#way more

[the-final-sif]

Today I learned there are some people who believe the Silent has become more sexualized/fem in slay the spire 2. I can only assume those people were not paying attention to card art or the act 4 victory screen for Silent, because as much as I hate to be the barer of bad news, the Silent was absolutely sexualized and fem in sts1, it was just that her main sprite was curled up into a ball to hide the fact she was basically wearing nothing under that cloak. Slay the spire 2, has in fact, massively improved on this in a lot of major ways.

Let's start with the act 4 victory scene, since it's where you really get a high res look at the Silent in full.

I would like to really zoom in on that left lower image to drive this absurdity home.

This is what she's canonically wearing the whole time, skin tight bandages, long loose hair that goes everywhere, and a tattered thin green cloak that she has to crouch to hide everything in. That's what's hiding under this:

Girl's wrapped up because she's borderline naked under there. She's just literally wearing almost nothing and HAS to wrap that sheet around her because she's got nothing else.

This is also true on her card art! Her outfit is quite consistent. And bad. It's just bad the entire time, and makes 0 sense for her to be wearing.

In addition to all of this, she has very smooth, polished skin, not a single blemish or scar on her in anything but her start screen (and even then, it's minor). Not to mention her skin tone was all over the place, with her end screen and start splash screen being borderline whitewashed.

Slay the spire 2 has made MASSIVE improvements in all of these areas, like,,, for example,,, the cards I just showed above. All of which are in sts2.

Look at the improvements!!! The focus of the art is shifted, her skin tone is a lot more consistent, and she is no longer primarily wearing skimpy bandages only over her crotch/belly/chest, but rather wearing them all over. Her poses are more power poses and more focused on what she's actually doing. She no longer needs to be literally huddled up in her cloak to not be almost naked. It's longer and actually covers her body now. Her hair is tightly braided up, like it should be!! She has moles now!! And general skin discoloration!! This is on her primary sprites too!!

Look at my girl!! She's unfucked her spine a bit!! She's actually wearing more than just a thin green bedsheet! She's turned the spine of the thing she killed into a sash!! Her skin tone is way more consistent throughout her card art, even with harsh lighting effects.

I really do think the footwork + leg sweep sum up how they've improved on her. It's a dramatic upgrade, and despite having very similar poses, the framing and characterization is night and day. They did my girl right, she's actually got clothing now <3

[where-them-kinomiya-at]

Some tsundere Tyson screencaps for you

[kawaoneechan]

It's kind of a wild dichotomy.

I was looking for Silksong fanfics and, out of a perverse curiosity of sorts, specifically Hornet/Knight smut.

I found one that was very nicely written. Very prosaic, very mindful of the fact that the main characters are bugs and the Knight is a genderless void-creature who lacks any sort of attributes. There was a line about Hornet instilling desire into them which resonated well with what little I know about Hollow Knight and the Knight in particular. A bit about her wiggling her hand between some random plates in their shell (to reciprocate how the attribute-less Knight is pleasing her by sticking their hand where Hornet's plates are supposed to split) and how the void inside trying to eat her hand was oddly erotic. Very nice ending in how the otherwise blank slate Knight started bonking its mask against Hornet's as a show of what she decides to interpret as affection.

All this with a matching title, of course.

And then there's the other fanfic I found on the same index page, which was the exact opposite in so many ways. The Knight was clearly male, none of the characters were portrayed as anything near bug-like, and the only part that wasn't about their mutual pleasure was about how Dirtmouth had no laws against siblings having public sex on a bench.

All this with a matching title, of course.

Fanfics are weird sometimes.

Identifying the two fics is left as an exercise to the oomfies.

[eyecontact-devil]

Is it loser behavior to get upset that your favorite character's tag is full of just ship art and not just them or am I chill

[batwynn]

When you have a mom who edits Will and Hannibal into Artistic Situations and sends them to you for over 6 years.

[smthleon]

All because of a Raichu I caught when I was nine btw

[wanderingmind867]

I'm pretty sure everybody making a meme out of Rick Astley actually made me forget that his music was amazing, so I seem to have avoided him for years. But now I hear his music, and I realize that he is amazing. He was made a joke, but that's not doing him any of the justice he deserves! His music is tremendous. He has a Christmas song now, and it's probably old but also something I've never heard before. And in listening to it, I realize he's still a good performer. He's got a very soulful voice, and it's wonderful.

Singers who get turned into jokes are often people I feel bad for, because it makes me sometimes think they're not worth anything more than a lowbrow comedy. But then you hear it, and gods...it's a symphony. Weird Al is an explicitly comedic singer, but I'd say I enjoy 90% of his songs (I'm sure I could give you one I don't like if I got nitpicky, though). Rick Astley is nothing like Weird Al in musical output, but it's sort of a similar thing. You can easily dismiss things you see as jokes, but you just gotta dig a bit deeper and find something amazing.

PS: Is it possible I also just didn't listen to Rick Astley because I didn't hear him on the old music stations. Oh, almost certainly. But the tangent about judging him is equally plausible, and it makes for the better story when my memory is faltering. It lets me discuss how easy it is to dismiss people.