#i have plans for it in the new timeline i just don't have the solid foundation of 'how old is this fucking place'
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Man it's been a long time since I've done an ask cluster! Let's see if I can get some down...
He's an extremely fun character to write for and play with! So in that sense I'm fond of him, haha. He's such a huge disaster of a person, there's always something fun to do with him. Well "fun" in a relative sense.
I don't have anything to forgive him for, he didn't hurt me. |D He hurt the brothers!
I do have an idea for a cute feature inspired by Six-Eared Macaque! I should really sit down and do that already... and finish the one I half started but never finished...
I don't think my opinion on any of them changed! I love them all, haha. Which ones I drew comics about just depends on which ones I get ideas for really. Sometimes I get Alphys ideas and sometimes I get Goatparents ideas! Inspiration is fickle!
I don't have any solid plans or anything. :B Just gonna keep chugging along with silly comics and art! Work on Defrag and such. I'd like to finish a Ladyverse comic I've had lying around forever, and I had vague plans for doing a doujin for them too I could work on... and also seeing if I could format Handplates into a book format... I've always got a bunch of projects, haha.
It works on that level! It wasn't intentional though. |D
I do enjoy speculation! I don't really have much of my own though, I didn't predict anything in chapter 2 so now I'm assuming I can't predict anything in the future chapters either, haha.
Emesis Blue is great! Some really beautiful visuals in there, very striking! Love the mood of it too and a lot of the surreal imagery. I think it helped spur me back into TF2 again, haha. Medic and Scout's relationship was so cute.
I have thought about this! It has its share of challenges though... I outlined them more in this post. A pdf would be more doable though... could even include some extra stuff as well! Hmm...
I can see that! He'd probably spend as much time out in the rain as he could just doing whatever to stay outside.
It was pretty much always going to end like that. I always wanted it to end on a hopeful note! Which might seem weird with how dark it is at the beginning. I DID for a brief period at the very beginning of Handplates think about stopping with the Pacifist run, but that was only because I thought going where I wanted to go would take too long and already the project seemed so dauntingly huge at the time, haha. But it was always going to end in a positive way!
Gaster talks about what he originally intended to create here, and he explains a bit about the physical experiments he runs on the brothers here. They aren't really a solution in and of themselves so much as tools to try and find a way to break the barrier. Really though, Gaster got stuck in the sunk-cost fallacy lol.
I don't really have opinions about what canon Gaster would be like. |D Handplates Gaster is his own thing really. Canon Gaster, who knows! Deltarune Gaster, who knows! I will say I hope Gaster stays a mystery in Deltarune and never actually shows up but I think the odds of that are really low at this point.
I thought about doing a script along those lines! I did a few rough drafts of one, but it never really went anywhere... it'd end up dead-ending or kind of meandering off. I might see if I can get an actual script down for a side-comic or something in the future... it might be better suited for a fic.
I was just thinking about this lately! I was picturing Gaster totally forgetting about that until he sees Papyrus squinting and is like OH GOD YOUR EYES THAT'S RIGHT D: and goes to get him looked at lol.
I couldn't come up with a good idea for Flowey which is a shame, I do like him, haha. If one comes to me though I might make a little side comic about it!
Gaster's LV is complicated... his stats in-game are ludicrous if I recall correctly. Did he carry the damage from his murders into the void, even if those murders weren't his in the new timeline? Deep thoughts.
He fed them anything he could find, haha. Which is why sometimes they just ended up with chocolate bars (which he intended as dinner for himself). He probably fed them more often than he fed himself lol. He did feed them fairly regularly though.
Not about skeletons, probably. |D
Man I know I had an explanation for this but it was so long ago... it's hard for me to remember. It could be that the Riverperson is just weird and has weird insight into elements of things, had a prophetic dream... I don't know! It bugs me now that I can't remember this, haha.
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Catreig AU Snippet
so @crownorclover shared some sketch art here that features catreig! so i thought it only fair i share a snippet from the au! it's about 16k now and i think i'm roughly 70% done with it? the core concept is that reigen gets a ranma 1/2 style curse where cold water turns him into a cat and hot water turns him back. when he gets the curse serizawa is there but doesnt see him actually get cursed, so this adorable orange cat just starts meowing at him and obvs he's gonna pet it, right?
the context for this scene: serizawa is holding this v nice, if loud, orange cat he found against his chest. the client theyre working for knows EXACTLY what has happened and is trying to convince serizawa that his boss left the job site already to go back to the office and he should go too.
“Something doesn’t seem right, Kitty-san. Why would Reigen leave before a job was done? Before he got paid? That’s not like him.”
Thank you!
“And why would he pay for two cabs to go to the same place? That’s a waste of money. Reigen doesn’t like wasting money.”
Exactly!
“He won’t even let us get a new kettle for the office.”
Wh— His tail smacked against Serizawa’s arm. The one they had was perfectly fine! Sometimes it shut off before it actually finished boiling. And sometimes it didn’t turn on at all. But when it did it worked fine! Mostly.
“What if something happened to him? I left him alone in the garden…”
Well something did happen but that was hardly his fault.
“I don’t feel comfortable leaving…”
No. No leaving was good. Shit. How was he supposed to convince Serizawa to leave when everything was so clearly suspicious?
The owner returned from the back gardens, “No sign of your boss, I’m afraid.”
“Oh…”
“But I did find his phone. He must have dropped it in his hurry.”
Serizawa stared at the offered phone. Reigen stared up at his face. Everything in his demeanor had shifted from anxious and worried to …angry? He marched past the owner, heading toward the back gardens, “REIGEN!”
“I—I told you,” the owner said as she followed behind, “he already left!”
“And left his phone? On the ground? Where did you find it?”
“Oh by the one of the ponds. But he left—“
He rounded on her, “Which pond?”
She pointed a shaky hand in the direction of the Drowned Cat pool and Serizawa took off.
Hey… Katsuya, I’m okay. It’s okay. “…mreow.”
“If something’s happened to him I…” Serizawa searched the nearby area of the pool, still clutching Reigen in his arms. “ARATAKA!”
tadaaaa!
hoping to finish this one soon-ish so i can start posting it!
(don't worry, gaymer au is also still happening. i'm at 30k with that one and... looking at the timeline i'd say that's a solid... 20% of what's planned to happen. that au has a life of its own y'all it's. massive.)
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Cassette Beasts?
Cassette Beasts is a creature-collecting game by Bytten Studio! Record monsters on tapes, become a Ranger, and find the way off of New Wirral in this amazing adventure!
Spoilers below the cut!!
So I had a plan to write this review before I even finished the game. It was just that good. But! I managed to hold off until I at least finished the main game. Next goal: 100% and DLC! And also buying the OST when I have the chance.
Now, I'm not putting this off until the middle of the review: every musical track in this game is a certified banger. I absolutely loved the music of the game. As one person put it (while I was looking for the OST), I just didn't get tired of the music. And that's a pretty big win for a game where you have so, so many encounters and only a handful of tracks to play.
youtube
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The way they implement the music is also impressive because it's narratively important. The lyrics work their way in when a fusion happens and during big story battles. The town theme's music plays when you're indoors. Plus the lyrics just feel right with its tones and atmosphere. Also the difference between the few main battle themes is just enough for one to feel more tense/exciting than the others. Just an overall great thing they have going on with the audio.
Okay with that out of the way!
Cassette Beasts is a solid game, actually pretty high tier.
Mechanically, I've seen people compare it to Pokemon. I feel like it's like a mix of Pokemon and Persona. You can record the monsters, remaster (evolve) them at five stars, with some having having special evolution requirements. Monsters can show up as bootlegs, where they're a type other than its base type, which is just like shiny hunting but more (cause there's like 12 types). And I've already killed a plastic bootleg by accident...
The moves (stickers) are mix and match, mostly according to typing. I'm pretty into it cause I love giving my party members all sorts of type coverage. I haven't particularly gone into finding weird strategies yet other than AP Refund, but I can see some cool ones thanks to needing to battle all 12 Ranger Captains.
And then you can fuse! Which I thought was interesting, and it adds an ace to go to when you're in a pinch. But you fusing means that wild monsters (and other rangers) can fuse too. Those provide some fun challenges and opportunities to find bootlegs, plus progression in post-game.
Did I mention that this game is also like a Metroidvania? Capturing certain monsters gives up to 6 overworld movement abilities and I think that's pretty neat. All of them have their uses and none of them are niche, which is a win.
The story was pretty interesting! Dropping in onto a mysterious island and trying to find a way back home is nice and simple and all the detail added around it make it engaging. The Archangels are wildly uncomfortable which I didn't expect and I loved it. Despite loving it, it still did come out of nowhere but greatly forgiven because it was right at the start (and not some random turn in the middle).
The pacing was a bit off for me though because I got like 5 out of 8 song pieces before I even defeated 4 captains or even met all the partner characters. I also don't know how relationship progress works other than fight things and rest. Thinking about it now, there's probably a reason why there a speedrun timer in that you don't have to play through all the content (8/9 archangels, no captains?), I guess.
I liked the references to all sorts of topics throughout the story and I think it's pretty interesting for the characters to be from different timelines. It makes it easy to explain weird inconsistencies.
Funny thing I did by accident for end game's story: I switched out Meredith's Regensea with an Aeroboros cause I wanted her starter in my party. And boy did that choice bite back later lol.
Graphics are also solid. The 3D world with 2D sprites reminds me of Octopath Traveller. I appreciate the non-pixel portrait art for the characters, but I would've liked it either way. The designs of the monsters and the characters are all great! Honestly, I should take some notes from them since even if there's 15+ characters, they still all have very specific designs and personalities to match.
The detail in the world is great too, like the light reflecting off the puddle or the fog that rolls in and the rain. So like weather in general.
Also, as a note just for me, I liked the fonts and font effects that they used. Very cool.
Cassette Beasts is a quality creature-collecting game! If you need another Pokemon/Digimon/Persona, here's a game for you. Or if you just want a cool turn-based RPG with cool music, that's cool too.
As always,
Enjoy gaming!
#ink reviews#game review#video games#gaming#Cassette Beasts#love that you could see exactly when in my playthrough I took these screenshots cause the speedrun timer is on
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tell us about the tlok gen 2 kids
ask and you shall receive!!!! making fankids is such an obsession of mine lol
so i have futures and kids planned out for pretty much everyone, but i'll just go over the main krew ships + kainora for now. and i'll try to keep it kind of brief but i have So Many thoughts about them so we'll see if i'm successful. i have like. an entire labelled timeline. it's wild
under a cut because this got so long holy crap
the easiest to start with is the bopal kids. they get married a couple years after the end of tlok and start having kids pretty soon after. they end up with four kids (somewhat considering adding a fifth but we'll see. there's already so many ocs)
their eldest is jade, who is an earthbender. then they have a pair of identical twin boys, named san and goji. san is named after bolin's father. san is an airbender, goji is an earthbender. their fourth child is a girl named tempa, who is an airbender. she actually ends up becoming blind later in life. not whatever toph had, as she was born seeing, but she had some degenerative disease that slowly took her eyesight. she actually ends up developing a technique similar to seismic sense, but with airbending, to help her get around! she keeps her head fully shaved so she can always feel vibrations in the air
the next up to have kids is, surprisingly, kai and jinora. this was not intentional on their part. but they've been dating since they were like 12-13, so i honestly don't think it's much of a stretch that they would end up becoming parents as teenagers. pema and tenzin are a bit upset that their daughter got pregnant at 17, but at this point they've accepted kai into the family, and they respect the young couple's decision to keep and raise the baby
and then after they have their first baby, they decide that they're going to hold off on getting married until their family is complete, so all their kids can be a part of the wedding. like bolin and opal, they end up having four kids as well. all of them are airbenders. their first born is a boy named sangye, second is another boy named tadashi, third is a girl named zaya, and fourth is a girl named tara. it's the jinora and tenzin parallels for me lol. two boys, two girls, four airbenders. despite their young age they are very good parents
then we have the korrasami babies. they have the smallest family, with just two kids. i did some research and as it turns out, sperm donation/artificial insemination procedures were a thing in the 1920s. of course they were WILDLY unethical at the time but hey, they did exist. this is how they end up with their kids. mako is the donor, which i know some people may find that weird but mako is their best friend, i feel like they would rather have a donor that they know and trust than just. some random guy
korra is pregnant with their first baby, who they name katara. she's a waterbender. asami is pregnant with their second baby, a little boy they name hiro, after asami's dad. hiro is a nonbender. they are literally the best moms ever <3
and last but not least, we have wuko's kids. for the longest time they are the cool, childless gay uncles. i think they're both really good with kids, but neither are ready to be parents for a long time. not to mention in my timeline it takes a solid ten years for wu to get the new democratic earth kingdom up and running smoothly enough that he can abdicate. and even after he abdicates and he and mako get married, they're still unsure about kids for a few more years. when they do decide to have kids, they both for sure want to adopt. i have a whole separate post i could make about mako quitting the police force to become a social worker and opening up a youth shelter. but he knows he wants to help out kids, so hopefully none suffer the way he and bolin did. wu does not want to have any bio kids, as he wants the royal bloodline to end with him so there is no possible claim to any kind of throne
but then korra and asami are like 'hey, if you guys want a baby, we're cool with helping out' because i mean mako already helped them have their family, they can do the same for him and wu. and since they're offering, mako and wu decide to take them up on it. korra ends up being a surrogate for them, and they welcome a little baby girl that they name naoki, for mako's mom
then, soon after naoki is born, they end up finding a trio of very young sisters out on the streets. their mother passed away, their father walked out on them, and they have no other family. the eldest girl is only 8 years old. when mako meets her it feels like he's looking into a window at his past self. the girls are very frightened, but mako and wu are able to earn their trust enough to help them out. and in the process of caring for them, they end up totally falling in love with these kids. they ask them if they want to be adopted. all three say yes
the girls are named kasumi, ryoko, and hikari. all three are firebenders. naoki also ends up being a firebender. there's so many firebenders in the wuko house. i'm also spreading my girldad mako agenda. him and wu taking these girls in and giving them a family is actually super emotionally healing for him. he's able to make sure another set of siblings out on the steet has a family
anyway that's a very basic rundown!! i love chatting about my next gen kiddos so so much so thanks for asking! and of course if anyone has any questions about specific kids or families please feel free to ask!!!
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Hello! It is me again, Bali! With another idea! I read in another blog something about reader been a fugitive! So what would it be your opinion iF—
Reader became a wanderer in Sumeru? Let's make it some angst an put that they are already dating the boys! (Cyno and Tighnari) Reader knows that Cyno has to probably hunt them down (the reason about them being hunt them down it could probably be because they know some dark secret about the Akademy that even Cyno nor Tighnari have any idea?) Or—
SPOILERS FOR THE STORY QUEST OF SUMERU!
————
Maybe they know a way to get out Nahida from the sanctuary? That they came in contact with them or maybe even gain a vision while something happen when they wanted to help their archon! (It could be a fight that almost made them lost their life?) And maybe Nahida even possessing their body so they can get out of Sumeru safe?
———
How do you imagine their reaction? From both guys? I feel like reader wouldn't want to tell anything to them because that would make them involved? Or maybe they would just try to run away before they can even question her about it? THE POSSIBILITY ARE A LOT!
Oh fugitive reader! Alright there's a lot of things going on here so I need to collect my thoughts properly - cuz my hc for the poly cynonari reader is that they're actually from Mondstadt, but it would be a sucky answer if I just say they ran off to Mond hmm
And and it also depends on WHEN this happened, because it would change if this was before Cyno exiled himself or during the time the desert gang is planning to free Nahida hmm
Let's go first with Before Exile Timeline/Present Timeline:
When Cyno was given the task to retrieve you, he doesn't know if the sages were truly blind to know your relationship, or this was a cruel torture they intentionally gave him. He's in the dark for the most part, no matter how much he tries to probe he was not given a solid answer as to why you're wanted, only that it was too confidential and that they need you for interrogation.
The walk to Ghandarva Ville was slow and painful, what with his heart beating strongly against his chest, his stomach twisting and turning from the dread of the predicament he was in. He was so close to overthinking, and no matter how hard he forced himself to be neutral about this as the General Mahamatra, Cyno was still gunning on the fact that there was a misunderstanding.
Tighnari only needed one look at Cyno to see that something is terribly wrong when he entered his hut without so much as a greeting. His lover looked utterly broken and on the brink of breaking down, the stress emanating from him also touching him, the fur on his tail and ears standing in attention as if his fight or flight response was triggered.
When Cyno broke the news, that he was here to arrest you, the both of them got into an argument. Tighnari was desperately fighting for your case, that the Akademiya was wrong, that you were just an adventurer without a single bad bone in your body. "Think about this more, Cyno, don't you trust our (Y/N)?" He was almost pleading, trying to break the General Mahamatra's one track mind when it comes to his work.
"Tighnari, when did you last see them?" And there was a pregnant pause in between as the situation became heavier. You had been gone for two weeks now, which wouldn't be unusual if not for the fact that you didn't inform them beforehand. But if something was wrong, why wouldn't you tell them? Or at least Tighnari, who had been transparent about his detachment from the Akademiya.
Now they're both battling with their own internal conflicts. Cyno overwhelmed by his fair judgment as his heart tries to reason with him, and Tighnari with his solid faith being countered by his rational mind. At some point, they work behind each other's backs to look for you so that things can be clearer.
You best hope your Forest Watcher boyfriend finds you first, because Cyno will be harder to persuade with his heart already filled with thoughts of your betrayal.
After Cyno's Exile and Tighnari's Findings about the God Project:
In this one, Cyno and Tighnari work together to try and find you, if you're not already trying to find a way to look for them to relay the information.
They don't know the exact details but they were aware that the Eremites were tasked to haunt you down, by the orders of the Sages or Dottore. After hearing the latter enemy after knowing what damage the Harbinger had done to Collei, the both of them are quick to 'dispose' the mercenaries every chance they get. If you don't want to be found, the least they could do is make sure no one does.
They're plagued of stress daily from overthinking about your situation. Did you get caught? What if you're not safe where you're hiding? Are you still in Sumeru? Are you with people that are helping or secretly sold you out already? These thoughts keep them up at night, and so they use those times to scour the forest and desert respectively for any signs of your presence.
If they do find you or you find them eventually, they'll openly break down into tears as they pull you into a tight hug, a series of why's and where's brokenly repeating in between sobs. Why didn't you tell them you were in danger? Where did you go? Why would you hide this from them?
They were prepared for the worst and seeing you alive (and hopefully well) made them crumble in nothing but relief. You're not the best fighter in comparison nor the best stamina despite your occupation. If they see wounds, scrapes, signs of sickness, fatigue, and even slight weight loss, they'll tend to you with shaky hands and misty eyes. (Even worse if the fight for their life had also happened)
You don't know how scared they were, but they'll make sure you're safe with them now. Even if you insist to leave after exchanging information, they would force you to be with them. Sages, Akademiya, Eremites, Harbingers be damned - the forest can burn so long as they can keep you safe from harm's way.
New banner! Specifically for poly cynonari in the context of Chase The Mirage ™
#bali#exile.circlet#exile.goblet#poly cynonari#cyno#tighnari#exile.reader#sumeru arc#good soup good soup#cyno x reader#tighnari x reader
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Hey, Red, I wanted to ask your insight on one thing about comic writing yet again
How do you write "serialized" media in comparison to traditional writing? Like, people often say that "your first draft will be bad, so you have to get back to it and revise at some point", but, like, for media released periodically, like webcomics, it's much harder to do, unless you write down the entire story beforehand in a lot of detail, and revise *that* instead, and only start drawing after like third or fourth edition of the script.
But, like, I assume that, beyond basic outline, some cool scenes in the middle, and the ending, there is only so much planning you can viably do. How do you handle it? Do you sometimes have to draw a page without knowing yet what will happen five pages later? How do you balance between leaving yourself the freedom to alter things (and also free time not spent on writing a novel before transforming it into a comic) and having a good written story, with themes and foreshadowing and stuff?
It's certainly different than traditional writing, because progress becomes a rolling, iterative thing rather than full draft passes.
What I have is a many-pronged approach that gets more detailed the farther in it goes:
The toolbox. This is a big pile of characters, subplot concepts and plothooks I add to whenever I think of something new and fun. When I'm building out a new arc from scratch, this is what I draw on.
The roadmap. This is a rough plan for the overall shape of the story - I know where the characters start and where they end, and I have a rough idea of waypoints they'll hit along the way. I have one of these for the story as a whole, with each "waypoint" basically being a rough-draft concept for the premise of a single arc. To give an idea of the level of specificity, the "waypoint" for this first arc was literally just "getting the gang together." It was the one thing I needed to have happen. On a smaller scale, individual sub-arcs have more detailed roadmaps of their own, but they mostly fit the format of "characters arrive in location A -> characters fight bossfight B" with the rest fleshed out in between.
The checklist. This is the specific list of "things I need to happen in this specific substory," aka the waypoints on the smaller-scale roadmaps. It gets fleshed out as the actual story gets closer to it and specific character arcs take turns I might not have been able to anticipate. This is close to a timeline, but it's more flexible, as at this stage it's okay to shuffle around the order of things - in fact I almost never make solid linear timelines of events, because sometimes I split the party and things happen at their own pace. In these cases I just set waypoints for when different sub-timelines will intersect - at what point in the conversation will the large flashy thing interrupt, at what stage in the fight will the cavalry arrive, etc. I just need to be sure to hit all the important parts. I'll know a story is ready to turn into a storyboard once I have every important detail nailed down - what specific sticking points will come up in the character conflict, what hidden threat is going to be in the environment they enter so I can set it up correctly, what conclusion will a character come to and how will they want to proceed, etc.
The solid storyboard. This is what I turn into finalized pages, and I work several chapters ahead to make sure I have the rhythm of the story. Once it's down on paper it generally doesn't change much, though specifics of dialogue can be reworked right up to the export. This is linear progress, and it usually happens in very discrete bursts. I don't storyboard something until I know exactly what is happening in this specific scene, where they're going, where it'll end and what it's setting up for later. Sometimes I get stuck on a single panel because I'm not sure which choice a character will make, and then when I come back to it I set down that panel and like five more pages flow out afterwards. Sometimes I'll just reread all my storyboards up to the current endpoint, take a nap, then wake up knowing exactly what to put on the next panel. Sometimes I'll do a reread and tweak the dialogue at several points because the first draft I wrote doesn't sound good to me anymore. This is where I do the bulk of the work that traditional media would do in the second draft.
In order to avoid rewrites - because in serialized media, rewrites are very bad - I frontload as much of that work as I can. I don't start the storyboard until I know all the relevant details of the scene's setup, so I don't end up retconning anything important. If there's a specific hidden enemy in the environment, I want to foreshadow it accurately, so before I draw the area it's in I want to know exactly what it looks like and where it could be hiding. If they're in a facility designed for a specific thing, I want to know exactly what that thing is so the clues and details line up. If I've reached the start of an argument, I want to know what is going to end it before I draw the first panel.
I don't need to know every detail of exactly everything that's going to happen, because the characters work better when I let them make their own choices on a panel-to-panel basis, but I need to know every detail of what they're reacting to and interacting with. In a way it's a lot like running a TTRPG. So there are many times where I draw a page and don't know what's going to happen five pages later - in fact I'd say that's the vast majority of my experience - but I always have a narrowed-down space of things I know will need to happen in the next sixty pages.
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Call me out if I’m wrong here, but I feel like sometimes, when you’re in this fandom, there’s a lot of contradictory?
I feel like not that long ago people were upset that others were saying they didn’t like something, so wording changed.
I do believe that we should be honest on whether or not we like something (while being kind/gracious about it), but that might be the reason why some people are more nervous to just come out and say it?
Again I may be so incredibly wrong; I’ve been dipping my toes in and out of the fandom for a while now.
I think you have a valid point. There's a lot of people in the fandom, and we have different opinions, some of which contradict each other. Sometimes one view dominates, then the other. We vacillate and change, which is only natural.
Regarding the recent wording change, I'm not sure what specific thing that was in response to--there was some conversation in the vein of "if you don't like it, why are you here?" Which was more in response to the overwhelming negativity the series has started to accrue with the long interims, its current direction, and fans getting older. The sort of "people don't want to hear about how much you hate the thing they love." Even if you've established yourself as a fan of it previously.
Which I think can coexist alongside simply saying you don't like something. I can say the new cover isn't really hitting for me without tearing it apart and making those who really enjoy it feel bad, you know? I don't mind it, understand why it's like that, and appreciate Jason Chan's artistic prowess, but that doesn't make it interesting to look at.
But you're right, there's been this push to justify why you dislike things, at least in online spaces. So it's harder/makes people nervous to say "I just don't like this." Myself included. Instead it's "this was rushed" "this was last minute" "Shannon's publishers are pressuring her" "her editor's are pressuring her" etc.
Which, again, is entirely possible. Writing and publishing is hard; it takes a lot of work and pleasing the industry isn't easy. But there are points where--I think--people approach it with bad faith.
To use the cover as an example again, a lot of people are saying it's rushed. Possible. But is there a history of rushing covers? Not that we've seen, all the others have been spectacular, detailed, and thorough. What would they gain by rushing it? They could meet deadlines sooner, have something to share with the audience since we're in a weird period. But they could also damage their marketing with a subpar product, especially given the series' popularity. Why do we think the cover looks rushed? Its simplicity, its different mood. But, again, Shannon said that was intentional. There's Keefe's appearance, which is really hit or miss for people. I don't think Keefe not looking as attractive as people imagine/want is a result of rushing, but because there's an impossible standard for him as The Boy of the series. And so on and so forth.
The point of that being we've come to this conclusion, I think, hastily. While book 9.5 wasn't the original plan so of course timelines change, I don't think S&S has a history or motive to rush. There's already an established precedent for delays when necessary, the cover came out later than others, and there's (i think) a solid, purposeful reason the mood is different.
Could I be wrong? Absolutely. But the rapidity of the conclusion and with how much it feels we've been outsourcing our dislike the past few years I'm started to feel a little skeptical. Boy who cried wolf kinda thing. Was it rushed again, or do we just not like it? Feels like a slapstick explanation without further examination
And of course you don't have to analyze everything, but some things are a bit more complex, you know?
Point is: I think we're overusing these explanations (pressured, rushed) and at this point if we don't delve further into it it starts to lose its meaning. There is an argument for being rushed and pressured! But without getting into it, I can't tell if we're thinking it through or just avoiding saying we don't like something for fear of judgment/reprisal.
#kotlc#long post#quil's queries#nonsie#I hope this makes sense#i haven't fully articulated this before because I became most aware of it with the new cover#i'd seen it but brushed it off prior#especially with the graphic novel because i DO think that one was rushed#but with this it just reached a point where I'm like. okay. IS it rushed or are we just saying that#as a genuine invitation to think about it#i'm not saying i'm right and everyone's wrong or that it's impossible there's pressure and rushing#just like a. have we considered everything before continuing with this conclusion or are we defaulting to it#does that make sense?#i was to be very clear this is a non-judgement post and not intended to antagonize anyone or make anyone feel bad
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Another flashback, but we've reached the important part: Where I show up!
We saw them as aspirational role models, but they just wanted out. There was so much that went unsaid during those years.
We were young when they started to betray us. This was only "A few years later". We're like five in this flashback.
What a raw deal of an offer.
Teaks explained to me how this works. There isn't a "more favorable" world out there. The multiverse consists of parallel timelines spinning out of Resh'an and Aephorul's conflict here.
There are three kinds of worlds: Worlds undergoing the same conflict we're fighting now, worlds where we lost and everything was consumed by a World Eater, and worlds where we won and the Guardian Gods now bar the Fleshmancer from touching them.
This conflict is the context that governs the multiverse. There is nothing outside of it. The only "more favorable" worlds are ones where we've already won.
And to be honest? I have my doubts that these jackasses can access one of those. Kinda seems like preventing such a thing from happening is the whole point of Guardian Gods, isn't it?
I had complicated feelings about Erlina and Bugraves before, especially after they ruined my fake birthday party. But those feelings are getting simpler by the moment. These guys played them for suckers.
Hahahahahaha no
Can you imagine accepting that offer? "Sure, shady person; Not only will I take you at your word that you're going to give me a better life, but I'll also let you rewrite my memories however you see fit so that I think our deal was whatever you want me to think it was!"
*deep breath* They told them about Torment. Okay, that's unsimplifying and recomplicating my feelings.
Torment was a checkmate of a Dweller. Absolutely. 100%. Its physical location, buried where the eclipse could never touch it, meant there was no way we were ever going to stop it. Even if we killed Woe and even if Strife didn't return, Torment would feed unimpeded until it became a World Eater.
No matter what we did, our timeline was doomed. We were only able to slay Torment because we had... whatever Serai is... with us. She's not a resource that the Solstice Warriors could ever have planned for. She doesn't factor into the calculus.
...this is the first I'm hearing of that condition. When were they going to tell us about it?
I kinda do. I get where you're coming from. Now more than ever.
But. Also? We killed Torment. I know killing Torment was impossible, but we did it. We killed Torment. So. Y'know. If you hadn't ruined my fake birthday then this would be over.
I don't think this is as simple as "right" answer or "wrong" answer. There was a meteor hurtling towards the planet, guaranteed to wipe out all life. Someone came to you and said, "Hey man, I can offer you and your loved ones passage on a spaceship to a new world if you'll help me set off nuclear armaggeddon ahead of the meteor's impact."
It's a moral conundrum. Let everyone die, or save the people you care about in exchange for everyone else dying faster. You're not really selling them out because they're screwed either way, but you are becoming personally responsible for their fate.
I get it. This isn't really about right or wrong.
But it is factional. You made your choice and we made ours. Either someone's going to have to budge, or someone's going to have to break.
We're coming up on the castle now. All of the mushrooms have faces which, as a botanophobe, is a solid 10 on the OH FUCK THAT scale. Once we cross this marsh, we should be clear to enter the castle and confront the Acolytes... and Strife.
I hope they have windows in the castle. We don't have the element of surprise; They tried to stop us from reaching Pocket Eclipse so we should assume they know we have it. But we do have Pocket Eclipse, which is an advantage all on its own.
I feel good about this. We're screwed, but we're going to go down swinging.
Someone seems to be living here. ...hey, wait a second. I just thought of something.
Didn't Teaks say that Yoyo lives in a swamp? Do you think she was talking about this swamp? This is the swampiest region of any island we've been to, save for Roro's swamp. We should keep an eye out for Yoyo.
Supposedly, she's super good at prophesizing. She might have some actually good prophecies for us.
Oh, this has to be Yoyo's home. I can't wait to meet her!
She's not exactly what I expected. But she's not not what I expected either, if that makes sense.
Don't worry, I know all about you. The mystical embodiment of centrism itself. I have absolute confidence that you'll play me straight, because good or bad, you're allergic to the entire concept of agendas.
Not an ally but potentially a valuable resource. I know the drill.
Okay, so we're not getting prophecies, then.
Well, we're on a pretty grand arc. Whole timeline could be decided by what happens in that castle. Do you have anything to share about that, at least?
Damn. Well, at least we tried. Elder Mist and Oracle of Tides both gave us prophecies that we suck too hard to achieve, and Yoyo can only see "grand arcs". I'm beginning to think that divination is overrated as a school of magic.
Or maybe we will get something? She seems pretty freaked out about TIA. Who, to be fair, is absolutely a person to be freaked out by for anyone who recognizes him.
Which is a lot. A lot of people seem to be recognizing him. Maybe this was a mistake, my guy.
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What are your goals and/or intentions for the new year?
Sorry it took me a bit to answer this! I usually don't sit down and think about this until New Years' Eve, while I'm doing my big End of the Year cleaning (or the couple days leading up to it) 🤣 You got me thinking about it early, ha!~
First, I'd really like to tackle another stage of "getting over my Agoraphobia" / "getting over my trauma surrounding being perceived on the Internet", and actually do something proper with my Youtube Channel. Nothing particularly large or anything, mind you. But I would like it to be more than just TikTok backups; I'd like to do proper videos about my garden.
I find the videos I make about my garden to be really helpful to me. Not just because of my memory problems- and also as a visual record of my garden that I can look at and see a lot better than anything I described in plain text could do for me. But also socially, talking about my garden has helped a lot with preserving my Mental Health this year, and I'd like to keep on that. Transferring it to longer form content on Youtube, rather than short form 2 minute walkthroughs on TikTok just makes sense to me, then- especially since I don't trust TikTok not to go down at some random point with how hard our Government's always gunning for it.
Second, I'd like to revisit my "Life Resolutions"; I think I did pretty well this year in doing them, actually- at least up until about halfway through the year when my depression hit me like a freight train. So I don't think the goals I have are really unsustainable at all. However, this year made it very clear that I need to work on an Emergency Plan of sorts ... A smaller list of things to prioritize during hard times so I don't just completely stop whenever that happens again (because it's going to, always, with my various conditions).
Other than that, I've been trying really hard these last few years to just ... See where things take me; to learn to let my body guide me, not push myself too hard to do things I used to be able to do, and to get to know my body all over again- because it's very foreign to me now, compared to how well I knew my body before Covid very rudely did my this way; though it's not like I didn't have my problems before Covid, honestly. Covid was just a very sudden, very blunt, 500 pound sledgehammer to my system that knocked roughly a solid decade off the timeline of my disability development.
#drinkbooksreadtea#Answered Asks#2023 Asks#2023#Alphabet Soup#Gardening#Garden 2024#Green Witch#Green Witchcraft#Witchy Gardening#Witches Garden#Witch's Garden#Oklahoma#Life Intent#2023 Resolutions#Life Resolutions#Gardenblr#Plantblr#Gardening Asks#Misc Asks#Gardeners On Tumblr#GardenBlog#Disabled Gardener
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9-1-1 non-timeline: Shannon and Eddie
I've had some discussion about Shannon come across my dash lately, so I thought I'd throw in my own thoughts. I've a lot of issues with Shannon, but my biggest issue with any discussion about her is always that Eddie and Shannon's timeline is the most fucked up timeline in the whole show. And that's saying something in a show where time just... doesn't seem to go linear? And still people don't think about those contradictions before they use them in their arguments.
Anyway. The Diaz family timeline.
We know Eddie is a Staff Sergeant when he is injured and discharged in 2015. To reach the rank of Staff Sergeant, you have to have at least six years in service. And here we have the first contradiction. Because Chris was born in 2011, four years before Eddie was discharged. And while Shannon said in one of the flashbacks that Eddie went and enlisted when they learned about her pregnancy, that just doesn't make sense with his rank.
So, we as fans are in a position here to decide how to make sense out of it. For me that comes down to the question which of the two facts we are presented is more reliable? A military rank with very strict guidelines or something said by an angry wife in a fight? I'll chose to believe Eddie joined the army at the latest in 2009 if not a little earlier—so long before Chris was even a blip on Shannon and Eddie's radar—and that Shannon tried to gaslight Eddie during their fight about running away.
And also, re-enlisting when Chris was around two years old (estimation based on the appearance of the child we saw Eddie holding when Shannon told him Chris just didn't know him) when Eddie enlisted after learning Shannon was pregnant doesn't make any sense either. Usually, a solider sign up for four years active duty, sometimes six years, and in a few here unlikly cases two years. The rest of the eight-year contract in either case is spent in the reserves. Neither two years nor four years of active duty can be true here with around six months of pregnancy (because they weren't planning it and Shannon probably didn't notice right away, and then enlisting doesn't mean you start your contract right that day). He either would have already enlisted, or much more likely, it would have been a little more than a year away.
The decision to believe the military carrier over spiteful words during a fight, of course, brings us right to the new information that was thrown at us in season 6 in form of her gravestone: Shannon's age, and as Eddie mentioned they were high school sweethearts, his age, too. The thing is, dates on any props in this show are reliably unreliable.
You remember Claudette's death? Which happened several weeks after Chimney and Maddie returned to LA? And that Chimney and Maddie had reconnected on St. Patrick’s Day in Boston? And do you remember the invitation for Claudette's funeral stating her date of death as before St. Patrick’s Day?
Yeah. Dates on props in this show can clearly not be trusted because the props department clearly doesn't check with the writers or the (probably non-existing) series bible. So, I think that date is a mistake.
Eddie would have been 17 in 2009 if he had been born in 1992. Of course, in theory, he could have finished high school with 17 and then joined the army right away. But I doubt he would have made it to Staff Seargeant in just six years if he had joined that young and inexperienced. As far as my research has provided, you have to be very dedicated to your job to get there in the quickest time allowed, and Eddie was dealing with getting married and worrying about becoming a father. At that age, that would have probably been enough of a distraction to make it impossible to get the promotion in the minimal time required to even be able to get it.
So, Eddie was probably not born in 1992. And if we want to believe that they were high school sweethearts, I don't want to believe he is more than a year older than Shannon. But even that would still make his military carrier very tight and unlikly.
For Eddie to have a little bit time between school and army and for him to reach his rank with a little leeway (especially as I don't think that rank was brand new when he was injured) I'd make them at least three years older than the gravestone tried to tell us. Which still makes them very young parents, of course.
And the show didn't only fuck up with Shannon and Eddie's timeline and age. Eddie's sisters are not any better.
In Eddie Begins Helena talks about the birth of her children in the order of Eddie, Sophia, Adriana--and a lot of fandom went "Oh, that's their birth order, otherwise she'd not have talked about them in that order!" I strongly disagree. Because the whole conversation took place over the birth of Eddie's son. Why would they talk about either of his sisters first before him when it was all about Eddie and his family in this moment?
There is also this moment in season 3 when Bobby talks with the rest of the 118 about May's college essay. And Eddie says something about watching his sisters write them and deciding against him. That implies at least one of his sisters is older than him. How could he otherwise have watched his sister work on her college essay and make that the deciding point about not going to college himself? If he was the oldest, he'd already have made that decision.
In season 6 we then of course learn that when Adriana was born, Eddie was old enough that his father had already told him he needed to be the man of the family (why are all the parents of the mains so horrible) and that he was tall enough to reach the pedals of his father's car and still look over the steering wheel. At least a little, probably. I don't think he'd have gotten the idea he could drive the car if he hadn't been able to see anything. So, I'd estimate Eddie is anything between 10 and 12 or even 13 years older than Adriana. And Sophia is even another couple of years older than Eddie. That's a pretty huge age gab to the youngest sibling (and makes her be age difference to Christopher less than to her siblings).
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When did Kh go to complete shit in your opinion
The short answer is that the series experienced a gradual decline after the release of BBS. I think it officially went to shit with Union X, particularly the story arc that started after the Keyblade War. The longer answer will be under the cut.
KH2FM/Days/BBS (2007-2010)
Since Birth by Sleep is the first part of the Kingdom Hearts storyline, I'd like if you considered it as Kingdom Hearts, "Episode 0". This title isn't placed as a side story, with its storyline and battle system, it is substantial like that of a numbered title.
During this time, the series was extremely healthy and at its peak of popularity, with a bright future. KH2 was a beloved JRPG classic (and still is). The Final Mix introduced interesting new mysteries surrounding Xemnas and solid gameplay extras like the Lingering Will. Days was a side game, but it gave more development to fan favorites Roxas and Axel. The PSP wasn't the most popular system in the West, but BBS still sold quite well. It was a bit of a downgrade from KH2 due to the lesser hardware, but it was still a true mainline numbered sequel in the spirit of KH2 and was well received by fans. Tbh, I'd consider BBS the last truly great game in the series.
Re:Coded (2010)
After BBS the next new installment was...a filler game in the spirit of CoM. Recycled Disney plots, and an even more nonsense story with the datascape stuff. But it was just a DS port of a Japanese flip-phone game. It was a title that you could completely ignore and not really lose out on anything. Still, it is a low-quality title that didn't need to exist and wasn't doing the reputation of the series any favors.
Birth By Sleep Final Mix+ (2011)
[D]uring that movie there were the words ‘A fragmentary passage’, weren’t there? That means a ‘bits and pieces of something whole’. In short, a story for ‘Volume Two’ exists that ought to be told, but the story cuts off with those scenes. Because of that, I won’t say there is absolutely no chance that we will produce a title to follow KHBBS, but there are no plans as of now.
This game had an interesting playable secret ending and video. Volume 2 was supposed to be a numbered game (KH0.5), a mainline title that would fill in important gaps from across the timeline. But BBSFM didn't sell well in Japan. Which isn't surprising. Final mixes made sense in the PS2 era. But the extra content for BBS could have been released as DLC. Not many people want to buy the same game again for some new content.
Dream, Drop, Distance (2012)
KH3D was put together relatively quickly, I was still concepting the story when I brought it to the table.
This is when the series started going to shit. It started gaining quite a bad reputation and articles like this began to pop up. Re:Coded could easily be dismissed as filler, but 3D was advertised as more of a mainline game. People were eager for KH3, or at least a game with the same quality as BBS. DDD isn't terrible or anything. But you could tell that it didn't have as much thought put into it as BBS.
It was originally just the beginning part of KH3 that got stretched out into a full game and it shows. The Disney worlds don't fit into the normal timeline, there's fewer of them, Disney party members were replaced with animals, and the drop gimmick was controversial. There's weird time travel stuff that is convoluted and not explained very well. This didn't help with the story's reputation.
I originally planned to make that [a mystery KH title] after KHBBS, but we ended up making KH3D and the project was stopped. It’s a shame, but we won’t be starting that project again.
BBSV2 was planned after BBS. Production stopped to make DDD. The secret ending of DDD showed Young Xehanort on the beach of Destiny Islands, which was one of the events shown during "A Fragmentary Passage". There may have still been plans to start production of BBSV2 again after KH3D finished. But Square changed their minds. I suspect the reason for that has to do with Versus XIII.
Versus was being developed by the Tokyo team which made KH2. BBS was made by the Osaka team, which also made DDD. The original plan was for the Tokyo team to finish Versus and then make KH3. But things were a mess with Versus and eventually it was decided that the Osaka team would make KH3. So, if the Osaka team was busy on KH3, then they wouldn't be able to make BBSV2.
X (2013)
To tell the story about the Keyblade War we need the capacity of hi-spec hardware and we need to accumulate all of our knowledge on this hardware. And in telling this story, we will need to tell it in separate episodes, and how specifically to tell it has yet to be figured out.
There is evidence that X was probably intended to be an MMO on high-spec hardware. Square had a lot of trouble with the transition to HD consoles, so it was downgraded to a minor release on browser. It's an okay title. Interesting lore that expands on the fairy tale of Kairi's grandma. But it's got the typical recycled Disney plots and low-budget gameplay. Not exactly lighting the world on fire for the core audience.
If you do know, then you will enjoy the world of KH all the more, make no mistake. However, you don't have to know everything. The protagonist himself, Sora, doesn't know everything. That said, I'd be happiest if you did play it (laughs). If you do give it a try, I think you'll be surprised at what a rich experience you get for free.
But X was not meant to be a title with an emphasis on story. It was a spin-off, totally separate from the main plot thread. It was written alongside KH3 and the two were intimately related. If you played X, it would enhance your enjoyment (Ephemer cameo), but it was not essential.
X was rebranded as Unchained X and rereleased for mobile in 2015. X was also remade into Back Cover, which was included in the 2.8 HD Remaster collection. People would naturally assume that Back Cover told you everything you needed to know about the X story in preparation for KH3. And maybe at one point, that was the plan...
0.2 A Fragmentary Passage (2017)
As far as content goes, we can’t include a full volume of content to play with like the second chapter of KHBbS, so it’s just a “fragment,” and we left that part of the subtitle. 0.5 is one of the letters and numbers that appeared in the secret episode of KHBbS FM, and that meant full volume, so we decided on 0.2 this time, to indicate that there will be more content to come.
IMO, this is the first high-quality release since BBS. But it's still just a 3-hour prologue instead of a complete game. The events with Aqua are interesting, but they are just one "fragment" of the whole 0.5.
Actually, this was what I worried about the most. We showed this for a bit in the secret episode of [KHBbS FM], but the concept for two chapters of [BbS] is something we've had for a while, and because of problems with time, it's become just a morceau.
Releasing it as a full game on consoles would have delayed progress of KH3. And after nearly a decade of nothing but remasters and low-quality spin-offs, that was the last thing Square wanted. Despite how important 0.5 was, fans would be upset if the next mainline game wasn't KH3.
Union X (2017)
As a gacha with a worldwide audience, X was extremely profitable, so its storyline was extended past its natural ending. Even though X was a complete story that was meant to lead directly into KH3, Nomura retconned the ending, allowing the story of Ephemer and friends to continue in a new story arc called Union X which began in 2017. UX was...strange. It took place in the afterlife? Or the datascape? It had tons of filler, very infrequent story updates that barely progressed anything, and weird retcons, like character backstories that felt like they were in the wrong game (Why tf are Ventus and Marluxia here???).
Unlike X, the story of UX felt like it was being made up on the fly. Also, UX did not directly tie in with KH3 anymore. Its run actually continued past KH3. It was as if Nomura knew there were going to be too many plot holes for KH3 to properly resolve. So, he began using UX to set up the plot of KH4. People who only played the remasters were going to be completely blindsided when they played KH3. It wouldn't conclude anything that was set up in Back Cover, like the black box. KH3 would actually just be one big "to be continued" for KH4 with UX acting a band-aid. IMO, this is the point when the series had officially gone to shit.
KH3 (2019)
I had quite a tough time writing the story this time around. So many characters appear in this game, with each of them having their own set of problems and needing to choose their own fate. [...] I believe that KINGDOM HEARTS III is truly completed when the two thoughts - whatever you feel from playing the game, and my thoughts that I’ve secretly placed in the game - match up together. I hope that everyone playing the game will complete the game for us.
The long-awaited big budget mainline title on home console was a decent game, but it just wasn't a complete experience like KH2 was. 0.5 should have properly developed the relationships of Lea/Isa, Ansem the Wise/Ienzo, and Xehanort/Eraqus. Instead, these backstories only get lightly touched on in the Secret Reports and then one cutscene was given to "resolve" their problems. The new original world that was shown off in a private trailer in 2014 dubbed "Cable Town" was completely absent from the final game, except as the final battle stage.
KH3 had beautiful production values, solid gameplay, and vastly improved level design. But it didn't capture people's hearts like KH2 did. More incomprehensible time travel, rushed unsatisfying reunions for the trios, plot holes galore, and a cliffhanger ending only made things worse for the reputation of the series. The story is infamous in the gaming community now. A meme. KH4 doesn't have anywhere near as much hype as KH3 did.
Fans all have different favorite characters, so I thought I should give each of them their own time to shine, but because the amount of things needed to be explained was too large, I had to find a way to have Sora move forward, at the very least. Actually, when the scenarios were being written, the Keyblade Graveyard part was the most difficult. If I focused on each character at a time, the progression of events would be quite slow, and the battles involving Sora were necessary to be shown, so making allowances for everything was difficult. The way I imagined it, all of the characters tied to each other should fight in order and put an end to everything [themselves], but if I did that, the explanations would end up being too long.
Re:Mind was content that should have been in the main game, but was removed due to time constraints. For instance, the Final Fantasy characters from RG. Also, being able to play as the various guardians of light in their respective battles, rather than just Sora. Roxas and Xion weren't even supposed to be revived in the middle of Lea and Kairi's fight, but were included to please fans. The focus of the DLC is on Yozora, a new OC reminiscent of Noctis, showing that KH4 will be an attempt to revive the cancelled Versus XIII. The series is just...a hot mess at this point.
Melody of Memory (2020)
Another budget side game nobody wanted. Only has a tiny bit of story at the very end. Similar to Re:Mind, the plot felt like cut content from KH3. Stuff like Kairi's childhood flashbacks of Apprentice Xehanort, her arrival in the Final World to look for Sora's soul, then having a confrontation with old man Xehanort. All stuff that should have been in KH3. Ya know, when Xehanort was still alive...
Dark Road (2020)
I know what you're probably thinking: the Dark Seeker Saga, which depicted the battle against Xehanort, finished with KINGDOM HEARTS III, didn't it? Well, it's a grey area, but I wouldn't call this title part of the Dark Seeker Saga. Why? Because this isn't about battling against Xehanort—it's about the battles of Xehanort.
And maybe you're thinking that's a bit of a reach, but… okay, maybe it's a bit of a reach. However, I had the concept in my head for many years. It got shelved because it never really fitted what our team wanted. But around then, I heard from the Union X team that they'd like to do a parallel title with a new protagonist. And, since it seemed there was an unexpected number of Xehanort fans out there, it all came together like it was destined to be.
This story was no doubt one of the missing "fragments" of 0.5. Unlike many KH games, DR has a very solid premise and an interesting storyline. It's just a story that should have been told in a mainline game before the Xehanort saga ended. Because it was rebranded as part of the X series, there were weird retcons like Xehanort being the reincarnation of the UX Player. However, the main problem was the VERY low budget. The chibi pop-up book graphics fit the childish fairy tale story of X, but don't fit this story. Story updates were slow and gameplay was trash. Didn't even last a year. The scenario was truncated, and we got an abrupt ending that didn't even delve into Master Odin, how Xehanort fell to darkness, or how he and Eraqus grew apart. At this point, the state of the series is just pitiful.
Missing Link (2024)
"Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link" is a work that fills in the blanks between the two arcs and acts as a bridge, so it doesn't belong to either the "Dark Seeker" or "Lost Masters" arcs.
When UX finally ended, the Player, who was already dead, dies again. Only, instead of going to the Final World (X's ending) it's implied that they're reborn. This is because Square wanted to make a new UX with a parallel protagonist. But DR flopped. So, they retconned things yet again. No, no. Xehanort wasn't the reincarnation of Player-kun. Rather, it's this new robed person and Xehanort just absorbed their memories. ML is the REAL mobile follow-up to UX.
Honestly, ML doesn't look too bad. Unlike UX, it will be able to deliver a console-like experience (yay controller support!) and the story seems like it will be closer to a mainline game. I imagine most of the unused "fragments" from 0.5 will be included as "missing links" this time around. Better late than never. But fans are definitely burned out from the vast amount of side games and most just want KH4. Fortunately, mobile games only need a few dedicated whales to stay funded. ML won't delay progress of KH4 and it can dole out its story gradually, and it won't have to be rushed or shortened like KH0.2.
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What's the process for writing a comic? Like, do you write out a whole script for what happens and draw from there or is just a timeline of things that need to happen with a bunch if sketches?
Oh jeez, that was back in 2019, let me recall.
First I started... with scenes in my mind. Like building blocks. The mains scenes of the comic, main plot points, and I would shift them around as new scenes filled in. Once I had the order of the scenes synopsises set, I fully wrote the script for them, enough to have about 200 pages worth? 3 volumes worth. Roughly. Guestimating.
Then I made a discord server for feedback and discussing the project and it really helped stay focused and motivated, sharing some concept sketches. Then I eventually started storyboarding, and once I had a sizeable amount of pages sketched, I moved on with the lines.
Now I gotta say. I don't follow the script I wrote 3 years ago. I follow the general direction of it but it's a lot of improv, as I go with the flow and tone of the pages and I try to put little jokes in it else it would be way too serious and not very funny at all. I'm reaching the end of what I had planned in 2019, but I know everything that comes after so I don't feel the need to write anything down.
I have my entire comic planned all the way to the end, and it's cemented in my head in a way I can play it back like a movie. I'm rotating it in my mind like a rotisserie chicken. I still add to it or remove things as I rethink it over but I'd say the direction of it is pretty solid.
Takeaway is, do what works for you, we all have a system.
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Hi hi!! I just recently finished Metamorphoses and have been thinking about it for a week solid. Just. Incredible. I’m talking about it with irls, that’s how much I’ve been THINKING.
I had a question relating to the epilogue; Eddie mentions that he and Steve broke up at one point but eventually came back together. What do you think was the cause for that official break? And what precipitated their getting together again? (I’m assuming the pauses that Eddie and Steve take in the fic are not the “official” breakup)
Thank you so much for sharing your work with us, and for putting so much love into what you do. ❤️
hi hello!!! I'm honored it's hung around in your brain that long thank you so much for your kind words😭but honestly what a coincidence because I am actually ALWAYS thinking about that universe 🥹💚
I would love to answer your question because the only reason I didn't include any of that in the actual epilogue is it would've screwed with the pacing So Much to go on a tangent like that (in an admittedly already too-long epilogue), but I've definitely thought about it!
Under the cut because it's me 🐍
The thing about where they're at by the end of the post-S4 timeline in that fic is they've grown and changed and matured a lot during that year and a half, right? They've learned so much about themselves and each other and where they fit, but they're also still so fucking young.
They're young enough that there's still just so much space for growing and changing to keep happening, and that's not an easy thing to always stick together through even when you're not prone to mental health relapses like these guys are.
They started working towards a proper Relationship with the capital R while they were still on kind of rocky ground healing wise, and no matter how solid they feel by chapter 10, someday they're going to be 25 and things will be changing again, they'll be changing again.
All of a sudden they're moving to a new city for each other and leaving behind the only place they've ever known each other and trying to find their footing all over again.
All of a sudden Eddie's changing career paths and making plans for a future he never thought he'd have and Steve is leaving behind all his repair-work clients in Indy and having to start fresh in Chicago.
All of a sudden there's a great big world outside of their door that's bigger than just them, and sure, that's always been the case, but maybe they got so comfortable in their bubble that going outside of it is as exciting as it is difficult.
There's so much still to learn about themselves, and they're both deeply imperfect, right? For Eddie there's the anxiety of losing his sense of self again and the ungrounded nature of that; for Steve there's maybe some lingering fear or even resentment for what it had felt like the last time Eddie decided to get up and go.
It's not just one thing, it's bigger than them just like the world, and it's Steve, ultimately, who decides he's scared enough of all the big upheavals that he can't be attached to Eddie like that right now, trapped in a tiny apartment together with nowhere for all the complexity to go.
Steve says he can't take care of himself while he's waiting for the other shoe to drop on Eddie's end of things, and so he walks away before Eddie can.
It's a break in the maturity, a taking over of old fears, but it makes sense, and even if it lasts less than 3 months in total, maybe it's good for them too.
Good to realize that they do exist outside of one another, that they don't need each other the way they once thought they did, but that they want each other all the same.
That it's no longer about not being able to stand without one another, and instead it's about standing by his side, holding his hand, even though he's got steady footing on his own two feet.
Steve is the one to walk away, and this time? It's Eddie who comes to him.
It's Eddie who says, I don't think I ever really grasped what it was like for you when I ran. I don't think I ever really apologized. I'm sorry.
It's Eddie who lays it all out on the table and makes it clear, I don't need you to fix me anymore, I just like holding your hand.
They still have so much space to grow and change, but the thing is, three months apart helps them realize maybe they're capable of doing it together.
Maybe it doesn't have to be earth-shattering every time.
Maybe it can last, as long as they keep working for it, wanting it, choosing it.
Just because they survived the end of the world doesn't mean they'll automatically be able to survive all the small stuff too, they know now, but they have the fight in them. The want.
And that's what really matters.
#ask#dot thought#metamorphoses fic#thank you for asking i could literally talk about these dudes all day 😭#kindnesses
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“clarke getting pregnant is definitely happening — with jealous aden and all”
OMG yes please seeing the gem that was Aden during thanksgiving and how jealous he was of a little bean who just wanted to be held by Clarke the baby sibling will be amazing. Is he gonna be jealous before the baby is here or after? Imagine him being jealous because the baby needs a diaper change or because the baby is crying or has tummy time or simply because their moms have to be attentive to the monitor. Even tho Aden will be older imagine him getting jealous because Clarke has to nurse the baby and Lexa give the baby a bottle. The struggle is real poor baby Aden. Wait what if her goes back to act like a baby to get attention 🥺 okay too many theories sorry I’m all over the place but I love this and I love how much you love this story. Thank you Nina for giving us this whole universe.
listen. yes, to all of this 🥹
i'm not sure how the timeline is gonna work out yet, but say aden is about 8 or 9 when the new nugget comes home. he's old enough that he can understand everything his moms told him about how much attention his little sister —who really is just so tiny— needs in the beginning of her life and how that doesn't mean they love them any less.
it's one thing to understand the concept of it.
it's something else to see his clarkie reading him a bedtime story the stinky butt on her arms or his mom cooing while the baby makes dumb spit bubbles (he blows bigger and bigger bubblegum bubbles to show that his skills are better and it explodes on his hair. the amused scolding he gets as they lather his hair with olive oil isn't worth it). it's different to see both of them get up when there's even a smidge of a fuss and they're so tired they don't even have energy to do things with him.
they're around the kid every second of the day. and sure, they take him to little league and never miss a game, they have days at the park just like they had when he was small. his mom teaches him how to cook and he adds his own scrawling handwriting to the cookbook that has mom's and clarkie's handwriting too. clarkie teaches him how to play canadian football but she mixes up the rules with american football.
but the baby is always there too.
his solution? be more in love with his baby sister than anyone else put together.
he learns how to hold her and how to give her a bottle, although he draws the line at changing her diaper. tummy time becomes his drawing time so he's on his tummy beside her and he insists in pushing the stroller whenever they're at the park. he sneaks his food to her way sooner than clarke and lexa had planned, but they start a more solid foods when they see how much she enjoys sucking on the hunk of beef he gave her.
when she takes her first steps, it's towards aden she wobbles to.
it takes a moment. it takes a few months, actually. but after that, aden is so attached to his sister that there's no space in between them for him to feel any jealousy.
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For real, your take on Mando season 3 is completely on point. But I get not feeling able to say it out loud without a disclaimer before, after, and in the tags to keep from getting shouted at in the reblogs. It's just the messed up nature of being in the SW fandom on Tumblr. Speaking your mind on your own blog is an invitation for buffoonery.
If I were completely honestly, I'm not in the least shocked that's what we got. I've long held the opinion that the worst part about the fandom is the fan opinions and expectations out of a new series, and the expectation that a formula for a show won't change, or that a character will maintain one set mentality/trope while simultaneously offering new, completely different story arcs. It isn't necessarily impossible to pull off, but it takes very careful planning and execution. And, unfortunately, that has never been a strength in this franchise, even before Disney ownership.
For most shows, it's the season 5 slump. After 5 seasons, all the flavor is gone and any additional seasons are painfully rehashed at best. For all the corporate financial squeezing that's been done to Mando since the beginning of the show to wring out revenue like its a wet washcloth, it really tracks that were in this place after only 3 seasons.
IMO the only thing that's going to save Andor is the fact that the end of the story has already been told in Rogue One and its confirmed that season 2 will end at that point of the timeline. If it was going to be a 3+ season show, I suspect we'd see the same treatment.
Anyway, I'll stop flapping my gums in your ask box. Your hot take encapsulated what felt off about this season to me. I couldn't put words to it, but it just felt....meh.
I just disable reblogs and try not to tag it in an inflammatory way, my gripes are genuinely like. basic semiotics and story sense, I'm not going after anyone's childhood or feel-goodness. This is all me-problems and me-expectations with a massive machine of commerce that will never give a shit lmao
I too wrote a couple of posts back in s2 days expecting something of this sort going forward after the weirdly presumptuous cameo-baiting of s2 and whatever in the goddamn hell boba fett did with its mando tie-ins, but an entire season of tirespinning sure was a surprising choice. I think writing for TV is fundamentally different than writing for film, so I didn't really see a clear parallel of incompetence within the franchise; and especially with season 1 being so solid in balancing both the overarching and the episodic stuff I felt like they had a neat ramp to milk a decently long character piece out of.
But I can't help but feel like my main problem with the disney/abrams/filoni/favreau era of star wars is its irrationally strong love for the aesthetic. it blinds them to good choices that will then make for interesting stories. gently deradicalizing, humanizing, and then literally AND figuratively getting din out of his shell so he could open up to a child's love could be such an effective, simple to parse, and wholesome core to structure the series around, but that would upend the aesthetic of their cowboy-ass romp a bit too fast and have an end and an identity and all that non-marketing friendly stuff. so they keep withholding his psyche, they keep giving then taking clear communication tools away from grogu, they keep teasing their bond but never outright stating it (I cannot believe after 3 seasons he still hasn't just looked at the baby and directly confessed he loved him), so they can keep bumping those goalposts back and forth while pretending it's progress. because they are in love with the aesthetic.
again, this is my main problem, I don't see this as a problem writ large or even something that represents a wrong way to do star wars. who the hell even knows how you treat a franchise that large at this point, what importance you assign to aesthetic vs. story, all that jazz. I don't know. they're the ones with the analytics data, so they definitely know better. and maybe that's the saddest part
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Update 26/10/23
In case you're wondering how progress is going on stuff, it's looking a little like this;
Lots of paper. Lots of ideas.
It's the writing summit this week (today is the last day) and as always, the talks inspire new ideas and I learn new ways to better write or do things, which leads to... redoing some stuff ^^;
I also found this fantastic writer called Abbie Emmons who's got some fantastic free writing resources and her videos explaining stuff are some of the best I've seen. Highly recommended checking her out.
Anyway,
Ch. 8 & 9 are done, I just... I'm not 100% on them.
Ch.8.
I feel like my voice for writing Henry is still quite weak, but I have a funny feeling it's one of those things which is only going to get better with writing more chapters in his POV. That's how it was for writing Reginald, Carol & Macbeth. The more I wrote, the easier to hear & more defined their voices became.
So I'm thinking, for the sake of not holding up the story, I'll swing back to this one in 6 months and see if I still feel it can be improved upon.
The other option, I'm thinking, is this chapter might benefit from a beta reader (as you know I normally do this myself). I dunno, I just... I don't feel like I'm quite placing my finger on what the issue is.
So, if anyone would like to beta read this chapter and let me know their thoughts on how it reads are, I'd sincerely appreciate that.
Ch.9
There's nothing wrong with this one. It reads perfect, POV voice is solid.
I'm not sure on the amount of info being given. It's a CCC heavy chapter, and I'm just... a little concerned I could be coming in too early with this information. I've already made the edits so the chapter would read with or without the heavy stuff, I'm just... on the fence about keeping it in or not.
It's a minor thing, and all those papers above, that's me trying to figure out further down the timeline to see if there's a more appropriate place to put in.
Ch.10
Still gotta do that editing in the middle, had an idea to slightly change the ending, which might take me a few extra days to do.
Covers
I haven't had much time this week with the writers summit, chaos irl stuff and my shoulder/wrist has been playing up (because clearly they felt left out >> )
I'm on the hedge about uploading chapters without their cover art, and I also don't want to keep delaying chapters, so I think my plan is to see how I do for time this week & next, then decide on what I'll do about those.
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