The new ice/steel growlieth, we really need a better term.... hmm... Boreal Growlithe. I'm calling them Boreal Growlieths for now since they seem evolved to live in the cold north.

Some tests have been run and these animals are long distance masters. Some testing of their digestive system has shown that they can convert protien directly into glycogine.

These creatures can go for weeks, they are ultra marathoners. The guys are made to run, it's kinda nuts.

@professor-amaryllis what do you think of the name suggestion.

Mansk: Alyara edition 🔥🔥🔥⁣

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This is what the guys look like when they go wayyyy far north. They spend about 8-10 weeks in the arctic regions, and the rest of the time away from the ladies is spent in boreal forests.⁣

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Guys wear floofier feathers on their ionars than the ladies do. I didn’t get a chance to showcase it in this post, but the guys also have a clip-on attachment for their ionars to prevent snow blindness (inspired by Inuit snow-blindness goggles) and a little mask to cover their nose and mouth when it gets REALLY cold.⁣

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Physiologically speaking, Night Na’vi are excellent are producing body heat, but TERRIBLE at insulating it due to being smaller in stature (this what we call Bergman’s Rule, but I won’t lecture you on that because I’m not your Bio Professor). So they still bundle up, but not as much as most non-arctic na’vi races have to when they go further north.⁣ And since they often find themselves roosting in icier mountains, the guys trade in the signature twin-machetes for a pair of ice axes.

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The guys also have a different set of clothes when they have to pass through the desert to get back to the Pulse, but that’s a post for another time.⁣

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I’ll probz have a few doodles of more Alyara men’s winter wear in the next few days :D⁣

His Dark Materials Characters in Modern-Day England

Lord Asriel:

Tenured professor at Oxford

Invented a wholeass esoteric field because none of the existing fields suited his Vision™️

Has never given a student an A

All of his students have a crush on him. He knows. He doesn't give a shit

Almost gets fired once every week, despite his tenure, because he can't #beneutral

Outspoken about Palestine

Made a zionist colleague cry once, shrugged, and continued sipping his tea like nothing had happened

Was asked by the headmaster to make a formal apology to the colleagues he offended. Asked Lyra to put a presentation together for his "apology." Presentation was gen z memes that made the situation 10X worse

And that was the first time he actually laughed

Marisa

Visiting professor at Oxford. Originally a professor at Bern, Switzerland

Likes to remind Asriel that his lab equipment sucks and her experiments will always be better because she's actually Rich and not a sad excuse of an aristocrat like him

Hot chocolate? It's chocolatl, you simpleton

Keeps track of Lyra's scholarly accomplishments

Once threatened a colleague because they said they'd fail Lyra

Generally a bit too invested in Lyra

Has small moments of gae panik whenever Mary passes by

Tried to get Asriel fired. Not because she's offended by his ideology or because she necessarily disagrees with him; she just.... wanted him to get fired

Mary

Is canonically an Oxford professor in modern-day England

Calls students by nicknames

Brings snacks to the class

Barked a laugh at Asriel's presentation but quickly clamped her mouth shut and pretended nothing had happened

Is somehow never intimated by Marisa's glares

Smiles at Marisa. Knows Marisa is just a flustered gae so she's sympathetic

Says she doesn't have favourites but Lyra is her favourite

Lyra

Studies quantum physics

Of all her professors, she only likes Mary

The only reason she made that presentation for Asriel is because she's an outspoken pro Palestine supporter herself

Campaigns and advocates and Would Not Be Silenced no matter the cost (Asriel is high-key proud but would rather die than tell her. He expresses his appreciation by sneering and rolling his eyes at her when she does something brazen)

She and Will adopted a cat together

She also adopted a pine marten, much to everyone's horror

Is friends with the staff at her dormitory. And the security guards at her college. And the bakers and cooks and florists and that one shoe-shiner, but somehow doesn't have any friend with her in class

Will

Is cnonically from modern-day England

Studies medicine

Literally everyone likes him

Cat magnet

Study-a-holic, workaholic, good-deeds-a-holic

Organises fundraising events to support people in Gaza

Once hit a person. Police arrived. They apologised to him. Won a medal

Has major beef with Marisa

Boreal

Shows up every once in a while to stir some shit

Informant for the police

"Concerned citizen" (major Karen)

"Philanthropist" (takes money from people)

Billionaire (derogatory)

Zionist

The person Will hit

Asriel beat him up once too

Tbh everyone beat him up

Why is he still alive again?

He isn't; Marisa killed him

WarioWare: Double Up!

One day, Wario discovers that there’s a popular new video game company called Hotcake Studios- so popular, in fact, that WarioWare Inc. is losing business to them! Even worse, when he gets his hands on one of their games he discovers that it has the same microgame formula as his games, and that the company is owned by none other than his Treasure Hunting rival Captain Syrup. And then to make matters even worse, when he goes to confront her about so obviously muscling in on his business, she reveals that she’s also got her own development team of colorful characters…and each one is a clear direct counterpart to one of the WarioWare Crew. Or in Wario’s words, “You’re not just bootlegging my games, you’re bootlegging my flunkies, too!”

After the whole thing nearly comes to blows, the two strike a deal; each company will make a game, both with the same set of themes(and with each set of counterparts working on the same theme. So for example, Ashley and whoever her counterpart is both make Fantasy-themed microgames), price, and release date, and at the end of the year they’ll see which game sold more copies. Loser has to become a subsidiary of the winner.

I’m not sure how exactly that would translate into a gameplay gimmick (I’m a story guy not a gameplay guy), but as far as story mode goes each level’s story would involve the WarioWare Host getting into some sort of competition with their Hotcake counterpart, some friendlier than others.

The actual counterparts are:

Wario: Captain Syrup, obviously

Mona: Vanessa, that one singer who had a rivalry with her in Touched

Jimmy T: Jenny K, a semi-famous breakdancer

Dribble and Spitz: A Wolf and Bird racecar-driving duo named Howler and Chirpz

Kat and Ana: A pair of Ninji Twins named Shuri and Ken

Orbulon: Tatanga, because why not

9-Volt: A fourth-grade gamer girl named M-Byte

18-Volt: M-Byte’s older brother G-Byte

5-Volt: M-Byte and G-Byte’s dad, K-Byte

13-Amp: A friend of M and G named 64-Bit

Fronk: a Wanderin’ Goom, just named Goom

Dr. Crygor: Rival inventor Professor Boreal

Penny: Boreal’s niece, Hailey

Mike: A singing Piranha Plant named Polly

Doris 1: A robot butler named Vincent

Ashley and Red: A bubbly Magical Girl named Sora and her shapeshifting rabbit friend Violet

Young Cricket: Goombario, who’s recently become a student of The Master

Master Mantis: The Master, from Paper Mario

Lulu: Leo, that one ninja kid with animal-based powers that Kat and Ana fought in their level of Get It Together

The eventual end result is a draw. Both games somehow sold an exactly equal number of units. While this news initially shocks and infuriates Wario and Syrup, they take it as a sign that this whole argument just isn't worth their time and resolve to just more-or-less ignore each-others gaming ventures. Meanwhile, most of their employees have actually made friends with each-other, not really caring about the competition or their bosses' bad history to begin with.

Pilgrimage and the Lands of Lothric: The Medieval Narrative in Dark Souls III

Here is the essay that got me started on my route of video game studies and digital media. I was taking a class with a medievalist professor that was talking about the ways that medieval themes and thoughts are still prevalent in the world today. She is a huge soulsborne fan so when I pitched this idea she was super into it, with this essay going on to become my grad school application essay. I hope you enjoy it!

Pilgrimage and the Lands of Lothric: The Medieval Narrative in Dark Souls III

I. Introduction

Dark Souls III is, although frequently lauded, a very opaque narrative. Little of the narrative is told to the player at any point during the thirty to forty hours of grindingly difficult roleplaying game action and adventure. What little bits of story are present, however, are delivered from sought out sources, such as non-player characters (NPCs), items descriptions, and flavor text throughout the game world, as well as inferences from the dilapidated kingdom of Lothric that the player gets to explore on their quest to “link the fire” on behalf of one of the few more friendly characters that they come across during their time in the game. In this paper I am going to summarize the general overview of the story of Dark Souls III and show that it is a modern analogue to the pilgrimage practices of the Middle Ages. In doing so, this paper strives to shed some light into the abyss that is the in-game lore plotted so masterfully by FromSoftware, the studio behind the Souls series.

II. Background

Opening up with a cinematic, Dark Souls III lays out the four bosses that the player must fight, explaining that, “In venturing north, the pilgrims discover the truth of the old words. / ‘The fire fades, and the lords go without thrones,’” [1] as part of the sixteen lines that accompany the showcase of the world and bosses before the game actually starts (Dark Souls III). From here, the game does not volunteer much other information, aside from brief sections of dialogue when interacting with the NPCs that are necessary for game progression.

      As to set a baseline to draw from, then, here is a manual explanation of the main events of the game and its world: Dark Souls III cast the player as “the unkindled one,” an undead being who is awoken in response to the fading of the light of the world in order to restore, “link,” the flame and continue the current in-world epoch, the Age of Fire (Dark Souls III). Along the way, the player is tested in several environments that are central to the narrative, as FromSoftware relies heavily on the environment to form the majority of its storytelling, each of which is usually completed with the defeat of one of the games many bosses. Four of these such bosses, which the player must seek out, are called the Lords of Cinder, each of which has abandoned their duty to continue the light of the world, and therefore must be fought and their cinders brought back to rekindle the first flame. Once that is finished, the player is given a few choices based on their actions in the game in a kind of moral choice ultimately; do you link the fire, continuing the age limping along, extinguish the fire and let the next age of humanity begin, or do you usurp the fire and become a god yourself?

            The world of Lothric itself begins in a sort of high citadel, The High Wall of Lothric, before the player descends into the dilapidated lands of the Undead Settlement, Road of Sacrifices, and Farron Keep and its swamp, all of which have a sort of overgrown, crumbling aesthetic of a tightly packed and mountain-locked countryside. From there, however, the player wanders through the ruined underground of the Catacombs of Carthus, a winding tunnel that eventually leads to the societies of old and the mythic city of Irithyll of the Boreal Valley and Anor Londo, where the old gods once lived. Lastly, the player descends into the depths again in search of the Profaned Capital, before returning to Lothric Castle to face off against the rulers of the land themselves, the twin princes Lothric and Lorian. The entire movement of the game is based on looping back to places that are familiar and making shortcuts between places that are safe to get quickly through dangerous areas that would otherwise be tedious and difficult to pass through separately. This whole journey is punctuated by bonfires, checkpoints where the player gets the chance to rest and level up and do all the other things that are central to gameplay mechanics. One of the most vital being the recovery of what the game calls “Estus Flasks” but are essentially healing items that hopefully keep the player from getting killed and having to reset to the last bonfire they visited (Dark Souls III).

            More specifically, the world of Lothric is intentionally meant to be oppressive as the player makes their way through the course of the game. The landscape is made up of harsh cliffsides and thin pathways, ravines that lead down to bottomless pits, and overgrown roots that make almost every surface feel unstable. When there is architecture in the world, it takes on either a sort of ramshackle and dangerously leaning appearance in the case of the spaces like The Undead Settlement, where it is clear that the place may have once been a kind of pleasant village but was patched and repaired over and over again into barely standing structures. Otherwise, the architecture is grand, heavy, and old medieval styled. These are usually the places that have some additional historical importance to the game world, such as Lothric Castle, the home of the twin princes who rule the kingdom. Though even these structures are falling apart, tied to the themes of the game, and most of the locations that the player visits have long past their prime when they are visited. For example, the Cathedral of the Deep, an area once home to a legendary Lord of Cinder, is now nearly empty, with tattered cloth all over the floor and walls, as well as the central chambers all having been filled with a sort of black sludge (Dark Souls III). The pathways through these places are, in many cases, actual roads that have been left to the sands of time and have not been kept up, not dissimilar to the old Roman roads that were left behind after the collapse of the empire.

            On another note, though also necessary for the background of this paper, is the term “narrative” in reference to videogames has been a subject of some debate, due to the non-linear nature that many games take in their storytelling (Ryan-Thon, 173). Dark Souls III, however, sticks to a relatively linear structure in its plot and keeps the important information in sequence. Therefore, in this instance “narrative” will serve as a good term to examine the story being experienced by the player and make it easily relatable in the context of literary pilgrimage narratives. In his chapter on game abstraction in Storyworlds across Media: Toward a Media-Conscious Narratology, Jesper Juul also suggests an alternative phrase, “fictional world” (Ryan-Thon, 173), following in the footsteps of a similar phrase used by Jan-Noël, “Storyworld” (Thon 289). While both of these are good alternatives, they will be employed here more specifically to refer to the world of Lothric that Dark Souls III is set in, as the world space itself is a core part of what makes the game a game and allows it to communicate its message.

Finally, in terms of background, there is the more formal games language that is used to describe Dark Souls III on a kind of meta level. The game is considered to be a roleplaying game (RPG) due to its elements of levelling up and encouragement of the player to approach problems in-game with a variety of different strategies. The setting invokes the traditional hallmarks of the medieval fantasy genre as well, as the player encounters knights, dragons, giants, castles, kings, and princes. With this established, invoking the Middle Ages as pretext for the storyworld (Eco, 68), a baseline understanding of the game and its tone has been established.

III. Foreground

Religious pilgrimage is almost synonymous with the Middle Ages and was an important part of the travel culture at the time. Roads themselves were recognized as being extremely valuable and were supported often by those who could afford it, especially those main thoroughfares that would take merchants, pilgrims, and general travelers across medieval European landscapes (Allen, 27). Pilgrims in particular made a core part of the necessity of roads as the quest they undertook was both holy (Osterrieth, 146) and economically beneficial for pilgrimage sites (Osterrieth, 153-4; Salonia, 3). What makes a pilgrimage distinct from other travel through the medieval landscape, however, is that they often focused on the relics and holy places of Christianity (Salonia, 3). Matteo Salonia suggests, in his article, “[The] reverence and physical journeys towards relics and saints were less theologically controversial than reverence and pilgrimages towards holy sites because of the new place assigned to the human body within Christian cosmology,” a sentiment that is mirrored in the bodily nature of the travel that would take place to visit such a relic (Salonia, 5). This is tied into a sort of Medieval Christian interest in the body, specifically the body as a means to channel spiritual energy into miracles and shows of faith (Salonia, 5). This differed from the Platonic view that had dominated before the Christian tradition, which placed the body as adversarial to the mental and spiritual pursuits of an individual (Salonia, 6).

Anne Osterrieth, in her article on pilgrimage as a personal quest, comments on the body-centric nature of the pilgrim’s movement, saying, “The pilgrim also drew pride from his capacity to undertake his task. He was becoming a seasoned traveler and derived pleasure from this new competence” (Osterrieth, 152). In popular media, which depicts pilgrims in a much more dower light, this attribution and celebration of prowess seems almost antithetical. However, Osterrieth emphasizes the pilgrim’s journey as one of death and rebirth, from the person they were who needed divinity into the person who has come in contact with divinity and is ready to advise the next on their journey (Osterrieth, 152). This shows that the person on a pilgrimage was, of course, seeking out a relic or holy place to venerate and receive blessings from, but also that along the way there is an unintended but necessary physical growth as they become a competent traveler and learn to deal with the challenges of long road travel.

This travel was far from unguided otherwise, as people consulted other travelers, maps, or guides to get them to their shrines of destination (Allen, 28). In the minds of the pilgrims, explored by Valerie Allen, the road was not always present, “we might call this [instrumental] representation of the road as means to end the default understanding of roads, in which they function as connectors between settled communities” (Allen, 33). Allen is looking at the pilgrimage narrative in the Book of Margery Kempe, which describes the travels of 15th century titular businesswoman, Margery Kempe (Allen, 27). This narrative, however, is where Allan draws the almost complete disregard of the road from, as it seems that Kempe herself did not find that part of the experience worth keeping track of in the same detail as the rest of her visits and exploits (Allan, 29).

Ritual, here, becomes a big part of the discussion of pilgrimage, which is itself inseparable from conceptions of rituals. “Ritual as a type of functional or structural mechanism to reintegrate the thoughtaction dichotomy, which may appear in the guise of a distinction between belief and behavior or any number of other homologous pairs,” is a definition of ritual put forward by Catherine M. Bell, in her work, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (20). She goes on to summarize that ritual is always tied to opposing forces in a culture or system of practice (Bell, 23). This provides a kind of structure that creates something of a cultural habit, something that fascinated scholar Pierre Bourdieu, is part of a kind of societal generative principal (Bourdieu, 78). Bourdieu takes this idea into a kind of forgetting of history and being left with only practice (Bourdieu, 79), which in some ways can be seen in some of the later ideas of pilgrimage to non-religious places or referring to the colonial settlers in America as “Pilgrims.” These tie into the discussion of pilgrimage as it establishes that pilgrimage as a ritual is always opposed to something else. In the case of historical pilgrimage this tension is between the safety of the village and staying in one place and the fulfillment of the journey at the end of a long and dangerous road.

IV. The Ground

Pilgrimage and Dark Souls III already share one thing in common, though debate has ensued about what role this takes in the narrative sphere (Bierger, 11), and that is the central necessity of space. It is space and travel that characterize a Pilgrim wandering medieval England, as well as the player character in Dark Souls III, embarking on their journey into the world of Lothric to link the fire. While the literal space is different, as there is the space that it takes to physically walk from place to place, there is a kind of abstracted sense of space that is present in Dark Souls III that is necessary for the nature of the story world (Ryan-Thon, 183). In this space between destination and starting point is where the pilgrim acquires their expertise and endures the hardships that will form them into the person worthy of accepting the blessings at the relic when they arrive (Osterrieth, 152). While in the game, the path works on a very similar level, having the player face challenges and gain experience to level-up their character so that they have the necessary competence when they come to face a boss like the first Lord of Cinder, the Abyss Watchers. Both the pilgrim and the player come across these various challenges, twists in the road, wild animals, other people threatening them, they also come across various moral encounters as well, such as to give aid or do favors for those they meet. In the reality of the past, this was much more literal, while in Lothric these moral actions take the form of side quests more often than not. In one example of a moral action that can be taken in the game early on in the Undead Settlement area, the player finds a woman, named Irina of Carim, trapped with a knight nearby. The player is told by the knight, “taken an interest in her, have you? Well, she's a lost cause. Couldn't even become a Fire Keeper. After I brought her all this way and got her all ready. She's beyond repair, I tell you" (Dark Souls III). To actually save her, if the player wants to, the process is pretty involved and includes gathering a whole other trail of items to get the door to Irina open. Alternatively, there is no real punishment for the player avoiding this action, much like in real life, and all further interactions and possible benefits of the NPCs are lost. 

The main idea linking these two actions is the concept of The Quest, which is incredibly broad. But more specifically, the quest for contact with divinity, during which the central actor develops their own abilities in order to be ready to receive the divinity when the time comes. While this is plainly evident in the nature of the pilgrimage, in Dark Souls III the same concept applies. This is due, in-part, to the transmedial principal of minimal departure that was developed by Marie-Laure Ryan and adapted by Thon. The principal is “at work during narrative meaning-making that allows the recipients to ‘project upon these worlds everything [they] know about reality, [making] only the adjustments dictated by the text’ (Possible Worlds 51). It is worth stressing, though, that recipients do not ‘fill in the gaps’ from the actual world itself but from their actual world knowledge” according to Thon as he cites the original principal by Marie-Laure Ryan (Thon, 292). This principal allows for the game world of Dark Souls use the quest form much more naturalistically, allowing the player to take on the grand quest of their own pilgrimage through the Lands of Lothric in a mentally analogous process.

There is a pilgrimage here is part of the very core of the gameplay of Dark Souls III, as well as the narrative proper. Throughout the game, the player is told that it is their job to gather the necessary relics in order to link the flame, a process that proves an arduous journey and a game experience that FromSoftware has come to be known for. On the level of environment alone, there is a similarity here to the kind of landscape that a pilgrim might move through in medieval Europe, with its crumbling, ancient, ruins and overgrown roads. The oppressive and dark game atmosphere with the bonfires as checkpoints give a sense that would be not too dissimilar to that of a real-world pilgrim, going on an arduous journey only to find rest at a campfire by the side of the road. It is significant as well, that, in the very last segment of the game, the place that the player finally arrives at is a religious site, the city of Irithyll, where the most prominent buildings are those of churches. In this game area the player visits three, one called The Church of Yorshka, one that is unnamed but is home to the boss Pontiff Sulyvahn, and finally the grand cathedral of Anor Londo, where the gods once made their homes and is now home to Aldritch, a kind of heretical saint (Dark Souls III). It is after this point that the player must return to the starting citadel of Lothric to continue their journey.

 It is also at this point of the game, as the player has made their way all around the kingdom of Lothric and even to places from the first couple of games in the Souls series, that this quest has been done before by others in the storyworld as well as by scores of other players before them. Combining this with the lack of direct story throughout the game, makes the player an agent in the meaning-making activity that the game has you go through, creating a kind of “intentionless action” (Bourdieu, 79). That is to say, with how little the game tells the player before their pilgrimage begins, the player is left to follow the game path and explore the story for themselves without fully clear intentions for what it is the in-game character is actually participating in. This is, in action, the kind of ritual repetition that leads to the unconscious repetition of the history of the players actions in the Bourdieusian sense (Bourdieu, 78).

Where the pilgrimage metaphor really comes full circle, however, is in the difficulty. It’s ironic to compare a medieval pilgrimage’s difficulty a videogame, but in its own space the Souls series stand as monoliths of difficulty. This difficulty, which is formed from a balance of timing-based combat and harsh punishments for failure, creates a kind of demand for focus. Whether the player wants to or not, the nature of the game demands that they pay full attention or risk losing hard-earned progress. This leads to, a kind of phenomenon where the player becomes more focused on the skill-based challenges and tunes out (or abstracts) for themselves the more complex elements of the game during the challenge (Ryan-Thon, 185-6). In a way not dissimilar from what Allen noticed with the Pilgrimage of Margery Kempe, where the repetitive action of travel was not as memorable as the destinations, the challenges and skill building (leveling up) being secondary to the large experiences of destinations (boss fights). Both walking for days and grinding through difficult game areas build patience in those who partake in each activity as well, becoming something of a meditative activity (Unknown, “Dark Souls is More than Just a Game”).

The moral component, while hard to measure, is an example of some micro-moral game morality throughout most of the game, much like in real life (Ryan et al, 57). However, much like the pilgrim’s ultimate quest being tied to the much more cosmically important goal of the afterlife of their soul, so is the ultimate morality of the quest in Dark Souls III, a large macro-moral choice to determine the fate of the storyworld (Ryan et al. 57). However, this is the area where Dark Souls III, much like other remakes and updated retellings of the stories of the past, adds in its own twist. The three endings of the game, usurping, letting die, or carrying on the flame, constitute a moral ending that does not present itself in the traditional stories of pilgrimage. Instead, the game asks its player at the very end of the game what they believe the best course of action is for the storyworld, one that has been limping along since the very first game in the series. This macro-moral decision is almost jarringly major in comparison to what minor interactions that the player has had up until that point and brings a sense of ultimate closure no matter what ending is taken. The game of course has additional content and gameplay to enjoy after the credits roll, but the narrative itself concludes finally in one of three ways. Each option, however, recolors the actions that the player took to get to that point, either as a would be king of humanity, a savior sacrificing themselves to keep the world going for another cycle, or as a savior in another sense, finally letting the limp and broken world fade into darkness.

V. Conclusion

From the content on the story itself, a lone character looking to keep the fire of the world burning and trekking across the land of Lothric, to the player’s experience of the game play, Dark Souls III sets itself in the same style of narrative as that of the experience of pilgrims. Both game and historic action culminating in a building of skills and triumph over adversity that many others may not be willing to undertake. Even with little motivation in a bleak and harsh world that appears stacked against almost every move that the player and their character work towards. While Dark Souls III may only be channeling this kind of mentality for the benefit of the player’s experience, it casts its spell regardless and has left a lasting impression on both individuals as well as the games industry as a whole (resulting in the Soulsborne game genre). However, more than just affecting the entertainment industry as a whole, Dark Souls III gives a mediated experience of one of the time-honored traditions that was once a massive undertaking across Christendom, calling up the past as it seeks to tell its own story about a medieval-like fantasy world, and also the unidyllic descent into ruin that every age face, both in the world of the game and outside of it. From a narratological perspective, it gives an interesting challenge to where the border between game world and narrative actually divides two different experiences. While from a medieval perspective, it gives a unique look into the kind of crumbling and uncertain side of what history used to be through player experience. And all of that is without delving into the rich optional or expanded content that was added after the original release of the game.

Bibliography

Allen, Valerie. “As the Crow Flies: Roads and Pilgrimage.” Essays in Medieval Studies 25 (2008): 27–37.

Bell, Catherine M. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Bieger, Laura. “Some Thoughts on the Spatial Forms and Practices of Storytelling.” De Gruyter      64 (2016): 11-26.

Bourdieu, Pierre. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Eco, Umberto. "Dreaming of the Middle Ages." Faith in Fakes: Travels in Hyperreality. Transl. William Weaver. 1973. London. (1998) 61-72.

Miyazaki, Hidetaka. Dark Souls 3. Bandai Namco (2016).

Osterrieth, Anne. “Medieval Pilgrimage: Society and Individual Quest.” Social Compass 36    (1989): 145-157.

Ryan, Malcolm et al, “Measuring Morality in Videogames Research.” Ethics and Information     Technology 22 (2020): 55-68.

Ryan, Marie-Laure, and Thon, Jan-Noël, eds. Storyworlds across Media: Toward a Media-Conscious Narratology. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014.

Salonia, Matteo. “The Body in Medieval Spirituality: A Rationale for Pilgrimage and the       Veneration of Relics.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 14 (2018): 1-10.

Thon, Jan-Noël, “Transmedial Narratology Revisited: On the Intersubjective Construction of           Storyworlds and the Problem of Representational Correspondence in Films, Comics, and          Video Games” Narrative 25 (2017): 286-320. Unknown, “Dark Souls is More than Just a Game” GameFAQs (August 30th, 2014)     https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/606312-dark-souls/69969309

[1] Quotes from in-game dialogue are sourced from https://darksouls3.wiki.fextralife.com, a website that has transcribed the text of Dark Souls III’s dialogue and other in-game text in its entirety.

For people who want a vanilla matters commander, there are already two. Jasmine Boreal of the Seventh from Dominaria United commander and Ruxa Patient Professor from Strixhaven Commander. So when someone tells you to "try again" you can point them at the two that already exist

FYI

This was discussed with your teachers. I tried reaching out to your parents, but they were too busy to talk to me. Clavel espically thinks it's an great idea. @professor-mystic.

<A pokeball is waiting for you at the Driftvale pokecenter>

<Inside is a boreal growlieth. It's old enough to be with a trainer, but still young enough to be from one of the eggs that Mystic mentioned. It seems to have a triple tail, pointing to having vulpix or ninetails as a father> She doesn't have a name yet by the way.

They're usually busy. Sorry about that.

And what a baby! She's so cute!! Oh my gosh, I don't know what to name her- Maybe Frío?

Sliding in for the sixth 🐉Wings of Fire aus' names lists are...

The ❄IceWings🦭!

The X-Men Members:

• Charles Xavier/Professor Xavier: Chill

• Ororo Munroe/Storm: Snowstorm

• Logan Howlett/Wolverine: Wolverine

• Scott Summers/Cyclops: Cirrus

• Jean Grey/Marvel Girl/Phoenix: Gray

• Hank McCoy/Beast: Hailstorm

• Anne-Marie/Rogue: Alabaster

• Remy LeBeau/Gambit: Lemming

• Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat: Periwinkle

• Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler: Walrus

• Jubilation Lee/Jubilee: Lynx

• Evan Daniels/Spyke: Everest

• Bobby Drake/Iceman: Boreal

• Piotr Rasputin/Colossus: Cumulus

• Illyana Rasputin/Magik: Icicle

• Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane: Reindeer

• Samuel "Sam" Guthrie/Cannonball: Gust

• Roberto da Costa/Sunspot: Caribou

• Danielle "Dani" Moonstar/Mirage: Moonstone

• Laura Kinney/Wolverine 2.0: Howlite

• Tabitha "Tabby" Smith/Boom-Boom: Ptarmigan

The Brotherhood:

• Erik Lehnsherr/Magnus/Magneto: Ermine

• Raven Darkholme/Mystique: Diamond

• Victor Creed/Sabretooth: Sable

• Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver: Silver

• Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch: Sleet

• Mortymer Tonybee/Todd Tolanksy/Toad: Tern

• Fred "Freddy" Dukes/Blob: Firn

• Lance Alvers/Avalanche: Altus

• St. John Allerdyce/Pyro: Permafrost

(Quite the chilling amount, eh? 😊Here's something to cool off with...)

• Reader/Bby: Wolf, Snow Leopard, Snowy Owl, Puffin, Beluga, Moose, Vole, Taiga, Quartz, Nacre, Blizzard, Flurry, Squall, Iceberg, Igloo, Floe, Frost, Freeze, Frigid, Polar, Stratus, Nimbus...

Earth-sun distance dramatically alters seasons in the equatorial Pacific in a 22,000-year cycle An unrecognized effect boosts or diminishes the Pacific cold tongue, likely impacting El Niño/La Niña events and North American weather Weather and climate modelers understand pretty well how seasonal winds and ocean currents affect El Niño patterns in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, impacting weather across the United States and sometimes worldwide. But new computer simulations show that one driver of annual weather cycles in that region — in particular, a cold tongue of surface waters stretching westward along the equator from the coast of South America — has gone unrecognized: the changing distance between Earth and the sun. The cold tongue, in turn, influences the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which impacts weather in California, much of North America, and often globally. The Earth-sun distance slowly varies over the course of the year because Earth’s orbit is slightly elliptical. Currently, at its closest approach — perihelion — Earth is about 3 million miles closer to the sun than at its farthest point, or aphelion. As a result, sunlight is about 7% more intense at perihelion than at aphelion. Research led by the University of California, Berkeley, demonstrates that the slight yearly change in our distance from the sun can have a large effect on the annual cycle of the cold tongue. This is distinct from the effect of Earth’s axial tilt on the seasons, which is currently understood to cause the annual cycle of the cold tongue. Because the period of the annual cycle arising from the tilt and distance effects are slightly different, their combined effects vary over time, said lead researcher John Chiang, UC Berkeley professor of geography. “The curious thing is that the annual cycle from the distance effect is slightly longer than that for tilt — around 25 minutes, currently — so over a span of about 11,000 years, the two annual cycles go from being in phase to out of phase, and the net seasonality undergoes a remarkable change, as a result,” Chiang said. Chiang noted that the distance effect is already incorporated into climate models — though its effect on the equatorial Pacific was not recognized until now — and his findings will not alter weather predictions or climate projections. But the 22,000-year phase cycle may have had long-term, historical effects. Earth’s orbital precession is known to have affected the timing of the ice ages, for example. The distance effect — and its 22,000-year variation — also may affect other weather systems on Earth. The ENSO, which also originates in the equatorial Pacific, is likely affected because its workings are closely tied to the seasonal cycle of the cold tongue. “Theory tells us that the seasonal cycle of the cold tongue plays a key role in the development and termination of ENSO events,” said Alyssa Atwood, a former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow who is now an assistant professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee. “Because of this, many of ENSO’s key characteristics are synced to the seasonal cycle.” For example, ENSO events tend to peak during Northern Hemisphere winters, she said, and they don’t typically persist beyond northern or boreal spring months, which scientists refer to as the “spring predictability barrier.” Because of these linkages, it is reasonable to expect that the distance effect could also have a major impact on ENSO — something that should be examined in future studies. “Very little attention has been paid to the cold tongue seasonal cycle because most people think it's solved. There's nothing interesting there,” Chiang said. “What this research shows is that it's not solved. There's still a mystery there. Our result also begs the question whether other regions on Earth may also have a significant distance effect contribution to their seasonal cycle.” “We learn in science classes as early as grade school that the seasons are caused by the tilt of Earth’s axis,” added co-author Anthony Broccoli of Rutgers University. “This is certainly true and has been well understood for centuries. Although the effect of the Earth-sun distance has also been recognized, our study indicates that this ‘distance effect’ may be a more important effect on climate than had been recognized previously.” Chiang, Atwood and Broccoli and their colleagues reported their findings today in the journal Nature. Two distinct yearly cycles affect Pacific cold tongue The main driver of global weather changes is seasonal change. Earth’s equator is tilted relative to its orbit around the sun, so the Northern and Southern hemispheres are illuminated differently. When the sun shines directly overhead in the north, it’s warmer in the north and colder in the south, and vice versa. These yearly changes have major effects on the Pacific equatorial trade winds, which blow from southeast to northwest across the south and equatorial Pacific and push surface waters westward, causing upwelling of cold water along the equator that creates a tongue of cold surface water that stretches from Ecuador across the Pacific — almost one-quarter the circumference of the planet. The yearly hemispheric changes in seasonal temperature alters the strength of the trades, and thus cause a yearly cycle in the temperature of the cold tongue. This, in turn, has a major influence on ENSO, which typically peaks during Northern Hemisphere winter. The occurrence of El Niño — or its opposite, La Niña — helps determines whether California and the West Coast will have a wet or dry winter, but also whether the Midwest and parts of Asia will have rain or drought. “In studying past climates, much effort has been dedicated to trying to understand if variability in the tropical Pacific Ocean — that is, the El Niño/La Niña cycle — has changed in the past,” Broccoli said. “We chose to focus instead on the yearly cycle of ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific cold tongue. Our study found that the timing of perihelion — that is, the point at which the earth is closest to the sun — has an important influence on climate in the tropical Pacific." In 2015, Broccoli, co-director of the Rutgers Climate Institute, along with his then-graduate student Michael Erb, employed a computer climate model to show that the distance changes caused by Earth’s elliptical orbit dramatically altered the cold tongue yearly cycle. But climate modelers mostly ignored the result, Chiang said. “Our field is focused on El Niño, and we thought that the seasonal cycle was solved. But then we realized that the result by Erb and Broccoli challenged this assumption,” he said. Chiang and his colleagues, including Broccoli and Atwood, examined similar simulations using four different climate models and confirmed the result. But the team went further to show how the distance effect works. Earth’s ‘marine’ and ‘continental’ hemispheres The key distinction is that changes in the sun’s distance from Earth don’t affect the Northern and Southern hemispheres differently, which is what gives rise to the seasonal effect due to Earth’s axial tilt. Instead, they warm the eastern “continental hemisphere” dominated by the North and South American and African and Eurasian landmasses, more than it warms the Western Hemisphere — what he calls the marine hemisphere, because it is dominated by the Pacific Ocean. “The traditional way of thinking about monsoons is that the Northern Hemisphere warms up relative to the Southern Hemisphere, generating winds onto land that bring monsoon rains,” Chiang said. “But here, we’re actually talking about east-west, not north-south, temperature differences that cause the winds. The distance effect is operating through the same mechanism as the seasonal monsoon rains, but the wind changes are coming from this east-west monsoon.” The winds generated by this differential heating of the marine and continental hemispheres alter the yearly variation of the easterly trades in the western equatorial Pacific, and thereby the cold tongue. “When Earth is closest to the sun, these winds are strong. In the offseason, when the sun is at its furthest, these winds become weak,” Chiang said. “Those wind changes are then propagated to the Eastern Pacific through the thermocline, and basically it drives an annual cycle of the cold tongue, as a result.” Today, Chiang said, the distance effect on the cold tongue is about one-third the strength of the tilt effect, and they enhance one another, leading to a strong annual cycle of the cold tongue. About 6,000 years ago, they canceled one another, yielding a muted annual cycle of the cold tongue. In the past, when Earth’s orbit was more elliptical, the distance effect on the cold tongue would have been larger and could have led to a more complete cancellation when out of phase. Though Chiang and his colleagues did not examine the effect of such a cancellation, this would potentially have had a worldwide effect on weather patterns. Chiang emphasized that the distance effect on climate, while clear in climate model simulations, would not be evident from observations because it cannot be readily distinguished from the tilt effect. “This study is purely model based. So, it is a prediction,” he said. “But this behavior is reproduced by a number of different models, at least four. And what we did in this study is to explain why this happens. And in the process, we've discovered another annual cycle of the cold tongue that's driven by Earth's eccentricity.” Atwood noted that, unlike the robust changes to the cold tongue seasonal cycle, changes to ENSO tend to be model-dependent. “While ENSO remains a challenge for climate models, we can look beyond climate model simulations to the paleoclimate record to investigate the connection between changes in the annual cycle of the cold tongue and ENSO in the past,” she said. “To date, paleoclimate records from the tropical Pacific have largely been interpreted in terms of past changes in ENSO, but our study underscores the need to separate changes in the cold tongue annual cycle from changes in ENSO.” Chiang’s colleagues, in addition to Broccoli and Atwood, are Daniel Vimont of the University of Wisconsin in Madison; former UC Berkeley undergraduate Paul Nicknish, now a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; William Roberts of Northumbria University in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the United Kingdom; and Clay Tabor of the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Chiang conducted part of the research while on sabbatical at the Research Institute for Environmental Changes of the Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan. TOP IMAGE....A temperature map of the Pacific Ocean for December 1993 showing a cold (blue) tongue of surface water stretching westward along the equator from the coast of South America. The temperature and extent of the cold tongue changes with the seasons, but new climate simulations show that the annual change in Earth’s distance from the sun also affects the cold tongue seasonal cycle. This influences El Niño conditions that impact weather in North America and globally. CREDIT John Chiang, UC Berkeley LOWER IMAGE....As Earth gets closer to the sun in its elliptical orbit, the continent-dominated hemisphere heats up more than the ocean -dominated hemisphere, generating trade winds that affect the cold tongue and likely the El Niño/La Niña cycle that determines whether California gets rain or drought. CREDIT John Chiang, UC Berkeley

Mystic arrives, bringing two pokeballs with zir. These are the boreal growlieth breeding pair.

Then ze goes to zir room to just rest.

@professor-mystic

< The Boreal Growlithe are brought to an enclosure near the other Growlithe pens. They are not entirely empty, but not as full as they once were, with many of the Growlithe being adopted out after being assessed, not up to the standard set by their current live specimen.

Different employees pass through the halls, each with a job to accomplish. The Goomy are brought inside to an indoor ecosystem. With luck, the metallic minerals in the water of the false-marshland will induce the formation of the shell known to exist on Hisuian Sliggoo. The Growlithe are returned to their pens by a blonde haired man, with a Hisuian Growlithe following at his heels. The Unovan Zoroark placed as a surrogate mother gathers them in her mane, returning to her trainer and handler, who leads her back to the room where they remain when not outside or wandering the facility.

The gates to the outside are shut and locked, and the perimeter cameras are checked.

Though the security measures may not assure safety of the Facility, they can only hope that it will dissuade any attempted attack. >

Northeast Quebec & West Labrador

I drove in the pouring rain onto the ferry between Matane and Baie-Comeau across the Saint Laurent, so unfortunately there were no whales to be seen but the ferry was super modern with lots of different seating areas to choose from, and you could simply drink a beer at your table rather than being constrained to the bar area 😊. After arriving at the north side, I first had difficulty finding the motel, then got soaking wet getting stuff out of the car & finally only found a mediocre place to eat... you can't have it perfect all of the time!

Next morning, I started a route that I had anticipated for 14 years since I came to Canada; driving the entire Labrador loop from west to east! The first leg of 565km is actually still in Quebec, which was built to access massive hydro projects along the Manicouagan river. On the way, I pass the Manic-2 dam but the real beast is the Daniel-Johnson dam at the Manic-5 power station, which with its 14 buttresses and 13 arches is the largest of its kind in the world. A free tour allows you to go inside the power station, walk at the base and atop the massive structure and provides tons of interesting info, including that it's named after the Quebec prime minister who died on the eve of the inauguration... 😢.

To my big surprise, the paved road stops immediately outside Manic-5 and continues like that for 100km... I remember having seen in the news last year that the entire highway had finally been paved, but I now realised that that was the Labrador section, whereas Quebec did not pave it... the often-loose gravel, many construction road stops, fast truck traffic and the rolling hills made for a tiring drive, so was glad when I arrived at my place to stay for the night at Station Uapishka. They had originally cancelled my booking due to the wildfires (which I saw evidence of further south along the road) but when the road reopened, they did too. Luckily so, as my next stop was 494km further which would have been too much to add!

The special thing about this hotel is that it's on the shores of the "L'oeil du Quebec", the reservoir filled by the Manic-5 dam in the form of an eye, as a result of a meteorite impact 214 million years ago. At a diameter of 75km, it's the 5th largest astrobleme in the world and clearly visible on Gmaps... I had wanted to go supping on the lake but decided for a walk and a beer on the beach instead, sometimes it doesn't hurt to be lazy 😊. Over a delicious dinner, I had a great conversation with a woman who is professor in cellular biologie about amongst others how to stimulate children to study sciences. With my engineering background we had a lot of back & forth, which I tried to do in French as much as possible. She's Quebecois but teaches in English so we had a good linguistic exchange! 😁

Next morning, I continue the unpaved road for another 200km or so😒, passing massive mines and electricity projects until I finally arrive in the "Big Land" just outside Labrador City. The first thing you see when coming into town is the Canadian Tire store, which still makes me smile 😍, but less than 10 minutes later I had inadvertently driven out of it already and had to U-turn to find a gas station and a park to have a picknick lunch. I had hoped for some Canada Day celebrations (was wearing a red tshirt 🍁) but there was nothing going on. The only funny thing to see is that most cars have a pole with a flag on top for better visibility on project sites, quite comical as it looks as if everyone's celebrating a birthday 😂.

Then another 3 hours onward to Churchill Falls, on a much better, less industrial road which was a breeze to drive on (apart from the water holes left by rain bursts). I made a few photo stops to capture the boreal landscape, which is dominated by thin, almost skeleton trees with sometimes a light green moss undercover and lots of bogs or little lakes in between. It's not the prettiest forest I've seen (I like fuller trees) but its vastness is impressive. You could also see the ecological succession of regrowth after a fire, as some older fire areas were regenerating with tons of little trees with the burnt stalks still standing tall...

Arriving at Churchill Falls, I only take 2 minutes to drive all roads in town to find the gas station (very important as there's signs at the intersection that it's 285km one way and 240km the other way for the nearest gas station!) and the one building that houses the library, canada post, grocery store, hotel and sole restaurant - convenient! 😁 The tiny village (collection of houses really) did celebrate Canada Day with a baseball game and fireworks which I couldn't see but hear from my comfy bed 😜.

The next day it was sunny, so after a call with my parents, I already hit the road at 08:15am for the next 327km. Labrador looks big on the map but feels truly massive when driving... whenever I hit a traffic jam in the GTA, I was longing for empty roads... they do exist; in Labrador!! 😎 I think I saw less than 15 cars on the entire drive (in both directions!). A pitstop for some stretches and a muffin gave me another opportunity to snap pics of the strange trees.

I first skipped Happy Valley - Goose Bay on arrival and went straight to North West River where the Labrador Interpretative Centre has interesting exhibits about the 4 peoples that live here (Inuit, Innu, Métis and Settlers) including the installation of an inukshuk, one of my favourite symbols of Canada 😊 (I still would like to buy one but not sure where exactly, perhaps in a Montreal art gallery or out West). For who like me, until today, doesn't know the difference; Inuit are coastal people that came from the Artic, whereas Innu are traditionally nomadic people from Quebec who followed the caribou herds. The Métis here are descendants of Inuit and settlers (although due to dispute about the name east of the Prairies, they've renamed themselves to Nunatukavut). Labrador has a complicated history including the forceful relocation of villages and lack of self-determination over its rich resources, so good to learn more about it! Before heading to the guesthouse, I have a peek at Melville Lake and sit at the beach (it's 27 degrees!) until the rain forces me back to the car.

After having done the laundry, groceries and ever-crucial filling up the gas, I head out to the Birch Island Boardwalk which gives access to a sandbar on the Churchill River. Once a year, I dedicate time to reflect on the beauty of life while remembering the people who died too young; my half-brother André, my housemate Berber, and since 2019, my friend Soren who took his life on the 2nd of July. These deaths have impacted me tremendously, in that they have given me the resolve to live my life to the best of my abilities and spur me to put my personal life above a career, including my decision in 2009 to leave BP for a radical change and then now doing it again. Especially given that I have the flexibility without a partner or children, I owe it to myself and to André, Berber and Soren that I go after what I think makes me happy 💖. For now, that's traveling through Canada!

Wildlife: 1 moose & 1 rabbit (along the road)

SUPs: none

Hikes: none

Wild City Pokemon: passes by the lab at a 10 PM. The Boreal Growlieths that are staying there: *LET US SING YOU THE SONGS OF OUR PEOPLE!*

Your Pokémon Ecologist is BACK

Hello students,

I want to thank you all for your patience the past few years. 

Your dear Professor Spruce is back from a bit of a hiatus to bring you more Pokémon Ecology related content!

My last Pokémon in our Biomes post was the Boreal Forests pt. 2 from October 2019, so it has definitely been a minute since I have written any new content. However, I have graduated with my Honors Bachelor of Science Degree in Environmental Biology and I am currently working (irl) as a REAL LIFE biologist. The past couple years I have truly honed my skills in field identification and understanding of applicable biological practices, so I’m confident that this upcoming material I’m planning on will really impress you. 

I am planning on continuing on the Pokémon in our Biomes series, answering all of the questions that have been piling up in my inbox, and just generally being a better Pokémon Professor. 

Maybe your Prof. Spruce will finally be making a Tiktok as well! Who knows. 

For now, stay tuned for more great Pokémon Headcannon. 

If anyone has any ideas for the next Pokémon in our Biomes post let me know!

You know what? Time to ramble on about my silly little pokemon fangame concept >:)

- So, the game takes place in a neighbouring region to Alola known as the Lunos region which also uses trials instead of gyms because I want that concept to be used more often.

- The funky gimmick is known as lunar forms which kinda just raises one stat and decreases another for about 5 turns.

- You also have a silly little Minior called Mini following you around because why not :)

- There's 2 legendaries so far: Boreal and Eclipson. Boreal is basically this funky northern lights dragon thing that can also enter ultra wormholes like Solgaleo and Lunala. Eclipson on the other hand is one that made all of the solar and lunar forms in the first place so it's obvious that they have one themself.

- The main juice of the game has a funky organisation known as Combine Inc which on the surface looks into pokemon dna and see how mixed dna reacts, creating fusions and such. However, it's much darker underneath with most of these fusions being weird amalgams you'd probably see from Undertale. Plus, it's not just fusing two pokemon but fusing pokemon with people too.

- The two player characters have names if your not creative enough to think of ones yourself. The male one being known as Ray, and the female one being known as Luna.

- The player character that you didn't pick becomes your average friendly rival that picks the weaker starter, however there's another rival you meet later on known as Cedric who for some reason knows about the professor, Prof. Honeycomb.

- And lastly, the starters! The grass starter's a silly lump of moss known as Mossil. The water starter's a funky water horse known as Damponi, and the fire starter's a smol snake known as Pyviper because I want to keep up the Chinese zodiac trend for fire starters.

Columbia TriStar Family Collection promo (Warner version) script

Hypothetical date: January 1, 2000

0:00-0:03 - Warner Bros. Family Entertainment logo 0:03 - ??? (sprinkler) 0:04 - Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory: Little Mike Teavee getting picked up 0:05 - ??? (couple holding each other in shock) 0:06 - The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy and friends gazing up at "Surrender, Dorothy" 0:07 - ??? (kids peaking) 0:08 - Warner Bros. Family Collection 0:09 - ??? (kids kissing) 0:10 - a clip from the WB-released Borrowers 0:11 - ??? (group on blanket) 0:12 - ??? (running through water) 0:13 - Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July: Lady Boreal visiting baby Rudolph 0:14 - ??? (character looking at hand or arm) 0:15 - Gay Purr-ee: Mewsette cuddling with Meowrice 0:16 - Born to Be Wild: Katie roaring 0:17 - The Mask: The Mask dodging the bullets 0:18 - ??? (character about to fall but catches edge of platform they're on) 0:19 - Wakko's Wish: Warners surfing through the snow 0:20 - ??? (fencing) 0:21 - ??? (plane landing) 0:22 - ??? (looking at a picture fondly) 0:23 - ??? (Dick Van Dyke drawing a smiley face) 0:24 - Ace Ventura: Pet Detective: Ace Ventura uttering his Popeye-esque chuckle after Eignhorn yelled "SHOOT HIM!" 0:25 - Space Jam: The Looney Tunes laughing after Daffy says "fear clutches to my breast" 0:26 - ??? (Macaulay Culkin holding a chuckle) 0:27-0:28 - ??? (character catching object that falls) 0:28-0:29 - a clip from Flight of the Dragons where one of the dragons breathes fire 0:29-0:31 - The Music Man: Professor Harold Hill leading the band in "76 Trombones" 0:31 - Wakko's Wish: Rita and Runt snuggling on sofa 0:32 - Pippi Longstocking: Pippi strutting 0:33 - The Mask: The Mask strutting down the hallway 0:34 - ??? (a character pouncing) 0:35-0:48 - images of logos with all films used 0:49 - ??? (scene with a rowboat) 0:50-0:51 - Space Jam: MJ and the Tunes turning upon hearing the Monstars coming 0:51-0:52 - ??? (leap into the water) 0:53-0:56 - Warner Bros. Family Entertainment logo

10, 13, 15 for the oc most likely ask game!!!!! <3333

hehehoohoo thank u kind anon

THIS WILL BE LONG AGAIN SO ELABORATIONS UNDER THE CUT

10. most likely to judge a book by its cover? - vas, dani, brendan, dijah

13. most likely to not celebrate their birthday? - vas, austral, milo

15. most likely to change their personality depending on the company? - vas, sandra, dijah

10. most likely to judge a book by its cover?

WHOOPSVERSE: vas <3 shes just a like, 14 year old girl, she's in her judgy era. she makes snap judgements all the time and she is often proven wrong and is a little embarrassed about it

SSHS: dani is in the same boat here, she is also just a like, 14 year old girl LOL. that being said i think brendan is actually the one who would be most likely to judge a book by his cover, at least when he was a younger hero. his whole job is to fight villains and protect civilians, and he definitely was on the judgier side of things when it came to that good old black and white morality. it definitely surprises him when he finds out grant (his supervillain archnemesis) is actually a really good dad and thats why kammie (grant's daughter) became a supervillain, to emulate her dad

WEAVER'S APPRENTICE: dijah is a judgy bitch HAHAHA she adjusts her viewpoints pretty quickly when proven wrong but shes definitely the type to judge a book by its cover for sure

13. most likely to not celebrate their birthday?

WHOOPSVERSE: vas again! she often doesnt know her own birthday and/or is preoccupied with things like Staying Alive, so she doesnt celebrate her birthday much when shes on her own. this changes when kiska adopts her because by the gods this girl is going to have a good childhood

PROJECT STARSTRUCK: austral is soooo practical and logical (trust her) and celebrating a birthday is just a waste of time, why have a party with people you dont even really like when you could be on that #grind? its definitely not because she has deep seated insecurities caused by her mom telling her she should have been the twin to die when she was a child <3 boreal always remembers their birthday though and pesters austral all day about it. so sometimes austral will secretly go out and buy a cupcake with two candles. just to get boreal off her back

SSHS: mick WOULD be likely to not celebrate his birthday, but unfortunately his best friend is leon, and there is no way in hell leon is letting his best friend go without proper celebrations!!! so he is going to celebrate his birthday whether he likes it or not. he learned that lesson after the first surprise party when they finally met up in person (having been internet friends before that point, all leon could do was send birthday paragraphs and maybe a roblox gift card to celebrate). milo on the other hand probably just doesnt bother with parties, theyre exhausting and his friends were always kinda flakey anyway.

15. change their personality depending on the company?

im actually a firm believer that MOST people do this (for example you probably wouldnt act the same with your mom as you would with your best friends or your boss or your professor). HOWEVER i will give you the people most likely to alter their entire identity to fit the people around them

WHOOPSVERSE: vas is extremely adaptive and often as a way to survive she gains a bit of a manipulative streak, in the sense that she knows how to act around people to get them to do things that are beneficial to her survival. once she gets out of these types of situations though she tends to unmask and just be sort of all over the place with everyone she trusts

SSHS: sandra is the secretary at the main hero organization. like there might be other secretaries because its a huge system but shes the best secretary. most people see her as like this very stereotypical friendly secretary because she purposefully portrays herself that way. she is the queen of code switching. she has a secret identity that literally nobody knows about because shes so good at code switching. shes so based

WEAVER'S APPRENTICE: dijah is the MASTER of chameleoning. shes so friendly and good at socializing and its because she can adapt so well to other peoples vibes. sure it means she doesnt have a concrete identity but hey people like her!