#take this all with a grain of salt its not all cannon but i think having a baseline for characters makes them easier to write

[milezperprower]

TW FOR VIOLENCE!!!

mock ragamaster scenes/ comic panels to experiment with and for promotion purposes! all to.. varying degrees of quality LOL. these were mainly to try working my hand at scene composition and character dynamics while also messing around with methods of greyscale coloring and rendering.

these are likely NOT actual scenes in ragamaster but rough estimates of what they could be. think of it like concept art!

okay but take THIS one with a VERY LIGHT GRAIN OF SALT.

(tw for violence again)

im just going to reiterated that this one in particular is NOT CANNON. until further notice at least.

i actually made this kind of by accident because i KNEW i wanted to draw some kind of confrontation between jax and pomni, but i just ended up getting something way more extreme than i indented and ended up really liking it. not necessarily story-wise but i'm IN LOVE WITH THE POSES I DID. REALLY PROUD OF THAT.

i was actually really hesitant about showing this one in particular because i was scared that people are going to jump into conclusions about jax's character. but i think if i state the fact that its not cannon hopefully people will listen.

anyways here's a version of the 1st shot without any text bubbles!

interpet these all as you will! like i said, while i have most of the main idea's for Ragamaster coming together, im still working on the finer details. this is part of that lol. enjoy!

[ashe-alter]

Dark Ace is Lightning Strike

Part II

Okay so we getting a part two because this is still on the brain and I have to many aus that I've built too much around but I've decided to accept this as cannon for the original series so here we go.

Harrier trusted Dark Ace enough to make a deal with him.

That's it, that's part two.

Why would this pompous, stuck up, by the books skyknight make a deal with a skyknight killer? It's no like Terra Rex was in any kind of immediate danger from Cyclonia. They appear to have the largest squadron out of every one we've seen. And! Terra Rex also appears to be well equipped and have a lit of resources just on the terra. They dont look as run down and recycled as Atmosia does. The knights all have new shiny armor.

Why make a deal with the most feared man in Atmos when clearly you are not desperate to save your terra?

Well, But He's Lightning Strike. He still has honor. He was a friend. He let Harrier live.

Whether we like origins or not and while I take it all with a grain of salt, especially with this theory, we know Harrier was at the battle to end all battles.

He saw the betrayal. I'm sorry if I saw a 16 to 18 year old murder his skyknight I wouldn't trust him with anything except more deception and death. He's never lost a sky duel and he out right says "If you live you win, and I never lose."

Dark Ace is fully willing and able to kill anyone he deems necessary.

Yet Harrier survived the battle to end all battles. Hes the only one we can identify in that flash back that we see later.

He defends Dark Ace when the team is outraged he made a deal. Yes he turns out to be wrong but maybe he truely thought he could still trust the honorable man he knew ten years prior the challenge. Maybe Dark Ace would have kept his word had the Rex Guardians not been cheating pricks.

He is genuinely surprised when Dark Ace pulls the rig out from under him with the "honor is over rated" line. He had hoped this was still the man he knew and trusted and its devastating for Harrier when he isn't.

The fight after this moment is extremely personal for Harrier. Hes still stuck up towards the storm hawks but he also took a very deep blow to his trust.

This isn't just because he thinks the storm hawks are children who don't know what their doing. When Piper says "you don't know who you're dealing with." Harrier very roughly tells her to be "Quiet." He pretty much yells it in raised agitated tone. He did know who he was dealing with. But Dark Ace isn't the same man he remembers. Lightning Strike would have stayed true to the deal. Dark Ace left that part of him behind.

Btw, link to part one here

[deddd-l]

The Critical Issue of People not Understanding Bakugou’s Sacrifice and why this Fandom is Doomed

The other day, I was reading an article all about “why Bakugou’s death [chp 362] adds no real point to the story” and was absolutely blown away by this take right here:

and although I am a certified BkDk shipper, I feel a strong need to defend and explain exactly why this Article and the majority of the fandom is dead wrong about Bakugou’s character and his place in the story. Take my words with a grain of salt, however, as of course my opinion isn’t gospel. This is just my analyzation of the story of MHA and my take on the character of Bakugou Katsuki.

Let’s start from the core of all this commotion— the hate around Bakugou’s character.

i. Bakugou Katsuki

We know him, we either love him or hate him, and we’re all aware of his importance to the story. Or…are we?

It’s been pretty obvious from the very first chapter that Bakugou was gonna be some sort of important figure in the overall story. From his introduction, to his body language, and even his speech— he was a shithead AND unavoidable.

His presence is obliviously the first obstacle to our protagonist, Izuku, as both a bully and a source of insecurity (both to Izuku and Himself)

Believe it or not, this immediately sets the bar for what we’re to expect from Bakugou throughout the entirety of the story. This is His character, and this is his story line.

Proving himself, and being a source of importance to Izuku. First as a bully, then a rival, and finally… 

“The most important figure to Midoriya Izuku”— someone who matters so much to Izuku, he has to die.

And guys, I REALLY need to stress how much his death matters. BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL BEEN BUILDING TOWARDS. From the very first moment he was introduced, to his supposedly final words. Bakugou has always been intertwined with Izuku.

And THAT is where all the animosity and confusion lies.

ii. The red string of fate

Now, this is somewhat the part I get a bit preachy. Only because I view these two as having a connection SO powerful, it’s beyond any sort of friendship imaginable. However, if you view their relationship as more platonic, you’re 100% justified in thinking as such.

Like I mentioned earlier, Bakugou’s death has been the main point all along, because he matters so much to Izuku.

I have a very strong theory as to why people refuse to see it as such.

You see, not everybody likes to dig below the surface. Sometimes, the average viewer just wants to enjoy some sappy romance, or quick punches thrown back and forth, or even some quick and painless jokes to make you chuckle softly. Basically, people don’t like having to think while enjoying visual entertainment. I know this because rarely I actually pay attention to media I’m watching, too busy working on something else to use it as anything more than white-noise.

Bakugou and Izuku have a relationship that requires deeper thinking. It’s not like any other relationship in MHA, where you see two cute characters and harmlessly ship them together. They have history, and a dark one at that. 

The average viewer ALSO rarely views the world as anything more than Black and White at first. Which is normal, we always assume a side before learning about all the nitty gritty details in a situation.

Bakugou has a character that isn’t Black or White. He’s the deuteragonist. Not quite the protagonist, and not quite the antagonist.

He’s a troubled kid, with a troubled past. And guess who has ALWAYS been with him through his darkest moments? Izuku.

People see this as something bad, when it’s the entire point of BOTH their character arks.

To Izuku, Bakugou is his symbol of Victory. To Bakugou, Izuku is a constant and possibly his symbol of hope. Their relationship is so complex, so deep, and filled with many, many layers. It’s vital to both of them, as we see most prominently through Izuku’s reaction to Bakugou’s death.

Their loses hurt. Because they’re so intertwined.

Like losing your other half, literally. Save to win, win to save.

Bakugou was more than just cannon fodder to get Izuku Angry. His death took a piece of Izuku away. His sense of self and his vision of Victory. There’s a reason we haven’t cut back to the Shigaraki vs Izuku battle. He’s not truly ready, not without his sense of victory with him.

But people can’t accept this. People instead take it an entirely different way.

iii. Once a bad guy, always a bad guy

This is my biggest problem with the MHA fandom. I don’t actually consider myself a part of it. I’m a little too embarrassed about my so called peers that believe they understand or appreciate the story. I mean, you’re allowed to dislike whoever you want or like whatever you want, but the hate around Bakugou makes no sense to me. 

You guys… realize people can change, right? There is no such thing as a purely good/ evil character or person. We can try and pretend there are, but there aren’t.

There’s something called character growth, too. Not sure if you’ve heard about it, but Bakugou has gone through it a lot. So has Izuku. Because THAT’S WHAT THEIR RELAITONSHIP ABOUT. FUCK IT, THAT’S WHAT THE DAMN STORY IS ABOUT.

Izuku’s a quirkless kid who wants to be a hero? Fuck it! He gets a super powerful power and is said to become “the greatest hero ever”. Good for him!

Villains want change to the hero system because it’s not fit for everyone? They’re right! Let’s allow them a revolution and give the story more perspective and depth as more than just a hero story. Good for them!

Bakugou, god forbid, wants to reimagine himself as someone more than their past mistakes and turn a new leaf alongside his childhood friend/ most important figure? …Let’s make fun of his death instead.

I GENUINELY DONT UNDERSTAND. YES, SOMETIMES HE SAYS MEAN WORDS. WHAT ELSE?

MHA is so much more that the silly shipping, memes, or backlash it gets. Is it perfect? Of course not! Is it detailed and complex? Absolutely!

Yes, people are allowed to not like a character. I’m not trying to force anyone to love Bakugou. He’s certainly not my favorite, but I at least understand his importance. Yes, not everybody has to grasp the deeper meaning behind a story and simply enjoy it for being a cool anime with memorable character. The problem arises when there is literally NO critical thinking and everyone just agrees with what is at the surface level.

(let it also be known that I feel most of the hate stems from people watching the DAMN ANIME. No offense if you like it, but I can’t stand to watch it. It’s lazy, frankly kind of ugly, and butchers almost every character SO BADLY (*cough, Bakugou, *cough) people are apparently pretty adamant to be anime watchers only, so this could be another reason they dislike Bakugou, because the anime is GOD AWFUL. Again, no offense :))

uhhh, merry Christmas!! 💥🎄

[sunflowerandstrawberryspice]

Before we begin as always: This is all for fun and is not meant to be taken to seriously everyone please be nice or at least civil. Okay? Awesome read on!

Alrighty I'm feeling a little irritated after a not so lovely comment on one of my fics (that has literally NOTHING to do with Jay) about how I don't often write about him if at all. Now I just kinda ignored the comment cause this was the same person who said I couldn't I took what they said with a grain of salt so yeahhhhhh (like seriously I had to mention that cause it's just such a weird thing to say since Ninjago has said multiple times that Zane is just as human as the others so???)

But anyways I want to start by saying yeah that's true I don't write about Jay very often, in fact I have never written a fic centered around him BUT I will never go out of my way to vilify him outside of the actions he takes IN CANNON because I try to stay in character when writing unless it's an AU that might shift their personalities a bit but not by much. But this brings me to an issue I've come across more than once and it sort of bothers me and its: the erasure of Jay's more negative qualities.

Now I'm not saying that Jay is an irredeemable villain here I'm just saying that he has said/done things that aren't good that a lot of people seem very keen on just ignoring or in some cases outright denying, and I get it it sucks when our favorite characters are flawed trust me my favorite character is GARMADON so I have plenty of experience in liking characters with flaws lol. BUT just because we like them doesn't mean they don't HAVE those flaws.

Like Jay (since he's who we're suppose to be focusing on rn) is kind of an ass multiple times especially early in the series. Now I hate the love triangle because it fucked up literally all people involved and I found it super annoying but I think Jay was painted in a particularly bad light. For example Jay straight up attacking Cole even though Cole had ZERO clue about the whole perfect match thing, like imagine if out of no where your best friend ATTACKED YOU saying you were trying to "steal" (I hate that phrase btw so dumb cause Nya's a person) the person they liked? Probably would feel really crummy.

Now I do understand that Jay probably has some form of anxiety but that doesn't mitigate the fact throughout the series Jay has a tendency to get freaked out and then lose his temper, in more recent seasons it's happened less frequently which I'm going to chose to interpret as him growing up but is likely just because in later season the writing tends to muddy the waters on most characters (we don't even talk about crystalized because it doesn't exist, like seriously Lloyd talks about Harumi in Dragons Rising like Crystalized never happened which I'm a big fan of) but yeah. I've never been a huge Jay fan myself but his cannon character is interesting and I'd understand why people would like him since again he's not an irredeemable monster he's a person.

But yeah, I love Ninjago and I love being a part of the fandom but I don't love how sometimes people overlook the charcters negative traits and that really bothers me since more than one of the characters go through arcs (some more subtle than others) to become better people. Like I also think people underplay Nya's anger issues, Kai's can be as well but to a lesser extent SOMETIMES, which is unfortunate because that's part of their arcs of growing into new more mature people. All of the characters have their problems it's what makes them interesting to follow, I'm a huge fan of Garmadon and he is EXTREMLY flawed but that's what makes him an interesting character especially since he's trying to be better (again lol).

In conclusion I love over analyzing this Lego show cause even if its shit sometimes the characters it created are super fun to play with much like actual Legos! I don't hate any characters (except for Nadakahn and The Mechanic fuck those two they're creepy as shit) I love getting to talk about them and am totally open for conversations about them because as you can tell from this post I am a natural born yapper and I love to hear other peoples thoughts/views so feel free to say something as long as you're willing to keep it civil!

I hope y'all have a great day/night PEACE OUT!

[gaygayaurel]

As game Lambert #1 fan 5ever the Nerflix Lambert sucks but not bcs of what people think? (I didnt read book of elves I love and respect myself sometimes )

As in game Lambert is kinda fun in that he got actually defined compared to Novels and Hexer where he did not exist ad character proper. He is deeply mean and sarcasric person, being willing to chew out his closest friends and enemies alike. He isnt as morally concerned abt stuff as geralt and when someone asks him to kill a monster he'd do it. Fuck he'd even go as far as use Axii to make two bandits die in horrific way. This is after all his lot in his shitty miserable life. He hates witchery and witchers and the very concept of this much suffering ("But you kept the table" he says furious to Vesemir as they stand above screaming Uma). His attitude is just such a complete 360° from Geralt' silent acceptance of what was done to them. It truly becomes the only voice of like hey fuck what happened to us, fuck it all to hell. Hes an utter fucking dickhead and hell provoke people for no reason (talkinf abt geralt and triss in front of phillipa for no reason) (i deadass dont think he would fuck up yens stuff on purpose tho #;#&#&)

His main core personal element is revenge. In his short appearence in w1 he proclaims desire to slaughter salamandra for killing Leo. In W3 he goes on massive revenge rampage spanning CONTINENTS for a guy we dont know (and thats pretty cool to me, implying he has adventures outside geralt, both him and eskel). He says his first action after he left Kaer Morhen was to find and kill his dad ( and him being sad he couldnt save his mother his life is all just empty revenges that will never fill the holes of people hell miss).

But also main Core element of Lambert is also love as cheesy as it sounds. He cared deeply for Leo and Aiden and even his own mom. After Triss. Got conked out by a mage guy in witcher 1 he cared for her and watched over her (they were hardcore inplying shipping which is funnt but whatever). He literally puts his life on line dor Ciri and Geralt. The thing is he is dickhead but he will do Everythinf for those few peoples he has left in his life.

The Point is games being games and larger allowed Lambert to have depth and nuance. He is imo one of the most interesting and coolest game characters. Netflix Lambert however did not have the time for variety of reasons to get that.

One is Lambert is very minor person in books. Second is that the show didnt...realy care abt witchers past vesemir maybe. So he wasnt a focus. In the end what we get is disappoitninf character not helped by the fact most witchers in netflix are cannon fodders for baba yaga.

ONE issue that I have is people saying Lambert was a dick to Ciri and thats OOC. While I cant speak from the POV of books (altho my friend who did read them say he is sexist), from POV of game thats untrue. In fact I believe game Lambert would VERY much be a fucking dick to Ciri fron a start. It doesnt even need to have sexist colouring to it. This dude HATES witchering. He hates the mutagenesis and the pain of it all, the destiny in it. I firmly believe he wouldnt be OK with a bew trainee and guess what? While he didnt live through instructors not giving fucks abt new witchers because like 1/20 live to become witchers he LIVED through it. On his skin. I firmly believe Lambert being DICKHEAD to ciri at first is nit only a whiff of the complex game!Lambert but a decent start of its own standalone character.

In witcher 1 also wheb tou tell him Leo died he laments he "was not ready". Leo. Just like ciri never got his mutagens (take this with grain of salt because leos whole character is weird tm). So him being an miserable instructor who will push you until you cry is in character ingame. This guys has ten layers of issue.

What Netflix misses is the fact we dont SEE lambert getting to his relationship Ciri where we see rhem albeit briefly in game (willing to fight to death for her). We just have this awkward jump from utter hostility to them beinf kinda pals after baba yaga fight. In the end netflix lambert is just. Boring.

Also hes not a balding fuck and i cant forgive that

[goldenamaranthe-blog]

I’m kind of Terrified for the Summer Maiden reveal in V10

This is something I’ve been thinking about since RWBY vol. 8. We have seen countering identities for each maiden so far.

Fall Maiden: Someone no one knew. She had no importance to the main characters. 

Spring Maiden: Someone familiar, take it with a grain of salt. Raven is still blood relative to Yang. 

Winter Maiden: The original Winter Maiden was an old woman that Ironwood had shut away to just wait for death (which is messed up in its own right). Then there was the whole debacle with the powers going through Penny before finally reaching Winter.  

With that being said, I’m honestly nervous for the Summer Maiden’s identity. Because if CRWBY keeps up with the counterpart pattern, that means that the Summer Maiden is going to be some little Vacuan girl who’s barely old enough to attend a primary combat school like Signal. I can see them either making her a little five year old who doesn’t understand anything that’s going on, or some pre-teen know-it-all who thinks she can take on a whole army on her own because she has special powers. Either way, both would be very easy to manipulate.

Summer Maiden (head cannon/theory): Young Girl from Vacuo, probably going to be a Faunus since we haven’t seen one yet and Faunus seem to be abundant in Vacuo. My big thing is going to be the age of the girl. If she happens to be a Faunus, 5 points to Beacon!

[squeiky]

!!!List of papyrus things!!!

(Update 3! mini update.)

For anyone who needs more info on the guy! Since you usually dont see alot of info about him!

A list of stuff thats just papyrus's tid bits i've collected overtime!

(Disclaimer: some things can be taken off of memory, though I did search most of the stuff up, so you dont have to worry too much. But if your feeling unsure, search it up! And correct me while your at it.)

his room doesn't play/have music.

(If you have reunited playing at enter his room, it'll disappear forever. Untill you go back and let it play again. Even without reunited, a song that plays no matter what room your in, doesn't play any music.)

Never takes off his battle body.

(According to sans, he only takes it off if he has no other choice too. Otherwise he'll just put clothes ontop of it, or just repaints it if needed. He does how ever, change his pants but never takes off the top.)

the minute "royal gaurd " is out of the picture, he's got nothing.

(It was the one thing he worked up for. When the royal gaurd disbands He says he "working hard on doing absolutely nothing". Then again this can be interpreted as papyrus does say he is working on something, despite not being a royal gaurd yet.)

He lies. (And can manipulate)

(Though he is really bad at lying, he seems to manipulate just fine, though its usually not out of malice. He gets undyne to befreind you by mentioning "challenge", which is a weakness of hers, since she never can turn down a challenge. And has lied about floweys name to her to. Has lied to sans or atleast mislead him about the things he knows about. Pretended he didn't know what a lab was during a call in hotland, but if you call him when sans isn't there, papyrus mentions the lab as if it was common knowledge instead of saying "Labrador-y?" As if he had no idea.)

Changes up his attacks

( if you get captured a few times, you see variation in his attacks. If you do it right, you can get him too skip half of his entire attack.)

Calls his own puzzles "Awful"

(This happens after battling papyrus, he says "WHO KNEW THAT ALL I NEEDED TO MAKE PALS... WAS TO GIVE PEOPLE AWFUL PUZZLES AND THEN FIGHT THEM??" This could be interpreted in many ways.)

Spikes, fire, traps, fencless bridges: are all safe for children, according to papyrus.

("EACH AREA HAS TO HAVE A PRECARIOUS BRIDGE" -bridge likely to collapse, dangerous. "ITS MANDATED BY THE GOVERNMENT. OF COURSE KING FLUFFYBOY WANTS TO UNMANDATE IT SAFER." "WHY?! WONT HE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!)

Has "talked" with asgore before.

(Sadly, asgore and papyrus has crossed paths. Asgore advises him not to but dangerous puzzles around town, for the children. Papyrus wants to put dangerous puzzles around town, for the children. This results in them bickering over saftey laws, with papyrus usually winning.)

Tried to start a flowey fan club

(On multiple occasions calls flowey "his best freind" and shows genuine love for the little guy. He even gave flowey a little red scarf to match his, during the 5th anniversary winter alarm clock.)

Has photo-graphic memory for phone calls.

-call in the room where undyne chased you. He seems nervous, or atleast stressed out during this call. I'll leave any and all interpretation to you.)

(Ps: papyrus has bad memory, but good photographic memory?)

His disliking for grease

(Says this during a call with undyne in grillby's place. Undyne says she loves grease, and he quickly dismisses his opinion in favor of hers. Of course, papyrus HAS visited grillbys before, as the dogamy and doggeressa mention him with sans. )

Calls alphys "great"

(During the first tile puzzle, he praises alphys by calling her "THE GREAT DR. ALPHYS" )

Knows about undynes crush on alphus

(He teases undyne a few times on this, leading to the "hot voice" and "audible wink" papyrus lines. He's not oblivious to the things around him, unless he chooses to be.)

Put limes in his eyes!

(Conversation in hotland! The guy thought limes where cucumbers and stuck them in his eyes. When. He thought it wasn't working he put more limes. It burned like hell but he says it was all to have "mettaton's bishoning eyes")

Knows about mtt's eyes

(Nobody seems to know that mettaton has eyes?! Undyne confirms this fact. Papyrus is the only one who outright mentions it.)

He got mettaton to do the tile puzzle thing

(FOR SOME UNEXPLAINED REASON- mettaton was the tile puzzle robot alphys built. The puzzle robot papyrus had during his own tile puzzle. Infact, during mettaton's tile puzzle in hotland, he says that you'd is this a few hundred rooms ago. If you call papyrus, he starts rambling on all the instructions again. Hehe.)

he likes dinosaur oatmeal

(According to the undertale tumblr, flowey response to "whats papyrus's favorite food?" Is DINOSAUR OATMEAL!! YAY!)

really enjoys mtt's show and mtt in general.

(and mtt even helped him with a tile puzzle)

enjoys cars

Owns a car bed

(Want to drive one)

really freaking artistic!

(Paints a whole bridge, makes a snowpapyrus, made his own costume/battle body, built a okay replica of a sentry station)

The red book on the table in the skelebro's house is infact his!

(For specifics, the quantum mechanics book with infinite books inside of it. It isn't specified who reads it, but both brothers should be capable as jokes and puns are not out of papyrus wardrobe.)

has his own shed and tools.

(Also known as "the punishment shed, doghouse, cpature zone, guest room, a garage" or undyne's pun which was "the coolshed". Ah, to be enriched by shed puns... Wonderful.)

tried to learn the "horoscope"

(Got "stumped" according to sans)

thinks junior jumble is harder than crossword

wants a 6 pairs of hot pants and 6 pairs of legs to wear those pants

has a dream of owning a shop where he just sells flames

(Call near in waterfall, near the turtle man shop.)

He's very influential

(If he's the only one killed in a neutral run, even without undyne, a revolution will still occur. Look into it yourself if need be.)

Called himself a genius

(During the instance, where he talks to you after turning the light on in sans's room.)

Can't really tell when someones mad

(He couldn't tell when undyne was mad at him during a call. He asks us too.)

Doesn't watch anime.

(He thinks its like cartoons for babies. Jokes around with undyne for awhile before taking it all back once he knew she watched anime.-during one of the calls.)

Brutal kind of guy

(He says this himself, i don't exactly know WHY he thinks this of himself, but he does.)

Bookworm

Owns a bookshelf

(He has a book Its where his vast dictionary comes from.

Knows about the time and space manipulation tactics sans uses.

(HE KNOWS- HE MENTIONS IT WHEN HE TURNS ON THE LIGHT IN SANS'S ROOM!!)

believes you can be a better person, if you just try.

(And he's right. Even if you kill him he still believes this, beacuse well.. Its true. Undyne wont forgive you and try to kill you, sans won't fight you, bht he's still right either way)

Knows about river person

(He asks about how river person is doing. No body seems to know about river person, and its unsure if undyne knows about their prescence.)

The days in his date scene (Monday, Tuesday, weekday, Thursday,e.c.t ) changes depending on your computer. Even though the date in undertale is always Monday.

(River person has a scheduled thing that matches up to your computer date as well, but this is about papyrus, not river person.)

Weird abilities

(Flying and super speedy twirling, flying backwards. He doesn't even hide it.)

He's pretty freaking tough!

(According to undyne, the person who defeated asgore.)

His "absolutely normal attack" is a giant cluster of bones.

(In theory, his attack could be the size of the entire area, including the giant bone at the end.)

Papyrus can lower the giant bone at the end of his "absolutely normal attack"

Has Collection of bones (or was planning to make one.)

(The room behind the sink was made for.. His attacks/bones. Before toby(dog)came in and made a shrine instead.)

Is annoying dog's favorite target.

Has a cannon, spears, fire thingy, and a dog at his disposal.

(Displayed during the bridge scene)

One persistent dude.

Likes to say "NYEHEHE!"

Has alot of MTT items.

Owns makeup!

(Mtt brand of course!)

Never dated anyone before.

(He says it himself.)

owns a dating manual

Not much of a sleeper.

(To the point where he just calls sleeping "naps" which aren't that long. He outright says he's always working, so he doesn't sleep.)

Dislikes hotland

dislikes hotland x2

Dislikes hotlands puzzles

Dislikes hotlands ethics.

Doesnt know much about hotland

(Says he knows it like the back of his hand!)

Says he never taken off his gloves, so he has no idea how his hands look like.

(He wears gloves or mittens on top of his gloves. And refuses to take it off, like his "battle body")

Calls hotland's steam puzzles garbage.

Dislikes hotlands conveyors

Thinks L1 and R2 stand for left and right

( Of course, it takes him awhile. He starts making puns, and tries to compare the words to pasta, and THEN comes to the conclusion that its left and right. Its Trail and error.-)

Knows about death.

(Said he wanted to meet death one time during a waterfall call.)

He pauses when speaking as a lost soul.

("I MUST CAPTURE A HUMAN! THEN EVERYONE WILL. ...." This is unusual as he is the only one that pauses. This can be interpreted, but it is rather interesting nonetheless)

Alright this is a bit more interpretive. Things may not be 100% facts down here.

Disclaimer: i will be putting "Interpretive" in red coloring for things that have may my interpretation or opinions in! Please do be mindful in your search, and take it with a grain of salt. It doesn't make it comepelty wrong, it has facts! Just muddled with oppinions.

Ready?

self-worth problems.

( can be called interpretive: He always feels very unimportant, as if he doesn't actually matter. During a call in waterfall, with the puddle hallway, papyrus talks about not letting it "get to you" or something along the lines of that. Since undyne speaks from her experience with the puddles, then i'd assume papyrus would too.)

(I think its just a sign of self doubt or insecurity. Someone once said its dysphoria, which is a cool headcannon for paps or something. What ever it is, he has some demons that he doesn't want to let out.)

Forgetable.

( according to the genocide description)

( Interpretive: Other than that, he's not even noticable. Though, there are a few people that appreciate him, most dont really acknowledge him. Unless you kill him of course!)

Sad/depressed?

( interpreitive as well:Before the human showed up, sans explains how his brother was feeling quite down lately. We see a.. Happier side of papyrus through out our journey.. He vents out to us, the player/human, about things he dislikes, or troubles he faces. Hes like a froggit. Life is hard for a froggit.)

Smiles through things.

("This is where I tried to capture you! What a bad memory." -quote he says as he smiles through it all. He does have a sad emote, but so far i have only seen it during a call in hotland, where the CORE was shown. As your adventure is coming close.. To an end.)

Uses his playful "OUCH!" emote when you straight up kill him. Instead of his hurting/in pain emote when flowey catches him off guard before absorbing everyonesones souls.

(The reason is unkown, but that emote is normally associated with more of "light taps." Examples are, toriel's fireballs at asgore and flowey. Unless... Cutting off his head was considered a "light tap" then, but flowey wrapping him in painful vines is considered more painful than getting his head chopped off and still having enough consciousness to joke about it.)

He knows his cooking sucks and that nobody likes it.

(He's not naive. He knows. He even says it. "Nobody has like my cooking before!" - QUOTE. This isn't some hidden fact. He's trying his best, "mabye next year, he might even make something edible." -sans quote.)

That was all the stuff i gathered for now.

Feel free to tell me anything i haven't added! :)

yeah, hes a pretty cool dude, ain't he?

(Edit: i've added some new things to the bunch, and fixed/deleted ome opinions or unrelated junk. Please, continue helping me add!)

[lore-o-hoe]

Episode 138: Chthonic Gods and The Implications

(This is really long so hold on tight!)

So after Zues’ self monologue at the end of Episoed 138 I’m sure we were all left wondering, What IS Persephone?

So this recent chapter has brought to light some interesting new details mainly about Persephone and what she really is. It’s been confirmed in cannon that she is (or appears to be) a fertility goddess which already seems to be a rare commodity in the pantheon. But in Episode 138 Zeus expresses doubt over even this.

Here he looks downright concerned at the implication, so if Persephone isn’t exactly a fertility goddess, then what is she?

Well there’s some clues I was hoping to look into, all starting back with the season 2 teaser image and title:

Cthonic gods are , in basic terms, entities that are tied in some way to the underworld (Hades, Thanatos, ect.).

While of course this could reference Persephone running to and staying primarily in the Underworld this season, I think it could mean something more.

(The information here is from my informal research and isn’t 100% in depth so please take this all with a grain of salt).

So in real-world Greek practicies, both Persephone and her mother Demeter were associated with the Elusinian Mysteries, which were rites and initiations held yearly by the cult that worshipped them.

The mysteries themselves consisted of three important phases in a cycle representing Persephones abduction by Hades, these being the descent (loss), the search, and lastly and most importantly the ascent and return to her mother. Persephone return (ascent)back to the mortal realm is the most important part of this cycle as her nature as a goddess of life (fertility) going into and returning from the underworld was thought to symbolize immortality itself as a mastery over death.

My theory is that Persephone is a cthonic goddess already, a powerful contridiction between the underworld and the mortal realm. A goddess that has the potential to have complete mastery over life and death itself, capable of great rebirth and destruction.

So what does this have to do with Lore Olympus and possible future events?

Zeus here is reflecting on what Persephone could possibly be and what it could mean for the pantheon as a whole.

Either:

1. She is powerful enough to go toe to toe with some of the major gods. She may even be more powerful than was first thought.

2. Her inherent power alone (and what she is) would make her a qualifier to be an Olympian (though what makes some of the gods Olympians in LO isn’t 100% clear to me). And it might be related to why Demeter left Olympus to live in the mortal world.

3. There is something even bigger going on here that I would have no chance of really guessing at.

Whatever the case, this information is so earth shattering that Zeus plans to keep his theory close to himself which probably won’t pan out too well.

Her status as a Chthonic god is definitely a factor, but since LO runs on its own version of the myths I am probably off the mark. I for one am really excited to see how this all unfolds!

[simkjrs]

is there anything similar to villain initialization (in themes, character archetypes, etc.) that you could recommend if you don't mind me asking? i just need more content to fixate on to fuel my brain,,,

i cant think of anything i like as much as vilinit at the moment but here’s a couple things you could check out:

trapped in a webnovel as a good-for-nothing is a soft apocalypse dungeon crawler webtoon that’s pretty interesting so far, protag is a minor villain in a webnovel and he’s trying to survive being used and killed by the protag. funniest part of the story so far is that he is required by his power to be an attention hog and he has no problem with it

marshals cannon fodder spouse* is a webnovel about a guy who transmigrates into a story as the.. well .. marshals cannon fodder spouse who is not only a villain but a trained spy implanted by the royal family by the marshals side. its a BL though so take it with a grain of salt

adonis* is a webnovel about the rebirth of ianna, the strongest swordswoman on the continent and ultimate rival to emperor arhad. plot and worldbuilding are both interesting, i like iannas character, but im not a fan of the ML (?) so far. so watch out for that

a wild last boss appeared* - guy wakes up in a game world in his game character’s body. follow along to find out the mystery of why he transmigrated, what is the truth of the world, what truly is the connection between himself and the game character, what he has forgotten, and more...

beware of the villainess - THE best ‘girl transmigrates as the ultimate villainess of an otome game’ story out there. unequivocal recommendation my only complaint is that melissa doesnt say her thoughts out loud more

* = NOT CAUGHT UP. NOT GUARANTEEING QUALITY ALL THE WAY THROUGH.

novelupdates has a huge treasure trove of webnovels about villainesses being reborn/transmigrated and hero-turned-villain stories but most of them are not very good, nonetheless they can be pretty good for passing the time. hope you find something you like!

[dogtoling]

I’ve been thinking recently.

Before I say this, know that I absolutely love your head cannons and the thought you put into every one of them.

But in regards to the mechanics of things like how ink weaponry seems to literally melt into the ink and how the ink itself seems to have a depth that affects Cephaling technology but little else, it occurred to me that some Cephaling equipment may just be more advanced than anything humans are used to.

For example, staple Octarian equipment includes invisible platforms, floating platforms, and invisible floating platforms. Because of this, could it be possible to take this into account for future headcannons?

Forgive the lack of grace with this ask, my head feels a little hazy.

Thanks for the ask and the thoughts! This is actually interesting stuff and something I have thought of before. There are reasons for specifically why I exclude them from my headcanons, though, and I will go into them here.

I try to go with the general approach of “a type of technology only exists if we clearly see it in game”, and even then, take it with a grain of salt. As this is a GAME world we are dealing with, a lot of things are implemented for game mechanics and simplicity. If it’s seen in use outside of gameplay purposes or makes up the majority of an environment, I say it’s probably a safe bet that it’s just futuristic technology (for example the aforementioned anti-gravity technology and some kind of invisibility)! So I’m specifically going to talk about hammerspace here because it is without question the hottest topic when it comes to sci-fi in Splatoon.

It’s an interesting thought that the Splatoon world would have technology that makes objects soluble into ink. It is shown a LOT, but obviously I have a lot of problems with it. One theory I see thrown around a lot is that all gear and weapons are made of hardened ink (which is a plastic-like material that’s mentioned at least once in concept art) or just ink as a whole. This doesn’t work for multiple reasons,

A. Many of the weapons DO have plastic-y parts that could be ink, but they also have metals, cogs, rubber, stickers and whatnot, all things that would not melt into ink if we were talking about a hypothetical scenario where ink melts inside ink... for some reason

B. If there indeed was a way to make all materials soluble into ink, it still means they would not only melt within milliseconds, but also pull out and reform into exactly what they were before within some other milliseconds. This is like melting an ice sculpture (or since we’re doing regardless of material, a WHOLE LAPTOP OR SOMETHING) into a lake and expecting it to reform itself when pulled out... and you can’t even pull it out because it’s just water molecules now within the other 150 million water molecules that were in that square meter of water before that (i dont know how many water molecules fit into a square meter but it is probably a lot)

C. Since the object literally turning into liquid ink is out of the question at this point, this leaves ink as a hammerspace entity. As we see in the game, things just dip under the surface of the ink. This is a cool gameplay mechanic but in practice it means that this random liquid of a random animal has physics-breaking abilities.

Hammerspace as a whole is one of those plot crutch things where it’s implemented to make things play out smoother, for example Turf Wars in video game form would likely be a NIGHTMARE if your weapons and gear did not conveniently slide out of existence when you need them to do so. You can also pretty easily tell when it’s implemented for gameplay reasons and not because the world is MEANT to have it.

Aside from the INK being hammerspace which just makes no sense whatsoever but IS definitely cool, I would be down for hammerspace to generally exist. HOWEVER, The sole reason the Splatoon world is not meant to have hammerspace technology (and this could literally change any time who knows what lore curveballs they throw) is because it Does Not Have Any. And when I say that, I mean specifically OUTSIDE of when it’s a necessary tool for gameplay, for example:

We see hammerspace technology in the game when it’s needed and used for flavor, convenience or game mechanic purposes. Gear and weapons disappearing into ink, Sting Ray from a lunch ration bag that couldn’t even fit a sandwich in it, 15 Cohocks popping out of one cooler box during Mothership (and we have to note these are probably 1,500lbs+ vertebrates with bones and muscles, NOT entities like Inklings that can squeeze into a jar or possibly even be made of liquid considering how closely you follow the game), THE ENTIRETY OF MAWS, secret boxes through the single player, Octobosses.... list goes on.

This might look bad because I’ve just laid down like 5+ examples of hammerspace indeed BEING in the game while trying to explain how it’s not. Looking back at all of these, they all specifically exist to enable something that the game does. Because it is convenient in a Game. You wouldn’t realistically have a Sting Ray in a Salmon Run because nobody is dragging a pressure washer into a fish mob where you’ll get your limbs ripped off, it’s there to add strategy and fun into the GAMEPLAY.

Now, how does this in any way imply that the world itself has no hammerspace tech? Well this is when we look past the gameplay and look at the WORLD itself.

Technology is usually developed to either make something pre-existing more effective or convenient. What does hammerspace make more convenient? It makes things fit into a smaller space, obviously. It would be an absolute turning point for logistics and cargo business everywhere. You basically wouldn’t need cargo ships, containers, delivery trucks. Or maybe you still would if you were to transport x200000% items as opposed to what they would fit in them before, so small scale is where this comparison makes more sense:

If hammerspace existed, we would KNOW. Space-warping technology would turn the entire society on its head. Inklings’ society is very human-like, meaning their technology has to be much like ours. Having hammerspace only in a sport and NOT in something like logistics and literally everywhere else, with the implication that it’s mainstream enough to be used in a kids’ sport and a crappy part-time job company, just does not work. That’s like if we invented the wheel and ONLY used it in like, uni-cycle races for people in their 30′s meanwhile Larry from downtown is still dragging home lumber on a plastic bag through the snow because no one puts wheels on things that they would be useful on.

Hammerspace is BIG technology and basically, if it existed, it would be the new mainstream. You can buy your house in a can and just unleash it onto some random plain if you want to. Buy your car inside a bottle and just uncork it when you want it. Nobody needs a backpack to school, just put your books inside a locket. Want a new couch? Put it in a bag. Bought a bunk bed? Put it in your pocket. Want to move the entirety of the Ruins of Ark Polaris into a nicer spot so it can be a tourist attraction? You can take it!

TL;DR Hammerspace is WAY too powerful and to make it “make sense” there have to be tons of unspoken rules about what it can or can’t engulf, how, or how long for. Also the point of this post was that while the Splatoon era and especially Octarians definitely have more advanced technology, hammerspace is not one of them. We would know.

[aesthetic-survivor-of-twd]

Have you heard about those new TWD S5/Fatal Frontier leaks ?

I have indeed!

For anyone curious, this information was posted on r/GamingLeaksAndRumours on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/gklgp8/tales_from_the_borderlands_redux_the_wolf_among/

(However, I would take this information with a grain of salt)

For anyone who doesn’t want to click the link, here is the direct quote from the page referencing the game (potential spoilers for a future season of TWDG, so don’t read if you would rather remain oblivious in case it’s true):

“The Walking Dead: A Fatal Frontier/Season 5

The game's name won't be called Season 5 but it is meant to "be" the 5th season of Telltale's The Walking Dead. Currently its subtitle is A Fatal Frontier but it may change.

-Game is not episodic, just a straightforward game, but should be about the same length as a normal Telltale game

- Less focus on choices. This game even picks a specific “timeline” of events. The game mostly focuses on survival horror. There are plenty of dialogue options but true narrative choices are not the focus this time. Plenty of inspiration from games like Resident Evil and The Evil Within 2 in terms of how the game plays.

-Javier returns, pretty much everything from Season 3 is scrapped but him

- Basic premise is Richmond has fallen, you are the only survivor, all characters that are still alive since Season 3 die early on during the fall of the city

- Alone and nowhere else to go Javier decides to find the ranch Clementine went to

- Kenny is retconned into the story super hard. He appears no matter what, this game’s timeline is “fixed” in the Kenny story route, which I suppose means it is "not cannon" for some players. Javier and Kenny cross paths as they are both following leads to find Clementine.

- There is a cult of older members from the New Frontier long before Javier showed up who were radical and kicked out ages ago who are responsible for the fall of Richmond and are now hunting down Javier and Kenny. Allegedly a lot of the game is inspired by the original story of Season 3″

--

I will go more in depth with my thoughts if people want, but in short: If this turns out to be legit, then i’m definitely interested in seeing another season from Javier’s story. However, the possible retconning of certain paths from previous seasons I do find to be questionable and unappealing.

With that said though, I feel like if this story is legit then I think it would be an interesting game if we treat it from the perspective of an “alternative story” as opposed to actual “canon” (so a “what if” based on certain choices). I do greatly like the idea of a survival horror take on the series and I think it could be something really interesting. Skybound taking a different approach to the series without Telltale would be neat to see.

Some of the information does make me quite skeptical towards the validity of it, but at the end of the day, who knows? I suppose we’ll find out when we get more info on TFTB and whether that ties in with the leakers information as well.

I’m assuming the “Kenny route” they refer to is perhaps the Wellington ending in S2 as the actual Kenny route leads to his death and the other one gives him an ambiguous ending.

[my-whumpy-little-heart]

Llyr and the Pirates - Day 26

Oh, what’s this? Writing? From Boa? Absolutely. This is a piece that couldn’t quite fit in the prompt list from Water Whump May, and as of a few months later when I’m updating this post, I have decided to discontinue use of the prompt list entirely in favor of my plans for this story. 

(Despite me meaning to make this about 1000 words, it’s turned into the biggest piece in the series so far with just over 3500). Still in compliance with the same story, but will be returning to the prompt list in the next piece. The masterlist with the rest of the series is here! Tag list (dm to be added or removed): @castielamigos-whump-side-blog, @insanitywishes, @whumpingonarainyday, @burtlederp, @pepperonyscience Content warnings: climbing up to and threat of falling from a dangerous height, mild gore for short description of wounds, knives, noncon touching, vague mentions, threats of, and fear of death

Floyd’s hands were shaking when it was his turn, and he lowered himself quickly down the rungs. He stopped halfway down when the ladder ended, bracing himself with a deep breath. Then he let go.

Floyd fell down feet first, splashing into the water and plummeting beneath the surface. He held his breath, but water still shot up his nose with such force that he nearly choked on the air locked away behind tightly sealed lips. The sloped sea floor stopped his descent and he kicked upwards, the light fabric of his pants flaring outward with each frantic stroke. 

Seconds later, he broke the surface and heaved a breath of fresh air, eyes burning from the saltwater. He pulled himself forward until his feet hit sand, stumbling up the underwater incline and splashing through knee level water as he wiped the stinging salt from his eyes. His clothes, though thin, were still soaked through and his hair was plastered against his forehead, trying to drip water into his teary eyes.

He huffed, trying to expel the last of the brine from his nose while combing wet bangs back with his fingers. He gave a quick shake to each of his limbs, water droplets flying off in all directions, before trying to wring any excess from his clothing. The rest of the pirates around him were doing more or less the same thing.

When they’d all dried off as much as they could, Mabel led the way across hard-packed wet sand that gradually elevated and gave way to looser land. Every step sunk further down into it and Floyd could feel the grains piling in his shoes, crunching and grinding against his feet as he moved. 

All around the strip of sand there were rock formations that kept them out of sight from the sailors as they approached. They’d been weathered down by strong, crashing waves over years and years and many of them looked to be quite precarious. Floyd was careful to cast his gaze upward as they walked, concerned about the potential of any rocks falling from their perches. 

Every so often, there was a break in the rocks through which, if he was at just the right angle, he could spot the shipwreck. Each time he looked through a crack, he could tell they’d gained considerable distance on it and could see more and more of what was happening on deck. 

Most people seemed to be focused on operating cannons, but as The Thief’s Halyard moved further out of sight to turn around, the crew dispersed to take care of different areas. Many disappeared below deck, and most others turned to guard the outside of the ship. 

Were they expecting an ambush? Had they somehow seen the rescue team disembark? Floyd wasn’t sure either way, but he knew there was no way for them to get on board when the other crew’s focus wasn’t on defending against a direct naval attack.

Thankfully, by the time they reached the end of the rocky outcropping, The Thief’s Halyard had finally turned around and was sailing back across the cove’s opening. Once only a few sailors were still focused on their side of the ship, Floyd seized the opportunity and ran forward. The rest of the crew made their way to sneak in through the cracked portion of the ship while Floyd stood under the hull, unwrapping the rope from where it still hung across his torso. 

The hooked metal at the end was fairly weighty, and the edges were sharp. It looked like it should be able to pierce through wood, but he still felt the need to test it against the belly of the ship. Floyd leaned back, swinging forward and catching the hook against the wood with a satisfying thwack. It stuck.

Satisfied with his test, he levered the grappling hook out of the ship and backed up far enough to clearly see the highest edge of the deck in front of him. It rose about twenty-five feet out of the ground, the rest of its height presumably swallowed up by the sand. He swallowed nervously, gripping a little lower on the rope to allow room for the hook to swing, and looped the rest of it around his other hand. 

Floyd swung the hook like a pendulum, slowly, carefully making sure not to nick himself with the edges. After a few careful repetitions, he flicked his wrist and spun the hook all the way around, repeating again and again as it gained speed. When it was finally spinning fast enough, Floyd focused on the balcony above. 

One final push of the wrist and he let go, throwing himself forward with the movement of the rope. The grappling hook went soaring through the air as he held his breath in anticipation. It flew right between two banisters, sinking its sharp edges deep into the ledge there. Floyd ran forward, tugging and leaning his weight on the rope to make sure it was secure enough, and it held.

He breathed a sigh of relief, putting both arms on the sturdy rope and preparing to haul himself up it. The thick knots spread throughout the entire length made it easier to gain leverage and hold himself as he jumped up, perching his feet on the first one, and climbing from there. Floyd tried to focus on pushing with his legs, but he grew weary with each step and needed to start pulling with his arms as well. 

He was halfway up the rope when it jerked the first time. A yelp escaped him before he could stop himself, and he looked up to see what had caused it to shift. It took him a moment to notice, but the banister had moved ever so slightly. Now that he was closer it was more clear to see that the wood around where he’d thrown the grappling hook was rotting through, and bending under the pressure of his entire weight held on it. 

Floyd grunted, pushing himself to climb faster, and the rope jerked so hard he nearly lost his grip altogether. He could have stopped then and made an effort to climb more smoothly, but the only thing he could think of was getting up as quickly as he could.

His whole body burned with the effort of it, but he threw himself up the rope with wildly frantic movements and reached the top right as the wood cracked again, leaving Floyd supported by a few planks of wood hanging on for dear life. He lunged for the railing, scrambling over the edge before it could crack and send him plummeting back down to the ground, and fell to his knees on the deck.

He gasped for breath, hugging himself for a moment before looking up at his surroundings. He was on the highest level of the ship with only two other people around him. Llyr lay on the ground closest to him and then tied to the wheel was...

“Ray!” Floyd gasped breathlessly, stumbling across the deck, “Ray, c’mon,” he urged in a whisper, dropping to his knees in front of the man. He was tied to the wheel by thick, bloodstained ropes, the rest of his body completely limp.

Floyd reached out a trembling hand to cup and lift Ray’s face, the scraggly beard under his fingers greasy with dried sweat. There weren’t any visible injuries there, but somehow it still looked like he’d gone through hell. 

“Ray please, I’m here... We’re gonna get you out but you’ve gotta wake up…” Floyd said, shaking him. When that didn’t do anything, he reached to unsheathe his sword. If Ray was going to be unconscious for a while longer, then he might as well work on freeing him from those ropes. Sliding the blade between his wrist and the tight bonds without hurting him proved to be fairly difficult, and Floyd had to be careful to push outward and saw at it, rope fibers splitting at the pressure and movement.

It was as he’d gotten nearly halfway through the first rope that he felt movement. Ray’s fingers twitched, flexing as he slowly raised his head. Floyd went to remove his sword so he wouldn’t panic, but it was at that very moment that the man twisted his wrists to test the bindings. Floyd pulled downwards and he only realized his mistake when the sword blade dragged a long, shallow cut into Ray’s skin that immediately welled up with blood.

“Oh shit, shit I’m sorry!” He apologized frantically, watching as Ray’s eyes snapped wide open and flicked around unseeingly.

“No- no please, no more… haven’t you done enough? Don’t… don’t-” he pleaded, slurring the words together with exhaustion. Floyd let his sword clatter to the ground and reached out both hands to hold Ray’s face again, encouraging him to look up.

“Hey, hey, look at me,” he soothed, but his friend flinched and let out a high, airy keen at the command, breaths after that so short and quick that he was nearly hyperventilating. “I- um, okay no, uh… just- breathe, can you breathe? Yeah, ah, take deep breaths, alright? You don’t know where you are, and I- I know you’re scared, but you’ve gotta breathe before you do anything else,” Floyd said, tears welling up in his eyes at the memory of hearing those same exact words spoken to him a long time ago. He never thought he’d be the one passing them on to another.

He heard Ray respond to that at least, quick shallow breaths turning to heaving gasps as his eyes refocused and settled on his rescuer’s. They flicked over his face before he gasped softly.

“...F-floyd?” 

“Yeah, Ray, it’s me,” He nodded, smiling a little shakily despite himself. “I gotta cut this; can you hold still?” 

Ray nodded weakly, head lolling back against the wheel, and Floyd got to work cutting the ropes. He ended up holding back Ray’s arm with his elbow, not trusting the weak man’s promise to hold himself together, and cut until there was just enough room to wiggle Ray’s wrist out.

The moment his arm was free, Ray fell forward without the support and Floyd hardly caught him before he pulled too hard on his other shoulder or hit the ground face first. He wrapped an arm around his back, leaning forward as Ray whined softly against his shirt. 

Floyd tightened his grip, preparing to haul him up when he felt something warm and wet pressing against his forearm. Ray tensed, a pained cry muffled against his shirt, and Floyd stilled. He loosened his grip and peered down, finally catching a glimpse of Ray’s back.

Long, rough lash marks stretched across the pirate captain’s back at all angles, leaving nearly none of the smooth, undamaged skin that he’d expected to see. Most were split open and torn, blood still oozing out of them and smearing, drying, and congealing all over. Almost each mark had a gruesome tear near the middle that cut nearly all the way to the bottom. They ran deepest around the small of his back where- where he was still holding on, Floyd realized with a jolt.

He jerked his hand away and sticky, half-dried blood came with it as Ray finally cried out, an agonized scream rising up above the sounds of cannons and battle as the crew of The Thief’s Halyard ambushed the lower deck. 

“Oh- ...oh my god,” Floyd breathed in horror, staring at the blood smeared all across his hands and forearms. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop seeing those wounds. The picture was seared into his mind, and he couldn’t keep himself from imagining just what had happened to cause injuries like that.

Floyd was frozen for a few seconds, eyes hollow as he stared down at his hands, then tilted his head up to see Ray staring at him with an almost guilt-ridden expression on his face. Tears shimmered in his eyes, rolling silently down his cheeks until they dripped onto the floor below. 

“I-” Floyd opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again, still at a loss for what to say. His head felt empty and hollow, and so did any words he thought to offer. Instead, he carefully nudged his captain up by the shoulders so that he could slice through the ropes holding his other wrist up. 

Floyd held back his own tears as he worked, hands trembling with despair, disappointment, and unbridled anger at seeing his captain in this state. Ray may have committed some unpleasant acts in his career as a pirate, but nothing he’d ever done warranted… this.

As he cut, he threw a quick glance over his shoulder. Nobody was there except for Llyr, still laying passed out on the ground. Floyd’s heart dropped in his chest. He would’ve expected the other man to have stirred by now, and at this distance he couldn’t even tell if he was breathing at all.

Was he…? Floyd glanced at Ray, then back at Llyr again. He needed to check on the unconscious man, make sure he was in a decent state to escape and then find Hugh if the others hadn’t done so already. But he couldn’t just leave Ray here...

With a wavering sigh, he turned back around and set himself to freeing Ray. Once he had that done, then he could focus on the others. One at a time, Floyd assured himself. One at a time, and then they could get out of there.

He didn’t even hear the footsteps behind him until they were too close to avoid. 

“Oh, if it isn’t Floyd himself. Fancy meeting you here,” Hugh smiled dully, waving as he strode over. Floyd spun around, sword held out in a white-knuckled grip. 

“What- oh, Hugh! I didn’t see you, are you-”

“I’m fine, but they sure aren’t,” he waved to Llyr and Ray, who was now staring up with a weak glare. He lifted his free hand to tug at Floyd’s sleeve, but Hugh extended an arm to help him stand up before Ray could try anything. “Help Llyr for a moment? I can handle Ray,” he smiled, pulling an unfamiliar knife from his pocket and flicking its sharp blade open with a flourish.

Floyd considered objecting, glancing back at Ray and biting the inside of his cheek as he watched his whole head rock from side to side. He took a step to kneel back down, determined not to leave Ray’s side, but Hugh held out the hand with the knife in a placating gesture as he swiftly sunk down and steadied their captain.

He figured he really didn’t have much of a choice then, and that they’d get out of there either way. Stupid, selfish idiot, he chastised himself. As if Llyr wasn’t in dire need of help as well.

Floyd knelt swiftly beside Llyr, who looked even worse at a closer glance. A few puncture wounds sunk deep into his legs, as well as a large, curved line of tears that almost looked to be a bite mark.

The first thing he did was slip his fingers underneath the boy’s chin and press down, trying to find the pulse point. His heart raced the longer he went without finding it, and he was nearly losing hope when he felt a weak, faded beating deep between his neck and jaw. Floyd allowed himself a shallow sigh of relief, but his work wasn’t over yet. 

He needed to somehow force Llyr into consciousness so he’d be able to handle himself when they ran. Ray surely wouldn’t be able to, and Floyd was already worried about him, so having someone else completely incapacitated would make everything even more difficult.

“Llyr!” Floyd shouted as loudly as he dared into the other man’s ear, prodding at his face. No response. He sighed, glancing around him for anything that could help when he spotted a few buckets lined up by the railing. If those had water… He hopped to his feet, running across the deck and feeling the thrill of hope race up his spine when he discovered they were all full, presumably with fresh water from the storm that had just passed. Floyd grabbed one by the handle and hauled it over to where Llyr lay, crouching back down at his side. He first tried dipping a hand in it and flicking water against Llyr’s face, but when that didn’t work Floyd dunked both hands in, scooped up as much water as he could hold, and threw it down at him. 

That got a flinch, and a slow stirring as the other peeled open hazy eyes, squinting up at Floyd.

“...th’ hell?” he coughed, throat scratchy and dry. 

“You’re alright, you’re safe,” Floyd assured him, trying to lean over and get a good look at him without looming. The wounds down on his thighs were more serious than they first appeared, and he suspected Llyr had already lost a large amount of blood from that. The bite mark on his calf looked to be especially deep, and would surely make it difficult to walk. 

When his gaze flicked back up to Llyr’s face, he saw a pair of suspicious eyes watching closely at his every move. He didn’t seem to trust Floyd one bit.

“Hey, you remember me, right?” he asked, and the look he got in return was a little more vacant. “I’m Floyd; I helped you out back on the other ship.” A blank look, then a slight nod. “Right, and I really need to help you now so we can get everyone out of this miserable place, okay?”

Surprisingly, this got a weak nod and a small sound out of him that was immediately covered by a coughing fit. As Floyd reached out to help Llyr sit up, he heard Ray make a small sound and instinctively glanced over to make sure everything was alright. 

Ray looked to be in about the same miserable shape as before, though, and Hugh flashed a reassuring smile that eased his worries and allowed him to focus back on Llyr.

Meanwhile, Hugh slid closer to Ray, pressing the knife to his wrist and whispering low enough that Floyd wouldn’t hear.

“Don’t go telling the little one anything he doesn’t need to know yet, Raymond,” he smiled, laughing lowly. “Let him figure something out on his own for once.”

Ray opened his mouth to respond, but Hugh jerked the knife against his wrist, opening a shallow cut that dribbled blood down his arm. He gasped softly before shutting his mouth, trying to avoid irritating Hugh any further. He was completely at the other man’s mercy for the moment, and he still needed to get out of this alive.

“I just told you not to try that again. If this is what I have to do in order to silence you, then, well...” Hugh sighed, almost mournfully. “One little slip of the blade... that would be a sad accident to behold, wouldn’t it?”

“I’m-” Ray cut himself off when he felt the knife move against his wrist again, but quickly realized it had only turned outward to cut the rope. “-not sure Gawain would approve either,” he let out the rest of his words in a rush of quiet breath, tensing as he waited for a response.

“Then I wasn’t here at all, and that poor fool who scaled the side of the ship just couldn’t cope with the state he found you in. Had to put you down mercifully, the quickest way he could bear,” Hugh mused, making sure to slide the dull edge of his knife against Ray’s skin as he sawed through the bindings, a casual, constant warning of what else he could do. Ray grunted when the tip of the knife caught against the cut Hugh had already made, pulling a vertical slash through the center. 

“Maybe you should do your job and protect the captive-”

“Maybe you should keep your goddamn mouth shut,” Hugh hissed. He wiggled the knife, getting through the last few fibers before Ray could slip that hand out as well. Despite his best efforts, he collapsed forward into Hugh’s arms, who held him for just a moment before pushing back, letting him slump to the floor.

Hugh felt triumphant standing over the fallen captain, and he would have loved to spend more time in that moment if it weren’t for unfinished business elsewhere. Letting out a sigh he turned around, adjusted his grip on the knife, and strode over towards Floyd.

Next part

[popcorn-hero]

Long Read

MHA Chapter 1: I want to be the number one hero and save the world like All Might

MHA Now: Hero Society was created by the establishment to prevent the loss of power over citizens after the emergence of quirks. Its very foundation is built on legitimate domination and any act that veers away from that submission will be deemed criminal and punished.

To participate in this society is to participate in a system of child exploitation, oppression, and an oligarchy of power

If you don’t read MHA: Vigilantes, then spoilers

Leading into the panels below, the female character here is helping Koichi (the main protagonist)  with his hero sociology assignment (or something like that) We are introduced to the fact that the hero licensing started in Rhode Island United States.

Before the Licensing, there was a vast amount of people using their quirks to solve crime. Think of this of this period being how majority of DC and Marvel heroes operate.

 But then after the licensing exam was established, she asked of the 189 known vigilantes to be active, how many become heroes:

thats 0.37% certified. Only 7 were permitted to operate as a hero and the rest were deemed villains

Now I want to reiterate what is said above:

“ The true objective of the Official Hero System was NOT APPROVAL AND LICENSURE of vigilantes, but rather to define the TRUE VILLAINS......This was just a single part of the larger plan to implement a SOCIETY WIDE QUIRK CONTROL SYSTEM”

We are looking at a new method of Law and Order in the United States.

I am going to take a slight detour below, but bear with me!!

Other Key things to point out

“Violate the Rights to Bear Arms and Self-determination”

"Its as if they created the problem just to get credit for solving it”

The rights to bear arms (and this is my interpretation of the constitution btw) is the right of the citizen to defend themselves from the state if it’s conducting in a manner that threatens their lives.

Self-determination below is defined as:

1: free choice of one's own acts or states without external compulsion

2: determination by the people of a territorial unit of their own future political status

(this was taken from the Webster dictionary) 

The emergence of quirks meant the threat to one thing: Control

Power is in numbers and numbers with power is dangerous. How can the state oversee the population when that said group could fight back without the need of guns or an army?

In this excerpt taken from another excerpt:

The connection between the power of the people and the ideal of nondomination can be traced back to Machiavelli in his Discourses on Livy where, for the first time, ‘the people’ is defined as that subject position occupied by whoever acts in political ways that are motivated ‘only [by the] desire not to be dominated’ (Machiavelli 1517, I, 5).

Though quirks range for the minimalist like having objects gravitate towards you, we know that those exist to have quirks to erase everything

So to mitigate the possibility for the citizens becoming both individualized and unified, you nip it in the bud by establishing regulations. 

You create the others.

You create classifications

You create privileges

When you have a society that is divided based on appearance, power, and status, you have a society easier to rule- the iron law of oligarchy 

 Just look at real life.

You then raise people to submit to this idea of what it means to be a good civilian and self-police. Legitimate Dominance as I mentioned before: Specifically, Socially legitimate dominance

According to sociologist and philosopher Max Weber, we have 3 types of authority

Charismatic: power based on the exceptional qualities of an individual, such as his or her heroism or sanctity

The heroes of the story

Traditional: power that is justified by a belief in long-standing customs

The government

Legal: based on the legality or acceptability of rules and laws that outline appropriate courses of action

“it is when we follow rules because we believe in the process, regardless of who is giving us the order. “

the civilians and the heroes

From the  International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences by  James Wright he write he comments the following about  Vilfredo Pareto

.....He [Pareto] argued that the elite class is maintained by the circulation of especially apt nonelites into the ruling group. Mosca takes a more sociological approach to the study of elites by emphasizing structural and organizational factors in the maintenance of elite classes, such as their superior organization and their control of resources.

Noneleites= the heroes: We know there is financial and political gain associated with being a hero (even more so when you are in the top percent)

The society that BNHA exist in creates an environment for people to be villains: "Its as if they created the problem just to get credit for solving it”

The society creates an environment where it’s not abnormal to send children into high risk raid without experience of this kind:

The society creates an environment of the idolization or heroes and strips away independence on ones self.

 Now, I don’t know if Vigilantes is really “cannon” so I do take some of the interpretations of the story with a grain of salt. I also don’t know if the main story line will even touch of this topic, but I like to keep this is in my head.

[sights9]

Things About Dark Shadows I Hate: Roxanne Drew PT. Just. Everything about her. The 1840 retcon and "Angelique My One True Love" confession. These are things I have to viscerally remove from the cannon of the show in order to enjoy it and pretend there's character development. And last but not least, 1840 villainizing Samantha Drew and making Quentin the hero when as I remember it, he was an abusive dickwad. Most of 1840, actually, when I get down to it.

God yes. I hate all the narrative choices they made for Roxanne, but I can’t bring myself to hate the character herself? Like talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place, when being killed in cold blood as collateral damage is what “should” have happened to her instead of what we got. And Donna Wandrey does a fine job with what they gave her, its a shame she’s stuck with a role that ruins everything and gives me strong negative associations to her. PT Roxanne is truly a mess of bad on all levels.

Jeez I just finished 1840 the other month and my memory of it is already fading. I assume you mean the Angelique-is-Miranda retcon? That’s on my Canon to Ignore list as well. I cannot bring myself to watch the Angie My One True Love scenes with the sound on lol. I wanna take this opportunity to give my thoughts on that, because character development is the main reason I hate it. But I also favor Barnabas with Julia so take this with a grain of salt if you wish.

My major problem is that it feels completely unearned, given that Angelique in 1840 is just 1795 Angelique who’s been hanging around, and not 1970 Angelique. The whole ‘we’ve made peace and let bygones be bygones’ angle they come at it from does not work with an Angelique who

Didn’t take part in 1897 and the Leviathan arc.

Is still pulling shit like trying to control Barnabas by threatening/hurting everyone he’s close to as recently as a few months ago.

If they had tried a B&A reconciliation ship with Angelique as we saw her circa #978 I’d be willing to go along with it, hell I might’ve even been interested if they played their cards right.

The writing for Samantha and Quentin was indeed terrible. I don’t remember 1840 Quentin being all that abusive, but I do remember him being all over the place and not a cohesive character with definable traits so idk. It was hilarious how Daphne and Joanna and whoever else kept saying that Quentin would never hurt anyone, they don’t understand how anyone would ever think Quentin could be dangerous or do bad things, etc, and then it’d cut to Quentin saying some shit like ‘you keep telling lies like that and I’ll settle you myself! I am insinuating that I am going to come after you with the intent to harm or kill you!’ Like, guys… what are you going for here

[adamatomic]

Design of Doom Eternal

Wanted to jot down some thoughts while they were still fresh, and I hate writing threads on Twitter, so, here we are.

(Surprise! Male game designer has DOOM OPINIONS. BEHOLD LOL)

First, disclaimers: what follows is super subjective, pretty picky, and likely unjustified. I love a good mobility shooter - Doom 2016 and Titanfall 2 are the only western shooters I really enjoy, and each do super interesting things spatially, mechanically, etc. However, I’ve never worked on any kind of FPS type of game, and never worked on a AAA game, nor shipped a game during a global pandemic, and there’s a lot that I don’t understand about what goes into making this kind of thing, much less how it’s even possible. Making a followup to a well-loved and hugely successful game is also a terrifying prospect. Finally, I am about to "dwell” on what I perceive to be “negative” things about the game, which is pretty unfair, because there’s a LOT of positives (it’s fun, it’s gorgeous, the load times are crazy short, the vistas slay again, amazing accessibility options, perfect audio, etc etc). But I think this is a game where a lot of the positives are really in your face, and what again I personally perceive to be the negatives are a little bit harder to put your finger on. And this isn’t a review, and definitely isn’t yucking anyone’s yums. This is me trying to figure out why this one feels a bit different to play. Hopefully the unanimously positive reception of the game by literally everyone everywhere (including myself) balances out whatever acid might be in these queries.

OK!

Jungle Gyms Versus Canyons

Ok, so. Doom Eternal is structured a lot like 2016 in that it’s corridors linking big wave-based arenas, which is a good structure for a game about shooting all the things. Arenas can be flat-ish or tall-ish. Tall-ish arenas seem to roughly come in two flavors: jungle gyms, and canyons. Jungle gym arenas are the ones that I feel like took centerstage in the marketing and gameplay of Doom 2016, as a way of showing off the double-jump / ledge grab / launchpad vertical mobility stuff, and because they make narrative / thematic sense in the human-built oil rig environments that comprise much of Doom 2016′s level architecture. Jungle gyms are distinguished somewhat from canyons by generally having what feel like distinct “floors”, or solid planes creating multiple separated levels of combat. Canyons, even if they have some transverse traversal elements, are more open and chaotic, with less concrete divisions between elevations. I’m belaboring this essential difference because it has a bunch of second-order effects on gameplay - jungle gyms allow you to jump from skirmish to skirmish, you can use your mobility options to “interrupt” combat, while canyons are more continuous. Jungle gyms usually have more obstacles (like the aforementioned distinct floors) which make it slightly harder for long range enemy attacks to land, which reduces the overall ambient damage-soak.

The key thing about all these arenas - flat open spaces, distinct jungle gym environments, and canyon style playgrounds - is that you definitely want all of them in your game, because the strategy and tactics for playing these fights changes a lot based on these constraints. When do you want a roof over your head? When do you not? When do you want your back to a wall? These are valid and important differences for these games specifically, especially when basic resource management strategies in these encounters is pretty similar, and because the enemy behaviors and attacks have so much variety.

So far, though, Doom Eternal feels like it has a WHOLE LOT of canyons, and NOT a whole lot of jungle gyms. It’s possible that this changes later in the game, so take all this with a big grain of salt. But the first 3-4 hours of gameplay are really dominated by canyon-style vertical arenas, which isn’t necessarily ideal in terms of variety (and makes you angst a little harder for the wall-run affordances of other mobility shooters). They also tend to be slightly same-y, outdoor, rocky environments, versus the more oil rig-inspired, recognizably human-scale mining structures of 2016 (I’m sure this changes later in the game too). The oil rig-inspired stuff also lends itself to jungle gyms a lot more naturally, so I feel like these choices of arena shapes and environment types are kind of an interconnected and difficult problem.

None of this would really even qualify as a problem, either - this is nitpicking nitpicks, at this point - except relying on canyons so much exacerbates some of the “fussiness” of the combat changes (those are next). For me, anyways - I’m not sure anyone else is feeling like these are problems haha. And it’s a big game, so I’m not sure how much this stuff changes across the whole campaign yet!

Tactical Ballistics

A Doom thing I adored in 2016 and am continuing to enjoy in Eternal is the way ammo, health, and other arcade-style upgrades are thoughtfully placed around the arenas. It’s a nod to the strongest parts of Vanquish’s level design, and goes all the way back to using coins in Super Mario to lure players out to new places they might not explore otherwise. It’s a huge part of what gives the nu-Doom arenas their “chess-like” feel, and shifts the fights away from Serious Sam-style battles and makes them into four-dimensional puzzles. 2016 doubles down on this tactical approach by leveraging a kind of resource triangle of chainsaw kills, glory kills, and just plain firefights.

A lot of Eternal’s design seems committed to upping the ante on all of these strengths. Lower ammo capacities puts more pressure on the chainsaw kills. There’s a new technique called “flame belch” that turns the resource triangle into a resource square to accommodate armor. Monsters have “weak points” now, shortcuts that change their behavior or get you fast glory kills. It’s a pretty compelling jigsaw puzzle of abilities.

It also places a lot of strain on player attention and cognition, because all this is running on top of straight-up arena-wave firefights (with 7+ enemy types at a time, all with unique behaviors and optimal strats) AND beefy mobility controls (swinging, dashing, double-jumps, ledge grabs, launch pads, etc). It’s kind of a lot. But I don’t think this is necessarily the place for saying “this is DOOM, man, you got to keep it simple, just shoot the monsters, how come there’s even upgrades” or whatever. For so many reasons, but the primary of which is that most of this stuff rules, and throwing it away would suck. So what do you do?

I want to focus on two small, specific things that really stand out to me - I’m not totally sure that they’re actually “bad”, but I think they have a lot of weird secondary and tertiary effects that contribute to some perceptions of “fussiness” in some of the battles.

Weak Points

This is a big enough change that it is repeatedly tutorialized through video on every loading screen, after every game over, and after every new enemy is introduced... so I know it was on the designers’ radar haha. And it's an interesting addition - chess fights in Doom are already about hierarchies, and adding another tiny hierarchy within an existing hierarchy is a NICE bit of tension to add, it gives a kind of scrambly feeling that is good overall. The issue for me arises from an apparent or perceived damage scaling issue around these weak points. For example, the optional sniper rifle upgrade to the heavy cannon and the optional sticky bombs upgrade to the shotgun insta-wreck the arachnotron and revenant enemies’ weak points, while sustained plasma rifle fire doesn’t seem to ever do the job. Which makes sense on paper - this is a nice way of putting pressure on the player’s weapon choices and ammo, which is what it’s all about. Although I guess you could argue that it’s also all about movement, and that this particular combat pressure has a pretty tenuous relationship with mobility in general.

Either way, it means you spend a lot of time squinting at your weapon wheel mid-battle to see how many shots your shotgun still has, because you ran out of chainsaw fuel a while ago, and are still being actively bombarded at a pretty long distance (because its a canyon and not a jungle gym). I know, I need to git gud, trust me, i KNOW. But check out the weapon wheel ammo display size in Doom 2016 versus Doom Eternal:

I love the new color scheme and ammo icons in Eternal! But it’s 3-4x harder to read the actual, very important ammo counts.

All these small changes add up to something that feels like a pretty different gameplay experience compared to the more spatial (read: movement-based) and literally easier-to-read resource management stuff from 2016. Which, it’s a sequel - failing to sufficiently differentiate it is its own huge risk. And, to be fair, 2016 had its fair share of fussy (though more legible) weapon switching. But when you add this stuff up, the matrix of considerations in moment-to-moment combat in Eternal is pretty different from 2016, and I think it largely comes down to the damage scaling around the weak points. While you can technically choose to play through battles without leveraging weakpoints (thus sidestepping most of these cascading issues), this approach is heavily incentivized by the major behavior changes that happen after you hit weak points (in addition to the constant tutorializing) and the waves appear to have been balanced around taking advantage of these things. Whether or not these are even flaws, technically, whatever they are is exacerbated by the UI design of the weapon wheel AND the relatively popularity of the relatively unobscured canyon arenas. So it’s hard for me to judge weak point damage scaling in a vacuum.

Overall, these new combat options make the arenas feel more constrained and more prescribed. Design is a nightmare this way: sometimes by giving people more choices, you’re actually giving them less. My pitch for a small tweak that might engage with some of these issues would be to keep weak points, but get rid of the damage scaling and maybe make the hitboxes a little bigger. The goal here is NOT to make weak point enemies easier so much as to open up options about what weapons you can use against them, thereby reducing wheel squinting, thereby freeing up more attention to movement and all the other stuff that ruuuules about nu-Doom in general.

Also, I should clarify that it’s entirely possible that I completely imagined the weak point damage scaling, and am a big dummy with bad aim.

Flame Belch

This is a pretty small thing, there’s this new “flame belch” move, intended to complement the existing chainsaw and glory kill moves as a way of “farming” resources from combat, one of the things that really defined Doom 2016. It differs in one huge way though, in that it has to be committed to BEFORE killing a monster. Chainsaws and glory kills ARE kills. Flame belch adds a status instead, which is “cashed in” later when you do the kill. If chainsaw kills and glory kills and BFG shots are Super Mario jumps, Flame Belch is more like a Tony Hawk jump - it starts early and is carefully calculated. Which is pretty dope!! But in this environment where weak point damage scaling and canyon layouts are already putting huge strains on the player’s attention, it feels like a big ask. The “triangle button” mechanic from 2016, the BFG, was a kill move with cool-down, so really I’m just suggesting stuff they already tried anyways. There’s no way this is news to anybody, much less the developers haha.

But... I would love to play a build where flame belch was totally a thing, just it was a finishing move, not a status thing. Let it plug into that reload-replacing resource-farming punctuation pacing flow. That shit rules.

Of course, I have to wonder what the unintended secondary and tertiary consequences of these suggestions would be. Good action games are often tenuous and deeply interconnected things where results are really hard to predict. Maybe they already tried these ideas and they sucked, or they know their own game a lot better than I do, and have a big stack of reasons this stuff would suck for most of their player base.

But wait...

Where The Hell Am I?

Last section, I promise.

I am extremely not going to weigh in on whether or not Doom games need “Story” or not, or what that even means.

But...

If you are driving a monster truck, it is probably pretty fun to see a big line of cars in front of you, and know that you are about to drive all over those cars, and that at the end is a really big fancy car... and you are going to drive over that too.

The general conceit of Doom 2016, that you are on one end of a Mars base, and you need to get to the other end, and in between is a whole lot of cars demons, is a good one. It has good monster truck-ness.

So far this is something that I’m struggling to extract from Eternal. I’m not really sure who any of these grumpy folks are, or where it is that they are, or why I am going down this corridor (aside from the very Doom-like fact that it is the only corridor around).

The problem for me is decidedly NOT that I don’t understand the slayer’s emotional whatever, or that I haven’t been painstakingly expositioned into the specific hierarchies of the demon universe, or anything that I think would normally be described as a “narrative”. For me, it’s that I don’t get to sort of soak in the anticipation of the loooong line of cars I’m about to crunch.

Does Doom need a story? Idk. Doom might need a lot of about-to-get-crushed cars though.

Finally finally finally, and this is highly subjective, but I think the slayer is just more fun when he’s an X factor or a rogue agent. NPCs recognizing the slayer feels sort of weird to me? The feeling that he is a fly in the ointment I think is stronger and sexier when he’s like... outside the canon, almost. I’m not totally convinced that having him Kratos around is as fun as having a bunch of demons and priests both confused and terrified of what this dude is doing.

OK

I need to get back to family stuff. They let me sit here and type this out, which was very kind of them. Only five tantrums so far. Either way, I’m looking very forward to playing more Doom Eternal...

...just as soon as I finish designing 17 more shirts in ACNH.

Hope everyone’s staying home and staying safe! Rip and tear, friends. Rip and tear <3

[equilibrixm]

   -| I wont go too far into that scene on the beach specifically as- theres a lot of factors like, zed being blown up, having to carry shens weight from in the water, to the surface, then back to shore, all while shen is dead weight which makes him even heavier and harder to handle- so I’ll mostly just at the root as to why that is with Zed. |

  [ HI THIS IS FUTURE ME, so i ended up going on a wee bit of a tangent regarding the zed comic and how it warps the story its retelling in order to make it all about zed and paint him in a more positive light regardless of how out of character they make others act to do so or how unlikely a situation is. Personally i find that kind of writing extremely agitating so i got realllly into it, so 

    TL ; DR : I dont do cannon divergence often but the comic is a rare exception for me as I feel it was too focused on being about Zed that some of the things he pulls off / has to go against are done deliberately to make him more of the hero in the tale. ]

   The Zed comic is ABOUT Zed, you’ll notice there’s very few scenes where zed is ever really allowed to not be serious 100% of the time or be made the butt of the joke except for ONE instance. Everyone, including shen and jhin get comedic moments or drawings but because zed is the star character the narrative has mandated that he never look incompetent, that he always look cool and badass and very rarely get his but handed to him UNTIL we get to the beach fight, and even then the narrative brushes it aside with ‘he was holding back’

  This is sorta a fundamental problem with the comic i picked up while reading, the story is zed focused to the point some things are rewriten entirely to make zed more important. 

   Jhin Goes from wanting to torment BOTH Zed AND Shen [using Shen as kusho’s replacement and his own part in the ‘performance’] to , all his performances being for Zed, only Zed, never to show ANYONE ELSE but Zed for- seemingly no narrative reason. 

   Shen is constantly portrayed as a raging muscle head unable to ‘get over his emotions’ to the point that even now when the comic told us shen is rather smart but simple doesnt act without caution like zed does many people STILL think him the stupid one, and thats without touching on how this EYE OF TWILIGHT constantly has his character shift from the original story where he was on edge but activly tried to remain calm to sh%t like this. 

   In the original story shen never attacked zed, only moved as if he would before opting not to. He kept his composure despite no doubt wanting to, this scene was a conversation originally- and was change to make shen more prone to just trying to stab zed on sight and more angry and unwilling to keep his emotions contained : AKA HIS LITTERAL JOB . 

   And this

   Which are more rewrites to make shen more of an emotionally driven character- despite in the original implying shen would be willing working with zed and keep his head on straight because its KHADA- FRIGGING - JHIN.

   The story as a result focuses more about how sad and angsty zed is over everything else- they even bull a way in to remove KAYN from the main story, despite the fact that zed’s character only Benefits from kayn staying there to aid in the hunt.

   Its reasons like the story being all about Zed that we even got Kusho’s fake death plot in the first place, the comic is meant to paint zed in a more good light, therefor those who would oppose him get wrapped to be ‘unreasonable’ or ‘arrogant’ or ‘naive’ because zed is the Main Character. The story is about him and as a result this story that was previously about how BOTH of them felt about jhin and how they were hunting him turned into-

  ‘ Look how Hard Zed Has to Work to make the meanie people help him catch a mass murderer that those meanies also want captured, he’s a good son, kusho made him do the bad things! Everyone is just too blinded by hate for what he’s done to listen to him! ‘

 TL : DR - I take what happen in the comic with heavy grains of salt because it didnt want to portray zed struggling to pull shen to shore- because that would be silly and funny and we cant have zed not being Serious until the last page.