#thinking i might actually try the discord server thing after i move | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

20001541 · 1 year

Text

so I'm going to answer this with the long answer I had typed for this since some wanted to hear it, putting it under read more

oh haha um well it's complicated to say the least

there was a point in time (2021-early 2023) where I was a super hardcore believer, I wrote and read tons of fanfic about it, bought a zine about it, made meta about it, argued with anti dfo who got angry at me in the replies and even joined discord servers about dfo because I was really in love with this theory

but as of late I find myself just not want wanting it at all and actually dislike the thought of it being canon. for numerous reasons I'll get into

first off I feel at this point it'll just be super rushed. maybe if it was done earlier I would've been more warmer towards it as there would actually be time to digest this info. it would be a huge deal with a hero being the son of the number one villain, if it were to be canon I would want a full self reflection from Izuku, more about his mom and her thoughts and feelings about this, flashbacks to inko and afo's first encounter and marriage in its early days, maybe afo trying to isolate Izuku further by releasing this information publicly and turning civilians and some heroes against him. having him and his mom shunned by a lot of people (people calling izuku devils spawn), getting to see his classmates reactions, all mights reaction (!!!). maybe a talk with the vestiges about it and just stuff like that.

but there's no hope of ever getting any of that if it's revealed now. it's the middle of battle and at most I could see Izuku probably being shocked, afo taking advantage of his shock for a brief moment then we move on. which is very :/, feels like it would just be cheap shock value at that point so why even include it when it feels more detrimental than something interesting. maybe he could make it canon and have it not be rushed, but considering how he's treated the other plot points like the ua traitor plot and machia's kind of out of nowhere betrayal in this arc, I'm inclined to believe it would be rushed and messy as well.

I think I'm far more interested in seeing how afo and tomura's struggle plays out and afo's final encounter with yoichi and an exploration of his past and the person that afo is, rather than some last minute revelation that ends up not adding much to the story.

also the fact that izuku never thinks about hisashi once also plays into me being very "what's the point of having this" here. I know him having his memories tampered with is a popular theory but to me sounds like an awkward way to bypass the fact your main character didn't reflect once on something that ended up being extremely important later. I don't see any evidence of that either, at least with tomura he had some hazy recall about his past before everything came back to him with izuku we get nothing at all about hisashi. at least do where he vaguely remembers a tall man with an eerie presence and gentle smile that didn't reach his eyes whose face is obscured in shadow saying he's going on a short business trip and then he never came back after.

the next reason is I don't really like the more popular fanon characterizations of afo in dfo's settings (and the way people try integrating it with canon) not getting into this as I don't want to step on any toes, but this thing particularly has really turned me off from the theory as a whole.

also I hate the way some dfo fans treat afo, I remember it being common at one point for people to be like "lol afo is only interesting if dfo is true without it he's just some dumb one dimensional villain". when that's not the case, he has a lot of interesting things going on for him. I just hate how some only see his worth in whether he is izuku's dad or not. not all dfo fans think like this though, I'm not generalizing all of them it's just some do this and it irks me so bad. (and to be honest I used to be like this too, but I've changed)

and I also feel like a lot get too caught up in dfo stuff that they end up neglecting afo's character as a whole and it leads to some poor interpretations of his character and certain scenes because I feel some are trying too hard to find evidence/justification that they miss out on some of the more interesting dimensions of his character. not saying all of them do this, but I've seen enough of this along with other stuff I've said that's made me more :/ towards the theory as of late

another thing is that I guess I've also just grew tired of waiting? some people can only wait for so long before they change their minds on things they've used to love. and as I've said before in my first point too I just don't see the point anymore. I don't think even if it does happen we'll get some super in depth look at it and how it affects izuku and other characters. I was more passionate about it during the time where it seemed like we could get a good look into it, but not I'm more meh as it seems like we won't.

that said I do not have anything against dfo theorists. some of my favorite writers are big dfo proponents, one of my favorite fanfics of all time happens to be a dfo fanfic. I have some au's of my own about it and I enjoy reading others au's and I do enjoy the occasional dfo art piece. a lot of dfo theorists in my experience are really nice too.

I think it's so stupid how angry people get at dfo theorists, how you can't mention it outside your circle without risk of being insulted or jumped on. which I have experienced before in my dfo days (not on here though). at the end of the day it's just a little theory people have come up with, if it comes true then whatever if it doesn't then whatever right? just leave people alone and even if you disagree with them at least be respectful. it would be neat if fans with differing opinions on stuff in the story could come together and have an actual conversation once in a while so both sides could better understand each other, but sadly this is the Internet and disagreements like that usually result in a angry back and forth exchanges filled with insults.

as a whole I'm not interested in the dfo theory anymore to me it's something I would prefer to just remain a fanon thing rather than something that becomes canon. but yeah these days it's just very rare for me to read it, it's not something I seek out and I usually only read it from authors I already trust. but if someone wanted me to read their dfo fic and they were nice about it well I wouldn't be opposed to reading it. I don't mind if someone wants to talk about it with me either. I like talking about afo as a whole even if it's in the realms of a theory I'm not crazy about.

I guess I am grateful to dfo in a way as its what made me really take notice of afo in the first place. It made me look more into scenes that he was in and over time I ended up liking him more than the theory itself and ended up just abandoning the theory as a whole. I don't think I would be as in love with him as I am now if it weren't for dfo making me a take closer look at him. also believe it when they say the dfo theorist to afo simping pipeline is real because it happened to me. if you're keeping this man constantly in your thoughts theres a chance it could happen to you.

overall I don't feel like it's going to be canon anymore? I don't really care for it being canon either. there's too much stuff going on that still needs to be wrapped up and I think dfo wouldn't be able to fit in all of it. the only things I would say make me hesitate about it being true is the fact he said hisashi will be revealed back in 2018 and some of the meanings behind hisashi's name. but generally feeling like there's a 20% chance of it happening seeing where we are as of now. I think past me would've been horrified to hear me say this now because I used to be extremely confident it would happen but things change

anyways you wanted my opinion and there it is, this is just how I feel and you're free to disagree with me as long as you're not rude about it.

#yeah I've been kind of skirting around saying my opinion on it because I know a lot of y'all enjoy it and I don't want to be a jerk #but this is how I feel 😓

23 notes · View notes

aprillikesthings · 9 months

Text

I am still a little obsessed with this

I had an idea for a Catradora fic like a year ago and ugggh I'd need to rewatch the whole show to do it any justice and I dunno if I have the patience

Anyway have some barely-edited info-dumping I did last March in a tiny discord server for a completely different cartoon ship*:

The other night when I couldn't sleep it occurred to me that there could/should be a very realistic fic out there of catra and adora, after the events of the last season, having a very passionate but over-dramatic relationship for a couple of years, then breaking up and getting back together multiple times before one or both of them decides Actually, we have to break up, for real, we are slowly killing each other over this; and one of them moves away and they both get therapy of some kind and both try dating other people but it just isn't working out (I can absolutely see Adora in a relationship that's perfectly fine and healthy but also boring as fuck, and her just thinking: huh, I guess normal people are supposed to feel like this? but it just feels like it's missing something, but the thing it's missing might just be a lot of arguing and crying and make-up sex, so like, I should just. stop missing that. probably. And Catra ending up in a bunch of short-term things where all of them end with either the other person going dude you are in love with someone else and I can tell or her feeling guilty and breaking it off bc the other person is obviously more into her than vice-versa)

And anyway after like ten years or something they see each other but one or both is still dating someone else and it's like ha ha our younger days were SOMETHING ELSE weren't they, oh did you get therapy oh good me too, I'm glad you're doing well, nice to bump into you :) but they're both internally screaming because yeah those feelings are Still There, fuck fuck fuck

The current partner of whichever of them dumps them bc "you're still in love with your ex" but neither of them say why the dump happened and the dumped one doesn't say anything to the other, which means they hear about it through the grapevine, and their heart goes YOOOOO and their brain goes "I thought we were actually done with this and being Good about it fuck fuck fuck" and theyre both :) still normal to each other :) all the time :)

PINING I love pining hhh lol

But yeah there's, I dunno. A party? with a lot of people? maybe they each have one (1) drink, not even enough to impair them, and the next thing you know they're making out in a closet or something somewhere, and then one or both of them is crying hysterically, and after a lot of talking they're like, I want to try again. But as actual adults who've had time to grow up and have a lot of therapy. So they do, and it's good, and all their friends are like Oh thank god you two are both the stupidest motherfuckers on earth.

Halfway through the first post I realized I am half re-writing one of my fave Sherlock fics but putting it on top of She-Ra characters and adapting it to spop's plot but it'S JUST A GOOD STORy and honestly how it would actually happen

Because they were SO YOUNG in the show and neither of them had ever seen a healthy relationship modeled, ever, by anyone; and they're both heavily traumatized on top of it. And love isn't always be enough to deal with all of that. It's just not.

Me: this would make a good romance novel if we could file off the serial numbers

Also me: it's only interesting to me because it's THESE CHARACTERS like how the fuck would you include the backstory lolol

My dumb brain is like, "look I know spop ended three years ago and also, this is obviously the kind of story that AN ACTUAL ADULT writes, generally speaking; so nobody would read it, but what if you spent a year writing this"

But also half the plot feels like it's lifted from The Speed of Objects in Motion by holyfant (linked above) which is still, easily, one of my top-two Sherlock fics of all time, bc it's just so painfully realistic--they do end up together again at the end, but there's a lot off off-again/on-again and arguing and then a few years they're not together in the meantime

Anyway, re: spop: Fate and destiny are great but real happily ever afters would be so hard with everything that lead up to the end of the series

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

>:( at myself for being like "oh it would take a year to write this" bc if I had actually done it I would be done by now pfffffft

(*Amedot)

#april writes #ehhhh I am not fandom-tagging this

11 notes · View notes

pebblysand · 6 months

Text

WELCOME BACK TO THE PAGE PALS PROJECT! AS A REMINDER, THE "PAGE PALS" PROJECT IS A GROUP RE-READ OF CASTLES. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE READ THIS POST HERE.

THIS WEEK, WE'RE DOING CHAPTER 2. BELOW, YOU'LL FIND MY THOUGHTS AS A CONVERSATION STARTER. FEEL FREE TO SEND IN ASKS IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS/THOUGHTS, AND TO JOIN OUR DISCORD SERVER FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION.

HANDY LINKS/INFO:

chapter: ii. out of ash (ashes twirl)

wordcount: 10, 476

playlist: notes here

castles FAQ: here

g e n e r a l t h o u g h t s:

for a very long time, this chapter used to be my favourite, and i still hold it in very high regard. i don't know what it is about it, it just feels like ✨vibes✨. it's both incredibly funny at times, and incredibly sad, and i feel like it really exhibits that awkward post-war happy/sad balance that is so important to castles. even if it's no longer my favourite cause i'm not quite sure which is my favourite anymore, i still think chapter 2 has some of my best writing in this fic. i'll go through a few chosen bits below but i feel like it has that general sense of messiness and melancholy that i really like in the early days of this story.

just like with chapter 1, you might notice a few changes i've made along the way, depending on when you read it last. again, i don't think it's anything major but if you do notice, you'll see that i didn't actually delete anything, just moved things around a bit. i think it flows better that way. i also added some stuff - i'm curious to see if you'll spot it. let me know!

having said that, omg, i'd forgot how SLOW the pacing is in this chapter. don't get me wrong, i think it needs to be slow for the purposes of telling the story, but it's very much like: this is them leaving the hotel, this is them having breakfast, this is them testifying - it is very step by step lol. i worry about my pacing in the later chapters, sometimes, but i clearly forgot about this one lol.

g i n n y:

Generally, reading this just this morning, I couldn't help but feel this raw sense of panic in Ginny, throughout this chapter. I think obviously, it's something that only really makes sense and becomes apparent on re-read, but there's this way you really feel how fucking terrified she is that Harry will find out. I hate to say this, but the way she acts with him, that summer, is almost reminiscent of her "relationship" with Amycus, actually. She is watching his every move, everything he says, everything she says, trying to make sure he doesn't find out. And, I don't think the pretending and the lying comes easy to her, I think it basically tears her apart, but those are skills that she "learnt" with Amycus. Being cued into his every emotion, expertly toying that line between saying too much and too little. She is almost manipulating him, into thinking they have this connection, and that them not talking is the Right thing for them, and it's not really her fault, it's how fear has wired her to function, but I find it chilling.

h i g h l i g h t s:

A year later, roses bloom once again in the gardens of Ottery St Catchpole and Harry’s still holding her. Some things in life never change, he muses, although, of course, everything else has changed. They’ve both fought in a war that should never have been theirs and one of her brothers has died, leaving the start of the summer to mend itself without them, trapped in a combative attempt to shovel the little hope it has left down their throats. When Harry caresses Ginny’s skin, the summer of ‘98, she’s naked next to him, the both of them tucked in her small, twin bed at The Burrow. They try to be quiet (always, despite the silencing charms they cast) but they each have a side, now, an oddly domestic habit, and after they have sex, Harry often lies with her body wrapped around him, so close that he’s never quite sure where her limbs start and where his end. Her bed’s pushed up against her window - along the skin of his left arm, he feels the morning dew build as the night chill leaves the air; it trickles down the single-glazed glass. They watch the sun rise together - early mornings and milky skies.

I LOVE THIS PARAGRAPH SO MUCH. idk, jokes aside, i think it's one of my favourite things i've ever written. there's a flow to it i really like and i adore the end of "early mornings and milky skies". and i think it's the beginning of this motif that sort of comes back in chapter 17 where the two of them are always touching, comfortable in bed. the chill of early summer mornings and OH I LOVE IT.

'I'm not a Healer, Harry.'

so, this is actually a line i added in reaction to a) the people in my comments being mad that ginny wasn't weeding secrets out of harry and that being "ooc", and b) a conversation i later had with @btelling. i think there's this misconception in fandom about ginny being a "healer". this idea that she's almost harry's therapist after the war, the only one that can get him talking, etc. and i think firstly, there's very little evidence of that in canon. ginny asks for explanations, often, but she very rarely ever gets them. and secondly, there's this general view of women as healers in general, tending to "sick" men and making them better, which i don't particularly enjoy. so, i guess that was me reacting to all of this.

They barely swallow any food. For the other two’s sakes, Harry tries to hide the knot in his stomach, can tell that Hermione is anxious enough for the three of them - she keeps tapping an annoying rhythm against the table with the tips of her fingers, doesn’t even seem to realise she’s doing it. Her make-up is minimal, the varnish on her nails a plain but shiny transparent. His mind drifts back to Ginny again, how she always painted her nails in bright colours in school, reds and oranges, and golds, performed complicated charm work on them so that it would stick. ‘If I don’t, it always chips with Quidditch.’

i noticed this on a previous re-read but, i don't think i wrote this intentionally but i love the way harry is so infatuated with ginny in this. like, i think this is one of the moments where the fact that he totally idealises her and is very teenage-infatuated-crazy-about-a-girl really shines through. he literally looks at hermione's nails and is like: oh and by the way GINNY does her nails like this. it's so silly but it really shows how obsessed he is with her, but also how shallow it kind of is. he thinks it's deep, because when you're that age you think you're so deep, but it's actually not.

‘When we get there, it’ll be like the craziest circus you’ve ever been to,’ he speaks, quick, before he runs out of words. There is an urgency to the things that he needs to tell them both, ones that they don’t necessarily want to hear. ‘It’ll be dozens and dozens of people standing in a crowd, clapping and screaming, and wanting a piece of you. They’ll want to thank you, insult you, ask you questions, tell you personal stuff about themselves. They don’t mean anything bad by it, they just don’t really realise you’re a person. The press will be there, too, and they will be flashing their cameras just about five inches from your face to try and get a good shot,’ he adds, raising his hand close to his own cheek, showing them the distance. ‘They’ll want to touch you, have you sign stuff, and they’ll keep talking at you from the moment you step out of that fireplace to the moment you get into the lift. We’ll have an escort of Aurors to try and hold them back but I honestly doubt that they’ll be able to do much. It’ll feel like you’re in the longest tunnel you’ve ever been through and you can’t see the exit. At least, wear that scarf over your head, it’ll hide your face and your eyes from the cameras, protect you a bit. Ron, you can use the hood at the back of your robes.’

i think honestly, this is one of my favourite harry moments in the whole fic. i can't possibly tell you how much time i spent on this paragraph, back then. i see it as one of those post-war moments where harry actually does start growing into his own skin and also where you start being faced with the reality of the post-war world. there's this sort of "bubble," i think, throughout chapters 1&2 where they're all very removed from the outside and inside their little burrow bubble, and that obviously bursts big time, with the commission. there's something very brutal about the way harry speaks that day, and i think it really fits.

‘Why were we never kids?’

ah, another castles classic line people quote all the time. yuuup. 💔

That evening, the both of them eat Pad Thai takeaway and sit on the floor in front of the muted hotel telly. They laugh at funny Hogwarts stories of Romilda Vane and crazy things that Harry remembers Luna saying. They drain a few cans of bitter and wait for Ron to come home.

i've always loved this moment loads because it's 1) harry-and-hermione-my-babies!!!! but also 2) it has these trio-codependency vibes that are very present in the early chapters of feeling lost when the three of them aren't together. the way they "wait for Ron to come home" breaks my little heart for them.

Love in its million different forms, the way Dumbledore preached it. Harry loves Hermione the way he loves Ron, like the boy who introduced him to chocolate frogs and the girl who cried in the loo and faced a troll.

again, trio vibes. love, love, love.

l a s t l y:

okay, so i love, love, love the rest of this chapter but also i'm having a hard time articulating precise thoughts so i'll leave it at that for now. please do not hesitate to send me asks if there's anything else you'd like me to comment on, though. very excited to hear your thoughts.

#castles #chapter 2

7 notes · View notes

yurisorcerer · 7 months

Text

God.

OK. So, this requires a little context. In a Discord server I'm in, they're groupwatching every KyoAni show. Starting today, they got to Haruhi Suzumiya and are going to be watching an episode per day until we finish it. I'm not gonna write about every single episode of this show---I've seen it several times at this point so while I have a fair bit to say about most episodes it's just a lot of effort for a series I don't think many people here on tumblr specifically care about anymore---I do wanna write about this one

because, like can you fucking IMAGINE opening an anime like this in 2024? It'd be impossible. When an anime in the present day wants to make a big impact it'll go for laser focus, trying to present its absolute best foot forward, or a grandiose overlength premiere like Oshi no Ko or Frieren or something. The idea of opening your anime with *this* is just....I mean, even at the time it was baffling. I watched Haruhi a couple years after it aired and I remember being SO confused. What was this? Why is the first episode of this show---a show that aired deliberately out of order, by the way. I'm calling it the first episode here but if you're going by DVD order it's one of the last---some weird, deliberately bad student film that has a snarky narrator CinemaSins-ing over top of it?

The short answer is just that from the very beginning, the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has a somewhat antagonistic relationship with its audience. Haruhi herself, as we'll learn in upcoming episodes, is kind of a really unpleasant person before eventually getting better. And I'm not going to claim that this show invented the idea of having your title character be a complete jackoff---it did not---but at the very least, it felt new at the time. (Contrast that to nowadays where every two-bit isekai has a total fuckboy who you're clearly supposed to love from episode 1 anyway.) So the first episode is kind of a....I hate this term, but almost a troll move I guess? More than anything, it's supposed to be *confusing.*

Improbably, this worked, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya became, for both better and worse, one of the defining anime of its era. It's been nearly 20 years and I have no idea how this happened.

Some amount can probably be attributable to the charisma of Haruhi herself---she sucks, but she makes an *impression*---but none of that is really present here since she doesn't show up until the end of the episode for the big mic drop moment, a moment where we get slightly more of an idea of what this show even actually is.

I think honestly the charm of the deliberately bad film might have been a factor. The thing is completely nonsensical; we have Mikuru running around in a bunny outfit doing plugs for random local businesses while vying for the affection of Itsuki. Itskuki himself plays a character best described as "on-screen" and "present." Mikuru's big rival both in love and for the fate of the Earth (?!?!) is Yuki, who wears a fucking awesome witch hat throughout most of the episode. At one point, in scenes that seemed utterly baffling without the context that later episodes would provide, Mikuru's eye appears to actually change color and fire a beam from it, and Shamisen the cat talks like a person. This shit was weird! Even at the time.

Also the bit where she fires a gun and goes "aaaah!" as the recoil gets out of control is still funny to me 16 years later. Many things about me have changed since I first watched this show but apparently my sense of humor isn't one of them.

Haruhi Suzumiya as a series is really important to me in that it was one of the first things I watched that was REALLY OBVIOUSLY "anime." There wasn't the plausible deniability you got with something that aired on Toonami (and thus was visible to anyone with cable TV) or one of the common entry-level access points like Cowboy Bebop or such, which are considered classics not just of their medium but of their *genre* and thus didn't carry the same stigma. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is an anime-ass anime, with its bunnygirl outfits and improbable high school antics and psychic powers and aliens and yadda yadda. When I first started watching the series I was vaguely embarrassed about my interest in Japanese cartoons, by the time I'd finished it, I had an actual fucking SOS Brigade patch on my jacket. No less a figure than Tatsuki Fujimoto said that the series was responsible for turning his generation into otaku, and, anecdotally, he's pretty much right about that; most otaku I know of my age had a Haruhi phase at some point. (That's part of why Aya Hirano playing Makima in the Chainsaw Man stage play was such a big deal. It's not just that she's an incredible actress---although she is---that's fucking Haruhi playing Makima, man.)

Its success is also partly responsible for the light novel adaptation hellscape we now live in, so I'm not going to shy away from criticizing it either. Right off the bat there's a really uncomfortable kind of semi-"ironic" sexualization of Mikuru, helpfully lampshaded by Kyon as the film's narrator. This does not let up at any point throughout the show and is probably the worst thing about the series (although it doesn't reach its nadir for a while, if I recall). I'm not a fan.

Other than that element, I think as far as first episodes go, I wouldn't mind if more shows went back to this approach. There's something to be said for just baffling your audience into submission.

#the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya #yurisorcerer talks about media #yurisorcerer rewatches haruhi #<-this gets its own tag

7 notes · View notes

iwsynttr-project · 7 months

Text

WAAAHHH I just saw people have been posting about the project on Pinterest???

THANK YOU???

I am so pink oh my goodness aaa

I'll give some updates then so people know we're not just slackin', haha;;

This past week we've been hella busy with church, school, trying out programs, still figuring out the whole learning to drive thing, stuff with disability, etc... but especially with Valentine's Day & Moose's birthday.

CJ came up to visit which was really special & we got to eat out & get boba all together which was super nice as he doesn't live too close by ever since we moved a few years back.

I recently got most of my m3dz figured out so I might be able to start hrt within the next year, & it sounds like the date has been set for CJ & I to get married this April 29th!

On top of all this we recently found out that a couple other plans have been thrown into the mix:

Our folks are planning to head out for a week a few states away to spend time with family & celebrate our twin cousins' birthday & then they'll be goin to Medieval Times for Moose's birthday possibly with another friend or cousin.

My mom & I are gonna try & see a show with CJ & his mom if they're able to come for my 21st birthday (Which is March 13th!) & CJ's birthday is at the start of April.

Right before our wedding is my dad's birthday & we're gonna see another live performance in another state, & then right afterwards a few days later is gonna be the wedding.

We're just gonna make it small & Soukoku themed, but maybe years later from now when we're livin' alone & financially stable we might do a bigger more official wedding. We'll renew our vows, maybe have custom made suits, special stuff like that.

Somethin' we're hopin' to do is for the small one we might make custom Lego Minifigures to be in front of/above the cake & then if we save up... the four-six hundred bucks... we wanna get the Soukoku "wedding" figurines that came out a bit ago.

It's a dream.

Anyways, as for the actual project!

I'm still working on the script when I have time, I just got stumped since we don't have Golden Demon written yet- but I managed to come up with some content to fill in for during or after the scene plays out for now & continued from there.

Moose has decided to try & make two versions of Life's Better With A Little Party In It: one that's a trashy pop song, & one that's his own take on the song based on artists like YOASOBI. (Into the Night, Monster, Idol, etc...)

We're also thinking about making a Cover Album on the side to go with the soundtrack just for fun with covers of songs from bands & artists like ONE OK ROCK & Set It Off.

I'm still thinking I might go for making The I Was Screaming Your Name Through the Radio Project into an episodic animatic series, but with everything going on I might wait to record the actual script & songs until we've got most of the script & songs written out more at the least if not also until after I get a better microphone & possibly start injections. (Maybe I'll still do the first few chapters since they're just teens anyways but meh whatever; we'll see.)

I did do a drawing while I was free last night though & have been talking with my dad who's voice is basically his life & career about vocal training of sorts or if I should find classes online or something along those lines for it.

(Back to the drawing) I made a concept design for Moose's online/music persona AquaticSnow & a possible first EP/Album cover. I'm not sure I'll post it (yet?) since he might use it for stuff like his avatar, channel/s, music, etc but if I do it'll be on my personal main Tumblr, Instagram, & probably Deviantart & Twitter/X.

I'm also nervous about somebody tryin' to steal the art &/or concept.

Another reminder that I do have a personal server where I stream drawing, gaming, sometimes reading & writing, watch parties (movies, shows, etc...) & I post planning & updates for the project there!

.:Charli's Discord Server:.

( Don't forget to pick roles & read the rules! Otherwise you can't see the other chats;; )

Sorry 'bout the long post, haha;; we hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!

Charli

13 notes · View notes

mrultra100 · 10 months

Text

Ultra's Ramblings- PHP 3 Speculation

Now, it should be no secret that I frankly adore Prehistoric Planet for what it is. I’ve already done a whole article going over what a possible 2nd season would be like, and now that it’s been months since the release of the actual Season 2, I’ve come to accept how it returned to the Maasrichtian of the Late Cretaceous.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for PHP to showcase animals and habitats from other time periods as much as the next guy, as I think a season based on the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic would be great. However, with that said, I’m content with the show staying within the Maasrichtian for a good few reasons. The obvious being that we could be seeing an entire trilogy of seasons set within the same geological stage, but another being how this particular part in time still has plenty of creatures that could be neat to see onscreen, especially with not only how the Maasrichtian has plenty to work with, but how plenty of animals still have yet to appear in the show. This is essentially gonna be the same general idea as my hypothetical season 2 ideas article from a few months back, just with plenty more Maasrichtian goodness involved.

Another change included is the themes of the episodes. Given that we might not have that many comparable biomes from Planet Earth left for future episodes, I say we go with out-of-the-box ideas for these episodes, especially if they can showcase the more strange creatures, behaviors, and scenarios that people have come to expect and love from the series as a whole. This will make sense as we go into these episode ideas. Finally, special thanks to Zain Ahmed, Cryodrakon, pondicherryyy, Dinosaurus, and the other members of the Paleo Media Central Discord server for helping me with this project. Their ideas certainly helped with putting all of this together. With all of that cleared out, let’s get started with what I’d imagine a possible third (and possible last) season of Prehistoric Planet looking like.

Oddities

The theme of this first episode is about the more bizarre and weird animals that lived during the Maasrichtian. The main element driving everything home for this episode is the appearances of these animals in particular, but a few weird behaviors and traits are added in to keep things nice n’ diverse.

The episode (and by extension, the season, begins within the seas of the Ouled Abdoun Basin in North Africa. The main animal of the segment would be Ocepechleon, a rather large protostegid sea turtle that not only had a pipette-like snout, just like the beaked whales of modern times, but also likely fed in the same way as the latter. The main plot of this segment shows a male Ocepechleon trying to catch fish with his tube-like snout, as he’s found himself within a baitball chased by various other large marine predators. The other animals in this segment would include Zarafasaura, Squalicorax, a returning face (or beak?) in the form of Alcione, and even a lone Prognathodon. Similar to the Hesperonis segment from “Oceans”, the presence of a baitball would drive the central plot of this segment, allowing the show to showcase the weird feeding habits of Ocepechleon in action.

We then move away from the seas of Morocco, and into the swamps of Mongolia, where the animal of the next segment is the first major returnee from the previous two seasons; Deinocheirus. The segment shows a male Deinocheirus looking after 3 chicks. The male is shown as a caring and protective father, not only plucking out soft water plants and holding them with his beak to his young, he would also let them ride on the hump on his back when wandering through slightly deeper water. The male could even use his giant arms as a sort of threat display to scare off other animals that got too close, no matter if they were a carnivore or herbivore. The male would even hiss like an overgrown goose. For the sake of that last example, the animal in particular that could be spooked off by the father Deinocheirus would be a wandering Tarbosaurus that stumbled into the wrong area at the wrong time. The behavior of the Deinocheirus and his chicks would be inspired by cassowaries, giant anteaters, geese, and even a little bit by the Jacana, a species of bird with massive feet that it uses to traverse through wetlands.

The next segment involves an animal that I’ve actually mentioned back during my previous Season 2 ideas article; Armadillosuchus. For those not aware, this was a cousin of Simosuchus that lived in Brazil, and had armored osteoderm on its back that looked a bit like the bands of an armadillo, hence how it got its name (Armadillosuchus literally means “armadillo crocodile”). The segment involves a female Armadillosuchus wandering through her desert home, looking for a good place to dig a burrow. While it’s not as plot-heavy as the previous segments, it serves as a nice way to show off the creature in question.

The next segment then cuts to the swamps of Hell Creek, the home of a giant, 1.5 meter long amphibian; Habrosaurus. The segment sees these creatures engaging in the unique methods of mating that many salamanders have. Instead of internal sex, a male lays packets of sperm that females suck up with their cloacas. Just like how modern sirens do the same thing today, the segment shows Habrosaurus males doing this bizarre, yet effective way of reproduction.

The episode then cuts to what would become modern-day Chile, with the animal of this next segment being Stegouros, a small type of ankylosaur with a tail like a macuahuitl. The plot of this segment follows a male trying to court a female by showing off and displaying his tail club, only for a megaraptorian theropod (Based on yet to be named megaraptorian fossils found in the same formation as Stegouros) to show up and interrupt the courtship. It 's then where the second purpose of Stegouros’ tail comes into action. Thanks to the last few osteoderms on the animal’s tail being rigid and fused, the tail club of this dinosaur was more blade-like, which makes the male a formidable threat to deal with. After barely dodging the herbivore’s tail, the megaraptorian decides that it’s not worth the trouble, and leaves. The two Stegouros get back to their courtship, and soon mate.

The last segment of the episode shows a bunch of Bonnerichthys, huge, filter-feeding fish, feeding on a plankton bloom. While they’re different creatures respectively, the Bonnerichtys would be a bit similar to whale sharks, both being massive planktivorous fish that gather in huge numbers in response to rapid plankton growth. In keeping up with the episode’s theme, the weirdness comes from not only the Bonnerrichthys’ lifestyle, their huge maws also get some attention. The episode then ends from there.

Environments

The general theme of this episode revolves around the various environments and ecosystems present during the Maasrichtian, and how dinosaurs and other animals lived in said environments. While the other episodes are dedicated to showing off certain niches and features, this one would be reminiscent of the previous two seasons in how they themed their episodes.

The episode starts off with a segment about the polar winters that took place within the North Pole and Alaska, mainly the Prince Creek Formation. While this was mentioned in passing back in “Ice Worlds”, it would be the main theme of this segment. During this time, the northern parts of North America would experience long summers, where the sun wouldn't set. On the other end of the spectrum, the winters that followed would have the land go through months of total darkness, not a bit of warmth in sight. The segment generally shows how the dinosaurs that lived in this part of the world lived in such conditions. Not only would returnees like Pachyrhinosaurus, Nanuqsaurus, Edmontosaurus, and Cimolodon show up, so does Alaskacephale, which was a species of Alaskan pachycephalosaur. It would be a bit like the Nemegt watering hole scene from Season 1, only with much more snow and ice.

We then cut to a segment all about Hateg Island, showing how islands like it can change the fauna that live on it over countless generations. In this case, insular dwarfism, a phenomenon where animals living on islands grow smaller than their mainland relatives, is the main theme of the segment, with a herd of Paludititan (Which might be the identity of the dwarf sauropods seen at the end of “Forests” from Season 1) moving through their feeding grounds in search of fresh plant growth. Given how Hateg Island is the main location for this segment, we also see the return of Zalmoxes, Telmatosaurus, and Hatzegopteryx (With the latter being a lone male drinking from a lake and grooming himself after a long day of hunting for prey), alongside the introductions of Bradycneme (an island-dwelling relative of Mononykus), Struthiosaurus (A small nodosaur), and Eurazhdarcho (A much smaller cousin of Hatzegopteryx). Like many of the other segments in this episode, this serves as a general snapshot of both Hateg Island, and the creatures that call it home.

The episode then cuts to Antarctica for a segment focusing on flowering plants of the time, and how they’re pollinated by bees and butterflies. Morrosaurus, Antarctopelta, and the Antarctic hadrosaur all return as cameo appearances, feeding on and around some of the flowers and fruits of the trees. Loosely adapted from an idea by pondicherry (credit to him).

The next segment then cuts to the Nemegt Formation, where the focus is on a mixed-species nesting site of both Oksoko and Conchoraptor, both different species of oviraptorid theropod dinosaurs. While both species are different (Conchoraptor having frankly long arms and no crest, and Oksoko having large crests and freaky-looking hands with two fingers), they share the same group together. The segment in general serves as a way to show how oviraptorids can be different from each other in terms of species.

The episode then cuts to the deep seas of the Caribbean, where the focus of the segment is about reefs formed by shelled mollusks, of all things. Specifically rudist clams like Bournonia, who provide home to wide variety of other creatures that live amongst them, including sharks like Serratolamna and Scapanorhynchus, whole schools of lantern fish, deep-sea ammonites like Baculites, and even a bed of the fellow mollusk, Inoceramus. This ethereal, undersea wonderland would have an equally ethereal theme to it, similar to the ammonite scene from Season 2. Very similar to how deep sea clams gather around and near brine pools, the rudist reef would be near a huge methane seep, where not only schools of Baculites hang around them, the Inoceramus would be in clustered beds around the seeps, just like with mussels in similar environments

The final segment of the episode has an Ankylosaurus wander through a swamp in Hell Creek in search of water plants, very similar to how hippos move in water. As the am tired herbivore makes his way through the swamps of Hell Creek, with other, smaller creatures making appearances; Paleoswania, Didelphodon, Axestemys, Lonchidion, Habrosaurus, and even Acheroraptor all show up. To match the fierce nature of hippos, the Ankylosaurus would even spook off a passing Tyrannosaurus , who was just minding her own business.

Predators

An episode showcasing many predatory animals around the world of the Maasrichtian, and how they hunted and interacted with their prey. Think of this episode like if PHP And The Hunt had a baby.

The episode starts off with an animal that was originally planned for Season 2, but was ultimately cut; Mahajangasuchus. This large crocodyliform was believed to be a powerful predator, strong enough to even survive a dry spell. The segment shows a lone Mahajangasuchus lying still at a pool of water, the only source of water for miles around during the dry season. He would be seen trying to snack on multiple animals that got close to the water’s edge, some being a bit more successful than others, before it all culminates with him catching a juvenile Majungasaurus. The segment would also make note that the reason while the Mahajangasuchus’ watering hole is the only one for miles is because he dug out a portion of the river when it was still mud, so he wouldn't be forced to leave his own territory. This behavior is inspired by alligator holes, which are holes that American alligators make by digging into the limestone and mud of the Everglades, and fill with water. The gators do this as a way to survive the dry season. Species like Falcatakely, Sahonachelys, and Masiakasaurus would also make quick cameo appearances as well.

The second segment cuts to India, where the predator in question is Sanajeh, a relative of Madtsoia from nearby Madagascar. The segment serves to show how this creature hunted in the same way as modern-day boas and pythons, as a female Sanajeh ambushes and devours a lone Bharattherium. This entire process takes time, as the Sanajeh not only has to crush her prey to death, but also swallow her catch whole. It would also be noted that the Bharattherium is the first meal that the Sanajeh had in a while, as snakes of that nature tend to go a good while without having to hunt for prey.

An Avisaurus engages in its own hunt in the next segment. Taking alot of inspiration from birds of prey like falcons and hawks, a female Avisaurus goes on the hunt, looking for, and swooping down on an Alphadon. The best animal to compare the Avisaurus to would be a red-tailed hawk, with the Alphadon essentially being the vole in this situation. To further drive home the connection, the Avisaurus would have a plumage pattern very similar to not only red-tailed hawks, but also a peregrine falcon.

We then cut away to the seas of North America, where a lone Cretalamna wanders the open sea in search of food. In a very similar way to modern great white sharks, Cretalamna are warm-blooded animals, meaning they can raise their own internal body temperature above the temperature of the water that they’re swimming in. That, along with how they’re fast swimmers like the shortfin mako of day (Fittingly enough, both otodontids and the group of sharks that include the mako are part of the same family), helps the Cretalmna chase down a rather large Enchodus. The whole chase would have a similar feel to how shortfin mako sharks chase down prey, especially with the explosive speed.

A Phosphatodraco goes hunting for small animals during the night, only to run into an even bigger relative of it; the towering Arambourgiania. As the former comes across a bunch of baby Ocepechelon scrambling towards the ocean, he starts to gorge himself on as many babies as he can from nest to nest. However, this doesn’t last long, chasing one it bumps into the much larger Arambourgiania as it slumbers at the base of a sand dune. As much as the Phosphatodraco is an intimidating and powerful hunter, who’s used to being the biggest pterosaur on the block, he’s eventually chased in turn by his much larger rival, who isn’t going to deal with his aggressive nature.

A Carnotaurus stalking a herd of Secernosaurus serves as the final segment of the episode. While the latter wasn’t found in the same exact place as the former, they were both around at the same time and general area, so it works. The segment shows that the Secernosaurus herd has calves with them, with the Carnotaurus stalking them as they move from place to place. The predator tries to get closer to his prey by first hiding in a grove of trees, then chasing out a lone calf from the herd. After the first couple of tries end in failure, the Carnotaurus manages to catch a calf by surprise, and separates him from the rest of the herd by chasing him out onto open ground. The Carnotaurus, using his superior speed and agility, closes the deal by striking down onto the calf when he gets close enough, killing him in the process. It took him a few tries, but the Carnotaurus finally not only gets himself a hard-earned meal, but also a long deserved victory. The guy certainly earned it. The episode then ends from there.

Giants

An episode about some of the largest creatures of Maastrichtian Earth, and how they deal with day-to-day life. The main theme here is that the main species of each segment are the biggest of their kind at this time, along with how certain giant species start off small.

The episode starts with a segment about Gargantuavis, which was the largest bird of the Mesozoic. While it’s not as big as most of the other species that get a focus in this episode, it's the largest of its kind during the Maasrichtian. The segment follows a pair of these huge, ground-dwelling birds, as they look after their eggs. Similar to how ostriches do the same thing, the pair both have respective times for laying on their clutch; The female looks after the eggs during the day, while the male takes over during the night. For a nice bit of comedic edge, the pair are very protective of their eggs, with one part showing the female getting aggressive when an Ampelosaurus wanders a bit too close for comfort while trying to find his herd. The incubation lasts for 42 days, just like ostriches, and by the end of the segment, the chicks start to hatch out. Admittingly, some of the ideas in this segment were taken from my original Gargantuavis segment idea, back during my article about my guesses for what Season 2 was gonna be. A good portion of that article’s ideas still work, and some of them even predicted aspects of the real Season 2 itself (The inclusion of Imperobator, Austroraptor, Globidens, and Diplomoceras, along with the mere idea of an episode being based on an entire continent coming true with “North America”).

The next segment takes place in Madagascar, where the giant frog Beelzebufo returns to the series yet again. This time, the story is set in two parts. The first part has a male Beelzebufo go up against a rival male, fighting on the flooded plains for his spot to attract a mate. After winning and securing a female, the segment cuts to a while later, while the male Beelzebufo is guarding after his young. First, they finally hatch, and after some time growing, they start to grow too big for the small pool of water that they were nursed in. This, in turn, leads to the male Beelzebufo having to dig out the pool for the tadpoles, which leads to a larger pond for them to grow and develop in. Sahonachelys, which was a suction-feeding turtle, also shows up in the segment, feeding on any strangling Beelzebufo tadpoles that stray away from their father. As a sort of way to evolve from the species’ last appearance back in Season 2, the scene adds in elements of African bullfrogs, both with rival males fighting for mates, and the males having to raise their young.

The next segment has the episode stay in Madagascar a bit more to focus on Vintana, a rather big mammal for its time. While Adalatherium from Season 2 (which was also a big Madagascarian mammal that was present at the same time) was big, this species was a bit bigger, making it the largest mammal of the Maasrichtian. The focus is on a female resting within her burrow. Outside, a large Rapetosaurus lies outside the burrow in the same spot that the animal died on, attaching scavengers. Some time later, during the night, the female Vintana comes out her burrow to find the carcass, with most of the meat having been gone. However, the mammal is after something else, and after some digging around, the scene shows the Vintata gnawing on one of the dead sauropod’s bones. This is based on how various mammals, rodents included, tend to gnaw on bone to acquire calcium.

The episode then cuts to the seas of Europe, where a female Mosasaurus serves as the focus. The female travels to a secluded bay in order to give birth, where she and her babies will be safe from predators. As the Mosasaurus and her young stay in the shallows a bit before the latter leaves, the segment shows how she, despite being a huge marine predator, is a caring mother, looking after and protecting her young. Eventually, the Mosasaurus had to leave the shallows, leaving the young behind to fend for themselves with no problem. As hard as it might sound, modern-day monitor lizards (The mosasaurs’ closest living relatives) are very intelligent and social animals, with some species living in groups. The idea of mosasaurs being caring towards their kin is a very good possibility.

From one predatory returnee to another, the next segment focuses on a female Hatzegopteryx looking after her eggs. While she takes great care to protect them from predators, she eventually leaves them behind just before they hatch. With their mother gone, the Hatzegopteryx flaplings are left to their own devices, and they start by hunting for themselves, while avoiding predators like Allodaposuchus and Eurazhdarcho. The theme of this segment is to show how many giant predators not only start out small, but have to deal with predation from other animals.

The last segment of the episode revolves around Dreadnoughtus, as the focus is on an old male on his last legs. A group of Orkoraptor waits as the herd steps into their territory. The predators stalk the herd, waiting for the right time for the old bull’s condition to worsen without having to deal with the threat of being crushed by the other titanosaurs in the herd due to how aggressive they can be. Eventually, due to a mix of old age, heat exhaustion, and his body failing him, the old Dreadnougthus lays down on the Patagonian ground for the last time, and the herd moves on. This is the opportunity that the Orkoraptor pack has been waiting for. With the titanosaurs gone, the predators step in to feast on the dead Dreadnoughtus, with other scavengers like Aerotitan and Niebla joining in. The whole scene is essentially a mix between the old Alamosaurus peacefully passing away in “North America”, and the speed lapse footage of the Mapusaurus feasting on an Argentinosaurus carcass from Planet Dinosaur, with the scene being a sort of homage to the latter. As the final segment of the episode, the general idea is how plenty of giant animals, even in death, can still have an important impact on an ecosystem. In this case, it’s providing plenty of food to other species.

Legacies

In this final, double length episode (Not just for the season, but probably the Maasrichtian trilogy and maybe even the whole series), the show shows how various animals raised their young, passing on the legacies of each species.

The first segment of the episode revolves around Maip macrothorax, a recently discovered megaraptorian theropod from South America. Specifically, two males that form a mated pair and raise chicks together, and are introduced by driving off a juvenile Nullotitan, who nearly crushes their chicks. This is an example of a monogamous pair, albeit not the usual male/female pair that’s more common, before comforting them and . As weird as it sounds for (most) humans to not be the only creatures to do this, there have been reports of many animals alive today being in same-sex couples, most prominently penguins and other birds included; given birds are dinosaurs, it’s unsurprising that non-avian dinosaurs would likely do so too.

The episode then cuts away to the second segment of the episode, which focuses on an age-segregated flock of Gallimimus. Thanks to fossil evidence of this exact behavior seen in Sinornithomimus (A closely related species), it’s entirely possible that these theropods shared the same behavior, with the segment showing a young flock of Gallimimus wandering the deserts of Mongolia, all trying to survive and find an adult group to rejoin before predators can catch up to them. An Alioramus makes a quick cameo appearance to highlight the dangers that the flock has to face.

The next segment then cuts to India, where the animal in question is the returning Bharattherium. Underneath the feet of the dinosaurs, mammals were still making a living at the time, with the female feeding on grass alongside some Isisaurus. After gorging herself on grass, the female then returns to her burrow, where her mate and young are waiting. After nuzzling up to her mate, the female Bharattherium then lays down and lets her young feed on her milk. While it’s a bit slower and calmer than the other scenes, this segment works to show how mammals raise their young during the time of the dinosaurs.

The next segment features the return of Mononykus, as the species, similar to Beelzebufo in the last episode, gets two new sides shown to it. The first half shows male Mononykus trying to win a mate. Their way of "fighting" (if you call it that) is trying to sit on each other. As strange as that sounds, anteaters have been known to do the same thing to fight over the right to mate. After the lead male wins the chance to court a mate, the segment then cuts to some time later, where the pair have constructed a nest together. This is where the second side comes in, as a lone Kuru kulla comes snooping around for an easy meal. The Mononykus pair then step in, with the female doing a sort of distraction display to the Kuru in order to lure her away from the nest, similar to how many birds do the same thing today. The goal for the female is to make herself look like an easier meal than her eggs in order to keep the predator away from the nest. Just as the female Mononykus gets the Kuru a far enough distance away from the nest, she then bolts out of there, leaving the raptor to eat her dust. After returning, the two Mononykus reunite, and resume their nesting duties.

The next segment then cuts to the waters of South America to focus on the rare occurrence of interspecies adoption, where a mother Aristonectes raises a baby Morturneria among her own pod. Despite the two being from different species, the two share a strong maternal bond that lasts for a few years. Sadly, by the time the calf is older, the maternal instincts of the mother Aristonectes wear off, and no longer recognizes the Morturneria as her own, forcing him to leave the pod. Despite how this is a somber moment for the marine reptile, the end shows that he’s capable of surviving on his own, and he leaves to find a pod of his own. Keeping up with the elasmosaurs of this show having behaviors seen in whales, the Aristonectes adopting the young Morturneria is based on various species of whales and dolphins adopting members from different species, like a group of sperm whales in Australia adopting a disabled bottlenose dolphin, an adult southern right whale being seen alongside a humpback whale calf, an orca adopting a pilot whale calf, and more.

The episode cuts to the open seas of North America where multiple Protosphyraena gather to reproduce. While these large, marlin-like fish aren’t related to true billfish, they not only hunt and look in a similar way, they also have a similar way of mating. The segment shows one of many females releasing her eggs out into the water, with multiple males all swarming to fertilize as many as possible. The segment also takes time to show off the speed and bills of these predatory fish, as they not only have a similar niche to modern day sailfish and marlins, but also have the same way of reproduction. This way of mating is referred to as “broadcast spawning”, where female marine animals release their eggs out into the open water, and the males take turns releasing sperm to fertilize them. The fertilized eggs then drift out into the current, acting like plankton. While a good portion of them are eaten on screen by a passing Bonnerichthys, the surviving eggs eventually hatch into minute versions of their parents, and they venture out to grow and develop into high-speed predators.

The final normal segment not only of the episode, but also the season, the possible Maasrichtian trilogy, and maybe even the series in general, takes place in Hell Creek, where not only various animals are seen living their lives, the main focus is on a mixed herd of both Edmontosaurus and Thescelosaurus. These two ornithopods have radically different lifestyles (One’s a migratory species, while the other is a sedentary burrower), but the scene shows that both use each other as protection and defense, and by extension, protect each other’s clutches. Even nearly being accidentally stepped on by the Edmontosaurus helps to teach the baby Thescelosaurus to avoid big animals, regardless of diet. All the while, as the herd moves through the coastal floodplains underneath a setting sky, many other residents of Hell Creek make cameo appearances as a sort of last hurrah; A herd of Triceratops, an Ankylosaurus lying near a large swampy pond while a pair of Didelphodon play with each like a couple of otters, a mated pair of Pectinodon and their chicks, a Quetzalcoatlus flying overhead below the full moon before landing down to preen himself on a rock, a group of Pachycephalosaurus feeding near a rotten log, and of course, Tyrannosaurus. As the mixed herd moves on, the scene, in a callback to the very beginning of the series, ends with a father T. Rex and his chicks standing near a large river leading to the beach, looking up at the stars. Just like at the start of Season 1, the T. Rex and his brood are peaceful animals, just minding their own business. The scene ends with a shot of the T. Rex and his chicks looking on at the night sky.

After the last normal segment ends, the camera cuts back to Sir David Attenborough walking around the Oxford University Museum of Natural History on a slow fade-in shot, until coming up on the skeleton of the T. Rex from the Season 1 intro. He then goes on about how the dinosaurs, along with the animals that shared their world, were some of the greatest creatures to have ever lived. David then brings up how this great era came to a somber era, with the KT extinction, and while it may seem tragic at first, David then explains that they've left behind their most incredible legacy. Not only things like fossils, but also their closest-living relatives; birds. This legacy can even be expanded to how the dinosaurs and their story have inspired people. As David walks around, the scenes with the animals are projected onto the walls next to their skeletons. While this plays in the background, holograms-like ghosts of the dinosaurs and other animals seen throughout the series phase in at the museum at first, before David looks through one of the museum windows to see that more of them are roaming the modern world; Herds of Dreadnoughtus and Edmontosaurus roaming on city roads, a Mononykus slinking and sneaking through trash bins, two Simosuchus frolicing on the streets, a Pachyrhinosaurus getting confused after bumping into some random car, a Hatzegopteryx flying overhead, a Mosasaurus breaching out of a city channel, while schools of ammonites swim below the giant, a male Barbaridactylus on the roof of a building trying to court what he thinks is a female (but is actually another male pretending to be a female), and more, all as a way to show that while the creatures of the past are forever gone, their memories still roam our imaginations. David then brings up a warning of the current extinction, and if mankind does everything they can to prevent the animals of today to go the way of the dinosaurs, perhaps someday, we might experience the greatest show in nature since the era of our Prehistoric Planet. As David walks past the skeleton of an ancient whale, in which the camera lingers on for a bit (Maybe to tease a possible future set of seasons based within the Cenozoic), he meets up with the ghost of the T. Rex from the very beginning of the series. (I.E. Hank). Hank calmly looks at David at the entrance of the museum for a bit, before deciding to walk out. As Hank exits the museum, he then scatters into a flock of birds that fly off into the distance, showing how the dinosaurs still live on as birds. The season then ends on a cut to black.

Overall, this final segment has plenty of inspiration from other forms of paleomedia; The ghost of Big Al wandering a museum at the start of The Ballad of Big Al, The Acrocanthosaurus leaving the museum that it was kept in back in Monsters Resurrected, the holograms of the animals in the live-action parts of Dinosaur Revolution, the entire feel and vibe of “The Last Tyrant” from David James Armsby’s Dinosauria, and even a dash of David Attenboruguh’s Natural History Museum Alive (Another paleontology-based project that he worked on). Not only does this finale serve as the ultimate send-off to the wonders of the Maasrichtian era, it’s also a huge love letter towards paleontology as a whole.

And that, dear readers, is how I imagine a possible third season of PHP. As much as I hope this series gets more and more seasons covering other periods throughout Earth’s history, it would make sense if it stayed in the Maastrichtian yet again. Due to not only the amount of well-known taxa are known to live at this time, along with how people know alot about it, it’d make sense to stay in the Maastrichtian. And if this became the final season of the show, at least making enough seasons to make an incredible trilogy would work well for people. Would I want more seasons after this? Yeah, I would. But if one more season came out of this series and set it in the same time and place for a whole Maasrichtian trilogy, I’d be cool with it. All without directly showing off the K-T extinction. As much as that's been an important part of this time in Earth's history, many people are tired of it appearing in every dinosaur documentary. And I have a feeling Darren Niash and his team are in the same boat.

This project was not only one of the biggest that I’ve made so far as an artist/writer, it was also one of the most fun that I ever had. This took me months to get done, and it’s so satisfying to finally have it finished. I wanna give a good shout-out to the folks from the Paleo Media Central Discord server that I spoke to and worked with on this project. Their ideas helped with getting this whole thing complete. And while I can understand that there are other ideas/suggestions for what people think a possible PHP season 3 could be like, we’ll just have to wait and see if it’ll come. As for now, thanks for reading!

#ultra ramblings #prehistoric planet #bbc #apple tv #david attenborough #dinosaurs

12 notes · View notes

quibbs126 · 1 month

Text

I’ve moved on to drawing characters’ parents now, because I just want to keep drawing character and shirking what I actually need to do

Okay that’s partially a lie, I am writing a PowerPoint thing with my notes (though so far it hasn’t gone much farther than appearances), but still, I guess I’m doing this now

Oh and also, I switched over to my normal marker pen because the thing I was using for the lineart, my normal sketching pen, gives me no real line weight, and it was bothering me so much. Though I might still switch again, likely over to the syrup pen, at least to try it out

So anyways, first up we have Norma, and now (tentatively) Juliet, Marcus and Julian’s parents

I had already designed their grandpa, might as well draw the parents too

So I don’t really know what Norma and Julius’ original roles were, they probably didn’t have any, but they were around, and Norma was outgoing while Julius more reserved and probably smart. Then I considered having them be dead, which I still might do, but I also don’t know

I am thinking though that the two are archaeologists or something, and that if they’re alive, they’re just out traveling for work, and someone else watches their kids (if Marcus and Julian aren’t adults I guess). In retrospect I’m realizing I could have had Anya be that, but oh well

So I’ve mentioned that Marcus and Julian are supposed to have half markings, half white fur, so basically here Norma has the white fur, while Juliet has the markings, like her dad

I also decided that Norma has some extra hair color at the end, mostly just to give her a bit more spice

One thing you may have also noticed is that originally, Juliet was named Julius, and that yesterday I said Jules had a son that was Marcus and Julian’s dad. Well today while drawing her and giving her long hair, I decided “you know what, screw it, Julius is a woman now”, and so now she is

And also by which I mean, I didn’t just flip her gender, she’s transfem. She eventually realized she was a woman and is much happier living as one with her wife. Not sure if she transitioned before or after their kids, but they’re probably chill with it

Admittedly I’m still working out what her new name would be, and I just slapped on Juliet so that I have a name. I was asking my Cookie Run Discord server for help, since I didn’t know who else to ask, but I didn’t really like the suggestions, so Juliet’s her tentative name right now

But I don’t really like Juliet much either, it really does sound to me like a poorly thought out genderbend name, like Sonic to Sonia or Sonica, you get what I mean. Slap a bow on and they’re now a woman

See the problem is, when I originally named the parents, it was sort of supposed to be like they mashed together their names in some way to make their kids’ names. Marcus and Julian coming (somewhere) from Norma and Julius. Not only that, but as I’ve now decided, the lavender hair side of the family has a naming convention of Jul-, so I wanted to stick with that, hence Juliet. So Juliet here has to somehow fit in with those rules. Honestly I’m thinking of changing Norma’s name alongside Juliet’s, to see if I can think of something better for both

Wait crap, I’ve gotten sidetracked. I still have some more to say about Juliet here, but just know that I don’t really like her name and it will likely change, along with Norma, and let’s move on

One thing I have thought about when it comes to Juliet is that she personally has issues with her own father, Jules. He was distant due to the Striker project and they never really saw eye to eye (Jules did care about her, he just didn’t say it out loud to her). It’s part of the reason she works in archaeology, because in her eyes it’s the antithesis to science, which is looking into the future, while she looks into the past

It’s not really that important, but her feelings and resentment towards her father would probably have some role in the Striker story, especially since Striker’s confusing Julian for Jules

Anyways, on to the last person, Anya

Straight up, she’s just here because I needed a third person to put here, and she’s supposed to be Nina’s mom, so

She was originally dead, but I’ve now decided she’s not, I have too many dead parents, she and Erik are just divorced for reasons. Maybe Erik later realized he was gay or something. Nina lives with Erik most of the time due to wanting to be a doctor like him, but she visits her mom on the holidays. I don’t know

I feel like she and Norma ended up looking similar due to the white fur, but they have white fur for different reasons. Norma has it for her sons’ marking weirdness, and Anya has it because Nina has white fur and I was trying to show that it came from her mom’s side instead of the albino weirdness it originally was (because I didn’t understand albinism at the time). Unfortunately I decided to put them on the same page, so their similarities are incredibly obvious

As I stated earlier, maybe I could make Norma and Anya related, like I don’t know, they’re sisters and Anya looks after Norma’s kids while she’s out. Though that means that Anya and Erik are probably living in the same town. I mean, I guess that can happen with divorced couples, I’m not really familiar with how they work, but to me it feels like they should be living in separate towns or something, I don’t know

Also it again brings the problem of “character who already has cousins on one side now has cousins on another”, just now with Nina instead of the other three. I guess cousins are somewhat common (I wouldn’t know, I don’t have any, at least not first cousins), but I feel like I’m using it too much. Granted, right now it really is only Nina, Mercury, Venus and Saturn that have it, so maybe not

I don’t know, forget about Anya. She’s not important and I didn’t really think about her when making her, I literally just needed a third person because I had made Norma and Juliet

And so yeah, I guess that’s it for today’s characters. Not that great, I need to think more on these characters before I draw them. I think I’ve got too much energy now and I don’t spend enough time thinking on things first, just drawing like crazy

#I’m realizing that Juliet’s design probably could still work as a guy #but screw it I like her being trans #also another note I have decided that gender does not matter to Ralians when it comes to having kids #probably another egg situation #but they probably just come out of the ground or something instead of coming out of them #it makes sense with the world trust me #anyways #original story #original characters #ralia #my art

2 notes · View notes

hotforharrison · 3 months

Text

How much sad did you think I had in me?

More than I would have originally assumed.

There's a trading card game called Disney Lorcana that has a group that meets up at the local game shop on Saturday mornings, and I've been trying to go at least once a week.

I missed last week because I was really sick with the kidney infection that's better now.

I got up early this morning, got myself looking nice, and hyped myself up to go because I need to be social with people in person.

When I showed up, it had been cancelled without any announcement on the Discord server for the game shop.

I didn't expect it to make me as sad and disappointed as it did.

I've been working on my new room today, getting my desk cleaned up and bookshelf put back together the way I wanted it to be.

My ex-husband had two throw pillows for what used to be his futon that is now my bed. They're are dark gray patterned and very him.

I definitely want to put them on my ottoman storage bench.

I think the first thing I'm going to have to actually purchase, in what I'm aiming to be my very minimal purchases for making this room mine, is a set of throw pillow covers.

I'm pretty sure I've already picked out the ones I want. They're a highly reviewed "dusty pink" velvet set.

My ex-husband is coming by later this evening to help me hang shelves on the wall and move my empty 45g tank onto my aquarium stand so I can set it back up again and plant it.

I'm going to allow my plants enough time to get well-established before I move my snails over.

They decimated my last set of plants. (I might need to up how much I feed them. I didn't want to overfeed and cause an ammonia spike.)

The next order of business after the aquarium and shelves go up is putting up what wall coverings I already have and figure out what I'm going to need for the rest of the walls.

I have a few packages of 4x6 and 5x7 wall picture frames around here somewhere that I need to find, and it will be so much easier to find them after I get the shelf (or shelves -- I have two) on the wall and put up some of the stuff that's scattered everywhere right now.

I hate, hate, HATE the chaos I am surrounded by at the moment. So much.

2 notes · View notes

nadianova · 1 year

Note

hey i'm making my first VN in ren'py because of your work and I was wondering how much of the text for your games do you write for the first time in the engine? do you write in an external word processor or just do it right there? i'm trying to get a feel for a workflow

first of all good luck and im happy to hear i inspired you! visual novels are a good and accessible way to make your own story i truly believe that.

i think the workflow for htis kind of stuff heavily ends up just being personal preference. everyone who ive heard talking about this does it differently so theres clearly no right or wrong and its more about finding what works for you best.

but that being said what works for me is that i tend to make a little discord server for myself and create a tab for my project and just save pictures or text snippets taht i like just for inspiration. i might wake up in the middle of hte night to write some couple lines down if i thought of a cute interaction i want to include. but basically just gathering reference and inspiration weeks before i even bother opening up google docs and do any real writing.

after that when its actually the time to write i just start throwing everything i have in google docs and write chronologically though sometimes i might jump a bit if i really am feeling inspired to write a horny scene or osmething and hten come back to connecting it to the story later on lol. i include the character who is speaking and try to put all dialogue in to quotation marks for easy transfer later on. but for bigger chunks of text like narration i just let it be a big block and afterwards i split it into appropriate text box fitting sizes when i am moving it into renpy and adding all the code part like what background and sprites to show etc. i tend to leave a lot of comments like ##add door sound here or ##add sprite of this expression here cause i dont wanna interrupt the flow of putting the text in and then come back to finish the scene later on with hte other aspects.

at that point if im working in renpy i most likely wont bother touching google docs anymore since its annoying to have two versions of my script and i just write everything directly in renpy at that point

but yeah even this feels like a simplification in truth its a lot more messy and i always end up with situations where i confuse myself cuase im doing things in a weird order or have two scripts that have slight variations cause other is in renpy and other is in google docs lmfao

though i think the biggest thing is that if you write in google docs with the intent to move it over to renpy later i think trying to write with clear consistent manner will make it easier to transfer it over later on. there is some trickery you can do to make it even more easier but ive always done it manually in the past..

#this isnt a guide or anything just my messy process

11 notes · View notes

the-hummelverse · 1 year

Text

In terms of the hummelverse.com website, it's online again by the way! Been online for a couple months again already actually after the catastrophic failure and year-long downtime caused by moving it over from my previous hoster. But I didn't have any time to do much needed post-move maintenance so far, which I am slowly catching up with now.

Notes:

The website is now SSL-enabled (using https instead of http), but this doesn't really change anything except that some browsers/extensions should now be less likely to act like it's a malicious page trying to steal your credit card data... (This was genuinely the main reason why I had to change hosters, since the previous one would have charged me 10€ per month extra for it when most others out there have it as a free default for your contract???)

I thought the newsletter signup form was broken, but it only doesn't show up when I use Firefox on my desktop PC so maybe my adblocker is overly zealous. I haven't been writing any newsletters lately partly because of that, but now that I know the signup form isn't actually broken, I'll try to get back into the habit. That means if you cannot see it either on the homepage, please try a different browser or check if one of your browser extensions might be blocking it!

The art gallery works again, but uploading the images is very tedious and time-consuming. I forgot to move over the folder that contained all the images on the server, so I had to wipe the database and have to re-upload them all. It shouldn't interfere with the functionality of the website otherwise, though.

The tumblr post feed on the website is broken and I don't really know how to fix it since the API seems to have changed and I am not fully able to wrap my head around the new code. There's a chance that I'll figure it out eventually but it's very low priority for me right now, especially since I set up a webhook for the HV discord server that does the same job but in a more convenient manner.

The pages for the LEGENDS card game are there on the server, but I have to rework and update them with more current content/info. I'll do that as soon as I'm able and will add a link to the homepage once that's done. But it leads me to the next and last point:

As I've mentioned before I want to look into alternative solutions for selling/distributing both my books and my trading card game and the merchandise (bet most people didn't even know there IS merchandise....look, I'm very bad at this whole marketing think, ok?). There's also other Hummelverse things floating around like the free short horror video game I made ages ago and the pen&paper ruleset, for example. I am thinking of adding a sort of "hub" to the homepage that either provides a proper and complete list of links to all these miscellaneous things, or maybe even find a way to consolidate them onto my own website as completely as possible. This is still in the early musings phase, so don't expect to see much of this until a couple months down the line...

#hummelverse #website

7 notes · View notes

xenia12 · 2 years

Text

Greetings, frog Tumblr! Welcome to my impulsive, salt-induced Amphibia rant!!

This where I’m gonna ramble about Anne’s nonchalance and near indifference towards Marcy’s whole situation despite, not only supposedly wielding the “heart” gem (which embodies empathy, selflessness, and responsibility), but also the fact that she has been friends with Marcy since before kindergarten and has previously been very protective of her.

So STRAP IN, frogs, newts, toads, and hummuses alike cuz HERE WE GO

[in TV announcer voice] Brought to you by unhinged screaming in a discord server with @froggythesculptor.

Alrighty, we’ll start with Anne’s relationship with Marcy in “Marcy at the Gates”!!

When Marcy is about to jump in and save Sprig from the barbariant queen, Anne stops her and says she can do it herself. Marcy argues and asks about why she won’t let her go before Anne shouts, “Because I just got you back, okay?!” She then adds:

So worried and sensitive, right? Well, let’s move onto “True Colors” :)

When Sprig is dropped by Andrias, Anne is so overcome by grief and rage that she actually activates her powers for the first time. She didn’t even see him hit the ground, yet still seems broken by the perceived loss.

However, when Marcy, her life-long friend, gets a giant flaming sword through the chest, uses what she thought would be her last breath to apologize, and collapses lifelessly to the floor, Anne simply shouts her name then basically goes, “Oh, I’m home now. Anyways-”

She has the shiny eyes here but doesn’t shed even a single tear until “All In” after Marcy is freed. Like, girl, you watched the friend that you’ve probably know longer than anyone except your own parents get brutally murdered 5 feet in front of you. How are you fine???

Of course it’s understandable for Anne to feel betrayed by Marcy after her truth is revealed. After all, she’s been trapped away from her home and family for 5 months and near-death experiences have become a worryingly routine thing for her in Amphibia.

The thing is that, with Sasha, despite her trying to knowingly and intentionally kill Hop Pop (and at one point Sprig), Anne still later said that “Sasha and I might be going through a rough patch, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about her” (S2 E6). Plus, after Sasha showed a little remorse then let go of her hand at Toad Tower, letting herself plummet so her friend could get away, Anne was sobbing just a minute later. She even saw Grime catch her so she knew Sasha was going to be okay.

The most logical conclusion Anne should’ve come to after going through that portal was that Marcy was dead. Yet, we’ve seen her get far more worked up about someone that, not only also betrayed her, but was clearly saved and alive. And, in earlier episodes, Anne seemed so much closer to and more protective of Marcy than Sasha… So I’m honestly confused.

As far as season 3 episodes 1-15, I wanna believe that Anne was simply in denial and didn’t want to bring it up, but it’s stuff like her being “stabbed” by the toy flame sword (in “Escape to Amphibia”) and simply laughing that make it hard for me to genuinely think that. When I just saw that happen through a screen I froze and stopped breathing for a second and it took me a bit to compose myself after. But Anne lived through both the actual event and the reminder yet didn’t react?

Also when Sasha passingly mentioned that Marcy was still alive, just captured, Anne simply sighed and said “thank goodness” before changing the topic. Like????

Now for “The Beginning of the End” :D

When first faced with Darcy, Anne (and Sasha kinda, but her reaction is more expected/normal for her tbh and imma not focus on her here anyway) was initially confused but, once she knew the jist of what was happening, she was just angry. She didn’t take a second to mourn or feel bad for her friend and skipped straight to getting mad. I was expecting some sort of guilt for not getting there earlier and maybe even an attempt at an “I know you’re in there!” speech (I wouldn’t want it to work but I feel like Anne would’ve been one to try that), but guess not.

Insert text “Yeah, we gay. Keep scrolling.”

BUT THERE IS HOPE!! Marcy’s Journal is gonna have a section written by S3 Anne, so we might get some Annegst >:3. I doubt they can entirely salvage this with just a book (the show is the great majority of the story, after all), but something is better than nothing lol.

#This turned out to be 779 words long *laughs in normal*#Also idk what happened to that intro tbh #but it was fun to write!!#Amphibia #Marcy deserves better #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #darcy wu #amphibia analysis #I think lol #rant

43 notes · View notes

rubyroboticalt · 7 months

Note

https://www.tumblr.com/rubyroboticalt/727267145704259584/the-current-final-page-i-dont-really-have-any?source=share

I NEED MORE OF THIS??? PLEASE tell me about this au omg

OH BABY I WAS SAVING THIS FOR WHEN I HAD THE BRIAN FOR IT! including bolding and italics for easier reading on my part

i am SO fond of my witch in the well au. the connection was between witch!lying and witchcraft smp being, well, witches. the basic concept was one of the witchcrafters accidentally summons/awakens an old power, which freed lying from the well. originally it was actually going to be scott who freed them, by trying and failing to contact an ancient power, but then joey literally fell into a well. and that was just too poetic to ignore. i think lying was going to be a fear witch specifically.

>i dont have significant plot beyond the comic, which is why it's ended (tentative, if i get ideas i may continue), but i and some friends did have ideas for interactions beyond it. if it had continued, joey was going to make some deals with the witch for more power. to quote my own discord msgs on it, "maybe he does want to be the supreme witch, but is it worth this? lying makes him uneasy. he can't help but feel he's in danger, whenever he's around them. like there's something off" (mar 2023). so joey ends up in an uneasy sort of alliance, in part because after he escaped the well by digging/building out (not bound by the magic lying was, free to move and craft as he pleases), they look very much like a wet cat.

>cleo would recognize that dealing with the fear witch is a bad idea, but also treats them more as a nuisance than a threat until given evidence to the contrary. she also antagonizes them a little, because cleo in witchcraft (and in general) refuses to be intimidated even when given good reason, and the witch is all about intimidating people.

something something slapfight between the fear witch trying to intimidate and cleo's refusal to be scared. cleo doesn't tend to overestimate themself, so how well that slapfight goes for her depends on if she realizes it won't go well for her and plays cautious or if she leans in to the slapfight and sees what lying is capable of. if it's the latter, they probably get taken out of commission long enough to preserve the critical mistake moment for others. lying, to cleo, seems a little like a jokey thing and there's a significant chance she underestimates them.

part of what makes cleo and lying's interaction/slapfight so interesting is both of them spec'd into defense and retaliation instead of offense, meaning there's a tense waiting period to see who strikes first. there might be social tension because witch!cleo and lying the witch are similar, but cleo has friendly allies and lying has only the hesitant alliance with joey. that could be dug into and inspected closely for good plot points.

another angle that was discussed was cleo, being the time witch, may have met other lyings/at least be aware of them, giving her a reason to be wary. if she has, then she probably plays cautious, and during the crux of the intimidation slapfight she makes an escape. she honestly may have been friends with other lyings in other timelines!

and, tbh, from what ive seen and heard of lyings in general, they are mostly posturing and intimidation. witch!lying has gotten their ass kicked both times ive seen an actual fight (priest!lying, maid!lying, for example). they have a lot of defensive power but there's not much to back up that posturing. in contrast, cleo is closer to 70% posturing, but has power to back that up. the witch is scary and smart, but cleo is on a server with a bunch of maniacs who kill each other for fun (civil war, house war, demise, turf war, whatever the hell season 8 was, tag, decked out 1 & 2, demise 2, etc) where the witch was on a server where folks killed in self defense or to settle scores. this means the way they approach conflict differs!

>cupquake keeps her distance because the trees give her a quick psa to Stay Away From That Thang, depicted in the comic as the trees becoming more storybook horror gnarled branches the closer cupquake got. another funny quote from the outline for the comic "for once it is the trees who speak for the lorax" (mar 2023). iirc i may have written stuff in the branches but idr? ik i wrote things in the fog but the fog was specifically lying luring ppl in to free them. cupquake nopes out and plays avoidance hardcore, bc what i recall from watching her as a kid is while she has a lot of magic power once she gets into the midgame of botania, she's also very easy to startle/scare.

>an interesting point brought up is the ravens, tameable ravens from the modpack! el had a conversation with one in her first episode and shelby tamed one. the witch can see through ravens' eyes iirc. el thinks they're crows but based on how they're tamed they're bewitchment ravens. i didnt go too deep into this one for the comic but theres potential there.

>i never fleshed out the end of the story/plot regarding the supreme witch but i imagine the goal is getting the witch back to their home server or something. maybe they partake in the competition to be supreme witch, maybe they dont. honestly feel free to riff off of what i have written! witch in the well was made collaboratively and id love to see how other folks play in the universe!

#witchcraft smp #witch in the woods lying #witchcraft joey #witchcraft cleo #witchcraft el #witchcraft shelby #witchcraft cupquake #witch in the well au #ironically i dont think any of the comic posts are tagged that. but you can find them by searching witchcraft smp on my blog i hope #looking back at the posts i forgot to fucking link the prev/next pages on them. oops.#long post

2 notes · View notes

aggressive-almond-cookie · 1 year

Text

I’ve been feeling a little weird lately and seeking comfort, so I decided to go replay splat2′s story mode.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, maybe briefly, but I didn’t play much of splat2 when it was active. I played a little bit of 1 when it came out, enough to fall in love with the concept but also enough to know it was for people much more mechanically skilled than me (a person who favored slow-paced sim games, turn-based RPGs, and point-and-click grindfests). I watched my housemate play 2 a bit but I couldn’t justify the purchase myself for something I figured I would terrible at. (I remember watching them play salmon run, and asking ‘wow, there’s a PvM co-op mode now?’ and thinking for a moment that maybe that would be less intimidating to learn, and then I saw a steel eel for the first time which was HORRIFIC, then watched them get completely swamped with with bosses and wipe, and decided .. no maybe not).

It was Splat3′s testfire, that I just so happened to hear about happening in a friends discord server, that happened to hit me at exactly the right time. I finally had a better job, was well on my way to healing from the trauma of my 11 years of working retail, and going through a bit of an inner renaissance, particularly getting in touch (possibly for the first time as an adult) with the true concept of play, the idea that playing didn’t have to have high stakes, that you don’t play to get a good grade in playing, you can just play to have fun and experience the thrill of intense situations in a setting where no actual danger is present.

I fell in love so quickly. I played the testfire every moment that I could and felt like I was finally, finally getting to enjoy this. In retrospect I was so bad at it-- I could barely swim up walls and I couldn’t even figure out how to use my special for the first several hours of gameplay and after trying out tons of weapons found that I was having the most luck using rollers and running over people (lol). But my skill level, for once, was something I wasn’t giving a single brain cell to worry about. I was just enjoying myself, celebrating every tiny victory and laughing at how many times I would just run off the map because I had so little spatial awareness. I won a 100x, I experienced my first squidparty, I did tricolors on attacking and felt intensely bonded with the random strangers I got partnered with. I was experiencing so many wonderful new things all at once and was absolutely euphoric.

And once the testfire was over, the emptiness it left behind left me so restless I thought I might start climbing walls. So to tide me over between then and release, I borrowed my housemate’s copy of splat2, figuring I could at least attempt story mode and learn the basics.

It was hard. Like really, really hard. I don’t... play these kinds of games. I could barely control where I was walking, I absolutely could not aim, I had zero confidence in jumping and missed even easy jumps routinely. I made it through by sheer stubbornness and force of will, running over and over through the same levels until I got lucky enough to get through them. Many levels I finished with a time of over half an hour, one at least 40 minutes, and that’s after lord knows how many failures. The last two kettles in the last zone nearly broke me. I actually cried tears of relief when I finally finished Platform Madhouse, shaking from the tension of making my final moves with the greatest precision and calculation that my clumsy and inexperienced hands could.

But... I did it, you know? And in doing so, I managed to prove to myself that I could do it-- that these kinds of games actually weren’t impossible for me, and that maybe, maybe I could overcome whatever other challenges awaited me in 3 and beyond, too.

Anyway, that’s way too much backstory to say that going back through the splat2 levels again was something of both a surreal and comforting experience. I went through them all in the span of a day, during a workday even, just playing in short intervals during breaks and lunchtime. Those last two kettles (minus octavio) were still the most difficult, but they didn’t take more than a few tries. It was satisfying to gracefully sail through so many of the levels that I struggled so painfully with less than a year ago. I’d say my confidence in making jumps has absolutely improved the most and is the thing I think has had the greatest impact on my ability to navigate the game-world in general.

I’ve been finally playing octo expansion too. A bit late maybe, but I think I had just really overhyped the difficulty in my mind and intimidated myself out of it. As it turns out, the main story is still very accessible, even to lower skill levels. You don’t have to actually complete most of the levels (or even play them) and even the points you pay to play you can go into debt with, so there’s never any real danger. You can skip levels after failing them enough times, so I think the only way you can actually get stuck might be the final segments. Granted, I’m still putting off going to the P R O M I S E D L A N D until I have a long stretch of time for it (This is the same reason I still haven’t done After Alterna >>.., I just.. don’t have the sheer continuous amount of time to sit down and grind it out. I wish I could save states in these games so I don’t have to lose progress if I need to task-switch), so I might take this back, but so far that’s my impression.

And it’s been really enjoyable. I was happy to find there’s a ‘Who Caused The Big Bang’-style level that takes seconds to complete to make it easy to farm points (I keep wanting to call them power eggs when they’re not, lol). The levels on average are definitely more challenging than Alterna, but there are certainly several that I’d consider less challenging than Those Aren’t Birds and Target Town, and there are even some that Alterna practically made copies of (the one where you cut a shape out of boxes, for example).

That said, there have only been a few levels that I might say I breezed through-- they’re pretty challenging, but they don’t feel un-doable, and it’s so satisfying when you do overcome the challenges. It’s giving me an honest confidence boost to watch myself successfully take out a octosniper (my most feared enemy in my early days) with a charger (probably the weapon class I am weakest in) while balancing on a rotating platform (which were my absolute worst nightmare my first time going through splat2′s story mode). There’s still several levels I have to clear and some I haven’t even unlocked, but since they’re not keeping me from finishing the main storyline, I feel like I can just complete them as I feel up to it and there’s no reason to rush or get frustrated.

I love the levels where you just... play anarchy modes against octolings. Especially the one where you play rainmaker on manta maria-- tetras is a weapon option for that one and it’s quickly becoming one of my comfort levels in addition to just being good practice for firing the rainmaker. And I just love the entire vibe of everything-- much like Alterna there’s so much to see if you stop and look around, so many childhood-items floating in the sky, mixed with the music that gives me those vaporwave-esque feelings of nostalgia mixed with melancholy mixed with a feeling that’s somehow equally comforting and unsettling. And all that woven into these... weirdly juxtaposed grimdark/horror elements expressed with clown-like lightheartedness. It’s just a masterpiece of a setting and I’m so so glad I got the nerve to play this.

Splat2 in general has just been kind of a fun thing to mess around in with friends when we feel like a change of pace. Sometimes we do salmon run which is kind of awful without egg throws or squid-rolls, but we’re so low-rank that it’s still just kind of a chill experience.

I wouldn’t say I’m on a break from Splat3 anarchy because I keep intending to play it, and I know I’ll have fun with it, but then I get set up and sit down to do it and end up playing octo expansion instead. I think I may have low-key intimidated myself out of getting back into anarchy since I fell out of practice when I was out of town again; it feels like it takes me so long to get back into the swing of it and I take my losses a bit harder than I should. I tell myself octo expansion is good practice, and that’s not entirely untrue, but deep down I do know that the only thing that’s going to get me over my hesitance to play anarchy is playing anarchy.

But I guess at least if I’m going to put off addressing something I’m intimidated by, I’m glad I’m doing so by addressing something else I was previously intimidated by.

I’m really looking forward to Side Order now, especially since now I have the confidence that I’ll actually get to enjoy it along with everyone else and not get bogged down or walled off by being unable to complete basic things. I just feel a lot more capable, and it’s nice.

#loooong sorry #this ended up being mostly rambling about octo expansion lol #aiko plays squid games #splatoon

2 notes · View notes