hi friendly reminder to reblog art and not to just like it bcz it can be really demotivating for the artist sometimes i know its absolutely not the intention but my anxiety takes it as "your art wasnt good enough for them to want to share"

😸.

SANEMI HEAD CANONS

(as determined in the previous poll)

Hello everyone! Thanks so much for all of the 300+ votes I got on that poll, that’s like crazy 😦 rengoku and sanemi tied so we’re just gonna write for both! Rengoku’s will be in a separate post because imma be shitfaced when I’m done with this.

These head canons will involve sfw and nsfw, so if you are a minor please do not read past the part labeled NSFW

Warnings: Smut, Fem reader

(MINORS DO NOT CONTINUE AFTER THE NSFW LABEL I AM SLASH SRS)

Sanemi

Sfw

He’s a cold guy, giving out glares to anyone that looks in his direction.

But for you, his eyes briefly soften.

He refuses to admit it, but he truly turns into mush when you’re around.

Always keeps a hand on one of your body parts, hand, thigh, waist. He’s extremely protective, especially after losing the majority of his loved ones. He swears to protect you forever. Poor genya

Shows more affection when the two of you are alone, not wanting his coworkers to see him all lovey dovey. Only you get to see that

He’s like one of those guys that talk to you in a baby voice asking for attention but then the moment someone walks into the room his voice drops like 5 octaves.

Literally will not let you get out of bed earlier than him. Like his arms anchor you to the bed.

If you’re also a hashira, he makes sure that you both are always assigned together on missions. He knows you are capable enough to take care of yourself, but he can’t help the fear of not being there when you need him.

Trains with you but absolutely refuses to actually spar you. He couldn’t bare the thought of accidentally hurting you.

If he’s called out on his love for you in public he literally turns into a tomato.

NSFW

Oh boy, this guy is insane

He wants to love and cherish your beautiful body but he can’t help but feel the need to claim you

Once you give him the go ahead, he quite literally pounces on you.

Eats you out for hours, it’s basically impossible to pry him off.

Will start out by teasing you, giving small kitten licks to your wetness. He loves the frustrated face you make when he doesn’t give you what you want.

Cant tease forever, he yearns to see you throbbing with pleasure.

When he starts sucking your clit, you almost double over.

This man has a goal and he IS going to get it.

doesn’t even think about his own needs until his face and fingers are drenched in your arousal.

When he finally gets to the real shit, he starts extremely slow. Not wanting to hurt you.

He gives you time to adjust before carefully thrusting into you

However, when pleased mewls began to erupt from your mouth, he simply cannot hold back any longer

Bro changes his pace entirely, gripping onto your thighs and pulling his hips all the way back.

At first, you’re confused, but then he slams himself back into you.

Your breath literally disappears from your lungs as he feverishly thrusts into you.

Please pull his hair

He Bites and sucks on your neck whilst your fingers curl into his white locks.

Reaches his free hand down to passionately rub your clit, quite different from his hips roughly knocking into yours.

When you begin to reach your climax, he nearly finishes from the sight of you.

As your back arches in pleasure, his fingers quicken and his hips continue their pace.

When your orgasm hits, his does as well. The both of you moaning and riding out your high’s together.

immediately gets you water and makes sure you are okay.

Aftercare 100000%

Runs a nice bath and washes your hair for you

don’t comment on his flushed face.

If you fall asleep in the bath, he’ll dry you off and carry you to bed.

I hope you guys liked this!! I’m going to continue rengoku’s part in a separate post, I’ll probably write it later tonight after I shower and do my 1000 step skin care routine.

Comments, likes, reblogs are all appreciated!!

I see your headcanons on the Harbingers receiving flowers from their S/O, and raise you headcanons on how the Harbingers react to someone threatening their S/O? 🤭

This one is funny bc most of them would respond with MURDER GKBKKEKGKSKGKKSKGK

Fr tho— warning for violence & blood

Pierro:

He will threaten that person right back lmao

Imagine this tall ass man standing behind you

And just glaring the mf down

“Any business you have with them, you can take up with me.”

He will at least give them a warning to stop before banishing them or hurting them

If it happens again, or if they don’t back down, that person can kiss being alive goodbye

He will wrap you in blankets to comfort you after

Not the worst, tbh. 9/10 for handling the situation

Capitano:

He will just stand behind you menacingly

The person threatening you can FEEL his glare behind his helmet

If the person is too cocky and thinks they can get away with it, all cap needs to do is put a hand on his claymore (claymore cap real), and that person will stop

If they STILL don’t back down, again, they can say goodbye to living. Cap knows about 400 ways to kill a man, and he will use them all

Wraps you in his big ol arms after

“Do let me know if anyone dares to threaten you again” (with murderous intent)

Dottore:

Oh no

You will have to hold him back /srs

“Oh my god zandik I can handle this—“

“I know, but I am in need of a new test subject at the moment :)”

“ZANDIK NO”

He won’t even give a warning

All the segments are on that person like fire on dry leaves

All that will be left is a pile of bones

At least you’ll get a bunch of hugs after…? Maybe ask them all to clean the blood out of their coats first…

Columbina:

She will also just stand there, menacingly

She’ll actually be even more effective than capitano

She has a strange aura to her, and it really creeps people out

She’ll hold your hand and stare with a soft smile that holds an ocean’s worth of malice

Gently strokes your hair/head after and apologizes if she scared you, bc she knows she can be scary

You’ll never be scared of her tho, she would never hurt you

Arlecchino:

Violence immediately

Not quite as brutal as Dottore, but she will slap that mf so damn hard they see Jesus

Not even Celestia, straight up Jesus. She will slap them so hard they see a Christian deity.

She’ll kick them for good measure if they don’t stop

“Call me immediately if something like this happens again, dear”

She knows you can handle yourself, but she will not stand for anyone threatening her partner

Pulcinella:

If you ever think I’m gonna leave out my favorite gnome, you are WRONG /lh

Abuse of power woooooo 🎉🎉🎉🎉

Fr tho, he will also give a warning, like Pierro. He tries to solve situations with diplomacy, so he will direct that person’s wrath toward him.

“Any business you have with them can be taken up with me. What exactly do you want?”

If the person refuses to listen and continues to fight…

He can and will have that person thrown out of Snezhnaya violently

Or even in jail

Essentially if he sees them as a genuine threat to your safety, he isn’t taking any chances

He is certainly not above using his position to his advantage

Scaramouche:

Oh no (pt 2)

He will also jump straight to violence, but differently flavored than arle and dott

He will verbally stomp the aggressor into the ground before doing it literally

“Awfully bold of a pitiful, pathetic little worm like you to even go near gods like my partner and I”

He will have the mf begging for mercy, and he will give them none

They don’t deserve it

When they’re gone, he’ll turn to you and scold you (affectionately)

“Next time, you better handle this yourself. You’re strong and smart enough to deal with trash like this on your own.”

He says that like he won’t defend you every time without fail

Sandrone:

Oh no (pt 3)

There is no hope for the person threatening you I’m sorry

You won’t even see her coming before her “dolls” absolutely obliterate that person

I’m talking completely gone except for a red stain on the wall

“They don’t deserve the honor of becoming a doll”

You’re lucky she hasn’t turned you into a doll yet, but at least for now she wants to keep you alive

She treats you shockingly gently after

Offers to brush your hair, or if you don’t have hair or don’t like your hair being touched, she will ask to play dress up with you

Yea she kinda treats you like a doll gjejgkekgkekgk

But it’s ok, at least you aren’t a test subject /hj

Signora:

The final “oh no”

She already lost one s/o, she isn’t gonna let that happen to you

Kicks that mf like she kicked venti

Literally just beats their ass and switches to soft mode so fast after

“Are you alright, dear?”

Cuddlessssss

Man I’d give up all my limbs to be able to cuddle her

Pantalone:

He doesn’t like to get his hands dirty

So he will simply ruin them financially

Literally. He’ll get them fired and bar them from having unemployment benefits.

Blood and tears baby

If the person manages to actually hurt you, THEN the gloves are coming off

Pantalone will beat them half to death /srs

He doesn’t *like* to get his hands dirty, but he sure will if he has to

Buys you expensive things as a reward for putting up with that bullshit

“If anything like this happens again, treasure, let me know and I’ll take care of it”

Sugar daddy hours

Tartaglia:

Shockingly not an “oh no”

Don’t get me wrong, he will still be hella violent, but he won’t kill the guy

He’ll challenge them to a duel

He will win, and that person will be in the hospital for months

If the person declines the duel, he’ll go “no biggie” and threaten them right back.

“If you come near my partner again, I will drain the water from your body and feed you to the wolves”

And he will VERY clearly mean it

If the person has a death wish and keeps harassing you, they’ll just disappear without a trace

Contrary to popular opinion, he doesn’t actually like killing people that he wasn’t specifically instructed to, especially if they can’t fight back

But protecting the people he loves is more important

Cuddles you and makes you some bangin’ soup as comfort

I stand by the idea that he would be the best partner of all of them

Alright!!! i didn't like the way my last post on McPig was phrased and wrote it at like 3AM before bed. Now that I've taken my time to comb through some other stances and look at some other people's viewpoints I think I've settled on a better stance to take.

I still don't support McPig as a dev. Keep in mind I've only seen what was released on the Tumblr post containing screenshots like the ones I've attached here.

As I'm not a member of any discords that McPig is in, I don't have any proof that he's continued to act like the way he did 5 years ago in the current day. I do recognise the screenshot going around that shows he regrets this kind of behaviour.

But even still, he DID still release PT with native American caricatures in it, and Mr. Stick and Mr. Pinch may/are both anti-semitic caricatures as well. This statement was never released publicly either, so I'm taking it as a small comfort at best and I still think there's plenty of valid reason to want to steer clear of the game.

Rumours have been circulating of sprite and mechanic reworks to remove these caricatures from the game, but I've found no solid proof of it. However I do HEAVILY endorse this as a way of apologising and redressing these complaints. Direct action to remedy things people are uncomfortable with and to keep PT accessible to all is the best apology in my eyes, and I really do hope that this is true, but I'm not going to get my hopes up.

So all in all, I'm not going to be giving Pizza Tower any monetary support unless direct action is taken and changes are made. I don't condone or endorse any of the behaviour I've seen and I find it absolutely abhorrent.

However, I recognise that McPig isn't the only face behind Pizza Tower. Tons of beta testers, Sertif's work in programming, Mr. Sauceman and ClascyJitto's ost to name a few have all put incredible amounts of passion and love into this game and I don't want to rob them of that due credit. Nor do I want to say that anybody who supported, or continues to support Pizza Tower, is a bad person! I love the game too. A fantastic community has grown around this game and I'm proud to be part of it; and this isn't the first time a good fanbase has grown around media made by fairly shitty people (see Scott Cawthon, Sr. Pelo, Erin Hunter).

So chances are I'll probably still be drawing Pizza Tower stuff from time to time! I'll be tagging it accordingly, so all those who don't want to associate with the game can blacklist the tag and not associate with it. And I'm not qualified to judge anyone else outside of myself.

I heavily encourage McPig to work with the rest of Tour De Pizza to patch out caricature material in the game itself and to further moderate the Pizza Tower discord against discriminatory material. Until that happens (if it happens at all), I'll be enjoying the game and fanbase from a critical standpoint and without putting money towards the Devs.

Thanks for your understanding guys!

This might sound stupid, but as someone who watched the episode in what I could only extrapolate was a early morning no sleep haze, what was your feelings on the episode as whole days after?

Sorry if that is overly familiar, your post about it just made me laugh. 

Ahfsjhfklj by all means, be overly familiar in my inbox!! We are besties having a sleepover! I think I'll start tagging my episode thoughts as "#flora reviews".

Here are my (spoilery!) takes on ep 1 in no particular order, sober, rested, and having watched it a second time now:

I LOVE that they seem to going the route of bi Lestat and gay Louis. That's always how I've read them and definitely the storyline that rings most true for me in regards to Louis. I'm so thrilled to see that on screen. Anyone who's followed me for a while knows how much gay Louis means to me

I'm sorry but I like this Daniel. He's very different from the book, but I think this is a fun take on the character. I always enjoy Louis getting called on his bullshit. (AGAIN, this is an adaptation, not gospel. I'm reviewing this as a singular interpretation of the story, NOT a replacement for established canon).

That first kiss was MAGNIFICENT. It really blew me away more than I even anticipated. I love that Louis was the one to initiate the kiss (especially after starting to lose control earlier and reining it back in). I think JA did a great job of showing Louis' repression and then the unsettling beauty of that resolve finally snapping

Overall loved cinematography of the levitating scene!! It was beautiful and a perfect blend of bloodlust with erotic lust. (And SR has that white boy dump truck. Good for him)

I'm VERY sad that Lily died! I liked her character and Louis needs friends :(((

Sam Reid REALLY captured the Lestat that I wanted to see. He's so earnest and charming and almost boyish, but there's an intensity to him that wavers back and forth between sinister and passionate

The emotion JA showed when describing his turning to Daniel really got me. I love that breach of emotion through his very jaded apathy

When I read the script leaks months ago, I was unsure about the scene of Paul's death. It seemed very abrupt and anti-climatic, but after seeing it on screen and talking with friends, I'm coming around to it. The fact that they DIDN'T argue beforehand is a different kind of tragedy, making Louis live with the guilt of wondering where he went wrong or if he could've done more rather than the book where he wonders if he caused it.

"French white" was very funny, it's exactly the kind of inane Louis hypocrisy I love

On the other hand, "ass before absolution" was Too Much. Louis would never

I also found the thing about the opera to be a bit strange character-wise, but that's pretty inconsequential, as are most of my little Louis stan nitpicks. That's not the focus here so I digress

I think JA did a great job with hitting the emotional beats of the high-emotion scenes, especially the confession. I'm happy to see this side of Louis on screen, the one that beats up and murders priests and gets in drunken brawls and is so angry at the world. I'm looking forward to seeing more of his softer side too as we progress

I've always headcanoned Louis and his sister being very close, and I liked that the show went that direction!

SR nailed those heart eyes!! I can totall6 see why he was able to seduce someone as lonely and repressed and sorrowful as Louis with that kind of obvious devotion

The turning scene was a delight to watch!! It was so incredibly passionate and really showed their desperation, the ways it's the same and the ways that it's different. It was beautifully done and I loved the nods to the movie (which I am still a big fan of)

If I think of more to say later, I'll reblog with add-ons!!

South Park romance hcs, except I’m Aroace and don’t know the first thing about romance

(this whole thing is a slash jay, also aged up cuz like???? Duh???) edit: bro I started working on this at around 2 am and then I blinked and now it’s 3 am what the scallop

Edit 2: ok cool I just figured out how to put the read more thing that’s pretty nifty

Also sorry if any of these feel ooc it is WAYYY too late for my mind to process anything rn it’s mush these are just the bits and pieces that I’ve picked up from the slop

I only have Kyle, Leslie, Stan, Clyde, Kenny, and Bebe for now but I’ll like.. edit it later I guess, later when I get more brainworms (also totally not self projecting onto them. Yes I know I’m a total loser)

Kyle: ASEXUAL KYLE CANON ASEXUAL KYLE CANON!!! /srs HES LITERALLY ME 

-Has realllyyy big problems with expressing emotions aka feelings in general it’s an autism thing (like Craig) 

-Which also makes him all weird with like physical contact n stuff?? “Get ur dirty paws offa me” typa shit

-ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO STUFF LIKE POKING/PRODDING!! He will probably sucker punch just about anyone who gets close and honestly, not feel sorry about it (I wouldn’t either)

-love language is…. Nothing. Lmao

-jkjk it’s probably some shit like gift giving??? But like, in a different way than you think. Just think about that one “can I just do your laundry someday” scene, but instead of laundry it’s homework. what is that love language called someone please tell me I actually have no idea what I’m talking about.

-he thinks about stuff logically a lot of the time, which is why he’ll like NEVER pick up on any hints whatsoever. 

-the more I write the more I realize I’m making him sound too much like Craig. Uh

-what is love (baby don’t hurt me..)

-if he EVER does confess, (he won’t.) he’ll probably do it in your like, insta/facebook dms, there is NO way this mf is actually gonna ask someone out face to face

-absolutely despises the idea of uhhh. Yknow. Jacking it in San Diego. WHY???? BECAUSE TRANSMASC KYLE!!!!!!! This is actually canon I’m Matt and Trey.

-he will not make exceptions because he’s in love or whatever (he’s not) you still gotta keep up ur side bc he’s not entirely head over heels!!! He’s not!!!(I think he’s learned his lesson from Leslie)

-single kyle: “bro I hate relationships so bad bro couples need to shut up fr”

-double Kyle: “bro I hate relationships so bad bro I need to shut up fr”

-I feel like he’d be the type to not be able to distinguish platonic feelings from romantic feelings. Why? Because me

-you HAVE to be direct with him because he’ll never be able to figure out anything otherwise. Ur sad? Tell him ur sad. Wait actually don’t he has no idea how to comfort ppl

-best he can do is an awkward pat on the back and a mumble “it gets better…?” 💀 or, if he’s pissed, “wtf am I supposed to do abt that”

-if someone confessed to him first, it would probably go something like this

“I love you”

“???? Are you being /srs or /j???”

or

“I love you”

“Wow haha that’s so silly never say that again”

or maybe even just a straight up “ew” 💀

-Cupid (Twin Ver)

Leslie!!!

-Leslie is actually Lesbian + aroace oriented . I don’t make the rules sorry, tho the aroace part is more dominant, it’s more like aroace + lesbian oriented

-similar thing with Kyle, but instead of being rude/straightforward about it, she’ll either gaslight you or do this:

“oh, you love me? That’s so funny!! I do too :3”

“Really?”

“yeah!!!”

“Does that mean we can date???”

“What? No!!! I meant that I also love me.”

“…”

“stupid bitch”

-I love her

-was torn between making her lesbian and making her aroace so fuck it we both

-I think she hates men (I do too /j)

-typa girl to run around breaking people’s hearts for the pure fun of it (Michael Jackson reference???)

-she thinks love is a joke. Like genuinely.

Stan:

-…

-I genuinely don’t know how I’m supposed to characterize this guy

-he canonically jacks it in San Diego so that’s something I guess

-his dog was gay you guys

-bi

-rly hope ur ok with being vomited on (I am not)

-just think of the PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE thing

-gets rly defensive whenever anyone asks him about Wendy

-responds with 👍 or “k” to confessions

-would probably be a discord kitten for nitro /j

-Cupid (jack stauber)

Clyde:

-This man is ALSO bi

-hey 😏 what’s going on 😏

-love language is giving discord nitro /j

“I love you”

“I’m so sorry bro”

-I saw someone say that being bi and single is like playing on both sides of a sports team and still losing. Yeah that’s him, L rizz 😂😂🤣🤣🤣

-this bitch has both Tinder AND Grinder and still remains lonely

-probably because he starts off EVERY conversation with a terrible ass pick up line

“hey bbg sorry I gave you lice but relationships are all about sharing everything with each other😍😍😍”

-PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE thing, but it’s with EVERYONE

Kenny

-there are two types of people, people who say that Kenny is “the straightest kid in South Park” and people who know the TRUTH

-this man is the biggest slut ever

-wasn’t he a prostitute once

-Relationship red flag: he once ate an entire banana with the peel on during a date. Partner horrified, broke up like a day later

-honestly, there’s not much to say, it’s literally kenny

“what’s your love language”

“money”

“MONEY???? BRO AINT NOBODY SPEAK 💴💴💸💶💶💸💎💎💸💵💷💎💰🪪💰💰💶💳🪪”

(it’s actually physical contact but we don’t talk about that)

Bebe

-I love lesbians!

-omni maybe? (Girl leaning)

-Unfortunately scared of relationship commitment

-I’m pretty sure she’s been hit up on multiple times, every time she ghosts/friend zones them

-Has a long distance relationship with Clyde despite living in the same town??

-would probably leave a guy in a restaurant and make him pay the bill

“damn, look at that ass!! 😍😍”

-I feel like she listens to pinkpantheress and maybe coco and Clair Clair

-love language is shoes

Hi I’m baaack I have a question about the reds!! How close are they?? Is there any conflict/confusion bc they’re both trying to eldest sibling everyone? Does little Raph figure out gender things earlier thanks to Red being there? Do they get hugs I hope they both get hugs they’re so wonderful

Have a lovely time of day thank you for all of your turtle posts they get me through the day <3

omg hi! my turtle posts also get me through the day tbh and i am! so glad you like them!

The reds are so close you have no idea. I am soft about them on the daily. Sometimes they argue about who has jurisdiction to scold the blue things but usually they just team up instead.

Okay first of all yes there is confusion with both of them trying to be the eldest sibilng! (Meanwhile Leonardo has been the oldest for a while and is vaguely confused by all this as well. Red died twenty-seven years ago at the age of twenty-eight, and Old Man Blue is trying not to laugh at someone half his age trying to be his big sister. He's also full of emotions and near to crying about it every day.)

Leonardo, Tello, and Angelo are all older than Red, but at least they're all still shorter than her. Can't shake up the family dynamic that much, I say, as if I haven't put them all through a fucking blender. Angelo and Tello call her their big sister anyway, cause they're nice like that. Leonardo near-exclusively calls her 'short stuff' and is closer than he realises to being flung through a wall again.

Ironically, Red herself does not take Raph seriously as a big brother. She knows that he is, for the younger turtles, but she's a decade older and three feet taller than him. She sees him as being just as small as his younger brothers. Raph is not impressed with this, being used to being the biggest and oldest.

He is impressed with how tall and spiky she is! All the boys thought they'd stopped growing, like human kids would have, and seeing everyone taller caused absolute consternation among the young turts. Especially in the case of future Mikey. Nobody will talk about future Mikey being as tall as teen Raph. It's still terrifying.

Despite Red once calling Raph 'little', and the bedlam that ensued, they get along very well! Which is also terrifying for a certain set of self-destructive blue turtles who insist they're totally fine whilst in the middle of a week-long mental breakdown. If one red turtle is scary, two red turtles are even scarier. Red is not above sitting on either Leo if he's doing something stupid.

Red's and Leonardo's definitions of 'something stupid' are very different. Leonardo does not appreciate this. It's the funniest thing Donnie's ever seen.

Apart from their mutual 'I must protect my siblings' prime directive, and the fact that they both punch things as their first plan instead of waiting for anyone else to come up with a better one, there's another big similarity! Red is also missing the same eye as Raph. (I know he's fine in canon but like. did you see the fucking tentacles coming out of his eye socket. he's missing an eye in wify.)

There's a constants-and-variables theme I'm playing at with wify, kinda, about how sometimes the same things happen under different circumstances. Mikey's portals being what saves Leonardo from dying in the future timeline and then dying in the prison dimension. Casey Jr gets a hockey stick from both versions of Casey Sr but only one of those involves her dying. Red lost her eye fighting human survivors and Raph lost his eye being mutated by the Krang.

Raph and Leo, the teen versions, have a lot to unpack about the whole thing. Leo blames himself and can't get over his part in Raph being taken. Raph thinks Leo's afraid of him, because mutant-Krang-Raph hurt him in their fight, and maybe grossed out by the extent of his injuries. Lots of angst incoming with that angle but it's gonna be fine I swear.

Raph and Red, however! Red has tips on adjusting to life with one eye, and has some extremely cool eyepatches that Angelo decorated for them. Raph gets to borrow them whenever he wants and gets his own ones too, which makes him feel a little better about it all. And it helps bridge some of the gap between him and Mikey, because Raph asks Mikey to decorate them for him.

Overall, having Red around helps him adjust and helps with his self-esteem. Not to mention that he sees someone who's managed just fine with one eye for years, and it's a huge reassurance that his life's just changed, not over. The entirety of what happened in the Krang invasion was impossible for him to deal with on his own, he needed some kind of proof that he's going to grow up to be okay after all, and that's exactly what she can give him.

Leonardo has a habit of shooing Raph off to a spa day in the Hidden City, cause holy shit does this teenager need a break. Raph brings Red along! They keep snacking on those cucumber slices that are supposed to go on their faces but nobody's brave enough to tell Red what to do. Or not to do, as the case may be. She greatly enjoys floating around in the heated pool (and creating waves with her tail to surprise-drench Raph).

Red is like nine feet tall, she's the only one who can bear hug him and pick him up off his feet. He loves it so much and there are so many piggyback rides in his future. Even if he's gotta be a little careful not to get lightly stabbed with a shell spike. He does a few times, though, oops. Casey Sr nicknamed Red 'porcupine', that oughta explain it. Donnie and Tello figure out a battle shell for Red so it's safer and they have a great time.

When Red comes out about her gender, everyone is immediately 👀 at Raph because surely he's gonna feel the same way, right? They've already had this discussion with the purples about how Donnie's always been agender but used to be less fussy about pronouns and Tello didn't switch to they/them until their thirties.

Raph has not figured this gender thing out yet. He is in denial. Red finds this totally hilarious. She doesn't say anything in front of the others, cause she doesn't want to embarrass him in front of everyone they know, but they have a talk later where she's like, "Hey did you know that wishing you were a girl for literal years is a sign that you're not a guy?" It seems very obvious to Raph when she says it like that.

(Based on Donnie calling Raph 'Raphaela' that one time, and having to figure out his own Gender Fuckery, I hc that he was unaware that this was a surprise to Raph. Donnie also finds this totally hilarious.)

Also hc that Red's mystic armour got bigger along with her and Raph finds this extremely cool! He also feels completely safe when his big sister is there all armoured up to protect him, and it's not uncommon to catch him napping in armour-Red's lap like a cat. Red will hurt you if you wake him up, you've been warned.

Red will also put the fear of pizza supreme into anyone by full-naming them from across the state. She's taller than anyone else and learned how to project her voice like for stage theatre. Raph thinks this is the funniest thing imaginable and regularly gets her to yell Leo's name just to see him run for his life. Red has yet to yell at Raph and they all assume she never will. They do meow back and forth (Casey Jr spent longer than he will admit thinking that they had a cat infestation).

1, Hi!! I used to come by years ago, I absolutely loved, and still do!, your blog, its a fantastic place, so many interesting stuff, it really is like an archive for me haha I don't have much to add, only some shower thoughts if you don't mind me. I never had the chance to dump them on anyone o(-(

omg, hi there!!!!

first of all, thank you for the sweet message! i'm glad you used to like this blog so long ago and still do now 🥺 i haven't really talked much about dgm those past few years so i'm really touched that you think so despite it all, and more than that i'm just really glad that you can still go back to the archives of this blog and have fun!! i'm really glad to have you here!!

Answering the rest of the asks under the cut <3

ooh you mean this page?

it's really too ambiguous so i guess it's mostly that there's nothing really to theorize per se, especially since in the next page Allen remembers a bit of Nea, so i would assume the "?" we all had turned into "oh it's probably one of the Campbell twins".

But mhmm i'm rereading the bit and yeah, considering Nea introduces himself in his memory on the next page it could be probably someone whom Allen knew before that time.

And as a "PastA was a Bookman apprentice" truther, i do feel like his clothes there are reminiscent of what young!Lavi used to wear as well.

Honestly i could perhaps see Bookman Senior being the one holding him like that. Like.... I feel like we can interpret everything we want about that but i feel like Bookman Senior particularly reminding Lavi to not form attachment and even being a bit cold toward him at times could be direct reactions from the reasons he lost his previous apprentice. What if he was too soft with his previous apprentice, what if it made the apprentice care too much about the people making history so much so it got him involved? As such, i could imagine it be Bookman Sr genuinely being emotional with PastA, the type of affection that doomed him, and that now Bookman Sr is less willing to give out.

Or, like you said, it could be anyone else. A parent, a friend, anything. I could imagine it being a family member of some kind though, considering how much this arc is specially about Allen getting adopted by Mana and how much Nea still haunts him. In a sense Nea is the thing that keeps getting in between Allen and his family, so to have this flashback interrupted by Nea could be an extension of that, of the family he turned his back on when Nea entered his life.

i didn't think about it much but i could see it. or. well. I can fit my theories into this single panel so LMAO.

I don't think you're wrong, especially seeing the Alma arc. Tbh i'm still thinking and haunted by this arc specifically because well, I was there Gandalf ect, i was there when dgm was at the height of its popularity in 2008/2009, i remembered how many shounen fans were really into the saga and would be widely homophobic to the notion of any of those characters being possibly gay, and i remember very, very clearly the moment the plot point of Alma being Kanda's love interest dropped, unambiguously, and how much of an uproar it was. I remember people jumping ship THERE, before the manga even went on hiatus.

And i swear i remember Hoshino mentioning that her health really started to become worse when she had to fight her editors for what she wanted, and that the Alma arc was one of those. She had to set it up in such a way that her editors couldn't take it away from her, by having Kanda set up on finding Alma early in the story, building up the Alma arc, and only then later in the arc going ":) well Alma is the love Kanda is looking for. And i can't take it back without ruining this entire arc. so what do we do."

and it DID cost to the series at this point, it WAS something that got a lot of pushbacks.

Nowadays i feel like Hoshino is probably more free to do whatever she wants, esp since there's been more casually gay rep in shounen ever since, but at the time, i remember it causing a huge stir in the fanbase.

And hell i remember at the time the people who were translating the manga after it got out of hiatus in 2015 or so was a huge popular manga website where a lot of casual shounen readers were tuning in, and i still remember seeing hundreds of homophobic takes in the comments at the time, especially regarding Kanda. A lot of casual shounen fans have completely wrote of the series because Hoshino "let her BL lenses stain the series" and that therefore for them they can only read the newer dynamics with that lenses, especially when Kanda is involved.

(and it doesn't help Kanda was like. THE symbol of masculinity for the guys i met in the shounen fandoms at the time. The fact he was the one who got this plotline got them PISSED because they were projecting this idea on Kanda and i could still see it in the mid 10s.)

I think Hoshino is well happy writing Shounen, but she doesn't mind also talking about any sort of love into it, she did mention she wanted to show what her definition of love (in all of its form, not just romantic) was in her story, so i think it's an extension of that. But Hoshino did pretty much fight for Kanda to have his relationship with Alma. I'm honestly inclined to believe Alma had to die as a compromise to the fact she basically set up a lovestory her editors could not possibly cut.

But her editors causing her problems have been at the root of any clunky dgm plotpoints anyway. The Destroyer of Time's prophecy came from her editors. Allen was a transwoman in the first draft and was changed to a cisguy because her editors argued "no one would care if a female MC was to cry, so we need Allen to be a boy for it to count". her editors told her to cut down appearances of the Earl while Hoshino always wanted to have him as a main character (which is likely why now that she has more freedom thanks to her new deal, we've been getting full arcs focusing on him). Her editors pushed her to change Lenalee away from the character she wanted her to be. So long and so forth.

Honestly i still look back at the Alma arc in awe because it truly was Hoshino putting her foot down and making sure her editors would not be able to change her vision this time and i still admire it.

but man sometimes i mourn for the story DGM could have been if the editors haven't constantly been restraining her. Obviously, there's always moment an editor helps out in pacing a story or helping some focus, but with dgm you can sense on some point how some elements just. didn't really help out Hoshino's vision and it's so sad.

Nowadays it seems her editors are giving her more freedom, and it's about time. It's just so damn sad that it came when her health has become too fragile because of the constant strain that has been on her in part because of her old editors.

I for one am looking forward to see where it's going and i will be patient, but yeah. Can't wait to see how that goes either.

It's nice to hear those thoughts though so if you feel like rambling more, the inbox is opened!

Take care and thank you for the sweet message <3

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MCYT SUGAR RUSH AU MASTERLIST

Still a WIP! Will be until the au is done but ! Feel free to reblog this version !

SPECIAL THANKS:

@potenzel / @wakanawill / @finch-beeps / @shrikeicee / @blanktabletops

These people have either supported me, let me discuss the story with them to work it out, contributed ideas, or have just been SUPER AMAZING!!!

COMICS

Main story : 1 / 2 / 3

Dream’s nightmare

Side story: 1 / 2

Just for fun: 1 / 2 

Other content by me will be under: sr!mcyt art / fanart is under #sr!mcyt fanart

OFFICAL DESIGNS SO FAR:

Tommy and Tubbo / Ranboo / Jack / Wilbur / Techno / Dream / George / Sapnap / Philza / Fundy

DESIGNS MADE BY OTHERS

some of these repeat!

Ranboo / Eret / Nikki / Puffy / Nikki

MADE BY FINCH:

Finch has helped a lot with not only designs but working out story elements! SO ! He gets his own section!

Designs:

Fundy's Kart / Antfrost / Hannah

Under the cut is general info, what designs are coming, questions, and others!

GENERAL INFO:

Hey!! I’m lem and this is my mcyt sugar rush au !! 

It takes place in the video game Sugar Rush from Wreck it Ralph - but not necessarily the movie itself! The AU is not a one to one comparison to the movie and shouldn’t be treated as such, though! There are a lot of similarities.

If you haven’t watched the movie: Sugar Rush is a candy themed racing arcade game, with racers having customized carts and outfits based off of either one or a few sweets. There’s a ruler named king candy, who doesn’t have a direct counterpart in this au, and a bunch of other racers. Inside the game there’s a girl named Vanellope who is considered a “glitch” and isn’t allowed to race. This is who Ranboo is based off of. 

The AU is also OPEN ! This means anyone can design their own racers for mcyt communities in not in, have their own takes of racers I have done, or even interpret the story I have so far differently!

It’s just a lot of fun and I’m thriving to keep it that way :D

DESIGNS DEFINITELY COMING:

Puffy, Nikki, Charlie, Eret, Badboyhalo, Skeppy, Ponk (not necessarily in that order)

All of these will probably be done well into the story as they don't have a role in the plot

CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS:

Now in a different post! :D

WORLD BUILDING QUESTIONS:

now updated with descriptions rather than asks, as some asks are inaccurate

- The roster, how playable characters (aka avatars) are decided, and “volunteering”

The roster is the list of racers that are able to race everyday, with 9 of them being “Avatars” aka Playable Characters and the other 6 on a random / volunteer basis. The Avatars are decided with a race that happens after the arcade closes. Racers can choose to participate in this race but are mandated to be on the Avatar list once a week, and therefore to participate in a roster race once a week. The first nine racers who win are the Avatars for the next day (an exception is described in Tommy’s bio.) Any other racer can volunteer to be one of the 6 non playable characters for the next day, or if not enough people volunteer it is randomized. This is how Ranboo participates

original ask with visuals!

- What they do when not racing

They go to other games, hang out, work on their carts, research, etc! All the stuff you and I may do. Each racer has their own house / place they live. 

- Stats / Racer types

Generally I consider Philza, Techno, and Dream to be the absolute best racers. No one is bad it’s just that those three in particular are really good. Other than that there’s no set stats! 

Racer types are vague but I consider Techno and Tubbo to be Tank racers (defense and handling are high but they’re slow) Jack and Sapnap to be fast racers (go really quick but their handling is bad) and well rounded ones overall are Dream and Ranboo. Everyone else falls in a middle ground somewhere.

- Maps

There’s a “main map” which is just based off of the course from the movie and is likely where most of the au will take place!

Other maps I want to do are an ice themed one, a sky themed one (idea from my discord!) and a beach one! I can’t promise they’ll be in the story but I’d love to design them.

- Players

The characters of sugar rush are aware they're in a video game, they however, cannot see the players. They get a sense of a returning player through playstyles and who they pick (such as only selecting one racer)

I've answered countless asks so feel free to look in the tag more info but also - don't be afraid to send an ask!

Yeah, Should Have Seen That Coming: Saileen Bachelor Party Ficlet

Congrats to the soon to be Mrs. and Mr. Leahy💚💍!!!

Sam had the brilliant idea to have their bachelorette/bachelor parties on the same night. Two separate parties, at least a week before the wedding to avoid any last minute mishaps (learning from the mistakes of Dean and Cas' party last month). They had thought of everything, Sam even remembered to invite Adam this time. They were each going to have a perfect party with no unforseen issues, because they both deserved a night of fun.

Dean was granted the privilege of being Eileen's best man maid of honor, so he shut down his bar that night, and threw her an absolute rager. He even dragged the stripper pole back out at Eileen's request (though Dean thinks it was a shame Cas wasn't going to be there to use it) and set up a mechanical bull. So of course Cas was chosen to be Sam's best man, and for his party, Sam just wanted a normal, quiet night. Just board games, beer and burgers at the bunker (Crowley was pissed he got stuck at Sam's instead of Eileen's, but Garth was thrilled about the prospect of playing Monopoly). So that's exactly what Cas planned to give him. He makes sure he's got Sam's favorite beer, burgers from the place that makes his favorite vegan burgers, he's taken care of everything. And all Sam has to do is grab the board games from one of the storage rooms.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, considering Sam and Cas are involved? 

Everything.

(read the rest under the cut)

They ended up on a hunt before the party even began. Sam had accidentally bumped into a shelf in the storage room, knocking over a cursed object, and then picked it up without thinking("Sam why did y- "It just looked like a piece of wood!" "It's not, its cursed it's called t-" "Well that doesn't help me now, Cas!"). And so it turned out, they unleashed an ancient curse that if they didn't break by midnight, the world would be "shroud in 5 billion years of darkness". But Sam won't let anyone call Eileen or Dean ("I just don't want to ruin her party!" "Sam the world could en-" "Yeah, but that happens all the time. How often do you get to have a bachelorette party?")

So it was up to Sam, Cas, Jack, Crowley, Garth, and Adam (Kevin was already halfway up the steps and on his way to Dean's bar before Sam even finished explaining what happened).

And a lot can go wrong over a few hours, especially if the threat of the end of world is looming over you.

In the past three hours, they managed to successfully tear apart the entire archives looking for lore, had Jack fly them to three different states to wake up three experts on the subject, fought and killed one of Crowley's old nemesis who had an ingredient they needed for a spell, were briefly transported to a different dimension, twice (Jack was able to get them home, but they had to go back because Garth forgot his phone). Then of course they summoned the wrong ancient god, then had to figure out how to kill them, before they eventually summoned the right one needed to break the curse.

At that point, after some encouragement (yelling) from everyone, Sam finally gave in and tried to facetime and text Eileen, finally allowing Cas to call Dean too.

But neither of them answered because Eileen was currently in the middle of an intense drinking contest between Rowena, Mary and Kevin (who arrived 2 hours ago and mentioned nothing about the curse), while Dean (totally sober mind you) learned he was amazing on the stripper pole, as Charlie, Kaia and Claire cheered him on, and Jo along with some of Eileen's hunter friends were trying out the mechanical bull.

So they were on their own, and quickly running out of time.

But unfortunately for them, the three hours of chaos was a complete waste, since they discovered a bit too late that lore was wrong. Because the weapon that was supposed to kill the God was clearly not working since it seemed to be chasing them around just fine, with a giant stake in it's neck. So they hurriedly decided splitting up would be the best course of action, and they scattered in all directions as they ran into the woods(where they had landed when Jack zapped them back) trying to confuse the God. 

Which had been a complete mistake ("It can clone itself!" "Yes, thank you Sam, I hadn't noticed").

And currently, Crowley and Garth were both knocked out by some of the God's clones, and Jack was nowhere to be seen, leaving just Sam and Cas to fight with what they had (2 guns, an angel blade, and half a flask of holy water, so nothing)

Now there was only five minutes until midnight and the God had them surrounded, as it threw their useless guns and blades halfway across the forrest.

And only one thought rang through Sam's mind.

"Eileen is gonna kill me if the world ends before the wedding"

"Well if you hadn't touched th-"Cas started

"Thanks Cas, you really know how to make a guy feel better" Sam yelled back, swiflty cutting him off.

He glanced back up to see the God (who's name Sam had already forgotten) inching closer, holding them in place as they were readying themselves to smite them.

Sam took one last look at Cas and the reality of the situation finally set in. This was it.

All Sam wanted was one normal night, but now the world's ending again and he doesn't even know the name of the God ending it.

They were screwed. Now he'll never see Eileen again and they'll nev-

Suddenly a wooden stake was shoved through the back of the God's neck with a crunch, sending them crumbling to the ground. It burst into black flames, disappearing.

And standing above them in a, 6 inch heels, covered in glow stick bracelets, and a bride sash, was a very tipsy Eileen.

She and Dean helped pull them to their feet, and Sam could cry at the sight of her (and he did).

As soon as he was standing, Sam frantically began rambling and signing trying to explain and apologize all in one breath. But Eileen simply took hold of his hands, stopping him in his tracks.

"You were supposed to use sheep's blood, idiot" Eileen signed with a smirk.

Then she grabbed by the shoulders, yanking him down into a deep kiss.

"Wait how did-where did yo-"Sam started as he broke away. He quickly takes in his surroundings spotting Claire and Kaia helping Garth to his feet, Rowena trying to wake Crowley, and Charlie and Jo who are probably trying to convince Adam not to leave. He finds Dean, Cas and Jack off to the side huddled close together, while Dean probably tells his husband how much of a dumbass he is.

"Jack flew to the bar, and we read through your's and Cas' texts. We were able to piece it together from there, and apparently you guys can't read. Maybe leave the hunting to the pros?" Eileen teased, swaying slightly (okay maybe she was a little more than tipsy). Sam tightly wrapped his arms around her, keeping her steady, as a smile grew on his face.

"I don't deserve you" Sam sighs, cupping her cheek.

"Yeah, you don't" Eileen shrugged with a smirk growing on her lips.

"She's right, you really don't" Dean's voice cuts through as he, Cas and Jack make their way over. Cas punches him in the arm with a fond smile.

"Well, that certainly didn't go as I had planned" Cas huffed.

"Yeah, understatement of the year buddy. But when does it ever?" Sam laughs, feeling a bit of relief.

Then Sam has another brilliant idea, smiling as he turns back to Eileen.

"So my party....was ruined by an ancient God. Mind if we crash your's?"

And an hour later, Cas (much to Dean's delight) is now spinning around on the pole while Dean, Charlie and Jo cheers him on. Crowley, Rowena, Garth and Jack (with a shirley temple of course) are seated at the bar, talking about god knows what. Claire, Kaia, Kevin and surprisingly Adam have just returned from the parking lot, giggling a bit too much. And Sam is now seven shots in, messily making out with Eileen in one of the booths. Eventually they pull away, just sitting in a drunken daze as they stare at each other.

God he can't believe she's gonna marry him. He really is the luckiest man in the world.

And before Sam can relay this sentiment, Eileen downs her glass, signs "watch this", and runs to take a turn on the stripper pole to the thrumming bass.

With a laugh he surveys the bar, watching his family drink and laugh without a care in the world. He spots Eileen and Dean by the pole in the center of the room, heads thrown back in laughter, as Cas and Jack cheers them on. So Sam quickly slides out of the booth and makes his way over, plopping down inbetween Jack and Cas, watching his fiancé and brother dance to the beat like idiots. Heart swelling at the sight of his family.

And yeah maybe this isn't the night they had planned, but it was certainly a night they'd never forget.

(Especially since Cas had shirts made that said, "I survived Sam Winchester's bachelor party")

Tag list:

(Please let me know if you would like to be added or removed!!!💛)

@wormstacheangel @smiledean @shelikestv @chaoticdean @midnightwings-deancas @jellydeans @sunshine-jack @archervale @wikiangela @organicpurplepants @writtendevastation @tkdwolf2012 @doemons-blog

@rolling-stoned-girl @skylerkernaghan @shadowywerewolfqueen @the-cookie-navy @thelahatiel @thefantasyfiend @castielle-deanna @aestheticflyer26 @multi-fandom-imagine @x-mypeopleskillsarerusty-x @wellofwoes @becky-srs

@multi-fandom-dark-lord @perfectkoaladream @castiel-for-lunch @it--hurts--to--become @bowtiesandneckerchiefs @dakiaty @feraldean @teamfreebees @keshetcas @hrh-princess-bea @martymar1963 @midnight-sparks-studio @slipper007 @rainbowsam @winchester-novak

So how’s Trials of Osiris now?

I’ve been wanting to do a follow up to on my essay “Trials of Osiris has been corrupting Guardians with Darkness“, and I figured no better time than when Bungie made a lot of changes to Trials gameplay.

No leak info or spoilers beyond week 1 of s15, this season’s Trials weapon is available in game from turning in last seasons bounty. I’ll cite like (this) the name of the lore, it can all be found on ishtar-collective since I’m having issues with links.

 to recap: before Stasis and before Savathun!Osiris, Trials was a corrupting influence related to the Darkness, affecting both Ghost and Guardian, and driving them try to perma-kill each other.

What I find fun about this storyline, is that it has shifted from being about creepy unknowable Darkness into a story about the clash between Guardian’s use of darkness powers vs faith in the Light, that’s clearly meant to continue the themes from Seasons of the Drifter and Opulence. Bungie isn’t going to put this plotline ingame, so IMO it’s fine all the lore implications are obscure.

thesis: in universe characters directly list the obvious parallels for Shayura “"You're no better than the Dredgen ," he says ... "…or Malphur ."” (SW, Shayura's Wrath) but also Shayura is set up as a foil to Aunor Mahal.

Since Season of the Chosen where the Trials Armor lore detailed Shayura’s descent into some degree of madness from 3 points of view; the lore has mentioned that while Savathun!Osiris is interested by guardians being corrupted by Darkness they aren’t the cause of it, and didn’t know of it till Saint-14 brought it up (In Memoriam Shell) (IH, Igneous Hammer).

Basically Shayura’s belief that the Traveler wants her to do this, and her willingness to kill Guardian is her own (PAB, Pyrrhic Ascent Bond) (Shayura's Wrath). Although there is confirmed final death for a Hunter in Shayura’s Wrath lore, it is implied that she has killed an unknown amount of Stasis users “Fragments of Ghost shells are scattered atop the console” (PAB)

There is an additional trophy “the Human skull sitting in the middle of her command console. Its hollow eye sockets stare back at her” (SW) following Shayura’s attempted murder patterns, I’m guessing that skull was her fireteam member Aisha who is one of the few humans mentioned in the context of Shayura’s breakdown, and who “betrayed” her by using stasis. Further evidence would be that Shayura’s story was told from the 3 points of view of her fireteam: the only point of view since the Shayura Wrath lore has been from that of Reed-7(Reeds Regret).

side note: it doesn’t seem like Shayura is treating her Ghost well either. “A Ghost reduced to little more than a bare sphere of metal, deprived of a shell” (SW)

Dredgen Yor:

It’s hard to make direct comparisons with Dredgen Yor, most of his lore is from D1, and contradicts in points where it seems like it was handled by different writers. The other point of similarity besides being infamous and reviled for murder of other Guardians is the lore being clear that they suffer from the emotional toll of endless war.

Shayura:

"Can Guardians be unfit for duty?" Shayura wonders aloud, her voice muffled by the tabletop.

"I mean…" Aisha replies. Her hesitation has a palpable sting. (PAG, Pyrric Ascent Gloves)

Yor:

To Rezyl, the Captain was already an afterthought. ... Rezyl’s attention had shifted to the unknown, but inevitable, battles to follow.... Rezyl was growing tired of small wins, however meaningful. (Rezyl Azzir - War Without End)

It’s not the same emotion, but it’s not often Guardians doubts in their role in such a way. You could say Shayura is the Light version of what Dredgen Yor was, but while the Darkness encouraged Yor (Ghost Fragment: Darkness 4), I HIGHLY doubt the traveler is encouraging Shayura the way she thinks it is. (Pyrrhic Ascent Boots)

Taking the the ending words of "I killed an agent of the Darkness," Shayura says, ... .Bile rises in the back of Shayura's throat."They come in many forms." (SR). I don’t think its much of a stretch to think the lines refer to her as an agent of darkness as well.

Shin Malphur:

Shin Malphur and Dredgen Yor, have a fair amount of parallels, especially considering Shin Malphur = Dredgen Vale twist, but it’s unclear how widely known that twist is in universe and if that is what the dead hunter was referring to.

Shayura’s Wrath item text “"But here you are. This is truly a beginning…" —Shin Malphur” (SW) parallels Dredgen Yor’s last words “But here you are. This is truly an end” (Ghost Fragment: The Last Word 4)

it’s heavily implied Shin is speaking to Shayura, but do I think Shin Malphur would be helping Shayura? Not unless Bungie is planning on changing his characterization yet again. There are obvious surface parallels: two solar wielding vigilantes who hunt Guardians who wield Darkness and love extra-judicial murder (Source: too many pages to count where Shin talks about culling those who have gone too far into the darkness). But Shayura’s zealot belief in the Traveler and her crusade against darkness wielders are the opposite of Shin’s beliefs of using both Light and Dark:

“the building of a new world, one where absolutes cower to the might of compromise, where Light tempers dark and the dark opens new insight into the Light's many undiscovered gifts.” (Nothing Ends: The Long Goodbye)

“the shadows of dark power that tempt us are not inherently evil. In fact, they are simply another tool to be used if we hope to bend the unknown to our will, an impossible feat we must learn to master if we wish to push back the ever-aggressive tide of extinction.“ (Nothing Ends: The Liar's Trap)

I think in the end Shin Malphur is more of a contrast than a comparison to Shayura, I’d also be suprised if Bungie brings him back as they’ve had him give his retirement twice now (Letters from a Renegade, Nothing Ends)

Aunor Mahal:

both are/were members of the Praxic Order, both strongly oppose Guardians using power of darkess.

A key difference is Aunor still has faith in the Vanguard while Shayura does not (Pyrrhic Ascent Hood). Shayura is what the fandom who only listened to Drifter’s side of the story thought Aunor was, someone more than ready to kill Guardians and Ghosts.

While Shayura only consideres execution, Aunor has faith in rehabilitation

“You're costing us Ghosts—means to fight enemies of humanity. These Guardians represent more than potential Dredgens” (The Warlock Aunor: The Salt Mines).

Following the Trend of other corrupted Guardians like Sola or Trestin, whom Aunor confrots; I’m expecting to see Aunor eventually confront Shayura, it seemed implied in the Igneous Hammer lore.

Side note:

Even before Guardians used stasis, its clear there was a ramp up from when Gambit appeared with Guardian’s going too far with the darkeness to the Guardian and ghost corruption seen in Trials

 “will face Praxic justice. Perhaps exile. We haven't had to lock anyone up in decade“(Message from Aunor VIII)

to

"It's affecting Ghosts now too. We should bring them back to the City. This makes five." (Temptation's Hook). “ You think she'll be lucky number…  how many are we up to now? At this point, the only chance I'm giving them is the chance to kill me first” (The Messenger)

Shayura mentions she was locked up and escaped (SW), and it’s clear that the Praxic Order is stretched thin

“Aunor scowled. She was perhaps the most diligent of the Hidden ...Each time they met, she seemed a little gaunter than before. A little testier" (IH)

Aunor’s morals and loyalty to the Vanguard are some of her defininging characteristics and I don’t see that changing. But if this storyline continues in Witch Queen then I see things hitting a breaking point.

Food Fantasy: An Analysis on what killed a Golden Goose (1/3)

So first things first, disclaimers! I do not claim nor pretend to know every nook and cranny, ins and outs of the history of FooFan's conception, existence and uncertain future. I do not own the game nor its characters, only the opinions and thoughts stated hereon out.

This was born to vent out my frustrations with how a game like this was abused poorly by its own developer and publisher instead of being nurtured to become its full potential that could have overshadowed and remained better than the likes of Tencent's Tales of Food --I could dream, but it honestly had the potential to be.

Out of respect for the main tag, I personally will not be tagging this post and the following two with the main tag. If you want to tag it yourself with it, that's your choice. Only followers of my blog will see this.

This analysis is divided into three parts: Funtoy, Elex, and the Community. It starts under the cut. Well let's get started.

Funtoy

Ah yes, the creator. The developer. You'd think that with their sudden rise to fame during their global launch, they'd have used the massive profits they earned within the first quarter of 2018 to improve certain things about the game and then trickled it down as quickly as possible towards Global, right? Yeah, I thought so too.

After playing the game since launch, I've seen and experienced way too many things that just hammer in the fact that this is one of the most unfair gacha I've played in years. Some reasons being the following:

(Note: These are experiences ONLY on Global's version, it may also apply to CN being the original server)

⦁ The game's gacha model is aimed towards maximum predation on its players. F2p are forced to either spend some money (and thus tempt them to keep spending after getting a taste of it), or risk not even getting a good ascension of the unit to be useful at all. Paying for the event packs also doesn't guarantee that you would be able to secure a spot in the ranks. In fact, if you can't comprehend how the battle mechanics work, you could even de-rank. Fun way to burn that 800$, huh? At least you have the skin from rebates.

⦁ A little less known thing and probably theoretical at worst, the long joked about spaghetti coding of the game along with an outdated spine technology for the sprites could very well be the reason why a 2D game like this experiences the shittiest lags. Also how easy it is to hack this game with the right know-how.

⦁ Speaking of bad gameplay mechanics, did you know you could spend over fifty Mirrors and not get that final enhancement from +9 to +10 simply because there's absolutely no tangible safety net before +10?

⦁ If you're F2P, this game is terrible in giving you resources to stockpile. Because Funtoy certainly doesn't have a lot of weekly/monthly or even friendly events wherein you can get resources without spending another kind of resource. The Hawthorne event's rewards are lackluster at best, Bingo is severely limited in what it gives, and Recall also doesn't give much for a big event that only happens (supposedly) every 6 months. Did I also mention that daily resource rewards also kinda suck compared to how much you burn in just one event?

⦁ Monthly subs are a scam. Yes, you heard that right. My point of comparison here is Arknights. A monthly in AK allows you to have enough to 10-pull after 30 days, on top of a bit of stamina to help you. In FooFan? You have two monthly subs that do different things and even then, you won't have enough to 10-pull by the end of 30 days, nor is the stamina you get enough to even stockpile and ease the pressure of your need to save for the Gates or that stamina event that suddenly popped up.

⦁ A conga line of 'Must procure this unit at a high ascension to do well in the following events!'. You missed the first Pizza event? Missed the first Turkey event? God forbid, you weren't able to 5* your Beer on his debut? Well sorry, that 5* Black Tea of yours isn't gonna do squat to give you good damage. No, your 2* B-52 also isn't going to do much of anything with his lackluster damage capabilities. If you want a chance to get those event URs again, you have to wait for their pool with laughably limited pulls... and a bloated price to even pull.

⦁ The events starting after the first iteration of Turkey event get even more paywalled. As far as I remember, by the time Minestrone rolled around, an F2P with ample crystal resources can only get 2* at best. 3* and above are paywalled.

⦁ The game has incompetent balancing. The devs themselves likely have little experience in gameplay design and balancing, especially for a game with a growing roster of characters . A prime example of them launching a character not knowing it would pretty much unbalance the game? Look no further than Beer. The guy had to have a couple of nerfs done to him because he was just too meta. You know what's sadder? Before the 'switch' to Brave meta, almost all meta units was built to benefit off the Beer meta.

⦁ Artifacts. Do I even have to explain how the introduction of such a game feature so early into the lifespan of this game essentially fucked over the balance even more? Not to mention, all the more reason you'd be crying with the Gates of Trials demanding so much out of your stamina and crystal resources. F2Ps are again, the ones that suffer in this part. What's their reason? Profit, of course.

⦁ The nerf of resto chests. This was the primary source for people who were saving up stamina for the Gates... until Funtoy decided they were being too generous to their playerbase and dropped the stamina probability rate to 1% or less.

⦁ Terrible UI layout and design. Come on, be honest now, you've lost several thousand of your hard earned crystals buying screws in the fishing shop because you didn't notice that shiny warning in small text and a green button with the crystal image slapped on it, didn't you?

⦁ Look at all these SRs! All of them! Wow, they even outnumber the Rs by at least 80! What's that? There's more URs now too compared to Rs and Ms combined? That can't be real. But seriously, you'd think Funtoy could make some of these SRs into Rs and add them to the perm pool/shard fusion so people aren't stuck pulling Macaron or Dorayaki every time. They could have also populated the Team Up rewards with SRs instead of Rs. But you know... that won't bring them profit. Haha... haha.... Oh and I haven't even told you about the SP class...!

⦁ Lore. Yes, I'm sure by now you're aware that the in-game lore is different from the ones in the non-SP Food Soul bios, in the SP Food Soul bios that sort of ties in with the New World story (that global will never be getting btw). At this point, Funtoy handwaves the confusion away by saying, 'they're all different timelines'. Yes yes, an easy and cliche move to explain how shitty the writing direction went after a while. I don't know what happened, all I know is that lore got weird(er) when they introduced SP Rice.

⦁ They. Keep. Adding. More. Characters! They fail to see that a lot of their earlier players have imprinted on the first few waves of Food Souls and they sadly also fail to properly give some of them more story expansion... or skins. At the moment, they're shelling out so many JP-centric Food Souls because... as I see it? They're pandering to the last bastion of whales they have.

⦁ Merchandise. And I mean a variety of merchandise that isn't using the same official art every time. Like they couldn't afford to commission a couple of artists one or two times to make unique merchandise that would sell. They started too late on that train, and they even made it too hard for anyone not in CN or JP to even procure what already exists. Not to mention, they keep using the same 'popular' set of characters for their merchandise and never really expanding out to making merch for other characters.

These are all the things I can list off at the top of my head why Funtoy as a developer sucks ass. They could sweeten their words all they want, it won't change the fact that they've certainly made way too many bad decisions and found out about it too late, and now they're desperate to keep Food Fantasy alive to keep their profits coming in to make whatever that cat girl game they have and that supposedly 'side-game' FF2 they announced.

There may have been problems out of their control that I or you do not see, but one thing is for sure, they were blinded by greed for the money they were raking in on all their servers at the start, and never actually bothered to invest in more manpower in the right places to improve the game, both gameplay-wise and worldbuilding wise. It's actually saddening that this game could have been so much more with several QoLs and a more fleshed out lore, perhaps even spacing out the number of new units they keep introducing while going back to giving their old units more attention.

That's it for Funtoy. We're moving onto Elex in the next part and boy is that also a trip.

ok alright alright alright kingdom episode two

kinda disappointed that they only showed half the stages, but that's just an editing thing to draw out the content so you can air for longer, i'm not super surprised about that. i would have liked to evaluate them all at the same time, but at least this gives me time to go more in depth for all of them since they're full stages this time and I wrote 3000 words for last episode when they only had 100 secs. so this format will probably keep me sane for longer, i think. 

solid stages all round for them, none had especially glaring flaws on the whole. i'm not gonna do a full ranking for this episode since we haven't seen them all, but i will say that btob’s was my favourite from this set and both ikon’s and tbz’s stages were about equal; they both had things i liked and disliked in equal measure so i'm tentatively giving them the same ranking. full opinions and analysis on each stage below the cut, plus another section of general notes because hey what the fuck did you do to that stage mnet???

and for anyone that’s wondering yes i do have the qualifications. also seriously grab a drink or something because this is LONG.

some general notes

and here i thought this section wouldn't be as big as it was last time because mnet was going to get their shit together about the stage design, but noooooooooooo they had to go and make it worse! thanks mnet i hate it! remember how i said you shot yourself in the foot last time? well ya fuckin kneecapped yourself AND all your idols with this one ya dumb fuckin idiots. alright folks welcome back to stage design 101, my recurring segment where i explain the different types of stage layouts and their effectiveness for kpop idol survival shows, i guess.

ok so last week i covered the basics on theatre in the round and traverse staging, which i’ll link here if there’s anyone new or just wants a refresher. i mentioned that its likely that mnet will switch to an in the round style staging because it offers a lot more freedom for camera movement and also for directional blocking. well, i was wrong. so i'm gonna give you a quick rundown of prosceniums. a proscenium, proscenium arch, or just prosc, is an architectural feature that sits around the front ‘opening’ of the stage that delineates the stage from the audience. if you've ever been in or seen any pictures of old european style theatres it can be quite ornately decorated with scrolling, but it's almost always there in most western theatres. it basically provides your ‘wings,’ which are where you exit off into to get offstage, they provide cover from the audience sitelines. pretty much any theatre where the audience is directly opposing the stage across the 180 degree line is a proscenium stage, even if it doesn't physically have the arch. hell, movie theatres are prosc stages. now, there's a secondary architectural feature/device called a false proscenium, where you set a second, smaller archway inside the first prosc, usually done for a specific effect. think of it like a literal framing device; it's often used to visually signify that ‘this is a play, we are telling a story, please be aware that this is a play thank you.’ but sometimes, it can be a semi-permanent structure that’s set in place to narrow the prosc opening. we had this at my university, there was a false prosc set just inside the actual prosc because the stage had a hilariously big prosc opening for a university that never had casts larger than 24 people. so they set false prosc in to make the stage slightly narrower and to widen the wings, because it doesn't matter what size theatre you're in, you always need more wingspace. makes sense? ok, now here’s a very quick drawing of what i'm pretty sure the kingdom stage looks like:

before you get lost: stage directions are oriented to a person standing on the stage, hence SL and SR being reversed. a quick tip for remembering which way is upstage and which is downstage: if you go too far downstage you fall down (most stages are raised between 2-4’ from the floor, so if you step off the end you will actually fall.) the arrows on here signify the entrances i observed during the performances, which is not necessary in this explanation but i just thought it was interesting to note. still not entirely sure what the surrounding architecture is but it appears that the stage is a raised platform inside a room, and not actually built as part of the building. the ‘house’ is just a technical term for where the audience is, and in this case it's where it looks like most of the film crew and the producers/staff are. there’s pretty clearly a platform upstage centre, and i think there may be some others but i don't care about those right now. what i want to talk about is this dumbass false prosc they set IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STAGE. now i suspect that they did this to solve some problems that they could have had that i don't know about, since i don't know who the stage designer was and what the actual limitations of the space are. but basically they've built two stages and stacked them on top of each other to create one very deep stage, and then separated it off with a false prosc in order to control the size of the space a little better, and possibly to add some visual interest. this stage is functional for its purpose, absolutely, and i think, if mnet actually gave a shit about point of view and camerawork, it could produce some really interesting performances. however, because this stage is so deep, it kind of has the same properties as the traverse stage from before, but just with some big led screens in the middle for reasons. you extra have to pay attention to the directionality because you have all the staff and cameras concentrated in one specific cardinal point, so you have to get creative if you want to crossover between the two sides frequently. again, this is not necessarily bad; restrictions often produce some of the most creative decisions.  but! we have not seen a lot of consideration for camera and sightlines and audience pov, hence why i think this setup is dumb: it’s not facilitating the best performances it could.

ok now to the actual performances

btob

this is my favourite of the group because it's very clean lined and utilizes a few simple devices to pretty good effect. i realize these reviews are making me sound like i only like simple performances but i promise this is not at all true i'm just very critical and very picky. let’s start with the costumes, because why not. 

costumes

i like these very much, i love modernized traditional clothing in all forms, and these are very well tailored and well coordinated. they do the bulk of the work establishing the theme for the performance, along with the costumes on the backup dancers. personally i would have liked them to be a bit more colourful, à la the teal detailing that was on minhyuk’s final look. i'm getting a bit tired of the whole trend of having groups only wear all dark or all white, or maybe sometimes red if they're feeling spicy. obviously uniform colour is the easiest way to tie a group together visually, but on a show like this i think the groups would actually benefit more from looking distinct from each other internally rather than establishing the group as whole.

i liked that minhyuk had a costume change but i didn't really care for how it was how it was broken down. this is a very personal quibble because i literally have spent years prepping quickchanges but the method it broke down wasn’t the most visually compatible with the garment and felt kinda clunky. please ignore this anecdote it's just me being picky.

set

i loved the forest! a very excellent way to divide the stage area and obscure the weird stage lines/architecture that mnet has made. plus the snow, flowers, and fog? makes a really sharp and immediately indicative atmosphere, a very good use of visual shorthand to establish place.

i didnt love the screens, they reminded me a bit too much of rolling whiteboards from grade school, but they are thematically relevant. also, i feel like we didnt actually get to see about half the choreo for them? fuckin mnet and idiocy again. fun use of rear projection with the dancers’ shadows, and also good use of them to direct traffic, if you will. 

personally i think that the sheet gimmick from tbz’s performance would have been a better fit here instead of the screens, especially since the fabric motif was already established at the very beginning of the performance. plus you can do some really fun shadow work with a stretch fabric screen. 

personally i think there could have been a little bit more integration between the forest area and the screen area, or they could have done the whole thing in the forest space, but that would require a bit more consideration of camera and choreo maneuverability

sound

really liked this arrangement, obviously the song is iconic but they added a more traditional instrument sound. has good structure for the loose narrative that they had and they were well to label this as ‘theatre’ version because this did follow very closely to a traditional musical theatre sound and style

lighting

no complaints. the overall theme for this episode is apparently blue and red? again with them i like their dedication to a limited colour palette and i especially like the blossoms at the climax

staging

there was pretty clear camera choreo and a minimum of nausea inducing moves. i think some of the effectiveness of the staging got chopped by the editing but that’s not really btob’s fault.

i was just saying i wanted them to give minhyuk some time to shine, i was not expecting to get it so soon! this is a very smart choreo that proves you can be interesting without doing a lot of tricking. minhyuk obviously did a lot of practice and work with that sword, his movements are very fluid and he knows how to handle it. and it looks like its either a blunted proper blade or a correctly weighted replica. a lot of the times when sword choreo looks fake it's because the person either hasn't had enough practice or the weapon is not weighted/weighted incorrectly. only complaints are that you would never hold your fingers/palm that close and un-anchored over the edge of the blade, which is just a safety thing. also you would never scrape your blade on the ground like that, nor toss the thing like dead fish but that's a respect thing with a live blade and this is clearly done for dramatic effect so i’ll forgive it. please ignore this anecdote also it’s just my third dan getting uppity.

ikon

costume/set

smart thematically to go with the sort of miscellaneous 30s-40s (western) aesthetic because it's the fastest way to make it look like you built a theme with mnet’s weird pseudo art deco nonsense they've inexplicably got going on in the set dec. however, they should have stuck the theme all the way through, it would have been more visually cohesive and more interesting. we expect more hiphop/electronic sounding songs to come with these kinds of 4th gen costumes, it would have been anachronistic in a fun way to have them do that second half in 40s style suits. here’s a performance from sdc3 that uses that kind of anachronistic play (this was a combo stage with two ballroom dancers and it has a 20s aesthetic but close enough.) also here’s another routine from sdc3 that does a similar effect on a much more abstract scale, and also it’s a fucking incredible performance and it got slept on by the captains. also yes i know these are incredibly experienced career dancers but they way they construct narrative within their routines and their stage presence is SO GOOD. 

do not speak to me about the backup dancers costumes, holy shit i hate them. i hate them so much. how do you manage to hit too shapeless AND too fitted in the same fell swoop? i'm so mad at these. i'm neutral on bodycon dresses on the best of days but these were absolutely the wrong choice for this stage. generally kpop has abysmal costuming for female backup dancers on the whole but this is just like.....especially lazy. the point of the costume are to help give an indication of where and when you set your performance. they started off with a vaguely 40s theme and then jumped abruptly modern. why? also skirts like that are the literal worst choice for dancing in, hello?? the men’s looks are just sloppy, when you have a garment that big you want it to serve a purpose within the choreo, whereas with this it's just hiding the dancers’ movements.

as for ikon themselves, see everything ive said about black on black on black styling in the previous two reviews. 

the actual set is minimal and that's tragic. i mentioned mnet’s weird art deco theme and it was smart of them to try and play off that with a lack of stuff. definitely a mismatch of stuff pulled from yg’s prop storage, but they made it work as well as they could. no other meaningful comments i’m just kinda sad about it.

sound

the arrangement is fine, no complaints from me. they keyed up the old hollywood style musical theatre sound in the beginning which i really liked. i didn't mind the song/tone switch, i think they pulled it off.

staging

same as btob they learned more towards a theatrical style, which is smart for this particular format of show. i think this was the smartest staging of these three, and also i think the only ones to not get the crew in shot.

despite seemingly leaning into a more old hollywood style the narrative was a bit too loose for my taste. i'm not sure what i would have done to make it clearer at this moment since they had so little to work with, but i did get by on my previous knowledge of the songs. that shouldn’t be the only indication of narrative though! all elements need to support it!!

also like btob they had a pretty intentional point of direction and there weren't a crazy amount of spins. they also used the camera cuts the most effectively that i've seen so far. the first half is actually all in one take!!! incredible!!! thank you!!!! this is how you do it!!

the lighter flick gimmick was well pulled off and a good example of how to use a couple of simple tricks to good effect.

ikon as a whole has really great stage chemistry with each other, and they're extremely cohesive performers. this is a really strong physical performance from them, the dance was very solid and clean. good use of levels without verging into acrobatics. this might be the best group choreo i've seen so far, but we’re not very far so that's not a very high bar to clear.

it's a shame they had the budget of 1 banana.

tbz

i liked this stage better than their intro stage, but i still think they have a long way to go and they're still over ambitious. personally i find stages based on specific pop culture properties to be kind of twee and ineffectual, because it requires a specific knowledge of that pop culture property to work. sometimes the specificity can help with a narrative but you're at risk of alienating a larger portion of your audience out of sheer non-knowledge than anything else. 

costumes

again, interesting garments physically, but not much clarity of relation to the theme other than the colour. also the backup dancers???? another case of backup dancers being from an entirely different stage, what is up with those coats/dresses? looked more like they belonged in either sweeney todd or a vampire movie. 

hands in front of the camera again, but these were used much more effectively.  i'm not the biggest fan of mixing metals and i’m partial to silver on the whole so i didn't love the jewelry, but at least it was vague and stereotypical enough to denote ‘fire magic’ even if it does rely on a derivative middle eastern shorthand.

set

the stage set itself is fine, although definitely feels a bit haphazard to me. doric columns and frozen rocks and whatever that cover for the pyrotechnics was at the front, combined with the candles and the chaise lounge? like ikon, it felt a bit like they were pulling out of the props/set storage. not that all these things do not work together, it's just that you need a thread to tie them together, and this didn't have that for me.

sound

it's a crime they have a song called ‘no air’ and its not a jordin sparks cover. just saying.

i didnt really like this arrangement, again like their intro stage it didn't have a strong structure that suited the narrative, because they were pretty clearly trying a narrative on this one. also were most of the adlibs playback? they were singing live but there were so few shots of anyone specific singing. 

lighting

probably the weakest of the three. the projection design was a bit too tacky for me, and although i appreciated the small amount of variety in colour, it felt way too concert-lighting for me.

staging

the editing on this stage is wack and did no one any good. the hands leading/pov was a really smart device and they should have stuck out the one takes like ikon did, it would have made the whole stage feel a bit more cohesive. a lot better directional camerawork from them this time around, well done. again with the hands in front of the camera gimmick which i actually preferred this time, since they were a part of the narrative. the stretch/silhouette fabric i think they pulled off quite well, even if it didn't really fit thematically with the piece. i actually worked on a show a very long time ago that used this exact same effect with dancers and also rear shadow projection, and it requires a lot of rehearsal and trust to pull off well, so props to them. i think it was the wrong choice because there isn't an established motif for the fabric, so it kind of appears out of nowhere for one specific visual moment and then disappears, and i think that time could have been better served for something else narratively relevant.

again, these 4th gen groups are overly focussed on gimmicks as a way to make up for the lack of experience. personally i think this will be detrimental in the long run, and a reliance on gimmicks means that you don't trust your performers. tbz have the manpower to be doing some pretty cool collective dance work and i dont think its being trained or utilized correctly. they are suffering from a lack of cohesive stage presence right now and that can be fixed with training and time.

this might be because the group sizes are so different between these three but this choreo is very directionless. mnet is also providing to be absolute garbage at editing and i feel like i can't see the choreo at all.

this is a thing i've noticed with kpop camerawork in general, there’s very little regard for actually viewing the choreo as a singular work. and for some reason the camera always needs to be moving???? people do actually want to see what’s happening on the stage. the choreographer can only see from one spot, so from that spot is how they are intending it to look. you wouldn't need to upload full cams of every music stage if you just filmed the choreo properly in the first place. if you watch the two sdc3 clips i linked you can see a clear difference in maintaining the integrity of the choreo, even though both shows use several cameras and a lot of cuts.  obviously for kpop you want the money shots of idols’ faces but i definitely think there’s a healthier middle ground than what we have now.

ill wait for full subs but i want to know where in the fuck in sk you can rent a tank thas clearly been custom made for underwater photography, because that’s extremely cool even if it was absolutely unnecessary to the actual stage itself. i can think of several ways off the top of my head that would have achieved that same freezing effect without any of that wasted time and effort.

mnet decided to drop full cams while i was writing this and despite watching those my opinions are the same.

in conclusion, some more general thoughts:

i think ikon and btob got it right by leaning more into the theatrical than the cinematic, if that makes sense. i might be talking up my own ass here but these are theatre performances, and they should be treated as such. trying to do things that you can do on film isn't going to do you any favours in the long run, and it makes it harder to make a cohesive performance. i’m harping a lot about narrative but it is so important to performance. although it is not technically necessary, when doing big theatrical performance stages like this it does help with clarity of intent and general success. humans have brains structured around storytelling, it is literally the way our history has been passed down for tens of thousands of years. the atlantic published an article recently on narrative and memory, and it's a really excellent read for maybe after you've taken a break from this behemoth, oh dear god. 

tldr: the stages were good but disappointing in their own ways. mnet continues to sabotage via weird stage design decisions and bad editing. see you next week! (or in my ask box if you have questions)