#average hyperfixation post

[postal-ech]

Lay down your hot takes, lore clown.

Oh dear lord what have you DONE ALRIGHT THEN

YOU WANT MY HOT TAKES?

I'LL GIVE YOU MY HOT TAKES

1: I think Samus deserves to not be isolated all the god damn time. YES, the Isolation of metroid is IMPORTANT, but lemme posit you all this: How fucking rad was it to see Samus actually talk to the FIRST LIVING CHOZO in metroid's GAME HISTORY? Or throwing hands with other bounty hunters in Prime Hunters? Or even helping the feds HOLD OFF A FUCKING PLANETARY INVASION BY THOSE GOD DAMN MAD SCIENTIST HYPER-MILITARISTIC MOTHER FUCKERS THAT ARE THE SPACE PIRATES? AND THEN, AND THEN, INVADING THEIR GOD DAMN HOMEWORLD WITH 'EM?

Sincerely that was the most BADASS shit imaginable and I truly wish we got to see this more, and I'm sure others may disagree but by god when you read the likes of the Metroid Prequel Manga, or the Episode of Aether, hell even Samus and Joey (if you're REALLY wanting to delve deep), Samus is a character that deserves more than being stuck in pure isolation. She deserves to flourish as a badass, and while she doesn't ALWAYS have to be around people, god dammit just give this girl some recurring bounty hunters or a feddie squad to interact with.

2: Let Ian Flynn write up some metroid stuff. "Who in the seven hells is Ian Flynn" I hear some of you asking, well my good men/women/enbies of the court, Ian Flynn is the (former) head writer for sonic, also doing his own little indie comic called Drogun "WHY IN THE SHIT WOULD YOU WANT THAT" I ALSO hear you asking and ya know what, I got the tea right here: I got to see this mfer write up his own metroid fan fiction, a little one shot involving a what-if story on if Samus was defeated by Raven Beak, and ya know what?

It was fucking PEAK.

He got a real good god damn idea of how to write Samus, he is a CERTIFIED fan, and I'd trust this independent writer to make some god tier metroid stuff if you let him.

3: GIVE THE REST OF THE METROID BOUNTY HUNTERS SOME GOD DAMN LOVE. I have grown up with Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion. That is like the most basic bitch statement I can say about myself but Metroid lives rent free in my heart and soul, and Prime Hunters is a great example of the potential for this world building. 6 other god damn bounty hunters including Sylux got their debut there, and I love every single one of them I love Sylux and his hating ass I love Weavel and his ACTUAL, PERSONAL Grudge with Samus as a Space Pirate-only Bounty Hunter I love Kanden and his unhinged lust for power I love Trace and his desire to prove himself and expand the Kriken Empire like the filthy fucking imperialist he is I love Noxus and his Lawfully Good Attitude to his own detriment and I love Spire and his desire to find out what happened to his kind and EACH ONE reflects Samus in one way or another, between her desire to connect with the Chozo, her allegiances with the Federation, her altruism with people and the greater galaxy as a whole, the responsibility she holds not just for the power she weilds but the legacy of the Chozo that she holds above her head, and they most DEFINITELY deserve just as much of a god damn spotlight as Sylux. AND THE FACT THEY DID FUCK UP SYLUX IN PRIME 4 DOES NOT MEAN I HATE HIM. I WANT HIM TO SUCCEED, BUT I ALSO WANT THE OTHER HUNTERS TO GET SOME LOVE DAMMIT.

4: Metroid Prime's VST needs some MORE GOD DAMN LOVE. HOW IN THE HELL HAS BARELY ANYONE USED THIS VST YET? IT BOGGLES MY MIND, GENUINELY, AND YOU WANNA KNOW WHY? Because it is the most UNIQUE VST I've ever heard in my fucking life and that is ALSO throwing in the likes of Delay Lama or Lisa's weird ass shit from FL Studio, I've only ever heard it used by A FEW CREATORS: One being Gigaroni, a youtuber who uses her own collection of the VST to make her own world building project IN ADDITION to Ultrakill remixes, Voices of the Void, Metroid Recreations and the likes SYNAMAX for another for not only being the guy to really use this stuff in his own work but being one of THE driving forces in researching and sourcing the VSTs from their synths for others to then use. And occasionally a fucking UNDERTALE FAN MUSICIAN THAT MANAGES TO REMIX THE METROID PRIME BASS OR SNARE OR WHAT HAVE YOU INTO THEIR BOMB ASS UNDERTALE AU REMIXES I NEED TO SEE YOU MFERS WORK ON THAT SHIT, ADD THAT TO YOUR REPERTOIRE, ASAP ROCKY.

4: Get Hollow Knight and Deltarune to crossover That may be more of like a room temperature take or probably even ice cold at worse but ya know what, I brought it up in a previous post, I wanna see this shit happen. I trust the fans can make some insanely wild shit that will also be both entertaining and completely badass

5: I did not particularly care for Undertale Yellow THIS MAY BE AN EXTREMELY HOT TAKE, LIKE FUCKING STANDING IN FRONT OF THE SUN HOT, BUT LEMME EXPLAIN CHAT. I am a god damn writer at heart right, by no means am I perfect and by no means could I ever make something like what a group of fans can make BUT I found Undertale Yellow's writing especially in its pure pacifist route to kinda set me away a little bit. NOW MIND YOU, THAT DOESN'T MEAN I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT, I GOTTA MAKE THIS CRYSTAL FUCKING CLEAR It just didn't particularly interest me and still doesn't to this day chat.

6: I think Deltarune is better than Undertale yes, another extremely hot take, at this point I may as well be attempting to parry Godzilla's nuclear fucking breath BUT DESPITE DELTARUNE BEING UNFINISHED, What I've played through and seen so far has genuinely hit me a lot closer to home than what Undertale did back in the day. I met some amazing people through Undertale, and I still do. There are so many wonderful mother fuckers making wonderful stories with Undertale but if you ask me, there is some deeper emotional weight going on with Deltarune, a sort of deeper introspection on the relationship of the Player and the Character they control, so much so it almost overshadows Undertale in that aspect Where Undertale is all about you having the power and the choice to decide the fate of monsters in the underground, Deltarune is about breaking free from your own predetermined fate, taking back control in a world that is grimly marching towards one supposed linear end. Because in this world, your choices never mattered...

Unless you're willing to dive deep into the abyss, deeper than what anyone could ever willingly do in Undertale.

And to have that kind of power and that kind of Determination to enact your will over a character you KNOW is not just a mere vehicle for your game, but their own character with their own thoughts and motivations, their desires and fears I'm sorry but Deltarune has proven enough with what's out there right now that there is some shit in it that will stand leagues and bounds above Undertale. As much as I respect Undertale for laying the groundwork, it will be Deltarune that'll destroy our fucking hearts. Therefore:

No Crying until the End.

ALRIGHT That's all I can think of for hot takes, I'm sure I'm gonna be burned at the stake soon enough for such controversial ramblings.

[postal-ech]

Alright, so thanks to @akanemnon for putting a fire under my ass for this...even though it may be late for the americans that view this post (they'll see it in the morning, trust), I do wanna expound on what I meant in my reblog and what akane mentioned before

Now, I am not good with drawing, I've mentioned it probably hundreds of times here and abroad, but I've always been a fan of plausible crossovers, or crossovers that can work with similar themes and ideas.

As some kind anon mentioned, there's a funny little coincidence between deltarune and hollow knight with vessels, but there's more to it than that I think, and I'll do my usual of separating it under a page break to spare any passer-by a ten-thousand word essay of my hyperfixated ramblings.

SO.

Hollow Knight and Deltarune.

I remember when Hollow Knight was first geting popular, a certain Doku of core!frisk fame introduced it to me back in 2017 and I was instantly hooked, yeah? But, and here's the thing too...

I noticed there was DEFINITELY a fandom crossover that was going on, especially when Deltarune hat first released.

It was slow, subtle, pairing up Kris with the baby they/them it/its that is The Vessel, or Little Ghost, or THE KNIGHT and maybe also some other things here and there, a weird and niche fangame or some written AO3 stuff here and there

It slowly built up though and I feel like the fandom crossover is more prominent than ever with the release of silksong, and I thoroughly enjoy seeing everyone's ideas being put out there for all to see.

ANYWAYS, To get to the point, I've had my own fair share of ideas for a crossover here and there, one of which taking the idea of the Void and the Dark World and kind of blending it together if you will.

It started out as more of a UT/DR crossover with Hollow Knight elements, sort of taking the idea that the Core had begun to malfunction as an inky darkness had begun to seep from its deepest depths, slowly affecting the underground with it.

Overtime, though, and unfortunately as is a trend with my dumbass, the idea slowly fell to the wayside in favor of more analytic comparisons if you will.

Dark Worlds in Deltarune always had this theme of escapism, that despite the good they can give to people like Susie and Kris, they have the potential to bring about destruction, cause The Roaring, snuff out the light above if you will I'd argue that the Void kind of shares that similarity...on its own? It was relatively harmless...albeit still dangerous if messed with. Its a part of the world, an ancient thing that no one but the most knowledgeable of ancient bugs are wary of.

Vessels, too, play an important role in both games - something that special little anon pointed out

Vessels in Deltarune - or really the ones we made - were made to house a SOUL if you will, perhaps to control it much like we control Kris...but perhaps also contain the SOUL, cage it if you will... And Vessels in Hollow Knight were made with the same purpose...except instead of containing a SOUL, they were made to contain a RAGING GODDESS, an angry thing that lashes out from a place no mortal bug could even reach...whose ancient enemy is that darkness that sits at the bottom of the world

Even the thematics between undertale and hollow knight really stick out - I can certainly tell you that people had compared Asgore to The Pale King and recognized that sweet mother of god, the Pale King did so, so much more heinous shit in the name of saving his kingdom. Asgore did NOT do all that much Killing 6 random kids? Try taking 6k of your own kids and throwing them into a battle royale to see who will chicken dinner that shit to victory - AND THEN FUCK UP BECAUSE THE ONE THING THAT'S SUPPOSED TO HAVE NO MIND TO THINK, NO VOICE TO CRY SUFFERING, HAD AN IDEA INSTILLED

THE IDEA OF LOVE, OF PRIDE IN THE GENDERLESS CHILD, MADE TO BE A WEAPON AGAINST A VENGEFUL GODDESS OF LIGHT.

NO COST WAS TOO GREAT - EXCEPT FOR THAT.

I think a LOT of people could work with this material and make some god-tier fiction out of it - art, writing, fan games, you name it. I think its ESPECIALLY the case with Deltarune and Hollow Knight, even MORE SO now that Silksong is out

Between all the tragedy of these mortal bugs, thralled by higher beings that rule over them, of tribes and cultures wiped away by those pale beings that seek to exert their dominance, their worship and their will unto others and compete with other higher beings like creatures in their own ecosystem, far above those poor mortals...

Its simply fascinating, and I'd love to see more come out between these fandoms. Hell we have @lilybug-02 exploring such an idea with Dewi's Adventures (even if that's not a deltarune crossover but FUCK IT its a good hollow knight example and I urge you all if you haven't gotten a look at it to look at it)

Hell, I still have my own idea for simply another Hollow Knight kingdom, a gleaming tower of metal that moves through the sandy wastes, simply known as The Silver Spire - something that's lived rent free in my head for ages and ages to come, and I'll definitely expound on that at a later date.

Take what you will between Deltarune and Hollow Knight, especially with later chapters and Silksong being out. Explore to your heart's content, dig deep into those themes and see what you can bring to the rest of the world, cause I can guarantee you they will be badass as all hell. Give Kris an existential nightmare knowing that the Void eats away at a bug's soul like its a butane fire - empowering the being at the cost of eating away at them until only a soulless husk remains. Give Susie a reason to still stand up for what she believes in even as these Higher Beings - Pale or Otherwise - are intent on their own greater desires. Give the fun gang a reason to reconsider as they learn of these Higher Beings' very human flaws - between the love of their own children overtaking all other instinctual desires, or the guilt they feel in enacting their failed plans...or whatever else

Whatever comes to mind, go for it, and then share it with me and others god dammit so we can all fangirl over this shit like its no tomorrow.

Anyways thanks again to Akane for the shoutout and thanks to YOU for attending my Hollow-Talk, I better see your ideas flourish in the future god dammit.

[postal-ech]

Alright real shit chat, Imma just gonna put this out there for all the undertale and deltarune folk out there:

Put Deltarune in your Undertales Put Undertale in your Deltarunes Mix the god damn two together even Throw in the UT AU stuff too, slot Deltarune in there as well

Don't be afraid to do this cause you know what, I am one of those fans that likes to see how Deltarune influences these UT AUs and UT as a whole. Explore Deltarune's themes in your creative takes of Undertale

GO FUCKIN' HAM WITH IT!

And then share that shit with me and every other fan out there and ignore Twitter's bitching and moaning about it because they don't and will never matter, they're like the reddit/4chan lite of the internet these days, they really ain't got SHIT on you.

DO IT. DELVE DEEP INTO THOSE CONNECTIONS MAKE THAT FRIEND ERROR!SANS TAKE DO IT GOD DAMMIT. DO IT.

[postal-ech]

Ya know, I've been seeing some people compare Prime 4 with Other M, essentially setting it on the same level as it right

That has motivated me enough to make a post here before I have to work another soul-crushing day at a new job

This may be a hot take for some people but I'm saying this shit right now:

Prime 4 is by no means comparible to Other M

As the resident semi-boomer of Metroid, I can tell you straight up that Other M fumbles the bill so much harder than Prime 4 and its not even close, and I'll even add some context for why this matters and why metroid fans here have this mindset.

You see, BEFORE Other M came out, the most recent games we had in the timeline of events were Fusion and Prime 3

Metroid Fusion was the last traditional metroid game we had in a long while - by that, I mean we had no other 2D sidescrolling metroid game after that, and no other game that followed up on fusions plot points.

Prime 3 had bookended the Prime Trilogy beautifully, wrapping it all up in a neat little phazon-irradiated bow, though it too left its own teaser for Sylux in the form of the Prime 3 secret cutscene.

So essentially, we had two cliffhangers to deal with in BOTH sides of metroid - in both the 2D and FPS front - and there was a sudden small drought that happened afterwards, at least as far as I can recall

And then, Other M came out.

Other M was being hyped up by Sakamoto as this game that explored Samus' past and the connection with the Baby Metroid, again at least as far as I remembered, but when it came out it was...wholly different from any other metroid game that ever came into existence.

This isn't like a Sonic 06 situation where the game was absolutely buggy AND it just didnt have a good story, no this was like if Sonic was turned into a third-person action fighter with no form of momentum-based movement...and it had a story that made no damn sense.

The story of Other M focused on some weird aspects of motherhood and Samus' relationship with Adam, but the issue is that when you make Adam out as a rather uncaring sociopath who'd later shoot Samus in the back as some bass-ackwards way of keeping herself from getting killed by GMO'd metroids, in addition to making it a point to authorize her abilities rather than her building herself up

Yeah I think it's safe to say that they massively fumbled the bill on that part, and I'd argue it nearly ruined Adam's character from therein - hell, it HAD ruined his character for a lot of people, even with a friend I know who is a metroid fan in her own right

Its very linear map design, questionable controls (IE switching to first person by aiming the wiimote at the TV in order for you to use your missiles, and ALSO being unable to move in missile mode as a result) and lackluster bosses didn't help in that matter either, and ALL of that contributed to its bad reputation.

Now at first it reviewed well, and it still has a pretty high review score to this day, but to a LOT of metroid fans - myself included - it was a blatantly bad departure from what made metroid...well, good.

Not that experimentation with this franchise is bad, but THIS was just...a fundamentally poor execution.

The second content drought after this REALLY didn't help and neither did federation force coming out a bit afterwards.

It was a combination of these factors that have boosted Other M's infamy into generational trauma event status, and that STILL goes on to this very day.

Samus Returns ans Dread absolutely crushed that trauma back into the dark recesses of everyone's mind at first but you can already see it cropping back up again with Prime 4's shoddy execution.

And here's the thing, chat, Prime 4 ISN'T as bad as Other M.

I've stated my grievances with it but it is still leagues and bounds above Other M, especially in terms of art design, music, AND even the NPCs. If anything I can agree that the level design is comparable with Other M given all four areas of Prime 4 are very linear, full of one-and-done setpieces, but Prime 4's story suffers from a rushed development with greivous cuts to important plot points, not a blatant mischaracterization of the franchise like Other M, and if you hear anyone else say that

Frankly, it is and will always be ragebait.

There can be improvements made with a future prime game especially in terms of ability diversity and storytelling, but there was no savaging of Other M - even with the original translation, if you ask me.

I think Prime 4 will be an important lesson on what not to do when it comes to writing a story in general, but it shouldn't be discounted, ESPECIALLY given its hellish development cycle. Its not good, but its not god awful, and I will die on this hill mother fuckers, just like I will die on the same hill defending Prime 4's NPCs.

Anyways, I now disappear into the abyss, but just keep an eye on what people say between Prime 4 and Other M, and be sure to come to your own conclusions on the matter. Don't let me be just the one defining arbiter and preacher of this stuff, cause there are plenty of other metroid fans that will be able to give you their own, equally important perspective on this too.

[postal-ech]

Alright chat, I got another Liser dump on hand here

As ive been writing shit up, figuring out some plot lines for a Buddy-centric story revolving around this current fan-built setting of Olathe

GOD I love what the fans have done with Olathe.

It started more so with Lisa the Pointless, for those not in the know, but the idea of time acting in strange ways depending on where you are in Olathe feels like a real expansion on the setting that Austin Jorgensen may not have planned, but it fits so damn well.

Especially dynamic time shenanigans, like how with Alex and Joel entering downtown, time inside the city seems normal but anywhere outside may move faster - like being in orbit around a black hole if you will.

Now over time this had settled into the fan consciousness but my two favorite additional expansions are what Lisa the UNDONE and Lisa: Paradise do

The former really ups it in terms of just how locations around the world are meshed together - a part of Alaska could be right next to a part of Sudan, or Wyoming could be smack dab next to Garbage Island (that bit is more Pointless but bear with me on this) - it gives the setting a lot more flexibility in what environments you can write in or create, and how those characters interact with it.

Lisa: Paradise does something REALLY cool with it where a pilot tries flying over Olathe, but as soon as he was really high up, looking down at the land below made his head hurt...and the world down below just didnt make any sense...

...now granted, you could explain that away as just altitude sickness plus a mix of vertigo...or you could see it as olathe being this patch-work of locations all stitched together like an old quilt.

I cant help but imagine it like you would minecraft chunks, where each one is just a separate biome checkered together in a haphazard fashion

It makes for some really interesting writing for Buddy Armstrong too, as someone who was born and raised in THIS Olathe rather than the world the older generation was born and raised in.

She would just see this all as a normal occurance, just common stuff compared to the rest of us who would just see it as really fucking weird and off-putting

Oh, and that's not mentioning Lisa the HEARTLESS and its cosmic horror

Or UNDONE's for that matter too

LISA may cover a lot of dark topics but I think one thing that should be delved IS the cosmic/eldritch horror of the White Flash and how it really changed not just humanity, but the physical world and the laws of time, relativity, physics maybe...

...perhaps even biology, something beyond Joy mutation...or perhaps even spiritually, where the living and the dead are more closely tied together than before

Where the walls of reality are so thin you can hear the voices clear as day from the other side.

That's that REAL SHIT FELLAS

Anyways, I will leave you all to it, but for those lisa fans out there, really give it some thought.

There's a whole world of potential when it comes to a lisa fan project, honestly.

[postal-ech]

Alright chat I'm copy-pasting a whole rambling yap-session I've made between homies about Hollow Knight + Silksong's themes to here cause god dammit I like Silksong/HK discussion and I wanna see more mfers dive deeper into these themes.

This IS a spoiler warning for those who STILL HAVENT BEATEN SILKSONG THOUGH, so be warned, I am keeping it under a page break for a reason.

But anyways, the yap session in question:

GOD I love discussing the narrative themes that have become ever more prevalent in hollow knight's world with Silksong's release

I'm glad to know that more and more people have picked up on the idea that these pale beings, like Grand Mother Silk, the Pale King, the Radiance, and whoever else may exist are fundamentally representative of the schism between the mortal and immortal of hollow knight's world, and yet Hornet seeks to eschew that heritage of hers - being part Wyrm and part Weaver both in blood and in ideology - in order to seek something better for the world as a whole. 

Like, yes even the Pale King was still in the wrong despite having the ideals of a Philosopher King, seeking to uplift his subjects to have their own sentience in stark contrast to other higher beings like Grand Mother Silk, who only uplifted the Weavers in order to serve and worship her, He still fucks up in the execution of it. He still commits these atrocities, such as murdering hundreds of thousands of his own children in order to save his kingdom, or challenging the tribes of hallownest to settle under his rule unless they prove far too resistant in his domain, even with the erasure of the Radiance's influence within the kingdom being the spark that fuels her wrath against all of those bugs in Hallownest.

To an extent however even the Radiance is flawed, being a Pale Being herself - whereas the Pale King sacrificed his own children, focusing on his ethos of 'No Cost Too Great' (even failing at that because he instills the idea of a familial bond between himself and his chosen vessel), the Radiance essentially goes full scorched earth against the entirety of Hallownest. It does not matter who it was, whether it was the tribes of Hallownest of the uplifted bugs that lived in the Pale King's society or even the animals that dwell within, her influence is a painful, physical manifestation that's almost akin to a holy punishment against the common, mortal bug made physical, mutating them rather painfully into mindless, animalistic bugs - their wills and personalities erased entirely, forced into a hivemind with or without their own consent and made to worship a force that twists their bodies into tools that serve her rage against the now-dead kingdom of Hallownest.

With some reveals in Silksong like Grand Mother Silk uplifting animalistic bugs into what we know today as the Weavers, one could even assume that the Moth tribe that existed served a similar role as the Weavers to GMS - being made only to worship and carry out the will of the Radiance, damn be their own free will or desires.

And then there's Grand Mother Silk 

If the narrative theme of Pale Beings' imperialism and colonialism wasn't blatant enough, the whole of Pharloom suffering what is essentially a tribal erasure by GMS' influence and her followers sure as shit is one big fucking neon sign in its own right. Even the Weavers weren't innocent in this, as once they lulled GMS into her slumber, they still continued to feed the unwitting inhabitants of Pharloom into the religion of the Citadel, where instead of worshipping GMS, its instead worshipping the Citadel and the unknowing assistance in keeping her in her slumber and yet despite the Weavers leaving, those they left in power still continued this religion and these practices, damn be the common bug that is set in blind faith to serve a system that does not benefit them, only those that seek to contain the influence of a Pale Being. Even then, that containment fails and GMS' influence spreads throughout Pharloom specifically because of the actions of the Weavers and those who now run the Citadel, their experiments with silk being their downfall as this slumbering Goddess uses that silk imbued into generations upon generations of bugs into servitude and worship.

Even before that, the tribes that existed were still their own granted, one of those FIVE tribal kingdoms/groups may have been ruled by a tyrant, all of them did not deserve the fate Grand Mother Silk wrought on them not just bringing them under servitude, but wiping out entire environments should they resist. the one that was ruled by a tyrant, Crust King Kahn's Coral Kingdom, was turned into a near dead fucking desert with little remnants of the former environment The mantids of Verdania were ALL but wiped out, and their kingdom wasnt just dismantled, it was fundamentally wiped away from Pharloom entirely, left as barren caves that barely even hold a remnant of their history the Stilkin of Bilewater suffered under the heavy pollution of the Citadel, their lands and waters poisoned to such a degree that whats there now is a terrible shadow of what used to be, and those tribesbugs rage against not just the inhabitants of the citadel, but ALL those who they deem as 'the problem' Even Shellwood, what was once a thriving environment kept under control by Nyleth and her balance of the ecosystem, is now thrown off balance because of the Citadel's encroaching influence The Ant Tribes of Hunter's March may have gotten it easy but if being kept subservient to something like the Citadel and their leader reduced to a shadow of what she once was, is it REALLY getting off easy or is it just another form of control from those high in their ever-expanding kingdom of brass and steam?

And yet through ALL OF THAT We get to see Hornet, born of a Pale Wyrm and Weaver heritage, begin to connect more and more with these common and mortal bugs, especially as she begins to understand more and more the nature of these Pale Beings and their instinctual desire to dominate and claim territory even against each other As she begins to aid in forming communities within Pharloom and eventually seeks to save the kingdom not out of a selfish desire to aid herself on her journey or replace the monarchy of GMS with her own no, its out of a selfless desire to ensure this kingdom and its people survive, that they can rebuild and regrow after all is said and done, ESPECIALLY after GMS is slain and the darkness beneath the world of Hollow Knight itself is beaten back into the depths.

GOD I fucking love Hollow Knight and I fucking love Silksong.

I fucking love these narrative themes that have surfaced to the forefront of this god damn world.

I love the callbacks to blind faith and the follies that it brings, especially between those that were unknowingly fed into this uncaring system of toil and trouble, and those that come to understand it and seek to make something better.

Make no mistake, there IS a real world equivalent between the faith of Pharloom and what we've seen in the real world with that of Catholicism. The religion of Pharloom almost mirrors that of Catholicism in a sense with its reverence to paradise in the form of the Citadel and the sacrifice of work in order to achieve that entrance to paradise, the concept of sin and especially in absolving one's self of sinful behavior.

Granted those themes were in Hollow Knight too, but they weren't as much of a focus as Silksong. The Pale King is still something of a god king in his own right, both he and The Radiance jockeyed for the control of Hallownest through faith even if the Pale King eschewed the idea of blind worship He still suffered his flaws as any other Pale Being like him, but these themes were not as prevalent as that of the Citadel and Grand Mother Silk.

God I really hope we can see more of an analysis of Hollow Knight's world bloom in this fandom with their own takes on these themes and the worldbuilding that's provided to us. It sure as SHIT helps in keeping my own HK worldbuilding project on track and gives me ideas for ways to explore those themes with different perspectives.

Like, especially given the idea of machines and robots actually being canon in the world of Hollow Knight, imagine the kind of shit you could show off in exploring how a sentient machine may find its place in the world. Mechanized bugs constructed with pale steel, given sentience through the soul of god knows how many other bugs - sentient, or sapient, or otherwise. Would they perceive themselves as living beings with their own dreams and desires, given they have a soul that gives them life? Would the higher being in question consider them their children or mere tools of war and industry? Would these machines seek to make better lives for themselves or would they be trapped under holy ordinance from their unseen ruler, never able to spread their metal wings as they're kept in their set roles?

There is so much you could do with ALL that Hollow Knight and Silksong offer and I swear to you all, it is the fuel that will give this fandom the kind of worldbuilding potential that could rival the likes of even Undertale or Deltarune's fandom if you ask me.

I dunno how to really end this rambling yap session here, but all I can say is that please, for the love of all things holy, KEEP GOING WITH YOUR IDEAS HERE! SHARE THEM WITH THIS FANDOM, LET THEM BLOSSOM INTO SOMETHING TRULY GRAND!

YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT, ONE FUCKING BIT.

[postal-ech]

Fellas, I have been listening to a shit ton of remixes on the Prime Trilogy and once more I need to let loose my autism unto this hellsite

I fucking love Dark Samus

I really fucking love Dark Samus

I don't know if any of you know this, but I FUCKING LOVE Dark Samus, like she is my top Metroid Antagonists, topping even the SA-X or Raven Beak (Raven Beak is genuinely on top but I'll get to him in another post) or Ridley and others.

Why?

Well that's what this post is about

So who the fuck is Dark Samus? Or really, WHAT IS Dark Samus??

(Source is from the Metroid Wiki channel on Youtube. I use the original version instead of the remastered because the lighting in the remastered version of this cutscene is a bit fucked despite the better-detailed models. You can see the eye on the palm much more clearly as its pupil dilates to adjust to the lighting of the room. look I'm an autist for these details, I want you all to see them in all their glory as much as I have growing up)

DARK SAMUS My beloved

Dark Samus is more or less part of the "dark doppelganger" troupe in nintendo games, with the important caveat that unlike other such doppelgangers like Dark Link or Dark Kirby from the Magical Mirror games, Dark Samus' originated from the destroyed remains of the METROID PRIME, the final boss of the first game in the Prime Trilogy.

After Samus murders the shit out of the Metroid Prime, it manages to steal the Phazon Suit she used to get into the Impact Crater, which by extension also contained the DNA of Samus. With this, this ressurection of the Metroid Prime, reconstructed using this Phazon Suit and the DNA it acquired became what we know today: Dark Samus, a Metroid Hybrid - the first of its kind, long before Samus would eventually have Metroid DNA spliced into her during the opening events of Fusion.

(Dark Samus' final concept art, found in the Metroid Prime 2 concept gallary)

Dark Samus' design in prime 2 is something I adore to the utmost extreme. Its this wholly-organic Varia-adjacent suit with exposed, dark blue musculature. She has a clawed hand, feett, and an arm cannon too and its visor isn't just a visor but is entirely integrated into her body. In essence, She isn't just a living suit, She has used the Varia Suit as a basis to reconstruct her ENTIRE god damn body, right down to the arm cannon and the pauldrons and the visor too. THIS IS HER ZERO SUIT! So if anyone comes up to you and shows you a picture of Emo Zero Suit Samus and calling it Zero Suit Dark Samus, know that that is FAKE and WRONG and ENTIRELY INACCURATE to the ELDRITCH HORROR MADE REALITY.

Its a shame that the Gamecube wasn't really that powerful enough to truly show off just how organic this Dark Samus design was, especially given the pauldrons have these scrolling phazon textures poking out of the holes in her pauldrons that could really do well with an up-ressing of her model. Hopefully the remaster does this justice. Her morphball form, too, deserves an equal amount of justice given the concept art that exists of it

(Source is again from the concept art of MP2. VERY SPOOKY.)

Anyways, Dark Samus comes equipped with her own arsenal too, uniquely her own with a few exceptions, such as a Phazon Scatterbeam, a thin phazon laser thats almost akin to a more focused hyper beam that Raven Beak uses, an energy shield much akin to the phazon suit she used to reconstruct herself, alongside a ramming attack that's kinda akin to her own shinespark or screw attack (prime style of course), and the obvious Super Missiles and Boost Ball that she has in her first and second encounter. Eventually she'll even gain a Cloaking Field that can only be detected via the Dark Visor or the Echo Visor, and eventually super charging herself to even throw out pure phazon at Samus in her third and final fight.

There was a cut bad ending to Dark Samus' fight where she would have stolen the Light Suit from Samus (to reflect the time she had stolen the Phazon Suit in MP1) and gone off to let Aether get destroyed and

Jesus Christ, I love it.

You can see how it takes direct inspiration from the Metroid Prime as well, given her head and pauldrons have those spikes alongside the red and orange highlights on her armor, but it ALSO has a sort of luminoth inspiration to it too. It has a metallic, shelled sheen to it with two-pronged feet, a sort of completed hand and her arm cannon looking less round and more reminiscent of her Prime 3 design. It would EVENTUALLY see the light of day as inspiration for her overall Metroid Prime 3 design, but I still wish I could model it and bring it to life for other Metroid Fans to use.

In Prime 3, her design is switched again to something more akin to a shelled crab. ...now the Wii's graphics aren't... ENTIRELY REPRESENTATIVE of her design...

It's...not BAD, but you can't really tell if its organic or metallic in nature.

Smash Ultimate does this design justice at the very least. You can tell its more chitinous in nature compared to Prime 3's low-res renders

This has her having a more traditional suit design compared to Prime 2, and while the latter's design will always be my all-time favorite, this one is great too.

In Prime 3 her arsenal is expanded too, as she can control the Phazon on Phaaze to create pillars of the stuff for cover, split herself into multiple copies that act semi-independently of her (dubbed Echoes, funnily enough), She is by all means and purposes - a fucking POWERHOUSE of a creature in her own right.

Eventually she is "permanently" killed off in Prime 3, as confirmed by the director Kensuke Tanabe, but I still have hope that maybe one day she could return later on in the metroid timeline, because god dammit. She was THE ONLY other metroid hybrid in the franchise, right there with Samus as of now. Samus is honestly more closely related to Dark Samus now than she ever has been in the franchise, save for the Phazon mutagen Dark Samus had consisted of.

Hell, there's even a bit of a character arc with her where she started off as the Metroid Prime - this solely monstrous, instinctual creature mindlessly consuming Phazon and assimilating weaponry onto itself, before reconstructing itself as Dark Samus proper - still instinctual in a sense, but with a growing intelligence that really shines in the climax of the trilogy with Prime 3 - leading entire raids against the Federation with Space Pirates and showing a sense of companionship with the other metroids/phastroids she interacted with whiles showing how cruel she could be towards the surviving feddies of the Valhalla.

It's so much so that ever since Dread dropped its been a dream of mine to realize a climatic battle between Metroids.

THE LAST METROID VS THE PRIME METROID

If you will.

GOD, I fucking love Dark Samus. She honestly stacks so high up even against the X as my other favorite metroid antagonist that I wish more was done with her before the eventual climatic ending with Prime 3. I hope this was enough to also gain your interest in this fascinating mutant metroid made humanoid.

Next up on the list, the Chozo - including Grey Voice, Old Bird, Raven Beak and Quiet Robe of course.

[postal-ech]

Ya know what I haven't talked about it in a DAMN good bit, but given ive been seeing some interlopers stuff fly up on my feed I should add:

Much as I am to rage against Interlopers and its many, MANY plot issues, I ain't one to bash anyone who still finds some enjoyment in it.

If ya like it? More power to ya! And if you're looking to remake it or rewrite it yourself, GO FOR IT.

Sides, if there's anything I support it's people taking shit the glitchtale team fumbles the fucking bill on and make it their own.

It's still a weird undertale and LISA crossover, I'm sure plenty of LISA fans are either gonna wonder what the fuck it is, or get the thousand yard stare remembering that god damn thing, and not everyone - either pure LISA fans, Undertale fans, or mfers that like to cross shit over - will like the premise

But ey, I still think there's SOME merit to it.

As for my own little project? I have the FIRST whole damn chapter done, or at least its been done for a week or so, but I'm thinking on going back to add some things cause uh, I fucking forgot to confront the issue of the Trumpet Buddy gets at the end of Joyful.

Which, I did write it with the DE ending in mind, but it still wouldn't make much sense for Buddy - even if she is on a journey of healing in the wasteland of Olathe and beyond - to simply abandon something that makes Joy mutants null and void to her, or straight up control them.

There COULD be something interesting in her rejecting it, but it still feels like a massive step away from her character that should be rectified if anything

Do not expect this thing to come out any time soon, though. I am slowly chipping away at it, a page a day at least, though holy SHIT things like LibreOffice help massively in that department

Anyways, back to the regular schedule of reblogs, and the occasional yappery on shit, and an apology ahead of time to the Lisa mfers looking at this shit going "what the fuck is an interlopers" or "WHY the fuck is this a thing", I engage in esoteric and eldritch things with fandoms so you uh...uuuh....

Yeah I got nothing, I await my crucifixion in the coming months, mind the rube goldberg ass traps along the way.