#would it count if it’s technically lore relevant

[curi0uscreature]

Swap Compton’s / “King of the Gulch” Story

( Written in 2023, first literature post based off a poll I did like. officially a month back. T’which thanks to the ppl who did vote for more writing stuff! )

As a man that loved animals dearly combined with his great understanding with them, he joined in on the Vet lifestyle. It was fun for a bit seeing all the different animals and getting the opportunity to help all of them! But one day on a work rush, it was extremely over the usual amount each day. And more so, overwhelming for Compton. The barking, the great amounts of concern people had for their pets, the faint yelling, and then—boom. All of it was gone!…almost all of it. And the reason for it wasn’t exactly good. The faces of concern immediately switched to anger and the faint yelling was almost louder, mixed with the sound of dialing phone numbers. It wasn’t long before Compton found himself locked up. in jail. For who knows how long honestly.

God, it felt like the entire world’s weight was on his shoulders. What kind of person would he be after he’d come out of this place? If anything he might do worse than the incident he committed before. And it certainly wasn’t like he’d knew anybody that could bail him out..it was a risky idea but it was extremely tempting. Late at night, he escaped jail making sure to leave no trace of evidence of his tracks. He stayed in in unkept places in the area he lived in and kept a low profile. Until discovering an underrated restaurant that was in dire need of a chef…They don’t know him. They don’t fear him at all. They aren’t aware of his past record and he had some good cooking knowledge in his hands…He applied. And if anything this was better than his job as vet. People were nicer and given that it was kept low, nearly nobody even recognized him! He eventually saved enough money from payment to go on vacation as well! By the time he came back, nobody recognized him either. He was no longer a famous criminal.

Not long after, a woman named Lucrecia recruited him for her research group full of powerful psychics. Out of anyone, Cassie and him became the closest of friends! Beekeeping, literature, helping each other out, they were almost inseparable! However someone none the wiser caught his eye. Otto Mentallis. Sure he was full of himself sometimes but it was slightly,,endearing in a way? Maybe even..charming. Cassie disliked him, but she was his best friend after all. Surely she wouldn’t think about him negatively over a small crush right? With this knowledge in the back of his head he’d tell her eventually. Meaning after several weeks of trying to hide it. Somewhat Surprisingly: she was very supportive for him after he opened up! Even offering to help him out when confessing. But that confession didn’t come up until it was followed by another few weeks of stalling and confidence building. He had to get it out somehow and honestly, any day now before his feelings were bottled up and tied into knots.

So one day in the lab on his occasional one-on-one research time with Otto, he expressed how he felt. Well muttering out a few mumbles at first before getting to the main point. But it checked out given: Otto felt the Same way! They started dating a few moments afterwards. And those moments soon turned into weeks, into months, and into years. By the time they even knew it, Bob and Helmut were getting engaged! It took a while for them to arrive due to prepping the most out of everybody but what matters is they were there with all of their friends. It was beautiful.

( Post “Ford-igula” )

Bob and Helmut are gone. Lucy’s lost herself—mentally. Cassie feels demotivated, all while Otto’s in a sense of denial during the opening. Sure the attention and popularity was nice in a sense but it didn’t feel…right. At all. Especially with the current situation at task. He tried to reach out to Lucy, but she immediately shunned him off. He tried beekeeping with Cassie again which helped, but only for a little while. Otto stated that he’s fine multiple times during check-in’s but it is very much clear that there was something much, much more than that underneath. It eventually lead to them splitting apart mutually. He still loved his partner dearly but he just..couldn’t stand seeing him being in denial like this.

Overtime the more he repressed his truest emotions during missions, it built up. But in a different way. Something that felt almost..physical. Mainly on his temple, but he tried to brush it off as something that’ll go anyway with rest but it increasingly got more painful because of his repressing. Once again—Boom. This time harming himself on the left side of his face. It took several days to recover properly but that might as well been his final straw. The night he was able to get back on his feet was the night he had reluctantly left to the forest. It turned into nightly beekeeping alone and interacting with friendly animals every now and then, but the animals slowly grew into crowds.

Because of his understanding with them, they were more so mad about the fact he wasn’t the owner of the gulch due to how well he treated them. But they slowly grew out of control with this ideal concept, leaving Compton with no choice in the matter. He had tend to them. He was in the deepest part of the forest where it’d probably take ages to get out and back and his vision wasn’t the best with one eye working but the other being blind. So until further notice, he’d protect this place. It’s sacred for him and his “subjects”. He now earns the title: King of the Gulch. Legend says if you manage to get in his animal kingdom, you’ll never get out.

[yukidragon]

Sunny Day Jack - Drunk Headcanons

First ramble of the new year. Whoo! I was considering what would be fitting, then I wound up thinking about all the drinking that happens at New Years’ parties and figured, why not go with some drunken headcanons?

Content warning: this post contains talk of drinking, negative experiences with drinking, being drunk, and maybe some smut as well.

Talking about drunk headcanons also gives me the excuse to break out the drunk Jack art drawn by the ever awesome Sauce, since it’s very relevant. Credit as always goes to them for their amazing work and for being cool with me using their art in my rambles about the awesome characters they’ve created.

Isn’t Jack such a cute drunk? Funny how he’s only drunk when MC is though… possibly. After all, pictures like these don’t technically count as canon unless they’re in the game or on one of the official Sunny Day Jack pages, which you can find conveniently listed here.

Speaking of, why not consider supporting the SnaccPop Studios Patreon? If you sign up, you’ll get to see all sorts of exclusive pieces of art and sneak peeks at the lore, as well as amazing audio dramas. It’s well worth joining, in my humble opinion. Just remember to please not share anything privately posted on the patreon. Reposting paid content only hurts the team.

Anyway, back to the topic of drunk Jack, and specifically the teaser art by Sauce that may or may not be canon still.

I’ve talked about this picture before, particularly what it suggests for Jack’s powers, how it probably means he can be influenced by MC’s hormones, and how much he might be affected by MC’s state of being and vice-versa. To summarize, I believe that Jack and MC can sense how the other is feeling, both physically and emotionally, but it’s not quite as strong as the other is experiencing it, and it can be blocked out or minimized. I’ve alluded to it in Sunshine in Hell, as well as some of my short stories, especially the one where Alice is in a lot of pain.

So, as this picture suggests, if MC gets drunk, Jack does too. It makes me wonder though if he broke character and drank alcohol, he could be the one to get both of them drunk instead? The possibilities of these implications, canon to the game or not, are quite intriguing.

Of course, we can’t talk about drunk headcanons without considering what kind of drunk Jack and the rest of the crew might be. As they say, drunk words are sober thoughts, and alcohol does lower inhibitions…

Naturally, it’s kind of dangerous for a yandere character to be drunk. Self-control would be lessened, if not thrown out the window entirely if he’s totally hammered. I think Jack would be a clingy sort of drunk, hanging off his sunshine, shamelessly needing their warmth and reassurance that they love him and need him just as badly. He’s also a possessive and protective drunk, not wanting anyone else near MC. He’d probably insist on carrying them around everywhere even while he’s stumbling, though it’d take one near fall for him to decide that sitting with them in his lap is the better option. He needs to keep them safe, keep them close.

If you think Jack can be clingy normally, he is like glue when drunk, or at least I think so. Even if he was dutifully staying home like MC wanted them, once the drinks hit him through their connection, he’s got to be with them, no matter where they are. Suddenly there’s a clown in the club or party checking to see if they’re okay and wanting to take them home, hanging off them like a big warm blanket while trying to convince them to go and keep them safe from anyone that might take advantage of them.

Once agreeing to leave, Jack would probably forget about any implications or issues that might arise from carrying MC in a crowd of people. Hopefully no one is sober enough to film anything that might complicate things when he’s whisking MC away off into the night. He’s certainly not in any state to really consider consequences.

Well, maybe if they’re lucky any such videos would be assumed to be hoaxes. There’s certainly no shortage of fake “ghost” videos online. Maybe Shaun could use it to promote an upcoming movie…

Of course, if the relationship between MC and Jack is rocky, his desperation is cranked up while drunk. He needs them so, so badly.

Worse, if MC is getting physical with someone else, showing them love instead of him… Jack might not be able to hold back his yandere impulses to make sure that no one steals his sunshine away. He’d certainly have a lot of work to do once sober to convince his sunshine that he was just protecting them from being taken advantage of while drunk, especially if things escalated to outright violence. The level of intoxication, and the intensity of the moment would likely decide how far things might spiral.

Of course, you know me and how much of a sucker I am for my OTP being happy, so let’s swing back around to the fluffier extreme. If MC and Jack are in a relationship, that’s when Jack is drunkenly telling them how much he loves them, and that they should just go home together. There’s not even a token resistance to hold back his true feelings for them. He’s already got them whisked up in his arms, kissing and murmuring sweet words of love. MC is going to have a pretty hard time talking Jack into letting them stay, especially when they’d be more drunk than he is.

Naturally, the type of drunk MC becomes would affect things. Since there are way too many variables there, let’s use that as a segue to how my MC Alice is like when drunk. She’s not the biggest fan of alcohol, disliking beer, and only drinking sweet flavored mixed drinks socially before the breakup with Ian. Even then, it was rare that she got drunk at all.

After the breakup, the idea of drinking scares Alice, especially to the point of being drunk. She almost died after all. As such, the only way she’s getting sloshed in the present day is if she’s unaware that what she’s consuming has alcohol in it until it’s too late.

It’s kind of a shame, as Alice is a giggly, affectionate drunk. She stops caring about people around them and just wants to cling to her partner, giggling between kisses, occasionally gnawing on them or licking them playfully and saying silly things. Ian got quite embarrassed by how overly affectionate she was the few times she got tipsy when they were out with friends, though he certainly enjoyed the attention.

Needless to say, when Alice got drunk after finding out Ian cheated, she was anything but giggly or affectionate. Though the less said about that the better for now. Let’s keep this to fun headcanons, shall we?

Alice is also affectionate to her friends when drunk, telling them that she loves them, giving big hugs and saying what she loves about them. It was very hard on Shaun’s heart the one time he was around when Alice was drunk. She glomped onto him and told him she loved him soooooooooooo much while giggling happily~!

Of course, it was cut into by Ian crying because he was also drunk and thus more sensitive to things, so Alice went over to reassure him that she loved him mostest of all. It was a hard night for Shaun to be the sober driver.

Jack would sadly not get to experience this side of Alice. At least, not under normal circumstances. Knowing she doesn’t drink and isn’t comfortable even drinking a little bit, the moment he felt her get drunk, his protective instincts would kick into overdrive. What if someone spiked her drink? What if they had awful intentions? Even if he found out it was an innocent mistake, probably even a mixup, he would still be very concerned about her.

Well… until Alice latches onto Jack, squeezing him tight in a big hug as she tells him that she loves him. Oh how his heart would feel ready to burst, especially if they’re not together yet at the time. He longed to hear those words from her for so long… it’s just a shame that she’s saying them while drunk. Still, you better believe that his tipsy butt is going to tell her he loves her too. That would send Alice into a fit of happy giggles as she snuggles into his chest, since, let’s face it, her guilty impulses are on full display and his chest has always felt so nice and soft to cuddle.

Jack would be struggling to hold himself back and retain some sense of sobriety, to not ruin things, but it’s so hard when Alice is being so affectionate with him. Yet, he worries that her love for him isn’t the same as the love he feels for her. This is especially true if she was hugging and loving on other friends when he showed up.

Of course, even while drunk, Alice wouldn’t be open to physical contact with just anybody, only those she trusts. Being touched by someone she doesn’t know/trust would result in her fleeing to her nearest trusted friend/loved one to hide behind them, maybe even insisting they protect herrrr, and telling the person who tried to touch her to go away! Shoo! Shoo!

Naturally, if Alice was drunk while she and Jack were a couple, it would be a very strange sight for anyone else there to see her cuddling up to thin air, kissing, licking, gnawing, etc. It’d be even more outrageous to see her scooped up into the air! Hopefully Shaun isn’t there to see it and have his heart broken further. Though if he was around while Alice was drunk, and he was still sober, he would be getting her to drink water and getting her out of there since he knows she doesn’t want to drink alcohol anymore. So he’d be stepping in to help her out until Jack swooped in to steal Alice away from him… again.

Speaking of Shaun, he strikes me as a giggly drunk as well. Though he turns it more into a performance. He’s talking about stories he knows to anyone who will listen. Or anyone who is not listening, since he’d be drunk off his butt. I’m talking grand gestures, booming voice, passion thrown into it as he cries over touching moments in a movie he saw, or what he was directing. Oh, his actors killed it in the beach scene! He’ll tell you all about it, then get interrupted by a different thought halfway through the story, probably something he thinks will be a good idea for another film that he has to scribble onto a napkin. Of course, it becomes a weird scrawl that’s barely legible and makes no sense, but it was certainly exciting to him in the moment!

Of course, Shaun enjoys a good buzz. It makes him want to purr, so it’s a good tell for when he’s getting tipsy. He’s very responsible when he’s the designated sober person, but when he’s ready to cut loose, he’s a tomcat ready to play!

While Shaun is a more bubbly and fun drunk, I think that Ian is the opposite. When he has a nice buzz, he feels pretty good, but when it goes too far and he starts getting drunk… that’s when everything goes downhill. This cropped picture drawn by Sauce makes me think that when Ian gets drunk, that’s when his guilt and self-loathing hits him hard.

Poor guy needs therapy. Also, if you want to see the full picture, which is very NSFW, check it out over on Sauce’s twitter. While you’re there, send them some love for all their amazing art and characters!

I think Ian needs constant reassurance while drunk, especially from his partner. He clings to MC and feels lonely even if they’re a foot away from him. He cries at the drop of a hat, even for silly things like how tragic that is that snakes don’t have legs. Why don't they have legs? It's unfair! He’s going to be needing help not to get dehydrated from all the crying and the alcohol, and his hangover the next day is a bitch.

Needless to say, when Ian and Alice were drunk together, it was a very mushy scene. Ian would be down on himself, then Alice would smoosh his cheeks and tell him to listen to her because he is a prince. Prince Charming! No one else is better. That’d get the waterworks going, and he’d cling to her, crying. She would then start kissing his tears away.

I figure this too also happened when Shaun was around because I’m very mean with the guy and his unrequited crush. Sorry, Shaun, but it’s just too much fun teasing you, haha. Don’t worry though, he’s going to find his own happy ending in Sunshine in Hell with a partner or two who love him more than anything else in the world. Eventually.

On that note, let’s move on to the final love interest, Nick. Nick strikes me as someone who is very smooth when tipsy, but an absolute mess when sloshed. The filter is gone. He’s got opinions, and by God is he going to give them, even if they don’t really make sense. He especially has strong opinions about bad BDSM. That popular book series they made a movie about called, what was it again, 500 shades of fucked up or something? That is not BDSM. That’s abuse pretending to be BDSM. Do you have any idea what that mess has done to the BDSM community and how many people have done stupid things because of it? And don’t get him started on what an awful idea it is to tie someone up with rope from a hardware store of all places!

I see Nick as the type to start recording himself once his inhibitions are dropped. The people need to know! His thoughts have to get out there! His followers need to know the truth! This is why he makes sure that he has to put in several passwords before he can actually upload anything. He learned his lesson that he can’t trust drunk Nick with his socials the hard way. The fans are still making memes and using clips out of context from that embarrassing old video. At least he bounced back from it by joking about it even if inside he’s still dying of mortification.

Speaking of a drunk with complaints, I had the image of Barry really unloading all his grievances when he’s drunk. Fortunately, he knows better than to get sloshed with any of his employees, but if he did, they’d have a hard time escaping from him insisting that he knows what’s wrong with the service industry and customers and how the hell did his latest marketing gimmick fail?! Can’t they see how cute the new mascot is? He paid way too much to the graphic designer! Do you know what artists charge nowadays? It’s highway robbery!

Since we’re going into employees of Yogurtopia, why don’t I touch real quick on the other people on staff who I expanded upon a little in my earliest headcanon posts? Things have changed since then of course, such as the boss having an actual name now. Needless to say, I’m not going with what I came up with for that post, but let’s do a little rapid fire mode with the rest of the employees I want to use for Sunshine in Hell.

Carol is a flirty drunk, which is a big problem if she’s actually in a committed relationship at the time and the person she’s flirting with isn’t her partner. Though I’m sure she’d give her partner permission ahead of time to have sloppy drunken makeouts and sex with her.

Liz isn’t really a drinker so much as a stoner. Though if drunk they would be doodling on napkins and finding the ceiling tiles fascinating.

Susan is underage and isn’t much for breaking the rules, so it’ll be a few years yet before she’d have to worry about how she’d be as a drunk.

I know I haven’t touched on these characters a lot, but I figured why not expand on them when I can, even in small ways. If nothing else, it should make it easier for me to come up with more ideas of what parts they could play in the bigger picture of Sunshine in Hell.

Speaking of my OCs, why don’t I touch on the rest of the King family while I’m at it?

Mama Lycoris enjoys herself a nice glass of wine with good company, most notably her husband, whose name is still undecided. (I’ve narrowed it down to Eden, Seb, Luan, Yuri, or Heliotrope. Picking character names is hard sometimes.) It’s rare for her to get drunk, but when she does, she seeks out her husband, even if she just lost track of him for being out of sight. She’s the type to do the meme where she’s crying while texting them that she misses them while he was just in the bathroom. Once she finds them, she’s crawling in his lap telling them how much she loves him~

Papa King usually is the sober one at a party, embarrassed by his wife loving on them when she’s tipsy. Sometimes Lycoris pretends to be tipsy just to get him flustered. They do occasionally have a glass for a special occasion, like toasting at his anniversary or a special holiday. When drunk, they’re a sleepy sort of drunk, pretty out of it and just off in his own little happy world. They haven’t yet been drunk before though, or even gotten tipsy, as he drinks very responsibly.

Barbie isn’t one for drinking, even socially. Though that’s probably not surprising considering she’s not a very social person. If she did get drunk though, she’d be a mean drunk, eyeballing anyone who looks at her funny and ready to jump into any excuse to fight. It’s probably a good thing she doesn’t drink!

Though, I suppose if Barbie was drunk around Bo, she’ll probably let her dom side out more, ordering him around and getting a bit rough with him. Good thing Bo is a big strong alpha and can’t get drunk due to being an AI, so he’ll be able to take care of his puppy even when she’s gone a bit feral due to alcohol.

Coraline also doesn’t drink, but that’s because she can’t due to medical reasons. It interferes with her prescription medications, so it’s probably best if she sticks with non-alcoholic beverages. If she did get drunk, however, she would probably be similar to her father, being off in her own little world, looking at things as if they were fascinating. She would probably be very keenly interested in holding Elias’ head and examining his neck stump up close, which I’m sure her poor groom wouldn’t quite be comfortable with. He would have to make sure to redirect her focus elsewhere until she sobered up.

Of course, I can’t just end things there. I haven’t gushed nearly enough about Jack and Alice having some drunk shenanigans in a more specific sort of scenario. It might turn into some writing, or it might not, but it’s my post, and I can ramble on longer about my OTP if I want to.

As I said earlier, Jack would be very concerned upon noticing that he’s starting to get tipsy. At first he would probably be confused as to how lightheaded he is, until he realizes that it’s because of his sunshine’s influence. The immediate order of business after that is to find Alice and check to see if she’s okay. With lower inhibitions, it would be hard for him not to worry that someone spiked her drink or something.

While someone spiking Alice’s drink would make for some interesting drama, and a target for Jack to go yandere on for taking advantage of his sunshine… I think I’ll stick with something more innocent for this post and say that there was a mixup with her drink or Alice was unaware something someone brought at the party’s potluck had a high alcohol content until it was too late.

Though if y’all want me to chase that darker and more dramatic plot bunny of Alice getting her drink spiked by some unscrupulous character, and Jack has to save her, do let me know~ ;3

Back to the lighter scenario. While it is intriguing to imagine how torn Jack would be if Alice is loving on him while they’re not together, and she means tells him she loves him in a clearly platonic way, which wrenches his heart… At the moment, I’m more drawn to how much of a cock block it’d be for him if Alice was getting frisky with her affection and turning Jack on, forcing him to hold back his urges and stay responsible even though what he wants to do is take her and fill her with his love until her legs are too wobbly to allow her to stand anymore. He might be tipsy too, but she’s outright drunk, and he’s not going to take advantage of his sunshine in an inebriated state!

Of course, Jack’s first order of business is to get Alice home. It doesn’t matter if they’re in the middle of a party full of people, he’s carrying his sunshine home. Alice doesn’t protest being scooped up by her boyfriend, just giggling in delight before peppering his cheek and neck with kisses now that she’s in range. She also makes sure to tell Jack how she just loves him so, so, so, so, soooooo much~!

Jack does try to be discreet in getting Alice away from the party. He might be pretty tipsy, and his steps a little unsteady, but he needs to protect his sunshine. He needs to take care of her, be responsible. It’s what he’s there for after all.

It’s just a little hard for Jack to focus on walking straight when Alice keeps nipping at his skin. Her giggling tickles his ear too, and it’s hard for him not to melt when she tells him she loves him and that he tastes so sweet.

Having a hardon would also make it difficult for Jack to focus on walking straight. Poor guy. Alice doesn’t think about what she’s doing as she keeps kissing, licking, and nibbling on him, her hands wandering and squeezing his chest despite him trying to gently redirect her attention. He needs her to stop, since he can’t focus, but at the same time he really wants her to continue.

The first order of business once they get back home is to make sure Alice sobers up with some water and food. By the time they’re home, Jack feels like he’s going to go crazy. Like her drunkenness affected him, his horniness affects her, and those playful affections become more lusty as her inhibitions are lowered and the idea of teasing Jack and making him feel good becomes more and more appealing. Eventually it gets to the point that she’s being much more blatant in her teasing, such as tracing his nipples through his shirt with her fingers. Maybe even copping a feel lower down when they’re at the apartment and teasing him about the bulge in his pants.

Needless to say, Jack would be having a very hard time holding himself back. It’d almost be a relief when Alice abruptly nods off due to the alcohol. Of course, he’d have to give himself some real relief, imagining what it would’ve been like if she had sobered up so they could continue. All the while, he’s also swearing to himself that in the morning - provided Alice wasn’t in pain from a hangover - he was going to pay her back for all the love and affection she showed him tonight in spades.

The next morning, Alice is indeed hungover, though not quite as bad as she would’ve been if Jack didn’t have her eat and drink something last night. Of course, Jack is kind and cheerful, endlessly gentle and supportive of her, giving her some painkillers and making her a nice, mild breakfast. She remembers what she did last night and is too embarrassed to talk about it, just thanking Jack for helping her get home.

Though past the embarrassment, fear would slowly build as Alice woke up more and it sunk in how easy it was for her to accidentally get drunk at the party. It was so easy for her to lose control… for something to happen… Jack picks up on her worries right away and reassures her that he’ll always be there to take care of her and keep her safe. He’ll always protect her and make sure nothing bad happens to her. He made sure she got home safely last night, after all.

Jack won’t ever let Alice suffer through anything as awful as the night Ian broke her heart ever again.

Some reassurance and cuddles goes a long way, and Alice is able to let go of her fear and embarrassment to just appreciate how much Jack cares for her and takes care of her, even when the unexpected happens. She melts into his soft and reassuring kisses that soon turn hot and steamy. Suddenly the breakfast dishes are off the table, and she’s the one getting eaten by her very pent up boyfriend.

You better believe that Jack planned to feed Alice then do the deed with her as soon as possible. The moment she shows that she’s receptive to his affection, he starts enacting all the naughty fantasies that he had while giving himself relief the night before, making sure that Alice is the one being driven crazy this time. He won’t rest until she’s begging for him to make love to her. Repeatedly.

Needless to say, if Alice has work that day, she’s missing it. Jack would’ve turned her phone off after sending a text that she’s sick, just in case. There’s no way Jack is letting Barry cockblock him again. Not after he spent a night getting blueballed by a too sexy sunshine that was too drunk to make love to.

Fortunately, in the light of day and fully sober enough to consent, Jack gets to enjoy every inch of Alice, as well as a nice memory of just how fun and affectionate she gets when her inhibitions are lowered. He also has a goal to strive for, to encourage his sunshine to feel freer with him like that when they’re both fully sober so that they can enjoy every second of their lovemaking.

Well, I think that’s a good place to wrap up these drunken headcanons for now. I hope you enjoyed the silliness. It seemed like a good way to start off the year, and it certainly would be a fun start of the new year for these two!

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur

[greenerteacups]

I wonder often why Deathly Hallows as a book is so fascinated with wandcraft and wandlore, especially after the series has spent six volumes being more or less disinterested in it (with the exception of the Twin Cores plot in Book 4). A weirdly high % of the plot depends on who owns whose wand and why: the wand mixup with the Snatchers, Harry's wand being broken, Draco's wand, Bellatrix's wand, and of course, the final rigmarole over who's the "rightful master" of the Elder Wand, which ends up being a weird combination of killing/disarming/fist-fight to disarm someone who... wasn't even wielding the Elder Wand at the time he was disarmed, which begs the question of what it counts to "disarm" someone of a weapon they're not technically wielding? Also, are we to assume that Dumbledore was not disarmed once in the N years since his fight with Grindlewald? Or — here's a harder one — that Draco wasn't disarmed once between Dumbledore's death and his fight with Harry? That's plausible, but it's kind of weird that I need to believe it for the rest of the plot to make sense.

And like, I can think of a few Doylist reasons for this to be the case. The first is that JKR wants Voldemort to kill Snape in the boathouse, which allows Harry to get Snape's memories and retroactively justify why Snape's acted this way since PoA (and explain where the sword comes from in the lake in DH, too). I can think of better, more character-driven reasons for him to kill Snape (just... blow Snape's cover? reveal him as a double agent? have him try to kill Nagini? idk), but let's suppose, for subtextual reasons, she wants Voldemort to think Snape was loyal to the end. Having him die by Nagini's hand muddies the already-opaque water of what constitutes "disarming," because Nagini is a living creature. What if I drop someone into a pool of piranhas? Do I get their wand? Yeah, Voldemort commands her, but then — okay, what if I Imperius someone and make them disarm someone else? I get that it's not like DH has time for Harry to sit down with Ollivander and go through all of the tiny procedural rules for wand usage, but also, are these not relevant questions? Is this not the central mechanic of the final battle, this one piece of magic? Am I not supposed to wonder how it works?

The other reason I can imagine is that Harry wins a duel against Voldemort 1v1, which is not terribly believable unless there's some kind of magical advantage working in his favor. We know the Elder Wand's failure to execute the Cruciatus means Harry can't be harmed by spells the Elder casts, because it's his "true master." This is a really weird quirk in wandlore — why does it work this way? Is it the only wand that works this way? By that logic, shouldn't everyone Harry disarms be incapable of casting spells on him? — that emerges in Book 7, apparently for the purpose of giving Harry a buff in the final duel. Functionally, that's weird, because on a technical level it works the same way as Lily's protection — it's a reason that Voldemort can't hurt him. So why get rid of Lily's protection at all? It's not like he duels Voldemort between Book 4 and Book 7. The graveyard scene artificially hikes the stakes for Harry by making him physically vulnerable, pretty much only so he can die at the end of DH... except again, not for real, because Voldemort only ends up killing the piece of Harry that's a horcrux, so it doesn't even count!

And then Harry replaces the wand in Dumbledore's tomb. Which would be a nice moment if the lore hadn't established that anyone who disarms Harry, ever, will become the master of the Elder Wand by default. Harry knows this. He also knows that this knowledge is out there in the world; sure, Grindlewald's dead now, but do we think that Grindlewald never told anyone else about the Elder Wand? And he learned about it from somewhere, didn't he? So Harry might naturally assume that someone else would eventually come looking, in which case Dumbledore's tomb is far from the safest place to put this equivalent of a wizarding nuke. (Not that it seems to be all that powerful anyway; the coolest thing it does is fix Harry's other wand, and we're left wondering why the Elder Wand is considered "unbeatable" when people who own it seem to be getting disarmed all over the fucking place.)

Also, in retrospect, this makes it incredibly odd that Dumbledore allows Draco to disarm him, because he's giving the Wizarding Nuke to a 16-year-old servant of Lord Voldemort. Suppose that he's trying to prevent Snape from getting the wand, because he doesn't want Snape to be a target: okay, fine, but does he know Draco's going to give Snape credit for the kill? What if Draco lies? What if LV just... accepts the fact that the wand recognizes Expelliarmus as a point of transfer, and either disarms or kills Draco? And in any case, no matter what the answers to these questions are, why didn't he just ask Harry to disarm him before he went to the lake?

I'm usually not one to be an asshole about plot holes — mostly because, taken by themselves, I don't find them that interesting — but they become interesting to me when I see several of them in the same vein, because they tell me that the author's trying to do something. And they want to do it so badly they're willing to strain other parts of the story to make it happen.

[chongoblog]

Brawl Tier List (Based On The Relevance of What They Were Doing When We Meet Them In Subspace Emissary)

I'll explain some of my choices under the cut

So a lot of these choices are pretty obvious, although some are a bit iffy or require explanation of the Subspace story which can be found in trophy descriptions & The Dojo.

The first category was for characters who were engaged in the Subspace plot from the get-go and were the "good guys". In case you didn't know, King Dedede is the hero of Subspace, and if it weren't for him, Tabuu would have won, since he made the "reset badges", and his initial plan was to hold onto some people and give them the reset badges in case Tabuu used his Off Waves. Meta Knight is considered to be a good guy, even though he mostly just wanted to get the Halberd back. Fox I put into this category as well since he's first seen giving chase to the Halberd in his Arwing, so I consider that pretty engaged, even if we don't know the exact reasoning.

The second category is open and shut. They're the Bad Guys. Ganon, Bowser, and everyone's favorite winner, Wario. Technically Wario kinda defected from Tabuu and wanted to just steal all the trophies, but I'm counting him here.

Next was the "Used by Tabuu" tier. According to the lore, the entire Subspace Army is made from the power of Game and Watch (although it says the Game & Watch are unaware of this). Pikachu's electricity was being used to power a lot of the operations (most notably the Subspace Bomb Factory iirc). And it's implied that R.O.B was coerced into helping Tabuu, feeling so ashamed that he put on the Ancient Minister garb to hide himself out of shame.

The "Was Doing What You Expect" Tier is a tricky one, since some characters like Mario & Kirby weren't doing what you'd expect in their normal games, but they were fighting, which is something you'd expect in Smash, but I was kinda lenient. Pit was watching from Skyworld, which is in character. It's shown that Pokemon Trainer was looking for Ivysaur and Charizard, so we can assume he was on that journey when we found him in the Ruined Zoo. ZSS's motivations are kind of unclear about whether she knew about the Subspace Bombs and tried to stop them or if she just knew her Power Suit was there and wanted to get to it. I always figured it was the latter, so I'm putting it in this tier. Marth was defending a castle, which sounds right (I haven't played Fire Emblem). Ice Climbers were climbing ice. Monkeys were getting their bananas. Link was getting Master Sword. Yoshi was sleeping (which only gets him out of "Just Standing There" tier because he is Yoshi).

Next are the ones who just kinda showed up. And it so happens that all five of them make a pretty grand entrance. Sonic is the obvious example here. Ness also counts since there's no implication that either he or Lucas actually live in or even near the Ruined Zoo, but then again in the dialogue-less cutscenes tying together over 30 characters, I don't think that detail was important. Falco makes a grand entrance, although you could argue that he was meant to be Fox's backup. Ike makes a grand entrance with this Great Aether. Captain Falcon literally shows up to jump out of his car, punch a robot and kill approximately 50 aliens in one fell swoop, so either there was an F-Zero track around the Island of the Ancients that we don't see and he quit in the middle of his race to do that, or he just did that. Either way there's something wrong with him.

And then finally we have the characters who were Just Standing There. Luigi obviously was minding his own business when he got got by Dedede. Peach and Zelda I almost put in the "Doing What You Expect Tier" (or at LEAST Peach since she knew Mario at least), but honestly? They were just standing there. No hate, obviously. Sometimes you just gotta Stand There. Olimar was minding his own business letting his Pikmin eat a robot before they were murdered. Lucario was vibing on top of a mountain (as you do). Lucas was just being sad. And Snake? We don't see any sign that he's on a mission. We just see that he's been on the Halberd for an undisclosed period of time before dramatically revealing himself way way later. I like to imagine he accidentally fell asleep.

And then the last tier are for the 3 characters that are unlocked after Subspace, so I don't really count them.

Anyway in case you can't tell I am back on my ADHD meds! Hope you enjoyed this. See you all for the Nuzlocke stream later.

[the-somwthing]

In all seriousness I don’t think Real Life should count as a real season cuz it was just an April Fool’s joke, nobody even knew what they were doing, it’s like if they did a life series season in roblox or something. There was very little social game, the skills were questionable, everyone was throwing up and falling. Not really a true season lol.

The only reason I’m tempted to count it is because Cleo win but like that’s it. I will say it provided a lot of nice “””lore””” as well with Jimmy watching all his friends die in a cave and escaping. While also having been called a canary just before. Also Grian and Scar immediately running off together after saying it’s like 3rd Life but in VR lol. I haven’t watched the Martyn/Ren/Skizz POV yet but when I heard Martyn and Ren talking like that in the caves I Knew. Also Scott once again being in the finale (technically everyone was but I mean like the final battle or whatever). Also the 3 G’s again. Also divorce quartet with Gem.

So yeah I feel like Real Life is one of those things where you say “this player has died to this 2 times, 3 if you count Real Life” you know. Like we ignore it for serious discussion but also include it if relevant but with the disclaimer. That being said what order did they all place I want to see how Real Life would affect the player’s averages (if it was a real season).

[notapplicableinformation]

What did Blumiere actually DO to be redeemed? 

I know this sounds like a really silly question, to be frank, it really is, and this isn't me trying to say something of the ending should have been changed in any way, because, no, I think the ending of Super is incredible, with Blumiere and Timpani professing their love at the altar with the incredible music, phenomenal. I just pondered this at one point and thought it would be interesting to look at Blumiere through an objective lense as opposed to a thematic one. 

Count Bleck as a character is incredible, so are the rest of the cast, I could go on for multiple essays for each of these wacky characters. One thing I really enjoy is the juxtaposing types of villainy and roles that Blumiere and Dimentio have to each other, how one is intricatley complex and embedded in the narriative with his tragic tale, and the other is quite paper thin on the surface story (Who may have more underneath, though personally I like him being more shallow on the lore for proper contrast to Bleck, but this isn't relevant to the plot nor this discussion), with quite a strong characterisation to pull him through. They're like two extremes of the villain spectrum; between the sympathetic and complex to the more flat twist type of antagonist that balance each other out very well. 

Count Bleck is a very well written character, I love the execution of his narriative, and the question at hand of what he did to be redeemed really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of the narriative, but it's mostly just a personal ponder-

It makes sense to me that Blumiere found happiness because of his ability to "love", how his love stretched the boundaries of comprehension, his ability to truly love is telling of Blumiere's inner good nature despite all that has been comitted. His willingness and persistance to look for Timpani to even the lengths of the Aftergame itself cannot be unoted. I'm pretty sure this is a key takeaway of Blumiere's tale that is wanted: That true love is the foundation of happiness, and without it, one is empty and hollow. Overall, the game redeems Blumiere with the sacrifice at the altar, where that true love that he does have is professed, and he is eligible for his happy ending through his act of love and sacrifice, and can now live a happy aftergame with Timpani. 

But outside of the incredible symbolic perspective, a hypothetical view where Blumiere's actions are analysed from a critical lense rather than a narriative one; What does Blumiere actually do to be redeemed?

Blumiere was implied to have killed the tribe that took Timpani away and searched to the ends of existence to fnd her, to which when her existence was no more, he sought to destroy everything, as nothing else held meaning to him other than Timpani. (Again, symbolically, all works perfectly well) 

He takes in the helpless minions and promises them a perfect world if they aid him in his destruction, though this is a lie, simply so that he can recruit them and follow the passages of the Dark Prognosticus. (In the English version, some subtext implies he manipulated them to join him, though throughout the game, Blumiere still treats his minions with respect and the original implies that Blumiere had a genuine will to help these minions from the start) 

When Timpani is seen alive, he doesn't try to stop the plan, but simly persists forth with destruction all until the very end, where when he is taken down, he immedietly stops with his destructive behaviour and aims to profess his love for Timpani one last time in a sacrifice. Thematically, this is brilliant. 

But from an active standpoint, I don't think Blumiere really didn't DO anything to get a redemption- His sacrifice, again NOT from a thematic standpoint, hardly counts because he still gets a happy ending with Timpani, alive somewhere else. Blumiere's actions across his life have been villanous, despite his intentions being through the persistence of love. 

Technically you could flip the question to say "Was Blumiere at fault for his actions in the first place?" to excuse the actions caused, and therefore be able to justify his redemption more clearly, and I find the take interesting, for perhaps Blumiere wasn't entirely at fault for his own actions.

Blumiere specifically sought for the 'history' of the prognosticus, seen in the Japanese translation, which implies that he perhaps didn't intend to cause harm to anyone and exclusivley wanted to find Timpani. There are also potential implications that he had been controlled by the Dark Prognosticus itself because of this, and the reason why he didn't stop the world's destruction immedietly when he heard Timpani was alive was because he was fighting for control of himself over the will of the Prognosticus over his mind....But I admit I'm not really too sure how probable this idea IS. The game is VERY clear when it wants to show something relevant to the plot foreshadowed, and I feel if this is the takeaway the developers wanted, that this would have been shown directly rather than in implication. Yes, technically it is said that those who read the book do not find happiness, and I think there are hints towards the book controlling him, but...I feel it's a bit vague?

Also, if he were controlled BY the prognosticus, I feel that the narriative weight of Blumiere's character would be detracted, as what makes a lot of his character so powerful is the lengths he went to show how much Timpani meant to him. Him CHOOSING to destroy all of existence because of Timpani's loss is much more powerful to me than the BOOK making him do it, because it shows Blumiere's agency in the decision. Him CHOOSING the destruction of existence proves how, without Timpani, this man did not find value in existence without the source of his true love. Rather than making Blumiere a victim of naivety for causing damages he didn't intend to.

Overall, this isn't really a serious question, I know very well the writers wanted the people playing the game to look at the big picture and perhaps look at the story from a thematic point of view as opposed to an objective one, as this is a fictional game with a story, rather than something to be looked at with an actual objective lense, but it was a fun ponder regardless. I'd be curious to hear any throughts on the matter. Have a nice day!

[evilwizardcrab]

Assinging popular UK rollercoasters TMA fear entities.

Because sometimes your roller coaster autism and magnus archives autism combine into a secret, third thing.

Also, obviously most roller coasters are kind of inherently tied to vast/spiral, but for the sake of variety I'll only be assigning those entities when it happens to be really thematically relevant.

All clear? Good. Then in no particular order, let's begin.

1 .The Smiler (Alton Towers)

Figured I should start this out on what is quite possibly the UKs most iconic rollercoaster. At a whopping 14 inversions this Gerstlauer infinity coaster holds the world recor-

The spiral. It's the spiral. Yes, I know I literally just said I would be reserving spiral judgements for certain rollercoasters but just. Just look at this fucking thing:

This is quite possibly *the* most spiral aligned rollercoaster you could possibly make. In fact it might literally be the most spiral aligned rollercoaster ever, because with 14 inversions it literally is the most amount of spiraling you can physically do on a rollercoaster.

I mean, watch the goddamn TV Advert for this ride and tell me Fuckhands McMike didn't have a (yaoi) hand in the creation of this thing. Fuck Sanakov land I'm pretty sure the smiler singlehandedly counts as a failed spiral ritual.

It literally sends you insane! That's it, that's the theming! It's logo is a literal fucking spiral! Words themselves cannot get across how quintessentially Spiral this coaster is!!!! Even the FUCKING MUSIC is spirally!

It's even yellow.

So yeah, 10/10 spiral aligned coaster would ride again.

2. The Swarm (Thorpe Park)

From one heavily themed rollercoaster to another, let's take a trip down south to The Swarm, Thorpe Park. I'm going to be biased off the bat and say that the swarm is absolutely one of my faves (just look at that inverted drop!) not to mention the being only wing coaster in the UK.

That being said, despite my fanboying The Swarm was initially a hard one to place. My gut feeling was the Vast (mainly due to how it emulates the feeling of flying) or the corruption (literally called the swarm).

But then I took a step back,actually looked into the theming and lore itself, and it became clear. The Swarm is the Extinction through and through.

For those of you FREAKS no well aquiantted with Rollercoaster Lore, the story of swarm is as follows - an evil Swarm has destroyed humanity).

Thorpe Park even went as far as to put up fake posters around the park and release ARG Style adverts about it (and this song, because Merlin is nothing if not excessive when it comes to it's parks)

So with that in mind, swarm absolutely embodies the two main aspects of the extinction; both the active destruction of the apocolypse and the fear of something new replacing us (in this case presumeably sentiant rolercoasters)

3. Oblivion (Thorpe Park)

I'll keep this entry to roughly the same length as the ride itself.

You go in a Big Hole In The Ground

It's The Buried.

4. The Roller Coaster Formerly Known As The Pepsi Max Big One (Blackpool Pleasure Beach)

Finally, a coaster entry that isn't from a Merlin park. And being both the tallest and steepest rollercoaster in the world, let us introduce the pepsi max big one.

(off screeen whispers)

Wait what do you mean it's no longer the tallest rollercoaster in the world

(more whispers)

What do you mean, "or the steepest"

(even more whispers)

Wait, what do you mean it's not even the Pepsi Max Big One anymore? The Big One? really?

The Big One is an interesting case to me, in that despite technically being the tallest rollercoaster in the UK, there appears to be somewhat of a relative lack of discussion surrounding it. It's just ... there. Hell, while making this list I actually forgot it was the tallest rollercoaster in the UK. Not to mention the whole deal with its changing, corporate name. It just feels so Bizzare. Strange, even ...

That's right motherfuckers we got ourselves a Stranger rollercoaster! It perhaps isn't the most obvious choice, but I'll be damned if I hand over the tallest rollercoaster in the Uk to the Vast, that’s just boring. Plus, I personally find it quite thematically pertinent. Something about the idea of an object getting so subsumed by it’s corporate identity that when that is removed, it’s left with nothing. Something about staking a permanent identity on inherently shifting factors leading to a [redacted] Big One shaped void. 

If you want to, if you can imagine it was initially Vast before Fairchild enterprises took a hit and Nikola Orsinov swooped in to claim it. 

5) Stealth (Thorpe Park)

We've got ourselves our first pure Vast rollercoaster here folks! Coming in at a hot 5th place we have the 1st most fastest rollercoaster in the UK, that launches you 0-80 mph up 62 meters of pure steel baybe!!

And um.

It doesn't do much else.

But that simplicity is exactly what makes it so vast! The Vast wouldn't fuck around with complex things like "inversions" or "ride experience". It goes up. it goes down. If Simon Fairchild made a rollercoaster it would look like this. Take one look at this thing and tell me it doesn't embody the spirit of Mike "sought out the tallest ride at the carnival" Crew.

If the Spiral gets The Smiler as its quintessential rollercoaster, The Vast gets this.

6) Wickerman (Alton Towers)

Now, the Wickerman is another personal fave of mine, and (in my personal opinion) a key example of how amazing theming can elevate practically any rollercoaster. (To go on a tangent, I'd absolutely recommend riding this during the evening at fright night, if you can. The night serves an already great ride experience into something amazing)

Not only that, but the central theming of said rollercoaster centers around both a) Cults and B) Copious amounts of fire. So, in a manner clearly befitting its assigned entity, it doesn't exactly take an expert to put two and two together and get Ouch. That’s right, it's desolation. 

RIP Agnes Montague you would have loved this ride.

Scratch that maybe not considering how she seemingly felt about her cult. Let me change track.

RIP Gertrude Robinson you would have FUCKING LOVED this.

8) Nemesis (Alton Towers)

What, you thought I could make a UK coaster list without bringing up Nemesis? Surely not,I wouldn’t dare shaft  everyone's favorite (and currently unavailable!) B&M invert. Wait, what do you mean you don't want to hear about how it "holds up amazingly well over 30 years" and it's "Intensity rivals even that of modern coasters"?

Jokes aside, Nemesis was another hard one to place. Like Swarm, I had a very strong initial preference - this time for the slaughter, mainly due to the whole "trapped alien" deal it has going on.

But, once again like The Swarm, another look into the deeper RollerCoaster Lore (TM) revealed another core aspect of nemesis - this time, that of the Buried.

Specifically, the Lore of Nemesis centers around a mysterious alien entity (aptly named nemesis) found Buried deep underground, and having to promptly be pinned down with tons of steel (which also coincidentally, happend to be the exact shape of a rollercoaster). Hell, the lore even had a comic book made of it. 

Not only that, but the actual construction of Nemesis actively involved digging up the earth in order to create the space for it. And if that doesn't scream "buried" it's probably because you can’t hear it under all the layers of dirt. 

Honerable Mentions - Kiddy Coaster Edition

9. Flying Fish (Thorpe Park)

It's everones favourite Thorpe Park Kiddy coaster, Flying fish - a coaster with a title that is only 50% inaccurate.

In all seriousness I only chose this coaster because for some inexplicable reason I associate it with the Lonely. Specifically, Peter Lucas. No, I cannot justify this choice other than the fact that look at it and tell me you can't picture Lucas sitting on this, alone, going around and around. He doesn't move or make a sound. Just sits there. Silently .Having the time of his life.

 I like to imagine he buys out the entirety of the park for a day with the Lucas family fortune just so he can enjoy this one ride without having to see another human being (you wouldn't catch him dead in a theme park otherwise)

And this is probably as good a point as any to finish the list. Obviously there are way more UK rollercoasters you could assign fears to but these felt like some of the more interesting ones to explore. Anyway if you made it this far then damn. Well done, but also thanks for sharing in this incredibly niche magnus brainrot with me :)

[cuppajj]

Updated height chart with almost all of my ocs (+ others) to date, including those who don't have fullbodies just yet, since I was creatively exhausted most of the day TvT

Numbers mean nothing and scale means nothing in TF so by all means is this not concrete, I tend to scale my characters off other characters so the numbers aren't as important as the proportions are.

Drillburst grew from being 30-35 to 35-40 ft. He meets Overlord at his nose

Starbright's height is undecided and reliant on the range assassin type Star Seekers are. She may be smaller than the height listed here but that's still being decided since it's technically lore relevant

For some side notes, O (centipedeformer in the top right)'s height is either his height in root mode or his height in centipede mode if it were fully elongated

Thalamites are being scaled as if they were on Thalamhan's planet, which means they are the same height as cybertronians are. This isn't scaling them anywhere else in the universe, otherwise they would be around Scotta's height or smaller

My Imperious and Lost Light are here because they're in the grey area of being AU versions/different interpretations of canon things so they kinda count

Danuas is that huge, and if you squint the original height chart is still in this picture, look by LL's feet

[becauseplot]

I just finished Episode 0 of Ordem Paranormal: Calamidade! I've decided I'm going to do post-episode "journal entry" posts as I watch this season just like i did when I watched OSNF because it's fun and it's a nice record of my thoughts as I work my way through this series. Helps me process stuff too because the lore in this series can get fucking DENSE. I'm sad I didn't do this for OPD (partially because I was instead liveblogging to a discord, which I didn't do for OSNF), so we're changing that this time around.

Gonna preface the first of these journal entries with the fact that I speak little to no Portuguese. Thus, I have to rely on YouTube auto-translated subs (which suffered a lot in this episode, audio was lower quality) and a combo of some Portuguese I've picked up with a tangential understanding of Portuguese via my mediocre grasp on Spanish. This combined with the fact that I am very slow with the mystery and not a puzzle-doer by any means means I might get things horribly wrong or miss details entirely. Shoutout to the discord people for answering my fifty fuckmillion questions about the lore. Anyway journal entry time yippee!

IN-PERSON ORDEM SESSION LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOO

First of all, the fact that Cellbit opened this season saying that even he doesn't know how this season of Ordem is going to end is. Very concerning. But so interesting! Nothing is set in stone, which raises the stakes for this series---the fate of this story is truly in the hands of the players, as there's no longer the GM's guard rails. Or, as strong of guard rails. You get what I mean.

I'll go over story stuff first. My main goal is to at minimum follow the story. Again, I'm really not a mystery head, I'm not too good at theorizing, and the connections between the lore points and plot points tends to become a bowl of spaghetti in this series. If I can at least follow what's going on, I'll be happy.

So it's been a bit under a year since the events of OPD. Things are...strangely quiet. As Agatha points out, for all of Kian's promises for the bloody murder of thousands of innocents, there's been a distinct lack of blood, and murder, and dead innocents. All the better for the Order, which has steadily been growing its own forces in preparation for the oncoming war.

War. We're at war-levels of conflict now. Such an escalation from the days of AOP. It's interesting to see exactly how much more formidable both the Order and the paranormal threats have become. I remember the days of AOP where for a majority of the story, there was a singular gun with a singular magazine (we didn't even have bullet-counting mechanics yet!) and a blood zombie was still a genuine cause for alarm! Now we have Arthur with his giant sniper rifle that he carries around on his back in a guitar case, Dante with his Echo Dolor ritual that lets him bend time and "repeat" previous characters' attacks, and Carina's sick-ass nun chucks and throwing knives against whatever THIS thing is:

And yeah there was a blood zombie too, I guess. But the blood zombies are now just tutorial creatures, used to get players used to the fighting mechanics. (I mean.... I suppose AOP technically had a Degolified in its first session, but there was no way they were gonna kill it, you know? They barely even escaped it.)

The point is that we have come a long way from the days of AOP, and the scale of this world and its conflicts has been steadily ramping up and expanding since that fateful day in January, 2020. The "arms race" between the Order members and the paranormal continues to escalate, and escalate, and escalate.

I mean just look at their health!! Look at it!!! And Jesus Christ that blood zombie they fought at the beginning could've breathed on OSNF!Arthur and he would've died!!

ANYWAY. From what I understand: Veríssimo has found that Arnaldo Fritz's grimoire on the Relics is less promising that he initially thought it would be, and he's concluded that all of the relevant information has been lost. It's up to Arthur and Dante---with some new and returning recruits---to find as much lost information as possible. The video of the "devil" posted online seems to echo a case from over 20 years ago that Arnaldo was on, so it's as close to a lead as they're gonna get.

So they go and investigate! A woman named Elsa was harassed by a voice of a child ("mommy?"), sculpted a bunch of things to try to appease it, and died in the house. She turned into a blood zombie and her organs were gone, likely a result of the organ-sucking that the child-monster does. The gang has a peak around and find out there was some cursed shit with a devil child happening 20 something years ago which was likely terrorizing the more recent woman. Arnaldo had handled whatever came of it and locked it in the basement, and poor Eusábio was never the same, listening to static on TVs and radios believing they spoke "the truth," whatever that means. Could be an Energy thing? Not sure.

In any case, they head back to the house, basement has more blood and weird shit in it surrounding this "devil" and this mother and her child, things happen, and BAM big ol' monster in the house. And it's also the same child that Dante killed in that gone-wrong ritual where he unintentionally aided Kian (among other things)! And it has a weird dice effect to those who are "responsible for a pregnancy"! That one felt awfully targeted, by far the wildest fucked up thing to come out of pregnant Dante lore sorry dude.

Anyway onto the thing I really wanna ramble about CHARACTERS!! THE CHARACTERS!!! The energy in this session was off the charts, the group was so animated and into it and it was so much fun holy shit.

This is definitely in part thanks to Balu, who is the number one defender of the Sillies and Cellbit's number one enemy in regards to the atmosphere of his horrormurderdeath TTRPG. The captions especially hate it whenever people are being giggly so I don't think I caught more than 10% of Balu's shenanigans but the sheer energy of it crosses language barriers, man. This is such a 180 from reserved and socially-anxious Cesar/Kaiser, who was still silly and goofy, yes, but was much less loud about it. Also interesting to have him be a member returning upon Veríssimo's request! I wonder why he retired.....

Next, Rubens! Back from Episode 7 of OPD, letsgo!! (Head in hands. Where is Johnny. Please tell me he's okay.) Jumpy guy! I love how Felps clarifies at every opportunity that Rubens is doing what he's doing, scared. His under-socialized ass is walking around with nothing but a flashlight, a gun, a resting heartrate of 110BPM. And he might be scared literally every second he's alive, but he's not a coward. You never see him run from fights, he always runs into them, just like his friends. And he's not pathetic or blubbery either! He's extremely capable despite the fact that he looks like he's one loud sneeze away from fainting on the spot! When he uses his ghosting ritual to run away from the creature, it's specifically to drag Balu out of the way of a hit that likely could have killed him. Do it scared, or so they say, and by god, is my mans doing it scared!

Carina! Similar to Balu, not too many deep character thoughts about her yet, which sucks :( But her taking out the nun chucks in the middle of the fight had me oh so pleasantly surprised! (Look at her she's kicking ass.) One thing that sticks out to me is the scene where the group is handling Eusábio. That scene was such an incredible display of teamwork, everyone working together to assist each other in the infiltration: Balu and eventually Arthur serving as distraction as Rubens helps Dante slip into the bedroom. Meanwhile, Carina was smart enough to not make her presence known at all so she could freely explore the garage without arousing suspicion! So even if the guys' cover was blown in the house, she could've kept snooping around in the garage. She comes from a famous family of paranormal investigators and is highly praised by her father, the leader of this family business, so I'm very excited to see more of her shine. Also Gabi is just incredible at puzzles. Liz's lore notebook from OSNF beloved <3

Okay, onto the remaining OPD boys. Starting with Dante---what the FUCK is up with his vision. Sometimes mans can see the paranormal, and sometimes mans can straight up SEE things. He "opened his eyes" to read a document and to see the creature, which uh, rip dude bad timing to decide to have vision lol. Have a confronting-the-horrors Rakin/Dante moodboard:

Dante is his same non-plussed self. Still very mellow, not very silly-goofy like a lot of the others here, but not exactly opposed to the silly-goofy. Arthur definitely joke-flirts with him on at least one occasion. Very endeared to the fact that he just recognizes Arthur by his footsteps alone. I always imagine that whenever Cellbit is giving a new-location base description of the party's surroundings, Arthur is quietly relaying all of this information to Dante.

Another fun detail happens when Felipe gets downed by the creature. Dante practically throws himself at Felipe, doing everything he can to save him. And yeah, that's definitely a swirling combo of Felipe being an ally and Dante himself being fueled by guilt over this creature, but... Thiago and Gonzales, right? Rakin (and the other players) remembering Gonzales and letting that bleed into Dante's actions as he desperately tries to save him only furhter reinforces the fact that the Marcados are connected to their "other lives" via the players who played said characters. Love love love toying with the idea that OUR reality is the Other Side to Ordem's reality, like with the special 50% NEX transcending question Cellbit poses to the players. That deserves its own post, I think.

And finally, Arthur. Oh, Arthur, my boy. You've grown so much in the past, what, year and a half since your world got flipped upside down, turned inside out? There's just. A lot going on here. The first impression we get from Arthur is that he's a lot more...serious? He seems older (the white streaks definitely help in that regard), and more mature. He still has his charm and his goofiness, yes, his personality is still there, it's just... All of the people, family, he's lost compounding with his new duty to lead means that his personality has been damped a bit. The constant loss is taking a toll on him, and he's definitely feeling the pressure placed on him, considering he's basically Veríssimo's right hand and has now been explicitly appointed leader of a team.

And circling back to what I was talking about with the "war" theme going on here---Ordem teams have never had an explicit leader. The "leader" role, however, has slowly started to emerge. I think it's because OSNF had such a strong team-as-family dynamic going for it, and AOP was just a gaggle of fresh-faced, severely underqualified and inexperience individuals who were forced to either get your collective shit together or die and bonded into team-as-(dysfunctional)-family as a result. OPD was when the first murmurings of a "leader" came up: Dante encouraged Joui to take a stronger leadership role in order to hold the team together. This mantle was passed onto Kaiser, which was then passed onto Arthur, the last remaining Vulture, the last remaining member of Equipe E, and Veríssimo's right hand. And now Veríssimo has explicitly stated him leader of the team when before, that wasn't seen as necessary. The emergence of the leadership role within the teams no doubt coincides with the fact that they have been approaching and are now involved in a "war;" the situation is grave and the pressure is on, and we need to make sure that there is someone on the team holding everyone together and making sure they stay focused on the mission.

Though, thinking about it, I don't think team dynamics themselves will shift too much as a result. Just because Arthur is technically "leader" doesn't mean that he has to lord it over the group, and so far, he hasn't. He's barely even mentioned that Veríssimo has technically appointed him leader. It's brought up with the others like, maybe once? So far it hasn't played into the characters' dynamics at all, even if Arthur is clearly feeling the pressure. At the end of the day, I do believe in Ordem's strong power-of-friendship theme, and this session has given me hope that this team of characters will feel a little less disjointed than OPD's.

Running through a few extra details: Agatha is beloved and now has at least two (2) friends!! Ivete is still here and I love her, and Veríssimo needs at minimum a glass of water and to take a thirty minute nap in the infirmary. (The base is still sorely lacking in couches and beanbag chairs and overall crash-after-shitty-mission spots. Sad.) But man, the fact that Veríssimo is described as being "nervous" when Arthur n co. walk in for the meeting...

In any case, that's all I got for now. I'm very excited for what comes next :D

[lurking-latinist]

reviving a meme I previously got from @swinging-stars-from-satellites

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

158 (one currently unrevealed).

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

103,185. I cracked 100k recently!

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

All the Doctors Who + Gallifrey + Iris Wildthyme + The Time Travellers + GoR etc.; Ancient Greek Religion & Lore; WtOVPIC; Blake’s 7; Dracula; Discworld; Windrose Chronicles & Sun-Cross series also by Barbara Hambly (one crossover); All Creatures Great and Small; Lost at Christmas, heaven help me. That makes nine as I count it. Most only for one small thing or crossover.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

Skipping kudos bot victims:

Ms Smith (13 and Sarah, fun with fake names)

don’t worry, he’s with me (Ten and Donna five-times-fic)

Vicarious (Six & Martha drabble)

Time Flies Like an Arrow (witches fly on a broomstick) (Discworld, Lancre Witches, having a philosophical conversation about time) (I have come to detest this title but I’m glad people enjoyed the fic)

to all our nights and days to come (Seven/Romana Time War AU)

It’s helpful to include extremely popular, well-known characters in your fics. Or, apparently, to write a slightly darker twist on your rarepair OTP and happen to plug it one day on a relevant popular post.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I do, because I love getting comments and I am always genuinely grateful to hear that someone has enjoyed my work!

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Wow, last time I did this meme I said it was That Which We Call. That’s changed. It might actually be to all our nights and days to come, or else one of the Six-post-Trial ones.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Apparently! But not much, and not well.

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

Nope, touch wood.

9, Do you write smut?

Not my thing.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

11. Ever had a fic translated?

Yes!! @sci-firenegade translated Making History into Portuguese! It is so cool.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Sort of, with Moki! We more tend to write sequels to each other’s stuff, but we also have listed ourselves as co-authors on a couple of things.

13. All time fav ship?

Seven/Romana.

14. WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Never say die! Probably the Eight/Charley babyfic AU, though. If I go back to it it’ll be as a very different writer and I’ll probably want to rework what exists and it’ll be technically a different fic.

15. Writing strengths?

Character voices & dialogue. Also, focalization. I always know what A thinks of B and what B notices about A, which is hilarious as I absolutely do not know any of this in real life.

16. Writing weaknesses?

Used to be length; I’m still very brief but I feel like I have more control over the length of a fic now. Like it comes out more or less the length I expect it to; I can tell what size something’s gonna be. Probably now I would just say plot. I’m not great at Things Occurring. And like everybody else I get hung up on how to describe basic actions like walking across a room.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

Don’t do it if you can’t get the other language right (as well as how code-switching actually tends to work). Also, translation convention exists for a reason. Probably don’t pull an ‘opening lines of War and Peace’ unless you are in fact Tolstoy, in which case you don’t need my writing advice. Nothing inherently wrong with it though.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Officially, DW. Unofficially, probably something as a kid before I knew fandom existed. Redwall or something.

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

to all our nights and days to come, probably.

Not tagging anyone, but memes are for stealing!

[variousqueerthings]

I didn't take notes during this episode, foolishly

it's Mummy On The Orient Express, and Clara is leaving... after one last hurrah! and there's a Mummy!

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 9/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 7/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 8/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 8/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 3/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 6/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 6/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 10/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 5/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 5/10

FULL RATING: 67/100 (if I can count….)

okay okay, we're a little higher, although as mentioned about this era, it feels a little more complicated to rate with this system than s5-7

OBJECTIFICATION: considering Clara's wearing a flapper dress, it's remarkably, refreshingly free from "sexy" commentary

we do forever have Clara's suit in Time Heist to compare to...

PLOT-POINT: this episode is about Clara figuring out her Stuff around the Doctor and yeah, "I'm fully addicted to the power of travelling the universe and affecting events and will allow other facets of my life to be shit in service of this" feels like a strong Character Moment

Clara is giving me a bit of Rose Tyler energy in this idea (not in personality as such but... some things for sure), but I'm going to wait until I've seen it all to get more into that

of course, the actual way the Doctor treats her in this episode isn't... great... but that, I think, is part of it. the Doctor continues to get away with this behaviour, because the upsides still outweigh the downsides

COMPLEXITY: I'm keeping this for now, because I cannot remember if the train computer mastermind Gus comes back to this or is relevant... as it stands it's reeelatively simple on the whole, but with some curveballs in relation to why it matters that they study the Mummy, which we still don't know

I will allow this, it's giving a little teaser for something in the future, potentially.... technically the Mummy going after the weakest first is kind of silly, surely a soldier would be going for the strongest first? or am I showing a lack of understanding in good tactics... eh, I'll allow it

the ending wraps up kind of abruptly though, we're told what happens rather than shown

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: Clara is now going to keep hold of her incompatible parts of life with an iron fist, and keep travelling with the Doctor

there's another mystery with who Gus is and why they gathered people to study the Mummy

the Doctor was respectful to a soldier + there's another one onboard in the main cast, so that tendril is still with us

COMPANIONS MATTER: Clara doesn't actually... do much. which undermines part of the Thing around the power that comes with travelling. M*ffat-era once again is really really weak in giving the companion just... Things To Do in the episode plot, beyond having emotions about things

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: Ohhhhhhhh the Doctor. is still a dick. there's a speech at the end of this, where the Doctor explains that sometimes there are no good decisions (which is oddly echoing what Science Lady from last episode said in order to justify killing the moon, which the Doctor didn't agree with, so...???) and so he needed to be pragmatic about the situation

but does that explain the sheer dickishness with which the Doctor treats people with a minute to live, who know they're going to die, who are scared?

does it engage with this line, explaining why the Doctor is cold and rude to people who have just seen aforementioned death, and wonder if they could be next?: People with guns to their heads can’t mourn

does it give a good excuse for the Doctor calling everyone around him "idiots" for not knowing what's going on?

now, this is presumably a part of the ongoing exploration of this Doctor's abrasive nature, but I do keep going back to Time Heist, which had the Doctor be abrasive without being cruel. this Doctor is often incredibly cruel, for no reason

character regression continues

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: there's a few little callbacks, nothing special in one way or another

“SEXINESS”: I will say this season seems to be blissfully free of this post-Deep Breath!

INTERNAL WORLD: yeah, I won't think too deeply about this, because it would break immersion a tad. the idea of this train in space. the way it works. the reason it's there. the recreation of a British era of colonialist and classist ideals. the fact that most of the guests turn out to be holograms and nobody onboard realised this. how big is this train? are there other guests elsewhere? why these scientists? what do those characters bring to the table a single time in the episode? why was that woman on there with her grandmother? etcetc. stretched a bit thin for The Bit

POLITICS: aforementioned Orient Express In Space concepts are a bit unthought-out. it's not egregious, it's just there. more soldiers

I'm noticing soldiers, because it wants me to notice soldiers, but what is it telling me about soldiers? on the whole? I'd love it if there was more... Substance in the soldiers being shown. the concept about soldiering

FULL RATING: 67/100 (if I can count….)

I would appreciate it if eventually the soldier Stuff pays off, both narratively and politically, but I'm not convinced M*ffat has enough of a political opinion on the military

would appreciate it if the Doctor's dickishness pays off/is explored, but oh boy are they running with this for over half a season!

Clara's trajectory is quite interesting

hope the little teasers pay off also

[boypussydilf]

Tumblr mutual Melteveryone would you happen to know which WOY eps would count as 'non-filler'/are more lore/overarching story driven. Or which eps are good in general :3c

oh boy its been probably over a year since the last time i watched it but i knew it inside and out for a while so i probably can still remember pretty good

in season 1:

the picnic (nothing remotely important happens in this episode it’s just the pilot but it’s good to have covered since it gets referenced later on… i believe)

the pet (first Really Good episode, i think, plus introduces Important Recurring… Character? Plot Device? Animal.)

the box/the hat (both good and also, hat lore)

the little guy

the date/the buddies (just fun)

the rider (Lore! A bit!)

in season 2:

oh god pretty much everything in woy season 2 is really good & technically relevant to the overarching plot

but to try and cover the best of the best and the most crucial plot or most lore shared:

the greater hater (Plot Crucial Episode 1)

the wanders

the good bad guy

the battle royale (Plot Crucial Episode 2)

the matchmaker

the black cube/the eye on the skullship

the secret planet/the bad hatter (events that will be referenced later on, lore that will Not get referenced again but is good)

the cartoon/the bot

the family reunion

my fair hatey (Plot Crucial Episode 3)

the legend

the waste of time (backstory!!!)

the night out

the flower

the end of the galaxy (Plot Crucial Episode 4)

This is a big ass list. Sorry. That’s just like half of all of the second season. Well hopefully this helps with whatever project you are undertaking :) 👍

[kamari333]

If i can ask about the rare pair event

Does a rare pair count if it's connected to an obscure au?

Like something only the person posting knows?

Or must be about a semi-known au?

Great question! I'm going to assume this is in regards to Undertale/UTMV. I am also going to ramble a lot because this is a somewhat complicated question.

TLDR What determines if something is allowed is related directly to its AO3 tag, and so your best bet is to ask about your AU specifically.

Long rambly answer:

I didn't officially codify what quantifies as an AU in the official rules because 1: thats somewhat controversial and 2: i didn't feel like i had enough mods to give me a well rounded set of fair opinions on the matter. I'm going to say, on paper, that technically speaking, the rules don't discriminate between a self made and fandom adopted AU. What the rules do say is that the AU must have a Tag. And for the sake of fun, I do tend to hold up the rules, ask my mod team their thoughts, and largely let folks 'get away with' technicalities xD

Also, the importance of an AU depends greatly on whether or not the Rarepair is dependent on cross-au matching or not. For example: Doggo/Burgerpants is a rarepair no matter what AU, because it is a pairing that would be tagged in the Relationship field. But Red/Dance is a cross AU rarepair, which is tagged it the Additional Tags field, and so that relationship can only exist if both underfell and dancetale are distinct and codifiably taggable undertale AUs.

My personal opinions on the matter are, of course, that an Undertale AU must be an AU with a strong and relevant foundation of undertale-lore, have at least 1 distinct and relevant difference from other AUs, and have at the barest minimum 3 undertale characters in it. of course the preference is to have (or at least have the potential for, even if you havent fleshed them all out) all characters, but theres so many so its understandable if you havent gotten to them all yet. furthermore, if the equivalent of the original game's story were to take place in the AU, the characters who play the role of the main characters in the game must be derivatives/variants of the game's characters, and not OCs in their own right. The AU must have a Name. And that Name must be translatable into a Tag.

However, I'm running this event for the sake of fun, and I know I am weird and often stubborn, so if the question was brought up 'does X count as an AU' and my first thought was "No", i would go to my other mods to check my biases.

and... to be fair, even if it doesnt, there is always the chance of an exception being made... or accommodations being made...

...i went on a tangent. i probably should have said from the start that even by my criteria, what determines an AU's event validity isnt the popularity of the AU. you can be the only person who creates for it and it can still count, so long as it can be recognizably defined as an AU.

I will also say that there is a difference between Lore-based and Concept-based AUs. For example, Underverse and Leviathantale are lore-based MAUs which distinguish themselves on the narrative level (the author level) rather than the conceptual level (the fandom level). that means Underverse Red/Lust isnt conceptually different than non-underverse red/lust and therefor wouldnt get its own tag, so it would be synonymized with regular red/lust, just as leviathantale geno/reaper isnt conceptually different than non-leviathantale geno/reaper and therefore wouldnt get its own distinct tag, so it would be synonymous with regular geno/reaper.

this gets incredibly complicated because there is no 1 singular factor in determining if an AU is or isnt an AU, and i'm only one person with strong annoying opinions, and frankly i would prefer those opinions not get in the way of fun yanno?

i just wanna have fun with my friends and community celebrating rarepairs xD and if that sounds good to you too, we can talk details together.

[ms-scarletwings]

6, 13, 18

6: Any fan characters?

Goodness yes, goodness yes! Thank you!

I’ve been a touch shy about putting them out there out there; I’ll try to be succinct. 5 of them so far.

Krim, Tess, and Scoot are a close-knit Irken trio that met together in training on Devastis. Krim’s the shortest, but technically from the oldest stock of the three. She used to be a Vort-stationed exobiologist before circumstances muscled her into a military pathway. Scoot’s a reticent pilot, specializing in frontline mechs and heavy gunnery, and Tess is the go-getter link who pushed the three of them to succeed into the elite rank together. In the present, she’s a cutthroat captain running missions where the empire deems suitable, while Krim abruptly and without explanation disappeared in her continued training to become an invader.

Kwiz-Leeg, formal alias “prisoner 824”, is a captive researcher remaining on Vort. Same shit, new management. He has a work history going back with Krim that he holds an immense amount of contempt over. Rather than attempt escape or sabotage, he’s been fully cooperative with the Armada’s takeover and demands in an effort to procure less cruelty and scrutiny for himself and an unnamed brother also held on the planet.

Yog-Zahn is free Vortian renegade, no relation to the above. An independent bounty hunter that lurks the far fringes of the armada’s current reach and collects Irken PAKs as trophies. By force, obviously.

13: Do you believe there are any canon pairings?

If “Mary” and “Fred” weren’t supposed to be bickering old married couple coded then idk what the hell is anymore. Other than that, I think it’s confidently safe to assume source material is knitted from a pretty loveless fabric when it comes to this franchise. I get mighty tempted to interpret Red and Purple’s dynamic some funny kinda way, but I don’t assume it’s what Vasquez had in mind at all.

18:Least favorite thing about Invader Zim?

My top answer for this was very little the fault of the media and more grief of the circumstances it found itself in- Network bs and all that- but still carried over into the comics: the sheer amount of engaging threads the series would toss at you and then just… leave loose and never pick back up again. More villains (interesting ones too) than could count on one hand that swear and tease a return which never happens, but I guess at this point it’s kind of its own running gag. And not even just villains, actually. Whole lore introductions and (at least potentially) plot-relevant side characters that dart kind of in and out of the periphery and MAYBE there will be acknowledgement down the road that it even happened or mattered.

I love the absurd whackiness of Invader Zim AND I love the continuity and attention to detail it has nurtured since season 2. What doesn’t always rub me right is how, rather than mix and juggle the flippant, random humor elements and the commitment to serialization together, this franchise seems to just flip at coin at any given moment and go all-in for one or the other.

Question(s) source

[magpiejay1234]

Watching first episode of ZEXAL feels weird. Some observations:

**Number 17: Leviathan Dragon's Japanese is Levias Dragon, but due to its Katakana spelling, it is supposed to reference the previous Vice Dragons, Jack's Vice Dragon, and Fujiwara's Clear Vice Dragon. This sets up Shark's role as one of major rivals, and technically being one of the final bosses.

***The "Vice" Katakana would also be referenced in Number C32: Shark Drake Veiss.

**Yuma's parents being archeologists is likely based off popular fanon about Yugi's father (Bakura's grandpa, was, of course, an actual one).

**Though the early ZEXAL runs on the idea of Numbers possesing people, later series retcon suggests the voice in Shark's mind was Don Thousand, hence purple lightning when Leviathan Dragon attack.

***This is also likely the lore behind Rebarian Shark.

**Though the early series has Yuma releasing Numbers from The Door of Contract, we later find out that these were scattered around already. This is obviously a retcon from the pilot, though a necessary one, otherwise the plot would be weird.

***I can't count all the Numbers, but I'm guessing there were around 50 ones surrounding Yuma, which explains the later reveal/retcon of half of Numbers belonging to Don Thousand, at least in the animé continuity (since OCG side will likely make alternate versions of manga Numbers eventually).

**That one Emperor's Key throne that keeps popping around fanart was apparently from ED1, obviously doesn't appear in the show itself.

***Yuma's pose there is supposed to reference Atem in Memory World, but in the series proper, that pose is of course used for Nasch instead.

**OP1/ED1 doesn't spoil much, it doesn't seem like they had a big idea on how the show would work initially. Most of the shots are just concept animation.

***Considering the Seasonal structure of the show, first Season (ie. first 25 episodes) was likely written in one go, then the next 24, and then the next 24. So outside of Kaito, there isn't anyone that is a big deal, except Number 96, who won't be relevant until ZEXAL II.

****We will discuss this more in detail, but apparently Shin Yoshida wrote 14 of the 25 episodes of first Season, Yoshifumi Fukushima wrote 5 of 25 episodes (Tokunosuke/Flip two-parter, Yuma & Shark tag Duel, Number 96 debut with Tetsuo), Yasuyuki Suzuki wrote 4 of 25 (Cathy episode, Yamikawa two parter, Oobomi episode), and Kenichi Yamashita wrote 2 of 25 (Jin/Fortuno two-parter):

**Yuma's VA really doesn't have the voice for the character in the first episode. It will get better, of course.

Either way, I wonder how many dropped plot points that people speculate are, and how many more we won't ever know. Since ZEXAL was supposed to be a soft-reboot, I expect tons. Emperor's Key throne thing takes the cake for now though.

Anyway, ZEXAL I sort of examplifies Shin Yoshida's preferred method of dealing with plot issues, just throwing even more characters in to distract the audience. ZEXAL II would try to avoid abusing this (since it will have less writers than ZEXAL I, as some of the writers of ZEXAL I will move on to ARC-V instead of ZEXAL II) to instead throwing even more lore, and backstory to distract the audience, which is Shin Yoshida's second preferred method.

[infizero]

This is the anon from cartoonrival’s blog! What are your Sonic lore recommendations?

If you mean media through which to learn sonic lore, then I'd honestly recommend the wiki (Sonic News Network) first and foremost. There's a looootttt of different canons, different interpretations, etc etc and the wiki catalogues all of it! It's a much easier option than trying to play all the games and read all the comics and watch all the cartoons yatta yatta

If that is something you'd wanna do (or at least, some of it) then here are a few of my personal recommendations for some of the sonic lore (gameverse, again theres a lot of different media with its own canon so i'll just focus on gameverse for this ask)

Sonic Adventure: SA1 has a lot of focus on the ancient echidnas, Knuckles' tribe, and their history. If you were intrigued by what the movies did with them and wanted to see where a lot of that came from and how they are in the games, then I'd recommend playing through or watching a playthrough of Sonic Adventure!

Sonic Adventure 2: Personally my favorite sonic game. I cannot recommend this one enough, it has one of the best stories (imo) out of the whole franchise. Unfortunately the English localization is notoriously bad/muddles lots of plot details, and the channel that housed the Japanese cutscenes with faithful English subtitles recently got (completely unfairly) deleted. I think you'll be fine with the English cutscenes if you're just casually looking into this game's story, but if you want a better picture that's more clear/accurate (and have 2 hours to spare) then I highly recommend this video that goes over the entire story with an emphasis on the original Japanese version. SA2 is Shadow's debut appearance (and was originally supposed to be his only appearance), so if you're a Shadow fan and want to learn about his backstory + get a feel for his character (or just want to experience a super well-written story that gets pretty dark) then this is definitely one of the games you'll want to check out!!

^ (also its story in general outside of shadow is really good everyone is characterized really well and its very enjoyable - it's rouge's first appearance too if you want to see how she was originally as well!)

Sonic Unleashed: Personally I've never played Unleashed, but a lot of people really love it! It's got beautiful graphics, great soundtrack, and (relevant to this ask) it has some major worldbuilding which still appears to be canon today, concerning the planet Sonic and friends live on - and some ancient gods, you know how it is. (Oh and Werehog Sonic AKA God's greatest gift to humanity. he fluffy)s

Lastly, I'll recommend the IDW comics again cause why not. They take place in the same canon as the gameverse (although they're not canon to the games... assumedly) and build off of them. They're really good at bringing back things from older and more obscure games in a way that doesn't feel forced or confusing, so if you want something that has a little taste of everything then I'd once again say to check them out!

I know this isn't a lot, but "lore" is kind of hard to quantify. Every canon sonic game would technically count as "lore" I guess, since it's a new story installment, but I'm not gonna ask you to play/watch every single sonic game LOL. I tried to just pick stuff that focuses on things that happened in the past pre-sonic & friends since that's what comes to mind when I hear the word "lore"

Sorry if that wasn't quite what you were asking for, your wording was a little confusing for me ^^; if you want other recommendations or want to clarify, just let me know!