#and i don’t think this is necessarily something mumbo is doing on purpose | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

danni-dollarsign · 3 years

Text

A Critical Look at “Pokemon: Sword and Shield” From a Casual’s Perspective...

A/N: Hey! if you’re reading this, then thank you! I don’t know why, but I thought to myself, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to write a pointless essay about a Pokemon game?” And then I realized today was the 1YR anniversary of SWSH, so I figured I might as well just do it! So even though I’m late and probably nobody will really care to read all this nonsense, I wrote it! If you’re interested in all the analyses of PKMN SWSH, but aren’t too invested in the technical mumbo-jumbo used by the more hardcore fans, then maybe you’ll enjoy this.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that I’m literally just some rando on the internet saying my opinion. None of this should really be taken SUPER seriously - it’s mainly designed to provoke thought rather than try to argue any specific idea. So if I say something that you don’t agree with, you got two options: 1) Draft a constructive comment or DM to me and we can discuss calmly like adults, 2) shake your idea and ignore this. There’s really no need to get heated up over a video game essay, of all things, so let’s not do that lol.

But other than that, yeah! If you’re interested in more stuff like this from me (in-depth analyses of Pokemon games from the perspective of a low-key casual), lemme know! I’d love to chat with anyone about this awesome series.

So, without any further ado, let’s get into the essay (warning: it’s like ~8k words).

Introduction...

Welcome to the wonderful world of Pokemon! Love it or hate it, Pokemon has had a huge impact on popular culture in countless countries in a number of different ways, sparking memes, dreams, and happiness everywhere! It holds a very special place in my heart - Pokemon was a game that I got to share with my two older siblings, was one of the first fandoms I got into, and was a big reason as to why I grew to love creative writing so much after writing a couple fanfictions for the games. I’ve been playing Pokemon ever since my brother gave me a copy of Pokemon: Ruby and have been a devoted fan ever since. While I may not be super into the strategy and damn near mathematical aspects of gameplay, I’d like to consider myself a relatively knowledgeable fan with enough extra knowledge to give a look at one of these games from a casual, yet analytical view. So what game other than the newest title, Pokemon: Sword and Shield, with its release anniversary being today? In this casual online essay, I hope to describe all my thoughts of Sword and Shield (which I’ll shorten down to just “SWSH”) from the perspective of the everyday Pokemon fan.

General Gameplay...

Many top-title games of Nintendo are best known for their simplicity: in Super Mario Bros, you’re a mustachioed red guy jumping on monsters to try and save some random princess (who may or may not be in this castle); in The Legend of Zelda, you’re a green elf-looking guy slashing wildly at monsters with a sword given to you by some old guy in hopes of defeating some ultimate bad guy; and in Pokemon, you’re a child wandering around the region catching monsters who also accidentally saves the world before becoming the very best (like no-one ever was). And while the games themselves have grown from that initial stylistic simplicity, some have lost that creative in-depthness in favor of being playable for children. This is probably the biggest issue with the newer Pokemon games as of late.

Regardless, let’s look into the playability of SWSH.

It’s played like your regular Pokemon game; you’re a kid who journeys to become the Champion of Pokemon Battling with your friend, catching monsters known as “Pokemon” with pocket-sized balls dubbed “Pokeballs.” But I’m sure you’re all aware of that information, and are instead asking “Well, what’s the deeper plot?” Yeah, no, that’s it. You’re a kid catching Pokemon to become champion - oh, and you also accidentally save the world from a power-hungry businessman - but that’s neither here nor there.

Plot aside, the game is a bit barebones. It’s pretty linear gameplay (literally linear - the map of the Galar region is almost exactly a straight-line waltz from Postwick to Wyndon, which is a bit weird after dealing with the giant, sprawling maps of earlier generations) where you travel from place to place, beating gyms and catching ‘mons, before getting into a couple scuffles and becoming champion. For an RPG-styled game, it comes off as much too simplistic for older fans (I’d even reason that it’s too simplistic for younger players, as well). While I will say, I don’t exactly miss the days of hopelessly wandering around a pixel city, trying desperately to figure out how to move on to the next town because the answer to the puzzle is hidden in this giant area that my little peanut-brain couldn’t figure out at the time. But it is a bit demeaning to get “Hey, do you know where to go?” and “Hey, follow me so you don’t get lost!” and “Oh, yeah, want another tutorial on how to easily catch Pokemon for the fourth time in a row?” every two seconds in a city where there’s only two places to check out.

But we can’t really discuss the gameplay of Pokemon without discussing the highlights of the region. Ever since the transition from 2D to 3D, Pokemon games have begun a trend of gimmicks - which I like to call “battle enhancers” - that they use to add uniqueness to their games. X&Y had Mega Evolution, Sun and Moon (and USUM) had Z-Moves, and now we have Dynamax! As we all know, battle enhancers are the strategy by which the player uses some extraterrestrial/magic stone to physically enhance one pokemon at a time for a certain period of time - in the case of Dynamax, the pokemon either grows in size or changes in form, gaining the ability to use special type-based attacks for a duration of three turns.

Honestly, I think it’s a pretty fun mechanic! Dynamax combines the good components of both Z-Moves and Mega Evolution - new forms, awesome moves, and a ticking clock. It adds a bit more strategy to the battle enhancer, where the player actually has to plan out who and when to Dynamax (though it’s really not that hard - most everyone will save it for their ace or the pokemon with the type advantage at the very end of the battle, because that’s what you do). But it’s fun and creative, making the battle a bit more exciting when you see your beloved ace become gargantuan on a field while the audience chants in excitement. Initially, I was skeptical of the battle enhancer, but once I threw myself into the game and really got into it, I felt it was fun and cool for the region. My feelings were further improved when I learned that Dynamax was inspired by the idea that the Nintendo Switch had the potential to be played on the TV as well as in a hand-held mode. The idea of turning pokemon “big” on a “big-screen” is really just so cute to me, really. Overall, it’s a fitting concept that is paired well to the game when everything is considered.

But when you look beyond the Dynamx experience to find more content in the game… there’s really not much else. Many people (including me) were ecstatic to hear about the free-roam areas in SWSH - the Wild Areas. Here, you can do all the fun grinding stuff that makes Pokemon games a bit more challenging and fun - hatching eggs, shiny-hunting, running around in circles, Dynamax dens, etc. But when looking at other Pokemon games, that’s really it. Let’s examine Pokemon: Sun and Moon, for example. This game really shines not just for its refreshing setting and compelling plot-line, but also for it’s amount of cute and quirky mini-games to be enjoyed for a good while outside of the main story. Pyukumuku Chucking, Mantine Surfing, the Alolan Photo Club, Ultra Warp Ride Travel - a good handful of mini-games that appeal to different kinds of people! All of these mini-games aren’t just tossed in there, either - they have a fitting place in the culture of the world and add to it, rather than just reiterating it. But when you look for mini-games in SWSH, you won’t really find anything aside from just battling. Sure, there’s the Battle Tower, as well, but I’ll personally say that I’ve never been a fan of the concept of post-game NPC battle buildings. For a hardcore player, they might be fun, but as a casual who can’t devote the time to really dig into understanding how IVs and competitive breeding works, they’re really no fun. Not to mention that nothing is really being added or developed with these battle buildings; they don’t add to lore, they don’t add to the culture of the region, you don’t even really gain anything from it - they’re pretty much just places to battle the occasional familiar face and that’s it. While I’m sure plenty of people adore these facilities in the games, I’ve never been too partial to them (I’d even prefer those god-forsaken casinos over another goddamn battle frontier).

But my biggest problem lies with the release of the DLC. While I’m not against the idea of DLC in general, both The Isle of Armour and The Crown Tundra left a bitter taste in my mouth when I started thinking about the issue of playability in SWSH.

I have always been more invested in the storyline of Pokemon games rather than the battling aspects. Usually I’ve always just gotten through the main story, then wandered around to find extra post-game content or mini-games, and then moved on to other games. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing - I just figure that the games have served their purpose for me upon completion, so rather than bore myself wandering around and doing things that don’t interest me, I go find another game that has more story-based content. That being said, I finished SWSH in less time than any other Pokemon game (I’d say somewhere around twenty hours, complete with me running around in circles like an idiot before rushing through content intermittently); as a result, I was no longer actively playing the game by the time the DLC was announced.

I’ll be honest and say that when I learned about all that was being offered in both sets of DLC, I felt a bit betrayed. I’m well-aware that Nintendo is a corporate business, and therefore will always prioritize financial gain over their fans’ lasting enjoyment of their titles - that’s just a fact of life. But I couldn’t help but feel like I paid a bunch of money for the bundled titles, only to play a game that hardly could be considered worthwhile or satisfying without added headcanons or fan-works, and then get told that extra content is available that may or may not add satisfaction to the experience that’s already long since ended for me. It was just a bit disappointing - and I’m not talking about the whole “Dexit” deal (I actually was on-board with the idea of having no real National Dex - I felt it added realism to the games and would force players to get to know the new Pokemon instead of just choosing the same team they always have since Gen 1 or whatever). My gripe is that I paid for a whole game, wasn’t satisfied with the result, only to hear later that the content that I might have been missing is available to pay for? That’s incredibly annoying. Not to mention that I was further disappointed after learning about the contents of the DLC, but we’ll get into that later.

Overall, the playability of SWSH is very basic, but can be enjoyable if you suspend belief and just enjoy it for what it is. When it comes to storyline, it’s not much of a game, and doesn’t sport much post-game content besides battling.

Immersion and Ambience...

Many of my friends can attest that I tend to like silly, fantastical concepts because I personally love to throw myself into the universe being offered to me. Pokemon is really no different - the games have always sported a very immersive experience for me thanks to the combination of interesting regions and evocative music (especially the music).

I think that most every Pokemon fan has a specific region, city, and music theme that sparks a plethora of nostalgic emotions to the point of near tears. For me, that’s always been Pokemon: Platinum, the Twinleaf Town theme - just staring into the rippling reflection of the pond by the player’s home, listening to that beautiful synth clarinet playing that nostalgic melody - it makes my heart beat with so much fervent passion that I hardly have the words to describe it! And I think that sense of nostalgia - regardless of whether or not those memories are old or new - has always been a strong-suit for Pokemon games. They always have the ability to inspire such deep emotions in me and other alike in a variety of ways, further adding to the ability to immerse us into the game’s world. And whether your favorite area is as simple as Twinleaf Town in the Sinnoh region, or as agonizing as Rock Tunnel in Kanto, it’s the spirit of certain cities/towns/routes that further add to the immersion of the world in question. But how well does SWSH hold those values? Spoiler Alert: Not very well.

SWSH, in the end, is still a Pokemon game - so the setting is very vibrant and colorful and everything that can hold my attention for long periods of time. But the problem arises when one begins to progress through the game and continuously forgets what’s where and where’s what. A lot of the map is painfully basic (again, due to the literal linear nature of the Galar region) and the cities themselves kind of lack their own real originality. There was an attempt at unique cities that’s become iconic of the Pokemon franchise, but it doesn’t really stick. I think most people would agree with me that the only real memorable areas in the main game were Slumbering Weald, Ballonlea, and Spikemuth, and each of these areas have their own set of problems that also make them a bit difficult to fully enjoy. At their core, most all Galarian cities have the same basic set-up: basic green plants (if plants are in that area at all), the same brick roads that lead either to the gym or to a route leading in/out of city to another city, and a giant gym/key building in the center of it all. And that’s really about it. No real interesting buildings except for gyms and Rose Tower (and I guess technically the hotels), no extraneous locations that aren’t directly related to the plot or to gimmicks - it’s very bare-bones and really can take you out of the experience.

In a hard contrast, I’ll give the example of Generation 1’s region set up - every city has its own personality that also matches the feel of the region as a whole. Every city is based on colors, and each city is themed after that, respectively (i.e. Vermillion City, the city of sunsets themed around the color orange, is home to the Pokemon Fan Club and the kick-ass electric-type gym that initiates feelings of excitement; Lavender Town, the noble town themed around the color purple, is home to the Pokemon Tower and spooky spirits that inspire feelings of somberness and reticence). Obviously, this isn’t very realistic, but the trick isn’t to replicate reality - it is to inspire reality. The Kanto region is incredibly creative, and therefore is easy to immerse oneself into the world because it’s become a world we are actively interested in. We know that it could never truly be real or plausible, but that hardly matters when we are so enthralled with the colors and set-up and feeling of the towns. We don’t really get much of that in Galar. It probably isn’t such a great idea for your final city - being Wyndon - to feel blank and lifeless when compared to minor cities in the region. And even when we find cities that hold that uniqueness we desire like in Spikemuth or Ballonlea, there’s really no other reason to be there longer than just beating the gym. It’s sad, really. Spikemuth is such a interesting, creative-looking town home to such cool characters, and yet there literally is only one path to get in and out of the town - the town isn’t even given small houses to investigate like literally every other city in the region. It’s a waste of potential! The fact that I can’t investigate such a promising setting that inspires me really takes me out of the world, reminding me that this is just a video game in which you move from Point A to Point B. It’s no longer a fantasy world for me to explore, but instead a line at the DMV to get my Drivers’ License. The only real good thing about this is that fanfiction writers get so much free-reign when it comes to writing about the city - the only thing we really learn about the city is that it’s underfunded and gloomy and that’s literally it. I would have really liked to see more inspired cities around the region where things outside of the main plot can be done, but hopefully this is just a problem we’ll see in this region.

Probably the most important aspect of immersion (in my opinion) is the music. With the potential to make or break a game for me, I hold a lot of expectations on the music found in video games (I’ve been classically trained in music since elementary school, and have always had a fondness for video game music). Pokemon music has always been some of the most inspiring pieces of art in my life - whether it be the kickass battle suite of Champion Cynthia, or the somber piano melody of Emma’s Theme, the music of Pokemon has always been the first thing I notice and analyze whenever playing the latest title. That all being said, I have quite a few notes to make in regards to the soundtrack of SWSH.

I’ll start with the pros, first. Generally, every main title has had its own feel when it comes to the soundtrack - DPP was jazzy and smooth, Sun and Moon was based on popular Hawaiian music meshed together with classic Pokemon synths, RSE was all about the horn section (trombones and french horns all the way!). SWSH, at the end of the day, isn’t much different. The region is inspired by the UK, so it’s no surprise to discover that the soundtrack was inspired by popular British Rock. As a result, a lot of themes went really hard, keeping a hint of individuality even when some battle themes hosted similar instruments. The biggest appeal of the soundtrack, I believe, was found in the little moments, namely the cheers of the gym battle themes. I think it’s safe to say that most people get super hyped when they hear those rhythmical chants coming to life whenever in the final leg of the battle, right when you begin to Dynamax. That’s amazingly exciting, never failing to suck me into that exact moment to gather the power of God and anime to defeat my opponent. While I wasn’t totally rocking out to every single song that came on, I was pretty satisfied with the music of SWSH, overall. It’s not too bad, and hosts a few bops that I still seek out to get my blood pumping.

But, as to be expected, there are plenty of cons when it comes to the soundtrack of SWSH. I could go over this for hours and hours, detailing complex definitions of music theory and basic song comprehension, but I’ll just make this nice and simple: it was really bland.

Note that I said “bland” and not “bad” - the music is fine in my opinion, I just wasn’t feeling the same feelings as I had in previous Pokemon titles. It all felt like Pokemon music, but not much else. It was like remembering hints of a memory long-lost, but you don’t really care about to dig deep into your mind for context. Towns had music, routes had music, pokemon and characters had battle themes, yada yada yada, nothing really to write home about. If I had to pick a song that honestly, truly invoked emotions beyond “Oh it’s battle time, now”, it would have to be the Battle Tower Theme, and that’s most likely because it was written by someone else entirely (Toby Fox, also known as the creator of Undertale and composer of super hard-hitting jams). And the worst part is that I never would have even been able to hear the Battle Tower theme because I hate battle buildings (which is more of a personal problem, I know, but still). Honestly, I would have preferred hearing that theme as compared to Champion Leon’s battle theme - I feel like his champion theme was very bland and lifeless, simply holding all the required elements of a Pokemon battle theme just because that’s what has to happen. It’s uninspired, faceless, and corporate, only to be completely foiled by the unique blast of energy found in the Battle Theme, which just screams “Prove that you’re the best!” over and over to me (also known as a big theme in the Pokemon games, especially in SWSH).

That’s not to say that every other theme in the game was terrible. I much enjoyed Marnie and Piers’ battle themes, but for a different reason. As we know, Piers and Marnie host a more “punk rock” style when compared to literally everyone else in-game, a trademark of Spikemuth citizens. With their occasionally cold and prickly (no pun intended) personalities, their themes go a bit harder into rock-land as compared to characters like Hop or Bede. There’s no conflict of style there - it’s “punk” with “rock”, loads of guitars and bass with a hint of synths to keep that Pokemon flare, and fits a bit better in the setting of the world. Mild conflict arises when we start looking at characters who aren’t rockstars or idols - let’s look at Bede’s theme, for example. While it really isn’t a bad theme (it’s actually, dare I say, a bop), I wouldn’t exactly say that the resulting pieces fit neatly together like they do for the Spikemuth duo. Bede’s theme requires a lot of synths to accentuate his more flamboyant and immature personality, but also holds ties with the rock guitars while also trying so desperately hard to sound like a Pokemon song. Now, I don’t think “Pop Synth Rock” is anything bad, per se; I just feel like the added rock elements didn’t do much to add to the musical representation of our cliche jerk-face “rival”. It feels like the rock elements were an after-thought rather than a planned layer of musicality. I could really say the same thing about Hop’s theme, but then I would have to re-listen to Hop’s theme because I always forget what it sounds like even after listening to it a second before.

A big problem is that not many of these themes hold lastingly memorable motifs/melodies, which is a personal pet-peeve of mine in games where the music is highly esteemed. In pretty much every battle theme (except the generic pokemon encounter theme, which is the same melody in every Pokemon game, only with variations added to fit the music theme of the region) is just an on-going strip of notes that sound nice when playing the game, but if you tried to pick out the specific melody-line of that character, it’s a bit of work to really find anything. Let’s look at a more concrete example: Lusamine’s battle theme from Pokemon: Sun and Moon is up on my list of most memorable battle themes, and will do well without the extra influence of young me’s nostalgia seeping in like it would with earlier generations’ battle themes. Lusamine, as we know, was the elite antagonist of the game, being the leader of this esteemed Pokemon protection group who later is revealed to be using Pokemon for her own demented goals of perfection. Almost immediately, the player hears the signature accents of the harpsichord playing the prime motif before the piece digs into a full orchestration. It doesn’t sacrifice anything for the sake of “sounding like a Pokemon song”, nor does it sacrifice anything for the sake of keeping with the musical inspiration. Instead, it focuses on being exactly what it needs to be - a musical representation of Lusamine, hosting orchestra-based instruments (piano, violas and cellos, horns, violins, light pad synths, etc…). Most anyone can pick out a handful of memorable motifs from her theme (the main horns melody line, the harpsichord melody line, the mid-section cello and piano melody line, etc…), and those remain in our unconscious. So, it’s no surprise that when she becomes the “Mother Beast” later on, when the player hears hints of those signature melody lines becoming distorted in the madness of the new battle theme, it invokes a particular emotion that fits elegantly with the subject matter of the plot right then. In short, it’s musical storytelling done right. In SWSH, we don’t have that extra omph of emotionally-nostalgic motifs; instead, we just get songs that play in the background of this video game, and that’s really it. If you don’t like the song, good news - you’ll probably only hear it once or twice, depending on who the NPC is. If you do, then you’re out of luck for the very same reasons. This game lacks a very basic hint of soul to its soundtrack, which is really such a jarring idea especially when you realize that they paired up with a composer who arguably has mastered the idea of musical motifs (Fox).

This really isn’t just SWSH’s problem, either. I also went through a similar heartbreak in S&M during the final stretch of the main game; after battling Lusamine and saving the region from the threat of Ultra Beasts (more or less, anyway), we the player go to challenge the champion, who is revealed to be Profession Kukui since there really is no true champion for the newly-made league. It’s hard to go from an exciting, powerful battle theme like Lusamine’s to some generic, cardboard-cut-out version of a champion battle theme for Kukui. It’s hard to invoke any sort of emotional appeal when there’s no real inspiration to be felt in the music; with no emotional connection, there is no emotion. It’s, once again, just music that plays in the background of a video game. A similar experience happens in SWSH with the player’s match against Champion Leon; though we have the potential to gain an emotional connection to a Leon Theme motif, we don’t get that. Instead, we just get music that is programmed to be exciting for our championship match that will undoubtedly change our lives forever. Bland, boring, anti-climatic - all for the sake of coloring in the lines. This has been an on-going problem in Pokemon games for years in which the Championship Battle Theme is less interesting than the Evil Team Battle Theme, which probably isn’t a good idea. It’s annoying when your villain has a better theme than the literal strongest trainer in the region - it ruins the chances of likability for the region’s “good guys” and overall is anti-climatic when it is finally time to become champion.

Overall, the ability to immerse someone like me in a game is very important when it comes to retaining players. While SWSH isn’t the worst Pokemon game when it comes to immersion (considering the fact that I actually beat the main game, which I can’t say for other main Pokemon titles…), Game Freak certainly could stand to learn from the game’s shortcomings.

Creature and Character Design...

The monster design is arguably one of the most controversial topics when it comes to any Pokemon game. Some people only care about the designs of Gen 1, others accept everything but Gen 5, and a select few could rant for hours on the stupidity of literally every Pokemon design in the franchise. Regardless, the design of the Pokemon native to the Galar region is an important topic of discussion when analysing the potential for enjoyment of the game. After all, I’m an artist who loves drawing all my favorite characters as well as my favorite Pokemon, so understanding the designs of these beloved figures is vital to understanding the game in general. For sanity’s sake, I’ll only be discussing new Pokemon introduced in this region, and will be ignoring all previous pokemon that aren’t regional variants.

Overall, the designs of the latest Pokemon are satisfactory. Because of my tendency to always suspend belief in fantasy works, I’ve very rarely had much to hate about Pokemon designs (not even in Gen 5, though I don’t particularly like any of them aside from the game cover legendaries). SWSH didn’t really bring much to the table when it comes to brand-new Pokemon, but the ones introduced are fitting and interesting: the Dragapult line, all three starters (even if I did laugh for literal hours at the discovery of Cinderace’s typing), Wooloo and Dubwool, Yamper and Boltund - just to name my top favorites. And I was totally invested in the designs of the game cover legendaries, Zamazenta and Zacian, since they held cultural relations with the region’s inspiration and therefore had actual meaning within the game besides just being cool mythical creatures. Nothing really outright bothered me with the designs or pokemon choices in this game; as I mentioned earlier, I was okay with the idea of no National Dex for this region, and that all the pokemon allowed in this game matched with the region well-enough.

But, of course, it��s not without faults. I found there to be a substantial lack of original legendaries in this game - we only have three real legendaries to catch in the main-game, four if you consider the DLC. We had a similar problem in Pokemon: Sun and Moon, but it was later amended with the introduction of Ultra Beasts (which can technically be regarded as legendary Pokemon, albeit from another dimension and not technically Pokemon). In SWSH, we are only given the option of catching more than two legendaries if we buy the DLC - this is remarkably disappointing for those who are interested in seeing new, unique Pokemon designs. I know many fans are constantly frustrated with Game Freak’s tendency to overuse Gen 1 Pokemon, but the fact that nobody is bothered by the running trend of being able to easily catch a bunch of previous games’ legendaries is beyond me. It’s essentially the same thing, overly relying on the fanbase’s sentimental nostalgia rather than moving forward to create new creature designs. I know for a fact that so many people would have been excited to catch Pokemon with cultural significance (maybe like elf Pokemon that resemble that of Seelie/Unseelie fairies, or more Pokemon that resemble chess pieces, or maybe more Pokemon that follow a theme of medieval artifacts - there are many possibilities), so the fact that they skimped out in favor of making people pay for nostalgia is ridiculous to me. This was a majority of the reason why I rejected buy any of the DLC content - why would I pay for Pokemon I’ve technically caught before? I mean, I guess it can be more for the kids who have never encountered the older legendaries, but then again, wouldn’t it be more beneficial for your game to have Pokemon that actually represent the new region? Instead of just stealing other games’ legendaries for the sake of saying that you have them, they could have just worked a little harder to design maybe three or six more cool legendary designs and centered those guys around the two DLC locations instead of just having Calyrex for The Crown Tundra. At the end of the day, it’s really just a cash-grab; the only reason I could ever see myself understandably buying the DLC for SWSH would be because I wanted to interact more with my favorite NPCs, but then again, I can just look at screenshots on Twitter and feel just as satisfied.

But not all is lost in terms of designs. Now let’s get into my favorite design portion of this segment and discuss the NPCs.

First, we’ll dig into the rivals. Personally, I really enjoyed the rivals of this game; while Pokemon is definitely running on a formula, I still was able to find enough about the three rival characters to genuinely enjoy their presence whenever they came on screen. I suppose we can expect to keep seeing this new Pokemon Trainer Rival Formula: Kind of Annoying but Too Sweet to Hate BFF Rival (Hop), 2 Edgy 5 U Rival (Bede), and Some Pedo’s Waifu Material Rival (Marnie).

Hop is arguably one of my favorite Pokemon rivals of all time (right up there with Gladion from S&M). He’s one of the only Pokemon characters to get a realistic character development over the course of the game’s playable story, which really humanizes him and makes up for his occasionally annoying personality. Over the course of the game, Hop goes from silently residing in his brother’s shadow to learning to stand on his own without needed any outside validation; much to my surprise, it’s not some half-hearted transition. Hop doubts himself during the challenge, as evidenced not just by his dialogue but in the way he actively changes his team to try and be more competitive like everybody else. I remember feeling so heartbroken in realization that Hop stopped using his beloved Wooloo, which is rightfully paired up with the excitable boy. The idea that Hop uses Wooloo, a normal-type cute Pokemon that generally wouldn’t be used in a competitive team, really adds more dimension to his character; when he learns to enjoy himself instead of letting his doubts overtake him, he returns to using Dubwool and his favorite team, demonstrating how he would prefer to have fun as himself than be someone he isn’t. I found that to be a really wholesome theme to his character, one that we haven’t really seen in a Pokemon game yet - it was a pleasant surprise! Hop is sweet and kind, always wanting to motivate the player even when he’s in his own internal turmoil. With all that added with his adorable babyface and goofy/awkward preteen disposition, he really makes for a likeable rival character.

The next rival to be introduced is none other than our classic Mean Boy rival, Bede. He’s a character the fanbase is a bit more accustomed to due to previous titles’ rivals (i.e. Green/Blue/Gary Oak from in R&G/B, Silver from SGC, technically also Gladion from S&M…), so are quite a few expectations placed on his character as a result. Also true to the typical Pokemon Jerk Rival, he has a complicated homelife (he comes from an orphanage, as we later learn) and has a similarly complicated parent-child relationship to the leading antagonist of the game (in this case, Chairman Rose). Bede constantly assumes himself to be better than he is and isn’t afraid to be a total prick about it, choosing to bully Hop upon winning battles against him to boost his own inflated ego (though there’s hints pointing to Bede actually having rather low self-esteem). All things considered, I liked Bede as a character about as much as one can like a mean rival archetype, but I was more than pleased to discover his transition to a more likably mean-spirited character when he later returns to the game to challenge the player after being disqualified from the challenge. While we’ve had a likeable mean rival before (namely Gladion), Bede is something of his own entity with how he actually has an attempt at character development that leads him to a mini-redemption near the end of the game. He’s really the first mean rival to have a transition from total jerk to slightly-peeved tsundere, which was probably a good idea on Game Freak’s part so that we wouldn’t be left with a character we downright hated after the way Bede quite literally destroys Hop’s confidence. It’s nowhere near as impressive as Hop’s character development (which isn’t super impressive to begin with, but let’s ignore that fact for a bit), but it’s still interesting to see in a monster-catching game about being the best you can be.

And then, of course, we get to the cute-girl rival, Marnie, also known as the place where I get a bit mad again. I’d like to say that I absolutely love Marnie; she has an adorable design and interesting personality that captures my attention whenever she has screen time. But she serves one purpose in this game, and one purpose alone - being the main cute girl rival of the game. Marnie has the potential to be a similarly interesting rival (cute design that meshes “punk” with “cute”, has a wholesome and fun dynamic with her gym leader older brother, uses a Pokemon that isn’t considered to be a “competitive” choice as her ace, has a cool/cute personality…), and yet we probably only talk to her about five times over the course of the main game. Little is done with her character - in fact, the only real thing she does in the game other than becoming the next dark-type gym leader is that she helps the player sneak into Spikemuth after the gates have been shut by the remarkably-harmless Team Yell. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I would have loved to have seen more done with her character. With the boy rivals being more fleshed out than her, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth because the female rival is the one left with a blank personality (and I’m not just saying that because she hardly smiles - that’s really one of the only things we get about her that gives her an actual personality). My frustrations are further exacerbated because this has always been an issue in Pokemon games, in which the girl rivals are so barebones for seemingly the only purpose of serving as some neckbeard’s waifu that they can input a personality they desire despite the fact that she’s canonically a minor. Why put in the time to give dimension to Hop and Bede, but not Marnie? And we know for a fact that Game Freak has to recognize the lack of personality given to Marnie, especially since they had previously come out with Lillie’s wonderfully sweet character arch in S&M and USUM. Personally, I feel that it was because they didn’t feel like having a more punkish girl character who also had traditionally feminine-coded interests (she’s known to have been distracted during the gym challenge by the boutiques) and ultimately decided to just not give her any further personality other than that, perhaps fearing that it would dissuade the gross creeper fanbase from latching onto her. But that’s really just speculation, so don’t take any of my nonsense too seriously. Really, I’d just rather we had a girl rival with more personality to match the other two rivals so it wasn’t so annoyingly unbalanced.

Moving on from the rivals, we get into the designs of the League Staff of the game. In most other Pokemon games, I’d never really been too interested in the gym leaders; they had always been more of minor bosses, just faces that you saw for a couple of seconds before pummeling their ‘mons and moving to the next city. But in this game in particular, there was a sudden transition from simple puzzle master to a full-on celebrity figure. I really enjoyed this! It was so nice to actually have some information on the gym leaders other than what type they sported; suddenly, they have personalities and interests - they become real to the player. Not to mention that there really is a gym leader for everyone to enjoy, thanks to their unique personalities and styles.

I’ll be a bit honest and say that some of their clothing designs are remarkably stupid for even an anime-based RPG game (I mean, I know we joke about Leon’s terrible sense of fashion in the fanbase, but can we just pause and ponder what Piers’ wears? I mean, a leather jacket with spandex? Metal boots and a work-out tank??? What is he wearing?!), but it isn’t exactly distracting. In Western cultures in particular, we can see a trend towards the glamourization of the “athleisure” style, or athletic wear designed more for everyday use rather than just working out. It was kind of fitting to see this be the primary style for the gym leaders, who can basically be described as hierarchical sports stars. Weird? Sure. But in the context of the world, it all fits together, and once again adds to the immersion aspect of the game.

Looking at our main antagonists, they are designed quite well. Chairman Rose is designed to be quite easy and fun to hate (at least for me) - he’s an important-looking businessman who’s very impressed with himself, paired up with a beautiful yet terrifying subordinate woman who does most all the hardwork for him (...actually, they kind of remind me of an antagonistic Cl. Mustang and Lt. Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist…). They also had noteworthy battle themes that popped a bit more than other battle themes in the game.

While they hardly count as antagonists, I’d like to also make a brief mention of Team Yell. They’re more annoying than anything, which is a trend that I’m not too sure how I feel about yet. It was definitely more likable coming from Team Skull, that’s for sure. I would have liked Team Yell doing a bit more damage, having them be a bit more unruly and controversial before evening them out with the whole emotional appeal of them cheering on for Marnie in hopes of saving their ruined town. But they weren’t too terrible in my opinion.

I could talk for hours on the champion of the region, too, Champion Leon. He’s a really fun and charming character overall, less of the supremely wise and powerful champion that we’ve seen in older gens and instead being a more quirky but worthwhile opponent on the path towards the crown. But I definitely preferred him more as a character than as a champion; even though his team changes depending on your starter, it’s not too challenging of a fight if you know what you’re doing, especially when you immediately know what his ace pokemon is (something we don’t really learn in other gens about the champions). While I’m sure the idea of a powerful but transparent champion can be done, Leon doesn’t really stand up as a powerful trainer when compared to other champions in the franchise. But he’s definitely still a fun, interesting character concept that I am grateful for in this particular game.

When it comes to the designs of the primary NPCs and Pokemon, SWSH continues to talk that line just above mediocrity. Not too bad, not all that great, but definitely not something to be forgotten. I’d reason that the primary strength of this generation lies within the characters that are introduced.

Uniqueness vs. Status as a Pokemon Game...

In regards to the uniqueness - how well this game stands on its own as an individual concept rather than just another Pokemon game - I’m a bit divided. On one hand, I’m a bit saddened by the watering down of content and constant reliance on concepts from older games. But I can also see that SWSH introduced a lot of interesting ideas that have inspired so many fans for this generation. And while yes, this gen didn’t have much to offer in terms of new Pokemon, new scenarios, or new lore, I do think that it does hold its own when compared to the other games in the main series. New characters are introduced to the player, all of which having good (and bad) traits that allow for lots of fan-created content with their essence; a new look into a brand-new battle enhancer that requires a different strategy than those of previous battle enhancers; a new culture found within the Galar region that can inspire many more thoughts and theories on the Pokemon world as a whole in a number of ways. We cannot pretend that SWSH isn’t an influential game just because it wasn’t ground-breaking; even with my extreme distaste for the Black and White games, I still admit that they led to important decisions and ideas that led to the creation of games I did enjoy. So, as its own entity, I think that Pokemon: Sword and Shield really has a lot of offer and would probably be an amazing game for a younger player who’s just getting into the Pokemon universe.

But I think that a lot of us long-time fans can agree that this game doesn’t quite match up with the others in terms of giving those real “Pokemon game” feelings. The problem with big-titles like this is that the company tends to lose sight of what really makes a franchise so influential isn’t the stuff found at face-value. It’s not the creatures or NPCs or game mechanics or design or any of that garbage - it’s the feelings we get when all of those things reach that perfect harmony. It’s the rumble in my chest whenever I listen to that famous intro-sequence of my old Pokemon: Ruby game; it’s the fire in my eyes when I went back to challenge Pokemon Trainer Red for the tenth time that night back in my old Pokemon: Heart Gold game; it’s the tears I cried when I watched the only interesting character, N, leave my playable character after his emotional spiel following the defeat of Ghetsis in my long-since abandoned copy of Pokemon: White. At the end of the day, Pokemon is more of an emotion I get rather than a game I play, and I think this is an idea that few people can recognize for themselves. And while I’m aware that I literally just spent several thousand words bagging and praising this game for all those face-value aspects, I also know that when you add that extra little bit of care to your work, go a little further with a character you know someone will adore, or try something new with that new battle theme, there comes a sensation that goes beyond that of love for a silly fantasy game. I’d like to think it’s something akin to inspiration.

Conclusion...

In conclusion, Pokemon: Sword and Shield is far from perfect. With a number of faults and disappointments, I can understand why a lot of fans were less than interested in giving this game the time of day. But I also want to say that this game deserves to be understood and appreciate for what it is, for what it’s done. Who knows what sort of new ideas this game has inspired? Whether it be in the name Pokemon game or someone else’s passion project, I am confident in the potential that this game has to bring someone’s dreams to fruition. It already has inspired so much amazing fan-content from the community; after so many years of being away from the fandom, SWSH was the game that drove me right back, giving me the drive to once again indulge in my middle-school days of sketching out my latest comfort character or writing out a million headcanons in a way-too plot-heavy story. Many fan-creators in this community feel the same as me, I’m sure, so it would be untrue of me to say that this game was anything less than what it was: a fun, simple game that prides itself in its characters and potential rather than complex combat mechanics or some corkboard-plot nightmare. It’s a game meant to be enjoyed, so we must remember to find our enjoyment wherever it can be found. For me, Pokemon can’t really do much wrong, but also is held up to a level of expectations that I can’t quite understand even for myself. This, at the end of the day, is a video game from my all-time favorite franchise; so long as I can find enjoyment there in it, then it’s worth it. In a world filled with nihilism and cynicism, it’s nice to visit a land where you’re wise to try and be the very best like no-one ever was, to be the next best Pokemon Master.

#pokemon #Pokemon Sword and shield #pokemon swsh #swsh #sword and shield #game review #game #analysis #review #post mortem #(does this count as post mortem???)#casual gamer #essay #video game #food for thought

5 notes · View notes

holonetnews · 4 years

Note

@Mun: I was reading your About Page, and I was curious about the "Born 263, Eighth, 30 PED" part. Are those... years? Months? The only SW timekeeping I can think of is the BBY/ABY or BTC/ATC years, so I was trying to figure out what that meant. ^^;

DeeMun:

Hey! Thanks for the excellent question! (omg somebody noticed the thing)

I don’t usually make long ooc posts so this is probably going to be something of an exception trash. I warn you now this reply is gonna be long & nerdy & have too many references to Wookieepedia for its own good.

Okay, first off, when I made Deena as a character it my intention was for her to be active as HoloReporter during the time of the Imperial HoloNet ONLY. So, for the uninitiated, the years between Palpatine’s Declaration of New Order in 19 BBY and the liberation of Coruscant by the New Republic in 6 ABY. Since then, Deena has grown with the blog and is now involved with various different eras, but my blog hasn’t been updated alongside.

(For general roleplaying purposes, I tend to default to the Legends timeline simply because I was an avid reader of the EU as a kid so that’s the version of galactic history I have the most familiarity with. And also because I like it. And also because shut up.)

Secondly, as a news agency based on Coruscant, and Coruscant being the capital of the galaxy (Sorry, story group. I refuse to acknowledge your Hosnian Prime mumbo-jumbo,) I presume HNN would use the Coruscanti astronomical (or galactic standard) calendar.

Summarily this means a 5-day week, a 7-week month, and 10-month year including 3 festival weeks and 3 holidays to bring to a 368-day year.

As you have probably noticed, my blog is attempting (with various levels of unsuccess) to emulate an actual HoloNet channel. With that in mind, when I was writing Deena’s bio page, it was with the intention for it to be a piece of media that had been created contemporaneously in the Imperial era. (19 BBY - 6 ABY.)

In the Legends Canon the BBY/ABY system was not implemented as calendrical system until 25 ABY, when the New Republic commissioned the New Republic Historical Council to re-standardized the Galactic Calendar. Similarly the BTC/ATC system was a dating system invented by the jedi scholar Gnost Dural. Outside of his writings, and the Jedi Order, the BTC/ATC system was not utilised by the wider Republic.

During the Imperial era, then, the prevailing date system used by the majority of the galaxy was a variant of the Great ReSynchronization. After the rise of the Galactic Empire, many Imperials opted to eschew the metrics introduced by the Republic Measures & Standards Bureau during the Russan Reformations and instead start the year count from Declaration of a New Order.

I am a HUGE fan of the Great ReSynchronization time system. You will see it crop up again and again in a number of my articles, HoloVid timestamps, and general posts.

However, I knew that writing Deena’s birth date as 30:8:X BrS (stay with me here) would confuse many of my partners and those reading the blog as they would not be at all familiar with the Great ReSynchronization. If someone new to perhaps Star Wars in general just wanted to know about Deena, without needing to scour Wookieepedia for the complicated history of galactic calendars, I needed something that was similar the BBY/ABY system which is ubiquitous in the fandom.

So, I opted to merge the two systems, but write it in a way that still on inspection looked fantastical, so that it sounded like it could be legitimate thing in-universe, and embody something that was profoundly different and wonderful compared to the way we write dates IRL here on Earth.

(Note, I wrote Deena’s biography prior to 2017′s publication of the Rebel Files, which introduced the Imperial Calendar. And essentially adopted my fanmade calendar system.)

As many Imperials used the formation of the Empire as the zero-point in their calendars, with HNN being a state-owned agency, it made sense to use this too.

Instead of AFE and BFE for “After/Before Formation of the galactic Empire” like the Rebel Files Imperial Calendar, I came up with PED and AED, “Prior to the Empire’s Declaration” and “After the Empire’s Declaration.”

(I kept day/month/year as we do here in Europe because I was shooting for simplicity. (Still stay with me here.))

So, “Born 263, Eighth, 30 PED”, means that Deena was born on the eighth month of the year, 30 years prior to the formation of the Galactic Empire. (Seriously, still stay with me here.)

I know what you’re thinking. If the first digit, 263, is the day, then this doesn’t make sense! How can a 368-day year made up of 10 months allow for a 263rd day in a month?

This is where a little creativity came in. I still wanted the date format, like the Great ReSynchroization format, to appear other-worldly. A good way I thought of doing that was to include a huge number, far in excess of dates we see here IRL.

I’m crap at maths so my explanation is going to be woolly here but because there are 18 holiday days (including festivals) in the Coruscanti calendar, it means there are more than 10 months in the year. A galactic standard year is 10.54 months long. This means on Coruscant every year your “birthday” would not necessarily fall on the same date in which your born astronomically.

Suffice to say a year on Coruscant starts at different times every year. (Not Midnight.) A lot of the Star Wars date convertors you will find online get around this by ignoring the festivals and assume nothing important in the history of the galaxy ever happened during the festival period(s). (i.e. assuming a flat tenth month year of 35 days each.)

I didn’t find that acceptable. So to ensure everyone had the same birthday, every year, it made sense to me that the DAY of your birth is counted from the start of the year, not the start the month. So Deena was born on 263rd day of the year. Her birthday doesn’t necessarily fall in the 8th month of the year every year, but it just happened to be the eighth month of the year when she was born in what we’ll call 49 BBY.

Anyway! Great question! Hope that helps! (And yes, I know I need to update my blog and its pages really super badly.)

#HoloNot ( ooc )#HNN: Comlink #HNN: Anonymous Source

5 notes · View notes

allonsysilvertongue · 6 years

Text

Always Done What You Say

This was how it began - Tony Stark had called on Peter Parker for a mission while he was out with May except the mission did not end the way anyone imagined or hoped it would, and now Peter’s life has been pulled out from under him.

(Or the story of how Tony found himself having to be more than just a mentor to Peter, one small step at a time) Previously

Chapter 14

“What?”

Tony nearly gave himself a whiplash by the speed in which he turned to look at the kid, confusion written plainly across his face.

“Something to just… make it easier,” Peter muttered. “To make the memories hazy… A little less sharp so that…. It’ll hurt less.”

“Okay so there’s clearly something that we should be talking about. This,” Tony gestured, “is one of those things – to be shared and talked about with me. I need you to talk to me, kid, not bottle it all up until it becomes too much that it drove you to make this kind of … request.”

“I’m not asking for my memories to be permanently deleted,” Peter huffed. “Just something that can make me forget about it for a little bit. I don’t want to forget May or Ben, but each time I close my eyes, I see May trapped under that billboard. I see her motionless in the hospital bed. I feel her trembling as I pulled her out from under the board. It’s a nightmare. It – It becomes so much that I couldn’t remember anything else about her, anything that’s good or – or happy.”

“I didn’t realise -”

“Shouldn’t there be a spell or something that can just… sort of repress those unpleasant memories?” Peter cut him off. “It’s like taking a file and putting it in a different folder in a computer, Mr. Stark. It’s not gone forever. It’s still there but in a different place. I don’t know…” he shrugged.

It was clear to him that Peter had given this some thought and Tony was annoyed with himself for not realizing and picking up on this sooner. Physically and on the outside, the kid appeared normal. He was still grieving but he was functioning. Still, if anyone should know the war that went on inside someone’s head, it should be Tony and yet… He had failed this boy.

He took a breath and mentally counted to ten. He would have plenty of opportunity later on his own for him to be mad at himself but right now, he needed to be here for Peter.

“That’s not how it works, kid,” Tony said, trying extremely hard to maintain his composure. “Nobody knows how memories, consciousness and the human mind really work. There are experts still trying to figure these out. Pete, there is a possibility that repressing the bad memories also repress the memories that are good. It’s a risk.”

“How would you know?” Peter challenged. “You’re not the Sorceror Supreme and you don’t have telepathic abilities like Wanda. Maybe they can do what the scientists out there couldn’t.”

“I don’t but even I know that the mind shouldn’t be tampered with,” Tony snapped with a biting edge in his voice.

“How’s this any different than people drinking to forget? Alcohol makes the memories a blur, right?” Peter asked. “Tell me, Mr. Stark.”

Tony reeled from his words, feeling as if he had been punched. That was exactly what he had done after his parent’s death. He had drank a glass each day and that in turn became one bottle and then two, and then he found himself spiraling all because he needed to cope with the grief and the loss, and the sudden responsibility of being CEO of Stark Industries. But he was better now, he had cut down and he was watching himself around Pepper and Peter, so to have Peter bring this up casually in a conversation, even if the kid wasn’t intentionally doing it to spite him, still hurts.

“Listen to me. This isn’t how it’s done. I’m not having Wanda mess with your mind. I’m not having Stephen cast a spell or some magical mumbo jumbo on you.”

“But -”

“No, no buts,” Tony stood firm. “There are other ways.”

“Shouldn’t I get a say in this? It’s my mind.”

“No you don’t get a say in this, not in this instance,” Tony retorted. “You’re emotional and exhausted – yes, kid, I can see it even if you keep telling me otherwise – and you should never make snap decisions like that until you’ve sat down and internalize it all. Trust me. I’ve had to learn from this experience the hard way.”

“I have thought about it and internalized it! I didn’t just bring this up to you now because it was something that popped into my head an hour ago,” Peter argued.

“Watch your tone,” Tony warned. “Fine, for the purpose of this conversation, say I were to give you the go ahead…. You really think Stephen is going to agree to it? I don’t think you know that wizard very well.”

The kid huffed and crossed his arms.

“Maybe then I’ll ask Wanda.”

“I forbid you from doing so.”

“You’re my guardian, not my dad,” Peter snapped, twisting the knife he had already earlier embedded in Tony’s heart.

Tony clenched his jaws. His heart rate was spiking up dangerously as he grabbed the steering wheel with his left hand to stop the impending shakes.

“You’re right I’m not but I’m the adult your aunt appointed to be responsible for you,” Tony said calmly, belying the storm going on internally. “You want to make that memory a blur too, Pete?”

“Mr. Stark….”

He sounded stunned and apologetic but Tony didn’t think he could sit here in the car with this kid arguing about this anymore. He might explode or yell, and react the same way Howard had with him when his patience was running thin. It wasn’t a risk he wanted to take so Tony started the engine.

“We’re going home,” he declared. “We’ll talk about this when we’re both calmer.”

When they arrived at the penthouse, Peter hovered. Tony knew the kid enough to know he wanted to say something.

“Go to your room, Peter,” Tony directed tiredly. “Try to … Try and get some sleep, alright?”

“Yeah, okay. G’night,” he said, making a beeline for his room.

He closed the door quietly. He didn’t slam it shut the way most teenagers do when they didn’t get their way.

Moving towards the kitchen, Tony grabbed a glass without a thought. He poured himself a drink and sat on the stool. It was only when he brought the glass to his lips that he paused. Drinking was his way to cope – this and throwing himself in his work. Peter didn’t have a coping mechanism, not yet. Having lost his parents at a young age and then his uncle didn’t necessarily make him an expert on how to cope with grief. The kid was still learning and he was clearly grappling.

Spiderman had been the way he dealt with losing his uncle but in Peter’s current mind frame, it was also the reason he lost his aunt. He had nothing left to fall back on now that he had given up being Spiderman.

So Peter had come up with a way to handle things which while wasn’t ideal, shouldn’t be treated as if he was completely in the wrong.

Tony was the adult. That meant it was up to him to steer Peter in the right direction, provide him a healthy outlet to talk about his feelings and his pain, and to deal with his struggles.

“Is Peter awake, F.R.I.D.A.Y?”

“He is, sir.”

It was past midnight but if the kid was awake… Or perhaps, he should let the kid cool off? God, he rubbed his face. He had no precedent on the best way to deal with a teenager. He didn’t realise handling just one could be this exhausting.

Tony knocked and waited but when no answer was forthcoming, he opened the door. Peter was half propped on his bed with headphones on his ears. The second he saw Tony walked in, he sat, turned off the music and took the headphones off.

“I’m sorry,” the words tumbled of out his mouth. “I didn’t mean what I said earlier, Mr. Stark.”

“Emotions were running high,” Tony said, stepping in.

“Are you – Um… Are you here to tell me that – that you’ve withdrawn the petition…?”

“Come again?” Tony frowned. He pulled the roller chair from Peter’s study table and sat in front of him on the bed.

“I – I was rude,” Peter stared at his hands. “I’m sorry. I really am. Please, Mr. Stark, I’d rather you be my guardian than someone else.”

Tony could only stare at the kid.

“Peter,” he said, placing a finger under Peter’s chin to nudge his head up until he was looking at him. “You’re my responsibility which means I’ll see it through. I’m not the kind of person to throw in the towel just ‘cause you said something that’s rude and out of line. That’s part of the deal. You’re going to have emotional outburst. You’re going to be angry with me at some point over something and I’m going to find myself frustrated beyond belief but we’re not gonna quit on each other, kid. Hate to break it to you but you’re stuck with me.”

“O – Okay. I won’t quit on you, Mr. Stark. I won’t.”

“That’s good to know, underoos. There’s going to be consequences and punishments for when you step out of line but you don’t ever have to worry about me walking out and leaving you to dry. Understand?”

“Yes,” Peter nodded.

“Good. Okay, good,” Tony released a breath. He rubbed the back of his head, trying to formulate his thoughts. “I’ve thought about what you want and I’m not here to tell you I’ve changed my mind. I haven’t. But I feel that I owe it to you to explain the reason I’m against it. You’re not a kid for me to say no to and expect you to fall in line. You deserve an explanation, and you’re old enough, Peter, to be able to think about it and understand it.”

“I – okay, I guess,” Peter nodded.

Tony learnt a long time ago that people would either listen to logic or emotion, or a balance of both. He had appealed to the logical side of Peter earlier but the boy had been so upset that it left little impact and since Peter tended to be impulsive, reacting on how he feel, the emotional angle would be better suited.

“Alright,” Tony offered a smile. “You were right, Pete. Some people do drink to forget and dull the pain, I’m one of them. Not proud of it. I still do it on some days when it gets too much but Pepper’s there to keep me in check and lately, it’s you too. Sometimes I’ll be in my workshop for hours. Working means I won’t be thinking about whatever it is that’s upsetting me. Ask anyone out there and they’ll tell you a thousand and one coping mechanism. Yours used to be being Spiderman, isn’t it?”

Peter was shaking his head vehemently. “No, Mr. Stark, you’re not going to talk me into becoming him again. I won’t do it.”

Tony chuckled. “I’m not. What I said earlier still stands. It’s your decision and I respect it.”

“So – So why can’t you do the same when I asked if I can have Dr. Strange or Wanda to help me.”

“Because forgetting is not the answer, Peter,” Tony said. “Maybe you don’t see it now but that pain and the loss will shape you. All these experiences will make you into the person you’ll be. It’s a part of you and it’s not something you should run from. I get it, kid, right now, it feels like nothing you do will ever make you feel okay again. But … You’ll learn to draw strength from your struggles. Draw courage to forge your life in their memory, if nothing else.”

Tony steeled himself. He wasn’t good at having conversation or doing any sort of consoling for that matter. May would have done this so he would have to step up and fill that void that she left behind.

“I don’t think you understand, Mr. Stark. Maybe you’ve forgotten the pain that comes from loss. I don’t want to feel that pain anymore. It’s sharp and it – it’s stabbing me right here,” his hand fluttered to his chest. “Some nights, when it’s quiet and I’m alone, I think about that day when the aliens attacked and I think about May, and it’s so bad I feel like I can’t breathe. It’s a – it’s a hole that I can’t fill. Then I – I tried not to think about it. I tried to think of when she’s happy, like when we have Thai for dinner during her birthdays but I can’t! I kept seeing her pale and bruised and lifeless. I’m scared that’s the only thing I’ll remember about her.”

Peter choked, his lips trembling and his hands were shaking. Tony did the very thing he should have done a long time ago. Maneuvering himself so he was now sitting at the edge of the bed next to Peter, he drew the kid into his embrace. Peter collapsed against him, his face pressed against Tony’s shoulder as his fingers dug and pulled into the shirt on Tony’s back.

The last time Tony had held him this way, May was still fighting and Peter had soaked through his shirt with tears.

“Let it all out,” he said gently. He hadn’t seen Peter cry since the night May died. This breakdown was passed due. “It’s okay, Peter. It’s just you and me, buddy.”

“I want the pain to – to go away so I can be… ” he trailed, his words muffled against Tony’s shoulder.

“So you can be you again?” Tony asked, adjusting his grip on the boy. “Here’s the thing, kid, you’re the only thing Mary and Richard Parker left behind. You’re the only living legacy of Ben and May Parker. You’re the only one left alive. If you repress those memories, they’ll be lost, Peter. We will all remember May, of course, but you’re the only one left who truly knows her. You have intimate memories of your aunt that no one else in this world has. You know I’m right, Pete. Who are you without them, kid? Who are you without those people who raised you and loved you? You’re not gonna be the same without them in your memories – good or bad – cause there won’t be anything in here,” Tony clasped the back of his head.

“I’m the only Parker left…” Peter breathed out.

“Damn right.”

“How long will I feel this way?” he asked.

“Wish I have an answer to that, Pete. But I don’t. It’s going to sting when you think of them. Always. It’s going to hurt when your birthday rolls around, when you graduate, when you do something big and they’re not there to see it. There’ll be bad days, but there’ll be better days too. I promise. Hey listen, if one day you wake up and feel like shit ‘cause it’s May’s birthday and she’s not here for you to throw a party for, that’s okay. You’re allowed to feel that way. But you gotta know that I’m going to be here to catch you each time. You’re not alone.”

Tony felt him nodding against his chest. The tight grasp on the back of Tony’s shirt loosened slightly, but Peter remained slumped against him and Tony held him. It didn’t feel awkward or uncomfortable. It felt natural to comfort this kid who was upset. Tony looked down at him, smiling a little. Peter was going to be in his life permanently from now on and the thought didn’t scare the living daylight out of him like it would have ten or twenty years ago.

Tony didn’t even think about it when he dropped a kiss on top of Peter’s head.

“You’re okay, buddy,” he patted his back. “You have to talk to someone. You can’t suppress all this until it explodes. I’ll arrange something for you.”

Peter looked up with tear stained face.

“Like a - a therapist?”

“Yeah, a therapist. It’ll be someone I trust, okay? I already know someone. You can tell her everything including your Spiderman activities if you want to. Whatever you tell her, she’ll keep it between the both of you. I should have done this for you a long time ago. My mistake, Pete.”

“Thanks, Mr. Stark. I – I guess I’ll give it a shot.”

Peter didn’t sound convinced although to be fair, when Pepper had suggested a therapist to him years ago, Tony hadn’t been convinced either.

“I see - so that’s the Lego you built with Ned today,” Tony pointed out.

“Yeah,” Peter nodded and Tony finally got a smile out of him.

Tony didn’t immediately leave the room and Peter didn’t look like he was going to fall asleep any time soon so they spent it talking. Tony told him of a restaurant he wanted to take Peter and Pepper to for dinner one day, Peter talked about visiting the Compound to spend time with the Avengers, they talked about the new upcoming school term and getting Peter’s particulars updated and he even asked if giving up Spiderman meant Peter wasn’t keen on helping him around the workshop with Iron Man suit upgrades anymore.

“Of course not, Mr. Stark!” Peter said, appalled. “I’m not against superheroes. Don’t know where you’re getting this idea,” he muttered to which Tony laughed. “I’ll help. I want to.”

When Tony finally stepped out of Peter’s room, he came face to face with Pepper.

“What are you doing up?”

“You didn’t come to bed at all, did you?” she asked, studying him. “I woke up and the bed was empty. F.R.I.D.A.Y told me where you are. I just wanted to make sure everything’s okay. Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know, Pepper,” he admitted truthfully. “We’re working on it.”

“You look exhausted, Tony.”

He could feel the exhaustion in his bones, too. Pepper opened her arms and he readily stepped into her embrace, much like it was with Peter earlier. He let his head fall onto her shoulder, more than content to just stand there outside Peter’s room, safe in Pepper’s warm hug. He inhaled the sweet scent of her shampoo and the familiarity of having her around grounded him.

“Come to bed and tell me what happened?”

“Yeah, okay,” he agreed tiredly.

Tony's learning how to deal with Peter and how to navigate his role as his guardian. How do you think he's doing?

#irondad #spiderson #tony stark #peter parker #iron dad #marvel fics #spiderman #iron man

14 notes · View notes

christinegphillips · 4 years

Text

22 Popular Questions About The Law Of Attraction

I don’t really care what people think or say about the “law of attraction” because whether you think it works or not it definitely has done lots for my life.

The secret to it all however is not to take everything too literally but you should first and foremost have a purpose and meaning in life. With this in mind and you have a plan of what you want to achieve in life then everything will start to make sense.

LOA isn’t simply a process of closing your eyes and manifesting what you want and it just appears before you and that is why a lot of people do not believe in it’s approach. When you use common sense and are a good person, give love, give kindness and do everything you can to live a life with purpose then the law of attraction will step in and provide you with your wants and desires.

The Law Of Attraction – Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric from Pexels

Life really isn’t that hard as long as you follow a few simple rules which I outline below

Don’t let other people control your life. Life your life for you

Don’t let other people’s opinions change the way you think about yourself

Always surround yourself with people that encourage and support you

Work your hardest at all times

Have a plan and an aim in life and follow it through

Smile because you want to, not because you have to

Don’t take things personally

Learn to critique yourself and improve on your habits

Give love, kindness, generosity and help to everyone

Don’t do things you know are wrong and could get in trouble for

Live freely and enjoy life

Reward yourself when you need to

Believe in yourself

If you swear to live by the above rules then you will realize that life does reward you for it. Whether you think it is the cosmic universe, god or whoever that gives these things to you, it doesn’t matter as long as you get off your bum and live a life of happiness for yourself and others.

50 Questions About The Law Of Attraction

What are the 3 laws of attraction? Like attracts like, The present is always perfect, nature abhors a vacuum. My versions of the 3 laws are – Be kind, be generous, be grateful

What does the law of attraction mean? The law of attraction itself is about manifesting your ideal life to the universe and asking it for what you want and not what you don’t want. Most people concentrate on the negatives in life which is why they always seem to keep getting pulled backwards instead of moving forwards. When you see everything in life as simply a lesson it allows you to keep moving forward in life.

How does the law of attraction work? It works by having a positive nature and projecting the good things in your life that you want and you are also grateful for. When you have a plan in life and you can see where you are going the law of attraction will show you how to get there. It is by projecting this path that you have to let the LOA guide you as to the how.

Do you believe in law of attraction? Yes almost definitely, maybe not all components of it but I have manifested plenty of things in my life, from houses, to cars, to my new wife. When you have clarity of mind and thoughts and know what you want, document that want and keep projecting it, you become more noticeable about the things around you. This leads to attraction but you have to do something to get there in first place. As an example I made my ideal wish of the women I wanted in my life, but if I hadn’t have joined an online dating site it is highly likely that I would not have met her in the first place.

Does The Law of Attraction work for love? Yes absolutely as I said above I manifested the image of my perfect lover who is now my wife too. You cannot make someone love you but I was lucky that my wife was also manifesting something similar which happened to bring us together. Write down what your ideal partner looks like, the personality you want and project that in your thoughts in the morning and when you go to bed and most importantly believe that you will meet them.

What are the 7 Laws of the Universe?

The Law of vibration

The law of relativity

The law of cause and effect

The law of polarity

The law of gestation

The law of rhythm

The law of transmutation

How do you use the law of attraction step by step?

Know what you want in life

Be specific about what the want is down to exact details

Give a time when you want this by

Determine what you are willing to do in return

Think about what your life will look like with this item in it

Think what value this item will bring to your life and others

Set a plan on how you think you can achieve it

Manifest and project your image daily

Work everyday towards that goal

Record your actions and rewards and wait

How can I study law of attraction? There is lots of information on the law of attraction itself and there are plenty of books to read too. If you need help living a life of your dreams then check out my transformation program at change your life forever and I will help you will daily videos to get to where you want to be in life.

What is law of attraction in psychology? Psychologists may look at the law of attraction in a similar way to CBT. Whereby you have to try and live a good life and that thoughts are just thoughts. Again I am sure many of them would recommend it and many would poo poo the idea too.

Can you attract someone by thinking about them? Absolutely as mentioned above I wrote down everything I wanted in my partner and very descriptively too. I even said I wanted someone like Wonder Woman and when I met my wife for the first time and told her this, she pulled out her car keys with a Wonder Woman on her key ring. So I know it definitely works, you just have to specific about what you want, visualize it and see them in your life, then take steps to find them.

How do you manifest a relationship with a specific person? This is a hard one because if they are not thinking the same then this may not work. So you should manifest the particular pieces you want in someone and not necessarily a specific person as they could be with someone, be in love with someone else or your not their type. If you concentrate on manifesting someone based on what you want however this is more likely to come to fruition if you follow the above tips.

How long does Law of Attraction take to work? That all depends on how many things you are asking for, how specific you are about your wants, what time frames you requested this to happen. For small things to come, this can happen in a day and normally for big things I have found 1mth to 6mths depending on what I have been manifesting.

Is The Law of Attraction Delusional? To some people yes it is a big pile of mumbo jumbo and that is to be expected as we all have our differing viewpoints on life. If you are willing to put in the effort in life and follow the rules above, there is no reason that it will not work for you.

How do you attract a specific person with mind power? This is all about visualization, so write down exactly in detail what this person looks like, what you like about them, what they should like about you, what value you will bring to each others lives, see yourselves together and keep visualizing daily until you see something working. It might not be that specific person but it will be someone who is very close to your wants and desires.

How do you do a 17 second manifestation? Go somewhere quiet where you can have complete clarity of mind and no disturbances what so ever. Have in mind prior what you want to visualize and bring into your life. Look at a picture or the words of what you want. Close your eyes and see yourself with what you want and how good it makes you feel and then keep on doing it.

How do u make someone miss u? This is a hard question because when you are totally head over heels in love with someone, you cannot stand to be away from them. But if you want someone to miss you can use LOA for that you just have to make them want to come back to you, so love them, give kindess, lots of hugs and make them feel like they are the best person in the World and they will come back to you with a smile on their face.

How can I increase my attraction power? By being consistent is the key to this one. You can’t just project what you want once and expect it to happen. It takes daily manifestation sessions to see what you want, feel it, experience it and do it daily until it comes into your life.

Who discovered the law of attraction? Helena Blavatsky back in 1877 first mentioned it and since then there has been lots of practitioners, Abraham and Ester Hicks, Bob Proctor, Jack Cranfield and Rhonda Bhyrne

How do you write a manifestation list? My list contains of

What is it that I want

Be specific, colour, shape, size etc

When do you want it be

What value will add to your life and others

What are you willing to give in return

How will you feel when you receive it

Enjoy the manifestation journey of visualizing it all

How can I talk to the universe by law of attraction? Go to a quiet place so you have complete clarity of mind. After writing down what you want and your manifestation list, close your eyes relax and give as much time going over how you feel when you obtain your wish. Ask the universe for it and be thankful and grateful that you will receive it.

Why Loa is not working for me? The likely case for this is that you are not being consistent enough and wanting too many things. Concentrate on one thing as the law of attraction does have a habit of delivering what you want quickly when you visualize properly. Also you do have to put your feet on the path, so there is no point wishing for something just to appear. For instance if you want a new car, ask for a pay rise, or apply for better jobs, but you have to make the first step in the first place.

How do you know if manifestation is working? This is why you need to have a plan and also write down what you want in the first place. Then you can refer back and see that actually you did get the things you wanted you just didn’t realize that you had truly manifested them.

So there you have it these are my 22 popular questions about the law of attraction and I hope it gave you a better insight into how it works. Don’t forget to join my transformation program also where I will help you live a happier life.

Take care and best wishes for the future Scott

22 Popular Questions About The Law Of Attraction published first on https://changeurlifeforever.blogspot.com/

#personal development #positivity #self help #confidence #law of attraction

0 notes

marvelandponder · 7 years

Photo

Better Question: Is Dr. Wolf Right?

Some time ago @drwolf001 posted a theory that Sunburst could in fact be a young Starswirl the Bearded. This was in response to a trailer for the season 7 premiere that has since been given more context, but the idea was so fun that it stuck with me. Given that we’ve already had some crazy time travel adventures, we know for a fact this sort of story is possible.

Time Travel Logic

Starswirl’s time spell is the sort that loops. As in, if someone uses the spell, their interference in the past is what leads to the present they came from.

This is called a causal loop (or temporal causality loop which just sounds cooler). It’s where an event is the cause for another event, which itself is the cause for the original event. Yeah... loop is a good word.

We’ve even seen it in action. In It’s About Time, we see Twilight worrying too much because of future Twilight, only to find out that was the problem she went back in time to warn herself about. A causal loop. In this case, a self-fulfilling prophecy (which is a type of causal loop).

But, even in The Cutie Remark, we’re working with the same rules.

It’s thanks to something called the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle. Back in the 1980s, a physicist named Ivan Novikov came up with a bunch of fancy physics principles that (for our purposes) basically boiled down to a simple conclusion: you can’t change the past.

These two ideas go hand in hand in the MLP universe, when you think about it, so here are our hard and fast rules for time travel:

Causal Loop: If you go back in time, your going back is what causes the present you came from (which causes you to go back in time, to cause the present, etc.)

Self-Consistency Principal: You logically cannot change the past that leads to anything except the present you came from

The Butterfly Effect: In the event you do create a change that doesn’t lead to the present you came from, any small change can branch out to have untold consequences temporarily; BUT, don’t worry: because of the self-consistency principle, you logically have to eventually fix things, otherwise you couldn’t have come back in time in the first place (you would be a different person in the first place, different memories)

So, Starlight, Twilight, and Spike eventually standing to the side and not interfering with the past was inevitable in order for them to be who they are. The fact that Starlight’s version of the spell continually brought them back to the past until they got it right seems to indicate that to me.

Starlight also specified that she used the map’s magic to go to any time and place she wants (for as long as she wants, they could apparently exist there “for all eternity”), so in terms of the actual time travel spell itself, she isn’t operating under different rules. Meaning, she hasn’t changed the whole causal loop thing---they still go back in time and reenact what would lead them to the present they came from, it’s just a bigger loop, thanks to some more powerful magic.

So, a character getting trapped back in time and going on to live the rest of their days there is entirely possible. It just means they were supposed to, because it’s another loop. A much bigger loop.

But, beyond all that time travel mumbo-jumbo, we obviously don’t have anything close to confirmation for the Sunburst goes back in time to live out his days as Starswirl theory. It’s theoretically possible in this world, but possible isn’t proof.

But, let’s say, hypothetically, the writers wanted to go down this path. I for one would like to know how they could do it.

Perhaps this is better suited for a fanfiction than an analysis series (and by all means, please go write stories based off of this theory). All the same, let’s treat this as a how it could be done sort of thing, to build on this theory with what’s already established in-universe.

To do that, we’ll need to gather some “evidence” (and again, I use the word with the spirit of fun in mind, there’s nothing conclusive). The first is the time travel spell itself.

Clue #1: The Disappearing Time-Travel Spell

youtube

At the conclusion of The Cutie Remark, we see the nearly ripped time-travel scroll get... somehow mysteriously sucked away.

Now, Starlight said she was the one who designed the spell to take them back to the Rainboom again and again, so this may also be her doing, but it’s unclear what exactly is being done.

It seems to have some kind of shock-wave out, which I guess implies they’re out of the time-loop now, but that doesn’t explain where the scroll ended up.

All we know is the same time portal Twilight, Spike, and Starlight came out of seems to suck the spell up with it. But, not without first taking some magic from the map, which was what allowed the spell to be so powerful.

I’m not sure if that would enchant the parchment itself, giving it the same immense power to travel to any time for as long as the pony using it wants.

But the fact that it disappeared into a time portal, even if it appeared to be the same one they were ejected from, seems like something the writers left for whenever they need it.

Where did it end up? Was it supposed to do that, and if so why? We didn’t see anyone’s magic lifting it toward to portal, but was someone on the other side of that portal waiting? Does someone have the spell now (or better yet, will they)?

Clue #2: Starswirl “never understood friendship like [Twilight]”

In the past, we’ve seen supplementary material portray Starswirl in a variety of different ways. From Celestia and Luna’s point of view in the Journal of the Two Sisters, to his own in Legends of Magic, to a 3rd person, more objectively told story in the Reflections arc.

But in the show, what little we know of him comes from and in relation to Twilight. In particular, a line that always stuck with me.

That he was unable to complete his cutie mark restoration spell because he didn’t understand friendship. At least, not like Twi.

Which is a bit saddening, given that he mentored Luna and Celestia. Luna did end up feeling isolated, so perhaps Starswirl’s lack of expertise in friendship played a role in that.

It seems he was still focused on teaching them magic and writing his many spells. Even if he loved them as students, which I suspect he did given his B-canon portrayals, he evidently didn’t do enough to save them from their fate.

Does Sunburst not understand friendship? He and Starlight have reunited now, but then again, you certainly couldn’t say he’s an expert in friendship (and in the same way Twilight focused on her studies, Sunburst did focus heavily on the study of magic instead of, say, visiting Starlight). He’s still studying magic in the Crystal Empire so he might very well still be a borderline shut-in.

Now that he’s Flurry Heart’s magic adviser, perhaps that’s starting to slowly change. Then again, if Starswirl could not understand friendship and still be Celestia and Luna’s mentor, couldn’t Sunburst theoretically also miss some crucial understanding about friendship while looking after Flurry Heart?

Clue #3: Sunburst’s Talents with Magic Theory and Starswirl’s 200+ Spells

Here’s one of the more compelling coincidences.

Sunburst can’t perform any of the magic theory he’s been studying his whole life, but he’s a damn fine magic theorist. I might even wager a guess that Starlight’s habit of combining spells comes from Sunburst, as that’s something he’s been shown to do in The Crystalling Part 2.

We know for a fact that Starswirl was the “father of the anmiomorphic spell,” “the most important conjurer of the preclassical era,” and that he “created more than 200 spells”... but we don’t actually know if he could perform any of that magic himself.

Now that’s a stretch, but when you think about it, it holds true for just about everything we know about the things Starswirl’s done. Even when Starswirl banished the Sirens to the Equestria Girls dimension, it wasn’t like he made those portals with his own magic, he found them (at least, according to the Reflections arc).

And in Legends of Magic, he seems to know combat magic, but then again, he makes his escape off-screen, so we never see him cast much of anything.

For all we know, Starswirl might be a great wizard, maybe the greatest, but not necessarily a powerful one. His talent lies in writing spells.

Clue #4: Very Important Wizard

Okay, this one’s just neat from a story-telling perspective. We’ve been introduced to Sunburst as someone whose insecure about not being a very important wizard. That’s how we know him, a resourceful but ultimately powerless magician.

If, in fact, he were to turn out to be the most important wizard of them all, even despite his lack of natural talent for magic, that’s just... wonderful, don’t you think? That he found ways to be influential in the magic world despite the handicap of not being able to use magic?

He became the most important wizard of all time, even despite his problems performing magic himself.

Clue # 5: A... Changing Appearance?

Starswirl actually doesn’t have a consistent eye-colour or look at the moment. We’ve seen him with gold eyes, grey, and even purple.

And, most recently blue, in Legends of Magic.

I suppose if we were explaining how Sunburst could turn into Starswirl, his entire coat would have to grey completely (if we’re going with the depictions of Starswirl with a white or grey coat). A pony’s coat can grey in real life, so perhaps it’s possible in this world. Or we could guess that Sunburst would knowingly disguise himself as what he knows Starswirl to look like via some kind of spell, if he had a reason to assume that role.

Speaking of purely cosmetic similarities, I would also like to mention that in a manner of speaking, “Starswirl” and “Sunburst” are kiiiinda synonymous with each other. In the same way the Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, and Starlight Glimmer are supposed to parallel each other, it’s roughly the same name.

A sun is of course a star, and both a burst and swirl suggest an outward projection.

Another neat coincidence, I guess. Just like the fact that both of them wear capes and grow beards.

That’s what we’re left with when theory crafting something like this. Coincidences that can help us imagine fantastical fanfiction, but can’t ultimately take us any closer to knowing who Starswirl the Bearded actually was, whether Sunburst or just pony of a long-gone era.

One thing that still intrigues me, though, is that according to the comics, Starswirl didn’t die. He went missing.

And there are elements in play like his mysteriously vanishing time spell scroll that are available for the MLP staff to act on whenever they so choose.

So, perhaps we’ll never know who Starswirl was, outside of B-canon and the legends we’ve been told thus far. Or, maybe we’ll get to learn who he is someday, and some or all of this will come into play. Who knows? This pony has both a past and a future that’s shrouded in mystery. So much so that this theory is only one of many, and will continue to be until we meet again.

And until that day, I hope to share many more theories together.

MLP content? Sure, I’ve got some of that! Here’s my editorials and my reviews! I’d of course recommend checking out Dr. Wolf on Youtube. And for the heck of it, here’s the last three things I’ve done:

Fluttershy Leans In Review, Forever Filly Review, and New Fluttershy Editorial

Year of the Pony

Special Thanks to...

Original Theory by Dr. Wolf Sunburst Vector by ChainChomp2 Starswirl Cave Background by MysteryMelt

I’m a huge fan of Dr. Wolf, so I loved building off his ideas! If you somehow never have, you’ll thank yourself for checking out his channel. I’d also recommend checking out these talented vector artists! Without their hard work and willingness to share it, I wouldn’t be able to make the headers.

Gotta Get Back, Back to the Past

80 notes · View notes

comicteaparty · 6 years

Text

October 18th, 2018 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on October 18th, 2018, from 5PM - 7PM PDT. The chat focused on The Origin Story by Carolin Reich.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB START!

Good evening, everyone~! This week’s Thursday Book Club is officially beginning! Today we are discussing The Origin Story by Carolin Reich~! (https://tapas.io/series/The-Origin-Story)

Remember that Thursday discussions are completely freeform! However, every 30 minutes I will drop in OPTIONAL discussion questions in case you’d like a bit of a prompt. If you miss out on one of these prompts, you can find them pinned for the chat’s duration. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is fun and respectfully appreciating the comic. All that said, let’s begin!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

one of my favorite scenes is actually really depressing XD but i really like the small part of a scene after cosima beats joreal and velver passes by her looking for her. https://tapas.io/episode/974705 something about the illustration on this page is so expertly crafted. like, you can just take one look and see cosima is in shock and kind of dead instead, and the fact its conveyed in such a brief and brillaint way amazes me.

Superjustinbros

Hi there!

RebelVampire

hey SJ

Superjustinbros

Glad to be here

RebelVampire

feel free to share any scenes that you were found of.

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1182515

Here's a pretty silly one

RebelVampire

yes! i really liked the relationship between chaze and his brother. theyre so different in personality. and you kind of have to wonder what happened in the past that caused his brother to leave home and essentially leave chaze in charge. cause chaze is not exactly whod i was as a king necessarily XD

Superjustinbros

Heehee X3

Pretty much

RebelVampire

did you just like it for the silliness or was there something else?

Superjustinbros

the silliness

RebelVampire

any part of the silliness that particularly entertained you or just the whole package?

Superjustinbros

I'd say the "head shake" bit

RebelVampire

yeah thats definitely a great illustration right there~!

Superjustinbros

Indeed

And giant draco daddy

RebelVampire

yeah i liked how the dragon was treated more like a pest than as a dragon XD

Superjustinbros

Dragon jsut wants his pumpkins for Halloween

RebelVampire

in the meantime, another scene i liked was in the elven court where velver did manipulative mumbo jumbo towards nocturne by playing to her fears on being the proxy for chaos. that was just some beautiful a-ok emotional stake driving right there. though i do wonder how much of it was on purpose or if velver was being a jerk. but i like the fact that i dont know for sure because it keeps velver as a bit enigmatic

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1152958 Ooh, so there's some type of modern tech in this world too?

RebelVampire

ummm, well in that part of the world its just cause cosima brought her phone

Superjustinbros

lol right

RebelVampire

another scene im fond of is when nocturne she tells Chaze "nope you gotta figure out how to get yourself out" after freeing him. Chaze has some really great expressions. But i also like the story itself turns my expectations on their head by having Chaze really actually mostly figure out how to escape himself.

Superjustinbros

Yeah that's a good scene

RebelVampire

speaking of head turns, and not so much a scene, but i like that cosima orchestrated her own escape from the brothel and noped out. like im used to stories where the protagonist misbehaves only a fraction (like explore the brothel after being told no dont do that). but cosima just nopes out of there and heads for home, which is a fitting reaction for someone her age.

Superjustinbros

Yeah.

At least it's appropriate for Cosima's age.

Since I see lots of story make the young characters far more intelligent/capable for someone their age

RebelVampire

yes, so i like that she decided to try and nope after all. granted it backfired as it should have, but still the attempt was made

mathtans

I will be another... 15-20 minutes. FYI.

RebelVampire

kay take your time. well be here but i hope you can make it.

mathtans

I liked the rattling off of "chosen one" artifacts like mascots and silver crystals and then be all, if I don't get those, then nevermind.

Superjustinbros

Oh hey Math(edited)

RebelVampire

oh yeah i forgot about that moment in the larger scheme. but that was a really great moment. and again, kind of a more realistic reaction in a sense. cause i think those sorts of things are what ppl expect if they get told theyre the chosen one.

QUESTION 2. Throughout the comic, Velver seems to be up to his own sorts of goals. What do you think Velver’s goals even are? Are they personal, or is this the will of the supposed Church? What do these goals have to do with manipulating the elves to war with the merpeople? What outcome do you think people are hoping to achieve by starting it? Who is Kader, and what’s their intent with Cosima/Riga? Do you feel Velver is loyal to Kader, or is Velver playing the field to achieve his own ends? Lastly, how does Velver know Jorel, and why did Jorel call Velver a traitor?

i will try and tackle the last one first. i feel as if velver must not have always been part of the church by the fact hes a traitor. instead, he joined the church later when he saw the people he was with were "evil." though personally i feel like jorel's group wants to stop the prophecy a different way versus what the church is up to? but this is mostly based on the fact i cant necessarily picture jorel as part of this so-called church

i could be wrong and its totally opposite and the hunters dont realize velver is a double agent who hates the church

im gonna go out on the limb and say i think velver is playing both fields and trying to decide for himself what the best outcome is. and that while he's doing kader's bidding for now, he ultimately is after something else that makes following kader necessary.

Superjustinbros

I second the "prophecy a different way" part, seems like a possible reason.

RebelVampire

i definitely also feel that kader is definitely for sure evil. cause something about the breaking of strings and velver's reactions makes me pretty sure they're a tyrant. XD which makes me pretty sure that they actually dont care about light beating the dark. they just want cosima's powers to do cool power things. maybe take over a kingdom

actually thatd make sense for why they want the elves and the merpeople to war

let the elves and the merpeople tire themselves out

then swoop in with cosima/riga saying "were here to take over"

insta win

Superjustinbros

I mean who doesn't want to rule over a kingdom

mathtans

Okaaaay, hiiii. Busy week, didn't get all the way through "Destiny", but very impressed by the German origins here. Gonna scroll up and make random remarks now.

Re: The scene after the dead parents, yeah, that whole section somehow rang really true, the whole "my parents will be so annoyed I don't want to have to deal" morphing into the "what is even my life now". Also, kudos on illustrations in general.

RebelVampire

yeah. i like that it continues as well to when cosima got caught by the hunters. and she just sits there like "what is life what do i do"

mathtans

I'm not at the brother scene yet. ^.^ Did not expect the dragon thing. I wonder how people who do the swimming/water thing end up with dragons, that we associate with the air.

Yeah. I mean, not only are your parents dead, you come face to face with their killer. Yipes.

Yeah, Cosima's portrayed well as a teenager.

RebelVampire

i did wonder that too. we havent seen the merpeople yet in the sense of their city, so maybe they actually live above water unlike all past precedent merpeople or something

i did think it was ironic

but i also thought it was ironic anyway cause how does chaze of all ppl have a dragon XD

mathtans

Velver's an interesting cookie. Joining up later makes sense, particularly if that made him a "traitor" to some. I feel like he's his own agent, rather than working for anyone else... not necessarily that he's trying to engineer the best outcome either, just that he thinks he has some role to play, prophecy wise.

Superjustinbros

I wonder what the merpeople even look like

unless they already appeared and I jsut missed it

mathtans

Seahorses are called dragons of the sea, right? Maybe that's how they hatch.

RebelVampire

chaze is a mer person

Superjustinbros

ooh

RebelVampire

as is his brother XD

Superjustinbros

Okay then X3

RebelVampire

and i guess thats possible if the dragons are secretly just sea horses

mathtans

I think Velver's been reading the ancient runes. I also have my own crazy theory...

Namely that which one of them is good/order or evil/chaos hasn't necessarily been decided yet. Velver's pegging Cosima for the former, but it could be the other girl, so he's goading her too.

RebelVampire

oh thats a really good theory. that either one is capable. cause i mean tbf chaos doesnt have to be evil nor does order have to be good

mathtans

It's like, "I'm going to start a war, and let's see which of them handles it better".

Superjustinbros

lel

mathtans

It also might explain why Jorel wanted Cosima dead, he (or others of his kind) have pegged her as the chaotic one.

RebelVampire

could be

tbf maybe jorel wasnt even ordered to kill cosima

maybe hes just like velver and think he has his own role to play

Superjustinbros

Maybe so

RebelVampire

and he chose the psycho role

mathtans

Could be. I'm not sure I totally buy he's a psycho though... he's strangely ordered in his thinking. It's like, I gotta do this, and this, and tie up loose ends. He just, I dunno, has no soul?

(Maybe that's the same thing.)

RebelVampire

i mostly label him psycho cause he heartlessly killed her parents XD

mathtans

OH, hmmmm... what if Velver and Jorel were originally the rebirth of order and chaos, and they messed it up, so now it's up to the women? How old are they anyway?

Rebel: Fair.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. Many of the events of the comic come about for one reason: Cosima and Nocturne are destined to fight according to a prophecy and past precedence of their past selves. Do you think The Origin Story about Riga and her sister is true, or do you think there’s some critical information missing from it? Do you believe the prophecy is destined to come to pass, or are Cosima and Nocturne going to find a way to avoid fighting each other? Why do you think Cosima was kidnapped as a child but not Nocturne? In present times, what do you think will happen when Cosima catches up with Nocturne? Do you think Cosima will learn to control her powers inherited from Riga better, or will they ultimately be her undoing? What about Nocturne? Will she overcome her own issues regarding the prophecy?

i dont think that old. but i mean i guess its possible. though they must of messed up real bad cause neither velver or jorel killed each other.

so im saying it now cause of that flashback cosima had at some point (which i dont remember where). i think this is one of those situations where what ppl believe is a lie. someone else hurt riga and someone kept turning the new incarnations against each other. and eventually it devolved into a myth and such, as myths tend to do

mathtans

Well, the killing each other is just how things are now, once it's all escalated. ^.^

There's probably key missing information... maybe they're actually TRIPLETS.

RebelVampire

dun dun dun without the 3rd sister there are no negotians. jsut blind filled rage

mathtans

Yeah, there has been some interesting flashback/imagery stuff. Like when she reached for someone, and the image shattered and it was Velver (if memory serves).

I wonder if Cosima's friends have a role to play too. Maybe in a big twist, it was really one of them.

RebelVampire

they definitely have a role to play. they are suspicious af, though idk if you got to that part yet

mathtans

Ahh, if they appear in "Destiny" then no. I only got to the bit after Velver and Jorel talked. (I feel like they're related, incidentally.)

Speaking of though, the plot has been very clever in rolling out it's cast. Gradual enough to come to terms with each new character, but teasing others that end up with bigger roles later on. I'm reminded of an early scene when Velver was spying on Cosima - and Nocturne was spying on him. Layers.

RebelVampire

yeah i really like the pacing on it too. i dont have to spend an immense time memorizing a billion names at once.

Superjustinbros

At least the names aren't too hard to memorize.

mathtans

I'm still horrible with names. It's a gift.

I imagine it scans differently too when you're seeing it as it comes out versus binging, but I felt like the pacing was done well for the cast.

Superjustinbros

i feel ya Math (edited)

RebelVampire

on the side topic of nocturne, i feel like left to their own devices she and cosima wouldn't fight it out to the death. instead theyd be all sister bondy bond, have some tea, etc. so i think for sure its not they themselves who bring the prophecy to pass, its the plans of others who try to grab at the power and turn them on each other. but i also think cosima and nocturne will be obstinate and keep hugging each other screaming no

mathtans

I'm not so sure about that. Mainly because they might not always have control over their bodies. Like when Cosima went crazy on Jorel for self preservation. Could happen again with unintended consequences.

Nocturne probably also resents Cosima for growing up without so much responsibility, maybe also for having actual parents who aren't apparently trapped in crystals.

(...is reading a bit further in the background btw...)

RebelVampire

idk if nocturne would resent cosima for it. cause i mean, at least nocturne's parents are still probably alive in their crystals and werent viciously murdered. though youre right that riga may have other ideas about their bonding and just take over. but then again riga seems to know what velver is up to so riga might not act either.

the bigger danger on seeing nocturne i think is seeing the queen of elves

cause shes the one who might not take kindly to cosima XD

mathtans

Well, yeah, once Nocturne learns of the murdering that might change things. ^.^ There's a lot of variables in play I suppose.

That said, I will willingly ship Nocturne with Cosima's friends.

RebelVampire

LOL i dont think i can get behind that ship. mostly cause i expect cosima's friends to die. :"D

mathtans

That light haired girl is kind of precious though, with her theories.

I wonder what she'd make of seeing the town.... ... and now I'm picturing her at the brothel, I shouldn't do that.

Also, shipping all the girls in the brothel.

RebelVampire

yes those are more acceptable ships. the brothel girls are probably safe. and head brothel girl has a whip.

also i found it, that scene with cosima's friends being super suspicious. it was actually in puppeter

https://tapas.io/episode/915705

mathtans

Right, the fact that they knew Jorel. I thought that was weird.

It's fine though, I'll still ship them with each other! All the ships!

RebelVampire

yeah. whatever organization jorel is from theyre clearly from

QUESTION 4. Among the larger threads rests a plethora of other possible curiosities to be solved. Who exactly were Cosima’s parents? Were they working for someone from the beginning, or did they somehow get wrapped up in everything? Who are Cosima’s friends considering they lament that their comfortable lives have changed since Cosima left? Who is Jorel, and why are his orders to kill Cosima? What is the deal with the elves trapped in crystals? As far as the plot goes, how might the Hunters affect what’s going on in general? What about Chaze? Will he be able to stop the war, or is his destiny meant to be something greater than that? In general, what are your theories for the future? What do you think or want to see happen?

mathtans

Are they from that organization though? Because if so, they know where Cosima is. Why bother sending Jorel.

RebelVampire

i think jorel is more firmly acting on his own

since the friends didnt know of any death order

mathtans

He was saying he couldn't go back without being sure she was dead though, or someone would be upset.

I think.

RebelVampire

so maybe the friends didnt get the message? and theyre going to show up going wtf guys

mathtans

Holy Hannah! Kader's more psychotic than Jorel, she doesn't even kill directly. (Just got caught up.) Like geeeeeez.

Rebel: Maybe. There was the implication that they could return as well.

I suspects events will prevent that, but they thought it was an option.

RebelVampire

maybe. idk. i need more data in this case. i still think jorel is working more on his own though. cause maybe the person who was gonna be upset is actually gonna be upset regardless. and be like wtf jorel why did you kill riga you dolt

but yeah kader is psychotic, or at the very least tyrannical

velver did not necessarily make a good switch

i really want to know whats up with the elves in the crystals. like was there a spell that backfired and the queen just doesnt care O_O

mathtans

Maybe, yeah... also that mention of having the same problem in another 10 years makes me think once again that if the battle doesn't happen the spirits move on again. Or something.

Yeah, maybe the elves in the crystals had a disease? So it's like suspended animation? Because it was mentioned that there were fewer elves than merfolk.

Or maybe they just couldn't make enough food for the city, so this means fewer mouths to feed. Swords apparently grow in the crystals, but I guess vegetables don't.

RebelVampire

maybe it is a disease. or maybe this is actually why riga was kidnapped. cause riga caused it and jorel's group was like "welp we found riga. did you see that giant crystal explosion?"

im not sure what mention youre talking about with the 10 years thing tho

i must of missed it

mathtans

The most recent update. Third panel from the end.

Riga likes making crystals. Everyone needs a hobby.

RebelVampire

hmmm from the phrasing i feel like the implication is more that nocturne will kill riga? and kader will have to wait a decade for riga to be reborn again so they have to restart the kidnapping process. but i could be wrong.

mathtans

As to the future, I really don't think I can call it. Too many moving pieces. I also wonder a bit if maybe the Circle's hiding elements of the prophecy, accidentally or otherwise.

Ahh, I see... no, that's possible. Doesn't necessarily negate the Velver/Jorel reincarnation issue though, maybe the host doesn't need to die.

(Yes, I'm back to that theory.)

RebelVampire

its a possible theory. though like i say theyd really have to mess it up for this to be a thing. i do think parts of the prophecy are hidden

though maybe its a bit of both

in that theyre purposefully hiding some of it

but then theres parts that they just missed

and are gonna go through their archives and go "oops"

mathtans

It was censored by the clerics.

Incidentally, just want to shout-out here too for the translator. I noticed the comic's originally in German, and gets translated. Can't be simple coming up with the terms like for the "virtual loop" forest.

(Maybe the original German prophecy got translated so many times it's being misinterpreted. )

RebelVampire

i am curious what the original german says now XD

mathtans

I can't speak German. They have neat words for things though.

Okay, final theory. In a massive plot twist, Cosima's cat app saves the day. All the outside world needed was technologies to unify the different groups.

Oh! And shout-out to some of the fun cartoony poses. I feel like those would be fun to draw. (Or maybe not draw, but see once drawn?)

RebelVampire

haha i did kind of hope it would go that way tbh. that by the end the worlds recombine and they figure out that technology is awesome and puts less pressure on the whole magic business.

so i mean if cosima's cat app requires this to happen, so be it

mathtans

I wonder if there's anywhere for her phone to charge. Or if she can use magic for that.

RebelVampire

i wonder if vampire guy we saw briefly who seemed to be from cosima's world has the cat app

that would be hilarious. has all these great goddess powers, uses them to recharge her phone

mathtans

It's the simple things in life sometimes.

RebelVampire

well if cosima visits the brothel again, she cant disappoint. theyll want to see that cat app again

mathtans

Yis. That will be after the Origin Story... the Sequel Story.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB END!

Sadly, this wraps up this week’s Thursday Book Club chat for now. Thank you so much to everyone for reading and joining us! We want to give a special thank you to Carolin Reich, as well, for making The Origin Story. If you liked the comic, make sure to support Carolin Reich’s efforts however you’re able to~!

Read and Comment: https://tapas.io/series/The-Origin-Story

Carolin Reich’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/CarolinReich

Carolin Reich’s Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/A212D0X

Carolin Reich’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ensyis

Comic Tea Party- Thursday Book Club

Next week’s Thursday Book Club will be about A Drift of Souls by Davpow. For participants, you have the next week to read as much of the comic as you would like~! We hope to see you on Thursday, October 25th, from 5PM to 7PM PDT for the chat in #thursday_bookclub!

Comic’s Main Site: https://adriftofsouls.com/

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #bookclub #book club #webcomic bookclub #webcomic book club #comic tea party #ctp #the origin story #carolin reich

0 notes