You Know, I Oftentimes Don't Feel The Same Hype For Indie Animation That Others Feel. I Get The Hype,

You know, I oftentimes don't feel the same hype for indie animation that others feel. I get the hype, but don't feel it. Probably doesn't help that usually when I see whatever it is that people are hyping up that I'm left unimpressed.

Does not matter if it's Helluva Boss, Murder Drones, Port by the Sea or even that dumbass cartoon Monkey Wrench. I'm unimpressed.

Nothing wows me, because nothing it does is truly awe-inspiring or whatever. I'm more impressed by indie comics than I am indie animation.

I love animation, but nothing that any of these do is anything I love. Doesn't help that compared to non-indie animation, the plots are just kinda... lacking, I guess? They don't got anything that makes me want to stay, nothing that keeps my attention. Blue Eye Samurai and Arcane also had a hard time keeping my attention but at least I like the characters and the overall story. Nothing about the indie animations does that.

What started out as a standard day for the Blue Burrower had quickly become something of a chaotic day once a new knight from a far off land had made their way to the valley. The Silver Stunner had just walked right into the friendly tournament that King Pridemoor had set up for Shovel Knight, Shield Knight, Black Knight, the Order of No Quarter and others to participate in. It had been a suggestion by Black Knight as a way for them all to blow off some steam and get their muscles up and moving so as to not lose their ability. It was as Queen Knight fought Drill Knight that suddenly, a chair of all things knocked the latter out. How could it knock someone of Drill Knight's stature out, one may ask. You see, it was not just a normal chair, no, it was a steel chair.

"I... AM... Steel Chair Knight! And I come looking for a challenge!" Proclaimed the newcomer.

One after another fell to the Silver Stunner and their chair. All except for the Blue Burrower themself, Shovel Knight. The two would be evenly matched blow for blow, hit for hit, each's advantage being odd and easy. Shovel Knight could dig to evade attacks if they so wished, while Steel Chair Knight could run and jump like no tomorrow.

The match would last for an hour, the two tired by the end. Both would take a stance, ready their weapons, then charge! Running forward, both swung their signature weapons the hardest they could. The shovel and the steel chair barely grazed each other, small sparks flying off, as each weapon would hit the target in the head. Knocked to the sides, both would lay unmoving for a minute, the crowd watching with bated breath. Eventually, the clue-clad warrior would stir first, standing up with a bit of held from their shovel. Walking over to the downed opponent, Shovel Knight offered an open hand, to held the other knight up from the ground.

Steel Chair Knight could almost not believe the kindness being offered, nearly pulling their hand back after reaching out, but take Shovel Knight's hand they did. Now standing with a cheering crowd around them all, the Silver Stunner was stunned themself.

Later in that same day as everyone filed out of the colosseum, the Blue Burrower and Silver Stunner would be talking, chatting about what brought the latter to the valley and why they had interrupted the friendly tournament. The question would lead Steel Chair Knight on a pretty long story. A story to be told another day.

The Battleground of the Gods. What a way to waste their time when Creation is on the brink of destruction. At least it is a designated battleground that puts little to no collateral in the way. No humans to kill in a bid to destroy those you hate. The Minions are more like a type of godling than anything else, in a way.

Those were Strife's thoughts as he took in the sites and breathed the air of the battleground. He had ended up here some time ago, some time after the Destroyer had made his attack on the Maker's Tree. He suspected his last minute spell had brought him here to what is a essentially a prison for those that the Charred Council could not destroy without unbalancing the universe. So a pocket dimension where you could keep all these Gods and Monsters together for however long was probably the best option anybody could come up with.

Walking forward into the battleground, Strife readied himself and reached for his guns, only to find he had neither on him. Right. He lost them. Having an idea of where Mercy and Redemption ended up, the Rider of the White Horse pulled out his blades and checked for his caltrops, knowing that he may have to go into battle with less power than he would have liked.

Since it has been on my mind again, I want to talk about maybe another idea that could have been cool to see Riot Forge try out: a game set in ancient Shurima that focuses on the story of the Ascended versus the Void, or how the Darkin would become the Darkin. Or something that does both?

It could maybe something like the Civilization series of games, or maybe something like what I've seen of Marvel's Midnight Suns. Now that I think about, a smaller version of Midnight Suns would probably be a good idea for a game set around the Ascended versus the Void. I have heard that Midnight Suns is like XCOM, a game I have never played, so maybe whoever it was that Riot Forge could have hypothetically gotten for the game could pull off a 2D version of that gameplay.

Kinda wish I had more to say, but the ideas are not popping in my head all that easily. I do think it would be cool to get more of an idea on the Darkin before they were the Darkin, so who knows, maybe Riot themselves will give the idea a try one day.

I don't like Monkey Wrench

The show is just not my kind of thing. Also, I don't want to like it. I first heard about it when this fucking hellsite was going through a whole batch of Vivziepop drama and it was practically overflowing in the Helluva Boss tag. People kept making some wild statements and eventually I saw one post that basically said to go watch other shows and it used Monkey Wrench as an example. That did not sit with me. So, I just kinda became a hater for a bit, and guess what?... I'm not gonna flip the script now. I don't care how good people say it is and I don't care if it reminds of you of those Saturday Morning Cartoons you loved so much. I think there's a reason it's not a big thing that everyone talks about, and that is because it's not doing anything special. I watched episode one, it used a plot I've seen with nothing new added. I watched episode two, it tries to create a marketable character, nobody cares because it has no personality. I tried watching the third episode and quit within the first minute.

So... call me a hater if you want. Try convincing me to give it another try if you want. Just know that I don't care about your uninspired blorbos or whatever you want to call them. I'll honestly be surprised if this post gets any reactions at all.

Occasionally, I still think about how some of the Darksiders characters could work in a MOBA like LoL or SMITE. It's sort of a fun thought experiment. A couple posts ago I went over how I guessed the Horsemen could work, now let's try some of the other characters. Considering these are non-playable characters, I'll use what I can from the Darksiders games as a bit of a basis while also taking some inspiration from the move-sets of characters in MOBAs.

First, a slight addendum to a previous post about the topic. Death’s three abilities could be Teleport Slash, his summoning ghouls, and Dust acting as a sort of "scout" similar to Ashe's Hawkshot in League while his Ultimate is his Reaper Form. Fury's three abilities could be a dash, her one Hollowless Wrath attack in Ds3, an ability to pull an enemy towards you while her Ultimate would he her Havoc Form.

SAMAEL: Using his boss fight from Ds2 as a bit of inspiration, he would have lightning and fire as part of his kit. His first ability could be fire related, being something like summoning a pillar of flame in a specific area while his second ability could maybe be a skillshot of throwing a bolt of lightning which has a chance of stunning an enemy. His third ability could be based off of when he summons the huge balls of plasma during his boss fight, the ones Death has to dodge. Finally, his Ultimate could be something like him forming an aura of lightning and fire to boost his attacks. So I guess he's got bits of Aatrox, Brand, and Kennen as inspiration?

URIEL: Using he boss fight from Ds1 as a bit of inspiration, alongside that of Kayle from LoL. She has one ability where she launch a blade of energy at the enemies, another ability where she summons down a sword or two, while another is a dash attack or tempory shield that could grant invulnerability, and her Ultimate is... I don't know at the moment. I'm sorry.

The ARCHON: He could maybe like a weird mix of Kayne and Lux. Abilities based around both his Angelic nature and the Corruption infecting him, with his Ultimate being a huge beam attack from the Rod of Arafel. I'm sorry I can't think of how to go in depth compared to others.

The DESTROYER: His Ultimate is kinda easy. Make it turning into his huge dragon form. His overall move-set could be a bit like Shyvana's? Oh, or maybe his overall move-set could take a tiny bit of inspiration from both Deathwing and Diablo in Heroes of the Storm! That could maybe work?

Anyways! Hope you all enjoyed this! If you got any input, that's cool! I would love to hear from people what ideas they got!