, with an undercurrent of something serious, and not a whole lot of exaggerated fanservice. My other fave shows are Fullmetal Alchemist and Mob Psycho — but many shonen tend to be…kind of achingly slow-paced, which is why I’ve dropped shows like My Hero Academia, Bleach, Demon Slayer, and Fairy Tail. It is so hard to find good shows, and there are SO MANY SHOWS EVERY SEASON. TnT I don’t even mind if they’re old shows (like 80s/90s/00s!) — you seem like you have good taste, so I’d love to hear your opinions!

Oh anon, you sure know how to sweet talk a fucking weeb

Alright, before we start, very important question: did you watch fullmetal alchemist of fullmetal alchemist brotherhood? Because those are two very different things

Alright, now for recs:

-Cyberpunk Edgerunners: you've probably already heard of this one, but it's absolutely worth it. There's a lot of blood, gore and sex in this one, and it skews more to the depressing side rather than the comedy, so it might not be your thing, but it's still one of the best anime to come out this year so I can't not reccomend it

-Lycoris Recoil: cute girls doing shadow ops assassination things. One of my three contenders for anime of the year. It's a small cast of absolutely endearing characters, excellent action and writing that drops little bits and clues of the overarching plot and ties them all together at the end, and while it does stumble a bit at last two episodes, it still lands at a solid 9/10

-Chainsaw Man: blood, gore, fanservice that doesn't reach obnoxious levels, excellent animation, music and direction. The pacing might be a bit slow at times, but it's only 12 episodes and it definitely makes it up later down the line

-Netflix's Castlevania: not exactly Japan-anime but it's undeniably anime-inspired. The first two seasons are top tier, the third is... less so, and the fourth is a mixed bag that lands the end, so you decide how far you wanna take it

-Bocchi the Rock!: another of my anime of the year. 12-year-old Hitori takes up playing the guitar to make friends. Three years later she's gained a moderately successful youtube channel where she uploads her guitar covers, exactly zero (0) friends and crippling social anxiety. One day a girl from another school sees her carrying her guitar around and asks her to join her band because their guitarrist ghosted them, and since Hitori is too anxious to say no, she gets recruited into a band, and experiences friendship, learning to play as a band, working part-time and even more things that make her anxiety skyrocket. The premise may not sound like it, but this is one of the most creative anime I've seen this year, with the studio taking Hitori's anxiety episodes to hilarious extremes, turning into different animation styles and even live action and claymation. It's a super satisfying watch

-To Your Eternity: an immortal gets sent to earth and grow and discover how to live as a person. If you're in a mood for depression, this will certainly deliver. I'm not being facetious, if you're the kind of person who cares about characters, this anime will put you through the wringer. The first season is 20 episodes long and the second season is currently airing, in case you wanna watch something still ongoing

-Psycho Pass: in the near future, your mental health dictates what kinda jobs you're allowed to get. If it gets too low you're immediately branded a criminal and if it gets even lower the cops are legally allowed, and in fact encouraged, to kill you. The police use people who've gotten low, but now at the lowest levels, to help them aprehend the worst criminals. I have mixed feelings about this one, but it's definitely worth checking out

-Cowboy Bebop and Trigun: some oldies to shake things up. These both begin with more episodic, self-conclussive adventures and slowly start to unfurl into an overarching plot. If you're more used to current anime you might find them slow, but they are both very good and very worth watching even now

[popculturebuffet]

Next up for Nickelodeon era of shows, who is your favorite character from each of the early to mid 2000s Nicktoons shows you've seen like: The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, Chalk Zone, All Grown Up, My Life as a Teenage Robot, Danny Phantom, Catscatch, The X's, and Avatar the Last Airbender?

Jimmy Neutron: This is the entry for jimmy neutron... gotta blast.. arf arf you know the rest. Faviorite character is Hugh, an easy pick I know, he was in ASB1 for a reason, but the fact the man can make any scene memorable by opening his mouth says something. Sheen is a close second. The show itself is great and having rewatched an episode recently, stay posted for that review, I was reminded how.. timeless it feels, it's 50 sci fi feel meaning that apart from some slight age on the cgi, it feels like it could slot in anywhere in time. It's got great jokes, a standout cast, and a really intresting lead who does screw up but more because he thinks he knows everything rather than being a jerk as is sometimes common in cartoons.

Chalk Zone: Hi hi hi to you all, who else could I pick i'ts gotta ne skrawl. Intriguing origin, hell of an introduction and a silky singing voice. It's concept was a tad dated even for the time, but I love chalkzone too much, from said concept allowing for endlessly creative ideas, to giving a character godlike powers in a way that isn't SUPER op. Truly great show, dearly miss it and i'm sad it probably won't be back in some form.

All Grown Up: I really wanna shout it out all grown up with you. God this block is stacked. Dil is the easy winner here. His plot lines were always funny, his weird friendship with vice principal pangborn that evolves from "He thinks their freinds" to "Actually they kinda are", and his easy charm: he gets flak from the twins for being weird as shit.. and just lets it bounce off either not noticing or more likely not carring. As for the series as a whole.. i'ts pretty good from what i remmeber. Admitley the kids ages are weird, probably should've bumped them up to all being 12, but the series itself is a lot of fun: it's neat seeing where everyone ended up, having Kimi and Dill get fleshed out more as characters, and see how they've changed and what hasn't. (I.e. Phil's still gross, but lil is growing out of it, Chucky's still anxious but ti's now more social anxiety, tommy's curosity has turned to filmaking. ) I'ts good stuff and something I should revisit , and should watch on this blog at some point.

My Life As a Teenage Robot: Her teenage robot, life. And this one was a bit hard. The series honestly has a great suply of characters but my pick is.. armagedroid. A bit left field as he basically has one appearnce.. but it's such a great concept: a giant robot designed to bring peace.. but not able to do so without destroying everything and his fight with Jenny is easily the series best as she's down to her HEAD fighting this monstrosity. The series itself is genius and one of Nick's best and how it was treated sucks hard. Jenny is a likeable, fun protaganist who will screw up, being a teen at all but in relatable ways, nicely blending slice of life teen issues with high concept robot shenanigans. I also like Brad quite a bit being a fun sidekick with extra points for not being shipped with the protaganist because 'THAT'S WHAT YOU DO I GUESS'. NOt saying it can't work (if we get to disney they had easily the best around this same time period), but god was it overdone. The series itself wasn't, having art deco style for days and is in need of a revivial stat.

Danny Phantom: Gonna catch em all because he's danny phantom gonna.. you get the bit. Vlad. Nick's best villian ever, and the perfect green goblin to danny's spider-man. His episodes tended to be the series best and martin mull, rip, was a dream as him. The series itself is a stellar superhero show, probably the best of this excellent era for them. It has some age spots (most of these shows do, you may sense a pattern), but it's a great action show with nice continuity, a killer rogues gallery and a nice sense of progression. It's top tier and reviewing a good chunk of it has only helped my opinon.

Catscratch: LALALALALALA CATSCRATTTTCHHH. This is one I need to revisit as I don't remember it well but it has an all star voice cast up front. I mean it has Wayne Knight , Kevin McDonald, and Rob Paulsen as your leads and Maurice LaMarche and Liliana Mumy as your supporting cast. What else do you need?

The X's: don't really have one. This isn't a bad one I just.. dont' remember it hardly at all other than having a great art style.

Avatar the Last Airbender; Sokka. Your faviorite jokey hot mess boy wins this one easier than he should> He was one of my faviorites as a kid, that stands now, Sokka deserved better in Korra. We deserved to see his kids if any. The show itself is one i've been meaning to revisit for years now and is one of Nick's best period: Gorgeous, has one of the best built worlds in fiction, well plotted aside from a few filler feeling episodes (Which i'm gunshy on as Steven Universe got this accusation FAR too often. You can't call every episode that's a break from the main plot filler.. but you can call some of avatar's side adventures filler for sure), including the one they outright mocked, and some shipping issues that were fine when I was a kid but now aged badly, everything else is immaculate and makes for good tv. There's a reason both this show had a second wave of popularity form netflix, and that both it's sequel and reamake have struggled to reach this level. Though Korra as we'll ge tto is still pretty good. More on that later.

[legendofzoodles]

LU Character Design Analysis 6

In case you haven’t seen the previous posts yet, I’m doing this thing where I’m analysing and subsequently ranking all the designs of the chain in LU. I was going to do it 2 at a time, but I’ve got so much to say that I’m doing it one a time.

All the designs are really good, it was hard to come up with a decent ranking system that I was happy with and even harder to apply it. The numbers I scored them are subjective and any one of them can be debated.

And now we have...

4th place: Twilight

He’s my favourite so it breaks my heart that he’s not in the top three but it had to be done. I might have let this bias lead me to placing him ahead of Time and Warriors. Eh, this is my list and I wanna praise wolf boi’s design.

Pros: It sounds shallow but I’m glad his hair isn’t brown and more of a dirty blond or almost caramel coloured. It also complements the chainmail.

The colour palette of his outfit is dark and muted, save for the waist situation, which is a fun nod to the art style of Twilight Princess. The dark tunic is a lovely forest green which stands out against the rich gold chainmail, it looks heroic and like he'd be able to blend into any sort of green scenery. I love the little embroidery details too and the ones decorating his boots. The ones on his tunic are much subtler than Sky's and I feel like either he did them himself (adding to the pictures over time) or Ilia got a hold of it and did them herself. The ones on his boots are amazing too and I feel like they'd be a point of pride for him. I can see his boots being a clothing item he cares about a lot.

Twilight like Sky unfortunately suffers from "blankie around the tunic" syndrome, however it's less egregious in his case. One, because it's held by a sash which unlike smooth leather would be less likely to slip down with movement and two, because it looks messier- which is a little more realistic and gives me the impression he has to adjust it whenever coming out of wolf form. I’d prefer if it stayed as part of his civilian clothes, but it does add a nice pop of bright colour. So, I’m not that mad.

Twilight's light blue waist cloth stands out so much that it's easy to miss the discoloured and patched up left sleeve. It actually took me a while before I noticed it. It's a darker green than the rest of the tunic and looks like it had been hastily stitched on, which is a nice reference to his Ordon clothes (the funny looking belted sleeve) and the fact that his arm gets chopped off in the manga. Maybe at some point the original sleeve was torn off in battle and Twilight had to mend it while on the road, hence why it looks so scruffy.

I didn't like Sky's tunic slits because they made the tunic material look delicate and seemed more ceremonial than practical, but they work in Twilight's case because they feel accidental. They give off the impression that they occurred during the heat of battle or during an adventure. Like the patched sleeve also shows, the tunic was worn and torn with extended use and Twilight had to mend it alone and on the go.

It has a sort of rustic homespun appearance which fits his character as a down to earth farmer from a small village.

It’s a brilliant idea to leave the only reference to the Twilight Realm be in the form of the shadow crystal. After all, not only was all that supposed to stay secret, but also Midna left without saying anything, so there’s no way he would have anything else to remember her by. As shown by his less than polished tunic, he’s not very good at making clothes, although he’s good at embroidery. That being said a twili cloak does sound kinda dope and I don’t like that the crystal is out in the open as a necklace- it’s a huge risk for such a cautious guy to take. As a guy who isn’t very open he’d surely hide it in a pouch rather than risk being asked about it, or worse having a member of the chain try to touch it.

He's the only one of the older members wearing a leather arm guard (on his non shielding arm so it doesn’t get in the way of the straps, very nice), which made me realise that he's probably not a fan of wearing plated armour. He could if he wanted to, he clearly has the strength and endurance to run around for hours in armour. Then again that extra weight would be hard on Epona since he rides her a lot. I headcanon that he just barely tolerates the chainmail because it’s for his own safety, but rips it off at the first opportunity once camp has been set up.

Cons: Twilight's fur pelt is another one of those things where it looks cool and is a nice visual hint at his hidden power to turn into a wolf (I especially like how it forms tail at the end, it's goofy but a cool detail), but it raises some seriously questionable things about his character.

Best case scenario it was a gift, maybe from Ashei who also wears fur, he then wore it to be polite but overtime it became part of his usual travelling clothes. But even still, he's the type who'd rather fish or forage than hunt and he can talk to animals...yet he wears the pelt of an innocent deceased animal. Worst case scenario he got it himself, and even if he had to fend off a wolf to save someone I don't even want to imagine him making it. Either way it doesn’t make sense.

Plus the way it’s tucked in at his waist looks like it would be a hassle to put on. To make it more visible it’s not tucked into the light blue material only the orange sash. Looks pretty but not very practical.

Wishlist: Regarding the chainmail, I’m conflicted (I...can never seem to make up my mind). The gold chainmail is unique and a nice reference to the golden sky seen during twilight, a time of day he’s grown to appreciate. It also fits well with his pale complexion, But like Wind I’ve always had the impression that he’d also be more tanned, from working long hours at the ranch. If he had darker and warmer colouring then the gold chainmail wouldn’t work as well and it would have to be a cool toned silver. Which would be a nice nod to his grey wolf form and more importantly would really make his grey face markings pop.  

I wish he wore his green hat. He was directly told by one of the light spirits that it was the same garb worn by the hero before him, who he ends up getting to know personally during TP and learns he’s family. Whether or not he likes it is completely irrelevant, because he would wear it 100% of the time while doing hero stuff to honour his ancestor’s legacy.

Twilight arguable has the scruffiest tunic, but the reason why I think he’s chosen to mend it rather than get it replaced is because it holds that much significance to him. Therefore, he’d value the whole thing and wear. the. hat.

The only excuse I’ll accept is that he lost it or it got destroyed during a battle, and even then he’d surely make a new one.

This isn’t important for character or practical reasons, but I’d like him to have longer hair. A shaggy wolf cut perhaps? A mullet situation? I’ve seen the fanart and it all looks amazing, so just...throwing it out there.

Score:

Aesthetic and visual score (/10): 8 Character representation score (/5): 4 Practicality score (/5): 4 Total (/20): 16

It’s a really strong design: visually interesting, practical if a bit well-worn and full of characterisation. It tells you about who he is and what he’s been through just through what he’s wearing, like Time’s design. But better.

~~~

Thanks for reading! What modifications would you make to their designs? And do you agree with me or not? I’d love to know :)

Masterlist

9th place in the character design ranking

8th place

7th place

6th place

5th place

3rd place

1st place

Character analysis posts:

Hero of the Sky, Hero of Time, Hero of Twilight, Hero of the Wild, Hero of Warriors

[illusion-reality-steve]

(Click the images to view them in better quality!)

Finally, my first design pass of Time and Elemental from Rainbow Quest! I hope you like them!

Design notes under the cut.

Time Steve:

I had two goals with designing Time Steve: 1) do my best to translate his Minecraft skin into my art style, and 2) do something different from my interpretation of TSS!Time

The biggest creative liberty I took was giving Time a sundial mask instead of a clock mask. I wanted some practice in drawing a prop I’ve never drawn before. I also thought it was a subtle way to give Time a connection to Galaxy. While a clock relies on an internal system, a sundial relies on the sun to keep track of time.

I added tick marks around the mask to help indicate that the mask is a sundial. Because it wasn’t obvious, I gave Time a little crown of hourly tick marks to help.

I added an eye hole for Time’s left eye to pay homage to my design of TSS!Time

IMO, Time looks kinda intimidating with that mask. So I gave him a rounder body to make him look friendlier despite the intimidating mask.

The second creative liberty I took was with the colors. I gave Time’s brown coat a redder hue and his gray colors bluer hues. I wanted him to have red and blue colors to establish his connection with Galaxy Steve. Galaxy was a powerful Indigo Steve who got destroyed, his energy living on through Time and Elemental. Since red and blue make indigo, I think Time being red and blue would indicate his connection and origin to Galaxy Steve.

Elemental Steve:

I also had two goals with designing Elemental: 1) do my best to translate his Minecraft skin into my art style, and 2) really make Elemental looks like a moody and perpetually hungry teenager because I love interpreting him like that. Goal 2 was more important for me than Goal 1.

I added several features to indicate he’s like a teenager who just wants to nap and eat. Patterns on his face to look like pimples or acne. Really tired eyes with bags. A short, low-maintenance haircut so he can always wake up looking nice after a nap. The earliest stages of facial hair.

I wanted Elemental to have visual parallels to his brother. I gave him a hood covering his left eye, which matched Time’s mask that covered the right eye. And I gave him a long brown vest to match with Time’s coat.

To make the hood vine/leaf-themed like the Minecraft skin’s hat, I added bright green leaves on the hood. Full transparency: I have done this style of leaf-themed hoods on a previous Minecraft character design I did for Alpha from Altered Adventure (https://sta.sh/019m2zus6d1p). So maybe later, I’ll tweak Elemental’s hood design to keep Elemental and Alpha unique from each other.

While drawing the hood, I noticed that the leaves kinda looked like green chili peppers. That gave me a cute mental image of Sabre jokingly calling Elemental as wild as a chili pepper. I think Elemental would embrace that comparison and craft a little chili pepper pin for his hood. Steves won’t notice it from afar because it blends in with the leaves, but when they notice, they and Elemental laugh about it. That’s my headcanon.

I also made the leaves on the hood kinda look like devil horns to foreshadow Elemental’s villain arc.

I incorporated the vines/leaves of Elemental’s torso into a fantastical way to attach the hood/cape around his shoulders.

For the vest, I gave it big ol’ pockets for Elemental to put his snacks in. Elemental can also shove his hands into those pockets when he wants to do a moody teenager stance. I made the vest asymmetrical by having the left side be burnt short. Elemental probably doesn’t get a new vest because the vest and the pockets are still functional, and he believed his fire powers would burn the new vest anyway.

I wanted to keep his arms simple, so I made them a solid color with purple hands and patterns. Again, I wanted to enforce the “blue and red” color theme to emphasize his connection with Galaxy.

I struggled the most on figuring out how to color his legs. In his Minecraft skin, he has bright blue legs to represent ice or water. I worried that if I make his legs bright, the bright legs will draw attention away from his face, which had bright colors in the eyes and leaves. I tried to figure out how to make his legs dark-colored without losing the ice/water theme. While brainstorming dark-colored ice subjects, I decided to look up “ice mountains at night” on Google for inspiration. By doing that, I found so many beautiful images of snowy mountains underneath a gorgeous starry sky. I went like “bingo. This is what I want to do.” I made his asymmetrical boots black with light blue patterns to make them look like snowy mountains. Then I made his pants purple and galaxy-patterned to look like a starry night and to further connect Elemental to Galaxy Steve. The legs still ended up bright. I really hope I can dim down the colors and make the “snowy mountain” look more convincing in my second pass, because I really like using this theme for his legs!

[maiuoart]

UnderSwap+ Brothers

Here we go, a collection of all the brothers together! Below are some information!

All are in order as the pictures! ♥ Enjoy!

UnderSwap;

Blitz; He’s a hyperactive and ultra friendly buddy! Very bubbly and tries to do what’s right; Though because of his habit of easily forgetting or distracted, gets mistaken as a child. However, that makes him enjoy to catch most people off guard with his intelligence who assume that! He also tends to get close and unaware of a personal space; But once told, he’s sure to correct his behaviors! Very forgiving and thoughtful dude, easy to make blush, but also easily heart broken.  His height is 5′0 even

Hal; Also known as Halvah, another name for Honey, he is sweet like it. He does have an attitude, will be a bit of a smart mouth, and can be protective; Isn’t overly so. He’s the perfect mix of a Honey; The sweet, caring, loving type with hints of a Stretch; The absolute bastard and will put someone down into place. He can get jealous, very curious, and knows just what to say... With a bit of awkward undertones.  His height is 6′5″

UnderSwap; Personality/Mix Swap;

These guys are a combination of being a Swap OF the original Swap’s with hints of Swapfell in. Tbh, these guys are the least worked/ironed out on. The Swap brothers are suppose to be switched with the other with the SF! counterparts mixed within... It’s a confusing mess, ngl.

Saul; He’s the Sans with a slight prickly attitude. Though he’s similar to a Blue, he has the attitude and mindset more of a Stretch with hints of a SF!Sans. He can be; Loud, demanding, yet can be understanding though judgmental. He isn’t easily distracted like a Blue, but isn’t as rough as a Black, but is extremely suspicious like a Stretch. He’s almost a perfect mixture of the two... His height is 5′3″

Cream; A mix between a Honey, Blue, and a nervous Mutt. He knows how to fight, how to be sneaky, but he’s extremely nervous and a shy sweetheart to the Soul. He keeps everything and everyone at a distances; It’s rare he gets close to others. He however does love to take photographs! A professional camera monster. His height is 6′4″

For those who don’t know; Stretches are the absolute bastards while Honey’s are the sweetsouled darling’s in most UnderSwap area’s. Just a personal observation I’ve came to see is all.

UnderSwap; Animal Shifter’s

The idea was similar to the DragaSwap’s; Guardian’s who protect. But instead of both, it’s One Guardian and One Trickster. Time period is Japanese style.

Persian; Guardian Of The Woods. Also known as ‘Father Of The Woods’. He is the adventurous and outgoing type who enjoys to scout and cook. He is the one who is constantly on watch for newcomers, and normally due to the issues and dangers of their Woods, Persian is the one who helps where he can. When he finds lost or abandoned baby animals, or those who are injured, he tends to take on the Caretaker role and help teach them the ways of how they should go or nurse them back to health. Humans/Monsters, he tends to lead back to another village or help let them pass through the area harmlessly. Because of his calm yet bright attitude and humble outlook on life; Tends to be one of the kindest Souls around. He’s snowy white due to having so much love and appreciation for the world he’s in, along with the ones who are in it. His height is around 5-8′ even. Tends to warp around. Main animal; Ferret/Sable/Weasel. Can they change into other animals? Unknown

Sly; The Trickster; The Prankster; The Kitsune. Made the neighboring villages to believe he was a God to gain affection, appreciation, and enjoy their food and time. Has his own Shrine, a very large one, where he lives and thrives. Can be cowardly, but knows how to do a big enough bluff where other demons/monsters tend to steer clear of him. When it doesn’t work, it’s mainly his brother who helps get him out of any mess... Though afterwards, takes all credit. He has a sweet side, but is mostly an aggressive, spoiled, trickster who desires materials. After he gets senses into him however, does chill out immensely and enjoys to do gardening. He hates people rubbing his ears, that is a major no. His height is 9′3″ but slouches to be 8′7″ Main animal; Only Kitsune.

DragaSwaps;

If you know me, these two are my main bread and butter after Swapfells. For more information, you can actually read here.

Azure; He’s the bubbly yet awkward friend who knows space and an outcast of his species. Despite that, he’s gone and protected them... Despite it being against his will, in most cases. He enjoys to visit neighboring villages and try to blend in as much as he can to interact with humans. He had a favorite human, who had introduced him to his favorite animals of Cats, named Gretta.  His height is around 5′4-6″

Abyss; He may seem chill, the most chilled, but don’t let that fool you. He does have an area you do and must not interact with. He’s highly dangerous when he desires and his jaw can unlock to devour bigger prey. It doesn’t happen much, literally only when he is in his Feeding Frenzy... So, you’re kinda safe? Just make sure you ignore his gory jokes. His height is around 8″+

[jacepens]

Hey, how u doing? I wanted to ask for you for indications on washette fanfics, what are the best that you have

p.s. and yes, I do want to hear as well about yours in that list as well, 'cause they're gold

Hey! I'm doing alright:) Thanks for asking! What about you? (is this the correct tumblr to anon etiquette?)

Oh goodness this is such a loaded question because the answer is many. I hope you're alright with a big list sorted by category <3

Fluff! Fluff!!

The French Mistake

One of the first washette fics I read, so it holds a special place in my heart. A little silly, a little lams, ultimately very cute and good time.

Under the Arches of Moonlight and Sky

Just very good, cute, soft weary bed sharing. (this is only wholesome, I swear)

Let's Dance

Short, sweet fic with dance instructor George and our beloved two left feet Laf:)

I Like You Better in Real Life

Did someone say Influencer/Youtuber!Laf and President!George?? No??! Well start and read this fic. Seriously, it's a longer one, and just really damn cute. A bit of slow burn in terms of internalized homophobia (done in a good way) and trans Laf?? Yes. It's really so good.

The Prince

Ok, ok, it's one of mine. The one chapter is deceiving, it's decently long and featuring Prince!Laf and Royal Knight!George!:) Also magic!! angst, fluff, denial of feelings but then of course love confessions;) after angst though, don't worry haha.

Fathoms and Foundlings

Ooooohh boy. This. This one. Mermaid Laf and regular ol George! So so so well written, I mean, the feelings, the war, the weather, literally everything you can name, it's spectacular in this fic. Be warned, it is incomplete, but I remember when the latest chapter was released when I lost all hope (plus the author is still active) so I definitely don't count this one out of being updated!:) But, I'll be honest, I'm unsure about it being finished BUT I still think you should 1000% read this because you really will not find something like it anywhere else and it's just so cute!! Did I mention fucking amazing?

Whom can we trust now?

Platonic washette!! Really well written and just altogether really well put together!:) comfort after Arnold's betrayal! Seriously, I highly recommend this fic it's just so perfect of their relationship and cuuute.

The Particulars of Language

Oh goodness. Oooh goodness. This is so so cute. A nice little blend of angst and fluff and did I mention internalized homophobia? (In a good way, if that makes sense) Also so well-written by an incredible author, I just- language confusion. Need I say more??

Marque

Ok, ok, it's been too long since I read this one, so I will say, it is very tentatively going in this category. I just love soulmate au washette! Angst! Kidnapping? ...no final chapter. So I'm not sure, it could've been planned on ending very happy and fluffy! I do believe overall, this leans on the darker side, but I know I really love this one and they love each other. I want more washette soulmate aus.

Breaks your heart, puts it back together

what's my name, what's my station

Oh God oh fuck it's this one. (said with love). Brutal? Hot? Expanding my vocabulary?? An incredibly beautiful use of metaphors??? Actually feel like crying when I read it. Yeah. This is amazing.

May the Melody Disarm Us

Oh Godd oh Fuck it's this one. (maybe I should change this section's title) this one isn't even angsty per se, it's just like...brutally beautiful. They love each so much but oh my god. The metaphors, the way the author sets the scene and environment and everything! Ugh. So so good.

Let Down My Guard

Oh dear lord in heaven above preserve me. I'm gonna be dramatic but there are simply not enough words in the universe I have that can describe how I feel about this fic and how damn incredible it is!! And boy do I mean it when I say this one breaks your heart and puts it back together. I have seriously never sobbed over any piece of fiction like I did this. Just ahhhh. The feelings they develop for each other, the confusion of cultures, the secrets revealed?? I didn't even tell you Laf is a mermaid yet. Just- please. Please read this. It will rip your heart out, but it will put it back together. But really, this is just a fucking masterpiece and so so beautiful.

Porn With Plot

that dress you like

Very nicely done smut + feels! (Did I mention how nicely it's all done?) Oh! Did I mention genderqueer Laf? Yes.

Mon General / My Marquis

Ok the only reason this is going in this category is because I find the others up there more heart-breaky than this one. I love this one!! The historical details! Their loving relationship!! Very very good and lovely. With some angst of course.

The Mistranslation

Oh God oh Fuck it's this one. (I'll be saying that a lot). Would you like all these categories put into one beautiful fic?? Here it is, here. It's incredible. Please read it. It's free serotonin. (Did I mention incredibly written??)

The Things I Would Do to You

Ahhh ok. So. Super duper sweet, lots of angst sprinkled throughout but Laf's visit to Mount Vernon + feels + (smut). Need I say more??! Seriously, this is wonderful.

Not So Easy to be the Teacher's Pet

Oh. Oh god it's this one. So this is borderline Oof (Laf is 17) but if that does not bother you, then you are in for a treat!(??) Ok but really, lots of feels, denial of feelings, way-too-sweet-for-his-own-good Lafayette and poor confused George. Just fantastic.

Devil to Pay

Hoooo boy. If you like pirates or sea adventures, (hot pirate captains. I'm just gonna say it) then I'm literally begging you to read this. Kidnapped noble Laf?? Slowly falling for the pirate captain Washington?? Not to mention so many maritime details and wonderful emotions, beautifully crafted just. Spectacular. Please, read it if you haven't. Even if pirates don't appeal to you, they will after this fic.

A secret weapon

Ahhhh!!! Thiiiiiis. Is everything. Ok, yes, it includes more than washette, but I mean come on, it's (sexy) demons. It's desperate Washington trying to win a war and fight his gay feelings (guess which fight he wins?) But also, super well written and detailed and feels!! I adore this fic, and the whole series is a treat. Go read it. It's wonderful, you won't regret it.

Oof (not in a good way)

The Sweet Enjoyment of Partaking

If the not-so-sweet side intrigues you more, this is one of the few washette fics that I do love and is...not so nice. It's really good as a not nice piece! Pretty straightforward and fucked up. Ya (I) love to see it.

Transmutation

Oooohhhhhh. This is a fic I didn't read for a while just because I didn't know what it was but boy let me tell you, it is soo good. I'll say it's not as oof as the fic above, but oooh maaaannnnn. I don't know how to describe it just, don't expect sweet things, but if darker takes are your thing please go read this. You will not regret it. It's so damn good.

OW

Day One Way, By Night Another

Ok ok here me out. This one might seem a bit random and it is. It's very short and for the longest time I didn't read it until I did and said ow because ow!!? I find this has the most impact going in unarmed so...watch out. (but like check it out. it's just so unique I really do love it)

Once More, With Feeling

Oh GOD. This one is quite brief and straightforward but if you are looking to rip your heart out with feels and angst then boy do I have the perfect fic for you. But seriously, it's so well-written and just expresses all the feelings so so perfectly. But at what cost? (Pls read it)

A Beautiful Tragedy

Hello darkness my old friend. Ok but seriously, this fic still remains so impactful in my own mind just as the writer. It's not a happy ending, but I try to leave you with hope. Pretty music that I highly recommend listening to, I don't know. I think it's really good, I don't say that often about my own stuff soo if you're ok with heavy amounts of angst and pretty aesthetics then check this ok!:) (but guard your heart, sorry not sorry<3)

Porn Without Plot

Betrayals and Allies

So, admittedly, this one very tentatively goes into this category because I find compared to the others, this one has less feels and less focus on it, but don't get me wrong this is very emotional!! It displays their relationship and love so cutely (and smutily..? new word) and as extra bonus it fills in the gaps of the deleted scene from Turn. You know the one;) It's very good!!

Cold Nights

Look at me adding another of my own. This is super duper short, but I kinda like how the emotions turned out. I think this was the beginning of my first dive into my current style of writing so that's cool I guess? But yeah no, it's porn without plot lol.

What Good is Honor When You're Starving?

Oh dear, another of mine in this category. I barely put this here, but the main focus is on the smut, but there are many many feels aplenty. Oh wait, did I mention vampire Laf? George definitely not falling in love... but really, I like how this one turned out!:) Good sexy vampire times (with feelings)

Ah wow! You stuck with me! Thank you! I...tried to keep it brief. This is not an exhaustive list by any means btw, there were a few (many) I decided to cut because I wanted this list to be all encompassing of many authors, styles, etc.

But anon, thank you for the ask and giving me the chance to rant about my favorite fics! My apologies on taking so long to finish, I hope you can understand my life has been a little hectic, but I always try to make time for washette;)

Thank you!!<3

[danwhobrowses]

Star Wars Visions - Review

So I finally finished watching all of Visions, the ambitious anime project set in a Star Wars loose if at all canon, and I truly had a good time with it, as a fan of anime and Star Wars I was curious how they would deliver.

Spoilers for Visions, watch it then come back here to read what I thought about it. Reminder: This is my own personal opinion

So as I said, really enjoyed this experiment Disney decided to take, the 9 episodes weren't all flawless but they weren't awful either, so I'm gonna go through what I liked and disliked about it.

We'll start with the negatives, since they're few, picky and it gets it out of the way.

What Wasn't Great

Runtime A veiled negative has to be many episode's runtimes being too short, some only lasting 10-15 minutes. Before watching I was expecting all to be at least 30 minutes, so it was a shame that none lasted that long.

Episode 2: Glorified Music Video I think Episode 2 was perhaps the weakest episode of the nine for me, because it was all building up to a song. I think it probably leaned a bit too much on existing characters like Jabba and Boba, as well as Tatooine, to carry interest, so it was a bit of a low point.

Episode 3: Studio Trigger keep their balls away from the wall Episode 3's The Twins wasn't bad, it just lingered a bit too much on the less fun things. Studio Trigger had made a name for themselves for striking visuals and absolutely batshit crazy fight scenes that ignore all manner of physics with the likes of Promare, Kill La Kill and Darling of the Franxx (and kinda Gurren Lagann, the company was made as a result of that so it's like a Studio Ghibli thing with Nausicaa) but The Twins didn't have enough of the major fight scene for my liking, given how most of what we saw was in the trailer. Maybe it's the fault of the trailer, but it did feel like you could just watch the trailer rather than the episode, which is a bad thing.

Episode 7 too, but it also lacks bravery The Elder was also a good episode, but it too lacked in the final fight, the ending being very abrupt. The Elder also had a problem in that they wasted their good characters, but also failed in stakes. Had the padawan been killed instead of simply being wounded by a lightsaber slash to the belly it probably would've worked more, since we were shown that the Elder is precise in his cutting and it would've served to increase the urgency of the master fighting him too. The fight was short and out of the characters we lost it was the most important character that bit the dust.

The Episode Order could've been Better My final criticism has to be that the order of the episodes felt like it could've been better. Starting with The Duel was right but following it up with Tatooine Rhapsody brought the mood down, likewise putting The Elder after T0-B1 was perhaps too jarring a theme switch. The bigger sin was probably ending with Akakiri. Akakiri was good, but it was a downer and you don't really finish a Season 1 on a downer because you want people to feel excited for more rather than feeling bleak about it; with the options of Lop & Ocho, The Elder, The Village Bride and The Ninth Jedi (which would've been my pick for episode 9) it was an odd choice to pace the episodes in such a way - even when knowing that people would binge in this order. FYI if you wanted to know how I would've ordered the episodes it would've been The Duel -> The Elder -> The Twins -> Lop & Ocho -> Tatooine Rhapsody -> T0-B1 -> The Village Bride -> Akakiri -> The Ninth Jedi

This way we start strong with Sith-heavy episodes that grip with combat, we have the Duel to set us off, we show off the Elder to sell the Dark Side's strength, which blends into the Twins and that sibling relationship blends into Lop & Ocho, we use Tatooine Rhapsody as an intermission of sorts but then carry the lighter theme with T0-B1, whose artistic elements and worldbuilding leans into the Village Bride. We make Akakiri the penultimate since we show the Jedi succumb to the Dark for love in contrast to the Elder where the Jedi succeeds by steeling emotions, before finishing strong with Ninth Jedi.

What Was Great

Anime is perfect for Star Wars Star Wars has of course delved into animation before; Clone Wars (both), Rebels, Resistance and Bad Batch, but never like Anime. So Visions was allowed to shine by showing off everything anime can offer which more realistic CGI and live action could not. Bright colour grading, physics-defying movement, as well as unique character and lightsaber shapes.

(Mostly) Not Wasting Time While I have criticized some episodes for not making the most of things, and not having enough time, but many episodes would last 12-15 minutes and still feel like they had a coherent storylines with no gaps in getting to know the brand new characters or a lack of important information and investment. It is a testament to the good writing of the episodes that episodes got so much from such little time.

We're Left Wanting More In spite many episodes' brevity, the good writing also provided us stories with great potential to be fleshed out. Who wouldn't want to learn more about these new characters? See most of their adventures? The franchise potential from certain stories' one episode makes the experiment an unequivocal success.

The different styles add to the story Using a different anime studio for each story allowed each episode to stand out in their own way, and lean on different areas of importance. The Duel for instance applied a Kurosawa aesthetic which made the audience anticipate samurai themes. As much as the animation will get props for its visuals, environments and character design we should also give a hat-tip to the amazing music, especially in The Village Bride, and the voice acting from both JP and EN. We had some recognizable faces on both sides with EN having Joseph Gordon-Levitt, David Harbour, George Takei, Neil Patrick Harris, Allison Brie, Simu Liu, Karen Fukuhara, Lucy Liu and Taemura Morrison reprising as Boba, while on the JP side we had names familiar with One Piece (Zoro - why you gotta be a sith Zoro!, Brook, Tama, Kiku), DBZ (Goku), Naruto (Hidan, Tayuya and if you count Boruto; Chocho and Kawaki), Jujitsu Kaisen (Itadori, Megumi, Nobara) and more. The different styles also allowed a greater freedom to lore between studios, I know the lightsaber colour thing was done in High Republic but I did like how in the Ninth Jedi Kara's lightsaber started out translucent (I actually preferred it that way), while not diverting too far away from the canon.

The Samurai style episodes were the strongest While some episodes leaned on other elements of Star Wars, the best of the bunch kept true with the correlation force users had with samurai. The Duel, Village Bride and Ninth Jedi - alongside Akakiri, Elder and kinda T0-B1 - had strong showings by maintaining their force user characters as samurai or samura-esque, which only added to the themes of the episodes too.

Its success will hopefully entice more Studios and Directors A positive for the future is the fact that there is a future. Visions has plenty of mileage as both a series of one-off stories or stories that can be expanded upon, and its success will mean that more will be on the cards. Imagine now what other studios may want to try their hand at their own story in this universe? And what it does not only for the franchise but also the animation studios themselves, because this in itself becomes a bridge for fans on either side to be introduced to the other; new anime fans, new star wars fans, everybody wins.

Conclusion

Visions provides an alternative in Star Wars media outside of live action but also away from the CGI tv shows, but it has started off strongly almost as well as The Mandalorian and in my opinion better than the Bad Batch did. My favourite episode was probably the Ninth Jedi, but Village Bride and the Duel are close runners up, soon followed by Lop & Ocho, I hope very much that the stories these ones started especially can be fleshed out and maybe even greenlit for their own series, while also curious about what more Star Wars can deliver.

All in all, good job for everyone, they took a risk and it paid off.

[eri-blogs-life]

So I’ve been playing Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door again (it’s one of my favorite games, and this is probs like my fifth playthrough in my life). I was talking about it with a friend who hadn’t played the series and he asked me, basically, what is it that makes the paper mario games so special? People never seem to compare them to other RPGs, only to other Paper Mario games. And so that got me thinking.

I have a few points on this front, and some other random thoughts. This is effectively a sort of wrap-up to my current playthrough, tying together some thoughts of mine. For short, I’m gonna refer to the first two Paper Mario games, Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, as PM/TTYD for short. And like, I’m no professional critic and don’t really have the language to speak on things critically proper, this is just a lot of random thoughts off the top of my head.

Combat

In a sense, I think PM/TTYD is to RPGs what Mario Party is to board games. Now, mind you, board games is a pretty general category and this doesn’t apply to all board games but it’s a broad strokes description.

Basically, what I mean by that is this - when we play Mario Party, the overall board game part of it is interesting, but there’s not necessarily a ton of choices you can actually make, a lot of it is based on the roll of a die. But the really engaging part is usually the mini games, where you have a lot of control for these short bursts of time and might be able to tip the next turn or two of the game in your favor.

PM/TTYD kind of does that to turn-based RPGs. For most actions you can take in game, there’s effectively a little microgame built into the attack (press A right before hitting an enemy to get extra damage on a jump, press the buttons as they appear on screen, etc). This gives a small bit of engagement in an active way that a lot of other turn-based RPGs just don’t have.

But just because PM/TTYD has this extra element of the microgames doesn’t mean that it has any less of what other RPGs have. There is still a good amount of strategy on a slightly larger, turn-to-turn scale, of which actions you choose to take so you can maximize damage to your opponent and minimize damage to yourself.

But then there’s another, larger scale that PM/TTYD and other rpgs have, the scale of game where you’re managing resources like health and items to get you from one save or heal spot to the next.

PM/TTYD adds that third layer, the microgame layer, that really sets it apart mechanically from basically any other RPG I can think of (except one, we’ll talk about that one in a bit).

Add on to all those some light platforming and puzzle solving mechanics in the overworld and you have a really great mix of different mechanical systems that blend together extremely smooth.

Aesthetic

But, PM/TTYD might not be the only games out there that have some kind of bonus system built in that adds in extra mechanical enjoyment.

PM/TTYD also set themselves apart from other RPGs by their cutesy, approachable aesthetic, super fun and funny characters, and simple but engaging plotlines.

The papercraft style that the Paper Mario games are known for evokes storybooks or kids playing with simple toys. It’s cutesy, it’s adorable, and it makes the games feel approachable at multiple ages. Mario isn’t gritty and wields a sword like a lot of RPG heroes, he’s a goofy plumber guy who jumps on things and has a big cartoony hammer.

PM/TTYD also have absolutely wonderful characters. Mario may be a silent protagonist, other than some fun “wa-hoo”s here and there, but the cast of secondary supporting characters that he’s joined by in his adventure each have this great flair that sets them apart not just from enemies in other RPGs, but even from the types of characters you might find in other Mario games too. There’s something really special about the partner characters in PM/TTYD.

But hell, even the villains are great! The big bads of each game might be kinda serious at times, but the bosses of each individual chapter can often have really fun, unique personalities that make each one memorable in their own right.

The Legacy

So why is it that other Paper Mario games aren’t compared to other RPGs, but are only ever compared to the first two Paper Mario games?

I think it’s just cause PM/TTYD did something so unique. Their combination of a genre we all know and love with a unique additional microgame aspect and the cutesy aesthetic and engaging writing... PM/TTYD was a combination of some absolutely fantastic individual elements, and they all worked together to create a wonderful final package.

And other Paper Mario games kind of squandared what we had. They left a lot of those unique aspects behind and created something new, rather than innovating on the franchise as it had been established by that point. Super Paper Mario was more of just a platformer game than it was an RPG, for example.

Some of that legacy, with the microgames within turn-based combats, still lives on in the Mario & Luigi series as I understand (though, the developer for those went bankrupt, didn’t they? could be wrong about that, take that with a grain of salt). But even then, the Mario & Luigi series doesn’t quite have the same aesthetic appeal.

The best Legacy of PM/TTYD can really be seen in Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling. Bug Fables is a near perfect game, and if you liked PM/TTYD at all, you absolutely should go play Bug Fables. It took the basic formula that PM/TTYD set out and innovated on it in a way that we can only wish Super Paper Mario had done.

I’m not gonna go into too much detail on Bug Fables right now, I think I did that on my blog after I finished the game, but it is a fucking great game and you should play it.

Conclusion

I love The Thousand-Year Door. It’s one of my favorite games of all time. It’s tied up there with, like, Tales of Symphonia, Pokemon Gold, and Dark Souls 2, for the most important games to me, with each of those games getting a slightly different reason for being on my favorite games list. DS2 I love because of the time I spent playing it with a friend in college (not to say it’s not a good game, though - it’s fantastic!). Pokemon Gold is one of the first games I really learned to love. Tales of Symphonia hit me emotionally in great ways.

But Thousand Year Door is on that list for being one of the best overall packages. Its story, mechanics, and overall presentation are one of the best in gaming.