#speculated flying fox

[neonharvest]

You can now get my design on redbubble. I have just started my shop and will be uploading more pastel content soon.

[sage-nebula]

Maybe Tails' parents were fishermen.

Maybe they lived in the fox village on West Side Island, in a little cottage close to the beach, but maybe they were gone for weeks at a time because they needed to catch a big enough haul to supply the village with. It was a simple enough life, but a good one. The villagers appreciated the Prowers. They provided an essential service that helped keep the village running. Everyone had a role to play, and this was theirs, since no one could come up with the fishing tools and equipment that Ms Prower invented. The other villagers all swore that surely, she must've been a genius.

When Ms Prower gave birth to baby Prower, well—no one said anything within earshot of the little family, but the baby was born with an extra tail, and that . . . that was just strange. No one had ever seen anything like it before. Of course, the Prowers loved their new baby boy—they named him Miles—and the villagers were polite enough in person. There was no reason to offend those who provided such a large share of the village's food. But they were unsettled looking at the extra appendage. It wasn't natural. It wasn't normal. And even Ms Prower, for all her brilliance, couldn't say why it happened.

"Genetics are a mysterious thing," she said when asked.

The Prower parents always took little Miles with them on their fishing trips, because he was too young to be left home alone. Maybe on one such trip, when Miles was 2 and a half, a bad storm broke out while they were at sea. It came upon them much faster than Ms Prower's radars had predicted it would. All three Prowers donned life jackets. And when lightning struck their boat and lit the wood aflame, and the boat itself capsized into the raging sea, the Prower parents hoped it would be enough.

Miles does not remember any of this. Even right after it happens, when he wakes up on the shore of West Side Island despite it having been too far away to see when his family was on their boat, he doesn't know how he got there or why he's wearing his life vest when he already knows how to swim. He doesn't know where his parents are, either; he calls for them with a raw voice, calling for his Mommy and his Daddy, but no one answers. He's alone.

And so Miles returns to the village, alone. No fish. No parents. The other adults ask him where his parents are. He doesn't know, and starts to cry. His very presence makes them uncomfortable, and crying makes it worse, so they shoo him to his family's cottage. "Wait there for your parents to come back," the villagers say.

But his parents never do.

No one knows what to make of it. Maybe his parents were secretly as unnerved by their mutant son as the rest of the village and so cut and run, some speculate. Maybe this was a curse from the gods and his parents were struck down for giving birth to an abomination, others guess. Maybe the boy is actually a demon and he killed his parents and the rest of the village are next, still more contribute. That last theory comes from the other children, since none of the adults think a toddler capable of killing both his parents. The children are also not as good at whispering their theories out of Miles' earshot, but he hears what the adults think, too.

Miles doesn't know what happened to his parents. He misses them terribly. He misses them when he has to tuck himself in at night, and when he's hungry but his pantry at home is empty and the villagers half-heartedly push him toward fruit trees in the forest because, having lost their fish suppliers, there just isn't enough food to go around. He misses how his Daddy would hold him high in the air and carry him around, telling him he was flying. He misses when his Mommy would sit him on her lap as she explained to him what different tools were, and how they were used, and you turn the wrench this way to tighten the bolt and this other way to loosen it. Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. He said that over and over again for weeks after she taught him. It was just so fun to say.

Miles misses his parents. He hopes they'll come back from wherever they've gone. He hopes he isn't the reason why they left. If he is, he's sorry for whatever he did. If they come back, he'll make sure he apologizes, and eats all his vegetables and fruits without complaint and goes to bed at bedtime with no fuss. He promises.

But they never come back. Other villagers learn to fish and pick up the slack. They took what remained of Ms Prower's fishing equipment from Miles' house, acting like he wasn't even there when they did so.

Over time, Miles' memories of his parents grow fuzzier. He barely knew them, after all. And too soon, he's lived just as much of his life without them as he did with them.

But even after he meets a blue hedgehog who becomes his big brother and nicknames him Tails, and leaves West Side Island in the rearview mirror, two things always stick with him:

One, his favorite kind of meat is almost any kind of saltwater fish, but especially mackerel.

And two, thunder and lightning fills him with bone-deep terror, and a sense of loss so great he feels as if he himself might drown of it.

[rate-every-bat]

Today's Bat: The Ahool

I love cryptids, so I was thrilled that this guy was recently requested! The Ahool is a cryptid described as a 10-to-12-foot bat-ape with a terrifying cry. Without further ado, let's swoop in:

Environmental Impact: Since this is a cryptid native to Indonesia and the Phillipines, there are a few ways we could swing this. The first would be speculative: I'd imagine a creature this size would require a lot of food, provide a lot of fertilizing guano, and reign absolute terror on any human it came across. We could base it off of first-hand accounts, though they're varied and contradictory. We could base it off of the Giant Golden-Crowned Flying Fox's score, as I think that's the most likely real-life corollary (or myth origin, if you're not feeling whimsical). However, I'm going to default low here, because there simply isn't any real information available.

🦇/5

Beauty: Looking at the several horrifying and ape-like depictions of the Ahool helped me see what people who are afraid of bats see. Because it's scary. I chose the above illustration because it didn't look like a sleep paralysis demon.

🦇🦇/5

Power: The telltale cry of the Ahool is the most concrete and iconic power I can name here. However... I know in my heart that this thing would eat me for breakfast if it could. Top marks.

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇/5

Overall: Yes to cryptids, yes to bats, no to getting eaten by a bate-ape twice my size.

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇/5

NOTE: I hesitate to list sources on this creature, as a lot of online articles about the Ahool simply spread misinformation about real-life bat species (ie claiming that Flying Foxes only echolocate, claiming that it must be more ape-like because Flying Foxes don't roost in trees, etc). I'm currently hunting for a printed source to get more information on ahool sightings, and I'll share that if/when I come across it. It's fun to play in the space when admiring cryptids and legends, but please remember to be respectful and inquisitive while you do so.

(PS: If you're a cryptid fan, or you resonate with the approach I took here, please check out the Oh No, Ross and Carrie podcast. They're where I take a lot of my passion for the supernatural from!)

[transingthoseformers]

Predacon!Optimus has bat wings that collapse into blades on his arms when not in use. He can only glide with them once he catches a nice wind draft to spin the turbines for temporary flight. Optimus is basically a mix between golden fox bat, oriental shorthair cat and a gliding lizard with his Predacon appearance.

He had to resist SO MANY habits when the kids got involved. Picking up Miko by the scruff of her shirt and place her on a high place so she doesn't run off. To not chirp at Raf like some animals do with their young. Push down the harsh growl whenever Jack is treated badly at work.

His team already notices him acting funny especially when Arcee and Optimus were trapped in the Artic. Prime was practically vibrating almost if there were metal scales that use friction to provide some extra heat. Very fishy affair that leads everyone but Ratchet to speculate.

Then the Orion Pax episode happens. Instead of becoming amnesiac, Optimus goes full on feral. Anyone who gets too close or is considered dangerous runs the risk of being mauled. Yet only the kids and Ratchet are safe from such treatment.

The medic ends up telling the team as Bumblebee nearly shot Optimus who had try to follow Raf home. A chase ensues to sedate and bring the feral Predacon back to base. There is going to be quite a talk once Optimus is thinking straight again.

Oooo!

Yessss. He's restraining himself from full parental mode so much. He wants to scoop up Miko and fly away when he spots her on the battlefield yet again because Miko how the hell do you keep sneaking onto it

Okay now that's an interesting trait because it makes sense, and from what I can see in the show with Preddie Predacons are already more resistant to the cold than your average cybertronian (Predaking got goddamn frozen and he was okay) although this might be linked to the blast sequence thing and if a Predacon can't breathe fire it might not work like that

Ohhh how I've thought about the Orion arc but instead of going with Megs he loses basically all of his memories, not just the ones he got after becoming a prime, and fucks off into the wilds. And they've gotta track him down.

There's going to be so many long needed explanations here

[great-and-small]

Don't know if you answers asks but, I could use some assistance.

I wanna know what the average megabat's wingspan to body ratio is. Like I'm working on a fictional bat species and I'm not sure how long their wings should be. It has a body length of 2 feet from head to toes. (And please don't answer with "you decide what it should be" I kinda want to stay somewhat rooted in reality)

If you ever get around to answering this, it'd be greatly appreciated.

Great question- I love speculative biology. However I’m probably not the best person to ask as all of my hands on experience working with megabats was in veterinary school. I only really worked with the genus Pteropus (specifically Malayan flying foxes and one spectacled flying fox). For reference here are two of those individuals I did physical exams and other preventative care for. Both animals live at an AZA accredited facility with spectacular care.

Neither of these photos are great wing shots but I think they can at least kind of illustrate the general body shape of megabats. All of my limited experience with bats consists of medical care and husbandry so I’m afraid I can’t get that much more in the weeds on the actual bat stats when it comes to size ratio. As an educated guess I’d say that your 2 foot long bat would likely have a wingspan well over 6 feet. However, for a more reliable source, I did find this excellent paper (Allometry of Bat Wings and Legs and Comparison with Bird Wings) that has an enormous table documenting the body mass and wing ratio of dozens of bat species. Perhaps this will help in your writing?

[katenepveu]

Museum for Art in Wood (Part 5)

The last of my posts about the Museum for Art in Wood! This is the set of things that made me or my companion say, This ought to be a SFF book cover, or a story prompt, or some other speculative fiction type-thing.

For instance, every single thing on this shelf is a SFF story. By Fabrice Micha: 370, Sculpture and 632, Castle. By Michael Mode: 636, Akbar's Delight. By Michael Mocho, 505, Satinwood Hollow Form; 635, Box; and 467, Sentinel.

These two ought to be Yuletide fandoms: A Collection of Goblets, Chalices, and Spirit Vessels from the Seventeen Peoples of the Eight Inner Worlds by Stephen Mark Paulsen, which is incredibly hard to photograph but the official photo is hardly any better??

And Desert Winter on Marquard IV, and Twelve Sacred Objects Exposed by the Storm by the same artist; fortunately the official photo is pretty decent because mine is not worth looking at.

Self Portrait by Michelle Holzapfel. This one feels very like a book cover (and actually has an artist statement at the link!).

I was going to put this one in "Sculpture" and then I saw the title: Post Nuclear Vessel by Ron Kent.

Ditto except that it's The Shedding Skin of Evelyn Mind by Jay Heryet.

I was so enamored of the spiky nature of the one on the front left that I didn't notice it was matches until my companion pointed it out; I was thinking mouths or viruses. (It's called Art Object to be Destroyed by Hilary Pfeifer, Dennis Carr, and Neil Scobie.) And I think the one on the right is a spaceship, though the artist Rolly Munro calls it Oceanic Angel. (I don't know what the one in the back left is.)

Interactive by Andrew Potocnik made me think of if n-tailed foxes shed all their tails at once. (The components are arranged differently in the website picture, basically parallel.)

That sure is a Space Burger, by Hap Sakwa.

I'm delighted to say that my companion pointed out the picture on the left below as something from Star Wars. And it is actually titled Vader Box #3, by Stephen Hughes. (Just visible to the right is the gas giant it's flying around, Strata by Grant Vaughan.)

This is a Great Fairy Fountain, was my first thought. But it genuinely belongs in this section: it's titled Grapefruit to the Moon, by Steve Madsen, and it does open up (pictures at link).

This is somewhere between War of the Worlds and a beetle. (Dancing Tryclops by Michael Brolly.)

Finally, this is incredibly charming and I'm glad the website picture is decent because there wasn't room for me to get one: Time Standing Still by Po Shun Leong and Bob Stocksdale.

And now I'm finally done, woo!

[magical-misfit]

Updates in my Fairytale research that I thought were relevant

there’s a fairytale called The Fox and The Cat in which The Cat tricks The Fox into being hunted and killed by hounds and their human.

there’s also a fairytale called The Wolf and The Fox where The Fox kills the Wolf

The version of The Frog Prince where Gerard is thrown against a wall is also the version in which the Princess is spoiled and rude and just as selfish as he is (ELODY I SEE YOU)

in the Wanda Gag Translation of the Frog Prince, the Princess and the Prince are children and the Frog is someone who just wanted a playmate and it was only speculated that they got married not confirmed.

there are two wolves in Little Red Cap and while the first one is cut open by the Huntsman the second one is boiled alive by Red Cap and her Grandmother.

The fairytale The Golden Goose involves the youngest son of a pair of laborers meeting an “old grey man” who after sharing some beer and cakes with him points him in the direction of a Golden Goose which provides the youngest son with a windfall of fortune.

The Original Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella has no mention of Fairy Godmothers or talking mice, but birds do blind the Stepmother and her stepsisters.

There are seven fairies in the Sleeping Beauty of the Andrew Lang collection but thirteen in the original print, HOWEVER, the “Old Wicked Fairy” makes eight in the Andrew Lang one.

the opening pages of The Snow Queen involve a hobgoblin who has a mirror that shows the ugliness in the world, when he’s flying one day he drops it and it breaks into shards. some people got glass shards in their eyes and could only see the ugly side of things BUT SOME PEOPLE ended up with glass shards in their hearts which would turn their hearts to ice.

In both versions of the Frog Prince that I have, there is no mention of a kiss breaking the curse.

The Frog Prince is not actively rude or selfish in the fairytale he just imposes on her after the Princess loses her golden ball and then breaks her promise to play with him and be a companion to him after he retrieves it for her.

The Prince that wakes Sleeping beauty is one hundred years younger than her and when he finally wakes her, her entire castle and kingdom disappear in the Andrew Lang version.

However in the Original Grimm version, the briars are mentioned to be “as if they had hands” and the princes that got caught in them “died miserable deaths”

In the Andrew Lang version the Good Fairy is said to be the one who put everyone else in the palace to sleep and “gave her good dreams” but in the Grimm version there is no mention of her past the first page where she changes the curse

Animals are also much more present in the Andrew Lang version than the Grimm one.

In conclusion, I believe Rosamund’s original timeline was the Grimm version of the story and now she’s in the Andrew Lang version.

In contrast, I think Gerard was living the sanitized/Wanda gag version of the Frog Prince but is now in the Grimm version of the fairytale.

[firstprince-ao3feed]

Its Him or Your Head

by gnomeberries Henry had never really gotten used to being in the spotlight when it came to terms of his sexuality. He didn’t mind that he was out, publicly and to his family, and he certainly didn’t mind filling his social media feed with pictures of his Alex, but now that they were engaged the pressure was on. There was speculation, questions, and an almost public demand for the pair to reveal whether they would choose to have children, whether Henry was still eligible for taking the throne, and whether the pair deserved the wedding that had been suggested per royal protocol. At a family dinner, the questions start coming and, as it naturally does when Alex isn’t there, everything goes wrong. Henry gives Shaan a hard time when he all but forces him to get Alex to the palace to calm him after he cracks under the pressure, breaking down entirely on the bathroom floor. Luckily, Alex already had experience flying halfway across the world in the middle of the night to show his love for a prince. Words: 3286, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, Alex Claremont-Diaz, Shaan Srivastava, Zahra Bankston, Philip Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor Additional Tags: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Panic Attacks, Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor Needs a Hug, Implied Sexual Content, Fluff and Angst, Sleepy Cuddles, Bubble Bath via https://ift.tt/HGzW1rv

[theburgessobserver]

Pt.3 The Hidden Truth

Since Ancient times there have been sightings and recordings of strange manifestations in the sky.

It was always speculated on the possibilities of….visitors from another world

Today from the skies of California!

The fields of Kansas!

The Freezing Wastelands of the Poles!

The Rice Patties of the Orient!

The Atlantic Ocean!

The Airlanes of the world!

…come persistent reports of UFOs Unidentified flying objects which we have come to know as…flying saucers,something had to be done!

In Dayton Ohio the Air Intelligence Command gathers in search data from all corners of the globe 95 percent of the objects prove to be of natural origin.While 5 percent remain still listed as unknown.

The Air Force is aware of the widely held belief that some of these could be flying saucers from another planet,while there is nothing conclusive in the evidence.The probing and digesting the probing information about UFOs continues unceasingly!

As a result headquarters of the hemispheric defense command in Colorado Springs issued an order:

Any military installations are to fire on sight at any flying objects unidentifiable.

But even as they did this the military wondered if their know-how and best weapons would be effective in any battle of

THE EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Ahhh that's so scary!”Bob said

“Aw come on Bob it's only a movie”Beastman comforted him

“How about a Roger Corman film?Or better yet a documentary.”The Cockroach man suggested.

“Why not a beach film I love those” Link was saying remembering the good old days of rampage and women.

I didn't really pay much attention to that movie they were putting on,besides I was so big I could hardly tell what was going on. The set was so tiny. Sigh…time sure does pass here at a snail's pace.I met some other inmates like Beastman he was quite nice and cultured but we could only see him only at daytime because at night no matter where he was he would lose control of his instincts and be completely feral and dangerous.

Then there was Jaromir the Vodyanoy(or water spirit) who went as far as to flood a village for not leaving his lake alone ,while he went on the run afterward through lakes heading towards the sea,it ended with a showdown with the WASPs(World Aquanaut Security Patrol)after which he was captured and was used as an example to other water spirits to be wary of the consequences of their actions.

Then he was a japanese Yokai Shapeshifter he was a mysterious robber and stole from many jewelry collections he was called the invisible striker as he would take the form of any guard or official,while it was hard to catch him they eventually did and locked him up here .Its rue form was Kitsume which meant fox.

Then there was the Goblin Queen.She is from what I heard from Doc the queen and warrior champion of her subterranean hidden kingdom.But that was not enough for her,when the treaty was signed she was against all the way through and disregarded it many times.In the end she was taken here to prevent her from causing real trouble,unlike others she had many perks like looser rules,far better quarters etc. mainly due to her background and power and to keep her happy again to prevent trouble from her domain.

“Even among misfits I'm a misfit”I said to myself

Meanwhile Bob changed the channel and was watching static

“Woah did you get that?CCSSSSHHH!Now that is quality tv!”He said mimicking the static

“Bob, it's on static change the channel!”Beastman said in reply

“Yeah, put on something cool and tropical, ''Link suggested. Hopefully he thought of himself as being very cool especially after being in ice for millennia and he loved the warmth and atmosphere of it.It was a convenient truth that the planet had left the Ice age that froze him.

“You mean like ... .Monster Beach?”The dim-witted Blob said

“Oh No not that again”Link said annoyed

I was looking over the oatmeal and reminiscing of the good old days,days which were not long ago,I just lost almost any taste for food, my life was without any flavor. My life is just dull, gray,monotonous and uncomfortable with enough food to keep me going yet not have any taste to give me an appetite.I had been here for two weeks and It was hard for me to be familiarized with this weird life .It felt like a fever dream .As if I had gone insane and was locked up and put on medications…and yet it was so real.

“Well…at least with this gunk I won't have any weight woes”After this gunk isn't very tempting I said

“Yeah at least I won't gain any weight!”I said aloud trying to stay optimistic.

“But you've already gained Tons of weight” Bob said brainlessly and unintentionally insensitively

“THANKS BOB!”I said I was angered by his remark,He most likely didn't mean it of course. but i couldn't help it.Im not the type to be sarcastic but this was just so…well…different.

Suddenly a large helicopter appeared and it was towing a light,the light which guided Grubzilla back to his cell where he would slumber, meaning it was time for him and us to go to sleep.

“Oh well it's time to go to sleep, good night!”Cockroach said

“Sleep well Amazonia!”Link said

“Have a nice night Ginormica!”Bob said

“Her name is actually Titanica!”Beastman said

“No Its Susan”I said

While I chose the name Titanica it was against my will i just found it to be the best of a bad lot. My,I wish they would just shut up and stop calling me that!I am not Titanica,I am Susan!

In the cell I was deep in thought and then I saw the kitten “Hang in there”Poster and said to myself“Okay,Susan Murphy Hang in there and face the facts.You're in Jail unfairly imprisoned and none of my friends know where I am,but they know I'm missing, Derek might know some powerful people,Mom and Dad will also do there best,and everyone present at the wedding saw it happen and will…….. “EUREKA!That's it!”I shouted loudly and happily.

But then I remembered I was under 24 hour surveillance by the personell observing me. So I thought to myself“Some of my friends and family were filming and taking photos at my wedding,and would still be filming and taking photos when I turned to a giantess.That's excellent proof!Like who wouldn't want to take a photo of something as weird as that…The Government can't keep me a secret anymore!They must know I've been kidnapped.The Government can't keep me with that out and about!They just can't!"After that I calmed down from my elation and went to sleep.

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I had a strange dream that night,that I was a celebrity and that bilions watched videos of me growing up to giant size on televisions and at meets and well just frankly everywhere.And that I was a phenomenon known as “Bridezilla!”. I felt odd and embarrassed,then again many are most likely seeing the video while I was still dreaming.Oh well I couldn't be that bad!

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The next morning as I woke up I went into the day with new hopes.

Suddenly a beeping sound came.The beeping sound that announced the meals we were to get.The other inmates noticed it as well.

“Oh Boy!It's eat time” Link said happily as he and the gang raced up to the table.

Link dished up his favorite meal,raw fish!He happily dug into it in his primitive manner.

“That is thoroughly repulsive” Doc said

Then he was dished up his food,trash.

“Oh look, a lovely slipper” he said and started to devour it,Bob tried to reach out to take some ,but Doc noticed and promptly pushed him away.

“Sorry but this is my rubbish pile”he said to the blob

He happily indulged in it,When I first saw Doc eat trash I wondered how could someone like eating trash but then I remembered that he said he fused himself with genes of a cockroach and that it not only affected him physically but also mentally,It was like from that book Metamorphosis where that guy got turned into a bug and found how much he loved rotten things.

Then again i must admit Doc has been doing a pretty good job of disregarding his bug instincts and has been acting very kind and civil .In fact I bet he's the nicest person i met since…the day…As for Bob seeing as he's such a simpleton…well such a thing wouldn't really have much taste or completely bizzare taste at that.

“Doc!DOC!DOC!DOOOOOCCCC!!!” Bob screamed in terror

“I forgot to breathe. What will I do?How can I breathe help me Doc!”The brainless blob screamed in terror!

“Bob,you are a Blob and you do not need to breathe”Cockroach deadpanned,this wasn't the first time this week Bob had that type of problem.

“WOW!THANKS DOC YOU'RE A LIFESAVER!”Bob said happily and I saw him shaking the hands with Doc

Some time later I layed down alone,when suddenly I felt a scurrying up my legs. I used my hand to scrape it off. It was Jacques and he went flying all the way to the wall and hit it with a thud his hands were twitching.

"OH!Im so sorry!"I said realizing I accidentally crushed him,how emberassing!

“No no my dear it is my fault entirely I should have asked before i climbed on you at times the bug part of me takes control and I don't notice”Jacques-Yves said

“Anyway I have something to tell you”He said while he scurried over in front of me.

“My examinations of you have proven most intriguing,Susan.I have no Idea what could have caused it.Do the scientist from the examination know anything about it?”He asked me curiously

“The scientists just call it Chemical X”I said “They don't know much about it,in fact they are not even sure if it was an element,it could have been anything really.

“Well ,maybe we should give it a name then”Jacques said

“Titanium?No wait that's already been taken".Cockroach mused

Susanium?He said,I blushed, it was nice but kinda unfitting.

“Cockroachium?”I said,Doc smiled back.

“I don't know,I have been running checks on you,whatever it is it affect you completely right down to your quantum levels”Doc was deep in thought

“Hmmm,Quantonium?It seems fitting.”He said

“Yeah,I think that's just a fine name for it,if it even is an element.”I said Doc's name was okay for now.

“Well for all I know and the scientist too, what happened to you could have been anything like just a magic trick that changed you,but that would be daft!”he said jokingly

“Yeah”Was all I said,he was right and it made me think,maybe it wasn't some kind of element or radiation or all that jazz.Maybe it could be something beyond our comprehension…then again maybe I was just overthinking,I looked back at Jacques.

I liked him. He was so nice to me and so understanding,maybe because he was at one point a normal human being too and he was rather intelligent in addition to being accustomed to all sorts of beasts

“Doc, this place is like Alcatraz for the supernatural” I said to the tiny bug headed white cloth scientist.

His large cockroach eyes looked at me and then thought about something and then he said

“More like Tartarus!”

“What?”I answered,like what's this tartar something?

“Its from Greek mythology Doc swiftly replied It was used to imprison Demons,Titans and certain humans as a prison,you know interesting story the titans who were giants led by Cronus were banished there as punishment It was said to have been a prison built by the gods.Odd how there are such strange parallels between the real and the mythical…then again you're mythical giantess and you real,I guess it's just a coincidence”The seemingly tiny doctor told me

I was amazed by his knowledge and kinda embarased by my ignorance,so then left to the side for awhile

Monger arrived inside and again a helicopter used its light to direct Grubzilla away,I was disgusted by the way he treated him as if he was just an object

“Monger,I need to have a word with you” I said trying to look serious,I was waiting for this all day…at least i thought it was day,Deep down i was nervous however.

“Sure thing”He answered and the flew to me

“What about..visits?When will I see anyone from my family again?”I said

“No visits to any monsters ,sorry but that's just the way it is can't bring just anybody here for any reason we gotta keep this place and you secret”Monger said

“How long will I have to be here?" I demanded “How long will you keep this little game of yours up?Another day?week?Month or a year?”I said desperately as tried to come to terms with his previous sentence

“Forever” Monger said cooly and calmly and landed his jetpack and turned it off and walked towards me

“After all the military is expert at covering up and creating misinformations to fill in the gaps…If it is necessary that is…after all most think the Easter Bunny is a fable.”He explained

“So…I'm just gonna rot here for always and always and always, for doing nothing wrong?”I said “In fact a lot of these other creatures are too!And they arent all that bad”

“Well,I wouldn't say so”!Monger said

“But they're innocent!”I told Monger in a defiant tone!

“Innocent eh?”Monger said

“Actually most if not all are guilty. Each of them went on a rampage,caused destruction,were a danger to society and possibly even killed people intentionally or not!Grubzilla has the highest damage and death count by far and while he didnt mean to destroy part of Tokyo ,he is still a hazard and a big one at that!Link went on a rampage and kidnapped many innocent women and killed a several men who were trying to stop him from getting the girl.”

"And Beastman killed several people too,no wonder he gave himself up as he realized he couldn't control himself at night in the slightest.And wisely saw this as the correct choice"

"And that Blob, while he can only eat inorganic matter he still eat through a few city blocks caused property damage several people were injured and he imperiled many innocent lives!If You are in any doubt we have the M-Files for it and even if not convinced then we even have footage of there rampages!"

“But I didn't go on a rampage!”I protested,I WAS IN THE RIGHT!I didn't Kill anyone,I didn't intentionally become a giantess,or intentionally cause any trouble .Im Innocent .I'm supposed to be free!

“True!But you must understand that you did cause some havoc though unintentionally as well as being well…a giantess,I'm sorry but you were just too dangerous to be around,that and we need to keep myths hidden and Giants aren't exactly easy to hide or cover up.And If you would be free many would panic and possibly even try to kill you. And also we have agreements for cover-ups for a reason you know for your benefit and societies at large”Monger said

“How did you even think you'll cover me up?And all these creatures and their actions as well?”I said trying to get him off his arguments though he did plant a seed of doubt in my head with his proclamations

“Well Link was actually “revealed” to be an actor in a suit who was part of a movie production and the whole thing including the footage was brushed off as a publicity stunt.The Wolf-man was just a gag of several teeagers who had a suit and scared people with it.”

“Bob was just called a lab explosion which caused the damage and some of the gasses escaping from it ,caused people to hallucinate.”

He finished his long speech with “I Could go on but you get the point.”

“But you can't just expect people to unsee me!There were many by me and I wouldn't be surprised if photos or videos were taken of it!You just can't tell them to unsee that!And you can't just do as if I never existed!”I said to try and fight against all of his statements.

“True,but we can give “explanations” and “reveal the truth to the public”.As for those who saw you we just advised them to not talk about it,besides no one would believe them.And those Photos were destroyed and while a video of it was leaked by someone at the wedding and shown on a Mystery channel we quickly disavowed its legitimacy.We said that it was actually done as a parody of monster movie made by some students in Modesto and sent there actually to promote their film efforts”

So…I really was alone asking if my parents or friends would visit would obviously be fruitless so I asked for the last remaining thing

“Can I at the very least call my parents or write to them?”I said holding on to a last string of hope for some,any contact

“That is not an option,there is a risk of an information leak”Monger continued in a stoic voice cutting off the last thread of hope

“EVEN A SERIAL KILLER HAS THE RIGHT TO THAT!”I screamed in rage,I was infuriated,I screamed so loud that some glass from some of the observatories cracked and broke.

Monger gave me a disapproving look which then turned into one which looked more like disappointment.

“I am sorry”He said

And with that he walked away…

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I contemplated the whole situation while some know the videos are taken as fake and anyone in Modesto who saw me would be discouraged and my parents couldn't do anything.I was…On my own.

I sat down and cuddled myself into a ball into one corner.I could feel tears slowly forming in my eyes.

“Cmon Susan”I said to myself “Get up and face it.It aint all bad!”I had to push through it.No more crying now!I thought that maybe what he told me were lies…fat chance!

So here I am in my dimly lit room,not long after the lights went out and the room plunged into darkness.I went down and started to cry again,I curled up into a ball and eventually stopped crying.I tried to make myself happy.

I tried to still dream about the happy days, the days of being NORMAL!Those days have to be back.

Then I thought about the test they conducted on me and those surveys of my body.There still is hope!The scientists were working out to find out what happened to me,and if they did they could cure me and everything could be just Honky Dory again…

“But…if they're trying to figure me out ,there must be more to it”I thought to myself.If they figured out how I work,what would stop them from making their own giants?I thought to myself. So I have two outcomes…and both bad…and even if they cure me, who knows how long…will Derek still be waiting for me?

That night I had a nightmare, giants destroying city blocks crushing innocent people causing war,death,famine and plagues…well ok maybe not plagues but still…..all this…and then I saw myself being pointed at by the victims in what was left of Modesto“You……you did this”One said “No wait I didn't mean to I”I tried to defend myself and those victims...they were my friends and "choke"family! “You…did this to us”Another one said. “This was all your fault,If it were not for you we wouldn't have lost everyone we knew,our homes and suffered greatly under all of this”

“MONSTER!MONSTER!MONSTER!”My former bes friends chanted while pointing at me in the ruins of my hometown."Wait Im sorry!I never wanted this.

Then I saw that they brought to me Derek…he was dead and they said “He Died because of you,”I looked at Derek…his starry eyes still looking outward as if searching for me,never to see me again in this barren wasteland.

“DEREK?DEREK!DEREK!”I cried out,Clutching his body,we would be forever separated husband and wife.Then I cried out “NOOOOO!!!!!”

With a shock I woke up and looked around just to make sure I was still here.

“Oh,It was only a bad dream”I said in relief, resting myself and giving a large sigh of relief,everything calmed down and was quite save for my breathing,I then thought back to the experiments,what happened in the dream could become maybe one day a sad reality.

I really have to get out of here.

----------------------------------------------------------

Firstly the end was done as a nightmare (So if it doesn't make sense or have contrivances i did it intentionally to boil it down to her worst fears and pains coming to get her,after all dreams(and nightmares) have no limitations and can really show us thing we cant see)

The Next Parts will be different:There lenghts may vary due to what part of the story thell tell and I will change the POV character too to give us more insight and characterisation of these characters(I am working on several chapters at once to make better connections between the stories and to plan ahead so sorry for the delays im working on it still)

I made this fake-out opening just because i thought that the monsters should watch something in there spare time(also yes Earth vs the Flying Saucers is a real film I had on dvd and though quoting it would make the opening more interesting…and those 5 percent are most likely the guardians and other such magical beings)

The Reason Wasps found Jaromir was because some babyteeth in the area were sent to look for him and managed to know exactly where he was heading and then telling tooth who told Wasp who were ready and waiting for him.

Description

She is human like in body and size,but with some difference like her scaly-green skin,her pointy ears(not to cartoonish proportions tough still)she also has violet hair and two of her teeth can be retractable between normal and sharp. It is stated in mythology are ruled by the smartest and strongest of them.Like she is motivated by greed.There are several breeds some may be nearly elf like and only live a few decades while others like herself are humanoid and are far more powerful and itelligent.For she can be stabbed right through and only have it as a slight flesh wound.She also has some weaponry like a flying broomstick like thingy.Like all she has the ability to see in darkness.While many say shes crazy its just one of her ploys to incite fear to her enemies.

While in myth they were all seen the same, some types(like hers)are considerably intelligent,despite being almost always portrayed as being ugly and dimwitted.

Fun Fact

The Guardians had to assemble to take her down,while she threatend to attack the world above.

[playertwotails]

So I’ve been at work all day thinking about this and writing notes on my phone during breaks. And some spoilers ahead for the ending of Sonic Frontiers.

I know that with how the game ended and the end of Tails’ whole island cut scenes a lot of people want/are speculating a Tails solo game. (I know I want one too so bad). And I think a Tails solo game would only work if they do plan on making a Sonic Adventure 3 game (and i know there are also rumors about this but nothing confirmed)

Under the cut is gonna be my thoughts on a solo Tails game cause it’s gonna be long.

First looking at this in from a story telling/character development aspect. It would make sense to do so to tie the end of Sonic Frontiers more cleanly into a new Sonic Adventure 3 game, as long as that game is supposed to come after Frontiers that is. This way it give the players and fans some breathing room of knowing how that solo journey played out for Tails rather than second hand “oh here’s what I did” line of dialog in a new multi-character game.

The whole story revolving around Tails saving this island(s) his own way, possibly with help from locals he befriends to tie into the “you can do it on your own but your friends are there to help if you need it, so you don’t have nor do you need to, to prove yourself by self inflicted standards” story beat they (maybe kinda??) seem to be trying to have Tails character got through.

I think  that the villains should be the remnants of the Battle Kukku Empire from the Tails Adventure game and the villain be either Great Battle Kukku again or his son Speedy from the game but as a cyborgs. Cause Tails used napalm bombs in that game and if they survived that it ain’t gonna be pretty. Plus they’ve already made Witchcart canon again with the 30th anniversary Tails comic and I need them to make the one Tails has actual napalm bombs canon cause I think it’s funny.

For the setting itself I think that it would so well either being a bit like Mario Odyssey or hell like Sonic Frontiers with a series of small islands to explore. Or just one big island with different exploring environments the players have to navigate.

They need to keep it open world though and use that to further build off what they have for Frontiers and work on refining it some more. I personally think that, while I love the setting in Frontiers, it does feel like they need to streamline the environment to make more sense. What I mean is that, we have context that the loops Sonic runs on are just natural formations, but the things like rails and floating platform could (in my opinion) use better explanations and mesh into the environments a bit better. Frontiers kinda just had them there with no context as to why they exist and make sense in the environment he’s in and exploring. Essentially meld it all better into the environment so that players don’t look at it and “why is this random thing here??”  They can keep them in the game as they are classic staples of the game at this point but have them make sense in context.

They should again keep it open world but let the player explore as Tails flying and all and not just in a vehicle of some sort like Adventure 2 did but as the character himself. (this is like 58% because I wanted to play as just Tails flying around in Adventure 2 so bad and not just in the chao gardens growing up) It would give the devs a unique challenge though, cause how do you design a map with a character that can just fly everywhere. (i’m not here to offer solutions though just thoughts)

They can keep the idea of the Cyber Level and/or Boss fights but with Tails have that be where his vehicles come into play. Have one that the walker comes back into play, another could be a dog fight with the Tornado or Cyclone if the walker is there. Heck bring back the Sea Fox and have an underwater exploration part. Have a final boss level that is just Tails fighting with no vehicle and/or uses his many gadgets he’s made over the course of the game to fight the boss. This would help to if they are planning on an Adventure 3 game with the same set up as previous title, in which you can play as different characters through the story that have their own levels, especially if they keep the open world concept for an Adventure 3 game.

Essentially my thoughts are to use the solo Tails adventure game as not full game on it’s own but as an somewhat small in between test game for devs to work out what does and doesn’t work some more with the new gameplay design from Frontiers. (Kinda like Legends of Arceus was for Pokemon to test a new gameplay mechanic and see how it’s received and get more bug info from players, rather than release another full stand alone next in the generation game, even if Scarlet and Violet kinda botched it there the concept of doing this is still a good idea) Have this help to refine some more things from Sonic Frontiers open world introduced without having to do a full big title game release basically. Making it like a small 2-3 hour long game, which is still a lot but not nearly as long a a full game is now-a-days especially like with what Frontiers is game play length wise.

This is all just my personal opinion though on what I would personally like to see/be done for a solo Tails game. Especially if they are trying to make more story driven games and connect to other titles and established lore as it seems they are doing. I would love to hear other peoples opinions though on what they would like to see for a Tails solo game.     

[mightyflamethrower]

A Tennessee lawmaker issued a dire warning after claiming to have seen classified UFO footage that hasn’t been released to the public.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., speculated extraterrestrial life forms could have technology that humanity “can’t handle” during an appearance on the “Event Horizon” podcast. 

“If they’re out there, they’re out there, and if they have this kind of technology, then they could turn us into a charcoal briquette,” Burchett said.

“And if they can travel light years or at the speeds that we’ve seen, and physics as we know it, fly underwater, don’t show a heat trail, things like that, then we are vastly out of our league.”

Burchett is a sitting member on the House Oversight Committee, which has held hearings about potential threats and unexplained UAPs, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, a government-derived word for UFOs.

“We can’t handle it,” Burchett said during his podcast appearance about potential alien tech. “We couldn’t fight them off what we wanted to. That’s why I don’t think they’re a threat to us, or they would already have been.”

His startling comments came after whistleblower David Grusch, a decorated Air Force veteran who’s considered by many to be credible, came forward with claims the government has been running a secret UFO retrieval program.

The House Oversight Committee is preparing a hearing to discuss Grusch’s unverified claims.

Burchett and fellow Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida will lead the committee’s investigation.

Susan Gough, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense, told Fox News Digital in a previous email June 6 there is no “verifiable information to substantiate the claim.

Since Grusch’s shocking claims, other “high-level” government whistleblowers with “high clearances” have come forward that backed Grush’s claims, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told NewsNation in an interview at the end of June.

“We’re trying to gather as much of that information as we can … And, frankly, a lot of them are very fearful of their jobs … fearful of harm coming to them,” Rubio said during the interview.

While he didn’t comment on whether he thinks the claims are credible, Rubio said, “What I think we owe is just a mature, you know, understanding, listening and trying to put all these pieces together and just sort of intake the information without any prejudgment or jumping to any conclusions.”

The same week as Rubio’s interview, the Senate approved new language in the Intelligence Authorization Act to further transparency and investigative efforts and protect whistleblowers.

Any employee under contract that “has in their possession material or information provided by or derived from the” government relating to UAPs has 60 days to notify Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the updated language says. 

The House Oversight Committee has held hearings about potential threats and unexplained UAPs.

Kirkpatrick is the director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which is a specialized department within the Pentagon that investigates UFOs. 

His office is investigating over 800 cases of UAPs, but only 2-5% of the cases are “truly anomalous.”

NASA is also investigating UFOs, which is running on a separate but parallel track as AARO. 

Both NASA and AARO are expected to release separate reports this summer.

If the government truly does have material evidence of extraterrestrial beings WE (I) have the right to see it. Fear be damned. I want to finally have a good look at one before I die. (KSD)

[outofangband]

Hey, I hope you’re well! I was wondering if you have any hcs on the environment/ flora and fauna of Himlad? Or if you already posted about it and I just didn’t see it 😅 thank you!

Flora, fauna, environment and geography of Arda

note: I did most of this when I was sick so it’s shorter than some of my others but I will go back and edit it to add more 

Himlad was a realm in Eastern Beleriand, bordered on the West by the river Aros and on the East, its tributary, Celon. It means ‘cool plain’ in Sindarin and was described simply as a cold region, likely due to its proximity to the March and thus to the Iron Mountains, the cold fronts of which extend throughout the surrounding regions. 

We have little information on environment other than the description of cold but some speculation can be done due to the habitat and through looking at similar real habitats, mostly in Northern Europe and temperate parts of Asia as well as parts of North America which Tolkien was inspired by the prairies in (source: The Flora of Middle Earth)

Himlad might also be described as a steppe, that is, an ecoregion of plains and grasslands where the only trees grow near rivers or lakes. Himlad specifically would be a cold steppe and shrub steppe. 

The region is likely semi arid with especially dry summers and a short rainy season of intermittent showers following the end of the winter.

The actual grasslands are likely made up of a variety of species such as crested wheatgrass, junegrasses, wiregrass, feather grasses, and melic grasses.  Shrubs are more common in the hilly parts towards the North; silver berry, violet willow, sage brush and bitter brush, rowan and mountain ashes, smallflower tamarisk,  others that grow in cooler but semi arid conditions.  Other flowers and herbaceous plants grow throughout the plains as well like golden rod and aster, greater wormwood, fringed sage brush,  a variety of daisy species Quaking aspen can be found by the rivers in small groves of two to three trees and solitary in the hills. 

There are few trees so the birds here are mostly game birds and ones that nest on the ground including perhaps a species of burrowing owl. Hazel and black grouse, common quail, red legged partridge, Asian gray partridge, black billed caper and common pheasants are some examples.  There are also other birds of prey who fly and hunt over the plains even if they don’t nest in them. This might include osprey closer to the rivers, common and uplands buzzard, steppe eagle, imperial eagle, hen harriers, and possibly golden eagles. 

Common shrews, steppe lemming, greater and lesser white toed shrews, common rabbits and hares, ground squirrels, social voles, field mice, corsac fox, steppe cat and species like both European and Asian badgers make up the smaller mammals of the region. 

Reindeer, Eld’s deer, pronghorn, wild horses (such as the tahki) , goa, and saiga antelope as well as larger species of antelope not found in the world today roam the grasslands of Himlad and Lothlann, grazing and eating fruits and leaves from the shrubs and herbs. 

I personally enjoy the headcanon that prehistoric (in today’s world) bear species occasionally ventured into the plains of East Beleriand to hunt.

As for the rivers those would likely have to be their own posts if there’s interest? I just don’t want to condense too much all these beautiful regions

[sage-nebula]

Tails was bullied on West Side Island because he was born with two tails. That's his canon backstory. He was born different, and that difference led to him being ostracized and shunned. It's not a stretch to think that his prodigy level intelligence wouldn't have done him any favors either, because kids are mean and being a nerd isn't exactly seen as cool by most. Even adults probably would have thought he was weird for wanting to tinker with stuff, would probably think he was more liable to break it or set the building on fire or something, and so probably didn't give him too much of a chance to prove his mettle when it comes to engineering. That part is speculative though; I think all we know for sure is that the people of Tails' hometown saw his second tail and thought, "Freak."

Sonic didn't feel that way, but then again, look at Sonic. Him being blue isn't a big deal, because animals come in all sorts of colors in this world, but he can run at supersonic speeds. He can break the sound barrier, easy. That's something no one else can do, hedgehog or otherwise. And as far as we know, Sonic's been able to do this since he was born. He was born different, too.

And you might think, okay, but Sonic's speed isn't visible just by looking at him, and also it's like a superpower, so how is that comparable? And I say, Tails' extra tail lets him fly. No other fox on the planet can do that without assistance. They need planes, or jetpacks, or whatever, but Tails doesn't. Tails can fly all on his own. Doesn't that count as a superpower in its own right?

Tails' village looked at him, and they said, he's different, he's a freak. Sonic looked at him and said, hey, I'm different, too. Guess that makes us two of a kind, huh?

And that made all the difference.

[sackofcookies]

Incandescence's Pokemon Team

I love pokemon, I also love my tiefling girl, so here's her team! (also yes the background is based on legends of Arceus)

From left to right

Pyroar the lion Pokemon! Fun fact, Pyroar can get so hot that just coming near them can cause severe burns. The same happens with Incandescence, as a Phoenix sorcerer she can wreath herself in flames causing severe burns to anyone who touches her. The Pokedex entry for Pyroar made me sad honestly, they radiate a lot of heat, enough to melt steel at times. So I would speculate not a lot of people would keep them as friends, incandescence however is heat/fire resistant, so I think they could handle each other!

Ninetales, the fox pokemon! I imagine incandescence would have gotten her as a Vulpix, as she gets attached to small and young creatures quite easily but let's not worry about her attachment and separation issues caused by her baby being taken away right now so I think she'd want to take good care of a cute little fox baby, and now that she's all grown up Ninetales can protect her (but she's still a baby to incandescence)

Flareon, the Flame Pokemon! Her partner Pokemon, I imagine incandescence likely found Flareon as he is, not as an Eevee, and the two quickly bonded, both being lonely and incandescence being very kind. I also imagine that Flareon is a bit of a prick to everyone else, like a fiercely loyal cat 🐈

Oricorio, the Dancing Pokemon! Incandescence herself was raised by a bard, she loves to dance, she loves to perform, and not only that, her magic is that of a fire bird, the legendary Phoenix. I thought it only made sense for her to fall in love with this cute little dancing fella. Not only is he a fire bird, but a dancer like her!

Typhlosion, the Ghost flame Pokemon! Typhlosion's hisuian form is quite different from the standard starter Pokemon. I selected the Hisuian form specifically because incandescence has died. Not once, not twice, but four times. So it felt appropriate to have her starter Pokemon be part ghost type. I imagine in one of the events that killed incandescence, Typhlosion did all she could to protect her, but fell with her. Later being returned to life by the magic of incandescence's friends, but Typhlosion was left changed. More peaceful than before, more pacifistic now, but still with anger issues that can set off a continent sweeping wildfire. Hisuian Typhlosion is perfect for incandescence, as the difference between the two forms, and the idea of that transition between the two forms, perfectly illustrates how she's changed through four deaths, over a two year long DND campaign.

Last but certainly not least Ceruledge, the fire blades pokemon! Ceruledge is another ghost/fire Pokemon, that I picked due to incandescence's experiences. I like to think that a trainer who is good and kind to their pokemon could win very fierce loyalty from a Ceruledge, who can be quite merciless. Perhaps incandescence found Ceruledge, already evolved, and in a tight spot. Choosing to help the Pokemon she won the loyalty of this great warrior who has sworn to protect her. I'm sure her fiance greatly appreciates this, as after four deaths, it's blatantly obvious incandescence needs to be protected.

So there you have it, incandescence's team! 2 fire types, 1 fire/normal, 1 fire/flying, and 2 fire/ghost, while it's pretty clear how to win against her incandescence wouldn't want to be the best trainer by winning fights, she'd want to be the best trainer by loving her pokemon and treating them well.

In campaign incandescence has a tressym familiar that I based the idea of her Flareon off of. His name is bandit, and he's a prick. He's been with her for 28 years and counting, he's seen her lose both her parents, be betrayed by her closest friend and partner, be imprisoned, lose her child, search aimlessly for her daughter, eventually find her and fall in love along the way. He's seen it all, and he's gotten quite protective of her over the years. So he's a prick to people he doesn't trust her with, and was especially a prick to her now fiance, though he has shifted to be much friendlier watching her fiance pull her out of alcoholism, and her reckless ways, and support her unconditionally in every way he can.

Perhaps Flareon would be similarly prickly, especially given Glimk, her fiance, trains primarily grass type Pokemon

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Star Fox Assault Playthrough

Fighter: Falco Lombardi.

Game: Star Fox Assault, Gamecube. First Released on February 14th 2005.

ENTRY WARNING: This post will contain major spoilers for Star Fox Assault, there’s no giant twists but I go over the story of the game as it’s part of what I wanted to comment on regarding it, so if you really want to avoid spoilers for the game then I guess don’t read through the whole of my section regarding my playthrough.

Fighter Bio.

Falco Lombardi is the ace pilot of the Star Fox team, matched in skill only by Fox himself. A blue-feathered Avian, Falco is the tallest member of the Star Fox team, however he prefers piloting to engaging in missions on foot where possible, excelling in the air. Falco’s past is somewhat mysterious, seemingly starting life as part of a gang, possibly known as Free-As-A-Bird which he may have been the leader of. It is speculated that Katt Monroe who has affection for Falco was also in this gang, however Falco would get irritated by her often. Eventually, Falco left the group at Fox McCloud’s request to join the Star Fox team, with his skills making him rival Fox for the best pilot on the team. When the scientist and leader of Venom, Andross returned to initiate his invasion of the Lylat System, General Pepper called upon the Star Fox team to help defend Corneria and take down Andross’s Empire, a mission Falco was all too willing to take part in.

As discussed in Fox McCloud’s post, there are three different timelines for the Star Fox series. This one will go over the second timeline which starts with Star Fox 64 (also known as Lylat Wars) and ends with Star Fox Command, although the previous paragraph is essentially the same event that occurs in all three timelines. In this timeline following Andross’s defeat, Falco grows restless due to the lack of excitement he’s finding in the Star Fox Team’s latest assignments, mostly tracking down the remnants of Andross’s Forces who don’t put up much of a fight. Falco begins arguing more and more with Fox during this period and eventually, following a distress call from Katt Monroe that Falco finds he goes alone to meet with her. Katt is with the Free-As-A-Bird gang and under attack on the planet Titania by a leftover Andross Bioweapon. Falco saves the gang and learns that Captain Shears, a Cornerian soldier is researching projects Andross had in development. Katt doesn’t trust Captain Shears motives, however Fox is called in by Captain Shears to attack the gang, telling him they are remnants of Andross’s forces. Falco in response gets into a dogfight with Fox, the two drawing and heavily damaging each other’s ships, with Falco admitting to himself how impressive Fox has become (or possibly how rusty he’s gotten). Fox uncovers Captain Shears plan, fighting a clone of Andross and destroying it, meanwhile Falco once again saves the gang from another bioweapon set on them. Falco believes Katt has found someone else she cares for within the gang and guesses they are growing romantically close, with Falco deciding to go it alone, telling Fox before he leaves to tell Katt and her friend to leave the gang life behind.

Falco’s whereabouts and actions beyond this point for several years are unknown, but a long time later, when Fox is engaged in a battle he’s about to lose, Falco reappears to help him, providing Fox with bombs to destroy the threat he’s facing and deciding to rejoin the team. Falco is still a hothead, however he seems to have mellowed over these years, becoming, with Peppy’s retirement as an active part of the Star Fox flight team, Fox’s second in command over Slippy and new recruit Krystal. Falco eagerly engages with the Armada formed by Andross’s nephew Andrew Oikonny, flying into battle with the team’s upgraded Arwing. During this battle, a new threat reveals itself, the Aparoids, insectoid beings that can take over technology and other beings, controlling them in their plan to multiply and take over the Lylat System and beyond.

Falco is a brash but skilled pilot who can be difficult to get along with, but also shows loyalty to his teammates, coming to think of them over time as possibly like family. Falco’s biggest flaw is his arrogance which has caused him to have confrontations with other members of the team, most commonly Fox and difficulty with authority, although he will never go as far as to jeopardize a mission due to this. Falco’s arrogance also is what’s holding him back from being the undisputed ace flyer of the Star Fox Team, whilst his abilities are possibly the best of the group, his temper and dislike to taking things too slow can lead him to fly into dangerous situations he has to be bailed out of, which leaves him somewhat ashamed, especially when he’s saved by Fox. Over the years Falco mellowed out however and whilst still remaining a rival of Fox’s he became more willing to thank him for assistance often berating himself for getting into the situation rather than his more sarcastic responses of his youth. Although he has left the Star Fox Team multiple times, Falco always returns when he’s needed most, perhaps out of seeking glory and excitement, but also possibly due to his bond to the team and his friends, although he would never admit it. Falco’s past is a mystery with much of it only being hinted at but never explicitly explained, something that makes him stand out from the rest of the team who have all had family members and their backstory detailed somewhat over the years.

Falco has the second fastest running speed of the team but also the worst endurance, meaning he relies more on hit-and-run tactics when fighting on the ground. Falco has one of the lowest skill levels when it comes to using the Landmaster, but the highest Arwing skill level, being able to lock on and target enemies in an Arwing better and faster than anyone else. Despite his amazing pilot skills, Falco does not do well when forced to use the Wolfen, the only character besides Wolf whose skill differs based on what ship he’s flying. Falco refuses to take part in land based or sea based warfare leaving it to the other team members to do so and flying support from the skies. Next to Fox, Falco is the character on the team most associated with the Arwing, using it in almost every single one of his appearances, including being the only Star Fox member besides Fox himself to fly one during the events on Dinosaur Planet. The only exception to this is the final entry in the Star Fox 64 Timeline, Star Fox Command where Falco pilots the Sky Claw, a modified Arwing with broader wings that have claw-like tips. The Sky Claw has a single laser, one Smart Bomb in its payload and a Multi-Lock. The ship’s sole weakness is its low health, however in return it has a higher Boost/Brake/Roll meter than most other ships, suiting Falco’s usual hit and run tactics.

 Friends: As much as he’s unwilling to admit it, Fox is probably Falco’s best friend, with him often returning to help Fox when he’s in need and forming a formidable duo in dogfights. Fox often comes to Falco’s aid, but Falco has probably come to Fox’s aid the most of the team, often arriving to give him powerups as well as in one case to rescue him when Fox was pinned down by enemies on the planet Fichina. Fox trusts Falco to the point that he has in the past told Falco he wants him to take over his role if he should fall as the head of the Star Fox Team. Falco is friends with Slippy although he will pick on him sometimes, especially for Slippy’s careless mistakes requiring him to be rescued often in battle. Falco seems to reluctantly respect Peppy, often raising his eyes at his advice but not being as insulting or sarcastic with him as he is with the others. Falco is fairly cordial with Krystal, not interacting with her very much although as a teammate still working well with her. When Falco first sees Krystal he encourages Fox to talk with her and seemingly supports the two getting together. When it comes to romance himself however, Falco often says he has no interest in it, which is to the disappointment of Katt Monroe, a former partner of his from his gang days who sometimes tracks him down. When it seems Katt is growing close to someone else he supports them getting together, although is hard to read with regards to whether he’s completely uninterested in her or not. In one of the many endings of Star Fox Command Falco leaves Team Star Fox to form a group with Katt and Dash Bowman, a member of the Cornerian Air Force to become Star Falco. This is also interesting as Falco’s interactions with Dash during the game are more demeaning and suspicious of him due to his inexperience and relation to Andross (Dash being his Grandson) although he eventually warms up to him it seems.

Enemies/Rivals: Despite arguably having the least personal stake in the conflict, and being more of a thrill seeker than focused on justice, Falco seems to despise Andross’s empire, often being one of the first to express his shock at their actions such as the state of Corneria City during their invasion and the pollution on Zoness. Falco never personally fights Andross only engaging with his forces, but he seems to acknowledge Fox’s personal fight and doesn’t try to take the glory of fighting Andross for himself from his teammate. Due to this and Fox being the one most often fighting the main threat the team are facing, the closest to Falco’s arch enemy is the Star Wolf member Leon Powalski. Whereas Falco is an Ace Pilot, Leon is a renowned Marksman and in contrast to Falco’s thrill seeking Leon seems to enjoy causing pain and suffering in his victims. Leon and Falco seem to have possibly met before their encounter in Star Fox 64, although another similarity they both have are their pasts being mostly a mystery. Falco’s response to most other foes is to simply want to take them down, not getting very personal in a fair few cases but still often being disgusted by the pain and suffering they inflict. Besides Leon, Falco’s biggest rival arguably is Fox himself, although this is far more of a friendly rivalry and Falco never really states a desire to outright battle Fox, merely trying to outdo him in missions and disliking being saved by him.

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Whilst the Star Fox series has had a couple and one cancelled crossover with other series in Smash Bros, Fox more often appeared in those than Falco. Because of this, there’s only really one crossover as such of Falco with another series in Smash, which is in Star Fox Command in one of the many endings, Fox and Falco decide to become G-Zero Racers, which is a racing league very similar (and clearly a reference) to the F-Zero league. Along with this, Falco can also fight Octoman, a character who is a racer in F-Zero and seemingly appeared as part of the Anglar Forces in Star Fox Command.

Why this game?

So, with the Star Fox series I had a fair bit of an internal debate about what games to go with to represent who. I always knew Fox himself would be represented by Star Fox 64, being the definitive and arguably best game in the series as a whole. For Falco I was thinking of going with Star Fox Command at first, mostly because barring multiplayer and the then unreleased Star Fox 2, this was the only game where Falco was playable at the time, however he didn’t fly an Arwing which was important to me when it came to this. Therefore, I decided it was best to go with the other option for Falco, even though in the main game he’s not playable, that being Star Fox Assault. Star Fox Command will be covered when it comes to Wolf since he actually pilots the Wolfen rather than another ship in that. Whilst my specific Smash Playthrough for this game was only the single player, I have played a fair bit of the multiplayer in this game over the years, usually as Falco, therefore I still feel confident in my choice here. The final note I’ll make is if I was doing this now, I would probably have gone for Starlink Battle For Atlas’s DLC instead, but as it is I’ve played through that for Slippy and Peppy much further down my list now, so I didn’t miss out on that anyway, still it along with possibly Star Fox 2 would probably be the best choices for Falco games.

My past with this game.

Before I start going into my history with Star Fox Assault the game, I want to go a little over Falco specifically. I mentioned in Fox’s post how a lot of Star Fox 64 was associated with playing the game at my Cousins. Well, we were all pretty big fans of Star Fox back then, also being Star Wars fans, as you can probably guess we’d quote the game constantly, something we still do when we meet up and play games to this day. Anyway, the three of us tended to have specific characters we’d gravitate towards for various Nintendo series. My older cousin would play Mario a lot in games where he was available, and for Star Fox he would play Peppy, his favourite colour was red so it would often line up. My other cousin’s favourite colour was green, he’d play as Yoshi in almost any game he was in, however there was another character I’d associate him with just as much, who he would pick over Yoshi if he was available, being Fox. Back in the Melee days, my cousin would play Fox constantly, and whilst I learnt later how big Fox was in Melee, I still believe he did so more just because he liked playing as Fox. Admittedly, I tended to jump around a fair bit when it comes to characters I use, I’d often gravitate to someone like Koopa Troopa in various Mario games, however when it came to playing Star Fox, I would always gravitate towards Falco, something I eventually began doing in Melee partially admittedly to combat my Cousin’s Fox (he was the best of the three of us at Melee) but also simply because I liked Falco for some reason. For the record, my favourite colour is blue so that could have played a factor too. The point of this long ramble beyond nostalgia for me is just to say of the whole Star Fox team, Falco’s always been my personal favourite, and I always wished there was some sort of multiplayer game or just one where you could freely play as the whole team. I guess finally Slippy was just if we’d have anyone else playing with us on rare occasions.

So, my history with Star Fox Assault specifically is a somewhat unusual one for me thinking back. Basically, I loved Star Fox 64, I played some of Adventures and sort of got into it for a bit but gradually lost interest because it wasn’t a ‘real Star Fox game.’ Admittedly now I realise it was good that they tried something different (the reasons behind that admittedly not being too positive and happy from the sounds of it granted) but I was more excited for the teased Star Fox game I read about in a Nintendo Magazine coming up on Gamecube and in the arcades. There was a screenshot of four Arwings looking like cleaned up versions of the ship from Star Fox Adventures with a classic looking mugshot of Fox in the communicator at the bottom. This was the last I ever saw of that game and years passed with no news on it. Finally after a long time I remember Star Fox Assault being revealed, it was due to have on foot parts as well as a return to the classic Arwing stages and the Landmasters return. At the time, I don’t really remember what I thought, despite being a huge Star Fox fan, I remember thinking of it as one of those games I would maybe check out sometime but wasn’t in a rush to play. The game came out and I saw reviews weren’t too great, saying the on foot parts weren’t particularly good which given how I’d wanted a return to the classic style of Star Fox disappointed me to hear as the majority of the game was on foot.

A year or two passed and one day I was in Toys R Us. In there they had a Gamecube set up to play, something that was pretty rare back then given how it was when Nintendo’s presence seemed to be diminishing quite a bit, this was late into the Gamecube’s run and at that point I was in Middle School, my most hated time in education. Most people I knew were dropping Nintendo or were people who’d never played their consoles, something that being the avid fanboy back then left me fairly isolated when everyone was discussing FIFA, GTA and COD. This was probably the most ‘console wars’ period I personally remember, Pokemon as a fad had practically gone from the playground, Nintendo was regarded as ‘kiddie shit’ by most at my school and my Cousins whilst still playing some Nintendo games weren’t as into it as I was, not really going for many new Gamecube titles and focusing more on PC. I saw the game currently on the demo system was Star Fox Assault and I decided to play it. The stage it starts with was Oikonny’s Fleet and it really blew me away. This was everything I’d always wanted to see in a Star Fox game, it made you feel amazing with the enemies all losing their minds over how you’re taking out their armada, giant capital ships you could blow up, it looked fantastic and admittedly I felt amazing playing through it in public, even if from what I remember there wasn’t really anyone watching me. Anyway, after playing that I decided I had to find out what was going on with this game and how I’d missed it. I looked up reviews in the magazines I had, one was a pretty disappointed average review, another however was a lot more positive, I remember them comparing the ground combat to Jet Force Gemini, a game I was a fan of back in the N64 era. This made my mind up, I needed this game.

So, sometime later I got Star Fox Assault, I don’t remember specifics, possibly as a present for my birthday or Christmas. I played through the game and loved it, for a bit. Eventually, I came to realise it’s flaws more, I’d realised it definitely wasn’t the follow up to Star Fox 64 I’d dreamed of, I also came to realise that there were a fair few things I really wished were different, more flying specific levels for example. With that said, despite it having its flaws, I still really enjoyed replaying it a lot, playing through specific stages, which of course included that Space Armada level that had impressed me originally. I remember at the time, either before or slightly after I played Star Wars Battlefront, a fantastic game that actually reminded me somewhat of this game due to being able to hop into vehicles and hop out whenever you wanted (in certain stages) which gave me a bit more of an appreciation for how Assault worked. Overall as a game, Assault is flawed but not terrible, definitely not as good as 64 but I hesitate to call it an outright bad game. There is one aspect however which I do feel is hugely underrated, something that I think this game really excels at, multiplayer.

I managed to convince my Cousins to try this game out, they weren’t overly enthused by the single player, my older cousin especially not liking a story element I’ll get into in my playthrough, but when we played the multiplayer, I think it rose up to one of our favourite multiplayer games on Gamecube, which is up against Melee, Timesplitters and various other classics. I think what was the best was just how free the combat was, you could run around on foot using various weapons, jump into an Arwing and try to hunt down other players from the skies or jump into a Landmaster running down foes on foot and trying to shoot Arwings out of the sky. Another thing we loved doing was trying to ride on the wings of other players Arwings, with us often making a challenge out of trying to pull off absurd stunts etc. I know this multiplayer mode isn’t one that’s talked about fondly that often, but it’s probably the most memorable part of the game for me and something I still remember enjoying to this day.

My Smash Playthrough.

I believe for this playthrough I did the normal difficulty, as much as I did enjoy this game it was never to the point I really tried to 100% it or anything. The game had really two main forms of gameplay for the stages, a free-roam style and the on-rails style that’s the ‘default’ Star Fox gameplay. For the free-roam stages you’re mostly on foot (barring one or two free-roam stages in space which are Arwing only) and can have access to three different forms of transport. The first of course is simply on foot where you use various weapons, the most basic and the one with unlimited ammo being the blaster, which similarly to the vehicles in the game can perform regular and charged shots. Others include a Machine Gun, Gatling Gun, Sniper Rifle and Rocket Launcher. The second form of transport in these free-roam stages is the Landmaster tank, which sports a different design here to Star Fox 64 being sleeker and thinner. This Landmaster being in stages where you can also be on foot makes it in contrast feel a lot more powerful than it was in Star Fox 64, where it was only used in two on-rails levels, it’s able to run over smaller enemies that have to be fought when on-foot for example and it’s charged blasts are far more powerful than any weapon Fox can use. Finally, there’s the Arwing which only appears in select free-roam stages. I personally find it a lot of fun to hop into an Arwing and fly around the stage you were having to walk through earlier, however the main issue with this is that with the speed and size of the Arwing in these stages it can be somewhat difficult to achieve much other than shoot down enemies in the sky. It is sometimes doable to take down targets on the ground with the Arwing but it’s more bother than it’s worth. The Arwing also is the only vehicle used in the on-rails stages which work just like the stages in Star Fox 64 with the Arwing following a set path but you being able to move around the screen to avoid enemy fire and obstacles etc.

The first stage was that one I’ve already gone on about at length, where you fight Oikonny’s Fleet, who are a remnant of Andross’s forces brought together by his nephew Andrew Oikonny. Oikonny was one of the members of the four person Star Wolf team fought various times in Star Fox 64 led by Wolf O’donnell, but left the team to pursue his own ambitions of trying to take his Uncle’s position as the new head of Andross’s Empire. The fight after the space battle goes down to the planet Fortuna which is an interesting choice as it has a fair bit of history in the Star Fox series appearing in the very first Star Fox game (the first timeline) as the ‘dinosaur planet’, being a humid jungle planet but not in Star Fox 64. In Star Fox Assault, Fortuna appeared for the first time in this second timeline as a planet with a humid jungle climate. Anyway, beyond all that, this stage is fairly good, it’s another on-rails Arwing stage where you fight off Oikonny’s forces, with a lot more ground forces now appearing in the various base complexes on the planet that you fly by. Oikonny is fought as the boss which I’ll detail later, however after his defeat the real villains of the game make their first appearance being the Aparoids, seemingly killing a defiant Andrew mid-sentence. The second stage following this is one of my favourite planets and one that when I saw it, I was excited for, being the planet Katina. Katina’s a semi-arid planet that has various military installations from the Cornerian forces and there were plans for colonies to be set up there. The mission debriefing introduces a somewhat new character, who was named in some notes in Star Fox 64 but makes his first appearance here, Beltino Toad, Slippy’s Father. Beltino tells the team details of the Aparoids and their abilities based on information learnt from an attack they made many years ago on a Cornerian fleet. This is the first on-foot mission where contact with a base has been lost and Fox is sent to look for any survivors. It’s fairly simple as the first on-foot mission but there are a lot of different enemies you fight, being all aparoids, from the simple ones who only take a couple of hits, to the annoying big ones who require a fully charged shot (or rocket) to defeat and the hatchers that constantly produce new enemies and are the objective of the stage. The main disappointment for me with this stage was the hope of seeing Bill, a character from Star Fox 64 who was part of the forces you fought alongside on Katina and I thought might have been the survivor you found. As it is, Fox finds no survivors in the base. It turns out the distress signal sent out was actually a trap set by another Star Wolf member, one Fox has a lot of animosity for being Pigma Dengar, the one who betrayed Fox’s Father to his death. Pigma steals the core memory of the Aparoid boss Fox had defeated, planning to sell it for riches. The Star Fox team immediately pursue Pigma, going to his most recently known location Sargasso Space Station. The team arrive there and one of the gang living on the station ask them why they are intruding on ‘Lord O’donnell’s territory’. Fox explains they’re just there for Pigma but on learning this is the Star Fox team the gang immediately begin to attack them. This is probably one of my favourite levels in the game. Fox and Slippy are inside the space station trying to take down key targets whilst Falco and Krystal battle against the gang’s formidable space forces outside. This is also the only stage where you fight the monkeys that made up Andross’s army in Star Fox 64 on-foot in the series. When the bar fills up too much from the amount of space forces outside, Fox must jump into his Arwing and help take down their numbers before returning back to the station. Slippy is actually one of the highlights of this stage, unlike his flying antics where he’s constantly getting into trouble, Slippy on-foot seems invincible and perhaps more concerningly, has a vacant stare and smile on his face as he runs around firing his lasers. It’s bizarre and somewhat funny to watch especially as he often yells “No mercy!” Once the targets are taken down the head of the gang, Wolf and his Star Wolf team return. Fox demands they hand over Pigma but Wolf says he’s going to make Fox pay for his attack on the station, leading to a space battle between the two teams. Star Wolf’s lineup this time is different to before, Wolf and Leon are still on the team, but the only other member of the team is a newcomer, Panther Caroso who flirts with Krystal and has the symbol of a rose on his Wolfen. Following their defeat Wolf admits he hasn’t seen Pigma for a long time, kicking him off the team some time ago for his greed getting too overbearing.

The next planet visited is Fichina the snow planet. The climate control centre for the planet has been taken over with many of the scientists within killed by the Aparoids. The Aparoids find themselves helped in this by Pigma who seems to have struck an alliance in the name of profit with them. This stage can be irritating, due to the climate control centre being invaded, blizzards make vision limited, meaning Fox has to go on-foot as well as using a Landmaster. (Which is almost required due to how big the level is) When Fox reaches inside the Climate Control Centre he is trapped inside with infected security robots. Fox cannot defeat them and has to keep alive long enough for Falco to reach him in his Arwing and rescue Fox. This leads to the first of a new mechanic in this game, wing riding. Fox stands on the wing of Falco’s Arwing and gains an exclusive weapon for this game mode, a fast firing plasma cannon that would be amazingly useful in the other on-foot missions but naturally is exclusive to this game mechanic. Fox must fire on all enemies that are aiming at the Arwing before they fire and shoot Falco along with Fox down. This can be somewhat irritating but it’s nothing overly difficult. Naturally despite Fox literally standing precariously on the wing of an Arwing in flight, armed with only a hand cannon, Slippy of course needs help from pursuing enemies at one point. After this Fox finally gets to pilot his own Arwing to face the boss. The next stage is Meteo, another returning location being the infamous asteroid field. Fox must pursue Pigma through this on-rails flying section. It’s a pretty fun stage being one of the very few traditional Star Fox stages in the game, taking Fox through a hidden base facility inside a giant asteroid. This base has been completely taken over by Aparoids with various enemies seen at the start of the game as part of Oikonny’s forces appearing as Aparoid infected versions. Finally, the boss is encountered at the end of the base, being a horrific giant face of Pigma now fully infected and assimilated into the Aparoid’s forces. The next stage is another favourite of mine, Sauria, the planet from Star Fox Adventures also known as the Dinosaur Planet has now been invaded by the Aparoids. Dying dinosaurs infected by the Aparoids can be found lying around the map and the mission is to take out the hatchers. It’s a fairly simple mission although not particularly easy, however my favourite element of it is that you have the Landmaster and Arwing available to you. If you’re skilled and have enough patience the majority of the hatchers can actually be taken out by the Arwing, with only the ones inside the caverns and temples in the stage requiring you to stay on-foot. This stage has no boss which whilst I like the bosses in the game somewhat helps make it a bit of a breather stage. Krystal joins Fox on the ground and similar to Slippy before is invincible I believe. Following the mission Fox and Krystal reunite with a grown-up Prince Tricky, the dinosaur companion Fox has in Star Fox Adventures and there’s a nice short cutscene with them talking for a bit before the next stage.

The next stage is interesting, the story is reaching its endgame now, but this is the Corneria stage in the game. Corneria in almost every other game is always the first stage visited but this is technically the final planet before the Aparoid Homeworld this time. It turns out the invasion of Sauria was a distraction with the main invasion fleet of the Aparoids taking control of Corneria City. General Pepper who has been leading the debriefings for each mission up this point is cut off in the middle of his debriefing here. Fox has to fight on-foot once again, but this time there are special radar jamming enemies that can only be defeated by a sniper shot when their eyes open. When these foes open their eyes however they shoot out a sonic wave that homes in on Fox, meaning you have to be quick and not stay too long in the same spot after taking the shot to destroy them. The Sniper Rifle’s a nice weapon to use, with the shot almost instantly reaching long distances which can make it satisfying. Notable enemies on this stage are infected Cornerian soldiers which is the only time in the series I believe where you fight against them. Their infected design is fairly unsettling too. Following the Radar Jammer’s destruction Fox is granted an Arwing, however before you get to do that it is blown up and Fox has to be rescued by Wolf of all people. Similarly to on Fichina, Wolf has Fox ride on the wing doing a harder but essentially the same thing as before. The boss of this stage also involves riding on Wolf’s wing, however it is quite a notable one, fighting General Pepper’s flagship which has been infected by the Aparoids with him inside it. Pepper can only control what he says at this point, not his actions and orders Fox to shoot him down, leading to an actually somewhat emotional boss fight. When Pepper is about to fall to his death following the fight, he’s saved at the last moment by Peppy who flew out an Arwing to help catch the General’s ship cushioning it’s fall somewhat. Pepper is still alive but in no condition to help anymore for the rest of the game. Next up is a stage that’s quite important for Smash Bros, being one of the few that didn’t return in Ultimate but was in Smash for Wii U the Orbital Gate. Beltino Toad seems to have taken over the running of operations for the Cornerian forces with Pepper out of action, and he’s come up with a plan to use a special bomb on the Aparoid Queen that will take down the whole hive mind, however it’s still being developed. The Star Fox Team along with the remaining Cornerian forces and Star Wolf must protect the Orbital Gate where this research is being conducted from the Aparoid forces who eventually begin firing bigger and bigger missiles. This is a pretty fun mission, it’s very similar to Sector Z in Star Fox 64, with you fighting various fighters for a while before moving onto taking down incoming missiles. It’s cool also the scale of the battle, with the Cornerian forces fighting alongside you (often getting destroyed as the battle goes on) and your team along with Star Wolf assisting you in taking down the missiles. What’s good is they do help take down the missiles so it feels like a group effort more than you being expected to do everything yourself. The final missile is huge being almost a capital ship (and funnily enough probably stronger than any of the other large starships you can blow up in the game) where you have to take out multiple sections of it before the whole thing is destroyed. With the gate defended, the bomb is completed and the Star Fox Team along with Star Wolf are able to travel through the gate to the Aparoid Homeworld, the final stage of the game.

The next stage is horrible, it’s I’d say the toughest in the game and extremely unforgiving. The planet of the Aparoids is actually pretty interesting, one half Krystal comments on as looking lovely, but then the other half is not only desolate but seems to have almost been eaten away by the Aparoids, with the inside of the planet being hollow, looking almost like a fruit that’s been devoured on one side by insects. It’s never said but this almost implies that this planet might have been inhabited by another species and taken over by the Aparoids since it doesn’t seem to be its natural state. Above the entrance to the core of the planet is a giant honeycomb shaped shield, with a city floating above it. This city may have been created by the previous inhabitants and infested by the Aparoids but there’s no clear evidence either way. Gameplay-wise, this city is terrible to deal with, there are many ways you can fall off which leads to an instant death, it’s got very long corridors and can be incredibly difficult to navigate. The mission is to once again take down all the hatchers, however they are laid out all over the place and all have shields which require you to also locate a shield generator before being able to attack them. To top all of this off, the worst part of his huge stage is that dying results in having to start from scratch meaning it can and I believe in my playthrough did take me absolutely ages to beat. I was going to save talking about the music for later, but I will say the music in this stage is also a big factor on how irritating it is. It’s not bad music but it’s pretty intense, fitting of the area but given just how long you’re there grows old fast. It is the final on-foot stage of the game so of course I get it being challenging, but this stage is definitely a huge test of endurance and patience which is the only stage I never want to replay. During this fight, the Cornerian Fleet along with Peppy and Rob64 in the Great Fox are distracting the bulk of the Aparoid forces in a space battle above the planet, one which results in 20% of the Cornerian forces being completely destroyed and the bulk having to retreat. When the shield is taken down the Star Fox team prepare for their assault, but just then, a secondary shield appears, made up of small honeycomb shaped segments. Falco attempts to blast the shield but his shots just bounce off and it looks like the team cannot continue, just then however, something flies in from above, the Great Fox absolutely covered in Aparoids. Peppy demands they all move out of the way and in one last ditch effort uses all remaining power in the Great Fox to fire at the shield. He then rams the ship into the shield shattering it temporarily. Knowing this is likely the end but there’s no time for anything more to be said, he demands the Star Fox team enter the core before the shields regenerate, which Fox reluctantly agrees to. The Great Fox explodes above them as they fly into the caverns below.

For the final stage, the journey into the core, this is an on-rails Arwing stage and definitely the hardest. I guess the easiest comparisons to make would be comparing it to the section before Andross in Star Fox 64, or if you wanted to go with a big pop culture reference, the interior of the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi. Tons of enemies will block your path as you fly through meaning there’s a lot to deal with, there’s also plenty of walls and closing doors that block your way as you go requiring you to fly through specific gaps. What’s cool is that Star Wolf and the Star Fox team are alongside you through the majority of the stage so there’s plenty of chatter if you like that going on. Star Wolf eventually sacrifice themselves by attracting the overwhelming enemies towards the end of the stage to chase them leaving the Star Fox team free to reach the Queen for the final battle. The Queen tries to get Fox to give up by using the voices of those who have been infected by the aparoids before, Pigma, General Pepper, Peppy, Rob64 and finally James McCloud all telling Fox to give in. That final one proves to be the Queen’s biggest mistake however, because using Fox’s Father to tell him to give up makes him remember his father’s actual words to him (or at least what he believed he heard) when fighting Andross, to never give up, and so the final battle begins. Following the fight, Fox fires the special bomb into the Queen, wiping her and the Aparoids out as well as destroying the planet. Fox and his team escape and then learn that Peppy and Rob64 also survived by using the Great Fox’s bridge as an escape pod. Slippy then asks Fox if he thinks others survived and he says he’s confident Star Wolf and General Pepper will have done so as well, leading to the credits. What’s cool is that the credits show each planet and go over what happened to them, how much damage they sustained in the invasions and what will happen to them going forward, some are somewhat dark actually with one of the tribes on Sauria being confirmed to have been completely wiped out. With 20% of the Cornerian fleet wiped out there were a huge amount of casualties also. The music in this game was fantastic, they did orchestrated versions of a lot of the music from Star Fox 64, but it was so good that some music tracks I never overly noticed in 64 like the Corneria theme became some of my favourites in Assault. Standouts to me are the Corneria theme, Meteo, Fichina and especially the Star Wolf theme of the returning tracks, and Sauria and Oikonny’s Fleet of the new tracks for Assault. The boss music tracks were also great and even if I had to keep redoing a battle would help make it less irritating to repeat as I enjoyed hearing them again, something that I noted earlier wasn’t the case for the Aparoid Homeworld theme however.

Finally, I want to go over the bosses. The first boss of the game is actually one of the most memorable, being Oikonny’s flagship. What’s cool about this fight is that it’s Andrew’s attempt to replicate the boss fight with his Uncle Andross from Star Fox 64. The thing is, just like Andrew himself, it’s a pale imitation of the original, making for a fun fight but definitely not a tough one. It’s also followed by the very first Aparoid fought in the game. It’s interesting that this Aparoid looks identical to the one Beltino Toad tells the team attacked and destroyed a Cornerian fleet some years ago, although it’s not said if it’s the same one. It’s a fairly average boss fight and sadly sets the scene for boss fights that aren’t as memorable as Star Fox 64’s due to a lack of dialogue or personality in the foes. A cool scene is that, following the defeat of this Aparoid, it’s revealed a whole swarm of ones exactly the same are arriving on the planet which leaves the Star Fox team having to retreat. It’s also odd despite this scene, that this type of Aparoid is not seen again throughout the rest of the game. The boss of Katina is fairly simple, although somewhat impressive with its size, it requires using the Landmaster to attack a weakpoint on its underside, which causes its legs to collapse and its saucer shaped head to become accessible which houses its core. The next boss fight is a familiar one, being against the Star Wolf Team. This is a fun dogfight with the Star Wolf Team doing their usual tactics, Leon targeting Falco, Panther being new targeting the new member Krystal and Wolf focusing on Fox. The battle isn’t tough being only the third stage of the game and this is the only fight with Star Wolf in the game, so that’s slightly disappointing, but it's still a nice end to what I consider a fun stage. The boss of Fichina is the first that’s in the standard level style where you can freely move around, but also allows the use of an Arwing, involving you firing into the cylindrical weapon when it’s firing its giant laser. It’s a fairly simple battle but not bad from what I remember. The Pigma boss fight is similar to a particularly annoying one from Star Fox 64, Gorgon where he will hide his face and use claws to attack you. Destroying the claws makes him open his face up to fire a laser at you, which is his weak point. This fight is far easier than Gorgon was, however it’s still fairly challenging from what I remember, also the expressions the Pigma face makes (especially when defeated) are certainly something. The General Pepper boss fight, despite me liking how emotional it is with him telling you to just keep firing on him is very simplistic due to being part of the riding the wing section of the stage. All you have to do is keep shooting at him when he’s approaching which keeps him from attacking you. Of course there’s other enemies you also have to deal with and he moves around a lot, but still it’s very simple overall. I don’t really count the final missile at the Orbital gate as a boss, and I already mentioned how to beat that, it is fun to take down though. The Aparoid Homeworld luckily doesn’t have a boss (given how frustrating that stage already is it’s a relief to get it over with.) so that leaves just the final boss, the Aparoid Queen. She has three different forms, the first of which is like a giant statue in the middle of her chamber, rooted to the ground with armour around her midsection. This armour when blasted away will reveal a pink gem which is her weakpoint and damages her when shot. Following her defeat in this form, the Queen’s remains are open for Fox to fire the special bomb into, which he does. The Queen however changes forms and begins the retreat, attempting to develop an antibody to protect herself from the bomb which would render it useless. The Star Fox Team pursue her to ensure that doesn’t happen, fighting her second form in an on-rails flying section. In this second form there are four jewel-like eyes that have to be fired at to reveal the Queen’s dragon-like head. Overall it’s fairly challenging but not very difficult. Following the defeat of this form the Queen desperately tries to escape in her final form, this form is vulnerable to hits anywhere, but bounces around like crazy, with one of its attacks being to send a tunnel of energy out that you must stay in the middle of to remain undamaged, and its other attack being a form of fire breath. This form is weak but can take you down if you’re at low health from the previous form so requires caution, still with its defeat the Queen is fully destroyed and with her the whole of the Aparoid race falls too.

In conclusion, probably my biggest criticism of this game’s story, and what I remember my Cousin also bringing up was, a lot of this barely has any weight to it. Every single sacrifice in the game turns out to have had the named characters survive, and almost all the terrible losses are basically mentioned in text. Now, this is definitely something that’s happened in a lot of other games, Zelda for example often has background events where thousands likely died that are mentioned in passing, but the difference is they don’t often have characters seeming to sacrifice themselves just to turn out totally fine in the end, or at least not to the level that they do in Assault. General Pepper, Star Wolf, Peppy and Rob64 all seemingly die with Fox often expressing great sorrow at what happens, only for them to be mentioned to be fine in the next scene, heck Pepper and Star Wolf’s final appearances in the game are them sacrificing themselves, they don’t even appear after being said to have survived. Does this mean I wish they’d have killed someone off? Well actually, normally I’m totally against this, and he’s one of my favourite characters, but yes, I feel either Peppy or General Pepper should have been killed off. In Star Fox Command Pepper is retired and doesn’t even appear so keeping him alive was even more pointless, whereas at least Peppy had a role that made his survival semi worthwhile. At the end of it all, sadly how rough the Aparoid Homeworld stage was leaves a bit of a bitter end to what was overall a fairly fun experience I felt, if flawed in a few ways, it was still a game I was glad to play again for my list.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Falco in Smash.

Falco is only playable in this game’s multiplayer, however due to the nature of the series, this is Falco’s only appearance outside of Smash Bros where he’s fully playable outside of a vehicle. Since Fox is the sole playable character in single player, every playable character in multiplayer plays the same just with different stats such as faster move speed or higher jump and better at certain vehicles, with Falco of course being best in an Arwing. In Smash Bros Falco fights very similarly to Fox so this fits for Assault, his default weapon just like Fox is a standard Blaster. The blaster can charge up like Fox’s or just do standard fire which is closer to his blaster shots in Smash Bros. Falco can pilot a Landmaster which shares the design in Super Smash Bros Brawl with this version in Assault. Falco is much less skilled at a Landmaster so the priority when playing as him is to find the first Arwing you can. The only other weapon that really comes close to something Falco and Fox use in Smash Bros is the barrier shield, an item that creates an energy bubble around them for a brief period blocking attacks, although unlike the reflector it does not reflect attacks back. Falco’s design in Smash Bros is closer to his Star Fox 64 and Command designs. In Assault he wears red which is only really close to an alt Falco has in Smash Bros.

Credits.

For information on this game including dates of releases I must give credit to Arwingpedia.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me from gameplay videos on youtube by other people a few years ago as well as a screenshot by me of Falco in Starlink’s DLC taken on Switch. If someone recognises these screenshots from their video specifically and can provide me a link to the original I will give credit.

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Team Masho vs. Team Uraotogi

Previously: Dr. Ichigaki vs. Rokuyukai

Mashoutsukai cheats and their match is held directly after Uraotogi's previous. In addition, Onji and Shishi are tented by Ruka the Enchantress. Beautiful Suzuka has gone over strategy with his team the previous night. Jin, a consummate bro, sits out.

Round 1: Gama vs. Makintaro. They're both Bakken tier at best. In the manga, Makintaro isn't even able to regrow his limbs, although anime Makintaro can trash whatever body part Gama paints. Kurama also has black hair in the comic so that shit's barely hc, so Makintaro wins. He had to cut off like six or seven arms and a leg tho

Round 2: Bakken vs Ura Urashima. Bakken is probably physically stronger than Ura, but can he set up his mist/kill Ura before Ura sets up his force field and opens the Idun Box? Is Ura skilled enough with his fishing line to maintain his distance? This can go so many ways, but Ura's attack actually hurt Kurama, while Bakken beat the shit out of an unconscious Kurama and did little damage. Ura fishes for Bakken in the fog and deals a lethal blow, no Idun needed

Fwiw I know Onji would give them different items for different fights, but since we have no examples, it would be entirely speculation

Round 3: Toya vs. Kuro Momotaro. Toya legit was trying to kill an entirely immobile, defenseless Kurama from step one and still failed. Kuro uses one sphere and bodies the little ice twink

Round 4: Risho vs. Kuro Momotaro. My dude lost to an injured Kuwabara. Like fucking Byakko only lost to himself, let's be honest, so this is Kuwabara's first real win (kendo stick man doesn't count; he fights with a hunk of wood, he's not a serious person). And his big finishing move is just more clay for his armor of clay. One sphere. Ez. By this time Jin has already left. None of this was worth his time and that island was actually tiny af anyway

Team Masho sucks more than Team Uraotogi wins. Kurama no diff'd Gama and Toya was so cumbrained he talked to the cute fox boy for half an episode instead of realizing his lethal strikes weren't killing him; so Kuro's abs have a similar effect. Jin could at least win by ring out against Kuro and then sweep the others (if he doesn't fly into any of Ura's fishing lines), but Team Uraotogi are such scumbags that he'd have no interest -- ears not wiggling/10

Next: Team Rokuyukai vs. Team Uraotogi for the chance to fight the Saint Beasts