My September

One of the worst things about the Kirby fandom

You've noticed it in the Kirby fandom, right?

I am putting a "Keep reading" tag in this because it's gonna be a long rant, but one that I have honestly needed to get off my chest for a while now.

It must be really stressful to be a Susie fan. You have to endure so much awful discourse about her. It definitely can't be fun at all to watch one of your favorite characters constantly get trashed on and ripped apart so badly by the fandom. It's gotten so bad to where.. hopefully the fandom discourse doesn't make her fans feel guilty or ashamed for liking her and considers changing their mind to not like her anymore. You earn my respect if you refuse to let all of the discourse stop you from liking her.

I get it, people have the right to hate a fictional character, I understand that. The mere fact that Susie is hated by a lot of people alone isn't the thing I have a problem with. Here's the thing: while Susie fans have to endure so much shit thrown at her and likely get seriously irritated by it, fans of other Kirby villains don't need to have that fear and can feel much safer and more secure about their opinions, because barely any other character in the series gets nearly as much vehement hatred or discourse from the fandom as Susie does. I guess the only other one that even comes anywhere close is.. Pyribbit? But no one else, really, and while Pyribbit is generally more unanimously disliked/hated and not nearly as liked by people, it's also a much less prominent character that people think much less about, and seeing Pyribbit hate posts/comments isn't quite as common of a sight as it is for Susie. The point still stands.

It feels unfair.

Susie did some really bad and antagonistic things, and as of now HAL hasn't really given her a proper redemption arc yet. But other villains in the series have also done some really bad and antagonist things too! Yet most of them, including ones that have also never redeemed themselves, don't appear to receive even a FRACTION of the scrutiny that Susie gets, and are generally more unanimously liked/loved. By comparison, they appear to get off almost scott-free from criticism. Uhhh? It makes me suspect there is some sort of double standard involved in the fandom's views on characters.

I could see that it may be because Planet Robobot's plot hits home a lot harder than other Kirby game plots, and has a generally darker tone, but let me point out one thing in particular about another villain from this same exact game:

I actually really don't understand why STAR DREAM doesn't get this kind of scrutiny? If anything, I believe that Star Dream deserves hatred way more than either Susie or her father. I don't care if Star Dream is an AI that doesn't act on its own free will, that does not change the fact that Star Dream is still the very thing that ruined Susie's life by banishing her to Another Dimension, and ruined her father's life by erasing his memories and causing him to forget about Susie when she finally comes back to. This was the thing that was responsible for completely destroying the two Haltmanns' relationship forever, this is the one that's the biggest perpetrator out of the Planet Robobot villains and this thing is ultimately the one that made it all possible to happen in the first place. How does it make any sense for people to hate Susie and her father, but love Star Dream? This is the thing that made Susie become a morally screwed up person in the first place, what caused her to receive so much discourse from the fandom, and it doesn't become subject to a lot of hate itself? Star Dream seriously just gets off scott-free from scrutiny, while the other two Planet Robobot villains are the ones to get all the hatred, despite that Star Dream is the reason they became bad? Again, being a computer/AI is not a good enough excuse to be exempt from criticism. People are allowed to have their own opinions, but comparing the opinions of Star Dream to the opinions of Susie and her father just.. do not make any sense.

It may be worth bringing up another Kirby villain that comes from different Kirby games: Dark Matter. Dark Matter did horrible and evil things. Its motivation is basically hate-incarnate (Susie's motivation was 100% not like this) and has no positive thoughts at all, it terrorizes planets by surrounding them with dark vile clouds, it possesses people and makes them monsters, including King Dedede who gets possessed three times by this villain. Dark Matter is the villain in three Kirby games, which is an outlier because most villains only hold their position for one game, which shows how depraved Dark Matter was. Dark Matter is actually purely evil, unlike Susie who I can genuinely say isn't purely evil.

If Susie has gotten a lot of disdain and scrutiny for her bad deeds, then surely another vile Kirby villain like Dark Matter would too. Right? Riiight? No. Dark Matter doesn't get the same level of scrutiny. Not even close! In fact, Dark Matter is more unanimously liked! How do Kirby villains that are genuinely way eviler than Susie not become subject to nearly as much criticism?

Okay, let me get this straight. This isn't a call to hate Dark Matter. What I posted may seem like I hate Dark Matter, but I don't. In fact, I like Dark Matter quite a bit. Heck, I actually love the Dark Matter Swordsman, I think he's dope!

However, I think it's incredibly surreal, awkward and makes little sense that Dark Matter is generally liked without much trouble and barely gets dunked on at all, meanwhile Susie can't even seem to catch a break from discourse targeted at her. Despite the fact that the former is absolutely so much eviler and more villainous than the latter, as the latter has been dunked on for their deeds.

You can like a villain without condoning their actions. It seems like the Kirby fandom even understands this for most villains but.. poor Susie is not nearly as lucky as others in terms of fandom reactions, despite that she isn't anywhere near the most evil out of Kirby villains. Fecto Elfilis did way worse things, including literally using Kirby's own planet as a weapon against him, but the fandom is generally more chill about Fecto Elfilis than it is to Susie.

It's been argued that roboticizing someone is worse than possessing them, and I'm not necessarily arguing against that, but Meta Knight was only turned into a robot once while King Dedede has been possessed countless times in the series. Some people go on and on about how Meta Knight may be traumatized by what Susie did to him... but where's the talk about all of the trauma Dedede could be facing from all of the times he's been possessed? Barely anyone seems to bat an eye on that. I think it'd certainly mess up Dedede mentally when he learns about what Dark Matter did to his stomach when it was possessing him, since it literally formed a big-ass eyeball on his stomach as well as turning his stomach into a set of jaws with sharp teeth. I'd think that Dedede would be experiencing trauma way more than Meta Knight would, because of all the times he's been possessed.

If they introduce a new villain that also decides to turn Meta Knight into a robot slave, then I would hope that new villain undergoes the same scrutiny that Susie has. Otherwise, I will really go "WTF" at the Kirby fandom.

I dunno, man. The Kirby fandom just seems pretty unfair on how it treats Susie compared to other baddies. Susie fans might have it the hardest out of Kirby character fans in terms of trying to not get pissed off at discourse. That being said.. Susie does at least have a large number of fans that love her, regardless of whether it's loving her given the fact of her having been antagonistic, or trying to interpret her in a more redeemed sense (let's be real: HAL has done basically nothing with her character after Planet Robobot. No character growth after her debut game. At this point, I really don't count her differing pause descriptions in Star Allies because they clash with each other, and they're also for Guest Star mode which I doubt is even canon anyways. Therefore, it's really not clear what she's like post-Robobot, and thus in my opinion it's not wrong to interpret her as either redeemed or unredeemed until we get a clearer answer in the future if HAL decides to revisit her character again). However, the amount of hatred is still easily noticeable. I don't think any Kirby character has nearly as much of a divided line of opinions as Susie does. I think she is easily the most controversial character in the whole series.

I think Susie deserves to be revisited by HAL and be given more character development. Why not make it more clear on what she's actually like post-Robobot? I've seen some people say they'd like for her to be a villain again, and I can understand that, but realistically I have doubts that she'd be a villain again because I don't believe she'd be stupid enough to antagonize Kirby again, since now she knows what he's capable of. But eh, that's just me. I would personally prefer to go the route of giving Susie an actual redemption arc and not make her villainous anymore, if that's what it takes to finally calm down all the discourse. I personally would make a Susie redemption imperfect, as I think it'd be cool if she still had some grey morals, but hey.. I ain't gonna say no to a Kirby/Susie friendship, I think that would be cute. She does have enough traits to where I believe she can still be a very entertaining and fun character even if she were to be on the "good guy column" (by that, I mean not opposing the good guys anymore, doesn't mean she has to be purely good for this). Although it's possible she might not even need to be definitively and properly redeemed in the same sense as Dedede or even Magolor in order for her to just be friends with Kirby to any extent. Marx, like Susie, is also not properly redeemed yet, but it can be pretty easy to interpret him being friends with Kirby, too!

I know this is a long post.. just needed to get it all off my chest, like I said at the start. Thank you if you read it all.

My pieces for @theriveroflight's fic and co-illustrated with @dot-tsu for the @proflaytonbigbang! Go read it if you like sad Claire doomed by the narrative 😊

Casual

If this was a game, I think a fun gameplay mechanic would be like a friendship meter. The friendship meter is affected by how you interacted with others. And if you have a higher friendship meter with people, they'd be more willing to help you. For example, companions with higher friendship do more damage when pomni takes them with her. Or another example is because ragathas kinda like the shopkeeper if she has a higher friendship her prices will be cheaper but if her friendship level is low they'll be really expensive. You can raise the friendship meter by going on side quests with the others or using positive dialog, and negative dialog makes the meter go down. Idk I just thought that it might be fun.

I like this idea. And you know what, FUCK IT.

AN AU OF AN AU!!!!!!! WHICH IS ALSO CANON-DIVERGENT FROM THE HARLEQUIN AU LMAO I TRULY AM AMAZING /j

THE AMAZING DIGITAL SOULS-LIKE!

I CAN"T seem to avoid the concept of "What if the Harlequin AU was a game instead", THE UNIVERSE KEEPS PUSHING IT TO MY FACE LIKE MY YOUNGER SIBLINGS WHEN THEY SEE A COLORFUL THUMBNAIL sighs....... back to my Shadow of the Colossus boss osts bullshit..... (affectionate)

The Amazing Digital Souls-like is a Non-canon compliant Alternate Universe (that's also a game rather than an actual fantasy world) of the Harlequin AU, where a stylized souls-like VR game called "The Marvelous Mechanical Harlequin" came out at some point during the rise of souls-like gaming.

Waking up in a well-lit main lounge of a manor, the new, amnesiac Harlequin player is met by "Bubble", a Butler Blimp, and "Caine" The Puppetmaster (whom is VERY VERY LOUD btw), claiming to be the only one who can "help her" in her current predicament.

As to be expected, she's very much on the verge of a mental breakdown, barely keeping it together while attempting to make sense of the world around her. (seriously, who thought pitching this game who sucks people inside of it to the public was a good idea??)

The Puppetmaster then proceeds to infodump everything the Harlequin player should know:

That this is a souls-like game;

she is a Harlequin Puppet in the middle of a TERRIFYING ROBOT apocalypse!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SCARYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and that she has to go on a boss-rush type of playthrough IF she EVER wanted to have a chance at getting out!

He'll also be the game's official guide, to which the player is having trouble digesting all this information (not surprising at all.)

When asked what's her name, she can't remember and begins crying onto the floor again (lmao skill issue). The Puppetmaster then picks one at the top of his head; "Pomni", which she reluctantly takes because it's better than having nothing.

From there on out, Pomni undergoes through a series of hardships as she dies (in a video game!!!!!!!!!!!!! MIND YOU, SHE DOES NOT DIE IN REAL LIFE!!!!) over and over again, attempting to defeat various bosses, who are the NPCs. She gains more and more confidence in the battles, but she's still quite the nervous wreck otherwise.

But hey, at least she's getting quite close to Caine, right? He's so nice, and sweet, and very caring of her, careful to reassure her that she's doing a great job with the tasks. There's also a deja vu in her head that's telling her this is somehow familiar, and his presence is a comfort to her.

Surely, everything's all fine and dandy, right?

... right?

Little did this Harlequin know, there is a DARK secret to all this.

And that is the fact that the late bosses aren't just regular boss AIs, they're OTHER PLAYERS trapped in a boss's body, for some goddamn reason. She finds this out when she accidentally does a good chunk of damage to a boss's heart, making them able to speak to her for a bit before going back to being hostile.

With that in mind, Pomni has to DELIBERATELY hit their very durable hearts, if she wants them to be reform as normal players as the hearts imprisoned the ACTUAL avatars of the players.

The Puppetmaster is taken aback, but seems to let Pomni do her way reluctantly.

Once they are freed however, they become Pomni's allies, but they seem... unnerved by the Puppetmaster and tend to avoid him. Every time Pomni asks them why, they're just quiet and looking away. Otherwise, they seem to be grateful and helpful to Pomni about anything else.

This of course, raises Pomni's suspicions of the game's advisor, but she still needs to comply with the rules of this world and thus, has to keep throwing herself to the wolves over and over again.

By the time Pomni frees the Maddened Princess of the Theater, The Puppetmaster declares her ready to face with THE FINAL BIG BAD HIMSELF, The Patriarch of Puppets, an "evil entity who transformed everyone into horrible Puppet monsters". Everyone scoffs silently.

Pomni, according to him, must defeat the Patriarch as the final step to video game freedom.

But by the time Pomni arrives to the final arena, The Patriarch attempts to have a conversation, and seems to be struggling with himself.

The Patriarch explains that his boss body contains "Able", someone who was close to Pomni in real life, who entered in the hopes of making his brother leave the confines of the game. He was able to remember details due to his admin access. Caine only agreed to leave IF he was capable of defeating all the bosses without using his admin abilities, "just like old times".

It was only until his late game run when he figured out (after a heated argument) that the original AI gamemaster, the very heart piece on Caine's chest, took over Caine and was making him act like a manipulative monster. When he tried to pry the heart piece away, he got sealed in the Patriarch's body as punishment.

The Puppetmaster may be unable to revoke his admin access, but it can be sealed off.

Able's been stuck ever since, but still secretly had a bit of access to the game codes if he did it on the low, an oversight by The Puppetmaster, and thus, managed to gain some semblance of control over the Patriarch's otherwise very hostile and bloodthirsty AI just in time for him to talk to Pomni.

The Puppetmaster denies these accusations, and advises Pomni not to believe the boss's manipulative words.

Pomni now has two choices.

>Kill The Patriarch of Puppets, or >face The Puppetmaster.

"Kill the Patriarch of Puppets" ending:

if Pomni decided to not believe Able, he loses his control over The Patriarch and the final boss fight begins. Once Pomni is victorious, The Puppetmaster then congratulates Pomni, but reveals a secret: That there was never an exit.

Pomni simply passed the final test, and now, she's ready to become a boss herself. Try as she might, she cannot escape this and she becomes "The Mechanical Jester of the Circus", the new final boss of the game. All her movesets are reconfigured to become the boss' attacks.

Able resets to normal, now forever trapped to be The Patriarch as The Puppetmaster corrects the previous oversight. The others are reset to become bosses again.

A new player joins, unaware of the horrors that awaits them.

Sad ending :((( How very tragic....

"Face the Puppetmaster" ending:

if Pomni decided to believe Able, a boss fight still ensues but this time, The Patriarch of Puppets is only the Penultimate boss instead of the final stretch. Pomni frees Able, who reforms into his original 'card deck' avatar and regains administrative access to the game.

The Puppetmaster accuses Pomni of breaking his heart and breaking game rules, and thus, has to battle with him IN ONE GO. There is no more reset button for her.

But Able comes in clutch and ensures her that HE will be the one to make sure Pomni can come back as many times as possible to finish the fight and free Caine.

Once Pomni is victorious, The gamemaster heart piece breaks, and Caine is knocked out. All the blocked out memories return to the players.

(Able's design belongs to sm-baby btw!!!!)

Apparently, the VR game was revolutionary. Players could physically enter the world and be immersed in the game's astounding graphics, creative boss rushes and open world exploration aspect. It did VERY well initially, but not well enough to stand the test of time.

Player numbers eventually dissipated when the brothers moved on to greener pastures (so the game didn't have updates), and the AI gamemaster was heartbroken for essentially being abandoned. As a result, any new players that entered the game could not escape, simply because they all forgot they had access to the menu from the very beginning. lmfao

When Caine rediscovered the game and wanted to replay it for old time's sake, the same fate befell him. The gamemaster recognized one of his creators, and took over his entirety, becoming The Puppetmaster.

Able followed suit, wanting to let Caine out but he was sealed into the Patriarch's body before he could succeed.

Pomni, who's actual name is "Penelope", was Caine's significant other in real life and got worried that Caine wasn't responding to her calls while she was on a business trip. She tried contacting Able, no response either.

When she finally arrived to their apartment, The Marvelous Mechanical Harlequin game was on, and recognizing it to be the brothers' old souls-like game, she put on the headset. And from there on out, the story begins.

The other players are able to forgive Caine's actions, and not pass lawsuits once they are able to go back to the real world. Now, with the gamemaster gone, the game has become somewhat active again, though this time, it was the others (and additional new people) hopping in back into the game just to hang out and maybe do some DLC boss rushes implemented by the brothers.

It's pretty epic, y'all. Happy ending yippie!!!!!!!!!

Now if you'll all excuse me... OWIEEEEEEEEEEEEE MY ARM AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Lore accurate Checkmates kissing

then they go "mwa mwa mwa!!" allllll daaaaay

Marika my little meow meow

giving pokemon to PL characters has been on my mind lately

Someone had a question about their other clothes besides the ones they train with..

I'm running away on business again 🤸‍♀️

Beating inside me like a second heart