toxic waste

19 y/o. he/they. multifandom.

[txxxciii]

[. . . HELLO WORLD!]

⚠️⚠️⚠️

Hi, I'm Toxic. You can call me Tox.

I go by he/they pronouns.

I will post art for most of the time. Though text textposts and shitposting are not excluded.

My special interests include true crime, mystery books, religious themes and birds.

Fandoms i'm in:

Skullgirls

Cookie Run

Don't hug me, I'm scared (DHMIS)

When They Cry series (Higurashi and Umineko)

Pizza Tower

Welcome Home

Genshin Impact

Honkai Impact 3d

Honkai: Star Rail

Degrees of Lewdity (NSFW)

The Amazing Digital Circus

Mortal Kombat

Street Fighter

Squid Games

Alice in Borderlands

LAZARUS

No, I'm not a human

Fear & Hunger (+ F&H Termina)

Searching for a world that doesn't exist / Destroying a world that doesn't exist

My original characters:

—

(Individual posts with them coming soon!)

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[txxxciii]

Help me find that one TikTok video of a Mavuika redesign that just straight up made her a man, with the video presumably made by a Native person who integrated their culture into the design. I remember it was a slideshow and in one of the sketches this Mavuika was depicted as a child. And yeah the design had a dark skin and all that.

For some reason this specific video is unsearchable on TikTok so I'm really desperate

[cureofthenonesense]

MK2 SPOILERS

Is it really a mk installment if he doesn’t go through The Trials, and you better believe he’s gonna go through some Tribulations.

[cureofthenonesense]

This is stupid

[avi17]

Well, MK2 was certainly A Movie. More detailed thoughts later but kind of a letdown for me after such a long wait :/

[txxxciii]

(SPOILERS FOR MK2 MOVIE)

I feel as though the mk2 movie and the previous one are two separate stories because of that. I knew the new movie would get much more praise for being "more canon to the games" but like, what was there to fix, really? The fans were pissy the movie had (shockers!!) its own in-universe rules and plot and didn't quite correlate with the games, when that's actually a good thing, in retrospect? Why would you want to go to theaters to see the same thing happening in the games happen on the screen, when you can just... play the games?...

I could go hours about how Cole Young's character concept is actually kind of genius (long story short: the fact that the character that gets beaten up by everyone obtains the power to absorb damage and enhance your own attacks based on it... is perfect), but MK fans will only like to never see him. And so the moviemakers did exactly that. At the expense of completely disrespecting the writers' efforts of trying to build his character, the designers' hours of costume drafting, the actor's status in the community, for crying out loud! People want Lewis to be Kenshi - how the hell do they imagine the movie will explain to the audience why they (Kenshi and Cole) have the same face?? Why not appreciate the character he actually, already played???

I agree the pacing was super fast and that they needed at least one recharge scene (aren't they hella tired of non-stop tournament match-ups?), but I also think Liu Kang and Kung Lao got the better end of this rope since Liu actually had the chance to be sad on-screen, and their fight was very emotionally driven (I actually cried when they held hands, lol). I would believe if it's revealed that Ludi himself advocated for this scene to be that way, considering he kinda likes liulao, too X)

Anywayyys, the sequel was just to please the annoying majority. But at least it was fun, yeah?

[avi17]

I completely agree. And it's hilarious to me that they bent over backwards to take out all the non-game stuff from the first one to appease these whiny game fans, but then completely went off on this stupid nonsense with Shinnok's Amulet. Like that is not even REMOTELY what it does in the game, and the game version is much more interesting. Do the game purists not care about that?

Yeah I genuinely kind of liked Cole, I wish they'd just put him into MK1 and made him fun to play so people would stop bitching that he's not a game character. I'm not surprised at all that they killed him, but to hear it described by so many as a moment of fanservice was exhausting. I've said this elsewhere, but it's so clear to me that the fans being serviced in this movie were the people who hated the first movie, which I feel like is a pretty unusual move and a bit of a middle finger to the loyal fans who actually liked it. But those people seem to be voting with their dollars, and Jeremy Slater has straight up said that he is trolling reddit threads and reading opinions to figure out how to write the next movie, so I'm guessing we can expect more bullshit.

It also feels like the obvious move to bring him back as a new Scorpion once Hiroyuki Sanada gets sick of these movies- who else's footsteps was that in his garden at the end??- but they've come out in interviews and just straight up said we will never see Cole again. They're truly more concerned with fanservice (or haterservice, I guess) than with telling a good story- or with spoiling it years ahead, apparently.

The biggest change that frustrated me was the total abandonment of the arcana concept. Like okay sure, it's not from the games, but it was SUCH a major part of the first movie that abandoning it absolutely made this second one just feel like a different continuity entirely. I liked the arcana thing, not just as an explanation for their fantasy powers or whatever, but because it drove the story, gave us a reason for who got pulled into it, and created an interesting dynamic between people born with the mark (Cole, presumably Kung Lao), people who ended up with one basically accidentally (Jax, Kano), and people who had to actively make the choice to earn one (Sonya, Liu Kang). Tossing that genuinely changes almost too much to have it be the same versions, especially since it was apparent to me that the arcana concept was absolutely still part of early drafts of the second movie. Instead, we got "Johnny Cage, you have been chosen by the gods for Mortal Kombat! For some reason. No, it has to be you. For some reason." You could literally feel them trying NOT to say it. And then it's a whole thing that he has no powers, but at the end unlocks them in a moment of great danger and desperation. It's so obvious that is still what it was- it didn't need the focus it had in the first movie, but a single mention of it would have made pulling Johnny in to begin with make sense. But they were more concerned with appeasing the complainers and being able to brag that this thing they didn't like will "never be mentioned again." But yeah, I like action but this movie was genuinely exhausting to watch. I'm sitting here trying to think of a single scene without a fight in it and I can't. I know they'd given a lot of the "regular guy pulled into this crazy thing" beats to Cole in the first one and likely didn't want to reuse them with Johnny, but the result was something that felt almost comically rushed and like it was truly just moving through necessary plot moments at lightning speed. Kitana was literally the only character even approaching a fleshed out arc, and it was still rushed. There were just too many characters (several we absolutely did not need) and so much fighting there was literally no time for anything but a cursory line or two of dialogue between those scenes. Several of my favorite scenes in the first one (like Liu Kang sewing up Cole's arm and talking about his backstory, or the hilarious dinner scene) were ones with no fighting, and there was absolutely no time for anything like that in this one. The result was a movie that felt like a bunch of one-dimensional cardboard cutouts punching each other, but I guess that was what the so-called fans wanted, so wtf do I know.

[txxxciii]

Tbh i genuinely don't remember anything about Shinnok's amulet in the games (probably 'cause it's been a while since Shinnok was ever relevant) but even so, the fact that they did something new with it purely because the game explanation wouldn't make sense in THIS movie's lore is good. It did create an interesting conflict, stayed relevant until the end, and was a nice callback to the first movie's blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene. I'm plenty sure that's why the game purist didn't mind it as much - and also because, well, an amulet isn't a character... xD

You're so right with Cole! They were definitely setting him up to be the next Scorpion, and tbh it would've been real cute considering the passing of mantle was always a Sub-Zero thing, and with this movie, it would've been reversed. I just felt like Scorpion and Noob Saibot weren't even necessary in the plot? Like the moment Kano and Raiden, I think, mentioned the Netherealm, I went, "Oooh yeah, those two exist", 'cause did they really have to have them? The movie was doing just fine the entire runtime, I don't think anyone would be bummed out if they didn't show up at all. Also didn't Hanzo die for good? I thought his spirit evaporated once he was done with his revenge and rested in peace but apparently he just returned to the same place that held him hostage and made a delusion of a garden? And he also knows English now, somehow. Priorities, I guess.

I'm actually sooo frustrated with the absence of arcanas as well. It's just because people didn't get what they do and how they activate, when it's plainly obvious that (I've discussed it in another one of my posts) it's a "defense mechanism" that manifests when you're in a dangerous scenario you can't help yourself out of. This explanation lies well with every arcana awakening scene in the movie, so why did no one get it? Is it because it's not spelled out verbally? But I thought it was an adult movieee, and y'all are aduuults that don't neeeed to have things explained to you like a toddler 🥺🥺

They totally did have arcanas in the script, 'cause are you seriously telling me when they're being chosen for a match-up they just randomly glow... with their entire body? Okay. No, yeah, that works. I'm just upset we'll never have arcanas again 'cause now these two movies, side by side, look even more ridiculous.

About Johnny: I was not moved by his story, honestly. I'm bold to say I didn't even get what was his personal conflict about. Does he want to prove himself he's as badass as he is in his films? Or does he realize he's more than just his stage personality? Or is it the classic "peepaw still got it" narrative that's already beaten up to death by many medias before? Idk man, he doesn't even feel like Johnny Cage, Kano was already a perfect comedic relief, might as well have him be the protagonist and start the main story when Quan Chi revived him - then there'd be additional screen time for, bare with me, character development! Oh wait, I forgot the audience would hate to see that, my bad.

Kitana was surprisingly enjoyable to watch, at least from my perspective. Words cannot describe how much I hate the game version of her, before MK1 timeline, when NRS randomly made her this sassy and dare I say bitchy princess who talks down at everyone while not doing SHIT herself. This Kitana, while still a "girlboss(tm)", is shown to be kind-hearted and empathetic (the scene after she defeats Shao Kahn and begs the edenians not to kneel for her is cute imo) which lines better with my personal vision of her. Her being the only one with a somewhat completed arc is actually revolutionary, considering whatever the hell happened in the games. Her taking the throne here feels more impactful than the MK11's bullshit of Kotal Kahn "honoring" her - or maybe that's just the Kotal hater in me speaking, lmao.

But yeah. I reckon not many people want to watch MK for the lore or its characters, 'cause that's not what fighting games are generally known for. And that's sad.

[txxxciii]

On the topic of liulao, I believe I'm caught up in my own delusions about them to the point of literally assuming they're canon, in the movies. Y'know, the constant queer coding (Liu's mannerisms being unusual for a typical mainstream male character, the whole matching hair rubber bands thing, "If we were to die, it was supposed to be together" line) and Ludi Lin's own fascination with the dynamic made me truly believe this was the case and not once question it. Then, after the boom of the mk2 movie, I started seeing a bunch of people saying "They didn't even hint at liutana" and I remember being genuinely confused, like, "Why would you want a canonically gay man to be with a woman? Don't you have enough of that in the games already?". I feel stupid.

[avi17]

Well, MK2 was certainly A Movie. More detailed thoughts later but kind of a letdown for me after such a long wait :/

[txxxciii]

(SPOILERS FOR MK2 MOVIE)

I feel as though the mk2 movie and the previous one are two separate stories because of that. I knew the new movie would get much more praise for being "more canon to the games" but like, what was there to fix, really? The fans were pissy the movie had (shockers!!) its own in-universe rules and plot and didn't quite correlate with the games, when that's actually a good thing, in retrospect? Why would you want to go to theaters to see the same thing happening in the games happen on the screen, when you can just... play the games?...

I could go hours about how Cole Young's character concept is actually kind of genius (long story short: the fact that the character that gets beaten up by everyone obtains the power to absorb damage and enhance your own attacks based on it... is perfect), but MK fans will only like to never see him. And so the moviemakers did exactly that. At the expense of completely disrespecting the writers' efforts of trying to build his character, the designers' hours of costume drafting, the actor's status in the community, for crying out loud! People want Lewis to be Kenshi - how the hell do they imagine the movie will explain to the audience why they (Kenshi and Cole) have the same face?? Why not appreciate the character he actually, already played???

I agree the pacing was super fast and that they needed at least one recharge scene (aren't they hella tired of non-stop tournament match-ups?), but I also think Liu Kang and Kung Lao got the better end of this rope since Liu actually had the chance to be sad on-screen, and their fight was very emotionally driven (I actually cried when they held hands, lol). I would believe if it's revealed that Ludi himself advocated for this scene to be that way, considering he kinda likes liulao, too X)

Anywayyys, the sequel was just to please the annoying majority. But at least it was fun, yeah?

[txxxciii]

Holy shit. All these people are wondering how arcanas supposed to work when the answer is literally right there in the first movie.

It's a defense mechanism (in a way). Think about it: Cole got his armor when his family was in danger and he couldn't get up to protect them; Jax got his arm upgrade 'cause he couldn't lift up a rock Sonya was under; Kano was so defensive about himself, that his ego was bruised, so his arcana popped up. Unlike what most popular MK creators say, it's not some bullshit ahh feature that works just because, it has a pattern in that it manifests when the host needs it THE MOST. It even makes sense with, for instance, Liu Kang's backstory and Sonya's fight with Kano. So, to trigger it, you must be put in a dire situation where you'd think you can not maneuver out unless something is bestowed upon you.

Makes you ponder on what type of situations Bi-Han or Kung Lao were in 🤔

[txxxciii]

MK2 MOVIE WAS GENUINELY SO MUCH FUCKING BETTER THAN THE FIRST AND THAT'S SAYING A LOT

[txxxciii]

Y'all...

So how's the new Mortal kombat movie releases EARLIER than in the US? Sure it's just a day ahead, but my country is literally considered third world? Y'all, I'm about to see the future

[txxxciii]

Contrary to the popular belief, I don't think Avery is moronically dumb. He's pretty average intelligence-wise with just a tiny bit of dumbness sprinkled in. For me, he gives an impression of a person who wasn't ever required to think hard in his life and simply goes with the flow expecting problems to be solved by themselves. In fact, I also think he actively hates having to pause for a moment to really think, as evident by the pool puzzle with the golden gate under it.

This greatly contrasts with D3rlord, who not only just... knows more, but has a well-trained strategic mind that can easily improvise on spot. That's also a thing I think other people seem to dismiss, he's more of a street smart person than a book smart (though he is that as well). As much of a joke the "d3rlord3 has the survival skills of a navy seal" statement is, I do believe Derek must be working irl in some sphere that requires this type of intelligence. Though the possibility of him just being a smart-ass student is there, too.

[txxxciii]

An idea by my friend who watched DAWTDE with me!

Idgaf Black D3rlord + Latino Avery is canon to ME.

[txxxciii]

Until motivation magically comes to me, y'all only get this. Gnight

[txxxciii]

In all honesty...I don't find myself agreeing with any coat guy interpretations out there, as all of them seem to lean into one extreme or another. For Eastern Asian fans, for example, he's primarily stoic and practically emotionless, which I guess has its charm and "gap moe" moments. For Westerns and Europeans, obviously, because of the localization, he's very timid and almost always pathetically sad (for like, understandable reasons, but like... c'mon). And then there are instances of either infantilization (this is targeted mostly at Eastern Asian artists who draw him do things with an innocent, child-like look on his face), sexualization (with the whole void stomach gimmick... yk) or just outright blatant mischaracterization (of him being overly gluttonous and even violent "in a funny way").

If you ask me, yes, coat guy does seem like a melancholic who feels deep but expresses little, but something I rarely see tackled in fanworks is the transparent possibility of him.. just being a hypocrite. The whole looking-guilty charade of his after he willingly(!) kills everyone upon the black hole reveal might just be him pulling improvisational shit out of his ass after realizing this doesn't effect the protagonist. Like I wholeheartedly believe the whole thing is orchestrated in a way that would result in a satisfying death (as coat guy does it only after a few interactions, meaning he wanted to build trust first), but it fumbled so badly coat guy didn't even feel like finishing the job and just let the protagonist shoot him. You get what I mean?

Hell, for all we know, all his personality he displays might also be fake; by pretending to be passive and weaker than the rest, he at least guarantees pity, if not trust (i.e. if someone was to go up and accuse him of being a visitor, they'd probably get told off since, in the general view, someone like him cannot possibly commit atrocities). And it's not like he's a master manipulator either, motherfucker straight up says "I'm cold" during the heat apocalypse so I guess it's entirely his fault if we let him in?

Either way I very much enjoy the hypocrite coat guy 'cause it ties in well with the theme "don't judge books by their covers", and not only that, it adds depth. Yes, he's an emotionally constipated, severely depressed man with self-esteem issues and a poetic mind, but does he use this image to his advantage? Absolutely. He's an egoist, like everyone else. The difference is - his ego kills.

[txxxciii]

Blinded guy with long ass hair my love

[txxxciii]

My NINAH OC... except it's not a guest. It's a landlord.

Felt cute. Thought I might make myself a ninah oc who's loosely based off of me!! Though I do believe (and hope) I'm not as gross as this incel guy but whatevs.

He's supposed to be his own protagonist who invites guests into his house. Before the cataclysm, much like og protagonist, he was a hermit who liked being alone but craved human affection, leading him to constantly browse through online forums and chat with random people... which in turn caused him to develop some questionable world viewpoints and had him be obsessed with niche anime and manga.

The interactions on the internet, expectedly, didn't cure his loneliness, so when the cataclysm started and the first person came to his doorstep, bar guy, he eagerly took the opportunity to improve his communication skills, while simultaneously developing unrequited feelings for the man, as though bar guy is brutally honest and has a tough exterior, this guy genuinely didn't have anyone this close before and thus tolerates any rude comments and pampers bar guy whenever he can.

Is this an attempt at selfshipping/yumeshipping? Kind of... Dw, I share, idrc.

Anyways since this bitch doesn't have a gun he just tazers the visitors, and if they stay alive after that, he repeatedly stabs them with a kitchen knife. He's just kinda crazy like that!

Aside from bar guy, he also likes gravedigger (his self-proclaimed dad), theorist, fortune-teller, surgeon (his second self-proclaimed dad), widow, stoner... other guys I don't remember rn.

He doesn't really like the vigilante and the prophet 'cause they scare him, he hates FEMA, the pale man and the married couple ('cause they remind him of his parents-). He will also occasionally threatens coat guy with murder 'cause he's awfully too close with bar guy and the dude's jealous about it.

The best ending for him would be the one where you hide in the basement with all humans. He's scared of death, SHITLESS, thus the worst ones would obviously be literally anything else. Also he doesn't have the plot armor the og protagonist has so like.. anyone can go up to him and end his life, no struggle.

Here are the closeups of the sketches:

That's all okay bye

[txxxciii]

I unironically fw the idea that bar guy is taller than pale man, purely because I think that high and mighty bastard should feel humiliated a little