#Counterpoint Counterpart

[rainingsodium]

Waitin' for the bus

Alt + Alt text ⬇️

[yayasvalveplay]

Sassy in question here 👋

I already knew he died in animated. At the height of my obsession with Swerve I ended up looking up ALL of his other iteration (which, btw, did you know he had a Bayverse counterpart? Only in the comics tho). But, to counterpoint, the "Swerve" that died looks NOTHING like the Swerve we know (and is later shown in the almanac)

He has a mustache and looks older than Ratchet

So, I propose to you the idea that that was his grandfather or something and he was named after him

Idk how yall plan Cybertronian family trees here or if that's even possible, but I still think it's funny

See im useing this for DW, ad any other TFA au that takes place after season 3

Like look

This? Who is this? This is NOT Swerve. This is Swerve's Grandfather who Swerve is named after

THIS is Swerve. Bartender Swerve is NOT dead.

DW Swerve is a breeder. But also got a part time job as a bartender. His drinks are still good, and after making one for a client. well. A lot of mechs wants to taste his concoctions

[atamascolily]

Given how tightly plotted previously installments have been, I have to admit I was caught off guard by the seeming introduction of new characters in the Walpurgis no Kaiten trailer. However, on reflection (heh), it makes sense if one of the themes of the movie is indeed opposites/doubling/mirroring. After all, if Homura has a double for a narrative foil, why shouldn't the rest of the main cast have one, too? Prior to the second trailer, I had assumed this role would be filled by the "new girl" in the first trailer, who appears to be a Homura/Mami/Madoka hybrid, but it seems that's just the tip of the iceberg.

That said, it's also clear to me from the second trailer that this mirroring, if that's what's really going on here, isn't going to always literal as it is with Homura. The girl paired with Nagisa in the ball pit in the second trailer doesn't look exactly the same as Nagisa, but it's clear from the framing that the two of them are being deliberately juxtaposed, and will likely serve as narrative foils to each other. My guess is that this girl is the humanized form of Nagisa's witch Charlotte, just like I think that the most likely candidate for Homura's double is her witch Homulilly, (because the metaphorical almost always becomes literal in this series, even though the movie may or may not name them directly as such), but my point stands regardless of their exact relationship to each other.

If that's the case, then who in the Holy Quintet is the counterpart for the other new character--the green-haired girl in the trailer?

The obvious answer is "Mami"--partly because of the tea party and general vibes, and partly because of the color scheme (green and yellow go well together and the girl has golden eyes like Mami's). This is especially true if fan theories are right and this girl is the humanized form of Gertrud the Rose Witch, whom Mami faces off against in episode 1-2 of the original series, and who serves as a deliberate counterpoint to Mami there.

Having a more human Gertrud as foil to Mami would make sense because unlike Homura and Nagisa, Mami never becomes a witch in the original series; while she does have a witch form in the PSP game and other spinoff media, I think we are unlikely to see it in this installment and thus her most likely counterpoint would then be Gertrud. Gertrud's familiars are also visible in Homura's new world at the end of Rebellion, suggesting she might turn up in some fashion in Walpurgis no Kaiten.

(This also raises the interesting question of whether Mami's VA would voice this character or not. Considering that Kaori Mizuhashi also voiced Walpurgisnacht and Tatsuya in the original series, it's not impossible than she and/or other voice actors might play one or more roles in this new installment. As a bonus, this would also mean that SHAFT could get away with not announcing the minor roles before the release, as they would probably have to if they were adding completely new voice actors to the cast. Until we get more news, I'm assuming that Chiwa Saito is voicing both Homuras, though everything else is more speculative.)

However, it occurred to me that based on her ponytail and her position in this shot, she could also be Kyouko's foil (red and green being opposing colors); this is less likely, but I figured I'd mention it as a possibility anyway, since the second trailer appears to be leaning heavily into Rebellion parallels. TBD. Like Mami, Kyouko doesn't have a witch form in the original series, so her most likely parallel is another established witch character, although nobody from the original series immediately leaps to mind.

(By the way, this would mean there are more new characters--or new versions of established characters--we haven't seen yet, so, uh, hold that thought.)

After that, it gets a little more complex and murky. Sayaka's most likely foil should be her witch Oktavia, but it's unclear to me from what we've seen so far how much that particular conflict manifests internally or externally. I think Sayaka is going to be extremely conflicted in Walpurgis no Kaiten, and it will be interesting to see how her arc develops. Based on the original series, however, I would say that the other logical witch counterpart for her is Elsa Maria the Shadow Witch, whose labyrinth mirrors Sayaka's black and white thinking during a particularly dark period for her, though I suppose H.N. Elly the Box Witch who attacks Madoka in Episode 4 is also a possibility.

Madoka also has a witch form, Kriemhild Gretchen, who is absorbed into the Law of Cycles, though I think her foil is most likely the Law of Cycles itself. We'll have to see.

You may have noticed that I am limiting myself solely to witches from the original series rather than spinoff media. The first reason is that I'm skeptical that SHAFT would bring in a witch that general audiences who have only followed the main series have never seen before (except for maybe a brief cameo). The second reason is that the Law of Cycles' motif in Rebellion explicitly shows only those witches from the original series, and we see only a select group of these witches and/or their familiars during the battle against Homulilly's familiars.

All these witches are potentially fair game to appear in WnK, making nine in all, though I doubt more than a handful would have more than a few lines, let alone a major role. Also this diagram does not appear to incorporate Walpurgisnacht unless she turns out to be the Law of Cycles after all.

Somehow, I can't imagine SHAFT pivoting in mid-stream to bring up something completely new or even a more obscure witch from another spinoff, especially when so much of the main series focused on reliving and re-experiencing the same events over and over again. Sorry, fans of the Madoka PSP and slot machine games, I think you're destined to be disappointed in your wish to see any of those game-only witches on the big screen, but I suppose we'll see.

This is all just speculation for now, but I'm excited and intrigued to see where this goes!

[abundantchewtoys]

Beyond Canon re: Addendum 1

So yeah, I figured we'd get an intermission before the next part of Beyond Canon.

After reading the update, calling it an Addendum instead of Intermission makes sense though. I hadn't considered they'd continue on the book theme so much!

I do like the direction the team went here. Recontextualizing Calliope's strange behaviour as a cultural thing.

Also, it's strange to see to which extent they're aware of the narrative! They narrated literally what the narration was saying, implying they had a direct link to Alt Calliope! They's written down the happenings in the Candy timeline!

But apparently, at least from how they wrote it down, Karkat has no awareness of Alt Calliope's involvement there, it seems!

I do like we have yet another physical manifestation of the story, after the discs and cartridges from Homestuck proper.

Anyway:

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I also very much like the updated, more mature sprites & outfits for Karkat & Calliope!

So Karkat would seem more attractive to Calliope in case he was buff. Like his Candy counterpart, okay, but does that mean that, to some extent, LE's appearance would have seem attractive to Calliope too? Shudder.

It's hilarious that Karkat misinterpreted Calliope's overture as a romantic one, and completely understandable that he had no interest. It shows perhaps also how he would have handled it if Nepeta ever had found the courage to approach him directly.

… Oh god, Calliope was even in the vents like Nepeta!

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In hindsight, Karkat reviewing Calliope's "fanfiction" is extra funny given the Paradox Space story where Dave does it for Karkat.

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I guess Calliope's writing is as addictive as a juju.

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"CALLIOPE: what did yoU think of it? ^u^

KARKAT: WHEW, OKAY, WHERE DO I START.

KARKAT: THE FORMATTING, FOR ONE.

KARKAT: ARE YOU STILL DOING CHAPTERS? IT FEELS LIKE THE LAST CHAPTER JUST… KEEPS GOING.

KARKAT: NOT TO MENTION ALL THE CHAPTERS YOU STRAIGHT UP SKIPPED."

So. Meta. lol

"CALLIOPE: i think of everything past the point of dave's apotheosis-

KARKAT: HIS OBAMA-INSPIRED SUICIDE?

CALLIOPE: well, that's a redUctive way of pUtting it, bUt yes, that-

CALLIOPE: everything past that point seems to me to work more as the first act of a follow-Up saga!"

So, funny enough, the chapter format went on in the first part of HS:BC, before the team switch.

But yes, Beyond Canon is the sequel to the epilogues. … Star Wars has the sequel trilogy, Homestuck has a sequel epilogy :p

"KARKAT: YOU'VE GOT YOUR WRIGGLERS EMBIGGENMENT SCOPE TOWERING OVER OUR SHITTY LITTLE NEST, BURNING US ALL ALIVE AS YOU WATCH PERVERSELY."

Oh wow, I didn't understand this sentence on the first readthrough, but a "wrigglers embiggenment scope" is just troll for "magnifying glass", okay. :p

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I very much love this art!

It shows that at least subconsciously, Calliope still is connected to the Candy timeline with her musey powers.

The four lights following Vriska there are the kids, the silhouettes of the adults on the right…

Then the red stream are of course a reference to Vriska. The blue is John though! His glasses are there on the left, see? Roxy appears to be jumping for him. Maybe this means Vriska's hell tier is the "proper" powerup as counterpoint to John's "cheating" with the retcon powers he got through the juju? Then again for Vriska, the red is part of her costume, and blue is her blood colour.

The purple streaks are perhaps most disturbing. Come to think of it though… The purple & orange might be references to Meat Dirk & Rose! And it seems there are further drawings on the walls we are not privy to, yet. At least we know now the what kind of scribbles/disturbing drawings Calliope was probably also drawing back on Earth, after her first run-in with her Alt self there.

"KARKAT: ALSO, I DID LIKE HOW YOU HANDLED THE SEX SCENES.

KARKAT: YOU LOCKED IN ON SOME CLASSIC NOXIOUS BLACKROM TROPES THAT WERE ALL THE RAGE ON ALTERNIA, AND THEN UNFORTUNATELY SWEPT UNDER THE RUG BY EARTH C'S IDEOLOGICALLY WHITEWASHED POST-CASTE SOCIETY.

KARKAT: NASTY SHIT WITHOUT THE CULTURAL CONTEXT, BUT A CRITICAL THREAD IN THE GRAND TAPESTRY OF LOVE AND HATE.

KARKAT: THEY ALL MADE ME WANT TO KILL MYSELF, AND I RESPECT THAT."

That's presumably because blackrom is the natural attraction for cherubs. But the idea that Gamzee <3< Jane was a favorite for Karkat, shudder x2.

"KARKAT: THIS IS NOTHING, YOU SHOULD SEE THE HARANGUING I PUT DAVE'S SCRIPTS THROUGH. AND HE HAS A WAY MORE SOPHISTICATED AND NUANCED VOICE THAN YOU, SORRY TO SAY.

CALLIOPE: well, yoU really didn't have to say that, bUt moving past it.

CALLIOPE: i gUess that i was jUst hoping that yoUr UniqUe perspective as both a knight of blood and a well-liked scholar of kinship coUld grant me some insight on how this all wraps Up!"

It's great to get this interaction, finally. Karkat as Caliborn's closest match in manner of speech + blood colour could've triggered all kinds of reactions in Calliope, but I like how they're more mature than that (slightly). Also, funny that Karkat's obsession with romcoms is now plot relevant.

"KARKAT: WHO WANTS TO READ THIS SAD FREAK GARBAGE FOREVER?

CALLIOPE: I DO!!!

CALLIOPE: at the very least, i can't leave things stUck as they are.

CALLIOPE: but if it has to end… i don't want it to feel…

KARKAT: POINTLESS?

CALLIOPE: v.v

KARKAT: YEAH. I WON'T PRETEND I DON'T GET IT.

KARKAT: YOU HAVE DEFINITELY DUG YOURSELF A GIANT HOLE TO NEVER-ENDINGLY BULLSHIT INTO, BUT …

KARKAT: IT WOULD BE SAD TO LEAVE THEM LIKE THIS.

CALLIOPE: exactly!!!!"

So. Very. Meta. Yeah, the HIBC team had their work cut out for them.

"CALLIOPE: … so yoU're saying yoU want to keep reading it?

KARKAT: OBVIOUSLY."

Jake gets so much shade over his tastes in movies, but Karkat's no better, just more specialized.

"KARKAT: IT'S ALL ENDED UP KIND OF MESSY… I MEAN, I GUESS WE COULD DO SOME REWRITES, BUT…

CALLIOPE: retcons like that are a little amateurish, don't yoU think?

KARKAT: FOR SURE."

Now, in the coming pages, some things happen, and I've seen people point to them already as retcons, but…

Yeah I dunno, I'll give my thoughts as they happen.

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See, if this WERE retcons happening, that would seem to imply a version of John & Vriska are working on this in tandem, right?

But that's out of left field, given that Candy John has no retcon powers and Meat John's indisposed.

So that would imply a future version of John is working together with Vriska, and unlike in Homestuck, we won't see what happened pre-retcon. I'd be kind of sad for that! The original retcon was a way out of an impasse as well, but we saw what happened with out it, [S] Game Over!

On the other hand, my initial read of this page was Vriska's arrival in the timeline, together with the kids, was an actual physical force interacting with Meat. Through the even horizon of the black hole (bottom part of the image, tinted green in reference to the Green Sun), into the C universe (tinted white). Starting on Earth C…

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The letters Meat John wrote for his friends vanish.

Not retcon: Vriska might have teleported them with her to Deltritus, inadvertently, so that the Meat adults may find and read them.

Retcon: ??? John never left them in his room? They actually went back to read the letters? Why would we need a retcon for this, I mean, did the past interactions really imply none of the others ever went to John's house before departing? I guess, maybe?

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I like how the smoke on her cigarette is the same blue colour.

So, I know who see on the next pages, but has Jasprose stayed to enjoy the company of Snowman, I wonder, is that who's pouring out that drink? What about Swifer Eggmop and the others that came with, though?

Also, sidenote: Vriska said Candy Universe C was doomed. What does that mean for the Influencers, heroes of that other side story?

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So they arrive on Deltritus, Dirk has emblazoned his shades on the planet's moon, nothing too surprising.

The clock showing in the flashy effects at least would seem to imply they arrive after the timeskip (which would be the obvious choice anyway).

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Further support for my theory of 'Vriska travelled semi-physically through Universe C' - this effect almost seems to connect Earth, the ship, and Deltritus, with how the panels are layed out!

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Non-retcon: Jane and Jake travelled to the ship from Problem Sleuth space after Jasprose was done with her character training. They (Jane) made amends with the crew some time in the past time they've been back.

Retcon: Jane & Jake's arc's been retconned to have Jane leave Earth C with the others - almost in parallel to Vriska's own arc with the meteor crew, if you think about it!

Honestly, for me this could be explained either way, but I prefer the non-retcon one!

[hoboblaidd]

This is not related to anything sexual but I did find it interesting while we were talking about Mythal and Elgar'nan as parents figures to the elvhen. I find it interesting that when Solas could have had a chance between picking a more female body (mirroring Mythal) or a more male one (mirror Elgar'nan) that he chose to go with Elgar'nan given how close Solas was to Mythal. It is more to do with how Solas felt in a body (and how he eventually came to regret it) but I do find the choice an interesting one

unprompted but always accepting | existential edition

honest to god i've been thinking about this too. i think he probably chose to go male because he saw it as a complement to Mythal. I don't think it was in a 'im usurping Elgar'nan' kind of way, because as much as he grows to hate Elgar'nan he never wanted to be 'the Father' of the People or Mythal's lover/husband/toxic counterpart lol. I also don't think he hated Elgar'nan enough and was proud enough to be so petty as to be like 'well I'm taking a better male body so fuck him.' At most, he thought Elgar'nan lacked wisdom, but that was supposed to be Solas' job anyway. He didn't begrudge him that (at that point). The hatred festered the longer they were in bodies. If he'd taken a body after he became Pride, that would be a very different story lol.

Solas was always Mythal's "companion spirit", and he loved it. Together, they formed an effective and loving whole. They both brought different gifts and expertise to the table that worked so well together. In his mind, at least, they were two sides of the same coin. So to him, since Mythal took an unequivocally female body, he would take an unequivocally male body as a good counterpoint to her. That way, he can bring a different perspective that fits into how he viewed their relationship. In sum, to him they form a more complete picture if he's a complement rather than a 'copy', if that makes sense.

adding to this what @loredrinker articulated so beautifully: Without it having to be gender or binary, there is the spiritual aspects of masculine and feminine. They are companion spirits and would reflect opposites in order to be complementary as a whole. Ying and yang.

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

You might’ve already got this before, and I’m asking this in genuinely good faith.

Your essay was very interesting, and convinced me of Erikar as a ship reading. I also really enjoyed your dissection of Eridan as a very honest person drawn into destructive behavior. It very much lines up with his status as a Prince of Hope! One who destroys conviction/belief through conviction/belief.

What confused me was your insistence on the hidden hand of the author. Death of the Author and all that, what’s implied in the text can be taken on its own separate from commentary but you seem to be doing an autopsy— the text implies [this] so *Hussie* must have intended for [this] and then tried to cover it up. If they genuinely thought it was a better ending, why not do it? Why the secrecy, why the feints? I think it’s a little conspiracy-brained to insist on a secret “better ending” that we don’t have author’s word or drafts on.

I’m also a little drifted on your frustration with the deaths of the trolls? You write that the theme of Homestuck— a standard coming-of-age story, a reckoning with society and the exit from youth— is undercut by the deaths of the trolls, because that means they *had* to die, in *punishment*. I disagree. Their deaths are tragic, not just.

Homestuck has a lot of methods of revival, the choice to (for the most part) perma-kill some characters (the trolls for one, and then AR, WQ, and WK) is a deliberate choice to make death mean something. If dying doesn’t mean anything, what are the narrative stakes? Murderstuck marks Gamzee as a threat, Eridan as a tragedy. The deaths there are meant. To be sad. To demonstrate that sometimes kids don’t get to grow up, that sometimes the society they live in cuts them down.

Homestuck is a sad story at times! It doesn’t need an ending where everyone gets to live to keep its coming-of-age conclusion.

I hope this made sense. I’m not trying to attack you, I’m just skeptical of some of your points. I hope you go on to do more analysis in the future!

If you want to believe that, go ahead 👍 again, arguing my points on that front would require its own entire essay, lol, so I'm not really planning to do that as the answer to an ask. The only thing I really want to say here is that while Homestuck is often sad, as you say, its underlying tone is unwaveringly hopeful right up until Game Over/the Retcon, and even kind of beyond that. If you prefer a sad story, then you can have a sad story, but it's just not a reading consistent (to me) with the entire rest of what Homestuck is.

For example, the whole narrative grapples with the debate of predestination vs. free will. Do things happen in Homestuck because they have to, or because characters are making choices? But with the introduction of John's retcon powers, it lands firmly in the "free will" side of the debate: the retcon powers outright defy the power of stable time loops - a reflection of how Breath is associated with freedom and choice. This is the optimistic option.

Another thing the narrative grapples with is the realness vs. fakeness of magic. I don't think it's hard to argue that between LE's "evil wizard" status and Godtier!Calliope's wand-induced black hole that the arrow falls firmly in the realm of magic being undeniably real. This is the optimistic option (and yet another narrative element that Eridan is extremely relevant to).

Moreover, even post-Retcon, there are elements that are kept that soften the tragedy already present in the story - for example, the concept of the Ultimate Self, and the implication that all surviving characters will eventually achieve it, takes the edge off all their doomed and dead counterparts, who won't actually be relegated to double death in the dream bubbles, since in a way, they'll live on through their alpha counterparts. It turns those sacrifices from bitter to bittersweet, and serves as a counterpoint to common takes like John being sad that he doesn't know the version of his friends that exist post-Retcon. The inclusion of it in the post-Retcon story, even with its botched delivery, says to me that Homestuck is still intended to be optimistic at its core, even with the extreme Giving Up that Hussie did.

And let's not forget how Calliope gets to come back to life, no strings attached, and that her stated purpose is only to live. Up to the end, the tone is that of HOPE, and I think there's no mistake that HOPE is supposed to be what defeats LE.

As I said in replies on that post, as an artist, I just can't imagine spending literal years, and literally a million words and thousands of images, writing something that's so thematically and tonally consistent, only to hard swerve right at the end, without extenuating circumstances.

And the thing is, there WERE extenuating circumstances, and they're fairly well-documented.

The kickstarter got funded, and while the story is muddled, we know the production of the game was extremely troubled, and Hussie was having difficulty being a project lead for that while also grappling with everything else. Everything else being, of course, an ever-increasing number of irons in the fire - more third-party artists he had to commission and manage, more merchandise he had to be on top of, bigger updates to sate the demands of the fanbase.

Which, speaking of, was infamously one of the most awful and toxic fanbases to ever exist, and one that Hussie has deliberately attempted to distance himself from since. I can't imagine the kind of daily abuse, harassment, callouts, and worse that Hussie had to endure as Homestuck's creator during the fandom's peak years. I don't blame him at all for turning against them.

Therefore, given the way the tone and themes hard swerve, the way several characters get bent entirely out of shape (you're telling me Karkat had several means before him of bringing his dead friends back and WOULDN'T SAY ANYTHING???), the way several plot threads are simply left dangling in the air, and the way some characters reach really weird and unpleasant conclusions (davepeta, gcatavrosprite), I think it's actually LESS reasonable to assume that the ending we got was the original plan. Hussie saw that to do the ending he wanted to do back in act 4, he'd need to write for a year, maybe two years more, and then looked at his mounting stress and pressure, and looked at the fanbase he'd come to hate, and just went "nope." And I can't even really blame him for it, lol. In his position I'd probably do the same.

Also, please don't mistake "the deaths are undone" for "the deaths will not have mattered" - I think there's a reason that the game over timeline characters still exist post-Retcon. Their arcs don't end with their deaths, and their failures are weights on them that must be narratively resolved - I believe that they go on to be the ones to defeat LE, although I have much less evidence to support this. It just makes narrative sense to me - the post-retcon team focuses down the Felt, various Jack Noirs, and the Condesce - the latter of which is their final boss, as the ultimate representation of the shitty society they're doing away with on their path to creating a new one.

Meanwhile, the dead and "irrelevant" versions of the characters, the ones who grappled with and were harmed the most by what LE represents - immaturity, selfishness, and cruelty - go on to band together after death, and defeat him in the bubbles, a culmination of their vengeance for the havoc he wreaked. And with him being destroyed in the bubbles by the dead and irrelevant, symbolically, he will be rendered nothing more than a bad dream for the waking, relevant, and alive.

Thus Gamzee is still an antagonist, although it becomes (Gamzee) and (Equius) who go on to form LE. Those deaths and those failures still matter, they still happen, they still have narrative weight. Even without the Game Over versions of the characters still existing and still being important, the decision to welcome antagonists like Gamzee and Eridan back into the fold is rendered more complex and more significant BECAUSE we've seen how badly they can go.

The speech originally given by post-Retcon Vriska to (Vriska) is also, to me, a weird artifact of this hypothetical original ending - as it exists within the actual comic, it's said by the wrong person to the wrong person - Vriska with her character development reset to a (Vriska) who's had her characterization destroyed in order to make the first Vriska seem more right. I think originally, it would've come from (Karkat) to Meenah, the latter of which being the one whose idea it was to fuck off with the treasure, and who caused the Beforus team's worst problems, and who has a track record of fucking off whenever she's tasked with taking responsibility. Thus, it would serve as a conclusion to Meenah and Karkat's arc, as well as Game Over Sadkat's arc specifically, would convince Vriska to go with him, and would give Meenah some narrative commeuppance, which would kickstart some sort of Beforan troll feelings jam that would rally them together to actually be useful for once in their lives/afterlives and contribute to the LE fight.

Again, if you PREFER the sad ending, I can't stop you, but the reason I'm going in on there being an "original ending" that isn't sad is because the sad ending doesn't make narrative sense. Why is the ultimate self speech coming from a combination of two characters that barely spoke? Why is it triumphant that Meenah and character-development-reset Vriska get to be the big goods in the fight with LE? Why do multiple prophecies suddenly get dropped right at the end when all other prophecies DO come true? Why does Karkat spend so long being sad his friends are dead, and also why is he deliberately set up as the Friends Troll (blood = bonds), and then suddenly not care that multiple methods exist for bringing back his friends? Why bother softening the blow of all the dead/irrelevant alternate selves if they're intended to be fully tragic? Why introduce a mechanic that would let them save whoever they want consequence-free and then not use it to do that? Why does Roxy love wizards so much and then not get to meet the wizard boy? Why is the entire rest of Homestuck so carefully crafted, so narratively satisfying, so thematically and tonally consistent, and then all of it goes to shit right at the end?

So yeah lol this is the SHORT version lol this isnt even the LONG version of this essay

[the-antiapocalyptic-man]

Animal Man: Buddy Baker and a manifestation of the Great Red Beast, modeled off Buddy's chimera animal form from the Vertigo run

One thing I wanted to do early on when developing the headverse was tie together the various systems of the DC multiverse closer together, kinda of inspired with what James Robinson was trying to do near the beginning of Earth-2, but got lost under later writers. Robinson explicitly tied Alan's powers to The Green, with Will Power acting more as a conduit than an abstract green goo energy source unto itself.

I always wanted to do something similar with the Red Lanterns being tied to The Red (or the Morphogenetic Field) and specifically a figure that ended being underutilized in Earth-2, The Great Red Beast.

So in canon, The Great Red Beast ended up just being a transformed Yelena Montez, trapped in that state after accessing The Red. Since its a parallel universe, any relationship between The Beast and The Butcher (Earth-1/Earth-0's Red Lantern Entity) is never explicated upon. Which, to be fair, there's no look into whether Earth-2's other Light Spectrum Avatars have equivalents to Ion, Adara, Nekron, or the Life Entity, but The Beast is so similar its counterpart that it's a little strange not to dig into.

This is all to say I want to take that canon and shift it a bit so that Avatars of the Red are, in a way, a different group of Red Lanterns. Red Lanterns on a cosmic level all exist as extensions of Atros becoming Atrocitus and manipulating the narrative to make himself THE Red Lantern through which all others become tools of his rage, even as Red Lantern stories have shown characters like Bleez, Rankorr, and even Dex-Starr becoming more self-aware and operating independently of Atros' will.

Buddy, Vixen, Beast Boy, and to a degree even Wildcat (Ted, Yelena, and Tommy) all kind of exist as possible examples of another way to exist as Red Lanterns, with Brother Blood being the counterpoint that wants to embrace Atrocitus and his discipline.

idk I haven't typed out a big lore dump on one of these posts in a while and wanted to get some thoughts out and collected.

tl;dr Animal Man is a Red Lantern in my au

[lesbiansanemi]

I wonder what would happen if your au demon slayer characters met their canon counterparts. Chaos for sure.

LMAO I imagine a lot of pure and utter horror for the canon Hashira. Especially if they knew how similar of backgrounds they have with the AU versions. Like goddamn that could have been me…. Lot of revulsion too because like wow I basically went through the same shit and didn’t do all THAT

Ultimately I think tamayo would hate her roleswap counterpoint the most. I think she would be horrified by what she became and how cruel she was, because she would hate knowing she was who had MADE so many others cruel monsters

The roleswap Kizuki I think would…. Well mostly just feel a lot of pity for their Hashira counterpoints. Like awww…. Poor thing. You don’t know what freedom is. (They don’t know either). I think there would also be some sneering though like ooohhhhh a fucking demon slayer? You became a demon slayer? What the fuck. But I do think kyo and the kocho sisters would be a bit more sympathetic due to having been slayers at one point themselves. This is just the version of them that never got out

I think the canon Kizuki meeting the swap Hashira would just evoke a “huh, well that’s interesting” response on both sides LMAO ultimately they’re not all that differently moral wise they just have different circumstances

[electronickingdomfox]

"Final Frontier" review

Novel from 1988, by Diane Carey. Not to be confused with the novelization of "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", or Carey's "First Frontier", which is the one with the dinosaur on the cover. There may be no dinosaurs in this one, but it was pretty great nonetheless (and crazy as it may sound, I don't think that dinosaurs would have made it better in this case).

The story focuses on a so far unrecorded period in the Enterprise's life: that of its first mission. And by that I don't mean Kirk's first mission aboard. Not even Pike's. But its very, very first mission under the command of Robert April (from the Animated Series), alongside Kirk's father: George. There's tight action, ideological dilemmas, some funny humor, and Romulans (both good and bad), that borrow heavily from Diane Duane's Rihannsu series. The frame story, on the other hand, has Kirk reading his father's letters during shore leave, in his childhood farm of Iowa. While he reflects upon his life choices in the aftermath of Edith Keeler's death. The brief frame chapters, inserted between the main story, present thus a poignant, quiet counterpart to George Kirk's adventures.

I really liked the development of the new characters in this one, and had the impression of knowing them quite well, despite not appearing in the series (or barely at all). Robert April is the laid-back, gentlemanly and ideallistic Captain, and a clear counterpoint to George, the pragmatic man that sports a more militaristic approach for Starfleet. The narrative tends to side more with George's views, as April's decisions are usually ineffectual once the Enterprise enters hostile territory. Though ultimately, both of them end up understanding and adopting parts of the other's philosophy. In fact, at the story's climax, they're forced to stand up at the opposite side of their initial worldview. Thus, Jim Kirk is presented as the more succesful, balanced combination of both (it's a bit like Spock and McCoy's "reason vs. emotion", but translated to politics). Sarah Poole (April's wife in TAS) also appears as the ship's doctor; she has a lesser role, but was given considerable depth nonetheless. George's pirate-like friend, Drake, usually offers the comic relief. While the staple "noble Romulan" and "devious Romulan" are represented by t'Cael and Ry'iak, respectively.

In many ways, the Enterprise could be considered the main character, though. The story follows her baby steps as a yet-not-finished starship, her coming-of-age after being severely crippled and defeating her enemies against all odds, and finally her official baptism. There are sections in which the ship is even personalized as a sentient being, like a chilling scene where her memory is tampered with. Also, April and George act like two dads that can't agree about their child's true vocation.

I can't think of much to criticize this time, though there's a moment where it's stated that the Federation's constitution is directly based on the USA constitution, as the "prime example to follow". I don't know if this is an original idea of the novel, or if it ever was Roddenberry's intention (which could be, judging by episodes like "The Omega Glory"). But the whole thing was pretty eye-rolling...

Spoilers under the cut:

George Samuel Kirk (Sr.) and his friend Drake Reed are bored security personnel at a starbase. Until one day they're kidnapped by three mysterious individuals, who leave them unconscious. Upon waking up, George and Drake find themselves in the cargo hold of a small ship, and once they break free, George discovers it was his old friend, Captain Robert April, who ordered their abduction. April is gathering his most trusted friends (among them Dr. Sarah Poole, his future wife) for a special rescue mission (well, maybe he could have ASKED them!). A colonist ship has been stranded in the middle of an ion storm, and Starfleet has no means to reach it before hundreds of families die aboard from radiation. Thus, April has been tasked with testing a new, revolutionary ship, much faster and bigger than any other at this time: the first starship (you know which one, right?). This is the only way they could save those colonists in time. And George is introduced to a majestic first view of the Enterprise, still lacking a name, when they approach dry dock. April intends George to be his First Officer, as he values his insights above anybody else's. However, the views of the two men about the role of the starship soon start to clash: April wants it to be perceived exclusively as a tool of peace and exploration; while George argues that its weapon capacities shouldn't be overlooked, in order to defend the Federation.

At the same time, we're introduced in some chapters to Field Primus t'Cael and his Romulan warbird, in another sector of space. T'Cael is dealing with intrigues aboard, instigated by an upstart spy from the Praetorate: Ry'iak. Dispirited by the growing suspicions of his crew, t'Cael has become rather seclusive, though he still counts on the loyalty of Commander Idrys. The Field Primus' moderate views have made him fall out of favor with the Praetorate, as t'Cael doesn't think that the Federation has hostile intentions against the Empire, and disapproves of the stealth attack the Praetor is planning.

For its part, the Enterprise has finished preparations for departure. However, soon after they leave dry dock, there's a catastrophic failure of the sealing elements in the warp nacelles. The only two options seem to be, either ejecting the nacelles (and thus losing warp capacity to rescue the colonists), or let the ship explode. But George doesn't believe in no-win scenarios either, so he pressures one of the engineers to think creatively and find an alternative. Using the energy from the shuttles to seal the leak at the last moment, they manage to salvage the nacelles. Nonetheless, George is suspicious of the failure happening right at the most critical moment, so he asks Drake to investigate the engineers, as chief of security. Drake tries to find a saboteur (not very subtly) among engineers Saffire, Graff and Wood, but finds nothing incriminating. Despite Drake not knowing, the reader does in fact find out who's one of the saboteurs soon thereafter, as Saffire breaks into the starship memory banks and tampers with the systems. The malfunction is delayed until the ship enters the ion storm, at which point there's a massive failure of the warp engines and the artificial gravity. April receives a head injury, while the ship is hurled light years away, into unknown territory. Well, not so unknown: they appear right in the middle of Romulan space, and face to face with t'Cael's warbird.

Confronted with the massive starship, the Romulans start fretting over a possible attack from the Federation. But t'Cael chooses to believe April about their ship being disabled and there out of accident. As a show of good faith, he agrees to meet with the First Officer (as April is too injured), in neutral territory on a nearby planetoid. However, once t'Cael gets off the ship, Ry'iak seizes control of the warbird and kills Idrys (a death that took me by surprise, to be honest). Then, he starts shooting at the planet from orbit, attempting to kill t'Cael too. Since humans and Romulans had never seen each other before, George mistakes t'Cael for a poor Vulcan prisoner. And there's a rather comedic scene, where he "rescues" the Romulan from enemy fire. Once the mistake is cleared, George has to overcome his xenophobic sentiments and cooperate with t'Cael to escape the planetoid. The escape involving alien wolves too.

Eventually, the starship manages to rescue George and t'Cael, using the new transporter technology (well, they accidentally transport an alien wolf too, which creates a bit of a mess). T'Cael agrees to help the Federation against his disloyal swarm of warbirds, as he believes that, if the starship is captured, this will precipitate war between the Empire and the Federation. In the later chapters, there's a pretty intense battle between the Enterprise and the Romulan swarm. While George uses a very Kirk-like bluff to discourage further attacks from the Romulans (which, in turn, explains the eventual development of the cloaking device). With the saboteurs finally captured (and in one case, destroyed in a very grisly way), and the warp repaired, the Enterprise can finally return to home space and rescue those colonists.

Spirk Meter: 4/10*. Spock expresses his grief about Jim's decision to quit Starfleet after Edith's death. And at this moment, McCoy understands how much the ship and Jim mean to the Vulcan: "more than a career, more than a refuge, and certainly more than McCoy had ever guessed". Later, when Kirk regains his confidence and chooses to stay as Captain, Spock looks at him in the bridge and acknowledges his "deeply personal synthesis between himself and Jim Kirk".

However, the relationship between Kirk and McCoy is given far more prevalence throughout the novel, and that's why I'm separating the two dynamics. McCoy won't leave Kirk alone in Iowa at his moment of vulnerability, despite Jim's wishes. At first, he tries to lure him with an invitation to have dinner together. And when this fails, he just pops up in the barn, offering "mouth-to-mouth" resucitation (of all things!) if Jim doesn't answer him (unfortunately for poor McCoy, Kirk doesn't seem too eager to receive a kiss from him). Later, McCoy tries to comfort Kirk about Edith Keeler's death, and share his pain, while Kirk assures McCoy that her death wasn't his fault. He also says that McCoy was worth everything. And once Kirk announces his decision to leave the ship, McCoy gets very emotional and tries to reason with him. Just then, Spock appears in the barn and wonders if he's "interrupting something"; to which both of them answer that yes, he's interrupting. For a novel that doesn't actually deal with the TOS characters, they surely managed to cram as much homoeroticism between Kirk and McCoy as possible...

Apart from this, George Kirk has several things in common with his son. Not just being an absent father... but also having very "intense" relationships with his male friends. There's a bit of it with Drake, that April brings along, not because he has much use for him, but because he can't separate him from George. Drake also waltzes into George's quarters and plops into his bed as if nothing. But most of all, George and t'Cael develop a very, veeeery close relationship (for good or bad), and have all these tense stares at each other, and this desire to protect each other. Just so you get an idea of what I'm talking about:

"Like me, George admitted to himself, unable to bury the color that rose in his cheeks and forced him to look away from t’Cael for a moment. When he looked back again, there was a touch of melancholy on t’Cael’s face. [.......]

George moved closer, hoping his eyes conveyed the depth of his promise. Solemnly he said, “Whatever it takes, however long it takes, I’ll personally make sure you have a place in the Federation. I owe you that,” he added, moving still closer. “In fact, I owe you more.”

A sudden, unexpected warmth came over t’Cael’s face, and he broke his communion with the monitor to look affably at George. “That’s kind of you. It will be difficult.” [............]

Allowing their intimacy to linger, George returned the grin,"

Huh, George, didn't you have a wife and kids back at home???

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[desos-records]

[MAJOR Spoilers for The Empty Grave]

@oceanspray5 asked for Lucy and Marissa parallels so here we go

Marissa, in typical villain fashion, claims that her and Lucy aren't that different and she's not entirely wrong.

They're both Listeners, can both talk to Type Threes, they both have close relationships with and, to an extent, rely on those same Type Threes (or whatever Ezekiel is), both have a male counterpart with a chip on his shoulder.

But that's where the similarities end. It's all surface level. Marissa claims that Lucy has the same fear of death that Marissa does, but she's wrong. Lucy stares death in the face until it flinches first every day, she understands that it's sad and scary and it's natural. By Empty Grave, she's not afraid of it so much as she wants to live.

There's a difference. A difference Marissa doesn't understand.

Lucy wants to stay with her friends, with Lockwood, in Portland Row, in this little family they've built together. Marissa has nobody. She had friends and family at one point, but she pushed them all away. Or, in several cases, killed them. She's responsible for the death and suffering of four entire generations (her own, her daughter's, granddaughter's, and the current generation). Not to mention all of the souls she trapped. Fear ruled her more than love did.

And Lucy feels fear too, all the time, but her love for her friends, her fierce protective instincts, her empathy for others, her own strong sense of self-respect are all so much louder than her fear. Lucy saves her generation and that will echo through the ones to follow.

Despite the bravado, Marissa is deeply insecure. Lucy points out the mirrors in her office, how her beauty is obviously important to her. Lucy has her own insecurities about her looks. A consistent thread in her narration is her intense self-deprecation, about plenty of things, but often about her appearance (the only counterpoints to this coming from Lockwood, but that's another post). She doesn't like her hips or her hair or how she often looks like she's been dragged feet-first, at speed, through a dusty, abandoned, mouse-infested attic because that's exactly what happened to her today.

But as insecure as Lucy is about all that, as much as it sometimes influenced her decisions, it ultimately doesn't matter. It does not out-weigh the things she does value about herself--her Talent, her self-reliance, determination, intelligence, empathy, bravery.

That moment right before the elevator doors open, when Lucy's staring at her reflection of herself, is one of my favorites. Lucy gives us the usual highly specific, but not particularly flattering description of herself. And then she says that it's nice to be reminded of who she is: Lucy Joan Carlyle.

What does show!Lucy say? Never liked mirrors, there's always just some stupid girl staring back at me. By the time we get to Empty Grave, she still has her insecurities, she still doesn't think she looks particularly nice (especially not when she's literally just come back from hell and had half a dozen ghost pillars dropped on her), but she looks like herself. And she likes who she is in a way that Marissa could never manage.

And that matters more than looking pretty and put together ever will.

[yourhandsomesthost]

"I DONT GIVE AN ASS WHO I OFFERED ALCOHOL. MY SISTER IS FIVE FUCKING YEARS OLD. I DONT OFFER KIDS ALCOHOL, ANYWAYS! ATLEAST, NOT UNIRONICALLY. AND I WOULD FUCKING CARE. NOT UNDER MY DAMN WATCH."

theyre forcing him down with their foot. owchie. pissed off dice moment.

judt saying dice seems to work

“..so basically. You summon Dice like Beetlejuice..??”

[black-arcana]

"Gothic metal’s crown isn’t going anywhere anytime soon." Lacuna Coil go heavier than ever on Sleepless Empire with help from guests Ash Costello and Randy Blythe

After rediscovering their spark on 2019's Black Anima, Lacuna Coil are going harder and heavier than ever

(Image: © CUNENE)

Lacuna Coil's latter-day career has been an exercise in resilience and reinvention. After a mid-career wobble, where albums like Shallow Life missed their earlier spark, the Italian gothic metal icons came storming back with Black Anima. Their heaviest album to date, it was dark, uncompromising and full of bite, reminding the world why Lacuna Coil have always been more than just scene staples.

Now, with Sleepless Empire, they’ve gone even heavier, delivering an album packed with bone-crushing riffs, haunting melodies, and the kind of unrelenting energy that feels fresh yet unmistakably theirs.

The Siege crashes in with dense riffs and primal energy. Andrea Ferro’s guttural growls anchor the chaos, while Cristina Scabbia’s soaring lines slice through the mix with surgical precision. Oxygen and Scarecrow follow, their djent-inspired grooves and subtle synth layers adding depth without dulling the aggression. Scarecrow in particular is hypnotic, balancing weight and atmosphere to draw you further into the album’s microcosm.

Lacuna Coil excel in making the heavy sound hooky. Gravity is brooding and dark, but its anthemic chorus feels tailor-made for festival pits. On the crushing, groove-laden In The Mean Time, featuring New Years Day’s Ash Costello, Cristina’s fiery chorus provides the perfect counterpoint to Ash’s fierce delivery.

Marco Coti Zelati leaves an indelible mark on Sleepless Empire. Not only do his crushing riffs and bass form the backbone of its sound, his layered synths and sharp production tie everything together. The sonic palette balances raw intensity with rich textures – a hallmark of Lacuna Coil’s modern era.

Andrea’s vocal performance deserves its own spotlight. His career-spanning adaptability as a vocalist shines here, as his growls reach new depths of intensity. Relentless, raw and commanding, he’s the perfect counterpart to the album’s crushing weight, his brutal, gutteral vocals meeting the sonic swell head-on. It’s a standout showing that cements his role in the band’s harder-hitting direction.

Not everything lands perfectly. Hosting The Shadow, featuring Randy Blythe, feels more like a showcase for the Lamb Of God frontman than a cohesive Lacuna Coil track. But even here, the explosive chorus reminds you why the band still dominate. Ironically, the title track channels LOG’s energy even better, evoking the pummelling intensity of 512.

Elsewhere, I Wish You Were Dead leans into sleazy 80s glam rock swagger, while In Nomine Patris delivers all-out stadium grandeur. Cristina’s triumphant cry of ‘I’ll build my empire’ is pure gothic metal theatre, and the shredding guitar solo that follows is a chef’s kiss moment. Sleep Paralysis, with its eerie atmospherics and Andrea’s unrelenting force, leaves another lasting impression.

With Sleepless Empire, Lacuna Coil dive headfirst into their heavier side – and it works. This is a band that’s unafraid to evolve, to experiment and to hit hard. Gothic metal’s crown isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Sleepless Empire is out February 14 via Century Media. The band play Bloodstock Festival in August and tour the UK in November. For the full list of tour dates visit the band's official website.

[ride-thedragon]

Why Rhaena does not have Nettles' Narrative.

First things first, the tweet to launch 1000 posts.

Everyone was freaking out because

A. It's so close to the premiere

B. It's been around for a while.

This whole Nettles being replaced by Rhaena theory started during the airing of the first show. People really got into supporting Daemon and Rhaenyra as a couple, and rather than viewing Nettles as a full character realised, she was viewed as a hindering plot point towards our favourite incest ship. So the first person I remember saying it said something along the lines of "What if Rhaena replaced Nettles?".

That spiralled within that space and became almost a counterpart to Nettles being Daemon's bastard daughter. Both of these arguments are often used to deter the romantic narrative Daemon and Nettles have, not to benefit Nettles in any way.

Now I can't vouch for the original poster's validity, but I can point out flaws with what they say.

"Rhaena will claim a sheep eating dragon (Sheepstealer) in the Vale after tracking it for some time."

Counterpoints:

1. Rhaena has her dragon eggs.

In the books, Rhaneyra gives Rhaena dragon eggs to take to the Vale, hoping that it will hatch to her. We see them in the trailer. Similar to Dany's eggs, which, if you're interested, I have a post on Nettles, Rhaena, and Daenerys.

2. Claiming Dragons.

This one almost works as well, but it has a few issues. The time frame, what seems to be occurring in the Vale, and the dragonseed plot.

A. 8 episodes for one season is not a lot of time, but we do have a timeline for what occurs, and the start of the sowing is in episode 7. There isn't enough time for Rhaena to both track Sheepstealer and follow him, seeing as her and Baela seem to be in the Vale before Rook's Rest.

B. What's going on in the Vale?

Rhaena and Baela seem to be both at the Vale before Rook's Rest, and then Baela flies into combat alongside Rhaenys. Then Baela stays on Dragonstone and Driftmark during the sowing as she's at the table. RHAENA IS NOT THERE. This is after the sowing because we see Ulf, Addam, and Hugh but not Rhaena or Nettles. All riders so far are accounted for.

C. This ties into the Dragonseed plot.

If Rhaena isn't there to fight, she doesn't have a dragon. But she is a ward of Jeyne Arryn with her Dragon eggs, like in the book.

3. Tracking it for some time.

This doesn't make sense for two reasons.

A. Why would she try to claim a hungry dragon?

If Sheepstealer is hunting in the Vale, why would Rhaena try to claim a hungry dragon? Rhaena, unlike Nettles throughout the season, would have no precident to assume Sheepstealer wouldn't bend to her as a Targaryen. No one would've been killed in order to facilitate that thought for her at that point if Silver Denys is being killed in Episode 7. She also lives on Dragonstone. Why would she not try to claim him where he lives like a person with common sense?

B. Why is she tracking a wild Dragon?

She lives on Dragonstone, unironically.

The home of all the unclaimed dragons like Vermithor, Silverwing, and Seasmoke. Why would she seek out the wild dragons. Why would she, as he stepdaughter to the Queen, not get to claim all the tamed dragons?

Then, if she decides that she wants to try a wild dragon after all the tamed ones fail to bond with her, who around her would allow her to take that risk? Her stepmother, who just lost two children? Her grandmother who grants her dragonriding sister permission to stand at the council? Or the grandfather who just lost his heir?

I don’t think this is likely. What I think is happening is that she might try and fail at best to give her a narrative, which inspires Jace to send out the Dragonseed call. Are we not tired?

[animaginaryartblog]

[Image ID: Two images, each with two designs, top and bottom, for a Sonic fan character. The character is a short, rotund older woman, with ash grey hair and pale skin. Her name is Evy Munanev, aka Dr. Rotbane.

In the first set, her hair is pulled into a braided beehive. The top design has her in a tight green tailcoat with pink sleeves, a flared pink mantle around her shoulders, and a pink sash around her waist. She also wears green gloves and boots and black pants. A silver broach, in the dagger-like shape of the titan arum flower, sits at her chest. A white gas mask hides her face.

In the bottom design, she wears a shorter coat, white in front and black in the back. She has flared, almost petal-shaped sleeves and pants, both pink. A similarly petal-shaped pink mantle frames her head. A large green flower broach sits on her chest. She still wears green gloves and shoes, but the shoes are smaller, not high-heeled boots like before. She no longer has a gas mask, but instead a pair of black glasses.

In the second set, Evy's hair is now died pink and cut in a triple mohawk. She also green vine tattoos patterning her skin. The top design has her wearing an open green vest over a loose pink dress. On top of the vest she has black shoulder pads with white, thorn-like spikes. Similarly spiked black bands surround her wrists and ankles, as well as crossing her waist like bandolier belts. She wears green gloves and boots; the boots have spiked bottoms, like cleats.

In the bottom design, the gas mask has been swapped for black glasses, revealing the green vine tattoos on her face. She retains the vest and spiked shoulder pads, but the dress has been swapped out for a baggy black shirt over flared pink sleeves and pants. She still wears green, spiked shoes, but they are no longer heeled boots. /end ID]

When creating my Blaze-focused Sonic Prime AU (more on that in a bit), I took the time to finally take a swing at a design for the Sol Dimension Egg(wo)man I've been contemplating for a while now. I've always been annoyed we've never gotten any female Sol Dimension villains, even though by all rights there should be an abundance of them. Sonic and Tails each get female counterparts with unique designs, personalities, and relationship dynamics, but when it comes to Eggman we get... a palette swap? who isn't even actually from the Sol Dimension?? hello???

I'm still working out her design and personality, but these are some of the concepts I've drawn up so far. the points I am settled on are that she's a rotund older woman with plant-theming. her birth name is Evy Munanev; her villain title is either Dr. Rotbane or Dr. Rotbloom, I haven't decided.

more on the design process below

so. Solegg. my first order of business was swapping out the Egg for something different but adjacent. I picked a seed, which ended up being more of a general plant-theming. I think it could make a nice counterpoint to Eggman's primarily animal-themed robots.

I specifically modeled her after the corpse flower - or rather, corpse flowers, since apparently there are two notable flowers called that, the titan arum and the giant padma. Both are found in Indonesia, fittingly enough, since that's usually the real-world analog I draw on for Blaze's homeland. The top design in the first image is based on the titan arum, while the design at the bottom is based on the giant padma.

for the other elements of her design, I tried matching it to Blaze the same way Eggman's design matches Sonic's. Like how Eggman's primary color is one of Sonic's secondaries (red), Rotbane's primary color comes from Blaze's pink secondaries. Black is her secondary color, same as Eggman, because y'know. Villains.

Finally, the name. As far as Eggman's "real" name goes, the -nik suffix is Slavic/Russian, while Robotnik in particular is a Slavic (specifically Polish) term. apparently. his first name, Ivo, is used in a lot of languages, but if cross-referencing with his relatives, Gerald and Maria, narrows it down to German or Dutch. that said, according to the Sonic wiki the name "Ivo" actually came from a developer's sister's Croatin boyfriend, so. that's a thing. the other factors in the name selection were that it sounds kinda like "evil", as well as being the Latin word for eggs spelled backward.

All that said! I made the Solegg Dutch because of the Indonesia connection. I went with the Dutch name Evy because it also sounds like evil, plus bears some resemblance to ivy. I gave her the last name Munanev, which is venenum (Latin for poison or venom) backwards.

finally, I picked Rotbane as her nickname because it sounds cool, reflects the plant-theming, and has some of the same punchiness as Eggman. I'm also considering Rotbloom, haven't decided yet.

[Image ID: Four black-and-white sketches of Evy Munanev, the OC described above. In the top left Evy in her mohawk-design leans to the side, hips thrust forward and grinning. In the bottom left Evy stands next to an unimpressed (and considerably taller) Eggman, grinning as she strikes a pose. In the bottom right, Evy stands next to Blaze, who is only a little shorter. Evy grins at Blaze while Blaze glares at her, arms folded. Evy's hair is poofier and squarer, like a sleeker beehive. In the top right, Evy has the same square hairdo, but now wears her gas mask as well. /end ID]

[fushiglow]

Here's the anon that talked about a limiter in music and it's connection to Gojo's story a couple of days ago. Firstly, I'm really glad that you found such joy in that previous ask and I'm really really glad that you followed your instinct and implemented into the story so artfully.

'In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two (or more) musical lines which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour.'

Once again, you did the unthinkable and produced a chapter that so beautifully wevaes the title of the chapter into it. Had me stopping several times to think things over and even throwing my phone across the room.

For me the summary of the chapter and the definition set in it showcased how they both may be brilliant on their own, both distinguished in their own work and dedicated, yet when they come together they create something more beautiful, an harmony that's so characteristically them that it's unique. How 'me' and 'you' becomes 'us' (because of course they'd be the only ones capable of making a lead single from scratch within days). Also what really struck me was the comparison of them to binary stars and how even that connects to the definition of counterpoint, since the stars may from far away appear as one, yet upon closer look they are distinguished, independent, but still caught in an everlasting dance, dependent upon each other's gravitational pull to continue it.

In regards to that, i absolutely loved how when Suguru almost played into the restraining role of the industry by deciding to morph 'blue' into something that was unrecognisable, yet easy to enjoy by the public, he immediately backtracked and comforted him, highlighting exactly why he's just far too perfect of a counterpart for the singer. He doesn't limit him, instead he helps him reach his limits, even broadening those limits, until they literally are limitless. And I just love how this is shown with how Suguru pushes Satoru for the perfect recording, even if he doesn't get it. He's willing to ruffle Satoru's feathers if it means getting him to be even better, more perfect than he already is. And the way Satoru's love for Suguru and the literally fiery passion between them seems to reawaken the passion for music within Suguru? (I'm far too curious about what had happened to the dear producer 7 years ago)

And gods...them being all domestic and soft? Sweet to one another and Suguru giving Satoru the love he had been given by his mother so generously, openly and earnestly, as if it came naturally. I'm not tearing up, not at all..

Generally, this whole chapter is a work of art and it just cements how they're meant for each other.

Thank you and sorry for rambling!

COME OFF ANON AND BE MY FRIEND PLEASE 🙏 I am obviously kidding, I entirely respect your choice to remain anonymous but god... I want to kiss your brain!

Once again, you had me screaming the place down because you interpreted this exactly the way I intended, even making the connection to the binary stars. I literally want to shout this analysis from the rooftops, because it's spot on!

I always knew I wanted to bring the idea of counterpoint into play at this point and wondered how I could signpost the theme to readers without putting it in the text itself. Honestly, shout out to @bunnieshoneys for the chapter title idea! I love how their choice of title in coanda effect sets the tone for the chapter ahead so, realising that I'd already set some precedent with limiting in the introduction, it seemed like the obvious choice (side note: I'm damn proud of 'prosody' for chapter six 👀). I didn't even set out to marry counterpoint to the binary stars; they were two separate metaphors that naturally evolved together over time — and isn't that just perfect?

~insert unwieldy thoughts about subtext being subconscious to some degree for both writer and reader~

I alluded to this before, but it's difficult to find the balance between being too heavy-handed and too hands-off with my metaphors. In the end, I try to trust my gut and trust the reader — and you continually bolster my faith in my instincts! I assume you did this on purpose, but I got extremely excited by the fact that you described Suguru as the perfect 'counterpart', literally personifying him as a musical line that complements Satoru's. God, this means everything!

You're probably my ideal reader, so please NEVER apologise for rambling! I'm incredibly grateful to have you along for the ride ♥️ If you pop into my inbox again (god, I hope you do!), I'd love to know if you have any kind of background in music yourself because your grasp of counterpoint in particular intrigues me! I hope that's not rude, it's one of those things where I'm too familiar with these concepts to imagine how easy or difficult they are to grasp from scratch... I just want to know your brain, anon!

By the way, the part about Suguru's mother was such a lovely change of pace for me, so I'm really glad you enjoyed that. Actually, I'm just really glad you're enjoying the fic in general, thank you so much again for everything!

[twistedtummies2]

Top 10 Portrayals of Renfield

The time has come to cover our last supporting player in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I’m skipping over Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris, on account of a lack of really great interpretations for either, which means our next major character of note is Renfield: the deranged lunatic who acts as the Count’s mortal servant.

Renfield is interesting in that, much like Van Helsing, his role has become more pronounced over the years. In fact, Renfield caught on as a major character EARLIER than Van Helsing, as even the very earliest Dracula films included a Renfield character of some sort, and many movies that don’t have ANY of the other characters from the novel rather frequently feature either Renfield or some sort of “Renfield surrogate.” In the book, however, the madman is actually a relatively peripheral character: he doesn’t really DO a whole lot, in the grand scheme of things, but rather acts as a sort of “warning siren.” Renfield’s psychic connection to Dracula makes him a sort of living bookmark: someone who can track the vampire’s moves throughout the novel, even when the other characters aren’t physically near the Count. He also acts as an interesting counterpoint to Dracula and his Brides: they are powerful, seductive, grandiose figures of evil who represent a sort of decadent “gold standard” of vampirism. Renfield is a disheveled psychotic who scavenges for bugs and other small animals to feed his growing appetite, worshiping Dracula in a cultist-like fashion. He is the bottom-feeding parasite in comparison to the Satanical power Dracula seems to exude. Over the years, creators have built up Renfield’s character in a variety of ways, expanding his role in the story and giving him more depth and focus. It makes sense, when you think about it: if any character is going to be as memorable as the great and powerful King of the Vampires, it’s going to be his scurvy little henchman who eats insects in-between bursts of mad raving. For actors, it’s a great role to sink one’s teeth into (no pun intended), as Renfield allows a performer to go wild in ways other roles can’t provide, and make some interesting choices through. There are lots of vampire familiars to go through, so let’s waste no more time: these are My Top 10 Favorite Portrayals of Renfield!

10. Roland Topor, from Nosferatu the Vampyre.

In the first remake of “Nosferatu,” French artist Roland Topor was cast - in a rare acting role - in the role of Renfield. I don’t know much about Topor or any other work he may have done as a performer, beyond this movie, but I will say this, he doesn’t do half bad! His Renfield is delightfully creepy and yet rather funny at the same time. I love the way Dracula just sort of shrugs him off, clearly irritated with his sycophantic servant, in the scenes they share together. My only problem is that Topor’s Renfield just sort of vanishes from the movie after a certain point; we never find out what happened to him by the end of the picture. For all we know, he could still be out there…dun-dun-dunnn…

9. Tony Haygarth, from the 1979 Film.

Among other roles, I know Tony Haygarth for voicing a rather depraved version of the Mad Hatter, in the movie “Dreamchild” (which came out six years after the Frank Langella picture). I don’t know who decided to cast this man as two of literature’s most famous maniacs, but I’m glad it happened. In the film, Renfield first appears as a dockyard worker, who has a grudge against the Jonathan Harker and his family for past injustices. This makes him all the more fitting a stooge for Dracula. As the film goes on, Renfield grows increasingly insane, visibly changing from a relatively rational human to a broken mess before his final destruction.

8. Pablo Alvarez Rubio, from “Spanish Dracula.”

Much like its English-language counterpart, the Spanish version of Universal’s acclaimed 1931 “Dracula” conflates the characters of Renfield and Jonathan Harker: Jonathan still appears, but it’s Renfield who visits Castle Dracula, and then returns to England with the Count aboard a doomed ship. This works as a sort of origin story for the character, which several other versions have taken influence from. Rubio may not be as iconic as Dwight Frye’s scene-stealing Renfield, but he’s not a bad interpretation, either. However, I think the Spanish version makes some choices in edits that ultimately hinder his performance, and bring it down in the ranks.

7. Nicholas Hoult, from Renfield.

In this movie, the partnership between Dracula and Renfield is hamfistedly examined as a study in toxic relationships. More of a dark superhero film than a proper Gothic Horror outing, Hoult’s Renfield eats bugs not out of an urge to consume life, but because munching on insects and arachnids gives him superhuman abilities for brief periods of time. While not by any means the definitive version of the character, he is fun to watch and Hoult turns in a spectacular performance.

6. Samuel Barnett, from Penny Dreadful.

In Season 3 of Penny Dreadful, Renfield goes beyond simply being a vampire’s familiar to slowly being transformed into a vampire proper. He starts off as a seemingly mild-mannered, proper Victorian gentleman…but when Dracula learns of some dark secrets in Renfield’s life, he uses that to his advantage and snatches Renfield up to act as a spy against his enemy. Barnett’s Renfield is deliciously creepy, mercurial, and runs the gamut from somewhat sympathetic to utterly detestable. He was easily one of my favorite parts of Season 3.

5. Klaus Kinski, from the 1970 Film.

In this Jess-Franco-directed adaptation, Klaus Kinski - who might be the only actor to play Renfield who was probably insane in real-life (seriously, Kinski was…QUITE the piece of work, as a person, behind the scenes) - plays a mute Renfield. While he never speaks a word, and does relatively little throughout the film, he steals every scene he’s in, and is given a more sympathetic portrayal; this Renfield often seems more like a scared, confused child than anything else, and has a tragic backstory behind his madness. At the same time, he’s still dangerous, even trying to strangle Mina while under Dracula’s command at one point. Apparently, Kinski had no idea he was even in a Dracula movie during the making of the film, which seems a bit far-fetched to me…but if it is true, I guess there were worse ways to handle it than just giving this utterly demented individual free reign to just…do whatever the heck he wanted for a while. :P

4. Alexander Granach, from Nosferatu.

Referred to as “Knock” in this version, Renfield is given a role that is in some ways expanded upon from the novel, and yet also somehow still very peripheral. He’s in a lot of the movie, but much of what he does is totally separate from the main plot of the film. At the start of the movie, the character is already clearly on an uneven keel, and is indicated to already be working for Count Orlok (Dracula): the Harker character is actually his employee, and Knock sends him out fully knowing what horrors await him. As the movie goes on, Knock goes increasingly more insane, desperate to find and reconnect with his Master. While delightfully over-the-top, there are actually a few legitimately creepy moments with the character too: at one point, he gets hit in the head with two stones, thrown by angry villagers, and…just…doesn’t even REACT to them. I don’t know why, but that particular moment always unnerves me when I watch it.

3. Tom Waits, from the 1992 Film.

While Tom Waits is no stranger to acting, it was still surprising to see him pop up in this star-studded adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. This version seems to take some subtle cues from the Universal films of 1931, as its indicated Renfield preceded Jonathan in doing deals with the Count, and returned to England a changed (and deranged) man. While his role is, once again, relatively set to sidelines, Waits is memorable every time he shows up, ranging from a relatively reasonable-sounding gentleman to a raving, bloodthirsty psycho at the drop of a hat.

2. Jack Shepherd, from the 1977 BBC TV Film.

While this television production mostly sticks to the novel, one of the more noteworthy deviations it takes is with Shepherd’s portrayal of Renfield. In this version, slightly more focus is given to Renfield’s relationship with Mina, and the character actually goes through a sort of redemption arc. At the start of the story, he is Dracula’s bloodthirsty slave; more like a sort of two-legged dog than a human being. As the story goes on, instead of going more crazy, Renfield begins to regain his sanity and morality. Instead of helping Dracula and being slain by the Count as a way for the vampire to cover his tracks, Shepherd’s Renfield stands up to his Master in the end, effectively sacrificing himself to try and help the other characters. Eat your heart out, Nicholas Hoult: the BBC got there a lot sooner, and STILL made him crazy. XD

1. Dwight Frye, from the 1931 Film.

For me, just as it’s next to impossible to separate Bela Lugosi (and Christopher Lee) from Dracula, it’s impossible to separate Dwight Frye from Renfield. In some ways, I actually think his performance is the best in the entire movie, trumping even the work of Lugosi and Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing! Frye’s Renfield is legitimately scary, even by today’s standards, but is also a very sympathetic and tragic character (and at times genuinely funny, too). You really feel sorry for Renfield: an initially innocent man driven mad by Dracula’s corruption, who has to struggle between his loyalty to his Master and his desire to keep his soul clean of guilt. Frye maneuvers through all of Renfield’s moods and modes, from sane and gentlemanly to absolutely freaking off his rocker, with great aplomb. Without a shadow of a doubt, he is My Favorite Renfield.