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tmagpposting · 4 months

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The Fears and TMAGP

It seems to be a pretty popular theory, or at least a popular possibility acknowledged in the community, that things will function differently than they did in TMA, and our previous categorizations won’t necessarily hold up. A lot of people seem to be split on this, and I’ve seen a lot of other content that positions episodes/incidents in TMAGP in the same framework used in TMA. I wanted to offer my two cents on this issue, after thinking about it for a while now. Basically, I don’t think TMAGP will use the same system for quite a few reasons, both logistical and lore related. Massive (like, seriously series ruining) spoilers for TMA past this point if you haven’t already listened, as well as minor ones for TMAGP up to ep. 4.

I specifically decided to write this after seeing this post, where a lot of other people have brought up good points in the reblogs. I think we will get something different from Smirke's 14/TMA's categorization of the fears regardless of how much they've actually changed from the previous series, for a few reasons:

1. The fears have probably changed or evolved in some way, especially since the Web (at minimum) had the capacity to learn and plan, and they've already brought about one apocalypse so far. They could've changed from learning from the events of TMA, or just inherently warped from the process of being pulled from another universe and spit back out into a different one (maybe they were altered in transit by being in an extra-dimensional space, or they merged with some similar cosmic force that was already in present in TMAGP's universe when they got there, the possibilities for how this could go are basically endless and I’m honestly so excited). This change could also work really well if it came about because of some combination of the above, since these options aren’t mutually exclusive in the slightest. Personally, I really hope it involves both but highlights the first option in some way, since it'd be really fun for past listeners of TMA to see the fears get more formidable by becoming more strategic as well as see events of that series directly influence this one in such a huge way, and it wouldn't necessarily detract from the experience of new listeners if they did this subtly. Either way, I think it'd be stranger if they behaved exactly as they did in TMA, given everything that happened in the finale.

1.a. Specifically, the fears now have the explicit incentive to cooperate with each other, even if they represent "opposites" like the Buried and the Vast, because all of them must inherently be present in an apocalypse as we saw in TMA. Assuming that it still works the same way, the fears will probably work more in harmony and synthesize elements of each other more than before (even far beyond the Web influencing each in turn) because we've seen that this is a more advantageous course of action for them to take if they want to successfully complete a ritual. This is also supported by the massive amount of keywords the OIAR categorizes incidents with: categorizing incidents using various traits/specialties/calling cards from the original Smirke's 14 as they work together in various combinations would inherently create a ton of different specific keyword combinations, mathematically/logistically speaking.

2. The fears are inherently very hard to categorize as abstract inhuman forces that don't really function in a way humans innately empathize with or like humans think they should. They don't work like gods with similar cognitive processes to humans, like how a lot of avatars thought of them/wanted them to work to some extent, and they're just as willing to prey on non-human life to generate fear and sustenance, just look at the Flesh. As we saw, Smirke's list didn't fully work in the first place, since all the fears had to get pulled through to cause the apocalypse or any ritual would inherently fail, and they functioned less as 14 separate things than as 14 different organs/systems inherently connected in some way by the same nebulous conceptual body. Think of the metaphor from later in TMA with the ants in an ant farm perceiving human hands, eyes, etc. as different antagonistic entities rather than a single contiguous being (i forgot which ep this came from or which character said it, if anyone knows tell me and I'll add it in). Basically, even if they haven't changed at all from TMA, the people of TMAGP could decide on a completely different system of categorization simply because it's arbitrary at the end of the day, given how abstract and nebulous the fears have always been.

3. As several others have said, given that TMAGP is aimed to be friendly to new listeners who haven't necessarily listened to TMA before, it makes more sense to use a new system. This is good for the show for 2 reasons. First, this takes away some of the advantage TMA fans would have in the process of theorizing if everything worked the same way as it did in the previous podcast, especially since TMAGP is more interactive given its ARG element (which I am woefully uninformed on, to be fair, i have next to no idea what's going on with that aspect of the show, and if anyone knows more about how/where to get in on it, lmk). Second, it is actually more rewarding for past fans of TMA to be able to experience this theorizing process in full/from scratch without necessarily knowing major things about what’s going to happen (like how the fears will work), potentially for a second time if they were involved in theorizing about TMA as it was first being released.

4. Having a new and different system, particularly one that is less rigid and more nebulous than Smirke's 14, would work a lot better with TMAGP's emphasis on including guest writers on the show, in addition to working better in terms of the story itself as I outlined in the previous points (at least imo, though I have no experience running a project like this, so this is HIGHLY speculative on my part). Trusting a ton of other people to follow specific rules and emulate Smirke's 14 in a way that feels authentic to TMA, when that was almost totally written and conceived of by Jonny on his own, seems like it would be really difficult to pull off without ensuring each guest writer is also intimately familiar with TMA and/or incorporating a ton of editing and oversight to change episodes to fit better with TMA lore after they're initially written. It could definitely be done, but I think it'd be pretty hard, and it seems like it'd create a lot of redundancy and potentially wasted effort for the editors and producers of the show as well as the guest writers.

If anyone sees something I missed or didn’t touch on, please add on to this post, and if you have evidence to the contrary I’d be interested to see that, too. I’m really interested to hear the fandom’s thoughts on this overall, since it’s an issue I’ve seen coming up in the background a lot lately, but I haven’t seen a post explicitly addressing it yet.

#tmagp #the magnus protocol #tmagp spoilers #tma #the magnus archives #tma spoilers #the magnus archives spoilers #tmagp speculation #the magnus protocol spoilers #tmagp theories #tmagp theory

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felixstudios · 11 months

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Random Corporate Clash Headcanons, Playing Subnautica Edition

Ft. my art as a bonus

It's as dark as a movie... YOU CAN'T SEE IT!!!!! :D

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SUBNAUTICA SPOILERS!!!

Duck Shuffler

🎰Causes chaos

🎰Dies often and literally doesn't care

🎰This man does not know fear. He will approach a reaper armed with only a scanner and a repair tool, get bitten for 80 damage, and say, "Wow! Thith game ith tho cool!"

Prethinker

🧠Plans EVERYTHING

🧠"I'm going into the Lost River, which means I'll want to fill at least 2 lockers with titanium in my Cyclops to build a base by the Cove Tree. I'll bring the materials for a Moonpool and a Thermal Plant as well as all the interior modules. I'll stop at Lifepod 2 to grab the Cyclops Depth Module MK1 and also explore some wrecks in the Grand Reef and Underwater Islands for PRAWN Suit drill and grappling arm fragments. Once I get to the Lost River I'm going to..."

🧠"...and this Stasis Rifle will work to keep Warpers away for only a few seconds, but it will be enough time to..."

🧠"...perform this glitch speedrunners use to get access to this Purple Tablet hidden out of bounds, which will save me an ion cube as well as a trip to..."

Derrick Man

🛢️Does everything in the most practical, efficient way possible

🛢️Not afraid to hunt down a few Leviathans if they get in the way

🛢️Likes the PRAWN Suit quite a bit

Deep Diver

🫧Refuses to use the wildlife for food and water

🫧"This creature was probably inspired from [sea creature] in the real world."

🫧Will build a base with a LOT of glass and windows. She wants to watch all the wildlife swim around

🫧I feel like if you asked him his favorite creature or biome, he'd say all of them

Rainmaker

⛈️Scared of everything. Even screamed when she saw her first stalker

⛈️Refuses to explore at night because it scares her

⛈️When she saw a Reaper while trying to explore the Aurora, she had to pause her game and cry a bit internally

⛈️Really loves the creatures though and will make a massive aquarium in her base

Land Acquisition Architect

🚦LOVES base building. A little too much maybe?

🚦He especially likes doing it on creative mode where he's not restrained by power or hull integrity

🚦Still is the guy who builds a massive base in survival mode and like CONSTANTLY expands it even though it's already like a quarter the size of the biome

🚦Completely disorganized storage rooms

Gatekeeper

⚔️Has already killed every Leviathan in the game armed with a Seamoth and a Thermoblade

⚔️Builds a base in the most dangerous places JUST out of spite

⚔️Beats the game really fast, even for her first playthrough. Like... less than 10 hours fast

Witch Hunter

🔱He doesn't play it

Public Relations Representative

🧱Basically Buck except he gets scared of the Leviathans

🧱His base, is, erm... it sure is a base of all time {it's a complete architectural nightmare}

🧱Crashes the Cyclops into walls constantly

🧱Has an irrational fear of Mesmers. No, I cannot explain this oddly specific headcanon

Bellringer

🔔"Affectionately" insults the creatures and tells them to shut up

🔔Hurts his Seamoth so he can hurt aggressive fauna while he's driving

🔔Otherwise he's a pretty chill and normal player

Multislacker

🥪Has a little drive for exploration, but not really

🥪Mostly just clears the game and doesn't care enough to find out more about it

🥪"Oh... I'm supposed to cure a disease. That's a... lot of effort. Could you, like, just beat the game for me and I'll watch?"

Mouthpiece

☎️Thinks it's fascinating technology has come far enough for a game like this to exist, though she doesn't actually care much for Subnautica itself since it's just not her style

☎️She did find making small bases and exploring pretty fun, though

☎️Struggles a lot to control the game since gaming doesn't come naturally to her

☎️Likes to keep small aquariums

Major Player

🎹LOVES the audio and the ambience of the game, it's super immersive for him

🎹Not necessarily scared of Leviathans, but he's had some jumpscare moments with them

🎹He's the kind of guy to set his Cyclops on fire just to listen to Abandon Ship

🎹Loves exploring and just wandering around since the game is SO immersive for him

Firestarter

🔥"I, uh... I'm sorry, Peeper... I have to eat..."

🔥"Where am I?"

🔥The ceiling above him might get a little singed if he gets jumpscared

🔥"...Graham? Do you know where I am?"

🔥"What's the Ecological Dead Zone...?"

Plutocrat

🌑Doesn't really know how to play games, so he gets frustrated pretty quickly because he can't figure out how to do what he wants to do

🌑Starts thinking about a realistic survival scenario and often tries to solve problems that aren't even in the game {such at the bends, keeping skin dry, ETC}

🌑Doesn't care much for the story until he does after it FINALLY catches his interest like halfway through

Treekiller

🪵Finds very interesting solutions to his problems...

🪵Violence. He chooses violence.

🪵Sometimes purposefully kills innocent fish with his vehicles for laughs

🪵Genuinely thinks if he had Kharaa that he'd essentially be able to just walk it off

Chainsaw Consultant

🪚Who let this man play a horror game?

🪚Well, he's gonna be plenty traumatized by it

🪚He likes the peace and quiet of the safer biomes and will probably just sit with an observatory and vibe, but the sounds of aggressive fauna scares him a lot

Featherbedder

💤Falls asleep at the keyboard a lot

💤Even if it's high intensity like a Reaper chase, they will just. Suddenly fall asleep

💤The Cove Tree makes her especially sleepy though

💤Not really scared of anything and finds the story very interesting, just finds it difficult to sit through a gaming session without falling asleep

Pacesetter

👟Tries to beat the game as quickly as possible

👟"I'm not scared of Reapers!" 10 seconds later... "AHHH!!! FLINT THERE'S A REAPER CHASING ME!!!"

👟VERY dramatic about EVERY encounter. Example: "And then the Bonesharks started swarming and chasing me and biting my Seamoth! I was able to scan the Cyclops Engine Fragments and get away by just barely!" and all that happened was a single Boneshark bit his Seamoth and then swam away.

👟Example B: He'll see a Reaper in the corner of the screen swimwing away, he leaves, and then will try to describe it like this:

{WARNING: LOUD NOISES AND JUMPSCARE}

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mdpikachu · 6 months

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yes this is the dante theory list for those who liked this post but im also making it my pinned

First; Hi, I'm Md (they/it/she) and welcome to my autism hole. Boops you. HERE is my art blog, HERE is my eldritch sideblog, HERE is my berserkerlot sideblog, and HERE is my photoblog, HERE is my AO3, HERE is my Flight Rising, HERE is my BlueSky. Okay, now back to the actual post. Limbus FC is C092709920.

Md's hot hot list of Dante limbus theories that I've been sitting on since I started playing

ONE OF THESE WILL BE RIGHT. MAYBE. cut for length. discuss in the comments. contains ruina and lobocorp spoilers. maybe even leviathan spoilers. assume spoilers for the newest content. pinning so i can keep adding to it in the future. (edited 5/24 for consistency) (up to canto 6.3)

Theory 1, from early march 2023- Dante has the option to get their head back, takes it. Human Dante is shown. except clearly hiding unfamiliarity with the sinners. The clock head is still alive. A clock doesnt need a body to live. Human evil dante uses the golden whatever to cause Problems and has the sinners chained to them. vergil is free tho so he can beat down evil dante. (this now works with a canto 5 tidbit where vergil said he'd only step in if "all sinners dead, dante is beaten, and the hands of the clock are about to be torn off".)

T2, 3/12- 9 circles of hell, Dante, and a few subsections. Dante is sinner 10. Charon is also in the divine comedy so she'll get a section. Dante are u lucifer. who is the lucifer of the setting?? i'm saying pre-dante Dante until otherwise noted. (not personally fond of this one)

T3, 3/15- iori saw limbus going a certain way and guaranteed it by making sure Dante got factory reset by force. villain to cause heroism. (dont know enough about Iori for this one)

**T4- Backwards clock relation possible. (possibly canon validated) (even more possible connection as of 6.3)

T5- Saying Dante had a significant other named Beatrice is way too low bar but It's a necessary one. ech

T6- Dante IS Beatrice and given the name of someone else. (too ez)

T7, 3/17- future Dante guaranteeing the future changes by getting past Dante's head removed. issue solved. This one is based on the opening and reading the lyrics real goodly.

T8, 3/20- Dante's head has a lil bit of angelas ai in there. or ayin data. benjamin. any of them. carmen even. fuck whatever. maybe hokma bc ticking in ruina theme. (this one lead to some Better Ideas. see later) (4/7) POSSIBLY SUPPORTED BY 6.2. WHY DID THEY SEE THAT.

T9, 3/23- The three censored letters. B E A, S I N, E G O, A L I, who knows. v e r. could be anything this one is nothing

T10, 3/26- Faust VERY SPECIFICALLY says that brains cant be replaced-- so even if Dante gets their head back, it's incompatible now. (!! this is a Top Theory)

T11, 3/28- Beatrice or someone else died around Christmas, which makes Dante sad even without their memories. The pain exists but the context is missing. (They also seem to know Christmas music without any issue, able to sing along with Charon in their head. This is not addressed in canon.)

T12, 3/30- Beatrice was one of the orphans that died in Leviathan :) the time period matches up. It was around Christmas.

T13, 3/31- HARD LOBOCORP SPOILER. Thinking about In Hell We Live (Lament). "Each loop we live/die thru"? How many times? How many times has Dante done this? Or Pre-Dante, anyway. Faust is probably in on it. The new L corp took one look at what Ayin was doing and went "we can do that too lmao". Losing their memory was a base requirement to prevent madness. I rewrote this theory on 9/19 but added "to prevent a paradox"

T14, 4/18- Less a HC and more a suggestion, just use F Corp's shit to Unlock Dante's memory. If we ever visit District F, you KNOW Faust is gonna keep them on one hell of a tight leash.

T15- Is the Star a Singularity? Did Dante STEAL it? Are THEY the singularity? The clock? This one's too easy too though.

T16, 5/8- WAT IF THE STAR IS LUCIFER. MORNING STAR. CAN MANIPULATE SOULS IN HELL. (weak but proj moon loves their Christian imagery. this will come back repeatedly) not this one. maybe

T17, 5/10- Dante is either connected to whitenight OR a jesus figure (12 apostles, sin, not dying when killed, revives people, etc. the christianity again. it will continue. i already drew plague doc dante.) (4/7, possible but carmen is the lucifer adjacent if 6-34 is anything to go by. jesus is still open.)

**T18. 5/16- Dante's clock hands are made from a Golden Bough. ez. LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOO canto 5.2

T19. 6/16- This has 0 canon basis but what if Dante was a Bloodfiend, would that be cool or what? They already don't need to eat, but is that from the clock or something else? Do they get IVs with nutrients? How does this work? Idk. I just want Dante to cut their hand open, make giant claws and rip a man apart before eating dirt. Dante can chew on a Sinner as a treat. c: I just want this one.

T20- Wouldn't it be fucked up if Dante found their head and it had either Distorted or was an Abnormality??

T21, 9/29- Religious Bastard Dieci Dante Aligheri.

T22- Dante has gotten Very Attached to the Sinners as their only form of contact while they've gotten themselves together. They recently realized many Sinners are doing this for the end goals, not to be a team. This seemed to upset them. UPSET THEM MORE. DISTORT THEM. DANTE REALIZES THEY'LL ALL LEAVE WITHOUT A CARE IN THE WORLD. Carmen! Come get this bitch.

T23- Actually, Dante should distort for any reason. I Absolutely Understand the Mechanics (lying). Got too depressed, hit -45 SAN and decided they're just a useless tool instead of a person? Absolutely. You're now a piece of equipment. (when Heath asks if they're okay in canto 5 bc they got injured, dante responds "the clocks fine so who cares?") (I now understand the mechanics but want it anyway) They won't.

T24- Building off the previous, they're really starting to believe they're just a tool like how Gregor thinks he's a bug. That Is Not Good For Your Mental Health (garry ib icon.png)

T25- Putting this here just before my fav one, their skin. We never see it, so a list of potential possibilities excluding Being White bc that's BORING: Any POC, ashy skin (like vergil), dark ashy (charon), pure black or close to (a lot of people do this, me included), dark and covered in stars, very tattooed, very mechanical, just outright a robot, bloodfiend again, scarred, frankensteiny, bough roots, fucked up censored, ETC. Based on the few images we have that show anything, it's just pitch black under there unless it's a skinsuit. the rest of them may be any of the above but for now most of these are defunct.

T26- My Current Top Theory of All Time- Dante is an AI. They have never been human, just machine. At least one of their creators cared enough to do better than Ayin ever fucking did, fostering curiosity and a desire to live in the little AI. Thing is, after Angela, AI became Very Illegal. There's no way their creators survived. L Corp New got them. Old AI Dante was, at their core, still an unfeeling machine that made decisions based purely on cold logic. New Dante is a person that is learning and growing, refusing to follow the colder path at times.

Is the clock part of them? Unsure. That can work either way.

But they're definitely becoming a person who doesn't want every encounter to end in bloodshed and death. Good for them. (this part is correct)

T27- Dante is not Ruina Dante. they didn't get booked. I think they'd throw hands on sight.

T28- Verg/Dante that's all glory to yxxiville

**T29- Dante navigator skills IM SO FUCKING HAPPY I WIN FOREVER MOM HOLY FUCK

T30- I missed one! Their eyes with a human head. This has a few that rotate. Red eyes, Gold eyes, Gold with the star, heterochromia with only one gold/star and red, pitch black (pre-d), or night sky/star. mix and match. who cares?

T31- I personally like the idea of Dante being a redhead (real red not ginger like ish) but realize it doesn't make much sense. Black hair works too, esp smoky, but they need more color. maybe fire streaks? if POC, maybe dreads?

T32- I am now also accepting heathcliff/dante post canto 5.1 he care so much.... actually just sinner polycule is valid. so is sinner family. both work. the only part I dont like is dante/faust. doesn't feel right. Charon excluded. that is our child. sinner x any other sinner. dante x anyone. including vergil. not charon.

T33- Forgot an old one where I figured Dante was a hacker that got into a Lot of trouble and being sinner #10 was meant to be a suicide mission.

T34- Dante being an ai part 2, having been planted in a body. maybe even a body they knew.

T35- [added to 25]

T36- Memory loss being fully intentional to kill their previous self and only carry over the necessary. A new start.

T37- Yknow how we never SAW Dante being an upper torso and arm in canto 3? Why? What is being hidden that's so important? robot parts? are you a robot? are you a -

T38- Dante being an artist of any kind. musician, poet, painter, etc. even post amnesia. give em a hobby

T39- Somewhere else I discussed forms that'd be fun for a Dante Distortion but i cant find it so ill reiterate: coffin spider, all around helper clock, useless fucking thing. all of which have gold chains suffocating them and it doesnt fight back. give it morphine

T40- this one's insane but dante's og self being the Player/self-insert. thats why they were "Me" and not "Dante" we're not them. but we also are.

T41- This ones a joke but og dantes name actually just being "Me". (but not pronounced that way) (alternatively it was a nickname)

T42- Dante being an interviewer or reporter- A big name one. No wonder they keep secrets like K corps singularity. They can release that publicly later... if they choose to.

T43- RECREATE CARMEN. DO IT PUSSY. That 5.5 Blade scene is Damning as all hell. That or the bough + the monolith had an Interaction.

T44- Dante's internal programming knows the City Lore but Dante isn't allowed to know. The fact so much of that scene was censored...

T45- Dante is Bongbong

T46- I haven't beaten Ruina so I don't know a lot about Constructs or Librarians but like. Maybe they were one of those.

T47- Dante is going to eventually explode (figuratively). Even they can only take so much abuse and bullshit. Self-esteem can only go so low.

T48- Dante being a disaster chimera of stuff. AI made of someone else's brain, in someone else's body, with other stuff installed, etc, etc, etc.

T49- The Star reminds me too much of Blue Star, talking about Sin and such. Maybe it's an abno relating to that. who knows.

T50- Dante is an ID and there's a mirror in their head keeping them active. I hope they do a Charon/Lapis and totally overwrite the og bc the og's an asshole.

T51- Dante's the first successful "new human"

T52- Dante IS fucked up but something in their head hides the fuckedupness from everyone else.

T53- Dante is connected to that "ancient river".

T54- Dante was part of the 13th association.

T55- Dante stops keeping info to themselves so damn often. This is basically a bingo free space.

#mddttxt #limbus company #project moon #dante lcb #pinn'd post

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acacia-may · 9 months

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Do you have any songs for Hero from Omori for the game? Thanks

Oh my goodness I have so many songs for Hero from OMORI that it'll honestly be hard to narrow it down 😅, but I'll share a couple of my favorites plus some related Hero post-"Truth" headcanons! Thanks for playing my song + headcanon game and for the chance for some Hero appreciation (he really deserves it 💙).

I've put your songs and headcanons below the cut because of MAJOR OMORI spoilers (and warnings for the heavy themes & subject matter (i.e. grief, death, mental health issues) that go along with that).

There really are so many songs out there that remind me of Hero (who is probably tied for the title of my favorite OMORI character), and honestly, I didn't know how angsty you wanted to go with this ask so I've chosen two songs: a sad one and a less sad one.

Sad Song Choice: "Older Than I Am" by Lennon Stella

I feel like this just might be the ultimate Hero song. I mean with opening lines like "My heart's seen things I wish it didn't/Somewhere I lost some of my innocence, and I miss it" how could it not be? There's something so hauntingly tragic about this song, and I think it just fits Hero so well given how he has been through so much in his life and how he has had to grow up far too quickly. He prides himself on doing everything right, on taking care of everyone else around him and never wanting to be a burden on anyone ("I do all my own healing/Manage all of my feelings/I don't ask for help, no/'Cause I don't need it"), but sometimes it does get to be a lot for him: leaves him faking happiness and contentment while really he is breaking inside and feeling lonely and listless as he tries to keep up this charade of being "fine" ("Why am I always the one making decisions?/How do I handle the pressure?/I do my best to fake it, but honestly I hate it").

There are probably times when he wishes he "could do something stupid" and "be kinda reckless." There is probably a part of him that wishes he could "just say to hell with all [his] plans"--could "say I don't give a damn," but the problem is he does give a damn--he cares too much. He's too responsible, too dutiful, too conflict-avoidant, and too worried about hurting and burdening everyone else. Ultimately, he would never do those any of those things because just like the singer in the song, he would stop himself and be forced to admit that no matter how much he wishes he could just throw in the towel, set aside this "perfect" facade for just a minute, he won't--he can't because he's Hero and there is always that voice in the back of his head reminding him "But I'm older than I am" and stopping him.

Lennon Stella - Older Than I Am (Lyrics) - YouTube

Less Sad Song Choice: "Two" by Sleeping At Last (A/N: it’s not really that sad of a song but the Hero context makes everything sadder)

I'm not even sure where to start with this song since there are so many lines that make me think of Hero starting not least of all with the very first: "sweetheart, you look a little tired--when did you last eat?" Beyond just his penchant for cooking for his loved ones, Hero really wants nothing more than to take care of people. He has such a genuine generosity and selflessness that he truly "will love you without a single string attached" and would not hesitate to put someone else and their needs in front of his own--bending over backwards to help them or make them happy, even if it is at his own expense or to his own detriment ("you know I’ll take my heart clean apart, if it helps yours beat" and "you can take the oxygen straight out of my own chest.").

While he would be the first to offer help, support, even the shirt off his back to someone who needed it, he struggles with asking for help himself, can't stand being the center of attention, and does not like talking about himself or his own problems because he deeply fears being a burden to others ("no, I don’t want to talk about myself—tell me where it hurts."). After he begins to heal from that period of deep depression he experienced immediately following the loss of Mari, Hero consistently buries his own pain, grief, and sadness--deeply afraid of hurting or burdening his family, friends, or any of his loved ones like that again (even though, of course, the ones who love him want to be there to support him, no matter what he's going through).

He knows he's wounded and hurting, but he pushes it aside in favor of helping others. When Sunny finds him at Mari's piano in the middle of the night, for instance, Hero is "fine"—immediately jumping into trying to support and comfort Sunny, but if you go back into the room immediately afterwards, Hero is crying by himself, just unwilling and unable to express his own pain and sadness to someone else. It's absolutely that "I just want to build you up, build you up ’til you’re good as new, and maybe one day I will get around to fixing myself too" sentiment.

Finally, the line "I just want to love you, to love you, to love you well. I just want to learn how, somehow, to be loved myself" in the bridge just gives me chills when I think about in the context of Hero. He is such a big-hearted, empathetic, and sincerely loving person, but he deeply struggles to accept the love and support from others that he gives away so generously.

Sleeping At Last - "Two" (Official Lyric Video) - YouTube

Here Are Some Hero Post-"The Truth" Headcanons Inspired by These Songs:

When Hero learns "The Truth," he quietly excuses himself from the room to deal with and process his emotions alone. He feels overwhelmed, hurt, upset, angry, heartbroken and so many other stormy, complicated emotions, and despite (perhaps) wishing he could unleash that whole internal turmoil, he stops himself--recalling with a painful regret that one (1) time he lashed out at Kel after Mari's death and knowing that he is not that 15 (or 16) year old boy anymore. He is an adult (albeit a 19-year-old adult but still an adult), and he will act like one, regardless of how he feels on the inside because he really is older than he is.

After crying bitterly alone and trying his best to make sense of the Truth and of everything he is feeling, Hero experiences a moment in which it really just "clicks" in his head that even if he has complex feelings about Sunny and Basil right now, Sunny and Basil are suffering in a similar way to how Hero himself suffered for years. Hero has blamed himself for what happened to Mari all this time--mentally beating himself up for not even knowing she was depressed and driving himself in painful circles wondering if he had just reached out to her, had made sure she understood she could aways open up to him, had been more of a support to her, had better expressed how much he cared about her, had held onto her tighter, had loved her better--had loved her more would things have been different? He has carried that weight around for 4 years--blaming himself for her death, and now he sees Sunny and Basil doing the same thing--granted under wildly different (more culpable despite it being an accident) circumstances but the feelings & pain of that overwhelming guilt are very similar, and Hero knows how painful and what a heavy burden that is.

In the end, it's almost like the complicated feelings he might have about Sunny and Basil due to the truth get overshadowed by Hero’s empathy and the fact that he cares for them deeply as if they were his own little brothers, and that is what finally gives him some clarity.

He returns to the room and actually apologizes himself both for suddenly disappearing and for the fact that this has all happened the way it did. He starts to tear up again as he hugs Sunny then Basil, reassuring them that Mari would want them to forgive themselves.

This is not to say that Hero doesn't still have some serious inner turmoil and angst surrounding "The Truth" and all the pain it and its cover up has caused. He does wrestle with complicated feelings towards both Basil and Sunny for some time afterwards (he is only human after all); however, this remains internal turmoil, as Hero absolutely sees it as something he needs to work through on his own with time (and hopefully, eventually, some desperately needed therapy). Additionally, having matured and learned from his one (1) fight with Kel after Mari's death, he does not take this out on Sunny or Basil--not wanting to have to repeat what is one of the greatest regrets of his life (lashing out at his brother).

Even if it takes him a little time, Hero ultimately is one of the most empathetic to Sunny and Basil's feelings surrounding Mari’s death—particularly their guilt, and it is in recognizing a lot of himself and his own grief, pain and guilt in Sunny & Basil that he finally reaches a place of healing and forgiveness with them.

Additionally, in reconciling himself to the situation and making peace with that happened, Hero ultimately blames Mari’s “bad knee”/knee injury for her death more than Sunny, choosing to believe that Sunny didn’t push her that hard so it was really the fact that her bad knee gave out that made her fall down the stairs, whereas an uninjured person wouldn’t have fallen. This inspires him to take a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) residency when he graduates from medical school, and he becomes a pediatric physiatrist: treating injured children and coordinating rehabilitative medicine after their injuries. He sees it as his way to give back (in a healthy way, of course) and finds a sense of purpose in trying to prevent another tragedy like that from happening by helping other injured children in their recovery.

#hero omori #omori hero #hero omori headcanons #hero headcanons #hero character analysis #hero deserves to be happy #poor hero #he needs a hug #i love him so much it breaks my heart #hero appreciation 💙#this is so self indulgent ngl #song + headcanon game #omori spoilers

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yulikisdoingstuff · 4 months

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Introduction post!!

Hello to anyone who passes by. Here's a little tiny story of how I ended up here and what's this thing about. I have TL DR at the bottom, feel free to scroll.

So, Undertale fandom was my main for years now. It's my huge passion, I'm always excited to see anything related (Deltarune included). Also, since getting to know the game I've begun drawing a lot and now I hope to relate my life with art in some way. Especially animation!

A lot has happened recently. A little less than a year ago I've made up an OC to return to roleplaying community (which I was also into 'cause of Undertale). This OC since has been growing a ton. Also, I've got a new group of friends, we've been playing fan games together, I got to watch Underverse... And a bunch of other stuff. Being a probably-undiagnosed-with-something lil guy who quickly gets fixated on things, I got super excited and inspired. So...

Undertale:Embrace. The AU I mentioned above is getting something. Probably a combo of traditional animation like in Underverse, fake gameplay thingy like GG!Underfell (these projects are really influencing me recently) and crappy remix of original soundtracks since I don't know how to make music but have this image in my head I want to somehow show. So sorry if your ears bleed lol. Art is somewhat decent tho!

I can't really show much rn, yet I think I'm gonna post updates here and upload the completed videos on YouTube. I think creating this blog will somehow bring me motivation to keep going. Tbh I was reluctant for a long time, but now I realise that if we fans patiently wait for Undertale Yellow for 7 years or new Underverse episodes... you name it - then I have chances of getting attention even if I'm slow.

Basically, what I want is to share my art and see other people interested in my little guys. Oh, and the reason I chose Tumblr is non-existing. I just don't use any major social media besides my local one, and I don't have any following there. And I heard that Tumblr is somewhat supporting, so why not give it a try?

You're gonna see the first peek of my work soon and a basic explanation of the plot without spoilers. Have a great day and srry for stopping you for such a long time. I really wanted to spill this somewhere. PHEW, it helps so much.

TL DR: I've got a lot of inspo through the years, so now I'm working on my Undertale AU animations. I really appreciate it if you get interested in the future and support my journey. So stay tuned.

Bye-bye, have a great day out here!!

#undertale #undertale au #UT:E #Undertale:Embrace

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the-incapable-hero · 1 year

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Sighhhhhhhhhhh

I want to talk about Crazy:B. Not in a bad way don't worry. But like... They're so fascinating. I like them a lot, don't get me wrong, but they're not my favorite since I get super taken by overly sappy found family. In contrast, I want to take Crazy:B, put them on a plastic slide, and observe them under a microscope. There's just so much going on. I rant in the rest of the post so enjoy I guess.

I'll start with HiMERU since I know the least about him. I've been avoiding spoilers since I wanted to experience the game in en, so I don't know a lot about him. I know there's some wacky identity thing going on, but I legit have no clue what's actually happening. Though if I've learned anything about enstars, the story is probably going to be complicated and REALLY freaking dramatic. I'm not a new fan, so I know better than to expect moral black and white with whatever he has going on, but from what I gather, he's been hurt. I get the sense that he's kind of lost "himself" if that makes sense. So far in the en story, I don't see him get too close to the people around him, so there's probably some trauma there. Other than that, I don't know enough about him, so I'll have to return to him in another post.

Next is Kohaku since he's the one I know the next least about. I don't actually have much to say about him, but not because I don't find him interesting. In fact, I really want to know more about how he works, but he seems way more open. I think he appeals to me since I can tell what his motivations are and also I kinda just want to see him cut loose, you know? This applies to 3/4 of Crazy:B, but they seem really tightly wound. I think each of them (all 4) should have someone care for them and their well-being.

Okay, I'm really conflicted about if I should talk about Rinne or Niki next, so I'm going to talk about both interchangeably.

Because like... They're lives are so intertwined now. Like half off their motivations ever have to do with the other. Now, it really is just half since Niki really does care about cooking that much and Rinne of course loves his brother and both of them have a dream. Niki is super straightforward most of the time, so if he makes a commitment, you can be pretty sure of his goal and motivation. Rinne is the opposite but from what I can gather, Crazy:B is learning to read each other well enough that miscommunication is less and less of a problem.

I want to mention too that Niki seems to be pretty 2 dimensional as a character, but as far as I can tell, he does that on purpose. After all, people would worry less like that and he'd "cause less trouble". He aims to be different from his parents or his dad specifically because it's partly thanks to them he's almost died from starvation.

Meanwhile, Rinne is complicated since his motivations for a majority of the story are unclear. What I've learned though, is that he has a dream that he wants to achieve, but the people he cares about come first before any of that. He'll risk a lot if it means they can be happy. He almost threw away his dream so Hiiro could have it instead. Not to mention, when Niki nearly died so he could feed Rinne, I'm guessing that Rinne came too close for his comfort to someone sacrificing instead of him, not to mention, that sacrifice specifically would be irreversible. So given Rinne and his nature, it makes sense that he'd do everything in his power to make sure Niki can live both long and happily.

Overall, Crazy:B is one of those units that sure, I can't relate too personally to, but the dynamic is odd enough that it's overwhelmingly interesting. And I think since they've somehow made it work despite the complexity is a testament to how well their group can work and how much they can persevere through.

I kinda want to do a motif analysis but I'll save that for another post. Let me know if you're interested I guess.

#crazy:b #enstars crazyb #enstars #ensemble stars #rinne amagi #himeru #kohaku oukawa #niki shiina

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timetraveltiddy · 1 year

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alright I'm gonna go on a slightly petty sub4hibi rant that will probably only make sense to like 2 people here but has been sitting in my head for a while (if you haven't read it then. some spoilers ahead!)

posting here instead of twitter 'cause I know some friends and people that follow me there (but not here) that really like the ship I'm about to...definitely not hate on but maybe be a bit critical of and though I know perfectly well those in question can take criticism and the like perfectly fine nobody really wants to randomly have crit, or even just opinions they don't agree with of their faves thrown at them (so if any of you ever see this post in the future I promise that's the only reason why)

ANYWAY sca-di went on the usual art reblog and it made me think about how I'm a little bit bitter at the popularity of Takuji/Kimika. It's a ship I myself like, I think it's definitely interesting and I support it, but to put it plainly I mostly like it for its impact on Kimika's character more than anything else. Her ending and the way she talks to Takuji about her insecurities is great and it gives a lot of insight into her character, plus it's nice to see her sort of get brief bit of happiness in a bittersweet ending. However I still prefer Kimika/Zakuro by a LONG shot and it makes me sad that it doesn't get as much attention

I've gone on a bit about Kimika's relations to Takuji and especially Zakuro so I can see why it's more popular from a narrative perspective. Many of us love the grimdark shit because it's a hell of a lot more interesting and compared to happy sunshiney things, and well...EoS definitely ends on a much happier note than the main narrative does for Kimika. I love a good angsty narrative myself but what I like even better is a complex relationship between two women who have great chemistry together and BOY did this story deliver well on that. But anyway in general I would think most readers of this VN are chasing some of the more philosophical and dramatic components than a happy gay ending. Plus, by proxy of being Tomosane's brother Mamiya is relevant for the whole story, as opposed to poor Zakuro who loses relevance to the latter events fairly early in (most) routes. Why wouldn't a ship involving him get more attention?

And herein I touch upon a bit less hypothetical criticism and more my personal thoughts on the matter. I don't really have the authority to say anything on the matter between the differences between Western and Eastern fandom approaches to the VN but regardless...I see soooo much fanart of Kimika with Takuji and so little of her with Zakuro. It exists, but I could probably count the amount I've seen on one hand (and one of those was drawn for me by a friend!). And it makes me a little sad because I love them so much. Like I said, people aren't reading the story for the gay parts (and if they are, they're braver than any US marine tbh) but it saddens me that one might pass over this ship because they got a happy ending in a single route.

And like...not to be that guy but you can't always disconnect your biases from what you consume. In this case, I'm referring to what appears to be a VERY heterosexual Western fandom. Which is kind of funny to me, considering that the narrative engages in some very interesting choices that aren't tackled too often in m/f stories (but often enough in hentai and other media I suppose). Especially since the game literally starts and ends with homoeroticism if you go back to Down the Rabbit Hole 1 after you finish the game. Regardless, the narrative as a whole really shies away from making any of these yuri relationships lasting or being meaningful (aside from Yuki/Zakuro, arguably). None of them are connected to the main plot and Kimika/Zakuro has zero chance of happening in the canon endings. And then of course there's the constant casual stereotypes ("but we're both girls!" and Yuki's dad, though funnily enough I think it's kinda nice that nobody questioned his sexuality or where Yuki came from) and the constant use of the f slur. All of which may make those who are still sort of uncomfortable with gay content feel "soothed" in a way and still enjoy it. Not to say you can't be an ally and still love the gay ships in this VN but given the intensity of the subject matter, you've gotta have a mind and stomach made of STEEL to get through a good portion of it, ESPECIALLY if you're gay. And unless you're already into VNs and/or enjoy this kind of intense subject matter then it's probably hard as FUCK to get past IMOI.

ALL of this to say that I feel like a big part of the reason there's so little attention to the gay ships is that there's simply...no gay fandom. At least visibly. I was of course being facetious when I mentioned in my post the other day about the fandom being only me and 4 other gay people but I personally haven't seen a lot of discussion of the Gay elements from those who aren't part of the LGBTQ community. I'm sure it happens in places that aren't so public or easily accessible but aside from little pockets on twitter I'm under the impression that there's not a hell of a lot of us who talk about it openly. And it's not hard to see why; take a look at the reactions to this satirical post by @girlwhodeceivesfate! Some are more open than others but those top comments say something about those who bothered to open the post. And many seem annoyed that anyone could possibly have a queer focus.

This went off topic from the specifics very quickly but anyway...of course shipping isn't the main purpose of any of these narratives but I'll be real with y'all. Even though I liked the main story enough Kimika and her relationship with Zakuro were the things I liked most about this VN, so. Longwinded point is that I get why there's not a lot of content for them compared to the other ship but it still disappoints me.

it's past 5:30am and I need to simmer the fuck down so if anyone actually made it through this all the way to the end, well done! you've made it through my messy unedited sleepy ramblings

#it's shiny time #ship hate #like not actually but I don't want anyone to feel bad about their ships ya know

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pahrak-the-sinnoh-slizer · 11 months

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Games in 2023: Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection (1/2)

This one almost feels like cheating, being a collection of games that’ve been out for 20 years now. (Yikes, 20 years…) Battle Network was my introduction to Mega Man, so as soon as it became apparent that Legacy Collections were going to continue being A Thing, I began to speculate what one for this series might look like. In some ways the final product is as expected, and in some ways it exceeds expectations; there’s a reason people have been saying this is the best Legacy Collection yet. So cheating or not, I want to try to compile some of my thoughts on the collection and the various games that make it up. Battle Network is just too important to me to not do it.

If you’re a newcomer to the Battle Network series and want a spoiler-free tl;dr: While these games do show their age, the collection provides excellent ways to mitigate the negatives, plus there are two decades worth of in-depth guides across the internet to help you along. What holds up is a bundle of very unique and fun mechanics set in a world overflowing with both charm and heart. I absolutely recommend it. The collection has two volumes (that line up exactly with a major pivot in the series)—if you only get Vol. 1, I would recommend starting with either BN2 or 3 (BN1 is largely foundational and understandably rough around the edges), and if you only get Vol. 2 I would recommend starting with BN6 (it’s remarkably well-refined and far less divisive than BN4 and 5).

If you don’t care about spoilers, I’ve got a LONG post of detailed thoughts below the cut. Let’s set one more routine…execute!

You probably know the basics, but for the curious: Battle Network takes place in a world of near-futuristic network technology. Well, near-futuristic at the time the games were made, mind you. Everything is connected to the internet, and everyone carries around personal terminals (or PETs) that are comparable to modern smartphones; though this may seem standard to us now, back at the turn of the millennium, these concepts still seemed like a dream. Dial-up was still a thing! Anyway, the “cyber-world” inside the internet is presented more akin to an alternate dimension, and is populated by AI programs known as Net Navigators, often shortened to NetNavi or just Navi. Everyone has their own Navi who lives in their PET, and they help humans with their daily lives while also fighting off the many viruses that try to infect all of these commonplace smart devices (personified as cute little critters you’ll either find adorable or mind-bogglingly frustrating). The games follow Lan Hikari, resident shounen protag and grandchild of the man considered the father of net society, and his NetNavi MegaMan.EXE, the responsible one. Some way or another, the duo repeatedly find themselves caught up in the chaos caused by various net crimes, each game chronicling their battles with various cyber-terrorism organizations hellbent on destroying the world as we know it.

Before getting to the games themselves, I want to talk about the features of the collection. Both volumes are largely similar, but each focus on one half of the series: Vol. 1 on BN1-3, and Vol. 2 on BN4-6. Those familiar with the series may remember that 4 introduced many new mechanical changes which then informed 5 and 6, so Battle Network was already considered two trilogies by many and it only makes sense that the collection leans into that. For games that have two versions, both are available with their own separate save file, which contributes a lot towards making it feel complete. As with all Legacy Collections, both volumes have music and art libraries pertaining to their respective trilogy, though here there’s also a “Mystery Data” section for art relating to the various Battle Network spin-offs not included in the collection. It’s nice to see their inclusion, though it does highlight the one asterisk on calling this the definitive way to experience these games: the collection does not include features from the updated DS re-releases of BN1 and 5, only a few associated pieces of art. How glaring this omission is, well, that’s for you to decide for yourself; personally the only part I haven’t entirely coped with is not having Sol Cross (*sigh*...), but I could see it being a bigger issue for some. There’s also an achievement list, and for games that put so much focus on their post-game grind to 100%, I find it interesting that these achievements only really ask you to beat (both versions of) each game and smell a few roses along the way…with two exceptions. If you want all the achievements in Vol. 1, you have to 100% BN1; this is frustrating even with the collection’s additional tools, but at least in this game you can cheat the Chip Trader to get those last few chips. If you want all the achievements in Vol. 2, you have to get all Soul Unisons in both versions of BN4. We’ll, uh…we’ll get into the issue with that when we get to BN4.

In both volumes, the main menu features what’s essentially a MegaMan VTuber; he’ll greet you, make some comments or perform some actions if you idle long enough, and you can press the L button to talk to him just like in the games. The intent is, obviously, to recreate the feeling of having your own PET and Navi, and it’s an inclusion I personally adore. They even got back Andrew Francis, the guy who voiced MegaMan in the English dub of the anime! I loved watching that as a kid! I do wonder how those without as much nostalgia feel about it, but it doesn’t seem all that intrusive, and there’s an option to silence MegaMan if you really have a problem with him. For me, the only negative is that if you don’t play a volume for a few days and then start it back up, MegaMan says he was getting tired of waiting for you, and that made me die a little on the inside. Anyway.

Aside from the gallery there are two other recurring features in Legacy Collections: some sort of easy mode or assistive mechanic, and an additional gameplay mode. In the case of the former, this collection offers Buster MAX Mode, an option that can be toggled at any time using the collection pause menu or when launching a game. It multiplies the damage done by basic buster shots by a factor of 100. Yeah. I won’t get into all the nuances of its implementation, but being able to take down virtually any enemy by spamming a few shots can be real nice for getting through long areas and dealing with particularly annoying viruses. It’s really fun, but isn’t always an automatic win button, so it maintains an interesting balance of sorts. Each game also gives you the option of adding chips that were previously only available through in-person events into your inventory, many of which can be game-breaking when you draw them, but you have to choose to use them. It’s great to have these rare, Japan-only additions readily available, and Vol. 2 takes this a step further by granting full access to the plethora of eReader cards (or Patch Cards) that were released alongside the second trilogy! These give you a lot of freedom to modify your game and customize your experience, and never made it overseas due to the eReader flopping here. You can play through all of BN5 as Bass Cross! The various item cards especially make this feel like a second Number Trader, you know, something that’s basically in-game cheat codes you can just use freely if you know about them. It’s a whole new dimension to the experience, and that’s a wonderful option to have in a collection like this!

As for an additional gameplay mode, there’s nothing that’s accessed through the collection’s menu, but instead, every single game has online capabilities for their multiplayer functions! Originally you needed a GBA link cable and nearby friends to access these features, but now, as long as you can get online, you can battle and trade with people all over the world, with functional ranking and some new tweaks to game balance. I’m still floored by this. Can you imagine how much work this took to make it happen for ALL six games? The dedication! I’m actually considering buying Switch Online for the first time because of this. Now…I will say. You do HAVE to play online ranked battles (and risk losing chips!) in order to truly access everything in most of the games. BN2 and 3 require you to get chips only found through multiplayer to reach 100% completion, and that really sucks—especially considering the Wii U Virtual Console releases of the games simply gave you these chips along with the event-exclusives chips. Like, this was a solved problem. I guess I can understand reverting to the old way with the reintroduction of multiplayer, but…I’m locked out of completing BN3 White unless I buy Online and find someone willing to give me the BowlMan chips. That makes me sad. It’s not as bad in Vol. 2 at least, you need to play multiplayer to get all the Secret Chips but Secret Chips are not tracked for 100% completion. I would like to get an Otenko chip, though.

After all that, let’s finally get on to the games! Starting with Battle Network 1…you know, this is the only game here that I hadn’t played at all prior to the collection. I started with BN3 and never went back to the beginning because it seemed players only ever talked about it with sheer dread. Like I said earlier, BN1 is foundational: this is a very unique sort of game, especially compared to the platforming of Classic and X, so I think it only makes sense that it didn’t entirely come together on the first attempt. Yes, this does mean it’s not an ideal first impression, and I understand why so many advocate skipping it. However, I don’t think that means one should never play it. If you turn on Buster MAX, dump all your PowerUPs into attack, and have a guide and map on standby, you can muscle past quite a bit of the jank and really see for yourself the earliest stage in this series’ evolution. Automatically healing after battle? Pretty nice! The elemental armor system? Not incredibly robust, but it’s the seed that grew into the various transformation systems that are so iconic! Every game has arbitrary gates, but the ones in BN1’s net are most often unlocked by another person giving you access—your world literally expands by meeting new people! A big part of my newfound appreciation for Lan is because in BN1 his relationship with his dad feels just a smidge more nuanced, where he’s proud of his dad and what he does, but really wishes they could spend more time together (like most kids would!), even if he consistently tries to hide his excitement over the time they do spend together (again, like a real preteen boy!). It’s not exclusive to this game, but boy does it fade as the series progresses. Start with another game, for sure, but if you do end up liking the series, give this one a try. Even if it’s rough, it’s important, and we shouldn’t overlook it.

Now, when people do tell you to skip BN1, they usually also say there’s one important plot development you should still learn about. At the end of BN1, you discover that MegaMan is no ordinary NetNavi: he’s the result of Lan’s father’s research on creating Navis as human-like as possible who can truly bond with their human operators. That research was in an inescapable failsafe until his wife gave birth…to twins. One of the boys was born with a heart defect, and died very young, so young that Lan doesn’t even remember he had a brother. His father refused to let his son die, however, and so he turned the boy’s DNA into code and incorporated it into a NetNavi…MegaMan.EXE. It’s revealed to Lan that his Navi is actually his twin brother, Hub, reborn in the cyberworld. My feelings on this are…I dunno, kinda complicated? Later games emphasize that Hub’s soul moved into the MegaMan body, and that was always a real sticking point for me—it didn’t make sense, I thought, nor could I comprehend why Lan and Hub having identical DNA causes them to synchronize and share wounds and such. And I mean…it still doesn’t make complete sense to me, but I’ve come to think that maybe it doesn’t really matter if it makes sense. It allows for some really great moments, so maybe I shouldn’t be such a stickler about “suspension of disbelief” or whatever. At the very least, I’ve finally accepted it.

I had played a little of BN2 before, but I don’t think I ever even made it halfway before getting distracted. It’s kind of staggering just how many improvements were made just one entry later: * code chips, a dedicated button for running from battles, the Style Change…you know, why don’t I start with the Style Change? Here’s where transformations start to become BN’s bread and butter, and they immediately knocked it out of the park. Appearance-wise, the Style Changes are subtle yet distinct, striking a very fine balance which I really appreciate and no doubt sold many, many toys. (I think Heat Guts is the only one that came stateside? I bought it ofc.) Mechanically, it’s a great idea to give the player a power-up directly informed by their own playstyle, letting them do exactly what they want to do even better, and the four core Styles are each suitably unique to ensure each is its own experience. Not to mention how cool it is to have a secret fifth Style that combines all their powers! My main gripe is the one you probably expected: the core four Styles come with Elements, but which Element you get is entirely random. Heat Guts is a spectacular Style…until you have to fight FreezeMan! Let’s try Elec Guts…better not get hit once by SnakeMan! It isn’t really a huge thing, but it can be frustrating to have a random handicap against certain bosses, or have your charge shot replaced with a weapon you don’t really enjoy. I will say it’s nicely mitigated in BN2 when you can store 2 Styles. (*cough*)

And the improvements aren’t purely mechanical. The internet design in BN1 is needlessly labyrinthine, exacerbated by every area looking exactly the same; but here in BN2, paths are easy to follow and have a unique aesthetic for each group of areas. The story is also a step up in many regards, feeling a bit more coherent, and ambitiously builds the world with a few new countries. I also appreciate that they showed some restraint in regards to Wily, only indirectly referring to him at the very end and not specifically revealing his involvement until next game. Classic and X can both get frustrating with how they constantly shoehorn Wily and Sigma into every endgame, but Battle Network finds ways to tie everything back to Wily without having him hog every single spotlight. Lord Gospel, or Sean, is given a real chance to stand on his own. And he, uh…well…here’s how I see it. They had two very good ideas, and unfortunately tried them both without realizing that they weren’t truly compatible. Lord Gospel being a ruthless enigma whose identity is a surprise reveal at the end (and it’s not Wily)? Great! But that doesn’t give you the time to properly craft a backstory for a character that gets us invested in him and makes us really want to see him redeemed. Sean being a kid with a hard life who retreated into the internet and getting manipulated by someone online who abused his trust is a horrifyingly resonant idea in the context of Battle Network! …But you can’t just wait to dump ALL of that on the player until AFTER we’ve already beaten the final boss! It only gets worse considering he’s barely in BN3 and just vanishes by the second trilogy. I love Sean in concept, but it is a bit frustrating to see the execution play out this way. All this to say, it makes perfect sense why BN2 is held in such high regard…though perhaps not as high as another game in the series…

Now BN3! BN3 is the one you’re most likely to see at the top of someone’s list, and that also makes perfect sense. Nearly everything in BN3 is further refinement upon BN2, and the brand new stuff works very, very well. (Some caveats, we’ll get to that.) This was also the first game to be released in twin versions Pokemon-style, although design documents show this idea was always on the table even when BN was but a twinkle in Eguchi’s eye, and the versions aren’t so much “equal” as “a game and then an updated version of that game”. BN3 White was my very first Mega Man game, though, I won’t tolerate any slander from Blue elitists! …Anyway. Style Changes make a return from BN2, but with heavy alterations, largely in service of one of the new mechanics: the Navi Customizer. Now obviously I really appreciate what the Navi Customizer brings to the table, and I think its initial outing is one of its absolute best thanks to Mod Tools. Getting new programs each time you level up a Style is rewarding, certainly moreso than a simple damage increase to your charge shot like in BN2, and it’s fun to mix abilities using Error Codes. (I don’t think I’ve ever had a file where I got two Styles with compatible program colors lol) Still…you can only put in one Error Code at a time, and that really limits just how much mixing you can do. And it’s a bit of a bummer to see the basic abilities of each Style nerfed (though I do like that Guts Style can rapid-fire now). Especially considering you can only store 1 Style at a time…like, I’m sure this was all done in the name of balance, but part of me can’t help but wonder about the unexplored potential. There’s also the unique chips you can get while using Custom and Team Style, which is an interesting way to expand their abilities and further differentiate the experience of each Style. It becomes a bit of an issue when you realize ALL of those chips are required for completion, though…unless you get real lucky with the BugFrag Trader. Anyway, we do get new Style Changes in addition to the core four! Having now used Ground Style, I can see it being incredibly useful, I just don’t usually fight strategically enough to make the most of it. I’ve still yet to use Shadow Style, but it seems to benefit players with precise timing, and uh…that ain’t me. (Also FloatShoes don’t protect from poison panels in this game. What’s up with that?) But Bug Style! Bug Style I like a LOT! (Yes its appearance in the anime influenced this shut up) The positive bugs seem to typically outweigh the negative bugs, making this feel like a particularly strong gimmick. And with HubBatch being a Navi Cust program in this game, and Bug Style getting you Bug Stop which even negates HubBatch’s HP cut…you can be pretty freakin’ strong. I like that. Oh, while we’re on the Navi Cust, did you know that when you’re on the MegaMan screen in BN3, you can press the L button to test your buster and see if it’s bugged? I think this is the only game that does this for some reason. I don’t know why they got rid of it, it’s cute.

Another major shakeup that set the bar going forward was dividing chips into different classes: Standard, Mega, and Giga. Mega Class is mostly made up of Navi Chips, and so gets the same restrictions those have always had; there are several non-Navi Mega Chips though, chips that are just a little too powerful and so are restricted to balance them out a bit. Team Style doesn’t distinguish, just upping your Mega limit, which is to its benefit. Giga Chips, of course, are super-powerful chips you need to work to get, though BN3 actually doesn’t require you to collect all of them for 100%! (You’ll still end up with most if not all of them as part of the process though. I talked about this before: basically, BN3 treats Giga Chips more as rewards than as tasks when compared to later games.) Again, I started with BN3, so for me it was always this way, and going back to the first two games where every chip is in one big library was kinda weird. This game also revised BugFrags, a limited item you could exchange for prizes in BN2 which are now infinitely generated and accepted as currency by multiple shops. Vol. 2 mostly follows this example, except here, you get BugFrags by countering viruses (which gets repurposed for the Full Synchro mechanic in Vol. 2), and this makes BugFrags far, FAR easier to obtain/farm in this game than in later ones. (I recommend the Armor Comp in Ura Inn—nothing but Mettaurs and Mettaur2s, easy counter timing.) This is great for a lot of reasons, including a feature totally unique to BN3: the Virus Breeder! By finding special encounters in specific locations, you can send certain families of viruses to a comp in SciLab, where they just chill out and wait for you to put BugFrags in their food bowls. You receive a Battle Chip for each family of virus you send here, letting you summon them much like a Navi Chip, and the strength of their attack is directly proportional to how much you’ve fed them. I never really investigated the mechanic until now, but it is incredibly charming to examine your pet Spikey and be told that it starts wagging its tail as soon as it sees you. I love my fire doggos. The closest thing we got to this in later games is the Virus Battler in BN6, but while the inspiration is clear, the execution is very different…we’ll get to that. BN3 is interesting for setting a lot of standards but also doing a lot of things completely unique to it, which I think is why it’s so beloved…though, there is one thing BN3 puts a unique spin on which annoys me, and that’s Beta Navis. You know how it goes: you beat a boss, their V2/Alpha appears on the net as an invisible fixed encounter, and then their V3/Beta becomes a random encounter. In every other game, the Beta is a random encounter in the same area where you find the Alpha—which makes sense, right? Well in BN3, the Beta becomes a random encounter in a completely different area. And worse, a few of the Betas can only be encountered when specific conditions are met, like your HP being in the red, or your Navi Cust being bugged. Fun! I don’t know why they did this, but I’m glad they didn’t do it again…well, until SF3, but that’s for another day. (I’ll also point out that BN3 has Security Cubes in the Undernet that are unlocked by beating each Beta boss, that’s really cool and I wish it had continued being a thing.)

Damn, all this and I still haven’t gotten into BN3’s story. Though, I mean…what more is there to be said? Even people who love to dunk on Battle Network’s writing think BN3’s story is pretty good. The whole tournament subplot was great. Wily goes from completely unhinged to frighteningly intelligent. We get Bass’s backstory after some tantalizing buildup, and his involvement helps retroactively tie the first three games together a little better. We get backstory for the Undernet of all things, and it’s never been more fleshed out before or since! And Mamoru…Mamoru. Who would’ve ever expected Mamoru? I can absolutely see this being a sendoff for the series—the creators really hit their stride. There’s certainly plenty to bemoan, from the annoyance of plot-required Navi Cust Programs to the high percentage of bosses who are dreadfully frustrating (BubbleMan, FlameMan, DrillMan…), but all the good raises it so high up that still managed to stand above. BN3 is peak Battle Network.

#Mega Man #Games in 2023 #Game Night

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alietohelpyouseethetruth · 2 years

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Ladies and Gentleman I am jumping on the bandwagon.

(PSA: this is a super long post so if you only get through one sentence or one paragraph or the whole thing I am equally grateful for your attention, no hard feelings even if you give up after this sentence.)

It's time to talk about Anti-Hero.

"I have this thing where I get older, but just never wiser" bro same.

"Midnights become my afternoons." Midnights is a concept album which is always cool to me. You can make a concept album about any concept and it will be interesting to some degree. If someone made an album with the concept "going to the grocery store" or "getting my car inspected" I would be all over it. Can you really go wrong with a concept album?

Back to the point- Midnights is a concept album about sleepless nights throughout Taylor's life. Anyone who has been conscious in the past month has probably already heard that whether they want to or not. Only slightly less known is that this album was made with Jack Antonoff, producer of everything I love.

("Midnights become my afternoons." ) This line carries the feeling of what happens when you start to lose track of being a real person.

"When my depression works the graveyard shift all of the people I've ghosted stand there in the room." When I heard this line I knew in my heart this song was going to be phenomenal. What a turn of phrase. How else could you simply explain the way it feels when it's a little too late and you're a little too depressed? How else can you express how haunting and real all your past mistakes, especially in relationships, become to you?

"I should not be left to my own devices, they come with prices and vices, I end up in crisis" WOW. This line took me a couple days to learn because it's that much smarter than me. They way she wrote that structurally is so incredible that this level craft would be a record-breaker even if it wasn't about any kind of real substance. But it is, lucky for us, as Taylor has called this one of the best songs she's ever written (source: just believe me I'm pretty sure I'm right).

"(Tale as old as time) I wake up screaming from dreaming one day I'll watch as you're leaving cause you got tired of my scheming (for the last time)" In her beautifully crafted music video, she is seen running from these 'ghosts' wearing ridiculous sunglasses and her grandma's curtains, and it's cute and silly, right? She's having some fun with us?

(she is not) It perfectly showcases how our deepest fears can look ridiculous to those on the outside. The idea of leaving her might be ridiculous to the ones she's speaking to, but in her mind it is a real and present danger. It keeps her up at night and forces her to create incredible albums.

"It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me."

Moment of silence for how relatable that one is.

For years there was a joke on the internet that Taylor Swift should write a song called "Maybe I'm the problem." I love the irony of that being used to cut her down so to speak, but when she finally does it it becomes one of her biggest songs ever overnight.

"At teatime, everybody agrees" Now in our video we get to meet the Anti-Hero, and guess what? It's Taylor Swift. Her Anti-Hero persona shows up encouraging normal Taylor to do shots and smash things. One thing I really love about this is that the 'normal' Taylor is really enjoying her company. Don't we all love hanging out with the devils on our shoulders? Isn't it fun to indulge?

"I'll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror." Anti-Heroes of stories seem so stubborn, it would be so simple for them to just change their ways so we could love them right? Why can't they just look in the mirror instead of trying to self destruct?

Again, she uses very simple words to capture something we all hate ourselves for doing. Who do we beat up most for just refusing to look in the mirror? Who do we get most frustrated with for refusing to change? Am I the Anti-Hero?

"It must be exhausting always rooting for the Anti-Hero." Spoiler Alert: Taylor knows she's famous. She also knows for years many of her fans have been teased or belittled for liking her. She knows the reputation (see: album reputation) that society and the media created for her, and she knows that sticking with liking her through that is going to at times be difficult. She knows that enjoying her product, especially in the past, came at a price. This line has a deeper meaning but to me, but initially it almost sounded like a thank you, like she was saying to us "Thank you for sticking with me when I was the Anti-Hero, I know they didn't make that easy."

Her Anti-Hero takes on fully the role of the bad influence, teaching her "Everyone will betray you." Like all misunderstood underdogs, there is a feeling of rejection, and an even deeper feeling of pain that gets unleashed in all these chaotic and self-destructive behaviors.

I would like to pause this post for a moment to point out the way Taylor holds this pen -

Moving on.

"Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby, and I'm a monster on a hill." Ok truthfully this line is the reason I wanted to do a post on this song because everyone hates it and I have to give my two cents.

The use of the term "sexy baby" is supposed to make you a little uncomfortable. That's what she was going for. Not only does it briefly point out the way we are trained to focus on appearances and how that infantilizes us, but the use of an awkward phrase is driving home the point about her being an outsider. The intense contrast of a sexy baby versus a huge monster expressed how big her feeling is, how much she feels like she is different from what people want her to be.

"Too big to hangout, slowly lurching toward your favorite city" She expresses her feeling further by showing us a huge Taylor crashing a dinner party, again, an almost comical demonstration that doesn't hurt your feelings if you don't think about it, but really hurts your feelings if you do. How many times have we walked into a room and felt that ridiculous, even though we likely weren't that big of a deal at all?

"Pierced through the heart, but never killed." A galavanting young man comes in and shoots Taylor with a bow and arrow. She starts bleeding, but it's not red. It's purple. It's sparkly. And she immediately tries to hide it in shame. Could she be telling us that what she is on the inside isn't dark and red and strong, it's vulnerable, glittery and almost childish? Is she just too soft for all of it?

Am I reaching? Yes, but I stand by it.

"Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism like some kind of congressman?"

Everyone sit down and shut up that line is so awesome.

The dinner guests react by running from her tiny display of her true, vulnerable self, and she places a pin saying "Vote for me for everything" over the wound. Because where does the need to constantly campaign come from? What causes us to always be working to gain approval from others? Fear of rejection. So what does she do? She becomes altruistic, selfless, entirely focused on others needs and wants, but all the time internally hearing "Do they like me, should I have said that, am I cool enough, is everyone hanging out without me?" This narrative thought the eyes of a critic looks narcissistic, like why won't you just get over yourself? That critique just reinforces the concept and the process starts all over again.

(Tale as old as time) I wake up screaming from dreaming one day I’ll watch as you’re leaving and life will lose all its meaning (for the last time) Don't all of us, when that layer of anxiety rears it's ugly head, feel a sense of impending doom? As if this is our last chance, we better pull it off this time! Doesn't that feeling really kill the joy of using up that 'chance'?

"It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me. At teatime, everybody agrees. I’ll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror. It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero".

We welcome back with open arms Anti-Hero Taylor, watching her push her off the bed, forcing her to do more shots than she can handle, shaming her for her weight. The fun Anti-Hero that initially seemed friendly begins pushing her, driving her toward more and more destructive thinking and habits. We know we feel like crap when we drink too much, why do we do it? We know logically our bodies are fine and never going to be perfect, so why do we hate them so much? There in the back of your mind is your most loyal Anti-Hero, reminding you, just in case you started forgetting, that you're not good enough. What a b.

"I have this dream my daughter-in-law kills me for the money. She thinks I left them in the will." This is my opinion the most heartbreaking part of this song.

"Everyone will betray you." Even your own family. Even your own children. And the worst part is, Taylor knew it was coming. She already wrote them out of the will. What kind of life pushes you to be so distrusting? To strike even your own children preemptively, because you've learned ultimately even they will turn their back on you and use you?

"The family gathers ‘round and reads it, and then someone screams out “She’s laughing up at us from hell!”

Who gets the beach house? Cats. Why? Because pets don't betray you.

What kind of lonely life is it when the only people you trust to love you unconditionally and be worthy to inherit your legacy are cats?

Now let me be perfectly clear, I do not think that this is the constant state of Taylor Swift's life, nor do I think that cats do not deserve money. I'm zeroing in on what she's really telling us. Because it's not funny. This video is not funny.

"It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.

It’s me, hi I’m the problem, it’s me." Taylor looks up from her own casket to see absolute chaos from people who should be devastated to lose her, but are devastated to lose her money. And what's the common denominator that everyone in her life has? Her. She is the only thing that she knows for a fact they all have in common, so she's left with the belief that she elicits this reaction in people and it's her responsibility, when in reality they are all garbage and deserve 13 cents. But are they going to let her believe that?

"It’s me, hi. Everybody agrees, everybody agrees..." no. They're going make her the bad guy, because they can, so why wouldn't they?

"It's me, hi (hi), I'm the problem, it's me (I'm the problem, it's me) At tea (tea) time (time), everybody agrees (everybody agrees) I'll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror. It must be exhausting, always rooting for the anti-hero."

After being fully convinced she's the problem, she's met again with her Anti-Hero, except this time, she's offering the booze. The Anti-Hero has trained her well. They sit on the roof and are joined by not-sexy-baby-monster-sized Taylor, and finally they seem somewhat relaxed. Why? Because everyone will betray you. You can only trust yourself.

I could go on and on and on about the mental health issues and deep emotion this video gives us access to, but I think the one that stands out to me most is this - it is exhausting rooting for the Anti-Hero. And we are all our own Anti-Hero in our mind. It takes work to be on our own side, to ignore the voices telling us that we are worthless, and to remember that no one views us as negatively as we tend to view ourselves. Taylor Swift has obviously had to learn to overcome her Anti-Hero, and she wanted us all to know that it's not a unique struggle. We're all doing our best. Don't beat yourself up.

youtube

#anti-hero #Taylor swift #midnights #spotify #songwriting #it must be exhausting #am I the anti hero?#sexy baby #jack antonoff #music video #concept album #Youtube #Spotify

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dragon-swords-prophecies · 2 years

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Hello! Would you like to ramble about your wip(s) or ocs? I didn't see an intro post for any of them, and I'd love to hear about them 💖

(P.S. dragon friends? I'm only writing them for the first time but I absolutely love them, too)

[EDITORS NOTE: I very quickly make less and less sense as I go on bc time kept getting later and later so. sorry about the words if they don't make sense. also it's a bit (very) ramble-y.]

*peers at my drafts, half of which (there are 6) are intro related* Ah yes, I knew I forgot to do something! Shit.

hello! the explanation behind the lack of intros is abt 4 months ago my current wip intros and writeblr intros became inaccurate and/or nonexistent, I removed the old one as a pinned post and intended to make a new one. that new one is sitting mildly unfinished in my drafts. whoops. I also have never made a decent character intro in my life so there are not any of those either! (Even if they were they wouldn't be current probably)

So, in approximate order of when I came up with them, here are my main wips!

Frost & Fire: The big one. the main one. the one that "created" the world that all the others happen in. Recently was revamped into a new version with a much better plot and also one that made sense! This is the one with the most dragons, but as I am physically incapable of writing anything without dragons (seriously, just ask my english teachers why I hate realistic fiction) all the other ones also have dragons. This is also the one I know the most about.

Plot is basically that a super powerful super super magical (that magic is from what is basically the dawn of the world) and super super super ancient dragon dies (or... gets Murdered? Who knows!) and someone (Dizerdrat, an asshole dragon of several centuries old who has killed A Lot Of People including two of the MC's mother) is attempting to claim the power for himself!!! A group of decently successful heroes who are Supposed to be Retired (spoiler alert; they're not, they want to be but they're not) get dragged out of said retirement to save the world!

All 4 of the MCs in that, including Enna, the narrator, are former Dungeons & Dragons characters of mine.

One of Copper: The one that comes after frost & fire. about 30 years after. I think. Maybe 50. Timeline unclear as of now.

But it involves someone (a wizard. it's always a wizard.) stealing a weapon (sword maybe?) belonging to one of the gods and he gets really mad about that and threatens to kill everyone! goddess of death, Illa (she is my favorite of the immortal OCs I have), wishes for this to not happen because she was the catalyst of the last war among the gods (spoiler alert: she used to be human/mortal! she is not longer mortal. whether or not she is still human is up for debate) and she really, really doesn't want to see that again!

The heroes of this one are, through no fault of my own but also it's entirely my fault, all trans. All of them. Only two of them were supposed to be trans but then Ash went and said ''no actually I'm a trans woman'' and Josh said ''ya know why you keep messing up my pronouns when you're writing me? that's cause I've got both sets!''

That is only of little consequence but I think it's funny that they all basically went ''nope not gonna be cis no thank you''.

But they are the exact opposite of the MCs of Frost & fire. None of them is of any actual importance anywhere. But one of them has a blood curse & magic! And one is purple! And another one (the trans woman) is a black smith! The last one has no redeeming qualities in so far besides the fact that he is really nice and has the least depression out of all of them but that's still good!

Silence and Secondhand Souls: this one comes before Frost & Fire! by abt 150 years!* It's a tragedy! The narrator is telling the story in what is possibly my favorite way to narrate! She's telling the story in first person past tense bc she's dead and a ghost who's talking abt how she died!

Her name is Alexandra "Alex" Rovenowa and she died when she was 21, and got sent on the quest that killed her when she was 19 ish! She was in training to be a wizard but a very annoying series of events got her sent on a minor quest with an acquaintance (Leo Nailo). Said quest snowballed, they got two more quest mates (Finn & Eryn Mesk), and ended up forced to fight Dizerdrat, the aforementioned asshole dragon!

They all die. It's sad.

Alright I think that's all of the main ones, and for sale of length I will not put any character intros on here but if you want to know about any of them that I mentioned or the Main Characters (MCs) of any of those wips please ask and I shall answer!

#asks #lyra brie #wip asks #wip: frost & fire #wip: one of copper #wip: silence and secondhand souls

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flailing-feathers · 1 year

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I got a stream to do this afternoon so fuckit I’m letting out my negativity demons here now ‘cause they’ve been weighing me down.

Been feeling like shit every time I’ve poked social media lately, idk if it’s because it’s December or what but I’m back in another one of my ‘I’m a loser who can’t make rent with the one thing I’m any good at’ modes. Yeah the economy’s in the shitter but I am thirty four years old, have an art degree from a decade ago, and spent most of last year redoing my portfolio after I quit my day job over their handling of the pandemic (and only because I had a bunch of money saved up to give myself time to restart my art career doing remote work). Spoiler alert, that wasn’t nearly enough. I opened commissions in August 2021. I started job hunting in January 2022. It is now December 2022, and I’ve made less than 3k all year, no job, the feds paying for my food since March and my bf paying my rent since September (we don’t live together, he’s just helping me).

I’m too damned old to suck this hard. I can’t come up with cool ideas people would want to buy, I’m an unhireable schmuck that doesn’t have 3+ years industry experience in anything, and as much as I know part of it is that the market is objectively worse, I still feel like the biggest loser for taking more than twice as long to find work as I did when I graduated college. I’m so much more skilled now but I still don’t know how to make money. There seems to be no light at the end of this tunnel where I can actually make progress in my life.

Maybe it’s cultural programming but I hate having to be propped up financially (though I am equally in favor of UBI, and wish that was even remotely possible in the US). I hate being useless. I hate knowing that I’m intelligent and skilled but not the right kind of intelligent and skilled to not be living in a shitty little cold-ass apartment that I now can’t even pay for by myself. Art is the only thing I’m any good at, and yeah this is privilege talking but I can’t go back to regular dayjobs because nobody around here has trustworthy policies for protecting their minimum wage peons from health risks. I was uninsured even when I had a job.

Back to the whole social media thing - I’ve been a lot less active lately, not because of anything going on with platforms or the AI debacle or any other large scale dramas, it’s just that I look at it, and it makes me feel bad that I’m not posting new art or have cool promos or merch and there’s no demand for my work whatsoever. I’m still the kind of awful little shit that when I see other people posting comms, even though they’re probably just barely scraping by, too (and likely undercharging), I feel like a loser ‘cause I have barely gotten any comms and can’t even come up with merch ideas. I haven’t done anything for Studio 252MYA in ages while other artists are pumping out banger after banger. It’s great for them, of course, they deserve any boost they can get. I guess it just hits me right in the Impostor Syndrome. I don’t feel like I belong there, I’m not one of those paleoartists that are actually cool.

In the fanart world, I have an even stupider problem - I only hyperfixate on one thing at a time, and I’ve drifted away from Star Trek and back to Pokemon. I don’t stop liking a thing if it stops being my fixation, but it is a lot harder to want to choose to work on stuff relating to it over other things. My fixations tend to last around a year, no more than two. It’s fun while it lasts, but objectively ST64 is going to be much slower going now and other things are going to be chosen to be worked on instead more often than not. But there’s a little voice in the back of my head that most of the people who followed my fanart Twitter were in it for the Star Trek and I’m going to disappoint them by having less and less of it.

Lately I haven’t been doing anything for social media at all. Just making stuff for my bf and futzing about with my Neocities. I love how small and focused that community is. No room for expectations and disappointment and feeling like shit, just fucking around with silly ideas and exploring other people’s. A happy little island getaway where I can scratch a creative itch with no stakes.

#text dump

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raposarealm · 2 years

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Hmm, a random question to ask... What are some game series you like besides Mega Man games? Those are awesome, of course, but I don't remember if I ever asked you about other games.

(Oh, small edit: I’m serious on the “feel free to send in asks and bug me” bit, I’m not in school this semester and I’m. Very lonely.)

Well, Magia Record, but you knew that already.

I'm fond of the Project Diva games! I like rhythm games, even if I'm not practiced yet, and I'm a long-standing Vocaloid fan. I recently managed to get ahold of the Mega39's/MegaMix (no relation, sadly,) and it's been neat as well! Though I'm not forgiving them for replacing Sennen no Dousokuka with Snowman, god damnit.

Before I went AWOL from tumblr there for a while (late 2017 to early 2020, yeesh,) I posted a lot about The Stanley Parable as well, even though I couldn't play it since I didn't have a way to purchase it. Well, with the Ultra Deluxe release, I've been able to actually play it now! Except my mental state's been so unstable as of late that I've had to kinda shy away from it for a little bit. Actually, I've kinda had to shy away from a lot of games in general, partly due to just lack of energy from depression kicking my petunia, and partly because I can't get to some of the systems to set them up, because said lack of energy has caused me to not be able to clear up my room enough to do anything, much less play games. It's really annoying and I wish it'd stop.

Speaking of games I can't get to the system to play, I've had a copy of Mirror's Edge for a long time now, and I'm very fond of it, but... I've never actually gotten past the Edge and Flight part, the first real mission in the game... Well, I might have once, but it's. I'm not good at it. Also somehow I ended up with a Japanese copy, despite the game having been developed in the West? I don't know how that happened, but ah well. We have an Xbox One somewhere that got packed up in the move, and we've never been able to set it up. If I could actually find it at some point, I'd like to play the sequel Catalyst at some point. Also the series has a really, really damn good soundtrack, I beg of y'all please go listen to it.

And I think I've mentioned it somewhere before on this blog, maybe? But for a very long time, my favorite games were the Drawn to Life series, actually. In fact, my penname that I've used since the very beginning was named for the fox-like "Raposa" species in the game's world. Surprise, I don't speak Portuguese, just a little bit of Spanish. And what demoted the series from my favorite, you ask? Summer 2017 when my friend gave me a copy... of Starforce 1. Aye.

Oh, and until I lost them in the move, I was very fond of some of the Professor Layton games, but I never knew which games were in which order, so I kept getting confused, and I was too afraid of spoilers to look up the release order, because a) it's mostly a mystery series, and b) I've made the mistake before of looking up something like release dates or whatever on wikis and/or just Wikipedia and finding out a really major spoiler. Exhibit A: the Wikipedia article on Exe and me back in 2017 having only read the manga. God damnit.

There's probably lots more series I'd like if I could get into them, but I tend to shy away from new series and/or franchises unless someone drags me into them. Most of the games I've played have been one-off self-contained games that I saw mentioned somewhere and went "oh, that looks neat," or I ended up with a copy of one of the entries when I was really young and didn't fully grasp the idea of game series and playing in order (for instance, I got into Drawn to Life because my mother gave me a copy of The Next Chapter, the second game of the two, for Christmas back in 2009, since she saw the "drawn" in the title and went, "Oh, Rapo likes to draw!"; and back around the same time, I somehow ended up with a copy of the third Professor Layton game, "Unwound Future", and again, didn't know it was a later entry until Flora showed up and I had a "who dis" moment. Fun times.) The only exceptions really being Magireco, which I wanted to play from its launch, but didn't know it was technically free-to-play until the anime aired, and I finally checked it out; and of course, Rockman, which was the fault of my friend convincing me to watch the Starforce anime (and also lent me his copies of the Exe manga,) and it was all downhill from there. I regularly give him hell over this, by the way.

#OK THIS WAS LONG SORRY #i know i'm associated with magireco by a number of folks but i don't know how much i'm associated with rockman #i mean. i think given how little activity there is in the starforce tag my posts actually take up a fair bit of the more recent entries #which means i gotta up my numbers ya know?#crystalmemoria #rapo answers #i don't really know that i should tag this with any of the series uh #correct me if i'm wrong #now back to the hellish museum fight 45 and that damned leila #STOP DRAINING MY MP WOMAN-#OH I NEVER MENTIONED KINGDOM OF LOATHING #but i mean i haven't logged in since 2020's Crimbo and. uh.#i should do that.#anyways if any of y'all play that. i go by koigunka in game come say hi i might see it

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gentil-minou · 2 years

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There are plenty of posts going around about Adrien and his responses to trauma, and in light of the recent trailer @flightfoot made this great post about how Kuro Neko highlights Adrien's trauma response

But I want to explain how Marinette's actions this season are also trauma based. Which is why I'm here because you cannot tell the story without both sides.

IMPORTANT: if you like what I wrote and want to share it somewhere else, PLEASE ask me first so I can get credit and monitor the post. I have seen this post on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, and those are just the ones I've found or have been shared with me. I'm flattered you like my post but please ask me first. I've come across people making extremely cruel and invalidating remarks and I am trained to handle that but you might not be. Trauma is an extremely sensitive subject and needs to be handled with care and I don't want to be responsible for causing someone harm without even knowing it.

First a refresher of Mari's trauma: Pressure related to being Ladybug, Losing Master Fu (aka the only person she could trust), and most notably in this instance: Chat Blanc and recently Ephemeral (where she doesn't know what exactly went wrong, only that something did when identities were revealed)

I wanted to find an infographic that had everything I wanted but I couldn't so here's a link to the US Department of Veteran Affairs and common reactions after trauma.

Specifically, I'm looking at this list, where I've highlighted what Marinette has shown in canon since the events of Chat Blanc/S3 finale

I explain each of these with examples under the cut

1. Losing hope for the future: Truth and Gang of Secrets where Mari actively stops pursuing all romance. (Though Mari has managed to heal from this in Mr Pigeon 72, but she doesn't know Adrien is Chat yet so that will likely change things)

2. Feeling distant, detached: Distancing herself from Chat, whether this was intentionally or intentionally done.

3. Being unable to concentrate or make decision: could also be ADHD but she usually is able to figure out akumas even then. Ephemeral was the best example where she appeared all over the place (remember the notable absence of Chat)

4. Feeling jumpy/getting startled easily: Truth and probably other instances.

5. Feeling guard and alert all the time: Gang of Secrets, likely other episodes as well

6. Having dreams/memories that upset you: Sentibubbler nightmare

7. Having problems at work and school: Gang of Secrets and one can argue being Ladybug is her "job" and she's also had challenges there.

8. Avoiding people, places, things related to event: See Chat Noir, putting more on Alya instead (possibly due to worries of letting Chat too close or reveal to him)

9. Trouble sleeping: Low energy early in the season and canonical nightmares

(There are less physical symptoms because Mari doesn't complain about those much and the show doesn't focus on it, but if it did I can bet she has some of those)

10. Feeling nervous, helpless, fearful, sad: See pretty much the entire season but especially early on and what I suspect we will see more of in Kuro Neko

11. Being irritable or having angry outbursts: Kuro Neko, as well as other instances. There are also unconfirmed spoilers as well, I can't remember if that one leak from the VA was the finale or Kuro Neko but that is there as well.

12. Getting easily upset or agitated: See above, also Gang of Secrets and a little bit of Mr Pigeon 72

13. Being unable to trust, getting into fights: See, Chat Noir, especially Ephemeral and Kuro Neko.

14 (made this its own one) trying to control everything: Mr Pigeon 72 where she tries to fix adrigami. Also Hack-san and her 500 tips to care for your catboy. In general, she feels and does this alot and partially it's her being the leader but she does it to the extent that it seems physically impossible for her to relax

15. Feeling detaches, not wanting intimacy: intimacy can have more than one meaning and if you ask my her relationship with Chat Noir is incredibly intimate. She's pulling away.

If I did a trauma screening for Marinette, I have no doubt she'd meet criteria for PTSD. So folks, please don't salt on EITHER of these characters. They've been through so much at such a young age and I cant be surprised at the result.

#sorry i meant to polish up that coffeeshop au to post but i got sidetracked sdkfjhsdkj #anyway no salt here you are not allowed #miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #ml s4 #ml kuro neko #ml psychology #ml meta #cant believe i have to tell grown adults to stop bullying children again #ml sugar #marinette dupain cheng #bushy overthinks things

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hurdlehoops · 4 years

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SPN did Market Research for Dean & Cas

Disclaimer: Yes this is a sock for safety reasons. Post is long, but please read it.

No shit there I was checking my email, as you do, and I saw I had a screener from one of the market research groups I’m signed up with. On average, I do a market research thing every 3-4 months because I like non-reportable money. And giving my opinions. And talking to people behind 2 way mirrors without having to go to a police station.

Market research itself was early December, 2016. First email contact with the screener was late October or early November.

I see it’s an “offsite,” meaning a market research company is subcontracted by another company who wants to do the market research at their own facility, but doesn't want to find the participants on their own, so they use the Market research company (in this case Schlesinger and Associates) as an intermediary. I can’t remember if this screener identified itself as being for TV, not all do, some might identify only as entertainment, and some might be even more vague until you get into the screener. Regardless of the identification for the screener (TV or entertainment), I fill out almost every screener I receive unless it’s obvious, from the subject, they won’t want me (ie looking for certain types of professionals)- it didn’t matter, then, if the subject matter was something I particularly like, I would’ve filled it out anyway.

After normal, but more detailed than usual demographics questions, the screener asked about TV habits. Eventually, it said the word “fandom” and asked what TV fandoms I’d count myself in. It was roughly a list of 20 shows and listed “fandom” (defined as I watch every episode and read additional materials about the show. Note this is not what fandom itself would consider fandom, but people most fandom dwellers would still count as GA). Beyond fandom, one could indicate they: watch all episodes but don’t seek out more, watch most episodes, have seen some episodes, watched a few, or haven’t watched. (I just got a screener for soap operas and realized that part was the same and made note). Therefore, fandom, to corporate, are people who watch everything and maybe buy some swag for the show- magazines/shirts. Then, they asked about conventions I might have attended. And then asked about my dream vacation, so I babbled a lot about my dream to go to SDCC (I hadn’t at this point). Supernatural was on the list of shows, so I made sure I answered the essay questions about it, because why not? It was my favorite of what was listed. It was a long screener. I don’t remember the rest. Though sometimes I might remember a detail if a screener reminds me of it. Most fun screener I’ve filled out.

A few days/weeks later, I got a call for step 2- the phone screener for the people that sounded good when filling out the form. And where they try and make sure your answers match or fit that same person who answered them. I passed step 2, and was told there would be homework, and asked ifI’d have time for it, since I would only have so many days to watch the assigned material and write essays about them.

Homework arrives: I have to watch and write essays on all the bonus features of Supernatural S10. There might’ve been something in there from another year, too. And all the bonus features from some season of Big Bang Theory. Essays for all of it, too. And I mean essays, not short answers. It was like the SATs, and I was analyzing blooper reels (among other things). I still don’t get why they wanted essay questions on blooper reels, but I’ll always happily write one again cause that was the funniest essay to have to write!

I had to both print and bring and email all my answers ahead of time. I did not keep them. I’m honestly curious what I might’ve written.

So in December, I get to go to WB’s market research department. Fun fact: the entrance to that building faces what had recently been the Supernatural poster. I check in. At this point I think it’s a group. Because most market research is done in groups. Also they said I was there for the “DVD bonus features study”

I wait in the lobby, but I’m surprised there seem to be very few others around. I don’t think I got there too early, but all the others were taken back before me. And they didn’t seem to be there for the same study. Oh and I wore business casual clothes but had some show-based earrings for fun.

Finally a nice lady brings me back to a room. She turns off the lights and gives me a fancy remote and has me play with a new system for watching bonus features. I had to start with BBT. Then we did something else. Then I was allowed to scroll through and I picked Supernatural, and answered all the things. By this point I figured I would be released soonish because I was supposed to be there only for an hour. And this was at least half an hour at the most. No clock, though and cell phone off. Maybe this part went faster than I remember, but it was less interesting so it felt longer? Or less interesting compared to what came next.

We switch gears. I’m no longer allowed to pick what we watch and talk about my thoughts on if SDCC panels belong in bonus features. (Me: should have a preorder and you get to watch it when the season airs with DVD to arrive when season ends. Silly to watch it after the season when it’s mostly vague spoilers for the first episode or so). Obviously WB doesn’t listen to me about everything.

Oh! In the screener as part of normal demographics, I was asked about my sexuality. It isn’t completely rare (I can talk about another market research where you had to be queer to be part of it), but there were some short answers about representation or something similar. Something that is significant *now,* but at the time I didn’t notice as being too weird. Since they probably had me listed to the people behind the mirror as X (if they even got my name) Y resident, bisexual, age. I very specifically said stuff to her about representation cause I wasn’t gonna miss my shot.

Anyway so we switch from dvd extras and she queues up video from another file.

She puts a scene of Supernatural on and has me watch. Then repeats it. And asks questions about my opinions on what’s happening. Then has me watch and only pay attention to Character D and tell her what I think his emotions are. Then again but with Character C.

Complete torture… lol… at this point I’m confused, but enjoying this torture.

So there I am watching the Crypt scene over and over and analyzing it. And talking about their feelings.

And then I stop her and say something to the effect of “look I’m bi. There’s not a lot of good representation on what being bi is like. But from episode 1 I’ve known Dean is Bi.” And I babbled about how important a macho badass but closeted character is for representation. And that I hoped they did more with that. I included some anecdotes from other lgbtq friends and straight allies and how they all felt as I did- Dean is Bi, Cas is whatever he wants to identify as, and we felt we recognized our experiences on the screen and hoped for continued and louder representation.

Bam. My interviewer was called out of the room by the people behind the mirror. Suddenly I’m getting a whole new set of questions

Like this is the most baffling and amazing thing that's happened to me in years. It imprinted in my mind, and I haven’t mentioned it to too many people, because of the NDA and being afraid to jinx things. But now I don’t feel like it matters to be as quiet. Obviously I don’t want WB to go after me but... market research isn’t unusual, just mostly used for spin-offs or new shows not for plot points of shows already happening. At least, that’s my understanding.

The interviewer comes back after a short discussion with whoever was behind the glass. Asks a few more questions

We’re now very much going into various things about what I’d just said. I took my shot. And apparently it paid off big time. At some point she’s pulled out of the room again and given a paper with more questions. Some were about Dean’s bisexuality, or how I, and anecdotally my friends, saw him as bisexual. Others were about the potential romance. None, that I remember, were about Castiel’s sexuality- I guess that was a given or not important.

I don’t know if any of the writers were behind the glass from the beginning, but I felt like they stalled to get someone there, maybe.

The interviewer was baffled and made sure I knew nothing that was happening was normal. They wanted to ask me more questions than they usually care to get out of their market research volunteers.

So those are the most important parts. Basically almost everything I was asked after that was about character analysis and queerness and a whole bunch of other things that were related (I also mentioned needing more disability rep, too). I was back there for at least 2 hours.

#supernatural #spn #destiel #deancas #castiel #dean winchester #misha collins #jensen ackles

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