#kirbio

When Lampy got struck by lightning, Radio and Kirby's ideas of him fundamentally changed. They both thought of him as a bit of a dense, stuck up coward who hid behind his smarts to make up for his lack of a metaphorical backbone. But seeing him for an instant bathed in flashing light and facing up towards the sky, how could they think of him as a coward again? Neither of them could entirely hold back their relief when he woke up, nor how frightened they were that they could've lost him. Lampy was still hazy from the shock, but the underlying tenderness from everyone wasn't lost on him.

After Toaster tried diplomacy and was thrown out the window, Kirby fought to protect the others tooth and nail from sharing the same fate. Seeing Kirby get ganged up on and overpowered was terrifying for all of them, but Lampy was the only one who outright panicked when he was thrown out. Blanky was frozen, clinging to Lampy for comfort. Radio was panicking inside, but tried not to let it kill the fight in him as he tried to defend the others in Kirby's stead. He saw that not even Kirby stood a chance, but still cursed himself for not fighting back harder as he tumbled down next, quickly followed by the others.

God, man. Season 2 of SiIvaGunner was so cool.

And like, I know that that's what I *always* say when I'm writing about a Season 2 rip, in everything from Patched Plains Fusion Collab to Rippin'! Mashin'! High Quality Grand Prix and the SilvaGunner: Rebooted 1st Anniversary event...but I can't help it! There was just such an energy of excitement, of pure joy permeating throughout the entire season - excitement not just for the Christmas Comeback Crisis, but for how SiIvaGunner was *actually* back, firing on all cylinders. The rips were referencing events we were already nostalgic over, althewhile introducing new jokes in clever, memorable ways - the Inspector Gadget takeover and Become as Gadget will forever stick with me as one of the most engrossing events the channel has ever done.

To put it one way...in my (nostalgia-blinded) eyes, Season 2 was the most "unified" the channel ever felt. We were all invested in every little corner of the channel's ongoings, we were all aware of the origins of and meaning of all the active jokes...that kind of investment and attachment to all the featured jokes felt sort of like if Season 4 Episode 2's Summer Fes had lasted for an entire Season! And while we've certainly got a far wider, far more ambitious output of rips in Season 5 onward in particular, it was that feeling of unification that made rips like ULTRA S+G hit like fucking crazy.

The thing you'll immediately notice when clicking on ULTRA S+G is, of course, the visuals, a full-length parody of the visuals featured in the original ULTRA B+K music video, completely reimagined to feature several of SiIva's own memes from Season 2. The visuals are, of course, in sync with the main joke of the rip, in being a huge meme medley of various sources, most replacing the original song's "bass" and "kick" vocal samples. The resulting sound hits you like several trains throughout the rip, be it the opening of "DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE ; KAY-KAY-KAY-KAY-KAY!!", the beat-dropping "Miney Crafta"s and "GRAND DAD"s, the midsection covered by the good ol' PSY samples a la One Winged PSYcho - V​.​S. Sepsyrop...and while all that is happening, you're met with visuals that go absolutely above and beyond just parodying the original. It has little references to the events of Season 1, such as the infamous Bean or the Mr. Rental storyline of Mr. Rental [B Side] ~ Out of Options...and, hey - an animation of The Voice Inside Your Head!! What ULTRA S+G conveys above all else is the extent of the journey we had all been on over the course of almost two years, a hype-beyond-belief shot directly into the arm of everything SiIvaGunner embodies.

Sorry for running so late - but bonus points to you if you could call today's rip ahead of time! For 22/08, we're covering the world renowned duology of Route 228 Collabs, The 2:28 Collab and The 2:28 Collab -The Sequel-.

Its always been really fascinating to me that SiIva's larger-scale projects aren't always pushed to the forefront. These days in particular, Fusion Collabs get tons of buildup and special attention leading up to and following their release, but other kinds of collabs often simply get uploaded and left to the whims of the YouTube audience to discover. Its really interesting to see how the original The 2:28 Collab was still able to land with so many people and, in at least my eyes, become one of the most cherished rips by the SiIva diehard such as myself - it and its sequels represent such a genuine, wholehearted love for the art of music creation and VGM as a whole. The original Route 228 theme is a tune beloved by Pokémon's Gen 4 diehard fans - a lategame tune from games over 15 years old by now, yet it and DPPt's sound is still so fondly remembered.

...And I agree with them wholeheartedly, I do~

Yesterday on my post covering As Miku Collides (as well as on several past posts), I discussed how even individual rippers have been able to leave a remarkable impact on SiIvaGunner, purely by conveying their passions and interests through ripping. The self-expression that SiIvaGunner allows for as a neverending stream of uploads, submitted by people from all over the world, is one of its greatest qualities, and this was shown in full force back during Season 1 in particular. A lack of quality control resulted in many far rougher and less timeless rips, but it also meant that rippers of any skill level were free to contribute as much as they wanted to onto the channel. The current system's better planning and higher standard for quality is obviously far better, yet...high quality or not, there was a magic to having such a vast sea of rips made by people who just want to chime in with their little piece, never too invested in how much people would care about the results.

And you have this way of falling in and out of time as it goes by Passing silently with no goodbye

Back on Owner of a Mahjong Board, I singled out the trio of Now That's What I Call Quality! albums as some of the most unique in SiIvaGunner's entire discography. I do believe there is an amendment to be made there, however. From all the way back in Season 1 as the 22nd released album (not counting singles), Stagg Street Arrangements is an oddity of a release in many ways, with all the reasons as to why circling back to Chaze the Chat's known love for Kara's Flowers. An arrangement album of the last release the band ever made before becoming Maroon 5, its the smallest "real" album the channel has ever put out; what's more, all but one of the arrangements on it were made specifically for the release. In every sense of the word, Stagg Street Arrangements was a passion project by Chaze the Chat, a way to permanently cement Kara's Flowers as part of the channel's legacy, before its planned end was to come just weeks later. And given everything surrounding that explosive finale, be it File Select Fusion Collab, The SiIvaGunner Smurfs Collab or Epic Flintstones, its easy to see how Stagg Street Arrangements wound up buried in the mix of things, one more little thing in the vast sea of rips. It would be easy to understand how, all these years later, people would've stopped caring.

You have this way of meaning everything and nothing to me at the same time Returning my hellos with goodbyes

Alongside the prior discussed Everyday Goodbyes (SiIvaGunner Band Cover), the biggest highlight of Stagg Street Arrangements in my eyes would be the arrangement of Stagg Street Recordings' own biggest highlight - Collision Clouds, an arrangement of As Things Collide, by MtH. As one of the first members to join Chaze the Chat in running SiIvaGunner and as the current manager of the channel, it only seems fitting that MtH would end up co-carrying the torch of Kara's Flower's legacy, with Collision Clouds being a heartwrenchingly beautiful arrangement of Kara's Flower's most resonant piece. The new instrumentation, based on the sound of Kirby's Game Boy Advance outings, is an incredible fit, highlighting the feeling of a dream-like plea for help that the original As Things Collide held - an angelic set of nostalgically-compressed instruments to match a song about the dreamy meeting of angels.

Seven long years later, with the release of RIP², we would be reminded, be assured, that the SiIvaGunner team never forgets, and never stops caring. Chaze the Chat may be long gone from the team, but those who remain make sure to never let a ripper's legacy die. Seven years later, we Return to Collision Clouds.

On the album celebrating the greatest of SiIvaGunner's legacy, the arrangement album arranging the channel's own classic rips, we would finally see a return to Stagg Street Arrangements as part of the celebration. Amidst arrangements of classic mashups, of emotional peaks in storylines, and of channel-defining rips such as SING A SONG ABOUT HOPES AND DREAMS, we had Return to Collision Clouds - a tribute to an arrangement few of us remembered, in itself a tribute to a song and band even fewer knew of. The original Collision Clouds, as described above, used the GBA Kirby game sound to heighten the feelings of its original song - Return to Collision Clouds builds upon that foundation, arranging As Things Collide in the instrumentation and style of the modern Kirby games, yet still leaning into that same desired effect. The arrangement uses the sound of woodwind instruments, piano, xylophone, accordion, to create a sort of lively, yet dreamy space for the track that's oh so easy to lose oneself in. Yet it doesn't stray too far from its roots, as partway through the melody becomes played with a modern-sounding synth melody, only to be joined in a harmonious duet with the original Collision Clouds GBA-esque lead. In every sense of the word, it's an amazingly well done tribute, both bringing the original arrangement full circle whilst reminding those watching today of just how much Kara's Flowers meant to the channel's life. I've only previously covered Kirbio on here through one of my all-time favorite rips in Fighting for the Dreams ~ Space Port Collab, and its reassuring to see how his touch for emotionally resonant rips still remains all these years later.

You may at this point be wondering about that special date of today, that I mentioned in As Miku Collides. February 22nd, 02/22. See, in every album that SiIvaGunner released under Chaze the Chat's management, no matter the kind, he made a concentrated effort to include a reference to Kara's Flowers and/or Maroon 5 - always deliberately placing it as track #222 or, in albums with less than 222 tracks, as track #22. The first studio room that the band ever recorded in, the place that would end up creating the band that Chaze the Chat was so thoroughly invested in, had that same number. And even with Chaze the Chat's departure, the tradition continued, with just about every album released to date since following suit. Because even without him here, just like all the other rippers I mentioned on As Miku Collides, just like every other ripper to have ever contributed to the channel - their legacies are eternal. Its as I brought up way back in Violet Snow Memories, as Chain of Memories II Day so perfectly showed: Every ripper leaves a footprint, big or small, one that is bound to be remembered by someone out there. Be that a ripper, an artist, a viewer...or someone like me recounting it all.

Because it's thanks to Chaze the Chat love for Kara's Flowers, and the rest of the team's effort of upholding his legacy, that As Things Collide was able to reach someone like me to begin with. It's thanks to the SiIvaGunner team that so many other Kara's Flowers-like interests, the niches of the internet world, are given the same amount of love and care in their representation on the channel as any other work would. SiIvaGunner is a community in of itself, yet its through this never-ending outpouring of love that I, and likely many others, have been able to find myself in so many more warm, welcoming spaces, the spaces for all of the various little oddities that the team continue to celebrate, this team of nerds from the world over. And I cannot thank them enough for that effort.

This one was bound to become a favorite the moment it released - it was pretty much made just for me. Made as a collaboration between two of the team’s longest-standing contributors, taking one of Sonic Forces’ best music tracks in all possible directions that sound similar to it, with an emotional throughline throughout - it has the ambition of the channel’s best Fusion Collabs contained into just one innocuous 5-minute track. Since its release this track has basically supplanted the original Fighting Onward for me as the definitive version of the song - both rippers did a fantastic job here.