#not that I trust trolls wiki very much

[ohposhers]

On Google it says smidge is 4-

Bashes your head in with several rocks

Go watch the cartoons man she’s an adult

[nishnormp]

I come alive to drop some things off

So! Those tips in the tfc wiki, imagine if they were canon in the form of optional pamphlets for the team. Generally prideful by themselves, cmed and cheavy would sorta side-eye each other on the first day of the job, unsure of the other's competency (engie also exists on cheavy's pamphlet, but cmed has more . Certain Energy, per se)

After a while they eventually warm up to each other, and even start coordinating trolls during landslide-scored games (much to everyone else's chagrin).

Some more misc art of them down below

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V

Cmedic is elusive with his past (he even has a false name), but he's malay and most of his family is muslim (VERY important to note that he HIMSELF ISN'T, but merely influenced by certain habits) (he's got that 'man of science' grindset and is generally pragmatic, not bent on 'trusting' the concept of a god) (I consulted with actual muslims so his portrayal isn't bad). Cheavy probably came from louisiana or smth (idk american states man) with a fiercely catholic family (the relevance here is that they both fled, but in diff ways and for diff reasons) The sewer thing is a reference to some tfc maps (including teufort) having a sewer to swim through (with an oxygen meter and decent depth) (sometimes the sewers are the ONLY way to get into the base without getting jumped).

[imsparky2002]

Barbie in the Nutcracker: First Thoughts

The following is my thoughts while watching this for the first time.

Credits look awful. Still, it’s 2001 and this is the first installment so I’ll give it a pass.

Only know the basic Nutcracker song and theme but nice that it uses an orchestra

Barbie herself doesn’t look too bad but her little sis… yikes.

Kinda weird to see these dolls moving like mocap performers.

Heh! Barbie’s voice actor has the same name as her little sister.

Kelly very clearly sounds like an adult woman trying to do a kiddish voice.

Lipsyncing is odd, looks more like generic flapping.

Surprisingly decent snow effects.

I’m assuming Clara’s parents are either dead or abandoned them. Or they could also just be on vacation.

Is it wrong that I find Grandpa cute? Gives off a very distinguished vibe. Especially that voice.

They call gingerbread houses “christmas boxes”? That’s… interesting.

Kinda wish they gave Clara a different voice from Barbie, or at the very least a different hairstyle.

The lighting is actually pretty good! Nice warm hues, makes me feel like I’m at a cozy inn.

Her little brother looks like the kids who played Fortnite and would tease me in high school. Of course his name is fuckin’ Tommy.

This CGI is reminding me of early PS2 cutscenes.

Aunt Drosselmayer’s got that 90’s Leo DiCaprio/Hugh Grant parting in her hair. Bleh.

Why is Clara the only blonde in the family?

Ooh! We’ve got some family drama between Auntie and Grandpa. This is getting juicy.

Elizabeth is giving me confident bisexual vibes with the voice and manner of movement. Bet you that’s why Grandpa doesn’t trust her.

Looking at the wiki I just found out that Trixie’s VA voices the Aunt, Starlight’s VA is Barbie and Cadence’s VA is one of the kids! Must be a Canadian production.

I will never not find the word “nutcracker” to be hilarious.

Clara, why tf are you fighting over a toy with your lil brother? You’re like… 17? 18? I dunno but it’s way too old.

Seriously they gave Tommy the most punchable face ever. Not that I’d ever punch a kid but I can see why other kids his age would deck him.

Magic shenanigans are ensuing.

I like the medeival look of the rats. The CGI actually fits them well.

Clara wakes up to see an anthropomorphic warrior rat right next to her eating something and is just like “goddamn it, git ya varmint!” I love it.

Oh, she thinks she’s dreaming. That makes sense to why she’s so calm.

Hmm… I feel like the Rat King should look a bit more evil, and larger as well. Still, TIM CURRY! I’m gonna LOVE this.

Woah! We’re getting a fight scene! A swordfighting scene to be exact!

Oooh the Rat King’s magic and can shapeshift his weapon. That’s metal AF.

Tim Curry putting everything into his performance as usual.

I’m kinda surprised we’re already getting a Nutcracker-Rat King battle. I’d have thought they’d save that sorta thing until the third act.

Did they really have to change it to Sugarplum Princess? Fairy just sounds more powerful.

Wow! This snowy cave is beautiful! Something out of a classic painting.

EWWW THESE LIL SNOW FAIRIES LOOK DISGUSTING!

Did this nutfucker not realize that an icy fortress would have ice for the walls?

The fairies doing ballet looks weird because they have nothing to stand on.

Please don’t tell me the small fairy is staying, I hate her.

Dance is currently reminding me of Fantasia.

“The fairies probably went off to make a blizzard somewhere”. The way he said that nonchalantly had me cackling.

The effect of Clara’s footsteps turning into flowers is beautiful.

Pimm sounds like he’s an absolute troll online. Also gives me Psychicpebbles vibes (though I know it’s not him).

Wow the Rat King is a straight up genocider.

Why do all the kids look like Kelly?

OH DEAR GOD THAT LITTLE BOY LOOKS HORRIFYING.

Wait Prince Eric? Are they legally allowed to call him that? We all know how much Disney loves copyrights.

Man these kids are little shits and their outfits are gagworthy.

Major Mint definitely got a big personality, and the voice actor does a good job with it.

Ok Mint is hilarious and is so far the best part of the movie.

Nice to see some Asian rep with Captain Candy.

Wow, Rat King turns his failed employees into stone. Dark!

The zoom in on the Rat King as he says “that’s it?” made me giggle.

Thomas Astruc looked at the Rock Golem and got his first idea for an akuma.

Wait how the hell does Clara know that the Nutcracker is Prince Eric? I mean I already assumed because of the plot of the original ballet, but how does she know?!

The bridge scene gives me the willies, since I’m afraid of heights.

Wow this flower fairy is the only kid-looking character that has a decent design.

Didn’t expect a song to be interrupted by an enemy.

Lol, the Major’s monocle falls off as he sees the giant.

Glad to see the fairies serve a purpose other than dancing. Kick that giant’s ass!

Captain Candy’s a better man than Mint, as he actually makes sure that he gets saved.

Once again, the island is beautiful! Reminds me of Oz with the colored roads.

Ooh clever! At first I thought the castle’s backdrop looked really fake but I just factored it was because it’s 2001 CGI. But it was actually a trap!

Nice we see a test of Clara’s character that she passed.

The invisble hand touching Clara’s hand is actually making me feel kinda teary-eyed internally.

The Rat King definitely has a Napoleon complex.

Loving the character arc for Nutcracker with his final duel.

Ah! So now the Rat King is growing. Fits for the climax.

Huh… Prince Eric looks more like Jimmy Pesto than a prince.

Lol Major Mint realizes he’s been shittalking the prince.

Huh, so Clara’s the princess? I guess it sorta makes sense since it’s her dream.

For those princes out there who are hated by the public, all ya gotta do is fight a giant mouse.

Mint and Candy got the moves! Best dancers of the entire movie.

The final dance between Eric and Clara is absolutely gorgeous.

The villain was taken down by a snowball… I love it.

God Kelly Sheridan and Kirby Morrow really put everything into the scene where Clara disappears.

Lol Kelly’s Canana accent shows up when she says “It’s not a story”.

“What’s all this foolishness about mice kings and bats, Clara? Enough of your womenly hysteria! Time for a lobotomy!” Grandpa, basically.

Actually now that he’s in a suit, Eric looks a lot hotter.

I’m surprised Barbie’s little sister had the attention span to listen to a 1 hour story.

I'll be making a full review of the film soon. Let me know thoughts in the comments and reblogs. @artzychic27 @msweebyness

[yonderlyporcupine]

haha something I find hilarious that no one else seems to mentioning but I’m pretty sure the implication is that Alastor sabotaged that chandelier that fell right before Lucifer’s big musical number in Dad beat Dad. Hence why he wasn’t surprised when everyone else was and his really pissy expression right after it hits the ground without succeeding in taking Luci with it. 😂 he was trying to kill him 😂😂

on the subject of Al’s untoward beef with the king of hell: while I entirely understand and even agree with the sentiment that it is most likely related to his ties with Lilith, I can’t help but suggest in jest a simpler explanation. Has no one considered that he just might hold some contempt for the ruler and supposed protector of hell for folding his hand and agreeing to a mass genocide of sinners - of which, of course Alastor is a part of? Maybe he’s just a little miffed that he has to spend any amount of time contemplating his own survival once a year during an Angel blitz attack 🤷‍♀️

In all seriousness y’all know that’s why Lilith and Lucifer divorced right? Like Lil loved hell in that cute little story from the beginning. She adored her kingdom and it’s citizens and the fact that her husband just said (in simple terms bc it does seem like he fought a hard fight against heaven about it) “just go ahead and kill everyone” - that would break Lilith’s heart. And I imagine her trust in him too. I wouldn’t want to stay married to that. And if Lilith owns Alastor - and we know from experience that contractor’s beefs are transferable to the souls they contracted (the vees should have just as much of a problem with Husker and Nifty as they do with Al) then Alastor hating Lucifer makes perfect sense. And we know Al’s clever and manipulative, so the whole “your kid calls me dad” shit is 100% just him trolling Lucifer.

anyway, the flack I’m seeing that episode get is funny to me because it seems to be from the same people who like to cherry pick what Hazbinwiki facts they think are canonical and ignoring any of the rest 🤷‍♀️. I liked it, I thought it was very tongue in cheek. And I get a kick out of having the wiki trivia payoff but I didn’t feel it was necessary. For those of you wondering it is stated in his trivia that Alastor dislikes Lucifer because he finds him cloying - he thinks respectable men should act respectably and feels Lucifer does not. And he’s a word class troll so he had some fun. There is probably more to come if that as the story/show unfolds but that’s the context y’all are missing.

one more thing: Alastor was already furious when he got out to the parlor. He’s grumpy before he even sees the decorations. I would go as far as to say he even seems tired and stressed the whole episode (that sigh at “what is it” to Husk, my man was fighting for what little sanity he came to hell with). Who else do we know who’s a contracted soul who gets grumpy and trigger happy at certain times? Angel comes home from shoots usually ready to fly off the handle. Alastor is already pissed to high heaven to be involved in the hotel (or at least he seems to be at times), add a long night of working for his contractor… that temper is a trait he canonically keeps well under wraps usually. He definitely didn’t mean to let loose on Husk like that, only because he gave away far more than he meant to, not because he genuinely feels bad for Husk.

[ask-whitebag]

I’ve seen a lot of people claim that Ron was “underserving” of Kim or that “he wasn’t good enough for her”.

And lately I’ve seen a lot of negative comments directed to it’s character for example the wiki is very negatively biased towards his character and of his relationship with Kim.

Not so long ago there was this fake Kim possible AMA made on Reddit where a person impresionantes Bob-Schooley and under this they spoke very ill of Ron’s character saying that he and Kim had no chemistry, that he was a very bad and one-dimensional character and that he and Kim’s relationship wasn’t “pleasant”.

All of this while they kept on praising Kigo and what saddens me the most is that because this person was faking being the co-creator of the show many people believe them and some people even began backing him up saying stuff like that they never liked Ron or the fact that he ended up with Kim.

And it seems like compared to other “friends to lovers” ships (Danny x Sam, Marinette x Adrien, Star x Marco, Keith x Lance)

I feel like from all of them KimRon is one of the most underrated. I don’t see many people making art or stories about them.

It also seems there were many people who thought Ron was undeserving of Kim? Or they she “could have done better” Do you think this is true? Why do you think people say that? Or have this reaction?

Kim was undeserving of Ron, if anything. No, no, I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I kinda had to. This entire issue is just kinda silly. Also, it took me a long time to answer this one because I don’t like spreading negativity. I’m sorry if the reply below comes off as angry or upset - I swear I’m not. I’m just being down to earth. And tired.

If the creators disliked Ron, they wouldn’t plan Kim x Ron from the beginning, and they wouldn’t focus so much on Ron’s character throughout the entire series. You know how Phineas and Ferb is named after Phineas and Ferb, but Candace and Doofenshmirtz are actually main characters with actual arcs and character development? Ron kinda falls into that category, too. Of course I still think Kim is a fully realized character in her own right, but Ron isn’t just a supporting character, he is a main character too, because we spend just as much time with him as we do with Kim, and there’s a lot of focus put on him and his character development.

Because of that, Ron is probably the most developed and interesting character in the entire series, and stating otherwise isn’t even a bad take - it’s just wrong.

Also, let’s get something important out of the way - I am Shego’s age. If you told me to choose between the mad scientist malewife and the minor, I hope it’s not surprising I’d obviously go with the mad scientist malewife, like, this isn’t even a competition. However, some people out there think Shego would choose differently, and frankly, I think it’s quite disgusting and offensive to her character.

(Although it’s okay to headcanon Shego as a lesbian too! Especially if she was your sexual awakening. Trust me, I also started questioning myself because of Shego. Just… don’t ship her with a child, lmao)

Here’s a thing though - if I told people shipping a fourteen-year-old with a woman in her late twenties is bad, and they still wouldn’t have problems shipping it, then there’s not much I can do about it, is there? I won’t go to war over a fictional ship from a twenty-year old show, because I’m an adult with taxes to pay, and internet trolls are just simply beneath me and not worth my time.

Which brings me to another point - I think the reason KimRon seems unpopular in comparison to those other ships you mentioned is simply because it’s old. It’s literally twenty years old, and at this point, I’ve met people who have never even heard about Kim Possible before. (I suppose there’s an argument to make that Danny Phantom is an old show too but the fandom’s still alive, but the truth is - I was there, Gandalf, and Danny Phantom has always been more popular, even back in the 2000s. It’s just how it’s always been. I don’t have a scientific explanation for this one, chief.)

Ship negativity below - skip the strike-through paragraph if you don’t want to read it; Also, I think it’s funny because I dislike all the ships you just mentioned. I already said what I think about Danny and Sam here. I think Sta//r//co had the biggest potential of being like KimRon but they fell into the same trap as Marinette and Adrien AKA taking too long to get anywhere and tripping over problematic shit on their way, which made those ships super unlikable to me, like, even if I shipped them before, I just can’t anymore, because I don’t enjoy them. And Kl//a//nce isn’t even canon. Realistically, there was Potential, but all they got were very vague/lowkey queerbaiting scenes and that’s it. I genuinely feel so sorry for people who fell for it. But yeah, KimRom is just soo much better than all of those, it’s not even a competition.

Maybe it’s my demi ass talking, but I really love how KimRon started with them being just childhood friends, and then having the most natural friends to lovers development ever. It wasn’t in your face, there wasn’t that much drama around it, it was pretty much perfect. And people are still allowed to dislike it. But I don’t.

I think people who hate Ron are simply bitter their “lesbian” ship ain’t canon, so they feel the need to shit on this clearly amazing, enby-coded character for “getting in the way”, but I gotta be real with y’all - you won’t find good WLW content in this 2000s cartoon made by male boomers. …What you're looking for is in the Owl House, made by openly bisexual Dana Terrace. It’s there, and it’s canon, I promise. Go watch it. It’s good.

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Whoo boy, been a little bit. I can’t really say much besides IRL sucks, so. Back to something that doesn’t suck, which is BNHA. This chapter is dedicated to the good bean Tenya, especially his little smile which forced me to change my pfp on discord because I just couldn’t.

I was kinda planning on doing arc summaries between sections, but honestly, the BNHA wiki already has those, so if you don’t want to go back and read through all the posts I’ve done for the pre-USJ chapters, just head over there and do a skim of the summaries there, I guess?

[No. 12 - Yeah, Just Do Your Best, Iida!]

I just love how his hand gestures are actual effective tools against enemies, I cannot even. Also, a good and friendly reminder that carbonated drinks stall his engines! I have never seen that used in fanfic, whether for crack or whump purposes… a shame.

We head right into the next morning from that battle training, with the kids being held up by the media as they ask about All Might. Izuku is a bundle of nerves as he awkwardly excuses himself to the nurse’s office, Ochako is a darling who describes All Might as super muscly, and Tenya goes into a whole ass speech with a lot of fancy language to explain the honor of being at UA and learning under All Might. 

(Honestly, I find it hard to determine whether this is genuinely earnest or if he’s picked up media warding skills from his parents and older brother. It’s probably genuine, but I just love the idea behind low-key troll master Tenya who learned from the best, aka his older brother.)

Katsuki, unfortunately, is still known as ‘the kid from the sludge incident’, which I mean. I am so fucking baffled at how long the media in this have held onto that 'sludge incident' thing, like, you'd think they'd have moved on to other things by now and don't really think about it much.

It’s the same with the general public (as seen in chapter 3), like, yes, I too would have a fucking complex and anger issues if all anyone thought about in relation to me wasn't my high grades or my skill in combat or anything, but that one time a year ago where I was almost suffocated to death while the people who were supposed to save my life did fucking nothing. I mean, Katsuki has always had a complex, but This Didn't Help.

Moving on, we see the media wondering who the fuck this messy looking dude waving them off is, while Aizawa just. Fucking shoos them like they’re dogs or kids or something. His words seem like a vague attempt at being polite about shooing them, but with the hand gesture, well. Basically comes off more as a chastisement. 

...honestly, this feels so weird that no one knew about it even though the kids who got in got a message from All Might saying he’d be teaching there. The only thing I and the others can assume is that there was an NDA on him teaching until it was announced to the newspapers on the first day of classes. Which would explain why it didn’t hit the news until said day…

Whatever, it’s weird, let’s just move on.

One of the reporters steps forward, asking/demanding a chance to speak to All Might about his sudden shift to teaching, only for the guy behind her to try and call out a warning - just a touch too late, as the sensors over the gate react, causing the daunting hunk of metal serving as a gate to slam closed right in front of her. Gonna guess she’s new to the reporting scene. The guy explains that the UA barrier locks down if someone without a school ID approaches the gate, and that supposedly there are more sensors throughout the campus.

The panel gives us a diagram of the three ‘levels’ of sensors - the gate/wall around the school, the walkway to the school, and the school itself. Which I think correlates to the security levels that come up later, since it’s a ‘level three’ breach, which means the school was broken into. Was it… always that fucking simple and I just totally glossed over that detail until now? orz

While the newsfolk complain about not getting comments from UA, we get to see the back of a ~mysterious figure~ who definitely isn’t the primary antagonist of the entire series. God, you can see his individual neck vertebrae.

Horrifying.

We transition to 1a’s homeroom, with Aizawa going over the battle training as well as their grades / evaluations. Aizawa calls out Katsuki and tells him to grow up and stop wasting his talent, which Katsuki grudgingly accepts. Izuku jolts at being called out next over his broken arm, and accepts the chastisement of learning to control his quirk, because trying isn’t going to cut it. Aizawa does soften the blow, however, by repeating that Izuku has potential, assuming he overcomes that issue.

With that done, Aizawa ‘Plus Extra™’ Shouta gets the whole class tense by drawing out the next class announcement. While I think it’s a translation error, the whole class sweating as they wonder whether it’s another brutal pop quiz is hella funny. (I’m guessing it was meant to be ‘test’ which would reference to the quirk assessment as well as the battle training, but ah well.) The whole class sighs in relief as one as Aizawa finally reveals that their task for the morning is to choose a class president - a normal, school-like thing in comparison to the past two days.

Pretty much the entire class has their hands raised to volunteer for the position, with Katsuki being particularly aggressive about it (as per the norm). Even Izuku has his hand shyly lifted up from the desk, while his narration notes that the position in normal schools entails mundane tasks, but in UA’s hero course means leading the group - a position suited for a top hero in the making.

Tenya calls for them all to quiet down, drawing attention as he goes on to explain how leading people is a task of heavy responsibility, but that ambition is not equal to ability. He is so intense it’s hilarious as he explains how the office demands the trust of its constituents, and that if it’s to be a democracy, then he puts forward the motion that they choose their leader through election.

Seriously this is just so fucking hilarious, I love this boy so much. And I love whoever it is that calls out that this is a classroom, not congress. 

Tsuyu points out that the class hasn’t known each other long enough to build trust, and Kirishima notes that everyone will vote for themselves. Tenya points out that that is precisely the reason that anyone who gets multiple votes will be the best suited for the job. He then checks with Aizawa if this is allowable, which the teacher agrees to so long as it’s quick. And a quick transition, we reveal the winners-

Izuku with three votes, and Momo with two.

Everyone else, it seems, still has one vote, which was their own (as predicted). Izuku is shook. Katsuki is shaking in anger as he demands to know who the hell voted for Deku. Ochako is whistling and looking away, thinking that she’d better not let Katsuki find out.

(Also of note is that Sero is already approaching Katsuki and making a joke here about it being obvious Katsuki wasn’t one of Izuku’s votes, and then seemingly laughing a bit when Katsuki’s temper turns on him?

Hard to say for sure, but it seems Sero is the first of Katsuki’s future friend group to approach him and get away with poking at his temper. Which I feel is something very much overlooked by the fandom in favor of Kirishima for fairly obvious reasons.)

Tenya, meanwhile, is in a funk as he notes he has no votes, and that that is the harsh reality of office. Momo is concerned as she notes that zero votes meant he voted fro someone else, while Sato points out that Tenya was the one to suggest the election, so what did he seriously want? Izuku and Momo go to the front of the class - Izuku a nervous wreck while Momo’s just exasperated with the situation. Aizawa confirms their positions as he gets out of his sleeping bag, and the class talk a bout about the suitability of the chosen pair while Tenya continues to sulk in his seat.

With that, the first half of the chapter is done, so I’ll call it here. I can certainly say I learned a thing or two today, and I hope y’all did as well!

[daylightisminetoconsume]

Does mun believe in the singular mate theory or the harem theory? (Going off of Gunmar's wiki page)

I know Gunmar is very much an archtype sort of villain. Wild brute, savage king, and I understand that it makes more sense for his personality to be that he doesn’t care about how many mates he has. A harem makes sense.

But my heart can’t accept that. It just doesn’t make sense! If he has daughters, why are they never mentioned? Why would he pick -Jim- to replace Bular instead of one of them? If he’s a tribalist, sexist brute, why would he be so respectful to Morgana? He never mentions Nomura’s gender while punishing/insulting her. He acknowledges Barbara’s bravery, why would a patriarchal character do any of that?

Plus, we see he cares about people in his inner circle (at least the ‘pure’ ones. he keeps Dictatious after he’s wounded. He gives Aaarrrggghhh a chance to re-join the team. 

If he trusted someone enough to mate with them (which puts him in a very vulnerable position, rule number three and all) I can’t imagine him just tossing them aside after. I think it’s just far more likely that, as the oldest troll to have ever lived, he had only a single queen, or at the very least, just a single queen at a time. He just happened to outlive them.

That being said, it’s also possible he brought Bular up from raw living stone, the way he did with that Gumm-Gumm soldier in Wizards. He might be Bular’s only parent.

I’d love @aaronwaltke thoughts on it, but honestly, the truth is probably we were never meant to know. As much as I love Gunmar, he’s not really that deep. 

[askneruandhaku]

My thoughts

Hello and sorry, first of all... mod here breaking character once again.

Mod has been extremely consumed by a specific job these past two years. A lot of hardships have happened in that span of time, not just talking about the current climate but horrible things happened in 2019 as well, related to family loss. But besides that....

This month marks the 9th anniversary of this askblog. In a really boring summer now almost 10 years ago, a younger version of me created askneruandhaku, and the Vocaloid fandom and my love for Neru and Haku only grew and consumed me since. Oops.

I want to make a proper post going in on what this askblog means to me, but I don't think this is the moment because there is something else I need to get off my chest. So I rather make this anniversary a bit more bitter and leave all the praises and good memories for the celebration of a decade of cringe in 2021.

There is something holding me back from posting, aside from how busy I am and other mental health problems. Call it an RP-block of sorts.

I'm having a very difficult time with this askblog.

I'm really thinking and considering how I could even make a comeback.

In the past three years the Vocaloid fandom has changed. A lot. Even more so if we compare it to when I started this blog, almost 10 years ago in 2011 (that is insane). Mod has grown, all the original askblog mods have grown, right, but a new generation of fans has entered the chat. On one hand, it's great! to see that the fandom is still alive and thriving despite Yamaha pulling the rug from under our feet, and specially that in the midst of all that, some fans still care to draw and support Akita Neru and Yowane Haku. I really didn’t think they would make it this far (they are also still pretty beloved in Japan). However, the way younger newer fans view Vocaloid, their sense of humor, their tolerance for certain interpretations, jokes or whatever. Totally different from mine and other.. "Vocaloid elders", lol.

The humor of this blog has always been very “out there”. I've never shied away from being extremely rude, using insults, cussing, putting characters in compromising situations and doing many a thing that is now treated as if you should be reported to the police for drawing it. Neru in particular has always been very crass, and I've used her in the past to take joking digs at the fandom. She is very fun to RP. In a way, I project to both of these characters, because I also suffer from diagnosed depression, I'm also petty and sarcastic, and as both of these characters, I’ve also always felt like an outcast, or less popular or beloved compared to my peers.

Ironically, lately I have been completely outcasted outside of the askblog world by the popular voices in the fandom. It has also lead loads of people to turn their back on me. Some that I even met through this little askblog itself, and it does hurt. I don't want to get into detail because whatever mod does outside of askblog should not impact the askblog. But I bring it up because it lead me to think, if I'm not well recieved when I'm being myself and drawing my serious non teasing art, how will people recieve me when I'm literally playing a rude character? When I'm calling Miku a bitch, in the age of people kinning Miku and projecting their person extremely hard onto her? When I'm calling anons weirdos, weeaboos or telling them to get a life?

I never truly mean those things (spoiler alert: mod actually loves Miku... though not as much as Neru and Haku), I'm portraying a troll, a cowardly jealous keyboard bully, which is who Neru is.

However, in times of people losing their mind in anger at the mere mention of magnet, how can I trust fans to tell?

When I have seen people on tumblr cover Neru's midriff and arms with an undershirt because that's showing "too much skin"?

When new fans pearl clutch and write hate towards NeruxHaku shippers?

When it's been spread by the loudest vocaloid wiki editor to new fans that Neru and Haku were created as tools of hate to insult and bully people?

Even the clothing magic anon from just two years ago has aged terribly to the standards of new Vocaloid fans that are all over Tumblr. Despite it's humor being very well recieved then.

I'm torn, guys. I don't know. I don't know how much of my audience is still sticking around after all these years. I don't know what a new audience would think about this hot mess of an edgy, rude askblog. I think there is to love if you look past the troubled, disjointed surface, just like how I see these characters as being. But I think most new fans look for some kind of "purity" that they are not going to find here. They are looking for the flawless idol cardboard cutout Miku. Not for my problematic rude, jealous, slightly abusive Neru, or my problematic depressed Haku that copes with substance abuse.

Do they still answer questions?

No.

Will they ever come back to answer questions, though?

I don’t know.

[serverstuck]

Come join SERVERSTUCK, a Fantroll RP server for anyone from Homestuck Veterans to complete newbies to Trolls! Pester your chums and make new friends!!  With over 300 players, a whole year of service, a custom TTRPG system called SUBGRUBS AND SNAZZARDS (Powered by the Apocalypse, which you may have seen in Monster of the Week and TAZ: Amnesty!), Lore Events that range from Robot Invasions to Murder Trials and a super fun and friendly community to either roleplay with or just hang out with, we’re the best of what Homestuck has to offer in 2019! We even had James Roach visit us for a day for an exclusive AMA with him!

Now’s the prime time to join, as we start our week long Dancestor Event where we travel to Beforus and see what life on a peaceful sister planet might be like! To get an invite, just like or reblog this post or shoot us an ask!

FAQ under the cut!

Q: So what kind of roleplay is gonna happen in this server?

A: Serverstuck is more of a casual type RP than a plot based one. Nobody will be entering SGRUB, but other mishaps and mayhem are definitely on the table in the form of events that the admins will run!

Q: I don’t know much about trolls, I only played Hiveswap- will that be okay?

A: Absolutely! I went through all of the wiki, the comic and game, and now the Friendsim, and made a few educated guesses based on the Trollcall, and compiled all the info on trolls I could into a handy bullet point guide that can easily be glanced over in 10 minutes! You could even join with zero experience with trolls!

Q: I’m not very good at script RP… I prefer to Text in character. Is this the server for me?

A: You know it! Along with channels for locations trolls might chill around, we have multiple social media channels, from Chittr to Mirthful Mingle, for all your script RP needs!

Q: What kind of players can we expect to see?

A: The mod team wants a friendly atmosphere, and as such, we hope to recruit friendly members! People looking for drama, arguments or debate would probably be better off in other servers since this one is meant to be pretty peaceful!

Q: Hey, I submitted an ask, or reblogged an old ad, and I never got accepted! What gives?

A: I am so fucking sorry. listen for a while i was the only dude running the blog and giving out 1k invites was hell. However, our whole mod team is on board now, so you should get invites faster than ever! 

Q: It’s 2019. Why are you still doing this?

A: O-our lusii say we’re valid…

Q: How many trolls can I play?

A: We each start with one troll, but as time progresses, you’ll have a shittonne more! INFINITE TROLLS, BABEY

Q: Is murder legal?

A: Absolutely, once you have consent and have discussed with both the other party and a mod!

Q: Have you any rules that we should know about first?

A: The most common ones are 1) we don’t allow Fuschia or Lime trolls and The reason is that there’s only one living Fuschia troll on Alternia at any given time, and they’re extremely powerful, and Lime trolls are all extinct.

Q: What will I do with my Fuschia or Lime trolls?

A: You can still have em! They can easily be revamped to be either Olive or Violet, depending!

Q: I take a long time to make stuff, and I don’t RP often. Can I still join?

A: Uh-huh! We’re cool with you coming in and just hanging out with other fans in the general chat!

Q: Are there any organized events we can take part in?

A: You know it! We have events every few weeks! The assassination of the Heiress! A brainstealing robot invasion! The Grinch stole 12th Perigee’s Eve! And a tonne of other stuff, too!

Q: Tell me about the TTRPG system you mentioned!

A: Subgrubs and Snazzards is a mod of Apocalypse World, just like Monster of the Week, which you may know from The Adventure Zone Amnesty! It’s simple, to the point, and a hundred percent customisable!

Q: What does this server have over other fantroll servers?

A: Well, we’re managed with a fully functional mod team who all take equal part in running the server, tend to players needs on a moments notice, have a years worth of experience under our wings, and will actively avoid encouraging drama. Trust us- there’s a few copycat servers out there, we know, but we’re the OG, and we won’t crumble under pressure! ;D

Q: 300 players sounds like it’ll be overwhelming…

A: Not to worry! Not all of our players are active daily! Consider it more like a hotel, where many people just check in and out, with a few residents living there on a permanent basis! Either way, you’ll never run out of people to thread with!

Q: I have a question that isn’t on this list.

A: Then shoot me an ask, bud! I’ll help you out in no time!

ART IS BY @swirlygerm-art ! Go follow em, you fucklenut, they’re one of Serverstuck’s beloved mods and our iconic artist!

[clonerightsagenda]

The epilogues look terrible and I don’t want to spend my time reading them... but I love + trust your judgement and your takes on things. Could you summarize them? (No pressure if you don’t want to)

OK, it’s been a few weeks since i read it, but I will do my best.NOTE: This is probably not comprehensive and definitely not objective. As a supplement, I did some poking around, and the MSPA wiki has some bullet points. I also eventually found another  summary on tumblr, albeit by someone who also didn’t like it, so it is probably biased as well. 

ANOTHER NOTE: Those content warnings weren’t a joke. Below are references to sexual content, assault, suicide, sexism, transphobia, character death, and probably some other stuff.

WHAT HAPPENED:

In the prologue, Rose summons John to inform him that he needs to defeat Lord English right now, or they will all experience terrible consequences. These are mostly meta consequences you can interpret as ‘if we don’t produce new Homestuck content on its 10th anniversary, everyone will give up on this franchise for real, and also canon doesn’t seem stable when the big bad never got beaten’. John goes to visit Roxy and Calliope before he leaves and is given the option to eat either meet or candy. This represents a choice he is supposed to make, and that choice creates two timelines.

In MEAT, John travels back in time and gathers three 16 year old versions of his friends. They confront Caliborn in the battle he represented in his Masterpiece and are sucked into the house juju. Vriska activates it, but not before being pulled into the black hole. Rose and Jade die immediately, with Rose’s body being destroyed and Jade’s falling into the black hole, because why should women get to fight the story’s biggest misogynist. Dave lands a solid hit on English before having his head bitten off Mami from PMMM style. John gets chomped on as well and a gold tooth ends up embedded in his chest. Davepeta appears and drags the wounded LE into the black hole. John finds his father’s wallet, retrieves his car, and slumps inside. Terezi appears, in bad shape after a long time wandering the ring. She seems confused at his state (explained because in CANDY she has been texting that version of him for years). She removes the tooth from his chest and they have sex.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Dave and Karkat have avoided talking about being a relationship for seven years, while Jade harasses them about becoming a threesome. This is explicitly tied to her abandonment issues but also she is referred to as a slut so like. Don’t love that. Jane is running for president, and Dave thinks this is terrible because she’s a woman fascist and doesn’t understand the economy and Karkat should run instead. Other shit is happening but I lost track. Rose is ill because she’s becoming her ‘Ultimate Self’ and seeing all timelines. Dirk claims he’s overcome the same problem and offers to help her but ends up controlling her and revealing he is the one actually writing this narrative.  There is a bit where the narration starts addressing the reader directly and then turns orange which I admit is genuinely cool and might have been interesting if done with characters I didn’t actually care about.

Dirk amps up controlling the narrative, directly forcing people to do and think certain things. (For example, he sequesters Rose away in his workshop and tells Kanaya via narration she believes Rose is better off with him, and she uncomfortably agrees without understanding why she thinks that.) He supports Jane’s bid for the presidency, even though she wants to crack down on trolls because they are naturally violent and reproduce too fast. Everyone tries to get Jake’s endorsement because he’s popular, which includes Jane attempting to seduce him in a very uncomfortable scene.Then Jade slips into a nice coma, because it’s not Homestuck without Jade losing her agency, and alt!Calliope starts using her as an avatar to take control of the narrative away from Dirk. They have some back and forth arguments before he is pushed out which, again, is genuinely clever but would be more enjoyable without all the edgy bullshit. Dirk eventually tricks alt!Callie and sedates Jade, taking back control of the story. Jane wins the presidency. Also at some point Meat!Roxy and Callie ID as nonbinary and start using they/them, and narrator!Dirk freaks out about it and misgenders them a lot, which is character assassination bc everyone knows Dirk is a trans icon. Anyway. Dave and Karkat have an awkward talk about their relationship where they keep dancing around things and Dirk tries to force Dave to kiss him. Dave gets frustrated because he’s aware someone is trying to make him do something (like with the Aimless Renegade), and eventually yells at Dirk to get out of his head before kissing Karkat. Terezi brings John back to Earth, and he begins to fade, since apparently LE’s tooth was poisoned with something more powerful than god tier that makes you irrelevant. Possibly a meta commentary on the hero or story not being needed once the big bad is gone. Terezi is sad about this and listens to him bleed while she smells him die. Then Dirk contacts her via narration and implies he can help her. She gets a text (later revealed to be Vriska). Dirk gets a spaceship from Jake after forcing him via narration to grovel about how much he loves him and then rejecting him and flying away with Rose and Terezi in tow. Jade wakes up long enough to tell everyone Dirk’s gone bad before she gets repossessed and starts pointing in his direction, prompting everyone to give chase. 

There is a final scene that will make more sense later, so I’ll add it later.

CANDY

John decides not to go fight LE. Roxy is delighted, and they began dating. Calliope tells John it is time to let Gamzee out of the fridge. Gamzee pops out and claims he is redeemed in a long speech making fun of sloppy redemption arcs. He then proceeds to be terrible for the rest of the story.Candy essentially satirizes Harry Potter epilogue style fics. Jane marries Jake (it’s implied she essentially roofies him with the trickster lollipop) and has Gamzee on the side. They have a son named Tavros. John and Roxy have a son named Harry. Rose and Kanaya adopt a troll clone of Vriska and name her Vriska. Jade, Karkat, and Dave are all dating, but Dave and Karkat are miserable. Dirk kills himself when he realizes the timeline went off kilter. Jade’s corpse from the Meat timeline crashes to earth, and in the middle of the funeral (which was genuinely a good scene) she sits up, possessed by alt!Calliope. Alt!Callie sequesters herself on the old meteor, now landed, and explains to Aradia and Sollux that this timeline is a dead end and she is protecting it from the influence of the prince. She also, in a parallel to Dirk’s reveal in Meat, talks about how every narrator has an agenda even if the text is formatted to make you not realize that.Jane becomes a fascist dictator and begins oppressing trolls. Karkat eventually get sick of being in a trio and runs off to be a resistance leader, including getting a sick eye patch (reference to Summer Teen Romance). Meenah stole the Ring of Life from Meat John and lands in the session; she and Karkat begin dating. Other ghosts begin falling from the sky as well, and Gamzee converts them to his redemption religion.John feels like something is really off.  His only solace is texting Terezi a lot, and he seems closer to her than he is to his wife. He and Roxy break up for a while and then (non-romantically) reconcile. Jake eventually leaves Jane and takes Tavros with him. Jade and Dave become rebels as well, then Dave meets a hologram of Obama, who helps him attain his ultimate self, putting his soul in a new robot body. 

Oh, also Vriska falls out of the sky, has hatesex with Gamzee, kills him, and then talks with Rose and Kanaya’s Vriska about how she loves Terezi. Then she texts her, as seen in the Meat timeline. Isn’t Vriska 13 and Gamzee an adult at this point? Probably. There’s a lot of questionable age stuff in this.

I’m sure I missed some details. Can you tell I’m losing steam.

Anyway, the two last chapters of each section reference the other storyline. At the end of Meat, Lord English’s body falls out of the sky, and alt!Callie (still in Jade’s body) devours it, becoming powerful enough to battle Dirk. Candy!Davebot arrives and he and Aradia jump into the black hole in pursuit.At the end of Candy, Dirk’s ship nears a new planet where he intends a new game of SBURB to be played. Rose is in a robot body serving as his handmaid essentially, and Terezi’s also on board.  

TAKEAWAYS:

There are a lot of different interpretations of the epilogue. A mockery of the two extremes of fanfic. Andrew Hussie continuing the theme of ‘all authors are tyrants by nature’ and using his self-insert to display how he hates his own story but also can’t stop telling it. Dirk trying to create conflict by making himself a villain because otherwise they’ll lose relevance and disappear. Musing on how being arbitrarily labeled 'grown up’ when you’re not ready (aka handed godhood by a game that doesn’t understand people) can fuck you up, and there is no single winning screen in life. Just a big old meta experiment on unreliable narrators. I can see where some of this is coming from, but frankly, I found it disturbingly sexist (even if it is intended to be so for effect). A lot of the sex and violence felt over the top and graphic just to be #ow the edge rather than serving any narrative purpose. Also, authors can do what they want with their texts, and they’re allowed to write tragedies, but after Hussie’s self-insert informs Caliborn that the most important stories are about friendship and teamwork and the fandom (that I’ve seen anyway) really responding to the bonds between characters, it felt cruel. That’s my feeling. Not everyone shares it. But hey, I’ve got my solution.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Pillars of Eternity, day 6.

Well, I was going to give Hiravias some attention, now that I’m on my way to his homeland, but sending him to free slaves is more important, so five days of running around picking up bounties and exploring the Endless Paths it is.

Really, Od Nua, like you’re the only one who ever had to bury a child. Some ego on you.

I will not be fighting the adra dragon with a level 11 party. That would not go very well.

OK, got the little guy back. Is it time to drop Aloth? I think it’s time to drop Aloth. We’ll come back for you later. Maybe. We’ll see. You are very useful in the endgame.

Sikkerneq now has four points in Honest, the first disposition she’s maxed out. I was hoping for more points in Rational and Stoic (currently 2 and 1, respectively), but apparently I’m too prone to niceness in games to make that work unless I plan it from the beginning and exercise truly heroic discipline.

Whoo, another political assassination! Apparently this is SIkkerneq’s life now.

Ah, the joys of running a character who can easily get to Intelligence 19. Enjoy your poison, Simoc.

Really? Even poisoned, he outlasts all of his warriors in the ensuing fight?

And Sagani’s quest is done. Sikkerneq is staying well back, she doesn’t want to get in the way and mess this up. And how important are her own feelings about the pointlessness of the whole exercise here, so far from home for both of them?

Huh, I thought I’d nudged Sagani towards family, but I told her to trust her instincts and she told Persoq about his accomplishments as a village elder. Good for her, she’ll make a good leader.

Dragon. That’s a dragon. As little as Sikkerneq is here to assassinate political leaders, she’s really not here to fight dragons. You know what, dragon, you can stay, she’ll explain this to Hylea somehow.

...shut the entire fuck up, Hiravias, we’re trying to not get eaten here.

So much for stealthing my way through Noonfrost. Time for more murder, I guess.

Finally got that upgrade on the arbalest. WHOOOOOOOO. Merely doing 700 damage to get the next level should go much more smoothly.

Hiravias’ quest is done. And Scâthden is now dead, because he insisted on being a dick.

I would’ve settled for a lock of hair or a tooth or something, but if ripping off his jaw is what does it for you, Hiravias, don’t let me stop you.

Raedric, you’d be better able to get away with being so extra if you were competent and/or reasonable. Honestly now. Stay dead this time!

Well, Durance’s quest is done. It’ll be nice to retire him for a while again.

Killing Magran and Woedica? On your own? You, uh, have fun with that, buddy. We’ll be over here. Well outside the blast radius.

Now that I’ve banged out the gods’ quests, I’ve got a decision to make. The obvious, logical choice for someone coming in cold with no investment in any of the sides is probably Hylea; the problem is that the souls were taken from the Hollowborn, so we give them back their souls and everything is fine, right? I haven’t done Rymrgand yet, but I won’t. I have limits. Galawain seems like a viable choice as well; my headcanons mean that Sikkerneq has reasons to throw her lot in with Magran, who’s siding with Galawain here, and of course I have out-of-character knowledge that it’d spare Pallegina a rough ending, but our girl is also a little disillusioned with Magran’s worshipers right now (and just trolled Durance into swearing to kill his own goddess, though I don’t know how sincere she was being).

Well, I’ve got some time to think about it—now that I’ve mopped up in Twin Elms and bagged a few more bounties (including getting that shiny, shiny arquebus off Captain Muārumi—you’re welcome, Kana), it’s White March time.

Hello, Zahua. What, and Sikkerneq cannot stress this enough, the entire actual fuck.

Hello, Maneha. You’re a little scary. And hot, in a “cool old lady” kind of way. Feel free to keep running around in that outfit.

Matron Beregan has been befriended. Whew, that got a little hairy there for a bit.

For the first time in any of my playthroughs, Suldrun has been successfully restored and sent home. Score one for the wiki.

Nothing personal, adra dragon, but you understand why I couldn’t let you live. (Since I had to take care of stuff at Caed Nua anyway...)

Oh, Kana, you really like Maneha, huh? I, uh, don’t think you’re quite her type. (Though maybe she would take to that sister of yours.)

Aww, baby lagufaeth. I don’t see any provision for tiny hugs, though. A terrible oversight.

Ooh, another Rauataian with a surname (Yuraska Rona, in the backstory of the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer). My headcanons still hold, though.

Sikkerneq offered to help you, alpine dragon. You want to be a dick and attack her, you deserve what you get. Which is dead. Very dead.

Next up, grabbing Devil of Caroc and sniffing around Durgan’s Battery.

[phantom-le6]

Episode Reviews - Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 (2 of 7)

A quick warning to all readers, the review for episode 7 of this season contains a strong anti-religious sentiment, and some of my comments in reviewing episode 5 and 6 lean the same way.  If such things are offensive to you, please either;

1.    Leave the reading of this article entirely,

2.    Skip down to episode 8 at the bottom of this article, or…

3.    Read ahead with the understanding that I expect anyone disagreeing with my views to do so respectfully.  I will accept calm, reasoning debate, but I have a strict zero tolerance policy regarding trolling, etc.

Episode 5: False Profits

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

USS Voyager detects a wormhole whose exit point is traced to the Alpha Quadrant. This would be a shortcut home for Voyager; the only problem is that the Delta Quadrant side moves around erratically. While Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres work on a way to draw the local end of the wormhole to Voyager, Tuvok investigates a nearby planet called Takar with a Bronze Age civilization. He is surprised to discover evidence of replicator technology there.

 Chakotay and Paris beam down to investigate. They discover two Ferengi posing as gods known to the locals as Sages, who were foretold in the planet's mythology. Years ago, as told in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Price", they had come through the wormhole, and since its Delta Quadrant end was unfixed, had been unable to go back. Instead, they decided to exploit the replicator technology to make themselves rich. When the Ferengi are beamed aboard Voyager, they refuse to go back through the wormhole and point out the harm to the natives' religion if they simply disappeared. Janeway is forced to return them to the planet.

 Neelix, disguised as a Ferengi, travels back to the planet. He pretends to be a representative (the "Grand Proxy") of the Ferengi ruler, the Grand Nagus, and demands that the two of them return to the Alpha Quadrant so he may confiscate their riches. Instead, the two Ferengi attempt to kill Neelix, uncovering his ruse in the process. Neelix is forced to leave, but the Voyager crew has learned the end of the song that contains the local prophecy. Neelix announces himself as the "Holy Pilgrim", a character prophesied to return the Sages to their home. He coordinates with Voyager to create signs of his authenticity, which incites the natives to attempt to burn him and the Ferengi at the stake, citing a passage prophesying that they will return home on "wings of fire". Neelix and the Ferengi are beamed away at the last moment and the natives are convinced their prophecy has come true.

 The Voyager crew succeed in drawing the wormhole to them, but the Ferengi manage to steal back their shuttlecraft, which Voyager had confiscated. Their attempts to escape back to Takar end with them being sucked into the wormhole and destabilizing it after being sent to the alpha quadrant. Voyager is left behind and they are forced to resume course to the Alpha Quadrant.

Review:

Apparently, this episode was just an attempt to boost ratings by working in the Ferengi as they were fan favourites at the time, and of course TNG had inadvertently set up an opportunity for that during its time on TV.  As a result, we get another bit of rare cross-show continuity in this oft-episodic franchise.  This is about as deep as the show was aiming to be on this episode, at least going by what’s on the Trek wiki site Memory Alpha, which is a shame.  This is because in all honesty, outside of Quark and Nog in DS9, I’ve never really enjoyed the Ferengi very much at all.  They combine the worst of capitalism with the worst in sexism and misogyny, and then attempt to treat it as somehow being worthy of a laugh. Trust me, it isn’t; the Ferengi as a rule are one of Trek’s few bad jokes, and the less said about them, the better.

 Also, it’s a shame the episode is aiming for depth because it also inadvertently hits on Trek’s secularist viewpoint by showcasing a key pitfall of religion, namely the ease with which faith can be corrupted by those who wish to exploit it.  Just in the same way that people in real life use religion as a tool to further prejudice or cloak their personal depravity behind a masquerade of holiness, so too do the Ferengi in this episode exploit the alien culture they’re exposed to for their financial gain.  It’s deplorable, and it’s good to see that the Voyager crew don’t stand idle by using the Prime Directive as an excuse.

 However, the episode still ends up being a poor entry, and not just for the Ferengi.  The other issues I have are two-fold.  First, the Ferengi indicate they came down on the planet trailing plasma, suggesting serious damage, and they landed in a bronze age society.  As such, even if Voyager beamed up the Ferengi shuttle, they could never have gotten it out into space as quickly as they did, so there’s a big continuity problem with the ending.  Second, it’s another use of a short-cut home for the Voyager crew mid-season, which means there’s no real stakes because you know full well it’s going to be another failed effort.  Overall, I don’t feel inclined to give this episode any better than 5 out of 10, and that’s mostly for the performances of the main cast outside of the more ridiculous moments of the undercover away missions.

Episode 6: Remember

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Voyager is transporting members of a telepathic race, the Enarans, to their homeworld. Lt. B'Elanna Torres begins experiencing intense dreams in which she is a young Enaran woman named Korenna having a forbidden love affair with an Enaran youth, Dathan. The dreams seem real, more like memories, and they become increasingly disturbing and dangerous, forcing Torres to seek answers from the Enaran passengers.

 She learns that her dreams are actual memories being projected to her by one of the visiting Enarans, Jora Mirell, formally named Korenna, now an old woman. The memories are of a lover of Korenna in her youth, who was a member of the "Regressives", a group that preferred not to use technology but instead lived a simple life. The Regressives were deported and executed in a program of genocide. The Enarans, however, covered up the genocide by teaching succeeding generations that the Regressives brought about their own demise.

 On Voyager, Torres visits Korenna's quarters, and finds her dying from what she claims is a murder to continue the conspiracy. Before dying, she projects the ending of the story to Torres; how she turned her lover over to the authorities and watched his execution.

 Torres confronts the Enarans, but they deny wrongdoing. Though the Prime Directive forbids Captain Janeway from interfering, she casually remarks that the last of the Enaran engineers are packing their equipment. Torres rushes to engineering, where she confronts Jessen, an Enaran woman with whom she had become friends and bemoans the fact that she is unable to project the memories, and thus prove their validity. Jessen tells Torres that she is able to connect their minds, and proceeds to do so with Torres. The episode closes with the first 'dream' of all, but now Jessen is seeing herself as Korenna.

Review:

This is the first in a couple of episodes that work around the idea of metaphorically referencing the Nazi holocaust during the Voyager series.  In this case, we’re looking in symbolic terms at a German woman who fell in love with one of the various groups of people that the Nazis targeted with their hatred (wasn’t just Jews, FYI), only to betray her lover when her SS-equivalent dad finally convinces her of the Nazi propaganda about them.  It’s not a bad episode, but to be honest I think it could have been better.  The main flaw is that the divide in Enaran society isn’t along the same lines. We’re not seeing people being penalised for faith, skin colour, sexuality or being differently abled, but for simply not “keeping up with the times”.

 As a result, the episode inadvertently sets itself up as analogous to the systematic wiping out of Native Americans, the sacking of Africa for the slave trade and just the general horror side of colonialism as a whole.  It could also be seen as how perhaps some people in America could end up treating its Pennsylvania Dutch community, and considering America’s very recently gotten very regressive with things like the overturning of Roe v. Wade, I’m thinking that’s not an unrealistic hypothetical.  The bottom line is the episode doesn’t quite nail the metaphor on the head, and as a result its efficacy relative to its intended message is reduced.  At least the episode has the crew showing concern for B’Elanna when she gets these memories telepathically forced in her in an analogy to issues of consent and rape, which is a step-up from how TNG handled similar issues.  On balance, I give this episode 7 out of 10.

Episode 7: Sacred Ground

Plot (as given by me):

While visiting the homeworld of a race known as the Nechani, Kes is placed into a coma-like state when she runs into a biogenic field surrounding one of the shrines. The Nechani are sympathetic to Kes’ plight, but uncooperative to any scientific analysis of the shrine. This is partly due to a strictly enforced segregation of church and state that prohibits the planet’s government from interfering with its religious leadership and vice versa.

 Unwilling to accept that Kes will die, Captain Janeway seeks an alternative. Neelix learns of an ancient Nechani king who made a plea with the spirits the Nechani believe in for the life of his son. As Captain of Voyager, Janeway believes she is entitled to do the same, but has no belief in the spirits. Rather, she believes a scientific basis underpins the beliefs of the Nechani monks, and that the ritual will create some kind of changes in her bio-chemistry that will provide a clue to a cure for Kes.

 Janeway undergoes what she thinks is the ritual, a micro-probe in her body providing a variety of data to Voyager. Using this, the Doctor devises a treatment, but it fails to work.  Janeway returns to the planet and realises that the monks simply gave her trials and tests to complete because she expected them; the ritual mattered far less than her simply taking a leap of faith.

 Ultimately, the captain is convinced that she will be able to restore Kes to health by taking her back into the biogenic field. Despite the objections of her crew, she does so and Kes is indeed restored to health. Based on readings taken by Chakotay, the Doctor finally arrives at a scientific rationale for what happened. Janeway, however, isn’t quite satisfied, her ordeal having apparently unbalanced her previously unwavering secularist perspective.

Review:

This is one of the worst episodes of the series, in large part because it abandons one of the key tenants of Trek that actually makes sense.  A key part of Trek has always been that humanity has become a secularist society following contact with aliens and cleaning up society.  We don’t do spirituality anymore, which is why most religious exploration in the series is done via aliens.  Sisko in Deep Space Nine is a bit of an exception that is largely nullified by the fact that from the beginning, the Bajoran gods are revealed as alien beings, thereby making their nature as gods a simple matter of Bajoran spirituality distorting their perspective and clouding their sense of logic and reason.

 One of the key reasons I enjoy Trek is that it takes a science-first standpoint, and it’s probably not coincidental that the one really optimistic concept of humanity’s future doesn’t include human religion.  Religion is a major excuse for people to treat each other horribly, to resist or even outright deny scientific truths that are hard to accept, it’s highly exploitable against others, and in most cases, it preaches the rule of “do as we say or your soul is in trouble”.  If you swap “do as we say” for “pay up”, and then switch “soul” for “business”, “family”, etc. then we see that this message is little more than spiritual racketeering. By the same token, while the episode tries to lean into a “not everything is provable by science, so you also need faith” angle, and tries to remain neutral, to my mind it just showcases the flaws of religion.

 In this episode, religion blocks the efforts of science to find a treatment for Kes, wastes time making Janeway go through a convoluted ritual, and when Kes is finally healed, it turns out the situation could have been resolved in five minutes without religious impediments. It even tries to suggest that science is something Janeway “believes in” because she still thinks it will help even in lieu of an immediate answer.  Science is not be believed in; that’s what religion is for because religion is fantasy; it requires belief in order for people to buy into.  Science is about reality, and rejecting reality is fundamental stupidity in its most absurd form.  Just because it isn’t able to answer everything in our world yet doesn’t mean it can’t; it just means it has not found the answer yet.

 Science dares to question everything, even its own findings, in order to find the right answer to every question, whereas religion just goes for an easy answer that people then assume to be right just because it is easy.  This is why Trek leaves religion behind for humanity; because getting into space and advancing as a society needs right answers, not easy ones.  That this episode would have a major proponent of science like Janeway doubt this simple reality is just beyond belief.  For me, this episode earns no more than 2 out of 10; the concept really is just that dreadful.

Episode 8: Future’s End (Part 1)

Plot (as given by me):

Voyager is attacked by the Federation timeship Aeon, commanded by a Captain Braxton who claims Voyager will cause a temporal explosion in the 29th century that will wipe out Earth’s solar system. Unwilling to let Braxton destroy them without evidence, Janeway orders the crew to fight back. This results in both vessels being pulled into a time-space distortion that leads both ships back in time, and Voyager finds itself in orbit around Earth, but in the year 1996 instead of the 2370’s. Assuming a high orbit to avoid detection by the era’s satellite network, the ship scans the surface for the timeship and finds a subspace signature originating from the city of Los Angeles.

 Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok and Paris beam down dressed in time-appropriate clothing while Ensign Kim is given command of the bridge. As the away team begins their search, an astronomer named Rain Robinson detects Voyager and contacts her employer, a businessman named Henry Starling, who urges her not to contact anyone and keep monitoring. However, Rain does against orders and transmits a standard E.T. greeting message to Voyager. Meanwhile, Janeway and Chakotay find a homeless man who turns out to be Captain Braxton, and the source of the sub-space readings. Braxton reveals that he crash-landed in the 1960’s, and Starling got to the ship first, using its tech to found his business empire.

 Braxton explains that Starling making a flight to the future without properly recalibrating the timeship’s systems is the true cause of the temporal explosion he came back to stop. However, with no access to the timeship and driven partly mad by primitive pharmaceuticals, Braxton is of little use. Learning from Kim about the greeting, Janeway sends Paris and Tuvok to the observatory to find out how much anyone there knows and prevent any potential alteration of their history. Meanwhile, Janeway and Chakotay head for the headquarters of Starling’s company, Chronowerx, to try and find the timeship.

 Paris and Tuvok succeed in their mission, but it is complicated when an agent of Stirling’s tries to kill Rain, forcing Paris and Tuvok to flee with her for their protection.  In an effort to calm her down, Paris claims he and Tuvok are secret agents trying to deal with a threat caused by the Soviets, and that the USSR breaking up is just a cover story. Janeway and Chakotay find the timeship at Chronowerx and try to talk Starling out of his future flight. After a brief hostage situation, Janeway and Chakotay are beamed to safety. However, Starling manages to download 20% of Voyager’s data, including the Doctor’s program, and causes damage to the ship in the process. In addition, because Kim had to take Voyager into the atmosphere to effect beam-out with short-range emergency transporters, the ship has been caught on video, potentially damaging the timeline.

Review:

This is the first of several mid-season multi-part episodes.  Just as TNG came to do these during its last two seasons instead of leaving them all to season-linking cliff-hangers, and DS9 had also started doing them, so Voyager opted to go in the same vein.  The major idea here was apparently just to “have fun writing”, going by writer Brannon Braga’s reported comments on Memory Alpha.  Again, a pity because one of the things Gene Roddenberry ever got right was to say stories should be about something.  This is why Trek at its best is either issue exploration or character development; because with either option a story is truly about something or someone.

 What we get here isn’t really about anything beyond basic sci-fi tropes; time-travel, alien conspiracies, etc. There’s no exploration of any of our main characters and no underlying issues to go at.  It’s just pure plot-driven meh spiced up with action here and there to try and cover up the hollowness of the episode.  Frankly, when I sit down to watch Trek, I expect all the window-dressing to actually be dressing something.  That said, it’s still a vast improvement on the last three episodes despite this, and it is amusing to see Neelix and Kes actually watch TV and speak up for it over the Trek concept of holodecks.  For the end score, I grant 8 out of 10.

[quietpagan]

More notes upon the second viewing, Trollhunters Season 2:

 - According to Strickler’s orientation video, the Pale Lady created Changelings

   - “Oh! And we also have the Skullcrusher’s heir right here! Bular, would you care to give a few words to...” HE MADE BULAR ACT IN THE ORIENTATION VIDEO!

- If Usurna was working for Gunmar, why did she dump the pieces of Killahead Bridge into the ocean? Without the Bridge, Gunmar could not return, which was her goal???

- Otto if you are a polymorph and can change your appearance at will, whyyyy do you stick with the creepiest form you can find??? YO HE WAS THE DUDE SPRAYPAINTING IN THE ALLEY!

- Otto has one of Dictatious’s very distinct-looking books. Should have been your first clue, Blinky.

- the Gumm-Gumm mourning the giant snake monster Jim killed, like...

- The Peer Gynt music by Edvard Grieg opened February 24, 1876, so if Nomura was a young girl at that time she’s over 140 years old. Also the wiki says her first name is Zelda. It’s either Yiddish or German. Zelda. Lord.

- Kanjigar is SHADY AS FUCK GUYS! “Trust in yourselves. And me!” I know they’re out of time and he doesn’t have time to be polite, but being deliberately vague and unhelpful is a real dick move.

- y’all Blinky and Dicky are the same size, have the exact same tattoos...I’m not certain that they’re not twins.  I know it’s easier to animate with a model you already have, but if they could add scars to Dictatious they could have changed the tattoos. The Darklands obviously physically changes anybody who is there for too long, since Dickbutt’s tatts are more angular and jagged than Blinky’s (as are AAARRRGGHH’s tattoos), but they still have them in the same places and in the same patterns. Unless Blinky admired his older bro so much that he got tatts to match, they’re twins.

- Alright so I just got off the wiki page and apparently Despicable Maxipads is the eldest brother, but the twins idea would have been SO COOL

- kay but Eclipse Sword is really pretty

- okay so they: broke a stalkling’s neck onscreen, stabbed a goblin through the hand with a pencil, stabbed Draal in the back, tore his prosthetic arm off, had Gumm-Gumms stalking through the hospital like damn velociraptors while Dr L hid in terror and prolly got eaten, 

- Toby’s intense love of The Mole Mascot Outfit is slightly disturbing. I do not need f*rries in this show. And go Darcy for being honest to Toby about taking things slow instead of leading him on and making them both uncomfortable.

- the burning-the-library scene is really nice. It’s quite but intense and highlights that there’s a lot more going on than the surface conflicts and fart jokes. 

- Blinky is pulling out all the stops on hating Stinktatious. He doesn’t hesitate, there is no love lost. As soon as he accepted Dicktit’s betrayal he immediately stopped loving his brother. As someone who finds it easy to stop caring about people and who has never met anyone else like this, this was something that I could relate to. Most people would think, “But he used to be such a good guy! Such a wonderful brother.” But his past goodness doesn’t negate or lessen his willful and gleeful betrayal, and Blinky accepts that without a single shred of remorse for what was lost.

- I’m glad they get on Jim for going into the Darklands alone but he immediately turned it around so that they felt guilty for making him feel guilty. I don’t think it was deliberate manipulation on his part, I think he’s just doing a classic Harry Potter teenage woe-fest, but I would liked to have seen him at least apologize.

- Dictatious and Gunmar come stumbling into the 21st century like a pair of blind and unsteady and crotchety old geezers, helped along by the nursing-home staff.

You see these demons in the second circle of Hell

- my headcanon that Bagdewella flirts with any and everything has finally come true. Look at that predatory smile. That is a woman who’d pretend to twist her ankle so that she could ask the dashing Trollhunter Kanjigar to carry her home. She even eyes Draal up and down.

Sorry, lady, Draal doesn’t have impure thoughts so much as thoughts for an Impure.

- Gunmar seems to gain power from gemstones (the blue gems in the DL, the Heartstone, etc) so what exactly does he need to eat humans for?? Dessert??

- AAARRRGGHH picking up the phone call from Jim about his doubles and is like NOPE, NOPE, THIS IS A BLINKY PROBLEM

- Every. Single. Move. that Trollhunter!Jim makes is accompanied by a dramatic whoosh sound. gLORYYYYYY!

AAARRRGGHH’s not the only one to have some really good moments.

- Is Eli from a younger grade and he just skipped a few? He’s tiny and has the squeakiest voice in the entire show. He’s less mature than even Steve and I’m not entirely certain he’s old enough to drive yet, because why would Steve be the one to drive Eli’s mom’s car?

- Usurna claims that trolls don’t use glasses yet Blinky has requested a pair numerous times. where is the lie.

- It’s not Barbara’s car, guys. Her car is green/teal and the car Gunmar dumped in a tree after (presumably) eating the woman who drove it was white.

- quietly concerned with the weird blue light that came out of controlled!Draal’s mouth + the light flicker, + Gunmar using his body to say ‘Your friend is gone.’

- Jimbo sounds so broken, pleading with Gunmar to release Draal from his control.

- Gunmar’s ‘I want to kill the Trollhunter with my own hands’ is the worst thing a villain can do. He literally has Jim down and defenseless several times, but doesn’t strike because he wants to be picky.

- “Unkar the Unfortunate?! I was hoping for Unkar the Ultimate! INCONCEIVABLE!”

- Even after Strickler’s turn of heart at the end of season 2, during Unbecoming Jim is still like yo stay away from my mom! Jim be like ‘I know you’re a CHangeling’ and Strickler immediately tries to kill him, favorite student or not. And then he wants to help?? 

- who is Nomura talking about, Mr. Stubborn and Works Alone that she knows well, hmmmmm

Ya just couldn’t pass up on making Draal die in the same pose that AAARRRGGHH died in, huh? Ya couldn’t pass on the anguished screaming, huh? 

- lowkey kinda annoyed that Jim kneeled before Merlin, even though despite the whole picking-a-fifteen-year-old-to-be-a-legendary-champion thing Merlin has yet to be an actual douchebag

I honestly think Blinky only claimed these things were rare so that he could hoard them himself.

[deltaengineering]

Spring Anime 2017 Part 1: woke up late

This time I prepared so I could get to the procrastinating right with the first post! Yay! Let’s get this show on the road.

See also:

• spring anime 2017 part 2: girlfriendship is magic

• spring anime 2017 part 3: comfy and easy to wear

• spring anime 2017 bonus round: things you already knew were good

Alice to Zouroku

So get this, a pretty girl with psychic superweapon powers escapes from a lab she’s been in her whole life and now has to adapt to the real world with the help of a guy she stumbles upon, all while being chased by her superweapon former friends. But in a shocking twist, this is actually better than Elfen Lied! Not being written by someone as brutally incompetent as Lynn Okamoto is a start, but the real change here is that our heroine is less murder machine and more genuinely cute, and more importantly the guy she ends up with is not a harem ringleader dorklord, but a grumpy elderly florist. Yeah, we’re skipping the recent trend of dadfeel anime and diving headfirst into granddad feels (I don’t know if aging otaku are quite old enough to fully self-insert yet, but the same principle applies). It’s a low hanging fruit, but that’s what makes it work; a deliberate, contemplative pace and delightfully whimsical music by TO-MAS also help. So far, so good, were it not for the fact that this is only one aspect of the show. Of course a show like this would have an action half as well, and that one’s pretty garbage. Not only is it directed with zero impact or excitement, it also relies on horrible CG a lot - I really don’t want to be reminded of Hand Shakers this quickly again, thank you very much. Plus, it runs with a Alice in Wonderland metaphor, which is baby’s first literary reference and doesn’t bode well about the intellectual ambitions of the project. So we have one half that’s admittedly effective, but also very predictable and which desperately needs to go somewhere to pay off. The other half just plain sucks and has little chance to improve. I think I’ll give this one a few more chances to sort out its priorities, but it’s definitely not a sure thing.

Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism

A cocky guy walks into a school full of pretty girls with weapons who have managed to sissify all the dudes by forcing them to crossdress. He then proceeds to troll them with his rugged charm. You know, it’s really not that easy to offend me but damn this show is trying. Apart from bottom-tier harem crap setup, this show also looks like ass and is tremendously boring; a few well done action cuts do not in fact excuse “fights” that mostly consist of exposition about special attacks, or terminally uninspired direction. Macchiavellism is the worst of shounen fightmens crossed with the worst of harem LNs, plus some of the worst jokes bad anime comedy can come up with. It’s not even audacious enough in its badness to boggle the mind; I could watch this if I was interested in adding another 1/10 to my MAL, but that’s about all I can appreciate about it.

Frame Arms Girl

Speaking of unholy combinations, here’s Gundam Build Fighters x Rozen Maiden x Strike Witches: A girl stumbles into a sentient mecha musume model kit that spends its time explaining the technical details of model building to her and attracts other model kits that want to fight. It’s an ad for model kits, what do you expect. There’s no characters, the plot is utterly uninteresting, the action’s bad, it looks subpar to bad, and the only high point is how brazenly it reads to you from the manual.

Gin no Guardian

Here’s your latest Chinese webcomic adaptation from your friends at Haoliners Animation League (Shanghai) Inc., whose output has been asymptotically approaching the quality level of a bad Japanese cartoon for years now: Closer than ever, but still not quite there. Maybe they should stop picking bad webcomics with incomprehensible nonsense plots as source material, just sayin’. So this is about a dude who beats up CG zombies in the spirit world but the actual story is how he got there? Or something? It manages to look barely alright and even has some visually striking design work, but its half-length run time prevents it from forming any semblance of coherence and I’m not about to ask for further clarification.

Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine

In a vaguely 18th century Germanic kingdom, a grown ass man with the body of a ten year old and a snarky disposition is hired to become the tutor of an instaharem of fabulous princes. I really don’t get who this is for; obviously the harem is straight out of a PSP otome dating sim, but it’s lacking the obvious self-insert dimwitted main girl, and no, it isn’t gay romance either. Even though it’s a comedy, that aspect does not seem to be played for outright parody. The source material is running in GFantasy, a shounen title (but not one as specifically elementary schooler-focused as Jump, it also carries fujo favorites such as Black Butler). Dubious provenance aside, Haine is moderately funny if nothing else, mainly due to the deadpan reactions of the main character to these ridiculous dreamboats. It just also drags more than a little, with long conversations that aren’t very entertaining all the time. It’s watchable compared to a lot of the stuff out this season, but I remain unconvinced.

Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records

After Macchiavellism already obliterated the battle harem bingo, here’s our next winner. The setup’s more or less the same and in some respects it’s even more formulaic (the school is actually a magic school for magic people, princesses, duels, &c), but Akashic Record is not quite as odious simply by focusing on being a comedy first and foremost and pulling that off at least on a technical level - it has good visual execution and comedic timing. The question is just how much credit you want to give it for that when the jokes themselves still suck, and that’s of course ignoring the entire setup being Light Novel as all fuck. Kinda seems familiar actually, because this is not entirely unlike to what KonoSuba did to the isekai genre, and people keep trying to tell me that that was totally great. Well, go watch this one then, motherfuckers.

Sagrada Reset

But there’s always the other kind of light novel, the one where high schoolers talk about life, people and the world. Think Bakemonogatari or OreGairu. Sagrada Reset wants a slice of that pie and starts by stealing the magical realism conceit from classic™ visual novel Wind ~A Breath of Heart~: There’s a remote town in Japan where everyone has superpowers, but if they leave the town they instantly forget about it. Oops, i guess I just spoiled Wind’s midgame, but I have to since Sagrada Reset puts this stuff right upfront because it has to discuss technicalities (at length) to make its plot work. Yeah, that’s how I like my magical realism, thoroughly explained and conceived by people who should write wikis, not fiction. There’s a girl who can reset time, but only once per arbitrary period of time and also including herself, which means she only finds out she already did it once it doesn’t work again. So that’s pretty useless, except there’s a guy whose superpower is having his memory unaffected by this. They have to work together to solve... some problems, I suppose. This whole idea seems to have potential in a JoJo subplot sort of way, but it’s completely sunk by the way the thing is written, since apparently the writer has never met a human being in his life. It’s entirely made of these pseudo-deep highschool stoner philosophy conversations presented in a lifeless inflection by people who stand around like robots on battery saver mode. This seems to be intentional (at least the term “robot” is thrown around a couple of times, which is certainly ominous), but it also makes for an excruciating and interminable watching experience.

Sakura Quest

Since Sakura Quest was announced, I have been gleefully throwing water on the hype of people who expected this to be the next Shirobako. After all, how likely is it for lightning to strike twice, especially considering Mizushima is not in the director’s seat? Surely it was all just wishful thinking, I want a S2 of Shirobako as much as everyone but I just don’t trust anime. Well consider me fucking told, since apparently among the parties wishing for more Shirobako is P.A. Works, and unlike the anitwitterati they can make it happen. The actual brand name seems to be reserved for a Mizushima project, but I would have no trouble believing that Sakura Quest is a spinoff about Aoi’s sister in the boonies; Shirobako Sunshine, if you will. The initial setup is mirrored here; Yoshino is not a young professional starting her dream job, but a young professional unable to score a dream job (or any job) so she settles for a random one she’s very skeptical of, but will undoubtedly learn to love. Apart from that, well, it’s Shirobako: The positive tone, the large cast of likeable oddballs, the relatable writing about post-highschool problems, and it even looks completely identical. I’ll still be realistic about it: Shirobako isn’t great for what its ideas were, but for how thoroughly it delivered in the long run, and this is by no means guaranteed to also happen with Sakura Reset Quest. For an episode 1 though, it’s like a dream come true, and P.A. are setting themselves up for seasonal double domination with this and Uchouten Kazoku S2.

Souryo to Majiwaru Shikiyoku no Yoru ni

Enough gushing, here’s 5 minutes of porn. Okay, it’s josei porn so there may still be gushing involved if you know what I mean, nyuk nyuk. Er, sorry about that. Sooooo there’s a sexually frustrated woman who meets her school crush who’s now a priest, and then they fuck. With a staff made up mostly of (non-josei, but hey) hentai OVA veterans, there is really only one way this could go. I appreciate the brazenness as usual, but I really don’t know how much steamy harlequin romance tailored to TV broadcast standards I want to watch.

Tsugumomo

I’ve seen some warnings about Tsugumomo based on its source material which is a manga with 1. a very high level of art quality and 2. content that has been described as “makes To-Love Ru Darkness look family friendly”. This may explain why it has not been licensed. It doesn’t explain why this first episode is fairly tame though; sure, it’s very much an ecchi comedy, but you get those from time to time and Tsugumomo is not any more raunchy than what I’m used to seeing (and it accomplishes this even without obvious BD-advert censoring). That incidentally also removes any reason to watch it: The plot is as basic “guy gets magical girlfriend for purposes of fights and/or walking in on her naked in the bath” from 15 years ago as they come, and it’s suspiciously well animated, but not well enough for that to be a selling point. Maybe it will get real skeevy eventually, I won’t be around to find out.

Warau Salesman NEW

Warau Salesman starts strong with ultra cool, Saul Bass-inspired opening credits, but that’s about all it has to offer. It’s based on a “black comedy” manga from the 60s by one of the Doraemon authors, and oh boy can you tell. Not only are the character designs 60s-tastic (so at least the Osomatsu-san fujos can schlick to something while they wait for the S2 of that), but so are the sensibilities: The titular salesman goes around tempting frustrated office workers with doing something moderately irresponsible, such as drinking in your lunch break or spending above your means, and then ruins their life when they actually do it. It’s like Twilight Zone written by your HR department. In the 60s. This stuff would have been outdated even in 1989, when it was animated for the first time – hence the “NEW”. I don’t know, it just seems mean-spirited, obvious and pointless, and most importantly I put the “black comedy” in quotes because in addition to not being very black, it’s not funny in any way, and unlike regular anime comedy I can’t even see what’s supposed to be funny. 

[bedlamgames]

Roadmap to the next update

After last update turned into an unending nightmare that took far too long this one is going to be much smaller to turn it round a lot faster. 

Before I get onto what will and what will not be in the next planned update I’d like to thank maikochan for setting up a wiki for No Haven. 

It’s still very much under construction, but feel free to contribute to it to help it grow. 

The only thing I’d request you do not add is specific assignment results as I do feel that’s something you should play the game for. Listed rewards are fine and things like other factors that can change things are okay to have on there. For example that having submissive and/or sex addict and going yourself can lead to different results on Pillow Talk are also fine. 

Now onto the actual update and what will be included under the break

A deeply sexy asssignment overview of what’s available and what’s active with a bunch of options of maximum visibility (this is already completed).

Adding the new commissioned art to biomancy (also already completed).

A fix for the slave escape errors.

A number of new assignments, at the moment it’s looking like one uncommon and one rare great plains, two uncommon ever forrest, one uncommon and one rare deep mountains, one common coast, and one tri-type rare in the city. For those who don’t know what I mean by tri-type think how the Profane Ritual assignment can be done as either Defending or Corruption, like that but with three instead of two. Most of these will also not be marauding as that’s currently far too represented though a couple still will be.

Fixing the requests system so you have a lot more leeway of what slave to sell in the city/Ensnared Rose. I’ll also make sure this is working this time. I might also add a quicker ditch a slave option here. That though given the amount of thought into balancing/reward might need to wait for a following update.

Scenarios. These will be a number of alternate starts for the game giving new challenges and different options. There will be six of these initially with more to come later.

As part of this there will be two new races, one a second troll subtype as people have asked for this and it fits in nicely with one of the new scenarios. The other will be made specifically for one of the scenarios but will crop up elsewhere occasionally and later will have assignments dedicated to it. This will be a group mainly made up of humans, elves and neko.

There will also be male/female starts for orkhai and also one to play a trollop.

Overhaul to the unit barks as I’ve worked out a way so they are nowhere near as time consuming to add and will have a lot more variation. 

What won’t be included and will be coming in the much bigger update that will follow (not counting hotfixes);

Healslut training so slaves finally have a way to use their healing ability.

Hands off management. If you choose to allow them slavers with healing/corruption/biomancy will use their traits without you needing to hang around to do so.

Encampment reputation rating. The lower the rep of a slaver is the easier you can do anything you like to them, the higher and harder it will be to do stuff to them. This may sound like it’s a small change but trust me this is going to be huge with a whole bunch of effects going forward both in how it is gained and lost, how you can manipulate it, and how it will affect what the slaver gets up to. Due to this, and the changes that will be made to Whoremakers because of it, there will also be a new assignment for another way to dispose of high rep slavers. 

This leads into promoting slaves to slavers and visa versa. 

Also leading into the start of the events system where things will crop up and you will need to make decisions.

And also more ways to enforce respect i.e Magic of various kinds.

More you going on assignments variations and improvements along with adding more depth to being possessed. 

Update after that I believe will be the mega crafting improvements with potions being bulked out to completion and adding enchanting and devices. After that I think it will be time for slave farms/mines where you can send away a number of slavers/slaves for an ongoing effect and a source of assignment. There will also finally be continuing some of the story line based stuff like with the Ensnared Rose and unlocking the biomancy options via an assignment chain. 

These should not be taken as absolute and knowing the way I work I’m sure I’ll add other stuff like when I do alchemy I’ll look to add a proper bimbo training path for example. 

I hope this was helpful as a look ahead and that you’ll continue to enjoy them as they come out.

[serverstuck]

Come join SERVERSTUCK, a Fantroll RP server for anyone from Homestuck Veterans to Hiveswap Enthusiasts!

Pester your chums and make new friends!!

Over 350 players

A Year and a Half worth of experience

A custom TTRPG system based on Powered by the Apocalypse, as seen in Monster of the Week: SUBGRUBS & SNAZZARDS

Mutants, Limes, Ghosts, Robots and more!

Lore Events from Murder Trials for an Assassinated Heiress to Robot Invasions from Space to Clowns crossing dimensions to crumple existence itself!

A super fun and friendly community to roleplay with or just hang out in!

We’re the best and brightest of Homestuck in 2019, and we want you! Join today, and make yourself right at home with Serverstuck!

Join today!

FAQ!

Q: So what kind of roleplay is gonna happen in this server?

A: Serverstuck is more of a casual type RP than a plot based one. Nobody will be entering SGRUB, but other mishaps and mayhem are definitely on the table in the form of events that the admins will run!

Q: I don’t know much about trolls, I only played Hiveswap- will that be okay?

A: Absolutely! I went through all of the wiki, the comic and game, and now the Friendsim, and made a few educated guesses based on the Trollcall, and compiled all the info on trolls I could into a handy bullet point guide that can easily be glanced over in 10 minutes! You could even join with zero experience with trolls!

Q: I’m not very good at script RP… I prefer to Text in character. Is this the server for me?

A: You know it! Along with channels for locations trolls might chill around, we have multiple social media channels, from Chittr to Mirthful Mingle, for all your script RP needs!

Q: What kind of players can we expect to see?

A: The mod team wants a friendly atmosphere, and as such, we hope to recruit friendly members! People looking for drama, arguments or debate would probably be better off in other servers since this one is meant to be pretty peaceful!

Q: Hey, I submitted an ask, or reblogged an old ad, and I never got accepted! What gives?

A: I am so fucking sorry. listen for a while i was the only dude running the blog and giving out 1k invites was hell. However, our whole mod team is on board now, so you should get invites faster than ever!

Q: It’s 2019. Why are you still doing this?

A: O-our lusii say we’re valid…

Q: How many trolls can I play?

A: We each start with one troll, but as time progresses, you’ll have a shittonne more! INFINITE TROLLS, BABEY

Q: Is murder legal?

A: Absolutely, once you have consent and have discussed with both the other party and a mod!

Q: Have you any rules that we should know about first?

A: The only one you gotta know off the bat is we don’t allow Fuschia Fantrolls, since there’s only ever one on the planet at a time!

Q: What will I do with my Fuschia trolls?

A: You can still have em! They can easily be revamped to be either Olive or Violet, depending!

Q: I take a long time to make stuff, and I don’t RP often. Can I still join?

A: Uh-huh! We’re cool with you coming in and just hanging out with other fans in the general chat!

Q: Are there any organized events we can take part in?

A: You know it! We have events every few weeks! The assassination of the Heiress! A brainstealing robot invasion! The Grinch stole 12th Perigee’s Eve! And a tonne of other stuff, too!

Q: Tell me about the TTRPG system you mentioned!

A: Subgrubs and Snazzards is a mod of Apocalypse World, just like Monster of the Week, which you may know from The Adventure Zone Amnesty! It’s simple, to the point, and a hundred percent customisable!

Q: What does this server have over other fantroll servers?

A: Well, we’re managed with a fully functional mod team who all take equal part in running the server, tend to players needs on a moments notice, have a years worth of experience under our wings, and will actively avoid encouraging drama. Trust us- there’s a few copycat servers out there, we know, but we’re the OG, and we won’t crumble under pressure! ;D

Q: 300 players sounds like it’ll be overwhelming…

A: Not to worry! Not all of our players are active daily! Consider it more like a hotel, where many people just check in and out, with a few residents living there on a permanent basis! Either way, you’ll never run out of people to thread with!

Q: I have a question that isn’t on this list.

A: Then shoot me an ask, bud! I’ll help you out in no time!

ART IS BY @swirlygerm-art! Go follow em, you fucklenut, they’re one of Serverstuck’s beloved mods and our iconic artist!