#nothing's gonna come out of this

[haunted-xander]

Doodles of the siblings bc i. love fambily

[bixels]

Splatoon 3: Side Order is good, but not great. I still highly recommend it, but if you care about the story, you're going to be disappointed. Quick review: spoilers ahead.

Side Order was the devs experimenting with Splatoon's gameplay loop. The campaign is a rogue-like, and it works amazingly well. Super fun, super challenging, building my deck and fighting through challenges with the stakes of resetting really scratched an itch in my brain. They did a great job with it.

Unfortunately, I feel like priority went to game design rather than story. Much of the mysterious artwork we saw in the first teaser trailer was completely unused; turns out, all of that was just concept art that never made it into the final product. Side Order failed to make me care about what was happening. I don't know why the protagonist had to be Agent 8; it could've been anyone else and the story would've worked the same.

Octo Expansion was the absolute peak of meshing story and gameplay. The campaign's hook is insanely strong; we immediately empathize with Agent 8 because we know from previous lore that octolings like her have been trapped underground for all their lives. We care about her fight to the surface because it's a fundamentally ideological fight for freedom. The plot stuff about Tartar and the Thangs is just nice set dressing; 8's fight for freedom is the real story.

There's none of that in Side Order. I don't particularly care about Marina's metaverse, even if it's tied to Octo Expansion's story. I don't know why Acht is there other than backstory stuff. It really feels like 8 is just told to do something and she does it because she's the protagonist; she has zero personal stakes or motivations in the conflict. This is a story blunder the devs did in Splatoon 3's default campaign––forgetting to give the protagonist a personal reason to fight––that I hoped would be fixed here, but alas.

What makes it worse is that the gameplay and story progression are completely out of sync. I beat the entire game on my third run in 4 hours. With each run, you get up to two keys to potentially unlock bits of story. That means you'll get about one piece of the story every two runs. There are twelve pieces of the story; I got the first and then beat the whole damn game. Now I have to go back and grind to see the remaining story when I've already beaten the final boss and resolved the conflict. I missed the entire story because I never had to reset because I blazed through the gameplay! It's just a real shame that I experienced everything without knowing... why it's happening. The final boss had me asking myself what the hell is going on because I don't know the backstory at all.

Again, I still really recommend. The devs did a great job, but Side Order remains in the shadow of Octo Expansion's incredible success. Like the default singleplayer campaign, there's just a lot of lost story potential here that, while not necessary, would have really elevated this DLC into something amazing.

[alackofghosts]

whatever happened to the man of tomorrow?

[lotus-pear]

regret

[th3e-m4ng0]

so i tried to do a painting where if u cover one half u see evil warlord, and if u cover the other u see a young protoform

[shower-phantom-ideas]

I would like the record to stand that I don’t think the waynes think Danny is some sort of hot twink guy. Just the cutiest lil dude ever.

I want them to see his hero persona (give that boy a mask) and fantasise over how cute or hot they think he will be.

They hear his voice. They see his actions. His strength. And assume hes gonna be babe material.

Later it happens. The reveal. And hes just some guy. Just a dude. I mean it’s gonna be shellshock for them. No one but Damian is shocked cause they all assumed his looks would be face and upper body model levels. Bruce probably was thinking the poor lil guy was covered in bruises and injuries but didn’t know about our kids healing factor.

I stan pristine danny who only gets scars from ghost hunting equipment. And that dissection.

Let them over look Fenton cause hes too normal. Let them not even consider him cause hes so scrawny. Too much like a human child.

[egophiliac]

I always though Mal's mom was meant to be like "Eleanor" but they stuck an M at the start honestly, Sobbing Emoji. But "Maleanor" also makes me feel less insane since in that scene where she's just handed egg Malleus to Lilia and went to battle, it sounds more like Lilia is saying "Maleanor" than "Meleanor" (Japanese accent pending). Mayhaps they went more with what it sounded like the characters were saying :0 (we don't talk about Doodle Suit to Paint The Roses)

the transliteration of her name is Marenoa (マレノア), which is what all the voice lines are saying! all the Draconias' names start with マレ (Malleus' grandma is Maleficia/マレフィシア) as a nod to Maleficent. :D it's almost certainly a take on Eleanor, which is Erenoa (エレノア), but her name is written in English at a couple points, and I was pretty surprised to see it was Mel instead of Mal!

and, like, that's fine, it wouldn't be first Twst romanization that's tripped me up (like Keito for Cater, I know that's something to do with the loanword specific to playing cards(?) but it's just not how my brain wants to read it). but now Eng has given us Maleanor! and someone else said it was spelled inconsistently between Maleanor and Maeleanor??????? so WHO KNOWS it's a SPELLING FREE-FOR-ALL

I AM torn on which I want to use, because Mel just sounds so cute to me (and is what I'm used to now), but...the Mal consistency is kinda too good to pass up. alas, alas, truly these are the most difficult conundrums of our times. 😔

[kazoo-the-demjin]

Kevin Day in mid-sophomore year fearing for his life and sanity whenever he hears the question "yes or no" being passed around between his roommates until he figures out they now use the same thing for casual shit too

[Kevin, in his head, about Andrew and Neil: Relationship status: psychic]

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Whooooo could have predicted this?

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[wynandcore]

The “prodigal son” 😁

[starsreminisce]

The evolution of the "two mates" theory into a true mating bond and an offspring mating bond perpetuates a misogynistic line of thinking.

It reduces Elain and Lucien's bond to the idea that Elain is merely meant to carry Lucien's child for some future greatness, implying that their bond will be rejected because Lucien wouldn't want to burden Elain with that responsibility, despite Elain feeling a pull towards him.

This reductionist view ignores the Suriel's statement that mates are meant to be equals and instead focuses solely on Rhys's theory about producing strong offspring, which has been disproven by various examples such as Feyre and Nesta's inability to carry their mates' children and Thesan's desire for a mating bond with his same-sex partner.

The logical conclusion is that the mating bond serves a broader purpose beyond offspring production.

However, some insist on concluding that there are two kinds of mating bonds. Examining other examples from SJM, every mating bond in the CC series contributed to the downfall of the Asteri. From Theia and Aidas bringing Hel's forces during the rebellion, to Silene and her NC High Lord keeping the legend alive through storytelling that allowed Bryce to find the truth, to Baxian and Danika motivating the search for other worlds, to Bryce and Hunt and Ruhn and Lidia who ultimately killed the Asteri.

Furthermore, in Crescent City, there would have been more mates, yet Aidas emphasized the necessity of Bryce and Hunt being together to stop the Asteri. Despite this, it took the intervention of a higher being to make them mates, highlighting that even in such a complex scenario, fate played a decisive role.

The Asteri's manipulation to force a mating bond was limited to angels, as it served the purpose of producing more angels.

Yet, proponents of the "offspring mating bond" theory continue to insist that Elain and Lucien's bond exists solely for procreation, despite the deeper implications and fate-driven changes evident in other examples.

[therantingsage]

When the big wolf thing you befriended who for some reason treats you as an equal is so nice to you that you immediately start dreaming about letting yourself be emotionally and physically vulnerable around him AND kissing him under the moonlight maybe: uh oh

[hecksupremechips]

Come back home when you have some sense

You can throw your life away just not at my expense

You’re not the son I raised

[maddy-ferguson]

just remembered there's people who don't even want mike and will to fight in s5 you guys are BORING!!!!

[erros429]

gonna start a bake sale so i can eventually buy rwby from warner bros yall i’m gonna save us don’t worry

[dranktwocoffees]

first of all i pirated hazbin hotel and id encourage everyone to do the same if they wanna watch it so badly. second of all id like to apologize