#oventimernoises

[unluckyxse7en]

I caught Sorbet Shark and Black Pearl talking and tried to record it... I THOUGHT I caught both of BP's lines, but evidently my phone screwed me over and lagged on the shots. So I just have this.

Bonus for the RV in the bg that I only noticed once the conversation was over:

[crescendo-system]

Quick list of swap tl canonmates I’m looking for, or recall:

-KARKAT NITRAM TL- (betaswapped)

-kanaya Vantas*

-Aradia Ampora (found)

-Sollux Peixes (found I think? Ara knows them)

-Equius Serket(? I think it’s serket)

-JAKE STRIDER TL- (alphaswapped)

-Dirk Lalonde (found!)

-Dave Lalonde*

-Jade Strider*

-Roxy crocker(?)

-Jane English (?)

-Karkat Captor

-ERIDAN CAPTOR TL- (betaswapped)

-Karkat Maryam (i think we found each other)

- Feferi Pyrope*

-Sollux Makara

-Gamzee Zahhak

-ERIDAN LEIJON TL- (betaswapped)

- Aradia Zahhak

-Sollux Serket(?)

-Equius Megido

-Cronus Leijon* (esp ancestor I remember looking up to him but i think Cro was good too if we had met!)

-PURPLE SUMMONER TL- (ancestorswapped?)

-Teal Signless*

(I dont recall much about names but i think we went by our pre scratch names more than titles. Kankri was like a law enforcer type and together we were like a bounty hunter team I think? We were business partners only to my knowledge)

-JOHN CROCKER TL- (swapped???)

- Dad Crocker*

I’m looking for everyone!!! I’m especially looking for those with stars by their names so don’t hesitate to hmu!! But also if you’re not on the list I just haven’t recalled you, i am still looking for you!!! Feel free to message me here or @possiblydave if any of these swaps sound familiar to you!!

EDIT: CLOSED, NO LONGER LOOKING FOR CANONMATES

[unluckyxse7en]

This is old news now, with the newer cookies released since, but I've been thinking a lot about how the fandom kept comparing Affogato to Pomegranate - for better or worse - because something about it seemed really... Off, you know?

And I finally figured it out: Pomegranate and Affogato are almost nothing alike in actuality. Superficially and aesthetically? Yes they carry similar vibes. But as characters, motivations and backstories go they're almost entire opposites.

Note- A lot of this is conjecture from taglines, defeat sprites, and reading up on wikis, so bear with me.

Affogato's story is one of trying to claw his way up from rags to riches. From being the servant taking orders to being the king giving them. It's heavily implied he's been mistreated and pushed around all his life for his background, and he knows he didn't do anything to deserve it but exist.

His response to this situation is to take charge of his life. He's due a backlog of respect and good treatment, and he fully intends to demand immediate payment, with interest. He is snarky and backstabbing and conniving and manipulative, because he is tired of being trod on and dismissed and abused all of his life. He has been taught that to get good treatment, he has to be underhanded, hard to read, manipulative.

Even so, he is quick to defer to others as a survival mechanism. If you push, he falls over, deliberately. He will surely take revenge later for it, but when push comes to shove, in the moment he will take his hits with a stoic face and avoid further escalation. It could be calculation, but also is likely a trauma response.

So then how does Pomegranate compare to this? Well, it's been harder to analyze her upbringing, any specific traumas or lack thereof, because there's not a lot to go off of for her backstory in crk. A lot of it is 'once upon a time she was a priestess foretold to fall to darkness, and she did the end'. You could argue it either way, as perhaps being foretold to betray her village led to being a social outcast, or that the lack of detail implies her life was pretty bland before Dark Enchantress arrived.

Either way, there's a few key differences between her and Affogato:

1) she has not, cannot and will not experience the exact trauma he went through. She fit in perfectly with others in her village physiologically and had a place she 'belonged' -and from her pov, went from there to a place she Belonged when she joined DE.

2) she is a willing and truly, wholeheartedly Devoted servant. She does not demand or ask to be DE's equal nor superior. She is consumed with the desire for nothing more than to be of some use to DE, to perhaps be praised and seen positively by her, but Pomegranate does not ask for more even if more would be nice. This leads to the next points -

3), unlike Affogato she is not very underhanded. Manipulative? Yes. But a lot of her tricks are done in the open and are not about subtlety or pulling the wool over your eyes, so much as hitting where it hurts emotionally or threatening your safety using DE's reputation. This also ties into:

4) Pomegranate is not actually very self-sufficient or self-motivated. This is where being Affogato's opposite comes into play.

See, Pomegranate and Affogato are two ends of an unhealthy spectrum in this area. From their tactics and backstories to even their attacks and functions in their teams, Pomegranate operates Solely on externalized motivation and power, while Affogato Exclusively sticks to whatever he can do with his own hands. Capitalistic society might argue Affogato's way is 'better' somehow in that he is Always capable, but is he? Did not having anyone to truly rely on or trust work out for him in the end? Not so much.

And in a game like Cookie Run, a game where all challenges are crafted for Teams of cookies, to work together with various strengths to overcome obstacles.... Affogato really isn't going about any of it in a way that will get him where he wants long term. He's a loner in a 'friendship is the true power' narrative world. He has his reasons, but ultimately will not achieve his goals as a result. He'll always have the motivation and drive, but never the means.

Pomegranate also suffers from this construct, but in a different way.

Pomegranate is not looking to be equal to or superior to DE. She places her on a pedestal and is otherwise content serving her, so long as she gets recognition. However, in her drive to get that recognition, she does seek out being above everyone else. Not equal to. Above. She sees herself as a channel for DE's wisdom and while she can never be above or equal to DE as a result, DE's wisdom and intelligence trump all else, in Pomegranate's world. So she places herself above the others, peers and foes alike, and distances herself from all of them.

Even if that weren't a factor though.... Pomegranate dwindling herself down to nothing more than an extension of Dark Enchantress also means she is never truly Capable. She does not function independently the way Affogato does (although the wedges she intentionally drives don't help). But over-reliance is another loss of freedom, even in the 'Friendship Conquers All' narrative.

Pomegranate has no drive on her own, where Affogato has nothing but. She only does what she understands DE wants, and will only cooperate with others just enough for that purpose. If you take DE out of the equation.... What would remain of Pomegranate? What would she even do with herself?

And this is part of why these two are so different. When you take everything from Affogato, his fire continues to burn. He will lose and get beaten up, but he will cut his losses like a lizard with a decoy tail if it means he lives another day, because as long as Affogato lives his drive and purpose remain.

Taking everything from Pomegranate would mean taking away Dark Enchantress, too. You could take anything else and she'd barely bat an eyelash, too unattached (or acting like it) to be impacted. Because so long as she has DE she has all she needs. But if you took away DE?

Obviously it would depend on how you took DE out of the picture for her. If Pomegranate thought she could get her back and that's what DE wanted? She, like Affogato, would stop at nothing. But if she thought she couldn't, or worse that DE fully rejected her?

It's possible Pomegranate would try to take DE's plans into her own hands. But it doesn't feel as nearly a sure thing. Even her role in a team is to support others quietly, bolstering them so they can fight for the cause. She does not take matters into her own hands unless she thinks that's what DE wants.

So tl;dr - back when Affogato came out, the fandom kept comparing the two, and especially used their superficial 'sketchy advisor' shared tropes as a form of discourse on hate of female characters in fandom (???).

But I really think it's a disservice to Pomegranate to claim she's the same character as Affogato if anything. So I had to write out their differences because really when you push aside the superficial traits, they're more opposite than alike. It's only natural some people would like one more than another when they're so different, in either direction.

[unluckyxse7en]

Picked random screencaps from this entire interaction due to image limit bUT HELLO...... THIS HAS MY WHOLE HEART.....

[unluckyxse7en]

Very excited I got to catch these two interacting in my kingdom, I love them both so dearly and their camraderie over bad puns means the world to me❤️💚

[unluckyxse7en]

None of this is a surprise really, but ngl the dining tables having the vanilla+lily arrangements makes my heart hurt in an unexpected way.

Like. There's something about having her flowers in his room versus having her flower with his for a public event that is Meant to be a gathering of old friends, especially in context of the dire news he has to share about her, that just adds a unique flavor of 'oof' for me

[unluckyxse7en]

These are the same images

[unluckyxse7en]

THEY'RE DANCING WITH HIM....

[unluckyxse7en]

Accidentally clicked and dragged Dark Cacao onto the peter pan ride, so naturally I had to make it 10x more awkward

[unluckyxse7en]

Also loving that Cream Puff Cookie got to go to the concert with her guardians, it's sweet that they both have clearly just Adopted her and love taking her out to places like this as a family

[unluckyxse7en]

Man the cookie run power estimates are so nonsensical

I have had this as my top team for a while now. During the black pearl cookie event, I had to swap out someone for an ambush cookie, right?

So I decided to swap in black raisin, Also lv60, maybe 1 or 2 stars. I swapped her with Red Velvet since they're both single-target attackers, figuring it wouldn't make too much difference strategically. BR raised the team's power levels from 576k to 637k, just like that. Nothing else changed, just one cookie swapped for another.

My team was losing against their contemperaries CONSTANTLY. I had to aim for my Old power range just for a solid chance to win.

Meanwhile, with RV on my team? Well, I just Beat an 800k team with several lv 70s on it. I only had one cookie left and it was Close, but I did it. And that is not the first time I've beaten teams Above my power range with RV (although usually it's Not so big a gap)

You can say it's a difference in strategies or cookie role matchups, but after a point I think it's safe to say the game's power estimations are just Fucked.

[unluckyxse7en]

......sword???

[unluckyxse7en]

Babysitter Herb real........

[unluckyxse7en]

Cookie run fandom can we make this a meme?

[unluckyxse7en]

This was the first cookie I saw to ride in this thing

[unluckyxse7en]

Current mood