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aimy-yacks · 10 months

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✿︎OC introduction✿︎

Feat : my mom the co-creator

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Meet...

Wizz Warner : My first Animaniacs OC ever

NAME : Wizz Warner

AGE : 13

GENDER : Female

SEXUALITY : Omnisexual

PRONOUNS : She/her, they/them, ze/zir

BIRTHDAY : February 29th (since they were all draw on the same day, their birthday are just random days each chose to celebrate)

DISORDERS : Autism and AHDH

PHOBIAS : Fear of silence, dark, lemons (she knows it's ridiculous and gets teased for it), claustrophobia

HOBBIES : Singing, roller-skating, baking, divination, meditation, spiritism, painting, gardering, karate, sewing and fashion designing

PERSONALITY : Sweet, joyful, talkative, hard-working, dreamy, competitive, sensitive, loyal, passionate, old-fashionned, clumsy, affectionate

~♡°•○●☆°•○●♡°•○●☆°•○●♡°•○●☆°•○●♡°•○●☆~

FUN FACTS :

- Since she is just learning how to do humour, she is spared from the pun-gun and her siblings always laugh even when her puns don't make sense

- They have real bad memory

- Ze has the ability to make objects alive like in 30s cartoons

- She uses 30s phrases, expressions and sayings

- They are the lamest at using technology

- Ze often talks about zir ghost friends in the tower and it creeps zir siblings out

- She claims to talk to bugs

- They have really weird beliefs and their siblings will glare at anyone who tells Wizz it's stupid or not real

- Ze has two accessories : glasses similar to Luna Lovegood's glasses from Harry Potter that she puts on when ze ain't messing around anymore, and a rainbow pinwheel (her only source of amusement when she was locked up)

- She is very physically affectionate and clingy

- She blushes when she lies very easily

- She is the best at finding nicknames

~♡°•○●☆°•○●♡°•○●☆°•○●♡°•○●☆°•○●♡°•○●☆~

STORY :

Wizz was a fourth Warner siblings who's draft got lost before she got finished and could jump out of the paper with her three siblings. Her drawing got lost in the chaos the siblings caused when they came to life, and Wizz was accidently locked up in the vault with every one of the Warners' cartoons. Wizz came to life minutes after the vault wad closed. Since she was never finished, she was just a bunch of messy lines sketch. Her only source of amusement was her accessory that came with her character, a rainbow pinwheel.

It was only during the reboot time that the Warners decided to go look for their old cartoons, accidzbtly discovering their lost sister they never knew they had. Due to being locked up alone in the complete dark and silence from 1929 to 2020 without being able to use her toon powers to entertain herself since she was just a draft, Wizz is not completely sane (like any of the Warners tbh) and sometimes just randomly spins on herself really fast with her pinwheel, making a whiz sound, hence why Yakko Wakko and Dot gave zir that name.

They took Wizz to the animators and asked them to properly finish her design, each one of the siblings adding their little touch to it. They also asked the team for Wizz to be included in Animaniacs like she should've been. And it worked...so much that the fans grew so fond of her character that they gor bored of the other three. Jealous, the Warners tried to get her out of the show...before they found our Wizz was just trying to copy them, because ze admired them so much and took them for zir role model for how to be a toon. Since then, the four Warners still run the show together as a complete family.

~♡°•○●☆°•○●♡°•○●☆°•○●♡°•○●☆°•○●♡°•○●☆~

BONDING :

Yakko : Wizz and Yakko have a rival relationship, although they still are a duo of leaders and are mainly the one taking the lead for the episodes. Wizz has a weird way of expressing herself and people don't always understand her, so Yakko gives her lessons to express herself more clearly. She is bad at humour so he teaches her jokes and puns, to which she will always laugh at, even when she doesn't get it. She joins him for educational songs and even wrote an updated Nations of the World song with him. The two will cook for Wakko and Dot exept she will let Yakko cook the meak and she will take care of the baking and desserts. They have late night talks / debates over anything and everything. They often have a "who's taller" competition due to her being almost the same size as him, which is why Yakko hates when she wears highs shoes that makes her taller. In the meantime Wizz hates when Yakko treats her as a younger sibling instead of a twin, even though she is younger by one year, and hates when he reminds her he is the oldest no matter what. The two are the lamest at technology and feel embarrassed their younger siblings understand it better than them.

Wakko : Being the middle siblings, Wizz and Wakko ubderstand each other a lot. Wakko teaches her how to use technology and the two often play videogames together. They even have a Minecraft world togethet, Wakko's the miner while Wizz is the builder. They also do silly faces contest together, that seem to never end. They get into physical playful fighrs together, and Wizz sometimes flicks his cap fowards to tease him. Wizz even teaches him some karate move. Wakko randomly falls asleep on her sometimes, and he and Dot will mostly go to her for hugs and such.

Dot : Dot was overjoyed to find out she was supposed to have a sister all this time. The two relate to each other a lot and are extremeky close. They make fun of their brothers and boys in general together. Dot loves to give her make-overs and hairstyles and sometimes get carried away with it, but Wizz absolutely loves it. Meanwhile, Wizz will design and sew new dresses for her, and picks out new flowers for Dot to put in her hair. They will go on shopping trips together and have "girls talks". Strangely enough, Dot is even more overprotective of Wizz than Wizz is of her despite her being youngest. But Wizz is still very protective of her and Wakko.

°•○●☆°•○●♡°•○●☆°•○●♡°•○●☆°•○●♡°•○●☆~

BONUS : The nicknames they gave Wizz and the ones she gave to them

Yakko :

- the ones he gives her : Loony, miss scarlett, shorty

- the ones she gives him : Yak, Yakster, jokester, dork, comedy central, chatterbox

Wakko :

- the ones he gives her : Wizzy, sis

- the ones she gives him : Wak, champ, Wakkiver, hazard to society, gut-head

Dot :

- the ones Dot gives her : big sis, honey, girl, girly, beautiful, queen

- the ones Wizz gives her : Dottie, grimlin, beautiful, princess, little sis

#animaniacs #animaniacs oc #my art #my oc character #my oc art #i love her so much #cutie #my happy family of toons #wizz warner

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tylerfound · 6 months

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The new introduction for my character, Tyler.

Hi, I'm Vea. I'm 26 she/they, and this is Tyler! Tyler's from a Purgatory roleplay which was built from the ground up with me, my best friend, and our other friend at the time. Various people have characters or such though, now (through the last... Two years? It's existed.) Sometimes we grow inactive, if we're in another group project. Currently, I'm alone and that's resulting in Tyler being alone and ready for a new group project! I'm excited to be here for however long, I was happy interacting with my friend (Minnie's mod!) but I'm ecstatic to interact with all the other characters now I'm here!

Name: Tyler. Not his birth name. Age: He died on his 6th birthday, so he's eternally 6 I suppose, but he's probably more matured [mentally]. Maybe around 10 [mentally]? Maybe. [but he's also existed for a couple thousand years now, so he might have wisdom. Maybe. <3 Gender: He's a mouse now, but he was a little girl when he was alive. Year: He died around 1893 [neglect, starvation] and is eternally hungry. No known effects are seen in the other Purgatory's Children; so his hunger might be psychological trauma induced, rather a typical feeling in Purgatory. [The feeling of one's cause of death.] Why does he bite people? Trauma response due to his [unknown length of] time in Hell. He never knew affection when he was mortal, and he was alone in Purgatory until he met Pride. The affection he saw in Hell wasn't what we typically refer to as affection. [He was not hurt himself. Nor did he see much first hand. He saw enough, and he saw Pride's reaction.] [Long story of why Pride wasn't being treated as one of the 7 deadly sins, and instead was a prisoner during this time.] Tyler scratches, kicks, bites, while he is hugged and squished until calmed. He's learning more to not harm others when they're upset, however.

Why does he love moss? Consume moss for [the feeling of a full stomach] hydration, when he was alive. Then the moss came, and consumed his body. The body that was all wrong, anyway. He never understood the appeal of having a body. Not until the Moss.

Moss? If you take a close look, feel his fur- Is that moss? How thick is the moss? How deep does the moss go? Is it all moss? Moss? Moss? Moss. Any mod questions, address Vea. (: Thank you! Oh, more about Tyler's FAMILY! Here's a link to Millie's blog, it might help explain a little. At least, it has all of the [family members that have blogs] Family, to make it easy! A lot of pages are WIP currently, and I know it might LOOK like it'll be that way forever, but now that I'm here, they'll totally come back and update them! (... Right?) (<3) (Yeah they will lol) The only person I think is worth mentioning that isn't on Millie's page is the Wisp, a Void Demon. This void demon, recently named Labree, is the Creator of Tyler's universe. Labree is sort of like God and the Devil's creator (parent? god?) Labree has a NEW rp page! I don't believe it's been active yet- Labree is separated from it's mindless self, so it is now it's own entity. It has friends; but I know it's page looks daunting because the mod only just made it's new page, after leaving our last group. So Tyler and Labree are both refugee's currently. However, Labree has the power to (do whatever it wants, create, destroy, timelines, people, universes.) But, we've only done this as Mods. Agreeing to change something in an rp (removing people who leave the group without an outro, tying up loose ends, destroying things we've decided to veto or what not. It's basically a personification of us as Mods into a character. ) So I would suggest if you are going to interact in character, don't antagonize it, but I think Labree might have plans. I felt like mentioning it because I LOVE Labree! So cute! Baby! New to life, first hand! <3 <3 <3 And if anyone ever want's to have fun and needs the Wisp's powers, you know where the Wisp is! We extend it's power everywhere! (With Communication and consent bc It's a last resort, as mods we can just rp however we want. Lol. What I mean to say is the Wisp is not there to abuse it's power and hurt anyone, it will only ever act if all parties are consenting to whatever it is we plan.) I feel silly mentioning Labree. Teehee. ... I'll be honest I'm not sure this is all making sense <3 Okay! ... Anything to add... Anything to add... Not really I don't think anyone would read SO much. 😰 I have something important to say, but I keep blanking... I just KNOW I'm gonna post and remember it! Ugh! Also if you find my main congrats! It's my public page. I have a personal page, too! It's the same as my discord. No one knows my discord. Yet. 👀👀👀👀 (Please love me) (LOL) Oh here's a Song that - GOSH REALLY- I LOVE THIS SONG OK? OKAY SO- Totally Tyler's unofficial voice claim!!! It kinda looks like him too. Look at that THING. Gosh it's so cute! Baby! Baby baby! But it's also Tyler's song. </3 He grew up in a time where it was common to not survive childhood, and he just wants attention! So much! because he never got it. He's finally living his party. Tyler’s pronoun page! Tyler is a ESFP personality type. Lil babey. <3

#no. tyler is NOT a lost soul possessing moss and branches as a body #where would you get that idea #his body is real #realmoss #intro!#help this is too long #no ones gonna read #im sorry #im scared #I'm a little scary cat I've not had to do something like an introduction before EVER?#any questions I'll answer #omg omg hi #roleplay #terrible explanations are terrible <3

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soleminisanction · 1 year

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You seem like youre frustrated with her character the same way I get with her too.

I think see the potential of the character she could be and should be with the correct writing and stories.

I really didnt like her Batgirl run either. There are bits and parts of it I do like and concepts of things there I love but I really dont care for it.

I also wish she wasnt used as a marketing tactic during "run" as Robin. If they were actually serious about it, they wouldve written her run differently and hopefully better.

Thats also the problem with all comic book characters, they have so many different writers with different ideas of what to do with these characters. Unfortunately some of them dont like the characters they write for. I know that Dan Didio hates Steph and never wrote her well because of that. (He also hated Dick Grayson and wanted to kill him off too)

Characters like Steph really are up to interpretation how they are supposes to be personality wise. Recently i havent been liking how shes been written for certain comics (Batgirls, Wayne Family Adventures)

You and I similar to seeing a character we want to be better. I see that she has all this potential to be a great character and love her despite all the garbage writing shes had over her 30+ years of existence

The lack of good stories is a part of it, yeah.

It's also the fact that, while she's hanging around not telling any stories of her own, her ability to do so often comes at the expense of other characters. Like a few months back, they randomly shoved her into a Titans line-up when she's never been a Titan, not once in her entire career, while the actual Batgirl who joined the Titans, Betty/Bette Kane, was nowhere to be seen. And she's part of what ruined YJ 2019, getting forced in awkwardly purely because a bunch of her stans spent months harassing the creators on Twitter, spewing racist epitaphs at the new black characters and demanding that she be included in a team she wasn't solicited for and, again, had never been a part of, purely because Tim was there and they decided he wasn't allowed to have a life without her.

And speaking of that last bit, don't even get me started on the Tim Drake Pride Special again or we'll be here all day. It is genuinely offensive how many people demanded that Tim's coming out be oriented entirely around the feelings of his straight ex-girlfriend.

That's why I can't read Batgirls, either. I can't stand the way they write the relationship between Steph and Cass, it's got no teeth, and perpetually reduces Cass to Steph's "Kato," the hyper-competent Asian sidekick who does all the actual work for an inept white person. Even the issue where they tried to make a big deal out of, "Ooo, this is a special CASS CENTRIC ADVENTURE, we're doing it COMPLETELY SILENT with NO WORDS!" turned out to be all about her running around trying to find Stephanie, and then they copped out with the gimmick and made it so the only words in the book were Stephanie's, talking mostly about -- surprise! -- herself, how great she is and how much she loves being a Batgirl.

Ugh. Spirit World can't come fast enough.

Honestly, when it comes to her run as Robin, I think the story itself could've been just fine if they'd left it as it was and just, hadn't made a big freakin' marketing deal about "OoOoOooOooOoo, the GIRL WONDER, how SPECIAL!!!" They didn't do that with Carrie. Or Tris Plover. Hell, at the time a few people pointed out how silly it was for them to make such a big deal out of her being a girl when Carrie Kelly is the most well known alt-Robin period and the co-star of one of the defining texts of the age.

But, y'know, Carrie was a short-haired butch tomboy with thick glasses who fought with a sling-shot, while Steph is the single most gender-conforming Bat-femme since Betty Kane and is consistently drawn to show off her child-bearing hips so. Yeah.

The part that honestly needs fixing is War Games, which I honestly think is still something that Steph needed to happen, because it did lead her to a moment of growth that she desperately needed (even if Chuck Dixon and Bryan Miller later ruined it.) I think you could fix that story up with just a few adjustments. But, hindsight is 20/20 and all.

I do have to caution a little against attributing malice where ignorance or incompetence is more likely, though. I've never seen any evidence that Dan Didio "hated" either Steph or Dick; rather, what he saw them as was expendable. By all accounts I've ever heard, when he was editorially mandating Dick's death in Infinite Crisis, he legitimately didn't know that Dick used to be the original Robin, he just knew that Nightwing wasn't Batman or Robin and thought that made him expendable enough to kill off for shock value. It took Geoff Johns talking him out of it at literally the last minute to get him to see sense.

(Seriously, you can tell that the page was drawn off a script where Dick got full-on murdered, and the original floppy release didn't have the hilariously awkward page they inserted into the collected editions where Dr. Mid-night promises to save him. It's kinda funny in retrospect.)

Stephanie was the same way, it wasn't that he "hated" her, he just didn't care about any character introduced after the silver age and thought that killing her off would be more ~shocking~ than letting her live and learn a lesson. Didio wasn't evil, he was just bad at his job. Your standard incompetent white guy failing up.

#dc comics asks #stephanie brown critical #long post #batgirls #robin

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kakairu-rocks · 1 year

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We are excited to introduce our next shining star for the Creator Spotlight... @could-be-anybody!

This is an activity where we reach out to one of the talented people in our community each month to find out all about them and their kakairu creations, and then show them off to the world!

We hope you enjoy learning about AkoAko & her creations as much as we did. Please give her some love ❤️

Pronouns: She/Her

Type of Creator: Writer

Where to find her:

AO3

Tumblr

Read the exciting interview below the cut, or on the forum!

If you would like a chance to be in the spotlight too, the only thing you have to do is be a member of the kakairu rocks forum, and be a creator; and we will contact you, ourselves!

1. How long have you been creating KakaIru fanworks?

Hmm. I started writing KakaIru around, 2021. So that makes it 2 years now

2. What are you working on right now?

Lol, I have so many on my WIP docs. Maybe a handful? Though, Currently I am trying to finish ‘IRUKA’ that I started writing last year.

3. What is your favourite trope to create for?

I am not quite sure, but recently I’ve been reading lots of Omegaverse mangas and reincarnations. So currently I kinda want to write a fic around those. But I can’t promise. Oh, but when I started writing KakaIru, I was very much into genderbend stories. That’s why I have lots of Kakashi-Iruka fics with Iruka as the opposite gender, or the other way around. But mostly with Iruka as a woman.

4. Which of your creations is your favourite, and why?

That’s a very hard question. Hahah. I get embarrassed by most of my fics. But I do have one. I wrote a fic called ‘Rumor’. Where a female Kakashi is trying to court a dense Iruka. I just thought it would be fun to write Kakashi as a girl, but with Iruka being too soft, kind and a gentleman. Kakashi had to take matters into her own hands. And I like how it ended. It’s also funny how Iruka was trying to stop the rumors circulating about him and Kakashi, and ended up with…welp. No spoilers. hehehe

5. Do you have any WIPs you’re excited about?

Oh, definitely. I do have. IRUKA. I know I already mentioned how there’s no Good ending. But I am still excited to finish writing the last chapter, to which I can’t promise when I will post. Had a busy month, and recently I’ve been into this online game that I used to play back in 2007.

6. Do you have any original characters? If so, tell us about them!

Honestly, I am not much for OCs. unless, they are very likable. But I prefer creating one just for the flow of the story? Like the one I created….not sure which one either. I created a few random OC’s. hahahah

7. What was your hardest piece to create, and why?

The hardest piece would be this one, ‘Wrong decisions begets…’ I wrote this fic for a gift during the ‘Springtime of Romance: Youthful Passion’. I honestly had a hard time on how I should end the story, thus why there are two endings. Hahaha. Also it might have been the first for me to write a fic with a different plot. I usually go with soft, romance, genderbend. You know the good kind, cuz they are easier to write.

8. Do you have any favorite scenes from something you’ve created?

Favorite scene. hmmmm. I do have some but the top on the list was on the fic ‘Pure’ where toddler Kakashi observes Baby Iruka, and is still a papa’s boy. Also Sakumo is there.

9. Where does your inspiration come from?

I am not sure… But maybe when I’m bored or when I am in the middle of something. mmm…But every time I watch Naruto, I always get inspired by some episodes, and decide to write one with a twist. Or when I read something amusing about KakaIru, and would plot something involving what I learned about the characters. Sometimes fan art gives me ideas too. In other words, it just sprung out at random times and I do enjoy writing. Writing, in a way, is a stress reliever for me too, and it’s enjoyable to play out my thoughts in writing.

10. Which of your creations is the most meaningful to you, and why?

I think it’s the very first fic that I wrote with KakaIru. ‘Iruka’s Hair tie’. It has a bit of memory from the past. A bittersweet one. Lol. But when an artist that I am subscribed to liked that fic. It made it more meaningful for me, and kinda boosted my happiness with writing. She also did another art based on another one of my fic, so I was even more happy.

#Creator Spotlight #kakairu.rocks #creator interview #talented creator #kakairu fanfic #kakairu #kkir #kakashi x iruka #hatake kakashi #umino iruka

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just-the-cool-page · 1 year

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Pen15

pen15 - Any introductory description will be... awkward and insufficient. It is awkward, the show, I mean. Watching it is awkward. Telling someone that you've watched it is awkward. Trying to explain why the show is worthwhile, despite the unavoidable and completely appropriate misgivings... awkward. It must be awkward no matter what age or gender you are. Every article seems to use the show's conceit as a way to avoid talking about the problems of carrying through with that conceit. I don't even know if I want to get into it, now that I've decided to talk about this show, but the two main (13 year old) characters are played by its creators, actors who are in their early 30s. Their friends are played by young teenagers, mostly from about 13-17. The difficult part is that their love interests are mostly teenagers as well. Kissing scenes are few, but significant. Viewers have probably had mixed feelings, discomfort, and worry over these scenes. Are... those women kissing... adolescents? As if they're both adolescents? Then in comes the research. The kissing scenes all used adult doubles, or the love interest was over 18. Ok, we still don't feel totally cool. And the "love scene" in the final episode? OK, adult actors. Who are very convincingly playing a thirteen year old girl and a fifteen (or sixteen?) year old boy. The sketchy age play does add to the overall, relentless feelings of "Oh no, this isn't okay."

Technically, nothing illegal happened on set, of course. Within the story, are there any crimes committed? Egging someone's house (not exactly, but you'll see. Please do see that part) might be the only crime. There are no assaults. But so much of it does feel wrong. And I can't say that feeling could have been accomplished any other way. Sure, we know, our at least say, that good art will make us uncomfortable. Great art will also comfort us. "But that's not- - what's going on with the audience isn't really the same thing as what's going on with the characters. It's different." True. Exactly. That's the "hidden" conceit. And it's one you'll find in a lot of great art, such as immersive installations. There's no way for an image or thousands of images (such as in a film) to make us feel the same complex feelings that are portrayed or captured on screen. Our feelings about something aren't the same as what's happening within that that thing, that work were being shown. But if we're pushed or drawn into parallel with it, one tension is replaced by a much more difficult one. But more effective. Possibly. Probably. Maybe, I dunno. What do you think?

No, I'm probably not covering new ground, but like being 13, we've got to sort out the very difficult things ourselves. What age is it okay to do certain things? How do I figure out how to do something I can't talk to anybody about? Are my body parts normal? Will anybody ever love any part of me for real? Now consider how many of those questions either come back again or never really go away.

"When will I be able to just run away, grow up, and not feel like this anymore?"

Aren't parts of ourselves still in middle school in some way or another? Often, this is honestly due to various levels of trauma. In 7th grade, my (only) best friend left school due to mental illness severe enough to put him into residential care. And I say "my only best friend" because I can't think of anyone I've known since then who would call me that. I didn't kiss anyone during middle school, or high school for that matter. So a part of me will probably always feel that level of alone. Middle school was decades ago. I guess, seeing best friends who are that committed to each other is bittersweet. If I spend all day with anyone now, I'll get sick to hell of them. But what if that kind of connection isn't actually impossible? This is where the more positive, and even comforting, aspects of the show come in. "Another show about friendship" wouldn't have gone far, or anywhere really, without taking us into the depths of these characters' weird, yet ordinary lives.

#pen15 #problematics in the face of undeniable artistic accomplishment

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stepphase · 1 year

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Assassin's Creed Valhalla walkthrough / Complete Guide

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Walkthrough: After a very successful episode in ancient Greece, Assassin's Creed tackles this time the Viking era. With Assassin's Creed Valhalla puts us in the shoes of one of these fierce warriors from the north. The formula does not necessarily change, and the title retains the structure of the two previous episodes. With a large open world to explore, multiple choices in the quests. And above all a whole bunch of secrets to discover. We have prepared several guides and tips that will help you progress well in the game. As well as an FAQ that will answer the most frequently asked questions about the game.

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Assassin's Creed Valhalla Walkthrough

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You will find in this part all the guides and tips of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Our complete solution of the main story as well as all our advice to complete all the side quests as easily as possible.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Walkthrough is Upside

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Here are many answers to the most frequently asked questions about Ubisoft's next game.

On what dates and on which platforms will Assassin's Creed Valhalla be released?

The game release for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia, and Xbox Series X | S on November 10, 2020, and on PlayStation 5 on November 19.

How will we benefit from Next-Gen enhancements?

The PS5 version of the game will be available for free to owners of a PS4 version. Note that if you have the disc version of the game, you will not be able to get the upgrade on a digital PS5. On Xbox consoles, the game will benefit from Smart Delivery with an improvement reaching 4K and 60 fps, just like on PS5.

Do you need to have played previous Assassin's Creed games to play Valhalla?

For several years, each episode has been more or less independent of the others. Therefore, it is quite possible to play this opus first. The only narrative link that recurs between the episodes is that of the story situated in our modern era. Which justifies the dive into the Animus and into the different historical eras. However, this aspect of the storyline has been very incidental for a few episodes and does not interfere with the overall understanding of the game's storyline.

What is the historical background of Assassin's Creed Valhalla?

The game will immerse us in the era of the Vikings, with their conquests and their longships in the ninth century around 870 AD Several characters who really existed will be present such as Alfred the Great, king of the region of Wessex in England. The game will also take place in Norway, the starting point for an epic journey through your colony in search of better living conditions.

How big will Assassin's Creed Valhalla be?

After some stammering, the creators announced that the game's map will be slightly larger than that of Odyssey, the previous installment, not least because they created a large part of England (with mainly three cities London, Winchester, and York) but also from Norway.

In addition, recent images have shown the presence of the two mystical lands of Asgard and Jotunheim, without further details regarding their extent.

What is the name of the main character of Assassin's Creed Valhalla?

The player will have the task of playing as Eivor, a hero who can be both male or female. Moreover, it will be possible to change it at any time during the game.

The character can be personalized (hair, beard, clothes, tattoos, etc.) but not his face itself. You can also let the Animus choose the gender of the character depending on the moments of the game, making the whole a bit less coherent in the end. We can also recruit a second, who will follow us in all our raids and that we can also customize.

What about the choice dialogue system?

Being an integral part of the last games of the license, the dialogues of choice will obviously be back in this new opus. With the ability to act on ongoing quests based on your answers, these choices will also allow you to start romances with other characters, pushing back the RPG components of the game even further.

Will we be able to lead longships in Assassin's Creed Valhalla?

After the ultra-important presence of boats in the previous Assassin's Creed Odyssey game, maritime navigation will be back with the possibility of navigating the legendary Viking longships, in rivers narrower and winding than the expanses of the Greek islands. Naval battles will also be back, to a lesser extent than in previous games.

What items will Eivor's arsenal be made of?

Multiple weapons will be available such as swords or axes (with the possibility of throwing them towards your enemies), but also spears or even shields or bows. It will now be possible to fight with a weapon in each hand (can be combined at will).

Unlike previous games, each piece of armor will be unique and you can improve it while you personalize it excessively.

What is the major argument in the communication of Assassin's Creed Valhalla?

Just like in Assassin's Creed III, in particular, you will be able to create and improve your colony. Eivor will be the leader and your improvements obtained will allow you to recruit various people around the world (blacksmiths, tattooists, warriors, etc.) with the possibility of customizing some.

It is important to know that the colony will be the central hub of the map, around which the regions to be explored and conquered will be decided. The buildings can be enlarged, improved and each decision taken can lead to future events. Mass fights will be back and you will be able to ally yourself with clans, in particular by organizing arranged marriages.

What happened to the eagle that accompanied us?

The help of an animal will be present again in this opus but it will not be an eagle but a black crow, more in connection with Norse mythology. In addition, the player will be even less guided in his objectives with fewer indications of places or objects indicated by the animal.

Will mythology make a comeback in this episode?

Nordic mythology will obviously be very present in this episode. We have already seen the first glimpses of the kingdoms of Asgard and Jotunheim, which will obviously be possible to visit in any way in the game. As for the mythology of the series, we still know little about it. , but everything suggests that the two mythologies will be linked.

Will the game have a multiplayer component?

No, the game will only be playable solo, Ubisoft is still cautious about incorporating such a component in an Assassin's Creed game. But by creating your second, you can share it with your friends and send it to help them in their raids in order to collect rewards for your game.

What is the lifespan of Assassin's Creed Valhalla?

In view of the previous games and the content promised to players in this new opus, we should not expect to fall below 50 hours of play if we are looking to obtain the coveted 100%.

Who composed the music for Assassin's Creed Valhalla?

The two main composers of the game are:

Jesper Kyd, who notably worked on the first Assassin's Creed. Sarah Schachner, to whom we owe the music of Assassin's Creed Origins. We also find Einar Selvik who had participated in the soundtrack of the Vikings series.

Are expansions already planned for Assassin's Creed Valhalla?

Yes, a Season pass, included in the Gold editions, includes new locations, costumes, or dedicated missions. These contents will be gradually available to fans over the months following the game's release.

The first expansion, La Colère des Druides, will be available in early 2021 and will take us to Ireland, while the second, The Siege of Paris, will plunge us, as its name suggests, right into the city of Paris, when the Vikings are trying to break through the impassable wall of the kingdom. More information in this article.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Season Pass

What are the different editions of Assassin's Creed Valhalla?

Of course, there is a standard edition of the game. And Ubisoft offers several editions of Assassin's Creed Valhalla at different prices.

Assassin's creed valhalla: Standard Edition

$ 55.10 / € 44.99 / £ 38.88 / Rs 4,012.55

Assassin's creed valhalla: Ultimate Edition

$ 110.21 / € 89.99 / £ 77.77 / Rs 8,024.32

Assassin's creed valhalla: Gold Edition

$ 91.84 / € 74.99 / £ 64.81 / Rs 6,687.56

Assassin's creed valhalla + Immortals Fenyx Rising: Valhalla Fenyx Rising Bundle

$ 79.48 / € 64.89 / £ 56.09 / Rs 5,785.98

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Walkthrough is Upside

https://youtu.be/86ytmuoZ-tY

What are the PC configurations of the game?

To see more clearly, Ubisoft has unveiled a summary table of the recommended or required configurations of the game.

assassins creed valhalla pc system requirement

What will Assassin's Creed Valhalla offer in terms of accessibility?

The game promises to give pride of place to accessibility within particular many aspects such as difficulty levels, which will be divided to configure the gameplay phases according to the player profile. Thus, it will be possible to regulate differently the intensity of the fights and the difficulty of the phases of infiltration, as is the case in a lot of games currently.

In addition, the controls will benefit from many customization options including a setting of QTE, the size of the subtitles, or a colorblind mode. All options are listed on the publisher's official website.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Walkthrough is Upside

Assassin Creed Valhalla gameplay trailer

Game name: Assassin's Creed Valhalla Publisher: Ubisoft Developer: Ubisoft Montreal and 14 other studios Genre : Action / Adventure Price: € 69.99 Supports : PC, Stadia, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, PS5 Release date: November 19 on PS5 and November 10 on other platforms PEGI 18

https://youtu.be/qloV1QSgi7g

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artemis-de-la-lune · 3 years

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excerpts from an article written by swathi s. nair, dated 28th november 2019.

tw: mentions of queerphobia, violence against lgbtqia+ in the last three excerpts.

back in 200 A.D, various temples across India had sex sculptures carved into their walls. sun temple is one such place in Konark, a city in the state of odisha. the sun temple of Konark is a holistic place with depictions of sexual acts that involve polygamy, lesbian relationships, polyandry, and more. all the fallen down sculptures and walls have been preserved in the nearby Konark Archeological Museum.

“Kamasutra, the book of love was taught to young students back in the days and this was one of the pictorial media of education for young students then.” says Suryamani Malla, tourist guide from department of tourism, who has extensively researched about the sun temple of Konark.

section 377 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) states: “unnatural offenses- whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine.”

this law was decriminalized on 6th september 2018. it was a huge step in the right direction, but for a country who has homosexual sex sculptures on the walls of the most sacred temples, this should have never been a ‘criminal offence’.

other than the Konark temple, the best preserved of all temples can be found in a small town named khajuraho in the central state of madhya pradesh. Khajuraho temples were built in the Chandela dynasty between 950 A.D and 1050 A.D. the sculptures portray homosexuality and are depicted right next to sculptures of divine beings smiling blissfully at their devotees.

apart from all this, Hinduism is a religion that has traditionally considered sex an essential part of life. that could be one of the reasons why these carvings are casually scattered between others that portray activities such as prayer and war. the fact that they are set in plain view and not tucked away in the extreme corner tells that their creators meant for them to be seen by all. “if you take Kamasutra itself, there is an entire chapter that talks about homosexuality. where they talk and clearly categorize all kinds of homosexual desires. the author talks about these desires as perfectly normal and as a possibility. he did not portray it to be a moral issue or a social/religious taboo.” says jithin shankar, who is an assistant professor of History at NSS Hindu College, Kerala.

the reason why concept like homosexuality has become subjective is because people either address it to be right or wrong. the literature available tells you that having a sexual preference tis more of a grey area, hence multiple versions of the same thing. at some point in time, homosexuality collided with religion and that is when people started questioning the ethics and morality of this subject.

religion is just a discipline which tells people what to do and what not to do. there have been multiple cults throughout history before religion came into picture in this country. there have been various cults that worship sexual organs like Linga worship or Yoni worship during the Indus Valley Civilization. this gives it a spiritual entity.

many characters in Indian mythology literature like Mahabharata and Puranas talk about characters like Mohini and Shikhandi, who can be categorized as bisexual or gender variant and this shows how normal it was back then to include characters like this to the literature. “instead of getting inspired by the character, even the fact that people had the imagination to write down a character like her, is a big step. they had the literary freedom when it came to this” says Shankar. shankar points out that during that time and age, even the European literature did not think or talk about something like this. so, for a country like India to talk about this in their literature is a huge thing and it shouldn’t be looked down upon right now.

Shikhandi is another character that can be identified as gender variant in the Indian mythology. Mahabharata is believed to written around 6th and 7th century period, around the Gupta dynasty time and it talks about a character called Shikhandi who was born a woman but changes sex and becomes a eunuch.

even though many literature like Vishnu Purana term it as a negative thing, other literature like Ardhashastra, Kamasutra and Panchatantra talk about it like a normal thing. archaeology provides hard core support when it comes to that.

“sculptures around the temples like Khajuraho, or Sun temple in Konark prove to us that whatever written in these literature was not a made-up story. it was something Indians back then believed and accepted” says Shankar. these sculptures are no western influence for our country, and neither is homosexuality. decriminalization of section 377 is a big step, but the LGBTQIA+ community still faces a lot of bullying and exclusion from the Indian society, especially from politicians and religious groups.

religion has become the biggest weapon to make people in this country feel like an outsider. people are victims of lynching, mental torture and thousands of them have been thrown out of their homes by their own families for coming out as LGBTQIA+. this is a huge step back for our community.

if Indians thousands of years ago could accept homosexuality as something natural and common, then there is no reason to react in a negative way towards the LGBTQIA+ community in India today.

source: click here

note: i have merely shared some excerpts from the article, as it is. i also have paraphrased a few lines to make the sentences shorter without changing their original meaning. the sole credit for the entire article goes, obviously, to the author.

also, here's a reminder to stop being an a*****e and stop using your religion as an excuse to hide the fact that you're just a disgustingly bigoted human being.

#not sorry it turned out this long because it's actually very informative #lgbtq representation #ancient indian architecture #ancient history #ancient indian history #history major #history stuff #history of architecture #history student #indian history #indian literature #ancient literature #khajuraho #sundial konark #khajuraho temples #sun temple odisha #homosexuality representation

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shihalyfie · 3 years

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Some fun talking about and analyzing the tri. stage play, and its relationship to Kizuna

The tri. stage play (full title: "Super Evolution Stage! Digimon Adventure tri. August 1st Adventure") is honestly quite an unusual entry in this franchise, even within Adventure standards. Nearly everything about its production is unusual -- the entire genre it's in is unexpected, the choice of time period to release something like this is unusual, and moreover, now that Kizuna’s out, a lot of people have noticed a lot of suspiciously similar themes and even language, most notably the key “we’ll always be together” line (phrased even exactly the same way in Japanese). In fact, despite ostensibly being a tri.-branded product, other than a few vague token nods to the anime series in the play itself, said stage play has very little to do with the actual anime sharing its name, so the similarity to Kizuna is even more striking in retrospect.

Perhaps another interesting thing about this play is that it’s a very good example of a standout work in the Adventure universe that didn’t have any original creator involvement (other than some minor tips from Seki). I think there’s often a tendency for people to think that in order for a sequel or spinoff to be true to the original, it has to have some member of original staff on there, especially since the Adventure (and 02) characters tend to be a bit overly complex and it helps to have the reassurance that someone who knows them is behind the wheel -- Kizuna used the presence of Seki and Yamatoya as an outright advertising point -- but this stage play’s director and writer had no experience with the franchise beforehand, not even as a fan, yet still made a very respectful product that has generally been received well by Adventure (and 02) fans and even got the original director’s approval, too. If anything, that makes it all the more impressive!

(Note that the below text spoils the story content of the play, but not Kizuna’s to any substantial degree.)

Some production background

Anime and video game stage tie-ins are fairly common -- much like this one, they tend to have very short runs and are targeted at a limited audience -- but they’re usually stereotyped as being for the otome crowd (i.e. predominantly female otaku audience), so works like this are generally associated with it. As a result, when this play was announced and released between tri. Parts 4 and 5, quite a few people were surprised, because this franchise originally came from products associated with shounen anime. In practice, this was a period where it was becoming increasingly clear that there was, in fact, a huge female audience for Digimon (especially Adventure universe), on top of the fact that (as noted by the performers in the final show) the audience for this show ended up being unusually mixed-gender, because Digimon really is universal -- but it did lead to the announcement of the play being initially received with heavy skepticism, partially because of the usual misogyny (stigma around things associated with female audiences, etc.), and partially because this was during a time where...well, saying that a very huge percentage of the fanbase, especially the Japanese side, was really pissed off at anything tri.-branded at the time is kind of an understatement. Ultimately, the play ended up very well-received with a small but dedicated following, and it’s currently referred to as “dejisute” (short for “Digimon Stage”) in Japanese fan shorthand. Bringing it up generally elicits positive critical feedback, even among those who were initially skeptical.

Some interesting things also surround the circumstances of its production as well. As some might know already, the tri. anime series and Kizuna share only one key member of staff: Kinoshita Yousuke, who was involved in tri. Parts 5 and 6, and eventually went on to become the producer for Kizuna and the upcoming 02-based movie. tri. was a work that (for some reason) had a huge number of producers on it, of which Kinoshita was only one; he seemed to have been replacing Arai Shuuhei, who left the project after Part 4. However, while Arai was formerly one of the most visible of tri.’s producers (he was the only one regularly brought up in interviews), how much degree of influence Kinoshita had with tri. is unknown, other than the fact he had no involvement in its story. Given that the decision to make Kizuna also seemed to have been made around Part 5, it seems that Kinoshita may have been brought on specifically for the purpose of observing and prepping for Kizuna, because his role on tri. seems to have been so minimal that the moment he was put in charge of Kizuna, the production philosophy ended up becoming completely different under his management. (When you think about it, tri. and Kizuna have very little in common, other than the rough premises of involving the older Adventure cast.)

The thing is, though, Part 5 isn’t actually the first tri. work Kinoshita is credited for, but this stage play is -- which is interesting to consider when taking into account the heavy amount of thematic parallels between this and Kizuna three years later, and in general the very unusual creative decision to make a stage play that suddenly popped up at exactly this time, making heavier tributes to Adventure (and even 02) than the actual anime it was branded with. Making things even more interesting was that the stage play’s director and writer, Tani Kenichi, was allegedly recruited by an unnamed producer impressed with his work (by the way, did I mention Kinoshita used to work in live-action before joining Toei?). Given all that, perhaps this stage play coming off unnervingly like a sort of Kizuna prototype isn’t all that surprising...

Unfortunately, right now we’re still kind of in a time period where official will get barraged with violently angry comments for even so much as putting the series on streaming services, so it’ll probably be a few more years (if ever) before official will be willing to be more open about what went on behind tri. production, and it’s probably a bit much to get too speculative about things like this when real people are involved. Nevertheless, one thing is apparent: the director and writer, Tani, was a newcomer to Digimon -- not even someone who’d been a fan beforehand -- but watched all of Adventure and 02 in preparation for it and stated openly that he was very, very emotionally touched by it. The work itself is obviously made with a lot of love and respect for the series, and one really cool thing about it is that you can also tell that it came from the perspective of an adult with no preconceived notions about it, therefore meaning it comes from someone analyzing the series without necessarily caving to fanbase mantras, and making some very cogent observations about the characters. It’s also just a fabulous work production-wise in general -- the puppet work and making the Digimon look convincing on stage is very well-done, especially when you consider that this play had only ten showings -- and you really gotta appreciate the fact that, even before Seki gave him a few pointers, he was so passionate about the importance of Digimon partners that he pushed for all eight to be represented despite the expenses.

Taking a look at the play itself

Despite ostensibly tying into the tri. anime series it's branded with, the play only really seems to loosely refer to some of its key elements as taking place at approximately the same time, such as Koushirou’s server, infected Digimon, setpieces like KNIFE OF DAY, and an eventual “reveal” that this seems to take place ostensibly around the rough time period of tri.’s Part 4. Look closely, however, and you’ll notice that a lot of things in the characterization and plot arena actually don’t track much with tri. at all -- for instance, in a very non-comprehensive list of things:

It’s implied that Yamato himself is embarrassed about the KNIFE OF DAY band name and is desperately trying to get through it with passion, which doesn’t quite line up with his attitude about it in the anime.

The timeline just really doesn’t line up; Mochizuki Meiko, Meicoomon, and the infections obviously exist, but you can’t have a time period in Part 4 where the kids recognize Meicoomon as being related to the distortions or infections while also being separated from Meiko. Moreover, the “reboot” just doesn’t seem to have happened at all (and to be fair, if you’re planning on making a two-hour tribute to Adventure, not having the Digimon with memories of said adventure would seriously limit the scope of your plot, so this kind of “leeway” was probably downright necessary).

The tri. anime series portrayed Takeru as having a very sharp shift in language, presumably under the implication he’s putting up a front as a flirtatious, aggressive playboy, and so his first-person pronoun was turned into the aggressive ore and his way of referring to Yamato aniki. In Adventure and 02, Takeru had used the polite boku and childish/cutesy onii-chan, and the boku was prominently used as a plot point to hint at Takeru’s identity as the series narrator. (Yes, these kinds of things are actually kind of a big deal in fiction.) Since even longtime fans generally agree that at some point Takeru would be likely to stop using onii-chan once he became old enough, the stage play likewise also prefers aniki over onii-chan, but, notably, it doesn’t even bother with ore in the slightest nor any of the implications that surround it, and Takeru comfortably uses boku for the entirety of the play. Considering that the use of aniki is still a bit unusual (both Diablomon Strikes Back and Kizuna prominently favor the slightly more polite nii-san instead), it seems that the play was made with an awareness that both aspects of Takeru’s language had changed, but a conscious decision to hold over only one from the anime.

And so on and so forth.

In general, the way you could describe this play’s handling of Adventure universe lore and characterization elements is that it’s a bit selective about which tri.-related elements it makes use of, particularly in regards to ones that might be too difficult to reconcile with the original Adventure (and 02). (This is basically the same attitude Kizuna roughly takes in regards to handling of tri. elements, although it’s less noticeable there partially because of the five-year gap between tri. and Kizuna.) Obviously, being completely incongruous with the tri. anime would be a pretty crude thing to do for a play that’s actually branded with it (and especially when said anime was still ongoing at the time, regardless of public opinion), but, regardless, the end result is that its actual relationship with the tri. anime’s version of canon is a bit tenuous.

The main reason for this is probably that, on the flip side, the stage play's references to Adventure -- as in, the specific series that aired in 1999-2000 and took place in the in-universe August 1 and 3, 1999 -- are incredibly aggressive. In fact, it’s actually far more aggressive in this respect than Kizuna is. For all Kizuna is branded as an Adventure movie and puts the original Adventure cast first and foremost in all of the advertising, if you watch the actual movie, in practice, it’s more of something that lies in the gap between Adventure and 02 and the two series together as a whole. Adventure was a series that practically revolved around a "trapped in another world" story and the specific impact its events had on the kids involved, but Kizuna focuses more on the “larger world”, including real world society (very much 02 things), with a lot of themes with suspicious pertinence to 02 and references to its epilogue looming over the plot; the specific Adventure references and even the Digital World don’t come into play until the climax. (And that’s before we get into the fact that the 02 quartet gets more screentime than a good chunk of their seniors.) Really, you can see it just by the fact that a majority of the primary key visuals line the 02 quartet up with everyone else; it’s a movie about both, not just Adventure.

So in other words, Kizuna is really about mixing Adventure and 02 elements, serving as a sort of stopgap work, and recasting the Adventure group in a lot of 02′s context. (And that’s by no means a bad thing; since Adventure wasn’t about that, the differing juxtaposition is a fresh perspective in its own way.) But in terms of revisiting what the actual series called Digimon Adventure was and how those events might have an influence on its relevant cast years later, this play (which actually has longer runtime than Kizuna, being around two hours) is a good place to go to if that’s what you’re looking for. The entire premise of the play revolves around copiously referencing that specific adventure back in 1999, and, more importantly, what impact it’s still continuing to have in this particular group’s memories, to the point where they’re starting to romanticize it and wish they could return to it forever...

Ah, right, that’s what this play has in common with Kizuna: the overall theme of unhealthy fixation on rose-colored nostalgia, and the need to move forward from it. (And, driving it home, “unhealthy fixation on the events of Adventure” as a symbol of that rose-colored nostalgia, to boot.)

The premise of the play itself is that the kids decide to hold a camping trip as tribute to the adventure in 1999, as part of a desire to "go back to those times" (and, as is eventually revealed, it’s actually part of a pocket universe their subconscious wishes had dreamed up as a desire to recreate the past, thanks to the power of the Digital World). So all of the references to Adventure are concrete and fleshed out in specific detail, ranging from everyone referencing specific events and how they impacted them (Jou very explicitly refers to his experiences in Adventure episodes 46-47 in terms of why it fuels his current desire to become a doctor) to even the most minor of references (direct reference to bananas on File Island, from Adventure episode 3).

As a brief aside, a positive side effect of centering the plot on this specific adventure is that it justifies the reason for why these eight are working together (at least prior to the endgame reveal that they’re still involved in tri.’s events); the eight of them weren’t portrayed as liable to do so without good reason, and while certain aspects and events from 02 are alluded to when they’re relevant, the absence of the actual quartet passing without note is completely justifiable because they simply were not on that adventure anyway. (They weren’t initially planned to be at the event in 02 episode 17, and knowing them, it’s likely they wouldn’t want to be at this kind of outright commemorative camping event, because they’d feel like they’d be intrusive in something they had nothing to do with.) So within the scope of the play in two hours, the narrative can be very neatly condensed to be mostly about Adventure itself.

Although this play and Kizuna both share the common theme of the existential crisis that comes with getting older and the tendency to romanticize one’s childhood, the underlying reasons are a bit different; Kizuna’s is very close to 02 in that it’s largely to do with societal pressures and expectations, especially since the question of "what you want to do with your career" is a driving motivation in it. In other words, the existential crisis comes from living up to other people’s expectations, or trying to fit into an arbitrary societal mold of an “adult” without necessarily knowing if that’s what you really want. In the case of this stage play, being set in everyone’s high school years where everyone’s relationship to “the world at large” is a bit more tenuous, the reason for the existential crisis is somewhat closer to Adventure’s: everyone’s started to think they might have been better people back then. More confident, less hesitant, more honest with their feelings. Adventure was a series about self-improvement and one’s relationship with oneself, so it’s understandable that a work meant to look back on that specific adventure will ask the question “well, did they become better people after all?” as a result.

But there’s two problems with this line of thinking: one, this is a very rose-colored evaluation of their former selves, because just because they might have been “more confident” back then doesn’t mean they didn’t have other problems going on (Hikari calls her past self out for being arguably “more honest”, but also somewhat of a dependent child), and two, being more hesitant doesn’t make one a weaker person, just one who’s dealing with a lot more problems and awareness and things to worry about because of how much the scope of their lives has increased. As Agumon says at the end, the old Taichi and the current Taichi are still the same person; it’s just that he’s dealing with more, so he’ll naturally worry about more, and taking on those extra burdens is actually his own way of “evolving”.

Particularly interesting is the position of Jou, the not-so-unsung hero of this story, who is explicitly identified as the person most clearly aware of his future dreams and proceeding without hesitation towards them, to the point of being somewhat immune to the effects of the dream world. (Somewhat, mainly because the ending establishes that he wasn’t entirely.) It's consistent in line with the fact that we actually saw, directly, the train of thought that led to his decision to become a doctor back in Adventure, and he even states it directly in this play himself: he doesn’t consider himself someone who wants to solve things through fighting, but rather someone who can prevent casualties and heal the injured if he pursues this line of study, and thus is determined to make it happen. Even from the very early points of the play, there are several hints at him being able to see a metaphorical “future” that the others cannot, and while he remains unfailingly loyal to his friends (there’s a long sequence of him constantly claiming he’ll leave them as per Koushirou’s request but constantly coming back because he just can’t bring himself to abandon them), he also is the first one to depart the camping trip to attend to a test -- that is to say, he treasures his past, but he has a strong enough dream for his future that he’s willing to move on better than the others can.

Jou’s also the one to personally advise Yamato about the difference in nuance between doing things because you feel you must, versus doing it because you yourself truly want to, a difference in nuance that also becomes very pertinent in Kizuna. Also pertinent to both works in common is the discussion of nuances between “staying trapped in one’s memories” and “violently cutting them all away” (the consequences of the latter being more extensively discussed in Kizuna), versus the ideal situation of reflecting on those memories and experiences from the past in order to productively move forward.

And in the end, rose-colored nostalgia is, indeed, rose-colored nostalgia. Because, sure, that adventure back in the day was great, and they grew a lot, but they also grew a lot because they were overcoming some very harsh, difficult troubles; omitting those parts is losing the substance. The re-invocation of the fun “camping trip” also means re-invoking all of the other things that came along with it, including all of the dangerous threats they’d faced back then. It’s a package deal, and you can’t just filter those out, because it misses the point of what you gained out of it in the first place.

In general, the character writing for this play is also very good; there are some differences between the characters here and them back in 02, but they’re all within the believable scope of positive progression within three years and general adherence to core tenets of their character (Koushirou is certainly more assertive, but emphasis continues to be placed on his deference to others, penchant for spotting details, and capability for being an organizational leader in his own sense). Also notably, this play manages to verbalize a lot of the subtleties in Adventure and 02 that the mainstream tends to gloss over (and don’t tend to get put in official profiles) but are well-known to those deeply familiar with the series. This is the kind of attention to detail usually associated with those who have been studying the series for years, so it’s refreshing to see these come out in words -- for instance, Koushirou stating outright that he was one of the closest people to Taichi for a long time (very true!), Hikari and Takeru actually commenting on each other from back in Adventure (something we never really got in 02, despite “them having known each other for a while” being part of their character arcs), and Sora explicitly admitting that she goes out of her way for others because it’s easier to work for others than it is to even think about herself.

Actually, the attention to detail in general is fantastic; other than a minor slip-up (Sora refers to having met Koushirou during the summer camp at the beginning of the play when she’d actually known him prior from the soccer club, a detail that’s very easy to miss because it’s only mentioned once in Adventure episode 16 and clarified further in the novels), a lot of things from Adventure and 02 are made use of and framed in very clever context; the choice of Etemon as the enemy for this play is well-placed for both his entertainment value and the fact that, as an enemy personally defeated by MetalGreymon in Adventure episode 20, it makes perfect sense that he would have a grudge against Taichi in particular. (It’s also explicitly mentioned that Hikari and Tailmon never met Etemon in person even once, and that Taichi never actually got to see MetalEtemon, so there’s a lot of attention paid to logistics like that.)

Also, while 02 is not really brought up within the scope of the story (and really shouldn’t be, not when this story so heavily centers around Adventure and its themes), its place in canon and its contributions to the worldbuilding are fully respected; a lot of the offhand references to family situations and background are elements that were originally introduced in 02, and many aspects of its Digital World lore are used to assist the plot premise (in particular, the idea of the Digital World being connected to something that can conjure up unconscious dreams wasn’t explicitly invoked until 02). Rather amusingly, at one point, Hikari uses the events of 02 episode 13 to tell a “scary story” to troll Mimi, and it’s interesting and rather refreshing to see the implication that Hikari’s been able to move past the incident enough to use it to troll someone else. There are also some latent epilogue references as well, with Hikari directly bringing up her goal of becoming a kindergarten teacher, Takeru making some really subtle references to wanting to be a novelist and chronicle their adventures (in true Takeru fashion, he never states it outright, but anyone familiar with the epilogue can figure it out), and Taichi alluding to an ultimate goal of humans coexisting alongside Digimon.

Finally, attention should be called to the play’s relationship writing in general. As stated before, the play does call attention to relationships between characters that often don’t get brought up by the mainstream but are somewhat more well-known to fans -- Koushirou and Taichi, Sora and Mimi, Jou and Yamato -- but even the well-known ones are treated with nuance endemic to that from Adventure and especially 02, given that Taichi and Yamato don’t actually have the stereotypical “cold rivals” atmosphere that shounen anime would usually suggest, and the two of them have an extended heart-to-heart in which Yamato actively tries to figure out what’s wrong with Taichi and treat him kindly. (Like in Adventure, the only time they break out in a fight is when Yamato gets emotionally compromised and starts worrying that Taichi isn’t doing enough for others’ welfare.) It’s also very consistent with how the two treat each other in Kizuna as well (the izakaya scene comes to mind, and has a lot of similarities to the awkward-but-ultimately-close conversation they have at night in this play).

And, of course, the centerpiece of the narrative overall: the human-partner relationship. Of course, a lot of this was probably helped by Seki lecturing Tani to not mess this part up, but it really is impressive to consider in light of the fact we’re working with a lot of puppets that have handlers clearly in plain view, so you have to have some massive suspension of disbelief to make this work. But not only are the movements well-done to make it convincing that you really are seeing these actors physically interacting with their partners on stage, the narrative also puts huge spotlights on them, making the Digimon outright be the ones to snap their partners out of their worst patterns of thinking (especially with Agumon and Taichi), and dedicating a long period of silence where literal stage spotlights are dedicated to each kid having some alone time with their partner. The intimacy is very convincing, and, truly, Tani’s insistence on making sure every single one of the main Digimon was represented in spite of the prohibitive budget paid off very well. The point is made: a Digimon partner has to be someone who knows you well and intimately and can call you out at your worst moments, and Taichi even spells it out: Agumon’s capable of seeing right through him.

Putting it next to Kizuna -- a movie dedicated entirely to examining the meaning of a partner relationship, what happens when it deteriorates, what that means for oneself, and what it takes to recover it again -- it’s perhaps unsurprising that this play ends on the same line that was used in all of Kizuna’s advertising and was central to its own plot: “We’ll always be together.”

#digimon #tri stage play #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #shihameta

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xaibaugrove · 3 years

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Addressing the Casual (and Direct) Biphobia in the Korrasami Community

So this will either get a lot of flak or fade into obscurity. I am a member of the Korrasami community who has not been here for nearly as long as the more notable members and I am not very active to say the least. But this platform gives me the ability to speak my mind and after letting this topic fester within me for as long as I’ve been in this community, I am going to speak my damn mind because this shit needs to be said.

The Backstory

I won’t bore anyone with my whole confused bisexual life story, because this isn’t about me. But just for some background here, I was a confused bisexual for my entire life until Korra and Asami basking in the light of the Spirit Portal made me see the actual light and recognize my sexuality. Which was a little crazy for me to realize that, yeah, there is a way to be attracted to men and still be attracted to women.

I saw so much of myself in Korra. She was super awkward around guys she thought were cute, she was buff, she was tough and sometimes she just blurted out all her deep seated feelings towards guys she just met and you know, I felt that. She also fell in love with her female best friend and I felt that, too. Naturally after rewatching the series as an adult, I wanted to see if there were others out there who appreciated this couple as much as I did.

The Issue

While I found a vast online community that had as much love for Korrasami as I did, I quickly found that there were a large majority of lesbian/WLW fans who didn’t have as much love for Korra and Asami’s very real attraction to Mako.

Take a look at the Korrasami AO3 tag. I’ve actually had someone tell me that no one who reads Korrasami fanfic wants to read anything featuring Korra or Asami with Mako. I’ve seen fics that have a timeline that starts with both women being toddlers growing up into adults without one single mention of them being attracted to boys or men at all, nonetheless attracted to Mako. And in the rare scenario that a relationship with Mako or any male is mentioned, then comes the frustrating storybeat that they either dated men because they were too shy/scared to approach each other (thus rendering the men as just things to do in the meantime) or worse yet, because they were CONFUSED OR CONFORMING TO SOCIAL/GENDER NORMS.

In the 3 or 4 years I’ve been part of the fandom, I’ve had actual conversations with lesbian friends who have found every way possible to wave away Korra and Asami’s attraction to Mako. Or even reacting in disgust to Makorra or Masami at every mention of it. Which is fair, if you’re a KA fan of course that’s an expected reaction to another ship involving your OTP but, to completely dismiss the importance of it...? There are those who would call those parts of the series “pointless” or “ridiculous”. It’s really disheartening to know that a lot of lesbian KA fans consider the queer rep in the series soured by the 2 seasons where they had to watch Korra and Asami, two bi women, be attracted to a man.

It was jarring to say the least, to have conversations with friends where I couldn’t bring up Korra or Asami’s relationships with Mako during discussions about their development without being shot down and having the relationships be dismissed. The reaction to Korra and Asami’s attraction to men was so strong that I even started to feel ashamed about how “frivolous” or “trivial” my own attraction to men was perceived.

Not too long ago, I saw a meme on Reddit that sent me over the edge and inspired me to write this post. The user has since deleted the post, but I remember it very vividly, only because I’ve seen some version of it many times before. The meme basically referred to how frustrated the viewer had been after being told that TLOK had great queer rep, but feeling as though they were cheated having to watch them “fuck around with guys for 2 seasons” (their words), only to be saved at the end, when Korra and Asami finally get together.

When I saw it, I was immediately fuming. Because at that point, I had seen this shit so much, it hurt more than anything else. And the pain mixed with the rage but...I think the pain still comes through in my reply to the post.

I’ve seen sooo much content and sooo many posts or comments where a user asks whether TLOK has good LGBTQ+ rep, only to have someone reply that it’s a letdown because the queer rep doesn’t happen until the finale. Another all too common discussion I’ve seen is where fans call Korra and Asam’s bisexuality into question. One example

I understand that it sucks that we didn’t get more romantic interactions between the two women during the show for external reasons outside the creators’ control. I wish there had been a kiss here, more blushes there. But the crushes on Mako were real. And their interest in each other, albeit all too short in its depiction, is also real. And that means something to me, a bisexual woman. To say the rep is a letdown is...sad. Because Korra is featured in every episode starting from the first and Asami is featured in every ep from the 4th or 5th episode. And they’re both wonderfully, beautifully bisexual. Seeing that mattered to me.

So, to anyone who is a lesbian or WLW and a Korrasami fan and you’re reading this post and feel attacked, just stop instead to examine your language within the fandom. I understand you want “pure” WLW content or whatever... but just stop making me feel ashamed for being a wlw who is also attracted to men... and please stop erasing that attraction from two of the few bisexual characters I have that are like me... I’m tired, so tired of having to defend my attraction to both sexes with people outside the LGBTQ+ community and those within it.

#don't even get me started on the other aspect of bi erasure in the community #such as...labeling Korra and Asami as lesbians....#that's a story for another post #korra #asami sato #korrasami #avatar: tlok #the legend of korra #tlok #bisexual awareness #bisexual #bi representation #wlw #bi erasure #lgbtq+#lgbtqia representation #discourse

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dmsden · 3 years

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A History Lesson - Looking back at D&D’s history

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Well, this is the 5th Monday in March, and that means I get to write about anything I want! It’s also my birth month, which means it’s my anniversary of getting into D&D (42 years!), and that has me feeling nostalgic. Coupled with a discussion I had recently with some friends, I thought it would be fun to look back at the various editions of D&D and give you all a bit of history. I’m not going to get into Gygax vs Arneson or any of that. I’m only talking about the published game itself, not its creators or its storied origins.

The original D&D (or OD&D as it’s sometimes called) came in a small box. It had three booklets inside - Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures - along with reference sheets and dice. Each was softcover and roughly the same dimensions as a DVD/BluRay case. The game was pretty rudimentary - for one thing, it assumed you already had a copy of Chainmail, D&D’s direct wargame predecessor. It also recommended you have a game called Outdoor Survival for purposes of traveling through the wilderness. It had only three classes - fighting man, magic-user, and cleric - and nothing about playing other races. It did have the insane charts that 1st edition would ultimately known for, and it was possible to play a pretty fun game of D&D with it, as its popularity would come to show.

The game expanded through similar chapbooks - Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, Gods Demigods & Heroes, Swords & Spells. With the exception of the last one, each brought new facets to the game - new classes like Thief and Monk, new spells, new threats. It was clear the game was going to need an overhaul, and it got one.

I consider this overhaul to yield the real “1st Edition”, as so much of the game didn’t exist in those original games. The game split into a “Basic” game, just called Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

The basic game was a boxed set that included a rulebook, a full adventure module, and dice...or, well, it was supposed to contain dice. The game was so popular and new in those days that demand for dice outstripped production. My copy of D&D came with a coupon for dice when they became available and a sheet of “chits” - laminated numbers meant to be put into cups (we used Dixie Cups with the name of the die written on it), shaken, and a random number pulled out without looking. It was meant to introduce new players to the game, so it was a trimmed down version. Races were human, elf, dwarf, and halfling, and classes were fighter, cleric, magic-user, and thief. The box only included rules for going up to 3rd level, with the intention that players would then graduate into AD&D. This is where I joined, with the old blue cover box set and In Search of the Unknown, before Keep on the Borderlands even existed.

AD&D was the game in its full glory. Along with the races I mention above, we got half-elves, half-orcs, and gnomes. The four basic classes also had sub-classes, like paladin and ranger for the fighter, druid for the cleric, illusionist for the wizard, and assassin for the thief. There were rules for multi-classing, as well as “Dual-classing”, a sort of multi-class variation for humans only, which, when done in the correct combination, could yield the infamous bard...which didn’t actually yield any bard abilities until around level 13 or so.

This edition had 5 different saving throws for things like “Death Magic”, “Petrification & Polymorph”, “Spells”, and so on. It had the infamous Armor Class system that started at 10 and went down, so that having a -3 AC was very good! It also had specific attack matricies for each class; you would literally look on a table to determine the number you needed to roll on a D20 based on your class, your level, and your opponent’s armor class. It was fun, but it was very complicated.

It also had some, frankly, shitty rules. There was gender disparity in terms of attributes, which my group totally ignored. Because the game designers wanted humans to be a competitive the game, and because non-humans had so many abilities and could multiclass, non-humans were severely limited in the levels they could achieve in most classes. In fact, some classes, such as monk and paladin, were restricted only to humans.

As the years went on, things got a bit muddled. It probably didn’t help that the rules in Basic D&D and AD&D didn’t perfectly line up. In D&D, the worst armor class was a 9. In AD&D, the worst armor class was a 10. All of this led to an overhaul, but not one considered a separate edition. AD&D mostly got new covers and new books, like the Wilderness Survival Guide and Dungeon Survival Guide, Monster Manual 2, and the Manual of the Planes. It got a number of new settings, too. In addition to the default Greyhawk setting, we got the Forgotten Realms setting for the first time, details of which had been appearing in Dragon Magazine for years, thanks to the prolific Ed Greenwood. We also, eventually, got the whole Dragonlance saga, which yielded the setting of Krynn.

In this new version, Basic D&D broke off into its own game system to some degree. Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling started being treated like classes rather than races, with specific abilities at different levels. Higher level characters could be created using progressive boxes - Expert, Companion, Master, and Immortal, each with its own boxed set and supported by Mystara, a completely different setting that got its own updates over the years. It was odd, because D&D essentially was competing for players with AD&D, and I remember arguments with friends over which version was better (I was firmly in the AD&D camp.)

In 1989, when I was in college, they finally brought forth 2nd edition D&D. This streamlined things a little. Armor Class still went down, but now attack rolls boiled into a single number called To Hit Armor Class 0, or THAC0. It made the whole process of figuring out what you needed to roll a bit less cumbersome, but it was still a bit awkward. The classes got a lot of overhaul, including making Bard its own core class. But what I remember best about 2nd edition was the boom in settings. This was the age of settings, and many beloved ones got started, including Dark Sun, Planescape, Ravenloft, and Spelljammer.

It was also the age of the “Complete Handbooks”. They brought out splatbooks about every class and race in the game, as well as books expanding several concepts for the DM, such as the Arms & Equipment Guide, the Castle Guide, and the Complete Book of Villains. There were also splatbooks about running D&D in historic periods, such as Ancient Rome, among the ancient Celts, or during the time of the Musketeers. The game got new covers for the rule books again, and a bunch of books about options started coming out. It was a boom time for books, but many people complained there was too much.

Without going too deep, TSR ended up in severe financial troubles. They declared bankruptcy, and there was real fear of the game going away. And then Wizards of the Coast (WotC) stepped in. They helped TSR get back onto its feet, and they helped produce some modules specifically engineered to help DM’s bring an end to their campaign...possibly even their whole campaign world...because something big was coming.

That something big was, of course, 3rd edition D&D. The game got majorly streamlined, and many sacred cows ended up as hamburger. AC finally started going up instead of down. Everything was refined to the “D20″ system we’ve been playing ever since. Races could be any class. There were no level or stat limits for anyone. After years of the game being forced into tight little boxes, it really felt like we could breathe. I had stopped playing D&D, but 3rd edition brought me back into the fold. I often say that 3E was made for the players who’d felt constricted and wanted more flexibility.

The trouble with 3E, and its successor 3.5, is that it was still a dense and difficult game for newcomers to get into. It’s been acknowledged that D&D essentially created many of the systems we see and know in other games - experience points, leveling up, hit points, etc. But trying to break into the experience for the first time was difficult. The look of 3E was gorgeous, but I understood that it must seem awfully daunting to someone who’d never played.

4E and its follow-up, Essentials, was an attempt to course correct that. They tried to make this edition incredibly friendly to new DMs, and, frankly, they succeeded. By creating player classes and monsters and magic-items that were all very plug and play, they did a great job of creating a game that someone who had never DMed before could dive into with no experience or mentor and start a game pretty easily. Encounter design was given a lot of ease, and there were promises of a robust online tool system that would help out with many of the more tedious aspects of playing.

There was also a lot of shake up in terms of choices. Suddenly, new classes and races were proliferating like crazy. We got the dragonborn, the tiefling, and the eladrin right in the core book, but we said good-bye to the gnome and half-orc at first. Suddenly the warlock was the new class everyone wanted to try. We got paragon paths and epic destinies that would really shape a character as time went on. The game went very tactical, as well, which some of us loved. The concept of rituals came into the game. Later books like the Player’s Handbook 2 and 3 gave us back gnomes and half-orcs, and also gave us minotaurs, wilden, shardminds, and githzerai. We got new psionic classes, brand new class concepts like the Runeknight and the Seeker...

But there was a tremendous backlash. People felt that, in making the game so very plug and play, they’d taken a ton of choice away from the players. Without the tools (which were never that robust, frankly), it was almost impossible to navigate the massive panoply of options. And, worse, it was harder and harder to develop encounters without those tools. People complained that the game had gone more tactical in order to sell miniatures and battlemats. Given that I have never played the game without miniatures and battlemats (since I started in the days when D&D was still half-wargame), I found this odd, but I also understand my style of play isn’t everyone’s.

The one argument I will never understand is that it didn’t “feel” like D&D, or it was somehow ONLY a tactical game and not a role-playing game any more. Again, given that the original game didn’t even call itself a role-playing game, this felt odd. Personally, I roleplay no matter what game I’m playing. If I’m playing Monopoly, I’m roleplaying, doing voices, and pretending to be something I’m not. I honestly enjoyed 4E, and I know a lot of folks who did, too. A lot of it may simply come down to style of play. But I also enjoyed all the games that came before, including Pathfinder. To paraphrase the YouTube content creator The Dungeon Bastard, “Does your game have dungeons? Does it have dragons? Great. I wanna play.”

As a sidenote, in the months leading up to 4E’s release, a lot of internet videos were released by WotC emphasizing the nature of change and talking about differences in the rules. They also released some preview books showing the direction they were heading. WotC must have anticipated that people were going to find this edition very different indeed. They also cleverly brought in some very funny folks - Scott Kurtz from PVPOnline and Jerry Holkins & Mike Krahulik from Penny Arcade - and got them to play D&D for podcasting purposes. Looking back, this must’ve brought in a lot of listeners who might never have played D&D and given them a reason to try it out.

After its release, WotC clearly noted that missteps had been made, as this edition of the game was losing them players. They began work on what they referred to as D&D Next, and, this time, they did massive amounts of playtesting, some of which I participated in.

I don’t feel like I have to describe 5E to any of you, Dear Readers, as you could go to virtually any store and pick it up. I am a big fan of 5E’s simplicity and elegance, and I suspect this is the edition of D&D we’re going to have for some time to come, especially given its popularity. Given the effect of podcasts like Critical Role (and I might save an article on Critical Role’s importance to D&D until my next Freestyle article), D&D is likely more popular now than it’s ever been, with a much wider and more diverse audience than ever before.

I know I’m painting with broad strokes here, but I hope this was, at least, entertaining, and maybe you learned something, Gentle Readers. Until we next meet, may all your 20s be natural.

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smash-chu · 3 years

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Updated the iceberg with some suggestions + more stuff i came across during research~ Might be doing a video to go along with it, cause it'd be fun (i have been capturing footage, so it'll likely end up happening :3 )

Explanations for each thing can be found below:

-Level 1-

The TV show - Some people’s first exposure to the franchise was the TV show, made to go alongside the games as a sort of advertisement. It was made by 4Kids and had a total of 2 seasons, starring the 4 main characters: Hudson Horstachio, Franklin Fizzlybear, Paulie Pretztail and Fergy Fudgehog.

Rare games easter eggs - There are plenty of easter eggs to other Rare games throughout Viva Piñata, the easiest ones to note are the broken arcade cabinets found in the first game as well as the various nods to Banjo Kazooie - such as the Bird and Bear statue, Mumbo statue, Breegull backpack and Bottle’s Glasses.

Stardos is Dastardos - The game never tells you this directly, but it’s an easy and obvious conclusion to make.

Twingersnaps and Fourheads - Without using a guide or looking it up you may actually be baffled on how to acquire these piñatas in game. There is no obvious hint in game to tell you to hit the Syrupent egg before it hatches on the third bounce, which means you either have to figure it out through experimentation or by looking it up.

Leafos False Rumors - Leafos is meant to give you good advice to help you out while you play the game if you talk to her, however not all information she gives is true. Some rumors include putting a Badgesicle in water will turn it into a Sweetooth, feeding a Doenut to a Pretztail turns it into a Mallowolf and so on. None of these actually work.

Piñatas aren’t permanently broken - When a piñata is broken it is magically repaired, at least when on Piñata island, reforming at the edge of a garden when broken at one. It is stated that piñatas are repaired after having been sent to parties, which would potentially mean that piñatas only magically repair themselves when on the island.

-Level 2-

The PC Port - Not very well advertised, there was a PC port released for the first Viva Piñata game. There are a couple of differences between the port and the original Xbox 360 release, which are touched upon later.

Piñatas are genderless - Technically no piñata is given a gender in game, all piñatas function the same. While in the show gendered piñatas are present it could potentially be that piñatas are naturally genderless and then if they are sapient can choose genders which fit their identity.

Burger king toys - A bundle of burger king exclusive plastic toys of piñatas were made and sold alongside the children's meals, some of the piñatas were Elephanilla, Sparrowmint, Goobaa and so forth. These toys are nowadays rare and sought after by people who collect the very small amount of official Viva Piñata merch that exists.

Wildcards - Wildcard piñatas are unique piñatas that have a feature which makes it stand out next to others of its species. There are a total of 3 variants of wildcards per piñata, some being exclusively gained through trading piñatas online. In the original game wildcards were extremely rare and there was only one variant, while they were made easier to acquire in TiP.

Both the games and show are canon - Just what it says, according to the creators both the games and show are canon to Viva Piñata lore. This makes for some strange implications, but that's for later.

TiP Fence Glitch / Exploit - A sort of well known glitch often used while playing Viva Piñata Trouble in Paradise. Fences normally do not stop Ruffians and Professor Pester from entering your garden, as they simply destroy them when they’re in the way. However, if arranged in a specific pattern in the area next to the volcano they enter from, the fence will make them permanently stuck. They will be stopped at the very edge of the garden at the fence, unable to properly enter or do anything. This can occur unintentionally as well in both the original game and TiP, as sometimes Ruffians and Professor Pester get stuck on seemingly random things and become unable to do anything.

Domesticated piñatas becoming un-domesticated - A strange difference between the original game and TiP is the fact that you can no longer buy domesticated piñatas from the Paper Pet’s store. Instead of being purchased they simply appear in the wild like any other wild piñata, whether this implies that these piñatas are no longer considered domesticated or is just a game design choice is unclear.

Jardinero and his family - In game a big part of the npc cast are Jardinero and his children, Leafos, Seedos, Storkos and Dastardos. They all play important roles in terms of the game mechanics, but also have their own stories which can be read about in the journal. The journal also mentions the character Mother, which is Jardineros wife and mother of their children. She is a seafaring adventurer that occasionally came to visit Piñata Island to see her husband and kids.

-Level 3-

Dastardos ghost theory - Because of Dastardos more ghostly abilities, such as floating around, being able to go through objects and not being recognized by his family, it is theorized he may either be undead or a ghost. The entry for the Dastardos shovelhead also implies this, calling him “untouchable” and only thanks to lining up to his frequency can the shovel hit him. This theory kind of makes the fact that Professor Pester being responsible for this even more messed up.

Extended / full version of Horstachio commercial - One of the more famous pieces of commercials to advertise the first game was the one featuring Hudson Horstachio, about to be broken by a couple of kids, that he offers a bunch of outlandish things to to convince them to let him down. There are apparently some different versions of the commercial which feature different things being offered, with a full uncut version that has all the offers in it.

Piñata cards - In Viva Piñata Trouble in Paradise there is a function which is called Piñata Vision, which utilizes the Xbox Live Vision camera. By scanning the card you can get the piñata or item displayed on the card, some of these cards feature the developers in the form of a piñata and characters from other games.

Language Dubs - The PC port of the original game has a lot of language dubs, translated into languages such as Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, Chinese and more. Some of these do not extend to the UI oddly enough, while for the majority of translations all of the game’s features are translated accordingly, with the exception of piñata names. The language chosen is determined by the language set for the computer, so if you want the game in a specific language you’d need to change the language of the computer before installing it.

PC port graphical downgrades - Oddly enough the PC port has some graphical differences compared to the original Xbox 360 release. Mostly the graphics being downgraded, even on the highest settings, such as the lighting and texture resolution on objects and the environment.

Miss Petula’s neglectful parents - The npc that runs the Paper Pet’s store is Miss Petula, who often lets the player know she’s not very enthusiastic about her job. Mostly because her parents have left the store in her care, and don’t seem to communicate with their daughter much aside from grounding her, as she mentions it in her dialogue. In one of her dialogue lines when the player leaves the shop she ponders running away from home.

Accessories graphical glitches - Some accessories have graphical glitches associated with them, such as missing pieces or being misaligned on the model during certain animations. Examples of this is the ribbon being missing when a Ponocky wears a tail ribbon (in the PC version), or goggles on Chippopotamus not moving properly when their mouth is opened.

Some piñatas are sapient, others not - Because of the fact that both the show and games are canon makes some things kind of weird. Though even if the show wasn’t canon this would still be a thing - as thanks to the existence of Langston and some of the show characters appearing in the DS game. Most piñatas in the games act like animals and cannot speak, however in the show and with Langston they are very much as sapient as a human. What causes a piñata of the same species to be sapient or not? Why does no character in the game acknowledge this strange difference? We don’t know.

Magic is real - In the Viva Piñata universe, at least on Piñata Island, magic exists. Seen in the form of Leafos and Jardinero summoning items, Bart transforming items into other things, Seedos and other characters teleporting and both Dastardos and Storkos being able to fly. There are other examples of magic, nobody really explains why magic exists or to what extent it is used or capable of being, but simply something that is commonplace on Piñata Island. If magic exists in other places is unknown.

The DS game - Known as Viva Piñata Pocket Paradise, the DS game came out after both the original game and TiP. It features a mix of piñatas from both the other games, however not all of them, because of the limitations of being on the DS. It is pretty much just another Viva Piñata game where you tend to a garden, now using the touchscreen to use your tools and so on.

How the fuck does the family not recognize Dastardos as Stardos - A strange phenomenon considering at least Jardinero considers Dastardos familiar and so does Leafos to an extent (he is in the "family members" part of the journal after all), but apparently none of the other family members have been able to figure out that Dastardos is in fact Stardos. Whether this is them just being very oblivious or not it’s still sad that they can’t even recognize their own family member after being corrupted. This is also even more strange considering Dastardos lives literally across the garden from his family, how have they not been able to tell by now? Though, if the ghost theory is considered, maybe it’s understandable why they have such a hard time recognizing him.

-Level 4-

Langston taking over the position of authority in piñata central from Jeffe - Apparently Jeffe used to be in charge of the piñata central and was later kicked off his position and replaced by Langston, this is to reflect how Jeffe was originally planned as the head of the piñata central before being replaced by Langston as influenced by the show. Why he was kicked off his position is uncertain, but theorized to be because of the fact that he turned into a piñata or half piñata from ingesting too much candy - though why this would influence him being kicked off i’m not sure. Maybe he abused the central for his own gain?

“They all wear masks, some are just more elaborate than others” - A statement from a developer when asked about the masks worn by the humanoid characters in the games, whether they’re their actual heads or some kinda mask. This was meant to clarify that all the human characters are fully human, however it still leaves some things unanswered - such as if they are masks then why can we not see Fannie Franker’s face inside the mailbox on her head? Or what does that entail for the Ruffians whose bodies are pretty much completely covered in their masks.

Squazzils name debate - A reference to how in game Leafos mentions that the name for the Squazzil was debated before you, the player, arrived at the island. Being apparently called Nonsquirrel as they were trying to figure out a name for the species. Whether this is true or not is uncertain, as Leafos does state untrue rumors sometimes.

The side characters in P-Factor - P-Factor is a minigame in TiP that is you showing off your piñata in a contest against other players or npcs. This minigame features both already existing npcs, such Leafos for example, as well as some made exclusively for the minigames. Some of these npcs include Maxime, Babochka, Nana Urf and more. They also make an appearance in the Great Piñata Paperchase minigame, however they are much more prominently presented in the P-Factor minigame.

Unknown blue flower - There is a blue flower which appears outside of the garden space as a decoration in the original game. This blue flower is not a flower which appears anywhere else, and cannot be planted in the garden either. Most of the flowers and trees found outside the garden space are plants that are available for the player, but this one flower is unique in that it isn’t part of those plants.

Leafos might be a lesbian - As it is very much implied that Leafos is the one who writes the entries for the items, objects, characters and piñatas in the journal one can glean interesting information and thoughts about Leafos. In the entry for the Pink Flutterscotch there is the sentence “A girl (that I may or may not have liked) once told me that the Pink Flutterscotch reminded her of a kiss.” Some people take this as an implication that Leafos may be a lesbian and or bi, which i personally think would be neat.

Viva Piñata Party Animals - A party game that stars the main cast of the tv show, it features a lot of different minigames and a mario kart-like racing minigame, kinda being a mix between mario party and mario kart except piñata themed. It’s very different from the other games in the series and has a lot of locations and items not featured in the other games as well.

Unused piñata concepts - There are plenty of piñatas that never made it into any of the games, as one would expect. Examples of piñatas that never appear in the game but had concepts made for them are a Giraffe, a Platypus that would’ve been acquired by breeding a Quackberry and Sweetooth together, a Hammerhead shark with a sour form and a Kangaroo. A goldfish piñata was also part of concepts, however this piñata does appear in the game - as the fish in the bowl on Miss Petulas head.

Ivor in the wishing well - In TiP Ivor Bargain is strangely missing, with the items he used to sell now being purchasable at Cost’o’lots. Ivor can however be found residing at the bottom of the wishing well object, which you can purchase after playing through the credits sequence. By donating chocolate coins you can get him to speak and throw items from the well depending on what amount you throw in. It is hinted that Lottie was the one who pushed Ivor into the well, likely because she doesn’t want competition selling items to the local gardeners.

-Level 5-

Banjo Kazooie Mountains - One of the rarer (hah) easter eggs to spot in the original game, in the distance across the swamp where Seedos lives one can see a mountain which has Banjo and Kazooie carved into the mountain. This is much easier to see in the Xbox 360 version compared to the PC port, because of the higher resolution textures.

Silent piñatas - Every piñata is voice acted, or are they? One might notice that there are two, well technically eleven, piñatas that are completely silent. The Flutterscotches and Mothdrops are fully silent, not making any noise. Why this is is uncertain, as other bug piñatas do have noises, such as the Taffly and Sweetle. It may be because normally no noise is associated with butterflies or moths in real life, or it may be because these piñatas are meant to be more akin to decorational than a “proper” piñata.

Dragonache flying away glitch - A glitch which is easily done in game, by making the dragonache engage in a fight with another piñata and using the menu to send it off from the garden. By opening the fighting view, which can be accessed to monitor the fight separate from the normal camera view, it will focus in on the two piñatas. The camera will become strange as the Dragonache flies away from the garden, letting you see out of bounds and see details otherwise obscured by things in the background around the garden. I recommend doing this after having done at least one mandatory fight beforehand, as you are forced to watch the first fight that occurs and will unable to do anything till it is finished. Thus if you do this glitch while forced to watch it you will be unable to access the rest of your garden for quite some time.

Giant Zumbug glitch - Not certain if a glitch or hack, there have been reports of a giant Zumbug in TiP which is acquired through unknown means. This giant Zumbug can be sent through the Xbox Live service, but more than that is not known.

Professor Pester is legit evil and fucked up - Even though he’s presented in the show as a bumbling idiot of a villain, he has done a lot of fucked up shit. Not only does he employ Ruffians to mess up other people’s gardens, including Jardinero’s garden, he is also the reason why sour piñatas exist. Making a sour goop which is used for creating sour candy, it is a candy which makes anyone who eats it sick and possibly corrupts them - this is evident in how he corrupted Stardos by giving him sour candy. He may have rather bland goals as a villain, simply wanting complete control of the piñata island and its piñatas, but he’s done some pretty messed up stuff to try and accomplish this goal.

Extra color variants - All piñatas, except for the Flutterscotches, have three color variants that can be acquired by feeding the piñata specific things. However, there are piñatas that have more variants than others, through being caught in the Pinartic or Dessert Desert, and then feeding those the same things. This will cause them to gain a different tint of color compared to their normal counterparts, as thanks to having a different default color because of being from a different region.

Money and Piñata duplication glitch - It is possible to duplicate money and piñatas by abusing the post office, by editing the contents of the boxes being mailed while they are shipped off. This can be used to quickly acquire master romance rewards and cut down on time spent making chocolate coins the normal way. This glitch appears to be the easiest to do in TiP, compared to the first game.

Giant and tiny seeds - You can gain a plethora of things from the mine, which includes seeds. Sometimes when the mine uncovers seeds there is a chance for the seed to either be bigger or smaller than normal, these seeds work exactly like their normal sized versions, but sell for different prices. The size difference can vary wildly, with really big seeds and incredibly tiny seeds that are hard to see.

Ivor has two mouths - Something that may be easily missed, but Ivor Bargain does as a matter of fact have two mouths. One for each “face” he has, for when he’s a beggar and a merchant, he can flip between the two by spinning his head, flipping his head up or down. This is a little freaky, and completely glanced over in game, left unexplained why he has two mouths or can flip his head upside down with no consequences.

Leafos is vegan - A very recent thing which has been observed through the rare cookbook that has been released, which features an array of rare game inspired recipes. Recipes which are vegan or vegan friendly are marked with “Leafos vegan approved”, which implies that Leafos is vegan.

Fudgehog cutscene - On certain days of the month a different cutscene will play during the opening of the first game on Xbox 360 and PC, replacing the normal Horstachio cutscene. Instead it is a Fudgehog being broken to reveal the rare logo, though there is a bug in the PC port that makes the Fudgehog cutscene not play.

Pudgeon romance dance - An oddity among the rest of the romance dances is the Pudgeon romance dance, which is the only piñata to actually wear the required accessories needed for romancing in the romance dance cutscene.

-Level 6-

Mousemallow sounds - The Mousemallow makes interesting noises, which may seem strange for a mouse, as they aren’t squeaks. They go “chu” because the developer voicing them is from Japan, where mice are vocalized as going “chu” instead of squeak.

Cut baby piñatas - Originally piñata babies were meant to look different from their adult counterparts, instead of just being smaller. However because of time constraints this was cut.

Humans can become piñatas rumor - In game this is presented in TiP with Jeffe, which is a human piñata or a half human half piñata, he states “If you eat enough candy and pull a face in the wind you'll become a piñata, I never want to see another piece of candy let alone a piñata full of it.” as part of dialogue during P-Factor. We cannot confirm whether this is actually true or not, but if Jeffe’s statement is true then it would imply that humans can turn into piñatas. This in turn creates a lot of questions, such as why does this happen? Has this happened to people outside of Piñata Island? Is this something exclusive to just the island or candy from the living piñatas? Can this happen with animals as well?

Tamed sour piñatas reverting via mail - A gameplay mechanic which is not commonly seen is the fact that tamed sour piñatas can revert back to a sour state. This occurs when you send a tamed sour piñata to a player which hasn’t unlocked the tamed version of that piñata, when the piñata is taken out of its mailed box it will be the sour version. This happens in all the main games, including Pocket Paradise as well.

Pitch black piñata variants - A once exclusive variant available through Piñata Vision cards, it turns a piñata completely black, even sour piñatas. This can be acquired without the use of cards through things like hacking or modifying the game’s files.

Piñata meat - Something mentioned in the journal and seen in the form of some piñatas attacking projectiles, eating piñatas in the form of eating their “meat” is apparently a normal thing on Piñata Island. Examples of this are the journal entries for Cluckles and Arocknids, which mention eating Cluckle legs, as well as the projectiles of Cluckles and Goobaa being chicken legs and mutton chops. It is also mentioned in in-game dialogue that Storkos eats piñata eggs if unable to deliver them, and other piñatas do consume piñata eggs. Are thus piñatas edible beyond just their candy? Or are the residents on Piñata Island cooking and eating paper mache animal parts and acting like that’s not weird?

Family mode - A mode found in the original game and TiP, which allows two people to play at the same time using two controllers. Simply done by connecting a second controller while playing the game, it’s originally meant for parents to be able to help their kids while they play without having to disturb the gameplay. This mode can be used to give yourself an edge in the early stages of the game in TiP, as the second controller will have the best tools available right away and is capable of things the first controller cannot, like filling a piñatas candiosity by performing tasks.

Dastardos and Seedos special interaction - When you’ve beaten up Seedos and gotten him on his bad side he’ll start to chuck weed seeds into your garden, and has a special interaction with Dastardos if both of them are in the garden while he is in his upset state. When Seedos has thrown a weed seed, the two of them will turn to face each other and do their laughing animation, presumably because both of them enjoy the chaos. Or maybe they have that slight family connection still? It’s rather sad though that Seedos only acknowledges his brother at all when he’s angry and upset.

-Level 7-

Viva Piñata Candy Stash - There are a few piñata games which aren’t widely known, for example this Adobe Flash tower defense game developed and published by 4Kids TV, known as Viva Piñata Candy Stash. This game features Professor Pester trying to steal the player’s candy using Ruffian robots, and to stop him the player builds towers invented by piñata characters from the tv show.

Petting piñatas - Exclusive to Pocket Paradise, you can pet your piñatas which makes them happy. Different piñatas like to be pet differently, and if petted the wrong way it won’t increase their happiness.

No 100% reward in first game - Both Viva Piñata Trouble in Paradise and Viva Piñata Pocket Paradise have a reward / reward screen for completing the game fully, by getting all the available rewards for the piñatas and plants. However, there is no proper completion reward in the original first game, there are rewards for various milestones but none for completing everything.

Piñata mascot suits - As part of promotions and promotional material there exists mascot suits of some piñatas, such as the Horstachio, Pretztail and Fudgehog. Whether these suits are kept in storage somewhere or have been thrown away we do not know.

Ruffians helping Helpers - Unless you mess with your helpers just for fun, you’re unlikely to ever see this happen. When a helper of any kind is stuck because of a fence or being surrounded by objects, they will constantly keep telling you they’re stuck. If you let them stay stuck for long enough a Ruffian will spawn in, no matter if you have a Captain’s Cutlass or not in your garden, that you cannot interact with. They will wander over to the helper and free them by destroying the object that’s in the way. Leafos will then berate you with a notification, saying “Shame on you!” for being such a jerk to your helper, and that the Ruffian and helper are running off; the helper leaving permanently.

Ruffians speaking - Ruffians normally do not speak, only making various grunts, but do have dialogue seen in Pocket Paradise.

-Honorable Mentions-

Miss Petula’s cat eyes - Miss Petula has a strange animation in game where her eyes go from having rounded pupils to having slitted, cat-like pupils. This is likely because of her cat theme, but is still strange considering she’s supposed to be a human.

Rare variant of logo cutscene - There is a version of the rare logo reveal cutscene played when opening the game, that features the rare logo itself exploding with candy. This is played in certain versions of the game, likely because of the fact that both the Fudgehog and Horstachio cutscenes feature a sort of dismemberment via them being smashed into bits which can be seen as inappropriate in certain regions.

All the shops have slot machines - A strange detail is that all the shopping menus are made out of slot machines, which might seem odd since slot machines usually have nothing to do with shops or making purchases, more so being related to gambling.

Unidentified voice actors - A lot of the voices provided for the games go unnamed in the credits, however we do know most of the piñata voices are members of the staff and developers. The missing voice actors for the npcs are listed as “Voices provided by 4Kids” with no names attached.

#viva piñata #viva pinata #vp #iceberg meme #meme #text #yeah i am planning on making a video #i normally don't make videos but considering i've watched a fair share of iceberg explanation videos n have enjoyed them i was like #why not do that too? i'm sure some people would enjoy it #also gives me an excuse to sit down n play the game some :b #unfortunately i won't be able to capture footage for TiP since i don't have a capture card #though maybe one day i'll get one so i can record n stream the game :3 #also if you see anything which is inaccurate on here lemme know! i wanna get things right #also thanks to all the peeps that gave suggestions it helped a lot n got me inspired

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