When I write about The Grim Stuff(TM) it’s pretty much never because I want whatever’s happening to be happening. It’s because I think that is what happened, based on what I know about the characters, their histories, and the worlds they live in, at least for that particular story and in that particular AU, if it’s divergent from canon.
When I wrote that deathfic about Shadow the Hedgehog right after Sonic Adventure 2 when I was, what, fourteen, it was because I thought it was likely that he really had died and I had an image of it. Up until Sonic Heroes dropped, Shadow surviving was a speculative AU. Admittedly not a very far out there speculative AU - anyone could tell Shadow was waaaay too popular for SEGA to keep him dead - but even so, dead!Shadow fics were more canon compliant at the time.
That deathfic about Lemeza Kosugi was because that actually happened to me in the game. The fic is a highly embellished account and touches on a lot more things than ‘here is a thing that happened to me playing a videogame’, but I really did fuck up during the escape sequence and time over. That’s what happened! I didn’t want it to happen but here we are!
All of the completely horrible things happening to everyone in Enlightenments are my best guess for how ICO leads on from Shadow of the Colossus. Like I don’t really want Mono to be the evil queen stealing her daughter’s bodies and murdering the horned boys to power it, and I don’t really want Wander to be under a compelling voice effect and unable to do anything material about it, but based on my interpretations of what’s going on in Colossus and ICO, the way Enlightenments shakes down both before and during the story itself is what makes sense to me. (I do want Dormin to be a little more mindful about mortal priorities and needs, so one out of three isn’t bad.)
And I’m sure there are a lot of other factors involved such as my predilection for thinking ‘this is what happened’ in the first place based on my own personality, philosophy, and history. But it’s... still what I think probably happened/would happen, so to pretend that everything is just peachy is... well, completely doable, admittedly, AUs exist, but then I’d have What Really Happened itching at the back of my brain, and having that itch to write down what happened and tell people about it is a large reason why I write in the first place.
So, no, I don’t necessarily want to see my favourite characters go through hell. I just think they did.
7 notes
·
View notes
ChristmAUs 2020 is here!
It has been a year since the previous ChristmAUs, and this year, it comes bigger than ever before! Featuring a staggering 224 characters (not counting most snowmen), this has been one of the biggest collaborative projects I’ve ever done!
However, I of course didn’t do this picture alone, so let us move into giving people their credits.
(Adding it as an addendum, do not repost the picture by itself.)
Now, the credits are arranged in “submissioner / AU” instead of the usual merely crediting the artist or AU. Here we go!
Credits below the cut.
MrDepressoKnows#7228
The main contributor to ChristmAUs, special thanks to them!
@tsunderswapofficial Mettacrit
@ut-storyshift Asriel and Webb
Overtime Engineer, Soldier, and Dispense-O-Matic
DELTARUNE’s Clover
Disbelief Papyrus
@namethefallen Papyrus
Tale’s End Papyrus
@pootstablook Monster Kid
@ut-storyspin Undyne and Alphys
@ut-scramble-saga‘s Lesser Dog, Ice Wolf, Burgerpants, Flora and Flowey
Don’t Forget’s Harlow
@hatbeemo‘s Naracat
@underrune-bat Ralsei and Kris
@dancetale‘s Papyrus
Supernova’s Bowser Jr. and Kamek
@fmsdraws
ChristmAUs 2020 Map
@ut-paper-story‘s Paper Frisk
@undertoad-au Mario, Luigi, SM64 Cereal Box penguin Snowman (Toad and pennington lifted from the comic)
@ut-poppy-askblog Poppy, Monarch Chara, Dusted Frisk, Rust, UC!Frisk
@invertedfate Frisk and Chara
@corefrisk‘s CORE!Frisk
@ut-tantamount Frisk and Asriel
@storyswap-color-au Chara and Asriel
@tsunderswapofficial Papyrus and Chara
@skulgan‘s Tuft and Jokerman
@undertale‘s Mettaton and Grillby’s
Bedlump Mod’s Bedlump
Mufeet
@shifted-schism Asriel and Chara
KH’s Swapfell Undyne
@renrink‘s Reapertale Alphys
@outertale‘s Toriel
@askcorpsey Corpsey
@ztcomic‘s Frisk
@ms1sharklee‘s Understeam Toriel
@invertedfate‘s Undyne and Alphys
@underfell Mew Mew and Undyne
@subna03
Subna’s CoffeeShopAU Frisk and Asriel
Subna’s Undertale Despair and Hopes Chiaki
DELTARUNE’s Lancer, Susie, and Noelle
@underfell‘s Asgore
Undertale: AU Showdown’s Gaster
UNDERTALE’s Gaster and Endogeny
@chisktale‘s Chisk
@xtaleunderverse‘s Xtale Frisk and Chara
DeMento
@invertedfate‘s Mettaton and Papyrus
Fazy!Underswap Eva and Temmie
@sour-apple-studios‘s Horrortale Sans
@undertale Papyrus, Frisk, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore, Toriel, Sans (the ones at the top of the house)
CoolDude
@resurrection-au Chara and Tuffet
@paulgrobe
Corrupted Justice’s Emboo and Chara
@ctsaskblog Chara
Yertendo TM
@zarla-s‘s Sixbones
Mildred
DELTARUNE Kris and Ralsei
AUversal Lockdown Mildred
thetruedimentio
@nonsensical-questions Undyne
Royal Bones Frisk and Papyrus
@superkirbylover
@universeoftheunderground‘s Steven
Comic
Undertale: Perfect TImeline’s User
Undertale: The Workers’s Enitity and Worker
SnowDog and Santa Dog
@zenjiroandpals
Crossovertale Frisk, The Kid, Iji and Lemeza
@chaos-fantazy
Union of Two Hearts Frisk
Mountaineers Madeline
@ut-scramble-saga‘s Sans
Blaze Mayes
Undertale: BnP Frisk, Asriel, Chara, and Monster Kid
@connorwing
@doubletaleau Cter and Chara
SZKraft
SZ’s Charry (Dummy Chara)
@subna03‘s IC Chara
@cycloniccircuit
@sonic-adventure-grounded‘s Frisk and Araki
Mr. Luwigi
TXC!Deltaswap Ralsei and Lancer
Iwilldieformartletdonthateherpls
@askcynthia‘s Cynthia
Undertale Yellow’s Clover
Undertale Kindred Spirits Batty
Tile
@auversallockdown‘s Tile
@rupturedtaleblog‘s Jack Penthos and I wanna die
@projectverygood Untitled
Upb4v
@funkyfable-au Sans and Papyrus
Dat Guy Nathan
PeacefulTale’s Sophia
Pixel-icon15
@alteration-official‘s Sans, Ascara, and Sarah
PineWSun
@ut-metal-and-magic Huey, Valor, and Naps
@hferkerman
The Brightest Star’s Frisk Dreemurr, Laelynn Webster, Fan Guodong
R2d2kx100
@undertale-purple-comic‘s Lucas and Cadet
MahNameJeff
Olive from Vesseltale
@shrekrek
@crystalgempapyrus‘s Papyrus and Sansbassador
PipMcGee
@ut-bowser-conquest Mautencurook and Bowser
@ut-savestars Papyrus and Terezel
JeeflyMania
Deltarune Halloween Hack’s Diomedes
Soup Taels
@truegeno‘s Misery and Josh
Koob Noob
BlobboTale’s Red, Blue, and Blobbo
@mrkyspices21
StaticOutventure’s Static and Oldie
Fate of the Fallen’s Chara
Zombietale Mikey
@dreemurr-reborn‘s Asriel
Them
TheGamersTG
@ut-au-modtale-rebooted‘s Undyne, Flowey and Chara
TheMaskedOne
Guard Papyrus
@perifrog77
Another Take’s Ezam
@skulgan
Undyne, Antastasia, Madawatt, Mettaton, Napstablook
@2xpearlymintx2
Undertale: Within Our Soul’s Ellie
@vuristwo
@dousedflames‘s Papyrus and Napstablook
@datudouu
Ladentrue’s Abigail
Nora
@ut-sudden-changes Chuckles, Whiskers, Shorty, ME-Chanicals 4108-4115
HWC
@homeworldchronicles Nora and Pumkin
Randomguyed
@ut-storyspin Asgore
@kikioviolet
A Undertale Frisk
CJ
Kirby Underground Robobot’s Kirby
Jimbo
MiiverseTale’s Cecillia, Lucky, Admin, Jimmy
Tyler Boomed
@uts-human-busting-ghosts Tom, Underhaul Mover, Prota
Unshulf
Subnifero’s Escher
Soufon
@toadspin-minus-world-au Vivan
@sujiartz
Alyssa, Papyrus, Mark
poody_blue
Undertale: The Otherground’s Sunny, Louis, Renee, Hui, and Pierre
UstaYussuf
MinorRoles’s Scientist Frisk
1K notes
·
View notes
To that one anon asking for media similar to megaten, you should check out the La-Mulana series. They’re metroidvania style games with an emphasis on puzzles that feature ruins and monsters from multiple ancient civilizations. You play as adventure archaeologist Lemeza as he travels through the ruins of La-Mulana in search of the Treasure of Life. The games have plenty of their own lore too. Just bring a pen and paper cause you will get lost and die a lot and the puzzles are tough.
A few people suggested La-Mulana (it’s still on my radar to play) and Castlevania and yes, I don’t disagree that there are similarities but I still think they significantly differ from SMT in that they both inhabit clear fantasy settings.
We complain about Tokyo being overused but it at least always serves the functions of establishing and grounding the supernatural events in a modern context. Players know that Tokyo is a concrete place and even if certain locales are abstracted geometric mazes, most intentionally aren’t, like the Shibuya crossing or Skytree or Ueno Park.
La-Mulana’s and Castlevania’s mazes, on the other hand, serve the exploration aspect key to the appeal of their genres. Yes, you can fight Tiamat in LM and Chimeras in CV, but within their ruins and castles they exist in their own vacuum of supernatural space apart from reality. This is not a negative for either, it’s just a reason why I feel SMT is still unique among them.
10 notes
·
View notes
La-Mulana 1 & 2 will launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch on March 17 in North America, March 20 in Europe, and March 27 in Oceania, publisher NIS America announced.
A “Hidden Treasures Edition” including a copy of the collection, an art book, two-disc soundtrack, jigsaw puzzle, and collector’s box is currently available for pre-order on the NIS America Online Store for $59.99.
Here is an overview of the collection, via NIS America:
About La-Mulana 1
Your destiny awaits in La-Mulana! Take control of archaeologist Lemeza Kosugi and navigate through puzzles, traps, and deadly Guardians in order to claim the Secret Treasure of Life. You’ll need sharp wits, quick reflexes, and most importantly, all the courage you can muster. Will you succeed in unraveling the secrets of La-Mulana, or will you fall victim to the dangers that surround you?
About La-Mulana 2
Renowned archaeologist Lemeza Kosugi has gone missing, and only his daughter Lumisa can find him! Enter Eg-Lana, an upside-down version of the legendary ruins of La-Mulana. Think fast, act fast, and whip hard in order to overcome dangerous traps and elaborate puzzles in your quest to uncover unfathomable secrets. What will you find at the end of your journey: triumph, or defeat?
Key Features
It Belongs in a Museum!: Two critically acclaimed, devilishly twisted puzzle platformers arrive on modern platforms and are worth their weight in gold.
You Call This Archaeology?: With your trusty whip in one hand and an arsenal of guns, shuriken, and other Sub-Weapons in the other, you’ll be able to take on dangerous foes while maneuvering through the nefarious traps of the ruins. Use items like the Ankh to call upon and challenge the ancient Guardians in order to advance.
Fortune and Glory, Kid: Solve the cryptic puzzles of Eg-Lana using ancient relics such as tablets and keys, and even modern tools like Yagoo software and the Glyph Reader. And when all else fails, push around or smash objects to crack the mysteries wide open!
Watch a new trailer below.
3 notes
·
View notes