is smbx needed to play tihs?
I guess I should always leave a little note of how to play this on any release post, which is simply
anyway. through the power of closed-source memory address manipulation I can enable and disable abilities to thus replace Mario with Peach without redesigning any levels.
https://my.mixtape.moe/rkpgue.webm
this, of course, improves the quality of the level pack twicefold.
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“the potentially-first level yet unstarted should be immediately striking and dramatic and different from the normal platformer first levels, not like that totally won’t clash with how starting-out is also obliged to have a gentle physics introduction right, and it’ll be fine anyway since this is a challenge pack of some non-existent game’s bonus world right”
paired with even more depressive non-functionality working on this has broken the monthly output, ugh. also feels like cheating, practicing alternate paths with (diagonally, mirrored) symmetrical layouts plus gravity
last year, the year this thread started in, was a miserably destabilizing year for my personal affairs and any sense of purpose, and I had wondered about moving this thread to be swallowed by the Axe. always had a fair bit of insecurity about being little more than just the sum of osmosis, any attempt at contact with others dissolving into overwrought rambling borne out of idiosyncratic obsession rather than any worthwhile perspective.
this year, despite continued struggles, I think I’ve got the slightest glimmers of knowing what I’m doing. trying to focus down on resonance into piles of microprojects to give myself any foundation outside of academic woes and bare survival. I loathe my state, but not myself, and I know that some genuine goal of mine on this death planet is to help with the endless processing of it for other youths and translings and gays. thus all these words on fictional worlds: pseudoteen analysis as practice, or something of that sort, before I write whatever and make whatever. still need to work on cleaner and shorter communication, but I think I’ve got some path forward?
and on that notion here’s some thoughts on what gender / Gender works I read last month, crammed into what should be one of the last posts of this thread.
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shortly after finishing Land of the Lustrous and devouring the (miserably scanslated) manga’s material for the next season, I planned out a longform essay on its incidental gender resonance- I’ll probably be getting around to that later this month. as before: the protagonist of a genderless species goes through a piecemeal metamorphosis of body and mind, from relatable aimless fragility to a questioning matured functionality. started with betrayal from a gendered other and thoughts of dysmorphic self-harm, leading to missing the more innocent state before the trials in such transition, and with still much more to go in dealing with the dehumanizing gendered invaders. manga spoilers have their own cruel bent worth its own spiel, about the trouble brought up from thinking one knows all the answers while still woefully incomplete. this is all incidental- the text is plainly focused on buddhist enlightenment, the author simply interested in pretty (not)boys- but it’s still quite the gorgeous and cruel work either way.
I’ve also been slowly easing into mahou shoujo recently, too- slicing through Yuki Yuna, cutting a decent ways into Utena.
the former makes me wish I knew of much more anime discourse beyond a few cursory notions. its (awkwardly, vaguely ableist) twist of the magic itself ruining the bodies of the heroes as endless futile child sacrifices to Moloch feels like a standard betrayal of the weaponized empowerment and embellished morality derived from the imposed values of the genre’s premises, I guess? at least, whatever relatability beyond merchandising and thirst drives such? institutions do actually corrupt us, it’s true, but there’s no links of social critique made here, no spectre of ideologies as drives reality’s politick beyond reverence to ineffable creators. the ending taking it back doesn’t feel very well earned regardless, those creators of the series already abusing audience expectations in its pacing with the dread in idle days and reveals. still, it was interesting to watch just because of how much of it could so easily cut up, which is clearly what I care far too much about here.
the latter is as fascinating as its reputation suggests, though as I’m still working through the middle of it so far I only have a brief lens on its assessment of love and romanticizing others defining every character. also that half the symbolism isn’t supposed to mean anything. eventually I’ll get around to the more transparent material eliciting such standard praise, those queer struggles in symbolism / feminism / narratives / abuse, and this is probably one of the few such works with trivially-accessible analysis material from others. the bleak nature of later content does remind me that I couldn’t stand Yuri Kuma Arashi, though, that extremely direct premise of dehumanized predatory Actual Gays still not personally enough to justify the modern sexualization investigation? gods, I’ve been barely getting into anime and I’m already fucking exhausted with it.
. . . . . .
KILL SIX BILLION DEMONS is quite fine at its subsubgenre bloc, of overwhelming action in syncretic hellscapes here wrought well out of the stagnant corpse of heaven. there’s a notable almost-absence of traditional egregious torture at any level non-cosmic, and instead a rich focus on how the influences of humanity still leaves its rulers and wards and predators still all too tragically human in self-hatred and repression and compulsions. the angels and demons in particular are somewhat fascinating for their textual reflection on a common thorny discoursive threshold, of Gender Being Fake, Actually yet also still needed for many vulnerable selves.
both types are brilliant darkness and immortal flame bound within metal flesh, cycling through personalities to survive through eternity. the angels scramble to salvage multiple kinds of shattered cosmic order, asserting their righteous position above gender and life despite a clearly masculine-coded brotherhood- every angel the work provides any insight into has seen enough of humanity to either suppress and resent or embrace femininity. the devils are pieces of genderless chaos given individuality and power by manipulative deals with humanity, picking up names and faces and identities in the process, and to ascend or to weigh out the need to feed on others they adapt to new names and new genders to maintain their continued presence.
I don’t even have it in me to best describe the recently started queer romance with the latter type, of two fucked-up manipulative protagonists accepting that they’re both broken jerks, but I have to admit, such was the push towards me reading it.
. . . . . .
those microprojects as future output, hmm. an even longer spiel on Lustrous, another post like this on recent roguelikes, finishing the SMBX project I threw into this thread, a podcast on Monster Hunter, vocal practice streams on the previous three subjects, an original piece or two? at the very least, I’ll probably replace this thread with some aesthetic / reblog / blog to more directly honour and share all this input.
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good post! I should really get back into webcomics now that this kind of stuff exists
Didn’t see this new post until now but, very cool to see your informed takes on how things handle gender.
Kill Six Billion Demons has been probably my favorite webcomic for the past like, year or so it’s neat to hear someone else talk about it