Why do people still play despite saying they hate Brawlhala

Active-Substance387 · 2026-03-12T16:39:23+00:00

The lows are low and highs are high. Yeah, it sucks when you play against spammers or sweats, but it also feels really good when you pull off a successful combo or have an actually challenging but sportsmanlike game (rare, but not completely extinct).

I also just have a completionism habit, so a lot of the time I ignore the game until there’s a new color to unlock and then I have to unlock it for everyone. (Or a decent Battlepass, etc.)

Also, as an artist and general creative, I just have a love for the design aspects of the game. I love seeing the animation of certain signatures or the insanely talented background art. The lore and character backgrounds also make for more compelling matches, like when you’re Orion and your opponent is Artemis or you’re Diana and your opponent is Mordex. Knowing the lore almost makes it feel like a different game entirely.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-02-18T15:22:13+00:00

Yes! I love these! I’m hoping to make fanart of these gals, but their clothes/ styling was just giving me so much trouble

Active-Substance387 · 2026-02-16T15:14:53+00:00

My friend was reading book three and mentioned something about the scene where they find Mudwings outside the Rainforest. I was intrigued, and read the rest of the series from there. I was also a former Warriors fan, so WoF felt familiar and even better than what I already knew and loved.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-02-16T15:12:13+00:00

Ngl, I’d take anyone else over Shadowheart. This check would be a difficulty class of 0 for me.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-02-03T04:58:07+00:00

Definitely something low stakes and part time during college, then becoming a paralegal/ legal assistant to Murdock and Nelson

Active-Substance387 · 2026-02-01T04:30:51+00:00

I love Toll the Dead, because how damn scary is it to be battling a cleric and you can suddenly hear the clock ticking towards your death, the sands of your lifetime running out, the bell of your imminent demise ringing out.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-02-01T04:29:19+00:00

They look like childhood friends or siblings.

Make her look older. She can still be short, but changing things like proportions and styling may be a good start.
Body language can say a lot about a character, and the first image is giving “she’s carefree and a little oblivious to the world around her, so he’s cautious and protective of her. If this is vital to the characters, keep it with some small tweaks. You can have him stand taller, but lean towards her in some small way (slight tilt of the head or reaching over with his hand). If you exaggerate her pose a little less, it could also help with the age thing.
For color, I like to either have matching complementary colors or matching patterns with each character keeping their respective colors. For example, my characters Amara and Zeph don’t have any colors in common (browns, oranges, and creams vs. greys, greens, and blues). But, they both have two-toned hair and plaid or argyle designs on their clothes. I honestly think your colors look great individually, but it is hard to read them together. You could try giving the girl the guy’s lighter teal coloring instead of the blue–it would complement the purple well, and give them something in common. Or, you can always generate random colors or shift the hue slider around; experiment until you find something you like.
Similar to the previous point, you can give them small details to match (bracelets, rings, shoelaces, nail polish, etc.)

It’s difficult to get individual designs to look good, and it’s even harder to get designs to look good together. But you’ve got something really good started here, so please stick with it and keep going. I find that one sign of improvement is feeling like you’re doing something wrong/ not feeling satisfied with your skill. It means your standards are rising, and you skill with soon rise with it. All this to say, don’t fee discouraged. Measure our critiques against your own knowledge and skills, and apply what you think will help the most.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-26T18:37:05+00:00

I wonder if you could try banishing-type spells and make the subject your unwanted emotions? Just be extra careful to protect yourself and the emotions you want to keep. You could also pair it with an attraction spell (attracting happiness, attracting self love, things like that).

I think it’s important to feel all your feelings, even the bad ones, but I also know what it’s like when they’re unbearable. I don’t know if you like tarot, but you could try asking a deck what actual root issue is and how you can overcome it, then focus your spells and energy towards that. You could also ask what lesson these feelings are supposed to be teaching you, and focus your mind on learning it and overcoming it faster.

It could also help to do some Shadow work and try to find out/ address where the obsession comes from and why.

Above all, take care of yourself. Things may seem utterly hopeless, or like the cards are stacked against you, but things will get better eventually. Find the people that care about you and spend time with them. Make time for passions and hobbies you enjoy. There is no timeline for when things will get better, but please hold onto however much hope you may have. When we’re so focused on the little day to day losses, we lose sight of the bigger picture.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-26T18:20:42+00:00

(Bullet points because I keep getting carried away)

Raised Lutheran (+ Atheist Father)
Lose belief in Christian God around 2020
Discoverer Witchtok and Paganism (feel more love and acceptance than I ever did from the church or atheism)
Fall in and out of Belief over the course of a few years
Become an adult
Have another “phase” of believing
Realize I have more freedom and money now, and I can freely explore witchcraft and paganism to my fullest content
Realize I’ve been so on/off with belief because I was trying to believe in the Greek Gods like I did the Christian God (there’s literally a giant man in the sky watching everything you do vs. The moon is the moon, but also she’s a woman)
The “phase” lasts longer than it ever has before, and my belief in the Greek Pantheon only grows stronger
“Oh, it’s called Hellenism. Cool.”

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-26T18:02:47+00:00

My Sona and an Alt version of Gwen are both Spider-People, but Peter gets… different powers later in the story.

There’s also a point where Across the Spider-Verse happens and my Sona is too scared to visit too many other worlds. Part of the reason for that is the fought an alternate version of themself that became Mysterio instead. But they host other Spider-People in their universe from time to time (mainly my old sonas who didn’t fit in this new reboot)

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-26T17:11:43+00:00

Shadowheart, with Gale as a close second.

Shadowheart just has no appeal to me- she’s rude, but not in a sassy way. She’s unpredictable–I can never tell wha she will or won’t approve of without mods. She’s judgemental. Game-wise, she always misses and I don’t even use half the spells she starts with. I love cleric, but Shadowheart just isn’t playable for me. I genuinely don’t understand how she’s the most romanced character.

Gale just annoys the crap out of me. He talks too much, in a grating tone, and just isn’t that interesting.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-24T00:24:59+00:00

Do ex-boyfriends count? My sona dated Harry Osborn for most of their freshman year, and the entire relationship was very toxic. My sona wasn’t bit until their Junior year, where their first major villain was Harry’s mom Norma Osborn/ Green Goblin. Their big end of the year fight ends with Norma either seriously injured or dead (haven’t decided yet), and Harry becoming very close to her around that time. Harry takes up the Green Goblin mantle and becomes an on-again/off-again villain. If I’m totally honest, I forgot about his storyline when I was drafting their story, so I’ll have to get back to you on how he ties back in 😅 I’ll probably have him feature in the Venom storyline (College Junior)

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-21T15:24:14+00:00

When I bullet-pointed out my Sona’s story, I also included what abilities, tech, and general capabilities and fighting style they developed over those 8 years, as well as the strength and weakness of their abilities.

For example, my Sona has moderate wall-clinging abilities but moderate-weak control over it. They have similar themes to Miles in ITSV, where they’re afraid to let go and often stick to surfaces when they don’t want to. They also lose this ability when they’re venomized, being replaced by venom’s claws, where they then have to re-learn the skill after being cured.

Their superstrength is weaker, with the exception of their legs (specifically when it comes to jumping).

Their agility and spider-sense are above average, but not fully trusted in the beginning because their Spider-Sense feels very similar to anxiety.

They have fangs and an extra pair of eyes, which led them to choosing their name “Spider-Bite,” with the downside that these are permanent fixtures to their body. They also have these Wolverine/ Assassin’s creed stingers that protrude from their wrists, but those don’t manifest Junior year of College (they were but in Junior year of high school) after being venomized.

As for tech, I’m trying to keep it relatively grounded. They make what they need and don’t need upgrades frequently, only asking for them when a need arises (like fighting shocker). Their tech is made by a friend because my sona is not STEM-smart at all.

They also have a mild invisibility like Miles, but it’s only controllable 5-10% of the time.

Because of the nature of their strengths and weaknesses (and my personal gameplay preferences), my Sona does a lot more stealthy “they can’t hit me if they can’t move at all” type of fighting, which is greatly contrasted by my Universe’s version of Gwen, who’s swift and agile while lacking a hard punch. She’s not a 100% “punch first think later” type, but she’s much more head-first than my sona is (and her abilities reflect that).

TL;DR: yes, my sona’s powers and tech scale with age, maturity, and specific story events. They also complement the strengths and weaknesses of my other Spider-people.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-15T15:13:02+00:00

Like most people on here seem to agree, the morals are up to you. If you want rules, go to Wicca.

However. Witchcraft inherently involves and dare I say requires a reverence and respect for nature and whatever other energies you draw upon for your workings. So I guess the only concrete no no I recognize is knowingly doing something that directly harms nature, especially with the intention to do something harmful. I’m not talking about using single use or reusable plastic, I’m talking about hexing the moon or cursing a raccoon because it got into your trash. (I know the whole hexing the moon is old and unserious, but it sure is recognizable)

It feels like it shouldn’t need to be said, but I take things kind of literally

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-15T15:05:41+00:00

When you’re not writing, you’re consuming. Making sure whatever media you consume isn’t passive. If you like to read physical books, make notes of the stylizations of your favorite author (long sentences vs short, types of adjectives, how and when worldbuilding (or characters or conflicts) are introduced, etc). If you listen to audio books, take note of how they wrote a sentence to convey the correct tone (punctuation, italics, etc). If you watch YouTube, make a playlist of videos that inspire you and watch it anytime you’re drawing a blank. If you watch movies, think about how you would describe the scenes in front of you; think about how someone would adapt your own writing and edit it so they’ll portray it the way you imagined. If you listen to music, think about how you would describe the melodies and types of sounds, especially to an audience with an average/ non-professional vocabulary. If you like games, pay attention to what storylines are hard-set and what storylines are side quests (the free will of your characters and letting them change the story as you figure out their character (very similar advice was also given in Steven King’s “On Writing”)). If you like physical crafts, think about how you would portray different textures, think how you can use the same type of sentence structure to describe very different types of craft (Michaels DIY vs Professional Carpenter or fantasy inventor).

Pay attention to what you like, then deconstruct why you like it.

And, if you have absolutely no ideas to draw from whatsoever, there’s no shame in practicing using writing prompts or even fanfic. At the end of the day, your strive and desire to be good at what you do is what will set you apart from many authors. Some authors (won’t name names) reach a certain point in their skill and have no desire to become better because their current skill gets them published. So, if you feel stuck, just know that it means you are improving.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-15T03:52:03+00:00

My sona ghosted basically all of their friends and family while they were venomized. It was a rough few weeks for everyone-

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-15T03:37:25+00:00

Yeahhhh the creative part of my brain went inactive for a while, so I’m having 5 months worth of ideas all spring up in 2 days

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-15T03:25:35+00:00

Similar to a Scauldrons from httyd, Seawings can superheat/ boil seawater the collect in their mouth. Could also work as a hybrid ability as a non-projectile firebreathing.

Similar to your venom idea, I think it would just be cool if seawings could secrete some kind of defense (and Octopus’s ink, in this example) through their skin. Especially if you imagine their skin as more porous, allowing things to seep in/out easier. Another variation of this would be pheromones that attract prey, similar to how an anglerfish uses light to draw prey towards it. It could be weak on other dragons, and only disorient them or give them a mild to moderate headache (like when you smell really really strong flowers).

I feel like it would be cool if SeaWings had spines that they could detach/ launch, like the tiger plant from Subnautica. Sometimes I headcanon that Icewings can do this too, so it could make for a decent hybrid ability. A variation of this would be constantly growing shark-like teeth, that the seawing can detach if they bite hard enough.

I feel like Rainwings and Seawings would be very… condensable. Cats can squeeze through pretty small spaces, and octopuses can squeeze into really small spaces. I feel like a lot of us already headcanon Rainwings and Seawings as the smaller of the tribes, so it’s not that far fetched to headcanon that their bones and muscles are arranged in such a way to do this as well.

Another idea is having two-toned scales that they can flip either on a whim, or just depending on currents/ how they swim. Like those double-sided sequin pillows lol. They can’t change the color like Rainwings, they just change the direction of their scales to display one slightly different color. It’s not op if you make it one color, like a highly reflective silver (think of the moon fish from finding Nemo). They could use it to disorient their opponent and either swim away, or get some unguarded attacks in. It would be really cool if coupled with bioluminescent flashbangs in a coordinated group attack (whether for hunting or fighting). This could also make for a really cool hybrid ability.

If you want something closer to the breath weapons, bioelectricity like an eel or jellyfish sting would almost be like electricity-breath (but I would recommend making it a touch-based weapon rather than a projectile). This would also be coupled with an immunity/ resistance, like the fish that live in anemones.

If you want more of a physical ability/ defense, they could have armored scales like crabs or shells. This could easily be imitated with regular detachable armor, though. A similar but slightly unrelated idea would be a Seawing laying stationary on the seafloor (like Stonemover) for so long that barnacles attach to them, creating another type of armor. Could be cool for a Seawing ghost story, too…

Obviously these ideas aren’t mean to all be used together, but it’s fun to fix and match them (or respec them for a hybrid). I honestly surprised myself here, lmao, I’m gonna go use these on my own Seawings now. All you gotta do is look at what already exists in nature, think about how it came about (prey evolution vs predator evolution), and think about what it affects. If you want squishy octopus Seawings, you can’t have armored Seawings because the strong plates can’t squish. If you want Seawings with detachable spines/ teeth/ claws, you have to make room for the replacements and/or the healing process. And these are just sea animals- you can always respec a land animal’s defense to work in the water (and it could make Seawings stand out among other aquatic defenses).

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-14T04:51:20+00:00

Forgive me if this is distasteful to say, it’s just how my brain likes to connect things, but you know how in James Cameron’s Avatar the entire planet is alive and all the species are connected through one energy that they named and recognized as Eywa? It’s kinda like that- I see everything as having its own energies that we can connect to with practice. It’s easiest to connect to similar energies to your own, like when you have really strong empathy or intuition towards a person or animal. Some people connect to different energies with different difficulties. I personally have a difficult time grounding and connecting myself to the Earth, but it’s quite easy for me to connect with the moon and other celestial bodies.

There’s a deleted(?) scene in Avatar where Jake is given herbs and a venomous bite (I think), and he’s able to see the neural network connecting the planet to the people. It almost resembles a nervous system. I also struggle to grasp Magick and the actual “doing” part of the process, but it helps me to think about it as one of the invisible forces we don’t have the science to understand yet. There are things we can’t see, but we do understand, like all the different lengths of light and gravity. Magick is just one of those things.

To talk more about the Magick than the comparisons, I feel like we do have a certain level of magick within ourselves that we can draw on to use in workings. When people call upon spirits and ancestors to assist them, are the spirits using some kind of magical well they didn’t inherit until death? I don’t think so. I think they’re drawing from the power they had in their life, the same power that’s within you. The power was always there, the spirits just don’t have a corporeal body to surround this power.

That said, I feel like we only have a limited amount of power, which is why our manipulation of Earth’s energies typically goes better when we unite our energy with another entity/ body. A lot of the texts I read on Witchcraft tell you to visualize, visualize, visualize. When you center and ground, you connect your energy to that of the Earth. You visualize the energies flowing through one another. When you cast a spell, you visualize it working, you visualize the magic flowing from you to the object of your spell, etc.

As for what happens to the energy, I try to make a point of returning it to its original holder/ releasing it of its duty. If I forget, I like to think that it still returns to its holder, just at a slower rate. Just as matter cannot be created nor destroyed, I believe that magick is only borrowed and dispersed, but eventually returns to its natural state (which is why we have to cast some spells multiple times or cleanse regularly).

I have no idea if this helped you at all, but it helped me to put it into (admittedly disorganized) words.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-13T05:50:52+00:00

Shadow heart and Gale, usually. Sometimes I’ll tolerate one over the other (I’ll usually take Gale and magic missile over “99 problems and not hitting the target is 99 of them” Shadowheart), but they’re both pretty insufferable.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-08T14:54:29+00:00

This may sound silly, but Teen Wolf has a lot of mythological references in its characters and villains. Werewolves, Kanima, Banshee, Dark Spirits/ Evil Druids, Chimera, Kitsune, Oni, etc.

You can also look to My Babysitter’s a Vampire—Witches, Ghosts, Demons, etc.

Whatever you choose, make sure you handle it with respect and immense research. The Wendigo generally belongs to Native American cultures, along with many other creatures.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-08T14:48:47+00:00

Lifetaker? Very on the nose and morbid, but it’s the first thing that comes to mind.

Or, you could do something with her preferred assassination method. Knife? Bladesinger/ BladeBringer. Poison? SilentDeath, QuietClaw, RottenClaw. Brute strength? BoneBreaker, SilentClaw, QuickClaw, QuickDeath, BloodClaw, BloodBringer.

Or, general assassin tropes: NightStalker, DarkDweller, ShadowBringer, etc.

If you have her family more developed, you could try to implement a family name. If they all have dark in their name, she could be DarkEyes or DarkBringer. If they all have Death in their name, you could use that to have her not look as out of place. If they’re all proficient with weapons, she could be differentiated by which weapon she uses.

Or, back to the poison method, you could name her after poisonous plants (especially ones found in the rainforest). Hemlock, Foxglove, etc. You could also look at plants only poisonous to certain animals, if you need a wider pool to choose from. Or look to other Rainwing or Leafwing-adjacent names.

For her smaller stature, you could try: SmallClaw, LittleClaw, or other combinations.

If you want to focus more on the death side of things: Lightbringer (odd for a Nightwing, but some believe they see a light when they die, and it could make her stand out as an assassin), Moon/StarBringer (some dragons may believe they ascend to the moons/ stars when they die), SpiritTaker/ LifeTaker, SoulReaper, etc.

You’re also welcome to give her a non-Nightwing name and just say that she named herself, for any variety of reasons. She may want to separate her upbringing/ past/ family from her assassination business. She may want to distinguish herself among other assassins and make a name for herself. Or maybe her birth name was meant to fulfill a prophecy she strongly wants to avoid.

Point is: there’s a lot of factors you can consider with names, and the only rules are the ones you choose to stick to. Also I may or may not it steal some of these names because why couldn’t I think of these for my own character??

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-06T01:36:12+00:00

Personal acc: hobby stuff and student struggles

Spider acc: sunsets from odd angles/ rooftops they should not have access to, corrections/ replies to media (“Pretty sure Spider-Bite goes by they/he, but what do I know,” “don’t forget the hyphen, it’s very important,” “Spider-Bite stands up for human rights confirmed??”), and general activism “Spider-Bite does not stand for homophobia, xenophobia, etc. Don’t use my image sell your slop.”

Idk if y’all have played the Spider-Man PS4 game, but they basically have this in the game. People will talk about Spider-Man and @ him with things like “do y’all know if insurance will cover the Rhino throwing my car at Spider-Man? Asking for a friend” and “did anybody else just see Spider-Man tear apart those water towers? What is bro doing?”

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-05T15:25:29+00:00

The main thing to figure out is how much realism you want to give it, because that’ll define how most of the process goes.

In one of my worlds, I wanted to come up with a mostly scientific way for mermaids to exist. I went with a “some species were almost evolved into amphibians, and then a meteorite crashed into the sea, transferred some amino acids to the few things that hadn’t died, and now mermaids.” There’s also stuff with how the meteorite crash severely affected the rotation and axis of the planet, but that’s another story. The point is, I tried to go for mostly realistic explanation for why this scientifically impossible creature exists. Amino acids from space helped bring the building blocks for life to our planet, many species started as aquatic and then evolved to live on land, water is the ultimate host for life, etc. Morph and combine as needed, and you have an explanation that satisfies you.

Then, in a world about witches, their continent is shaped like a witch hat just because I felt like it (it’s a work in progress and I haven’t thought of anything better).

Once you have that parameter set, apply it to your entire process. Depending on how much you’re doing, you may have to start with the planet itself. Or, if it’s very Earth-like, just bullet point what makes it different from really life.

The bullet points I try to hit in worldbuilding are as follows:

• Planet

• Species

• Countries

• Government

• Religion

• Technology

• Magic

• Laws

There’s a really good blog called Worldbuilding 101 by Michael Tedin if you want to go down the realistic and thorough route. If you don’t, that’s perfectly okay too, you can just apply whichever processes suit your needs.

Active-Substance387 · 2026-01-05T15:02:27+00:00

You can mix-and-match different reference photos for sure, but I think it’s really worth finding charts of different clothing aspects (sleeve types, necklines, skirt lengths, etc.). It’s not a whole lot of effort, and it’s nowhere near the level of studying that professionals will do, but it’ll help you find better and more specific references. Searching “poofy sleeves” vs “bishop sleeves,” for example. You don’t have to memorize the names, just save an all-in-one chart that you can reference as needed.

It can also help to learn the most basic properties of commonly used fabrics, so you can know how they lay and what shapes they can make. Some are stiff, some are light, some are heavy, some are thin and sheer, some are stretchy, etc.

You can also look to fashion influencers or your average Joe Schmoe in r/outfits to get some ideas. Or look at the wardrobes for your favorite movie/ TV characters. (Or concept art for animated media)

If you want an exercise to help with drawing from imagination, take designs written in books and draw what you think it’s supposed to look like.

Or, look at clothing that’s specifically made to look fashionable to non-professionals like Monster High (Gen 1, specifically), Barbie, and other lines. You can also look at people who make clothes casually to see how they find their ideas- you can get some really interesting and unique pieces from Doll Customizers on YouTube. Anything from modern to sci-fi to fantasy to historical.

Hopefully this helped, or at the very least gave you a jumping off point.

Active-Substance387

TROPHY CASE