#reverse engineering and experimenting has always been my game

[joviantwelve]

Blog theme update today! It's slight but it's fixed some issues I was having.

Basically converted the blog to non-nested reblogs in line with how Tumblr looks now. This created issue with old-style posts, where the OP's media (such as photos, videos, etc.) would be forced to the bottom(?), but I Frankensteined a solution where old-style posts will now appear nested (slightly annoying, but I'd rather have them in reblog order), and new-style posts (and old-style textposts, which are unaffected) are non-nested.

TL;DR blog theme that was created with duct tape and string has now had more duct tape and string applied to it. I feel like this is how Toby Fox felt when developing Undertale, because I have 0 CSS experience whatsoever. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

[anthurak]

Thank you again for for your responses to my previous Super Robot Wars questions, and I hope you won't mind indulging me once more.

I know at least a few folks have expressed disappointment with the inclusion of Zeta and Char's Counterattack in Y (due to overuse in previous games rather than quality), and fair enough, but I like to be optimistic (and also my girlfriend is looking to get into SRW and she's happy that Kamille and Suletta will be teaming up), so I've been thinking that if their use is mandated like that, it also increases the chances they'll be remixed and used in more experimental fashions.

From my limited experience with SRW, I know that:

*30 is set entirely post-Zeta & CCA, and explores an epilogue scenario in which Amuro and Char survived and have to figure out their place in the world and how to deal with the aftermath of their conflict.

*T combines elements of Zeta, ZZ & CCA, so that Haman and Char are nominally leading Neo Zeon together (while in truth descending into civil war), and I believe Kamille and Judau team up to confront Haman together.

*R has CCA missions take place early on, but then time travels back to era of Zeta.

So, my question is, what are other notable examples of Zeta and CCA being used in SRW that are wildly divergent from their source anime?

Like, I feel that if the AEUG is seen as a terrorist organization and is never formed into Londo Bell, it would probably not feel too out of place in the 'space is dominant' setting that G-Witch assumes, y'know?

Thanks! Good to hear it :) Also, feel free to send more. I always like having an excuse to talk about SRW XD

And yeah, Super Robot Wars has done a lot of different reinterpretations of Char’s Counterattack over the years.

Like on top of everything you listed, Z3 has Char pulling a full-blown ‘I never turned evil to begin with and was secretly on the good-guy’s side all along’ twist where he was only pretending to drop Axis as a ploy to engineer the ‘Axis Shock’ event for various plot-reasons. And then there’s SRW D where Char and Neo Zeon actually manage to beat Londo Bell and the Axis drop actually SUCCEEDS. Or at least is about to succeed when the OG plot kicks off.

So yeah, since we are getting Zeta and CCA in Y regardless, I do think there are certainly some interesting things we might see with how they’re folded into the plot of G-Witch, G Gundam and the rest.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I feel like folding the Neo Zeon wars into the Bloody Valentine Wars of SEED as well as some form of Wing’s Operation METEOR would be a good way of helping establish how Earth has become so devastated and the Colonies becoming the dominant power. Like we could be Post-CCA similar to 30, but rather than not really changing anything, despite the Axis drop being stopped, it still helped secure the dominance of the Colonies over Earth. Maybe in this version Char is dead, and Amuro and Kamille are forced to live with the fact that in a way, he basically won.

Like you brought up the idea of the AEUG still being seen as a terrorist organization, but what if Londo Bell has basically become a kind of reverse AEUG? The people who fought to protect the Earth now viewed as terrorists by the Colony powers, which in turn would become especially ironic with Londo Bell being mostly made up of former AEUG and Karaba members.

I mean there’s been lots of jokes made about a potential meeting between Kamille and Chuchu, but what if that ends up being an actual dramatic character point? Kamille joined the AEUG and got in a Gundam in order to fight for the colonies, but has been forced to watch those colonies he fought for become oppressors themselves. And now he meets a girl from Earth with so much of the same righteous anger that he once felt.

[v1-kisser]

V1's character arc in my silly little selfship AU is really interesting to me (obviously, I made it lmao)

Utc because this is way longer than anticipated lol!!

But seriously. While it is sentient, it was built for violence and has seen nothing but violence. The way its systems work actively encourages it to be violent.

But then it learns that it has to depend on this weak, terrified, but intelligent engineer for its continued survival. And this engineer has all this experience and all these ideas that are so foreign to it. He can envision life without violence. The way he works discourages it. And as they work together, get closer, it has to place more and more emphasis on communication and cooperation. Which is a completely foreign concept to it, but it's willing to learn and adapt to survive.

But when the engineer suggests that V1 could be more than its original purpose to infiltrate and kill, the idea is, ironically, so alien and terrifying that it rejects it outright. It downplays its own intelligence to maintain its identity as an unfeeling machine of war. It knows that it is not the same as it once was, something has changed it. Someone has changed it. But this change is something it is terrified of. It feels that violence is so integral to who it is, that it debates killing the engineer to attempt to silence all other voices.

It can't. After all this time, it just can't. And it is angry. Angry and it doesn't have the words to describe why. Not without admitting that it has emotions in the first place. The engineer, unaware of this inner turmoil, continues to encourage it to become a well rounded person. This leads to V1 lashing out, the engineer being confused and upset... And eventually, one large, messy fight, where V1 attempts to kill the engineer. It doesn't. It doesn't even lay a hand on him. It wants to, it would be so easy to. But it knows killing him won't reverse those changes he's brought. Killing him would just leave it alone. And that... that is a new fear. The fear of having nothing to come back to.

The engineer recognizes that fear. He knows it well. He asks it to talk to him, to just... explain what it's thinking the best it can. He is an engineer. He will fix it. And the words V1 gives him are clumsy. They're bitter, and they're angry, but they're scared. And the engineer thinks he understands. He explains it as the growing pains of sentience, that it's normal. The thoughts it has, wanting quiet days, looking at stars, making jokes. They're normal. They're not something to be scared of.

He explains that being more than violence does not mean its existence has no purpose. Its purpose has only shifted, from senseless violence, to survival. To live and enjoy whatever moments it can. It's freedom. Independence and dependence both at once. And this doesn't immediately make sense to V1... but it grows into it. It becomes more appreciative of the world around it. It becomes more cooperative, more affectionate. It discovers that it loves games of chance, and loud, fast-paced rhythms. It likes watching birds of prey. It gives long, tight hugs. It loves its engineer with a ferocity that it's never felt for anything else. Its adventures become just... exploring for the hell of it.

V1 never stops killing, it still needs blood to live. It never drops its interest in weaponry, in showing off. It is still cruel to an extent (you don't ever want to be at the wrong end of its jokes...). It struggles with expressing itself. It can still be cold and callous. In some ways, it's the same as it's always been. Now it's just... alive. It's truly alive.

[hexadecimaltimetravel0]

Hi everyone, and this is part 2 of my post with headcanons and theories about John Titor!!!

I want to add some more reflections! I've taken my past post with theories and the comments underneath it as a base. Perhaps...it will cause your brain to explode, but my imaginations have really run wild and I want to share it!

This only applies to the game universe! There are a lot of history references in "reverse: 1999", and I think the theories have a place

"Time Traveler" started posting on the forums in the 2000s, and John Titor (the character) was born in 1970. By the year 2000, she would have to be around 30 years old. She may have invented a time machine herself (I do believe in her genius), or she may have used her abilities as an arcanist to travel many years into the future. She saw all the horror going on in the world and wanted to do what she could to prevent a lot of global disasters, so she traveled to the year 2000 and started posting on forums in her own name to warn people about what might happen in the future while hiding her identity. And she talks about how the future is crazy because she saw all the chaos with her own eyes. She may have kept a diary while in the far future and described all the events she witnessed

Given the possibility that John Titor was able to build a time machine herself as a teenager, or at least a prototype of one, we can assume that she time-traveled to the future as an experiment to evaluate the performance of her invention. Some person whose name is unknown persuaded her to share the blueprints, calculations, and the like, and then simply used them, traveling to the year 2000 and beginning to post on forums under the name John Titor, which he took as a nickname

Let's assume that John Titor, the soldier and time traveler really existed (we're not talking about the character). He claimed that he wanted to save the world from disasters and destruction, to prevent the spread of a cyber virus, and for this purpose he needed a special computer with which to make a system rollback. What if the IBM 5100 device, of which our girl has a prototype, was ideal for this purpose? Then he, perhaps having learned from historical records about the existence of this computer, traveled back in time to get it. However, the original invention was in great secrecy by decree of the authorities and was available for use only to people of high status or very rich. After some time, the time traveler met John Titor (she probably has a completely different name), whose computer or instructions for assembling it he was free to use. He developed a relationship with her (no romance), teaching her various things, telling her about the future, and just spending time with her. He may have been the one who took her for a ride in his Corvette 1966 and she traveled to the distant future. After seeing the chaos in the world, she agreed to help the time traveler and gave him her IBM 5100 prototype (or the instructions to build it) so he could save humanity. In gratitude, he gave her his badge, which serves as a symbol of distinction in a military organization. The girl was very inspired by this man, which is why she keeps the badge with her. She also took the name John Titor because she was a genius engineer like him, and perhaps the ride on the Corvette really impressed her and she dreams of riding it again someday

That's it!!! Just a reminder that I make no claim to canon, these are just my theories and speculation! I really enjoy thinking and speculating about my favorite character, and it's fun for me to dive into it. I'm always open to constructive criticism and discussion!

[zaynsxsoul]

Drivers Seat | Eddie Munson x fem!reader

summary: Eddie teaches you how to drive on his lap, until things get a little bit out of hand.

warnings: Smut +18 mdni, mild arguing?, fluff, pet names, teasing, fingering, curse words, sex in a semi public area, getting caught (kind of, not really), established relationship, slightly mean!eddie more guided towards foreplay teasing.

word count: 4k

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

When the soft season of spring tints the cheerful afternoon of yellow, green and pink shades perfectly over Hawkins, you believe the sublime effort of influence might work a little better.

There’s something in the warm sunset air that might make you believe the hopes are higher than you expect. Even for Eddie, an actively reluctant car sharer.

It’s not been long since the last time he —by choice— offered his van for ‘the wonderful works of teaching by Eddie Munson’. In his words exactly.

Until the wonderful works of teaching turned into the disastrous downfall of patience. 

It’s not that you hadn’t done a good job. You did, and he’s proud of you for it, he trusts you. How could he not? Being a perfectionist yourself made it a simple process, a flawless one actually. So, that’s why he would never dare to underestimate the effort you’ve put into learning.

But besides the fact that he was afraid of teaching you some of his wrecked driving traditions and turning it into a negative experience, there’s this specific thorny memory that’s made him a little bit reluctant nonetheless.

Nothing too deep but a certain flashback of your reverse day practice lesson. Everytime he goes back to that specific memory, you’re holding on to the steering wheel for your dear life, a screeching sound produced by the wheels, the van shooting backwards and your eyes closed shut accompanied by a loud scream.

And you’re sure that If it weren't for him, who expertly pulled the emergency brake and pushed away your almost glued leg from the accelerator, a certain house on the trailer park would’ve been in ruins by now.

Needless to say, you haven’t tried again ever since.

“Please, please, please!” The miracle that you craved to turn into reality is represented by the imploration of your voice.

All Eddie can do is laugh. An honest chuckle.

He’s enjoying it overall. Because you look pretty like this, fingers intertwined creating a praying sign, pouty lip and big puppy eyes vandalizing him from the passenger’s seat.

Just as he’s pulling over at Forest Hills Trailer Park, and his own place looks like it’s being acclaimed by cinematic pastel colors behind the tall slender trees, your attempt at convincing him seems more and more impossible to decline.

“I promise, I'll try my best. No laughing this time!” His hand movements are quick and expert, even with such a simple maneuver like turning off the engine and pulling the hand brake.

Your eyes, curious and observant, avert to this movement. Hoping that it sinks in and sticks when you yourself get to try it. 

The great —or maybe not so great for him— part of being his copilot, is to learn some tips and tricks that will eventually make the process easier for you.

Pretty dimples peek on the sides of his cheeks and gift you a toothy grin. Part of it has turned into a game. So his hand tries to soothe away your pouty lip by brushing your hair behind your ears with his ringed fingers before pulling you closer by the neck until his lips get to peck your forehead.

“No way, pup” He nods, hair moving along with the movement while simultaneously reaching out for the key inside the keyhole. 

Your mouth opens in disbelief, and he shrugs his shoulders mirroring your mouth gesture before speaking.

 “You almost crashed last time, remember? If Chief Powell sends you to a detention center for reckless driving, I swear to God—“

“But…” 

And he hates it. Or more like, loves to hate it. There’s always this silly little thing you do in which somehow your eyes turn him into complete mush. A pout follows,  and sooner than later he is agreeing to everything.

Best part comes next when that pouty lip is replaced by a cheeky grin that follows to praise him with lovely thankful pecks. 

“Do you…? Not remember the last time we tried?” And then comes the resistance part. In which he desperately tries to be rigid. 

Anything to avoid getting caught under that well known spell of yours.

Your hand plays with a shorter strand of his hair that falls perfectly right above the shoulder blade. He avoids a shiver.

“And I did so good, didn’t I?” Your arms are holding him now, cheek pressed against the curve of his bicep. Fingers curling the sides of his waist.

“I mean, I think you did, but go ask the Johnson’s poor trailer back there” 

He’s not attempting to be mean, it’s actually a lighthearted mockery. And he reassures it with a gentle caress directed to your arm.

He worries the comment might’ve upset you. Until your giggly laugh gives the comfort that it wasn’t too much. When that has settled him, he gets out of the van and opens the passenger door for you.

“M,kay, let’s get inside, I'm starving.” He waits for the usual jump you do every time you get down his van. 

One that never comes.

To leverage his hand that’s holding the door, you take the opportunity to unclip your belt and crawl over to the driver's seat. And although his entangled hand tries to capture your ankle, you’re already settled in front of the steering wheel. 

And he might melt right there when you’re smiling like that. Full display of two bright pearly white rows that might shine brighter than any star he’s ever seen or imagined before.

 His hand theatrically lets go of the door handle and plops against his hip. You love the way his husky laugh sounds when he drops his head to his feet and then his eyes look right back at you. Because it most certainly gives away the pure feeling of surrender.

And although he’s already defeated, the teasing always sits right.

“Cute, but you’re not going anywhere without these,” He flashes you the keys that dangle from his ring finger. “Just give up already!” His sarcasm is adorned by a chuckle.

“Oh come on Eds! I made a mistake once!” Your frown is genuine. 

He understands then that the roots of loving to tease you, might come from how adorable you look like that. 

“More like crashed a trailer” He corrects before closing the door shut and switching sides.

“Once” You add optimistically when he's opened the driver's seat door for you. “you’re mean” you say, jumping off the van.

Always sweet, he grabs your face from the sides and pecks your lips, incarcerating the lower plump skin playfully between his front teeth before pulling away and jumping up the van again.

“No I’m not” He blinks expectantly. Lovingly. “So? What are you waiting for? Get in, trouble” And when his hand pats his own thigh before extending it to assist you, excitement strikes in again.

“You mean like, to sit on your lap?” 

“Yeah, I'm um, manipulating the brake and accelerator, that’s the only condition.” 

When his hand begins to drop, you grab it. He closes the door giving you time to adjust yourself on both of his thighs. 

Since the steering wheels rest significantly lower than usual in front of you, he tries to adjust the seat, aiming to find the most comfortable working angle specially for you.

“You’re bossy” And when you say that, his eyebrow is defying. “I’m kidding!”

“You better be” His lips melt against your puckering gesture. “Alright, now pay attention. Just like we practiced last time, m’kay? Look at my foot on the break, now turn the key.” His indications are simple, and his endearing caresses on the sides of your hips that play with the loops of your jeans are even more than reassuring. “Then gear, put it in drive, and release the hand brake.” When you do, he applauds. “Well done, pretty”

Once he releases the break, you adjust the steering wheel, and before noticing it, you’re driving the van around the streets that surround the trailer park.

Pink orangish colors kiss the gray pavement that lies ahead of you. It 's soothing.

And he would be lying if he said your smile isn’t mesmerizing like this. Because it mirrors the happiness that lingers deep down in your heart. It’s pure undeniable satisfaction. And for Eddie to know that he helped build that, is rewarding.

His praises feel heavenly in your ear. The faint caress of the tip of his nose against your neck along the soft weight of his chin over your shoulder, is soft and tender.

His hands wrapped around your waist might as well work as a safety belt, buckling you up near his chest that vibrates when he’s humming mellowly whatever rock song shuffles on the radio station. 

And although you can feel his foot below your calf controlling the pedal, the pride that you feel of yourself and what you’ve accomplished so far, can be seen just by the look on your face.  

And he feels that way too. Praising prouder than ever.

 “You’re doing so good baby” Your silent and concentrated smile followed by his voice again. “You know I was just messing with you, right? About the whole, crashing the house and wrecking stuff.”

“I know you were” Your voice is reassuring on his guilt, although it might sound quite more serious than you wanted it to out of concentration. 

“Good, just wanted to make it clear” Eddie’s curious hand travels to the soft warmth of your inner thigh, stern firm fingers moving in circles on that doughy skin.

And it’s embarrassing to like it as much as you do. Even when your lip is tucked under your teeth and your back has arched against his chest.

“Stop it.” You laugh, quickly moving his hand away.

And you love the well known mischievous giggle’s that belongs to Eddie, because you know he’ll eventually find his way back to the same vulnerable spot. 

But as for now, his hand decides to stay still, play a little game to enjoy the glorious feeling that he adores when your body responds to his approach. 

The fingertips that belong to his left hand draw invisible, vague circles on your thigh, right above your knee. The left arm decides to stay closer, and travels through the bristling skin of your lower back all the way to your right shoulder blade. 

And it stays there, vehemently happy, until the index finger takes a leap and pulls down the fabric of your shirt. It uncovers part of the gentle skin of the back of your shoulder, adorned by a black laced bra. 

“Cute,” His quieter tone is accompanied by warm lips that brush against the naked area. 

The warmth on them makes your breath grow heavy and nails to dig onto the hard material of the steering wheel. It makes your belly flutter and a warm pit of fire grows there too. Even more when his lips ghost just very slightly in a linear motion, barely wetting your skin. 

Easy goosebumps grow and touch his lips when you get to feel, right through the gruffy jean fabric that separates your bodies, the way his bulge protrudes longingly. Hungrily. It’s expectant for the hope of a magic trick in which the barrier is suddenly eliminated. 

“Fuck!” You yelp, and his hand quickly takes hold of the wheel and part of your hand pulling away from a badly placed metal trash bin that covers a road bump.

His foot presses the brake pedal, the car stops with a soft thump. The remains of a sunset are gone. Nothing other than a dark deserted road ahead of you and an almost crashed bin. 

There’s back the look of agony in your face and the red cheeks that give it in. You’re embarrassed. But just when panic is near, he laughs and it choruses along the faint sound of music that still plays. 

And for as much as you thought it would be awkward, it’s most definitely not. He makes it feel safe.  

“I’m sorry” You say. 

He hates to see you this embarrassed. Even more when it was his fault. 

“If you don’t want me to touch you just say it” And his ironic comment makes it all better. “You okay? It was my fault, sorry”

“I’m okay” You nod, smiling, shifting in his lap. He groans. “Sorry. Did I hurt you?”

“No, no.” He reassures quietly. “Let’s just head back, alright? it’s already dark, don’t wanna risk Chief finding us out here” His voice is raspy, breathy, lower. And you know what he’s up to. “I’ll adjust the wheel”

“Who said I wanted to leave?” The echo of your voice makes him dizzy.

And when your hands move his palm away from the steering wheel and inside your shirt, he’s a complete goner. 

Your body feels nice over his lap. Cold curious fingers squish your tits. And you move again, teasing his aching cock. 

Your cunt is warm, even through your white shorts. And he could swear the beating of his heart is so loud on his eardrum that it could be heard from miles away.

His eyes roll to the back of his skull, the feeling too good to be handled. 

“Drive, Y/N.” You don’t. 

And when you move again, his flustered face hides on the crook of your neck. For as much as he tries to hide the lust that reciprocates and praises your movement, he absolutely can’t. 

“Fuck” He drags the word, both hands that seemed irresponsive until now, grab your hips. There’s a juxtaposition between trying to stop you, and pressing you down onto his needy bulge. 

He has always adored having you on his lap. It doesn’t matter in which particular way or position. There’s something about just having you there in general. It might be the feeling of the warmth of your body so near to him, the way your scent is more perceivable from there, or perhaps the intimate unique closeness that your cunt gives him from this position. Either way, it drives him insane.

The thought of interrupting the golden feeling of ecstatic sensations that seem to concentrate on the contra-producing touch, only makes him even more eager. As eager as you had been ever since he patted his lap a long time ago inviting you in. 

“Is that good?” You ask, drowned in an abyss. 

From this position, in which you’re a little higher than him, he gets to notice the radiance in your cheeks, the lively one, the pure bliss that emanates from the warmth of your exhilarating body. 

And when you’re like this, accompanied by ecstasy, his head bends with a dizzy movement forward. The way you straddle his lap with such gentleness and careful fondness makes his poor aching throat produce a loud groan. 

He might be obsessed with the way your back leans against his chest, the way your ass traces vaguely distracted circles on his clothed cock, your head falling backwards supported by his shoulder, your lips pecking his temple, the way his lustful bulge grows under your movement. 

And all of the sudden he’s aiming to touch your open and inviting mouth. It’s a movement that woes and praises you in every way that he’s able to. In a way you deserve to be praised.

There’s this wolfish grin he aces every time, something that’s very much his. But this time you’re the porter of the smile, complimenting the desire he had inflicted upon you, mirroring what he owned. 

His arms around you, rest a just centimeters below your chest. 

“Shit, If you don’t stop right, now I swear I’m gonna—” His mutter is low, coming out like a growl more so. 

And you say as he asks, moving away, at least for a few seconds. His frown turns into a grin when you’re facing him now. And although the night has already sinked in, darkness secluding the empty streets, you can still see his brown and shiny desire filled eyes that do nothing more than stare down at you, begging for closeness. 

He shivers when your tongue debuts the first waltz behind the soft tender spot behind his earlobe, sloppy kisses belittling his sensitive skin. That special spot you know so well. Warm tongue plays and draws unperceivable figures, as the intoxicating taste of his skin crawls down to your taste buds. 

A mix of bergamot cologne, traces of cigarette smoke and the smell of his honey shampoo scent that lingers to the smell of his own fragrance is what it takes to drive you to the verge of madness.

“You look so good” He half grins when you whisper the compliment in between kisses, until your teeth are biting his earlobe. 

His way to thank you, is to caress the naked skin of your thighs. Speechless, too deep down the rabbit hole.

“Why so quiet? Weren’t you the one trying to make me fail my lesson, getting all handsy on me?” Your playful voice is far away from being offensive. 

Your hand takes a short trip down to his clothed painful cock, until it’s cupping it, with vague movements that follow an up and down motion. 

Sneaky whispers let him be aware of how amazing it would be to taste the salty drips of cum down your desirably bruisable throat.

And he moans. Loudly. Clearly. Back rolling against the old used leather seat.

 Until he thumps the seat all the way to the back, only to be allowed to pin you against the van window. Loving the devilish smile that embellishes your lips once the rings on his fingers make you shiver under his touch. 

“The fuck do you think you’re doing, huh?” His lips tickle your own when he’s brushing them with every word he breathes out. “Why are you being such a tease?”

Your shrug incites another question. “Do you enjoy making me suffer? Cause’ it's working, you little brat” His tone is serious, but his mellow chesty chuckle makes it far away from being a real scolding.

“I’m not sorry” From this short distance, his hair tickles your nose. And although he still has you sideways on his lap, he manages to pull you closer. 

“You better not be” He murmurs expectantly. 

His hand manages to take off your shirt. And when your upper body is free from coverups, he praises the black bra he complimented earlier. “Wearing this for me?” You nod. 

He’s found himself around teasing too. Licking the spot between your jaw and ear, right after taking a handful of the squishy skin that belongs to your —already free— tits.

“Gimme a kiss” You beg. You don’t have to, but still do.

While obeying the first plead, his hand fidgets around the mushy skin of your lower belly and the zipper of your jean shorts. Pointer finger traces soft movements around your clothed cunt. Your whimpers work like fuel on him. 

“Do you want this?” His lips peck your jawline tenderly. one. two. three. four times in a row. until it turns into one too many times to keep count. You nod. “Say it” Two fingers toy with the crease between your cunt and your inner thigh. “I think you deserve a reward, don’t you think?” 

He looks beautiful under the moonlight that creeps through the windshield window. 

“I need you. I really do” You beg in his mouth, without a stutter, but deep down lies the feeling of embarrassment after agreeing. 

Which is short, because it's followed by the pure excitement of the yearning feeling of release. 

“Words, baby. What do you need?” His teasing is physically hurtful. And it tantalizes your ear.

“I need you to fuck me” The last two words being softer than the rest. The red in your cheeks is overwhelmingly sweet.

And he’s tense by the mere needy tone in your voice. Mind getting foggy of lust at the thought of giving you what you so desperately seem and feel to need.

“As you please” 

Your jaw drops down to a tense ‘o’ when his hand slithers your shorts down to your ankle and they get lost somewhere near the passenger sit. And there it is, belonging to him again as it always has, the wolfish grin enriched by an attractive chuckle. 

He adores the feeling of your dripping swollen cunt that hugs his thigh, as much as you dote the harsh texture of the warm ruined fabric grazing you. The friction feels illicit, almost unreal. 

His eyes welcome every single reaction and contortion your face does. The way you look almost as if you were about to burst down into tears. 

“Look at you, all ready for me” His whispers only incite more sticky fluids to run down from your warm middle and create a puddle on his jeans, one that you’re embarrassed of. Although he couldn’t care less of them being ruined. Like, at all.

He might actually thank you for it.

“I’ll make you feel so good, whole Hawkins will be able to hear ya’.” And he sounds different, his eager tone is captivating. 

His pointer and middle finger tap twice your closed mouth  “Open?” And you do. The warmth of your tongue sucks them in. And it makes him salivate in bliss.

Because in between the cloudy fog on his mind, he pictures how pretty your mouth would look wrapped around his twitching creaming cock. 

His ringed hand lowers leaving a steamy line of spit down your chest, until his fingers stay in the weak crease between your legs and pubic bone. 

“Fucking shit” He groans enthusiastically when you twitch under his touch. 

Your breathy cursing works wonders on him, even more when his fingers toy around that area, never touching the spot that really aches for him.  

“Stop with the teasing” There’s something about your tone that makes him wobbly. 

That same hand grabs the sides of your face and pulls in for a kiss. You mourn his touch until he drags the dripping fingers around the curve of your lips. 

“Careful with the attitude” 

Expert fingers that know exactly what you need, finally put you out of that misery. And moves away the poor sticky underwear fabric. 

After collecting some of the sticky mess, he flexes two fingers until they’re lost in between the chaos you’ve got hiding down there. Your breathy whimper thanks him.

Cunt soft, warm and swollen, throbbing against his thigh. He loves every second of it, probably as much as you do. Probably more than you do. 

The proximity is such, that in any second you might melt into one. Even much so that you can feel how his lips mimic the arrival of a smile. And you mewl. Loving his proximity, wishing for more. Not oblivious to detect the ecstasy he experiences by observing how you twitch under his touch. 

You whine and he tries to be as careful as he can when he’s eloquently drawing circles around the folds of your swollen cunt, just right next to your clit. Not touching the pearly bud directly. 

He knows that it can lead to overstimulation, and it might hurt you. It has happened before, back when he was freshly understanding the way in which your body reacts.

He adjusts you until you’re comfortably placed over his cock. And he makes up for any second that you missed his touch. Lips meet your naked shoulder, kissing and sucking out of pure love and adoration. Hips rolling in an unrequited movement. 

Your spongy walls welcome his fingers, and just as he’s menacing to pull away, you suck him right in again.

“Eds, I need to-”

 You don’t have to tell him. He knows. He’s known for a while. Ever since you began to reciprocate his distracted humps and joined his panting. He knows even while being lost in his own euphoria produced by your movements that do give him some sort of relief.

“Do it, go ahead” His entranced voice motivates you “I know it feels good, you’re so tight around my fingers” 

The well known blissful feeling builds up in your lower belly, expert fingers move in and out at a deliciously illegal pace. It burns, in the best way possible, the contractions hug his skin, and he kisses your neck lovingly. It never seems to be enough closeness “Come on babe, let go.” He creases, flexes and points his fingers towards that gummy spot that palpitates heatedly “You’re so warm, I can’t wait to—“

Your chants, squeals, and contortions only advertise the approximation of the desirable break through that comes like a heat wave. Your legs fidget above his palpitating lap, a blank delight wraps your head around. And your orgasm coats beautifully three fingers that are still inside of you. 

He loves every second of it. Hips still rolling hungrily below you. And his poor raspy voice mumbles things you can’t understand. His fingers seem to explore some more, before his body shivers under yours and he leans forward finally letting go a long restrained groan, one that longed to be released.

“Son of a bitch” Strings of his own, stain his jeans. You can feel it. A merciful whimper breaths on the back of your skull until his release is there too.

The cozy silence afterwards is soothing somehow. The music works again as a companion. And when you’ve settled, his fingers slide out of you gently, a hot mess pools out and slides from your inner thighs down to his lap. 

He caresses your lips, and he’s smiling all of the sudden. A smile that quite reminds you of what he looks like when he’s drunk. “Love you” 

“I love you, teddie” You mutter back.

There’s something about the way he cleans your thighs so lovingly, with an admirable gentle touch, that makes you feel gooey and dizzy inside. It’s moments like these when he’s so vulnerably real, so bluntly himself, that remind you how much you truly love him. 

He kisses you tenderly, he yearns to stay there forever. And he would’ve if it weren’t for a flashlight that creeps through the window, one so bright that almost blinds you. 

Light that's accompanied by the not so happy face of Chief Powell, who seems like he hasn’t quite made up what’s going on inside.

That’s when you’re thankful for Eddie's tinted windows.

You leap from his lap onto the cold passenger seat, and dress in a record time duration, terrified. Wondering until now why you were completely undressed and he wasn't.

But he 's laughing. Straight up laughing. Calmly swiping the sweat off of his forehead and your sticky pools from the sides of his mouth and jeans. He's so giggly you have to pinch him, he reacts with an exaggerated ‘ow!’ before rolling down his window at the same time he moves hair out of his face.

The night breeze is freezing, but not as much as Chief Powells facial expression. Your heart beats fast, and the only thing you can do is to pray for him not to notice the obvious smell of sex and every other clue that calls you out.

Eddie’s hand waves innocently, kindly. And his smile is so stupidly real, it might’ve fooled the man.

“I would really like to know what you kids are doing parked in the middle of a deserted road at twelve in the morning” Eddie’s boyish laughter is cocky when he looks at you, but it doesn’t last too long when without any words needed your eyes say ‘shut it’.

“Uh, learning how to drive.” He says. “I mean her, not me” He points at you. He 's believable. “Streets are not crowded at this time, so it was the perfect opportunity” 

Powell nods. Not because he believes you entirely. He doesn’t. But he’s also tired and just wants to go home without making a fuss about it.

“U-Huh, well I hope you’re not up to trouble again boy, don’t wanna have another talk with your uncle, you hear me?” The man almost pleads to Eddie, his hand pats his shoulder.

“No no, not at all. We’re done, right?” They’re both now looking at you. And your eyes widen before you nod, subtly squeezing Eddie’s arm.

The man agrees, and before leaving, he gives a short lecture of not staying too long on deserted roads since it could get dangerous. He wraps up the conversation by waving goodbye.

When he’s gone, Eddie rolls the window back up.

And he’s laughing again. Clapping his hands before grabbing the sides of your face and shaking it back and forth playfully. You want him to stay this happy forever.

“Oh my God” You’re laughing too, although it’s more out of nerves than raw fun. “Do you think he…He didn’t-?” 

“Maybe he heard how good I made you feel.”

“You’re being cocky”

“And you like it, don'tcha?” You slap his thigh, it’s still wet. 

“No, no, no, don’t get all shy on me now.” 

And again, like a disgustingly cheesy magnet that you love, he’s pulling you closer. Like he can’t seem to get enough closeness. Like you can’t be away for too long because it’s painful. 

And maybe it is.

“Remember what I said, right? I’ll fuck you so good everyone will be able to hear you” 

And although you shiver excitedly at his vulgar whisper shared by the thought that invigorates every pore in your body, he’s still got you laughing silly again with the simpleness of his lip brushing yours.

“Cocky” You purr. He smiles.

“Shut up”

He turns the key. And when he’s driving again, he wonders if that beaming grin will ever leave him tonight. 

Hating the distance, you hug him again.

 And his free arm welcomes you happily. Heart burns from craving, guided by that specific well known gut churning feeling;

 Love.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

[legionofpotatoes]

The AI art thing is killing me. I started painting six years ago out of love of the medium and creation, I've worked hard to learn the fundamentals and get to a standard in my own art where I feel pride in it. I'm still learning, I'm still not where I want to be, and these AI-generated images have already surpassed me, by mashing together the work of everyone I look up to. It makes me wonder why I'm trying. What is my art for, when an algorithm can do what takes me months in minutes?

Listen to me. There are two contexts here. Art as self-fulfillment and art as a job.

The first, and the more important one, contains your pride in your work and the love you have for the medium that you mentioned. What these АI platforms have actually excelled at is tricking you into thinking they have surpassed you, but they have not. This is not a platitude, this is not a pat on your back, it is stone-cold fact. They will never have your intentionality. They will never have a goal beyond chasing those surface-level prompts, and they will never come close to your iteration process in which you're discovering and creating at the same time. They will never apply your joy and your love and your pain and your experiences to the holistic approach that you put into planning AND making a painting; its mood, composition, subject choice, lighting, lineweight, color palettes, all consciously or subconsciously working out of your selfhood. Undeniably human and yours. What the machines will do is cherry pick products of these impulses from other artists in order to fit those initial prompts, and end up reverse-engineering frankenstein monsters of mixed signals and hollow intent. They essentially work backwards. While you identify both the humanity and the building blocks of those you look up to, and understand the utility of those blocks on a much, much deeper level. True inspiration.

So to answer your question of what your art is for, look right there in your first sentence, and see the answer; you love creation. Feel that truth, understand how vital it is to your very bones, and make it be enough. Because trust me, it is. Sorry for the pathos. But I need you to hear this. There is no version of this universe or any other where a backwards abstraction engine touches your love for your craft. That is a monumental fallacy. You are utterly beyond that.

Now; what the machines will get better at is copying a wider and wider array of techniques and responding to the evolving zeitgeist in order to maximize profit; and, as you said, they will learn to do it much faster and better than us. Their outputs will look polished, high-end, and derivative of the highest level players in the game. That can be crushing, especially if you mean to make money doing art; and it brings us to the second context: these things are only made to make money. They are a raw business model for generating revenue and moving the needle in employable disciplines (to generate revenue). Full stop. Look into who founded OpenАI and what their response has been to authorship in visual arts in the past. Look into the technocratic ideals that these engines exist to propagate, and how they really view the human condition. It is a transparent agenda masking an endless chase for profit, and as such it is very, very good at masquerading as a democratic tool or a shortcut for newcomers. Which it can be! I've said many many times that in a vacuum these tools can be incredibly valuable to a hundred different disciplines (rapid kitbashing for visual development, for example); but all these tertiary benefits live under the shadow of their real final goal, which is to crunch down the collective visual arts output into actionable data and deploy it as a product that can be sold. Thus supplanting more expensive alternatives on a saturated market. It is a blue ocean capitalist scheme, plain and simple, and it is very very important to always view it through this framework.

It is simply another mass innovation trying to automate a market, and whether or not it calcifies into success depends wholly on its own adaptability and our awareness to it. Which is why I get all up in arms about it and advocate for the marginalized illustrators fearing for their jobs, and even sometimes try and shake sense into the tragically isolated folk whose insecurities were exploited by these platforms for cheap word of mouth. This whole part, the part that deals with us reconciling this machine with our livelihoods, is much harder to deal with. And I don't have a good answer on how to navigate it, except to maybe remain cognizant of it. But it does perhaps give us a way to compartmentalize the entire issue, like so:

1. The АI will only take your art away if you allow it to convince you that it has surpassed your skill level. It has not, and it never will. It is an abstraction engine responding to the market on the whims of someone seeking profit. It is not a person living and interpreting a life. It is no more a threat to your craft than a particularly puffy crow building a cute nest in the woods. It is simply another thing.

2. The АI will only take your job away if its hostile takeover of certain parts of the industry succeeds, and if you happen to be a part of them (I currently only see it targeting online art influencer culture, freelance illustration gigs, and the weird digital fine art niche). If your career lies elsewhere, you should be good. It is nowhere near tricking the vast majority of employers yet, and some creative pipelines will simply fall apart without a human iterative element within them. Concept art is a good example. So yeah, while this point is shakier, we can make some noise and push back.

But please stay aware of this divide. Of these two separate contexts. Your art is yours and comparing it to a dataset vomit isn't just wrong, it is not fair to yourself. All the algorithms in the world won't be able to come up with the person that is reading this right now. Know this in your heart.

When that truly does change and the geth start shooting at us though, well. I'm gonna be switching camps no question 🤫

[pinkgelatin]

I posted 6,450 times in 2022

That's 3,690 more posts than 2021!

33 posts created (1%)

6,417 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@astly

@daovihi

@ivycross

@lynkhart

@changethecircumstances

I tagged 395 of my posts in 2022

#jalim - 30 posts

#dark pictures house of ashes - 27 posts

#salim othman - 27 posts

#jason kolchek - 27 posts

#house of ashes - 27 posts

#jason x salim - 21 posts

#jason/salim - 21 posts

#lmao - 10 posts

#yes - 8 posts

#i love it - 8 posts

Longest Tag: 95 characters

#as an author who has no clue how to properly respond to comments and always has trouble with it

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

See the full post

74 notes - Posted March 7, 2022

#4

Part 2 of the story of Mew and her adventures with free-cam

See the full post

144 notes - Posted April 1, 2022

#3

Sooo, a long, long time ago in a wonderful place called a discord server, Mew found a working free-cam injector and had a blast getting closeups of her two beloved vamp-slaying disasters.

Have some of my favs.

See the full post

263 notes - Posted April 1, 2022

#2

Happy 1st anniversary to HoA! 🥳🎉

SMG still refuses to give us that hug, so I'm gonna do it instead 😂

333 notes - Posted October 22, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Let these men rest finally 😪

So, the big project reveal. For quite a while I've been reverse-engineering these two and the game environment. On one hand, because they took over my life and this is a ship I'm gonna go down with; on the other, as a Blender learning experience. And I learned a lot! I caught the Blender bug, and I feel it's not gonna ever let up.

Still much to do, but the models (at least the standard outfits + some part franken-meshing) are done! So many possibilities 👀

400 notes - Posted October 11, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[checkmatein3moves]

hi herb!! i’m not sure if you’ve alr done one of these, but after your very incisive “wit and entertainment value is a good replacement for genuineness” i’m dying to know more abt you... what do you do? what do you read? who are your idols?

omg this question….it’s hard to articulate answers to personal questions but i’ll try a little bit especially regarding this and where the celebrity culture commentary comes from.

i studied politics in college (england so not university, i’ve never been and don’t plan to for a few reasons) and structures of power like the faces (overt, covert, media) and always felt like the ultimate winners are always the people with money and charisma. looking at the state of uk and us politics, sensationalised and sexualised reality tv, all people seem to want is an entertainer. jareth is the centre of that cynical dystopian belief, someone who knows too much to partake in the pleasure of oblivion — i want to join everyone in their denial that any of this is real, but i can’t, i can’t, it’s real and i’m so aware. i was a huge regina spektor fan when i was in my early teens so, the lyrics to hero, “power to the people, they don’t want it, they want pleasure,” and other critical songs have shaped a lot of my creative direction.

elvis costello’s political songwriting has also been an inspiration to me in the things i want to talk about and how to create your own metaphors from vaguely nonsensical things that make sense when a character personality is applied. an example of one i’ve always been like ??? about is “the cellophane illusion of a starry sky stretched over an open sore.” when things like this are used in reference to characters who experience grandeur and disillusion, the broken and over-flowery metaphor actually becomes something that has its own technique.

i am also the exact age for the YA craze as i imagine a lot of my readers are, so i feel like that creates a bit of a bond. we’re most of us familiar with the dystopian air of ‘something is wrong, but it’s just under the surface, ready to be exposed’ and the kind of specific nostalgia it invokes. the hunger games, divergent, uglies, books like that.

there are some authorial techniques i would like to master but i don’t think i have yet. i can build suspense and get a reader into a character’s mind but there are degrees of subtlety for some plots that just fascinate me. various criticisms aside, the way the writing in asoiaf obscures motivations and positions morally grey characters on all sides without having to hold the reader’s hand towards conclusions is something i try to learn from. it’s hard though because i am not a planner and i usually need to reverse-engineer my butterfly effects in a way that somehow isn’t contrived. unfortunately i haven’t consistently read in actual years, i always feel so unproductive knowing i could be creating instead so i can never get into anything new.

a couple of very atmospheric and thematic songs that have helped me learn to create a whole out of various parts of imagery

[trespeak]

wrote a thing about that one game and where my own head's at with it a few days ago. it's not meant to be a formal essay or anything (and 100% more of a personal perspective thing rather than a "here's why thing bad" read)

but yeah

My folks are probably going to play the Wizard Game.

I’m not mad at them for it or anything. It might be a bit disappointing, but they’re not in tune with these things, the way the people reading this probably are. I feel like it would be hard to explain to them the specifics of why supporting anything Wizard Universe-related these days feels like an indirect attack on some of the people I care about the most beyond my blood relatives.

I guess I’m also trying to be a bit more nuanced with the ways to handle things like these, where my own reaction to something isn’t always going to match up with that of others, even those I’m in close proximity to. My brother listens to a fair amount of artists I keep out of my own rotations (Kanye, Tory Lanez, XXXTENTACION, etc.) and I hear Chris Brown regularly when I visit my parents or my big sister. They know I’m usually not happy about it, but I’m not going to police what they’re into or anything.

When you look at the things I love these days, you’ll find that many of them are the pieces of media I grew up with. Adventure Time, Homestuck, HTTYD, The Hitchhiker’s Guide, list continues. One of my family’s shared interests I had growing up ended up being something I’ve found myself wanting to interact with as minimally as possible in my modern life, though. I think you can guess which one.

Even if Wizard Game ended up being a 10/10 GOTY contender, playing it would always have this undercurrent of discomfort going through the whole experience — and not the good kind, the intentional kind. It’s nestled in a world I once felt comfortable with but these days find myself isolated and disconnected from.

Every time I’ve engaged with the whole sorting business it’s given me the Badger House. The “everyone else we can’t find a defining trait for” group, sure, but the one trait that the house does have, its loyalty? You know, I guess I am loyal. To the family I was born into, sure, but to the family I’ve built over the years, too. If playing the game makes one of those families happy at the cost of the safety of the other, I’d rather not bother at all.

If we’re being honest, the Wizard Book was always more of a thing my older sister was really into first and foremost. I happened to have enough interest to keep it around, but I read so many other things growing up that it wasn’t ever on a pedestal for me. If I take a longitudinal look at every story I’ve ever enjoyed over the years, going back as far as my childhood, I’ve always been AWARE/mildly invested in mainstream fare, but the things that speak to who I actually am tend to exist more on the fringes. Box office failures that had to claw their way to cult classic status, sales disappointments on store shelves, shows that got two season runs before unceremonious cancellations. The weird shit.

(The more popular pieces of media I love sort of prove that point by being, for the most part, unabashedly themselves in feeling. People love Adventure Time because there’s nothing else quite like it. Spiderverse blew the roof off of modern CGI for a reason. Attempts to reverse engineer the Destiny 2 formula have resulted in expensive failure. You know the vibes.)

Which, I think, is why the Wizard Book has never been as much of a priority for me. Life would go on without it for me. It pretty much already does — minor bits like digging up my Redhead Wizard wand out of the closet or having a Badger House robe aside. (Neither of which I bought for myself, by the way.) It’s not a be-all-end-all for me, the way it can sometimes seem to be for them. My big sis interpreting my eventual lightning bolt tattoo as a Wizard Book thing is fine, I’m not going to stop her from believing that. I know it’ll make her happy to believe that. A bit of a white lie just to keep the peace, I guess.

I think if my folks ask me why I’m not playing the Wizard Game, I’m gonna be honest and say I’m more interested in the games that speak to my modern taste (without saying as much, granted — I think it might come as something of a shock to everyone if I said I wasn’t a fan anymore).

It’s the path that’s probably the most loyal to myself, too — I’m the same person I’ve always been. I think in terms of media, the foreseeable future of my gaming life’s going to be spent…

- catching up on the stuff I felt like I would’ve enjoyed from my childhood/adolescence but missed out on (like Dead Space)

- finding the new shit that’s cool and in my wheelhouse (Hi-Fi Rush :)

- and keeping in touch with the stuff I love now (Lightfall)

That’s all I got. Trans rights are human rights. All my homies hate TERFs.

[sullustangin]

Darth Marr and Satele Shan:  Names and Priorities

I’ve reached the point in my Yavin fic that I’m starting to use Marr’s POV on occasion.  One of the things I’ve been chewing on (likely to the annoyance of others) has been the Marr-Satele-Theron dynamic during the Yavin 4 op.  It’s clear that Satele and Marr have put aside differences and have become friends (as much as a Force ghost and a self-exiled Jedi Master can be friends) by Chapter 12 of KotFE. 

I give credit to @swtorpadawan for posting about Satele on Yavin 4 a few months ago and being willing to have continued discourse about the post -- thank you.  In comments and reblogs, there’s been discussion about how to interpret Satele’s references to Theron during the op and her motivations for why she does this. 

This is a spin-off of that post, since I’ll be focusing more on the dynamic between Marr and the Shans instead of Theron and Satele. 

During the Yavin op, Theron is consistently referred to as Theron, not as Agent Shan or as Shan.  The issue of his last name is avoided.   A few people (including me) have the headcanon that ‘Shan’ is a common name in the galaxy, like Smith or Patel or Garcia would be on our world; two people named Shan does not a family connection make, necessarily.  It would explain why Theron doesn’t have a code name (though he jokingly? complains about it on first meeting). 

And yet, Satele avoids using the name in reference to Theron.  So does Marr.  And Theron doesn’t insist on being referred to by his last name, even though his peer, Lana Beniko, is referred to as ‘Beniko’ by Marr. (Satele never addresses Lana using her name.)

Why the dance? 

Honestly, when I try to reverse-engineer dev!logic, in terms of the game design for Yavin 4, I’d guess it was done to help the player differentiate between Grand Master Shan and Agent Shan.  And maybe that’s all it is: calling Theron “Theron” just keeps the player from getting confused, especially if the player isn’t a Jedi and doesn’t know Satele; and/or skipped the Forged Alliances quests and thus doesn’t know Theron.

Within the universe, however, what’s an explanation a player can come up with?

The Spies in Question

Theron’s name was broadcast across the galaxy as a wanted man for killing Colonel Darok.  He was to be apprehended on sight, but Theron was a spy; spy agencies to this day rarely let any images of their active duty agents be circulated, even if they do go rogue or defect to the other side.  Theron’s image in direct connection to his name and job as SIS agent would be on a need-to-know basis.  This has led me to headcanon that Director Trant was well-aware of Theron going off the grid; in fact, he aided and abetted it.

Lana, on the other hand, was a known member of the Sphere of Military Offense.  She commanded troops on Hoth.  She had a known face, and there was an Imperial bounty contract on her head, per Theron at Manaan.  If anything, Lana was in as much danger as Jakarro; someone could try to claim the bounty on her head, since the bounties weren’t lifted til the end of the Yavin op.

And yet, Theron’s name was the unspeakable one. 

Satele and Theron

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I feel that the dynamic between Theron and Satele is not that of son and mother; both of them have gotten past that decision.  Rather, it’s more similar to a child who was given up for adoption looking for some sort of acknowledgement from his birth family -- it’s not love.  It’s not approval.  It’s.... complicated.  Acknowledgement of existence.  Acknowledgement that the decision had impact on Theron well beyond his first year of life.  Acknowledgement that Satele hurt Jace. 

I’ve interpreted Theron’s bristling at the use of the term “my agent” to be more directed at the possessiveness of the word, yet how far apart they still are, despite the biological connections.  Technically, Yavin 4 was the first time they worked on an op together.  This was their first professional collaboration.  They haven’t seen each other socially, they can’t talk about their issues/relationship/whatever.....and they have to save the galaxy together.

Giving up Theron doesn’t mean Satele felt nothing. She privately struggles with what she did and how it turned out -- still does, based on 6.2.   However, she, like Jace and Theron, believe in serving the cause at great personal cost.  Seeing Theron beat to hell after Rishi bothered her -- it would bother anyone with any sense of compassion (which she does have).  Theron got the beatdown he did because he was taken by the Revanites.  Revan attempted to convince Theron to join him on Yavin 4 by invoking the idea that they are flesh and blood -- family.

Pretty sure Revan wasn’t talking about the Malcom side.  Satele knew that.  Was there a sense of protectiveness for Theron because of what happened immediately before Yavin 4?  I think so, yes, but it’s not motherly.

Theron’s experience on Rishi probably made Satele hyperaware that if Theron was of interest to the Revanites, then the Empire would doubly interested in Theron if they knew that he was not only an heir of Revan, but that the Grand Master of the Jedi Order was his biological mother.   Referring to him as “my agent” may be Satele’s way to avoid using any part of his name on Yavin 4.

I’m willing to bet, regardless of any efforts to ignore or conceal Theron’s name, that Marr quickly figured out that the agent who managed to outfox Revan, resist torture, get Marr’s attention, and unravel an intergalactic conspiracy was something special to the Republic.  Odds were that this agent had acted against the Empire.

Marr would be interested.

The History of Darth Marr and Satele Shan

Prior to Yavin 4, Marr and Satele had most recently squabbled over Makeb in the Hutt Cartel expansion through their various operatives.  When Marr saw Satele on the Imp side Battle of Rishi, he bowed.  He respected her and she respected him.  I didn’t get any other impression from their interactions. They saw each other as equals, though on rival sides; that creates tension, since a fight between them would be a draw or mutually assured destruction.  It’s highly likely they fought against each other in the previous Galactic War (which I’ll talk about below). 

Marr was born in 3702 BBY, Satele in 3699 BBY.  They’re about the same age, and they ascended almost equally quickly when the Sith returned in 3681 -- Satele is 18, Marr is 21.  I have spoken about how Satele and Jace (who seems to be somewhere between 16 and 20 in the trailer) were essentially just kids when the conflict started.  So was Marr.

The big difference, in terms of how their characters are constructed, is that we have the end product of Marr.  Period.  We don’t know what his name was before he took on the name ‘Darth Marr.’  We know nothing about his family, his relationships, his struggles.  As Marr said later to the player in KotFE, he wanted to be a symbol to the Empire.  Marr did not let himself be just a man.

Darth Marr is not the singular leader of the Sith.  Marr is the head of the Sphere of Defense of the Empire for decades, and as of the Battle of Corellia and the death of Darth Decimus, he also becomes the head of the Sphere of Military Strategy.  With 2 of Military Spheres in his grasp, Marr was the de facto leader of the armed forces of the Sith Empire.  The Sphere of Military Offense passed from Baras to Arho and then to Arkous after Ilum.  When Arkous is killed by the player’s character, there is no indication as to who was the next head; that Sphere is never spoken of again in-game.  We may assume Marr took hold of that.  Either way, he has become the de facto leader of the Sith Empire.  His voice, his robes and mask -- immediately recognizable to the whole galaxy.

The creators of content for SWTOR took the opposite approach to Satele. We can read about how her mother Tasiele was forced into exile when Satele was still a child.  We meet Satele at 18 in a SWTOR trailer during the first Sith incursion at Korriban.  We see her in comics fighting against the Empire.  We see her at the Battle of Alderaan against Malgus.  In Annihilation,we see bits and pieces of her falling in love with Jace Malcom and hoping she doesn’t get too attached... until a pair of permanent complications occur in 3667 BBY:   Jace was severely maimed in the Battle of Alderaan, and Satele got pregnant.  Jace’s injuries made him a much harder person than the soldier Satele met in 3681 BBY; he scared her with his hatred of the Empire. 

I’ll take a moment here to say that Satele wasn’t dumb or naive when she made the decision about Theron.  Satele was at least 32 years old, possibly 33 by the time Theron was born in 3666 BBY. She wasn’t a teen having a knee-jerk “oh noes, he’s evil” moment.  She had been in a constant state of war for 15 years when she got pregnant.   It’s in that context that Satele was concerned that Jace’s hatred could drag their child to the Dark Side... but also, Satele’s love for her child would make it impossible for her to serve the Republic without a second thought.  She couldn’t fight and die for the Republic if she was always preoccupied with coming home to her baby.

So she let Theron go.  She had other adventures.  She was at the Treaty of Coruscant.  Satele founded Tython.  She became the Grand Master of her order.

We don’t get any of that pathos or glory with Marr.   Marr IS.  Marr is the Empire. He is the best of them.  He has been, is, and will be. 

The odds are pretty good that Marr and Satele met each other in combat, directly or indirectly. The bow on Imp side Rishi is a big thing for me that points to that.  Also, look at their responsibilities during the last war.  Marr was responsible for not only defending Korriban and what would become the Imperial core, but also any gains the Sith made over time against the Republic.  That’s the job of the Sphere of Defense of the Empire; taking planets was somebody else’s rodeo, not Marr’s.  His job was to defend... something the Imperial people living on these planets would love him for.  He was their protector against brutish Republic troops and their systemic corruption. 

Satele was responsible for winning those territories back; we see her on counter-strikes against the Sith.  Satele is cast as the liberator of people imperiled by the spreading Sith Empire, not a conqueror taking new territory.  Marr probably had to defend against Satele at least once in their careers, possibly multiple times.  If she was absent from the front lines for any period of time, Marr would have noticed; he had to anticipate the next move of Republic counterstrikes as part of his job. 

And indeed, Satele was absent for an extended period.  How long Satele was absent from the battlefield due to her pregnancy, we don’t know. Satele did continue her battlefield duties for “months” after she found out.  The only information we have about post-partum Satele is that she stopped visiting Baby Theron at 6 months old, according to Lost Suns.  I don’t think she could just skip off at random while in command, so I think she probably was off the battlefield at least 10 months (last 4 months of her pregnancy, 6 months post-partum), possibly as long as 18 months, since Gnost-Dural reports she was assigned to duty with the Republic Navy at some point in 3665 BBY.  She did give birth on a random planet in a cave, so she didn’t exactly have the best medical care immediately.  Maybe there were complications. Maybe she did show early. We don’t know.

Regardless of the timeline, Marr would have been paying attention.  Marr would have noticed when Satele Shan stopped fighting for the Republic.  Where was she?  What was she doing?  Was this part of a greater plot by the Republic?  What were they planning?  And when Satele did return, he may well have wondered what she had been up to.  But no matter; she had returned.  Marr had to be ready.

There’s no obvious indication in the game as to when Marr figures out Satele and Theron are mother and son.  He makes no comment to indicate that he knew before Rishi.  Based on Marr’s dialogue in game on the Imperial side, he heavily suggests that he knows who Theron is by the time Iven, the former commandant of the Imperial Guard, is taken into custody and it’s time to interrogate him. Satele objects to Marr’s plans to torture Iven.  “And what do you think your agent has done in the Republic’s name?” is Marr’s response. 

The delivery of ‘your agent’ is indicative that Marr knows.

Theron himself stated at the end of the Imp side romance that if he was indeed recruited by the player to join the Empire, people would be suspicious that he’d be working for his mother.  That would have to include Darth Marr. 

Personally, I would guess that the after-action reports from Lana and Theron would have some clues for Marr.  However, once Theron had healed up from the Rishi events, Marr may well have taken one look at Theron standing next to Satele, and then had an epiphany so immense it gave him a headache that Lana felt across the compound.  There’s the answer.  That’s why she disappeared for almost two years, twenty-nine years ago. Theron Shan.

(According to Jace in Annihilation, Theron has some similar features to his mother. He doesn’t specify which ones.)

The Lie of Omission

A lie of omission is permitting an inaccuracy or a falsehood to continue to circulate without correction, even though the person knows the truth. (In contrast, a lie of commission is when you actively make something up or contribute to the lie -- you commit the act lying.)  Marr signals he knows who Theron is by the time Iven is retrieved from the Imperial Guard training facility on Yavin, but he never says the name Theron Shan out loud.   It’s simply “the agent” “your agent” or “Theron.”  But not Agent Shan.

The use of “Theron” in the Pubside story is most eyebrow-raising.  

Marr calls people by their titles. Marr always keeps professional distance.  Underlings are uniformly referred to by their titles.  Lana doesn’t like titles, so Marr doesn’t refer to her as Lord Beniko or Darth whatever;  it’s just Beniko.

Calling someone by their first name is highly irregular.  He does not refer to Satele as such until 6.2 (and that might be the Socratic Problem of Marr in the player’s memory rather than the real Marr).  It’s always Grand Master or Grand Master Shan. In a unique instance in the game, Marr calls Theron by his given name when he finds the Imperial Guard’s buildings in ruins during the Pubside story:  “But given the destruction Theron describes, it’s mostly likely a distress call.”  This is before the Pub operative annoys Marr by going to the Imperial Guard facility by themselves; it’s not said in anger or in irritation.  It’s said under ‘normal’ circumstances (if circumstances on Yavin are normal at all). 

But why?  Why not “Agent Shan”?  That would differentiate him from Grand Master Shan.  Just referring to the pair as Grand Master and Agent would work too; how many Grand Masters and SIS Agents are running around on Yavin 4?  Why is Marr avoiding attention to the man’s last name?

And why doesn’t Marr hop on this and use it to the Empire’s advantage?

Pragmatism and Prioritization

Marr is not a Jedi.  Marr doesn’t do things for the greater good.  He does things for the Sith Empire and for the people of the Sith Empire.  Offing Theron Shan?  Definitely on the agenda.  So is killing Satele, eventually.

But not now.  Not on Yavin 4.

Marr is probably the person closest to knowing what Revan is going to try to do in order to make the Emperor take physical form again so he can kill him.  It’s going to involve a lot of dead people.  That can easily happen; up until this tiny fragile cease fire between Marr and Satele, the Empire and the Republic have been engaged in a hot war. When they first make camp on Yavin, there is a real possibility they’ll frag each other regularly.  This is why players have to do daily quests, in theory -- to build good will between the factions. 

My partner is a military nerd and a Star Wars nerd.  He watched both version of the Battle of Rishi.  His conclusion:  based on the ships we see, Marr had more than twice the number of troops that Satele did (I put the numbers in my Yavin 4 fic).  The Imperial troops, at Marr’s word, probably could wipe out the Republic forces on Yavin 4, pack up, and head back to Dromund Kaas in time for tea.

But they won’t.  Marr wouldn’t permit it.

He knows how dangerous the Emperor is, and if he does let his troops kill the Pubs, they feed him. There also appears to be some sort of weird mystical thing going on with Revan’s bloodline.  Revan knew highly personal information about Theron (and Theron says so when the player opens the temple later on); somehow, Theron was able to use that connection to get Revan to give up Yavin 4 and secure an invite there at the end of the Rishi op.

Marr knows about this.  Marr doesn’t know what Revan would do if Marr did kill Theron or Satele, plus there’s the more predictable possibility that the Republic would respond to the death of Satele Shan thanks to the Jedi feeling it through the Force.  Chancellor Saresh would not let that opportunity pass by, even if it did feed the Emperor; we saw that at Ziost. 

Grand Master Shan is a public figure.  Her name and her power is obvious to everyone in the Yavin camp.  Theron, however, is everything his mother is not.  He is a spy.  His face is not known to the general public.  His work is secret, his exact abilities unknown.

Sure, the last name is common enough....

But Theron and Satele have never worked together before.  They’ve never operated in such close proximity before.  Yavin 4 would be the first time all the pieces could fall into place to someone observant.  Marr is many things, but one of the things he really gets annoyed about in regard to the Sith is their arrogance.  They get such fat heads that they can’t see obvious danger or they overlook aliens and non-Force Sensitives to their own detriment. 

Marr isn’t arrogant.

He doesn’t think he’s the only one who can see a family similarity or sense some connection between them.  Saying someone’s name is a powerful thing; we get upset when someone screws up our name.  It’s how our attention is attracted.  Shared last names of interesting people attract attention.  Attention leads to distraction away from the primary goal of stopping Revan and the Emperor.

That’s something Marr doesn’t want to deal with right now.  Revan and Emperor now.  The Shans later.  He avoids referring to Theron as “Shan” so as to reduce any chance that some young Sith will attempt to make their bones killing Theron, since that would spell doom for the Empire, whether through Revan’s anger or the Republic’s revenge.  It would also help empower the Sith Emperor to retake physical form, which is the last thing Marr wants him to do. 

Exposing the Grand Master as having a secret son would remove an ally from the field for Marr; Marr doesn’t want to destroy his assets before he’s used them to their full ability.  There’s no point in burning Satele Shan on Yavin 4 before Revan is dealt with. 

...And Marr respects her.  It’s a cheap way to win against a rival he knows to be his equal.

Marr wants to end Revan and the Emperor now, in that order, to defend the people of the Empire.  He’ll worry about the Shans later.  Marr will let Theron’s last name be overlooked and unmentioned, if only because it makes his job as Defender of the Empire less complicated for a few months.

**

Thanks again to @swtorpadawan​ and also @inyri​ @shabre-legacy​ @theniveanlegacy​ for discussing the original post about Satele and Theron and making me think about this.  

Headcanon Postface:

This last bit is purely my headcanon ideas about Marr, so you can leave here if you so desire. I’m placing them here rather than making a separate post and having to link back to this one. 

As I’ve described previously, we have the finished product of Darth Marr, with none of the personal insight that was provided for Satele Shan.  Who’s under the mask?  Nobody knows, really.  His first comic book adventure takes place in 3678, when he’s about 24 years old.  There’s nothing about his life beforehand that would let the player wonder how his past life affected his current decisions.  Marr ultimately would do the best he could for the Empire, regardless, but knowing if he ever hesitated, ever had second thought, had a regret -- that would make him mortal. 

And Marr is an icon, not a man, in the grander SWTOR universe, per the writers. That’s the point driven home to the player.  So that leaves it to fan fic to take off the mask or not. 

In “The Planter of Trees and Other Tales from Yavin 4,” Marr comes to this conclusion about the Shans’ relationship after observing two Shan chins.  He then alludes to understanding Satele’s decision to conceal Theron’s existence.

After Marr had gained his seat on the Dark Council (late 3680s, early 3670s), a lot of Sith families wanted him to add to their prestige. The man needed a legacy; he needed heirs.  Marr had already set himself on his path, however; he understood that it was better to be an icon.  If Marr was a normal man, he would be weakened by family connections, love, protectiveness, concern for his personal future.  Instead, Marr’s devotion to the Empire was unmatched and pure.  In the public’s eye, he was the great defender. He was the perfect Sith.

Marr never did have a public wife or a political marriage. His private life -- better secured than Imperial state secrets -- produced a  daughter that did not inherit her talents from her Force-Using parent.  Marr had been relieved that his daughter was not like him.  It meant she would never be pressured to come into public life. It meant she was free of the burden of his legacy. 

Lately, I’ve considered that, regardless of having access to the Force or not, a child of Marr was always in danger of becoming a pawn.  She was something Marr’s enemies could use against him, if they ever found out about her; being Force-Null simply meant that others could not detect her as easily. That may have also have been a concern of Satele in regard to Theron, especially as she rose through the ranks of the Jedi Order.  As soon as Marr could let his daughter fly away from Dromund Kaas, he did.  She was free. 

She died shortly before the Sack of Coruscant.  Marr did not go to her. The Empire had to matter more.  That doesn’t mean he didn’t love her.  He just never could prioritize her over the Empire. 

In my fic universe, Marr understands Satele’s choices.  He can keep his mouth shut.  For now. 

Theron is far more dangerous to the rival faction than Marr’s daughter ever was, however; he is an active player in the war, while she... just got caught in the middle, in the end....

Revan and Emperor now.  Shans later.

**

[tomatograter]

Could I ask for your thoughts on Rose and her connections to the other kids? I think that Rose is one character that many people just boil down to "goth alcoholic lesbian" and it bugs me a lot, so I would like to see a different and nuanced analysis on her.

I've gone back and forth in answering this (or rather HOW to answer this) for a long while. I think Rose is one of the most crucial characters for Homestuck as a narrative, and she's incidentally always been one of my favorites. What i mean by this is that explaining rose is hard, in the way that 'summarizing every other HS subplot' is hard. Objectively, I can’t tell you why rose is good, much in the same way i can’t force you to like pineapple on pizza, but i can try to explain why *i* like rose.

So I'll try to start with a statement: Rose is a difficult little girl. She’s not sweet or compliant or naturally inclined to be motherly or comforting or even KIND, broadly speaking. She’s a cynic, a hater, and a proto-intellectual who wants to feel like she has already figured out everything that has to be ‘figured’ about the world. (Spoiler alert, the conclusion is “it sucks. Blow it to bits.”)

The things that upset her the most are the things she doesn’t know or cannot make sense of. Why does her mother act in such erratic ways? Why does she constantly debase herself in shameful displays of negligent rationality and responsibility? Is it all a game to her? Is this how all adults are, messy and unkempt and deranged? (According to Freud, whose’s name is certainly mentioned enough by Fellow Online TruthSeekers Of The Human Psyche to be considered the utmost authority in just about everything there is to know, no questions asked, the response is “i guess?”) What the fuck even happened to her cat, anyway? Anybody got a baseline 101 on mortality? Does anyone know what the fuck is going on, ever? Is humanity fated to an automated cycle of dull incompetence??????

Rose hoards and utilizes even the most esoteric forms of knowledge as her shield, sword, and building blocks against the fog of uncertainty most people describe as ‘reality’. To truly know something is to rob it of its power and make it your own, ensuring you are not only safe, but impervious to any harm it could possibly cause. Her ambition and defiance set her apart even from the other betas, who wanted to follow the rules and invest in teamwork. Where jade is whimsical and vaguely helpful in a informative tutorial pixie-like way, rose’s advice is delivered via sarcastic remarks and looking for cheats by conversing with the devil. She antagonizes the patronizing questline she's been given in favor of ripping SBURB a new one. Rose is firstly concerned with improving herself, and then maybe sort of (kind of, nothing is settled on stone, what happens, happens) pass it onto her own if they REALLY cant figure it out. There’s a sense that she would sacrifice just about anything to granted the ultimate form of knowledge, the appropriate response and middle-finger to anything, and she hungers for it, which proves to be a little self-destructive. 

Except as much as she wants to put up a veneer of detached, individualistic intellectualism, she still cares far too much for the simplest human accomplishments. She cares for her friends. She envies the lives they've led, and they sound so intriguing when compared to her sterile routine. Her pet cat was once her biggest companion and source of comfort, and finding him dead crushes her. She legitimately would've liked to have a good relationship with her mom, which as we all know ends up more or less the same way. (I tend to disagree with most people who treat rose's living situation as 'pretty good/dramaticized', having a guardian who's almost never sober isn't a comedic or easy experience.) Her quest is borne out of insecurity, uncertainty, and stubbornly trying to prove herself right. Because somebody has to be.

Her faults are just as interesting to me as her qualities, for all the 'mean goth lesbian' talk the way she misses her mother and tries to reverse-engineer a connection with her beyond the grave by dabbling with the same poisons is incredibly compelling, and speaks to a side of rose's many people take for granted: she doesn't have all the answers. She's improvising. She's, like, 15 years old and trying so hard to come off as a badass but she can barely contain her wondering babble long enough to show up for an important date in time. Even in her self-sabotage rose is earnest.

This isn't the sort of narrative you usually see applied to women in fiction, or even when it IS applied, it is only to admonish their efforts and promptly slot them into a love-interest shaped hole. (Because yeah, rose being a lesbian and not falling for any of the assumed important guys does matter very much actually.) Even her turn to grimdarkness pulls from tropes reserved to epic gritty brooding male heroes- avenging her family, wrecking anything and everything in her path, Frank Castle Punisher style. I like rose because she's like matilda, if matilda went wretched sick at age 11 and took the first chance she saw to pierce an ogre through the eyes and ride its corpulent cadaver down a waterfall. She's an unrepentant monstress, cloaking herself in mythos that justify the existence of the unknowable and unjustifiable when rationality predictably falls short of truth, and a snooty little know-it-all who wants to create something so raw and important people will have no choice but know her name, and most importantly, she gets away with it. 

[mmikmmik2]

If you were to sort the Infinity Train cast(s) into the Major Arcana a la the Persona games, which Arcana would you give everyone?

anon I had SOOOOO much fun thinking about this, thank you so much for sending me this. I sorted all the major characters, plus a few other entries, based on a mix of Arcana symbolism, Persona series character archetypes, and general vibes. I came up with answers I feel pretty good about for all but four of the Arcana. (Was really tempted to say Strength is every human character who doesn't board the train because they can handle their problems on their own lol.) This is going to be a long-winded post, so I thought I’d post just the list as an image (which hopefully won’t be too blurry!) rather than wrestle with Tumblr formatting trying to make a short list, and put a big text wall under the readmore talking more about my picks.

If this list does end up illegible, the same info is under the readmore as text! Plus some characters for Magician, Strength, Justice, and Death that I didn’t want to add to the “official” list because they’re more based on headcanon. (Although my reasoning for some of the “official” picks is pretty weak lol.)

One-One as 0. The Fool

Oh my gosh, what am I?

IT is great at fleshing out character backstories and families, so One-One at the beginning of S1 is one of the few characters who really feels like a blank slate. He's got a lot of his baggage back by the end of the season, and I think One and One-One are more similar than they seem at first glance, but S1 does seem to have been very formative for One-One and how he thinks about what he's supposed to be doing and how he relates to other people. So it does kind of feel like his fool's journey.

Alrick Timmens as I. The Magician

The magician begins the journey... by beefing it on a dirt bike, dying, and sending his wife flying off the deep end. Rip.

Alrick was an engineer like Amelia, so I could see him suiting some of the themes of the Magician, like conscious thought and manifesting ideas. His apparent playfulness and insecurity are similar to the Magician characters in Persona.

Kez as II. The High Priestess

“We can’t make this decision for you, Kez.” “You know what to do.”

I thought really hard about making Kez the Magician because just like every Magician since Persona 3, she's dumb, horny, and insecure dlkjasfdkl

(and also her showing up at the start of the story arc and being helpful but also super needy is very Magician)

But the idea of "intuition" really does suit Kez. Sometimes her intuition is as bad as her conscious reasoning, but I think that's a lot because she's so confused about what happened with Jeremy, and Morgan making Kez feel like she did a bad thing by helping him.

Tuba as III. The Empress

She made me feel like I was warm all the time.

Tuba's a mom. Sorry, this one's not that deep, haha.

Simon Laurent as IV. The Emperor

Highest number! I'm the leader now.

Simon has a lot of issues, but the one that felt the most prominent to me was his unhealthy relationship with power, authority, dominance, and rules. Another quote I considered using here was what he said in Grace's memory of meeting Amelia: "I never thought I'd get to see the Conductor with my own eyes. He's perfect! Everything finally makes sense again." In his emotional crisis, he thought everything could be fixed just by the existence of a huge, scary, powerful, male authority figure, even if they weren't doing anything helpful or informative.

Atticus as V. The Hierophant

I like to think that our stones are sturdy and handsome, like the Corgis that crafted them.

Atticus is a figure of traditional authority who deeply loves the history, society, and culture of his people. He often provides spiritual wisdom and encourages Tulip to get out of her own head and engage with the world around her. Also in Persona, Hiero is the Dad Arcana so it's very funny to me (a) to make the little dog be Hiero and (b) that the little dog really does have the strongest Wholesome Dad Energy of the whole cast.

Jesse Cosay as VI. The Lovers

Don't tell me what to do. I'm not going to be a part of anything like this, on or off the train.

This was my first and easiest pick lol, Jesse is sooooo Lovers. Like, the focus on choice and personal values and relationships? Yep, that's Jesse. It works on an "actual meaning of the Arcana" level and a "vibes with the Persona characters" level lol... popular, upbeat, and having such an identity crisis.

Lake as VII. The Chariot

I'm my own person, who is getting off this train!

I don't know if Chariot captures all the ways Lake grew over the course of S2, but I feel like they had the most externally focused conflict of all the IT characters, which suits Chariot. They've been fighting to stake out their personhood from start to finish, and they took action and used their willpower to achieve that goal. Also they have at least a little jock energy which is a prereq for Chariot tbh.

Frank as VIII. Strength

I dunno, I kinda imagine him as a simple man and easily underestimated, but with a lot of heart. The Cat may say they're keeping things casual but I don't think she'd take him with her on her private vacation unless he had some kind of inner toughness that would let him stand toe-to-toe with her.

Morgan as IX. The Hermit

I need to be alone right now. Kez... maybe... we can talk later.

I like that Morgan embodies toxic self-isolation and stonewalling and rejection, but that she seems to be moving towards the positive aspects of Hermit and taking some time to calm down and process and think. I like it when characters can embody the best and worst of their Arcana.

Tulip Olsen as X. The Wheel of Fortune

We have to adapt to the changes in our lives. It's the only way things can get better.

Tulip has a lot of themes and conflicts, but this one is a clear standout as the most important. I also like it for Tulip because, while she has to handle a lot of difficult and even traumatic situations, some of the change that challenges her isn't as unambiguously bad as e.g. the death of a loved one. It really is just change itself she's struggling with, and that's Fortune babey. Also, from the perspective of the train itself and lots of other characters, by reversing Amelia and One-One's positions again and changing how One-One administrates the train, Tulip is the one giving the wheel a spin. That's fun.

Lucy as XI. Justice

One of my friends once described the Justice characters in Persona as "the ones the player character is ultimately accountable towards", and I like to think of Lucy as kind of being that for Grace (...since Hazel has excused herself). Lucy is the Apex kid we see Grace interact with the most, the first Apex kid Grace admitted to herself that she had harmed (see Grace very briefly showing distress and then regret when Jesse points the harpoons at his face and she stops him), and the first person to confront Grace when she came home in The New Apex.

Min-Gi Park as XII. The Hanged Man

I don't know if we'll sell a single album, but we'll figure that out as we go.

Min-Gi sacrifices his "realistic", "sensible" goals for a more personally (spiritually, even?) enriching life that's beyond his control and outside of the expected norm. Like the Hanged Man, who dangles foolishly upside-down, but as a deliberate choice and in a state of serenity and enlightenment. I also think this arcana suits a reading of Min-Gi's character development as starting off going slower as a way to stall and live in denial, but then going slower with deliberation. Compare his arrogant insistence on refusing to act in The Astro Queue Car to his patience and care in The Castle Car and The Train to Nowhere.

Jeremy as XIII. Death

This isn't about the death of his family - I'm thinking of his reluctance to admit his number was going down. He cared about Morgan and Kez, and it's possible both that he may have really wanted to stay with them despite his exit and that that might even have been a healthy choice - they're real ass people with feelings and everything, not holodeck characters. But I also think Jeremy was using his life with them to avoid moving on out of that fog (because it was hard and it hurt and he didn't want to think about what that would mean for him and Morgan) and Morgan was enabling him.

Ryan Akagi as XIV. Temperance

Maybe the experience is the point. I wasn't just rushing you. I was rushing myself.

I think this one speaks for itself. Also, the other quote I considered putting here, from The Art Gallery Car: "You told me I can't appreciate the song without taking in the rest of the album. I need the whole package."

The Cat as XV. The Devil

I always do the right thing.

Honestly, this is one I really wasn't sure about. The Cat isn't a great pick for a lot of the meanings of Devil. She is definitely consumed by material comforts, and the short-term rewards of ignoring her issues at a long-term cost, though. This is more of a "vibes with Persona characters with this arcana" pick... Devil characters tend to start off being somewhat exploitative or even antagonistic towards the player character, and gradually showing a more conflicted and genuine side.

Amelia Hughes as XVI. The Tower

There's a hole in the universe where Alrick used to be.

Amelia's life is defined by catastrophe and upheaval - both those she's suffered and those she's inflicted on others.

Hazel as XVII. The Star

I'm going to keep loving you like you're still here.

When I think of "The Star" as a small but inextinguishable light in the darkness, Hazel seems like the obvious choice. Although we left her deeply wounded, I think she still has a flicker of her hope, faith, and purpose.

Grace Monroe as XVIII. The Moon

But it's unfair for me to tell you how to understand yourself. I mean, I don't even fully understand me.

Grace is probably the most complex and dynamic character on the show and hence one of the most difficult to place. I considered Empress, Strength, Devil, and Judgement for her... I think ultimately, lies and illusions are the most unifying theme of her character arc. Also, from a Persona angle, her pursuit of status out of a lack of true self-worth reminds me of Ai and Mishima.

Alan Dracula as XIX. The Sun

Brought together by the majesty of a superpowered deer!

I'm sorry dkjasfklads this is largely because I thought it was funny to have this completely inexpressive dead-eyed deer as Sun akfk but also... like... it kind of works okay!!! Think about the genuine joy and comfort and positivity he brings to Lake and Jesse (and me)!

The New Apex as XX. Judgement

"Then what are we gonna be?" "Guess we'll have to figure it out?"

This is kind of a Persona mythology gag again because of Judgement being a group social link near the end of the narratives of P3 and P4, when the protagonists have pierced through the lies and actually figured out who the villain of their game is and are ready to really start making progress.

0 as XI. The World

Ah, train does it again!

It's an ending and the completion of a journey, but also the beginning of a new one. And the world is literally what the passengers receive at the end of their train journey. Welcome home.

[incorrectshantaequotes]

Reversal

EDIT: This post has been edited to match my current ideas for this AU, but I'm keeping the intro the same for posterity

So...not exactly what I usually do, but since it's the anniversary of this blog and I've been using this account to spread my ideas for the Shantae fandom already, I figure why not?

For anyone wondering, this isn't exactly a headcanon post. Instead, this is an idea post for a swap AU, swapping out our main four protagonists - Shantae, Sky, Bolo, and Rottytops - with some of the big villains - Risky Boots, Hypno Baron, Ammo Baron, and Squid Baron.

It will just be those eight who are directly swapped, but characters related to the ones being swapped, such as Rottytops' brothers or Armor Baron, will have their own positions in Shantae canon adjusted accordingly.

Feel free to use and expand upon these ideas!

The Heroes -

Risky (Risky Boots -> Shantae):

I will say, for the most part, this isn't a straight swap. Ages will change, naturally, but aside from that, the character's personalities and abilities won't change to fit their new role. Hypno Baron isn't going to suddenly be good with birds, and Shantae isn't going to suddenly be good with technology. The characters will change their role to fit them accordingly.

...I say for the most part because Risky and Shantae do switch species. Risky's the half-genie, Shantae's the human pirate captain. Anyway!

Risky is the daughter of a genie and a human warrior. Before her mother left for the Genie Realm, she left Risky in the hands of her friend, Mimic, and ever since Risky's been living in the Relic Hunter's care

As she grew up, seeing Mimic come back from ruins time and time again, always having to take precautions to avoid dreadful curses being unleashed, and so elected to be rather cautious with her magic. Then Rattle picked up an artifact that turned him undead and briefly drove him mad, and she was scared off of her magic entirely

She started hiding that she was anything but a regular human from anyone who didn’t already know, hiding her ears with a bandana. This lasted up until her first major bout facing Captain Shantae, where after she destroyed the Steam Engine and defeated the pirate, Risky ended up revealing her true status

In terms of personality, Risky is...rather grumpy and antisocial. She'll save your cat from the tree it was stuck in, but don't expect her to stick around long enough to say thank you. Part of this is just how Risky is, part of it is more her pushing people away than anything, especially early on in the timeline

Risky’s character arc goes in a similar direction to Shantae’s character arc in the actual games, but takes a different path to get there. Both have to deal with insecurity and move past it by embracing parts of themselves that they haven’t, but whereas Shantae’s root of her insecurity is fearing that she’s not good enough, and she moves past that by accepting her human side and realizing she’s good enough the way she is, Reversal!Risky’s arc is learning to trust herself and her magic

This comes to a head during Pirate’s Curse, as, at the end of the Reversal AU equivalent of Risky’s Revenge, Risky’s magic is taken from her and turns into Another Risky (this AU’s equivalent to Nega Shantae), which naturally she has to fight. However, unlike Shantae, Risky has more experience fighting without her magic, and as such is able to subdue Another Risky rather than destroy it entirely, and then absorbs Another Risky into her body…which turns out to be a massive mistake, because the magic lamp turned all her magic into dark magic, and the desync between her human and genie halves means that any attempt to use her magic goes haywire, with the primary example being a construct she summons to fight Wrecker Baron turning monstrous and going on a rampage, forcing her to face THAT as the first boss rather than Wrecker Baron himself

Risky has a few different tools, with her primary weapon of choice being a small, automated crossbow - think, like. One of those crossbow turrets you see in video games, but only the crossbow part, with it sliding over her left glove with a trigger she can press with her thumb to fire the arrows. But for the most part, her main magical tools are her constructs (credit to @cannedsandwich for giving me this idea in the notes of this post)

Rattle (Hypno Baron -> Sky):

Rattle is Mimic’s apprentice, and although he was once human, his life took a drastic and unexpected turn when he accidentally activated a curse that turned him undead and made him go mad. Thankfully, Mimic was able to snap Rattle out of the madness, but the changes to his body were permanent. Mimic was able to explain the situation to the town at large, and by the time the games rolled around the people have grown used to Rattle’s sudden change in appearance, but he still feels a bit guilty for how his mistake temporarily turned Risky away from magic altogether. He most often works as an assistant in Mimic’s lab, helping with experiments and occasionally getting supplies, but does sometimes join him in his work as a Relic Hunter

Speaking of! Thanks to their respective relationships to Mimic bringing them in close proximity, Rattle ended up becoming Risky's closest friend and confidant, the willing ear who'll listen to her when no one else will.

Kind of a nerd, especially about magic. He really knows his spells, artifacts, and potions - if you ask him, chances are he already knows about it or knows where to look to learn more. He can spend hours ranting about magic, and has, with Risky always being there to listen, even in the days where she wanted nothing to do with magic

Gay man who, funnily enough, actually shares Sky’s habit of going after men who are notably older than him, those being Cutlass in Pirate’s Curse and a disguised Abner in Seven Sirens, but unlike Sky, Rattle has zero game and both of his targets are completely oblivious to the fact that he is even trying to flirt with them to begin with, so he never actually gets together with them. RIP Rattle’s dating life

Blast (Ammo Baron -> Bolo):

Blast is an egotistical cyclops and a self-proclaimed rival hero to Risky Boots, doing whatever he can to out-perform her in heroics and become the best hero Sequin Land has ever seen. He could really be considered serious competition...if Risky ever took Blast remotely seriously.

Despite all his bluster, he DOES consider Risky a friend and wants her to succeed, even putting aside his rivalry to help Risky adjust to her magic no longer working properly at the end of the Reveral AU equivalent of Risky’s Revenge. It takes Risky a while to see past his ego, but she does eventually accept him as an actual friend

Surprisingly charismatic! He can really be a good leader when he doesn't let his egotism get in the way.

During Pirate’s Curse, Blast ends up hiring Twitch and Vinegar to serve as his “heroic apprentices,” not realizing that the two are actually villainous part-timers who are mostly just going along with this to scam Blast out of his money. Risky manages to reveal the ruse to Blast, and they run off, but it’s not the last that will be seen of them…

Preferred method to defeat his foes is brute force. Second most preferred method is explosions

Has a brother named Helm who took on the family's blacksmithing legacy, and considers Blast's quest to become a renowned hero a "ridiculous" and "foolhardy" path that's going to "get him killed." Blast usually responds to these scathing criticisms by calling Helm a nerd and a tool. This is perhaps one of the few things Risky agrees with Blast on, having personally dealt with Helm's tendency to disregard other people's life decisions when he tried to convince Risky to quit her job as town guardian and work with HIM as a blacksmith, and just. Would NOT take no for an answer, culminating in the Incident That Shall Not Be Named

'Pod (Squid Baron -> Rottytops):

Cephalo Pod to be specific, but he prefers to go by 'Pod because it sounds cool.

A Warp Squid with a genetic mutation that renders him unable to use his species' signature teleportation magic, 'Pod is an odd fellow who Risky first encountered during her first bout with Shantae, and ever since then he's been sure to stick around and come up time and time again, like a weird puppy she found on the sidewalk.

An unashamed and fully realized dork, having a bunch of collectibles horded up in his home. Surprisingly, some of his interests actually match up with Risky's friends (well, really just Rattle and Blast) and he occasionally talks to them at times. Risky personally finds him a bit weird, but doesn't mind him too much.

Part of that weirdness is occasionally going off into rants about "players" and "game design" and "NPCs" that Risky understands absolutely nothing about and quite frankly isn't sure if she wants to know.

'Pod doesn’t get as much screentime and development as normal Rottytops does, and also unlike Rottytops there would be zero romantic implications between him and Risky for obvious reasons (that instead goes to Kaly and also Prawn Siren), but he is still a notable friend of Risky’s and she does appreciate him, weirdness and all

The Villains -

Captain Shantae (Shantae -> Risky Boots):

Shantae was born to two humans, with her father in particular passing down a genetic trait that lets her control her hair. At some point, she was recruited as the first mate to the Pirate Master, a legendary evil who reigned supreme over Sequin Land’s seas and fought against the heroic Guardian Genies

During the Pirate Master’s final battle, Shantae helped the genies deal the final blow to Pirate Master and seal him away, leaving her with his gear, ship, and Tinkerbat crew. So, naturally...

...she scattered the Tinkerbats across Sequin Land, and then, when she set up the Chimera Pirates, hid the Pirate Master’s gear among the Forbidden Isles. Many have speculated as to WHY she did this, considering that using the Pirate Master’s gear and crew would’ve definitely helped her reach the success she has today much sooner. The reasoning Captain Shantae’s given in public is that didn’t merely want to succeed Pirate Master, she wanted her legacy to exceed his and overcome it, and that’s why she didn’t use anything he used. This works as an explanation, but doesn’t explain why she keeps the Pirate Master’s skull, always making sure to have it as the figurehead for her ship. In truth, her reasoning for why she did this is…a bit more complicated, but that’s something only a few select people actually know

Captain Shantae has quite the way with words, keeping a friendly and playful demeanor at all times that’s charismatic to her allies and uniquely irritating to her enemies - especially Risky, who’s driven up the WALL by Captain Shantae’s antics

Related to the above point: Captain Shantae's villain song would be Professional Pirate from Muppet Treasure Island. I mention this purely because this song is what got the idea for this AU in my head to begin with.

Captain Shantae’s ability to control her hair is considerably more fine-tuned compared to her canon counterpart, with her being able to use it as actual limbs rather than just a whip. So although some might underestimate her for being just human, they’re in for a nasty surprise with her unconventional fighting style, and in combination with Captain Shantae’s fencing foil and whip, she’s a force to be reckoned with in one-on-one combat

Shantae's crew is a ragtag bunch of various races - harpies, mermaids, cyclops, zombies...and as such, this has earned them the name of the Chimera Pirates

Speaking of, once she actually had a crew and hid the Pirate Master’s gear, she secretly set up a hidden position in her crew, one she’d only give to her most trusted crew members, who Captain Shantae would swap out every few years. What was this position? To go to the various islands where she hid the Pirate Master’s gear, and guard it with their lives to ensure that no one gets their hands on it. So, naturally, this ends up changing a lot about Pirate’s Curse

Captain Shantae seems to have some sort of grand, overarching plan which she’s only really shared with her crew. Unfortunately the amount of loyalty she inspires is SO much that even people who have left the Chimera Pirates will respond to people asking what it is with something along the lines of “wouldn’t you like to know, weatherboy?” The most anyone’s gotten is that there’s some sort of “greater good” she plans to achieve, although how she plans on doing THAT with piracy is unclear

Being Mimic’s niece kinda makes things. Awkward. Between them to say the least. Mostly on Mimic’s end

How reversal Shantae's schemes would differ from regular Risky's: Shantae: Didn’t have any plans for the steam engine herself; she was just going to sell it to the highest bidder on the black market Shantae Advance: While the game hasn't been released yet, from what we know of the game’s plot…main difference is that she wouldn’t exclusively use the machine for her own benefit, planning to offer it as a service to the criminal underworld Risky’s Revenge: By this point, Captain Shantae sees potential in Risky, particularly as a member of her crew, but since she’s sure Risky isn’t going to work with her willingly, decides to go for a middleman by taking Risky’s magic and creating Another Risky. Privately, Captain Shantae will admit that she was kind of hoping Risky would be desperate enough to get her magic back that she’d offer to join her crew, but that didn’t end up panning out Pirate’s Curse: Regular Risky isn’t the villain here, and Captain Shantae is also not the villain here Half-Genie Hero: VASTLY different from Risky’s plan in canon, and I’ll avoid spoiling it for now, but…let’s just say that when she saw the plans for the Dynamo, Captain Shantae was NOT happy about the implications it had for Risky. So, by hook or by crook, she is DETERMINED to get Risky onto her crew in HGH. For her own good. Seven Sirens: Very similar to Risky’s plan, but beyond wanting the airship for her own means, she also has some sympathy for the Sirens’ plight, and was hoping she’d be able to guide Abyssal Siren to be a bit more reasonable and level-headed…which didn’t end up panning out, but that’s why she made sure Risky wasn’t captured as a back-up plan

Raptor Baron (Sky -> Hypno Baron):

Raptor Baron is the most elusive of the Barons, rarely appearing outside of her lair among the mountain peaks. However, her appearance tends to spark fear in the hearts of many, and with good reason: she has an army of warbirds at her disposal, easily capable of wreaking havoc, with their leader being Raptor Baron's personal warbird and steed, Wrench.

She’s certainly capable of fighting alone, however, carrying a metal spear, egg-shaped smoke bombs to obscure her foe’s vision, metal “talons” at the ends of her boots, and by far the most skill out of all the Barons, at least when it comes to actual martial arts and fighting techniques. While she lacks the brute strength, magical prowess, or sheer crazy the other barons have, she makes up for it by essentially being the Batman of the Barons

The artifacts Raptor Baron collects are, for the most part, incredibly dangerous or deadly ones that she makes sure to lock away tightly where no one can get them. This COULD be seen as a sign she’s not as bad as she looks, if not for her sheer ferocity. As it is, most people assume she goes after those artifacts to use them later - which is wrong, but then, that’s what she WANTS people to think, so she’s not correcting them anytime soon

Raptor Baron is able to tell apart and command every warbird individually, which no one is able to figure out how she’s able to do

One of the few people who knew Shantae before she became the captain of the Chimera Pirates, and felt personally betrayed when they made their public debut. Her entire descent into baronhood was essentially to get herself into a position where she could find Captain Shantae and shake her down for answers…which would be a lot easier if Captain Shantae didn’t avoid her like the plague, with Raptor Baron only able to find various scouting parties, which just serves to frustrate her further. The public has picked up on the fact that there’s some sort of beef between Raptor Baron and the Chimera Pirates, but neither side is willing to elaborate

Wrecker Baron (Bolo -> Ammo Baron):

Wrecker Baron - the one-man army. Often regarded as the second-biggest threat to Sequin Land besides the Chimera Pirates, Wrecker Baron is infamous for using his prosthetic wrecking ball arm to wreak indiscriminate havoc until the town gives him what he wants. Nowadays, he often doesn't even have to go to that; just the threat of him is enough to cow the rebellious spirit of anyone in his way.

That being said, despite the cold, heartless exterior his reputation would imply, which he can definitely live up to if need me, when he's "off the clock," Wrecker Baron is...surprisingly amicable? He truly does seem to view his transactions and destruction as just business.

Stores all his artifacts in a tower - and if you get through it alive, he lets you take one. He views it as a way to test and improve security for his artifacts. Still runs this after the equivalent of Risky's Revenge, when Risky took advantage of this to get the magic seal.

While he normally works alone, he can work with others if the need arises, with him hiring a few of the townsfolk to work with him when he takes over Scuttle Town in Pirate’s Curse, and then later working with Lich Baron during HGH and hiring Twitch and Vinegar (along with someone else) to help him get through an ancient temple with some potentially valuable artifacts in Friends to the End

Lich Baron (Rottytops -> Squid Baron):

You'd think a zombie necromancer would be one of the bigger threats among the Barons, but, uh...no. No, she really isn't.

It's less that she doesn't have the capability to be as big of a threat as Raptor Baron or Wrecker Baron, it's moreso that she really doesn't want to put in that much effort. Really longs the days where just showing up and saying "boo" would be enough to send townsfolk running and leave their artifacts for the taking.

Like, in general, just kinda seems like a prankster moreso than a malevolent Baron...? She can definitely back up the title if prompted though; don't take her laidback and playful nature for weakness.

Has two older brothers who work as her eyes and ears. They'd work for her for free, but she gives them payment in the form of artifacts anyways because she wants them to do well

Frustrates Risky in a similar way to Shantae at first, but Risky gradually cools down around her as she realizes she's not really that big of a threat.

One of the newer Barons, with Huntress Baron being the latest to join after her. Despite this, seems to have formed something of a friendship between Raptor Baron and Wrecker Baron.

She and her brothers get hired by Captain Shantae during the Reversal AU equivalent of Risky’s Revenge to kidnap Mimic and force Risky’s hand. And since then, she has taken an interest in the pirate captain, going so far as to call her Captain Snackcakes. No one knows what to make of this, least of all Captain Shantae herself

[criquette-was-here]

Some replies

Anonymous said:

hi criquette! did you see those new 4t2 shopfronts from beautifulnerdkitty? they’d look super cool with your Simlish signs on them, don’t you think? ＼(￣▽￣)/

Hey anon! Yes, I saw them and they’re great! It might be wonderful to have them feature those simlish shopsigns I’ve made. If somebody would like to do this, I’d be super excited :D

Anonymous said:

Is there a tutorial or anyway to make neighborhood terrain defaults. I cant find a clear one but I really want to do one for the dirt and concrete. Just some tips would be good instead. Thanks.

Hey anon! I’m not sure if there’s a tutorial on terrain defaults, but I know a way to make a DR. Just take the existing terrain default replacement, look up all the texture names in the package, find those textures in the game resources and export them. Assemble exported textures into new package, and replace Maxis’ textures with yours. This method is called ‘reverse engineering’ ;) I’ve used this method to create ‘Rural Charm’ just to calm down my conscience about using someone else’s DR as a base, lol

Anonymous said:

hi criquette :D i was wondering if you have any links or know where i can get info on how to resize sims 2 neighborhood deco? i have some buildings that would fit perfectly in my neighborhood but they are so big!

Hello anon! Oh, there’s only one way to resize TS2 neighborhood deco: you have to export the mesh and edit it in the 3D editor of choice. And then import it back again. So basically it depends on 3D software you’re going to use. 

@boringbones​ said:

Criquette, your trees have always been beautiful! I know you must have received this question before, but have you considered creating alternative versions of them? For example, they look amazing in the fall, I wish I could add them to the neighborhood even in the summer to create a more elegant contrast to the look, just like I did in my neighborhood at The Sims 3, OldSunset, it would be an amazing experience to have this contrast

Hi Erick! Yes, it would be really great thing to have, actually. I also thought about having some bare trees for the autumn, or dead trees for all seasons, just to add more character to the scene. But, with the lack of time I’m having right now, this could take ages to make.

Anonymous said:

Hello, I absolutely love your old neighborhood decos. However, the roads don't really match your rural charm set. I was wondering if there was a cc set that you know of that edited your old nh decos to match rural charm roads? Or if you have uploaded one before and I just haven't been searching enough ^^'

Hey anon! Thank you! I don’t think there are any ‘charmed’ versions of my old neighborhood decos around. And I’m afraid you’ll have to wait too long for me to update them -_- Real life is going hard right now.

Anonymous said:

Hola yo instale el juego pero me aparece todo azul

Hola anon! No creo que soy una persona adecuada para resolver problemas generales con el TS2 como este. Tengo zero experiencia en este tema y lo único que te puedo aconsejar es buscarlo. Lo único que me parece raro, es que lo tienes todo azul y no roso. Y eso me hace pensar, que estas hablando no del juego mismo sino de algún CC que acabas de instalar. De todos modos, con mas detalles es mas fácil conseguir alguna solución.

Nonnie is saying that they’ve just installed the game and everything appears blue. I reply that I’m not the right person to resolve general TS2 issues and my advise is look it up somewhere. The only thing that bothers me is that everything is blue, not purple which makes me thing that the anon is talking about CC they recently installed rather than the game itself. All in all, more details would help resolve this.

Anonymous said:

Hello Criquette!  I hope I'm not bothering you with my question, but there is something driving me bonkers about my game that I hope you can help me with.  Whenever I load up my game and go into "lot" mode, the area next to the roads where normally the sidewalk would be is a darker shade of green than the rest of the environment. This ONLY happens when it is night time, during the day everything matches perfectly. Any ideas what could be causing this? FYI I use your terrain and road replacement

Hi anon! I can feel your pain here. Yes, that drives me crazy too, but there’s not much we can do about it, unfortunately. I mean, probably it is possible to edit that particular part of lighting system TS2 has, but.. Imagine trying to replace a book with other book at the bottom of a huge pile of books trying to prevent the pile from falling ^^

Anonymous said:

Hi. I'm hoping you'd know the answer to this. Voleste shared a beautiful hood a few years ago, but did not include the sc4 file. Do you know how I would be able to edit the hood in SimsCity4 to add a few roads?

Hello, anon! I don’t think that’s possible. There’s no conventional way to export a TS2 terrain back into SC4 map. There’s one thing you can do though. You can try to recreate the road layout in Simcity4, keeping in mind that SC4 tile is 2x2 neighborhood TS2 tiles and the map is mirrored. Make it as accurate as possible in terms of planning, but ignoring the height and relief factor. Then, make the edits you want to make and create a neighborhood with that new SC4 map. Then you have to swap only roads with the neighborhood you wanted to edit in the first place. That will make your roads levitate or underground depending what relieve the target neighborhood has. To fix that, you have to use the terraforming cheat and move terrain vertices along the roads up and down again to make the road stick back to the surface of the earth. Not a conventional way too, but you don’t have to study coding and programming to create a stand alone SC2 terrain editor with a ‘export to SC4 map’ option ^___^

Anonymous said:

Привет, Criquette. Я переделываю участки в городке под квартиры и обношу границы задних двориков невидимым забором. Но в городке есть один дом, где дворик общий для двух квартир. Есть ли какой-нибудь способ через SimPE, убрать коллизию у забора так, чтобы игра всё ещё воспринимала его как барьер, но симы могли проходить сквозь него?

Привет, анон! В теории, у любого забора есть свойство, которое включает и выключает пересекаемость этого забора симом. Это позволяет низким оградам (клумбам, например) не быть преградой для симов, но мне кажется именно эта переменная и отвечает в том числе и за изолированность пространств друг от друга. Если это могло бы сработать, то проверить это можно разделив общий дворик кирпичным или деревянным бордюром для клумб. Но что-то мне подсказывает, что игру это не устроит. А Нуменоровские кастомные стены никак не подойдут? Я точно не помню какие именно там есть, но вдруг.

Nonnie is saying that they’re converting houses in the hood into apartments using invisible fence to keep backyard boundaries safe. But there’s a house in the neighborhood where the backyard is shared by two apartments. The question is: is there a way to edit a fence in SimPE so that sims would cross it, but the game would still think it’s not a single room but rather two separate rooms. I reply that there is an option that makes a fence possible/impossible to walk over, but I’m pretty sure that this very option is also responsible for the room type and how the game sees it. The easiest way to check this theory would be to divide the room by wood or brick flowerbed fence, but I doubt it’d work. I also suggest Numenor’s custom walls, probably there’s something there that would fit the situation.

[inventors-fair]

Missed Opportunities Commentary

Thank you all, once more, for a fantastic week. I wish my schedule allowed me to do this more often, since it really is so much fun. Now, then, let’s get into it! All 14 remaining submissions are under the cut, card and commentary included.

We’re going to be going in reverse alphabetical order this time, so let’s start it off with @shadowtag‘s submission, Traumatic Reunion

This is an absolutely beautiful callback to Cathartic Reunion in both function and flavor, but this is not a black effect. The only color allowed to return any card type from their graveyard to their hand is green, and spells that return multiple cards at once all exile themselves (or otherwise remove themselves from your graveyard like Seasons Past.) Very good job on the flavor, but unfortunately the mechanics don't quite pull through.

@misterstingyjack​ Tocasia’s Ingenuity

A deep pull to be sure, but not an unwelcome one. Although, given that Primal Plasma is blue, and blue is the central overlapping color between Urza and Mishra, I don't see why this wasn't a blue card. The fact that it makes a token with all the abilities of the card is strange to me too, as with Soul Separator from Shadows Over Innistrad there is precedent of making token copies of things in graveyard with different characteristics. That aside, an artifact focus was 100% the right direction to take here, even with the Elementalist spin, and the card is well balanced, all things considered. Unrelated to the judging, you mentioned Darksteel Colossus in the notes, but unfortunately that wouldn't work. Darksteel Colossus shuffles itself into your library if it would be put into a graveyard, so it's impossible to interact with it in the graveyard (Blightsteel Colossus does this as well.)

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes​ The First Battle

I always love to see the Demon Leviathan given the attention it deserves. The lore on this is absolutely wonderful, but it's also way too much text to put on a Saga. If it did fit, I'd suggest swapping the first two chapters so that you can better set up the killing blow, but as it is I think it should just be an instant or sorcery that makes the planeswalkers fight and adds the counters immediately.

@ozthearistocrat​ Mistmeadow Jack

I also had to look this one up, and flavorfully I'm liking what I'm seeing! Unfortunately, this is not a white card. Stealing things, even temporarily, is not a white effect. If this card were blue to cast with a white activation (or keeping the hybrid activation) it would have been perfect.

@snugz​ Khanfall

Choices were a big part of Fate Reforged, and Khans block in general, so it makes sense that a splashy mythic set in that time would have a choice attached as well. However, given that the card is named Khanfall, and there's only one way that can go down, it seems strange to me that there's a choice at all. The mechanical aspects of this card are wonderful, but I think it should have done only one of these things rather than try for both.

@starch255 Hyperi, Titan of Sky’s Tyranny

I'm definitely a fan of the concept, and I'm glad you caught on and made the Helixing optional, but my feelings on Hyperi are mixed. The two Titans we have fit into a playstyle of "Good spells on turn 2/3, good value engines later in the game," but Hyperi doesn't. It's an absolutely backbreaking card late game, especially since grave hate powers up future versions, but on curve it most likely does nothing at all. You would have been better served making it either flat damage + lifegain or tied to a number other than cards in exile.

@gollumni​ Hurrik, Savior of Gods

There's a lot to say here, so let me start by assuring you that I really wish this card worked. If you activate this and target any creature that then dies to damage or 0 toughness, it creates an infinite loop of replacement effects that ends the game in a draw, because it doesn't remove marked damage or debuffs, so the creature will die again to state based actions so the replacement effect, which lasts until the end of the turn, will grab it ad infinitum. If it said "the next time" and removed damage, or it exiled and brought it back under your control, then it would work perfectly. It also saves your own creatures without the downside, which I don't think was intentional based on the wording.

@hypexion​ Hack the Guildpact

Maybe I have a skewed experience with this sort of thing, but this looks very easy to win with. If you have even three unique color pairs and a proliferate card, you'll win in three turns. But worse than that, the card doesn't do anything aside from winning the game. If it gets to 9 counters and then gets blown up, it didn't do anything. Cards which say "win the game" on them usually have either some sort of protection, like Helix Pinnacle and Darksteel Reactor, or some other effect to help win or survive, like Approach of the Second Sun and Simic Ascendancy. Maybe it could have a ramping scry/surveil based on the number of counters, and then win at 10.

@teaxch​ Gvar, Krumar Commander

It's simple and clean, although it doesn't quite carry the same flavor as what the Krumar really are. The mechanics of this card imply that they defeat the children and then take them, and although the flavor text describes it properly, it's still at odds with the functionality. A better way to do this might be to follow the example of Offspring's Revenge, and have Gvar make 1/1 token copies of opponent's creatures that die, with appropriate stat balancing.

@bread-into-toast​ Glimpse of Perfection

I get what you were going for, and I like it, but it's messy. It's a counterspell and a stealy card, but the fact that it namedrops the Shadowspear specifically means it's very niche, and the fact that you're paying more than usual for the counterspell, and then 4 life (or UU) for a 1 mana artifact that you don't always keep forever makes the card underwhelming even when it does work. I think a better way to accomplish this flavor would have been to make both the counterspell and search effect on etb, and make the steal effect search for any artifact with mana value 1 or less.

@morbidlyqueerious​ Glimpse Beyond

Mechanically, this card is perfect. Blue and green are the perfect combination of colors for this effect, weaving together cards like Commune With the Gods and Investigate the Mystery seamlessly. My only gripe is that, looking at this without the flavor text, I would not know what it's representing. It's a great effect, and I do love me some Rashmi, it's just a little too nonspecific.

@shakeszx Dack’s Fate

Very on the nose. Normally, most things about this card would be working against it, but in the specific context of War of the Spark, it fits very well. Legendary sorceries would have been great in a set with 36 planeswalkers, as well as planeswalker specific removal. I'm not sure why this is white, though. Nicol Bolas has never been associated with white, least of all the Eternals, and everything this card does can be done in mono black.

@wolkemesser​ Clockworking

Mechanically, this card is fine. I think it should have been a delayed trigger to choose one ("when you win" instead of if), and the "use" should be changed to "activate" but the card works as written. Apart from that, the effects are of wildly different power levels (compare Raise Dead to Disallow). Flavorfully, I'm very confused why you re-used a Lorwyn mechanic for the Scars of Mirrodin story, let alone one as divisive as Clash.

@col-seaker-of-the-memiest-legion​ ______, Planeswalker

This is a wonderful example of a card that is only silver bordered due to flavor. It functions exactly as intended in black border, without any changes to the rules or mechanics of the game, but is still a card that would never be printed outside of an Unset. That being said, the card itself does need a bit of a templating update. It needs to specify that you can look at cards exiled with it, otherwise you won't be able to play any of them, and I assume you meant for the last ability to be less than or equal to the number of land counters on the Planeswalker. Mechanically, there's a few changes that would need to be made to get it to the right spot in terms of balance. The cost, for one, is a mess. Twobrid mana isn't used anymore for good reason, and while I understand the intent behind its use here, it drags the design down. The fact that all of the abilities subtract loyalty means that even though it starts with 20 counters, you're likely not going to be able to play anything off of it. It playing the land in the second ability is more restrictive than you might assume, since the opportunity cost there is both drawing a card into the planeswalker and your own land drop for the turn.

~

And that will do it for us today! It was a genuine pleasure to host this for you all, and I look forward to the next time our paths cross in such a manner.

-Mod @illharg-the-rave-boar​

[paragonrobits]

A friend asked me to give a stab at a Tierlist Maker for Video Games Not Yet In the Video Game Hall of Fame Tier List Maker, so here's my list for it!

This is based primarily on what I considered to be overall value to gaming history as a whole, with games with greater influence or impact ranking higher than those that had less impact on those to follow, or on culture. All the entries are those that have been nominated to the Hall of Fame, but not actually inducted as of this post's writing. Games that I personally like are generally rated higher, though mostly because I'm more familiar with them and thus can judge their impact from a personal POV.

(Tier List explainations, below!)

SHOULD BE IN ALREADY

Final Fantasy: I mean seriously. How is this one not already in yet?? It is not, as my research suggests, the first true RPG; that likely goes to games like Ultima. It is certainly an incredibly influential one; FF is a name closely associated with JRPGs in general, and its diverse class system is one of the strongest things to do with it, as noted by challenges like beating the game with a party of Black Belts. FF is THE name of RPGs in general and I'm startled it hasn't made it in, though I suppose that's owing to more notable entries (Hard as that is to imagine). It doesn't hurt that the majority of my favorite FF titles are those most similar to this one, such as FF6 and FF9, in terms of approaching the general world setting and class systems. Most significantly is that this game popularized RPGs and made them accessible, in ways that previous games such as Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest did not; the field of gaming would be VERY different without it; RPGs became VERY popular, to the extent of RPG elements being almost universal among other games in the modern day. (I am also pleased and amused to see 8-Bit Theater mentioned on the actual Wikipedia page. Now THAT'S notability!)

Sid Meir's Civilization: HEY NOW HALL OF FAME JUDGES, DON'T YOU BE MOCKING CIV, ALRIGHT. CIV IS FUCKING AWESOME. Okay, jokes aside, I'm genuinely astonished as the Civ series is considered the first true main game of the 4x series, and it shows; the entire genre centers around expansion, resource usage and diplomacying or conquering your enemies, and considering the impact of this game and its sheer popularity, to the extent of the meme of the game getting people to play for Just One More Turn, I'm a bit disappointed that it's not already in the hall of fame. I also note that I am personally more familiar with the spin off Alpha Centauri, a sci fi variant, which is still one of my all time favorite games.

Half-Life: Given this game's popularity, to the point of its release alone consigning the likes of Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines to cult classic status and its engine spawning a whole THING with GMod and the usage of physics mechanics in FPS games, one thing of note is its use of scripted sequences; at the time, an unknown in most games of the time. There may be something to be said for how the entire game is spent as Gordon Freeman, behind his eyes, possibly engendering a lack of separation between self and character that would be later emphasized in games like Bioshock. It's influence on games cannot be denied, with publications using it as a bookend between eras of gaming. One consistent element of what seems to make this game so distinctive is its approach to storytelling, without simply imitating film techniques which don't always work well with gameplay.

Candy Crush: This is an example of something I don't personally play myself, or even like very much, but I'd be remiss to dismiss it out of hand. There's no denial that phone games are one of, if not THE biggest market of games in the here in now; if now in scale, certainly in quantity. You might call it the TF2 Hat Economy theory; people aren't spending BIG bucks, but they are spending a LOT of little bucks all the time. It proves that highly accessible games that are generally free to play, with optional purchases, are a legitimate means of game business, and this certainly revolutionized how games were seen by the money-makers.

Super Smash Bros Melee: I loved this game as a kid, but truth be told i have a bit of a love-hate relationship; i REALLY dislike the competitive community that has fixated hard on this game, so any thoughts on it will have a slight element of pause beforehand. Even so, I can't forget the thrilled delight I felt watching the trailer for this game in supermarkets for the first time as a kid. at a time when getting any new games at all was a HUGE deal in my family. So, there is a lot of feeling behind this one! Ultimately, I have to concede that while i have complicated feelings about this game, its worth noting that the vast majority of things that made Smash iconic, and influenced the competitive scene AND the games inspired by Smash AND shaped the course of the series going forwards, largely owe themselves to Melee in particular. 64 was far more slow paced, while Melee began the trend towards much more fast paced action (and while I doubt it's SPECIFIC to melee as a whole, it may have been a trend for the genre from then). Melee is STILL widely played, especially on the competitive scene, and this sort of longevity always bears evidence of notability.

Goldeneye 007: I have to admit that despite being a kid in the 90s, despite someone who put most of their time into gaming, and despite being someone whose favorite system at the time was the Nintendo 64, I mostly missed out on the trend of history by honestly not being that much into this game. I have to say that I DID play it, however; I just never managed to get past the first level or so. I have strong memories of triyng and failing to sneak around a snowy lair of some description; it wouldn't be until the mid-2000s, playing Deus Ex Human Revolution, that I got the hang of stealth. All the same, personal indifference really doesn't matter much because HOLY SHIT THIS GAME HAS SOME STAYING POWER. IT HAS INFLUENCE, FRIENDORITOS. Perhaps chiefly, at the time it was made, consoles were not considered viable platforms for first person shooters; Goldeneye revised that notion, and created a whole revolution in multiplayer and shooter games. We would later see the ultimate consequence of this in games like Halo, which further revolutionized the whole genre. Ironically, the stealth attributes I was so bad at were part of what made the game so unique! It's one of those games that may not have aged well, by modern standards, but its import to gaming as a whole goes a long, long way.

Guitar Hero: I expect this one might be a bit hard to justify, but on its own, this game is INCREDIBLY innovative, though its not entirely the first of its kind, having mechanics based on earlier games. The very first entry has a respectable library of 30 songs, which is impressive considered at the time it was made, its not likely people expected it to get as far as it did; bear in mind that the massive libraries of later games were the result of years of this game series being a massive steamroller of a franchise! At the time, this one was an unknown. It has an interesting history as being a successor of sorts to an arcade exclusive, and inspiring a genre of imitators and spiritual successors on its own; of great note is the sheer impact this game had. With so many of those successors, the increased value of liscened soundtracks, and the way the game's concept became so influential, its astounding this one isn't already on the hall of fame. (It's also very fun, but fun alone doesn't make for memorability, sad to say.)

DESERVES IT AT SOME POINT

Myst - an iconic and incredibly atmospheric puzzle game, I'm genuinely surprised that I haven't heard talk about this one in some respect; it bears note as a rare game with absolutely no conflict whatsoever. I actually rank this one on par with the 7th Guest in terms of atmospheric games, though their tones could not be more different. So why do I think this game deserves it at some point? It was an incredibly immersive and beautiful game, lacking in genuine danger or threat, encouraging the player to explore and tackle the puzzles of the game. This sort of open-ended lack of peril makes it an interesting precursor towards certain flavors of sandbox games around now. It's worth noting that it was a tremendous achievement, given technical limitations of things such as the CD-Rom it was stored on, maintaining a consistent experience, as well as tying narrative reasons into those very constraints. It has been compared to an art film; if so, it certainly is the sort that invited imitators and proved to be a great technical achievement.

Portal: PORTAL! What can I honestly say that hasn't already been said by other people? The amazing integration of a physics engine into innovative puzzle solving, combined with a slow burn sort of minimalist plot reveal concerning the AI proving itself to be a kind of reverse HAL 9000? This game got a HUGE number of memes back in the day, and I expect anyone reading this can probably reference a few. The cake thing, certainly, and its relevance to matters of deception. There is much discussion over the game's utility in academic circles, which is certainly quite notable, and for my part, I'm interested by the point that at first the game gives you a lot of hints towards what you're supposed to do, gradually making it less obvious for the player you're on your own entirely, using your experience with the game to get past the puzzles from there, and its excellent game design. Ultimately though, I place this below Half Life in hall of fame urgency, because while I probably like this one more, it doesn't have the same impact on other games, per say. (That's a lot of awards for it, though. Wowza.)

Resident Evil: Is it fair to call this one the major survival horror game of its era? No, because it's apparently the FIRST, or at least the first to be called such. It's certainly up there with shaping the genre as a whole, both its immediate predecessors and modern games. The flavor of a survival horror can even be judged about whether its close to Resident Evil's style of defending yourself with limited resources vs controlled helplessness. It's also worth pointing out that I quite like the restricted, cramped setting of the mansion, rather than an expansive city; Biohazard was a real return to form, even if its something I mostly watched through funny lets plays because OH NO ITS TOO SCARY I CANT WATCH.

Asteroids: It's called the first major hit of the golden age of the arcade. I'm forced to say... yeah, it absolutely deserves it. The actual implementation and hardware of the game makes for interesting reading, and so its innovative nature ought to be noted: it lacked a soundchip at all, making use of handmade circuits wired to the board. It's reception was great, beating out Space Invaders and needing larger boxes just to hold all the money people spent on it. It also invented the notion of tracking initials on the top ten score, which has implications for arcade challenges.

Ms. Pac Man: This one consistently ranks HIGH in gaming records of its time, though there is admittedly some confusion to whether it or Donkey Kong was a better seller. Interestingly it appears to shape most of the gameplay mechanics people remember most for Pac-Man, such as the improved AI of the ghosts. It's more highly regarded than the original game, and on a personal note, I remember being a kid and seeing this arcade machine at ALL the laundry places my family usually wound up going to.

Frogger: It's placing on this list is not solely because CUTE FROG. The accessibility and wide appeal of the game bears a great deal of consideration, the flexibility of its formula, and just how many dang times it's been ported in one form or another. (And also, cute frog.) It also gets points for the creator being inspired for the game when he saw a frog trying to cross a road, hampered by the vehicles in the way, and he got out of his car and carried the frog across the street. The game is also evident of broad appeal, and some money-makers resisting it, goes back a long way; it was apparently dismissed as a kid's game by some, which just goes to show that some problems are older than quite a lot of gamers alive today.

Uncharted 2: this is one of those games where I cannot honestly say I have personal experience to draw from. Of the playstation's big games, I remember the Jak and Daxter series; I remember Kingdom Hearts, and I remember Ratchet and Clank, and I remember Infamous, but the Uncharted series remains

something of a 'I don't go here?' obscurity in my personal playbook. It does look memorable and charming from what I've seen, and one consistent element I've seen in comments about it is the cinematic nature of the game; it feels very much like a fun heist movie, based on what I have seen of it, and the notable thing is how the game FEELS cinematic.. in a literal way. As in, it combined elements of cinematography with game design, and that's no mean feat: what works for movies are unlikely to translate well to the interactive side, and it shows how that can be done for other games. The extensive praise does the game a LOT of credit!

WORTH NOMINATION AT LEAST

Angry Birds: As noted before, I'm not the biggest fan of most phone games, given that i prefer a more passive experience than most provide. As such, Angry Birds isn't something I've played as of this writing, but I have to appreciate the straightforward and simple gameplay; it reminds me a bit of the Burrito Bison game series, which I HAVE played, and I'm going to go out on a limb and assume it's because Angry Birds is probably the innovation that coined that particular style of gameplay. It's an example of what made phone games profitable and worth the time of developers to work at them; its easy for casual players to get into, and there's a fun sort of impact involved. Given the popularity of phone games, this one has a LOT of influence in getting that rolling, similar to candy crush, if not as much.

FIFA International Soccer: Simulation games are a tricky business; it can be really difficult to get them right, and this game provides an example of it being done in a way that a lot of people REALLY loved, set up an entire game series, and revived the 3DO system after a very bad year. Of note, apparently it was commented that it was more of a simulator than a console game, and this is rather funny considering how simulator is its own genre nowadays! Such do things change. It seems to have been a revolutionary game and simulation; setting the shape for modern sport games of its type, and tending more towards realism (accounting for acceptable breaks in reality) than was typical of the time. This one's position is thus picked for its impact as a whole; while it may not necessarily be a household name now, the series continues on, and is popular enough that even after 20 years, it's still been going.

Elite: I nominate this game in this position for being a startlingly early entry into what we would now consider open-ended games, even with an element of exploration and trading; if one stretches definitions a bit, a precursor towards gameplay of the like scene in 4X players who strive to avoid conflict, if possible. Its technical breakthroughs are some very interesting reading and make for good game history; a vast and complex game (not just by the standards of the era, either), and opening the door for persistent world games such as World of Warcraft.

Wii Sports: A significant game, and much as how other titles mentioned above were famed for gateway entries into gaming for an unfamiliar audience, or those that would want o play on a more casual basis. It seems notable to me for being most suited as a family game, or a more casual experience of multiplayer than usually associated with games like this; this has greatly influenced Nintendo's design philosophy, and one can see elements of this all the way through the Wii U onwards. It's essentially a fliparound from Mario Party; less competitiveness, but definitely meant as a group thing. Controversy is evident, because like with Mario Party, injuries did result from it.

Call of Duty: I place this one here because, while it DOES hold a very significant role in gaming history, with countless imitators, spiritual successors, being a game-changer in ways that its modern reputation might surprise you with, ultimately it is less so than other games such as Goldeneye, Halo or Half-Life. It's development in AI pathfinding and tactics is incredibly noteworthy from a mechanical perpsective, and the sheer level of awards it won is notable. In the end this game's popularity and continuing influence means that it shouldn't be overlooked.

Metroid: You can't spell 'Metroidvania' without this game! A relatively open ended exploration-based game with further options opening as new tools were found give it an interesting vibe, and the oppressive atmosphere distinctive to the game says great things about its sound and level designs. It wasn't the first open world game, or explorer, or even the first to open new aereas based on equipment, but it had ALL of these elements in a very memorable package. (Samus Aran as a female protagonist is something I'm a bit reluctant to give it credit for, as her identity was obfuscated for most of the game, and only revealed in a fanservicey way in a secret ending. All the same, credit where it is due, I suppose!) It's music seems to endure as a mood setter, too!

Pole Position: Perhaps not the FIRST racing game, but still considered one of the most important from the golden age of gaming, and the one to codify many of the firm rules of the game series. It's three dimensional gameplay is incredibly innovative for its time, and having played it and games like it in the past, I'm struck by how smooth the whole thing feels. No wonder it was popular! It is notable for having been designed specifically as a 3d Experience, meant to execute techniques like real drivers might attempt, which makes it a different sort of beast in that it tried to do more realistic actions; in some ways, a precursor to modern trends of realism in many games, for ill or best. Ultimately I think this one is worth a nomination because of its influence towards racing games (a popular and long lived genre, to say the least) as a whole.

OUTSIDE CHANCE

Nurburgring 1: On the one hand, I feel a bit guilty putting this one so low; it is recognized as likely being the earliest racing game in history, and given that I just finished noting Pole Position's influence, it feels a bit mean to rate this one as relatively insignificant all the same. However, in terms of notability, I never even heard of this one, and it was tricky finding information about it. Accordingly, that may say something about its influence, though this position DOES make it noteworthy as the first of its kind, albeit with Pole Position refining and introducing elements that shaped the genre.

Dance Dance Revolution: It feels a bit strange, putting this one fairly low. This thing was a MONSTER back in the day; entire arcades were built around the dancing control peripherals it required, rhythm based games or mechanics specifically invoked it by name, and it was an absolute cultural touchstone for years and years. So, why place it low? Partly, its because I can't just shove EVERYTHING into the 'deserves a nomination' folder; I do think it's fairly reasonable for this one to at some point get a nomination in the future, though ultimately there's games more noteworthy on the whole. It's specific rhythm qualities continue outside of its genre, and are quite influential to gaming as a whole, though unfortunately the series seems to have lost something in notability over time; popularity is a factor, but so is the impact on other games.

NBA 2K and NBA Jam: I put these two together because they touch on similar touchstones for me, and they really did popularize basketball games back in the day. Jam in particular seems to be invoking the Big Head mode that were a big thing in games at the time, at least going from the screenshot. They were very popular and highly beloved games back in the day, though I don't know if they have much influence on later games. I note that interestingly, they take opposite approaches; 2k focuses on AI and realistic experiences, while Jam was deliberately less realistic and more actiony in its over the top gameplay.

Nokia Snake: This one really impresses me for the sheer number of releases, in various forms, it's had! Interestingly, there seems to be little consensus on the name of this game; most just call it Snake or something on that theme. I went with Nokia Snake because... mostly, it sounds funny, and that's how its done on the list. This one is fairly low, but I Have to give it credit for having hundreds of releases!

Farmville: My mom liked Facebook games, a lot. And I am certain this one was one of her main ones! I rate it fairly low, and no doubt her spirit is yelling imprecations at me across the void of time, space, and abandoned socks; all the same, this one is ranked low because of the sheer number of displeasure aimed this one's way. (And to be fair, she complained about it. A LOT.) It is thus notable for unusually negative reasons; an example of exploitation, pressuring players to pester their friends to play it in an equivalent to electronic chain mail, and microtranscations.

Tron: I'm inclined to give any game that takes place in a computer land and uses programming or mechanical terminology a free pass! Interestingly, this has some association with the Snake game, as they have similar gameplay and Snake games are sometimes called Light Cylce games, after this one. It has an interesting history; the graphical system was chosen largely because it was believed it was more likely to be achieved before the deadline.

NO BUSINESS IN THE HALL OF FAME

Mattel Football: I do feel a little mean putting anything in this category; firstly because I don't want to make actual fans of something sad, and secondly because I believe you can probably find notability anywhere you look, if you are inclined. And here is the chief difficulty with this one: I could not find any real information in this one. It has no Wikipedia page, a google search only led to undescriptive links of SALES for the game, but not any information on the game itself. Notability is my main resource for sorting these entries, and honestly? If google has nothing on you, that's a pretty poor sign. Sorry, Mattel Football, but you look like a poor man's Game And Watch. You're no Portal, Myst or Pole Position.