#people just treat ai like it's this fun game and they don't even care

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

Sometimes thinking about the rise of ai tech makes me almost physically sick.

[theswordwizard]

ai art: both sides

I think a lot of non-artists are also just really and truly not understanding the big picture. I personally could not care less about that cat image, it was fun, whatever, but you are only producing those kinds of images in the sense that an art director "produces" whatever art they are in charge of. They are telling another artist what to do, even guiding them, but they are not considered the artist themselves. Artists who are creating their own art, who are trying to survive off of their work (many of whom have some form of disability, as art is easy to do while sitting down, etc), who are already in the middle of fighting to not just be tossed aside for a product which doesn't even produce the results it claims, are reacting negatively because they are seeing that in parallel with tabling spaces taken up with people presenting generated art as their own illustration, and game devs/producers using it as a way to explicitly avoid paying people for work, while using something that was trained on their work.

"Why do people react so strongly to things possibly being AI art?" If you want to keep it out of the courts, then public opinion matters all the more. It's about a party line that is easily communicable. Most artists are going to be strongly anti-AI because that's the best way to protect themselves than trying to "open a discussion" about it. It's like nurse scabs. We can argue back and forth all day about the intricacies of scabbing for important jobs, but at the end of the day the party line will generally be "scabbing is bad," "we don't like scabs," "scabbing harms workers."

People are trying to compare people getting mad about it to people getting mad about Duchamp's fountain, which just lets me know about their level of art education, and the level of which they like to talk out their ass.

Duchamp's fountain isn't a major point in art history because of the object itself, its because of the STATEMENT. It is because of the placement of the object IN THE GALLERY. It is the equivalent of a political pamphlet, but summed up in a single object that incites discussion around his political statement. It isn't about the object it is about the CONCEPT. We can literally call anything we want "art" if we dedicate ourselves to reframing it and treating it as such, it's just that most non-artists don't even care. They want the label of being an artist without even putting in an effort to. It's like if I wanted to be called a photographer and I wanted people to treat me as such, and so I just made a portfolio of pictures I took off of Pinterest or even a stock photo site, because I've decided that it's the photos I would WANT to take, and thus I can just act like they have anything to do with me.

There have been arguments over much more "similar" things for a long time too. Since the 90s Richard Prince has been taking people's instagram photos, making slight tweaks to avoid copyright, and then printing them large scale and selling them for tens of thousands of dollars. Technically legal, kinda shitty, as he does it without even contacting the (plenty of times, women) original posters. And that's just with selfies people have taken! But I don't see people mentioning that because a lot of people don't like him, and most people arguing to legitimize AI art to be uncontested don't actually care that much about contemporary art. They have zero real interest in being an artist and talking about art to that degree, to have those discussions in a way that isn't validating themselves. Duchamp's fountain in a gallery incites discussion because galleries are places of art discussion. If someone brought a crate of mechanically woven baskets (that they bought from amazon) to a craft fair, people are going to be rightly pissed off. It's about context.

It's also, in my opinion, a similar discussion to the one that was big on twitter not too long ago, where people argued that artists weren't obligated to be able to draw non-white and/or disabled people. Which, sure, but you probably aren't that good of an artist if you don't know how to. And someone going through a portfolio of exclusively white people might go "huh, only white people. interesting." (I even want to include a gotcha here! If an artist has a portfolio of white people, and they have a section talking about their focus being painting their family tree in like, northern Ireland, it's gonna be a totally different story. why, you ask? because there is an underlying concept other than "wow this artist really only likes white people." this is part of the reading comprehension test that will follow.)

And you know what, I'm going to be honest - and this is likely a result of me not being a photographer - but I'm not even really talking all that much about AI photo edits, outside of the large scale implications of what it means that anyone can create a highly realistic image of anything they want (including political figures, female celebrities, you see my pattern here) with zero effort, on a mass scale we've never seen previously. I think they should only be used with stock, and I even think that photographers who upload their works should get additional payments from it. I actually had used a generator back in 2019 for a project, well before this even became a discussion, and it was even featured in a gallery show for a bit! The overall theme was "fake news," so it was a conceptual piece with fake landscape photography that I made with some beta tool. The point was the tool in combination with the tool's result, not how pretty the fake pictures were. I also want to say it was trained a lot more ethically than a lot of the generators that are so popular today.

And this isn't to say that you have to have a gallery or be so fully integrated in a physical art scene or whatever to be able to make conceptual art or talk about it - honestly I think zines that could actually combine whatever your concept is with having room to talk about it, and they're easy to create both physically and digitally and share. maybe just don't have it be around "look at all these pretty pictures that I made with AI." similar to how people at the art book fair aren't going to be impressed with me being like "look at all these pretty pictures I found on Unsplash."

Sure, AI art is "real art," but it's not illustration or photography or whatever, it's conceptual art. Which means it's main goal is to incite thought and discussion about it. Like the D&D book's release that suddenly turned to being about the AI art they used. So if you want to be an artist using primarily AI, go ahead, no one can stop you, but the topic is culturally significant with the current fight between the entertainment unions to protect their livelihoods, so the discussion will be heated.

[cerastes]

How do you rate the gacha booty shooter?

NIKKE sure is a game! It's the funnest mixed bag I've played lately. As a side game, it's been pretty good, because it's good at what it does good, and not terrible at its weak points, leaving you with a pretty "Ok :)" feeling overall.

So what's up with Nikke? Yeah, let's have a talk about that so I can explain a bit by what I mean with "fun mixed bag".

Nikke's setting is the same old tired, you've seen it a million times: Once day, humanity was almost decimated by a mysterious enemy that came out of nowhere... We call it... The Enemy! They were simply too strong, so humanity had to deploy its strongest weapons: Anime Girls. And you are the lucky Authority Figure that commands the Anime Girls to defeat The Enemy! But... The Enemy and Anime Girls have more in common than it seems...!?

Replace "The Enemy" with "Rapture", "Anime Girl" with "Nikke", Authority Figure with... Technically "Commander" but more on this in a bit, and you've got Nikke. In other words, the game's setting and premise are just a few word swaps away from being Punishing Gray Raven, Snowbreak, and a bunch of other properties. But here's the thing: Whereas Punishing Gray Raven tells you its story with all the charm and pizzazz of a Wikipedia article, and Snowbreak... Uh, stands there staring at a wall Blair Witch style because nothing ever fucking happens in Snowbreak, Nikke actually has good moment to moment flow. Allow me to elaborate.

Read More break here because I wrote a lot more than I intended:

Nikke has probably the dumbest premise to open with: The Nikkes are basically superpowered cyborg girls (war machines with human brains) that look like supermodels on purpose because they were created, in the game's own words, "with the ideal form in mind". That's all a wordy way of saying they are super hot girls with very powerful guns and superhuman physical capabilities. The dumb part is that Nikkes are treated like absolute shit in-universe by humans. You're telling me humanity is making cyborgs -- not even full on robots or AI, these are straight up people getting turned into weapons -- that are hot as fuck and have tits bigger than my head and asses that could crush cars under their sheer heft and then decided to hate them and treat them like shit, and also these cyborgs are the ones actually keeping humanity alive? Well yeah we need a reason for the Main Character (you!) to be Special and bond with them, so your thing is that You Don't Treat Nikkes Like Shit. In fact, you care for them.

Now, this is all absolutely fucking stupid, but then, the game sort of... Realizes how stupid it is? And some may say "this was always the plan" but to me personally it feels like they kinda realized how god damn stupid this all was as a premise, and they started veering the car mid-trip because for a while this all feels REALLY sincere, not in a foreshadowing way, but then you have some developments such as "no yeah, Commanders are a dime a dozen, are brainwashed into seeing Nikkes as walking garbage and that they'll be heroes, risk their lives for pennies and are extremely expendable", and there's also what I consider a really good and consistent thing the game has done: Nikkes were always a desperate last minute rushed product as a concept, so the safety measures in place so that they don't rebel against humans were never perfect.

This is what I mean by the moment to moment being good: The plot is absolutely whatever, the setting is something you've seen a million times, but the actual scene by scene, beat by beat, is fun. On the micro level, the game knows how to be entertaining and interesting, and when they expand these micro nuggets of gold to a macro level of writing, it's when they end up with their best bits of narrative and world building. I want to use two examples about the whole safety measures thing: Crow and Rose.

Crow is a Nikke that hates humans and is part of a squad of known dangerous elements that Missilis, the most irresponsible of the Big Three companies, is responsible for. This squad is Exotic, and Exotic works with you (your squad is named Counters) on this one mid-game chapter. The thing is, they never really intended to work with you, and Crow wanted you dead because Crow wants to spark a Human Vs Nikke conflict in the Ark (humanity's last big home), because you might quell the hostility between both sides. But, Nikkes can't intentionally kill humans (accidents happen and a Nikke may be ordered to subdue a human, but they are hardwired to not be able to shoot at them or kill them). So, how does Crow go about it when she betrays you? She has her squadmate Jackal plant a steel plate on the ground, and then shoots the plate in a way that the bullet ricochets and hits you. NIMPH, what's used to, among many other things, make sure Nikkes can't turn on humans, was so, so easily circumvented, and this is consistent with what we've been told about the Ark and Nikke in universe development in general: It's sloppy, it's lazy, it's not good. Rose, the other example, is a Nikke from a flashback story around a hundred of years before the start of the game. Rose was a prototype Nikke that was geared for melee combat instead of ranged combat, as all Nikkes are, and she was one of ten such units. Basically, Rose realized that their human Commander was intentionally trying to get them killed until one remained, which would be deemed the success of the line in Darwinian fashion. Rose got so immensely, justifiably angry at this that she plotted to kill the Commander. How can she do this, though, with the NIMPH that prevents her from doing so? Well, Rose was an actual swordmaster, and what she did was wear a blindfold, convince herself that what she was slicing was not a human, but a Rapture, and then she easily killed the shit out of him, unimpeded by her system. The NIMPH, end of the day, is sloppily made, highly dependent on the mental state of the Nikke, and easily circumvented. This is a very important plot point throughout the story, and the way they show this in multiple ways is really good.

Another thing I like is how the game goes about the player's title. It's technically "Commander" but the truth is, most every single Nikke calls you a different way relative to your relationship with them or their impression of you. Rapi and Anis some of the few that call you Commander, because they are in fact your subordinates, but Rapi says "Shikikan" while Anis says "Shikikan-sama" in a sarcastic way initially and after a while in an affectionately playful way, Neon calls you "Master" (Shishou) because she likes the way you use firepower, Liter calls you "Greenhorn" because you are, well, that in her eyes, Moran calls you "Partner" (Ototou, "little brother" in Japanese) because she's the head of a crime syndicate and she considers you as a cool person under her protection, the sports inclined ones call you "Coach", the school themed ones "Teacher", Viper, the flirty one, "Honey" or "Darling" depending on the scene, and so on, the old timey Scarlet calls you "My Lord", the religious Rapunzel uses "Believer", and the coarse, rough around the edges Snow White just uses "You" (Omae). It's a great touch that I like when it's done.

So, basically, you have a charming combination of a setting that's been overdone infinite times with plot beats that vary between legitimately good (the NIMPH and its logistics) and legitimately bad (Whatever the fuck Chapter 18 was, to name one case), and moment to moment that's really charming and entertaining.

The gameplay is honestly extremely unbalanced, and the sheer disparity in strength between units of the same rarity makes you wonder if they have anyone in the team that actually cares about balance, but honestly, putting the issues of balance aside? It's fun to point at stuff and shoot a million bullets and rockets, and they even get pretty creative with the fights sometimes in terms of enemy types and how they use them against you, so gameplay balance is awful, gameplay itself is suprisingly good for how simple it is.

I know people are going to be like "Dreamer, You Didn't Even Rate The Asses" so okay here:

First of all, the ergonomically perfect ass of the VIXEN that lured me into the game in a moment of weakness, Scarlet:

And next up, the Clothed But Massive Ass of Snow White

In fact, I appreciate the variety, because if it was just bare cheeks and panty shots, it'd be kinda whatever to me, but bodysuit ass and clothed but noticeably huge ass? Fresh, to be honest.

Also notable is that progress in entirely gated by passive production of resources and daily stuff because there's no stamina system. Bold!

But yeah feel free to ask more specific questions, but this is pretty much how I've felt about it.

[therese-lokidottir]

Why Sylvie so bad character? Even her fans can't denied how bad her character is.

For one it was okey writing her as bad person or even evil person but the problem is that everyone in screen and MCU claim that she is good person while she not showing anything and no no no don't point at when she in McDonalds that she asking a teen if his mother will pick his up, and when she let Victor go, maybe she have a moment but the rest? No, that is no made her good person.

That also what is her personalities actually? Yes, she showing emotions but what or who is she? I can't even put a draft her personalities.

Top of that they forced as to like her.

Listen I may no professional writers but as viewer, if you can't make background a character then make this character have personalities that interesting and of you can't than just doing 'one shot' (the character gone after do the Purpose), and more importantly do not forced everyone to see the character to see like what you see

You know Megatron and Starscream? They both evil and a jerk but fans love them because how evil they both and the transformers creator not claiming that they are 'hero or good' (they have reasons but not justified anything) and they do have personalities and they have they own stories. And that MCU how you writing evil guys but fans still love them

Btw it's including monius and other characters that evil Or bad but got claimed as good persons

I've said but started of as more neutral on Sylvie and more pushed to dislike her after hearing all the dumb stuff from the creators along with being really annoyed by the pompous fans. The attitude that people who didn't like her where sexists made me hate her out of spite.

Yeah, the thing is it's fine that a character is selfish or mean, that doesn't have to be a problem in itself. The problem is not treating those aspects like they're flaws or trying to the pretend the character is some that she's not. Because she is not a hero or a liberator or someone who remotely cares about anyone but herself. The only thing you could say about Sylvie is she is technically right about the TVA being bad but she ends up being no better than them.

And that this is someone who has never had a chance to have kind of relationship, not friendship, not familiar and has no chance do develop normal social skills is now going to work the service industry!? She is going is going to have to deal with people yell and complain at for the pettiest things and look down on her. She has to do a lot of hard unrewarding work with other people who don't really want to be there. The reason why the opening of Endgame is actually really good is because how much it understands the character. Nebula doesn't know how to have fun and play a dumb game, it's such a foreign concept. The mix of emotions she has are great because you can see the awkwardness.

Sylvie is whatever the plot needs her to be. She's what you'd get if you typed in Strong Female Character in an AI generator.

I love characters like Regina Mills and Wanda Maximoff, tragic messes who I do sympathize with and want them to be happy, but I also acknowledge that have done bad things. Or I can like characters like Mystique and Demona, terrible women who might have some sympathetic aspects but are ultimately terrible but that terribleness is what makes the fun to watch. But Sylvie is none of those things, she's just a boring selfish brat and they treat it like that's either ok or that she's not.

[diodellet]

hiya dio!! tossing in 3 (honkai star rail? 👀), 5, and 15!!

hiya ian! thanks for shooting me an ask!!

3.) Go to the [honkai star rail] tag and reblog some art you like that has under 100 notes

aight i gotchu oomfie, ill search for stuff to queue up 😤😤

5.) What genre do you like reading the best?

angst and hurt/comfort 🔛🔝!!!

it's painful, it's good, and it makes emotional processing so much easier and less burdensome because the difficulty goes into finding an okay sentence and stringing together ok-ish dialogue (but at least those can be solved with a banger ass playlist, ykw?)

augh special mention to one of my formative twst fics i love that grim has such a big role in this

15.) Worst fanfic tropes ever?

NOO!!!! U CANT MAKE ME SAY BAD THINGS ABT FANFIC!!! ALL FANFIC IS GOOD WHEN IT IS MADE WITH HEART!!!

(did i say bridal carry? ill just say it again for funsies HAHAHA i dont like bridal carries, it doesn't spark any joy, please just carry me like this🤧👇👇)

i'm usually really open-minded with reading fanfics... so aside from the obvious fanfic writing sins (using generative AI, plagiarism, not doing enough careful research for sensitive topics) OH WAIT--

(this is probably specific to genshin/hyv) but i Reaaaaally don't like it when fandom infantilizes characters that use the teenage model. like, there is such a thing as short adults! (me. i am one of them!) one time i saw someone say that lynette was probably a year younger than lyney and i was confused bcs aren't they twins??? like, are we forgetting that lynette was the primary "errand-goer" for the house of hearth upon getting her vision? girlie's probably seen more shit than lyney did.

^^semi-related to infantilizing characters, i dont like how some obm fics treat luke as a literal toddler. like, yes he's immature but he's got a good head on his shoulders and even if he's a low-ranked angel he probably has sm powers that he can make use of to protect MC. and i esp see how he gets left out even in gen/platonic fics and hcs. smtimes i feel compelled to look at the game's shitty pop quiz events for fanfic fuel (i mean, the luke tag has more ppl saying not to sexualize him than actual writing and that bugs me ://)

There used to be this really good obm fanfic (Nightmare by StarsEncrusted) and it had a plot point of helping luke get his wings, but it++the author's orig account got deleted from ao3. thankfully some fans had the foresight to archive it, so heres a wayback link to the fic and the accompanying side stories

i guess to expound more on my aversion to marriage in fanfic, it icks me when the characterization stops feeling like the characters themselves and the fic starts feeling heteronormative (also sometimes the writing comes across as if the marriage/childbirth "fixes" all those issues, which, it doesn't) and, well, i already kind of deal with the idea of "getting settled down" shoved in my face. it's really not for me. but i do understand why it's comforting to people, smtimes i can indulge in reading in it. but on a bad day, nah, i can't.

anyway, also special shout out to chat fics, they can be fun but idk it reads to me as a way to regurgitate overused incorrect quotes. (please some vines need to be laid to rest. also, can we stop quoting that one copaganda show oh my god)

(art appreciation ask questions, please bug me to rb some underrated fic and art)

[theliterarywolf]

I think the worst thing about the whole welcome home situation is that it really brings to light 1. just how "commercialized" the perception around creative pursuits has become (it might not be the right word but I can't think of another one). like this isn't [insert random corporation]'s IP #67484934 but someone's own work they are still directly involved in and unaffiliated with any major company. and 2. somehow the basic concept of respecting boundaries has been lost not just on fanpol but some proshippers too it seems. "no nsfw of my original characters please" is a pretty reasonable boundary actually and if someone feels the need to do it anyways they should at least have the decency to keep it private and away from the og creator instead of mocking them for *checks notes* being so arrogant as to have one boundary on interacting with THEIR work that they were so kind as to share with others on the internet

"Just how "commercialized" the perception around creative pursuits has become"

No, that's it exactly and we can see this echoed and causing the trickle effect that has led to the current situation with art and creative media in general.

Look at how the concept of a good adaptation (books, games, comics, anime, etc) is a rarity and not the norm. It's because you have a bunch of talking-head studio-executives not seeing the IPs they're scrambling over as creations from individual groups and artists but just something to get eyes on a watered-down screen, milk for ad-revenue, and then repeat the process with another IP.

Look at how the Triple-A video game space has turned into less of a 'we want to create fresh new experiences and ideas' and more 'okay, let's get a skeleton crew to make enough of a game to justify DLC and live-services for a year or two... Okay, time to do the same thing over again!'

Look at NFTs and AI "art" and how, the only reason why those two things were able to rise to the plague they currently are is because you have this brain-dead portion of the population who refuse to see art as a practiced skill of human labor that should be paid for and appreciated as such but, instead, they just 'want something pretty to look at for a second before getting another something pretty to look at for a second before...' Ad-nauseum.

Two perfect recent examples of that last one: one dude who calls himself rapidly making 'better' art of Princess Peach when all he's doing is clicking on an AI and getting nightmare amalgamations that look worse than pre-Toy Story Pixar and one person who made a piece of Sonic fanart with a human fem!Sonic in the center but all the 'Sonics' around her looked more inbred than the Hapsburgs.

But, of course, even with actual artists pointing out 'hey, these look wonky/weird/bad', you have thousands of people who don't care. Why? Well, look back to a certain comment that people use to dunk on current Star Wars, Marvel, and other mainstream IPs:

'Don't ask questions; just consume product and then get excited for the next product'.

No one wants to think about the creators of their favored IPs anymore. They just want to be given the shiny new ball to treat (or mistreat) in any way they see fit for a while before dumping it to the wayside a month or so later to do it to something else. And if, heaven forbid, you get a creator who dares to want to have some matter of agency with how people engage with their creation, well...

'Why do you hate people having fun?'

'Well, I'm just going to do it anyway.'

'So... Anyway, these characters are now mine because the creator is obviously shitty and doesn't know them as well as I do'

And then

The Cycle

Repeats

Anew.

[catamaurrr-star]

okay. so. the amazing digital circus

tadc follows a woman who put on a VR headset and ended up as a cartoon jester with no memory of her life (even her name!) except for the knowledge that she was Someone before this. she found herself in The Amazing Digital Circus, a wacky cartoon circus filled with other cartoon people: a ragdoll named Ragatha, a pile of ribbons with a comedy/tragedy mask named Gangle, a perfectionist based off of building blocks called Zooble, a neurotic chess piece called Kinger, an inscrutable purple asshole rabbit named Jax, and a pair of talking dentures named Caine. Caine is the AI who runs and controls the digital circus. the jester is renamed Pomni, and she spends the entire episode 1 freaking out and trying to get back home, wherever that is.

the whole setting is based off of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, so the inhabitants of the digital circus have no way to exit, and instead go on wacky adventures caine prepares for them just so they don't go insane from boredom. eventually, these characters will undergo a total breakdown and lose themselves to something called Abstraction, which turns them into a mindless monster and is something even caine can't fix. episode 1 has them dealing with an abstracted kaufmo (a clown who we never get to meet as himself, but do hear about) on pomni's first day in the circus.

now, out of these characters, jax ended up standing out. he's skinny, has a relatively simple design, is a smug bastard, and he's a huge dick to everyone with tiny hints at a deeper character or care for others. so people went wild for him, obviously. gooseworx (the show's creator) told everyone that he is in fact an irredeemable asshole, but that never stopped anyone lol

and then episode 2 came out, and jax turned out to be- surprise, surprise- an huge asshole. they were in a video game-type quest, and the ai was so advanced as to be nearly human and able to undergo things like existential crises. however, jax spent the whole time treating not only their lives, but also the lives of the other circus members, as disposable out of boredom, while Still being a smug asshole about it the entire time. so now people are 180-ing on him lmao

there's a lot more im not going into (don't have the time or energy), but it's a fun show.

OOOHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! unfortunately tadc is not my type of show but jax seems so very interesting....... we should bite him like a dog chew toy

[egg-emperor]

I'm very happy to see someone else had issues with Eggman's portrayal (at least the ENG one anyways) in Frontiers! Makes me happy knowing I'm not alone. Which is a shame though, because (while he was barely seen prior) he was very good before the ending.

But I did have a question haha. I actually wanted to know your thoughts on Sage as a character! What did you think of her and her story? Personally, I quite liked it in everything but the ending. And I liked the idea of like, Sage trying to learn about love and never be able to truly apply it. There was this very sad tragedy for her that she was learning emotion and love for her "dad" and how it would always be stomped out by Eggman never giving her that same fatherly affection and respect back (which is good! Eggman always cares about himself first, and I would want nothing less). Which is how a story like that should be tackled with Eggman. Fits the vibe and theme they were shooting for with the game.

It's a real shame that some of Eggman's worst writing is tied to her honestly, because she is and can be a really fantastic character both by herself and in her relation to Eggman as a more 'emotional' creation. I'd like to see how you would tackle this kind of thing in a fic sometime- you always write Eggman really well! Thanks for reading this regardless though, and don't forget to take care of yourself! Have a great day! 💙

I'm really happy I'm not alone in this. I really appreciate those sticking around to hear me out and express my true thoughts and explain why and/or agree. I'm glad people care about Eggman being portrayed accurately.

I honestly don't have strong feelings about Sage right now, she's just not really my type in design or personality. Maybe part of it is just that I don't like how the fandom are treating her with Eggman. But I wouldn't say I hate her, no strong feelings for or against.

I can see potential in her story that might've made me like her, the means were there. Eggman creating something so impressively life-like she has feelings and is influenced by learning from Sonic and co, then wants love and wishes for a real bond with the one she's closest to as his creation.

Maybe she gets a bit delusional like the funny montage scene, thinking Eggman will feel the same but his perception is shallow and self aggrandizing as ever, only seeing her as impressive for her efficiency and how it makes him a genius as her creator and just buttering her up to keep her loyal and useful.

And Eggman just doesn't have the sincere fatherly love and care she wishes for and maybe she's in denial but it starts to set in the more careless and rude he seems, not considering her personal feelings, not being able to think about and praise her beyond what she can do for him and how it makes him such a genius.

And seeing how he acts towards her compared to Sonic and friends with each other with their strong bonds, it begins to shatter those hopes and she realizes he's incapable of caring for anyone else or even praising or valuing creations beyond their use to him and pride in them being manifestations of his genius.

It would have an impactful message. That just because Sage is an AI, it doesn't mean she can't have feelings and emotions of love and care and just because Eggman is a flesh and blood human being it doesn't mean he can because he's too egotistical, self centered, and lacks empathy and care for others.

She learns there are truly bad people but there is still good and love in the world too, even if her "dad" can't give it, as she sees in Sonic and friends. That's how you could still make the dynamic sad and induce "the feels" in people without giving a middle finger to Eggman's important core personality aspects that make him who he is.

I might write a fic exploring this if I figure out how to write Sage. I could write Eggman's side easy no problem and I'd have a lot of fun with writing him being self centered, careless, rude, and an asshole as always, proving his side was never sincere no matter what he said or did and the impact of Sage losing hope over time.

I appreciate that you'd be interested in seeing it from me and that you like how I write Eggman, it means a lot because I always carefully put all my knowledge and passion into writing him and making sure he feels true to himself and I'm happy it pays off. I'll try to, and same to you. Thank you so much 😊💜

[knightsofsomethingorother]

Right so. Before ANYTHING... you need to see the intro to this show.

Let it sink in. Bask in it. Writhe in it.

Okay now that that's out of the way, our story starts with a stupidly long and slow 'battle' between these dudes...

And Camelot which only has 3 people in it.

Merlin, Womanlady, and Guinevere. Anyway Guinevere's kidnapped by a bird man. Roll with it.

He knocks Merlin over and then everyone fucks off.

What, did you expect more? That's what happens. THAT'S ALL THAT FUCKING HAPPENS. YOU DON'T GET MORE.

So anyway, the question is... where the fuck is everybody. And there's an answer. Turns out Arthur and the Questy Boys all got locked in the... Let me check my notes here... 'Cave of Glass'. What is that? I don't know! I hope we find out though.

Anyway.

Merlin monologues at the round table for a wee bit, filling the audience in on all of that, then Nimue shows up, tells him what to do and then he reaches through time to summon... reincarnations..? Alternate versions..? A group of Dudes where two people are named 'Arthur' and 'Lance'. Some destiny something I don't really care about. But what do I care about?

AMERICAN FOOT BAAALLLLLL!

AMERICAN FOOTBALL.

So number 12 up there who just scored the Winning Touchdown there is Arthur. Or new Arthur, at least. His name is Arthur King and I am dead on the inside. He's the special boy, I'm to assume.

Anyway they win the game and then this group of VERY CLEARLY HIGH SCHOOL BOYS drive a BUS on their OWN to NEW YORK CITY.

In this bus we get to see the rest of the team.

So uh... This came out in '92. There is a Single Asian Character and Two Black Characters. We will see how well the series treats them but so far the Asian guy has talked once and he's a nerd who likes Museum and only one of the black guys has spoken and his name is 'Tone' and he talks like a black guy named tone in a 1990s cartoon would talk so... Hopes aren't high.

Anyway this UNSUPERVISED FOOT BALL TEAM OF HIGH SCHOOL BOYS DRIVING A BUS ON THEIR LONESOME are 100 miles from New York and a storm is moving in. Arthur King (hghghhg) tells the kid driving to take a shortcut he just so happens to know.

Sidenote. This is my favorite guy. I've decided already. This is also a good time to say that aside from Arthur and Lance there are no other allusions to actual Knights of the Round Table. Not even indirectly. Thank CHRIST.

Anyway they eat shit and fall down a cliff for like 3 full minutes and end up in Camelot.

I need to say that I WISH I knew how to make Youtube Poops because this is a fucking GOLDMINE. Every other line read is just... Mwah. Perfection. They don't sound human. They sounds like AI before AI was a thing.

So they end up in Camelot. Get some new clothes. Merlin sends them to fight some guys. They're down with it and don't really object. They fight some guys. All the while the football boys are talking about AMERICAN GODDAMN FOOTBAAAAALLLLL. The end.

Sound rushed? That's because it is! This is a clunky trainwreck and if I was a wee bab in the year 1992 I wouldn't be interested in this at all. The only character I like thus far is Bus Boy who I will call Bus Boy from here on out because I refuse to use his actual name who is the only Guy with like... a likeable personality (so far). His voice actor is also doing a really good job and that does go a long way. The football team just kind of accept shit immediately with little pushback and that's just not compelling. Plus most of the runtime is dedicated to Merlin expositing stuff at us. It's not over-the-top campy and it's not FUN. At least not yet. They've got 25 more episodes to be fun.

Also is this design for one of the baddies racist?

Yeah so in summary 2 AMERICAN FOOTBALLS out of 5

[rebootchill]

People who are non-South Park fans act surprised to learn that the fandom is extremely openly female online and IRL like there's just something wrong with those girls and maybe they're overly into the little boys characters in a creepy way (that's there but only in extreme tiny circles like every fandom unfortunately). I still think it's also a product of the "thing enjoyed by women = must be bad" mentality we all can perpetuate cause fem hatred comes so easily.

For me, South Park came at a time when I was having a harder time relating to my gender identity and how I was perceived by boys and even other girls. I was made to feel like I was "too girlie" for the boys but "too masculine" for the girls but I honestly cannot tell you wtf I was doing that gave these impressions. It definitely led me into nihilism, and through that, I watched many hyper-masculine or dark humor edgy stuff because I was an insecure cis-girl pushed out by other insecure cis girls. But from all that content, South Park was the one show that grounded and led me to some healthier perspectives about my sex and gender.

So I want to list why the show is feminist or at least try to explain it's pro-fem stances.

- extremely honest about the over-sexualization and grooming of young girls that society puts upon us even as minors.

-Wendy started as the girl of the group that Stan was desperate to keep in his life but never truly loved and she herself had an unhealthy obsession with toxic males around her.

To now a feminist that sets her own boundaries and prevents Stan from taking advantage of her love whenever he feels like he's emotionally empty.

-A female pedo is treated like a rapist and dies and no one feels sorry for her sake

-Misogyny in the show is exhibited only by the worst characters possible.

-Matt and Trey, I don't like to overthink about real people's personal sexualities but they definitely read as men who don't care about how people see them poking fun at their own masculinity. That takes a great level of self-confidence and some level of respect for the "opposite sex" that most cis men are unable to do.

-Wendy beats the living shit out of Cartman deservedly for mocking breast cancer and the writers take her side 100%

-Showing the complex dangers of mutual abuse between partners (something I have experienced and now thanks to the show, I have a frame of reference to understand my trauma.)

It's actually one of the few "immature" comedy shows that actually hold better lessons for young girls than most supposedly mature "women-oriented" media.

When young women see any level of display of strong female agency that actually connects with their experiences, they're going to gravitate to it. That is why the fandom is overwhelmingly female.

Now it ain't all perfect. I'm not going to justify the transphobia remotely, it's still written by cisgender men with unchecked TERFism and other outdated neo-liberal politics. These videos bring that all to light, and this youtuber Lily Simpson (and Kitty Monk) will do a better job than me explaining it.

But I also will add:

-In the games feminine gender expression is highly encouraged even if it's in the context of a joke. One of the best armor to use is any of the effeminate armors so most players end up with the best stats by making their (assumed male protagonist) fight, play, and finish the game in complete drag.

-Second game lets you literally give yourself magical sex changes at no cost. It has a very shockingly diverse list of gender identities and it treats this more matter of fact than "lol alphabet people". You can change your sex and gender infinite times throughout the whole game. And the only penalty is the bigot enemies ai's change their language when they fight you.

The point is, that all women go through their own messy self-affirming journeys to understand their place in the world, and if some found old-school feminism through a crude little show about high-pitched rude little boys navigating the hypocrisies of the adult world and finding words to their feelings. Then I believe it's a good enough start that will lead young people into better places mentally.

[obiternihili]

I feel like csci suffers from a genuinely self destructive lack of professionalism. I don't mean HR stuff, though that's downstream of the genuine root of the problem. But like a genuine lack of fundamental respect for peers and peer projects even when you boil away the business competitiveness.

Like it's routine to just completely shit over the entirety of a project. Small things, whatever, but like instead of being sober about the comparitive limitations of entire software ecosystems, it's like, no, $proglang is all bad and made by bad people who are stupid. Or $library. or whatever. Any project really.

And like to be fair, sometimes yes software is unusable. But like, instead of acting like it's a miss and moving on, it often turns into this big dunkfest.

I'm afraid the cavalier attitude to sweeping criticism instead of nuanced sobriety does a few things

Drowns out genuine criticism. Like when every minor failure is treated as collossal stupidity it becomes easier to tune out the critics as 'haters' or whatever

It probably burns a lot of bridges

I suspect that it muddies the waters when it comes to separating the work from the person. Like if someone churns out bad code for a project, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're habitually bad programmers, it doesn't mean that they're bad people, or whatever. it probably means that they were crunched, or so on

And, like, as I alluded, it probably contributes to what fuels the perception that csci workers are all chuds. Because if you're bad at separating the work from the person then you're going to let weird ass shit confirm your biases.

And like, I don't know if letting the rest of the public have that attitude contributes to mistreatment of programmers. I'm pretty sure if management at least has this attitude that the software they commission should just do what they want, and if not you're doing bad work and are incompetent buffoons who are expendable, that workers are going to be treated like shit.

Like I was going to compare to the movie industry where everyone is treated like garbage by the studios, but it's just pretty frankly what happens in the gaming industry, which involves programmers. You get people making fun of the 'i want shorter games with worse graphics where the programmers are paid more to do less' thing when King Kong released, while the team behind it were horrifically crunched.

and I wish I knew what I was talking about more so I could write this essay better

but in general I feel like the project driving the technology behind AI, behind many promising technologies that can help the disabled, driving the future of our experiences, were driven more by an open, careful world collaboration like CERN or something, with the cooperative professionalism corroboration requires, than this perpetual pissing contest reflecting a bunch of reckless evaporating profit motives designed to shit out half-finished opaque tools as quickly and dangerously as possible, so they can earn the venture capital to maintain the illusion of profitability. All while not being good enough to replace anyone, but to demote them to much lower paid, unprotected jobs cleaning up after the AI.

[bubbelpop2]

Hey. I'm Adam, Bubbz, Sam, Atticus, and many other nicknames, pseuds, and screen names, but most people call me Adam or Bubbz. I'm a man, a witch, a reclaiming native guy (oceti sakowin, oglala lakota.) and I like educating people and advocating for healthy communication and thought. I like destigmatizing mental illness, and activism.

I'm a system. I have DID.

I MADE A GAME! PLAY IT! (This is the alpha version of chapter one)

FREE PALESTINE (NOW)

buy Internet for people in gaza

Anti Zionism is not antisemetism. No, really, it's not.

POISON AI

                                                 ART

IF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT ME PLEASE FOLLOW MY WORK BLOG FULL OF EVERY CREATIVE ENDEAVOR I TAKE PART IN

My Ko-fi

MY ART STORE/COMMISSION INFO ON CARRD

My N$FM store

Fandom list ("get rid of the part of you that cringes, not the part that's cringe, my son")

Watchlist

Kin list

Kink list (warning: gross and unethical. I'm.. traumatized.) 

My theme song!!

 Hey there! Did you know I’m a person? If you’re a stupid terf or exclus or 9 year old sending a fucking hate anon, be more original than picking on my kinks like some puritanical conservative!   (ง •̀_•́)ง

Fun fact all but one of my kinks go both ways. I'm a true switch. Oh yeah, check out my bsdm test results.

Two separate older black women have told me that I sound black. And also one white boy named Dilan who described my accent as "using ebonics" as if he had a problem with it.

Here's a get-to-know-me collage.

Religion

I'm a witch with Baptist roots and Buddhist beliefs. I like Alan Watts!

Pronouns: He/🍯/🧸/🍃/🐾/🌕

Politics

I'm an anarchocommunist idealistically, but I'd be happy with a capitalistic welfare state like norway, seeing as how, realistically, communism isn't going to be implemented into any country I'm going to live in any time soon. Just as long as the disabled are cared for, I'm happy with it. Antifa and proud.

My environmental wet dream

Fuck scrotus

BMI is meaningless and it's fake science

Shipping "politics"

Stop treating shipping like politic dogma and go touch grass. I'm part of the dead dove society. Meaning, that I go by the old (and updated, for the times.) rules of the fandom, before "antiship" or "proship" was even a thing.

Don't like, don't read.

Tag your dark content properly. Make sure that nobody could possibly stumble on it unless they are looking for it. Do NOT post dark content in the main tags.

Don't harass people for things you don't like. Block and move on.

Don't feel ashamed about complete fictional thoughts about fictional characters.

if you have a dark pairing don't fucking treat it like normal shipping. That's so tone deaf. Post proper warnings about the content.

CAREER and Dreams

I want to do so many things. Most of them involve drawing, or music, or making videos and video games. I'd love to be a successful YouTuber with animations and speed paints and playthroughs and podcasts and reaction videos and political videos.

Trublums

I am actively looking for a job

I have ADHD, DID, and Manic Depression. I have a lot of undiagnosed blood pressure, breathing, and chronic pain issues. My mom is in debt from medical bills, my grandma can hardly afford her insulin and blood sugar sensors. We are not far from being without electricity and food. Pretty pretty please donate or give me a commission by DMing me. I’m also trying to transition through all of this. Please help. paypal.me/bubbelpop3

         (you can ignore my boundaries as long as you are respectful)

Boring specifics. Fun fact, these things are kind of the basis of being a respectful person.

Nazis, alt-right, and anybody who holds antisemitic views (commit die)

Anti Witch

Pro-contact zoos/pedos/necros

Racists, Homophobes, Transphobes, Islamophobes (change or commit die)

Anti-mogai (wow you're so good at keeping the community together by telling kids who dare to have neo pronouns to kys)

"queer is a slur" learn your culture and stop listening to terfs.

Anti cglre and agereg (other peoples kinks or coping mechanisms are not yours to judge)

Anti kink (consent is important)

"there is no sfw agereg" shut the fuck up and talk to a licensed therapist they'll tell you otherwise.

"Kill all men" You're gross whether or not you exclude trans men from that sentiment. [X] [X] [X]

Pro-cop (die fashie)

“I’m not obligated to be an activist.” It’s your duty as a human being.

"No kink at pride" shut the fuck up [x]

Antiship (I've had so many fucking harassments over absolute bullshit.) look at this [x] and this [x]

Anti-Endo (as long as you respect them and leave them alone/don’t harass or fakeclaim I don’t care what your personal opinions are. But know this is a safe place for people who ID as endo.)

"You shouldn't let minors view your blog"

Pro-capitalists

Christian centered blogs (you make me uncomfortable)

Cancel culture supporters (yes. sending death threats solves so many problems.

[risualto]

Helo! The previous Li/Seb poly anon is back!😅 I'm pretty sure you're bored of me, but your writing of them is so addictive! Soooo, can please have another Li/Seb poly prompt? I don't know which one to request tho, so can you pick for me and write whichever you want or something?

Hey, guess what, my arm doesn’t hurt today!  So I decided to write.  :D  Anyway, here’s a little bit of a different flavor of the poly than usual, which is me leaning a little more heavily on the parts of myself that are similar to Sebastian and also indulging in some fun pining.  I didn’t link this to any particular prompt from the list, though, and this is longer than 10 sentences.  Just started writing and this is what happened.  I hope you like it!

(Also, anon, I am never bored of you.  I love getting asks for this game and in general.)

“They’ve always been like this,” the Seer said one day as she handed Sebastian a mug of coffee, both of them watching as Li and the Speaker constructed a plan one fragmented sentence that the other would finish at a time, sitting cross-legged on the floor, knees touching, and yet never once hitting each other as they gestured (like a single body rather than two).  And it suddenly made so much sense.

“It,” of course, meaning why Sebastian always felt like he was intruding when it was the three of them together, why it always felt like more than his height that kept him from walking perfectly in step with either of them.  Why he couldn’t, for once in his life, be honest about his intentions.  (Having these stirring feelings for them both only made it worse--or maybe better.  Maybe, at least this way, he knew that they were both good for each other, that they would both be happy, that he could walk away knowing they would both be treated with as much care as two people in love could manage.)

(It wasn’t actually better, but he told himself it could be.)

He really wasn’t sure what to do, then, with the fact that there were also moments when Sebastian forgot to realize he didn’t belong.  When Li picked up some thread of his dry humor and and wove it into something like banter, or when the Speaker relied on him like trusting Sebastian was as easy as breathing.  Talking himself out of flirting with them--either or both--in moments like that was incredibly hard, especially when it wasn’t like he wanted to disrupt what they clearly already had (even if neither, apparently, was able to say it aloud).  Sebastian didn’t want to come between them but to go with them.  To be a part of the world they sometimes pulled him into with those gestures and not wonder if he was the alien.

No, stamping down on these feelings would be so much easier if he was just jealous like any normal person.  Jealousy was aggressive and vile and easy to condemn, an easily-identified toxic byproduct, but longing?  Longing was a subtler poison.  It hurt no one but him, after all, so long as he had the self-control not to act on it.

For a second, the room fell silent, and Sebastian blinked, wondering if someone had asked him a question.  But the woman on the couch at his side wasn’t looking at him, and neither was Li or the Speaker, who were instead staring at each other, eyes wide and cheeks lifting into matching grins.

“--the banana rug horoscope trick!” they both said suddenly, at the same time, only to immediately fall into laughter.  Sebastian looked at the Seer, who thankfully didn’t seem to understand any better than he did.  He wondered if the look on his face was as fond as hers.

“Incredible,” Sebastian muttered to himself as the two of them seemed to argue about whether whatever they meant before would really work.

“You know all of that stuff about how when AIs talk to each other, their language evolves too quickly for people to keep up after a few minutes?” Seer asked quietly, a sly little quirk to her lips.

Sebastian huffed out a chuckle.  Yes, he said without speaking.  If he didn’t already believe it, those two would have convinced him.

In another instant, the Speaker rushed from the room and up the stairs, just as Li leaned backwards, flashing a lazy grin in Sebastian’s direction.  He returned the look with an unimpressed, raised eyebrow, face already having lost its amusement if only for the purpose of telling Li how unbelievable the two of them were.

“Don’t pretend like you aren’t part of this,” Li said, and Sebastian had to remind himself that Li was talking to both him and the Seer, that it didn’t mean what his heart wanted it to.

What passed his lips was, “We all know we’re stuck with you.”  What he held back was, I want to be.  Li kept smiling at him, even when the Speaker returned with a bundle of something under one arm, squeezing his shoulder on the way past, and Sebastian felt warm.

He knew better than to let his feelings get in the way of work, but this didn’t hurt.  Not them, not anyone they were meant to help, and (Sebastian realized with a breath of relief) not even himself.  So maybe it was alright, for now, to let the whole thing be.  He could sit by and keep longing so long as it was unobtrusive...so long as it meant he could enjoy that warmth.

For all that Sebastian could rationalize emotion, he would not convince himself it was a bad thing if his heart fluttered seeing the two people he cared for most being in love and happy.

[championfrita]

Pokémon Sword and Shield Review

So...I've taken some time to fully play Pokémon Shield. Now, I know this is pretty delayed, and I got the double pack so I wanted to play Sword first to see if how I felt was really accurate or if I was being too harsh. That said, let's talk about my experience with the Galar Region.

Initial Impressions

Overall, I was excited to play Shield at first. Everything was bright and exciting and the characters were easy to recognize and not overly generic.

The first few hours of this game, well it's a slow burn. And I do mean SLOW. Even with the text set to Fast and me taking things at my own pace it took me at least a good couple hours to reach the Wild Area. Furthermore, this game has an infernal amount of handholding, even when given the option to say "I know all this already" it still gives a brief explaination for almost anything and STILL makes you sit ALL THE WAY THROUGH the catch tutorial.

It's 2019 and older players still don't get the option to skip this. Come on GameFreak.

That said, the longer I played the more I began to notice...how should I put this? Blatant laziness?

The Wild Area

Now, the CONCEPT of the Wild Area in theory is amazing. It's still not too bad as is, but there are definitely flaws. For starters, the same tree has been copy pasted all over the place to make up 90% of the foliage.

More than that, though, despite the Wild Area having a good selection of Pokémon and a fairly varietied environment (desert, lakes, forest) it feels oddly...empty. There are no real secrets to speak of, no hidden areas, no easily missed items. Everything is all right out there to see and spread pretty far apart. I don't know if it's a lack of Trainers or the fact that I don't have an Online membership so I played alone, but the Wild Area feels like it just needs something MORE.

Dynamax Raid Battles, even when done alone, are fairly fun and sometimes challenging with the turn limit. Radiant AI Trainers spawn in to assist you if you're playing alone so there's no worries about having to take one on with just one Pokémon.

Camping, which can be done anywhere but is introduced to the player here, is an absolute treat. Have YOU played fetch with a unicorn? I have, and I love it. The wide variety of curries you can make with different ingredients is nice, and your Pokémon even get EXP boosts if you play with and feed them while camping.

The Pokémon

Honestly, I'm really not impressed. The Galar Dex of new Pokémon feels painfully small, so much so that playing Pokémon GO and catching a few Unova Pokémon made me yearn for the days when we used to get regions completely FULL of new Pokémon. Remember when you had to wait until AFTER the main game to start catching Pokémon from past gens? I...well, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I LIKED that.

That said, using a sparse selection of Galar Pokémon and Galar Regional Variants on my team definitely made the Gym Challenge more difficult. I picked Scorbunny, because Fire Types, and honestly didn't really care for it or its evolutions at first. Cinderace has really grown on me though and I like Pyro Ball as a move. It's flashy and powerful and that suits me just fine. Most of the new Pokémon's DESIGNS were good and I liked them, there just really weren't ENOUGH of them.

I'm fairly pleased with the regional variants as well. It was difficult to adjust to Ponyta and Rapidash being Psychic Type, but I really liked having them on my team. At the same time...Meowth not evolving into a Persian doesn't really sit right with me.

I'm all for branch evolutions, but Perrserker honestly just looks more like a giant Galar Meowth than anything. I played this with only the info given in the few scattered trailers I'd seen, so I was genuinely excited to see what a Galarian Persian would look like only to end up with Perrserker. The Typing is phenominal, and I think it's great to see a Steel Type Meowth for a change, but I just don't like where they went with it. Eh. Ces't la vie, moving on.

The Story

It's weak. Straight up, the story in this game is poor. There were so many directions they could have gone. I really liked the idea of Rose being this charismatic chairman hype man for the League and being the bad guy. I saw it coming, but it was a nice change to see just based on his personality. Still, it feels rushed. His motivations are really one dimensional and glossed over. Like, "Oh, here's the bad guy. Go get him." It worked in Gen 1 because Giovanni was a MOBSTER. He was MEANT to be a bad guy straight to the core in general, but Rose just doesn't have that vibe.

Not only that, but the "Bad League Members" are kinda meh. That feels REALLY lazy. They didn't even really get a decent uniform change when they started taking on the name Macro Cosmos in Rose Tower. They got black glasses. That's it. Just that. The fight with Eternatus feels painfully rushed and shoehorned in too, almost like they thought "Oh no, we need to give them a big nasty boss to fight! Let's just throw a random monster at them and say Rose summoned it. Seems like a solid plan."

I DID like the after story with Piers though. It really solidifies that older brother sort of nature with him, even if he tries to hide it most of the time.

The Characters

I liked Hop. As a character he's really fun and I like how they gave him this over excited very grand gestured sort of personality. He's really just happy to be ANYWHERE as long as it's with his Pokémon and you. His admiration for his big bro might come off strong and make him seem a little flat at first, but he's overall portrayed as a good kid and I like him.

Leon on the other hand...well I hated him for most of the game. His design is great and he looks fabulous, but he just has the most cocky, obnoxious, pandering personality 90% of the time. Still, I have to give credit where credit is due and recognize that he IS actually a multifaceted character. He showboats not just because he's too confident but also to give the crowd a show and put people at ease in times of danger. Not only that, but his recognition of his little brother's accomplishments and his graceful acceptance of defeat when you beat him reveals a really well written character.

I don't DISlike Sonia, and I have no problem with Prof. Magnolia sitting on the sidelines, but she can be a little...irritating at times with the way she speaks about and to people. The Gym Leaders, aside from Piers, feel a little...light.

I mean, most Gym Leaders don't have detailed backstories, but these ones feel paper thin personality wise as well. I had to look at the official GUIDE just to be sure what the relationship between Melony and Gordie even WAS because you only seem him in her Special League Card in Shield and that tells you nothing about him. The only real leaders that stood out to me were Piers and Raihan, and while I was iffy about his design at first I LOVE Raihan. He has so much more personality and ferocity than any of the other leaders. And the social commentary about him needing to constantly take and post a selfie, even after losing, is a nice touch.

The Galar Region

Is very linear. Like, VERY linear. Even when you take a branching path it either loops back around or gives you a free ride to wherever you have to backtrack to. I hope you like Hammerlocke, cuz you're gonna be visiting there several times.

I know that the region is based off the UK, and maybe my Americanized idea of cities is different (idk, I've never been to the UK), but a lot of the towns in this game feel really small. Like, almost smaller than some of the towns in Hoenn small. Maybe it's a lack of significant interactable buildings, but despite many of them having multiple floors you typically can only access one and that's kind of a disappointment. The hotel in Wyndon won't even let you get in the elevator, and while I get that Alola also did that, it's kind of jarring when the hotel in Motostoke WILL let you see other floors.

That said, I kind of expected more than ONE Wild Area. The one we DID get is fine, and I appreciate what it is and lets us do, but I honestly thought there would be multiple places to really explore outside the standard straight lines. Pokémon has never been a franchise to shy away from puzzles before so I expected this to not be any different. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Moreover, many of the environment pieces are just UGLY. A lot of the ground textures are reused 3DS assets, and those copy pasted trees I mentioned earlier? Also 3DS assets. How do I know? They're pentagonal instead of round. In other words, they have five sides. Why? Because the 3DS hardware couldn't handle complex environmental shapes that well so they could get away with it, but now that we have nice round berry trees the contrast becomes painful. The Wild Area is so ugly the first time you see it is at NIGHT. They were so aware of what they did they hoped making it darker would hide the lazy flop instead of showing off how bad it was.

It isn't like they COULDN'T fix it either. Look at Ballonlea and Glimwood Tangle. They're absolutely beautiful and very well done. The modeling with them is fantastic and I love the glowing effects. They absolutely could've made the poorly done areas look amazing, but for some reason they didn't and the game suffers some as a result.

Other Thoughts

The Gym Challenges...they were not fun. Like, honestly some were ok. Herding Wooloo was easy, but they really didn't feel like anything I would expect from a Gym. The water puzzle in Nessa's Gym was fine, and I personally liked the spinning cup ride, but the rest just felt like agonizingly long padding because they couldn't come up with anything. Look at Circhester's challenge. It's a dowsing rod gauntlet where you have to avoid falling in pits in an artificial blizzard. It. is. SO. SLOW. That said, Spikemuth having just a Trainer gauntlet instead was kind of awkward. I reached the end and asked myself "Was that it? Is this it? Is this all there is to Spikemuth? Just one giant alleyway and a Pokémon Center?"

Raihan's three trials of worthiness challenge? It was more difficult than the battle AGAINST RAIHAN. Speaking of, I beat Hop, Marnie, Bede, all the Gym Leaders, Rose, Oleana, and Leon on my first try every time. While it was more difficult with my specific Pokémon choices, it really wasn't much. And can I just say that the Gym Badges are kinda lame? I get what they were going for, but the designs of each piece could've been really unique and intricate and instead we got glorified stamps.

I liked a lot of the general features of the game. Camping, clothing shops, League Cards. I love designing League Cards, even if I'm the only one who's ever gonna see em. That said, the clothing choices were really narrow based on what we got in Sun and Moon. The variety of different items was pretty small, though I loved all the punk leather stuff but WOW IS IT EXPENSIVE. Like Lumiose Boutique expensive. AND WHY IS THERE NEVER A REDHEAD HAIR COLOR THAT ISN'T JUST AUBURN RED? There are actually A LOT of redheads with LIGHT RED hair (that's more a personal gripe than anything, I know).

A lot of the music felt almost like rehashes of older BGMs. Like, Postwick, Route 1, and Wedgehurst all sound like they have remixed Hoenn music. A lot of the other music tracks just don't feel fitting for the areas or for Pokémon games in general. I like parts of the Slumbering Weald music and I like the Gym Music, but the opening of Slumbering Weald feels awkward and like it doesn't fit a mysterious forest we're not allowed to be in.

I know I've complained a lot, but there were some things I genuinely liked. A lot of the Pokémon designs, place names, and other radiant decor and parts of the region are actually subtle and not so subtle references to cultural points of the UK. Skwovet and its evolution for example are a gray and red squirrel respectively and are a nod to invasive species, which is neat.

In Conclusion

Is Pokémon Sword and Shield amazing? No. Is it bad? No. Sword and Shield fall into that mediocre middle ground of being ok but nothing to write home about. Could I have done without them? Sure, they aren't some world ending imperitive must play. They're ok, and they make for a fine jumping on point and a fine little adventure if you have spare time. Have other mainline games done it better? Heck yeah, but that doesn't mean Sword and Shield haven't done a few good things too.

Overall, it sort of feels like GameFreak bit off more than they could chew, or were afraid to make changes because of unfamiliarity with the Switch's hardware and software limitations. Pokémon Let's Go had a lot more effort, but it also was much safer and had a much easier to work with art style to everything. Chibi proportions are a lot easier to fake than a more realistic counterpart. Things can be not perfect and it's less noticable than with more realistic proportions, and I think they were afraid to push back the deadline any further for the inevitable backlash despite that being what they likely needed. The DLC may change my mind, but as it stands, just the fact that they feel they can JUSTIFY their laziness with DLC packs really upsets me.

I give Pokémon Sword and Shield a 5/10.

It's just, OK.

[chromsai]

okay so i've been following you for a long time now mostly bc of the FE content, and i always see yugioh on my dash bc of you (it's gr8 i'm not complaining) bc of this i really wanna start watching it but i feel like i won't get things if i don't watch the original or the stuff before Arc V. What would you recommend i watch first? thanks!!!

*slams hands on desk* WOW I’M SO HONORED ABOUT THIS ENTIRE ASK WOW THANKS ALSO WOW I LOVE INTRODUCING PEOPLE TO YUGIOH OKAY OKAY SO

I mean everyone’s gonna have their bias in any franchise with multiple entries and yes by now literally everyone knows my bias but here I’m gonna give you my most unbiased opinion possible on them all to hopefully give you some perspective and hopefully you choose whichever one is most appealing to you and no don’t worry you dont have to have seen any of them in any order before watching any of them!! You can just jump right into any and enjoy card games in heck ok so here goes (I won’t spoil anything, I promise!):

TL;DR answer: No, you don’t need to have seen any of the Yugioh series before any of them to just jump right into any, just like with any FE game. I don’t have a straightforward recommendation for which Yugioh you should start with because I really believe you should be able to start with whichever appeals to you most. Though, if I had you watch only one Yugioh, of course my vote would be for Arc V.

(Longer answer with detail on each of the spinoffs under the cut.)

Duel Monsters aka DM aka “the original Yugioh”:•Number of episodes: 224•Basic summary: Normal high school kid solves the Millenium Puzzle, a mystical pendant with the soul of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, and goes thru many trials and tribulations to find out the mysteries of said pharaoh’s past (with card games!) and save the world.•Who it’s for: This is probably the most mystical/(fictionally)mythological of all the Yugiohs and the original, of course. Major themes include The Power of Friendship and… I mean there’s others but basically that’s the main MAJOR theme. Anyway, if you like archaeology themes and seeing heroes overcome the odds thanks to their friends’ support and don’t mind sitting through really long arcs (with pretty amusing recurring characters), this Yugioh is for you.

GX:•Number of episodes: 180•Basic summary: So dueling is an actual profession and there are actual schools that get you thru all the basics as if it was an actual real life college major or smth and our hero is just a normal teen kid without a care in the world that just wants to be the very best like no one ever was except for the school he applies and gets into and lives for the next 3 years of his life trying to achieve this is literally fucking cursed have fun.•Who it’s for: So you like slice of life anime? So you like slice of life anime with characters that are really interesting and have good development? So you like slice of life anime with teen drama? So you like slice of life anime with a bit of trauma? So you like slice of life anime with childrens trading card games from actual hell? WELL BOY YOU’RE IN FOR A REAL TREAT, THIS YUGIOH IS FOR YOU!!

5Ds:•Number of episodes: 154•Basic summary: Wow how do I summarize this one? Well, basically our hero and his entourage are all trying to save their city (and basically the whole world) from both an ancient mystical force AND a futuristic force. Yes. Time travel is a thing here. Are you also a Zelda fan, by any chance? Welcome to the Ocarina of Time of the Yugioh franchise (#TIMELINESPLITTER).•Who it’s for: Yes, this is indeed the CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLES anime that perhaps you’ve heard about, but trust me the concept is more intriguing than you might think. If you like innovative ideas and themes about changeable and intertwining destinies + the bonds between the hero and all those who he’s befriended and met, then you’ll love this Yugioh. 

Zexal (I+II):•Number of episodes: 73 in Zexal I, 73 in Zexal II. 146 total. The shortest of all the Yugiohs (so far).•Basic summary: The entire story comprises of the bond between a boy and his alien (which only he can see and interact with) and trying to regain said alien’s memory back which was split into 99 cards. Zexal II expands on this as the alien begins to regain his memories.•Who it’s for: Major themes in this show include overcoming seemingly impossible obstacles and learning compassion from both your allies AND your enemies. Hell, I’d say rival bonds are one of the major themes here too. If you like ultra sci-fi settings and aliens and intergalactic wars, this Yugioh is for you.

Arc V:•Number of episodes: 148•Basic summary: Our hero starts off wanting to simply work towards becoming a great entertainer like his missing father was but along the way finds out the world is much larger than he ever could have imagined it could be while also finding out the hard way that [Chrom voice] war is hell. (Alternatively, [Kiragi voice] war is HECK). •Who it’s for: Yeah this show is about war but it’s also about the psychological implications of war and the innocents it affects and the irreversible consequences that come with it. It’s also very personal story about overcoming your own self, despite pressure from society. Unlike with the past shows, while there is still a sense of camaraderie between the characters, Arc V’s themes are much more individualistic. The two major themes of this show are to “take a step forward with courage” and finding a way to bring peace and make everyone smile. Ultimately, if you like wonderfully cute/pretty yet heart-wrenching aesthetics, this Yugioh is for you (and for me).Note on Arc V: This show does have references to past Yugiohs and also features characters from past series, but it is ultimately an AU of each of the past shows so there is no continuity from them to be seen here, meaning that even if you start with Arc V, you won’t be spoiling yourself or confused about said references from past series. Mainly the references are there as happy nods to the fandom veterans, kinda like how Awakening has a bunch of nods to past FE games but they don’t meddle with the story (I myself started with Awakening and didn’t find myself confused by any of the references, or noticed them at first, just to put things in perspective since it’s exactly like that with Arc V). [Speaking of FE, I have a feeling that if you liked Awakening, you’ll like Arc V...]

Vrains:•Number of episodes: ongoing (it just started airing like ~8 weeks ago)•Basic summary: Our hero trying to figure out his own past while in conflict with 2 other enemy factions that are chasing him cuz he took a very important AI for hostage. (Tbh there’s not much to go on since it’s still very early so sorry this is the most I can say about it.)•Who it’s for: Similar to Zexal, if you like futuristic, VR-centered themes (kinda like SAO lol) you’ll probably like the idea of this Yugioh. So far, I can’t really say much more because, again, it’s still very early in its run.

Okay well, I tried hiding my bias as much as I could. I think there’s something to be enjoyed from each of the series, but of course my absolute favorite (by a very long shot) is Arc V so I’d recommend that over any of the others. Just a quick ranking of the Yugiohs based on my experience watching them: 1. Arc V3. GX/5Ds (I can never decide, sorry)4. DM5. Zexal

(no ranking for Vrains cuz yeah)Lastly, even despite all this (and my undying love for Arc V), I really, really think you should just watch whichever seems most appealing to you! If you do decide to start a Yugioh, I’ll be happy no matter what! I hope at the very least some of this helped. Happy watching!!