#this is almost certainly standing out to me because of the simple like. visual aesthetic thing of

[shorthaltsjester]

having thoughts and feelings about perc’ahlia and their could-be-but-would-never-allow-the-other-to-destroy-themselves-enough-to-actually-become-the-briarwoods parallel/foilism. particularly with vex and delilah and potential places this season might go but also just vex’s “it’s like i’m a bad omen” and the fact that like. vex has full awareness of her feelings for percy and alludes to them to him. but then after she has sex with him it is so so compelling to me that vex is like. this is all i can have with him and i’ll take just this even if maybe it’s flying too close to the sun. and something something the shot of delilah embracing sylas after she’s brought him back, looking over his shoulder into a mirror where it looks like she isn’t holding anything at all and just . god. the like oppositional threads of delilah refusing to lose sylas and holding on tight at any cost and vex holding herself so far from percy to deny the pain that would come with losing/hurting him and the like. venn diagram cross over of something is lost anyway.

[pollenallergie]

eeeek oh my gosh i love this questionnnn

okay okay so…

Billy loves Studio Ghibli films because of their art style and the amazing storytelling.

He loves stop-motion/claymation movies for much the same reason (all the hard work that goes into them, the artistry, their art styles, the storytelling, etc.).

Billy loves horror movies and thrillers, but only the ones that are visually stunning/aesthetically pleasing, have plots with a deeper meaning to them, and that use a lot of symbolism, such as Get Out, Midsommar, Videodrome, X, Pearl, The Crow, Donnie Darko, Nosferatu, A Simple Favor, Hereditary, A Quiet Place, Shutter Island, etc.

Billy likes Wes Anderson films because of the ✨aesthetic✨ (and also because many of them are just genuinely good??)

Billy loves period pieces like Russian Ark, Anna Karenina, The Color Purple, The Theory of Everything, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, 1917, Emma (2020), etc.

He also likes the classics, but only certain ones and he’s not pretentious about the fact that he enjoys old movies. Many of the classics he likes are musicals, but not all of them. Some of his favorites in this category include: Singing in the Rain, A Clockwork Orange, The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, The Rocky Picture Horror Show, The Graduate, Help!, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the early Star Wars films, etc.

Billy loves most, if not all, of the films that come out of A24 (Room, X, Pearl, Midsommar, Moonlight, Waves, Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Green Knight, Hereditary, etc.)

He likes many of Sofia Coppola’s films.

Billy generally enjoys films with really really beautiful/really artsy/just really fucking good cinematography, like Her, Life of Pi, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Pan’s Labyrinth, Black Swan, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (one of the only, if not the only, Quentin Tarantino movies he likes), Romeo & Juliet (1996), etc.

He loves films with amazing scores/soundtracks, such as Fantasia, Guardians of the Galaxy, Forrest Gump, Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist, Avatar, Don’t Look Up, Soul, E.T., etc.

Billy love love lovesss Disney movies, mostly because he had a horrible childhood and Disney movies let him feel like a kid again without also having to relive the horrors and suffering of his past, but also just because many of them are just really fucking good!!!

Billy also loves coming-of-age/childhood movies, such as Stand By Me, Mean Creek, My Girl, The Lovely Bones, Moonlight, Super 8, Boyhood, Booksmart, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Mermaids, Bridge to Terabithia, Juno, Where the Wild Things Are, Dead Poets Society, etc. There’s probably some psychological reason why he flocks to this type of film (much like there is for his enjoyment of Disney films), given that he had a horrible childhood, but… we’re not gonna look into that rn, okay?

Lastly, Billy loveesss fantasy films. Really, he loves fantasy in general; fantasy novels, fantasy films. He grew up loving them for the element of escapism they offered. And now, as an adult, he loves them for their nostalgia and whimsy and, even though he’s very happy with his life the way it is now, Billy certainly still loves that sense of escapism… especially when he gets to enjoy it with you.

I think he loves romance films, but only the ones that are warm and cozy, and he dislikes cheesy ones… except for the ones that are cheesy in a good way and still have really good writing even though their kinda cliché.

I also think Billy likes some comedies, but mostly just ones that double as another genre as well (think dramadies and dark comedies), the ones that are classics (old and modern) because of their good writing and/or cinematography, as well as almost any comedy with Jack Black or Robin Williams in it.

Billy also probably likes some superhero movies, emphasis on some. He loves the funny ones like Thor: Ragnarok, Guardians of the Galaxy (both the first film & Vol. 2), and Deadpool 1 & 2. He also likes the X-Men films because he’s always really liked the X-Men, it was one of the only mainstream superhero comics he read as a kid (of course he liked the more niche superhero graphic novels and stuff like that, but he didn’t ready many of the mainstream superhero comics because 1) they were expensive and 2) he usually found the storytelling in those to be kind of meh). Maybe that’s because he sees himself as a mutant/saw himself as mutant as a kid and/or just generally relates to being an outcast. Or maybe it’s just because Jean Grey and Professor X and Mystique and Storm are all cool as hell. He also really enjoyed Black Panther (and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) because of the beautiful visuals and the storytelling (like the part with the ancestors?? amazing. the fight b/w T’Challa and M’Baku, but also like the way they later band together, despite their differences, for the good of Wakanda as a whole??? just truly incredible. plus the general theme of like family/community??? he loves that!!!). He also likes the first Captain America movie because he relates to pre-serum!Steve (being an outcast, being deemed “undesirable” by most of his peers, being excluded, etc.) and because the themes of that movie are *chefs kiss* (camaraderie/community, determination in spite of all odds, the underdog trope, etc.).

This certainly does not encompass all the film genres and subgenres he loves and why, but like… this post is already v long, so I’m gonna go ahead and stop myself here. Besides, this is like all I’ve got rn. 😅😂

every friday night, you and billy knight spend the night in. you make homemade pizzas, cuddle on the sofa, and watch movies together.

[ghostdrinkssoup]

hi hello tumblr dot com, can we unpack will and hannibal’s character introductions?

trick question and I don’t care: we’re unpacking this whether you like it or not <3

for the people who wanted to be tagged here you are: @forgivenessishisdesign @kitzual

so anyway last night I rewatched apéritif and now that I know how the series ends a lot of small details stuck out to me. there’s so much content to pick apart that I’m actually losing my mind a little so I’m gonna divide my thoughts into two parts because this is going to be long. first we’ll do will’s introduction, then in the next post I’ll write about hannibal’s

EDIT: you can find part two (hannibal’s introduction) here :)

with that being said, let’s get started

will:

as far as character introductions go, will’s is so perfect to me that I need to dedicate some time just to infodump about it. let it be known that I am obsessed with this scene. there is so much packed into literally only four or so minutes and it’s glorious

funnily enough it’s pretty simple: the scene opens with a flashback. will is depicted recreating a crime scene using his empathy disorder (although audiences are not aware of his empathy yet) and ends with him returning to the present, where he’s lecturing his students about psychoanalysing serial killers, using the case as an example. that’s it. but the scene does everything it needs to do

an effective opening should tell you:

1) the rules/qualities of the world (which can either be exceedingly normal or very bizarre depending on the nature of the story’s subtext and extended metaphor)

2) the protagonist’s worldview, thus foreshadowing the nature of their arc

3) depict theme and raise thematic questions

4) and set-up the climax of the story, which should ideally mirror the opening so that we’re left with a circular narrative

by opening with will’s empathy we are immediately shown that this is a normal part of the story-world even if it’s fantastical by nature. it’s something will can do and that’s just how it is. it’s important that this is the first thing we see because his empathy serves a plot, character, thematic, and genre purpose. it’s a device, as well as an integral part of the show’s subtext and extended metaphor. it automatically puts him on an axis between empathy and psychopathy, or rather, humanity and monstrosity. even before we’re introduced to hannibal himself this is clear through a study of visual contrasts, since in the same instance we’re introduced to the concept of “empathy”, will is taking on the role of the killer, coldly explaining how he murdered the victims bleeding out at his feet. this is the first murder we see in the show, meaning, by proxy, will is the first “killer” we see as well, even if he’s just recreating the scene. we never see who killed mrs marlow, and so the only impression we have of this killer is will’s face. this sets up the structure of s1, since each murder reveals more about will himself, but I digress

and sure, the precision of his empathy is exaggerated and unrealistic, but we believe it a) because it’s the first thing we learn about him and is an unquestionable part of the story-world and its logic and b) because it adheres to its genre (crime/gothic horror). the gothic horror aspect in particular justifies the phantasmagoric, almost supernatural nature of will’s empathy, as well as it’s visual aesthetic (it’s represented through a hypnotic, pendulum type swinging motion). the gothic deals with topics of transgression, the unnatural or unexplainable, and most importantly the unknown. even if the show’s gothic elements aren’t exactly clear yet, the opening certainly maintains this tone. it’s why when the show moves away from the standard crime procedural structure, it’s not exactly jarring or beyond audience expectations (even unconscious ones)

but in all honesty, what really stands out about this scene is what will tells his students after. there are five elements fixed into the few lines he says (which I’ve highlighted below) and it’s all that’s needed to tie the scene back to theme and the show’s main through line

the first thing will says after he’s finished recreating the crime scene, returning to the present and leaving the killer’s mind, is “everyone has thought about killing someone, one way or another.” if the initial flashback worked to place empathy and psychopathy on a conceptual axis, paradoxically blurring the line by contrasting what we know about will vs what we see of will, then the above dialogue blurs everything even further. according to will’s worldview he, and as a result normal people in general, all think monstrous things. therefore, we all have the capacity to understand monsters

to will, humanity is not divorced from monstrosity

this is immediately followed by “be it your hand or the hand of god” introducing a new dimension for us to work with: man vs monster vs god. this gives his initial worldview a righteous edge. here we have a character who understands humanity’s capacity for violent thought, but it’s rendered through a type of divine justice. for him, there must be reason and meaning behind violence. better still, he would prefer it to be righteous. this of course sets up much of his dynamic with hannibal. they talk about religion a lot in the show. lines that immediately come to mind are “killing must feel good to god, he does it all the time” “is this meal an act of god, will?” “did god feel good about that? (violence)” “he felt powerful” etc. I think there’s also something to be said about how by thematically juxtaposing humanity with god, the concept of fate and free will also becomes implicit. we all think about killing, sometimes we choose to do it ourselves and sometimes god does it for us. who has power here? when does it stop being righteous? can one take on the role of god when killing? and if one does take on the role of god, would all blame be erased?

after this is: “now think about killing mrs marlow. why did she deserve this?” now we’re directly tying will’s dialogue to the flashback. to will, the death must have meaning. not only that, but for the perpetrator this must be righteous in some way. why did she deserve it? this line also adheres to the show’s genre and its conventions: this is a crime show, which means we’re exploring justice and injustice. again, thematic opposites. but, as he’s done the entire time he’s been on screen so far, will keeps blurring the line between these distinctions

he then says “tell me your design” which, as we all know, is a significant motif in the show. he says this all the damn time, after every murder. again, this brings forth the idea that the murders must have some kind of deeper meaning, psychological or perhaps even creatively. after all, “design” is an interesting way to phrase this. it sounds artistic, purposeful, imbued with meaning. however, the exact meaning of this is only cemented when he follows it with “tell me who you are”

“tell me who you are” is arguably the most important part of this entire sequence because, first and foremost, this show is about identity, specifically will’s identity. he recontextualises everything he just said in that moment, as well as the flashback we watched moments earlier. the design, the intent, the act of murder, and whether it’s divine or monstrous or purely human, is all linked to one’s identity. by understanding the murder, we understand the man. further still, there lies hidden commentary on one’s moral choices, as well as how autonomy fuels self-empowerment: we will understand who will is once he makes a choice to secure his own autonomy and power, which he does in the wrath of the lamb

it’s why he struggles to make solid choices all throughout the show, and why the specific choices he makes are so important, because whatever he authentically chooses to do will reveal who he is, no matter how hard he tries to hide from himself. he chooses to kill hobbs. he chooses to warn hannibal and gets his stomach split open in the process. if he hadn’t been so indecisive, he would’ve chosen to run away with hannibal too. he chooses to follow him to italy. and finally, he chooses to break him out of prison. because ultimately, once cannot change their nature. you cannot reduce him to a set of influences. he’s not a product of anything. he has his own design

and in hindsight, the questions raised here concerning will’s nature is resolved the moment he chooses to take hannibal down with him. the ambiguity of the resolution recalls the conflict between fate and free will, justice and injustice, and humanity and monstrosity (as set up in the opening scene) since although will actively chooses to drag them down the cliff, and as a result chooses loving hannibal over everything else, something he can’t really control anyway, he simultaneously leaves their fate up to god. it’s an act of faith. in that moment, when will finally seizes power and recognises who he is, accepting hannibal as his natural equal, his hand becomes the hand of god. in a final coin toss, will puts their lives in his own hands, and hannibal lets him do it anyway

[gamewise]

Osomatsu-kun Hachamecha Gekijou Review

(Author’s warning: the following game contains racially insensitive stereotypes. They are not present in these screencaps, and are not the effect of the game’s relatively low score. The game is a product of its time not just on a technical level, but on a cultural level. If you choose to read this review, massive spoiler alert: this is just not a good game, no matter how you slice it.)

In Japan, the Mega Drive debuted in October of 1988 with a whopping two titles available at launch; Space Harrier 2, and Super Thunder Blade. It wouldn’t take long for the humble 16-bit console to get its third title, a licensed game based on the Osomatsu-Kun manga which was about to get a new anime adaptation thanks to its popularity coming back. So you’re probably thinking this is a cheap cash-in title designed to promote the new anime, and I would like to say you’re right, but... actually, no, you’re right. Osomatsu-Kun Hachamecha Gekijou (Little Osomatsu: Nonsensical Theater) is a cheap cash-in that does more harm than good for the Mega Drive.

Before we dive into this game, let’s talk about Osomatsu-Kun itself. Osomatsu-Kun was a hugely popular manga about a group of trouble making sextuplets, who just so happen to all look the same. The manga ran for a whopping seven years back in the 60′s, receiving an anime adaptation at the peak of its popularity in 1966. In 1988, Studio Pierrot would bring forth a new anime adaptation that would see the sextuplets as side characters, with characters Iyami and Chibita, and their misadventures becoming more of the main focus. So seeing the side characters get thrust into the spotlight because they become popular is definitely nothing new, especially when the original manga did the same! So now that we have a new anime adaptation on the way, what are we getting for our video game cash in?

Well... just look at it. I know Japan is notorious for making some pretty surreal stuff, but Osomatsu-Kun Hachamecha Gekijou takes the fucking cake. You play as the oldest of the six brothers, and go on a quest to... uh, you know, I don’t think this game really has much of a story to it. You go through three different stages trying to get from point A to point B while you, armed with a slingshot, take out enemies based on other characters in Osomatsu-Kun, a lot of them being Chibita. And yes, you heard right, this game is only 3 stages long, so it should be quick and easy, right? Well... sit down, this game pads itself out in the worst possible way, and it managed to piss me off.

As you progress through a level, you may think it’s as simple as reaching the end of a stage... it’s not. Remember the infamous maze level in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, or the one in Transformers Comvoy no Nazo? Well, there is a specific route you’re expected to take in this game, and it’s not clear. You’ll play this game going from point A to point B, but once you reach a certain point, the screen will just stop allowing you to move forward. You’ll see yourself before a pit, and think it’s instant death. In this game, it’s not death, it just leads you to a different part of the level. However, the path you need to take is cryptic as hell, and you’ll never know if you’re going the right way. The only way to find out is to take out the correct sub boss. When you do, you’ll see an intermission bumper like you would for anime, and you’ll ask yourself “Wait, am I just going through the first level again?” The answer is partially yes, because remember that point where the screen wouldn’t let you advance? Well, now you will see a platform show up that can take you to a new part of the level, but now you need to find a new path to get to point B. All of this is designed to pad the game’s extraordinarily short length. By short, I mean that if you know your way through all three levels, you can finish this game in about 15 minutes.

(Thank you to the person who put this shit together)

I’d be able to forgive the maze-like structure if the game was any fun to play, but as it stands, this is a painfully generic floaty platformer. By floaty I mean Osomatsu himself defies gravity by being able to float in the air for an extended period of time with his jump. It’s nice to be able to control his jump mid-air, but the weightlessness will more than likely mess up your precision platforming, or you’ll get interrupted by the mere touch of your enemies. Yes, when you take damage, you get stun-locked, and instead of just falling to the ground, you are stun locked mid-air. I could forgive it, but this game is once again, a 30 frames per second game, and almost feels like it’s been slowed-down intentionally. Another issue I take with this game is the difficulty, it’s way too easy. All enemy projectiles can be destroyed with your slingshot, and there’s enough distance between you and the enemy to have a pattern figured out easily. I guess the idea was because your slingshot has such a short range of attack, it would balance things out, but it really doesn’t. You’ll have plenty of lives and health to go up against the boss and sub boss as the game gets fairly generous with health powerups. There are also shops where you can buy some items to guide you with the ribbons you’re collecting along the way, but before you can access that you get the option of playing mini-games to gamble them away. I’d just skip these and go straight to the shop, it’s not like you need these power-ups that much anyway, you can beat this game without them.

On the visual side... this was the worst the Mega Drive had in 1988. Sure, it’s colorful, and the sprites evoke the spirit of the original manga, but this looks like a hold over from the Master System/Mark III, it just doesn’t impress me. Aesthetically, the game is fine for the most part, but eventually you’ll run into a few racial stereotypes for your enemies, and boy are they horribly insensitive. Even knowing this, I pressed on with the game, because I wanted to see if I could take something positive out of it and look past those enemy sprites, and about the only thing I find entertaining is Iyami being all the bosses. So aside from a few bad sprites, I find the graphics were more focused on aesthetics and functionality than pushing technical limitations early. Audio wise this game is just plain awful. There’s an old saying among video game music fans that only Japan could use the Mega Drive’s unique sound setup correctly, but if that’s the case, they’ve never listened to this game’s music. It’s obnoxiously loud, the sound effects are super scratchy, it feels too much like an assault on my ears compared to the sound effects on something like Curse, or even Taz-Mania. Nothing against the compositions themselves, I found two songs to be catchy, but otherwise, nothing stood out for the right reasons. Definitely not a keeper.

At the end of the day, Osomatsu-Kun Hachamecha Gekijou is shovelware of the highest honor. Even if you can endure the game’s painfully easy difficulty, and frustrating level layouts, you are left with a feeling of emptiness by the time you reach the end. This game will not so much break you, but it will leave you feeling empty and depressed as you say to yourself, “that’s it?” I certainly felt empty after playing this. Like I just lost about 20 minutes of my life, and I’ll never get it back. Is there much worse on the Mega Drive? Yes, but considering it was 1988, the console had nowhere to go from here but UP. I wouldn’t even think of recommending this today, even as a curiosity. This is one of those cases where I can say avoid at all costs

Positives

+ Aesthetics mimic the source material perfectly

+ Controls respond

+ The game’s translated subtitle “Nonsensical Theater” perfectly describes everything

Negatives

- Unnecessarily pads its length thanks to a cryptic maze structure

- Unacceptably short

- Insults your skill by being piss easy

- Racial stereotyping may be enough to turn you away

- Designed to cash in on Osomatsu-Kun’s returning popularity in the 80′s

- The game’s translated subtitle “Nonsensical theater” perfectly describes everything

- Audio will hurt your ears

- Unless you need to complete an actual Mega Drive collection... skip it.

- While taking screenshots, I somehow managed to unlock the game’s framerate, indicating that this game was deliberately programmed in assembly to play at 30 frames per second. The floaty mechanics actually handled better under 60 fps, no fucking joke. Do you believe this shit? 

Overall: 2/10

[bytheangell]

Not my idea but someone said imagine if flowers are linked to souls and the love between them. They would become more colourful when their love goes stronger and weaken when they have a fight. And they become gray not cause their love is gone but cause the other died. I mean.. this is painful but think how many times we saw flowers in malec scenes and their wedding! You can write about it if want, I would be grateful.

A Life Better in Color(Read on AO3)(Warning, Main Character Death)

Magnus knows what he feels for the Shadowhunter. It’s new, still fresh and uncertain, but it’s there. He grows much less uncertain when Alec lends his strength to him to heal Lucian. The trust that action takes on both of their parts, the bond it creates in that moment… Magnus isn’t surprised to see the vase of pink roses on the table grow a little brighter when Alec helps him up, and brighter still when Alec stays behind to help clean and share a drink. It’s small, barely a flicker, but it’s there. 

It’s a start. 

—

It’s difficult for Magnus to get a read on Alexander (it isn’t as if the Institute is ripe with floral arrangements, they don’t quite fit the all-black, I-could-kill-you-in-my-sleep aesthetic) so Magnus starts slipping him flowers. Just one here and there, pressed into the autopsy report he hands to Alec in the training room or conjured up while Alec isn’t looking to slip into his quiver when they discuss ‘payment’ for his services during Lydia’s trial. When Magnus returns, inevitably called back for either official business or to bail Clarissa and the others out of whatever new trouble they find themselves in, he keeps his eyes peeled for them. When Alec knows to expect him Magnus sees them on the corner of a desk, or resting by a rack of weapons. One day Magnus gets a single small flower - a forget-me-not, likely picked from outside in haste out of convenience and not for any deeper meaning - pressed into his palm as he passes Alec  in the hallway. Magnus checks it daily to make sure what he suspects Alec feels hasn’t grown any less (and secretly hoping it’s grown more). The steady sky blue is a comfort that this isn’t entirely unrequited despite outward appearances. Magnus knows it’s the most he’s going to get from the man who refuses to openly speak on anything he feels, and he decides that it’s enough to keep hope alive for both of them. 

For now.

—

Alec arranges for the flowers at his wedding to Lydia to be white. It’s the safest bet - nothing to fade during his inevitable internal struggle throughout the ceremony. They color Lydia’s bouquet red artificially before she goes out - they both know that while they respect and consider the other a friend, there’s no true love there. This way there’s nothing to betray to the crowd watching that the smiles on their faces are anything other than genuine. 

Everything’s going according to plan until Magnus shows up. 

Alec isn’t sure what he’s going to do until Lydia says she understands. 

He tries not to notice the way the flowers behind her fade ever-so-slightly to a creamier off-white as he turns away from Lydia to face Magnus, but he can’t tear his eyes away from a small pot of white flowers by the door. They’re the only ones he personally helped with arranging when they arrived and he was keeping busy to distract himself - and as his lips meet Magnus’ the flowers shift from white to a brilliant shade of red that just so happens to match the highlights in Magnus’ hair. 

For the first time all day Alec smiles a genuine smile. 

—

Magnus can handle Camille, but that isn’t the problem here. The problem is that he isn’t sure if Alexander can handle Camille and all of the devious tricks and manipulation she’s perfected over the centuries. He gets a clear read on Alec’s annoyance as the Shadowhunter ignores the Camille-initiated kiss he walks in on and goes to find Clary. For a few seconds Magnus thinks that maybe it’ll be a non-issue until he remembers the flower Alec gave him on the table where he sat it down.  

It’s muted, no longer a vibrant red. 

Magnus excuses himself and catches up to Alec, who immediately insists he doesn’t care about whatever he saw back there. Magnus simply holds out the flower to him in silent question. The conversation that follows isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. Magnus knows the life he lives, and the years that come with it, isn’t easy. Part of him expects Alec to walk away and never look back but instead Magnus watches him relax at Magnus’ reassurances. By the end of their conversation the flower, while not as bright as it started out, is a little brighter than before. 

And so are the gleams in both of their eyes as they share a quick kiss before going to find Clary. 

—

The longer Jace is gone the worse Alec spirals. It isn’t a fight so much as the simple fact that all of Alec’s love, all of his attention and thoughts and emotions, are entirely fixated on his missing parabatai. The colors drain around them and Magnus does his best not to take it personally. He cares about Alec, and Alec did break off his wedding to take a chance on him, but this is still new for both of them. He can’t imagine their budding romance would overpower the tumultuous fear Alec holds within him for the man who shares a part of his soul… but it still hurts to see a visual reminder of it at every turn. 

It certainly doesn’t help the blow of Alec’s harsh words when Magnus is unable to track Jace’s location. It wasn’t a fight before, but it becomes one now. 

When Alec comes to apologize he sets a small bundle of flowers on the table by the door. They’re a soft lilac in color, weak from the tension between them, the strain that Alec created by taking his frustrations out on Magnus. Alec isn’t sure Magnus will accept his apology… he isn’t sure he deserves to be forgiven. But he is, with the promise that he won’t push Magnus away again, and when Magnus walks Alec to the door a while later the flowers he finds there are a vibrant royal purple.  

—

The thing that Magnus realizes over the following months with Alexander isn’t that his flowers fade the most while they’re in a fight or apart for long periods of time; it’s that they lose their color fastest when Alec is stuck inside his own head, convinced he doesn’t deserve the love he feels, and especially not the love he receives in return. 

It’s those days that the bouquet on Magnus’ coffee table, the one that Alec continually refreshes with flowers he picks up at a market stand that’s along the way from the Institute to the Loft, always looks too soft and delicate, the colors practically nonexistent. When he wakes up to see them that way he reaches out to Alexander immediately. Sometimes it works, but more often it doesn’t. 

Learning to give Alec space is one of the more difficult things Magnus has done in recent years, but he works on it. Unfortunately, Magnus gets plenty of opportunities to practice. 

—

Alec, in all his life, has never seen colors as vibrant as the flowers around him after their first time. It isn’t simply the trust between them over the act of taking that next physical step, of letting his guard down enough to give himself over to someone else completely, but rather everything that happens around that moment which solidifies and strengthens the bond they share. It’s knowing Magnus feels just as vulnerable as he does and that the trust goes both ways. It’s seeing Magnus’ cat eyes and only becoming more infatuated, not scared away. It’s soft talks under golden sheets about fears and life and weaknesses. 

And Magnus, though the realization startles him straight down to his core, finds himself surrounded by the most dynamic colors in centuries, something he truly didn’t anticipate. Even with Etta there was always something small lingering in the back of their minds, something holding them back, something dulling Magnus’ world just a little. But not here, not now. He wonders if perhaps he’s grown too invested too quickly in Alexander Gideon Lightwood. Not that it matters, because he knows he’s too far gone to do anything about it now. 

It’s all they can do to embrace life in their kaleidoscope of growing love for as long as they can, because nothing perfect lasts forever.

—

After Valentine’s attack the emotions of the Shadowhunters and Downworlders present are so strong that the flowers around the church can’t help but be affected. The sorrow there is so strong after so many lives are lost in the blink of an eye that the flowers around them have almost all gone grey in silent memoriam, matching the stone walls that surround them. 

The longer Alec searches, the longer he can’t find any sign of Magnus, the more terrified he becomes that those flowers mourn for his lover as well. 

When they finally reunite, with the fear that consumed their entire beings slowly replaced with the comfort of ‘I love you’s, a single flower on the path beside them comes back to life.  

—

It takes a while for the colors to return to their life after Magnus gets his body back from Valentine. Magnus doesn’t blame Alec for what happend, not fully, but Alec can’t stop blaming himself and Magnus can’t help the instinct to flinch away from the hands so quick to bring him harm in that cell, from the authority so willing to authorize the use of an Agony rune on the body he was trapped in. 

But more than that, it’s the memories the Agony rune made Magnus relive, the ones he can’t shake which play out over and over again every time he closes his eyes. His mother taking her own life, his stepfather suffering at Magnus’ hands.

Both Magnus and Alexander each blame themselves, Magnus for allowing himself to be compromised and Alec for not believing Magnus sooner, and neither can fully love the other until they come to terms with this newfound hesitation between them. 

They never speak about it out loud but they throw away every flower in the house. It’s a dark enough time without the reminders. 

—

It’s a strange feeling for Magnus to carry so much weight over the blackening petals of a rose from someone other than Alexander, but the longer he gives himself to debate over what to do about the Seelie Queen’s offer the more certain he becomes that he’s only stalling - he already knows what answer he has to give. 

He checks the rose frequently, wishing for more time, for the chance to find some way out of this that doesn’t involve choosing sides. But in the end he can’t be blamed for his decision- after all, it’s Alec’s deceit, Alec’s lack of transparency and broken trust which ultimately forces his hand. They’re leaders; they have to do what’s best for their people, and this is simply the way it has to be. 

…maybe they could believe that if the last flowers they gave to one another before walking away were faded and wilted. They are at the start: the stems weaken and bend over with the weight of the blooms whose colors dull to soft pastels. It might be enough to accept that this is it, except when Max needs help Magnus is there in the blink of an eye. Neither one of them can help the hope that rekindles and when they look again later the stems stand a little straighter, the colors a little brighter. 

It’s their first reassurance that there’s no actual love lost between them despite the situation driving them apart, and if there is it’s not a complete abandonment. There’s still something there. There’s still something to save. It’s the only thought that keeps Alec going despite Magnus’ insistence that he can’t be with Alec and be there for his people as well. It’s the only thing keeping Magnus going the longer he forces himself to stay away and the more clinical his interactions with Alec grow when they do cross paths. 

Magnus knows his all-or-nothing reaction of siding with the Seelie Queen is dramatic, and Alec knows that keeping the information about the soul sword from the Downworlders was wrong, but it’s too late to fix either decision now. 

Every time Magnus stands behind the Seelie Queen, emotionless, he comes back to an empty apartment that’s a little more dull than the last time he left it. When he greets Alec with ‘What do you want, Shadowhunter?’ before nearly slamming the door in his face Magnus can almost feel the life draining from the flowers on the table behind him. 

He’s losing Alexander and he knows it. After all, one can only hold on to hope for so long before they have to face the reality being presented to them, and Magnus is presenting a harsh one to the man he still loves. 

It isn’t until the threat to their world is gone that they realize the victory, however impressive, means nothing without having the other to share it with. 

The flowers Alec helps him pick out on their long walk home after an alleyway reconciliation are the most colorful Magnus has seen in days.  

—

The immortality discussions between them are a trying time. Alec stays at the Institute to avoid a conversation he doesn’t know how to have. Magnus is too busy with clients to make social engagements with Alec and his family. They both know what’s going on but neither one of them knows how to fix it, not with words and not with actions, so they choose avoidance. Alec can feel his own insecurities draining the life from the flowers at his desk, just as they’re draining the life from the relationship he doesn’t know how to save. 

It isn’t until Jace’s life is on the line that they both admit they said things they regret. It should be enough, but it isn’t. Their relationship remains strained, a mixture of personal doubts and shaken beliefs over the idea that love may truly overcome everything else. After all, Clary’s love for Jace isn’t enough to save him any longer. Alec and Isabelle’s love for Jace isn’t enough for them to do what needs to be done in the depths of Jace’s mind. Worst of all, Alec’s love for Magnus isn’t enough to keep him from going to Edom to strike a deal with his father; in fact, it’s the very thing that sends him there. 

Faded flowers are all that greets Alec once the flames die out. Magnus is gone, and Alec is left to walk back out into the empty apartment and plan out his own worst-case scenario.  

—

It’s the strangest phenomena when Magnus loses his magic. For the days of back-and-forth - of Magnus having no magic, and then Lorenzo’s borrowed magic, and then no magic again - it seems as if the flowers that surround them are as torn as the two men living such drastically shifting lives. From the Loft to the Institute, it’s the same: the flowers are all split very particularly down the middle. One half is bright, thriving, as if desperate to make up for the other sides which fade more and more even on the days when things seem okay, a clear sign that the appearances being put forward aren’t the whole truth. 

Their love for one another is strong, and there’s no doubting it even on the darkest days. But there’s a disconnect. Though Alec suspects something’s not right even as Magnus smiles and uses the magic his body rejects, and Alec’s only proof are the flowers throughout Magnus’ firm denials anything is amiss. Alec knows that something is wrong, but he doesn’t know that Magnus can only allow himself to embrace their love when he feels he’s deserving of it, only when he feels like himself. How can Alec know when Magnus covers it up so well with eyeliner smeared on like war paint and yellow magic that isn’t quite right as a shield against the emptiness he feels right down to his soul. 

And so the flowers split in equal halves, faded and bright, the lie and the truth, the dangerous line being walked by both of them between what’s real and what’s for show. 

They wonder how long they can hold together as two extremes desperately clinging together as one before they split down the middle, too. 

—

There are no flowers in Maryse’s bookshop to give Magnus any indication that Alexander doesn’t mean every single word that leaves his lips that night. Magnus knows they’re true, he’s felt it in him ever since the moment Lorenzo took his magic back - he’s broken, useless, more of a burden than anyone would wish to keep around. Alec’s words confirm the suspicion Magnus had all along: that he would’ve been better of dying with the false magic at this fingertips than living an empty life without it. 

He has no home to return to, no way of knowing that every word Alec spoke was a lie to drive him away. Instead he wanders, lost and alone until a familiar pair of cat-eyes find him in the streets, while Alec returns back to the Institute and a balcony full of lifeless, drained roses where the red ones once stood. 

—

Alec doesn’t know if it’s going to work but he forces Magnus to wait before going to Edom just one extra minute. He returns with the closest flower he could find: a red tulip. He doesn’t know how the rules apply across realms but he can only hope that the colors hold true no matter what the distance. He needs Magnus to know that he’s not alone there, that Alec’s love for him won’t fade over time, or distance, or anything else that may come between them. 

When Alec manages to find a way to rescue Magnus, arriving in Edom with the same yellow magic at his fingertips that nearly killed Magnus not too long ago, Magnus tells Alec that he never doubted him, not for a second. 

Very out of place in a realm of dirt and heat and ichor, a single red tulip sits on the seat of a throne, more vibrant than the day it arrived. 

—

The day of the wedding the flowers around them are nearly blinding in their intensity. Knowing this would be the effect they intentionally chose ones which started on the dull side, but even so the way the flowers emboldened themselves as first Alexander, and then Magnus, walked down the aisle draws the eyes of everyone around them. If there’s any doubt that the love these two feel for one another grows stronger by the second that doubt is replaced by a brilliant assortment of colors growing brighter, bolder, with every second that passes during the ceremony. 

—

They always knew there would come a day when the flowers on the table would turn gray. Neither of them liked to think about it but such is life, and the mortality of man is undeniable, so they do their best to come to terms with it and live with the looming inevitability. They, like most everyone around them, anticipate the day when Alec would end up very unwillingly leaving Magnus behind on this earth. 

No one anticipated that it would be the other way around. 

Alec is just coming home from a rather uneventful day full of meetings and playing nice to pass some amendments that are going to make a huge difference in the way implementing Downworld Cabinets across every country with an Institute will go over. It’s a big win for them, one he can’t wait to share with Magnus. Except Magnus isn’t home when Alec gets there, despite the fact that his last client meeting that day should’ve ended hours ago. 

That’s when Alec sees the note on the table. ‘A friend in Marrakech needs help, last-minute emergency no time to explain. I’ll be late, call you later. Love you’. Alec puts the note down and resigns himself to heating up leftovers instead of going out for a celebratory dinner. He’s in the kitchen no more than 10 minutes but when he comes back out the flowers on the table are fading. It happens so fast Alec barely processes it before his hands fall to his side and the plate spills to the floor, forgotten. It’s over almost as soon as it began: all six of the roses are gray. 

Alec looks around the room, desperate for any sign that this doesn’t mean what he knows it means, but the marigolds on the balcony (Magnus swore they were low maintenance enough even Alec couldn’t manage to kill them), the purple peonies they picked on their walk yesterday because it matched the highlights in his husband’s hair (Magnus had taken one and tucked it behind Alec’s ear before placing a kiss on his temple beside the fragrant bloom)… every single flower in their home has gone gray. 

Alec takes a rose from the table and walks to the sofa where he sits down and stares at it, unblinking. He doesn’t cry, the shock is too fresh and the disbelief still lingering - this is how Jace and Isabelle find him an hour later after a number of failed attempts to reach him. They take one look at the flower he holds and know that he knows… and yet not having to break the worst of the  news doesn’t make it any easier for them to tell him about the ambush Magnus managed to save several warlock children from, but not himself. It was quick, they promise Alec - Magnus didn’t suffer. 

The knowledge doesn’t help ease Alec’s own suffering, however. 

The longer Alec goes without crying the more concerned his family grows for him, and yet he doesn’t allow a single tear to fall until after they left (not for good, just to grab some things before returning to spend the night, refusing to leave him alone). He gets the worst of it out before they return but he can’t shut it off any longer: now that he acknowledges it, it’s like opening a floodgate of emotions. 

Alec is furious at Magnus for putting himself in danger, he’s proud of the selfless legacy his husband leaves behind, he’s filled with frustration and sorrow and love, and yet the flowers around him don’t brighten or pale to reflect anything he feels towards the man he’ll never get to say a proper goodbye to - they remain a final, resolute gray, because no amount of love or anger can change things now, or ever again. 

The need to stay busy is overwhelming but Alec is forced to take a personal leave, so he organizes the funeral instead. It isn’t in Alicante, though it could be - that was the sort of difference Magnus made in this world, the kind that would allow a Downworlder to be High Warlock of Alicante, the kind that would allow his funeral on Shadowhunter grounds if they so choose. 

Alec knows, and Catarina agrees, that it isn’t what Magnus would’ve wanted.

When all is said and done, Magnus is buried next to Ragnor, along with his box of mementos which Alec adds the omamori to before closing once and for all.

Alec doesn’t allow any flowers at the ceremony except the single grey rose he leaves behind. 

[clarasimone]

Once upon a time, Iain Glen was Henry V

Sorority, tip-toe with care to Youtube and DO NOT leave a trace behind for fear someone might outlaw this video. @scratchybeardsweetmouth found this treasure after I alerted her to a shortened version, also hidden on youtube, of a now extinct VHS tape of excerpts of Shakespeare plays, staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1995, featuring our young bear as Henry V.

I did the research and the RSC has since issued a DVD of this compendium (2003) but did not include Henry V (whyyyyyyy ?!!). The only copy of the full-length version I could find is a VHS still in circulation in a public library in the Bronx (!). Of course, you may go the RSC archival library and watch it there... but the youtube hidden treasure will give you a good taste of our young master Iain Glen’s INTENSE performance of this amazing Shakespeare character.

We’re lucky in that the youtube segment includes the St. Crispian monologue ! 

When I teach Film Aesthetics, I do a comparison of Laurence Olivier's St. Crispian speech (1944) and Kenneth Branagh's version (1989): the similitudes and differences in the mise-en-scene, performance and overall visual and aural style. I won't go into the details, because we’ll still be here tomorrow (well I included SOME below ;-). Suffice to say that this monologue makes me cry every time, especially in the Branagh version when the rhythmical pattern of his delivery matches the musical beats once we've cut to his close-up. It’s impossible to remain stoic when we get to the "band of brothers" segment. A rousing "give me courage before the battle" speech that plays on the notion of brotherhood, the desire to belong, to each other and to something greater than ourselves, to overcome our fears in order to become heroic. There's a lot of that at the end of Season 7 in GoT when Jon, Jorah and their unlikely companions go get a White !

So when I discovered that Iain Glen had played Henry V in the 90s, my heart sank knowing that I'd never be able to see that. Plays are so rarely filmed. Discovering that clip on youtube, even truncated, felt unreal. @scratchybeardsweetmouth found me/us an even better version :-))) Glen's approach is fascinating in that (I feel) he plays the King in a very passionate and, at times, dolorous way, like a martyr really, willing to sacrifice himself. I'd follow him to keep him from dying in the process ;-)

What do you think @unterwasserfisch, our resident theater expert ? :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk_rPHoSc8w

the Olivier version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvFHRNGYfuo

the Branagh version

In the case of Olivier, he very consciously goes for the theatrical feel. He didn't have to do it this way. It's an homage of sorts. But it's also a bit deceiving because he does move the camera, gets nearer to the lens, modulates his speech, does murmur before projecting again. Nonetheless, the most striking element of his mise-en-scene is his use of the long take. It keeps the performance whole and creates an almost subliminal tension: the longer the shot lasts, the more we're left waiting, hanging on the performer's words. And THAT certainly gives us an experience akin to the theater where we experience the narrative and performance is real time with no editing. As @scratchybeardsweetmouth, pointed out, even the speech was made to be loud, as in a play, because the idea was that you needed to be heard by the farthest person in the room. Brannagh's approach is more naturalistic, includes more murmuring, playing for the camera and not the men standing far away in the forest ;-) But it’s the pauses that kill me :-) In class, I replay that bit over and over again (cue: 2M49 on the youtube link ;-) Goosebumps ! The amazing thing in this moment is that Henry seems in tune with the very fabric of filmmaking. It's as if he can hear the extra-diegetic music we're hearing and creates an emotional dialogue with it. He's in a natural position of power as king and military leader but him "hearing" the music enhances his uncanny power of persuasion even more :-) 

Before we get to Glen’s version of the St. Crispin Day monologue, we are also privy to his very moving soliloquy which prepares him for his rousing speech. The King, left alone, suffers the loneliness of being the one at the top and not a simple man. He tells God he hates the pomp and ceremony surrounding him, because it isolates him. He wants to be one with his men. He's afraid for them in the coming battle, fears he won't be able to rouse them, rally them, and knows that many will die. The vulnerability Glen as Henry shows in this scene is a great way to set the table for the St. Crispian speech because he seems so shaken, we don't expect he'll be able to lead them. But when Glen/Henry finds the right words, composure, emotion after a night of self-doubt and almost self-loathing, it surprises us, moves us and indeed makes us want to be part of his Band of Brothers :-) 

Must include the actual words !

KING HENRY V

What's he that wishes so? My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin: If we are mark'd to die, we are enow To do our country loss; and if to live, The fewer men, the greater share of honour. God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; It yearns me not if men my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my desires: But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive. No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England: God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour As one man more, methinks, would share from me For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more! Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, That he which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart; his passport shall be made And crowns for convoy put into his purse: We would not die in that man's company That fears his fellowship to die with us. This day is called the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:' Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars. And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.' Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages What feats he did that day: then shall our names. Familiar in his mouth as household words Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd. This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remember'd; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

And finally, the youtube montage includes the “love scene” between the King and his french fiancee. A delight ! Especially given that it amazingly foreshadows Jorah (see the passages in bold ;-) and the awesomeness that is Iain Glen in his more mature years.

KING HENRY(...) Curse my father’s ambition! He was thinking of civil wars when he conceived me, and consequently my outward appearance is harsh and steely. I intimidate ladies when I come to woo them. But I promise you, Kate: the older I grow the better I’ll look. My comfort is that old age, that poor preserver of beauty, can’t make my face any worse than it already is. If you have me, you have me now at my worst; and if you have me, you’ll appreciate me better and better. (...) KATHERINE Dat is as it shall please de king my father.

KING HENRY Oh, it will please him, Kate. It will please him very well.

KATHERINED it shall also content me.

KING HENRY With that I kiss your hand and call you my queen.

(And brownie points to Glen for speaking a few words in french. As if I wasn’t already putty in his hands ;-)

[graveyard-in-the-void]

- A masterclass in worlds between worlds - (Hey, what do you get if you put every Henry into a designated bar? A very bad time and not only because of the theoretical possibility that Hans Dsaftale might be there with the others. Now, what do you get if you LOCK one of the Henry’s into the bar as punishment for almost getting his own universe destroyed? A very exhausted Henry who’s just trying to make sense of the things he is seeing. If he hates it, at least he wants to understand it.)

- - - “Okay.” Henry started. Everyone was listening up as soon as that simple word was leaving his lips. This would be entertaining. It always was. Sure, there was some groaning in the back, but even they knew that would be hilarious. Lengthy, but hilarious. Well, maybe they would be the only ones laughing, but they don’t count their losses. Free entertainment is free entertainment. Henry stared into the people around him, before scoffing and pulling out an incredibly large board, with multiple pins on it, as well as notes and photos. “Hear me out. I have cracked the code.” Ah, one of these. “This will be one of the more lengthy of these, so you will need to bear with me.” One final cough from the audience and he was good to go. “Fantastic. Now, I want to introduce a concept to you. And I think it is something groundbreaking, as it is connecting to the very concept of souls. Alright, let us start off with the core concept of a soul. If it is an imprint of our very self, of our deepest emotions, desires and motivation, what truly moves us… then it is not only logical conclusion, that it also what dictates what draws us in or repels us? Of course it is. Thus, we can easily conclude that our soul ITSELF has needs and desires. “We like what we like” and “you should not fight over taste” are very wise statements indeed, absolutely true. But where do these tastes even come from? From our soul? Our liking for colors, aesthetics, for food and for music? Yes, surely there is a very psychological connection to it, due to experience, but… I think it runs deeper. What does this imply? That our souls comes inherently with NEEDS, with desires coming from our deepest core that we cannot possibly satisfy ourselves. This is further proven by our DEPENDANCE on other people. “The human is a social animal”- but what does that mean? How can a creature perish merely because of lack of contact? Perhaps it is hardwired into our spirits to need the interaction of ideas, the essence of others, because we cannot provide this for ourselves.“ The place broke out in quiet mumbling, while Henry adjusted the board behind him, to connect the dots visually. “Now, that we have established that every soul has needs, I think we can directly move onto the concept that every soul has DIFFERENT needs. It would make sense to try to find similarities in the needs from soul to soul, as you would assume it has the same baseline… but due to our experiences with souls, we have to accept that in terms of needs, souls differentiate severely from each other. Much like plants are awfully different based on species, I am willing to admit that souls CAN be similar in their nature and have similar needs, but souls exist in borderline endless versions, meaning most souls widely differentiate from another.” He paused, dramatically. The room was silent. “What does it mean, you ask?” Nobody actually asked anything. “I am glad you asked. Why is this important? Simple. Self-control and optimization. During my studies of multiple different multiverses, I realized an abhorrent flaw in the mental system that is me. Mainly, and believe me dear audience, I hate to say it, my draw to what I tend to consider “weakness”. Yes, I know, I know. Implausible. Impossible! But it is true. Except, it is not WEAKNESS." He smashed both of his hands on the bar in front of him. "It certainly seems like it and technically speaking IS weakness, but it is not outright weakness. It is not cowardice, it is not indecisiveness, it is not ignorance, which I all would call true symptoms of weakness. Fragility might also be a part of it, but not necessarily. That is what makes it so intriguing. And by fragility I do not quite mean instantaneous shattering. It is more a mixture of dependence and- okay, I think there is a lot of it to do with dependence. But what is there to dependence? Whatever would make that alluring? I will tell you. It took me a while, but my working theory is this: There is some sort of... resonance, dare I say. An echo of our own fear and worry, we see in them something we fear to be in us! And thus, caring for that person, defeating the weakness within them, satisfying the dependence, it proves to us we can defeat it within ourselves as well!" One of the attendance rose his hand. "Okay, but what about simple narcissist function? Occam's razor. The easiest answer is that we are simply searching for supply for our ego." The presenting Henry wildly waved his hand around in disgust. "No! That is not what it is. Obviously. Otherwise, the codependency that at least somewhat evolves even from our side would not grow WORSE. We would grow tired of it. But that is not happening. No, the longer it goes on, the worse it gets! The only reasonable solution is to assume that our traits are calling out for those that will COVER them. Our loyalty and capability calls for NEED in the other soul, for insecurity and reliability. Trustworthiness, for our loyalty. Our detachment from any given reality calls out for something that we directly can control and influence, a real, breathing example of our effect that we can have. There is an incredibly fragile balance to be struck, of need and trustworthy purity, as well as absolute willingness to give up everything that makes them themselves in the first place, as we have some sort of all-consuming ego, with our individuality being our most important part, so important in fact that we need to be able to impose it onto others to feel secure-" He was interrupted. "So you are saying we are some sort of former eldritch abomination given human flesh for some reason still trying to live out or former desires?" Henry paused a bit irritated. "I mean... maybe? Unlikely, but-" Another voice. "Hey, does this "calling out" thing not imply that people who get attracted to people who torment them deserve it? Because if so, that is pretty fucked up of you." "No! I mean- well, we are talking about underlying NEEDS, that does not necessary equate to it being lived out in-" A pink Naga leaned back. "No, no, I agree. Prey isss prey. It cannot bear being anything different. It needsss to feel like it." "Shut up, nobody asked you." A bit annoyed Henry tried to dismiss him. Desperately he tried to get back to the point he was trying to make for what felt like an hour by now. "I propose the following: There is not actually such a thing as soulmate, but it is more akin to a spiritual form of chemical bonding. Some bond easier than others, like hydrogen. For souls that mean they have less specific requirements to keep up a truly fulfilling bond, or have an easier time filling the other's lacking traits without needing much back. What is needed from their bond is what we call out via our souls, creating a type, but said type is intended to cover the things our souls cannot satisfy or eradicate within itself. Thus, my conclusion is that a soul bond forms for a soul much more on what people lack than their strength. If the lacks fit well with the lacking of the other person, they manage to fall into place-" This time he wasn't even allowed to rant. The bartender Henry next to him gave him a flick with his demonic tail and poured himself a drink. "I love it when people who never had a relationship try to explain them. Very cute." "I- TECHNICALLY speaking you can become an expert on everything via the theory, I did a lot of studies-" "Oh god, wait, so you cucked yourself?" The succubus watched with delight as the most annoying Henry's face went from pale to red. "Cut it out you filthy whore." "You are merely jealous that unlike you, I not only get to fuck my boyfriend all day, but also get magical abilities for it." That was enough, the poor Henry, who was just trying to find answers, held his ears closed like some sort of child and had a silent breakdown. It wasn't easy hanging out with such an awful version of yourself. Especially if that version couldn't stand you and loved to tease you about shortcomings that he would of course know by heart. The other Henrys lost interest at that point. Show's over. And nobody learned anything. No, it wasn't quite the void, but Henry surely wished to get back there instead of being stuck here, serving drinks to his much more pathetic, yet somehow much more successful versions. Oh, hell had many faces. For now he had to deal.

[legionofpotatoes]

Okay then, since both of y’all are just delving in I’ll try to keep things (relatively) spoiler-free and stick to story sense and semiotics! Few caveats:

Have not had prior experience with Kojima’s body of work and if that’s a prerequisite in how I “should feel” about it then yike on a bike (just getting this out of the way based on what I’ve had talked at me)

My read excludes the entire context of moment-to-moment gameplay; I basically watched chronological story cutscenes stitched together with NPC interaction vignettes sprinkled in-between. 9 or so hours in total. 

I did this because the gameplay does not interest me at all - and not in protest of chill social games (I adore both No Man’s Sky and thatgamecompany stuff, for example, and try to champion anything without Gun in it), but because the setting and length did not align with my expectations for something to invest so much time into. Still, I was super intrigued by the story, and, to a lesser extent, the plot.

also I have a hard time writing in condensed English, so this may run quite long. I’ll put the rest under a break. Second language, sorry!

I’m trying to think of a good way to start this. Like I said, the story, or what the thing was ABOUT, was infinitely more interesting to me than whatever wacko packaging Kojima thought up for the narrative. Which was a complicated, thought-out piece of fiction shattered into many disparate pieces and fed to us in a mystery-box-filmmaker kind of way, making us reverse-engineer what essentially was a rather simple interpersonal uhh. family tragedy, I guess. 

But to its credit the lore is visibly built solely to support whatever thematic messaging Kojima would want to weave in there - something I can respect. Meaning it gets as wacky and as nonsensical as it needs to be in order to reflect the high-concept allegories at play, aaand then it does so to a fault. I adore works of fiction that don’t give a shit about “tone” - I hate that word more than anything in modern media - but effective symbolism in storytelling, IN MY OPINION, requires a deft hand, nuance, strong authorial position, and a good grasp of social context. 

I want to like, go through these four points individually and nitpick my problems with the game in their lens, because I think they cover pretty much everything I feel like saying:

1. A deft hand - to me means to selectively dramatize correct themes and plot points as you go so that shit makes sense in the end. I felt this was incredibly lacking here. It was like a symphony going for hours without a crescendo. The absolute wrong bits of soulless exposition would be reiterated THRICE within a single cutscene while necessary context of, hell, character motives or even plot geography would be left vague. Intentionally vague, some would argue, but their later function would never arrive. Other times, what would visibly be conceived as wink-and-you’ll-miss-it foreshadowing could overstay its welcome to the point of inadvertently spoiling a later plot point. My girlfriend sniped the (arguably) most important reveal of the game, which is left for the tail end of the final epilogue (!), in the first hours of watching. The symbolics and allusions were just too plentiful where they should have been more subdued. I am DYING to provide examples here but I’m keeping it spoiler-free. Again, if this is a Kojima-ism, too bad; but it’s not a catastrophic failure of storytelling by any means. There are very few masters of this thing working today. But what can be easier to navigate, I think, is...

2. Nuance - this kinda goes hand-in-hand with the upper point but is a bit more important to me and applies to what SPECIFICALLY you decide to heighten in order to slap us across the face with your deeper meanings. Certain characters - not all of them - feel like caricatures. The silly names and overt metaphors (wearing a mask means hiding something! connected cities all have ‘knot’ in their name!) are honestly, genuinely FINE as long as their function isn’t betrayed, but the lean into metaphor worship can sometimes wade into SERIOUSLY shitty territory as contemporary implications are ignored altogether, and that ties into my fourth point, which I’ll address before looping back to the third; needless to say, approaching sensitive subjects with broad strokes is not exactly the way to go. But broad strokes is almost exclusively what this game does, forgetting to incorporate...

3. Social context - and I feel like avoiding examples here will be difficult lest I end up sounding like a dogmatic asshole; but there is a right thing and a wrong thing to do when co-opting IRL concepts to fit fictional messaging/storytelling. I feel that a character “curing” themselves of a phobia by experiencing emotional growth that vaguely corresponds to what the disorder could have symbolized is a wrong thing. And I don’t even want to get into all the wacky revisionism the lore ended up twisting into, which was mostly honestly entertaining (the ammonite will be a good hint to those who’ve played it), until it decided to, again, lean a bit too hard into painting today’s reality as a crisis of human connection and imply some questionable things about why, uh, asexual people exist, for example. Yes it makes some sense within the context of the lore and what’s happening in the plot, but it’s completely lacking in social know-how of the here and now. In other words: a Bad Look. To me, this type of wayward ignorance is a much more serious issue that can historically snowball any piece of writing into a witless disaster. I don’t know if it quite does it here, but it’s not really my place to say. Still, you can have wacky worldbuilding that has no sense of dramatic tension, nuance, or awareness towards the audience, and yet containing one last vital glue holding it all together, and that would be...

4. Strong authorial position - or intent I guess, to speak in literary terms - and I still have trouble pinpointing how and where this exists in this game. A bullshit stance you say, and I hear ya; cause this here is a video game very pronounced in its pro-human-connection messaging, painting the opposite outcome as an apocalyptic end to our species. And as I understand the gameplay is all about connections too - leaning into that theme so hard it even renders itself unapproachable to most capital-g Gamers. I honestly respect the balls of that. But really, as an author who headlined the creation of this thing, what was it really about? What were you trying to say?

And beyond “human connection is real important to beat apathy” I got nothing, and I think that’s because of points 1 and 2 failing in succession, and then point 3 souring the taste. It just had to be apparent the moment the curtain fell, is what I find. You just have to “get” it immediately, get what it was trying to say, but that will happen only if it’s been articulated incredibly well up to that point. Maybe the entire punch of that message REALLY depends on you spending dozens of hours ruminating on the crushing cost of loneliness as you haul cargo across countries on foot and connect people to your weird not-internet? If so, I’ve missed a vital piece of context, and with this being a videogame and all, it’s honestly a fair assumption. But otherwise.. it felt like a hell of a lot of twisting and turning and plot affectations that only led to more plot affectations and sometimes character growth (which had its own bag of issues from point 3) and not a hell of a lot to say about human connection beyond the fact that it is. good and useful. It felt like a repeated statement instead of being an argument. Does that make sense? I understand the story optics here are zoomed waay out and set on targeting the human condition as a whole, but like.. if you’re committing to a message, you have to stand by it.

Why is connection good? it’s a dumb question without a DOUBT but since the game has set out to answer it then it.. should? Did I miss the answer? I may have, I honestly can’t exclude the possibility. My lens was warped and my framework of consuming storytelling is a bit rigid in its requirements (the four points I mentioned), so maybe I’m just too grouchy and old to understand. 

I just think Pacific Rim did it better and took about 7 hours less to do it! And yet, it, too, involved Guillermo Del Toro. Curious.

If you made it this far and are interested in my thoughts on the technical execution of it all as well, uhm, it’s pretty much spotless? Decima is utilized beautifully, the Hideo vanity squad of celebrities all do their very best with the often clunky dialogue, the music is great, the aesthetic and visual design is immediately arresting, and it certainly does an all-around great job at standing out from the rest of the flock. I fell in love with the BB a little bit. It is also a game that is incredibly horny for Mads Mikkelsen, which almost fully supplants the expected real estate for run-of-the-mill male gaze bullshit. It is. A change.

That’s all I got folks

[wackygoofball]

What represent Brienne's dressing robe during latest scene? We see Brienne dressed as a woman, quite and confident... but in black ... black not blue! And furs bed with Brienne remember me the old scene with Bran / direwolf / Catelyn Stark... so sad...

Well, my guess is good as anyone’s, I suppose, anon, but it is known that Wacky loves to ramble - especially about costumes. Since it is a longer post, I will put it below the cut:

Colors are always a tricky thing because depending on the culture you take from, they may signify very different things (in some cultures, white is the color of mourning, in others it’s black, etc.). However, since the costume design is done by the wonderful Michele Clapton, we can at least go from the British context here for some ideas.

To my mind, there are four interpretative planes on which I can see this operate (others may certainly find more and/or better ones, but those are the ones that come to my mind:

1) I suppose the straightforward associations of the color black in this context are mourning, death, endings, and sadness already pre-mediated in the dress before the two even say the words and Jaime rides off. She basically *is* wearing a mourning dress for the loss she is about to suffer (if not for long… I remain certain of that). It makes her standing there alone all the more heartbreaking. She merges with the background, she becomes visually more and more one with the darkness of the night. In that same vein, it creates a very stark contrast to Gwen’s naturally pale complexion, which puts even more focus on her face (whites and blacks have the greatest contrast in the color scale).

* Side note: Also note the texture of the dress. It’s roughspun and thick. It’s a tough fabric that stays very much in place and does move around a lot. Since it is very thick, it signifies protection (against the cold), too.

2) It’s a neat way of establishing visual connections between the two right in that scene and in connection to earlier scenes. Black has been a dominating color for both lately. Jaime, upon riding North, takes up a black cloak he repeatedly wears, even in that episode. Brienne also features a dark coat edging on black.

It’s been the predominant color of the North. I think that may also be some level hidden inside particularly for Brienne who’s gotten quite cozy up in the North even though her *identity* bears the color blue. She is *not* a Northerner and her time with Sansa is actually long since up, if only she finally found an impetus to make that step… oh wait! ;) And yet again, that perfectly mirrors her with Jaime whose ultimate landing place is not Winterfell either. Winterfell was about getting them together, but it’s not mean to be the place where they ultimately stay together. This black unity was a comfort they enjoyed while it lasted, but it was only ever there for a time because both their houses, both their colors, both their duties are calling.

In some shots during the goodbye scene, Jaime’s red leather jacket also appears almost black due to the darkness of the night.

See how they almost look like they are one piece color-wise? They are building a visual unity not just through the physical touch, not just by her cupping his cheeks or him rubbing his (black!) glove against her wrist for comfort. They are creating a visual unity in that darkest hour. In this shot in particular, it’s even hard to tell where one part of clothing begins and another ends.

It can also be regarded as a neat callback to their lovemaking scene. The tunics they wore were either *really* dark gray or just plain black. Be it as it may, the *look* black in those shots.

Jaime and Brienne wore different style tunics, but the shirts were still harmonizing, creating unity even before they dared to physically touch and undress in that chamber. In that way, the color black, even before the goodbye already pre-mediated visually what was about to go down. This callback to their unity may be one of the big hints here already.

3) Black is not just the color of mourning in Western culture. It is also a color that signifies status and authority. Judges wear black robes, referees have black clothes oftentimes. I have noted elsewhere that I was mesmerized by how regal and lady-like she looked in that dress. Gwen knows how to carry a dress, so that certainly added to it, but it really has something dignifying about itself, teh simple cut just fitting perfectly and all. Let’s not forget that Jaime and Brienne are basically still some of the few actual adults in the room, considering that we have a bunch of young adults calling global shots. I think that may also be a hint because this is a *mature* Brienne of Tarth we are seeing, we are seeing her carry herself with dignity and authority. If a spec of mine turns out to be true, then that posiitions her at last as a lady about to take charge *in her own right* rather than continuing to play bodyguard for a teenager who has others who can take good care of her in her stead.

4) Black is the color of mystery, of the unknown. Part of the reason why a lot of people are afraid in the dark is because we don’t typically see what’s in the dark, a fear that was deeply embedded into our system because of our ancestors who had to fear to be eaten by wild animals that sneaked up on them in the middle of the night. Evidently, that’s not what’s happening in that scene, but black still has something mystifying. It leaves you in the open. And I think that is also the big giveaway with regards to the misdirection I believe they are seeding here. His leaving is a mystery *to her*, she reckons the reason but her heart cannot comprehend it (also due to a lack of information, which is the figurative equivalent of *leaving her in the dark* about certain things, including the threat on his life thanks to Bronn and Cersei posing a threat by extension therefore).

So. Why black, you asked, anon. I think there are many reasons why. It fits the aesthetic of the overall scenes, creates visual unity and calls back to earlier moments of unity and closeness, it pre-mediates the sadness and grief we are about to witness for them both while at the same time showing that there is a connecting matter between them.

I think part of the big message for Brienne’s black dress lies on the color (see above) but also the fact that it is a dress. Beside the callback to Ned and Cat parting ways, we see here Brienne at a very vulnerable moment. She appears to him after she laid her feminity bare before him and started to embrace it. She holds herself (because of the cold), only to receive a massive blow to the femininity she finally allowed herself to be part of her life. That is what makes this moment even more heartbreaking than it is because of Gwen and Nik acting the living shit out of that scene and perfectly illustrate the vulnerability Brienne is feeling and the pain Jaime is feeling for saying those things and leaving now, even if it is with almost utmost certainty in an effor to protect her from further harm.

As to your question about the furs… interesting thought. I never really thought about Bran’s bed and the furs, because it just seemed to me that furs were simply the kind of thing to find on a bed in the Northern regions due to the cold.

Buuuut interesting thought, really.

If we compare the shot of Bran’s re-awakening after the fall…

We see fur, we see Ned killing Lady, and then Bran opening his eyes. Also interesting how Ned’s clothes seem to fit in rather neatly here.

While the order’s switched up a bit, we also have shot of furs, guy brooding, about to make a tough choice, and then someone awakening.

INTERESTING.

I don’t know what to make of that, I really don’t, but I find it VERY interesting. So thank you for that observation, anon. Mayhaps the visual callback to Bran we’ve been waiting for? The foreshadowing that Bran had his hands in Jaime’s leaving? So many possibilities with that little robotic guy. Ugh.

Anyway, those are my two cents, maybe three.

[comicteaparty]

August 3rd-August 9th, 2019 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from August 3rd, 2019 to August 9th, 2019.  The chat focused on the following question:

Describe your comic’s setting.  What made you choose this setting?

Steph (@grandpaseawitch)

For https://oldmanandtheseawitch.tumblr.com/, I chose a very nebulous interbellum period because I felt like that sort of gave me the best of all worlds. At heart, I just love me some vintage settings, especially the early 20th century. I knew I wanted a setting without modern conveniences, not only because it helps the comic stand up to aging and reduces the risk of falling out of date, but presents its own challenges and advantages. But while I wanted a vintage setting, I also wanted one that I felt like hadn't been done before in regards to mermaid stories, which are almost always set either in modern days or in the rough time period of the Little Mermaid--1700s to early 1800s. Interbellum Scotland felt like a unique setting that was, at once, hearkening to classical mermaid settings with sailboats and old-timey fisherman, tiny fishing towns, but with some trapping familiar to modern readers even they have vintage twists, like telephones but with switchboards, cars but they're old model Ts, things like that. I also felt like this period brought some neat ideas. I've never seen mermaids dealing with old radios or model Ts or a setting that had just recovered from a brutal world war with trenches and ocean mines and diesel and radar. Transitioning from pastoral to industrialized. Where does this element of fantasy, the mermaid story, come into play and interact with this? And you'll see that, even between Witchy and Ainsley, things revolving around mermaids are more fantasy-based with monsters and magic, while things revolving around humans are more realistic and down to earth, wondering about income and walking to work and selling your goods and what's going on south in england. And over time, things start to overlap and entwine as their relationship progresses, magic seeping into the human world and the mundane seeping into the mermaid world.

But overall I just love drawing and researching vintage things. ;3 And Scotland's just pretty as heck.

Respheal

Galebound http://www.galebound.com/ takes place on a tidally-locked planet shortly before their equivalent to earth's industrial revolution. Steam engines are getting more popular, mostly used by merchants where the fixed wind and currents aren't helpful, and they're on the cusp of science and medical advancements that will make their planetary and magical system very problematic. The tidally-locked world came first, just 'cuz they're neat! Planets like that have one side constantly facing their sun so you get that whole fire-ice world with a narrow band of eternal twilight and safety in between. These type of planets, if they have a good atmosphere, also usually have a giant storm at the subsolar point. So I made that storm the carrier of their magic system, the Gale, because why not. This sorta setup causes some interesting narrative features, like the complete lack of night and seasons and huge swaths of the planet that are completely uninhabitable. The time period sort of just happened, but it worked out. I wanted it to take place later than sword-and-sorcery times, but it couldn't be too modern, so the early 19th century was about right. Also it sort of sets a time limit on fixing certain things, because certain scientific advances would make the magic system so ridiculously broken I don't think it could be salvaged ahahaha :'D(edited)

spacerocketbunny

http://www.ghostjunksickness.com/ the setting in GJS is in a universe that has a variety of different time period aesthetics in one. It takes on a retro futurism where there's outdated tech from the 80's and 90's but there's also spaceships and technological advancements to make travelling from one planet to the next into a day trip. There's aliens and a variety of different people that make humans a minority in the population in a very mixed and blended cultural mosaic. The main setting of the story, which is a planet called June7 is also a place recovering from a inexplicable catastrophe which destroyed a majority of the planet's surface. It's unstable and crumbling structures make it difficult for the residents to thrive and something like transient bounty hunters have pretty much taken over the main livelihood of the planet.

We wanted to make a really well lived in setting, so we took inspiration from a variety of different cultures and stories that the science-fiction genre hadn't quite delved into.

LadyLazuli

For Phantomarine, http://www.phantomarine.com/, the basic concept was simple - I like the ocean, and I like ghosts, so I mashed them together into a haunted ocean But I also love worlds where beauty and danger are close neighbors - in this case, a network of sacred lighthouses keeps swarms of hungry ghosts away from the living population of the sea. I love stories where civilian life is pretty uncomplicated and chill - I've got a nice tropical fantasy vibe going on in these last couple chapters - but there's always a massive danger element looming over everyone's head. What if those lighthouses fail? What if you fall overboard outside the barrier? All that relaxing energy can change to morbid tragedy in a flash...(edited)

LadyLazuli

In terms of rough time period, I've kept it incredibly vague, mostly for my own enjoyment I have sailboats and motorboats existing side by side, color cameras, radios, electricity... certainly not technologically advanced, but it's got some 19th-20th century bits-n-bobs here and there. It's a fantasy world, but more supernatural than magical - gods, ghosts, some humans with strange gifts, but more often than not, a very strong boundary between ordinary and extraordinary. It's a story where a few normal people get swept up into all sorts of divine shenanigans, and have to find their way through.

Steph (@grandpaseawitch)

Finally getting a chance to read through phantomarine and I thought that blanket was familiar! Absolutely love the PNW-inspired outfit, @LadyLazuli !

LadyLazuli

AAH! Yes yes! I've spent far too much time at the Museum of Anthropology here in Vancouver to NOT be inspired by it. My world is truly a mishmash of cultures

Steph (@grandpaseawitch)

OHHH I WANNA VISIT SO BAADD. I need to get my washington license upgraded so I can take a trip up there to the museum!(edited)

But your whole comic is a delight. <3 I'll be retweetin' it in a bit when I finish reading.

AntiBunny

AntiBunny http://antibunny.net/ is pretty straight forward. The city is inspired by film noir, hardboiled comics, and detective novels. It's an old city, so everything should look weathered, especially the old town district where most of the stories take place, so it's all brick work, broken plaster, cracked window panes and such. To some degree I also take visual inspiration from the historic district in my home town, and surrounding areas.

MJ Massey

Black Ball http://welcometoblackball.com/ is set in an alternate 1920s in the New York area. Because of course you set a 1920s comic in New York! But also, I used to live in the metro area and loved it, so to me it was natural to have the setting there. There's a lot of good reference, and lots of sneaky places one can hide a speakeasy. There are a whole bunch of good historical references as well, which makes it easier.

snuffysam

Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/ is set in a deliberately anachronistic fantasy world. There are biplanes and 20's cars, but there's also online message boards and cell phones. Fashion makes no sense, climate makes no sense, etc. The reason I built the world like this is because I wanted to mix up my background designs (and crowd designs) between scenes, and making a world that has no real consistency was the best way to get away with this in my mind. One town has modern art and roller skates, another has tents and open-air shops, there's a city on a hexagonal grid with triangular skyscrapers, this city: http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/comics/524/ uses a fractal pattern for its layout, etc.

Desnik

http://ask-a-warlock.tumblr.com/ is based on the idea that a medieval fantasy can be MORE than a DnD piggyback ride. And like, the medieval time period was a couple thousand years, yo, there's differentiation between different time periods. I used it as an opportunity to revamp my worldbuilding techniques and I've learned a lot about frontier-style governments and societies that function without a central authority. Also marginalia are the best comics and no one can tell me otherwise.

Attila Polyák

The setting of Tales of Midgard https://talesofmidgard.com/ is at a glance pretty much what you’d expect a generic fantasy world to be. Aaaand in a way that is right. The setting is a world that used to be kinda medieval-Europe like a long time ago, magic became commonplace, and the world reacted. Instead of developing technology, like in the real world, magic became technology and ultimately it became so common that it satisfied the needs of everyone in every niche possible. And then modernization happened, because why wouldn't it? What we in real life call science and technology slowly got discovered and integrated with a magic-based economy. The end result is a world that looks a bit anachronistic but if you look at it more closely you’ll notice that most things either don’t have a real-life counterpart or if they do they actually mean very different things. This is the point where my main story takes place and the world we see in my comic.

Funari (Raison d'Etre)

Well for Raison d'Etre ( http://raisondetrecomic.com/ ) I was always inspired by anime and general Japanese culture/pop culture growing up, so I had a handle of 90s/00s Japan pretty well that I wanted to use it! I also grew up during the 00s as a teen so the fashions and stuff have stuck. Kinda giving off a sense of nostalgia with the memories that way. And the "Present Day"'s trends are just based off what I grew up with and what a future would look like if we re-cycled back to millennium pop culture, including the love for 60s/70s-inspired stuff, so it's a "neat mess" of that stuff

We haven't shown much of the other planes of existence yet, but we plan to soon. But the idea with those is alternate/fantastical takes on plain ol' Earth (the Middle Plane). Mildly so, though, as even Umbria and Celeste have evolved over time like Earth's denizens have. Little bits of modernization, and assimilation with Earth trends due to the eventual discovery of these planes by Earth's NKP folks.

KAME (commissions open!)

Describe your comic’s setting. What made you choose this setting? For http://tapas.io/series/dragonclawcomic I chose fantasy because I’ve always loved stories about epic adventures, and magical creatures, and I also love the elements from mythology that are often integrated into fantasy stories (gods and demons, heroes and villains, etc.). There’re so many wonderful worlds and characters and creatures that exist within a fantasy setting, and so many more you can create on your own, it’s overwhelming (I mean, Dragons, man, they’re awesome!). Probably one of the first things that got me into fantasy was the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon show, but recently and more importantly, the thing that inspired me to write my own story was the The Legend of Drizzt novels, which I absolutely love (and I’m thankful to my brother who sent me the first like 9 novels for me to read, when I didn’t know a thing about them, and now there are over 20?, I lost count, but I always look forward to the next book) and needless to say have and keep inspiring me a lot

[drink-n-watch]

  Welcome back, one and all, to our Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba discussion post! I’m glad I get to share this show with you and grateful to Crow for taking the time to chat with me every week. I really do look forward to my Saturdays thanks to this. (ok…so there’s a small chance I would have looked forward to my Saturdays anyways but who can really tell?) Naturally Crow will be bold this week, as it just suits him! Before we get into the episode proper, how was your week Crow? Were you looking forward to this as much as I was?

Absolutely I was! So many unanswered questions last week! And then the preview mentioned Zenitsu sleeping? Forget the circumstances — how’d he calm down enough to sleep?

For those of you who haven’t watched the episode, go watch it! It’s a feast for the eyes! We’re going to get into what happened so there will be “spoilers,” but this week’s Demon Slayer isn’t really the type of episode you can spoil. Nevertheless, if you want to go in completely blind, please watch the episode first!

I’m explaining my post title

We left off with all our heroes (almost) trapped in what seems to be a pandimensional house. That was after the demon slayers met two young children who had their brother snatched by a demon. Tanjiro and the girl were separated from her brother and Zenitsu, and were just about to face the demon controlling the house when they got interrupted by a boar head wearing warrior.

I have to say, the lackadaisical demon sounded fairly reasonable. All he wanted was for people to stop bursting into his house and causing a ruckus. I get that. Ok, there was the kidnapping… This is the first depressed demon we meet. They really range a lot in personality. Did you like him Crow?

It’s interesting you should mention “depressed,” because in my notes, I wondered why the demon was sad! A sad demon covered with tsuzumi was just so unexpected! I mean that in a good way, too. It made the whole situation more interesting. Why was he sad? What path had he taken to get here?

maybe he has body issues…relatable!

I’m going to interject here, after the short opening tag we got the OP and I don’t think I’ve ever taken the time to mention how much I enjoy the music here. And the singer has a really lovely voice. I don’t think the visuals are that interesting but it’s a good tune and I listen to it every week!

As much as I want to dive into the episode, I watch the OP, too. LiSA’s Gurenge is just beautiful, audibly and visually.

After the OP we got back to business and back to boar head. I don’t know his name (your favorite Anilist to the rescue! It’s Inosuke Hashibira — you do prefer Anilist, don’t you? I do, it has stats!!! Girls love stats!). It occurs to me that I assumed he was a demon slayer because he’s human and hunting demons but I don’t think that the show ever made that official.

it is a great design

Turns out he’s another over the top loud guy, but in a different way from Zenitsu. This is the “I’m going to destroy anything and anyone that stands in my way, and be damned the consequences” type. I wasn’t that crazy about him but I do like the design.

Did boar head dude stepping on the little girl tick you off as much as it did me? Tanjiro was indignant as he said, “Don’t stomp all over her!” You go, Tanjiro!

You know writing Big Personalities is a bit of a gamble. If you get the balance right, you have an almost guaranteed fan favourite who will be highly marketable and your series can pretty much exist on the back of that character. On the other hand, that balance is very difficult to achieve and if you don’t get it, your character will annoy your audience and risk sinking the popularity of your entire franchise. I feel like the demon slayers, aside from Tanjiro, are an assortment of Big Personalities that the author is just testing out to see what works. I hope they find that balance before it gets too exhausting to watch! Boar head reminds me of the kid in the trial that just wanted to get a sword.

that’s kinda weird but you do you

Did you catch him mentioning that his “Beast Breathing” was self-taught? Is he a real Demon Slayer? He has the right kind of metal in his sword… Dang it, sorry! I’m getting ahead…

That’s ok, I get excited too! But I’m really not sure how I feel about this guy. The latest characters are kind of iffy.

And of course, just as I say that, we get back to Zenitsu and the boy. I said last week that I had hope for Zenitsu, I just felt there was more to his character than meets the eye. And Demon Slayer decided not to test my patience. Sure, he started out with the same old exaggerated panic attacks and cowardly routine, but as soon as a demon showed up, Zenitsu stepped up to the plate and actually protected the kid.

d’awwww

Don’t get me wrong, he did not magically turn into a hero. He was still the same snivelling, whining mess, but he stood in front of that demon to protect the kid even while he was shaking and sobbing. He even told the boy to run and save himself. I was fully prepared to see Zenitsu use the kid as a human shield, so this was a surprise. A great one! And the fact that he was so visibly terrified the entire time only made it better. It’s not really brave if you’re not scared!

Maybe I’m easy to please, but it’s all it took for the character to be redeemed in my eyes. I immediately started cheering Zenitsu on!

I was the same way. Like you said — he was terrified, but he not only tried to put himself between the boy and the demon, he even encouraged the boy to run and save himself. I have to wonder if I’d have enough courage to do that! Sure, he’s no Tanjiro, but who is?

good question

And then he reached his limit. All that emotion was just too much for him and he passed out, leaving the poor child to try and save him. Like I said, Zenitsu is no hero and that is one of the best things about him.

He was even snoring! Man, he can nap waaay faster than I can!

Let’s slow things down a little here and talk about this demon. This isn’t the drum demon who’s the master of the house. It seems there are several demons in here and they so far they are not working together. I really liked the design of this guy (again). The double eyes were particularly successful in my opinion. Once more this show has crafted a demon that looks a little childish, almost cute in a strange way, yet honestly scary and unsettling. The saturated colour palette helps with that I think. In any case, the overall aesthetic is fantastically suited to the story. Ufotable is good with that!

They certainly are! And that demon’s tongue! That thing must have been 10 meters long and it sliced through a tough wooden barrel like it was nothing. Talk about capable of a tongue lashing!

people crawling is always creepy

Back to the action. Zenitsu is out, a fit of stress-induced narcolepsy it seems. The poor kid has his back against the wall and the demon is closing in when… We were all waiting for it, weren’t we? Zenitsu finally has his moment of reckoning. And what a moment it is! I knew he didn’t survive on pure luck! Sure, Zenitsu is no hero, but in his sleep, he’s a Big A** Hero! That scene was just so much fun. I could help but physically clap!

And it also works as a sort of metaphor for the show. It’s a somewhat cliché scene but with some nice twists. You see it coming from a mile away but when it does it’s so well executed that you thoroughly enjoy it. And there’s always just a little extra touch that you didn’t predict to keep you on your toes!

That moment was worth the price of admission. It wasn’t just a simple masterful attack. It was the equal of any strike we’ve seen! The sound, the animation, it call came together. Good stuff! And did you think that Zenitsu was almost the anti-Rock Lee? In the original Naruto, Rock Lee trained and trained and trained. He was a powerful fighter, but one time, he got knocked out. He had trained so much that his body continued to fight! Even when he was unconscious. It’s like he was the anti-Zenitsu or vice versa!

the colours are great 

I was wondering if all demon slayers had elemental powers. It’s starting to look more that way, since Zenitsu has electricity (thunder) based powers and he seems to wield them very well, as long as he’s unconscious! If I hadn’t already been sold a few minutes before, this would have done the trick. I’m a Zenitsu fan now, I want to see more of him.

When all was said and done, it became apparent that Zenitsu doesn’t remember anything. He actually does think he’s a weakling incapable of protecting anyone because as far as he knows, that has always been the case. I like this twist, I’m not sure I’ve seen it before!

It borders on tragic! He probably doesn’t know how he survived the selection match. He knows he’s always getting into danger and thinks he has no way out. Poor guy! You know what? I take back “borders on tragic.” It is tragic!

this happens a lot lately

In the meantime, Tanjiro and the girl have left both the demon and Boar head behind and discovered the kids’ brother. He’s alright folks! It seems the boy has special blood, so when he got dragged away it attracted more demons who all started to fight over who got to eat him. The drum demon got injured and lost one of his drums, which the brother managed to grab and use, immediately bringing him to another room, safe for the moment. Since then, he’s just been using the drum as soon as he sees anything and that’s kept him safe.

This is smart! Really smart! I like that. A victim that desperately needs help but isn’t just a prop or completely helpless. It just makes the character more real, you know?

It does. The little boy’s not a plot device to show how awesome Tanjiro is. That detail made him into the little scared boy trying desperately to stay alive. That’s a ton more dramatic!

yeah!

Tanjiro also thinks this was a great plan because he decides to face the demon alone and tells the girl and her brother to keep doing what they’ve been doing. Banging the drum at the slightest hint of danger. He promises to find them again when the battle is over.

Two things I quite liked happened here. First, the show addressed Tanjiro’s injuries. I still think he is inhumanly resilient, but they do go out of their way to show us that he did get treatment and that he is still in serious pain. Enough to affect his abilities. And he has been in pain all along! We even saw that Zenitsu is the form of Tanjiro’s insecurities which was pretty funny.

The explanation is still a little lacking but at least the story does take it into account. Were you happy with this explanation Crow?

also, he used an ointment, good as new!

Yeah, and I’ll do the opening Kimino thing here: Yes, many of us men are really that much of an idiot. We’ll push through pain just to look tough. Who are we trying to impress? Everyone, of course! Especially ourselves. Even worse? I’m an oldest son. Yes, we oldest sons will often go through stupid pain simply because we don’t want to disappoint mom or dad. It’s why medical folks have to make billboards that say men shouldn’t be stupid and ignore pain — we should go to the hospital instead! Well, this billboard kinda sums it up. So, what Tanjiro did isn’t just realistic. I’ve done it myself (though not with broken leg).

The second thing I liked was the fight itself. This was just gorgeous. That constantly spinning room, with Tanjiro’s clothes, hair and entire body weight visibly adjusting to the shifting gravity. The animation was so smooth and consistent that it was mesmerising. I feel a little bad for anyone with motion sickness, as I assume the quick and constant movement must not have been pleasant. However, I thought it was beautifully done! I’m ok with watching fights that take 3 episodes to get through if they look this good!

I think this is what the word spectacular was invented for. It was such a unique battlefield! Last time I saw room spinning like that was in the movie Inception, and I think it was more effective here!

you had to see it

It might, in fact, take three episodes to get through this fight as episode 12 ended before Tanjiro got the chance to get to the demon. And I screamed at my tv!

The pep talk he needed to get himself to that last moment was fantastic! “My injuries are making me imagine the most awful things!” struck me as powerfully authentic. Like the detail of the little boy clutching the drum, Tanjiro’s inner dialogue elevated him from just another hero to a young man struggling to keep it together. Little touches like that are setting this show apart for me.

As much as I enjoyed this week’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba, there was one little thing that kept gnawing in the back of my mind. Nezuko is still all alone out there. Is it still daylight out?

I could be glib and say that in the OP and ED, we see Nezuko in the same frame as Zenitsu and boar head dude, so she’s got to be okay, right? Right? Sigh. Yes, I’m worried about her. Not only is the sunlight a danger to her, but other demon slayers haven’t been as understanding of her situation as Tanjiro…

Reviews of the Other Episodes

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 01: Cruelty

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 02: Trainer Sakonji Urokodaki

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 03: Sabito and Makomo

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 04: Final Selection

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 05: My Own Steel

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 06: A Friend fo All Humans

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 07: Muzan Kibutsuji

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 08: The Smell of Enchanting Blood

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 09: Temari Demon and Arrow Demon

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 10: Together Forever

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 11: Tsuzumi Mansion

just want Nezuko back!

Of course, I took a lot of screencaps! And yes, I would love to share them with you!

  Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 12: Delicatesse Welcome back, one and all, to our Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba discussion post! I’m glad I get to share this show with you and grateful to…

[miannedomusings]

[colour] Epiphany

Masterpost | Serendipity | Singularity | Epiphany | Euphoria | bonus 1 | bonus 2

With Epiphany we come to the end of the Love Yourself era, and the final moment of our yellow protagonist’s story arc. This point in the era focuses on rejecting the fake love you recognized in the Tear era, and instead being honest with yourself and loving yourself, even if it means being alone. Now, this video makes many references to the HYYH plot, enough that I actually find it hard to separate my thoughts on the use of colour from that story versus from our Love Yourself yellow-protagonist story. For this post I’ll try my best to pretend the HYYH plot doesn’t exist. I’ll probably come back to it another time and take a look at other visual metaphors in that mindfuck of a story... but for today, Epiphany!

So this video was the one that got me fixating on yellow. All these videos are beautiful, but it was when I watched this one that I thought, Wait, didn’t Serendipity use only yellow too? And though Serendipity has colours other than just yellow, this video does feel like a callback. Neither of the other two solo songs are as selective in their use of colours as these two, and it feels fitting that the last solo video to be released is best thought of with the first in the series in mind.

First thing’s first, this video uses desaturation more than any of the other videos. It’s the only one that really spends time with no colour at all. It opens with a reflection of how it was a mistake for Jin to lose himself in order to fit with another and it isn’t until he utters that he is the one that he should love that the room begins to saturate. After coming out of Singularity Jin is left without a sense of self. Our protagonist has spent so much time being someone other than himself, that he has lost his colour. This is also seen in Singularity as V transitions from wearing yellow to wearing black. Given that colour is used to express identity in this series, it certainly fits that it is only with self-recognition that we’re able to see colour in Jin’s world.  

This transition into colour also makes for our first comparison with Serendipity. Both songs use love as a colouring tool. In the case of Serendipity we weren’t in full desaturation before love, but we still witness how Jimin’s Other brought proper colour into his world. Now that we’re at a different phase in the story, the lack of colour means something different, and so the love needed to correct it also has to be different.

From Jin’s room we move to outside into the storm, and the comparisons that can be made with Serendipity continue. In this scene the only colour is the yellow of Jin’s hair and it stands out starkly against the black background. Consider how in Serendipity we had many shots that were just yellow-haired Jimin against white walls. Through this series we have moved from naivety to experience, and from white to black; the clothes, the world, it has all gotten darker.

But, Jin still shines quite clearly in this shot, and we get the high contrast of his white shirt and shoes (in fact all of our protagonists wear white shirts). These could both simply be aesthetic choices, sure, but it feels more likely given the thoughtfulness of BTS’s videos, it’s no accident. The pure and innocent perspective on love can no longer persist, but maturity does not mean defeat and so white still remains, it’s just balanced out by a healthy dose of experience. Unlike Singularity where the dark imposes on Tae (cold concrete box and deep shadows) here we see Jin shining clearly in front of the blackness. He even chooses to don his black blazer in the scene before and cover up (shield?) some of his remaining white. In other words he doesn’t pretend the past didn’t happen, but wears it confidently. He has emerged from the shadows and shines brightly despite them. 

This video in many ways demonstrates growth and maturity in comparison to where this journey started from. In the lyrics of Serendipity we see sing-song lines about cats and mold (see this translation), as well as playful props like blankets, cats, and balloons. Meanwhile, in this video we see an apartment that is simple, somewhat cold, with almost florescent lights, and we watch Jin operate within it in measured paces. There is nothing playful about this video. It takes itself much more seriously… and how could it not after going through Singularity?

An interesting touch in this video is that when I consider if there are other colours that play off of the yellow I notice both blue and red. However, they are not nearly as prominent as they were in the other two intros. In Serendipity, the blue is bright and impossible to ignore (especially since Jimin keeps gazing into it). Here too, as soon as we get colour we see blue – the closet is full of blue clothes, the robe that hangs on the wall is blue, and the window covering on the back wall is blue. However, Jin does not choose a blue coat when getting dressed, and doesn’t actually interact with any blue object. 

The red that we saw as an Other in Singularity is present here too. However, it is only in the tiles on the floor and the red of the notebook that Jin gazes at while the lyrics talk about living his life for “you” and how it was too much (aka red Other = not good). Interestingly, the only colour Jin interacts with is yellow. When he holds the red notebook it’s while the room is in greyscale, when he reaches into the blue closet, he grabs a dark grey/black coat. When he does interact with colour it is the yellow light above the mirror, the yellow that floods in when he opens the door, and the yellow coming in from the window. 

Just because our protagonist has chosen to leave the Other behind, it doesn’t mean they haven’t left their mark, the blue and red (representing the nurturing and destructive phases of the relationship) haven’t vanished from his world, they’ve simply stopped being at the forefront. Now that he has chosen himself, yellow becomes prominent and partially washes out the other colours. Also consider how red and blue are limited to objects, while yellow is pervasive light.

When we return to the room after he has faced his storm and reversed the rain, we get one last strong moment of yellow when Jin goes to the window. At this point we get a shot of our protagonist that is fully yellow (more yellow than any other shot in this series). Jin then closes the blinds and we are able to see the room in its entirety with all of its colour. In this moment we get balance. We see the yellow window, the blue back wall, the red in the mid and foreground (and a touch of green and orange for good measure).

In Serendipity we got discolouration followed by a white room with nothing but yellow inside and blue shining outside with a longing to reach it (just let me love you). In Singularity, we get a concrete box that was filled with colour to the point that nothing else could exist (have i lost myself or have i gained you?). And now we see a resolution. Our room has returned to white (an improvement from the abode of Singularity), but now yellow is able to exist in the room with the other colours. Experience has shaded the space: it’s no longer blindingly white, and the yellow isn’t as sunny as it once was either. But it is a more complete picture. By closing the blinds, we see that he is no longer searching outside for something. He will no longer gaze at the cosmos looking for something to complete him. He will instead reside in his space with himself, and find happiness there.

The video for Epiphany shows that each step in this story was necessary. When we started this story in Serendipity, our protagonist was alone in his own room. Before meeting his Other he resided only inside and didn’t look to the world beyond. This is essentially where we wound up with Epiphany, having made a full circle. However, in Serendipity, our protagonist’s lonely state had left him discoloured and he needed his Other to breathe new life into his world. The whole journey was necessary for our protagonist to come to a point where residing inside was enough, and where he could have this epiphany about himself, finally finding love and balance.  

Side note:

The fade to black and white at the end of the video could be a few things (to me). It’s hard to disentangle what I think is speaking more to the narrative of the intros, and what is speaking more to the HYYH plot. It is possible that this is an indication that the colours don’t matter anymore because he is whole. It could represent a new era or fresh start. The greyscale portion of the videos are also the portions that relate most clearly to the HYYH plot: in the beginning he engages with the vase of lilies and the notebook (both props of his from the Love Yourself Highlight Reel), at the end he again grabs the notebook, and then we get the final shot reference to the HYYH Prologue video.

Masterpost | Serendipity | Singularity | Epiphany | Euphoria | bonus 1 | bonus 2

Musings Masterlist

[theunsentletterstoyou]

Dear Muse:

Hi S.

I feel I owe you an explanation, as best I can, of me unintentionally being a total creep on your birthday, though feelings are always tricky to put in writing and this won’t be adequate. Hopefully this will reassure you that I never meant to make you uncomfortable in the slightest – really the very last thing I ever wanted. I feel awful and I’m (still, a month on!) really sorry. I know you said not to worry about it at all and you're probably long over it yourself, but I can’t help it! This might not help. It might make things worse. I’m a terrible judge of these things, as you can probably tell. But here goes.

I don’t fancy you. While I doubt you believe that, it should hopefully go without saying. I mean – eleven and a half year age gap?! But just to be totally clear.

But I sort of approach that feeling from two directions, which collide very uncomfortably and add up to something that from anyone else's point of view probably looks romantic.

First – ever since you were three and impressed me so much with how incredibly mature you were for your age (I'm really surprised you remembered that conversation, last month, so many years on – how on earth do you so clearly remember so long ago and being so young?), I've had the hugest squish on you – to borrow a term from Tumblr. Like a crush, only platonic. A very intense feeling of friendship and desire to be your BFF, basically. I've always really liked you. (Not "like liked", but regular liked, but then again LIKED bold italic underline and larger size, you could say). Not love, but way stronger than regular friendship; I have no idea why. I always regretted that we weren't closer friends than we were. And even after we lost touch for so long I still remembered you very fondly and wanted to be friends again. I'm just rubbish at not letting life get in the way, and suddenly months became years became almost a decade. Turns out seeing you again ended up in almost instinctively releasing all that "HELLO FRIEND :D!" in a great rush before thinking how strong that's coming on from your viewpoint. Oooooops.

Second – you are beautiful. Really unexpectedly pretty.

I don’t mean sexy. I couldn’t find you sexy if I tried. I mean (1) eleven and a half year gap, so UGH, and (2) old close friends, and (3) I first knew you when you were a little baby and vaguely remember changing your nappy once, which would rather kill that thought even if it arose. There's this thing called the Westermarck effect – where someone who has grown up with someone else or known that person as a child can never find them sexy, scientifically it prevents inbreeding – which is very much in effect here. You’re not dating material in my eyes, just not attractive like that, and never will be.

But having said that, looking so to speak with the eye of an artist rather than a lover, the way one might look at a pretty flower or a sunset or a cute kitten or something (horribly objectifying, sorry, but there isn't a better way to put it), or the way I can tell certain celebrities are handsome – David Beckham, say, or Bradley Cooper – without any romantic interest, in the general sense of the word, you are extraordinarily beautiful.

Except it’s stronger than that. The same general feeling as finding a random celebrity generally good-looking or admiring a nice landscape or painting, only up to eleven. For an even better comparison: Seeing you is like walking around on a rainy day, when everything's grey and dull, and then suddenly the rain lets up a bit and the sun shines a bit, and a really bright rainbow appears. And I can’t help but stop and stare at it, with this “wow!” sense of wonder and awe, and think of how beautiful it is. And it’s not something I could ever have any sort of relationship with or even touch – and I have no desire to, even the thought of that makes no sense at all. But the striking sudden and unexpected beauty of it sticks in the mind long after the rainbow itself vanishes, and leaves me with a lasting sense of joy. I think most people I know would react to a rainbow the same way. You’re like that. I did write a song very, very long ago (when you were 3-4) calling you “Rainbow Child” – you might have heard it back in May – it’s still so true.

But there's no real sense of love attached, except insofar as I love everyone in your family (the totally non-romantic way, just a very strong friendship almost like extended family). It's definitely not attraction in the usual sense and I have absolutely no interest in anything more than friendship ever – “oh good”, I hear you say – it’s just “this girl! She's so... well she doesn't seem to be anything in particular. But wow, look!”

You just have one of those faces – this is something I've experienced with a couple of other people – that seems to stand out from far away even in a crowd, as if you were highlighted, to the point that I ask myself “there was a crowd too?” It's literally attractive, compelling like a magnet, my eyes almost can't help but be drawn to you when you're in the same place as me, and my thoughts do the same when you're not. It’s sort of like, if you’re looking at a big painting and most of it is black and white but there’s a red circle somewhere – your eyes just immediately and consistently want to go to the red circle. And you might walk away from the painting and think about that red circle again later in the day because it’s just so visually appealing to you compared to everything around it.

Another comparison I could make was brought on by something Sinead and I were chatting about before you turned up when I popped in last month: at one point she showed me your DVD collection and we got to discussing films, and she mentioned how a clip from one film got inexplicably stuck in her mind for ages afterwards, like a sort of “visual earworm” I think was her phrase. You know the thing: it's like having a favourite song that's so nice you want to listen to it over and over on a loop as long as you can, and maybe that song's a bit catchy and gets stuck in your head, and you find yourself humming it, even when you're not listening to it. And again, you couldn't date music – but you could certainly call some tunes beautiful. I get a visual version of that with your face. Like a Vine loop, maybe. Speaking of which, your actual Vine is insanely addictive!

It reminds me of something I once read in someone's autobiography:

“One of the most vivid experiences I have ever had was sitting quietly for at least an hour before a picture by the Dutch painter Vermeer, and absorbing its sheer beauty… The room was crowded with people, but I was oblivious of them, as I was equally oblivious of the passage of time. As a result of this act of concentration the vision of this particular masterpiece is indelibly stamped on my mind which has forever been enriched by it. I know that my ordinary acts of seeing and observation have been sharpened by that experience. There was drawn from me an acknowledgement of the greatness of the artist and his painting and I caught, with awe, the light of his inspiration and creativeness. It awoke in me a desire to follow in his footsteps and create something beautiful.”

In general, the way I feel about you is the feeling one gets when looking at a beautiful painting. But more specifically, like that man with that particular painting, your face is imprinted on my memory. It's sort of formed the background to most of my other thoughts since late April. Look up Shakespeare's Sonnet 113 and you get a pretty good description (admittedly in olde language) of how I feel. Normally when I see something pretty I just think “wow pretty” for a moment and move on. I’m not sure why you stick so much! I suppose it was the combination of you being quite pretty and that being completely unexpected – at another point we were looking at the family photos on your wall and Sinead showed me an old Vine clip of hers featuring a few of them which pretty much perfectly sums everything up from my point of view – you might know it, the one where she's comparing old photos to your present-day family with increasing surprise. "Then. Now. / Then - now. / Then, now! / THEN! NOW! What's happening to the world?!" She remarked, and I wasn’t going to actually say it but agreed, that your whole face has really changed. Even between then and now too and that wasn't even too long ago! And until April, I hadn’t seen you for so long, since you were seven going on eight: still don't really have any idea how I've managed to keep in touch with your whole family but keep missing hearing from you directly for over a decade. I've always been bad at keeping up with people but that was absurd. I missed you hugely, by the way. So since then I’ve felt exactly like her in that clip, only stronger (“THEN!! / NOW!!” :O :O :O).

You probably got the idea a few comparisons ago, but I just wanted to be totally clear. Getting technical for a bit (because that's how I roll...), I find you incredibly aesthetically attractive. This is a thing that's distinct from, but usually linked to and the beginning of, attraction in the conventional sexual or romantic sense – yes, those are two distinct things. If you know, just skip the rest of this paragraph! There's sexual attraction (“I'd like to get in your pants/hugs/kisses/touching up and ultimately make babies”) which is absolutely not there AT ALL. There's romantic attraction (“I'd like to date you/buy you flowers/"long walks on the beach" etc etc and ultimately marry you”) which is also definitely not there at all. And then there's what this actually is. Aesthetic attraction, in this case disconnected from any other sort. Which is “I wouldn't like any sort of relationship with you beyond simple friendship and could do fine even without that, and have zero interest in any sort of physical contact, but WHOA, your face, I want to look at it SO MUCH, no more than look, but really look and look for as long as possible and just never stop – in an ideal world I'd like to spend time around you just watching you, from a nice respectful distance, and just... drink you in, because you're so incredibly good-looking”.

On top of this (possibly a sort of by-product, but I don't know), as I once told your sister, and you might already know and have seen some of it – every time I've ever seen you, going back years, I've come out shortly afterwards (within a week or two) with some sort of art. Sometimes music, sometimes poems (you've seen a few), sometimes a short story or two, pictures once (not of you – I can't draw people!) And it's quite good art, or so most people who've seen it reckon. Which is remarkable because otherwise I'm not artistic in the slightest. I'd be happy to show you any of it, just ask. You just... really inspire me creatively, for some reason, and that bit has actually been around practically since you were born. If I had to sum you up in a word it would be muse.

I think my point is made. I brought you a present out of simple appreciation and wanting to just… thank you for just being you, super pretty and inspiring you – no actual desire for any relationship of any sort attached. I’m leaving everything right here. It was hard to tone things right. I was going to send you a birthday card, at least, anyway. I’d do the same for Sinead just out of general friendship. I didn't sign it with my name out of the worry you'd react just the way you did. Wasn't expecting for you to answer the door right as I stuck it through your letter box though – so much for anonymity.

I know what you're thinking: if he doesn’t fancy me, then why the "someone special" and why sign the card "admirer"? Simply because anything more (in both cases) was too strong, but anything less not enough. It was hard to find a word for how I feel – for a particularly close-feeling and beautiful friend but it never quite crossing into love –and I picked and phrased the card very, very carefully. Probably not carefully enough, but I tried. (Thank goodness “someone special” is a card category, it does the job quite well.) Even “admirer” is a bit strong, but having linguistic-geek leanings, I settled on admirer for etymological (language origin) reasons: it comes from Latin ad-mirare – literally, to look at, with affection and respect. For some reason it all seemed like a good idea at the time!

That was going to be the last deliberate direct contact I ever had with you after you said you weren't comfortable with it. But I just wanted to clear things up as well as possible, so that hopefully you aren’t uncomfortable any more. I know this is the third(?) time I’ve said “you won’t hear from me again” (random encounters aside), but this time I mean it, unless you care to reply.

I hope you know now I meant well, and would never not mean well. And I hope I'm not making you uncomfortable even now. That's the very last thing I'd ever want; the thought of you creeped out feels like physical harm to me.

I hope you enjoyed the Isle of Wight! Always a pleasure to host you :) 

With friendship

T

“Memories” – or “Thoughts on a Visual Earworm” early June 2016 

I cannot forget you! Although I last saw you in April, And now it is June, in my mind I can still see your face. Both waking and sleeping, your memory fills every moment, And summer's long days seem pale shadows of Summer's sweet grace. In all idle moments, my mind jumps to thoughts and to visions Of memories of you, both old and more recent to see, And trees, houses, people – my eye ‘shapes them all to your feature’, As Shakespeare once wrote! Tell me, when will I ever be free? Will it take till the summer fades out into red-golden autumn For Summer to fade from my memory into the past? Or will even in winter each day seem as bright as the summer And might memory-glimpses of you to the New Year last?

And why am I thinking of you? I’d not seen you in ages, Since you were a child, barely thought of you most of that time, Then I saw you again for the briefest few hours – but for weeks since You’ve written yourself into poem after verse after rhyme! You’re almost a stranger to me, and so very much younger, And we barely spoke – so why should I be thinking of you, When many more people have been in my life for much longer, And meant so much more to me: family, friends, lovers true? Why over them all does your likeness seem laid every moment? Why do you inspire every word, line and note of my art? Why though we might not meet in person again for ten more years, Do I find you in each passing moment engraved on my heart?

I wish I could tell what I’m feeling for you, but can’t place it – Romantic it’s not, for the thought makes me sick to my core, Yet a joy and a wonder at thinking of you overwhelms me And a lively creativeness turning to art more and more. It links to a realisation that you are attractive: In strictest of senses – my mind turning always to you, But not in a way that says ‘her I would like for a lover’ (Thank goodness, you cry) – more ‘I’d like to spend time watching you, Then drawing and painting and singing and writing about you’: Like poetry given girl’s form, or a portrait made living, Or a song in a body, that’s how you seem to me, sweet Summer; ‘Aesthetic attraction’, that could be the term for the feeling.

You stand out in a crowd, as if highlighted under a spotlight, As if life were an image in sepia, black, white and grey, But a single bright colourful part of it grabs the attention, And remains in the memory long after looking away. Or as if, on a dull rainy day, there shines out a bright rainbow, An iris of colour so vivid that cuts through the rain And illumines the world with a halo of red, orange, yellow, Green, indigo, violet bright – and then fades out again, Yet while it is there one can’t help but to stare at its beauty, It fills all the heart with a wonder, a joy and an awe, And its image enlivens the mind with its bright shining colours, So that all of the rest of the day the world seems dull no more. 

I don’t love you: you can’t love a painting, you can’t love a rainbow, Or a flower, or a sunset, but ‘beautiful’, yes, you could say, And could want to stop, stare at them, dazzled with wondrous amazement, And drink in the transcendent beauty of such things all day. And that's what you’re like, Summer, ‘Rainbow Child’ (so I once called you In a song that I took from a novel): if I had the choice And if rainbows and sunsets and beautiful you didn't vanish, I’d spend hours just watching your face, listening to your sweet voice. When we’re in the same room, your face draws my eye like a strong magnet, When we’re not, I still find that my thoughts to you keep on returning, Like a visual kind of an earworm, stuck in my memory On a loop, red-brown hair and bright eyes in my mind always burning. 

Whenever I see you, I find myself turning creative, And trying to capture your beauty in colour and line, But I cannot paint, cannot draw, so it turns into music And poems and prose, to describe your sweet face so divine. (Or rather to try to describe it – my words cannot capture How you move, how you talk, how you laugh, how you smile, how you look: Ten poems would not be enough, and I'm getting the feeling One couldn't sum you up in words even in a whole book!) A ‘muse’ I would call you – a girl who inspires an artist: Indeed I’m no artist except after I have seen you, But then how it flows out, the music and poems and colours, Attempting to echo the memory of beauty so true! 

I felt it when you were young too – but now stronger than ever, And far longer-lasting – a month it’s been, yet still you're here In my mind, in my eye, and on all things imprinting your likeness, A sight that with each passing moment seems ever more dear; So lovely, like art made incarnate, infusing my memory With big brown eyes, dark waves of hair, and a face from a dream, Well named, as reflecting the beauty of beautiful summer – The sun, sky, leaves, flowers in bloom; like that season you seem, Full of light, full of laughter and joy, so vivacious and vibrant, Even when summer passes, still Summer will live in you yet: Though autumn and winter tear leaves from trees, bring cold and darkness, Remembering you will bring sunshine: and I can’t forget.

[atropaazraelle]

Sweet Memories

Gladnis Week Day 3

Prompt: Brotherhood Era

Rating: Teen and up

Also available on AO3

Note: Recipe for Memory Lane Pastries taken from The Unofficial FFXV Community Cookbook.

Inspiration from @hanatsuki89's artwork. I love that art, not just because it's true, but because I'm not the only one that watched that scene and saw two guys encouraging their other friends to go off and not hurry back while they take some private time in a hotel room.

And also thanks to @ofthekingsglaive, because I had been struggling with this day's prompts until we got talking about this scene.

“Oh, that again.”

Gladio leaned on the doorframe, his arms crossed as he peered at Ignis's workstation in the tiny hotel room kitchen. Only Gladio could look so carelessly casual looming in a doorway. Only Gladio, Ignis thought, would be able to recognise what he was preparing before it had taken shape.

“Yes,” Ignis answered, “but with bananas this time.” He turned to the small oven, which had been blessedly clean, certainly compared to some of the alternatives he'd encountered along the way, and set the temperature dials. He dropped to his knees in front of the oven as he turned it on.

Gladio shifted slightly in the doorway. Ignis could never be sure if the man was intending to flex, or if the persistent display of rippling musculature was entirely unconscious with him, especially these days. “You sure like baking, huh?” Gladio asked. “How come?”

Ignis adjusted the temperature dial, happy the oven appeared to be as functional as it was clean. “Well,” he began, “the looks on your faces, for one thing.” He glanced up, finding himself being simultaneously grinned at and loomed over by someone that used the Archeaon as an aesthetic goal for his personal fitness. “I also find it therapeutic,” he admitted. “Performing a simple task with clear instructions can be quite relaxing.”

“I know some other ways you could relax,” Gladio said, fixing Ignis with a grin that showed too many teeth, and was entirely too suggestive.

Ignis stared at him for a moment before he climbed back to his feet. “You're incorrigible,” he replied.

Gladio left the safety of the doorway, slipping in close behind Ignis and sliding a hand across the small of his back. “You and I both know you're going to have to let that pastry chill for an hour once you've made it,” he murmured, his voice a low rumble that came from close against Ignis's ear.

“Once I've made it,” Ignis pointed out, eyeing Gladio out of the corner of his glasses.

Lips brushed the edge of Ignis's ear, and Gladio pressed in, until Ignis could feel hips brushing against his backside. “Want some help?”

Ignis considered his options. He could tell Gladio to back off, that his help wasn't needed, and it would be obeyed in an instant. Or he could let the man in, let him into Ignis's sacred space, and maybe they would be able to make use of some of the waiting time on the recipe. “It would be a pity to waste the room, while we have it to ourselves,” he murmured aloud.

A kiss landed on his neck, stubble brushing over his delicate skin, and Ignis closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation for a moment. “So what do you want me to do?” Gladio asked, as he settled his hands on Ignis's hips and trailed his mouth up towards Ignis's jaw.

Ignis inhaled, feeling a shiver build in his spine which he unsuccessfully suppressed. Gladio's hands were warm, and inviting, and his presence was immediate and beckoned to parts of Ignis's body he could never fully control. “You can stew the fruit,” he answered, knowing that was not the task Gladio had been angling for, “since your hands are much too warm to be touching the pastry.”

He felt Gladio freeze for a moment, and Ignis turned so he could view the man over his shoulder. “Is that a problem?” he asked, innocently.

“You're a tease,” Gladio replied.

Ignis hummed his agreement. “If you do a sufficiently capable job, there might be a reward in it for you.”

Gladio leaned in and pressed a swift, chaste kiss to Ignis's mouth. “Now you're talking,” he answered.

Ignis almost missed the sensation of Gladio's hands on him, and the body pressed to his back as Gladio retreated towards the oven, but the warmth of Gladio's touch was replaced with a internal warmth that built as Gladio carefully followed every instruction he was given. “First, we need to caramelise the sugar,” he said, as he began sifting flour. “Don't put the heat up too high,” he advised, “and keep a close watch on it. Stir it gently to stop it sticking to the pan.”

“Gotcha,” Gladio replied, turning the heat on the burner down a little and starting to stir the contents slowly.

Ignis tossed a liberal pinch of salt into the sifted flour and busied himself with cutting the butter into small pieces and adding them to the bowl. He set to work cutting the butter into the flour, and was halfway through when the sweet smell of cooking sugar began to permeate the air. Gladio was still attentively stirring the sugar, and Ignis let himself admire the scene for a moment, taking in the concentration on Gladio's face, the way he was wholly focused on the task Ignis had asked of him, before he leaned over and did a visual check of Gladio's progress. “Give it another minute,” he said, “and then add the berries, not the raspberries; the others, but be careful when you stir; I don't want them to break up.”

Gladio looked at him, warm eyes alive with whatever thoughts were going on beneath the surface, and answered, “Right.”

The pastry was starting to resemble breadcrumbs when Gladio spoke up, his attention still firmly on the pan of gently stewing berries and sugar. “It is kinda relaxing.”

Ignis smiled, flashing Gladio a sidelong glance. “Perhaps we'll make a culinarian of you yet.”

The noise Gladio made in response could only be described as 'unwilling hesitation'. “I wouldn't go that far,” he said. “I'm all right following instructions, but I couldn't do what you do.”

“Come now,” Ignis replied, “it's nothing special.”

“Iggy,” Gladio insisted, “I've seen you just look at what someone else is eating and figure out how to make it.”

“All that requires,” Ignis pressed back, “is a refined palate, and a keen sense of smell.” His breadcrumbs were starting to stick together. A little more, and they'd be the wet sand consistency he required. He glanced over at Gladio's pan of berries again, and gave a nod. “You can add the raspberries now.”

Gladio did as he was told, picking up the bowl of raspberries and scattering them into the pan before he resumed his gentle stirring. “Well,” he said, “it looks pretty special from where I'm standing.”

“You're biased,” Ignis told him, finally happy enough with his pastry dough to add a little cold water and begin kneading.

“Yup,” Gladio agreed, happily. “This about done?” he asked, picking the pan off the heat to tilt towards Ignis so he could see without abandoning his pastry.

Ignis was, quietly, impressed. Gladio had witnessed him make this pastry enough times, of course, but he'd never thought he'd paid that much attention as to be able to judge when the fruit was done for himself. As it was, he looked, and gave an approving nod. “Yes,” he said, “now it needs to cool.”

Ignis was again struck by how much attention Gladio must have paid in the past as he turned the heat off and strained the fruit. Ignis had never noticed Gladio watching before; he was usually firmly in his baking headspace by this point, and all the distractions of the world, Gladio included, fell to the periphery of his attention. Seemingly, Gladio had been watching attentively from the sidelines at least once.

The thought sent a heat through his face that he tried to ignore, and he focused his attention on the pastry, which was steadily reaching the desired smooth consistency. He patted it into shape as Gladio even cleaned up after them both, keeping a wide berth around Ignis so as not to disturb him as he brushed spilled flour into his hand from the countertop. When he was happy with the pastry, Ignis turned to retrieve some plastic wrap, and then carefully wrapped the dough and put it in the fridge.

“And that's that,” he said, after he'd washed his hands and removed his apron, “for the next hour, at least.”

Gladio smiled down at him. The man was like a shark, or a coeurl; something big and predatory, and yet there was a softness in those bright eyes that stoked the building warmth in Ignis's chest. Gladio could be scary, intimidating, threatening, but only if you didn't know him. Only if you didn't know the man read voraciously, and loved his little sister, and played video games with Noct and Prompto, only if you didn't know how gentle his hands could be. “So did I do well enough for that reward?” he asked.

“I'd say you did,” Ignis agreed, walking towards Gladio and pressing both hands flat against the swell of his chest. He didn't have to push to urge Gladio to take a step backwards; Gladio knew, and complied, letting Ignis steer him towards the bed, “I just hope an hour is long enough.”

Gladio stopped when the backs of his legs made contact with the bed and settled his hands around Ignis's waist, holding him firmly, gently, and irresistibly. “Maybe you should make it two, just to be sure they're cool enough,” he suggested, with a bright smile.

Ignis murmured as he leaned up. “We'll see,” he said, finding Gladio's mouth with his own and kissing him softly. “You might have to help me with the second part, too, just to make sure they're ready in time.”

“I can do that,” Gladio agreed.

Ignis gave a gentle push, and Gladio sat down slowly on the bed, his hands staying on Ignis's waist. They slipped to his back as Ignis leant over and let himself get lost in the sensation of Gladio's tongue and fingers.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Introducing the Incredible Director of the Horimiya Adaptation!

  Hello everyone, and welcome back to Why It Works. Just recently, we received news of an upcoming winter production, the adaptation of the much-loved romantic comedy Horimiya. Though I haven’t read Horimiya myself, I’ve been hearing a variety of good things about it for years now. Apparently, it’s one of those rare and precious romantic comedies where rather than focusing on “will they or won’t they” tension, it actually explores the compelling dynamics of two people in a genuine relationship — and it’s willing to take bolder steps in that exploration than the vast majority of its contemporaries. That said, whatever merits Horimiya may have, it’s not actually the manga’s material that has me excited here — it’s the long-awaited return of its director, Masashi Ishihama.

    Don’t feel too bad if Ishihama’s name doesn’t ring a bell. The man has maintained a fairly low profile in the industry in spite of his talent, largely because he just hasn’t held the directorial position in that many shows, or been attached to projects that let his distinctive personality shine. Most recently, he spearheaded the Persona 5 anime adaptation, which felt like a bit of a monkey’s paw situation — Persona 5’s dynamic aesthetic and unique use of color actually feels like it’d fit Ishihama’s style well, but with a conservative adaptive mandate and an overall resource-light adaptation, the show never quite lived up to its full potential.

  Rather than full productions, Ishihama is usually brought on board for smaller directorial roles; single episodes of interesting productions, or more frequently, utterly beautiful opening and ending sequences. His ending sequence for ERASED offers a characteristically vivid introduction to his work. Starting from a simple visual composition of a character silhouette walking against a dark background, the sequence evolves into a striking array of intimate compositions and fractured collages, where the emotions of the characters and turns of the plot come through in an emotive, felt sense, purely through the evocative visual compositions.

    Many of Ishihama’s visual signatures are clear in that ending; his dramatic use of silhouettes and flat color contrasts (a preference that likely informed his tenure on Persona 5), as well as his ability to balance almost uncomfortably close, unmediated character art with ornate compositions framed with a painter’s eye for contrast and visual balance. These distinct but complementary compositional preferences are further personalized through Ishihama’s digital-native fluency with post-processing effects. You’ll frequently find the impact of his work intensified through racking focus or grain filters, further enhancing the sense of an artist building a visual collage out of each moment, rather than simply directing a camera to capture the characters in scene.

  The idea of Ishihama’s work being a visual collage reflects more than his focus on contrast and composition. The man’s works frequently employ patchwork geometric shapes, further distilling characters from no-shading color blocks into base visual components, and demonstrating that his flat color aesthetic is informed by a full understanding of superflat art design. These stylish compositions are further personalized through his fondness for stylish, frequently diegetic typography; in total, his mix of interests and profound understanding of visual storytelling make for sequences that are simultaneously rich in thematic or character meaning, and also simply beautiful in the abstract.

    But even if the world at large has yet to recognize Ishihama’s talents, his fellow anime creators certainly have. That’s why, along with his formidable opening and ending collection, he’s also frequently brought in to helm single standout episodes of other animator-friendly productions. He storyboarded and directed the solely Takashi Kojima-animated episode of Your Lie in April, and contributed an episode of Occultic;Nine that was absolutely brimming with his signature tricks. Strong use of silhouettes and full-color contrasts, active typography, dynamic compositions, and dramatic post-processing — Ishihama employs a palette of visual tools that is both distinctive and diverse, ensuring that all his works bear his signature, but also stand-alone as artistic achievements.

  Though he’s contributed terrific material to many productions over the years, among his own works, From the New World stands as an indisputable masterpiece. Tackling an absurdly ambitious post-apocalyptic drama, Ishihama blessed some of anime’s strongest adapted material with an adaptation that exemplified all his strengths, from his remarkable affinity for color contrast to his post-processing mastery. At the same time, From the New World offered plentiful room for individual animators like Kojima to shine, demonstrating an understanding and deference to the power of art in motion that could only come from a personal background in animation.

    Altogether, Masashi Ishihama strikes me as one of anime’s prime powder kegs, a motherlode of talent who, with the right material, could easily explode on a global stage. I’ve been praying he’d get attached to a production worthy of his talents for years, and with Horimiya just months away, I’m fervently hoping this, at last, is Ishihama’s day. Whatever your genre preferences, it’s likely you’ve already been dazzled by Ishihama’s work in one way or another — and this winter, I hope you’ll join me in checking out his latest creation.

  I hope you’ve enjoyed this exploration of Ishihama’s talent, and let me know your own favorite works of his in the comments!

      Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

    By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[lunarmoonflowyr]

Dark Souls 3 Areas

So after doing my first playthrough of Dark Souls III, and having recently beaten NG+, I wanted to talk about the areas of the game because Dark Souls III has some of my favorite level design ever in gaming. I just wanted to write out all my thoughts on each area, and rank them from my least favorite to most. 

This is just for my personal enjoyment, and it’s all just my opinion. Feel free to tack your own opinions onto it though!

18. Archdragon Peak

Fuck this area. I hate this area with a burning, fiery passion. I dreaded having to go through it again on NG+ and it was every bit as bad as I expected it to be. 

The only compliments I can give this area is that it houses one of if not the best boss in the game, and that it looks pretty the first time you see it. Once that initial impression fades though, the area is painfully boring to go through at best, and it hates you at worst. I died to gravity as much as I died to the Nameless King.

The enemies are assholes, most notably the stone roly-poly motherfuckers that seem to have made it their lifes mission to headbutt me off the map as much as fucking possible, and the snake-men can all go suck a bag of dicks. 

They stunlock you and then hop away, so if your dodges aren’t on point fighting just one can be a chore. But it’s never just one. Ever. There’s always two, or three, or four, and because of how the area is laid out you’re never going to be able to aggro just one. So they gangbang you.

And they parry you. And they spit fire at you. And don’t even get me started on the big motherfuckers with greataxes, or the completely FUCKASSES that have an axe+chain and happily one-shot me with impunity. 

I, hate this area. So much. It is one of the only two areas in the game that I just “nope”d through at full speed in NG+. 

17. Farron Keep

The second area that I just nope’d my way through in NG+, it saddens me that the area associated with one of the contenders for my favorite boss is one of my least favorite areas. And I think the cardinal sin of this area is that it’s boring as fuck. 

There are many inhospitable areas in Dark Souls, Blighttown being the most famous, but many of the areas that people hate for their hostility are ones I actually enjoy, a lot. And I’m not the only one! Plenty of people like areas like Blighttown and Sen’s Fortress despite their outright hostility towards the player, and I personally think it’s because those areas are interesting. 

Farron Keep is...in a word, boring. It’s very flat with lots of trees, it has poison sludge, some of it is deep sludge so you have to either roll or Quickstep through if you happen to have a dagger. The enemies are either boring (slugs) or infuriating (Elder/Mad Ghru), or just downright bullshit (those motherfucking goddamn curse frogs). 

It’s inhospitable, it’s boring, and there’s no reason to be there any longer than you have to. 

16. Smouldering Lake

The Lake isn’t so much a bad area as it is just unremarkable. It’s small, there’s a flat area, you get shot at by massive arrows, and there’s a worm thing. The only reason to go here is to fight Old Demon King, and he’s a pushover. Boring area. Moving on. 

15. Catacombs of Carthus

This area is one I’m torn on. On the one hand I really like the aesthetic and the lore. On the other hand, it’s painfully linear, has a lot of irritating traps, the enemies are mostly just skeletons, and it has those fucking wheels. Fuck the wheel skeletons. 

The boss fight isn’t that interesting either, High Lord Wolnir is a pretty big pushover if you know what you’re doing. 

This area could have been a lot better if it felt more like an actual catacomb, with more twisting winding paths, giving the player a maze with more than one way to get out. But instead it’s one of the most painfully linear parts of the game once you leave Firelink Shrine, and the enemy and boss design don’t do it any favors. 

14. Consumed King’s Garden

It’s a smaller Farron Keep except with toxic sludge instead of poison, Pus of Man and Lothric Knights instead of Ghru, and a mildly interesting boss fight. The area is slightly more visually interesting than Farron Keep, and you don’t have to spend as much time in it, which earns it some props.

And you’re also not obligated to move through the sludge 90% of the time, which I appreciate. But aside from that, the area is fairly unremarkable, only serving as a house for one of the more...interesting boss fights, if not one of the more challenging ones. 

13. Cemetery of Ash/Untended Graves

These areas are essentially the same, with Untended Graves just having higher skillcap enemies and the whole area is much darker, so I’m putting them in the same slot. 

Now, DS3 is my first proper Souls experience. I’ve watched Let’s Plays of DS1, I never cared for DS2 or Demon’s Souls, and while I would cry tears of joy if I got the opportunity to play Bloodborne, I don’t own a PS4 nor can I justify buying it for the sake of one game. 

So DS3 was my first proper introduction to Soulsborne, and I personally love the Cemetery as a tutorial area. It organically introduces the player to the base concepts of the game, even throwing a side path with an extremely difficult enemy (for new players anyway) to familiarize players with the concept of “I should come back here later”. 

In my first playthrough, I died to Iudex Gundyr the 3rd most out of any boss. Abyss Watchers takes top spot with ~20 deaths, and Dancer is the second spot with around ~17, but I died to Gundyr around 12 times before besting him. And it felt great. 

So, this area very much did it’s job in teaching me how to play Dark Souls, and I remember it fondly for that. 

12. Firelink Shrine

Firelink Shrine was, for me, surprisingly in-depth for what’s essentially a hub center. Walking through all the nooks and crannies in my first playthrough wondering what the hell they were for was interesting, and I loved finding NPCs and seeing them again in Firelink. 

It does a very good job of creating the feeling of safety for the player, which is almost the antithesis of what Dark Souls does normally. There’s a feeling of attachment to the Shrine, to the Firekeeper and the Maiden and Andre, and all the NPCs you meet there. 

It’s visually interesting as well, and there’s always a little sense of “going home” whenever I warp back to level up or buy stuff. 

11. Profaned Capital

My only complaint about this area is that it’s too fucking small. I love the visual aesthetic of the Capital, it feels almost alien and disconnected to the rest of the world. Your first glimpse of it gives you a crawl up your spine, you know something awful happened here and that feeling only increases when you enter the halls and see the hundreds of charred bodies littering the place. 

It’s hostile in a different sense from the rest of the game, the atmosphere of the Capital says that something went very, very wrong, and it’s only by reading item descriptions and piecing things together from context that you figure out what. 

I love the Profaned Capital, and if it was bigger with more to explore and a longer path to get to the boss fight, it would most definitely be in my top ten, maybe even top five. But alas, it’s very small and sadly linear, the path to the boss fight doesn’t give almost any branching options and it’s very easy to miss the entire other half of this area. And when the area is already small, that’s not really a good thing. 

10. Kiln of the First Flame

Odd that the first entry into my top ten is the smallest one in the game, and it feels slightly hypocritical to put it here after criticizing the Profaned Capital for it’s size, but the Kiln is special to me. This was where I conquered my first Dark Souls game, where I overcame a huge challenge. 

The area is aesthetically pleasing as well, very much giving off the sense that this is the end of the world. There isn’t anything past the Kiln, there is just the Kiln and then the emptiness beyond. Looking back you can see the twisted amalgamation of Lothric collapsing in on itself, giving the immediate sense that reality is collapsing in on itself as the First Flame fades. 

It’s a very fitting place for the end of the game, and the final boss, while maybe not the most difficult, is certainly one of the most interesting and most well-designed bosses I’ve seen in gaming. And even though I didn’t play the previous Souls games myself, I knew enough about them to recognize the weight of this fight, especially the second stage. 

And that’s why the Kiln is number 10 for me. 

9. The High Wall of Lothric

The Cemetery of Ash was a fantastic tutorial level, and after beating Gundyr I felt ready for the whole rest of the game. 

And then Lothric. 

The High Wall of Lothric is a very, very good test. It does away with the simple Undead of the cemetery and gives the player actual enemies to fight against, ones that pose a real threat to your life if you misstep. I didn’t die too much in this area, as I had seen a lot of the beginning of the game from a Let’s Play, but the sudden step up in challenge surprised me quite a bit. 

The area is also very nicely laid out, and it doesn’t feel very linear even though it very much is. The game as a whole is very linear compared to it’s predecessors, but in my first playthrough it did a good job at making it feel like it wasn’t. And that’s good enough for me, to be honest. 

Aesthetically pleasing area that holds two very different, but honestly very good boss fights, with suitably challenging enemies, and enough moments to let you know that this game isn’t going to go easy on you. I can’t tell you how many times I died to those god damn archers in the area above the Winged Knight. 

8. Anor Londo

Similarly to the Profaned Capital, I wish this area was bigger. Because as it stands, it’s just a small little nostalgia trip holding an RNG-heavy boss fight that’s underwhelming if you don’t care about the lore.

In fact, this entire area is extremely underwhelming if you don’t care about the lore.

Luckily, I care about the lore, so when I first walked onto that bridge and the words “Anor Londo” came up on my screen, I was grinning like a fool. This place holds a lot of lore heavy significance, especially if you’re interested in Aldrich’s storyline, which I am very much so. 

This area goes into my top ten for lore reasons, and nostalgia reasons. I just really, really wish it was bigger. 

7. Undead Settlement

This place is just cool. It’s really, really fucking big, and I actually missed two of the NPCs you can bring back to Firelink Shrine here. The enemies were never too difficult or rage-inducing, with the exception of the guys with the huge pots and the saws. Those guys are dicks. 

I like the aesthetic of the Undead Settlement, I like the level design, and my first time going through it sticks with me because it’s another area where you can get lost and miss a lot of stuff. 

Unfortunately it houses a pretty underwhelming boss in the Curse-Rotted Greatwood, which gets my vote for one of the most disgusting video game bosses ever. But aside from that little blot, I really like this area. 

6. Cathedral of the Deep

Another area I have a love-hate relationship with. The Cathedral has some very, VERY hostile parts to it that got very frustrating, and if I was ranking these based off of just my blind playthrough it would be much further down. But once I got here in NG+ and knew where all the bullshit was and how to deal with it, I found myself enjoying the area a lot more. 

Aside from the disappointing boss fight, I found the Cathedral to be a truly interesting area both lore-wise and design-wise. It’s intuitive with a lot of shortcuts and it feels like it winds in on itself a lot, it looks very cool and the atmosphere of the area feels very wrong and cursed.

Which is fitting, seeing as it was the home of Aldrich, one of the most unsettling Dark Souls characters ever, in my opinion. 

There are multiple little side paths to go find neat stuff, and although the boss fight is sadly disappointing at best and irritating at worst, I found myself having a lot of fun going through the Cathedral my second time round. 

5. Grand Archives

Oh boy. Top five. I love all these areas, so it’s actually a little difficult to really rank them, and this is where opinions come into play as well.

I should clarify that this is one of my favorite areas only after you’ve dealt with that fucking Crystal Sage. Because going through the Archives with magic being shot at you constantly is stressful, irritating, and not my idea of fun.

Once the Sage is dealt with though and you can actually pace yourself, the area is beautifully laid out with some really weird enemies, and hazards that are actually 100% avoidable if you take the proper measures to do so.

One theme that seems to be present across all of Dark Souls, III especially, is the feeling that the entire world is falling apart, being held together by bits of string and glue. The areas are all almost universally decrepit and unkept, the wildlands areas are all swampy and gross and the habitated areas are either ramshackle and falling apart like the Undead Settlement, gross and unwelcoming like the Irithyll Dungeon, or just abandoned and lost to time like Archdragon Peak.

The Archives is an excellent example of this, with the books disorganized and scattered everywhere, I’d say only 60% of the books are actually on the shelves, and the only inhabitants are the wax scholars and the thralls, with the occasional Lothric Knight to fuck you up.

It has an almost forlorn feeling about it, and it really does a good job at drawing me in.

4. Road of Sacrifices

I hate this area, and I love this area. 

This is, in my opinion, one of the only areas in the game that truly echoes Dark Souls in that it’s very much not intuitively laid out, it’s very easy to have to sit down and take a deep breath and say “fucking christ where the fuck am I supposed to go” as you hug the wall and try and find the goddamn exit to the area. I like that part. The second half of the area is a friendlier Farron Keep in a sense, it’s kinda flat with a lot of trees, but it’s not so inhospitable that it makes you want to pull your hair out. 

The part that frustrates me about this area is the enemies. The harpies that go apeshit and stunlock your ass if you let them transform, and the fucking undead with tree trunks, oh, and the Exile NPCs. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m so terrible at dealing with lance-wielding enemies, so the undead can give me a hard time if I’m not prepared. 

Also dogs. Fuck dogs. 

The Crucifixion Woods is an area I get lost in a lot, I even missed a pretty obvious bonfire because I kept getting turned around. I actually had to look up where the fucking shit I was supposed to find the Crystal Sage because I couldn’t find either doorway that led into that part of the area. 

But, I always have fun in this area, and as a Watchdog of Farron, I certainly see it often enough to have a solid opinion on it. 

3. Lothric Castle

I very much enjoy Lothric Castle for the sole reason that it’s one of the only areas that feels truly challenging without feeling like cheese. 90% of the times I died in Lothric Castle, and trust me I died a lot, it was because I fucked up. 

And it felt quite good to remedy that and start tackling the area properly, it was a challenge that relied on tougher enemies rather than cheese. Except for one section with two rather strong melee enemies and one archer where the archer is in a very inconvenient spot, and can just dick all over you while you’re dealing with the melee guys. 

But aside from that one area, Lothric Castle felt like a proper challenge, one that felt very satisfying to overcome. It’s also just very, very aesthetically pleasing. 

The lore of the Twin Princes and that boss fight itself are also incredible, and it’s probably one of my favorite boss fights ever in gaming, and definitely a contender for my favorite in the game. 

2. Irithyll Dungeon

Oh boy. If anyone’s gonna disagree with me, it’s definitely gonna be here before anywhere else. 

I love Irithyll Dungeon for one reason, and that reason is enough to outweigh the pure rage I feel towards the Jailers.

Irithyll Dungeon is creepy.

The atmosphere and aesthetic of the dungeon is creepy, in a similar sense to the Profaned Capital except with a dash of survival horror, oddly enough. I always feel unsettled when I go through Irithyll Dungeon for any reason, and the enemies just compound that feeling. Even more undead in cages, the baby-faced monstrosities that are so morbidly intriguing I almost don’t want to kill them just so I can get a proper look at them to try and figure out what the actual fuck.

And the Jailers. The source of so much ire and rage, I think they’re one of the most hate enemies in the series across the community. Now, I hate the Jailers as much as anyone else, but I also love them for their lore and aesthetic.

And I also love how they contribute to the atmosphere of the area. Like I said, Irithyll Dungeon is creepy, and it feels distinctly different from the rest of Dark Souls III. It almost feels like something out of Amnesia or Outlast, and the Jailers are a huge reason for that, because you don’t want to fight the Jailers ever unless you have the upper hand.

The Jailers are scary, and terrifying, because they don’t just damage you, they drain your maximum HP as well as increasing your equip load, causing you to fat roll and making you even more vulnerable to taking damage. By the time you get to Irithyll Dungeon you’ve most likely conquered Pontiff Sulyvahn and maybe even Aldrich, so you’re feeling strong and powerful with only one Lord of Cinder left on your plate.

Even if you decide to go through the Distant Manor and into the Dungeon before taking on Sulyvahn, it still means you’ve beaten the Abyss Watchers, you’ve beaten Wolnir and the Deacons, and you feel like a badass.

The Jailers take that feeling of power away from you in a way that can’t be avoided. Unlike other enemies you can’t learn attack patterns to perfectly time your dodges, you can’t cheese them and exploit them. The Jailers are always scary, and they can always make you feel vulnerable. You feel like a lot less of a badass with just 100 max HP that you can’t make go away except by just waiting for the effect to pass, and trust me, there is nothing in this game that can make me panic as much as suddenly starting to fat roll when I’m trying to get away from something.

Irithyll Dungeon as a whole makes the player feel vulnerable and reminds them that no matter how much of a badass they feel like they are, the game can still fuck them up if it chooses to.

1. Irithyll of the Boreal Valley

It was honestly a very, very difficult choice to pick Irithyll or it’s Dungeon as my favorite area in the game, because I honestly love both areas so much for very different reasons, but eventually the lore aspect of Irithyll won out over the Dungeon’s atmosphere and gameplay.

In an almost stark contrast to my earlier comment about how everything is falling apart in Dark Souls, Irithyll stands out as almost the last bastion against the end of the world. Sure, the inhabitants are all Pontiff’s lackeys and the area isn’t exactly vibrant and thriving with life, but it’s eerily lacking the filth and decrepitude that the rest of the areas have. 

I will never forget the first time I set eyes on Irithyll after walking out of the Catacombs of Carthus. I let out an actual, audible gasp and nearly dropped my controller, I just stood there for a good five minutes and just stared.

Irithyll is, in a word, beautiful. It’s almost otherworldly in it’s strange beauty, the way everything is dusted in snow and moonlight. The gothic inspiration to it’s architecture adds a lot to the feeling of Otherness, and you very much feel like an outcast, a stranger. 

The lore of Irithyll is also incredible, with Pontiff Sulyvahn the tyrant and how he essentially set the events that led to Aldrich’s storyline in motion. While my personal favorite Lord of Cinder is definitely the Abyss Watchers, I will say without a doubt that Aldrich has the more interesting story.

And Irithyll and Sulyvahn are the centerpiece of it all, the root of that lore. It also has vague tie-ins to the twin princes and even to Yhorm. 

The lore and the aesthetic of Irithyll alone would propel it into my top five, but when you add the fact that Pontiff Sulyvahn is a fantastic boss fight, if extremely rage-inducing before you figure out how to play around his sheer aggression, along with very well-done level design and some interesting enemies to fight, like the invisible ones where you can only see their eyes, this is definitely my favorite area in Dark Souls III.