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s-b-party · 1 year

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Vultur Volans: Alhaitham and the Flying Vulture

****Possible spoilers ahead!!! (TW: there is one pic of a vulture covered in blood)

Our “feeble scholar”, Alhaitham, is someone who prefers to be away from the eyes of others not because he cares about how others perceive him but because he would prefer to not interact with others (that’s so relatable😭)

Volans means flying/soaring & Vultur is a generic translation for vultures, but not many vultures today have it as part of their scientific name; the reason for this is bc the word vulture is used to refer to a group of raptors that look similar & share a common trait: they feed on carrion

So why is his constellation the vulture, a creature that tends to stand out in the skies or whenever it’s feeding, when he himself is often hard to find?

Normally the first thing we think of when we think of a vulture is “a bird of prey that is an intimidating scavenger,” but there is a lot more to it than just how we perceive it (TW: blood on vulture in 2nd photo)

Vultures are intelligent creatures & can be quite wholesome when we look at the way they look after their own family

Like other birds, they will digest food first to regurgitate back into their chicks’ mouths so that their offspring can get the nutrition they need; interestingly, this includes bones which are an important source of calcium (listen, I think they’re wholesome even with this regurgitating behavior, you can’t change my mind 😂)

They are usually social animals that live in groups although few may choose to be solitary

Now that I’ve gotten the wholesome agenda out, let’s look at the symbolism associated with vultures; although they are usually associated with death, there are a LOT of meanings attached to vultures, both positive & negative, so I’m going to focus on the ones that I think can be strongly connected to Alhaitham & his lore: motherhood & intelligence

Intelligence is the easiest out of the two to see in his lore, but motherhood is probably the last thing you would think of as a concept present in Alhaitham’s lore at first glance, but I think we should take a closer look at his childhood & how he was raised since it would eventually lead to him becoming the person he is today (motherhood is present essentially in the entirety of his Character Story 5)

He had a grandmother who raised him after the death of his parents. His grandmother had essentially become the mother figure in his life who clearly loved him & understood him. She knew that Alhaitham was incredibly smart even for a child, reading difficult works at the age of seven

She opted to have him start school early, but when he came back telling her that everybody was boring & that he preferred reading books over listening to others lecture, she agreed to let him be self-taught rather than forcing him to attend school

This reminds me of those situations where students sometimes become depressed because they’re not getting the intellectual stimulation needed when they are forced to learn at the same pace as those who are struggling to understand or are new to learning the topics (it might not be the same exact situation but it could speak to him not enjoying his time at school)

Some might wonder “Wouldn’t his self-taught education have negatively affected his social skills since he most likely saw others at the Akademiya boring and thus avoided interacting with them?”

The thing is when it comes to his social skills, there are a number of factors to consider: he knows that everybody has different strengths & weaknesses in various aspects (intelligence, work capability, judgement, etc.) & he knows that he is very different from them, so he already understands that his interactions w/ “ordinary” people are not going to be quite fulfilling; we have to keep in mind that he was VERY young (7 years old) when he was reading about topics that probably many children wouldn’t have understood at that point

I think it goes back to the idea of needing proper intellectual stimulation so that could explain why he called those people “boring” & why he didn’t really vibe with the lectures from that day

We know that he avoids interacting with others, it’s not that he’s incapable, it’s because he doesn’t think such interactions are quite necessary; if it is necessary for him to interact w/ somebody (like in the archon quest w/ the traveler), then yes, he will make an appearance & interact, but otherwise, you’re not going to have much luck w/ him

A subtle factor to consider that could further explain his attitude towards socializing with others is the environment of Sumeru itself when the Akasha was still running

Up until the point when the Akasha was shut down by Nahida, many of the citizens took everything that the Akasha ever told them to be factual without ever questioning it, but Alhaitham merely saw it as another source of information that he didn’t completely rely on

For him, it probably felt like being in a nation full of sheep (the mob mentality was probably strong); if he’s interacting with someone who’s just going to regurgitate what a machine tells them, he might as well just be using his own Akasha; chances are he frequently encountered people who simply placed their trust in the Akasha rather than question it

There’s also the fact that knowledge in Sumeru is highly prized & those who show evidence of being geniuses or prodigies are usually shown with much respect (qualifying people based on intelligence is what divides the citizens of Sumeru to the extent of a hierarchy; it’s the reason why there is an obvious divide mainly between scholars & the desert people even though the latter for a long time didn’t have access/had limited access to resources that scholars had within the city so it’s an unfair assessment of the desert people to begin with); Alhaitham is someone who doesn’t like extravagance/over-the-top treatment, which we can see in how his position is something that is glorified/hyped up by others

In other words, he doesn’t like people making a big deal out of matters or stalling around when it comes to conversing

Alhaitham’s grandmother taught him to not take his intelligence & uniqueness for granted; bc his intelligence is so high, she believed that it was his responsibility to always stay clear-minded & objective

As a result, Alhaitham doesn’t care about being exalted as a genius or looked down upon as a loner by others in Sumeru; he just looks at everything as it is without overly praising/criticizing something/someone

You can tell it’s a trait he values, he’s even smiling as he mentions it being one of his strengths

Understandably, there are going to be people who don’t like him after talking to him because their feelings WILL be hurt not only because he’s straightforward with his words but also because not everybody will react well to being exposed/being told they’re wrong/questioned, etc.

Obviously Alhaitham isn’t trying to be mean unless he’s intentionally trying to bait you, then that’s another story, but he will & does acknowledge both a person’s weaknesses & strengths (a lot of people will find his bluntness to be a negative quality, but at least nobody will ever have to worry about him dancing around in a conversation with rhetoric)

In the end, Alhaitham seems to be happy living a life where he doesn’t have to interact with others a lot; his grandmother wanted him to have a peaceful life too so it seems to be a win-win situation for Alhaitham honestly considering that he gets paid well as a scribe & he is living comfortably

What’s interesting is that society even in our world views being a loner as a negative trait because it implies that you don’t know how to interact with people & there seems to be a requirement(?) to be able to interact with others because that’s just how it is (for any occasion regardless of whether it’s personal or business)

As I’ve said before, it’s not that Alhaitham doesn’t know how to socialize, he chooses not to if he can help it whereas others are just not comfortable doing so

Now the reason why I talked so much about his social skills is because part of it is how he was raised not just in Sumeru but also by his only family, his grandmother who essentially became his mother figure, going back to the concept of motherhood being present in his lore

Based on how he is in the present, I would argue that he was raised well in spite of his bluntness; his grandmother loved him & wanted him to be happy; it sounds like she didn’t force him into anything that he didn’t want to do (like going to school), she taught him to never take his intelligence for granted & to always remain objective; by letting Alhaitham be self-taught, she helped him to nurture his critical thinking skills & his ability to question others

We don’t know exactly if she ever brought up the topic of being blunt to Alhaitham, but if she did, it didn’t really seem like she saw a problem with it, at least not enough for him to change his ways from a young age

It’s interesting seeing such a character and knowing that his family loved him; honestly when we first met him in the archon quest, I wasn’t expecting to hear about him having a grandmother who took care of him; it’s wholesome, maybe not as wholesome as some other things in the game but it’s still a bit wholesome 😊

#genshin impact #genshin spoilers #genshin lore #genshin constellations #genshin alhaitham #tw: blood #there's one pic with blood on a vulture

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famderfries · 2 years

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My unfiltered thoughts on Jurassic World: Dominion.

**(spoilers!!!)**

DOMINION HAS A LOT OF BUGS. LIKE A LOT OF THEM. I WONT BE DISCUSSING THEM HERE, BUT IF YOU ARE GOING TO WATCH THE FILM, KEEP IT IN MIND.

I feel like saying that I went into this film expecting a pile of dogshit and some dinosaurs, my expectations were VERY low, and that may have swayed my opinion. As probably did my favourite dinosaurs and co being in it. I left the cinema like 2 hours ago and did not plan this. this has been your disclaimer.

First of all, Chris Pratt is never a positive to this series. The first two Jurassic World movies were... a little disappointing to say the least. The first one was ok, introduced some interesting concepts, but was mostly ruined by the writing, cast, and general attempt to make dinosaurs equate to pets? The second follows through with this, making Blue a softie (which thankfully they seem to have reversed in Dominion), and being insufferably boring in my opinion. And though I dont particularly like Owen or Claire in any of the films, the (very welcome) addition of Ian Malcolm adds a lot to their dynamic. Having Owen outrun 3 Atrociraptors on a motorbike for like, 10 minutes, catch up to a plane, and get in while the plane is taking off is stupid, and ridiculous, but I couldnt bring myself to be upset about it. Every stretch of the imagination being accompanied by Malcolm's almost deadpan assessment of each scene is refreshing. Ian Malcolm as usual is the highlight of the film, but he really made me laugh a lot in this one. Thanks Goldblum.

A couple more negatives: It feels at points as if they're REALLY trying to stuff you with as much unfo as they can instead of showing it; the kid is annoying - nothing wrong with her personally, her british accent is just very offputting and pronounced. it makes some of her lines stiff at times (see "Eyes on me"). It was also more apparent in this film than any other that the characters had plot armour made of reinforced steel, but its quite fun to laugh at at times. Think Claire outrunning Rexie while IN HEELS in Jurassic World. This film is Nostalgia bait, its not hard to tell- its fairly similar in plot points and shots such as:

- Characters such as Grant, Sattler and Wu

- Brachiosaur (even tho its not the same one from the first film bc shes dead)

- Rexie, but shes in every one

- villain is killed by Dilos

- Throwback to the Malcolm Flare scene

Onto the dinosaurs (+Quetza)

The designs aren't all that accurate, but thats not what I'm really judging them on here. I was pleasantly surprised with the Dinosaurs in this film. To name a few, this film features: Atrociraptor, Pyroraptor, Compsognathus (background), Giganotosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Ankylosaurus (background), Dryosaur (i THINK?), Carnotaurus, Quetzalcoatlus (a pterasaur but Im including it), Therazinosaurus (my beloved <3) even if for a short amount of time, it was so nice to see these dinosaurs in the film. I feel as if Giga was underused, and it was also introduced as the "Biggest terrestrial carnovaur ever" which it wasn't, Spino's bigger, but the design was cool and different enough from Rexie that it was easy to tell who was who. Thera being a part of the main fight was not expected but i loved it :D

The supporting cast are mostly likeable, even though Blue's baby is clapped and has a terrible name. The humour was fairly good, the dinosaurs looked pretty good (except for the babies), no complaints there.

A lot of scenes were dramatised in ways that were really entertaining. I found myself laughing at Chris Pratt a lot (which i enjoy doing), especially when he does the raptor hand thing? they also talk a lot to dinosaurs in this movie and they seem to understand pretty well but its funny so who cares i guess. The plane scene was so stupid and dramatic i couldnt help but love it. The raptors conveniently taking like 10 minutes to get up after falling over. Chris Pratt carrying Beta on his shoulser like a pomeranian in a handbag, him somehow being able to singlehandedly wrestle a fully grown and abled Para with only a piece of rope and then touching its nose How To Train Your Dragon style-ing it into compliance. The Giganotosaurus LITERALLY BREATHING FIRE THAT ONE TIME. Although, for how cliché this film is, I have to give it credit for having Ian Malcolm in a large portion and not ONCE uttering the "Life finds a way" line. impressive.

I think the way they dealt with the dinosaurs being in the wild now was realistic enough, although sticking every land dinosaur in a nature reserve was lazy, considering the status quo of "Dinos deserve to coexist with us in the wild!!!" but Jurassic World: Dominion comes from a long line of films that are Lazy Cashgrabs about Lazy cashgrabs, and i don't know what else they could have done without feeling as if they hadn't accomplished anything.

Given the hand that they were dealt, they did well. Jurassic World: Dominion is definitely worth watching in my opinion, going into it expecting it to be more so dramatic that its funny and not a masterpiece. I am however upset Owen didnt try the crouchy-Raptor-hand-thing on the Giga </3

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phantombandit-films · 2 years

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Jurassic World: Dominion Thoughts.

First off I’d just like to say that I did like this movie, it was enjoyable and fun and yes, I did cry. But I just wanted to talk about a few points and how I felt about it all. No way am I saying that I hated this movie because I didn’t but this is just how I feel after my first sitting, who knows maybe my mind will be changed after I see it again. Obviously this post will contain spoilers, so if you still haven't seen the movie, please don't read!

Fist off I would like to talk about every bodies favourite Raptor Blue - I feel like they could have used her way more than they did. They could have found some way to have take her with them to rescue Beta and Maisie, then she could have had a fight with the Atrociraptor’s and maybe even the Pyroraptor. I did like the whole ‘Owen making her a promise to get beta back’ thing but I would have just liked to see more of blue, especially seen as this is the concluding film. Also with Beta! I was expecting her to be the main thing about this film but she wasn't, I also thought Maisie wouldn't want to leave her side when she set her free but she just left her then we didn't see Beta again until the end?! What was the point.

Can we also talk about them completely changing why Maisie was made.

This then leads into the other dinos - which I just feel like they put in so many new/ old dinosaurs but didn’t utilise them enough, like there was this big thing around promoting the Atrosoraptors but they were in it, what? All of five minutes? Same goes with the Pyroraptor and Therizinosaurs I feel like they were a massive part of the promos but then wasn't use to their full potential. The Allosaurus and Carnotaurus looked so good and I'm so sad we didn't get to see much of them and their rampage in Malta. I would of also liked to have seen Allen interact with the Dilophosaurus that would have been so cool.

ALSO WHERE WAS SPINO :’(

I feel like we should have had at least one major death (Not going to lie though I nearly started crying when I thought Giga was going to get Ian), might just be me on this one as I kind of siked myself up for either Ian, Rexy or Blue to die and sort of wanted that strong emotion. Another point that might just be me but I missed Zia and that one scene with her at the start just wasn't enough for me.

I also did really like the locust story line but I feel like that could have been it's own movie entirely, I kind of wished this one had just stick to wrapping up the other two movies and focused more on seeing dinos and humans living together, like 'Battle at Big Rock' Also like what we saw from the concept art that was released.

I feel one thing that would have been good as well, would be if the prologue was added to the beginning of the movie. If people are going to see it who aren't massive Jurassic fans and haven't kept up with all the little promos like 'Battle at Big Rock.' or the Prologue, they wont be confused at the Giga and Rexy rivalry but i feel like seeing that prologue before is more beneficial, because then you see their fight as a rematch of ancestors thousands of years later, and also that the mosquito that took that T-Rex's blood all those years ago after the Giga killed it, is now Rexy.

Talking about the end fight, what even was that? I was hoping for something as twice as epic as the battle at the end of Jurassic world, but this one was so weak and lasted a second. Yeah I was disappointed. The little bit where Rexy comes in though and stands behind the circle like the Jurassic logo made me scream though, I did love that. I also did sob when I though Rexy was dead, my queen.

There was just something a little off about it, something that didn’t feel like Jurassic that I cant put my finger on.

If you want to see more concept art please go follow the amazing artists on Instagram! @andreewallin @riabovitchev

#jurassic park #jurassic world #jurassic world dominion #jurassic world dominion review

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commentaryvorg · 3 years

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Digimon Data Squad Dub Comparison Episode 1 - There Are Monsters Among Us!

This is a companion to my commentary on the original Japanese Digimon Savers! Reading my commentary on the original version of this episode (which you can find here) is recommended before reading this dub comparison.

Original name ~ Dubbed name

Masaru Daimon ~ Marcus Damon

Yoshino Fujieda ~ Yoshino “Yoshi” Fujieda

Captain Rentarou Satsuma ~ Commander Richard Sampson

[Since several characters share the same name between the original and the dub, quotes from the dub will always be in italics, while quotes from the original will not, in order to distinguish them.]

First off, can we talk about the characters’ dub names? The dub doesn’t actively draw attention to its setting much (but then again neither does the original, really), but it also does not change the fact that this is taking place in Japan and these characters are actually Japanese, despite that we’re hearing them speak English. Some of them keep their Japanese names, too, even if maybe they have slight shortenings of them to be easier for a Western audience to remember. But then some characters’ names are randomly changed to completely English ones, even though these characters are apparently still meant to be Japanese and living in Japan. It’s just strange – if they’re okay with keeping some of the Japanese names, why not keep all of them?

(Honestly, despite my complaints, I am kind of a little glad that they changed Masaru’s name in the dub, because Marcus comes across somewhat of a different character to Masaru for reasons I will be discussing at length. In that sense, it’s convenient to have different names to differentiate them by.)

Kudamon: “He’s a renegade to begin with. We have no choice but to dispose of him.”

~~~~~

Kudamon: “The target is a renegade. We must catch him before he gets out.”

This is actually more reasonable than what Kudamon says here in the original.

Satsuma: “The only ones who can keep Digimon under control… are Digimon!”

~~~~~

Sampson: “Only a high-level DATS agent can capture a Digimon.”

The original version of this line was already awkwardly expositiony, sure, but this one just doesn’t make as much sense. The point is not that Yoshi is a high level DATS agent, but that she has a Digimon partner.

The dub completely replaces the original’s soundtrack. I did a shoutout to the BGM here in the original, and I also want to do a BGM shoutout here in the dub! This piece here is very different sounding from Provocation Infinity but still gives a similar sort of actiony gung-ho feel appropriate for Marcus and Agumon being fighty dorks, and I like it. It’s used often enough in moments like this such that it’s the only dub theme aside from the evolution theme that I’ve become able to pick out and recognise the melody of, even though this is only my second time watching the dub. Though I don’t know what the dub soundtrack’s titles are (actually, after having a look, it seems like the dub OST was never released, so nobody does), I like to think that this one is probably Marcus’s theme based on the moments its used in, so I’m going to be calling it Probably Marcus’s Theme.

Marcus: “This is my training ground!”

This park is apparently specifically his “training ground”, even though it’s just an ordinary park that anyone can visit. Um, okay? (More on this at the end of this episode.)

Masaru: “I’m the number one street fighter in Japan, Daimon Masaru-sama!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “One day, I’m gonna be a champion ultimate fighter!”

They’ve changed “street fighter” to “ultimate fighter”, which, okay, makes him come across a bit less like a delinquent, fair enough. But a noteworthy difference is that he’s only trying to be the best ultimate fighter. Masaru, on the other hand, feels like he already is Japan’s number one street fighter. This change still sounds fine and in-character enough on the surface, but it’s a meaningful distinction that will become quite relevant further in as we get more into Masaru’s character, so keep this in mind.

Marcus: “Fans all over will chant my name! They’ll say, ‘Marcus Damon is the best!’”

I get that what the dubbers are going for here is something equivalent in spirit to Masaru using -sama on himself. But there’s other, simpler ways to do that – just have him call himself “the great Marcus Damon”, or something like that.

As it is, what they’ve done here is make it seem like, apparently, Marcus has fans, or at least he wants to have fans. Which is not even remotely the point of his fighting thing in the original, nor will it be in the dub, either. He’s not doing this for recognition from others; this is something he’s doing entirely for himself.

Yoshi: “Raptor-1 can talk…?”

This was not a thing implied in the original – that apparently, Yoshi (and presumably therefore everyone else at DATS) hadn’t even heard Agumon talk until now. I guess they’re going for giving more of an explanation as to why DATS treated him like a monster, but I find it difficult to buy that Agumon really wouldn’t have said at least some stuff while trapped at DATS HQ. (“I’m hungry,” if nothing else, right?)

Lalamon: “Yoshi, he’ll destroy the human!”

Oh, boy. This is one of those English dubs that refuses to directly acknowledge the concept of death because apparently the poor kiddies can’t handle that or something. I will attempt to not rag on it every time it does so – only because that’d get really boringly repetitive – but I will be talking about it a lot in future episodes when death becomes quite a story-important thing that is happening.

For now, let’s just point out that it sounds really silly to talk like a human can be “destroyed”. There’s plenty of other ways to get across that Agumon is dangerous without directly referencing death that would sound more natural.

Marcus: “Then I’ll knock you out like I did these guys!”

Masaru did not mention the fact that he was responsible for beating up all the dudes this early on. I guess here in the dub, Yoshi just isn’t paying proper attention, because she’s going to continue to assume it was Agumon who hurt all the students.

Kudamon: “He’s too dangerous.”

~~~~~

Kudamon: “We cannot let this escalate.”

I am sad that the dub lost the fun “who’s too dangerous?” double meaning of Kudamon’s original line.

Yoshino: “Hey, you! Get away from him! You’ll only lose if you fight him!”

Masaru: “Huh? This isn’t about win or lose! This is about fighting man-to-man!”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “You can’t fight that creature! He’s too dangerous!”

Marcus: “Huh? Look, toots, I’m the dangerous fighter here! And I don’t need any babysitter to hold my hand!”

We really, really did not need Marcus being vaguely misogynistic by calling Yoshi “toots”, or by implying that she’s nothing but a babysitter. We really didn’t.

This also replaces Masaru’s original line that has that fun aspect of him not even caring about winning and just wanting to have a good challenging fight with a worthy opponent, so we lose that, too.

(Though, ignoring the misogyny, I do enjoy Marcus responding to “he’s too dangerous!” with “hey, I’m dangerous”.)

Agumon: “Yeah! It’s man-to-man!”

~~~~~

Agumon: “That’s right! This is between him and me!”

Agumon then also isn’t able to agree about this being man-to-man, and this just becomes a less interestingly nuanced “stay out of our fight”, rather than really about the kind of fight they want to have.

Masaru: “Got it? Now stay out of this!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “This is a fight between men, so stay out of it!”

Having removed Masaru’s reference to men a few lines earlier, the dub does something which is going to be extremely rare by its standards and actually adds in a reference to men here. …Unfortunately, because they’d also added in Marcus’s random misogynistic lines earlier, this comes across much more like it’s about gender, and he’s just essentially saying “we don’t want any girls in our fight”. Which, no. Masaru talking about manliness is never actually that much about gender at all, despite the word he uses.

Masaru: “I see you’re pretty brave.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “I dunno what you are, but you’re goin’ down!”

We lose the sense of Masaru having respect for Agumon challenging him in place of some basic I’m-better-than-you trash talk. And this also adds in Marcus calling Agumon a what, rather than a who, indicating that apparently Marcus is paying some attention to Agumon’s species and is seeing him, at least a little, as not quite worthy of the same respect as a human.

After their big cross-counter…

Agumon: “I wasn’t ready. But you won’t get me this time!”

~~~~~

Agumon: “Hey! I wasn’t ready! I was waitin’ for you to say, ‘One, two, three, go!’”

The dubbers completely missed the point of the original, “I wasn’t ready.” Original-Agumon’s line comes across as “I wasn’t expecting you to be that strong, but now I’ve got the measure of you”, like he’s gained more respect for Masaru’s strength. Meanwhile dub-Agumon is just whining and acting like Marcus totally cheated rather than acknowledging his unexpected strength.

Agumon kicking Marcus in the crotch is cut, replaced with a rather cheesy-looking comic book POW sort of effect across the whole screen.

There’s a cute acoustic guitar BGM here for their bonding moment that I like, especially after recognising its melody and realising that this is a variation on Probably Marcus’s Theme! That seems very appropriate.

Agumon: “You’re… pretty good… for a human.”

Geez, what a backhanded compliment. Apparently dub-Agumon still sees Marcus as below him simply because he’s human, rather than fully acknowledging his strength regardless of species.

Agumon: “Let’s call it a draw.”

This line fills a silence, stating something that was already perfectly well implied in the first place by the fact that they’re no longer fighting and yet there’s no clear winner. It shouldn’t need to be said. In fact, it makes it seem a lot more like this fight really was just about winning or losing to both of them, when in the original that was never the point.

Rather than “Aniki”, which, okay, works fine in subs but can’t really be kept in a proper official English dub, Agumon calls Marcus “Boss”. I guess this is acceptable, but I feel like it would have been better for them to lean into the “big brother” meaning of aniki, rather than the “boss” one, for reasons I will be grumbling about a lot.

Masaru: “Aniki?”

Agumon: “Yeah. You’re the first person to acknowledge me as a full-fledged individual, Aniki.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Boss?”

Agumon: “Yeah. Y’see, you’re the only guy who’s ever matched me blow-for-blow in a fight before.”

So, in this version, Agumon gaining respect for Marcus has absolutely nothing to do with Marcus treating him like a person. It’s just because of his strength, nothing else. Way to lose that really fun little bit of nuance and character depth on both sides.

(Also, what does Agumon even mean, “before”? It’s not like he’d have been able to have proper fights that weren’t just defending himself while trying to escape until now.)

Agumon: “That’s why, from now on, I’ll be your follower!”

~~~~~

Agumon: “That makes you the boss. From now on, you give the orders and I’ll faithfully follow!”

Matching Agumon in a fight shouldn’t really suddenly make Marcus the boss who gets to order him around, should it? Plus, here’s Agumon explicitly saying Marcus can give him orders, which was not at all part of the arrangement originally. This whole thing has such a different tone to “you treated me like a person when nobody else did, so now I look up to you and will be loyal to you.”

Marcus: “I never thought one day that I’d have an employee that’s as funny-lookin’ as you are.”

Oh, boy. Meanwhile, instead of “follower”, we have… employee. That is even more completely missing the point of the aniki-and-follower relationship of the original. If they didn’t like the gang connotations of “boss”, maybe they should have gone for “big bro” instead, perhaps? But no, they just doubled down on the “boss” in a totally different and inappropriate direction. Marcus has apparently just started up a small business.

The heartwarming BGM gets a record scratch as Yoshi reminds them she’s still there. I admit, it made me chuckle.

Yoshi: “So, are you gonna come quietly, or do I have to use force?”

Marcus: “Who’s she talkin’ to, you or me?”

I do enjoy this – a little implication that Marcus has some experience with being treated in a similar way, perhaps by the regular police.

Masaru: “It’s the aniki’s job to look after his follower. I’m not handing him over to you!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “I’ve never had an employee before, and I’m not turning my only one over to you!”

Instead of Masaru doing this out of feeling like it’s an aniki’s responsibility, Marcus is making it about himself. He doesn’t want to lose his new and only employee. Like Agumon’s just a possession of his now. Nothing about how this is something that should be expected of him as a boss.

Later, at the tower, as Agumon asks Marcus to help him evade DATS:

Marcus: “What am I getting myself into this time?”

I enjoy this too. More implications that Marcus is used to getting himself into all sorts of Trouble.

Agumon: “I’m starved!”

Marcus: “Well, suck it up and act like a real man!”

Again with the dub adding in references to manliness that weren’t there originally, as if Marcus actually has a concept of manliness that will continue to be a running theme. Haha, I wish. Get ready for me complaining about the exact opposite of this in basically every other dub episode.

Agumon: “I’m a growing boy!”

How does Agumon even know this phrase? This is an entirely human concept. Dub Agumon will be doing a lot of this, awkwardly invoking human ideas that he shouldn’t have any conception of.

Yoshi: “Yum. I love chocolate pudding – it reminds me of being a little kid again!”

Yoshino’s coffee jelly gets localised into chocolate pudding, because I guess coffee jelly is more of a Japanese thing that Westerners might be unfamiliar with? I enjoy the added detail that it reminds her of being a kid and that’s why she likes it.

Masaru: “I don’t know anyone by that name!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “I have no idea who this ‘Raptor-1’ is!”

Marcus’s line loses the technically-not-lying and respecting-Agumon’s-identity of the original line. He does know who this “Raptor-1” that Yoshi’s talking about is, even if that isn’t actually his name.

Masaru: “How’d you know my name?”

Yoshino: “You yelled it out earlier for everyone to hear.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “How do you know my name, anyway?”

Yoshi: “I know everything about you.”

No pointing out that he yelled it out earlier like a huge dork. Instead, she just really leans into the DATS-are-creepily-authoritative vibe that she already had a little of in the original.

Yoshi: “Born April 2nd in Tokyo, blood type B, Ootori middle school eighth grade.”

Him being born in Tokyo was not a detail mentioned in the original. And also probably not true in the original, since the series is set in Yokohama and there’s no indication that his family moved here. The dub is presumably still set in Yokohama even though it’s never mentioned, just because the scenery is that of Yokohama, so I guess they’ve just established some dub-only canon that the Damon family moved home at some point. This will actually come up briefly later. I am shocked that I’m saying this.

At least, props to the dub for mentioning Tokyo and making it pretty overt that, yes, this is set in Japan. (You know, with this Japanese guy called Marcus.)

Yoshi also does not explicitly specify Marcus’s age, only that he’s in eighth grade. Which (I’m pretty sure, though I’m unfamiliar with American school grades and may be wrong) would make him fourteen anyway, at least assuming he hasn’t been held back at any point. Keep this in mind, because this will also come up later.

Yoshi: “…and you now live with your mother Sarah and your little sister Kristy, who looks up to you even though you generally act like a jerk.”

First of all, how the hell does DATS have so much information that they even know how his sister feels about him?

Second of all, more importantly, way to just tell us that, hey, did you know, Marcus is A Jerk, hey, guys, you’re supposed to think he’s a jerk, because… he fights things, I guess?

The reality? Masaru is not a jerk. Not even slightly. He’s reckless and hot-headed and will fight anything that poses a challenge, but that is not even remotely the same thing as being a jerk to people.

But apparently the dub doesn’t understand this, and they seem to think that being a jerk is somehow meant to be one of his most noticeable character traits. And I guess they’re trying to present the idea that he’s going to slowly grow into being a nicer person through the power of Digimon and friendship? Which is not at all any kind of arc that Masaru is going to have, because he is not actually a jerk in the first place.

If it was just this one line that seemed to think this, I wouldn’t be that annoyed. But one of the biggest things I’m going to be complaining about with the dub is the fact that they actually do change Marcus’s character significantly to make him noticeably more of a jerk than Masaru ever was. We’ve already seen a little bit of this sort of thing going on so far in this episode, with how they’ve removed focus from the bits with Masaru treating Agumon like a person and instead made it all about fighting, and specifically winning those fights. But, oh boy, there’s going to be a lot more, to an extent that it has to be deliberate.

And aside from me just finding this very frustrating as someone who deeply loves Masaru’s character to see him distorted like this, I also can’t help but boggle at why they would ever want to do this at all. Why would you deliberately adapt a character – the main character – to be less likeable than in the original version of the work? How does it not occur to you that this is only going to make your new audience enjoy the work less? I do not get it.

Lines like this one here are even worse, because they blatantly violate “show don’t tell”. Along with making Marcus act like a jerk and showing us that, the dub’s narrative is also telling us that he’s a jerk and insisting we should think that about him instead of letting us make up our own minds. It’s so lazy and heavy-handed. There will be more like this and I do not like it one bit.

Yoshi: “I’m with the Digimon Data Squad.”

I guess the Data Squad really is its full name in the dub. Even though the acronym is still DATS. Don’t ask me how that’s meant to work.

Marcus: “That’s a great story, dollface, but what’s it gotta do with me?”

Can we not with the Marcus being casually misogynistic? Can we not? (Thankfully, this isn’t going to be a recurring thing. Other ways in which Marcus is being made less likeable will be, but at least not this.)

Marcus does not say anything about assuming Agumon was just a frog. Since Masaru having thought that is going to be relevant again later in the series, this is a loss of not just a moment of amusing dorkiness but something actually meaningful.

(One thing that is very clear about the dub is that, with a few exceptions, they do not appear to have watched ahead to see the whole series first and are just dubbing episode-by-episode. For a series like this with quite a strong overarching plot and lots of little things like this that get callbacks, that means that a lot of this overarching sense of cohesiveness will be lost, simply by accident, because they didn’t realise there was something important there worth keeping around. This is another thing I will be talking about a lot.)

Yoshino: “As long as you keep running from DATS, Raptor-1 will only starve to death.”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “If you don’t return Raptor-1 to us, he’ll starve to death!”

This is a little different. Yoshino was only trying to get Masaru to come to DATS, supposedly to pick up some Digimon food. Yoshi, meanwhile, wants Marcus to bring Agumon to DATS. Which on the one hand is a more helpful strategy for what she’s trying to achieve. But on the other hand, he doesn’t bring Agumon, because obviously the dub can’t change the episode that much, so instead we’re just left with that awkwardly not being what happens despite it being brought up.

Yoshino: “You…”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “Thank you.”

The hint that Yoshino is gaining a new respect for Masaru from his desire to help Agumon gets lost here, in favour of simply a thanks-for-finally-co-operating. Might partly be just lip-flap’s fault – the Japanese “you” is two syllables – but still, Yoshi’s tone of voice could at least have done some of the work to imply the same as the original, and it doesn’t really.

Kudamon: “This is the boy that put Raptor-1 under control? He doesn’t appear to have any special power, at any rate.”

~~~~~

Kudamon: “Interesting that this is the boy who fought Raptor-1, because nothing about him indicates that he’s able to fight at that level.”

We lose any implication that Satsuma might have been telling Kudamon things about Masaru offscreen, and instead here’s dub-Kudamon simply refusing to believe the evidence of his own eyes. You literally watched him fight Agumon on your screen. He very evidently can fight at that level.

Kamemon: “Enjoy.”

Marcus: “I’m not thirsty.”

Kamemon: “Suit yourself.”

Kamemon actually says words in the dub as he brings Marcus tea! This was very bizarre to me when I’m used to original-Kamemon, who almost never speaks at all.

Masaru: “Just hand over what I came for.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Just say what ya have to say and stop wasting my time!”

Apparently the dub has forgotten that Marcus only came here to pick up Digimon food for Agumon, and suddenly he expects to be receiving a speech here when he shouldn’t.

Masaru: “Renegades?”

Kudamon: “Yes. Raptor-1 has already entered the human world and injured humans. He cannot be allowed to go free.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Why are you calling him a renegade?”

Kudamon: “Because Raptor-1 has already entered the human world and made contact with human beings, so he can no longer be allowed to go free.”

I would complain that it’s a bit much that Agumon’s getting in so much trouble simply for meeting humans in the dub, and not specifically injuring them like they were assuming in the original. But, as it turns out, the original is also going to call Digimon simply meeting humans a “crime” in the next episode, possibly as part of its early weirdness. So, eh, this isn’t really the dub being any sillier than the original here.

Satsuma: “Daimon Masaru, you should work with us to create a bright future for both humans and Digimon!”

~~~~~

Sampson: “Please co-operate. The future relationship between humans and Digimon depends on you returning Raptor-1 to us.”

Also, apparently Sampson isn’t actually trying to recruit Masaru to join DATS with this speech. I can understand the logic behind changing that, since Satsuma was going about that whole thing weirdly vaguely.

That said, saying that the entire relationship between the two species hinges on this one Digimon being returned doesn’t make any sense. So I get the feeling that the implication of what Satsuma really wanted in the original line just went completely over the dubbers’ heads, and they simply thought they were translating his intent directly and made it sound rather silly as a result.

Masaru: “What the hell is this? Stop pestering without even listening to what I have to say first!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Why not? Because I don’t owe you people a single thing!”

We lose the fun subtle Masaru-y nuance of him caring about being given a chance to express how he feels here. Though I suppose it’s also relevant and illustrative that Marcus is implying he would help them if he felt like he owed them, showing a sense of responsibility there.

Masaru: “…but have you even considered why he suddenly showed up in this world? He admired this place! He admired this wide world, filled with things moving around that he’d never seen before.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Have you thought about why he came to the human world in the first place? What if he didn’t have a choice? Maybe things were bad for him back in the Digital World!”

This would be Marcus being sweet and thinking about how Agumon feels… if it wasn’t for the fact that Agumon told him he doesn’t know about anything except the institution, and therefore clearly didn’t deliberately try and run away from something bad in the Digital World. Pay attention to your foll – uh, employee, Marcus. Masaru’s line there had somewhat forgotten or misinterpreted what Agumon had told him, but Marcus’s is doing so to a much greater extent.

Masaru: “But if he starts rampaging, then I’ll be responsible.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “And if he gets into any sort of trouble, I’ll claim full responsibility for his actions.”

This sounds like a perfectly reasonable translation, but the dub version of the sentence does not work nearly as well to foreshadow the thing that the original line is foreshadowing and this makes me sad.

Marcus: “But only if you give me some food for him!”

…This is immediately following the previous line. So I guess, since they never give him any food, Marcus doesn’t end up obligated to take any responsibility for Agumon getting into trouble. (Even though that’s still what he is going to do when they think Agumon’s attacking the hamburger shop. But this makes him come across like someone who’s less willing to do so no matter what and has less of a strong sense of responsibility.)

Kudamon: “It looks like you’ll have to take responsibility sooner than you thought.”

~~~~~

Kudamon: “Do you now see how hiding him has created a security breach for all of us?”

This change makes a fair amount of sense, since original-Kudamon was being unreasonable by insisting Masaru should take responsibility for Agumon’s hunger when that was really Yoshino’s fault. And it also fits with the fact that Marcus never actually promised to take responsibility since he wasn’t given any food.

Yoshino: “So this is where you were hiding him. Since he’s nowhere to be seen, it must be him who attacked the hamburger shop.”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “So this is where you were hiding Raptor-1. A lot of good it did you, since we confirmed it was definitely him who attacked the hamburger stand.”

No, you didn’t! How did you confirm a thing that isn’t true? If this is Yoshi lying, that’s just a dick move; she doesn’t even have anything to gain from it. It feels more like this was the dubbers not paying attention and missing the original’s meaning, which is very obviously that Yoshino was assuming based simply on the fact that Agumon went missing. But he didn’t actually attack the hamburger stand! Did they not even watch ahead to the rest of this episode to realise that?

Marcus: “Why’d you attack a hamburger stand?”

Marcus asks this of Agumon after finding him with his head dorkily stuck in a trashcan, not really all that close to the explosions and flames. Way to jump to freaking conclusions after basically just finding proof that Agumon isn’t the culprit, geez! …Though I suppose that can be partly blamed on Yoshi inexplicably insisting he definitely was.

Agumon: “Huh? I didn’t attack anything, but a hamburger sure sounds good!”

Agumon should not know what a hamburger is. Again with his dub version knowing more human things than he should.

Kudamon: “He hasn’t been tamed. I don’t understand why he’s fighting alongside human beings.”

This just makes no sense. What the hell does “tamed” even mean? Doesn’t it just mean “has become willing to work with humans”? Because if so, he evidently has been tamed, actually. Just sounds frustratingly like Kudamon trying to insist he Knows Better than this nobody kid, and I don’t think that’s meant to be his character.

Agumon: “Aniki! He’s really strong…!”

Masaru: “Doesn’t that just fire you up!?”

Agumon: “Y… yeah!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “No! Agumon!”

Agumon: “Boss! I’m fine, but could you lend a hand?”

Marcus: “Ha! How about I lend a couple of fists!?”

The dub’s version of this exchange is kinda still cute, but it loses that fun nuance that Masaru loves how strong their opponent is, and that Agumon is learning to agree with that idea thanks to him.

Yoshi: “That thing will tear you to pieces!”

See, here’s a way to avoid directly using the word “die” or “kill” while still making it clear that’s what she’s referring to, without awkwardly acting like humans can be “destroyed”.

Masaru: “When you’re in a man’s fight, you’re already risking your life! The moment you get scared of dying is the moment you’ve lost the fight!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Besides, the ultimate fighter is always willing to make the ultimate sacrifice!”

This significantly changes the meaning here, and instead Marcus is apparently consciously willing to get himself killed if necessary, even though the kinds of fights he’s been in before really aren’t something that’s actually worth dying for at all. Masaru’s philosophy of acknowledging but then choosing to brush aside the potential risk in order to fight better makes more sense, because he’s not actually intending to die for anything.

The dub’s changed version of this line will also not work for the callback that the original line is going to get later in the series. I’d talk a lot more about why not, but, spoilers, so I’ll save that for then.

There’s a brief snippet of music here during the Anime Sads that appears to be a sad piano variation of Probably Marcus’s Theme, which feels appropriate. I don’t remember it from my one previous dub watch-through, but I hope it gets used in some of the future much more substantial moments of Marcus being sad about things.

Masaru: “You… How dare you hurt my follower!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “It’s… It’s fightin’ time!”

We also lose another future callback here. But on the other hand, “it’s fightin’ time!” is going to become Marcus’s catchphrase that he uses basically every time he fights (a dub-only catchphrase that Masaru has no equivalent of, and that I’m really pretty happy with), and this moment when he’s avenging Agumon getting hurt is definitely an appropriate moment for it to start being a thing.

The dub’s term for Digisoul is, instead, DNA. Luckily for the biologist in me, who would otherwise be tearing my hair out over this, this stands for something entirely different from deoxyribonucleic acid, because boy would it being that kind of DNA make absolutely zero sense. It’s still pretty awkward that it happens to be the same acronym as a commonly-known thing that it could easily be mistaken for, mind you.

I don’t know why they couldn’t just keep the term Digisoul, though. It’s a perfectly good term! It can’t even be that the dubbers have some kind of oh-no-religious-references objection to using the word “soul”, because that word is also in the dub’s opening song that we’ll be hearing every episode.

Old man: “By mastering this technique, your Digimon can Digivolve.”

Um, sure. The technique of waving your glowing hand over the Digivice is definitely something that needs to be “mastered”.

Marcus also yells “DNA Charge!” out of nowhere for the first time. But in his case, the old man never actually mentioned the word “charge” when telling him what to do here, so it’s even less clear how he knew that was what he was supposed to say.

Alas, the English dub does not dub the original evolution songs in Digimon. The evolution music instead is an instrumental version of the dub’s opening song, which, though I prefer Believer, is an acceptable replacement in terms of creating a similarly triumphant mood.

Marcus: “That’ll teach ya! Don’t mess with my employee!”

Oh my god, wow, way to completely unintentionally mood-whiplash the triumphant moment by reminding us that this huge powerful dinosaur is actually just your subordinate in the new small business you’ve set up here, Marcus. A small business of punching everything.

Agumon: “Aniki! I’m hungry!”

Masaru: “What the hell… That’s so anti-climactic…”

~~~~~

Agumon: “Boss! I’m hungry.”

Marcus: “What else is new? I’m just glad you’re safe.”

This addition is cute. Originally Masaru’s just referring to the anticlimax of Agumon devolving so fast.

Masaru: “How about going for a hamburger?”

Agumon: “Does that taste good?”

~~~~~

Marcus: “How about a nice hamburger?”

Agumon: “Ooh! With cheese, too?”

On the one hand, at least the dub remembered the fact that this Agumon somehow already knows what a hamburger is. On the other, this raises even more questions in terms of how he also knows that they can come with cheese.

Yoshino: “But that one’s already injured 13 students!”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “But Agumon still injured fifteen men!”

Remember how the original tried to calculate fifteen minus one and got thirteen? Well, the dub tried it and got fifteen. Somehow each of them managed to get this very simple sum wrong in a different way.

(And yes, the dub did also specifically have Lalamon sense fifteen humans at the park in the beginning. Actually, it flashes back here to a part where Yoshi was then relaying to HQ that there are fifteen victims, but that was before she saw that Marcus was still standing. I guess it’s plausible to assume that Yoshi herself forgot to subtract Marcus after that and this is her mistake rather than the writers. Not convinced that’s the case, though.)

Also, told you the dub would forget about the part in the beginning where Marcus yelled out within Yoshi’s earshot that he beat up the dudes.

Marcus: “Those were some punks claiming to be ultimate fighters who wanted to train in my area, so I fought them for it, and guess what, I won!”

This begs the question: how the hell is that park supposed to be Marcus’s training ground? Surely, it’d make most sense as a training ground if it was where people regularly come to challenge him to fights? Instead, he only fought the dudes there because he wanted to drive them away from his training ground, so that he can continue to train there, alone, in a perfectly ordinary park that isn’t a gym or anything like that. How is he supposed to train there without opponents? Does he just, like… punch the trees?

I understand if the dub wants to make Marcus have slightly less of a teenage delinquent vibe, but the resulting implications they have here instead are just amusingly nonsensical. It does not seem like they actually thought about this very hard at all.

Overall differences

Overall, the dub of this episode shows a pattern of things generally making a bit less sense and having a bit less nuance, and Marcus in particular being just a bit less interesting and distinctive than Masaru. This is going to be such a regular pattern for every single dub episode that I probably won’t even bother to remark on it in most of these summaries going forward.

In terms of more specific effect on how this episode comes across, I think the most noticeable shift is that the sense of Marcus’s empathy towards Agumon despite his species is watered down slightly. Perhaps most notably, Agumon did not become loyal to Marcus because Marcus treated him like a person, but instead just because he matched him in a fight, which is less meaningful.

The terms “boss” and “employee” also give something of a different vibe to their relationship than in the original. Obviously the dub had to localise “aniki” to something, but I don’t think this was the best choice. This’ll be a thing in every episode, of course, but I’m bringing it up here because this is where it starts.

Then there’s the part where one of Yoshi’s lines casually established that Agumon had never spoken before. As much as this doesn’t make any sense to be a thing – why would he not have spoken while being held in DATS? – I guess it makes it slightly more reasonable that DATS then sees him as just a monster? Though they should also be changing their tune quite quickly when they realise he can speak, which of course they don’t. I guess this could have been an attempt to justify the original’s issues with DATS’s attitude towards Agumon… but not a very effective one.

#digimon #digimon savers #digimon data squad

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sepialunaris · 3 years

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Besides the crazy stupid plot twist and dumb character actions I think the big problen why Jurassic World is a failure of a narrative is that it constantly confuses its own tone and what idea it wants to convey. And as a whole it just sounds like singing praises to capitalism and pinning problems on other aspects instead of the root of the problem.

So JW is said to have been open for 15 years, and its said people are bored with classic InGen retrosaurs hence initiating the creation of Indominus, and yet from the other perspective people are enjoying the retrosaurs just fine? It is not even hinted a bit that they did not not enjoy them besides that bit of exposition.

And our audience perspective character doesn't work. Gray and Zach seems to come from a middle-upper class family and yet they never visited the park for years despite having a family member as a high level staff? Knowing their son is obsessed with dinosaurs? And the only reason they were sent there was because it was an excuse to cover up their parent's divorce? In the case of Darius Bowman from CC it makes sense, but this is weird. It's kind of nitpicky, but okay my point is, what makes them ineffective is that they are new eyes to the park and Zach cannot represent "ahh ppl who already seen this many times get inspired to see the beauty of ugly 1993 retrosaurs" because he has never been there either. So its just weird to include their POV when it deosnt complement the Indominus narrative and if it does it feels forced and loose.

And its more bizarre when the movie seems to be more obsessed with showing "oh my god look at this capitalist paradise! John Hammond's gentrification deeam fulfilled!" and panning on random buildings and starbucks with the Jurassic Park theme. Besides "do you have dinosaurs in your dinosaur park" it just wooshes the anti-capitalist social commentary of JP, more crazy when its loads of product placement. I know that they did plan a panning shot with dinosaurs which would've been effective and narratively fitting rather than *pan to giant building* so idk why they even did that. And so idk if this movie wants to criticize capitalism and consumerism combined with the privatizing of the genetics could give way to ethical and environmental issues or do they want to say "god powers are allowed for capitalists if they are nice" (ahh and based on leaks for JWD, its the latter. They made John Hammond a messiah for protecting his unethical business from the 'bad capitalists' omg)

There's also the issue of 'authentic' dinosaurs (hence why I keep mentioning retrosaurs from the start 😂, i want to talk about this too). The scene with Wu and Masrani works, but ultimately the whole movie fails it. It is lifted from one of the few good scenes from the oroginal movel with Wu and Hammond, and concerns about how ALL dinosaurs from this park are genetic hybrids from the start. And well it would've worked well to explore the ethics and capitalism approach but honestly with the whole movie as comparison it just sounds like "guys this is the reason why they are not realistic and feathered please dont ask us about it again." The fact that they are hybridized retrosaurs get ignored and thrown under the rug besides that one scene, and we never again explore how unnatural all of them are as the movie time to time again keeps promoting a division between "legit" dinosaurs and Indominus, the character Lowery keeps pushing. And the latter... aslo shows how much they want to praise the first park and John Hammond despite it being a metaphor of capitalism failing from wanting to conquer nature, despite it being the exact same thing as modern JW. "They didnt need these hybrids they only had real dinosaurs" is already an errornous statement since all of them were frog hybrids, so if its wrong... what was the point of bringing it up? JP didn't just fail because Dennis Nedry sabotaged it, it was bound to fail for its attempt to control nature as Ian said. However JW attributes the singular creation of Indominus as the reason for its failure (and by attribute hoo boy how many plotholes did they engineer to pin it the blame. Suddenly it knows its being thermally monitored? Or does it just releases electromagnetic energy to make ppl around it dumb or jam cellphones, god im rambling), and if they continued making retrosaurs it would've been fine? So what was the message? "Its okay to mix dinosaur dna with frogs but don't add to much to the mixture"? "Its okay to play god with capitalism but dont go too far"? Instead of mentioning both concepts as unethical and the concept of Indominus as an already flawed concept pushed even more unethically, the increasing level of tolerance for playing god already shows a shift of morals from the JP and JW. So once again its 'capitalism is actually good, its just the evil ppl thats the problem'

It honestly just erases the brilliant potential of how that narrative could be engaged. Of course its obvious the park would want to promote their retrosaurs as legit and Indominus as a different flavor despite both being hybrids but the latter being pushed to the max, so both of them are bound to have intersecting problems. However not everyone would've been fooled by such promotion. And yet from our POV only Wu was aware of it; the view of them as retrosaurs is treated as an understatement to be ignored as we are only allowed to see things and agree with opinions from the POV of Lowery or the kids against Hoskins' cartoony "lets convince our president to use dinos to steal oil" idea.

It could've honestly touched on many aspects of de-extinction or concepts like the Chickenosaurus, as well as the complex moral dillema around many genetic issues, but the movie just wants to shy away from it and impose a black and white morality of "Indominus bad unnatural" and "retrosaurs good natural." Not unnesary military commentary that doesn't work (dinosaur's effect in the environment would be more devastating than them acting as military weapons so pro-US imperialists can be proud (one bullet will kill them, I swear yeah ik this is a 'scifi' franchise, but the logic hoops you need to jump from that. One raptor died from getting hit by a rocket launcher as they should. So what US wants to use these bags of flesh as weapons to steal oil? There is nothing they can do that dogs or dolphins can't do better). The only time its kinda shown is when Indominus is killing Apatosaurus for fun, but... real animals like humans, dolphins, chimps do that too. And the movie treats this as something unnatural or makes it evil. Scorpios rex despite being ugly actually accomplishes the ecological horror of having an invasive creature invade an ecosystem (despite the ecosystem itself alr being flawed and superficially created) and being able to reproduce through parthenogenesis). And I doubt they would touch on this in JWD despite the variance of animals they will show, as even Atrociraptor is not going to be called out by name in that film, that they can change its name in post production.

#jw negativity #anti jurassic world #jurassic world negativity #jurassic park #god i actually out this to words #that said if they wanted to even tackle moral dilemmas in the field of genetics i sont trust them at all #they will just sound racist and eugenic about it #jwd leaks #jwd leak

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theindiegamereview · 3 years

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Meet the creative team: “Spellstone”

Are you a collectible card game (CCG) fan? If so, read on, because this week we spoke to the makers of Spellstone, a free-to-play (F2P) casual story-based fantasy card game that features vibrant, colourful, hand-drawn art on hundreds of beautiful cards that you can acquire and use in battle, both against the computer and other players!

TIGR: PABLO and DUSTIN are artists who have worked on Spellstone's art, helping create some of the iconic characters Spellstone fans know and love. We asked them how they came to work on the game, as well as what intrigued them about this project.

DUSTIN: I was working as a contract artist when I was asked to create some sample cards for a potential CCG, which is something I'd always wanted to do. The samples I submitted eventually led to me getting a contract to create the initial art for Spellstone. After about four months, I was offered a full-time position. I had such a great experience working with the team that I jumped at the opportunity!

PABLO: Prior to starting work on Spellstone, I remember doing an art piece to test my skills. I greatly enjoyed that because I particularly liked this game's art style - which is actually similar to my own! There were still slight differences though, so I've had to adapt a little. Blending my own personal style into an existing one was challenging. But something that intrigued me about Spellstone was the variety of factions in the game. Each and every one opens up a big array of possibilities when it comes to creating a character. I felt my options were unlimited and I loved it!

TIGR: Spellstone features many different cards and characters. We wanted to know who conceptualises all this, and how much creative licence artists get when crafting a character. FERNANDO, currently the main artist for the game, gave us more insight.

FERNANDO: That Spellstone has such an immense variety of characters means it's a complete and delightful dish for artists. It's hugely gratifying to find such visual diversity with which to play with. You're completely free to create, as long as you respect the game's universe and visual language.

As for the process, the concept of what a card must look like and how it must be functional in terms of gameplay comes from the guys in the game design department. Very creative people... sorcerers maybe? I don't know. Haha!

From a brief but concise description they give me, I can get a sense of what kind of character and action they want to see in a card. Once I have all the information I need to start sketching, my favourite hour finally begins: creative hour!

If the card description involves an existing type of character, like a goblin, part of the fun has to do with the way you depict that character, situation, action and specific emotion. There's also some freedom to create from scratch if needed - that's exciting and challenging! Sometimes the ideas come from a mix of characters, and that's when the laboratory inside my mind starts working: I press a button and something cool, spooky or funny comes out - whatever the game requires. Other times, new concepts require that I look for approximate references of what's needed, so that serves as the starting point. No matter what, it's always a very enjoyable process. Sometimes we have to make corrections, that's true. But as with everything in life, this is necessary for things to work properly. You may have to redraw stuff, but finally the card is done - it works, it delivers and it entertains!

TIGR: In Spellstone, cards can be upgraded from a single to a dual to a quad, and we really like that this sometimes tells a "mini story" of of sorts through the artwork. Some are funny (we just love Honeycomb Lobber!), some cute (Bomb Spirit is soooo adorable when he’s angry!), some uplifting (Aurora Shaver ranks among our favourites), and some, um, a bit disturbing, to be honest (Cleaverstorm Hunter, anyone?!)! And some are just sad - we can't help but feel sorry for the poor li'l forest furries that presumably got devoured by Alphamech Stalker! We asked the team how they came up with ideas for all these tiny narratives, and MELINDA, one of the game designers, told us more.

MELINDA: When I was younger, there were a few creatures in video games that terrified me. One of those I remembered most was Medusa, an air jellyfish from Ecco: The Tides of Time. While traversing through a water pathway in the sky, Medusa would try to pick up Ecco the dolphin and fling him off the path. Tetraspout's concept came from that, and you can even see poor little dolphins getting swept up in its attack!

TIGR: We asked the team if there were any cards they particularly liked creating, or found challenging to conceptualise. IVÁN, a colorist who worked briefly on the game, chipped in, as did TONY and RHADA, two of Spellstone's game designers.

DUSTIN: I loved working on the goblin cards! You could get silly with them. Frogs were a lot of fun too - the variety of colours made them interesting. For me, the water cards were challenging but I grew to love working on them.

PABLO: My favourite characters are Goblins! You can play around with them, making them look funny even when the card is telling a dark story, like a massacre. All of the cards were challenging to create!

IVÁN: I enjoyed working on Hedron The Critical Threat, Zyd The Unhinged, and some awesome Insect cards that have yet to be released (as of the time of this interview). I mostly liked them because of their cool concepts and Fernando's awesome sketches. Hedron in particular was a technical painting challenge, as it has textures, transparencies and glow!

TONY: As something of an artist myself (/sarcasm), the card I am most proud of has to be Dinged Waptor. Or really any of the cards I did for the April Fool's event, which is about the only time the art team lets me anywhere near card art. :) For April Fool's, I decided it would be funny to try my hand at drawing some cards I felt players would enjoy. So the first year I drew some original characters that consisted of a few stick figures, a chicken, and a bomb. The response was good, so the following year I continued the tradition, eventually going through and tracing some famous cards like Winged Raptor. My one rule while making these cards was that I could not erase what I did!

RHADA: We used to sell boxes that contained two new premium cards instead of one. We thought of making both cards in the box thematically linked. At the same time, while brainstorming concepts for dragons, I thought we could try to make cards that formed a bigger picture on the battlefield when placed consecutively, side by side. The initial idea was a serpent whose artwork overflowed into a second card, and after some iteration, we stumbled upon the idea of a dragon dance. The result was very cool!

TIGR: With the Spellstone story campaign recently concluded, we asked what was next in store for Spellstone fans. Would there be anymore new characters and amazing art to look forward to?

TONY: Absolutely! While the main story has come to a close, we still look forward to adding new characters, cards, and art to the game that lets our artists have fun and shows off the world of Spellstone.

TIGR: And finally, the most important question of all: would real-life Spellstone merchandise ever be made available for fans of the game? We really want a plushie of the adorable Bomb Spirit (complete with detachable bombs, perhaps?), as well as his angry counterpart, Firebomb Spirit! Also for Quetee Que and Adorabilis, please! And would there ever be any actual physical Spellstone cards produced for collectors?

TONY: I would personally love to see real-life merchandise, but we currently do not have the means to take on such an endeavour. Maybe one day we can strike a partnership with a team that can make this happen!

We thank the Spellstone team for their time and all the wonderful art assets that accompany this interview! Check out the game here on Kongregate, on Steam, or on mobile - three different ways you can enjoy this fun, cheeky and adorable CCG!

P.S. We just had to include our favourite card: Darkwater Adonis - don’t be fooled by his charms!

#developers

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astoldbygingersnaps · 3 years

Text

#wip wednesday

since the latest chapter of star trek au continues to elude me (i swear to GOD i’ve been working on it; it’s about 2/3 of the way done and should hopefully be posted in a few weeks), i figured i’d go ahead and post a snippet of one my next projects, a fic i very briefly mentioned in my end of the year wrap-up post: the jurassic world au.

this is an idea i’ve always wanted to work on as a) a HUGE fan of the jurassic park franchise and b) a person who spent years as a dog trainer who was both puzzled and horrified by the raptor training in that movie. while this will probably be The Most Niche Fic of all my Very Niche Fics, i’m super happy with it so far and hope other people will be, too.

currently this project is sitting at about 18k and i’d like to have it completed, edited, and posted within the next few months. until then, enjoy this preview!

Itachi has never been the kind of person that believes in fate. As a boy his father had drilled the importance of hard work into his head, and it had been a lesson Itachi had carried with him long after he realized the man’s guidance wasn’t actually worth all that much. It wasn’t luck or good fortune that had led to Itachi many successes in life. Truthfully, fate had always seemed like a childish concept to him, an excuse for people to hang their hats on when things went wrong in their lives and they weren’t willing to take responsibility for their own actions.

That said, it’s hard for Itachi not to feel some sort of cosmic influence is manipulating his course in life when one day Uchiha Fugaku summons his eldest son into his office at the heart of Isla Nublar. Given his position as the puppetmaster of InGen, it isn’t often that his father actually finds himself on the humid and sandy shores of Jurassic World. But every time he does Itachi feels a familiar, childish pull of anxiety, a little voice in his head that drives himself to push himself to succeed, to please. It’s as if the last four years Itachi has spent almost single-handedly managing this glorified amusement park suddenly vanish in a puff as he meets his father’s judgemental black gaze.

“Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with me,” Fugaku tells him, waving a hand to silently order Itachi to sit. And, as always, Itachi obeys his father’s commands.

“It’s no trouble, Father,” Itachi assures him as he settles into the immaculate white leather chair that no doubt costs half of his yearly salary. “Was there something you needed?”

“Yes and no,” Fugaku replies, which is fittingly ominous for the man. “I wanted to discuss a recent change that Hiruzen is implementing to the park.”

It takes an extraordinary amount of restraint on Itachi’s part to keep his comments regarding the CEO of Jurassic World and the sheer effort he spends weekly cleaning up the man’s air-headed messes to himself. For all the years he’s lived on the island--first as a boy while his father built his career, then as an intern after college, and finally as yet another cog in the Jurassic World machine--he’s regarded Sarutobi Hiruzen with an almost bleak sort of awe. It was shocking to Itachi that a man would possess such power and wealth, yet seem almost clueless when it came to maintaining that empire. Then again, he thinks dryly, perhaps all rich and influential men were nothing more than fools in the end.

Unaware of Itachi’s thoughts on the matter, Fugaku continues, “As I’m sure you’re aware, the board has been planning for sometime now to come up with a new attraction to boost both ticket and merchandise sales.” Of course Itachi is aware of it; it had been his idea in the first place. But, like most of his suggestions regarding Jurassic World, it had been thoroughly steamrolled until a man with more money and respect to his name could repackage it as his own brilliant, brand new invention. Which, as it were, is exactly what Hiruzen is planning to do. “The project has been in the works for a while now, but it’s going to be quite controversial. We thought it best to keep it under wraps until we were certain it was viable.”

“I take it you’re certain now?” Itachi asks, and Fugaku nods.

“We’ve had great success with the assets we’ve created so far, but as long as this park has been in construction there’s been one species that we’ve been unable to successfully replicate. Unfortunately, it’s also the one species that every dim-witted tourist that sets foot on this island is looking for.”

A chill works its way down Itachi’s spine as he guesses, “Velociraptors.”

It’s an idea that’s almost too macabre to even contemplate, let alone execute. For better or worse, the general public’s more than aware of the chaos and bloodshed that led to the destruction of the first park. It’s a shroud that lingers over Itachi’s everyday life, as no matter how hard he tries to maintain order and prioritize safety there will always be someone who looks at him as if he’s a capricious madman.

Because of Jurassic Park’s spectacular failure, the image of the velociraptor--a brilliant and ruthless predator stalking the shadows, picking men off one by one--has captivated the average person’s interest in a way that no other species has. So, ever since that original park, Jurassic World has been chasing the holy grail of a fully operational, successful, and controlled raptor exhibit--and, considering the way his father is currently speaking, Itachi’s sure the board has finally captured that elusive golden ticket.

“You’re correct,” Fugaku says, though at this point the admission isn’t necessary, and with careful muscular control Itachi holds back a frown. Perhaps this is the reason why no one decided to share this information with him despite the fact he’s the Operations Manager for this entire establishment; given the way he’s previously spoken about subjects such as animal welfare and reducing employee hazards, perhaps they sensed he wouldn’t exactly be on board with the wild idea of releasing one of the world’s most dangerous beasts onto the Earth again.

Either way, regardless of his own personal feelings on the decision, Itachi intends to oversee it with the same attention to detail he brings to any other project. “It’s a risky move, but it could prove to be quite lucrative if executed properly,” he eventually replies, evenly as he’s able. “I know in prior years other raptors were bred, but they were culled because they proved to be more trouble than they were worth. What’s changed since then?”

“According to our geneticists, the sequences on the upcoming crop will give them a reduced level of aggression and increased agreeability, though to be honest I’m not convinced that isn’t just smoke and mirrors.” Bleakly, Itachi’s inclined to agree; there was a world of difference between breeding a dog for temperament and trying to strip millions of years of prey drive from a wild--and previously extinct--animal. “Given that I’m not completely sold on their claims, it’s more a question of who has changed than what.”

As if on cue, a knock arrives at his father’s door, and in seconds the visitor’s face appears in the frame. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” the man says--at least, that’s what Itachi thinks the man says, because the sight of him alone causes Itachi’s brain to spontaneously stop functioning.

“Not at all,” Fugaku responds, completely unaware of his son’s inner turmoil. “As a matter of fact we were just discussing your contract with us.”

“Must have been why my ears were burning,” the man replies, his smile broadening into a full-on grin the moment he catches sight of Itachi positively dying in front of his father’s desk.

If there was a god in this world, He would open a hole in Fugaku’s freshly steam-cleaned carpet and let Itachi fall to his demise. But clearly there isn’t, as instead of time ceasing entirely it drags on and leads to Fugaku announcing, “Itachi, this is Uchiha Shisui. He’s an expert in the growing field of paleo-behavioral studies, which makes him the ideal candidate for rearing the velociraptors and readying them for the public.”

“We’ve met,” Itachi all but chokes out, clearing his throat to expel the sudden lump that’s formed in it. From the other side of the room he can see Shisui fighting a laugh, and in that moment he wishes Shisui would fall in a hole and die, too.

“Really?” his father asks curiously. “I didn’t know you two were acquainted. How do you know each other?”

While his positions at Jurassic World and in life have allowed Itachi to conquer a variety of challenges, there’s not a single skill or experience that has prepared him for this moment. Because Itachi has no idea how to explain to his father that the reason he knows this man is that he slept with him four years ago and never returned a single one of his calls or texts.

“It’s a long story.”

#my fic #shiita #like i said before: this fic is essentially just a 90s romcom and i'm loving every second of writing it #alexa already has some Very Good art on the backburner for this au that i can't wait for her to drop #so stay tuned for that too

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zaph1337 · 3 years

Text

Monster Hunter Rating 9: Kelbi

Okay, we’ve got a few monsters to go until we have to talk about another raptor, so let’s make the most of our time here and talk about a cute little deer instead. Here’s the Kelbi!

(How it appears in Monster Hunter 1)

(How it appears in Monster Hunter World)

Appeara-

Okay, I’m sorry, but I need to get this out of my system before I talk about these guys.

Okay, now I can talk about the Kelbi.

Appearance: The Kelbi just look like small, blue or green (depending on sex) deer. In MH1, they looked like they had scales, but judging from how they appear in the later games, that was likely just because of graphical limitations. The only interesting things here are the differences between male and female Kelbi. Males have a green coat, a beardlike scruff on their necks, small ears that point up, and small, upward-pointing horns. Females, on the other hand, are blue, lack a neck scruff, have large, droopy ears, and have smaller, nubby horns. Other than that, there’s not much to talk about here. They’re cute, at least (when they’re not plotting your demise). 5/10.

Behavior: Kelbi are known for two things: 1) Being gentle herbivores that will run at the first sign of danger, and 2) being very easy to kill despite their speed, which is a bad thing since their horns have medicinal properties (unlike rhinos, no matter what some people will tell you). Here’s what their page on the Monster Hunter Wiki says about their behavior:

“They will often run around in areas, commonly in groups of four. They will jump 4 times, stop for a few seconds, and continue jumping. While they are stopped, they can be hit easily.”

This may be sparse, and it doesn’t specify what games the Kelbi behave like this in, but there’s more detail on their ecology page, and it’s honestly not much more impressive. Before we get to that, though, I’m obligated to point out that yes, Kelbi herds have a Kelbidrome, but what separates them from every other “drome” is that they can’t actually be encountered in game, so they might as well not exist. Now, as for that ecology info, Kelbi are possibly the only monster in the series that actually play dead, which they do when injured and can’t run away. The reason that they’re likely the only ones is that barely anything falls for this, and will instead take advantage of the Kelbi’s vulnerable state. So the Kelbi have evolved to have a strategy which helps their predators. Not a good sign. Also, when a hunter and a large monster are fighting nearby, instead of leaving the area entirely, Kelbi will only move to the outskirts of the area. They will run when the hunter or monster gets too close, but if a projectile like an arrow or something comes their way, they just...stand there and take it. Y’know, at first I was glad that the Kelbidrome was more of a lore concept than an actual monster, but now I’m starting to think that that means there’s no one keeping the herd from making the dumbest decisions a prey animal can ever make. It’s darkly funny, I guess, but...no. 3/10.

Abilities: They run fast and the males will sometimes headbutt you. 2/10.

Equipment: From what the wiki has on record, there are only two weapons you can make from Kelbi parts: a Heavy Bowgun and a Bow. I won’t talk about the former since it has Bulldrome parts and I might talk about it when I get to that monster, but as for the Bow, AKA the Kelbi Stingshot:

That thing on the left is a quiver, by the way. I’m guessing it looks like that because apparently the Kelbi Stingshot fires steel pellets instead of arrows. ‘Cause, you know, it’s a slingshot. I’ll give it this, though: having a weapon in a class be a completely different object that can still act like weapons in that class is interesting. There’s a much cooler example I might be able to talk about if I keep this project up for long enough, but that’ll probably be a while. As for the armor, from what the wiki tells me, there’s only one piece of armor you can make with Kelbi parts: a helmet/hat. It’s, uh...y’know how some hunters will use a fake of whatever they’re hunting to make those animals feel safer in the area the hunter’s scoping out? Well, uh...

...I don’t want this on my head. This is just plain morbid, and you shouldn’t even need it because guess what, Kelbi are about as hard to kill as a mouse. You might have trouble catching up to it, but once you can hit it, you’re probably gonna be in a position to kill the thing. And for some reason, the female helmet doesn’t put in as much effort to be convincing as the male’s does!

Y’know what? I’ll give this credit for actually looking like something that could adequately protect your head. But considering it’s meant to be a means of tricking Kelbi?...actually, you know what, they’re probably dumb enough to be convinced for at least a second before getting suspicious, so I guess it works. The weapons, few they may be, are decent, but the armor, which is also few in number, doesn’t do the Kelbi any favors in this department. Okay, the female one looks fine, but Jesus, that male one needs to go. 5/10.

Final Thoughts and Tally: I went into this thinking that I was gonna like these little guys more than I do. I don’t hate them or anything, I just wish they were better. I guess I shouldn’t have expected much from them, considering that their appearance, skittish behavior, and running speed were all I knew about them at first, but I’m an optimist, okay? 3/10.

#monster hunter #monster hunter rating #zaph1337 #monster hunter rise

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demenior · 4 years

Note

18, 32, & 45!

18. What ship have you written the most about?

By # of fic, likely it’s Shiro/Ulaz (21 tagged fics on Ao3). By volume of words? It may be the collective Shiro/Rahjim content I’ve written (over 100k oh my god who am I????)

Technically it’s the Shiro/Haggar relationship integral to the Switch series, which sits at a collective 150k, but that’s not entirely romantic, so, I’m not counting it)

32. Do you listen to music when you write or does music inspire you? If so, which band or genre of music does it for you?

I often listen to music while I’m writing! It helps “fill in” the space around me so other things don’t catch my attention. I also use music to put me in the headspace for writing, as each piece of writing has a different “feel” to it, and I need to be vibing with that energy to write it properly.

My writing music tends to be my softer stuff, usually alternative or alt-rock, but not quite indie/folk as I find thats too slow/soft for me, lol. Currently Hozier is a go-to as it’s a perfect blend of familiar-but-not-obtrusive.

Music is a HUGE inspiration for writing, and I often have specific scenes or concepts come to me while I’m listening to music. Y’all can thank Nightwish for like 90% of any action/fighting scenes!

Speed-run of a few of my ‘go-to’ mood-setters for specific fics (often they’re what the fic is named after):

The Switch Series (Voltron): Little Monster by Royal Blood / Good Enough by Evanescence

Royal Treatment (Voltron + OC pwp): A-Yo by Lady Gaga

From Eden (Black Sails): Into the Ocean by Blue October

Like the Air and Sea (the 100): Not Just a Girl by She Wants Revenge

Awake My Soul (the 100): Awake My Soul by Mumford and Sons

45. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

This is SO HARD to decide on, so I’m gonna go with 3.

A) One that I have reread over and over again:

Thursdays Child by strangeandcharm

Supernatural, Dean/Cas, End-verse. A fucking RIDE from start to finish. Lots of whump, mind the warnding.

B) One that HAUNTS ME to this day:

9 11 10 by Subtilior (literally THE fic of any fandom EVER)

X-men (First Class primarily, but everyone else shows up). Charles/Erik. Beauty and the Beast mixed with alternate history post WW3 (ie: the Cold War was a war). This summary doesn’t do it justice. This story is incredible and should be read. THE BEST descriptions of mental/telepathic powers ever.

Big major mind the warnings on this one. But it’s WORTH it.

C) One that I never expected, but was so delightful and intriguing that I want everyone else to read it because I’ve never found anything quite like it:

The Pushing Boundaries Series by Macx

Jurassic World, Gen. NOW HEAR ME OUT!!! I didn’t like Jurassic World, then I accidentally read this fic, and now I LOVE Jurassic World. The story of Owen Brady as he raises his raptor squad, with the catch that Owen has the ability to kind-of, maybe, a little bit, telepathically connect to his dino companions.

I’m vastly underselling this. If I even look at this series I end up re-reading the entire thing. I love the entire universe the author sets up here, with all the little mundane details, AND, it needs to be known that the author wrote THE ENTIRE STORY before the movie actually came out. I think that’s incredible.

For a story about killer dinosaurs, this is also one of the softest things I’ve ever read.

#i love talking about myself can u tell #THANK YOU FOR ASKING!!!!#curiosity killed #asks

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secret-vore-lair · 4 years

Text

More precious than water, more precious than gold

Dritha learns that sometimes you find beautiful things in the harshest places when Zali drops into her life, and her stomach. Contains digestion and a predator who doesn’t care about the safety of her prey. But Zali is, well, Zali, so there’s no peril or fear in here.

***********************************************

Dritha relaxed in the waning hours of the day. The sun sank down over the flat, featureless horizon. The desert-dweller was lounging against a tall formation of weathered stone, the only shade for miles. The wind tousled her feathered crest ever so slightly, but aside from that the reptile was entirely still. Her stomach was, for the first time in a long, long while, a significant part of her silhouette, and she was listening to it wind down. When the gurgling and the bubbling finally faded, she gritted her backward-angled teeth, bobbed her head upon its long neck, and hacked something up onto the patch of sand next to where she was sprawled. A large gold ring, smooth and shiny with her saliva.

She watched it with an intense and predatory focus. She didn’t even allow herself to blink, closing the secondary eyelids she used to protect her vision from sun and sand so she could keep them open longer. Would it work again? She prayed it would. Not that she particularly believed in the divine. She didn’t believe in anything, really. But she would do whatever it took to avoid losing something precious. That was the only way to survive here. But this time it wasn’t water she had found. This was something far, far beyond that.

There! Dritha slowly got to her feet, still staring at the ring as it began to glow and rise into the air. She kept herself low, her long tail straight out behind her for balance as she prepared to pounce. Light was spilling out of the ring, just like last time. Little golden particles, flitting about like embers, before gathering into a shape, the shape of prey. She leapt just as the shape flashed, fading and resolving finally into a much smaller lizard, a kobold with light, sandy scales and big blue eyes.

Dritha landed on her immediately, clawed feet pinning her to the ground. The little morsel had the wind knocked out of her, but she didn’t seem too much to mind.

“OOF. Oh! It’s you again,” she wheezed. “You look much healthier than last time! Glad I could help. I’m guessing you want to go again?”

Dritha leaned down and inspected her find once more. She hadn’t changed at all from the last two times, still the same slender lizard, with upward-curving horns and little fins on the side of her head, her snout fixed in what was apparently a permanent grin. And that gold ring was firmly around her ankle, the only possession she had. Well, the only possession she had now. The coins she’d had when Dritha found her the first time were in the bag Dritha carried on her side, and the gauzy outfit she’d had on hadn’t survived the raptor’s belly. Dritha didn’t stop to chat. She opened her long jaws wide and gripped the little creature’s head, already beginning to swallow eagerly.

Zali, for her part, couldn’t have been happier. She’d found herself lost while trying to visit a friend who lived in the desert, and had been wandering for days without any food or water. The regenerative power granted her by her ring wouldn’t allow her to expire, but neither was it a fun experience. Finally, her salvation came. When she saw the big, raptor-like creature barreling toward her across the wastes, she got excited. A fellow traveler to keep her company and show her the way was exactly what she needed right now. But Dritha had leapt onto her and devoured her right away, sending her to her lean and ravenous belly in a few quick swallows. And that was even better! Dritha had apologized, and Zali tried to tell her it was okay, but apparently the poor girl needed the calories badly because Zali found herself worn down to nothing in record time.

When she popped back into existence again, Dritha was so shocked that she didn’t give Zali a chance to praise her for her stomach’s expert work, sending her right back down to gurgle again. And now that trip number three was proceeding apace, Zali was pretty sure they’d ironed out the terms of their relationship. “Not much of a talker?” she asked in a pleasant tone as her predator’s gullet squeezed and conformed to her body shape, yanking her down to the rough waters of her stomach for another round, except this time, Zali found herself in much tighter accommodations, pressed up against a texture and form she was very familiar with, thanks to certain gluttonous friends. “Heehee! Looks like there’s still a little bit left of me in here from last time!” She purred and cozied up in the mess, enjoying the additional squishy softness her degrading previous body provided while preparing to melt away again.

Dritha felt the last of her meal’s tail slip down and get sealed into her core, and collapsed. Her stomach was distended, resting on the cool sand. She panted to catch her breath, ignoring the muffled voice of her prey and focusing on the way she shifted around instead. It almost made her dizzy with pleasure. She hadn’t eaten this much or this frequently in . . . a while. Too long to remember. She savored it for several minutes, the stars coming out and the temperature sinking from blistering heat to a chill, one thankfully contested by the warmth produced by the activity inside her. Despite the amazing way it all felt, though, her stomach had slowed its processes considerably this time. Normally her metabolism was fast, allowing her to always be on the go, dashing quickly from one temporary safe haven to the next, but now she was exhausted, even in spite of the recent intake of energy. A long, labored gurgle sounded from her stomach, followed by a muffled, high pitched voice.

“Hi again! It’s a lot slower this time, huh?”

Dritha sucked in a breath and jerked her head upright, smacking it on the rocks above. “Ow! You startled me.” She rested one of her hands on her belly, feeling the subtle movements of the kobold inside. She’d never struggled. Which was weird enough, even without these . . . extra lives of hers.

“Oh, sorry! Yeah, I’m usually gone by now, aren’t I? Your belly’s really powerful! It’s nice to get a chance to go slow and take it all in this time, though.” Zali nuzzled at the folds of the stomach lining. “Maybe we should take a break after this one, though. You were really skinny when we met. I don’t want you to make yourself sick by eating too much too soon!”

Dritha narrowed her eyes. There it was. “Nice try. I’m not taking my eyes off you. You’re the only source of food around, and I can’t risk it. Sorry, but you’re mine now.”

“Aww, really? Well I appreciate the concern, but I’ll stay close! If something tries to steal me away, I’ll just yell really loud, okay?”

Dritha blinked quickly. “No, I mean, I’m not going to let you escape.”

Zali cocked her head. “Why would I want to escape?”

“Because either you’re an infinite supply of nutrients and I’m going to eat you forever or you’ve got a limited number of . . . whatever happens when you come back to life, and I’m going to use you up, and you don’t want that,” Dritha growled, exasperated.

Zali giggled. Dritha twitched. “What’s so funny?”

“I do want that,” Zali chirped. “That sounds perfect! And I’m not going to run out. At least, I don’t think so. If I had a choice, I’d spend every day like this one! You were so happy when you ate me the first time. You were hungry, and then you saw me, and you knew I could help! You wanted me. And then you kept wanting me, again and again! And your stomach! I’ve never been melted that fast before! You’re amazing! Plus, it’s a lot better in here than out there.” Zali pushed both claws against the stomach wall and began to rub gently.

Dritha shivered. She was feeling something she had never felt before. Her stomach felt fluttery, and her cheeks felt hot, and there was a tingly sensation in her tail. She’d never really been susceptible to the praise of others, but her speed, appetite, and hunting prowess were things she was proud of. To have them affirmed by her prey was the ultimate compliment. “Agree to disagree,” she muttered, trying to brush off the flattery.

“No, I mean it! You really are amazing!”

“That’s not the part I’m disagreeing with! I just meant, it can’t be . . . better in there.” Dritha couldn’t understand how anyone could want to be inside a stomach. But if this kobold really felt that way, she could definitely use it. That is, if this wasn’t just some convoluted ploy to escape. Dritha was a skilled liar herself, and she knew she’d say anything to get out of the situation her prey was in right now. “Look, what’s your name?”

“I’m Azaliak, but everyone just calls me Zali! What’s yours?”

“Dritha. Look, Zali, I wish I could believe you, but you don’t live long in this place without a developing a healthy distrust of others. Everyone’s desperate out here. Well, except an immortal, I guess. . .”

“The way I see it, I’m more mortal than you are. You’re only going to die once, after all. And I’m plenty desperate, too. You’re just giving me what I crave right now!” Zali laughed again. “I still think you should take care of yourself, though. I don’t want to have to wait for you to eat me, either, but I’d hate for this gorgeous belly of yours to get a tummyache. That would make you have to wait even longer to eat me again, and that’s bad for us both!” Zali continued her massage, and Dritha felt her innards relaxing and responding, flexing and churning with a renewed vigor. Sensing that she’d be mush again soon, Zali said, “I promise I won’t leave you. Just think about it, okay?”

Dritha just grunted in response, feeling herself falling asleep quite quickly now that her guts had caught their second wind. The idea of having someone she could trust was a foreign concept to her. It was an unattainable dream, in the same way that flying was. A luxury afforded to some creatures and denied to others. But this little lizard might just change that. She didn’t fear Dritha because of her appetite. She embraced that appetite, in fact. And she didn’t present any threat to Dritha either. If ever there was a creature to attempt a safe first friendship with, this was her. . .

Dritha sighed. This was a dilemma she could solve in the morning, once she’d coughed up Zali’s ring again. For now, she needed to sleep, and the rhythmic gurgling of her stomach was the perfect lullaby.

#vore stories #soft vore #digestion #oc: Zali #oc: Dritha #willing vore #not that Dritha bothered to ask

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mirrorstone · 5 years

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Like making a wish on a monkey’s paw, you ask for more Leagues and Legends content but it’s just me with a rambling daemon AU character study no one asked for.

Cassandra settled early. Her father looked down at her and called her “precocious” with the same kind of pride in his voice a man would have when talking about a prize racehorse or a pedigreed dog.

“It suits you,” he told her, looking down at the viper in her hands, whose eyes were inhuman gold, and she knew that he meant it. She had never, even on the best days, been quite able to convince herself it was entirely praise. Her father’s goshawk, Celosia, sometimes looked at them both like something she would have stooped on and eaten, if they were not too venomous to survive it.

Aurel saw the world in a different way too. He saw it in the shudders of footsteps against the ground, the taste of things in the air, the heat of their form left in passing. He saw it from low to the ground, where he went unnoticed and saw things that went unnoticed.

Grey settled late, or seemed to. Cassandra knew several months before their father did, simply because Grey never mentioned it, until he was asked directly Their father had looked down at them, his son and the rat perched on his shoulder, and frowned.

“Well, a rat belongs in a lab, I suppose,” he’d said finally, settling a heavy hand on Grey’s other shoulder. Celosia looked down at her from her perch on his shoulder, and ruffled her wings a little as though to draw his attention to the similarities of their positions. It had made their father’s expression grow a little more approving. He smiled like that down at Grey and Hypatia when her deft little paws put together delicate pieces of machinery, when Grey understood a concept after a single explanation.

It had taken Aurel a long time to forgive himself for settling on a form that made Grey live with a houseful of things that would devour him.

When Grey meets Jack for the first time, his daemon lights up, immediately swarms down his shoulder and darts over to the desk, skimming up it with the ease of a natural born climber and getting as close to the height of Grey’s shoulder as she can, flicking her bushy tail expectantly.

“Hello!” she says cheerfully. “My name is Maple. I’m glad to meet you! Look, we match!”

“We don’t,” says Hypatia, remaining right where she is.

“We sort of do,” Maple says, unswayed. “Some of the hero majors call me a rat anyway, so I think it works.” Jack can’t help but notice the way way Grey doesn’t move, like someone who trained themselves to freeze instead of flinch.

“Maple, come on, we just met him.” He holds out a hand, beckons, and she takes a flying leap onto his arm, agile and fearless. “She’s really friendly,” he says with a smile, an explanation that refuses to be an apology for her. “I’m Jack.”

When Jack arrived at the school, they took one look at him, one look at his daemon, and sorted him away into the guides without a second though. Barefoot farm boys with dust on their well-worn knapsacks and common pests as daemons are not hero material. Heroes have horse daemons, or eagles or tigers or wolves, fierce and majestic. Heroes have daemons who can fight. Jack’s daemon is useful as a scout, a spy, something small and common and easily dismissed. Jack is tall enough for the both of them, but he too is something common and easily dismissed.

When he gets into fights with the bullies, with their snarling wolves and mantling eagles, Maple spends the fights running, dodging, leaping up into their faces to bite before darting away. When he gets into fights, he gets beaten bloody whenever one of their larger daemons manages to pin her down, and his limbs go leaden and slow to respond, fighting against the persistent belief that they’re trapped under a sneering leopard’s paw, and she feels his pain and thrashes and berates and tries to bite until neither of them can fight back any more.

Jack never lets something as simple as a beating stop him from stepping into another fight. They both know what it feels like to be small and pinned down and hurt, and no one else in the entire world is going to feel that way if Jack can step in and feel it for them.

Grey will soon fall into the habit of calling them both “Squirrel” with an acerbic “am I supposed to be able to tell the two hyperactive redheads apart?” He will fall into many habits that year. The habit of tucking Hypatia into the pocket of his academy jacket to ensure she never gets left behind when he inevitably has to run after Jack for reasons that are always terrible and not worth the running (as he tells them at length when the running stops and he can catch his breath again.) The habit of tucking himself into Jack’s warm shadow and refusing to be left behind. The habit of leaving a cushion on his desk for Hypatia to curl up on, so that when he falls asleep at his desk and Jack moves him to his bed, he can move her too without touching her.

Hypatia develops another habit, eventually. Instead of the cushion, she starts falling asleep on top of Jack’s always packed knapsack. “Grey’s desk is too covered with books,” she sniffs when Jack comments, as though he has not come across her asleep on top of an open book as many times as he has Grey. They never say that it’s because if she breathes deep, it still carries the faintest scent of a place that used to be home. They never say that if she’s there, Jack can’t leave without them knowing.

Cassandra’s daemon is a mountain pit viper. It’s not a cuddly animal, and it’s one that you know is dangerous the moment you see it, which I think says some things about the way she sees herself, but I think it’s also a little bit of wish fulfillment. After all, people don’t touch vipers not so much because they don’t want to, but because they don’t dare. A viper can defend itself very well with a single bite, and I think that’s something that I think an adolescent Cassandra would have wished for. His name is a mangling of the word “laurel” which according to Greek legend was created when another one of the women Apollo lusted after (in addition to Cassandra) chose to turn into a tree rather than let him have her.

Grey’s daemon is a fancy rat, with a grey hooded pattern. They’re small, quick, and can dash away and hide easily. Rats are also very intelligent. Specifically, he’s a domesticated species of rat because Grey is not a wild animal. He wants to live where people are, in the comforts of civilization (i.e. libraries, the only parts of civilization that matter.) I imagine there’s a certain stigma both to having a domesticated daemon instead of a wild one, and to having a rat daemon. Good thing Grey has perfected the aura of “I really don’t give a fuck what you think if you’re not a book.” Grey’s daemon is also the only one in his family that’s not a species native to the mountains, which is what we call foreshadowing.She’s named after Hypatia, who’s associated with the library of Alexandria, because I am predictable.

Their father’s daemon is a goshawk because I’ve chosen to ignore the convention bird daemons usually mean witches in the HDM universe. I wanted him to have a raptor daemon because they’re not social birds, and because they don’t really tame. Unless a raptor has imprinted on a human, even one trained for falconry always has a risk of simply flying off and never coming back. Goshawks are known for being particularly fierce and determined hunters. Her name is the result of me prettily mangling the Latin word for “lofty, proud.”

Jack’s daemon is a Eurasian red squirrel, not to be confused with the American red squirrel who is significantly less fluffy. Jack and his daemon are both quick, active, and like to spend an inordinate amount of his time up high, and it amuses me that they’re both redheads. I deliberately wanted Jack to have a “common” daemon, the sort of animal that you see everywhere and dismiss. But she’s also, at heart, a forest creature. Grey left his home with a daemon that didn’t belong there looking for the place they did. Jack and his daemon fit perfectly into their home, but they left, and now it no longer fits them quite like it used to. She’s named after one of the species of tree that grows heartwood. Apparently not all of them do. Make of that what you will.

Bonus Cassandra and Spider with spoiler for Remember the Dust under the cut.

Spider’s soul also bore venomous fangs, and a form that made people shudder, and perhaps that was what had first caught her interest. Spider had a daemon no one would want to touch, even if he were willing to allow the intimacy. Spider also had divided loyalties, between the person he held close to his heart and between the man he obeyed. Cassandra could work with that.

The first time she touched his daemon had come as a surprise to both of them. When she had crept up to Cassandra’s hand, lying on the table, and quietly asked “May I?” Cassandra had frozen, looking up at Spider who had frozen just as uselessly as she had, and then back down at the tarantula. Anthina was still, but only in the way she was always still when she was waiting. It was a thoughtful, patient stillness, not the frozen uselessness she’d managed to throw both humans into with only two words.

Cassandra had finally managed to choke out a “yes” and she crawled delicately onto her hand. Cassandra had cupped her other hand next to it, feeling every brush of the rosy hairs, every light tap as each leg touched down on her skin, and she had lifted her up. Even a few feet off the ground, she held Spider’s life in her hands, quite literally, and they both knew it. Anthina’s exoskeleton would not survive being dashed against the ground from even the height of the table, her venom not powerful enough to leave death that would follow her own. Cassandra’s heart had pounded so hard she was certain that Anthina must have been able to feel it through her skin, while she held Spider’s own heart cupped in her palms. She held her there, silently, for the count of ten heartbeats, then twenty, lost count, before she set her gently down.

Spider looked like a man who’d been smacked in the head with a sledgehammer. He cleared his throat twice before he could get the words out. “Well then.” That was all. It wasn’t his way to make a big deal of things. It gave her time to catch her breath.

It had been much longer before Aurel would let Spider touch him. Spider never minded. Maybe he knew somehow, like she did, the way Aurel was always aware of the warmth of him. The way he would slither into the spaces Spider had left, and coil up until the residual traces of heat faded away entirely. The first time he’d let Spider do it, coiled around his arm as Spider lifted it up like he was wearing something made of glass, Cassandra had felt surrounded by warmth for the first time in her life.

When Spider had argued with Thorne that day (Cassandra would always think of it as that day, needing no other qualifier) when he'd said he wouldn't allow what the man had planned to do, Thorne had not spoken. He had simply looked Spider, with a faintly puzzled look, like a man pinning insects to a board who had been greeted by one of the in a human tongue. His gibbon daemon had leaned in as though she was listening, when Spider's daemon added her words, and then reached down and crushed the tarantula in her nimble, clever hands. Spider died with a strangled protest caught in his throat, crumpled to the floor as his daemon dissipated into dust, and Cassandra did not cry. She already knew from long experience that no one would come to help if she did.

(Spider’s daemon is a Chilean Rose Tarantula. I just liked the incongruence of giving him a daemon named after something beautiful when tarantulas are widely considered to be grotesque.

Thorne’s daemon is a gibbon because in the HDM universe, people with monkey daemons are stereotyped as clever, conniving, and untrustworthy, but mostly because he is a HORRIBLE LITTLE MAN.)

#Beanstalk #leagues and legends #echoes of a giantkiller #jade e lomax #jack is a beanstalk

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galacticbugman · 5 years

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My Jurassic Park/ Jurassic World Top Ten List of Prehistoric Creatures

So as some of you may know that I am a crazy Jurassic Park fan. I love the movies and I love the books. I thought it would be a pretty cool idea to post what my favorite dinosaurs are. I have a lot of favorite Dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park fandom but what are they? Let us dive into it. So get ready we are taking a short tour through the wilds of Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna for these favorites. Buckle up the the Jeep Wrangler is moving. These are not my photos but are stock and belong to their rightful owners. Spoilers ahead so watch out! If you have not seen the film turn back now you have been warned.

Number 10: The Stegosaurus

To begin my list of my favorite Jurassic Park/ Jurassic World Dinosaurs is this beast which was showcased in the search for Sarah scene in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. This is on my list for it was the first time we saw a plant eater attack a human in the series on screen. This attack was provoked by Sarah Harding as she was photographing the baby Stego in the nest. Her camera goes wonky and scares the baby and it alerts the family. Two big ones come from out of nowhere and start to attack Sarah by trying to swipe her with their large Thagomizers. She is almost killed but the massive tail spikes miss and she is left to live for another day. This was always one of the favorite parts for me in the Lost World for it was the first and only time we see a plant eater attack a human in the original trilogy. You don’t really see any other animal that is a vegetarian try to attack anyone. So this one kind of stands out there as one of the more interesting attacks in the Jurassic Park franchise movie wise. It is also one of the best designed and one of the coolest opening dinosaurs in the franchise. Lets let the heard move on and got down the road shall we.

Number 9: Ptranodon

The Ptranodon is one of the most under used Dinosaurs in the movies until you get to the third and fourth Jurassic movie. However in the first book there is a giant bird cage scene that we eventually got to see in the Jurassic Park /// film. This is a favorite of mine. The bird cage scene is one of the best scenes in the third JP film which many of us think was pretty clunky in some parts. I think it was much better than Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in some aspects. This scene was one of those redeeming qualities in my opinion. In the book Alan Grant, Tim and Lex enter the bird cage and get attacked. In the film it is Alan, Eric, Mr. Kirby, Amanda Kirby, and Billy who wind up getting attacked. It is a terrifying sight but the design of these are pretty cool and just the sheer terror of this scene gives me chills. The photo of this is part of that scene where Billy is being swept down stream and this guy looks at the survivors like “your next!” this part always sends shivers up my spine for some reason. It is just one of those scary moments that shouldn’t really be that scary. I did like them in the Jurassic World scene but their design is not as good as these guys. So I am adding this one as a JP Win instead of a Jurassic World win because even though I liked that movie these looked the most real in my book. This is a much darker and more intense scene for me than the birds escaping the bird cage in Jurassic World. You may have another opinion but this is mine right here. Lets move on.

Number 8: Procompsagnathus AKA Compys!

These little buggers spell trouble! They are one of the scariest little terrors on Isla Sorna. Introduced to the franchise in the Jurassic Park Novel by Michael Crichton. These guys were set up to be used for waist management. These are the first to escape to the main land and attack a few people including a little girl playing on the beach of Costa Rica. That scene was first seen in The Lost World: Jurassic Park but it was in the opening of the Jurassic Park Novel. These guys will jump on you and not let go. Deter Stark learned this the hard way. After getting lost to pee in the woods he falls down a hill after getting turned around after one pops up and scares him. He is soon swarmed not once but twice and getting torn up. They bite him from all angles and dig into his flesh with their claws. Hammond in the novel was given the same treatment. After falling down a hill after grousing about the failure of the park and hiring all the wrong people and thinking about firing all the original park operatives and wanting to make a new park he falls down and hill and meets a similar demise. These guys are one of my favorites because at first they look kind of cute like a few other Jurassic Park dinos. They look like they mean you no harm but if you tick them off then that is when they get you. karma on Jurassic Park does work. You can’t be stupid in Jurassic Park and if you are a smart-alek or just a plain jerk then best beware Karma on Jurassic Park comes in many forms and in some cases it comes in shades of green.

Number 7: Blue

I am a sucker for Raptors and Blue is only my third favorite in the series. Her relationship with Owen is something that was never explored in any concept in the original films or the first two novels. This is a very interesting concept and makes for an interesting story. Some people maybe against what they are doing in the new films but I kind of like the new ones for they broaden the horizon of the story of Isla Nublar’s animals. Blue is a cool Velociraptor and almost has a human like quality of emotions. She trusts Owen and no one else. She is pretty cool and when it comes to defending Owen and his crew. She is one cut above the rest and not just a blood thirsty monster like the other raptors of Isla Nubar and Isla Sorna. She is alright in my book but kind of falls short. I have nothing against her if that is what you are saying she is smart and one heck of a clever girl in the long run.

Number 6; The Indominous Rex

Okay so now we are in hybrid territory and this guy is the only Hybrid that I really thought was interesting. The Indoraptor was kind of a retread in my book. It was just the Indominous in a different wrapper. This original Hybrid is the one that I really thought was pretty cool. It just comes to show how unhinged animals built in a lab can be. This sucker was completely hostile and would kill anything for fun. It was kind of sad that she really had no clue what to do she was just trying to survive and learn where she belonged in the food chain. She was quite the fighter and was a brutal monster. Her abilities reminded me of a few of the concepts from the original Michael Crichton novel. The Velociraptor that Ellie Sattler finds that could change color and the Carnotaurs that could blend to their surroundings could be the big inspiration pieces to creating this guy. That is just my theory anyway. I am a huge fan of the books so when ever I talk about a dinosaur I always try to mention the novel’s connection with said animal and why it may be like that. I am not one to criticize a Jurassic Park film for all of the parts to the novels are there on screen throughout all of the movies just told a little differently and this monster is just one of those things that I found very neat.

Number 5: Stiggy

Used for a more comical effort this guy was actually pretty cool. He was one of my favorite dinosaurs from the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom film. This guy caused chaos and confusion in the very little screen time film. Again with a vegetarian that attacks people. This attack was not really intentional just more accidental in my book. This guy just runs amok and throws chairs and people every which way just for the heck of it. To be very honest this film was very wild with some of the comical stuff like the Indoraptor smiling just before ripping off Ken Wheatly’s arm and then killing him. This one I would count as comedic but it is more Jurassic Park style I guess. This one was a fun one though and has really grown in popularity in the fandom. I have to admit he has a certain personality to him. He comes off kind of cute and a little clumsy at times. ]

Number 4: The Brachiosaurus

Going back to the original movie and the very sad part of the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom which included this animal is the Brach from 1993. This guy is the one intro Dinosaur that has really stuck with me and like most of us gave us the best exposure to what we were baring witness too during the first Jurassic Park movie. This is almost as Iconic as Rexy herself. This guy is number four for it had to be on the list somewhere. You just can’t forget the one dinosaur that all gave us the big reactions given by Alan Grant, Ian Malcolm, Ellie Sattler, and Donald Gennaro. It gave us and reaction of our own that this movie was going to rock. This one has always stuck with me and when it died in Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom after director J.A. Bayona said it was this one a little part of me just died inside. It was very sad even though it was not a real creature it was still a big part of the Jurassic Park series but as they say some eras must come to and end and the Jurassic Park era is no more. Welcome to Jurassic World I guess. As sad as it makes me to say that some legends still live on like Rexy from Jurassic Park (1993). So some things just don’t die to easy. Rexy is the most resilient of any of the dinosaurs.

Number 3: Rexy (Tyrannosaurus Rex)

Speaking of her majesty! I give you the Queen of the Jurassic Park/ Jurassic World Saga. She has always had a pretty lasting impression on all of us as fans of the Jurassic franchise. This female Rex has stood the test of time in her world gaining a lot of battle wounds over the time of five films soon to be six in 2021 with Jurassic World 3. I have to say she is only third on my list for she maybe iconic but sometimes even the poster children can’t win them all. Still she is pretty high on the list. I love the book and movie versions of this particular dinosaur. In the novel there is a second Rex which is younger than she and is a little more clumsy with a puppies gate. She on the other hand is tough and the young rex knew to stay away from her. In the movie who could forget the “Main Road” scene that first introduced us to her. In the book she is actually seen the first time they arrive to the T-rex Paddock as she eats the goat. The main road is almost the same with a character running out of a car after peeing their pants and totally freaking out with a few differences. Rexy has saved the hides of many a Jurassic Park visitor but I don’t think it was totally on purpose. She is one that always is always going to get the big reaction and I have been very sad that she has kind of been over shadowed by Blue in the recent films and has only been used in only a handful of scenes in the newer chapters of the franchise. Still she outdoes blue anytime. Sorry but she was here first my friends.

Number 2: The Tiger Striped Velociraptors and the Original Raptors of Jurassic Park and The Lost world: Jurassic Park.

I count these as one for they are all in the same category. Both of these Raptor clans gave us some of the biggest jump scares in the first two movies. I was not a very huge fan of the ones with the quill in Jurassic Park ///. The original raptors showed us what real terror was like. In the original novels they are just as terrifying and will stop at nothing to rip you to bits. In some cases that is exactly what they are good at. They are almost like the Compy packs but much bigger with bigger teeth and bigger claws. You have to be super smart to out think and fox these guys. The Tigers are my favorite for we see just how their social orders go in just that small scene where they are at the gas station near the worker complex where Nick Van Owen was trying to get a chopper called to pick up the remaining survivors. All the raptors are the top predators of the Jurassic Park series. They have a complex social structure and are hard to bring down. They never give up and they seem to always be on the hunt. They are one of my top favorites for they are just that Clever Girls. I bet you are wondering what is my first over all favorite??? It is not the raptors and not Rexy. Lets take a look at number one.

Number 1: Dilophosaurus AKA Spitter

This is my favorite dinosaur in the whole Jurassic Park series. I am very upset that this one has only been featured as an actual dinosaur in the first one. It has been eluded to in the last couple of films but that is not good enough. I want to see this one again. This guy is one of my favorites for its very personality. It is kind of cute one minute but then once angered it turns into a frilled nightmare lizard that shoots blinding poison at its target. This one is one of those scenes that give us that “Holy... Did you see that?!” Impression. The difference in this scene from the movie and the book is that in the book Nedry dies outside the Jeep in the movie its pretty much blocked out in the Jeep. The book gets really descriptive which sends shivers down my spine every time I read that. Still my all time favorite dinosaurs for its really interesting surprise attack mode. It is certainly a beautiful but deadly edition to Jurassic Park.

There you have it my top ten Jurassic Park dinosaurs. Of course I do have a few honorable mentions such as the Mosasaur, Carnotaur, and of course the Certasaur that we only got a few seconds of which I think was a complete let down for that creature and I am not the only one who thinks that. Now I have a mission for you; tell me what your favorite JP dinosaurs are and why. Thank you very much I think we survived another travel through Jurassic Park. Until then I am Zachary AKA Galactic_Bug_Man and I will see you on the trail.

#jurassic park #jurassic world #dinosaurs #velociraptor #tyrannosaurus rex #dilophosaurus #pteranodon #stiggy #Brachiosaurus #indominus rex #blue raptor #compys #stegosaurus #isla nublar #isla sorna #steven spielberg #michael crichton #adventure

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sincognito · 5 years

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The Stranger | Primeval Underfell | Ch 1

Universe: Underfell x Primeval

Ships: Spicyhoney, Puppymoney, Twistedpuppymoney

Overview: An introduction to my Underfell Primeval Papyrus known as 'Saber'. Not many people know the character or the show I'm doing the crossover with, but you don't need any knowledge of the show to read this as I'll explain the concept as I go along. All you need to know is that it's essentially Undertale + Time Travel + Dinosaurs :3

Warnings: Animal/Dinosaur Death

A/N: I do have a normal, Undertale version of a Primeval crossover, but that story has not been finished so I will not be using any of the characters from that series

Read on AO3

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It was a freezing evening in the midst of winter when Rus first saw the strange monster for the first time. He was bundled up in the heavy jacket he was wearing, trying his best to keep every inch of his body covered and protected against the fierce wind that tore at his bones and threw snow up into the air. He was beginning to regret turning down Edge’s offer of a ride back home in the car rather than walking.

He was close to home, wandering along the path that bordered the local woods, when he heard an odd sound to his side. The skeleton looked up, squinting through the snow and into the dark forest beyond. There was a bright, glowing light in the distance that seemed to illuminate all of the trees nearby, and he could clearly see someone moving about in the shadows.

Shrugging it off as nothing more than someone doing some late-night work, Rus continued on his way home. It was unfortunate that he only managed to get a few further steps before an ear-splitting shriek had him jerking in surprise. He whirled around in time to get a glance at the animal that knocked him off his feet and into the snow with a heavy thump.

The large, feathered creature lunged at him, its jaws clamping down around the fluffy jacket that shielded his neck. It yanked at the material, easily tearing through the clothes and breaking off chunks of stuffing that it quickly began to gnaw on.

Rus was completely stupefied, frozen in place while he watched the creature destroying what had been his hoodie only moments ago. Its lithe body was crouched closely to the ground as its blade-like claws and sharpened teeth tore at the soft material, shaking it back and forth as though trying to kill the inanimate object.

When the raptoresque animal had realised it had not grabbed anything worth consuming, its large, brown eyes narrowed on Rus once more. The large feathers of the raptor’s crest rose high into the air as it took a step towards the monster, its teeth curled back in an ugly snarl while it hissed and chirped.

Rus couldn’t move, his whole body frozen as his soul thundered against his ribcage when the reptile began to bear down on him. It was when the animal paused, shifting its body into the position to pounce on its prey when an attack shot through the air, striking the raptor’s side and drawing a pained scream.

Before it could recover from the devastating attack, the monster responsible for the bone weapon leapt at it, another large, crimson blade within their grasp. They brought the attack down hard on the dinosaur, spearing cleanly through its neck, the momentum just enough for the monster to snap through the vertebrae with a sickening crack. The creature paused, a brief moment of realisation passing through its eyes before it slumped, all life drained from its body in an instant.

Rus looked up at the other monster, recalling finally how to breathe. At first he had thought Edge had been the one to jump to his defence, but upon closer inspection, it seemed that it was a completely different skeleton, albeit one with a similar appearance. The other looked down at him, scowling in disapproval shortly before he turned away to look back at the deceased raptor.

He studied the carcass for a long moment before reaching down and grasping the animal’s tail firmly in one hand. Without a word, a began to drag it through the snow and towards the distant glowing light, leaving behind a trail of red snow.

“W-Wait!” Rus finally shouted, his body finally obeying his commands once more as he scrambled shakily to his feet to stumble after the receding figure. His coat forgotten and the adrenaline slowly wearing from his body, he was forced to curl his arms tightly around himself, wondering how the other monster was walking around clad in only some thin clothes and completely bare foot.

“Wait up,” Rus continued, noticing that the other monster didn’t seem to have noticed his words, or perhaps was ignoring him, “Who the hell are you, and what the hell was that?” he demanded, trying his best to keep his racing mind from throwing too many questions at the stranger at once. “Are you even listening? Who ar-”

Rus yelped when the stranger rounded on him, his hold on the raptor forgotten as he snatched Rus’ neck, holding him against the nearest tree. Despite being slightly shorter than him, the other skeleton seemed to have no problem leaving Rus dangling in his grip, and he was forced to desperately claw at the other’s hand to try and relieve some of the pressure from his neck.

The monster looked him over, seeming to check him before scoffing slightly, dropping Rus unceremoniously to the cold snow below. He shook his head, grabbing the dinosaur’s limb again before proceeding back towards the strange light. “Leave now,” the skeleton growled, refusing to look back at Rus, “You were lucky this time.”

Rus had many questions, but he also had an overriding sense of self-preservation, and with the aching pain in his chest from when he was thrust into the icy ground several moments ago and the slight stinging of his neck, he decided it best to heed the other’s words. While it might have been his only chance to find out what strange happenings were occurring in the woods in the middle of the night, he was in no hurry to throw himself into danger so soon after reaching the surface.

After taking a moment to gather himself, Rus used the tree he had been momentarily pinned against as leverage to help himself to his feet before he quickly turned, running back the way he’d come and towards home. He was late, and Blue would be sure to throw a fit over the damage to his brand new jacket.

The second time Rus encountered the skeleton was one late summer afternoon, a year on from the first meeting. He’d left the cool sanctuary of the local shopping mall and was wandering the small market stalls that popped up every Saturday. There were farmers showing off their fresh produce, artists offering their specially crafted pieces, and so many other strange and wonderous items sat on sale that it often felt a little overwhelming.

The skeleton stood in the shade of one of the tents, looking over the handful of beaded jewellery that lay out across the table before him. No one he knew had a fondness for fancy necklaces and bracelets, but there was no harm in looking at the pretty jewels. From the corner of his eye, Rus was startled briefly when he thought he saw Edge walking through the nearby crowd.

He moved away from the stall, taking a closer look at the monster who bore such a close resemblance to his friend, but was clearly very different in presentation. The monster wore long, dark green trousers that had many a tear and a thin tank top that seemed to also have its fair share of damage. His whole body was smeared with greens and browns as though he had been rolling around in the grass, yet he seemed not to notice his rather dishevelled appearance.

The torn fabric, however, was nowhere near as badly broken as the other skeleton’s bones seemed to be, littered with poorly healed scars and fractures. It was then he realised, that it was likely the stranger he had encountered many moons ago. Fortunately, he began to inspect a nearby clothing display, allowing Rus to continue to observe him without seeming too suspicious. He began to look through the clothes as well, keeping an eye on the stranger.

The monster selected a pair of long, black trousers, looking them over quickly before holding them up to his hip to ensure they were an appropriate size. With that, he began to walk away, clothes still in hand. No one else seemed to notice his presence at all and had Rus not been watching so closely, he would have been able to simply take the clothing.

“I hope you plan on paying for those,” Rus stated, stepping out from the rows of clothing racks to speak to the taller monster.

The other skeleton’s crimson eye lights had the same fierceness to them as Edge, his features strikingly familiar if not for the crack running down the bottom of his jaw rather than across his eye. At first when the monster looked at Rus there was anger, but then there was a hint of amusement deep within them as the monster grinned, apparently also realising they had met before. Glancing back to ensure that the shopkeeper was still preoccupied with customers he held out a hand to Rus.

Something was placed into his hand by the monster, and Rus was quick to look down at the wet object now in his grasp. He almost dropped it when he realised that it was, in fact, a living creature that he had received, and one that looked rather similar to a cockroach at first glance. However, once he looked closer, Rus was amazed to find that he was holding a living trilobite.

It twitched and squirmed, obviously not used to being removed from its watery home. Rus looked up, only to find that the other monster had seemingly vanished into thin air along with his stolen goods. With all the grace of a headless chicken, Rus raced along the marketplace, asking every store tender he came across until he found a small plastic tub filled with water.

He breathed a sigh of relief when the tiny animal began to happily swim around in its temporary enclosure. Of course, it couldn’t be a permanent solution – Rus knew nothing about looking after an extinct arthropod – and so he was quick to take a short cut back to his home, muttering a quick apology to the small animal for the rather disorientating sensation of teleportation. Not that it would understand him.

With the trilobite safely placed on the kitchen counter, Rus pulled out his phone, dialling up his good friend Undyne and immediately beginning to question her on everything she knew about the animal that had been extinct only a few minutes ago. He then teleported to the nearby shopping centre, walking swiftly to the small pet shop on the corner.

Mentally thanking the stars that he’d been paid already that week, Rus purchased a small fish tank, water filter, and a bag full of ‘feeder fish’ as they were labelled. Undyne had informed him that most trilobites fed on a diet of small, aquatic worms, and so he hoped that the small fish would be enough to keep it satisfied.

#a dragon writes #undertale #underfell #underswap #swapfell #twistfell #primevalfell #primeval #dinosaur #time travel

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Digimon Data Squad Dub Comparison Episode 2 - Marcus’ Inner Strength!

Original name ~ Dubbed name

Masaru Daimon ~ Marcus Damon

Yoshino Fujieda ~ Yoshino “Yoshi” Fujieda

Tohma H. Norstein ~ Thomas H. Norstein

Sayuri Daimon ~ Sarah Damon

Chika Daimon ~ Kristy Damon

Captain Rentarou Satsuma ~ Commander Richard Sampson

[Since several characters share the same name between the original and the dub, quotes from the dub will always be in italics, while quotes from the original will not, in order to distinguish them.]

Kudamon: “Satsuma, what must be done with Raptor-1?”

~~~~~

Kudamon: “Tell them what will happen to Raptor-1, Commander Sampson.”

Originally, Kudamon was asking, making it somewhat more sensible to think that Satsuma is not actually planning on sending Agumon back, despite the way he awkwardly implies as such by going on to demonstrate it with the Cockatrimon egg. In the dub, it sounds a lot more like Sampson and Kudamon have already firmly decided that Agumon is going to be sent back, which should not actually be the case.

(Granted, I found this whole aspect rather awkward in the original, but the dub is not helping.)

Satsuma: “Digimon who cause problems in the human world…”

~~~~~

Sampson: “Any Digimon who break the real-world law…”

While I didn’t appreciate the original calling it a “crime” for a Digimon to be in the human world, at least this line got to the actual point – that a Digimon being in the human world is simply a problem that they need to clean up. The dub leans even more into this “crime” idea by claiming that there’s some sort of explicit law about this, even though Digimon from the Digital World should have no way of knowing about such a law.

Also, do you notice another key difference here? The original calls it the “human world��. The dub calls it the “real world”. The latter is a term that Savers never uses to refer to the human world, which I appreciate a lot. Calling the human world the “real” world implies that the Digital World is somehow less real and less important than the human world, and by extension so are Digimon. That is extremely the wrong attitude to have about it, especially for this series in particular, and I appreciate that the people in DATS, and the writers of Savers, understand this. To be fair, the dub almost always gets this right, too! But apparently someone was sleeping on the job this time.

Satsuma: “We simply sent it back to the Digital World, where Digimon live.”

~~~~~

Sampson: “What you’ve just seen was the Digimon you defeated being sent back to the Digital World.”

The dub’s version of this line sounds a lot more unnecessarily expositiony, as if they think viewers couldn’t have picked up which Digimon this was from the flashback to the egg appearing after the fight.

Agumon: “Boss, please do something, I don’t wanna go back!”

What does he mean, go “back”? Agumon doesn’t remember ever being in the Digital World in the first place.

Sampson: “It’s a Digivice.”

Kudamon: “Marcus dropped it when he fled.”

The dub fills a silence to establish another obvious fact that definitely nobody could ever have picked up through implication.

Satsuma: “I see. That man must’ve…”

~~~~~

Sampson: “That kid. Full of surprises.”

Since the actual word Satsuma used in Japanese was “person” and not “man”, apparently it completely went over the dubbers’ heads that Satsuma was meant to be referring to the old man who gave Masaru his Digivice, not Masaru himself. Way to miss the point there and lose out on the implication that he knows the guy.

Agumon: “Good idea, Boss. No-one will think there’s aaanything suspicious about a walking cardboard box!”

Pfft. The thing is, I don’t think Agumon’s being sarcastic. That’s kind of a trait that dub-Agumon has that’s a not quite there in the original – a tendency to unironically say dumb things that most people would only mean as snark. I kinda like it; it’s cute and amusing and fitting for his character.

Agumon: “If this is junk food, then I’m happy to be a garbage dump!”

And here’s that other dub-added trait of Agumon’s that I don’t appreciate as much: somehow knowing about human concepts he really should not know about yet. Though calling this one a “trait” is debatable when it’s more like the dubbers not thinking things through.

Sayuri: “Really, where were you last night? I thought you got in trouble with the police again! I was so worried!”

~~~~~

Sarah: “Well… you’re busted, that’s what’s going on. Fess up! While you were out getting into trouble, I was up all night worried sick! Now where were you?”

Sarah’s line here has a bit of a difference from Sayuri’s, which you can also hear in her voice – she was still worried, but she’s focusing this a lot more on being stern and angry at her son for misbehaving. I liked that Sayuri wasn’t really that angry at Masaru despite having plenty of reason to be, and I’m a little sad to lose that.

Sarah also doesn’t imply any prior trouble with the police, but the dub of episode 1 did add in a few little things that already implied that, so I don’t mind.

Marcus: “Hahaha! What trouble? I don’t even know the meaning of the word! You really oughta buy me a dictionary!”

I enjoy this line. It is appropriately dorky and ridiculous and obviously-trying-to-distract-from-the-truth.

[Agumon tumbles out of the closet he was hiding in]

Agumon: “Why d’ya keep shoving me into small places?”

Aww, of course Agumon wouldn’t like being kept in small places after his time being held at DATS! The original implied something like this with the animal cage, but it didn’t bring it up for the closet (and implicitly also the box), too.

Sayuri: “Masaru, remember our promise?”

~~~~~

Sarah: “I hope you’re not forgetting the promise we made.”

Sarah, again, sounds sterner than Sayuri here. It’s like she thinks Marcus would potentially just forget all about the promise because he never really cared about it that much. Like she had to nag him into even agreeing to keep it in the first place. That’s absolutely not the point of their promise to tell each other everything until his dad comes back, not in the original; it’s a way to help keep the family together in his absence that Masaru would have been 1000% on board with wanting to keep, in principle.

Kristy: “You don’t mistake a thing like seeing a giant lizard, *Mom*!”

Kristy has a lot more attitude here than Chika did.

The Japanese kushikatsu that Yoshino compliments Sayuri on gets called a corn dog in the dub, which is fair enough localisation; they do look similar.

Yoshino: “So that’s why I’ll be freeloading off you here for a while.”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “So I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other, since I now have to keep an eye on you two guys.”

Sadly, Yoshi does not make a point of the free food she’ll be getting out of this.

Marcus: “No way! You’re not taggin’ along with me, toots!”

Can we not? I thought this stopped after the first episode; I guess I was wrong. Sigh. It does still stop soon, I’m pretty sure.

Marcus: “Just great. He even eats in his sleep.”

This makes it seem a lot more like Marcus is only disgruntled because of Agumon’s loud sleep-eating, and not because Yoshi is sleeping in his bed and he gets the floor.

Agumon: “And what is school again?”

Marcus: “…A place where there are tons of people to fight.”

It’s basically the same line as the original, but Marcus’s tone sounds a lot more bitter, less like he’s actually trying to make Agumon think this, and more like he’s just grumpily thinking “I wish it were but actually it sucks”.

Yoshi: “And safety rule number one says: Keep your Digimon stored!”

I doubt this is an actual written rule anywhere at DATS. And if it is, surely it should be a secrecy rule, not safety? It’s not like a well-behaved Digimon, like all partners of DATS members should be, is inherently unsafe just by being out and about.

Marcus’s squawks as he rushes out the door because he’s going to be late, again, sound a lot more bitter and grumpy, like he just hates going to school. There was none of this impression given with Masaru! Sure, I don’t think school is particularly Masaru’s favourite thing either, but it doesn’t come across like he’s upset about having to go there. Apparently the dubbers have just decided that, because Marcus is A Jock™, he’s obviously meant to be the kind of teenager who hates school, right.

Marcus: “If you’re gonna follow me, you could at least give me a lift in your car!”

You know, he has a point here. Masaru didn’t think to ask that.

This car conversation is the first point at which Yoshino starts calling him Agumon, but meanwhile Yoshi is still calling him Raptor-1. I guess sharing a meal with him as if he’s actually a person or something didn’t do anything for her.

Yoshino: “I won’t have to look after you guys either… but I guess that’ll never happen.”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “And, the best part of all is that I wouldn’t have to babysit you guys any more.”

Despite having the same snarky look on her face for this line, Yoshi is not actually snarking at them here. I am disappoint.

Kristy: “When he came in to feed the chickens and rabbits this morning, they were all gone. Nobody knows where they went.”

So the dub is going for the insistence that the animals definitely just disappeared mysteriously. No Animals Were Harmed, guys. I guess the Kunemon just… kidnapped them?

Which… is fairly understandable. It does mean we lose out on that cute line where Masaru commented that it was terrible.

Agumon: “I couldn’t get used to being inside that cramped Digivice!”

~~~~~

Agumon: “Please, Boss! All these cramped places are making me claustrophobic.”

The dub makes more of a point of connecting together all of Agumon’s experiences in being put in cramped spaces, which is some extra nuance that I appreciate!

Yoshi: “You know, Agumon, there should be a rule about leaving your Digivice without permission.”

…I thought there literally was? Safety rule number one, wasn’t it? This should count as part of that. Yeah, I figured that dub “addition” wasn’t going to be an actual thing that mattered.

Lalamon: “Frankly I don’t know how you slept with all his snoring, but…”

Lalamon has some added sass here, wow.

Marcus & Agumon: “The ultimate team! It’s fightin’ time again!”

“The ultimate team” is a cute thing for these two to start calling themselves, but I find it a little bit of a stretch that they’re doing so this soon.

Marcus: “Kristy! Don’t! Worry! We’ll! Get! Whoever! Did! This!”

Marcus somehow manages to be even more embarrassingly dorky than Masaru was here. Maybe it’s the lip-flap’s fault that he’s yelling it so awkwardly like this?

Agumon: “What is it with you and these cramped spaces, Boss?”

This is as Agumon is locked inside the animal cage. I still appreciate how they’re connecting all these together.

…Though at this point, since Agumon has expressed his dislike for these so many times, it becomes more of a dick move deliberately ignoring Agumon’s wishes for Marcus to still be doing this anyway.

Agumon: “I hate being cooped up. Locked up like a criminal.”

Connecting it even more to Agumon’s experiences at DATS! Without actually explicitly saying that this is why!

You know how I brought up in my commentary of the original episode that Agumon not liking this is probably to do with that? It’s actually only because the dub made more of a point of this that I picked up on it. Though I still believe that was probably meant to be the point in the original, it was perhaps a little bit too subtle about it. The dub being actually good at subtlety in ways that weren’t there in the original is very decidedly not going to be a common theme here, so let’s appreciate it while we have it.

Masaru: “What are you doing out here so late? Did you come to check on the cages?” [The kid doesn’t respond.] “Hey, say something!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “You come to check on the cages or somethin’? Well, thanks, but you shouldn’t be here. Now go home.” [The kid doesn’t respond.] “Hey, did you hear me? Get outta here!”

Marcus is a little harsher to this kid than Masaru was; it’s there in his tone of voice, too. It does make sense to tell him to go home, because Digimon secrecy etc, but I do like how Masaru didn’t actually care about that and was just curious as to what was up with this kid. Masaru is good with kids. It comes across like Marcus is significantly less so.

Takashi: “I wished they would just disappear! And then, this guy…”

~~~~~

Takashi: “I wished they’d all just disappear, and then they did! Thanks to him…”

(Takashi’s name is not actually mentioned in the dub, so whatever, let’s assume he’s still called Takashi.)

Something about the way dub-Takashi expresses this reads a little differently to me. It feels slightly less like he’s conscious of the fact that the Kunemon came and got rid of the animals because of his wishes, and more like it was just a happy coincidence. The fact that he actually admits that the animals disappeared and says it’s “thanks” to the Kunemon also suggests more like he’s actually happy about that happening.

…Though, him admitting “and then they did [disappear]” might be part of the dub scrambling to reassure viewers that No Animals Were Harmed. And since that is apparently literally what happened and they really weren’t killed, I guess Takashi would be less traumatised and more just satisfied that he got his wish.

If he is less traumatised, there’s less explanation for why he passes out, but, eh.

Yoshi: “Stay back.”

Marcus: “Do *what*?!”

I love the incredulity in Marcus’s response. What do you mean, don’t fight a thing?!

Masaru: “Don’t be stupid! There’s no way I’ll turn my back on the enemy and run like a coward! No matter how difficult it gets, I’ll stand firm without taking a step back! That’s… how a man should live!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “No, I’ll never run away! An ultimate fighter never shows cowardice! No matter how difficult the fight might be, I stand my ground. That’s what a winner does! Fightin’ time agaaain!”

I’m going to be doing a lot of complaining about the dub messing up most of Masaru’s manly speeches that I adore. This one, though, is okay – it’s pretty simply don’t-give-up stuff that there isn’t much to mess up about.

However, what is very different, you might notice, is the lack of this being about what a man does. I pointed out a couple of bits in episode 1 where the dub basically kept the mentions of manliness or even added one in where it wasn’t there before, but I also mentioned that this is very rare for them. Because this here is usually what they do – remove the references to manliness altogether.

They probably mean well with this? They probably think Masaru’s manliness thing is some kind of toxic masculinity that they don’t want their kids’ show protagonist to be espousing. But here’s the thing: it isn’t toxic masculinity. If the dubbers assume that’s what it is just because they heard the word “man” being used a lot, without even bothering to, you know, listen to what Masaru is actually saying when he talks about this, I am very disappointed in them.

Masaru’s concept of manliness is one of the most interesting and distinctive things about his character, and I’m sad to see the dub water it down. Even while removing the references to manliness, some of the general principle of it can still be kept (though the dub will often be losing even that, as we’ll see), but without one central word that he always connects these ideas to, the whole thing seems a lot less pointed and cohesive, and it’s a lot harder to realise that it’s A Thing about him in the first place.

(And we also lose the delightful connection that it has to the thing with his dad, which I could already pick up on the implication of at this point on my very first watch. Without the specific mention of manliness here, I wouldn’t have figured out what makes Masaru tick nearly so soon, and I wouldn’t have enjoyed my first viewing of this series quite as much.)

Marcus: “Ready to fight, Agumon?”

Agumon: “Yeah!”

Marcus: “All right, then!”

Marcus’s tone of voice with the “all right, then!” sounds weirdly sinister and not at all like an excited dork ready to go win a fight alongside his new best friend. What on earth were the voice directors doing here.

(I’m tentatively not going to blame this on Marcus’s voice actor, because he’s generally really good at his job.)

Old man: “This human world must be too small for you to swing around these fiery fists of yours. How about it? In the Digimon’s world, you’ll find plenty of formidable opponents to fight to your heart’s content.”

~~~~~

Old man: “If you want to become the ultimate fighter who fights the ultimate battles, then you’re not going to find it in this world. But in the Digital World, there’s an unlimited number of opponents who will test your fighting skills, and make you the best fighter on *two* worlds!”

Um. He was not originally supposed to be literally talking about the Digital World here. This is supposed to be, at least on an in-universe level, just the old guy saying something that’ll help Masaru realise he wants to join DATS. The Digital World has nothing to do with that, because DATS isn’t supposed to involve him necessarily ever going there.

Marcus: “Then I’ll be… the ultimate…!”

Credit to the dub, they are actually remembering that change they made in episode 1 where Marcus just wants to be an ultimate fighter and doesn’t feel like he is one yet. This is still consistent… for now.

Masaru: “Please! Let us join DATS!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Well… Guess what. We’re gonna do you a favour and join DATS.”

I liked how sincere Masaru was about really wanting to join, knowing that they have every reason to refuse him. But Marcus? Is just being an arrogant prick about it. Apparently he doesn’t know how to swallow his pride. And this is despite him having the same humble, pleading body language as in the original, which this attitude does not remotely match with.

Satsuma: “Daimon Masaru, I figured you would come to us one day.”

~~~~~

Sampson: “I knew it would happen. Frankly, I’m surprised that it took you this long to ask, Marcus.”

With Sampson’s phrasing about Marcus asking, this is specifically just about him expecting Marcus to want to join since he met Agumon. The implication the original had that he’d already been expecting to Masaru to end up here before Agumon even showed up is completely missing. Another implication that apparently went right over the dubbers’ heads.

Masaru: “Now we can fight against as many strong guys as we want!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “And just think of all the bad guys we’re gonna get to beat up!”

Marcus specifies that their opponents will be bad guys, which is not the point in the original. Masaru isn’t particularly doing this to feel like a hero; he’s just doing this because he wants to challenge himself.

I imagine the dub made this change because they want to emphasise that, hey, our kids’ show protagonist who fights people a lot is definitely not a bad person, really, see, because it’s only bad guys he fights!!! But that isn’t necessary. Masaru’s fighting thing is already perfectly honourable, because he only fights people who want to fight him.

Tohma: “It’s been a while since I’ve last seen it… Mom’s homeland, Japan.”

~~~~~

Thomas: “After so long… I’m coming home… at last.”

Tohma’s words implied that he didn’t quite think of Japan as his own home, but apparently Thomas is completely fine in seeing it that way.

We also lose the mention of his mom being from Japan, which is a little nugget of information that I think we otherwise wouldn’t have for quite a few more episodes. Though I suppose simply the fact that he thinks of Japan as home implies that part of his family must be local despite his more prominent Austrian heritage that we’re going to learn about soon enough.

Overall differences

This episode isn’t that significantly different overall; most of the differences are just the usual lost nuance or less sense-making or Marcus being less interesting, and also people generally being a bit sassier.

I genuinely like the added focus on Agumon not liking cramped spaces, implicitly because they remind him of his time imprisoned at DATS. An actually good addition, and decent subtlety!

Marcus is vaguely more of a jerk in some bits, and also I guess he hates school because he’s A Jock™ or whatever.

The mention of being a man is removed from his speech. I’m specifically noting it here because this is the first time we’re seeing it happen, but this is also going to be a regular thing that I’ll probably stop mentioning in these summaries before long.

I suppose technically the biggest change in what actually happens is that No Animals Were Harmed. Which is something I understand them doing, but it also does mean Takashi loses a bit of interesting nuance because he’s not accidentally a murderer.

#digimon #digimon savers #digimon data squad

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