#you think THIS is a long post?? you think this is infodumping???

[tatiejosie]

♾️

OH LETS GOOOO IT'S ONE OF MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PERSONA OST????

🔫 I got Pull the Trigger from Persona Q2!

I'll embrace being the cringiest mf of the entire internet when it comes to this series, I legit don't give a fuck. It's not hyperbolic when I say that Persona supported me during my darkest hours, and P5 music is my unconditional comfort media when I need to remember why I want to live.

🎀 my favorite parts

There ain't the perfect time for any big change Especially when not ready More time seems more brutal 'till it catches you Either you go with flow or force it without Determination But you're not alone in this complication So come with me On your mark Y'all get set Then pull the trigger and go Make a move before they can make an act on you No one but you can change your own world Ain't nobody else will do it for you

Some of my regrets come hunting me 'til this day Choice I made, it was wrong How thoughtless to believe that I was alone I learned it harder way but you don't have to go through what I've been through Cause you're not alone in this frustration

I think that the overall vibe of the song is empowering and uplifting, but I can't help but focus on the parts of it that highlight the fact that we're in this together. It feels like you're awakening someone into the politics of their struggle - most likely, a struggle that you're also facing.

When lost, look around you For a sec, you may feel lonely But you are not alone in this world We're right here with you

Coincidence - nah I chose to meet you Destiny I sought and fought through Scarred up but I'm feeling good Move destiny I'm coming through Partner we can do this right You are the fire I'm the wind tonight Burn your dread haha that's right Baby baby baby we tight*

*When Lotus Juice makes little references to his previous Persona/SMT OSTs => 🥲😭🥺

I'm aspiring to work in the socio-medical field, more specifically in the mental health domain. I don't want to just listen and toss medication, I want to genuinely untangle situations and guide people towards a path of hope and strength. I don't want anyone to go through what I've been through and worse. I want people to know that they've been wronged, to know that they have rights, to reclaim justice.

With brightest rings Yo I pull the trigger Make it look flashy, even when it's bitter Cannot defeat me even when I lose I stand right✫ Back to the spot go figure You don't see What I see But you don't have to see what I see Just see eye to eye Despite my differences We are still tight

✫I'm generally sloppy, but I still like to save face. I just like these lines.

I enjoy encountering different profiles and opinions, some that I wouldn't agree with, and allow them to understand me through my understanding of them. Discussing with people who think differently and disagreeing respectfully while working together towards a common goal, is probably one of the healthiest interactions you can have. People have different upbringings, cultural beliefs/opinions and humanity cannot align on one specific line of morals. What matters is that we respect that, and stay comprehensive and united. [this does NOT apply to bigoted views. I'm referring to intersectional discussions among oppressed groups]

So, uh, yea

This is the vibe that saved my life. All the depressive nihilism and despair was turned into anger and energy towards the real culprit - the system. Hopelessness is not an option when your suffering is caused by injustice, when your loved ones and all the other people who go through similar pain are also fighting to change the world. And I sincerely hope that what I'm trying to convey here has an impact on you, no matter how small, because I really wish I could pass this hope on to people who need it. ❤️

also please listen to Persona OSTs they're really good

[styllwaters]

351 / GAZI-MIAH

At last this monster of a ref is finished. Introducing the first canon Knight character for Vivere 44!

351 is a mountain Knight from Ferhaht, though their host is part Fejga; hence the brown fur and stocky build. They act as the secondary antagonist in parts 1 and 2 of the story. In part 3, the final 'season', they feature as a protagonist. 351 starts out as a ruthless, aggressive soldier working for Genizix, intent on completing the mission assigned to them. Under the direction of their officer, 909, 351 has been dispatched to quickly and efficiently eliminate targets who threaten to expose the company's activities in the Zhagaviit galaxy.

Eventually they come to realise that they are being manipulated by both the weapons company and their abusive superior, and in part 2 351 challenges 909. Their fight results in 351 gaining an array of scars and a terrifying near-death experience, and though they survive, they are permanently mentally separated. Unable to go into the Trance which binds the consciousnesses of the Helmet and the Host, they must learn how to work together as two people again. 351 escapes to their homeplanet of Ettera, surviving in the wild as they race against time to deliver an important message and rediscover who they are. During part 3, they discard their identification number and take on a new name, Gazi-miah.

More in-depth lore, facts, and extra art below the cut!

BACKSTORY

[cw: abuse, drug use, general dark themes]

351 was always told that they were born in Genizix like 909, though this is not the case at all. 351 had a life before they were turned into a killing machine, living on the Ihmna Stretch with their Ferhahti order. Their life was upturned on the day of their scouting Expedition, a journey that all Knight squires must take on before they can become full soldiers (More on Knight social structure here). They were tasked to deliver a message to an allied order along with two other temporary scouts. Upon arrival, however, instead of friendly greetings they were met with a chilling scene - the order was being attacked by another, the two groups set against each other in a fearsome battle. The fight was secretly orchestrated by Genizix in a plot to evaluate the strongest soldiers to recruit to their cause, unbeknownst to anyone but them. Feeling that it was necessary to aid their allies, 351 and their peers rushed into battle. They fought fiercely, but the young Knights were up against fully-fledged soldiers and 351's companions perished. 351 themselves was severely injured, and in the aftermath, blacked out - but not before catching a glimpse of strange figures.

When they awoke, they were not on Ettera any more; rather an unfamiliar place with black walls and machines. They could barely remember anything from the night before; and slowly the rest of their memories on their homeplanet receded as Genizix toxins that they were injected with took effect. Later, 351 would be introduced to 909, an experienced Knight officer with an extensive history of working for Genizix, and placed in their unit. They were assigned a number for a name and moulded into the perfect killing machine. 909 fed 351 a constant stream of lies about where they came from, and like all soldiers recruited into the system, promised that in fighting for the company they had a chance to participate in something greater than themselves; to see the real universe outside of Zhagaviit. But 351 was driven more by fear than the potential for glory. They had seen what happened to those who disobeyed the higher-ups, and what could happen to them if they did not complete the missions.

909 stripped 351 of their individuality and left nothing but brute force and a desire to please. What the agent feared more even than Genizix was invoking 909's anger, so they pushed themselves to do any dirty work asked of them. The organisation became their whole world, their 'family', and 909 made sure they could never leave their clutches - manipulating them, threatening them and twisting their worldview. The process was sped up by specialised toxins designed by Genizix intended to distort perception and slow brain activity, inducing a dreamlike state. On Knights, this had the effect of triggering and enhancing the Trance, making it incredibly difficult for one to mentally separate the helmet from the host. With time 351 came to believe that they were one person, and they had no reason to think otherwise as their exposure to information was carefully controlled. 351 was conditioned to see their targets as non-sophont and they were rewarded for using cruel tactics. The more time they spent with 909, the more they began to lose their sense of self entirely until they were nothing but a weapon. Such is the fate of most soldiers who have wound up working for Genizix.

Despite the deep emotional (and physical) scarring and conditioning, during the events of Vivere 44 seeds of doubt are planted in 351's minds. These would only germinate further as they gain more clarity of their situation. Standing up to 909 was the first step they took towards breaking free of their chains, although it came with a cost. 351's host was physically Separated from their helmet in the fight, an injury which in most cases is lethal. They were repaired by a scientist who stitched them back together and managed to salvage a sliver of the bond which connected their minds. 351 could never enter the Trance again, though the helmet and host could still exchange thoughts between each other. As they were two separate entities now, the helmet guides the blind host with directions.

Instructed by the scientist (an Arrow named Nimbus, who will be introduced later) 351 left the facility on a new mission - to deliver an urgent message to Jes-ren, a Kaata Plains Knight living on a Ranch on Ettera. They traversed the land they once called home, now unfamiliar to them, relearning how to work together as a pair that might as well be complete strangers to each other. They recover their memories; or at the very least parts of it, as they cannot remember their original name. However, they gain a new one; Gazitkaar-Miahlad [meaning: lost messenger / returned to us].

The road is long and tremendously difficult; Gazi-miah struggles to unlearn years of aggression, addiction and lies, all the while carrying immense trauma. They eventually find peace, and settle down with Jes-ren in Kaat following the climax.

PERSONALITY

During their time at Genizix, agent 351 picked up on a lot of nasty habits and traits from 909 who brought out their worst attributes. They became merciless, taught to discard feelings and remorse. 351 was not afraid to make a show of their strength, and at times was needlessly cruel and taunting. The toxins affecting their nervous system tended to spur on their host's prey drive to a concerning degree, and a part of them enjoyed the power trip they got from hunting down targets. Though everything they did, they did for 909's approval - and to avoid getting disposed of by Genizix.

When their host and helmet were Separated, and the effects of the toxins wore off, gradually their aggressive attributes took a backseat as they grappled with their new situation. With great effort they gain an understanding of both the horrors they went through and the atrocities they committed for the sake of a corrupted system.

Once they escape Genizix's hold, it becomes clear that 351 is incredibly socially inept and any interaction that isn't violence or taking orders is new territory for them. Freedom and agency are difficult concepts for them to grasp, but with the aid of others around them they begin to adjust to their new life.

The helmet, Miahlad (my-a-lad) is the more practical of the two. He has one goal in mind; keeping the both of them safe. Miah is resourceful and smart, though when it comes to social interaction he's just as clueless as his host. This doesn't stop him from offering advice via their mind-link. He is firm, distrustful, and judgemental, but cares deeply for Gazitkaar even if he won't say it. At first he is reluctant to uncover the truth in fear that it will harm them both, preferring to stick to familiar ground. Despite his realistic worldview, more than once he considers going back to Genizix due to the simple fact that it's all they've ever known - even if it hurt them. As a helmet he cannot speak out loud but relearns sign language to communicate with other knights.

The host, Gazitkaar (gaz-it-car) is constantly questioning everything. She is less focused on the personal safety and wellbeing of the Knight body and more concerned with the wider truth, always seeking to know more. Gazi is not one to back down from a challenge, whether it be traversing dangerous territory or mastering a new skill. But like Miah, she is averse to touch, and will bite if boundaries are pushed far enough. She is more open to listening than her helmet, and is a fast learner. Though she is more adaptable than Miah, her curiosity can sometimes go unchecked and lead them into trouble.

EXTRAS

They are 37 years old and tower over everyone, including other Knights. Their prescence could fill a whole room.

The engraved bone necklace was given to them by a Polar Knight commander from Ehtte Thannoeh where they first landed on Ettera. The carving depicts an Aikka deity whose horn always points northwards, and is said to watch over lost travelers from the northern lights.

Gazi-miah's piercings were put in by the scientist Nimbus, intended to firmly fix the helmet to the host.

As a Genizix agent their build is very toned and muscular due to their intense training and strength-enhancing substances which also speed up wound recovery. Such a lifestyle was placing immense stress on their body, and as they spent more time on Ettera they gained more weight and adopted a healthier diet.

Their build and design is inspired by bulls and rottweilers.

Their fur is spiky due to chemicals and unnatural cleaning products resulting in an unpleasant, rough texture. In the future it becomes softer thanks to proper grooming.

Here's some of the first concept art I have of them (and also showcases their pelt colours better)

Aaand a simplified version of the ref without all the notes for your viewing pleasure.

I'll stop here before this post gets insanely long but if you have any questions I shall be delighted to answer!! ;] Thanks for listening to my tedtalk

[t4tadrienette]

She likes to act like she's annoyed at Shinichi for being a "Holmes otaku," but at the end of the day, she does listen to him, and even remembers the things he says to her. That's so cute

[griancraft]

Hi guys, this is sort of my official "please, for the love of god, listen to Skyjacks with me” post because I’m losing my mind and all the content I can find is from the latest stuff right now, and I don’t want to spoil myself. I want to be able to talk about this with people!!!! I will make a watch (listen) party discord if there is enough interest. Just give it a chance; you won’t regret it. Also, some information may be wrong or outdated. I’m on episode 11 out of over 200.

Skyjacks is a ttrpg podcast about sky pirates in a world where there was a catastrophe about 200 years ago that left the sea unsafe to sail and maybe even damaged the entire world to the point where civilization is scattered and in small groups. There is very casual queer rep, and it’s casual to the point where it really just fits into the world perfectly.

A brief summary of the premise of the first episode will hopefully get you hooked. I’m really bad at summaries, but I promise it’s a billion times better than how I talked about it here:

Captain Orimar Vale is dead, and a mutiny will be on Gable, Jonnit, Travis, and Dref’s hands if they are unable to keep up the ruse of him being alive. To do this, necromancy (deeply forbidden magic) is performed by the Dref, the ship's doctor, to turn him into a semi-functional zombie. Captain Orimar is famous for his abilities as a captain; to replicate this will take great skill.

As they run out of supplies, they make a desperate decision: port on the land of one of Orimar’s scorned lovers or deal with the growing uneasiness of the rest of the crew. They haven’t seen their captain healthy in months, and whispers about his health are starting. However, greater danger will await them when they take to the skies again, lurking just beyond the clouds…

And more propaganda as to why I think you guys will like it:

There are unique and interesting gameplay mechanics they use to tell a really cool story, and if you like Hermitcraft or any other sorta storytelling-based SMP, I promise you’ll like it. Like. If you liked Boatem from Hermitcraft 8, you’ll love the characters in Skyjacks. The players are exceptionally good at playing their characters, their humour is unmatched by anything similar I’ve had the pleasure of seeing, and the story is prioritized, which I think is an amazing choice.

Best part? It’s still ongoing after, like, 5 years. Some people have left, but a good chunk of the OG cast has stayed. Not that leaving is bad, because holy crap, 5 years is a long time, and stories have to end at some point! It’s a good way of getting into something and knowing there is still a shit ton of content to be explored.

The music is good. The story is good. The characters and humour are amazing. The lore of the world is sprinkled throughout, and as you learn more about the world, the more excited you get. It’s incredible so far, and if you decide to listen to it, I will actually love you forever and ever. My boyfriend is on episode 190, and he finds it so funny every time I go. Oh my god, this is so cool.

Link to the podcast, but in a playlist (up to 180). So it’s in order and easy to find, since it’s a part of something else from the oneshot network:

[starnervefan]

what does our best guy detective fear like to do for fun? owo

aw! Thank you for the question 🥺💜 Nobody ever asks me things about my AU gdfsfh 🥹😭 /pos

But anyways-

He probably plays a lot of chess and card games given the chance and a worthy opponent. He'd join tournaments, he's not exactly competitive but still likes the feeling of outsmarting his opponents. He reads a lot (horror and thrillers despite his overactive imagination, and… sometimes, trashy romance). He'll happily critique or pick apart trashy movies and admittedly, he's fond of cartoons and silent films.

Even though some "scary" movies amuse him more than scare him, he's interested in criminal psychology in an almost morbid way, keeping himself up late at night reading about horrific crimes.

Socializing heavily isn't really his thing, he's shy, easily overstimulated and keeps to himself. Contrasting with his partner Anger, who's always dragging Fear to noisy gatherings where there's a lot of booze, smoke and jazz music. It's ok though, Fear gets to drag Anger to the theater (where Anger will usually wind up falling asleep from the boredom, if Fear's commentary doesn't keep him awake).

Lately a certain thief lady is on Inspector Fear's mind and he spends an awful lot of time thinking about her and trying to find her, even and especially during his off-hours, though whether it's "fun" is up for debate.

[autisticcassandracain]

I dunno man I feel like most statements along the lines of ‘Batman isn’t REALLY x, he’s y’ don’t hold much water because usually, there’s a pretty good chance a number of writers over the years have written him as x, you just didn’t like it or think it doesn’t count for some reason.

For example ‘Batman isn’t REALLY a good parent, he’s actually a bad parent’, when Batman has been written as a good parent by a number of writers, and has, in addition, been written as realizing that he’s screwed up with his children and resolved to fix it by even more. At the same time, stating ‘Batman isn’t REALLY a bad parent, he’s actually a good parent’ is also incorrect, because Batman has been written as a bad parent by a number of writers, either intentionally or not; in addition, the pattern presented by the tug-of-war between writers who believe he should be a good parent and writers who don’t has, over the years, created an unintentional pattern that strongly resembles that of an abusive relationship. So, stating he is a good parent is inaccurate and dismisses a bunch of his canon writing, but stating he is a bad parent also dismisses a bunch of his canon writing and the intentions of the authors that wrote him.

The secret here is realizing that Batman has had so many writers over the years that it’s practically impossible to find a universal truth about him beyond the basic premise and maybe very, very basic characterization keystones. Writers with different beliefs about both the character and the world at large have written him in accordance to their worldview, and sometimes that worldview will align with yours, and sometimes it won’t.

Like, at this point, Batman is more an idea than he is a character. He is the bare-knuckled fight against injustice, but what ‘injustice’ is depends heavily on your worldview, as does what ‘bare-knuckled’ and ‘fight’ mean. Batman has been interpreted in dozens of different ways over the years, and singling out a few of those as the True Batman is largely arbitrary and dependent on your personal taste and belief in what the character should be. The only ‘objective’ measurement you could apply here are the old Golden Age comics, and I think most fans can agree that measuring modern Batman comics by how faithful they are to the Golden Age comics is, more often than not, a little ridiculous.

For the record, I do think that arguing about what Batman should be matters; if right-wing assholes use the character as a mouthpiece for their worldview we can and should critique that, but not because it’s ‘OOC’, but because the worldview espoused by those right-wing assholes is harmful and shitty. Batman should be a good parent, not because it’s ‘OOC’ for him to be a bad parent, but because having your paragon of justice be a child abuser is pretty shitty. Etc.

I don’t really have anywhere specific to go with this, I just think it’s a little strange when people try to view Batman as a character with a clear-cut characterization, rather than a concept that many people have approached in different ways over the years. Can that concept be mishandled? Sure. But it’s usually mishandled for reasons a bit more substantial than ‘a previous writer wrote it differently’.

[waywardsalt]

thinking abt bellum v hard. (fyi there are 1658 words under this cut)

there's not a lot of concrete stuff to think abt but there ideas. he's kind of already won by the time link shows up on the scene. he's not really actively antagonizing the world of the ocean king, he mostly just has the ghost ship to go around collecting prey for him while he has the yook and anouki turned against each other and seems to have infested the different temples and whatever with monsters to delay any opposition. is he the one who destroyed the cobble kingdom? they're meant to be supporters of the ocean king so i think we can guess that bellum is the one who tried to eradicate them.

maybe he was the one who... mind controlled? or otherwise meddled with the yook to keep them from checking out the ice temple and keeping the anouki occupied with dealing with them. (tbh theres some untapped potential in the relationship between the yook and anouki) he doesn't really do anything to the gorons but maybe he doesn't see them as a worthwhile threat since they see the crimsonine as more of an artifact and not something they should really do anything with, and link has to pass a test to even be allowed to go to the temple. the cobble kingdom is already destroyed, and it can be assumed that he mightve mimicked their engineering based on eox being the hostile boss of the last temple and turning into sand, suggesting a relationship to bellum, and maybe that he's trying to hide the fact that he's the one fucking with everyone. i'm not even sure if characters (besides the main group) even know that bellum exists until link's quest is more known.

taking a note from the manga, where bellum says something along the lines of feelings of love and friendship creating more worthwhile life force for him, so taking that into account with stuff in the game suggests that he maybe doesnt make his presence well-known to avoid something like a mass panic or a persistent fear in people, which could downplay positive emotions that makes their life forces more worth taking to him along with other worthwhile forces maybe being ones connected to divine power (like his taking of tetra and seeming desperation to keep her specifically, since she's most likely a descendant of hylia's mortal form), so he likely is very hands-off with how he's affected the world in order to preserve the value of his prey, somehow. idk why he turns people into statues maybe its a preservation method. maybe hes saving tetra for some reason or maybe trying to bait link in as well. maybe he wants to grab link, too, but failed to catch him the first time and resorted to allowing him to go down the path of dismantling bellum's work all so that bellum can try and capture him himself.

the spirits he does manage to capture and left alive and instead just sealed away within their temples, which i believe is because spirits and gods and whatever in loz can't really die unless they explicitly permanently become mortal (hylia) and can only really be sealed away temporarily in some form, mostly due to a lot of them being a sort of representation of some part of the world (i like to imagine that demise is the god or whatever who created monsters, he's the father of monsters and opposes hylia due to the way her favored creatures [hylians ig] attack and kill monsters and he wants the world to be habitable and safe only for his creations)

it's probably safe to say that the ghost ship (like. the whole thing) was created by bellum, and in some form is perhaps some kind of living being, hence why bellum is capable of effectively possessing it the way he does, since it's an extension of himself like the boss monsters, it just maybe takes parts from some existing ships, or maybe it's not alive and bellum is capable of creating large structures like that he is compatible with.

bellum himself turns to sand when he is defeated, as well as most of the other boss monsters, but the cubus sisters (who certainly have a relationship with bellum due to having the same eyes and being connected to the ghost ship) do not turn into sand, which makes me think that bellum didn't actually create them; maybe they're corpses or something being remotely puppeted by bellum.

bellum is clearly made up of the sand of hours, a crystallization of life force, and oshus is said to have used those sands to create the phantom hourglass, and the sands are also mentioned to have been created from the force gems connected back to oshus himself, so bellum was probably created from those force gems and therefore those sands of hours at some point somehow (i enjoy the idea that oshus was the one who created bellum; with oshus being our main source of info on bellum, i think it'd be interesting if he was the one who originally made bellum but obscures this fact by just talking about how he 'appeared' and whatnot).

bellum seems to have a weird sort of... inverted? perverted? ability to create life (perhaps a sort of parallel to the one we can assume the ocean king has if we assume that he created the three spirits as well as bellum maybe) but only in a hivemind or derivative sort of way, only able to create things that follow simple commands and when he possesses something else he takes it over. (i like to take him in a more biological or physiological way rather than magical, when he is removed so is the control, but there might be little remnants, but his influence is gone. i take bellumbeck aftereffects to be terrible sickness rather than others going with the idea of taking on some bellum-like traits or residual controls. the things bellum creates can only follow simple rules unless he is directly in control therefore he can use it as he wishes, but if he takes control of something he did not create, it's a bit more of a battle, he has to contend with that other being's subconscious or whatnot and has no effect unless he is physically connected. his control is more limited and ends up incorporating some of the hosts' subconscious desires with some guiding from bellum himself to achieve a favorable outcome.)

with the world of the ocean king being a sort of parallel/separate world to link n tetra's great sea, it's interesting that the ghost ship can be physically present outside the world in which it was created. definitely there can be contact between different worlds in loz (like hyrule and the dark world/lorule in alttp/albw and a little bit with termina if you take that as a literal place and a little bit with koholint and then the twili realm and whatever i'm missing) but it's interesting to see bellum as a villain capable of (in some way) contact and interact within other worlds and drag inhabitants of those other worlds into his own (oshus can send people out of his world, so i assume he can also bring them in, maybe that's how link gets in despite falling off of the ghost ship, unless somehow the ghost ship is still within the world of the ocean king but is also present in the great sea but the area around it is a fragment of whatever part of the world of the ocean king its in superimposed over the great sea... idk) so it's interesting that bellum could bc considered a villain able to tamper with or at least interact with world boundaries to let things in and out, maybe it's something that he is only capable of with whatever power he's attained by the start of the game.

whatever relationship he may have to oshus and the other spirits is not at all a part of the game, but at the same time we don't learn a whole lot about them anyways. there's also stuff with the chief of the golden frogs as another ally of oshus, but i imagine bellum didn't bother with him because he has no relation to the spirits' locations and the pure metals, and zuaz was left alone perhaps because his location is secret, while astrid and kayo were maybe found due to living on a more populated island (more prey for bellum to go after, more people to know about astrid and kayo). a lot of the monsters in the dungeons were probably already there, while the bosses were specifically made to protect what was hidden there, or maybe the bosses came first and their presences attracted other monsters.

i think bellum created the two monsters you fight overseas on the spot; they existed specifically to try and kill link because at those two times (link going to get the final spirit and link going to get the first pure metal) bellum suddenly panics and decides to try and eliminate link at the cost of the loss of a possible worthwhile piece of prey. bellum was probably also the one to begin the rumor of the ghost ship; i imagine he can take a sort of human form the same way oshus can, and spent a bit of time after defeating oshus and creating the ghost ship integrating him within some pirate crew and using them to grow and spread the rumor of the ghost ship, eventaully leading them towards it and taking them has his first victims (and along the way taking the time to foster good relationships with them in the hopes that their positive emotions and feelings would make them more worthwhile prey, back to the manga snippet idea of feelings of friendship and love [and probably positive emotions in general] being another form of better life force).

bellum's cool

[zosonils]

Wait, no, actually, tell me about the Scribblenauts timeline. I must be real... I like it too. I love unifying timelines where things seemingly just happen, tell us!

scribblenauts fans rise up >:] to be clear this isn't an attempt to sort out the canon timeline [although if you asked i'd guess unlimited > scribblenauts > super > unmasked based on the few splinters of plot we get] but rather taking inspiration from the scraps of story available to build something new and coherent, although at this stage 'coherent' isn't super accurate lmao it's just islands of solid ideas amidst a sea of autism nonsense

basically i'm deciding that the doppelganger's presence in 10-5 of super counts as a plot and slapping that on top of the more consistently defined world and lore of unlimited and onwards [so kind of what unmasked and the subsequent comic did but batman isn't there], with an added sprinkle of the 'scribblenauts being an actual organisation that maxwell is involved in' thing that never made it past background details in the first game. while unlimited arguably has the most iconic and/or existent plot and for sure i want lily to be a deutragonist i'm not sure how much of it i'll retain because 1. turning your daughter into stone is bad parenting 2. let her tag along and be an actual character instead of a literal rock you cowards and 3. the more super-inspired storyline i have in mind with the doppelganger is probably enough to carry the emotional intensity of a mostly lighthearted story by itself and i don't want to bog things down with too many subplots lol

i'm absolutely reading too deep into this kiddie game but i think the doppelganger as an antagonist of maxwell's own creation reflecting all his worst traits would be super interesting in an environment that puts more consistent and deliberate thought into character writing, so that's the idea i'm basing this autism-powered rehash on. i don't think it's ever actually specified but when i was a little sporelet playing scribblenauts unlimited for the first time i somehow got the impression that starites grant wishes? which is cute so i'm using that as maxwell's motivation to join the scribblenauts and seek them out, that he wants to collect enough to wish for something cool and superficial that a 12ish [?????] year old kid would want. but then after lots of adventures and character development when he's in the dramatic final confrontation with his doppelganger and has matured enough to see him as a distressed kid in uniquely terrifying circumstances rather than just an annoying knockoff he instead uses his wish on giving doppelganger the chance to be a normal kid with a normal life because he wants to make kind decisions now. then i guess they all go home and nobody dies in a scripted ufo explosion

this post is getting toooooo long so i'm gonna try and wrap it up now but god i already have so many ideas rattling around my head for an autism reawakening that could be over in a week lmao. now i'm even sadder that my computer is busted because i want to replay unlimited and refresh my lore so badly..... there's a fandom page [breezewiki sweep though] for the series which has helped refresh my memory but none of the sources are cited it's a nightmare. what do you mean maxwell and lily are twins for the love of god give me a single screenshot or manual scan that mentions this

also i didn't have a good place to insert this but even though edgar and julie having 42 kids is obviously a Silly Joke and excuse to give unlimited some unique characters i am choosing to interpret it as them being experienced foster carers. i don't care to sort through every single character and decide which if any are biologically related to each other lmao but adopted/foster families are swag as hell and there should be more of them in media! it also adds a nice layer to the doppelganger plot - maxwell is more willing to reach out to him because he's seen 'angry bitter kid who will only get better with kindness' in a lot of his brothers and maybe himself, and it gives doppelganger an easy place to go for his happy ending because maxwell's parents are experts at taking in kids like him. didn't want to end this post without mentioning this because i'm already suuuper attached to the concept

[no-psi-nan]

Sometimes I come up with truly banger headcanons / ideas but I'm saving them for a project so you don't get to hear about them for a long time (or ever if I don't get around to finishing it or you don't read my fics) and that's very sad.

But I shan't kneecap my projects by killing half the novelty in them so it is what it is.

[dufrau]

honestly though when it comes down to it my #1 shoe buying advice is to only buy shoes from companies whose primary focus is making shoes.

[431989]

okay fuck it we ball im posting resident alien stuff here. hyperfixation time. spoilers below so be warned.

im sooo bummed over the recent ep. the gripe i have w every single piece of media happened agaiiinnnnn. can i have ONE thing that doesnt force relationship arcs. especially ones that dont fit the initial or continuing tone of the shoooow. <--- edit again to clarify. i loved the tone of s1. i want that back. its getting too comedyish.

like i rlly connected w harry esp the fact he wasnt really getting infatuated with anyone but this whole horned up episode was grating to watch. like i still think there were sweet moments but boooo 🍅💥🍅💥 im hoping its just for some sort of conflict and that itll get squashed come the next few eps. (ALSO EDIT: at least the thing with harry and isabelle was palatable. gahhh im just peeved….)

s1 was so baller too like it had good clever comedy and still had drama to it. like im hoping the very like… bland surface level humor gets dialed back. like its soooo forced to me. but i guess thats what the average viewer likes which is dog doodoo. dont make it a sitcom please im begging. it was soooo unique.

i will be rewatching season 1 for the 5th time tonight but another thing i noticed is the increased use of like… musical scores. its like one step removed from a laugh track. gahh.

anyways im a harry asta supporter also harry joseph supporter so this forced stuff hurts to watch esp bc it doesnt fit character to me. considering harrys whole thing so far has been about developing and realizing connections, the sudden shift to horniness just! isnt consistent. not to be autistic or anything haha.

speaking of! i think its boring and cheap to have this alien/alien thing going on. and also feels really like.. “nd people can never fit in so they have to be with other nd people.” i think i wouldnt be so turned away if it was more genuine. but this is a comedy ig, i just wish it was handled differently. its uninteresting to meeeee. like an alien/alien thing can work but not like this. gives very nd are forever seen as weird and are therefor ostracized. like it feels othering to me. ESP BC OF HOW FORCED UGHHHHHHH i hate forced romance shit so much. perhaps thats an unpopular take but i said what i said! sudden nonmeaningful stuff like this i feel will kill the show. i wouldnt be surprised if it fizzles out.

UM ALSO? tudyk bringing up shape of water on insta abt the newest ep????? i dont think so???????? i never watched that but i kind of know what it was about and it certainly wasnt fish on fish love. smdh. like i feel like the reason why it was so big when it came out was (albeit as someone who hasnt watched it and have surface level understanding) bc it was between a lady and fish guy. and it was heartfelt. not to be harry asta or anything but that was already developing so like. AGHHHUU. even a harry joseph dynamic i can get around in a way bc theres room for development. also itd be gay so thats a plus.

anyways i might check out the graphic novels. told myself i wouldnt bc my brain works weird but maybe itd be a good idea to get into that. unfortunately i will probably be begrudgingly keeping up bc im hyperfixated on it. GAHHHGG anyways ramble rant over.

edit ps: i will also clarify that if asta were to be written out to be nd i would be just as pleased if not more pleased. im just not liking how this is going so far. tomato tomato tomato

[starshine-selfships]

YOURE ALSO SHIPPING WITH AN ANGEL NAMED GABRIEL!?? TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT!!!! 🩷🩷🩷

GOD GOD YES!! Also fun fact I lowkey knew you specifically would see those tags and got excited to see if you would say anything hfjgrgj

Here's the guy of the hour, the week, the YEAR

(The art with the oranges is my own lmao)

I got the game he's from as a gift for Christmas from a friend who really likes it (and I was like yeah!! I wanna play the game too!!) so everything I'm saying has a grand total of a month and a half behind it, and I feel like the short time duration is important to highlight the insanity here kdjffk

ALRIGHT SO spoilers for the entirety of ultra.kill as a game bc he's integral to the overall plot, but some background before Gabby, the game is centered around a robot (controlled by the player) descending down through 9 layers of hell a la dante's inferno style, bc this particular machine is blood powered and mankind has been completely wiped out (partially by war, partially by something that hasn't been made 100% clear yet), so you're just going around slaughtering everything in sight, with the chunkiest graphics known to man along the way.

Gabe's role here is to step in and try to stop you bc you're basically a walking abomination to all that is holy, Gabe is the angel that sends people to hell and is also the one chosen to carry out the will of god so he's also done a lot of killing to do that; he loses to the machine, gets so mad he curses at you (calls you an insignificant fuck) and then leaves, but we see a little behind the scenes, where we learn he's never lost a fight like this and the rest of the angels call it heresy; they sever his connection with divinity and tell him he has 24 hours to fix everything or he'll die. So naturally, next fight he's pissed as hell, and starts out MAD, yelling and threatening, but as it goes on, he starts having fun and laughing and taunting, and when he loses again, he says he feels relieved and needs time to think. He starts introspecting and starts questioning everything he's been told after he realizes he wasn't feeling hatred, but a sort of passion in the challenge of the fights. He starts asking himself if the angels he followed were actually in the right, and ends up killing them all, accepting that he's going to die but that he'll die not only having been freed from the constraints placed on him, but also having freed heaven itself from the angels that basically held it hostage with their power.

He's also as close to trans as you can get without explicitly calling him such! The devs discussed angels and pronouns in a recent stream and said they wanted angels to have no pronouns if possible, but then realized that they needed to gender Gabe when another character wrote a diary entry about him, so they settled on pronouns as a mark of angel status, which means that he didn't originally use he/him, but picked it up later and continued to use it no matter what; the other angels called him "it" after the took his divinity, but the overall narration still uses masculine pronouns for him, so it comes with the implication that he's still exactly who he knows he is, no matter what is said about him, which. as a trans man. good lord fhsjg the trauma of his arc hits very close to home for me and that was part of what propelled him into the spot he has on this blog.

The other thing that got him here was. and there really isn't any other way to say it. This man turned everyone into rabid animals, I have never seen so many people look at a character and desire him so violently, everyone wants to do unspeakable things to this man and it is so funny hdsjgks his VA will also voice pretty much anything in-character as well, so there's a lot of unhinged bullshit that makes for an absolutely incredible image of this man. He's a little uptight at first and throws a fit when things don't go his way, he seems like the exact kind of man that would be kind of silly, this man would struggle to peel an orange, throw it at a wall, and then later hang his head in his hands about it. This man would be able to speak multiple languages but would somehow mispronounce every single word as he goes. He's an astounding character and he's also kind of pathetic and something about all these factors just. lobotomized me. There is a gay little angel where part of my brain should be and I've just accepted it. I had a gay dream about him one single week after I saw him in game, the grip he has on me is UNREAL and I've fully accepted it.

He gives the very fun aspect of "is not human and has no idea what humans need or how they act", which makes him utterly hilarious to me, I wanna see this man try to preheat the oven, he is trying so hard to cook something for me and he is burning it so badly, he does NOT know what a car is and is frankly too wary of it to even consider getting in it. People also arrived at the consensus that he's probably very tall, it's been confirmed that there are no canon heights in the game, but everyone has agreed that Gabby is at least 7 feet tall and it is the funniest thing on earth to me. Very large and somewhat confused angel who means the best trying very hard in his new environment. Oh my god wait when the developers had that stream I mentioned they also talked about Gabe for a bit in regards to his personality bc in-game he saved someone from being swept away in the river styx (now an ocean after an influx of souls), and they were so grateful they added a fully functional hologram of him onto their ship, saying the lines he'd said when he'd saved them, and the devs said that they'd wanted that to be a glimpse into what Gabriel is like when he's not immediately targeting you as an enemy or fighting, and the specific words they used were "he's kind and loving" and that short-circuited my brain immediately upon impact.

He is The Guy Ever, he's basically trans and 70% of the people who drew him gave him top surgery scars even before the devs talked about gender, he's got religious trauma and guilt, he's too tall and has probably never read a book outside of the bible, he giggles and whimpers, he is considered to be one of if not the most wifeable character in the entire game, he has an official body pillow, I want to put him in pretty little outfits, I want to hold his hand and take him to the beach, I want to pin him against a wall, he is. Such A Guy,, thank you so much for asking me about him he makes me feel so insane hsgjsdl

[bluebudgie]

OST rambling time. You know how it is on this blog sometimes.

Gotta blindside you all today though and not make it about either the HoT or EoD soundtrack but about that one soundtrack that has been OBSESSING me since its game's release in 2014, and that is Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze.

This seems to be a general strength of the series (at least the games composed by David Wise) and not necessarily exclusive to DKCTF but the atmosphere of the music is out of this world.

You're playing this game about an ape collecting bananas to defeat a bunch of penguin vikings and the music does have this general upbeat bouncy vibe you'd expect from a colourful platformer but almost every single track has this gutwrenching melancholy touch to it. Sometimes more of a melancholy punch in the face tbh. That mixture is something I've barely ever encountered in any other game soundtrack, at least not executed with such perfection.

There's I think about 100 songs in the soundtrack and not a single one is bad either. I honestly don't know what else to say other than please listen to this soundtrack. In its entirety. It works perfectly as study/work background music as well. Or even better if you are able to, just play the game in general because aside from its great soundtrack it's probably also the platformer with the best level design I've ever seen. Also did I mention the game has dynamic music with variations depending on level progression... T_T

Here's a humble selection of songs to get you started, but please know that there are so many more:

Some fan favourites: Seashore War - The fan favourite. Wing Ding - Personally I love the Zipline version of that song. Amiss Abyss - That one's a tearjerker. When it hits that part. Busted Bayou - A bop.

Some of my favs: Mangrove Cove (Underwater) - My personal favourite. Don't have any words to describe the part starting at 2:09. Might just be my favourite VG song of all time idk I cried when this came on ingame and I'm not proud of it fjnek Fruity Factory - Atmospheeere. Scorch 'n' Torch - That electronic processed brass (whatever instrument?) drop between 0:58-1:00. Irate Eight (Underwater) - I think that's one of the first songs that caught my attention back then. Still one of my favs in the OST. Frozen Frenzy - My favourite level.

[swingstep]

Please drop mrd theatre au lore????

OH HOO BOY so. genuinely did not remember i never explained that au huh ksjdngd its been a hot minute since ive messed with that one, but lets see what i can dig up for it. as a disclaimer, its kind of an... abstract au, very rough around the edges as well. dont expect it to be anything too concrete WAHAHA

anyhow. tldr:   the mrd theatre au is exactly what it sounds like: the plot of the game described entirely through the lens of a theater production! alternately referred to as the dance au, because... its a musical! major events are described through dance, each piece pushing the story forward with the power of music and expression. literally-- the story won’t move on without it. starring mad rat as the lead role, rat god as the director, and heart as... That One Guy, Sure!

    the abstraction kicks in in its presentation though-- it's told through the framing of a stage-- however, the story itself is Real to the characters. their world is real, and as characters, they see it as such. to everyone else, it's exactly as its namesake: a play. the term "actor" and "character" go hand in hand, practically synonyms. actors are the characters. the narrative is their world. all in all: the theatre au is an inspection of the meaning of Reality and Perception, the meaning of what it is to be a Character or a Person, and a play on Stories and Roles. more under the cut.

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

  As it does in canon, the narrative starts with Mad Rat waking up, and Rat God telling him his situation. Y'know, he died, she's giving him a second chance, etc etc. However, she Specifically tells him that he is, in fact, a character in a play and, as someone outside of the narrative, she knows what to do and what paths to follow. As long as he followed her, he'd be able to make it to the end of his story a-ok, and finally get the ending he deserved!

  In the beginning, Rat God starts out with a whole musical number as she narrates the scene (to both the audience and Mad Rat) to catch him up to speed on where he is, who she is, and why he died. As she finishes, hands off the (metaphorical) mic to Mad Rat to get a word in for his debut scene. Unfortunately, Mad Rat, having just recovered from a terminal case of Being Dead, Does Not In Fact Have The Nicest Voice. Seeing this, Rat God quickly interrupts and redirects to another option: Dance. Which is where a major quirk comes in: every character has a specialized dance style!

  Rat gods style is tap/swing, which is what the intro scene Truly is! It's Rat God introducing Mad Rat to the concept of The Show in a duet swing performance. Specifically, in this performance, Rat God takes the lead role in this one for several reasons: 1) She's Extra and Likes Showmanship. 2) She's ensuring Mad Rat goes in the direction he's supposed to-- making sure he's following along. And 3) She's effectively re-teaching Mad Rat how to move after. Y'know. Being Dead. Swing is a heavily motion-focused and improvisational dance: Mad Rat Does Not Know How To Dance. However, Rat God is good enough at it that she can take the lead and turn his stumbles and missteps into motion and flair. It's essentially the tutorial stage!

  The narrative is pretty much the same through the first third of the game, more or less. Mad Rat meets Heart, who doesn't really Dance but rather just cheers him on, and they begin "travelling" together, with periodical "intermissions" where Rat God, off to the side of the stage presents recaps, narration, and questions-- but it's never clear if it's to the audience or Mad Rat. Maybe both. What's really important is the Framing, though. Mad Rat (kind of) acknowledges he is just a Character, but doesn't really Understand it. 

  Despite the knowledge, he still functions through the frame of a Character. He perceives the stage as The World Around Him rather than A Stage, while Rat God is the opposite. This leads to Mad Rat essentially just Following Her Lead. Which ends up just seeming... brazenly reckless and incredibly dangerous-- because Mad Rat doesn't think it will lead to anything. Obviously he's the main character, so he's probably going to just... get to his goal and whatever happens happens, right? Rat God said which way the story goes so... whatever, right?

  Which all culminates at Heart's intervention: Heart notices all of this and gets worried. Whatever this Mess about "shows" and "story" and "directors" is, Mad Rat is still being really really flippant about how many Near Death Experiences he's had (not to mention the whole "Seeing Things That Heart Doesn't" thing.) So he decides to step in.

  This is the first time we ever see Heart dance! He'd always insisted on being moral support/backup for Mad Rat, not really stepping in in any major way. Turns out, he's really good at a lot of dance styles. It's the first time we have a music genre outside of showtunes and the adjacent. It's heart basically trying to tell him that, whatever bullshit about "Narratives" he's following, Mad Rat is still Here. He's still a contributor to the world around him-- he can affect It, and it can affect him. It doesn't matter what he knows about Whatever This Is because it all wont matter if he gets himself into Real Trouble. Which is a convenient segue to the next arc-- they go off-script.

  The following arcs are pretty much just those two figuring out what to do and where they’re going. Mad Rat, up to this point, was just (kind of badly) trying to imitate the swing style from the beginning, but slowly starts figuring out his own specialty on his own. Mad Rat kind of dabbles through a lot, but is Particularly good at breakdance/krump. It’s a bit of a slow process, but he slowly forges his own place in a world he technically does not belong in. 

  All the while, Rat God is suspiciously quiet. They weren’t supposed to go that way, or do any of that, But she could improvise. She passively tried to mess with them from offstage-- changing the background scenery, tossing obstacles after them-- but they just. Kept going. Mad Rat even began Understanding the nature of The Stage and learning how to use that to his advantage, predicting the way things would move or shift, and using that knowledge to move even faster. It was only after Mimolette’s scene (which was Not supposed to be this early in the script, to Rat God’s chagrin,) that she Really started to get particularly miffed. They’d completely gone off-script, avoided Everything she sent after them-- but there was still an ending that needed to be told, and she was going to tell it no matter how messy it was to get there. Which leads to an intervention of her own.

  As the director, she had direct control over a lot of things-- but she herself could never interact with the Narrative. She had no real Hold, as it were. She was barely a concept to the characters in the narrative-- they could not really perceive her. So, she decided to break that rule-- and interact with them directly. Rat God’s scene is incredibly similar to that in canon: Incredibly Chaotic and Hard To Track. She mostly keeps to swing, as that’s her specialty, but regularly switches it up to try and throw Mad Rat off. But things are different than their first dance.

  Mad Rat has a grasp on himself and his goals. Rat God’s plan is already off its rhythm-- it was clear from the start that this was a last-ditch effort on her part to kill him. Despite her still trying to take control, Mad Rat was nothing if not stubborn. He was just as good at deflecting and navigating the scene as she was. But it’s hard to truly get rid of something like Rat God. She isn’t done until the Story was done. There was still a story to be told, so here she stayed. She could keep going as long as he could, and longer. So knowing what he did now, and understanding the circumstance, he did the only think of. The two had, to some extent, switched places: Rat God taking the stance of a Character/Participant in the scene, and Mad Rat seeing the full scope of The Stage and how it worked. The show was still going, so all he had to do was end it. 

  Tricking her into a monologue, he truly exits the frame of the narrative for the first time, grabbing one of the curtain ropes and letting it free, closing the curtains on the stage-- with Rat God behind them. And... silence. In the end, it was just the closed curtains, the audience, and Mad Rat and Heart in front of them. They saw the audience, truly, for the first time-- that larger force constantly watching over him from beyond his view, pushing the show forward not of their own actions, but of their presence alone. This is who it was all for. And seeing this, Mad Rat makes the decision... to ignore them. 

  They weren’t important anymore. The show was over-- the audience had no more use here. No more power here. They meant nothing to him. Nothing to them. He has one last talk with Heart-- they knew they weren’t alone, not truly-- but all that mattered right then was just the two of them. What they’d seen, what they’d been through-- it all had to come to an end eventually. But not by the hand of someone who had no stake in their story-- in their lives. Mad Rat gets to make his own choice about his future: And with no story left to tell... he gets up, and walks off the stage. 

   The Story Is Over.

[cantuscorvi]

[rambling, was thinking of this asshole's character and i want to smooch your brain rain;

raum is so strange. in all of your deep dive post about him i always see that one thing about him always popping up. 'he needs/craves control' 'his view of intimacy is always at arms length'

it just shows that the life he's lived and how he carries himself is so stiff. his attitude, his humour is so just for him that it's hard to view him as humane. which i doubt he'd like as a descriptor in the first place but forget that.

it just makes me wonder; what is is like to be around him when he's put down to his most base layers. i wonder if him being anything but what he's mostly known for makes people side eye him. because there's always going to be that one off putting thing about him but you can blame it on his 'i deserve the best and only the best' vibes but when he's not that;

does it just feel wrong to see?

i want to know so much about this coco bird]

[also hiiii, excuse my askbox infiltration :'3]

@sovereignxfae

Kyu I feel so flattered to receive a message from you like this. And I’m gonna do my best to give you an answer that makes sense although this is complicated as hell so forgive me, i'm holding you to your final sentence lmao

You’re right! Raum is very self-focused. He is living every day with his me!me!me! mindset, and he doesn’t care if that makes him seem like a bad person. It definitely makes him rigid in a lot of different ways. He is purposely disagreeable and uncompromising. And at the end of the day, he would probably argue that he is only doing what a lot of people wish they were able to, instead of having to please others or be pushed around. He is being true to himself — or so he believes.

Is Raum pretending? Not really. He is definitely hiding things, definitely lying, but he doesn’t create a character he can’t live up to. Does he change when nobody is around, reveal some other parts of himself? Also not really — but there is a clear change when he's in company. Raum thrives under extraordinary circumstances, and when he can draw other people’s eyes. When he is alone, facing the mundane parts of life, there is a sense of emptiness, boredom, and often loneliness. It grates on him to be kept in the cage of normality. It’s why he is always seeking out new experiences, situations, and people, to alleviate that sense of restlessness.

As for his base layers, I guess the answer is not very simple — because Raum is a classic example of someone able to believe their own self-delusion. He has made this ‘perfect’ persona, and it’s one he has stuck to for so long that it became a part of himself. In a way, it has started to feel more real, and certainly more comfortable, than anything else remaining behind it. It’s grown into less of a mask and something a bit more organic, something with hundreds of sticky threads and layers that are hard to separate from the other parts of himself.

So of course, when you begin peeling back those layers and cutting those threads, you start to discover things that don’t seem to match up. And depending on which sides of Raum you’ve experienced so far, it can definitely start to feel strange, or like you’re seeing something you’re not supposed to when these things happen. It can be scary to see him go from someone stoic to someone pretty fucking unhinged if you do/say the right things.

Just like any other person, he has fears, traumas, and things that make him upset. There are little things that make him smile or laugh. Things that drive him crazy with hatred or passion, and things that bore him to death. If you spend enough time with him, they will start to be revealed. And perhaps they will not be what you expect! He is ALWAYS hiding something. But it’s part of the fun.

If you removed ALL of his pretences, you would really find something quite unpalatable in the end. It would be such an undecipherable mess that it doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t understand himself at all — like he has never bothered to look at himself deeply. It’s someone with ugly thoughts and feelings, violent impulses, cravings for attention and adoration, someone who wants to own the things they love but not be owned in return. Someone who wants to take everything possible and twist it into what he wants. Someone pointing a knife at the throat of the world, because oh look, who left this unattended, i guess it's mine now, just like i thought.

Funnily enough ‘I deserve the best no matter what’ is one of his base layers, it’s a cornerstone of his personality. So unless something happens to him that totally rocks his core and changes his worldview, it will remain through thick and thin. Raum could be a tiny monkey living on a desert island and still believing he deserves the biggest coconut. It’s just how he is. Self-love king, or whatever.

[noctfury]

Just saw your reblog about HTTYD through environmentalist lens. What are your HTTYD takes??

Thank you for asking! Buckle up bc I have a few and I know not all of them are gonna be popular.

I'll start on my problems, chronologically in a way.

So, riders/defenders of berk is a great series that I had a blast watching. I think it added some wonderful worldbuilding to the franchise. We got fun dragons, more people in the world than just berk, and of course more of our favorite characters interacting. Really fantastic!

But! (And this really is a nit pick tbh, like my issues with Wagner based vikings and the scottish accents)

There is one episode that I think doesn't do Gobber justice.

The second episode, Viking for Hire, I think makes dear Gobber out as a bit of an idiot. Like, an oblivious idiot. Elsewhere he's characterized as skilled and the right hand man of the chief, but this episode is rather unflattering for him.

And I don't think the issue of "weapons to fight dragons aren't in demand anymore" would put the only full-time blacksmith out of work. He still makes all the prosthetics and buckets and nails and other metal crafts. Stuff still breaks and need repars, at this point dragons are still responsible for more property damage than the twins.

It's basically the weakest episode for ne.

Ok so, Race to the Edge! Started out great, I was hooked fully fir the first two seasons. I was put off a bit when they started reusing bits of existing dragons in the designs, bit that's really just another nit pick bc the series was sort of known for its fantastic and original dragon designs.

And then we got the fuckin shadow wing and singetails.

These are just awful frankly. These feel like some kind of joke.

The shadow wing is so clearly an air plame that it takes me right out of whatever is happening on screen. It doesn't look like it belongs in the world of httyd! It feels like some cartoon toy exec clawed his way out of the 80s to demand that rtte have more toy selling dragon designs. It also doesn't look like it should be able to fly at all, an offense that I have forgiven many a (much cooler looking) dragon for.

And the fucking singetails! This one also suffers from looking like a cheap toy. And re-using dragon parts. Not to mention that the thing that makes this dragon such a threat to our protagonists? It shoots more fire.

That's it, it just has more places it can shoot fire from. Silly places too, like it's armpits!

It's not faster, or smarter, or tougher, or has some other ability that other dragons lack, just... more fire!

Singetails should not have been a big issue for the riders. It made the riders look kind of stupid frankly.

Aaaaannd speaking of making the riders look stupid!

Hiccup, my boy, how could you fall for the first counter espionage trick in the book? I know third graders that wouldn't have fallen for the old 'information leak to one single person' trick. (This is also kind of on Heather ngl, all she had to do was mention the plan to another dragon hunter and Viggo wouldn't be able to know who the leak was smh)

The final couple of seasons I think don't really do hiccup justice. It feels like, in order to make Viggo seem like some sort of excellent strategist, they chose to have hiccup make some dumb choices instead of actually trying to make Viggo clever. (This will come back to shoot the writing time in the foot in the second movie)

And the king of dragons resolution, while fun in theory, uh, resolved in a way that doesn't make much sense? (What are we supposed to conclude happened to that egg? Like yeah Valka took it. But does that mean that the beweilderbeast from the second movie is from that egg? making it only like 3 years old which makes zero sense bc that thing was implied to have been around a lot longer than that. Or was it supposed to be drago's? Which also makes no sense bc last we saw it Valka had it. And again, only about 3 years between the end of rtte and httyd2. Or do they just have the egg somewhere and it never came up again???)

I wasn't really happy with how this show ended.

On to my issues with the second movie!

First half of this movie is golden and perfect, you can't change my mind. The second half however...

My issue starts with mind-controlled Toothless and Stoic's death. Bc that's where things in this franchise really start to lose the themes for me.

I don't have a problem, really, with the idea that Toothless gets mind-controlled and kills Stoic before coming out of it thank to Hiccup. No, the problem is that it's inconsistent. Hiccups efforts didn't work the first time, but doing the same thing the second time did? Make it make sense. It doesn't, and not only that! But it also makes Stoics death feel cheap, pointless, tragic, and avoidable. He clearly didn't need to jump in, Hiccup could after all clearly talk Toothless down, so doing so only caused more death than standing back would have.

I also don't think Hiccup should have been Chief. Not that he isn't a good leader. The whole series Hiccup has been chaffing under the idea that he'd have to fill that role, and none of his objections or concerns were really addressed. He kind of activly hates the responibilities and limitations of the position. In fact! While actively avoiding the expectations he's improved things for vikings and dragons! And, if you'll recall my issues with rtte and Hiccup, when they had him trying to look after the welfare of people, he failed more than ever had since before the first movie. Hiccup is not built for hard choices, he's built for optimism.

Astrid should have taken up the role of Viking Chief. She has demonstrated an aptitude and desire to lead vikings. Astrid has a wonderfully strong sense of duty and is a pretty great problem solver to boot. Even when she makes mistakes, she is resolved to them and quickly focuses on how to move forward. She's also Hiccups love interest and it's a foregone conclusion she'd be added to the family so Hiccups family would still be in charge, as if that mattered.

Hiccup would be the chiefs husband, master of dragons, and Berks ambassador. I think those titles suit him much better than Chief.

...

Also like, where were berks allies from rtte during all of this??? (I get the rtte was made after this movie, I understand the doyist reason for them not being here I promise. It bugs me nonetheless)

And finally, let's dig into the mess that is the third movie.

Right of the bat? I really dislike the Lightfury. It's not her fault her design is a horrible decision, I would honestly love her if my standards for dragon designs weren't so damn high for this series. But she doesn't fit here and frankly I'm annoyed by the heteronormitivity of it all. She's also like the 3rd dragon with invisibility and hers is less effective than the other two despite all her hype.

The plot of this movie is also dumb. Grimmel is not a more intimidating villain than Drago, why are you running and not fighting? (And again, what about the beserkers and defenders of the wing and the wing maidens? This movie does not have the excuse the last movie had for not at least mentioning them.)

Also I was right hiccup does kind of suck at being chief.

Sealing all the dragons away! And not even going with them!! Not only is this logistically improbable, (the world is big.) But its also a betrayal of the optimism and messages of the series! The environmentalist take honestly sums it up pretty well.

In conclusion: the third movie was pretty but fundamentally flawed.

Okay, now onto the fun bits that aren't me talking about problems!

Most dragons are actually omnivores, see sage fruit. (Which are totally mangoes)

Most Tidal class dragons are sea serpents, not dragons. (Only found in the sea, cannot fly)

I think the people of berk are decended from vikings who got indefinitely held up by dragons and accidentally settled where they did because of it.

I think Hiccup and Jack Frost should kiss

Rescue riders and Nine Realms don't exist.