#while the secondary character thinks its cute or smth

[willing-but-not-able]

A little follow up to my last post about the update. I don't like to complain without giving feedback on what would be 20x better than a quick access menu for... Stuff almost no one cares about.

The update could have consisted of better BGs in general, maybe a theme store or smth idk. I’ve only gotten one in Nightbringer and it looks a little strange. Idk if its lq or is it blurry on purpose.

I feel like for Nightbringer they could keep the BGs simpler and just have colors, shapes, designs, and themes. Here’s an example of what I mean.

I actually edited this because I really liked the BG for the Candy Levi they released--tbh, all the BGs for themed events are really pretty and suit NB a lot.

Anyways, another thing is instead of a menu, I randomly thought of having that area be filled with the boss images of the brothers. I love Levi in his little bubble and would love having him float in the corner of the screen. It could also act as another quick menu for lessons or something, here’s what I mean.

While I was making this I almost died thinking of him casually shooting his little bubble fish while I'm thinking of what to do 😭

I don’t know if the secondary characters have boss battles or not, but so far I haven’t seen them, what else is new though? rip those fans huh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Last thing about the home screen, for some reason I also thought of having their running sprites on the side as well. I just thought it’d be a cute little thing to mess around with when you’re going through the home screen. Or they could possibly follow the beat of whatever song you have playing.

You know, just a thought ✌

[rogueshipagogo]

ppl have been asking me my opinions on space channel 5 vr... and i guess since i bought a vr headset off craigslist just so i could play it and speedrun it before work the day it came out... i should talk abt it now... i dont rly think i’ll be able to separate it into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ things i think i’m just going to do a rambly stream of consciousness bc i have a headache... but i DO have good things to say abt this game... so st.... sta stay t tune  d

right off the bat, the thing i appreciate most abt this game- i like that space channel 5 vr doesnt have cash grab vibes. i Do genuinely believe that they Wanted to make this game For the people who are still obsessed with it, and that they ultimately did what they set out to do when they intended to scale certain aspects of the series up conceptually to match the way the fandom perceives it nowadays. but like i’ve said before... i’m not going to Disagree with the very common conclusion that it Needed to be longer, or at Least more intricate plot-wise. one of my fun and fresh excuses for sc5vr being as short as it is is because you arent really supposed to be playing vr games for too long anyways, its really disorienting and kinda painful, but even that doesn’t account for why so much of the game that we got is a rehash of old settings, concepts, songs, and characters. [i dont even have a problem with reusing old songs, i just think the ones they chose ended up being misleading]

for example i think it makes sense that the first report is a remake of the first games first report on the surface, it’s meant to take you back to the way the first game felt and give you an idea of what it means that the games classic scenery can be rendered in actual high quality detail now [same with the recurrence of events like encountering the space pirates in the asteroid belt/the last battle against a villain being singing to it about what it’s done wrong], but i really thought, like, report 1 was going to end up being a simulated scenario for the benefit of lou and kee’s training... which i dont think ended up being the case??? i think they really did write ‘ok here you are in the first game’s setting again, fighting the old enemies again, because... :^) ok have fun playing report 2!’

and then whats report 2... you fight another old boss from the first game... but theres Still no clear villain or motivation for anything thats happening... and there wont be until like... basically the end of the game...

like, glitter is a really cute character, but its kind of underwhelming that shes just a random citizen who was kidnapped by an entity that we NEVER LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT... like part 1 was extremely notable for being about corporate greed and corruption, part 2 honestly wasnt that political in comparison but at least made you do a think wrt purge’s motivation and his methods, and this game just has a plot device that feels like it’ll do smth but then ends up not doing anything beyond what we already learned about it from the information on its character bio before the game was out. if it turns out that cell x is actually relevant again in a future entry in the franchise and they do have a more developed concept for what cell x Is in mind, i’ll do an entire backflip, but for now its just chalked up to being the result of More Space Hijinks that dont need to be explained

ESPECIALLY WITH ALL OF THE ALLUSIONS TO CELL X BEING AN ENTITY THAT FEEDS OFF OF DANCE ENERGY... it had me thinking that there would have to be some New Method of fighting it off that didn’t just lend it more power in the process, but nah apparently just tacking on the disclaimer ‘*this dance energy is not for glitter’ is enough to turn it from smth it can consume for power into big attacks you can use to kill it... like honestly it sounds like im asking for a lot from a game that has Never made too much sense, but considering that in part 2 they could add details like ‘oh didnt you know purge can open pocket dimensions? ulala is capable of manifesting tangible dance energy and the only other person who can do that is purge???’, its not like they havent come up with weird new shit for dance energy to do within the plot before. they just didnt do it in this game fsr

like did anyone else think that cell x/glitter was going to be the result of tossing purge out into deep space and him encountering the sc5 universe’s equivalent of an eldritch alien creature, smth more bestial than morolians?? even if purge wasnt part of it, when you say ‘uh oh, this guy Eats this society’s only source of energy!!!’ i expect the stakes to get HIGH, and i want the ramifications of it to be kinda STARTLING, because blank wanted money and purge wanted to ritualistically end the world but something this near to an ecological disaster that would force an entire paradigm shift hasn’t occurred yet in the series?? its totally new!!! there’s a lot they could do with this but OH DONT WORRY ABOUT IT EVERYONE ulala knows how to make dance energy kill cell x instead of feed it she’s got this we’re good no need to investigate more into all that

i can’t explain why the game is like this. and i dont expect grounding to address it in any meaningful way either. i’m sure they’re Aware of these complaints by now- the game reviewing community has Not been kind to sc5vr specifically due to all of these shortcomings [i didnt even touch on the issues with motion sensing and how many of the games mechanics were removed in favor of smth presumably easier to program yet much less satisfying, like Secret Moves just being mini quicktime events and Turning Your Ratings Into Stars just being replaced with the standard Three Strikes You’re Out method of scoring], but the pr team still seems very enthusiastic abt the game and is still promising dlc and potentially even more games in the series after this one- heres hoping that they’ll at least take these grievances to heart and consider making the experience not only more accessible [aka it will... go back to being a rhythm game with controller input.... and not... an exclusive vr experience...], but also as immersive and detailed as the old games, with less reused plot beats. i can let some of it off the hook in this game simply because i’m aware that it began its life as a tech demo that was only supposed to be that initial first report from the first game But Happening All Around You!, but i Really dont think they could get away with doing this little to expand upon the groundwork set by the first two games again. not with the way people remember part 2 being such a vast upgrade from part 1... the bar had been set so high that this just felt like a huge backslide into something even sillier and harder to take seriously than part 1 before we had any idea what kind of staying power the franchise would have as a hallmark of sega’s quirky antics. like... this game is what i think space channel 5 looks like to people who don’t understand the appeal of the first two games. and that scares me

but i guess for the most part, aside from wishing they had done more to revitalize the setting and the lore of the sc5 universe itself, im kind of glad it didnt do a lot to change the existing storylines the characters have kinda forged for themselves- here i was stressing out that they would pull out some plot development that would utterly and drastically change the way we talked abt the series for the rest of time, but so little happened and so little was added to the bank of sc5 lore that we can kind of all just carry on as usual and keep having the same headcanons we always had.

BUT!!! there ARE a lot of cute little details here and there that make the experience feel wholesome and like i said not an utter cashgrab- like so many of the character profiles referencing previous games [all of the references to npcs in this game being relatives of the npcs of the last games made me lose it] and how often ulala changes her expressions up and looks right at you and talks to you. the new music they wrote for the game also all slaps and everyones redesigns [if they got a redesign... rip pudding] are stunning

one of the most important things they did in this game was give a nice sort of Update to every character.... for example explaining that ulala isn’t a rookie reporter any more like she was in the first 2 games, that she’s moved up to being in charge of training new channel 5 reporters, and that while pudding is still somewhat stuck on her rivalry with ulala her career isn’t stagnant either, she was just cast in a romcom series as the lead... which is really nice considering how in the past she was portrayed as somewhat of a loser with almost no remaining fans left from her idol years

and you knew i was going to bring up jaguar at some point HES ALL OVER THIS GAME AND IT LITERALLY MADE ME FEEL LIKE MY LIFE WAS WORTH POWERING THROUGH THESE LAST FEW YEARS AND ALSO LIKE IM A GENIUS FOR SPENDING SO LONG POSTING EVERY SINGLE DAY ‘NO REALLY, HE’S THE SECONDARY PROTAGONIST OF THE STORY, ITS ABOUT CHANNEL 5 AS A COMPANY AND THEIR IMPACT ON EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER ENCOUNTERED THEM AND THAT INCLUDES JAGUAR AS WELL AS ULALA HES INTEGRAL TO THE PLOT BC SHE WOULDNT BE ALIVE IF IT WEREN’T FOR HIM’ i feel like it’s really incredible how in this game he has genuinely nice energy and doesnt withhold praise from ulala just to be helpful in a mysterious way later and he like HAS FRIENDS now. like consider how he went from disgraced former ch5 employee who got mad every time he saw them, to kidnapped robot henchman kinda humbled by the fact that now the turns tabled and ulala had to rescue Him, and now 3 years later his bio is all about how he has a new tv show thats super popular and he has a new entourage of ladies who he considers his '’’’’’comrades’’’’’’’ within the station he founded??? AND AFTER 20 YEARS THEY WERE FINALLY ABLE TO GIVE HIS MODEL JUICY ASS CHEEKS??????????????? NO MORE PANCAKE BOOTY???? THE BOY HAD A GLOWUP AND NO I WONT STOP TALKING ABOUT IT

WHEN I SAY MEOW MATCH THE POSE MOTHERFUCKERS THIS BLONDE BASTARD GETS TO BE IN CHARGE OF THE HUNDRED STAGE BATTLE NOW TOO THIS IS THE YEAR OF THE SPACE PIRATES BAYBEE

[vrainsrewatch]

episode 11 thoughts

me: i shouldn’t have too much to say about this episode, since it’ll be mostly dueling! me, 25 screenshots later: 

(see what i did there. i’m funny i promise)

a lot of the early episodes i’ve seen twice, or at least use regularly in amvs so i’m somewhat familiar with what happens in them. that is not the case for this particular episode, so even though i sort of remember the beats of it, i’d forgotten a lot of the juicy stuff.

like this.

i’ve seen people bring this scene up before, but it’s really interesting. AI don’t need to sleep, but does the existence of free will inside of them give them the option? sleep is something animals do because they have to. humans sleep way, way longer on average than most other predators, and while there’s certain animals that sleep upwards of 15 hours, those are mostly prey animals -- or at least, animals who don’t really hunt. sloths, koalas, etc.

people do, however, sleep sometimes when they don’t technically have to. people take naps when they’ve had a stressful day, or are staying up late for an event, or even to get through a class that bores them. does that make it an activity?? that one can choose to do?? it’s kind of a weird thought lol.

anyways though,

i don’t talk about emma too much, but she’s a pretty cool gal. she’s obviously incredibly intelligent, she’s an expert hacker, but i love her ability to put things together quickly. she’s an information broker and a bounty hunter, so it makes sense she’s good at putting clues together to form a conclusion fast. i just like that they bothered to have her think this one out so we get to see that, since she doesn’t get much screen time past this season.

i also had forgotten how often dr. kogami shows up in these episodes. for some reason, i only remembered him being here or there throughout the first season, up until rev vs pm round 3.

there’s people in the fandom who like to demonize revolver, mostly because of the tower i think, but honestly, he’s a respectful opponent. he really did not have to explain anything to playmaker -- at the moment, all revolver knows is he’s some dude going around kicking his lackeys asses in duels, and has an ignis attached to his duel disk. he doesn’t know he was a LI victim. he doesn’t have any reason to suspect that, as of right now, but he still goes out of his way to clear things up for yusaku. 

it’s an important aspect of his character that i think people who dislike him tend to forget, and like, you do you -- like and dislike whatever characters you want, i mean -- but you shouldn’t erase parts of them just because you’re not a fan.

anyways though,

it’s really interesting to me how revolver talks about free will. he’s more spiritual then i would’ve guessed, as we find out from his duel vs. soulburner in 115-116, but it shows here, too. 

the ignis have free will, but he thinks of them as below humans; creatures that will only cause harm. if they have free will, they have the choice to be good or bad, and yet he is so dead set in his thinking. he has all the pieces right there, but he just won’t put them together. and with his changes towards ai specifically and what he says to soulburner about flame in their duel, you have to wonder if it’s a willful ignorance.

however that follows up with:

which like, again shows how spiritual revolver actually is in some ways, which is interesting considering how rooted in science he is a lot of the time, but also,

the way he phrases this makes me deeply sad for him. i’ve talked a lot about revolver’s thoughts on his father already, so i won’t talk about it too much here when i’ve got so much else to cover, but really. he deserved an actual father, not an asshole who wrongfully put himself on a pedestal to be admired and worshiped.

i feel like the fandom is so used to the concept since it was introduced so early to us in the series, but seriously, this is kind of a crazy thing. despite how advanced den city is technologically, clearly this has still never been done before outside of the hanoi project. that is a lot to take in and process.

seriously. i don’t blame yusaku and everyone else for being so skeptical. it doesn’t sound possible to us, even though in the real world, it’s been something we’ve talked about since we started developing AI, basically. 

it brings so many moral questions to the table, too, because if something has free will, if something is able to think and live like us, would it be wrong to continue to make it do things that might be against its will? would it be wrong to delete the program, if it’s capable of forming connections with others?

moving on to something less serious, though:

everyone’s favorite meme scene LOL. seriously, this is so stupid and nerdy, i hate it and love it so much at the same time.

originally i wasn’t too fond of revolver’s first avatar, but it’s really grown on me tbh. not really relevant, but things like this actually made it grow on me lol.

next up though we get a flashback of yusaku’s backstory. at the current moment, we really have no context for these scenes, but they’re still shocking to look at in their own right:

and of course, we have little ryoken’s words of encouragement. 

not only do we find out why yusaku does the three things mantra, we also now have the clues that revolver was the one who told this to him, way back when, since we see him use the same tic in an earlier episode.

i’ll try to keep my thoughts on this brief, since i have a lot to say about this, so bear with me.

firstly, the last line. not only is it one of my favorite quotes in the whole series, as it’s simple, powerful, and holds meaning in my own life, but it reflects back on what i was saying about revolver having all the pieces but purposefully not putting them together about the ignis.

it’s a concept that’s hard to grasp at their young ages, and yet ryoken puts it eloquently and yusaku takes it to heart, turning those words into fuel to keep him going. 

three things to live, three things to go home, three things to defeat the enemy. 

these are not normal words of encouragement, and it’s very clearly intentional. this is something a child can cling to, which is exactly what yusaku does. he clings to it so much, even ten years later these are still the words he hears when he needs to get through something. even ten years later, he thinks of three things for everything he does.

ryoken wanted that child -- the one that he lured back to his father, the one that kept losing and kept screaming in pain -- to have a reason to fight back.

and boy, does yusaku fight back.

anyways though.

a lot of people, myself included, love the irony of this. the person he hates, the person he wants to save, the person he’s dueling right now, they are all the same. he is right in front of him, but he doesn’t know it. ah, it hurts so good lol.

a lot of people don’t consider ryoken to be captured, but i do. just not in the sense that yusaku is thinking of.

this is where everyone gets the confusion of firewall being his ace, and i mean like, i get it. but it’s the same way as like, salamangreat pyro phoenix or violet chimera are soulburner’s secondary aces, becaus heatleo is his true ace.

at least, imo. maybe i would’ve been wrong had firewall not been so overpowered it had to be axed from both the OCG and the TCG lmao. 

okay, but why? why just you, seemingly? i touched on the fact that it’s possible jin and spectre also have link sense, i think, but takeru doesn’t. miyu seemingly doesn’t -- or does she, with her ability to sense aqua on her chest during her coma? so really, it’s just takeru, then. why is he the odd one out, here? and was this a byproduct of the LI or were the children chosen on purpose because of this ability? was it something that just had to be awoken inside of them? 

g o d 

have you seen it before? were you even there when revolver took down cyberse????

anyways.

this is so cute. i love them. his little smile. but also, it’s interesting to note that he does this not believing ai has free will. i saw a few people complaining that yusaku’s attachment to roboppi (like the flashback of him petting her head like a dog or smth) was out of character, but it’s clearly not.

he clearly gets invested in the AI around him, probably because he knows he doesn’t have to worry about them hurting him or anything. it’s... sad :(

honestly, i wonder if revolver would’ve won this duel had he not been using his father’s strategy with fire prison. they’re very evenly matched in skill, so i wouldn’t really have been surprised.

this screenshot was just taken because CR called them varrets instead of rokkets but still changed the monster names to rokkets and when i first saw this episode i was like ??? ultra confused lmao.

i’m so glad the subtitles get more consistent as the series goes on. though i harp on CR a lot, i really am grateful they have the whole series and were able to simulcast it throughout it’s airing. 

anyways, that’s all for right now! i started watching this episode like, an hour and a half ago almost LOL so i’ve gotta get some stuff done before watching another. see y’all

[moonlightmirrorball]

re ace rep there isn't a lot and i don't know what you're looking for but:

the podcast ars paradoxica has an aroace lead (it has barely anything to do with the plot at all, but it's mentioned explicitly at some point near-ish the end) who's a physicist i think? time travel scientist idk. the story is a bit complicated but pretty cool imo; the bright sessions podcast also has a pan (i think) ace secondary character (she's a mindreader and an artist iirc and very bubbly and lovable but honestly the whole thing is very enjoyable) and the book how to be a normal person by tj klune is a mlm romance with a bi ace romantic interest and i remember it being absolutely hilarious but i read it a while back (tw for like so much weed). let's talk about love (i don't remember the author) has a bi ace lead too! it's a about a Black college student and it features her like struggling a bit with her identity but it's mostly a romance. the movement comic (dc comics) has a bengali (aro?) ace character with sort of like. earthbending powers or smth. i remember liking it as well. oh and the web comic rock and riot is a very cute like high school romance or smth and has a bunch of ace characters. at least one aroace nb character but i think one of the girls from the main couple as well. and of course the osemanverse features several aspec characters (heartstopper, radio silence, loveless in particular). every heart a doorway i haven't read but i also heard there was some rep there. same for the movie selah and the spades (ace protag). and koisenu futari is a japanese drama about two (!!) aroaces who live together and i JUST found subtitles for it so i finally can watch it (https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folder/1zxS4wdqsspzOrOm7mSvu9yv4kCCKRE-r?usp=sharing)

sorry this got so long but i saw a chance to put my hoarding of aspec media to use and i took it, i hope you enjoy some of it! (and if you do you can pass it on to others!)

Aaaaaaaaaa thank you so much!!! This is so helpful! Ive been trying to do a deep dive into aspec culture as i become more and more confident that i am somewhere on the aro/ace spectrum, and due to the shockingly small amount of content, its been proving difficult…all this to say THANK YOU SO MUCH

[clownmoontoon]

While I'm not the same anon you responded to earlier, I'd like to point you to Momo's hero internship as a reference to Horikoshi's poor treatment of her: the whole thing is a 'fuck you' to her character, and the fact that every female character's arcs are so short and that they're never talked about again is a big red flag, especially compared to the male bnha characters. And does Momo's hero costume really have to be like That?

AW MAN I TOTALLY DISAGREE ABOUT ALL THIS

ESPECIALLY THE INTERNSHIP!!!!((but i appreciate you not approaching the subject in the same manner as the other anon haha))

uraraka and tsuyu (both girls!!) got AMAZING internships that we see a lot of!! both learned a lot bc of them, and we see exactly what we need to see that will be applied later. if you complain about the girls being cut short you have to admit that the boys were too! i dont even remember what tokoyami or tail boy were doing bc theyre secondary and tertiary characters! its not sexist to put the main character of a story in the lime light!!

ofc the intern arc is gonna focus more on deku!

now specifically speaking of momo’s internship

I CANT EVEN CONTAIN HOW MUCH I DISAGREE ABOUT IT BEING A “RED FLAG”/ “CUT SHORT”/ OR A “FUCK YOU” ITS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTER BUILDING ARCS FOR HER AND IF IT MADE YOU FEEL BAD TO SEE HER LIKE THAT THEN

GOOD

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO FEEL SORRY FOR HER

her internship SUCKED obviously but it sucked for a reason when she was in the tournament she never got to showcase her powers, so when this pro hero picked her it wasnt based on how well she could fight as a hero, but on how cute she looked

SHE EVEN SAYS IT TO MOMO’S FACE AND IT CRUSHES HER

she was so excited to even be picked at all but then it turns out its not for her brains or powers, its for her looks

this is what avalanches momo’s overthinking and over-analyzing personality to the breaking point. even when the red head (who’s name i cant remember atm) tells her smth to the effect of “wow this sucks but lets at least have fun” momo cant

she cant let loosethe whole time she feels like there is something she should be doing, and worrying that maybe this is all she is good for; being pretty

AND ITS ESPECIALLY CRUSHING BC SHE TOOK ON THIS INTERNSHIP IN HOPES OF LEARNING HOW TO BETTER HERSELF IN COMBAT

AND EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE HAPPENED

BC OF SHIT LUCK

WHICH IS LIFE SOME TIMES, REAL LIFE SUCKS SOME TIMES EVEN WHEN YOURE A PRETTY GIRL

so after failing in the tournament and suffering through a worthless internship, the girl who started at the top, entering the school under recommendation so she didnt even have to take the entrance exams, suddenly feels absolutely worthless 

its bc of this that aizawa is so determined to fight her and todoroki in their next test

with their quirks taken away what they need is strategy

not power

in this moment, after encouragement from her friend, she suddenly realizes

WAIT HOLD UP IM A BADASS BITCH AND I CAN DO THIS

she’s wobbly at first but in the end they win thanks to her cunning.

AND HERE’S THE FUCKING THING ABOUT HER OUTFIT AND HER BODY BC I KNOW EVERYONE LOVES TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS((under the cut bc this post is already long haha))

momo, as she is written, is completely unaware of how sexy her body looks.

when jiro brings up like HOLY SHIT HEY YOUR CLOTHES TORE OFF

does momo get flustered and cover up immediately like most girls would?

no.

there’s a fucking job to do so she cheerfully responds “no worries i can make more clothes”

as if the biggest issue here is that her clothes ripped, not that she isnt wearing any. thats how unaware she is of anything physical about her.

something that i think a lot of people, and girls especially, dont realize is that when girls are naturally athletic/born with “good” bodies they end up not thinking about their body very much, if at all

theyre insecure about other things haha

i think a big part of why i respect horikoshi for momo’s design is that he made it canon that the students design their own outfits

momo, a 15 year old girl, designed this outfit for herself

bc, in her overly analytical mind,  it was the best design to serve the function needed. IT NEVER EVEN OCCURRED TO HER THAT HER TIDDIES ARE JUST KINDA OUT THERE

bc a lot of young girls who get more “mature” bodies dont even realize its happening and dont think about it til much later

I WOULDNT BE SURPRISED IF BY THE TIME MOMO TURNS 18 SHE’S LIKE HOLY FUCK MY OUTFIT WAS REVEALING

and you can spin this to mean “oh no horikoshi wants a 15 year old girl to be half naked bc he’s a perv” but personally i think its super neat that he took this innocent girl who has a VERY COMMON BODY TYPE among teenage girls, ((that is rarely ever showcased in anything i might add)), and doesnt even think about anything beyond her mental and physical capabilities, and never ever even mentions her looks, and made her into this amazing character full of depth!!!!

HER CHARACTER MAKES SENSE FOR HER AGE AND BODY!!!!!

THAT IS HOW A GIRL THAT YOUNG, WHO MATURED PHYSICALLY BEFORE MENTALLY WOULD ACT

THAT IS MOMO’S WHOLE CHARACTER; SOMEONE WHO LOOKS AND ACTS MATURE BUT IS ACTUALLY STILL A CHILD TRYING THEIR BEST

WHICH IS WHAT AIZAWA WAS SAYING FROM THE START OF THEIR FIGHT, AND WHY HE WORKS SO HARD TO HELP HER GET HER CONFIDENCE BACK

AND IM GETTING ALL THIS FROM A FUCKING TERTIARY FEMALE CHARACTER!!!! THATS HOW MUCH HORIKOSHI CARES ABOUT ALL THE CHARACTERS IN HIS STORY

MALE AND FEMALE!!!!!!

i wouldnt be surprised if mineta was a joke character made out of spite just to make fun of everyone who tried to call his in depth characters pervy

i mean all might was designed out of spite so its possible haha