#people are way more willing to call out problems with sonic games than any other big game series

[sonknuxadow]

i havent looked into pokemon scarlet and violet all that much but everyone is saying its a glitchy mess and ive seen people compare it to sonic frontiers saying sonic frontiers is boring and unfinished and glitchy like pokemon and like. What. you people clearly just hate sonic and wanna make fun of it at every opportunity because what the hell

[ninjapotatohead]

"MODERN SONIC IS SUCH A SMUG ASSHOLE NOWADAYS!!1!11"

This is honestly one of the many criticisms I've seen across the series regarding the games' narrative quality... and I couldn't possibly disagree any more with that notion.

Is he actually?

Short Answer: No, not really.

I, someone who's been a Sonic fan for decades, would argue they didn't make Sonic nearly as much of an "asshole" as many fans would have you believe. I've played through pretty much all of the games from beginning-to-end (including spin-offs), and I'm just not seeing what (it feels like) everyone else is seeing.

Folks would like to have you believe that Sonic's characterization is among others as the most mangled thing in existence, portraying him as nothing more than an arrogant asshole who's an absolute pillock to just about everyone, his friends included... and that's just not the case (not from my perspective, at least). Hell, the entirety of Sonic Colours especially goes out of its way to showcase Sonic and Tails' close friendship (especially when either of them are in danger). That previous screenshot of Sonic with a mind-controlled Tails? This is Sonic's immediate reaction after the effects wear off:

What's more, I fail to see how Colors makes Sonic out to be a "smug asshole" when he's also resolving to free the other Wisps multiple times. Him cracking a few (admittedly eye-rolling) jokes here and there doesn't change that. Plot of the game, people.

And in the cutscenes after the semifinal boss, he straight-up congratulates Tails, and even reassures him that Yacker will be okay now that the generators have been shut down, and that the mind control cannon (as far as they're concerned) is no longer a problem as a result.

Okay, so no "smug asshole" behavior from Sonic in Colors, as he's very clearly still willing to do the right thing completely of his own volition with no ulterior motives. So, what about Sonic Generations?

...

Well... still no. Aside from a singular scene of Sonic holding Amy back with his hand (though, let's be honest, he's always done something akin to that in previous games as well), he's not portrayed as a jerk or an asshole in Generations either. While Generations' plot very much takes a backseat to the gameplay (which ISN'T a bad thing, contrary to popular belief), the plot still has Sonic more concerned with rescuing the others trapped in White Space rather than the present situation that's caused it to happen to begin with. As Sonic himself quite plainly says...

Well, if he seriously views rescuing the others from White Space to be a more pressing matter than simply being trapped in Exdeath's Wet Dream, then he must hate his Classic counterpart, or at the very least find his past self utterly annoying, right? Right?

Still no. If anything, Classic Sonic doesn't speak at all (whether that's a good or bad thing is up to you) and Modern Sonic has a sort of mentor/student relationship with the former, showing off how much more capable and versatile he will be in the future... not unlike his friendship with Tails in the Mega Drive games. Even when Classic Sonic attempts to perform an Air-Dash (and fails), Modern Sonic applauds the effort and reassures that he'll only get better and better, and that his future will continue being great.

Is this supposed to count as being smug? Teaching your younger/past self to be more capable? Kinda feels like we're just grasping at straws here. So, I'm not seeing what people call this "smug asshole" in neither Colors OR Generations.

So, what about Lost World? That game's plot is pretty subpar all around, and the fandom nowadays makes it out to be the most abominable thing in all of existence. So, what about that? That apparently must have Sonic's character at his absolute worst, to the point of not even being recognizable, right?

...

Still no. Even as admittedly subpar as Lost World's plot actually is (and that's honestly being generous), I still wouldn't call Sonic an asshole here either. That same concern for Tails' well-being from back in Colors (as well as the safety and well-being of his friends in general) is still here and accounted for, and if anything, it's amplified even further.

A bit of a tangent, but this is actually one aspect of Lost World's plot that I personally feel that Unleashed completely lacked in. In the latter, the Earth gets blown to pieces (again), and Sonic never even acknowledges that the situation is (at least partially) his fault. He just brushes it off, not to mention that the planet's inhabitants don't seem to give a shit either. Here, in Lost World, he actually admits that he's responsible for the predicament he and Tails are currently in. He knows he's fucked up, and now he has to fix it.

Sonic literally panicking and frantically trying to contact Amy (& Knuckles) twice to no avail when it seems like the pair are out-and-out dying just isn't what "smug assholes" do. And, in case you aren't sick of me bringing up Sonic's concern for Tails just yet, while the scene in question could've used MUCH more drafting, the fact that Sonic all but drops the snarkiness altogether before AND after he sees what's become of Tails towards the end of the game should already speak volumes.

So, this so-called "Worst Sonic Plot Ever" doesn't have Sonic acting like a pillock towards his friends; only towards villains, and they're the ones that actually deserve it. And so far, that seems to be the case for every game up to this point. And, look at that, it's actually how Sonic himself is pre-Colours as well, and-

...

Oh, that's right! We still have one more game! Sonic Forces. The most recent mainline game in this franchise. So, how much of an irredeemable pillock is Sonic in that game? The answer is...

Not at all. Forces' plot and gameplay definitely could've used some more time in the oven, but Sonic here is clearly willing to come to the aid of the Resistance as well. He's not bragging about it, he's not trying to hedgehog all the limelight; the only bits of snarky playfulness on display here is directed towards Infinite... who is, again, a villain who basically deserves it.

Even when he's being pulled into Null Space, a pocket-dimensional void, Sonic instead urges the Rookie to save themselves from it instead, knowing full well that they will be trapped along with him. Sonic's not playing up this "heroic sacrifice" bit for the sake of extra hero points that he can brag to his friends about (and neither is the Rookie).

Multiple times, Sonic himself has quite explicitly stated that he's able to overthrow Eggman and Infinite's rule over the world thanks to the Resistance; not taking credit for anything they've accomplished in the struggle.

All in all, you're free to dislike the modern titles as you wish. I just vehemently disagree with the notion that Sonic's character in the modern titles is this "asshole" or "pillock" folks make him out to be.

Sorry, I'm just not seeing it.

[closer-stars]

It Just Takes A Little Pull - Yunho

Member: Yunho (with mentions of Mingi and Yeosang) Genre: Fluff Requested: Yes @atinyxtopia AU: High school (Prom) Word Count: 3k Content: It’s High school. Prom things. Kind of a slow start. Female reader. Boys being fun boys.  Note: I have not thought of prom since I left high school so this was an interesting thing to write. I tried my best and I hope it reaches your standards.

A part of you wished your school accepted both girls and boys, it might have saved you from spending double on events such as school fairs, fundraising events, prom. Unfortunately, you went to a school that was exclusively for girls. Yunho was also at an exclusive boys school. Truth be told, a part of you also wished that your school accepted both girls and boys just so you could see him more. Alas, you could only see him after class hours or on weekends-- at least you had something to look forward to. 

You were part of the varsity, while he was on the dance team. Both of you were a world or two apart for a good majority of your school years. You’ve heard of your fellow schoolmates fawn over his skills and face more than one. Deep down, you actually considered him your school’s representative heartthrob. The same could be said for you on his side. Boys have come to respect your skill and often talk about you in their hallways. In the end, you both knew each other by face and reputation but that’s all. 

Some of your friends have wondered just exactly how you became friends with him. It was always the same story. Yeosang’s sister was your senior captain, you crashed at her place one time, from there you met Yeosang and then you met Yunho. 

“Crap, I’m so sorry!”

“Oh my god, I’m sorry!”

Yunho and you ended up crashing into each other. Only thanking each other’s fast reflexes for being able to avoid falling over. A quick glance at each other’s face then either of you bolted in the other direction, too embarrassed to say anything else.

“Unnie, who’s the other guy? I thought you only had one younger brother?” You asked, as you towel dried your hair. 

The older female looked up at you after a moment or two, she was always a sucker for these dramas. “Hm? Oh! That’s Yunho. I think he’s sleeping over tonight since he and Yeosang has a project or something. Dunno with that kid.” She said with a shrug. 

Play it cool. “So that’s Yunho..” You mumble. You knew who he was but it was always from a distance. 

“Sang. You didn’t tell me you have a twin sister.”

The boy looked at the human embodiment of a golden retriever in surprise, a bit of annoyance on his features as he had to pause his video game. “Yunho, what are you even talking about?” 

“I saw another girl earlier??” He explained, gesturing at the direction of where he saw you.

“Dude, that’s my sister’s teammate.” Yeosang explained, mentioning your name. That’s when it clicked in Yunho’s mind. That was you. 

“She looks cool.” 

“I’m more concerned for your head if you think we look alike.” 

“Think you can introduce me to her?” 

A yell from Yeosang and Yunho looked up at him in concern. Yeosang dropped the gaming console in disappointment before turning to the male.“I’m blaming you for making me die.”

Yeosang did follow through with Yunho’s wish, after plotting with his sister that is. How else do you get insanely active people to bond? Food. Their mother had left them money for the night while she had to go on a business trip. What were the chances that the both of you would sleep over at their place on the same day? 

From that day on, the rest was history. You and Yunho were now pretty inseparable (as inseparable as you guys could be that is). The both of you would talk to each other whenever possible, much to the teasings of your friends because hey, what’s so funny? Why are you smiling while messaging something? Do you have a crush? 

You were finally one of his admirers, eventually catching feelings for him. It was hard not to and you could see why he had a fanclub or two in other schools. Did he return those feelings? You weren’t sure but you were happy with how the both of you were now. 

Fast forward a year later and the friendship has become one of the strongest friendships you have in your high school life. Both of you are now at the fated year level where the main topic of discussion would be prom. 

“Hey, do you have a prom date already?” Your best friend asks you as you ate your lunch thoughtfully. You look at her with suspicion. “What?”

“You have plans of setting me up with someone?”

“Why would I have plans? Also does that mean you haven’t asked Yunho yet?”

Your bottom lip juts out and you continue to eat, thus causing your best friend to groan. 

“My godd, you’ve known Yunho this long and you haven’t asked him?! Hey, did you even know he doesn’t entertain any of those love confessions anymore?” She complains to you. 

Confused eyes look at her for saying such things. “What does that even have to do with me?”

She shakes her head. “I’m just saying, ask him. If he’s not available then I can ask my brother, Hansol to go with you.” 

You flash an ‘okay’ sign at her, mouth full with noodles. Your free hand then reaches for your phone. 

[KKT: Dancing Doggo] Hey are you free on February 21 5PM to 10PM? It’s my prom, I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?

Your best friend watches as you compose the message and before you could even stop her, she had already pressed send for you. “Hey!” A tone of mild annoyance was clear in your voice as you try to bring your phone away from her. 

“Believe me, you’ll thank me later.” She says with such a grin, you might as well have called her the devil incarnate. Your phone buzzes almost immediately making you jump. Without another word, both of you huddle around your phone. 

[KKT: Sonic] Yeah! Of course I’m willing! Are you free also on March 6, same time? Same reasons. Hehe. 

That was when your best friend suddenly tackled you into an almost bone crushing hug. “I told you!” A hand is then placed over her loud mouth as you try to hush her. 

[KKT: Dancing Doggo] I’d be honored! It’s a deal then! :)

Maybe having to pay double for two proms wasn’t that bad then. 

The fateful day of your own prom arrives and you were actually pretty nervous about it. You’ve worn your own share of skirts and dresses but it was never this extravagant or feminine as your prom dress. A high-low skirt that starts below your knees down and ends just brushing above the floor when you’re in heels. The color matched your skin tone well, making you practically glow under the lighting. Your hair and face was all made up and to be honest, you were surprised that you could look like that under that much makeup and hair spray. A small part of you worried that the color you chose wouldn’t go well with Yunho but even before you could say your worry, he reassures you it was no problem. “Besides, if it doesn’t. I can pick the color for my prom.” He joked to you a few weeks back. Your mother takes a few photos of you before letting you go. 

You head towards the lobby that’s sprinkled with your own classmates in dresses that are just as beautiful if not more, along with a few familiar faces from Yunho’s school and others in suits that fit them nicely. You sent Yunho a message wondering where he is and just as you did so, you immediately spot him by the elevator, with Yeosang. 

“Yunho!” You call out, speeding towards the two boys and they look up at you both in shock. Your eyes lingered on Yeosang’s amusing reaction, it was rare to get a big reaction from him so having him look at you with eyes wider than him being caught eating his own sister’s food was fun. While on the other hand, Yunho was gazing at you, clearly dazed. He’s had his share of harbouring romantic feelings for you but to see you in such a dress that gracefully brought you out of your comfort zone had him at a loss for words. 

You squish Yeosang’s cheeks together much to his annoyance then shift your attention to your partner for the night. You look at his suit properly and find yourself breathing a sigh of relief. “At least I picked a color that suits you well too.” You say as you pin the boutonniere on his suit carefully. 

“Hey, I told you I’m lucky boy.” He points out as he slightly bends lower to not give you a hard time. His statement makes you hit his chest lightly. 

“Whatever, Yunho.” You return with a roll of your eyes. Yeosang excuses himself as he finally spots his prom date, who was surprisingly your best friend. “Yeosang! Tell her she owes me an explanation.” He looks at you, confused at the vague wording but knows better than to pry. He nods before making his way to her, leaving the both of you alone. 

Some of your peers slowly start to enter the venue. “Should we follow them or do you want to stay outside a little longer?” asks Yunho, turning to you. 

A small hum of thought slips through your red lips. “Let’s go! I want to see how they made the place.” You reply with an excited grin. Your partner for the night then offers his elbow for you to hook your hand to. 

“M’lady.” he jokes and for a moment he swears your giggle actually sounded cute. Your hand shyly holds on to the crook of his arm. 

“How cheesy of you.” 

“It’s prom. Might as well make the most out of it.”

He was right. For the entire night, the two of you exchange laughter and sassy remarks, ultimately becoming the life of your table (much to the embarrassment of your best friend and Yeosang. Athletes and dancers in one table might have been too much for her heart to take). He made you join the games that were sprinkled throughout the event (you guys won and Yunho wasn’t going to let you forget that). His presence was enough to make your stomach hurt from laughter. There was something in how he interacted with those around him that made them feel at ease. A small voice in your head thought of how you were perfectly fine keeping these feelings to yourself as long as you don’t lose him. The only time both of you mellowed down was during the meal proper. It wasn’t anything over the top but it was fancy enough to let you know the organizers put enough thought. 

The much awaited slow dance had come-- as if it weren’t obvious by the cheesy lightings and song choices by the DJ. Some couples have made their way to the dance floor, excited to have some sort of “moment” with their partner. You didn’t say much, being fine in your seat as you watched the others dance. This wasn’t going to pass with your partner though. In fact, he stands up first and offers his hand. You look at the hand that comes up to your view towards the owner of the outstretched hand.

“Let’s dance. We’re not leaving this place until we get to dance.” Yunho says firmly. 

“Fair warning, I don’t have feet like you do.” You return as you take his hand and stand up. 

“I got you. Don’t worry.” He reassures, flashing you that charming smile that has managed to get the girls to squeal earlier in the games. He leads you to the dance floor, guiding one hand to rest on his shoulder (thank god for heels), the other hand laced with his. His free hand then rests on your waist and for the first time that night, you felt conscious of how you looked in front of him. You had to admit, the dress, makeup and hair you had on tonight was lovely but to be under his gaze at such close distance for who knows how long has made a pink hue dust your cheeks, and you were sure that wasn’t blush. 

“Just follow my lead okay?” He says softly. His feet then slowly step to one side, letting you follow him. Just below his breath, soft enough for no one to hear but loud enough for your ears only, he counts to the tempo of the song, helping your ears tune in to what he hears. He’s done this in the past with you, with songs that he covers: all of which were fast paced. A slower paced song such as the one playing on the speakers was new to you. You have songs that you’ve shared in the past where you can pay attention to it as a whole then pay attention to what beats he catches underneath all the layers. This time though, you had nowhere else to distract yourself with. After getting the hang of the motions, you look up at him and find him gazing at you softly. “Got the hang of it?” 

You nod, trying your best not to look at his lips. He smiles again, proud of you for having done so. “We can stay like this for another song or two if you want. I know you’re tired of being in heels for the past few hours.” He reassures. 

“I’m fine. I promise. Maybe another song wouldn’t hurt.” You return. One song was enough for you to feel light headed from how close the both of you were, much more when you get a whiff of his cologne. The cloud nine feeling ends soon, with the MC letting the rest of the night be upbeat songs. You breathe a sigh of relief, wanting to give your feet a break from having to almost be on your tiptoes for the entire night. Yunho leads you out of the dance floor, and out into the lobby where the cool air helps you breathe easy. 

Some familiar faces were already outside too. From the looks of it, you could tell that Yunho also recognized them, judging from how jumpy he started to be. “Oh, Mingi’s here too huh?” He muses. Uh-oh. That meant one thing. The group was about to only have one brain cell for the remainder of the night. 

Both of you make your way to their table, the girls having the couch and the heels off their feet-- which you quickly followed once you sat down. The boys on the other hand sat opposite their side. Both having either iced tea or iced coffee with some snacks. Yunho then introduces you to the rest of his friends. You knew the girls too from another class. The rest of the night was once again filled with laughter. As some of the boys decided to try to fit their feet into the heels, some using the heels as a phone. Hell, Mingi tossed a heel at Yunho and they quickly hit the whoa. The girls, including you, found entertainment and embarrassment at their antics, even going as far as teaching them how it feels to be a girl at the worst times. 

One by one, the people in your table leave. Either to be picked up by their parents, or up into their rooms in the hotel. It was only you and him left once more. Your coffee was watered down and half empty. Yunho’s bottle of water wasn’t any different from yours. A comfortable, yet slightly awkward silence goes over the both of you. 

“Thank--

“Thanks for--”

Pause.

Laughter.

“You first-”

“You fi-”

Pause again. 

Then Yunho gestures for you to speak first. “Thank you for coming with me. I had a lot of fun tonight.” Your heart races as you speak. You hope this isn’t from the coffee and rather from the nerves of being just alone with him like this. “I’m sorry also for having you to bring me out of the venue when it was your type of music playing… I know you like to dance to those songs too..”

“I should be the one thanking you for inviting me. Even if you didn’t, I would’ve invited you to my prom.” He confesses, ears bright red as he does so. He rubs the back of his neck as he finds the next words. “Don’t worry about the music part. I can always play those songs in my free time and there’s still my prom. More chances to embarrass you too.” 

“Jung Yunho.”

“What?” He laughs at the sight of your stern face. “You know your strict face isn’t scary to me. You love me too much for that.” You hate how right he is, you also hate how he doesn’t know just how right he is. 

He looks at the clock then helps you into your heels. “Let’s get you back to your parents. They’re probably wondering where their little princess is.” He teases again which causes him to receive another whack on his arm. “What? You do look like one tonight!” You slowly push yourself to stand up. The pain of being on your tiptoes rushing back. He holds you gently, making sure you don’t wobble. 

“Easy there. I know you’re strong but even you got your limits.” He accompanies you to the elevator. 

“How about you?” 

“What about me?”

“How are you getting home?” 

He glances at you, somehow catching himself off guard with the change in distance. Why was it only now that he gets surprised by how close your face was to his. Heels really are something. 

“Oh, Yeosang and I got a room too. Are you worried about me?” He teases, batting his eyelashes at you. 

“Yunho, I swear--”

Before you could finish your words, the doors of the elevator slide open and both of you immediately enter. 

The ride up was a slow one. Both of you didn’t know that your rooms were on the same floor too, only on different sides of the building. 

Somehow, a part of you was hoping for something. You didn’t know what it was but you wanted something to happen. The same goes for Yunho. His hand immediately then holds you back gently. 

“I need to tell you something.” He says softly, his eyes downcast. Your stomach drops at his body language. Did he like someone else? Was he leading you on this whole time? 

“I actually wanted to tell you this earlier but there wasn’t really a good time for me to say it.” The words were flying a mile a minute. He could’ve beaten Mingi when it came to fastest speaker at this point. “I just really wanted to tell you that I have feelings for you. Not.. as friends but as something more.” He explains. His eyes steady on you, with no sign of his signature mischievous glint in his eyes. 

It catches you off guard, a little too lost for words because, Jung Yunho? He has a crush on you? Are the feelings mutual? He takes your silence as something else and drops his hand. “If you don’t feel the same way, that’s totally fine. We can stay as friends. I just.. Felt--”

“Jung Yunho, I like you too.” You immediately blurt out. 

His face brightens up at your words and he wraps his arms around you in relief. “We don’t have to be officially together if you want. We can just take it slow or just--” 

His lips feel nice against your own. The taste of the chocolate he ate earlier is still apparent. “You talk too much.” You say simply when you pull away and for the first time that night, he was speechless.

“I’d love to be your official girlfriend, you dumb butt.” 

“Your lucky dumb butt.”

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #364

“you wanna know what zeus said to narcissus?  /  ‘you’d better watch yourself’“

Do you change your type of music regularly? Nah. I've ben all about metal and rock since middle school. Would you want to visit Tokyo, Japan, someday? It's not actually on my bucket list or anything, but I'd do it. Do you curse like a sailor? Sailors are better than I am, aha... Do you hear trains pass by where you live? No. Ever been in a race? Haha, no. Last time you’ve eaten a taco? I hate tacos. Do you like horses? Sure do! Do you like Starburst? omg YES. What is your favourite wild animal? MEERKATS!!!!!! :') Do you like hamsters? They're very cute, but I've never met a nice one. Do you eat bananas? Yeah, I like bananas, but I'm VERY picky with how ripe it is. There's like, barely a two-day span where I'm willing to eat them. What is your favourite bookstore? I don't have one. What is your favorite fast food joint? Sonic. Do you sweat easily? Ugh, you haven't the slightest idea. As a side effect of one (or two?) of my prescriptions, I have I N S A N E hyperhidrosis. I can stand outside for a millisecond in like 70 degree weather and I'm already sweating. If you could move (and SERIOUSLY think about this) where would you move? All factors considered, being entirely realistic, the mountain-y region of western NC. Why would you go there? I want to stay in NC to at least not be a massive ways away from my family, and I loooove mountains. Plus, there's a lot of cool places on the other end of the state. Do you want to travel? Yes. I want to see so much more than this boring 'ole state. What was the last vaccination you got? For Covid. Have there ever been any forest or grass fires in your area? There have been wildfires towards the beach, I believe? Any time it happened we would always get the smoke all the way where we live. Are you Italian? Not to my knowledge. Do you own an acoustic guitar? No. What is something you have given a lot of thought to lately? My physical health. When did you last swallow your beliefs to avoid an argument or confrontation? Recently. Can you roll your own cigarettes? I've never smoked, so. Are you mentally strong? I think so. I hope so. Are you physically strong? I am like, comically weak. Are you heartbroken right now? No. Do you ever get complimented on your eyes? What color are they? It's happened, but it's definitely not a regular thing or whatever. They're grayish blue. What facial feature do you like the best on a person? I'd say I'm most attracted to pretty eyes. What is the weirdest animal you’ve ever held? I helped hold a massive snake as a kid (I don't remember what it was), and I've also held a rose hair tarantula. I can't think of any truly strange animals by my opinion, really. Do you get extremely hyper when under the influence of sugar? No. Sugar seems to have zero effect on me, probably because I'm over-exposed to it thanks to soda... What about caffeine? Not at all, likely for the aforementioned reason. Have you ever tried any drugs? If so, did you regret it? Besides alcohol, no. I don't regret having drank as it was never a lot. Do you have any pregnant friends? A high school acquaintance is pregnant. I THINK she's the only one now? I swear I see a new pregnancy announcement on Facebook like every two days, and mind you I don't even have all that many "friends." That being said, I may definitely be forgetting someone. When ordering food, what do you usually get as a drink? Depending on whether they have Pepsi or Coke products, either Mountain Dew or Coke. When drawing something, do you try to be super precise or do you not care? I am so, so, SO obsessive over getting everything right, but things never come out as good as I want them to/imagine them. Have you actually read Twilight? I haven't. What about Harry Potter? Never read any of those, either. I started one in elementary school, but didn't get very far at all. Out of the two, which is better? I have like no interest in either, so. How often do you read books? It various. I go through like reading episodes, and then I don't read for months. Are you the jealous type? I'm not like, an insanely jealous person, but it's still the worst it's ever been at this point in my life. I hate it. Are you the type of person who gets jealous of people’s pasts? Nah, no reason to. Do you know anyone who faints at the sight of blood? Not blood, I think, but needles and drawing blood, yes. I know my dad's fainted at least once at the doctor, and Jason fainted when I was getting blood drawn at the ER. What colors are the eyes of your family members? Just about everyone has brown eyes but me, I think my maternal grandpa, and my brother. Are you related to anyone with red hair? Not to my knowledge. Were you a chubby baby? No, I was pretty average. What’s something that makes you incredibly nervous? Social situations with strangers especially. Asking for things. Public speaking/presenting. What’s the latest you’ve ever stayed up to finish homework/a project? God, I remember there was this one night in particular where I stayed up SO late, but I don't remember the exact time. I think I actually cried because I was so stressed and tired. How many vegetarians do you know? In my personal life, I don't believe I know any, but I could be wrong. Have you ever had problems falling asleep in class? I never did, even though I was always tired. Have you ever been on the barrier or front row at a concert? No. Favorite episode of Spongebob? The pizza one, probably. Or the Hash Slinging Slasher episode. What bug frightens you most? Wasps, probably. Are your parents supportive of you? Yes. <3 How often do you take the train to go places? I've never been on a train. Have you ever participated in a mock trial, or a real trial? No. Do you own a pocketknife, or any other kind of multi-tool? No. What was the last thing you took a video of? Hm... I honestly don't remember. What’s something that used to really stress you out, but doesn’t anymore? Thunderstorms. Have you ever had famous neighbors? No. Pick your three favourite vegetables. Broccoli, green beans, and uh... I'm blanking... Habitually I wanna say "corn," but I know it's not technically a veggie, but starch. Have you ever broken a movie or game disc? I think I have? What is your favourite type of cookie? Chocolate chip. Can you rap freestyle? Or at least sing raps from songs? Ha, no. Have you ever shared a house with a significant other? Yeah. Do you scream at scary parts in a horror flick? No. I might jump a bit, but not always. What do you spend most of your time doing? Watching YouTube. Do you really care what’s going on in celebrities' lives? More like the YouTubers I watch. Have you ever broken a plate/bowl? Accidentally by dropping them. When was the last time you felt like you didn’t have a care in the world? I couldn't begin to guess. Has anyone ever drunk called/texted you? No. Can you do a backwards london bridges? God no, I'd bust my back. What smiley do you use the most on the computer? (: maybe. Or :') Are any of your pets “overweight”? No, but why is "overweight" in quotations as if overweight pets aren't a real and serious issue? Has anyone ever bought you a ring? Yeah. On a scale 1-10, how funny are you? I honestly don't think I'm funny at all, so I'd put myself at a 1. Pretty recently though it was very surprising and flattering to have my dad and older sister point out that I'm "hilarious" with my wry sense of humor. I don't see it, but I mean, it was surely appreciated. What’s a song that is overplayed but you still like it anyway? I barely ever listen to the radio, yet I still know "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen is played a lot, but I could never get tired of it. Are you excited for Christmas? Christmastime is my favorite time of year nowadays, mainly because of how excited my niece and nephew always are, and we spend most of Christmas Day and usually Christmas Eve with them. I love the weather, the focus on togetherness, all that. What are you thankful for? Man, a lot. I try my best to never overlook all the truly amazing things I do have, like a loving and supportive family, a home, food and safe water, Internet haha, access to medical care (regardless of the complaints I have about American healthcare)... I've got a lot of bad going on in my life, but I've also got a great amount of good things, too. What do you think would be the hardest thing for you to give up on? Internet. What’s your favorite color combination? Maaan, don't do this. I really don't know. Probably two pastels, idk. Do you have any internet friends? I have more Internet friends than I do "real life" ones. What was the last song you listened to? "Deep Six" by Marilyn Manson earlier. How are you feeling right now? My arm is really sore from my second Covid shot, and I'm also having trouble breathing thanks to the dog (apparently, I'm allergic to whatever she is). I know it sounds bad, but I cannot wait 'til she's gone (from this house, no we're of course not euthanizing her). What color is the shirt you’re wearing? Burgundy. Do you play video games? Yeah, just not as much as I used to. Have you ever been to a club and had someone slip something into your drink? I've never been to a club period, and I don't plan on it. Do you know anyone who’s done ecstasy? Not to my knowledge, anyway. Are you on birth control? Yes, but only to regulate and soothe my menstrual cycle. My cramps were insufferable prior. Does your sibling have a significant other? All but my younger sister. Like she's in contact with who she calls "contenders," haha, but she isn't officially dating anyone. She's MEGA picky with who she dates. Have you ever cried at a real wedding? Yes, because it was very triggering to my PTSD. Any idea what you want for your next birthday? That's quiiite a whiles away, so I have plenty of time to think about that. I don't know if I'll be employed by then and thus able to buy some things myself, but I'll just say I won't be (because I'm I think rationally fearful that's where I'll still be). For Christmas I plan on just asking for a new terrarium for Venus plus better materials for it (like a proper temp gauge and hygrometer, etc.), and with that taken care of, then I might be interested in asking for a hognose for my bday, but idk. I'd want to ensure (s)he starts out with a perfect terrarium, and seeing as I want a hoggie morph, that's a lot of money in one go that idk if I'd be comfortable asking. So I'unno, maybe I'll go for a tattoo again. Wow, this was a lot of rambling for something so far off, pardon me haha. Are there any gadgets of yours that need charging right now? My Nintendo DS Lite, actually. I can't find the darn charger for it, and I really need to so I can bring it to Ashley's again for the kids to play the Pokemon game I have that they love. Aubree especially is really into it, and she adores Pikachu and Eevee. :') Which awards show would you wanna go to the most (e.g Oscars, Grammys etc.)? I don't even know what most award shows are for, if I'm being honest. I'm not really interested. What colour is your keyboard? Black, but each key glows red. Have you ever been called a skank/slut because of the way you dress? No. Are you a fan of acrylic nails? Not for myself; I think they'd drive me insane. I do, however, think they look nice on others.

[flamebearrel]

Ness (smash) Steven (su) and Sonic (also smash) for your ask game!

Ness BrOTPs

Snake - Ness has built up a huge admiration for Snake over time - what he’s been through, how he powered through it all, his weapons and abilities and sense of humor and the like. He essentially feels like Snake is a second father figure, and is honestly pretty shy about it. But Snake is happy to spend time with him and makes sure he voices his approval more frequently than usual, cause Ness’s face lights up every time and he finds it so sweet

F!Wii Fit Trainer - As someone interested in athletics but not speedy enough to play competitively, Ness quickly latched onto WFT’s more relaxed fitness and yoga sessions as a way to get moving instead. Over time she effectively became his Cool Aunt that he’d come to with new discoveries and questions! One particular thing they often do together, as a very-confused-with-tech lady and a kid who still lives in the 90s, is try to figure out new tech and ignore anyone who tells them they’re doing it wrong yes I know cameras aren’t new they’re just messing around in the linked example

Toon Link and Lucas - The first pair of people his age that he really clicked with, since Young Link was a lot more solitary and the Ice Climbers just didn’t become part of the super-tight group they formed. These three can find pretty much anything to do together, and they often like to discuss their families. When it comes to competition, their teamwork excels - they’re somehow always in sync, especially with Ness always leading the team (until Villager joined the friend group in 4 and started competing for that role)

Luigi and Dedede - While they don’t usually go out of their way to hang out, the three of them just feel really connected with each other post-Subspace. Expect lots of knowing smiles, inside jokes and eye contact from across the room, to the extent that people know they’ve got secrets but no one ever gets a real hint as to what they are. They will also most certainly team up if they have the chance, but honestly that’s when they do most of their catching up rather than trying that hard to win anything

Steven BrOTPs

What makes this easier is that he forms some kind of relationship with pretty much every character in the show, so let’s talk about a few we don’t get to see him with much!

Jeff - It took a while before they could meet up, since at first Steven only heard about him from Connie and then her cram school started, but when all three finally did (around Change Your Mind time) it was a pleasant surprise to see how many interests they shared. Jeff immediately started looking up to Steven and took to learning about Gem stuff, even volunteering to help with the construction of Little Homeworld! Eventually they start hanging out themselves playing video games and such, and Steven even gives him a warp whistle shortly before the movie so they can meet up more

Nephrite - Steven wanted to spend as much time as he could with Nephrite once she was healed - it was his chance to finally really listen to his friend after so long and he could just feel the excitement radiating from her to be back. For a while she came with him to Homeworld out of wanting to see how it had changed. Hearing others’ stories and tales and being able to tell her own really struck a chord with her, so she started studying therapy - Nephrite was actually the one who helped Steven get into it! In addition, Steven is happy to introduce her to Earth tech, and on his road trip she somehow always manages to sneak up and stop him for a hangout

Blue Zircon - Upon making changes around Homeworld, one of the first things Steven wanted to do was show some appreciation for the more trustworthy faces around there. Immediately he voiced his approval for Blue Zircon, calling to mind her amazing deduction skills from the trial. BZ also feels the trial let her see Steven as someone on her level rather than far above her - there are plenty of occasions where she calls Steven to ask for leadership tips or discuss plans, rather than any other leading Gem

Peedee - Though he doesn’t realize it, once Steven starts managing Little Homeschool he subconsciously makes comments on his work woes as he goes about Beach City. Peedee’s the first to pick up on it, and honestly, he gets it - soon the conversations at the fry shop/tater truck are getting longer and longer before Steven has to go. He recognizes the deflecting and watering down of his problems Schtu-ball tends to do too, and asks cautious questions so both of them have a better outlet when they talk. The realization that they haven’t hung out enough hits hard leading up to Steven’s road trip, so that’s what they do - Steven helps him relax a little more and Peedee helps with the plans

Sonic BrOTPs

I wanna point out that I know enough about Sonic to get all the important characters’ personalities and general dynamics, I just don’t really know the lore :,D so hopefully these are okay ahaha they took a while to think about

Mega Man - Buddies since the comics, and that holds true even to now. When Rock first arrived at Smash, it was the hedgehog that showed him around and helped him settle in - and the actually kinda overwhelmed Rock clung to his arm for quite a while. They like to host friendly competition all the time or poke fun at each other’s slip-ups. Honestly, though, it’s refreshing for Sonic to have a robotic friend rather than an enemy for once; in turn, Rock appreciates having a stable friendship with a former enemy instead of some vague tension-filled team up

Orange and Blue Inklings - During the first Ultimate pool party, Sonic wasn’t the only one who hanging around away from the pool - he was able to click with Amber and Neil almost immediately. The Blue Blur’s found himself completely enamored by the culture of Inkopolis, and these two are happy to share with him their “fresh” fashion tips and lifestyles. And if they so wish, they can become one of the most chaotic trios in the whole Palace

Mario - As much as he tries to play off the aloofness sometimes, Sonic always inevitably draws to Mario in a crowd. His “old man” just makes him feel a lot safer since he always backs him up, whether it’s a tough battle or just messing around (not only will Mario find it hilarious every time Sonic pulls something, half the time he can and will join in). Mario keeps the hedgehog at the top of his list for whenever he’s up for some sports, and while usually Sonic’s too caught up in stuff to join in, he makes sure to mentally cheer for the plumber every time

Shulk - His kind, nerdy vibes remind Sonic of Tails, so he’s more than willing to just walk up and start chatting with the guy. Initially Shulk didn’t think too fondly of him since their priorities and tactics seemed to clash a lot, but when Sonic started telling stories of his friends (specifically Silver and the aforementioned Tails), it definitely grabbed his interest. The two start talking about their own experiences with the future, and their regrets, and it definitely becomes one of Sonic’s more introspective relationships

[ghostmeep]

are you going to make a post on why you think sonic isn't to blame for letting metal go? i'm curious on your thoughts on it

Ah, I’m guessing you are referring to my little side note I made in my Sonic feels guilt post 

Well, tbh that sentence was less of a ‘I’ve got a lot of important things to say about this matter’ and more of a ‘I’m trying to not get off topic’ - but I’m up for expanding my thoughts on it. Don’t expect ground breaking points tho haha

Disclaimer, this is way less fact driven than my other post about Sonic feeling guilty in the Zombot arc. It’s more speculation with not as much direct support from canon. But if you are cool with that, read on

Anyways, so to first clarify what I want to try and express in this post:

I do think that the current arc is a direct result of Sonic’s actions and I’m not trying to disprove that Sonic is to blame here. He is to blame when all is said and done, but it isn’t like he single-handedly caused the Zombots to spread? I just think people are shitting on Sonic just a bitttt too much 

But, I do think that Sonic’s actions were in character enough to forgive. A bit of a stretch here and there, but enough to let it pass imo

———–

I’m going to first talk about Sonic letting Eggman free even though you only asked about Metal because the two kind of goes hand in hand.

And here I ask everyone to let go of their beyond the fourth wall knowledge. Forget about how you know the franchise as Eggman and Metal Sonic are antagonist and there is no way Sega would change them.

Try thinking about it from Sonic’s perspective and think of Eggman as a real person - meaning someone who can change and grow, because all people can - I’m not saying all people do, but it is possible

.

So we look at Eggman’s situation. At first Sonic was super suspicious and wasn’t willing to trust Eggman and thought it was an act.

But the more time he was with Mr. Tinker the more he had to accept that Eggman really did have memory loss - and guess what? He was right about that part at least. 

In that moment of time, Eggman was truly different and didn’t remember any of his past doings.

In that situation, wouldn’t it have been a little harsh to imprison him? Or kill him? I dunno, if Eggman never remembered and could live the rest of his life peacefully as Mr. Tinker, wouldn’t it be okay to let him? – Forget about what we know happened later on and just think about it from that situation in time. 

If Sonic just threw Eggman to prison at this point, I feel like that would have been more out of character for him. More harsh than I would have expected him to be. Because, for all his cool guy attitude, Sonic is a nice, caring guy. 

And it wasn’t like Sonic was the only one who wanted to give this chance to Mr. Tinker. Shadow was the only one he had to really convince.

Everyone else was on-board more or less?

They all deferred to Sonic’s decision, but if they had a problem with it they would have spoken up. Or tried to persuade Sonic against letting Mr. Tinker free. It’s because they agreed, at least on some level, that they just went with what Sonic decided to do. Espio took some convincing, but again, not all that much. Barley any at all. 

And then the town mayor put in his two cents - so everyone pretty much came to a mutual agreement, no? it’s a bit much to say it’s all on Sonic for letting Eggman stay as Mr. Tinker

( That is to say, I’m not saying that it was wrong of the characters to blame Sonic. The characters did trust Sonic to make the right decision, so when it proved to be the wrong one, and with all that is going on and everyone running on emotion, it makes sense they would turn on Sonic. Because Sonic did have the final say, and as the ‘hero’ who everyone looked to for guidance he did let everyone down in that sense. It was his responsibility to bear. Fair or not. ) Us as readers shitting on Sonic though is a bit different. We can absolutely say it was a stupid decision and I’m sure all of us called it that Eggman would return, but in universe, there is enough to support Sonic’s decision. So I wouldn’t call this Sonic grabbing the idiot ball, since it does adhere to parts of Sonic’s personality as we know it. 

Anyways, back to the Mayor being up for letting Eggman stay. We can see that Sonic still has some doubts and is unsure what to do at this point. 

He’s still thinking about it, and while it’s likely he would have reached the conclusion of letting Eggman stay anyways, there is something that pushes him to make that decision. That cements in his mind that Eggman is gone for good.

Because when the Badniks invade the town and Sonic rushes to confront Eggman he sees –

Eggman trying to protect the children

This is the moment that convinces Sonic the most, I think. Because when the going gets tough is when people’s true colours start to emerge. And Mr. Tinker did what he can to protect the children, despite being scared. There is no way Sonic can throw him to rot in a cell after that

I also want to point out that even Rouge, who doesn’t have the hero persona like Sonic does, even she thought it would be for the best to let Eggman free as Mr. Tinker? Why else would she even bother giving a tip to the Chaotix knowing that Sonic would likely come to this decision?

And it isn’t like Sonic just made the decision to let Eggman roam free and washed his hands of the matter. We see his doubts when Eggman Land is mentioned and he says himself how he’ll definitely be stopping by

So Sonic is aware of the dangers, and he is also planning to stop by and check up on Eggman himself. Sounds kinda fair to me. 

So hopefully it’s clearer from this that letting Eggman free isn’t really the most unbelievable thing to do, it made enough sense for people other than Sonic to be on board of it at least.

And Sonic even managed to convince Shadow. Yeah, Sonic is dumb stubborn so trying to change his mind would have been difficult, but the same goes for Shadow, right? But Sonic managed because what he said made sense at the time. There is logical thought to letting Eggman free and that is why he was able to convince everyone.

Of course, now everyone regrets it because it led to this disaster, but point still stands that at the time it didn’t seem like a bad idea. 

I’ve got no good counter for why Sonic and co. didn’t leave someone to look after Eggman just in case tho. 

The best I can think of is because to them, Eggman was the ‘big bad’. After all, how many disasters didn’t start because of Eggman in some way? Not really any. 

So since they deemed Eggman was a non-threat maybe they just assumed it would be safe to leave him here? Because without Eggman, who would they have to worry about? Any new villain that would pop up would be a threat to the world sure, but no threat in having Eggman restore his memories. It’s hard to imagine a situation where a new villain takes the time to help Eggman regain his old self in-between destroying the world…

Because, let’s be honest, I don’t think anyone would have ever thought that there was an Eggman fanboy on the loose. 

So they likely deemed that there was no need for a bodyguard when they thought there was nothing to guard from. 

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Now for Metal Sonic.

Okay, so this is a little harder to defend because, well, oof Sonic you really dropped the ball here. But I can still say it’s kinda in-character?? It’s pushing it, but I don’t think it’s so out of nowhere to the point where I think Sonic’s characterization was ruined from this moment.

After all, we’ve seen Sonic show compassion to previous enemies, right? He’s pretty much known for making friends out of enemies, honestly.

So Sonic’s forgiveness definitely doesn’t come from nowhere, at least. We’ve seen Sonic’s willingness to give people multiple chances before

Seriously, which of Sonics friends didn’t start out as the antagonist? 

We have Knuckles, Shadow, Silver, Blaze, all who I won’t talk about much since I’m assuming everyone knows their stories.

But we also have other games showing Sonic’s forgiving side. 

In Sonic and the Black Knight, we saw Merlina pulling Sonic from his own world, just to trick him, and then attempt to make her world never changing (thus killing innocent souls). And at the end, all Sonic did was give her a flower and tell her to live life to the fullest in the time we have. 

And yes, you can make the argument that the people who Sonic forgave weren’t inherently bad people, just people led astray, but that’s also the point? Sonic believes that everyone has good in them – that no one is inherently all bad – even Eggman and Metal Sonic. 

You can make the argument that Metal is programmed to be evil by Eggman, but hey, weren’t Gamma and Emerl too? And yet they turned out good. 

So we do have proof that Eggman’s sentient robots are capable of changing sides. And with Eggman out of the picture and not able to influence Metal negatively, Sonic probably saw this as the perfect chance to let Metal find the good in himself. 

And yes, Metal is at a bit of a disadvantage because he is programmed to be forever loyal to Eggman, but 1) Eggman is no more as far as Sonic is concerned. So that ‘loyalty’ is a moot point. Because Metal is basically loyal to a person who doesn’t exist anymore. 2) just because you are loyal to someone doesn’t mean you can’t come to disagree with their actions. 

Metal can still learn about what is good or not even if he is programmed to be loyal to Eggman. And I think that is what Sonic was going for.

Look at Metal Sonic’s situation

They let him go, but it’s clear that he wouldn’t have been any danger to anyone. It doesn’t seem like he was fixed enough to even get close to Sonic’s speed like he normally could, and he had all his weapons removed by Tails. 

So the only one who could have made him dangerous again would be Tails (which wasn’t going to happen) and Eggman (who, as far as Sonic knows, is still Mr. Tinker)

Metal Sonic really wasn’t a danger to anyone.

Yeah, Sonic could have at the very least done a quick check on Eggman to make sure that everything was fine and he was still Mr. Tinker, but Sonic just left Eggman - what, a day or so ago? What are the odds that something happened in just that amount of time? And what are the odds that the village looked for Sonic for help at the moment he was at Angel Island?

And again, to Sonic, Eggman was the ‘big bad.’ With him gone, Sonic probably got lulled to a false sense of security. 

So it makes sense to me that Sonic is willing to give these risky second chances because he is pretty confident that Eggman, and thus evil geniuses that could rebuild Metal, are not a problem anymore.

So, Metal is not dangerous, and as far as Sonic knows, won’t be able to become dangerous. The world is rebuilding itself and it seems like they’ve finally come at peace. 

It’s the ideal situation for Metal to change. Because remember, it is possible for Eggman’s robots to be good. 

So from that line of thinking, letting Metal go isn’t all thattttt bad? Hindsight is 20/20 so it’s easy to say Sonic was wrong to letting Metal go, but at the time Sonic had at least some reason to risk it.

Sure, Sonic could have taken a bit more precaution, like maybe follow Metal to keep an eye on him, but being Mr. Free-As-The-Wind, he probably thought letting Metal go to do his own searching would eventually lead to triggering a good change – and it would all end well. After all, it is unlikely that Metal would change in the presence of people he deems as ‘enemies’ – so Sonic was likely hoping Metal would run into a more neutral party who would nudge him in the right direction. 

Also, with Sonic running around as much as he does, he probably figured that he would run into Metal sooner or later and be able to check on his progress. 

Too bad Metal tracked down Eggman instead. 

So yeah, still rather stupid – and careless, but I can see some reasoning behind it. 

It’s not too hard to imagine Sonic being over-eager to have all the danger behind him, and he wanted to wrap things up in a nice neat bow asap, so he rushed things too much. 

He seemed really ready to get to the whole ‘relax with no worries’ stage at least. 

So Sonic jumped the gun. Not exactly hard to accept for the fastest thing alive. 

I’m going to add this point in too — but let’s not forget that this takes place after Sonic Forces. Even without the English version’s unnecessary add-in of saying Sonic was tortured for six months, Sonic was still at the very least held in captivity for six months. And then immediately had to go and take up the mantle of being people’s hope ( in Tails’s words ) and win a war for everyone that has been going on for far too long. I don’t think you can really blame a guy for wanting peace so badly after all that. 

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And just going to insert one more point about whether Zombot arc is all Sonic’s fault or not that people are going to hate me making, but Imma do it anyways. This isn’t my main argument, at all, but I just want to include it anyways. 

Because if you want to be super super technical. If you will allow me to be nit picky here…

It’s not really his fault. 

Yeah, he let Eggman free, and thus he was easy to kidnap. Yes he let Metal free, and thus was able to help Eggman recover his memory. Yes and yes.

But, my girl Tangle made valid points too. 

And I get it. This is kinda a dumb argument, because the point is is that Sonic should have taken measures to prevent Starline from being able to restore Eggman and Sonic should have prevented Metal from even being able to reach Eggman to get re-weaponized. Yes. But still. 

Are we really going to hate the fact that our Hero character tried to make the best out of a situation? Sonic wanted the best possible outcome to come true (For Eggman and Metal to find purpose in life that was good) and when he saw an opportunity for it to happen, just within his reach, he took it.

Yes it was reckless. Yes it was stupid and idealistic. Yes, it was naive, but Sonic, with all his good heart, just wanted a happy ending for everyone. 

It just sucks that there are people like Starline and Eggman who chooses to be bad, even when given the opportunity to be otherwise. But bad people existing, who choose to bring chaos and destruction, isn’t Sonic’s fault. 

Because Sonic is responsible for his actions, yes. But Starline, Eggman, and Metal are responsible for their own actions too. 

.

Well, I guess I already made my points that I wanted, but because this post is obviously not long enough, I’m going to keep going. (I just can’t stop once I’ve started, so bear with me as I go on semi-tangents from the original question) 

I’ve seen some people say how if Sonic didn’t let Metal Sonic go Eggman wouldn’t have remembered his old self — but we don’t know that???????

Sure, Metal Sonic was the last straw that allowed Eggman to remember – but it’s not guaranteed that Eggman wouldn’t have remembered without Metal.

It’s obvious that Starline wouldn’t have given up on Eggman, at least. Who knows what measures Starline would have taken to get Eggman back to all his glory. And well, he was making progress in restoring Eggman. Super slow progress, but progress nevertheless.

And this point I’m about to make is a bit of a stretch, but I want to make it anyways because I think it’s interesting to think about 

But look at what the badnik makes with the bush? It’s pretty much Sonic’s head. And, while sure it doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it could also mean that Eggman’s subconscious is at least starting to get hung up on Sonic again? Because out of all the things the badnik could have made, it’s Sonic’s head.

And we saw when the town’s doctor tried to see if Eggman really lost his memory, we see him using a blob that looks awfully familiar

Again, it doesn’t really prove my point in any way, but I just found it a kinda cool connection. Because we’re shown that a hint that Eggman is returning evil again is showing signs about his obsession with Sonic, and that obsession is peaking in here, if ever so slightly. 

So we could say that it was only a matter of time for Eggman to return to his old self, and the trigger could have been anything if not Metal. It probably wouldn’t have happened as quick, but it likely would have happened eventually.

One more thing I want to about Sonic’s decision to let Metal go. – I don’t think Sonic made that decision behind anyone’s back. 

I’m not going to go into the whole ‘no one disagreed with Sonic’s decision so it’s not like Sonic is the only one at fault’ point I made with Eggman here, because it doesn’t hold the same truth to it for this. Because I do think in this instance letting Metal go was 100% Sonic’s decision, and 100% Sonic’s responsibility to shoulder, but saying Sonic did this behind everyone’s back is a bit much.

When he meets with Knuckles again, Knuckles says how Metal is trashed

At this point I think I’m the only one who thought this, but I took Kunckles’s words as ‘Metal is in trash condition and not a threat’ not a ‘Metal is in the trash and offline’ 

Because otherwise it seems a bit weird for that line to be included but have no reaction from Sonic? Not even a side eyed glance of guilt or a sweatdrop or a small ellipsis bubble from Sonic indicating his silence on the topic under Knuckles’s first speech bubble. Absolutely nothing is given. 

And I guess I wouldn’t put it past Sonic to omit details from his friends if he thinks it’s for the best, but it is just strange how we didn’t get any indication of Sonic choosing to omit details here when it very easily could have been shown.

Then when Silver and Sonic faced Metal, there is no surprise from Silver. No indication that Silver wasn’t already aware that Metal was out there somewhere.

And I doubt that absolutely no one thought ‘huh where did Metal’s body end up’ If everyone wasn’t aware about Sonic’s plans. It seems like it would have been an odd thing to overlook, since Metal is known to be resilient. You would think someone would have wondered what happened to it if they were being kept in the dark. 

.

And my very last point in all this huge mass of words – the biggest reason I am okay with Sonic letting Eggman roam free without supervision and Sonic letting Metal Sonic go, is because Sonic is showing signs of learning from his mistakes

(yes, I’m reusing the same screencap in the same post shh) 

Sonic says how believing that everyone has good in them came to bite him in the end and he regrets it

It’s why I can’t really get mad at Sonic chasing that idealistic happy ending for everyone. Because in order for someone to be less naive, they need to face reality first. And oh boy, has Sonic been facing really harsh reality one after another since this arc began. 

Now, it’s too early to tell if IDW will let this lesson stick, but here’s hoping. The fact that Sonic has been so hung up about his mistakes makes it seem like he’ll learn from this whole thing.

And isn’t that nice to have? A character making mistakes and then learning from it. I feel like it’s so rare to have that I’m willing to forgive idiotic decisions if it leads to character growth and the promise of this similar situation not happening again. All IDW needs to do is not brush everything that has happened and Sonic’s guilt under a rug to be forgotten and things will be fine. 

I’m not saying I want Sonic to never give second chances ever again, but showing a bit of hesitance next time would be cool. And definitely never showing Eggman and Metal such leniency after all this. 

.

And with this being my second post supporting Sonic’s actions now, I just want to clarify that it’s not like I think this arc is without flaws. I’m not trying to hype up this comic to be this amazing and perfect thing. There are a lot of issues I have with this arc, and the fact that at least half of my points I made in this post was from speculation means that there were too many holes in the storytelling. 

But, while I do see plenty of flaws with the comic, I just don’t think it fun to constantly negatively criticize something I’m reading. If I’m reading something it’s because I’m enjoying doing so, so I don’t want to be bogged down by focusing on all the holes in it. I’ll just recognize the flaws for what it is, maybe come up with a theory or two to make things easier to swallow, and move on. It’s how I enjoy reading, but I know it’s not how everyone likes to go about things and that’s fine too. 

[bltngames]

Review: Lloyd the Monkey 2

Back before TSSZ News imploded, I would often do write-ups for many of the games at the Sonic Amateur Games Expo (SAGE). SAGE is an annual online expo that I started all the way back in September of 2000. I personally ran SAGE for over a year, and remained deeply hands on for at least another two years as it continued to grow. The main focus of SAGE was primarily to showcase fangames, in particular Sonic fangames, but the event never limited itself to any one type of game. It's never been uncommon to see original games appear in the lineup -- especially now, given the modern indie scene. 

One such original game was Lloyd the Monkey, a bit of a strange game, written in Javascript of all things and run through a webpage. That by itself was notable enough to stand out from most of the games at SAGE, but Lloyd was also a completely original product created by someone who possibly seemed to be young and new to game development. Making games is no easy feat, especially when they’re written in Javascript and you’re doing tons of original artwork yourself. Taken as that whole, the game impressed me, even if it was more than a little rough around the edges.

Now we have Lloyd the Monkey 2, written in Unity. The developer, Noah Meyer, sent me a Steam key in order to review the game. Up top, I just want to say how I think it’s kind of brave to go all the way in putting the game on Steam and everything. It felt like just a few years ago, newer indie developers sort of had to work up to releasing their game on Steam, usually getting a few releases under their belt first. People view games differently when they’re asked to pay for them, and critics may not be so willing to let circumstances influence their review. It can be a harsh world out there for a beginner.

Lloyd 2 is a much bigger, more ambitious game than the first. Whereas the original Lloyd didn’t even have sound effects, Lloyd 2 introduces voiced cutscenes, some of which are full-on animated cinematics. Quality is about what you would expect -- I would assume the developer sought out friends and acquaintances to voice characters in Lloyd 2, leading to wildly varying audio quality due to differences in recording hardware. Lloyd himself sounds fine, but some of the other characters are a bit quiet, while others have clear background noise. Nothing I heard was unlistenable, however. 

The story is also a little hard to follow. Not much is done to refresh our memories as to who anyone is or what’s going on, we’re just kind of thrown into the middle of things and turned loose. On one hand, it’s nice that the story doesn’t slow the pace of the gameplay down too much. On the other, you’re given a map screen with different objectives to clear but there’s very little context as to what you’re doing or why. At one point I made my way to the end of a Power Plant level only to confront what appeared to be an evil monkey. Despite a whole cutscene involving a conversation between four or five different people, this evil monkey never seemed to say a single word. He just stood there in total silence with a sinister smile. Then I killed him.

I suppose maybe I missed something, however. With greater ambitions comes a number of unfortunate bugs in Lloyd 2, one of which happened not long after our monkey and his crew landed on planet Grecia. I entered what appeared to be a castle to talk to the Queen, but I think the game expected me to take a lower route, where I was apparently meant to overhear the Queen making secret preparations before my arrival. Instead, I took the direct route straight to her chambers, and triggered the cutscene with Lloyd standing in front of her while ominous music played, even though the camera was still clearly focused on the next floor down. I apparently still had some amount of control, because midway through her dialog I touched a teleporter that sent me to the game’s map screen before she was done talking. If that cutscene was meant to give context to what I was doing, I didn’t get a chance to see it.

That was one of the more harmless bugs in my time spent playing Lloyd 2. Harder to ignore was the fact that, within the first 30 seconds of getting control, I soft locked the game. Lloyd 2 opens with a short prologue section where you play as a man with black hair. If you decide to ignore the obvious and go left instead of right, you quickly run out of solid level tiles and begin falling indefinitely. Later areas feature invisible walls presumably to prevent this exact scenario, but for whatever reason they weren’t implemented in the prologue. 

For the most part, Lloyd 2 seems to be a co-op game. Many levels see Lloyd teamed up with an alien princess named Lura, with gameplay vaguely reminiscent of Mega Man X crossed with the tag mechanic from Sonic Mania’s Encore Mode. At the touch of a button, you can switch between the Swordsman Lloyd and the more projectile-based Lura… assuming your partner is still alive, I guess. While playing alone, your partner is controlled by artificial intelligence, but it’s incredibly basic and prone to accidentally committing suicide. That wouldn’t be such a big deal (considering Tails in Sonic 2 never acted in self-preservation either), but once your partner dies, they stay dead. Your only option to bring them back is to either restart the stage or hope another cutscene triggers, since they’ll magically spring back to life in order to say their dialog (though, again, usually only seconds before they fall back into the next death pit). 

This might not be much of a problem, depending on your viewpoint. There’s not much incentive to switch between Lloyd and Lura, so once you pick whoever you think works the best, chances are, you’ll just stick with them. You do unlock special team-up attacks after beating each boss, but this just reinforces the idea that Lloyd the Monkey 2 is meant to be experienced with another person holding a second controller, as most of the team-up attacks require both characters to do something specific that the single player artificial intelligence usually can’t interpret. Regardless, the team-up attacks never seem strictly necessary to progress, so they can be safely ignored if you’re playing solo.

I understand this is a pretty negative review I’ve written here. Lloyd the Monkey 2 aims high and tries to the best of its ability to get there. I assume it was a struggle to get even this far. Making games is hard work, and like any skill, takes practice to get good at. Just because this is Lloyd the Monkey 2 doesn’t mean Noah Meyer, its developer, is automatically an expert. I'm sure he's doing his best, and, quality aside, this game has a lot of heart put into it. This isn’t something cheap, quick, or lazy. It’s really, genuinely trying, and that matters. 

I’ve said a few times here and there that I see pieces of myself in the releases of Lloyd the Monkey, and I still see them here. I remember, for an early SAGE event, I was working on a fangame project of mine called The Fated Hour. I was probably already a year or two or maybe even three deep in the game by now, and after a lot of hyping up the community, this was their first chance to play the game. I spent months and months coding this iteration of my engine, and by my standards back then, it seemed like bleeding edge technology. I felt like I was going to blow everyone's minds. 

It was a mess. Few were impressed. Even worse, the game straight up didn’t even run correctly for some people. What followed was multiple patches, and even rebuilding some entire areas from scratch. My ambitions got the better of me and I unintentionally cut corners -- not because I was trying to cheap out on doing proper development, but just because I simply didn’t know any better. I may have done the best I knew how to do, but I was running faster than my body could keep up with and I stumbled.

When I see things like the missing invisible walls in the prologue, or how easily partner characters commit suicide by accident, I think back to that demo for The Fated Hour, and how I've been in this exact place myself. There’s even a side quest in Lloyd 2 where you have to track a floating girl as she drifts through a level -- there was a nearly identical set piece in The Fated Hour, where you were chasing a robot. It’s a very strange feeling to see something like that and think, “I’ve been here before.” Like looking through a window at a younger version of yourself.

It’s true that I stumbled, but I didn’t let that stop me. I learned by doing. I kept going. Three years later, a game of mine was featured on TV, leading to more than a million downloads. The mistakes of past projects did not weigh me down and I soldiered onwards, newfound knowledge in hand. 

So where does that leave us with Lloyd the Monkey 2, then. Well, it's not exactly a game to compete with Super Mario Odyssey, but given the circumstances in which it was created, I don't think that's necessarily the point. As a learning experience clearly made for the fun of its own creation, I think it's a success. And who knows what awaits in the years to come?

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Mario Playthrough

Fighter: Mario

Game: Super Mario 64 DS. Wii U virtual console (DS). First Released on November 21st 2004.

Fighter Bio.

Mario is a plumber from the Mushroom Kingdom. Over the years he has taken on many jobs and gone on many adventures, most often fighting Bowser and his minions who seek to take over the Mushroom Kingdom. This however, is very much an understatement of who Mario is, a character who not only represents Nintendo as a whole, but arguably gaming itself in a manner similar to how Mickey Mouse could be argued to represent western animation. There is only one other character I would argue possibly is iconic enough to represent gaming as a whole as much as Mario, who we will get to down the line, but unlike that character, Mario has been a consistent presence on the gaming landscape since his debut.

Mario started off as a carpenter called Jumpman who had to chase his escaped angry pet gorilla, a certain ape that we’ll get to later, up a construction site to rescue his then girlfriend Pauline from his clutches. Following this, Mario did many different jobs such as working on a demolitions crew, at a cement factory, as a soldier, as a golfer and then as a plumber. It was after this Mario would first appear in the world he’s now best known from, the Mushroom Kingdom. There’s no canon timeline or anything really with regards to this, in the past in some countries such as America, it was said that Mario and his brother Luigi travelled to the Mushroom Kingdom from Earth down a warp pipe, and with Super Mario Odyssey it seems to be implied recently that the earlier games in Mario’s life before Super Mario Bros might have taken place in New Donk City. Either way, in Super Mario Bros, Mario took down Bowser for the first time saving the Mushroom Kingdom and became its protector, a role he’s carried on to this day, fighting not just Bowser but a variety of different villains and groups over the years and travelling all around his world and beyond to other worlds. Mario’s best strength is that he is so adaptable, not being the strongest, the fastest or able to jump the highest, but still being capable in all those areas. Mario is often the most well-rounded character in every game he’s in, being a good character for beginners to use to learn how to play various games, but also still useable by those who are more experienced.

His personality, similar to other characters we’ll get to, has been purposefully left fairly bland in order for him to be able to fit into many different roles over the years. This does not mean he has none however and over the years he has been portrayed often as excitable, energetic and in some cases with a bit of an ego and over competitive element, a contrast to his brother Luigi who tends to be somewhat quieter and more nervous. Personally, I feel whilst Mario can be summed up as bland, he still is a fun character that deserves his place as the main mascot of Nintendo and due to his vast interesting history and countless great games, his place as a gaming icon.

Friends: Mario has had many friends over the years, the most immediately apparent being his brother Luigi and Princess Peach. Given how long Mario has been around and how many characters he’s teamed up with on various adventures, listing every single one would be a tough task, from the obvious ones such as Toad and Yoshi to the characters who appear more in group events such as Rosalina, Princess Daisy and Diddy Kong, to the more seldom seen such as Geno, Goombella, to finally the very obscure such as Wanda the fairy. There’s a reason he’s seen as the superstar of the Mushroom Kingdom beyond simply saving the world various times after all, Mario tends to be willing to help all sorts of people with all manner of small problems. As such even when he is in a place that’s unfamiliar with him, he manages to build a reputation fairly quickly.

Enemies/Rivals: Mario of course has also amassed many enemies and rivals through his willingness to always stand against those plotting to do wrong, from invading lands, stealing things to kidnapping people. It would take some time to go over every enemy Mario has ever made similarly to how many friends he’s made over the years, but the most obvious enemy of Mario’s is King Bowser Koopa who whilst not his oldest enemy (although, they did battle as babies long ago) is his longest running one. Bowser’s minions also share the sentiment in most cases, especially when it comes to his son Bowser Jr and the Koopalings who have assisted Bowser in his plans many times over the years coming into conflict with Mario numerous times. Bowser’s soldiers have less of a vendetta against Mario in most cases and are more seeking to see Bowser’s will is done. In some cases, they can be quite civil with Mario and in others they can be decidedly not. Some such as Piranha Plants often seem to simply be creatures who wish to devour whatever comes close, Mario often being in their path.

When it comes to rivals, Wario has always been more of an annoyance to Mario than a full-on enemy, often trying to one-up him at various sports and only in his debut appearance ever being anything like a true enemy to Mario, taking control of his Castle. Donkey Kong has a fairly complicated relationship with Mario, the original Donkey Kong that Mario fought in his very first game is now an older ape called Cranky Kong, and the current Donkey Kong is either the son or grandson of Cranky (it’s not very clear to anyone it seems). He had a somewhat more friendly relationship with Mario than Cranky, however his impulsiveness has brought them into conflict which led to the Mario vs Donkey Kong series. Even in that series however, when DK calms down, he often reconciles with Mario and the two have often helped each other out in various spinoff games. Diddy Kong has never had any conflict with Mario only really meeting with him in various sports games and other spinoffs, not helping Donkey Kong in his occasional feuds against Mario. There was one small case of another crossover with the two but I will detail that more in Diddy’s own entry down the line.

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Mario being as prolific as he is has crossed over with many other gaming characters outside of Smash Bros. For the sake of this not getting any longer, I will only detail cases where this has happened in games rather than cases such as Megaman appearing in German Club Nintendo comics alongside Mario, even though I do love that there are such obscure appearances. Down the line I might mention crossovers in animated series for other characters, but despite numerous tv series Mario never actually crossed over with other characters in animation (well, beyond an extremely obscure Mario and Kirby learning video which didn’t really cross them over so much as they both had segments on the same video) I also will only mention appearances in person rather than things such as costumes in Super Mario Maker (which would be practically every character in Smash) or Kirby having a poster in Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga.

Anyway, outside of characters from Mario’s own series such as Donkey Kong, Mario has met Samus and Link (A Link to the Past’s incarnation most likely) for brief cameos in Super Mario RPG. Mario appeared in Kirby Super Star in the audience for both the Megaton Punch minigame and Kirby’s Battle in the Boxing arena with King Dedede. This is a little bit of a cheat but it’s fairly notable, in Mario Kart 8 there was a Mii costume for Captain Falcon, along with the Blue Falcon as a kart and two F-Zero tracks. In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, there is also Link in both his Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild incarnations as well as both default Inklings, two human Animal Crossing Villagers and Isabelle who are playable. Mr Game & Watch is an interesting case as not only did he specifically cross over with Mario in the Game & Watch Gallery series, he technically has been Mario in the original Game & Watch versions of various games such as Mario’s Cement Factory. I will go more into this in Game & Watch’s post. Pit actually had a small cameo crossover with Mario and various other characters back on the NES in Tetris, where he would appear playing a harp alongside characters such as Mario, Samus, Link and Donkey Kong.  Next up is probably the biggest crossover for Mario, his past rival from another console Sonic. Sonic and Mario, besides in Smash, only crossover in person in one series being the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series. Olimar brings up a somewhat sad example as the only cameo where he crossed over and met Mario is one that never happened. It was found in the files for Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga on GBA that Olimar, Toon Link, Wario, Fox McCloud, Samus Aran and an Excitebiker were originally planned to appear for short cameos giving Mario and Luigi various special items in the Starbean Café for blending new drinks alongside Professor E Gadd. E Gadd was the only one who appeared in the actual game. This would have been Olimar and Toon Link’s only direct crossover with Mario. Little Mac and Mario had quite a big crossover, as Mario was the referee for Little Mac’s matches in the NES version of Punch-out. He also appeared in the audience to watch the boxer in the arcade versions of Punch-Out. Pac-Man has crossed over with Mario in the arcade Mario Kart GP series which really feels more of a crossover than specifically a Mario Kart game. Whilst Mario has never directly crossed over with any of the Hero characters from Dragon Quest, many of the Fortune Street games have featured crossovers with the Dragon Quest and Mario series, with many other Dragon Quest characters interacting with Mario. Whilst Banjo had many links to Donkey Kong, he did not have any official crossover with Mario, although interestingly if you over analyse the Mario franchise as I do, an argument could be made that Banjo is technically part of it, still I’ll leave that for when we get to the Bear and Bird’s own post.

As you can tell, Mario has crossed over with a lot of franchises over the years. I doubt any other character coming up will have as many examples as this, so hopefully there shouldn’t be as much to say. I think now it’s time to move onto the main event.

Why this game?

Super Mario 64 is the definitive 3D Mario title. Does that mean I think it’s the best 3D Mario title? Personally, I don’t think it’s the best of all of them, but I do still feel that doesn’t mean it can’t be the definitive one, similar to how I would rank Super Mario Bros 3 as the definitive 2D Mario game. Super Mario 64 defined many of the staples for Mario going forward as well as 3D platformers in general, with large 3D worlds to explore, a hub world leading to the various levels, and many other features which were fairly new at the time, even if perhaps it wasn’t the first to do many of them, it was the game that popularised them. Every other 3D Mario game that would come later would aim to have a specific “gimmick” (I dislike that term but it’s the best I can think of currently) to set it apart, Sunshine had F.L.U.D.D. the Galaxy games had the gravity system, 3D Land and World tried more to directly translate the gameplay of 2D Mario games to 3D and Odyssey had its capture mechanic along with other things. This leaves Mario 64 as the Mario game that was more straightforward in being about Mario in 3D. This, alongside a lot of other things I will detail in the later section regarding specific aspects of the game relating to Smash, is why I chose to play this game to represent Mario. You have likely noticed at this point I have repeatedly talked about Super Mario 64, not Super Mario 64 DS.

Super Mario 64 DS was a launch game with the new DS system, and in order to show off the capabilities of the DS to handle 3D games, I assume Nintendo again wanted to use Super Mario 64 similar to how they used it originally to demonstrate the abilities of the Nintendo 64. Super Mario 64 DS in my opinion is a great game, however it does not replace the original. It changed a lot of the models updating them to closer resemble the artwork for the Mario series at the time, closer reflecting all sorts of characters looks. The game also featured three other playable characters, Yoshi, Wario and Luigi. I will not go too into detail regarding these characters as they will have their own posts later and this is mostly meant to be Mario’s entry.

The controls however were the most often cited issue with the game. The DS did not have a control stick, and as such there were two main options to play the game, the first being to use the Dpad to move around. Due to the lack of a control stick to pick up on the sensitivity with which players wished to move their characters, the game instead had it so you had to hold the Y button to run and would just walk quickly otherwise, something which was often not seen to be as satisfying as the original controls for the N64 version. The second option which was more popular than the Dpad was using a thumb strap on the touch screen to recreate the controls of a joystick, I believe this is used in some phone games. (I admit I’m not that familiar with mobile phone platformers that use these controls) The issue with this however is unlike a joystick there’s not a physical object you can feel and get feedback from, so it can be hard to control as precisely as when using one. With the 3DS having the circle pad, and the Wii U virtual console having a control stick, I feel that playing Mario 64 DS on these systems is a big improvement over the originals and that is why I wanted to play through that version of the game for this. With that said, you still have to hold the Y button to run on these systems, which is still an issue people have with the game.

My past with this game.

It’s probably a thing that’s been repeated countless times by others, but when I first played Super Mario 64 as a kid and was in Peach’s Castle grounds, it truly felt like the largest area I had ever seen in a videogame. Running around the grass I thought I’d get lost. It’s bizarre now as even back then after a couple of days of playing I was more aware of the actual size of the garden, but that first time playing was just an experience which I will never have again I think, which is fine as I don’t need to, it was amazing to be able to experience something like that for the first time rather than growing up with it being the norm for games. The rest of the game was a truly incredible experience, exploring the castle, entering the paintings, exploring areas such as Bob-omb battlefield, taking on the King Bob-omb on the summit, taking on Bowser for the first time, it’s something no other game will be able to match in some ways. The greatest strength for Mario 64 however is that even to this day it is still a very enjoyable game to go back to. It’s not a hard game (although not without its challenge, especially when playing it for the first time) but it’s still got a lot of content in it, to the point I’d say it’s one of those games that’s perfect to just play through to 100 percent completion from time to time.

The game also due to its more simplistic style to many other later games has always had a bit of a mysterious air to it. I remember as a child often being a little creeped out in Peach’s Castle as it felt so empty that I could believe Bowser was constantly watching me. There were also plenty of rumours surrounding the game, one of the biggest of which was the absence of Luigi, with various fake ways to ‘unlock Luigi’ floating around the playground and even in some cases done as a joke in gaming magazines, which back then were the main way I would get my gaming info. Beyond this legacy, if you frequent youtube a lot you’ve likely seen just how many speedruns and intense analyses of this game there are, finding all sorts of tricks and secrets, ways to do all sorts of incredible things in the game. Even if I again might personally prefer some of the other 3D Mario games, this game is still an absolutely important and amazing game that deserves the place it often finds on people’s greatest games of all-time lists.

When it comes to Super Mario 64 DS and my personal history with it, I remember being extremely excited for this game. The initial trailers made it seem like the game would let you play through the game in a co-operative multiplayer, which sadly it seems didn’t pan out, but I was still very much excited to play through the game I loved with characters who weren’t in the original, the biggest to me being Luigi who’s absence from the original game led to all sorts of urban legends regarding how to unlock him. When I got the game, I loved it. Now, as we go through these posts, you will all probably come to realise I am notoriously easy to please, to the point it’s fairly rare that I will full on hate a game, therefore whilst I definitely got where people were coming from with the controls, personally I still really enjoyed the game and found I could adapt to the controls to the point they were mostly not a problem to me. As I’ve said before, I do not feel this remake replaces the original game and I still feel there is plenty of reason to go back to the original version again. I personally feel Super Mario 64 DS has its own good points, with a lot of new content, models changed to fit better with the general look the series has nowadays and the additional three characters being some examples. Whilst I wouldn’t rank it as highly as the original game, I still really enjoyed it and was excited to see it come to Wii U virtual console, meaning I can play it on the big screen for the first time. It’s a shame the graphics for DS games don’t look too great on a tv screen, but beyond that I’d say either the Wii U VC version or playing the DS game on 3DS are the best ways to play it.

My Smash Playthrough.

So, returning to this game again how did it go? Well, one of the key aspects of this specific playthrough, is it was the start of this whole project I’d set myself on. As such, it was the game where my initial false start took place. It’s hard to remember now as I believe I beat the game in 2017, but I had started it and my list much earlier, possibly in 2016. It’s interesting as this began some time after Corrin and Bayonetta finished off Smash 4’s DLC but before Ultimate was revealed, although I believe it was somewhat known at the time there would be a Smash Brothers game on Switch, just not officially at this point. Also 2017 brought something else with it which motivated me, the closing of Miiverse. Due to this, I realised if I didn’t get a move on, I would miss out on using it to get screenshots as I had hoped to do, many of which I am using in this specific post you’re reading. With this motivation I decided it was time to truly commit to this goal I had and in order to do it properly from what I remember, I restarted Super Mario 64 DS from scratch rather than continue my original run.

It’s hard to bring up things specific to my playthrough seeing as it was a few years ago now, however I am able to remember some aspects of that playthrough. It was my first time playing through the game on Wii U to 100% completion as I had wanted to save doing so for when I really wanted to go through with this project. As said before, this made two things apparent, firstly that 3D DS games don’t look good blown up on a bigger screen, secondly with the screen a bigger size to what it would have been on the DS, it made differences between the control in the N64 game and DS game clearer, sometimes being somewhat harder to make precise moves. This could make some of the tougher challenges a bit more irritating in some cases, but I still mostly had a lot of fun replaying the game, which was part of the reason I decided I wanted to 100% the game even though that was and is not my plan for every game.

I haven’t played through Super Mario 64 from start to finish many times, but I have returned to my completed files on the game many times before. So seeing the various small events again when playing from the start always gave me a nice nostalgic feeling, such as Bowser’s laugh when you arrive in the castle for the first time, and having the power of the stars you’ve found unlock each door for the first time. The levels were as fun to go through as always, from the simple ones like Bob-omb Battlefield to later stages such as Tall Tall Mountain. Regarding the most difficult stages, I’d say Tick Tock Clock didn’t give me as much trouble as I expected and that the stage I had the biggest issue with was Hazy Maze Cave. I believe even now I remember having gotten roughly 99 coins a couple of times just to get killed there and have to start again from scratch. Notable standouts in that level that stick in my mind are the poisonous gas in the cave as well as the arrow platforms that you had to use to find the red coins, which I remember having a fair bit of trouble with. On this note, the 100-coin stars were as always some of the most irritating ones as nothing in the game is worse than reaching around 90 coins and making a mistake getting killed meaning I have to start from scratch.

The bosses were fairly fun although in a lot of cases fairly simplistic. This is a strength with the DS remake I would say as it added some content including new bosses in new stages which were how you unlock the other playable characters. Of these new bosses, Goomboss is probably my favourite as it was so unexpected (and still is) seeing anything from Paper Mario make its way into another game in the Mario series, the Goomboss being clearly inspired by the Goomba King from the very first Paper Mario game. The star of the show when it comes to iconic bosses in Super Mario 64 however has to be Bowser, with this being definitely one of the top Bowser boss battles in the series. All three boss fights with him are fun, but the music and atmosphere in the final battle make him amongst my favourite Final Bosses in gaming. One of my favourite aspects is that you actually fight Bowser rather than having to trick him into breaking the floor under him, or hitting a switch to drop him off a bridge, with you grabbing him and swinging him by the tail. Whilst the model used for Bowser here looks very nice and definitely matches his more standard appearance, I’ll admit the original N64 model probably looked more intimidating, despite its obvious simplicity.

Then we get to the ending of the game, probably one of my favourite game endings of all time, from Mario (or in the remake Yoshi) looking up into the sky before heading in for the celebrations, the music to the shots of every stage you’ve been through it’s the perfect send off to the adventure and to this day still leaves me with a happy if somewhat melancholy feeling. (which is something I always feel with endings, even if obviously this was far from the end of the Mario series by any stretch of the imagination.) Ending on the final shot of the cake and Mario thanking you for playing his game. Overall this was a fantastic game to start off with and definitely eased me in for what was to come.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Mario in Smash.

Now, this section is where I would mostly go over specific equipment, setups and character choices I made based on the way Super Smash Brothers portrays the character, however in this case Mario doesn’t really get any equipment in the game, with the closest thing to it being he can lose his hat, which obviously I made sure to keep hold of through the game. What exactly does Mario take from this game then? Well, a lot. Most of Mario’s basic attacks, movements and jumps in Super Smash Bros are based on his moves in this game, with specific examples being his standard punch, his punch punch kick combo, jump kick attack, sweep kick, slide kick, and various jumps. What’s interesting is that Mario would never use the majority of these moves in later games, instead relying more on jumping and a straight forward spin attack in most cases. One final inspiration in his moveset that Mario took from this game is from the boss fights with Bowser where Mario will grab him by his tail, swing him around in circles before letting go flinging Bowser forward, a move that Mario uses in some of his throws in the Super Smash Bros series. Finally Mario’s entrance in Smash Bros mirrors his appearance at the beginning of this game, with a pipe appearing from the ground, Mario jumping out and the pipe then descending again. In future I will not tend to go into details on the origin of the majority of a character’s moves, but this is a special case as so much from this game specifically became part of Mario’s overall moveset and there wasn’t really ‘equipment’ to go over for him this time.

Credits.

For information on this game including dates of releases I must give credit to Super Mario Wiki.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using Miiverse before it shut down.

[mobius-prime]

84. Sonic Super Special #2 - Brave New World

Brave New World

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Ken Penders and Pat Spaziante Colors: Barry Grossman

We're in for a long one, guys! I don't think a single special issue so far has contained only one story within, but this issue is a bit special. It doesn't necessarily contain one cohesive story, but rather serves as a stage-setter for the comic's upcoming issues, addressing many smaller plot points and chronicling the first foray made back into Robotropolis after Robotnik's death.

The beginning already gives us a juicy tidbit even though it's merely a recap of Mobius' history - for the first time, we hear about Queen Acorn, Sally's mother! We don't know much about her yet, only that she's considered a casualty of war in the Great War against the Overlanders before Robotnik's takeover. After the recap finishes, we see what's happening in the present - the celebrations are over, and now the Freedom Fighters and all their affiliates are faced with the enormous task of attempting to restore Robotropolis back into its former glory as Mobotropolis.

Woof, that looks bad. Remember this place isn't just polluted with all sorts of nasty industrial contaminants, but actual radioactive fallout as well (from when the bombs went off in the Mecha Madness special, if you recall). They decide to start with the former palace at the center of the city, but are quickly attacked by a Dynamac robot of the same kind as the one in StH #31.

The robot grabs Hershey, Antoine, Bunnie, and Tails in its weird mechanical tentacles, but Sonic confuses it by running fast enough to create multiple images of himself, making it drop its prisoners. While the fight is going on, Rotor discovers Snively hiding behind a curtain and definitely not doing anything evil to control the robot. With Bunnie's help, they take down the robot and snag Snively in a net before he can get away.

With the threat neutralized, Sally heads upstairs to see what her old home has become, having not seen it since she was only five years old. The shock of seeing her home in such a state is clearly overwhelming to her.

The comic interrupts itself here unexpectedly to show us a map of Mobius - yes, the entire thing - but we're going to hold off on exploring that until the end so as not to interrupt the flow of the story. Sally begins divvying up various tasks to her Freedom Fighters to focus on the restoration of the city - things like running water, power, etc. - but Geoffrey is nowhere to be found. Turns out he's on a call with King Acorn, whose condition has apparently improved enough that despite his crystallization, he can speak and even give orders. It doesn't seem like his mental state is really in the best of shape, however…

See, this is the trouble with monarchy, guys. I feel like if he was anyone other than The Almighty King, his words would be dismissed as delusional and bordering on fearmongering, but because he is the king and Geoffrey is sworn to his service, Geoffrey actually appears to take his words seriously, even as Dr. Quack encourages the king to lie back down and rest.

Well, since Chuck is such a radical, let's check on what he's doing right now, shall we? As it turns out, the blast from the Ultimate Annihilator restored the free will of every roboticized Mobian when it wiped out their slavemaster. While the others have been taking care of business up above, Chuck has been looking after all the newly-freed roboticized folk. Now that they can think for themselves once again, however, they have a new problem - they all, of course, want their organic forms back, but Chuck has to break the news to them that that's not possible.

Hey, who are those two blue hedgehog-looking dudes at the bottom of those panels? Jules and Bernie, Chuck calls them…

Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails are out on patrol, making sure the city is free of any more surprises like the Dynamac. They encounter a line of swatbots transporting materials into factories like usual, but they complete ignore the pair, causing them to speculate this is another contingency Robotnik had set up to continue without him in the case of his death. They're interrupted by a sudden cry for help, which they follow to its source.

Sonic attempts to help Penelope get Arlo out of his pickle, but isn't quite strong enough, until suddenly one of the roboticized Mobians, a polar bear that Sonic and Tails recognize as Rudyard, arrives to lift the rubble off Arlo. Uncle Chuck shows up with more of the roboticized people, and then… introduces some familiar faces to him.

Ouch.

Sonic races off in blind fury and grief, despite Jules attempting to explain to Sonic that they had asked Chuck to keep the secret from him, and Bernie sends Tails off after him to hopefully calm him down. Chuck in the meantime takes his entourage to speak to Sally, who happily welcomes them back to sentience, though they seem doubtful that things can't go back to being the way they were before.

On a cliff overlooking the city, Sonic rages as Tails arrives, furious that Uncle Chuck would keep such an important fact from his as his parents being alive. Apparently, he had told Sonic right at the beginning of the war that they were "casualties of war," something which I suppose technically rings true, though it was clearly interpreted to mean "dead" by Sonic. (Hey, is anyone else noticing a weird parallel between Sonic and Knuckles' family situations right now?) Tails reasons with him that even if he had known his parents were alive, that wouldn't have necessarily made things easier for him to bear, as Sally knew her father was alive and it ate her up inside. This cheers Sonic somewhat, the thought that Uncle Chuck only did what he did to protect Sonic because he cares for him, and together they head back into the city.

That evening, Sally is sitting and watching over the work her people are doing and remarking to Nicole that it would perhaps be easier to abandon the city and rebuild elsewhere, and as Nicole reassures her who shows up to agree with the computer but Geoffrey? He sits next to her to chat, but Sally notices his attitude and finally speaks up about their potentially blossoming relationship.

At least he takes it well! And at least Sally is finally moving on to someone more her age… Of course, at that moment Sonic shows up, and all he sees is Geoffrey acting like he's about to kiss Sally, so naturally he tackles him to the ground and they each begin attempting to tear the other to shreds in a jealous rage. Sally is for some reason not happy with this turn of events at all, so she gets Bunnie and Antoine to hose them down with a high-powered fire hose, and forces them to shake hands while they glare at each other and whisper through clenched teeth a promise of a later rematch. These two have a really healthy relationship, I feel!

That night, Sally uses Nicole as a sort of video call portal to her father, and we find out that apparently, she's not the one really issuing all the orders here - instead, her father is relaying commands to her that she then carries out under the guise of her own leadership. She's incredibly uncertain about the ethics of lying to her friends about the situation, even though Nicole reminds her it isn't the first time she kept secrets (referring to her secret about Knuckles), and she falls asleep alone and lonely.

The next day, Uncle Chuck hits her with some rather shocking news about the roboticized citizens.

It seems maybe they aren't ready to rejoin society yet after all, unfortunately. The issue ends with one last note on Snively - he's been sent to the Devil's Gulag, which is apparently being run in the same way that Winterhold runs its prison system, with prisoners stranded in their cells on the island and guards only coming to check on them and provide food and water once a week. Geez, man, aren't the people running this thing supposed to be the good guys? That seems incredibly inhumane… Snively isn't pleased with his new living situation at all, and vows quietly from within his own cell to strike back when the time is right. On a side note, we actually see the exact same sign that I pointed out all the way back in StH#18, the one at the entrance to Robotropolis. It's been changed for the new situation, with the "R" in Robotropolis crossed out in favor of an "M", the population of evil doctors changed to 0, and the "0 living beings" changed to "many living beings," which is honestly a really cute way for them to take back their own land. The bit mentioning how many robots there are is unchanged however, which means we really are dealing with over four million roboticized citizens recently having regained their minds and wills. Guess we'll see how that plays out in the future…

Okay, time to take a look at this map of Mobius we've been provided!

I always found it rather funny when fictional planets have to set themselves up to look vaguely like Earth. The Sonic games did it, Steven Universe did it, it's a strangely common trope. I went ahead and checked the scale provided, and my earlier statements about Mobius as a planet being comparable to Earth hold true; it's about the same size as our own planet. As you can see, almost everything relevant takes place in Not-North-America, with Mobotropolis and Knothole being situated in a general area analogous to Texas or perhaps Oklahoma. A lot of the noted areas in the legend are just references to old issues, but some are quite interesting. For example, the Floating Island apparently takes a sinusoidal orbit around the planet - it probably looks a bit less dramatic than that considering this appears to be a Mercator projection map (which means that the size of landmasses further from the equator are inflated), so the path is probably much less curved than it appears here. Quite interestingly, there's a section on the east coast of Not-North-America labeled "Overlander Territory" - we knew already about the Great War between the Mobians and the Overlanders, but now we actually get to see where they've apparently been residing this entire time. There's a few locations labeled for places we haven't seen yet (I'm not sure if this is because they were planning ahead for future issues, or if it's because this issue, despite chronologically taking place now, was published later), such as the Mysterious Cat Country and the Kingdom of Mercia, but the one that stands out most to me is the "lethal radioactive zone" located in the equivalent of modern-day Mongolia. There's no note yet on what exactly caused this area to be lethally radioactive, and I genuinely can't remember if it's addressed specifically in future issues, so I guess we'll just have to see!

[thisdiscontentedwinter]

Bad Blood - Chapter 26

You can read it on AO3 or find the Tumblr Chapter Index here. 

___________

Peter sits on the couch and listens while Stiles tells him what he knows about Gerard’s plans. It amounts to the fact that he had a map on his desk with a circle around the warehouses on Elm, and Chris had already told them that before he got shot. So Peter steers the boy more into generalities, and Gerard’s training methods, and listens to his stuttering heartbeat while he calmly relays things, and wonders if the boy even knows what a conflicted mess he is. It’s clear that he’s terrified of Gerard—his body’s responses can’t be hidden—but it’s also clear he’s learned how to repress them.

He’s just as terrified of Peter, probably.

Peter finds his gaze drawn occasionally to the scar on his throat.

Peter doesn’t trust the boy.

And that’s not because he thinks that Stiles is another Kate Argent, another hunter wearing a false face. He doesn’t trust Stiles because he doesn’t think that Stiles can trust himself.  

“Thank you, Stiles,” he says at last. “This has been very helpful.”

Stiles’s hands are shaking as Derek leads him away. They go upstairs this time, and Peter hopes Derek is showing the boy to the bathroom. He stinks of sweat and fear.

“You don’t believe him, do you?” Laura asks quietly after a moment.

“I do,” Peter says. “But I don’t trust him any more than I’d trust any other cornered animal. He’s scared, and fear drives people to crazy things.”

Allison’s forehead creases. “Scared? No, he’s like this all the time.”

Peter tilts his head. “He’s been scared for years, Allison. He’s good at hiding it, but I can hear his heartbeat.”

Allison has no answer for that.

The pipes groan and creak as the shower is turned on upstairs.

***

In the afternoon Peter leaves the loft, his senses on high alert. He takes the Camaro and parks it outside the grocery store on Forest Street. He goes inside and buys a few things. More coffee, some snacks, some bacon. Some chocolate for Laura. And then he walks the three blocks over to the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic, checking to make sure he’s not being followed.

The bells on the door ring as he pushes them open.

Deaton appears from the back rooms. “Peter. What’s going on?”

“Can we talk?” Peter asks. “Also, can I put this bacon in your fridge while I’m here?”

Deaton waves him through.

Moments later, his bacon safe, Peter leans up against the examination table as Deaton goes over all the surfaces in the place with antiseptic.

“You want mountain ash,” Deaton says, “but for humans?”

“There must be something, right?” Peter says. “Magic is all about balance, so where’s our equivalent of mountain ash?”

“Most people would tell you that mountain ash balances out the fact that werewolves have claws and fangs and incredible strength,” Deaton says.

“There must be something,” Peter says. “Alan, I need any advantage I can get.”

Deaton exhales slowly. “Then I’m sorry, I don’t know of any substance that would disable humans without having the same effect on werewolves. Certainly nothing you could use as a barrier in the same way humans can use mountain ash.”

“Nothing at all?” Peter asks.

“I’m sorry,” Deaton says. He taps his fingers along the counter. “Have you considered that you’re looking in the wrong place?”

“What do you mean?”

“Herbs and potions and magic might not help you against the hunters,” Deaton says, “but technology could. If you want to set mantraps, Peter, then maybe you need to take a leaf out of their playbook instead of mine.”

Peter narrows his eyes for a moment.

Deaton’s mouth quirks, which is the closest he ever comes to a real smile. “If their technology can stop you, Peter, it can sure as hell stop them too.”

And Peter supposes that yes, yes it can.

***

Peter returns to the loft, and unpacks his groceries. He slings an arm around Laura when she comes to inspect what he bought. She nabs the chocolate first, and then catches his gaze. Peter can’t help his smirk.

“You’re up to something,” she says suspiciously.

“I have an idea forming, yes,” Peter says.

“And is it an idea you’re willing to share with your alpha?”

“It most certainly is.” Peter listens for a moment. He can hear Allison and Stiles’s heartbeats upstairs, and Derek’s too. Derek will be able to hear him, but the humans won’t. “How would you feel about tripwires, and flash bombs, and explosives and whatever the hell else is considered an arsenal?”

“To use on the hunters?”

“Who else?”

Laura looks hesitant. “I mean, maybe. Why? Are you planning on breaking into a military base?”

“Nope,” Peter says, and flashes her a smug smile. “I’m planning on breaking into Gerard Argent’s house.”

Laura raises her eyebrows. “Excuse me?”

“Look,” Peter says, “we can’t go to Chris’s house, because Gerard will be watching it to see if Allison runs home. And he can’t be lurking around his house, because you know who’s already watching that?”

“Who?”

“The good deputies of Beacon Hills,” Peter says. “It’s still a crime scene. But fortunately we have an in with the sheriff.”

“Peter, if there was anything in that house, wouldn’t it already be in an evidence locker?”

“Oh, I’m sure they took everything they found,” Peter says. “Just like I’m absolutely sure they didn’t find everything, or the FBI would have been crawling over the place like ants at a picnic.”

Laura nods cautiously. “Maybe.”

“Shall we go and ask Stiles?” Peter asks.

Laura nods, more decisively this time.

Peter leads the way up the steps.

He finds Stiles and Allison in Derek’s room. Derek is on the bed reading, and the humans are sitting on the floor playing some game with a pack of cards. Stiles looks better today. He’s wearing a borrowed shirt of Derek’s that’s a little baggy on him, and a pair of sweats with a pink stripe up the side: Laura’s. His feet are bare.

“Stiles,” Peter says.

Stiles looks up from his cards, and makes to rise.

“No, stay there, you’re fine.” Peter steps inside the room. “I wanted to ask you some more questions about Gerard. Specifically his house.”

Stiles glances to Derek before answering. “Okay.”

“I need to know what kind of weapons he kept in the house,” Peter says. “And not just firearms, but also things like explosives, and grenades, and, you know, the really illegal stuff.”

“Okay,” Stiles says again, and proceeds to rattle off a list. Peter only catches about half of it, and understands even less than that.

“You know what?” he says, grabbing a pen and a pad of paper from Derek’s desk. “How about you write that down?”

Stiles nods.

***

Peter takes his phone outside onto the balcony to make the call. It’s a bright day. A cool breeze plays around Peter as he brings up the list of contacts in his phone.

“Peter,” John says when he answers. “Everything okay?”

He says everything, but Peter isn’t a fool. He knows what John’s really asking.

“He’s fine,” Peter says. “Fed, and showered, and currently playing cards with Allison.”

John exhales. “Thank you. What’s happening?”

Peter inspects his list. “When the police checked Gerard’s house, did they find any proximity fuses? Or any short range sonic devices?”

“No.” John’s tone is suddenly sharper. “The only weapons my guys found were legal.”

“Good,” Peter says. “Then that means all the rest of this stuff is still there too. I have a list here that reads like the inventory of a particularly bloodthirsty video game.”

“What are you thinking?” John asks.

“I’m thinking that I’d quite like to use some of Gerard’s technology against him,” Peter says. He consults his list again. “Like infrared tripwires, whatever it is you do with those.”

John huffs out a laugh. “Jesus. You have no idea what you’re talking about, do you?”

“None at all,” Peter says. “Those of us in the fur and fangs set have really never needed this kind of stuff. Luckily I know a guy who knows how it all works.”

“Luckily,” John responds wryly. “But what’s the actual plan here, Peter?”

“The plan is to rig one of those warehouses on Elm to explode as soon as Gerard and his goons get inside it,” Peter says.

“Hmm.”

“You’re not a fan?”

“No, I like it,” John says. “It’s a good idea, but it needs a little finessing.”

“That’s where you come in, John. You bring the finesse.”

He likes the way that John’s laugh warms him.

“But who will bell the cat, Peter?”

“What?”

“It’s an old story,” John says. “A bunch of mice agree that in order to be safe, they need to put a bell on the cat so they can hear it coming. Which raises the question of who will bell the cat. And of course nobody wants to and everybody makes excuses not to, because it’s so dangerous.”

“Did you just liken an apex predator like myself to a mouse?”

“Put your ego away for a second,” John tells him. “The problem with your plan isn’t rigging some warehouse into a fiery death trap, it’s that whoever has to lure Gerard there stands a good chance of becoming collateral damage.”

“Is this where your finesse comes in?” Peter asks, more archly than he’d intended.

John isn’t ruffled. “It’s a good plan, Peter. Getting hold of Gerard’s arsenal is a good idea. We just need to find a smarter way to use it once we have it.”

Peter is somewhat mollified by that. “Agreed.”

“Okay,” John says. “So let’s focus on actually getting the weapons first. Gerard’s house is still under guard. How about I swing by there at five and tell Parrish I’m taking over for an hour or so, so that he can get a meal break? That should give us a window to find what we need. I’ll have the garage door open for you. Do not bring the Camaro, for God’s sake. Can you get your hands on something a little more nondescript?”

“I think Deaton has a van.”

“A van would be good,” John says. “A van that doesn’t say ‘Beacon Hills Animal Clinic’ would be better.”

Peter checks the time. “I think I can hire a nondescript van from somewhere by five.”

“Good.” John pauses for a moment. “I don’t suppose you’ve got any idea where to look for this arsenal?”

“I do, as it happens,” Peter says. “There’s a hidden door in the basement, behind the cabinets in the gym.”

“Stiles,” John says, a note of wonder creeping into his tone.

“Stiles,” Peter confirms.

“Is he…” John trails off.

“Baby steps, John,” Peter reminds him. “Baby steps. I’ll see you at five.”

[bucreviews]

So I saw this movie today and here is my response to pretty much the only negative video review there seems to be.

Not seen Hop so I can’t comment on that comparison, especially since they don’t even talk about how it compares to Hop, they just mention it and leave it there, that opening is literally the only time it’s mentioned!

“I hope you like 90′s movies” well I do and I think many other people do, so I don’t really just that as a criticism. BTW it’s funny how he says that in the first 30 seconds and in over 20 minutes he never compares it directly to any movie from the ’90s. They mention Hop from 2011, Masters of the Universe from 1987 and Playing with Fire from last year.

“It’s 30 years too late” The games aren’t even 30 years old yet!

“A Sonic game would have killed around 2000” Maybe it would, but does that mean it wouldn’t kill now? The Sonic fandom is huge and has been for a long time.

“This is every bad 90’s kids film” And yet you fail to name a single 90s film that it is similar to.

“Sonic looks good enough, “passable” is the word to use here” Why? What more do you want from that design? Maybe not have his eyes be completely separate so he looks more like the design from the games, but other than that I don’t see what more was needed.

“The owl looks more like the original design for Sonic” Yeah he does, but he’s not on screen very long so I don’t think it’s a big problem.

“You’ve seen this movie a million fucking times” Maybe we have, but is that in and of itself such a bad thing? If it’s done well then it will still be worth watching.

“It jumps around between tones” maybe a little but it’s never too jarring.

“This film is a lot of 90’s cliches and that’s not what is fun about Sonic” but it is what fun about this type of movie, and the things that make Sonic fun, the running and fast action, are still in there.

“It’s a road trip and that’s not fun” I don’t know, I thought it was pretty fun in this film.

“It opens with a 90s trope of a freeze-frame and “I know what you’re thinking” Yeah it does…is that a bad thing? You guys are fans of Gravity Falls and  Ratatouille and they both open the same way, so clearly it can work when done right.

“And then it says 10 years later and I’m like “ten years later from what?” From when he arrived in the human world, why did you find that hard to follow?

“Haha they the thing, they called the town Green Hill” Yeah maybe that’s a little cheap but it’s pretty much the only thing like that in the film.

“Why not set this in the actual magical world of Sonic” Because the Sonic games that take place there have no story and it would have meant a ton more CGI the no studio would have been willing to give them the money for. But yeah maybe that would have been interesting, but how about instead of moaning about what the film isn’t, try looking at what it is.

“This is Master of the Universe film” which is NOT a 90’s film BTW

“Oh gives a fuck?” Well, maybe you will if you give the film a chance.

“The script was clearly written in the ’90s and not updated at all” Maybe it was, but just because the script is old doesn’t mean it can’t still work.

“No one was laughing at our screening” So what? Maybe they just weren’t laughing out loud, or just laughing quietly. I never came across as that kind of film anyway, Carrey’s style has always been that kind of comedy where you are quietly chuckling while he does his thing rather than “joke, laugh, joke, laugh,”.

“It’s not Carrey doing his normal Jim Carrey” I disagree, he felt like he was doing The Riddler from Batman Forever, which makes sense since he’s the bad guy in this as well.

“It’s not Ace Ventura” Nor should it be, since he’s playing the bad guy in this.

“There are very few laughs or cheer moments” Maybe not, but so what? Is that what you were promised or something? In my experience, it’s rare for a movie to have a big enough moment that the audience cheers, in the last year I can only think of one time that happened, that being Cap catching Mjolnir in Endgame.

“The audience perked up when the movie was over” well you are told to be quiet during the film, once it’s over people will start talking about the film a bit more.

“The comedy was never funny is was written for five-year-olds and idiots”, I don’t know if I really agree, the jokes were mostly just, thinking to yourself “oh haha” kind of funny. But they never made me cringe, there weren’t many low-end fart jokes (though there are some) and I never felt insulted watching it. I’ve seen kids entertainment in the past that either makes me cringe or just ask “what’s the joke there?” and this film really didn’t do that.

“Sonic spends the first half of this movie sad and alone” Which to me helps makes the second half more enjoyable when the spend and tone perks up a bit.

“If you don’t compare it to the games it’s just a bad movie” What’s bad about it? So far the only really bad thing you’ve pinpointed is the lack of humour, while also admitting that the kids were laughing.

“This stupid mushroom kingdom…Mario gave you a job, also Mario won” Does that mean he can’t still make fun of him? Also, I think that’s actually a reference to the Mushroom Hill Zone from Sonic and Knuckles.

“It’s just dull, bland flavourless mush” ok it certainly doesn’t push the boundaries of what you can do with a film, but does that mean what it does is bland. There is plenty of good action, comedy and the character are all fairly interesting. The worst thing you seem to be able to say about it is to do with things that are not in it.

“It’s not a family movie it’s a kids movie” I agree, it’s a kids movie that the adults will find perfectly watchable, nothing wrong with that.

“The adults won’t laugh” maybe not out loud, but I remember a few times I was amused.

“Let’s not do the games, let’s do something 30 years old.” Aren’t the games nearly 30 years old? But again the games have no plot, how do you make that into a story?

“It’s such a lack of imagination, creativity and effort” Sounds like the Nostalgia Critic over the last couple of years.

“The chase scene around the world was fun but it’s over so quick, you have the world, you can go anywhere!” But it would have gotten boring if it went on any longer, are you suggesting they go to over tons of locations just for the sake of it?

“This film aims low” I don’t think that’s such a bad idea for a first film. For a lot of people just having a good Sonic film on the big screen is enough. Keep in mind how many bad video game movie there have been, just the mere fact this movie avoids being another one of those is enough for a lot of fans.

“This has been done a million times and done better.” yet you can’t give me even one example of where that has happened.

“Why not have him run around with a kid and put him in Sonic’s world which looks more interesting?” I don’t really see how that would make for a more interesting story, but how do you know they won’t do that in the sequel?

“Our screen was only half full” Well maybe that’s why you weren’t hearing the laughs.

“All the positive reviews were saying it was for kids” which it is, you don’t need to read a review to work that out, that’s clear from the movie. But there is nothing wrong with that, the movie is still perfectly watchable for adults which is more than I can say for a lot of kids movies.

“Kids deserve more” and they will get it, this movie isn’t stopping that.

“People seem to just like the fact it made it to a movie” Well given it’s his first ever movie, is that really surprising?

[laviarray]

Why I can’t stand Ian Flynn’s writing style.

 Ever since I read his stuff from issue 160, he consistently makes fundamental mistakes that no professional writer should ever make. He incorrectly builds his story lines, doesn’t know how to handle characters unless told, his themes are poorly thought out and shows no imagination in his fantasy or action beats. However, I tend to ask for positive opinions before because I wanted to get more insight into why people like his stuff. While I am glad for the input, I can’t get past how his writing is ambitionless and lacks basic understanding of storytelling, leading to a very unengaging script.

 EXAMPLE?

A good example of this is in issue 267, where Sonic and Rotor meet an Eggboss and Rotor’s father, Tundra for the first time. Flynn said he wanted to try to set up the mains to have rivals, with Rotor’s being Tundra. In this story Rotor meets Tundra after not seeing him for years, gets mad at him for working with Eggman, Tundra throws them into prison and then they break out with the ending being Rotor and Tundra looking up to the sky to show a parallel of… something?

Rival?

There are a lot of problems here, but the main one is that the story fails to establish these two as rivals, mainly because they have nothing to be rivals about. Being rival isn’t just being on different sides of a fight, it’s about two characters who want to beat each other for their own personal reasons and are usually written in for the writer to challenge something about at least one of the characters. Ash from Pokémon shows this pretty well. Each of Ash’s rivals are usually written in to challenge him on some element of his character. Gary challenged him on his lack of privilege and struggling to keep up. Paul challenged him on his kindness and loving nature to his Pokémon. Sawyer on his pride and his seniority getting the best of his ego. Just to name a few.

 Tundra on the other hand, doesn’t challenge anything about Rotor. Tundra does call his technology interest “hiding behind his toys” and calls him weak, but so what? Besides the fact that working for Eggman contradicts this worldview, what does this mean to Rotor? None of what Tundra speaks here contradicts Rotor’s beliefs. Rotor has never defined his strength or character to his technology nor does he have any world view that deals with strength or lack thereof. Neither of them have any reason to want to butt heads over or to compete against each other and neither of them have anything to prove by beating the other. Rotor doesn’t even have any anger or animosity towards Tundra after meeting him. He just sulks in the cell before Sonic tells him to get over it (remember this).

Maybe this could’ve worked as a revenge subplot for Rotor wanting to get Tundra for failing his home town, but that ends up being undermined when Rotor isn’t mad or vengeful towards Tundra during this whole issue. Sonic gets more upset at Tundra than he does. However, this still falls flat because the only reason you would know or care about Rotor’s home town is if you read supplementary material. Not universe issues, which still would be a bad place, but special issues that most people couldn’t get. So… yeah, there is no animosity between these two.

 Rotor’s character

I’m not surprised this doesn’t work, mainly because Flynn doesn’t know how to write characters and Rotor suffers from this the most out of the leads. Throughout the shattered world arc, Rotor is never given any major character traits besides being super focused on saving the world, and by that I mean being a straw man for why the characters keep getting distracted from the A plot to focus on side missions. He’s never given any personal moments or conflicts before this, nor does he have any motivations or wants outside of the conflict of the arc. So by the time we get to 267, the only thing of note about Rotor is that he is into technology, but not in any way that is personal to him. So having him get a rival was always going to be pointless.

 Give Flynn a break!

However, as I hear from every Flynn defender, “This might’ve been fixed later”. Two problems. One, why would any sane writer introduce and have the rivals interact without establishing some animosity or reason for them to see each other. Two, if that wasn’t the goal of this issue, this comic issue is beyond pointless. Nothing else of note happens in this issue. They have a light show of a fight scene, get caught, meet Tundra, breakout, leave. Besides getting a Gaia key, that could’ve been anywhere, there is no other reason to get these two on their own to meet Tundra, other than to establish their rivalry. To be honest, I’m not sure what’s worse. The fact that they dedicated half an issue to this half-baked idea, or that they wasted the other half on Eggman getting Metal Sonic back, that should’ve been 3 pages at best, instead of writing a story that is a major game changer for a lead character to the fullest.

(We totally needed to cut pages from learning about and developing a lead character and dedicated the same amount of time to seeing Eggman get Metal sonic back... Im not kidding they are both 10 pages.) Now the reason I was asking you guys for your thoughts was because I want to gauge how others view the comics too. However, when I get outside of comic fans, I get… interesting views. For example, I showed this issue to a group of people that all have daddy issues (as in they had to fight their dad to protect their mom kind of issues), so it should’ve been easy for them to relate to Rotor. They were also a wide range of opinions on Sonic, ranging from hardcore fans to ambivalent. However, after reading it, they all had the same reaction of “Well… That happened…” with all of them feeling nothing after reading. And after we discussed it, we figured out why. The story never gives you a reason to care about Rotor, Tundra just shows up and leaves, leaving no impact on the story or audience and there isn’t a reason to get invested with the conflict when Rotor isn’t.

 “OK, that was a bad issue, but that isn’t all of them?”

Except it is. Every last problem that I brought up here shows up throughout Flynn writing.

Poorly developed main characters?

All of them written around this quality and the ones that aren’t usually have characterization mandated or coming from other parts of the franchise.

(ok... we were five stories in at this point... Why were their 12 characters in the main cast (Chip not pictured)? Longer slice of life stories would have issues developing characters with a cast that big.) Rivalries that don’t go past superficial elements of the characters and don’t challenges the leads well?

Pretty much all of them, but especially Antoine’s with Hood, Nicole’s with Phage, and Bunnie’s with Cassia

“What about Sally and Clove?” I don’t count them as Flynn said in his podcast “Sally would be too busy to have a rival”. Which speaks volumes about his writing priorities.

Having characters get Pep talks to get them over writer inflicted trauma and to never address again?

Flynn did this 8 times in Shattered world and already 2 times in IDW (Issues 1, and 3)

B plots that go nowhere and should’ve been cut early in production?

Most of the issues during shattered world

Dedicating an entire issue to one plot detail that may or may not be relevant to later issues?

This is practically his brand at this point.

(These two are going to be soooooo relevant and integral to the story. Just... you know... Not for this entire arc...) And these aren’t his only problems.

  What is your point?

So why am I going through all of this? Why did I just type all of that for you guys? For 3 reasons.

1) I want you to understand where my vile for Flynn’s writing comes from. Not because of one thing he did wrong or that he doesn’t get a certain character right. But from a comprehensive look at his written patterns and worldview on writing.

2) I do genuinely want to understand why this man is well liked as I’ve seen some writers do half the crap Flynn does and get flogged by their fan bases.

3) If possible, try to get us to ask for better. I don’t hate Flynn or anything, but it boggles my mind that he is seen as a great writer when he is subpar at best. I don’t want him fired or anything but I don’t want him on any other branch of the franchise, nor do I want to see anyone thinking he should be either.

Now I’m fully willing to admit I’m wrong on all of these points, so feel free to tell me what you think.

In the meantime, I’m going to get ready for the completion of the arc in IDW. Expect a full essay by Janurary!

[godcontained-a]

RUUUULES BABEYS

INTRO.

This is gonna be a little long and mayhaps a little aggressive; bear with me!  I promise I’m sweet as sugar, I just wanna make sure everything’s clear!

Firstly: if you call yourself an anti - sjw or believe in cisphobia, heterophobia, reverse racism and et cetera, this ain’t the place for you.  If you portray abuse, incest, pedophilia as anything other than inarguable evils, then you aren’t welcome here.  And if you ship incestuous or pedophiliac ships, or ship abusers with their victims, then get out.  If you sexualize child characters, or age them up for smut n shit, then Get Out.

Anyway, with that out of the way: this is an indie, private blog for an incredibly canon divergent Princess Elise of Sonic 06.

I tend to write at para or novella length.  Expect lots of just-for-fun one-liners, though, too.  My formatting is random and may change quite frequently; don’t worry about matching it!  I also don’t demand others match length as long as they give me something to work with.  I’ll expect to be treated the same way.

I have a degree in creative writing, so I like to think I’m good at this whole “writing” thing.  That said, I am dyslexic, so please excuse the occasional spelling mistake on my part.  I’ll do the same for you.

This blog is gonna be heeeelllla low activity.  Also, sideblog to antibadnik!

PRIVATE.

When I say that I am private, I mean that I will only interact IC with mutuals.  If I do not follow you, then I will not be writing with you.  Do not send me IC memes, do not like my starter calls, etc.  Repeated offenders will be blocked.  This is for my own comfort and not an insult to anyone!!  That being said, I do miss blogs sometimes, so if I’m not following you and you think I might have just missed your blog, feel free to message me asking me to check out your blog!!  I won’t be angry or anything.

SHIPPING.

This blog is multi - verse and multi - ship. I’ll ship anything with chemistry, but please do not force ships on me.  Similarly, if I am coming across as too eager regarding a ship for your comfort, let me know and I’ll back off.  On this note, I love AUs, and if there is an AU you want to try with me, by all means suggest it!

I do not follow exclusive shipping — that is to say that i am more than willing to ship with more than one version of the same character.  If a partner I really trust and like wants to be exclusive, though, hit me up!!  I can’t promise I’ll say yes, but I won’t mind the asking.

I’m not gonna be writing anything NSFW with Elise, as she is canonically a minor!

TRIGGERS.

Everything on this blog that I know of being triggering will be tagged.  If I miss something, please call me out on it so that I can fix it.  Don’t hesitate to ask me to tag things if you need them; I want you to feel safe!  I will also tag all ableist language as well as slurs I can’t use and would appreciate being called out on it when I fail to do so.  

MY OWN TRIGGERS INCLUDE ANYTHING RELATED TO ANOREXIA OR BULIMIA OR OTHER EATING DISORDERS.  PLEASE TAG ALL IMAGES OF VERY THIN PEOPLE ( ESPECIALLY MODELS ) OR SLOGANS WHICH MAY BE CONSTRUED TO FIT WITHIN AN ED.

MY OWN TRIGGERS INCLUDE ANYTHING RELATED TO ANOREXIA OR BULIMIA OR OTHER EATING DISORDERS.  PLEASE TAG ALL IMAGES OF VERY THIN PEOPLE ( ESPECIALLY MODELS ) OR SLOGANS WHICH MAY BE CONSTRUED TO FIT WITHIN AN ED.

PLEASE ALSO TAG ANYTHING RELATING TO BDSM/ROMANTICIZED OR SEXUALIZED VIOLENCE OF ANY KIND.  THIS INCLUDES CHOKING, BEATING, ETC.  IF IT’D BE ABUSE OUTSIDE OF SEX, TAG IT.   If you don’t tag my things and we’re not close, I’ll more than likely softblock you.  If we’re friends, I’ll probably remind you once, but after that I’m unfollowing.

( i’m sorry this section is so aggressive; i’ve just had lotsa problems with this! )

I blacklist the tags BODY IMAGE, ED, SKINNY, PROTRUDING BONES, SEXUAL VIOLENCE, ROMANTIC VIOLENCE, RAIN DON’T LOOK and BDSM.

If you write rape threads, I will block you.  If you romanticize toxic / abusive / et cetera relationships, I’ll block you.  Eat shit.

I will block you if you use the word ‘whore’ without indicating somewhere that you’re a sex worker.  It’s not a trigger, but I Will Do It.  Also, before you ask, yes, I am.

MISC.

Regarding memes: I tend to treat memes as things to do if I feel so inclined.  If I don’t get to a meme, never feel like I’m mad at you — I’m just terrible.

I don’t mind doubles!

Do not take my icons or my edits or anything else i’ve made.

If you would like me to unfollow you, feel free to either softblock me or ask me to unfollow you.

Please note that my dyslexia often makes it difficult for me to read, absorb and remember information.  I ALWAYS read rules and abouts, because I would like to be treated the same way, but I may get things wrong just because my brain has a hell of a time learning through text.  If I make a mistake or disobey a rule, please forgive me — it’s not my intent.

I do not send in rules password.

Pro - callout culture.  If I think a callout is serious, I will reblog it.  It’ll be tagged, but it’s important to talk about and expose bad behavior if the person doesn’t wish to change.  In a similar vein, if you’re openly ‘anti - drama’ and don’t specify if you’re anti - drama or anti - people - being - called - out - for - being - bigots, I’m gonna be hesitant to follow, because in my experience, people tend to label themselves as ‘anti - drama’ as an excuse to avoid taking charges of racism / homophobia / transphobia / and etc. seriously.

I’m a longtime Sonic fan, but I haven’t played every game or read most of the comics outside of IDW.  Please, if I get something wrong regarding past games / iterations / etc., lemme know.  I know pretty much nothing about the Archie comics, so don’t expect me to treat that as canon.

I don’t mind doubles, so no worries!

THE MUN.

Sara, though I mostly go by Rain.  23.  Cis, white, bi and queer as hell.  She / Her.  I love you!

I work full time and run an entirely ridiculous number of blogs — so please forgive me if I’m slow or disappear for long periods.  Life and my jobs have to come first.  

I have depression and anxiety, and this can sometimes mean that I will not be around much, or that I will be very picky about who I interact with when I am around.  Please do not take this personally.  It’s just for my own mental health and does not reflect negatively on you guys.  My mind is weird and fucked up but I love you all!!

[usashirtstoday]

Albert Einstein Playing Basketball Art T Shirt

Doing what you did because it was going on it was not going anywhere in a Albert Einstein Playing Basketball Art T Shirt stock touringand that we would just a time to make a nobleand ongoing studio is the same for this be looking each other playing the same lakes in the silly haircuts you know silly had nowand that we elevated friends we known each other since the 15thand onand we got overall the actual fighting the real nitty gritty daddy stuff which had nothing to do or how popular the same popularity meeting Paul was always more pop in the rest of us was going down in the dance hallsand reported income of any big surprise you having the kids so in the gathered up right away so we knew what the score was that but it was that a group it was the music was interesting was important not who was as long as we were going forwardand going somewhere it didn’t matter but all of a sudden there just wasn’t any further progress it was the same O same overand over again I just got like themand eyes that doesn’t work now there are some groups that are quite open in their. 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movie is like a every reflux both my grandparents for her on the 3R movies again spent two minutes but the trailer in the bathroom window in the basketball story that you will finally going to take out years guarantor nimbly elaborate from the movie everything I’ve not been determined currently serving steps for traffic world finding they’re currently right here sign many personae by mean it’s a seam same take before by the love Kung Skyland but I did love Kings of summer which he directed at himand so I think he’s a really great directorand I still think that is more than he canand I want to see it in overtime at that the screenwriter but I was comes the screenwriter I always have to give it really looks for this fileand director by directors awareness can be working with that particular scriptand he’s going to bring a script on South Jordan believes that this script is the one he wants this day wants to write the script themand by that I do believe in him as a directorand I think that can’t Skyland had a lot of problemsand I know that we normally do the judging of the last movie but I’m enough to give them all againand I’m essay that maybe this is the one that he he takes in the second one right Chevy look at his interestand out of you are aware think the dark the writer did go to Miami so that changes your viewpoint I haveand I think that you have called Skylandand I like that movie I really enjoyed watching it I met my issue with each snap was that you didn’t have a whole lot of back story with any of the characters with metal gear solid it is such a immense worldand people love this they love metal gear so the going to show up in full forceand they want a great movieand I can accept anything last Connolly also worked on Jurassic world safety not guaranteed he’s one of the guys who was rumored to be working or doing a treatment of episode nine I don’t think that still happening but I know that he was working addressing profound kingdom to so he’s got some big blockbuster experience writing these think if we can get a little more meat on the bone when it comes to meeting these know your solid characters as opposed as a giant active these I think that’s gonna attract new viewers as well as a hard core metal gear fence I think of case in point is that Jordan Voigt Roberts loves metal gear solid is a big fan you play the game so hearty so doing has relied on the taxesand or Sally had a lot of different game but the days working with the same writer I feel like I like can’t Skyland yes the humans got the short trip Capt. THAT REGARD NEXT IS A COMMENTARY ON WHAT THE COMMUNIST PARTY IS IN THE WAY OF ANOTHER ARTICLE 9 COMMENTARIES ON THE COMMUNIST PARTY SO WE THOUGHT BOTH THESE ARTICLES KINDA GO HAND IN HAND BUT IT REALLY HELPS YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT COMMUNIST PARTY IS ALL ABOUT ESPECIALLY TODAY IN THEIR PRESENT SITUATION NEXT TO ANOTHER VIDEO FROM THE EPOCH TIMES AND DECLASSIFIED AND THIS IS ON THE CHINESE PROPAGANDA OUTLET PAID MILLIONS TO THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE WALL STREET JOURNAL NOW ALL OF THESE PAPERS HAVE SUFFERED SEVERELY WITH THEM THEIR AUDIENCE AND AND BASICALLY VIEWERSHIP AND GOING WAY WAY DOWN AND SO THE ONLY WAY SOME OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS CAN EXIST IS THAT GUY HAVE SUPPORT FROM OUTSIDE MONEY SO ON DEFTLY THE CHINESE HAVE BEEN PART OF KIND OF

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[dukeofriven]

Frisk on the Road to Damascus: A Pseudo-Essay on Converting to Undertale

So 664 days after it was released, and 382 days after I purchased it, I finally, finally, finally beat Undertale.

And... I loved it. Controversial opinion: it’s really good.

But it took me a while to love it. Let me explain, because I’m sure y’all are super interested in me doing so.

I had about five false starts playing Undertale, and all five of those false starts was how fucking irritating I found the sound of Flowey and Toriel’s dialogue. I have a hypersensitivity to sound, especially frequencies, and the sound of Flowey and Toriel’s dialogue is... not pleasant, especially at first aural blush. I got used to it when it when I finally powered through it, but if there were any major changes I would make to Undertale it would be better sound controls - being able to cut the audio down on the dialogue by even 25% would make a big difference to it on an accessibility ability level* ** It was Undertale that first ‘inspired’ me to get Tumblr Saviour - first because I didn’t want to be spoiled by a game I heard was good and wanted to play relatively unspoiled, and later because  I didn’t want to be reminded of the game I was having so much trouble with.

What was it that made me pick up Undertale long enough to get through it? As usual, it was podcasts (there’s a small paper to be written on how podcasts got me interested in pro wrestling, but that’s a whole other story.) The superlatively good Let Me Tell You About Homestuck podcast relaunched a little over a year back (shoutout to excellent co-hosts @yuri-librarian and @betgirl ), and when I found out I dived back in, and in the process rediscovered my love of Homestuck. Homestuck and I had a falling out during the gigapause and Homosuck - at the time it felt like the webcomic’s author was pissed at his own comic and actively self-sabotaging it, and even though I caught up with the comic before the ending I was still disgruntled with it and not willing to engage with it much.

But listening to LMTYAH re-ignited fandom joy within me - a euphoric Road-To-Damascus re-conversion I can only describe as ‘George Bailey coming back to existence at the end of It’s A Wonderful Life.' I gleefully snatched-up the pesterlogs and clutched them to my chest. I waved cheerfully at [S] Descend and [S] Cascade. “Merry Christmas you old mspaintadventures!” I shouted at the top of my lungs as I pelted through the snow to hug my beloved Beta Kid family again.***

You can’t discuss Homestuck anymore without discussing Undertale, which was so clearly fed by Homestuck, which was in turn fed by Undertale, because media is an incestuous slurry. Part of the issues with coming back to the Homestuck dialectic table is that you can’t ignore that big ol’ bowl of Undertale sitting between the roasted trans-media experiments and the mashed potatoes. If, every time that bowl gets passed around, you put your hands over your ears and and scram ‘LA LA LA LA LA I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT’ then the other guests are going to look at you funny and your nearest neighbour is going to conclude that they’d rather sit through that pompous lecture by the vegan on the other side of them after all.

It’s not a great dining experience, is what I am trying to explain with this increasingly overcooked analogy. I wanted to eat with the rest of the guests - I wanted to watch @revolutionaryduelist’s video on Undertale themes and Homesick themes. I want to suck it up, be an adult, and eat like a goddamn grown-up.

So I grit my teeth, grabbed the bowl, and started shovelling large spoonfuls down my throat. I think this is how grown-ups eat right?

I didn’t like the taste at first. What brought me to Undertax more than anything was the idea of the pacifist run. The games that have this as a legit option are few and far between, and some of them (e.g. Dishonoured) get downright nasty about it. Undertake wasn’t nasty about being helpful, but it didn’t make it easy, either.

Some of you may  feel the need to note that ‘the pacifist route isn’t supposed to be easy,’ to which my response would be ‘shove it up your bum you git-gud wankeroos.’ There are two types of ‘hard’ in video games - one of challenge, and one of ability. The excellent puzzle game The Witness doesn’t greatly challenge ability (for sighted people, at least) - by and large almost all of its puzzles just involve drawing a line. The Witness is hard because the puzzle are so tortuously, mind-bindingly challenging. By contrast, a platform like VVVVVV doesn’t preset much mental challenge - it barely has anything like a puzzle that I can remember, but in terms of ability it requires lightening-fast reflexes and great timing (Somehow I beat that game -I still don’t know how).

Undertale is not a hard-challenge game, it is a hard-ability game, and I flat-out suck at its bullet hell mechanics. All my frustrations with the game were met at the bullet board - if I could make one other major change to the game it would be slightly improving the speed of the heart cursor. Time and time again I violently cursed because I had just missed getting out of the way of something with a cursor I found sluggish and unresponsive, as though my keyboard was laggy. A poor skill level coupled with what felt like hardware problems made for an increasingly difficult experience, one in which I felt like the game was almost taunting me: “oh, you want to be a good person, huh? Too bad - you lack the skills to be a good person. You’re not going to get through this without resorting to killing, you intrinsically violent, terrible person."

Staying alive through the confrontation with Undyne drained me, and by the time I was on my second iteration of Mettaton being a shitheel I just felt burned-out. The story still felt pretty flat, and wasn’t really drawing me in. The hardest decision I had had to make was at the very beginning of the game - Toriel’s home, and Toriel herself, were so lovely and sweet that I still resented the game for making me have to break her heart. I didn’t want to leave her house, I just wanted to stay and live a nice life with her in the Underground. But no - the game wanted me to have  heroic destiny and shit so fine, guess i’ll go back to the surface I don’t have much interest in seeing. Since leaving Toriel’s house all I had wanted to do was return to that tranquility and warmth, and instead I just got more monsters trying to kill me. The stuff with Papyrus had been very funny, but the game still wasn’t sinking its claws into me - it was a quirky but light RPG, funny, but not funny or deep enough for me to understand why a big bowl of it was sitting at the Homestuck dialectic table other that Toby Fox had worked on both things - which seemed like a weak reason to include it. (Remember the Homestuck dialectic table? That didn’t stop being a thing or anything)

So I walked away again and did other things over several weeks, possibly months. I finally came to terms with the fact that my vision is permanently damaged and got myself a Kindle so I could read again. I read a book on the Apollo programme and took another crack at Bleak House. I watched an episode or two of Lucha Underground, got caught up on The Adventure Zone, and went through every post ever posted on @revolutionaryduelist’s Tumblr. I fantasized about buying a new computer. I told myself to watch the Little Witch Academia TV series and forgot every single time - and so on.

And then I watched Car Boys.

Car Boys is one hell of a ride, no pun intended, a strange mishmash of video game fault testing and emergent meta narrative that ends up surprisingly emotional and affecting - and as the credits rolled I made the always unwise decision to wander down into the Youtube comments, where I discovered the fun ‘Car Boys is just like Homestuck’ argument which, natch, led me back to thinking about Homesick and Video Games - and, ultimately, Undertale.

“Fine,” I told myself, “I guess I’ll beat it, at least to finally have one thing in my over-glutted Steam Library I have actually seen-through to completion.”

So last night I booted up my Steam, made the conscious decision to stop trying to get my just-bought 360 controller to work with Sonic Adventures DX via wine (it keeps crashing), and booted up Undertale.

For a while it was just fine again. I don’t like Alphys, even after beating the game: she reminds me of a lot of shitty people I’ve known in my life, and the story uses her lack of self-confidence as sort of a moé defence - ah, look at how cute she is, isn’t that adorable, she feels bad about what she’s done - without ever actually examining that behaviour in any critical detail. Alphys being an adorkable anime fan and her relationship with Undyne are all great character traits - but it doesn’t make her a good person, and the game never truly calls her to the mat in much the same way that it sort of glosses over Asgore having condoned the murder of six other humans (but he comes into the story so late I find him less of a character and more of a symbol.) Alphys gets a whole ‘trip to the dump/romance role-play’ subplot after being revealed to have deliberately ordered a bunch of monsters to at least make a pretence of killing you in order to make herself look like a hero - and that's before you get to go into her basement and learn the really shitty shit she did with dying monsters' souls. I mean Jesus Christ Alphys how come nobody calls you on this!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I helped Mettaton’s ratings, left him to be patched upped by Alphys, and made my way to the castle walls - and the writing started to get really good. I loved meeting with Sans and his talk about the true nature of EXP and LOVE, loved walking into the throne room for the first time, loved the moment when I realized Toriel was the Queen-in-Exile - coming upon the New House was genuinely moving… but then I reached Ashore, and it wouldn’t let me TALK to him, and I didn’t like having to fight him after a full pacifist run, and also he was really hard.

So I swallowed my pride a little and googled vague hints for ways to make the fight easier. I learned that yeah, I absolutely had to fight him, and then I went and ground Cloud Glasses back and forth to the Temmie Store to unlock the Temmie Armor and earn the cash to stock-up on my beloved Bisicles. So equipped, I went and fought Asgore for the final time, thus beating this game that everyone raved about for reasons I could not understand.

Then the game ended and suddenly started to get really, really, really good. Much like Homestuck in Act 6, Undertale’s starts pushing the boundaries of games themselves, using save files against you and deliberately crashing the game. Omega Flowey is a goddamn nightmare, a visual headache who rails against you and the concept of friendship, and while he was a frustrating fight for the first time I felt like this was less a reflection of my shitty skills and more a deliberate choice of the part of the game to show what monstrous power he wielded.

As I was sent back into the world, I was eager to go find Undyne. I had to look-up where she lived because I had totally forgotten that her house existed - in fact, I had forgotten Papyrus had ever said anything about meeting up at Undyne’s house, so I never befriended her in my original run. The moment Undertale moved from a game I was starting to enjoy to one I knew I loved was the moment Papyrus leapt out Undyne’s window - late in the process to fall in love with a game? Perhaps, but so it was.

Missing Undone the first time through felt so narratively satisfying to me that it wasn’t until writing this that it occurred to me that it was something that didn’t have to have been missed - the run-in with Undone hardly ends on a high-note: after a miserable shield-fight and a whole lot of fleeing you give her a cup of water and she slinks-off into the night. It wasn’t something that exactly screamed ‘She’s Ready For A Friendship Lesson.’ I kept expecting her to show back up somewhere in New Home Castle for Round 2: Redemption Boogaloo, but it never happened. Then Sans got Anubis on my ass, the King of All Monsters got murdered by a flower and my game crashed on purpose - sort of forgot about her no-show appearance.

So there we were: breaking windows, sipping tea, making the worst goddamn spaghetti it’s ever been my misfortune to make**** and having a wonderful time. Other than my general misgivings about Alphys being let-off way too lightly by the narrative*****, after that first reset Undertale was practically a perfect game for me. The ending made me feel mushy and sappy, the epilogue where you get to pace around and talk to just about everyone felt so unbelievably RIGHT - if you want to head out and make one last personal connection with everyone you’ve ever met, you can pretty-much do that. Ben Croshaw wrote quite elegantly that Undertale represents “the triumph of kindness, reminding people of who they were before tragedy twisted them.”****** That kindness is what makes the game so compelling - what makes reading-up on the Genocide route feel so legitimately horrific and transgressive. It’s going to stick in the back of my mind every time I am needlessly rude to someone, overly sarcastic, or just my usual ‘less kind than I wish I was’ self. Homestuck wallets just went on sale today and I immediately bought one and then felt bad for all the Tumblr posts I saw for worthy causes - I SHOULD GIVE UP ALL MY WORLDLY POSSESSIONS TO THE POOR AND GO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF ACTING WITH MERCY as Undertale teaches.

It’s the kindness that will stick with me - and dear God, reading about the Genocide routes makes me nauseated. I’m the guy who claims that this time his Mass Effect play through will be Renegade and then goes 100% paragon again except for being rude to Anderson (because screw that dill weed - oh, geeze, I have failed Undertale again.)

Anyways, long, convoluted, not-very-coherent opinion: Undertale is a good game. Sorry it took me so long to learn that.

*but if we’re going to talk about accessibility in video games we’ll be here all year: an especially big fuck you to all those games who don’t let you change the font size for all of us with really poor eyesight (which is to say essentially all games).

** And what is it with games being embarrassed to have their text dialogue scroll past without some kind of irritating sounds? Undertale at least uses the noise as a form of expanding character identity, but the world is littered with sprite JRPGs who think dialogue is best accompanied by a garbled, repeating beep.

*** Re-experiencing the comic multiple times gave me so many more insights I never used to have. Revisiting Act Six and Homosuck, especially through @betgirl‘s eyes, I found so much to love. Which there is some serious problems in it (The Dancestors and Abuser Gamzee), there’s so much more joy, depth, and thought then I remember. I don’t know if, at the time, with the broken pacing, it was possible to see the shape of the narrative arc that Andrew Hussie was trying to tell - the deconstruction of the nature of storytelling, video games, and the ‘Problem of Mario.’ It’s really good, you guys, and you do yourself a disservice if you have never read it.

**** Undyne is right, by the way: homemade pasta is unquestionably the best and super easy; its only major flaw is that it’s just time-consuming, especially if you’ve got to hand-crank an antique pasta machine to roll it out. KitchenAid sells a pasta roller attachment for their mixer for an amount that justifies a class uprising all on its own.

***** I’m not some weirdo going ALPHYS MUST BE PUNISHED but Alphys should really, you know, actually apologize for the shit she pulled. Yeah, she says ‘I got scared of my amagalgamtions and cowardly didn’t tell their families about it,’ but not being honest about it is the most insignificant issue here. Much more pressing and things like Experimenting On A Human Soul, Actually Making the Amalgams In The First Place, Setting Up A Bunch Of Death Traps So She Could Insert Herself Into Your Life As A Hero. I can forgive Alphys - I think she is a genuinely good person who made misguided and out-right foolish mistakes and should never have had the job she had (I hear Toriel fires her in one ending which fuck yeah Toriel, only one with sense.) Undertake doesn’t need to re-write a damn thing about Alphys - I would just like one more scene in which Alphys admits culpability for the original problem rather than just an aspect of the fallout.

****** And it should be stressed: Alphys deserves kindness (and a good therapist). I don’t want a kangaroo court or anything like that - my issue is with the narrative, not Alphys personally.

Asgore, though… dude kinda murdered six children? Do people talk about that, because they ought to.

[postgamecontent]

The Legend of Oasis: SEGA Saturn Spotlight #2

Original Release Date: April 26, 1996

Original Hardware: SEGA Saturn

Developer/Publisher: Ancient/SEGA

During SEGA's tenure as a console manufacturer, they often found themselves trying to counter-program the biggest hits on rival consoles, often to mixed results. For every Streets of Rage and Sonic the Hedgehog, there was an Eternal Champions and Kid Chameleon. Not that those games were without merit, but they weren't up to the task of convincing people they didn't need Street Fighter 2 and Super Mario World. One game SEGA was constantly trying to find an answer for was The Legend of Zelda. It makes sense, as it has always been one of Nintendo's top brands, a real system-seller any hardware company would dream of having in their line-up. SEGA developed and/or published a bunch of great action-RPGs and action-adventure games, but none of them fared well enough in the market to fit SEGA's needs.

The most successful of the lot was probably Beyond Oasis, a 1994 SEGA Genesis title developed by Ancient. It's a gorgeous top-down action-adventure game with a nice mix of surprisingly deep combat and interesting puzzles. Its Arabian Nights feel capitalized nicely on the wave of popularity for such settings in the wake of Disney's Aladdin, while also helping it feel distinct from the countless games in the genre that adopted more generic Western fantasy stylings. Unlike most of SEGA's other efforts in this respect, Beyond Oasis didn't look like it was desperately chasing Zelda. It had its own style and flair, something I'm sure the audience picked up on.

As usual, let's give a brief overview of the game's developer. Ancient was founded in 1990 by Tomo Koshiro, the mother of famed video game composer Yuzo Koshiro. After working with SEGA on the soundtrack for Revenge of Shinobi, Yuzo Koshiro pitched the idea of developing games to SEGA. The company had big ambitions for their upcoming Genesis game Sonic the Hedgehog, and wanted a version of the game for their other active hardware platforms, the Master System and Game Gear. Either SEGA was thin on choices or Koshiro's charm convinced them, as they ended up assigning the job of developing the 8-bit Sonic to a 22-year-old musician. Yuzo Koshiro needed a company to make a contract with SEGA, however, and thus Ancient was born. Mainly a family affair, Ancient not only counts Yuzo Koshiro's mother among its tiny staff, but also his sister, Ayano.

Ancient's name pops up frequently in game credits, but mostly due to Yuzo's work as a composer. Still, they've managed to put out a number of games over the years. Besides the subject of this article and its predecessor, Ancient also worked on games like Streets of Rage 2, Robotrek, Car Battler Joe, and the superb Gotta Protectors. Ancient's small size has helped it survive some very hostile periods in the gaming business and should ensure that we will be seeing their name appear in games for a long time to come. To be honest, I find most of Ancient's games to be a little bland. They're never bad, mind you, but aside from the music, they seem to be missing a certain spark. Nevertheless, they developed one of the greatest beat-em-ups in gaming history, so I'm willing to forgive many of Ancient's shortcomings.

Before I go any further, I'm going to dedicate a paragraph to names. I'm using the American titles for both of these games, but they went by different names in each major region. In Japan, the first game was The Story of Thor: Heir of the Light. In Europe, they went for a straight translation and called it The Story of Thor: A Successor of The Light. I'm not sure why SEGA of America felt the need to rename it Beyond Oasis, but it might have been to avoid confusion with Marvel's version of Thor. At the time he was barely known outside of America, and even in America, best-known for being the superhero the kid from Adventures in Babysitting was imitating. Still, better safe than sorry. Anyway, the second game's title in Japan was Thor: The Legend of the Spirit King. In Europe, it was The Story of Thor 2. In America, SEGA kept the Oasis connection going with the title The Legend of Oasis. And now we're all confused!

After the success of Beyond Oasis, Ancient decided to follow it up for their next project. In the early stages, the game's title was Legend of Thor, and it was planned to release on SEGA's ill-fated 32X add-on for the Genesis. I can't even begin to imagine why. Fortunately, they soon scrapped that idea and got to work on making something for the SEGA Saturn instead. The Saturn was something of a 2D powerhouse, which meant that as good as Beyond Oasis had looked, the follow-up would really be able to turn some heads. Or at least, it might have if the majority of the active gaming population at the time hadn't gone ga-ga for polygons. Timing is everything, I suppose.

In any case, the development of The Legend of Oasis was relatively painless compared to some other Saturn projects, and the game shipped more-or-less on schedule in early 1996 in Japan and late 1996 in the rest of the world. Sadly, like most Saturn games, The Legend of Oasis didn't sell very well worldwide. With much of the success of Beyond Oasis coming from outside of Japan, the Saturn's weak status overseas did no favors to games like this one. Oasis was really swimming against the current, too. As I've mentioned, 2D games were not seen in a very good light during the 32-bit generation of consoles, which is funny because they've certainly aged better than the blocky polygonal graphics of most of that era's 3D games.

Looking past the visuals, it's perhaps less surprising that The Legend of Oasis didn't hit as big as its predecessor. On a fundamental level, it's just too similar to the first game. The majority of the powers you earn are the same and tend to be applied in similar ways. There's one new weapon, but it's not a very exciting one. Playing the game feels like you're going through the same motions from Beyond Oasis, but without any of the shiny novelty that helped that game stand out. It's not bad, and it's just loose enough with its physics and level designs that you can cobble together some really interesting solutions to problems. But there is a genuine been-there, done-that feeling to the game that never quite goes away.

A prequel to the first game, it has the main character doing basically the same things that the character in the original did. This time around, our hero is given the Gold Armlet rather than just finding it, but you'll need to go around and collect each of the spirits one-by-one just the same. Each spirit has an assortment of abilities you can use to solve puzzles or to help in more general situations. While there are some new abilities and applications for the returning spirits, you'll find yourself using them in familiar ways. The Zelda games have shown that returning items can work, but you really have to be clever about making the puzzles feel unique and interesting if you take that route. The Legend of Oasis also adds a couple of totally new spirits, but they're mainly used to solve specific puzzles. They're weird-looking keys, in other words.

The steady balance between action and puzzles has been disturbed somewhat, too. The Legend of Oasis tilts more in the direction of the puzzle-solving and platforming at the expense of combat. For all of the moves that hero Leon has at his disposal, you can get through most battles with his basic jump kick. It even works well on many of the bosses. The command-based, Street Fighter-style special moves make a return, but they're not all that useful beyond using them to knock down specific obstacles and such.

Like the first game, The Legend of Oasis is pretty easy once you know how to solve the puzzles, and even those aren't too tough. I'm of two minds when it comes to the platforming. While it's not as rough as Dark Savior, the camera perspective makes some of the jumps a real pain. Worse still, if you fall down, you usually land in another location. You then need to make your way back to wherever you were, which is a tremendous waste of time for misjudging the depth of a platform. On the other hand, I like that you can cheat a lot of the platforming with your various moves and the objects in the environment. It's very organic, especially for a game of this era.

Another balance disturbed is that between the dungeons and the overworld. You spend very little time outside of dungeons in The Legend of Oasis, and there's not a lot to discover in those rare moments. I can't put my finger on why, exactly, but it makes the game feel more artificial and claustrophobic compared to its Genesis fore bearer. Some changes are for the better, however. In Beyond Oasis, every weapon you could get had a limited number of uses before it would break. Weapon-breaking systems are always controversial, and it's an especially big gamble if the game isn't transparent about how close the item in question is to being broken. You don't have to worry about that in this game, as your weapons will survive any number of uses. It could be argued that The Legend of Oasis doesn't need anything to make it easier than it already is, but there are right ways and wrong ways of adding challenge to a game. Kudos to Ancient for realizing that their previous weapon system was one of the wrong ones.

Storywise, the game is fine. Nothing great, and Leon is as blank a slate as you're ever going to see in a game. But it does have some twists and turns, and being a prequel, there are certain things it needs to explain to set up the state that the world is in during the events of Beyond Oasis. It handles those aspects fairly well, even if you'll probably see them coming from a mile away. So yes, it's alright. Unlike Dark Savior, the narrative here isn't good enough to excuse the game's flaws, but then again, it has fewer of those to wallpaper over. Rather than being a complex beast of mixed qualities, The Legend of Oasis is just flat, solid, and largely unexciting. It rarely embarrasses itself, but in pursuit of that inoffensiveness, it never really tries for anything interesting, either.

If there's one place where it does rise above expectations, it's in the presentation. The art and character design by Ayano Koshiro is excellent, and the game does a fantastic job of presenting her work. Things sometimes get a little pixelated when scaling occurs, but that's reasonable, I think. Yuzo Koshiro's soundtrack is quite unusual, however. His music often steals the show in games, but here it's almost understated. The soundtrack is frequently quiet, even going to silence at times. The classic Kojiro riffs are nowhere to be found. Yet it's oddly compelling, this mysterious soundtrack that sounds very little like Koshiro's other work.

I guess what it comes down to is this: the Oasis series was too young to be coasting along like this game does. Had the brand been well-established, no one would blink an eye at a lore-expanding retread like The Legend of Oasis, but Ancient really needed to do something more exciting to properly take advantage of the momentum built by the first game. The Legend of Oasis is a decent enough game, and if you like action-RPGs or Zelda-style games, I'd certainly encourage you to give it a go. But I think even if the Saturn were in a better place, even if 2D graphics weren't at their lowest period in terms of public perception, The Legend of Oasis probably wouldn't have made much of a splash. It's just too safe. That's not something you can say about a lot of Saturn RPGs, but here we are.

The Oasis series would never be seen again after this, though Beyond Oasis has enjoyed a healthy retirement via re-releases on various Genesis collections and through Nintendo's Virtual Console service. Unfortunately, The Legend of Oasis seems relegated to the bins of history, like almost every Saturn exclusive. Maybe one day SEGA will give the system some love in their frequent trips to the retro re-release well, and if they do, I could see The Legend of Oasis being a welcome part of that.

Previous: Dark Savior

Next: Shining the Holy Ark

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