#theres the obvious problem of how he sounds nothing like tails

[sonknuxadow]

been seeing a lot of talk about how bad a lot of the popular picks for movie shadows voice actor are recently and thats true but does anybody remember when people were saying tom holland should voice tails . horrible

[awkwardbluefish]

I love your writing!!! Can I please get a Bruce and Damian bonding time when they have a father son picnic at his school??

Of course! And thank you for the kind words! I hope my writing gives this brilliant idea justice. I hope you enjoy this silliness!

Brucie Wayne barges into the school with an over sized coat and a basket swinging at his side. He gets everyone’s attention but he rushes right up to his son, who is standing next to his teacher with an angry pout and arms crossed, and pulls him into an exaggerated hug, spewing apologies.

“This is ridiculous.” Damian states into his chest before tugging himself out of his arms. His hair is a mess, uniform skewed and cheeks flushed. Bruce simply chuckles and ruffles his hair, reviving a piercing glare and an angry pout in response. Damian swats at his hand as Bruce sends an apologetic smile to the teacher.

“I’m so sorry that I’m late! I slept in and then I had a shower and y’know how kids are. The others just wanted some attention!” He exclaims and he hears Damian gag behind him as his persona turns to Brucie Wayne big time.

The teacher flushes and shakes her head, arms flinging around and disoriented. “It’s no problem Mr. Wayne! Please take a seat wherever you would like. After the picnic we’ll get to see the children’s work!”

Bruce’s smile is a little less fake as he nods to the flustered woman. He pulls Damian to his side and hides a smirk as his son grumbles against his leg and attempts to free himself.

“That’s wonderful! I’m sure Damian has done excellent in his classes,” He says with confidence, true confidence, and the teacher nods before gesturing them to the door.

The picnic is outside as the sun shines on them. There’s clouds of course, lots of them for that matter, but the sun is warm enough to keep them heated up and comfortable. Parents and children are scattered along grass and tables, food layered out before them. Their own food of course.

“So, do you want to be on the grass or the table?” Bruce asks, letting Damian go but keeping a warm palm on his shoulder.

Damian sends a ruffled pout at him, puffing up his cheeks. “This is stupid,” he repeats, “the grass will be fine. The tables are filthy.”

“Is that right?” Bruce asks in amusement, taking his hand back to him and putting down the basket of Alfred’s homemade cooking. Working together they manage to unfold the blanket and lay it across a patch of mostly green grass.

Damian huffs in a way that it should clearly be obvious and Bruce simply smirks. It’ll never get old annoying his children.

“Of course! Theres paint and pencils scribbled on them. Disgusting words carved into the wood and love confessions. There’s gum stuck under the table and who knows what else.”

With a hum he begins unpacking the basket. This might be a private school but kids are kids no matter how privileged they are. It’s bound to happen.

“It is,” he agrees because that is gross, “tell Alfred. He’ll come marching down here and demanding for proper hygiene and discipline.”

He meant it as a joke but the way Damian puffs up his cheeks and his eyes scrunch in concentration meant his boy took it literally. Well Alfred wouldn’t mind, at least he doesn’t think he will. Probably. Maybe. Yeah no.

“Very well,” Damian confirms his theory. Bruce is not getting away with this unscathed. “I’ll ask him when we return.”

“For now,” Bruce cuts in because his son is casually talking about his demise without even realising it, “let’s eat.”

Bruce swears his back cracks as he sits down and the way Damian eyes him is only another confirmation. He’s not old dammit, it’s all the fighting. Damian gives him a look that says he doesn’t believe him one bit.

They lay out the food and Alfred has overdone himself once again. There’s sandwiches, fruit, homemade burgers and even cake for dessert.

“I swear he’s trying to fatten us up like the witch from Hansel and Gretel.” Bruce mutters to himself, a fond smile on his face as he shakes his head. Alfred never changes.

Damian blinks at him, peanut butter sandwich in his mouth. Bruce waits for him to finish his bite as he takes a swig form a water bottle.

“What are you talking about?” He asks and Bruce tries not to sigh. It wasn’t Damian’s fault he didn’t know these tales where and Bruce wanted nothing more than to be able to give Damian the chance of a normal childhood.

“How about I tell you, yeah chum?” He says and settles in. He doubts he’ll only be telling one story after all.

Damian leans forward, just like a little kid and Bruce thanks the teachers for this chance.

“Those tails don’t sound real,” Damian mourners after he finishes telling him about Beauty and the Beast. Bruce simply smiles, his boy was entranced but he knew he’d never admit it.

“I don’t see why they can’t be,” Bruce replies, placing an empty container back into the basket. “Science exists and you know how people can be.”

Damian hums, screwing the lid on his water bottle. “It’s magic father. You can’t deny magic doesn’t exist anymore.”

Bruce pulls a face and Damian actually smirks at him. If there’s one thing in common in this family, it’s the pride of not being able to admit when you are wrong. Besides he isn’t wrong, magic is just advanced science he hasn’t been able to figure out yet.

Before Bruce can make a retort the teacher claps her hand and calls everyone to the classroom. It’s time to see the kids’ work.

“Well let’s agree to disagree,” Bruce tells him as they pack up, folding the blanket after he yanked it from under Damian. The boy scowls at him and refuses to help Bruce pack the rest of the stuff up. Rude.

“I can’t wait to see your work.” Bruce tells him as they walk down the hill. Damian simply smiles to himself.

[mobianstrip]

sonic forces me to analyze the game

this is by no means a full, in depth review of sonic forces. however, since im working on a Forces au i think its only fitting to talk about my personal gripes with the game. just to be clear, i dont hate sonic forces by any means! there are some really neat concepts about it that i enjoy, which ill include my thoughts on as well! though with that said, theres a lot about it that could have been dealt with better. this post is gonna be a bit long and messy, sorry!

now i cant speak for what the gameplay controls itself are like since i havent actually played it with my own hands, so my primary focus will be the story and general format of the game. everything under the cut!

ill start by saying that in hindsight, i think the general premise of the game is actually really neat (had the war framing of the plot not been so overly glorified and bland. more on that below). eggman taking over most of the world is very reminiscent to the initial circumstance of mobius in the early archie sonic publication. it seems especially reflective of the comic in the fact that sonic forces takes place on a planet setting more akin to that of Mobius than that of Sonic’s World/Earth, the difference being the lack of human beings aside from Eggman. while this does somewhat bother me for the fact that it paints an inconsistency with the setting, im also all for the planet being strictly Mobians + Eggman again tbh. the concept of sonic being on earth populated by humans, complete with a mock version of the united states, never really settled well with me. it always felt like just a means to make sonic more relatable, which is true, but not done because it made anything more interesting. a problem that then arises is that the origins of shadow and silver/blaze would be radically different or at least would need some retcon alterations to make sense...but thats a topic for another day

overall, looking past the inconsistency with the setting and its implications, i enjoy how the premise of the game feels like going back to the basics. but even the premise still has its problems...which is never a good sign, and this point practically sealed forces’s fate of inconsistency: the theme of war and how it frames the story is so, so poorly written

starting with whats presented at the beginning of the game, sonic is captured by eggman as a prisoner. if the writing had just left it at that, fine. however, the exposition goes on to say that sonic has been there for six months being tortured...and that tails has completely lost it. again id be fine with this - the theme of war is a darker one so these two events would make sense in this circumstance. however, that tension is just totally lost in a matter of a few episodes. you rescue sonic who is just as cheery and jokey as ever, somehow able to fight a boss despite being supposedly locked away and tortured for six months

of course i understand that its not like they could give sonic ptsd and make him look tortured and weak and so on - but why even mention the torture thing at all? the same problem is apparent with the first cutscene with tails. tails is hardly given enough time to seem like he has "lost it". i will say though that tails WAS given a bit more of an emotional response to work with than sonic overall. particularly when tails is about to be attacked by chaos, and he ducks his head in fear and calls for sonic to help him even though sonic isnt there - i actually enjoyed this small segment bc it does reflect some of what was said about how he reacted to sonics capture (aside from also being across the planet...for seemingly no reason except bc he "lost it" and to get him away from the main group so that classic sonic can appear)

frankly speaking from these two points alone, the games tone just feels kind of confused. its obvious the writers wanted some parts of the darker theme of war...and its also obvious that going all out wasnt gonna be an option bc of the nature of sonic as a character and franchise being about more lighthearted, easier to relate to stories about sonics heroism. which im fine with that being the case; sonic is a hero and more importantly a mascot that profits off of kids being able to relate and look up to. my issue is simply that the premise of this game makes consistent writing kind of doomed from the start if the writers are trying to appeal to both the kids AND older fans. they cant go to the lengths necessary to adequately build the narrative. cant go too dark, cant go too lighthearted, and not finding a balance between to two gives you a confused and bland story 

on that note,  i personally find the theme of war to be...uncomfortably glorified and unchecked (adding to the tone confusion and blandness). sonic forces is named so because...yknow. armed forces. armies. the whole point of the game is that theres a war going on and youre on the good guy side. i mean its not as if youre fighting against other living creatures, just infinite and eggmans robots, but still. i think what put me off the most is the first comic with the soldier cat. after they save the day, the last lines are "I'll do better. I'll be better. I'll become a real soldier and a real hero." now slap that as the tagline to a united states army corps commercial and suddenly its really...sour tasting

war is just one of those subjects that i think needs to be handled with a bit more care. i mean think about it: the primary gimmick of forces is that you get to make your own character, to be the sonic version of yourself in this world. the plot of the game is that theres a war, and your character joins the resistance to defeat eggman. this game is pretty blatantly glorifying the idea that joining in on a war can make you a REAL soldier, a REAL hero. to some kids, that might sound pretty cool. but theres no nuance to it whatsoever, nothing thought provoking on the subject. no one steps back to be like ‘its good to do good things but wars are tough and not fun, and being a hero isnt everything’. none-a that

now do i think a sonic game could get it into a childs head that they should join the army for real? no, not necessarily. i think its possible, but i think that would also be due to a larger issue of military glorification present in modern culture in general (especially in america). mostly i just find the implications at play with glorifying the theme of war in conjunction to the avatar gimmick to be in poor taste and also entirely avoidable because...

i dont think the war and army framing even had to be a thing. not only is it just so sloppily done in general, with that fact that the supposed soldier forces on the Resistance side are literally never seen on screen except for some dialogue boxes in one episode and the rest of the time only being mentioned through other characters, but i seriously think never saying the words “war” or “army” and not including literal soldiers would have worked just as well and even been the better route. they could have just been like yeah heres eggman taking over the world, heres the resistance fighters that have come together to stop him, they are opposing forces and you play as your avatar to stop eggman - and just leave it at that. it wouldve made the glorification of war less obvious and the handling of the topics at hand appear less confused, appealing to a more lighthearted tone rather than weighing it down with frankly out of place hints to a darker subject of war

finally i wanna talk about the story as it relates to how its told through the game. the plot itself is fairly standard - eggman starts war, captures sonic, takes over planet. you rescue sonic, and together you fight eggman and infinite and ultimately defeat them. thats all good and well even if its cheesy sometimes. the REAL problem is how its executed. a lot of the exposition is given not through cutscenes, but through spoken dialogue with text box subtitles over the episode select screen. and it just feels so...stiff. it doesnt feel like world building, it just feels like being forcefed information with no substance behind it

i get that fully rendered cutscenes throughout can be expensive and time consuming, but shoot id take in-game rendered cut scenes at least. (like in sa, sa2, shadow 2005...) anything that could have provided the world building with a bit more ground to stand on would have been great. sure, there are levels to traverse which look cool...but they dont provide any sense of scale, they dont tell us what the area is like, and more importantly, you never see the other characters who are supposedly on the battlefield "alongside" you in a couple episodes. the storyline from the exposition along sounds like it could be an epic journey - but the way its told with the given game mechanics (i.e.: stage-based gameplay with no open worlds to explore) leaves a lot to be desired

i feel like the stuff explained in the comics should have just been cutscenes or exposition or something to pad out the game a bit. the comics are so short anyways so why just put it in the game? maybe not the first comic about the rando soldier saving the day or w/e...but the comic with silver and knuckles fighting chaos? the comic about infinites origins? all of that could have easily been included. at LEAST the comic with shadow was part of the DLC...but even thats just so gimmicky. they provide important background to the main plot of this game so i really dont understand why it was sidelined to comics and not just included from the beginning

the tension that the exposition already fails to build up is brought down even worse when coupled with the confusing timing of the stage complete screens, where you get your completion rank and see what new character creation items you unlocked. listen, i know immediate gratification for completing the level is important and all...but i swear, having these screens between the end of a boss fight and the cutscene showing what happens to them after being defeated seriously impairs the flow of the game. maybe having it there allows for the cutscene to load up in the background to improve efficiency, but personally id prefer seeing a loading screen as the break between a boss fight and the following cutscene after it and THEN the stage complete screen to finish the sequence off. the boss fight end cutscenes arent that long anyways for the most part, so its just nonsensical to have the stage complete screen interrupt the action when theres only a two minute scene left to it

i cant stand how streamlined forces is to the point of the main plot. what happened to games that actually take the time to explain stuff, show us extra bits to the story and how they connect? and even when forces' does explain SOME stuff, its through audio/text only dialogue. nothing visually interesting, just...dialogue. and then its off to the next level. forces' feels very bare bones honestly. the story is supposed to feel big and epic but it just wasnt given enough to bring that feeling into fruition. this is probably the only thing that saves forces’ from the war glorification issue because the game simply fails so miserably at telling a compelling story due to poor writing and poor formatting that the war stuff gets lost in the mix - and thats just sad

all of this brings me to my conclusion. fuck i wish sonic forces was a better written and executed game, because i do think it could have been so cool. i really like infinite as a villain, in both his design and personality. yeah hes kind of a whiny, edgy bitch - but he had potential. and its really gonna suck if this game killed off all that potential in one fell swoop

(then again, thats why we have fan content and aus :3)

[manlethotline]

Aspergers/autism is seeing a needle, and then a minute later possibly noticing the haystack.