#...this was originally going to be way longer as I narrate my struggles in searching for information

[greengargouille]

A correction on Karasuma’s career

(...And Takaoka’s too I guess)

A fandom wiki can be a fickle thing. Sometimes helpful. Sometimes, straight up misinformation. Some time ago, I woke up in the middle of the night, pondering something about a character’s past that I immediately needed to check- as one is bound to do when they should be asleep. Said character? Karasuma Tadaomi of Assassination Classroom (as some mutuals will have cleverly guessed from the title). ...Except. Something was wrong. I’m not talking about his description as a ‘handsome young man’, because it’s supposed to be true within canon (despite visual evidence to the contrary). I’m talking about facts that are harder to disprove just by a glance- especially since the source isn’t written. “I’m... pretty sure Karasuma never was in the Air Force, that doesn’t sounds right.” “Warrant Officer? ‘According to the manga, Karasuma’s dress during his career-’ where. Which panel is it and where can I compare it to an actual uniform.” “Uh, Takaoka’s profile doesn’t help much more. ‘Takaoka and Karasuma were in the same squad in the military but were in different sections.’ That’s not possible, as a squad is part of a section. And unsourced too.”

So. Even though I don’t participate in the fandom. I had to do something. Edit the wiki? Well I don’t know if I need permission to do that, so no. But, there’s something much easier I can do, one thing I’m pretty used to. Complain about it on Tumblr! 

So, I looked up what I could. The official French translation, the English scans. His Graduation Album’s profile just in case, though it was unhelpful. Hunted down his tankobon’s profile, and, bingo, a career path! ...With a few differences from the French translation. Hmm. At this point I would need to look at the raws. Thankfully, I do have Roll Book Time, in paper format, a gift of years ago from my good friend and sweetheart. Unfortunately, I don’t actually read Japanese- but as if that stopped me in the past! By now I’m an expert at painfully looking over radicals to search for accurate kanji on jisho.org, one at a time. It’s long and tedious and in the end I still rely on Google Translate, but at least I’m going somewhere. So, without further ado! Let me show you what I’ve got!

[Alt: Photo of a half page from the Roll Book, describing Karasuma’s career. The text is in Japanese, and illustrated by two panels from the manga. One shows Karasuma in camo uniform training recruits, the other shows him at the start of the manga, presenting himself to the 3-E. ] For those of you who wants to read the Japanese text, but it is too small or the pic isn’t showing, here the transcription:

烏間先生の経歴ファイル 

自衛隊入隊

第一空挺団 配属

自衛隊の第一空挺団では、他者を寄せ付けない成績を収め、教官としての才能も目覚しかった。

統合情報部ヘ異動

諸外国の軍事、政治情情報などを収集し分析する諜報部員としても活躍。事務能力でも一流だ。

臨時特務部ヘ異動

これらの実績を買われて現在の特務部ヘ。迢破壊生物の暗殺・監視、E組ヘ技術提供に勤しむ。

As for some sort of translation, here’s a little something to get the gist of it, but don’t consider this as a totally accurate translation.

Karasuma-sensei’s background file Enrolled in the Self-defence Forces Assigned to the 1st Airborne Brigade In the SDF’s 1st Airborne Brigade, his talent was unmatched. His talent as an instructor was also remarkable. Transferred to the Defense Intelligence Office He had been active as an intelligence agent who collects and analyses military and political information in other countries. His office ability is also top notch. Temporary transferred to the Special Services Office Due to his past results, he was brought into the Special Affairs Department. He works with the monitoring / assassination of the “destructive creature”, and teaches his technique to Class E.

So, the first point of this. The Japanese Self-defence Force (which I will abbreviate in JSDF) is, like most if not all armies, divided into ground, air and naval forces. You would think the 1st Airborne Brigade is part of the Japan Air SDF, since there’s ‘airborne’ in the name. And you would be wrong! It is part of the Japan Ground SDF, and my, what a part it is. They’re considered among the toughest soldiers of the JGSDF, deserving of their “The Matchless Elite Second To None” motto. While the JSDF are supposedly defensive, as the name said, for legal reasons (they technically can’t call themselves an army because Japan can’t have one), this brigade is considered as one of the few with an offensive capability. Yeah, fitting for Karasuma! (And yes, this means Takaoka has been part of it too. Which... kinda explains why he underestimated Nagisa so much. If you’ve been in an elite troop for years, you can let a scrawny teenager with a knife get closer to you a few steps further, just to prove a point.) Then, we have what the tankobon profile’s translator chooses to translate as “Information Bureau”, but I choose Defense Intelligence Office. You see, the original text was 情報部. Now, Matsui has been known to slightly modify the name of actual places/schools rather than reference the actual thing (dunno if he’s required to do it or it’s a personal choice). And, if you take 部 (office, bureau, department- I prefer ‘office’ since it’s found in the translation for some Ministry of Defense’s extraordinary organs) and add 本 to make 本部 (headquarters), you get 情報本部, which is the Japanese name of the Defense Intelligence Headquarters! Which is still part of the Ministry of Defense, so it makes sense the transfer could be done. (As for Takaoka- The first page of chapter 38 shows us a shadowed Takaoka, with his chief going ‘It’s a hidden ball trick, courtesy of our Information Bureau’. So I guess it’s either a natural advancement career, either he followed Karasuma there, or this guy has the worst of luck.) Finally- Special Services Office- or Division, as per the English scans. But the tankobon profile translation talks about ‘Special Forces’? Well, I can disprove that. The Special Forces Group of JGSDF is 特殊作戦群 in Japanese. Meanwhile, 特務部 is... nowhere close from that, except there’s 特(special) in their names. Furthermore, we do have an 部 again at the end, which implies an office/department/division/etc. Given the explanation in Karasuma’s profile, I would assume this office was created specifically to deal with Korosensei, and various agents were transferred to it temporarily? Notably, Karasuma and Takaoka. --

Now, that solves it for the Air Force misunderstanding. What about Karasuma’s rank, though?The fandom wiki mentions his uniform in the manga. Which turns out to be one panel. It... makes sense, since Karasuma is no longer part of the JSDF, having transferred, and so wouldn’t be able to use a military uniform on important events ; the French translation of Karasuma’s chief’s words in his flashback from chapter 38 even says “After you abandoned your military uniform [...]”. What is this famous panel, then?

...Well, that’s going to be tricky. We don’t have a view of the arms themselves, though he doesn’t seem to have a patch. Then we have the notch lapel insignia, but those meant for rank are put on the upper notch- the lower notch is for the branch of service, from what I gathered in photos. (And I mean, it would be ridiculous as a rank insignia- it seems to have three dots in a triangle, so either a captain or a colonel, can you imagine this, a colonel? A guy in mid-twenties? Ridiculous) What about the shoulders, then? Well. Let me tell you a thing. ...Finding things about Japanese formal dress military uniforms is super annoying. US uniforms? Sure, no problem. French uniforms? If you type in French, sure. Japanese Uniforms? Oh, did you mean WWII Imperial Army uniform? No? You’re sure? Because this is what you will get. Oh, sure, Wikipedia has a page on the ranks and insignia of the JSDF. But it doesn’t seem to account for those formal epaulets, which are only used in ceremonies. But! There’s a silver lining! Typing 陸自 儀礼肩章 (JGSDF formal epaulets) in a pic search, we can then click on the ones that interest us and look for the grade. (Though, some of them seem to come from Yahoo Auction, and are unavailable to me). So, on our manga panel, we have three dots on the knot, plus a little one at the end to pin it to the uniform.

Something like this. Now those specific ceremonial shoulder insignia are for a 一等陸佐 (or 1等陸佐), which correspond in the US Army to... uh. Hm. Wait. Let me check. Gotta be a mistake. He can’t be a colonel.

...A bit smaller but that will do. Notice how the knots have one less... wire? Thread? Look, I’ve put way too much energy into this post to start worrying about words. Anyway, the number of stars might be the same, but the whole epaulet is different. And we even have the less formal insignias on the side! Those are for a 1等陸尉, which corresponds to... Captain. ...No, seriously. I mean, you can check on other sources if you want. Wikimedia even has this photo if you don’t believe me.) As for Takaoka (as well as every man present in the panel), it’s small but you can see two stars on his shoulders, so he has the grade just below- 2等陸尉, which corresponds to first lieutenant. But hey, maybe Matsui and his assistants took a random uniform as reference! You know, the anime tends to have interesting background details in the classroom, so maybe they would also have been careful with this!

...Ah, yeah, not really. What about Takaoka?

...Well. Not very helpful either. It does show us he has the service ribbon for the Medal with Blue Ribbon, a Japanese medal of honour awarded to individuals who have made significant achievements in the areas of public welfare or public service. As for the weird infinity sign- this pin badge is likely the same as Karasuma’s in the manga, which is not quite clear on the scan, but I can confirm on the tankobon that it’s the Ranger Courses pin badge. The fact it is golden means he specifically completed the Fuji School one, which is needed to be a course instructor or an officer. ...So, I have no idea where this Warrant Officer rank came from. It would make more sense, but it seems like somehow, Karasuma reached captain rank. Despite being in his mid-twenties (he’s 28 by the time of the manga, which is to say, after he spent time at the Defense Intelligence Office). Seriously, is it too much to ask for a bit of realism in my supersonic giant yellow octopus manga? ...One mystery remains, though. ...Where the hell did Karasuma find the time to get a valid teaching license? Because he does tell Gakuhô he has one early on, and being an instructor for military recruits certainly doesn’t require the same license as to teach middle-schoolers. Did he get a special rush training between the time Korosensei said he would be 3-E’s teacher and whenever chapter 3 happens? Or did he just happen to have one before? He probably entered the JSDF as soon as he got the minimum age, so I can’t see how. Matsui please show us your notes.

[not-majestic-bluenicorn]

The MONSTA X Time-Travel Theory (Originally the MONSTA X Universe Theory)

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new and improved MONSTA X Theory. You read the title right, this was originally called the MONSTA X Universe Theory, but unfortunately it can no longer have that name. I’ll explain why shortly. I posted this theory in February of last year, and since then, a lot of things have changed. My theory really only addressed until before Take 1, so it’s been 4 comebacks and one world tour since then, can you believe it? So yes, quite a few things have changed, and we’ll go over them.

What has changed?

Originally, the theory proposed that everything started in the Tresspass-The Clan timeline, that it was the original timeline and that everything went down from there. However, since Follow: Find You, this is no longer possible, as the Find You MV shows us the origin of Hyungwon’s abilties. Thus, the Tresspass-The Clan theory is now a stand alone. Technically I already wrote a theory on The Clan, although I didn’t address its connection to Tresspass, maybe I’ll do that in a separate “add-on” sort of post. Because of this, it can no longer be called a “Universe Theory”, as MONSTA X is not integrating all of their stories into one very convoluted timeline, but instead they have two separate stories (if later on they connect everything, I’m throwing the towel). That’s the main change, but this change provokes a bit of a butterfly effect, so let’s see how much the theory has changed.

The Story

Phase 1: The First Timeline - The Origin (We Are Here World Tour VCR, Take 1 & Take 2)

I know this is a weird place to start the theory, almost near the end, but it actually makes a lot of sense. These three videos serve a very similar purpose to what Beautiful did for The Clan, they explain the origin of their friendship. Now, things aren’t as dramatic as they’re shown in these three videos (at least I hope so, ‘cause things are gonna get very weird from a plot point of view if they are). The main point of narration is the We Are Here World Tour VCR, from now on abbreviated as WAR because it’s easy to remember like that, and because it fits the theme of the video (watch it here).

WAR introduces us to seven fine young men who have each committed a sin (two of which aren’t even actual sins, but I understand why they would change those two). Hyungwon and Pride, I.M and Envy, Kihyun and Loneliness, Jooheon and Greed, Wonho and Sloth, Shownu and Wrath, and Minhyuk and Agony. These sins are not actual crimes from a futuristic dystopia (although that would be a cool concept), these are just the personal struggles they are dealing with, the personal backgrounds that consume them.

Hyungwon is a rich kid that believes himself better than everyone. I.M is the local witch (?) who hates the rich kid. Kihyun is probably the only child that was forced by his parents to be perfect. Jooheon and Shownu are a very misguided pair of trouble-makers who’re friends with Wonho, who practices Taekwondo but can’t reach the standard he wants. Minhyuk lost someone important to him.

In the Special Film and the Previous Film called ‘ARE YOU THERE?’ they explain these personal struggles, how their situations make them fall into those sins, and how they’re looking for someone to save them. This salvation comes in the form of each other. In WAR they further explain their own sins and how being with each other saved them from drowning in them. Alligator represents the sins and them drowning in the swamp of their own despair. Shoot Out is them breaking away from their past and destroying these sins.

Phase 2: The First Timeline - The Trigger (Find You MV)

Originally I proposed that Hyungwon got his powers by entering that weird heart at the end of All In and Fighter. I’ve now been proved wrong. After they each overcome their past and become friends, Hyungwon’s family has an accident in which both of his parents die and he comes out badly wounded. After he recovers, he’s now living by himself and taking different medications to deal with the aftermath of the accident. The boys decide they cannot leave their friend like that and temporarily stay at his house.

While they’re sleeping, Hyungwon wakes up and visits his father’s study. He finds the damaged watch which sends him to an entirely different timeline. This is showcased by him suspended in the water, with images of Dramarama and Destroyer flashing by. There is a scientific theory that proposes that spacetime is actually a superfluid; I won’t go deep on this because I don’t fully understand it, but showing Hyungwon trapped in water is a good analogy to him being trapped in a different spacetime. This is also briefly shown in The Connect World Tour VCR, (from now on addressed as CWT), but we’ll talk about this one in more detail later.

Wonho wakes up first and notices Hyungwon isn’t there, so he wakes up the others and they try to retrace his steps. Unfortunately, Hyungwon is not part of that timeline anymore, he’s gone for good. This leads us into our second timeline.

Phase 3: The Second Timeline (The Code & The Connect World Tour VCR)

After Hyungwon jumps into spacetime, he becomes lost. Personally, I think there is a possibility that there were other timelines he visited first until he eventually learned to craft the watches himself, as we see in CWT (watch it here). Maybe he just watched this timeline fail a lot of times before he learned and decided to intervene. Either way, Hyungwon actively tries to reunite all of them by giving them the watches. He succeeds for a moment, but in this timeline there exists an agency that controls Time Travel, who frustrate his plans every single time.

It is important to know that in this timeline, the boys don’t all know each other and some of them don’t even exist in the same era. They don’t remember Hyungwon either. Personally I think not remembering Hyungwon might be because he removed his existence entirely by disappearing from his original timeline. There cannot be two of him, as that would cause problems, so instead he just completely seizes existing in all possible universes as he moves through them.

The rest of the boys still exist within the normal spacetime frame though, but they’re lost and ignorant to their true origin. They have forgotten each other and can’t remember yet. However, no matter how hard they try, this timeline is completely doomed because the agency is actively trying to frustrate Hyungwon’s efforts, even if they don’t have something against him specifically. So Hyungwon jumps into the water again, he must continue searching.

Phase 4: The Third Timeline (The Connect: Music Film D & The Connect World Tour VCR)

Destroyer is yet another timeline distinct to Dramarama. We know this because we see different pairings, completely different settings and completely different timelines. The Music Film D is divided in three stages: Part 1 The Code (a very obvious reference, this is already letting us know they’re connected), Part 2 Finding the road, and Part 3 Connected (clear reference to the current album).

D shows us the boys as geniuses, Minhyuk and Shownu are artists, Kihyun and Wonho are science (physics?) prodigies, and Jooheon and IM dominate technology. CWT gives us a bit more insight and shows us something very important: they have begun to remember each other and they have memories from their previous timeline. They want to find the person they were paired with in their first timeline, but more than that, they also have memories of Hyungwon’s intervention, even if they don’t remember him properly (because let’s remember Hyungwon removed himself entirely).

They know they have to find someone, and so they set out to do it. Through their own methods they all come to the revelation on how to find Hyungwon. Kihyun and Wonho do the math, Jooheon and Changkyun use technology, and I guess Minhyuk and Shownu have a vision which they paint? Not sure on that one to be honest, but they find the train station.

This could either be a real place in which every timeline and universe converge or just a metaphor for them figuring out how to do the same thing Hyungwon does, either explanation works.

Hyungwon is trapped in this train, which is another analogy, but this time for the (liminal) space between dimensions. He’s tired himself out trying to reunite the others, and this time they must come for him, and they do. They find each other, they remember, and they reunite once again. This time nothing can pull them apart.

Phase 5: Interlude (The Connect: Jealousy & The Connect World Tour VCR)

Jealousy doesn’t feed the plot itself but helps connect (pun not intended) and put everything else into place. Through different imagery, Jealousy illustrates how the different timelines push them together and then pull them apart, creating different pairings, but that despite this they still share things in common (the paper with numbers, the recorder, the glass of water). Another thing this video does is allude to Jooheon’s death in Dramarama through the use of os symbolism. In one scene, a paper with his symbol is being burned, while in yet another, the chair he’s seen sitting on throughout the video is being burned as well and then falls down to the abyss.

On the other hand, CWT creates a clear and obvious connection between Dramarama and D, revealing to us that they do have memories from other timelines. Another cool thing is that we get to see Hyungwon on the rooftop where they filmed Hero, released back in 2015. It also provides a clearer scene of Hyungwon crafting the watches himself and of him at the top of the Hero building. We can also see the last scene from Jealousy mirrored in the last few seconds of the VCR, which is something worth pointing out.

But, as the VCR says “when everything goes back to the beginning, someday, we will be connected again”. Where did things begin? That’s right, in Find You, so the next step is Follow.

Phase 6: The Third Timeline - Back to the Beginning (Follow)

If Monbebe has a war anthem, it is most definitely Follow, which is an amazing song. Unfortunately, Starship has decided to stop providing explicit story development on their MVs since Jealousy, so Follow doesn’t do much for the story itself. However, I have three important reasons to believe this is where the circle ends: all of the references to time, the quote from CWT,and the very last scene of the MV. Let’s go in order.

The most obvious reference is them standing on clocks painted on the floor, but that’s not the only one. We get to appreciate a few watches here and there, reminiscent of Hyungwon’s in D and Dramarama, and also see the movement of their shadows as a passage of time. The most important reference though, is the cover of the album. The title, “Follow” is solid and then becomes “liquid” as it moves down. This makes sense when you consider the other two points.

First of all, “when everything goes back to the beginning, someday, we will be connected again”. The beginning of the whole mess is Find You, part of the Follow album, there is no doubt about it, so why is Follow the end? Well, because of the last scene in the MV. I know it’s Shownu standing at the top of the stairs in front of the circle, and while it would be better if it was Hyungwon for the sake of this theory, we’ll just completely ignore that. That circle they’re walking towards is the train. ‘Follow’ in the cover becomes fluid because once they cross that circle or enter that train, they too remove themselves from existence like Hyungwon.

That’s not the only thing though. In D, Wonho solves the formula for time travel as X=4155102M, he does it again in Alligator and I believe it’s also briefly shown in WAR. Kihyun also travels back to 2015 in Dramarama to save Jooheon, and Hyungwon is standing on Hero’s rooftop, which was released back in 2015. Their debut date is their beginning, and they keep referencing it over and over because they’re trying to go back to the beginning in order to solve everything.

They went from Find You to Dramarama, to Destroyer and now they’re back at the beginning with Follow; they are connected again. They have different faces and personalities because they’re not the same people from the original timeline, but they managed to find each other and transcend spacetime to be together. So now, what happens next?

Phase 7: Moving Forward (FANTASIA X)

Here is where things get a little complicated, both in the story and in real life. With Wonho’s departure from the group (go support his solo debut), we now have an even number, which wouldn’t seem like a big deal if it wasn’t for the FANTASIA X Trailers. In each trailer we see that each one of the members now possesses a device which allows them to control time in one way or another.

Hyungwon and Shownu have keys, which when used to open anything will allow them to do spacetime travel (I would say only time but, well, I have no way to confirm this right now). Jooheon and I.M have this lighter-watches that when turned on, they allow them to stop time. Kihyun and Minhyuk have another very different set of keys that look like those in old toys or music boxes, which allow them to ‘rewind’ time when used.

Now, them getting powers is expected, since they also removed themselves from the “normal” existence and joined Hyungwon. I assume it is because of the even number that they gave Shownu the same powers as Hyungwon, but it makes it a little weird because Hyungwon has been special all this time. It also doesn’t make much sense that now Hyungwon is using a very different instrument. I want to believe that Wonho is supposed to be in Hyungwon’s place in the teaser, but it’s impossible to tell now.

Even ignoring all of that though, FANTASIA X overall just doesn’t make much sense with the theory. Sure, it’s still time related, which is like the biggest giveaway, but the boys still look lost and like they’re looking for something despite the fact that they already found each other. Maybe the Teasers could be their personal research into spacetime travel and their attempts to find Hyungwon, but I highly doubt so. I think it’ll make more sense after the next comeback or tour, since so far everything seems to come in threes (Dramarama, Destroyer and CWT, Shoot Out and Alligator and WAR, Follow:Find You, FANTASIA X and?).

Conclusions

Despite the fact that we can no longer call it a Universe Theory because it hasn’t been there since the start, I still think it is a story about them, about their struggles and how they’ve grown up. They’re each other’s friends and family, the value of X is their debut date because that is when they came into existence, they are each other’s dreams because they wanted to become artists and they did so by coming together into one group.

A lot of things have happened, but their friendship hasn’t changed. They got each other out of the swamp and helped each other overcome their difficulties in the hardest times. It is uncertain as to where the story will lead us next, in a way, I think this might be the start of a brand new story for MONSTA X. A direct consequence of the story they have carried out since The Code? Maybe, but probably very different and not exactly in the same storyline. It’s hard to know, but I’m excited about what they have in store for us nonetheless.

I hope you liked this theory, and be assured that I’ll add onto it as more things come out and new mysteries are to be solved. If you have any questions you can hit me up on my asks, Twitter (@soft_bluenicorn) or my CuriousCat (@soft_bluenicorn)! I’ll be glad to answer them ^^

[wall-of-history]

BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui is Still as Beloved as Fans Remember: A Response to Comic Book Resource and Matthew Attanasio

Hey everyone! I’m James, the guy behind Wall of History. I know I rarely drop the facade of my brand on official Wall of History accounts, but today, I’d like to make a more casual, opinionated post on something that’s been getting a lot of attention from the BIONICLE community on Twitter.

Last night, Comic Book Resources posted an article titled “BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui is Still as Pointless as Fans Remember,” and if you have even a surface-level familiarity with the BIONICLE community, I’m sure you can guess the reaction we had — CBR’s tweet was pretty quickly ratioed by fans, drawing comments like, “Comic book resource [sic] once again proving you do not require a brain to type,” and, “We think that the Vahki would like to have a word with you guys." BIONICLE fans generally agree that Legends of Metru Nui is the best film in the franchise, so claims that we universally “remember” it in such a negative light are completely baseless — I’d like to move past the inflammatory title, however, and analyze the actual contents of the article.

LEGO's decision to focus on prequel material was received as a slap in the face. While fans were ready to see the story press forward, it instead fell backwards to tell stories that held little significance to the ‘present day’ plot of the franchise.

To say that the story of Metru Nui held “little significance” to the plot of the franchise is ridiculous. For three years, fans had been given only vague legends about the origins of the Matoran and their struggle with the Makuta, and after Makuta’s defeat, “pressing forward” meant returning to the world they had left behind following the Great Cataclysm. To introduce us to that world and show us how the Matoran came to be in their present situation was an obvious next step for the story.

That's not to say the various comics and novels didn't deliver interesting stories; they did.

That’s true, they did! However, the rest of this article gives me reason to believe you didn’t actually read them (or, at the very least, didn’t pay attention when you did).

They just weren't what fans craved at the time. Legends of Metru Nui failed to bring anything valuable to the table in this regard, with a sloppy story, terrible pacing and forgettable characters.

There are numerous claims and implications throughout this article (we’ve already glossed over one) that BIONICLE fans generally felt certain ways about this film, as well as this story arc as a whole, but none of these claims are backed up. To blatantly misrepresent the feelings of the community like this is rather poor journalism.

Regarding your claim that Legends of Metru Nui failed to bring anything valuable to the table, I’ll reiterate my point from above — the ending of Mask of Light saw the Matoran take the first steps toward reclaiming their home, a home that had been hidden from us, the fans, since the inception of the franchise. Showing us why and how this home was lost in the first place proved to be a vital step in expanding the scope of the BIONICLE legend. Makuta’s actions in Legends of Metru Nui ended up being the inciting incident for the rest of the story, a story that was largely set in the Matoran Universe introduced by this arc.

Your claim that the film has forgettable characters is, like your claim that fans generally remember this film negatively, demonstrably false. Vakama is widely regarded as one of the best characters, if not the best character, in the franchise (the last post on this very blog is evidence of this), and Nidhiki proved to be so popular that his origin story was later relayed to us twice, in the short story “Birth of a Dark Hunter” and the novel BIONICLE Legends #4: Legacy of Evil.

These new heroes are Vakama, Nokama, Matau, Onewa, Whenua and Nuju, Toa of Fire, Water, Air, Stone, Earth and Ice, respectively. Whereas Mask of Light's Toa Nuva were already fan-favorites, the Toa Metru were a mixed bag, and this film did nothing to help their image. In truth, all three of the main Bionicle films failed to highlight how awesome the Toa could be, which is a shame.

BIONICLE is not the story of the Toa. It’s the story of the Matoran.

In the behind the scenes featurette on the Legends of Metru Nui DVD, the narrator makes the odd claim that both Mask of Light and Legends of Metru Nui are “all about the Toa.” This claim is odd not just because Mask of Light literally isn’t about the Toa (it’s mostly about two Matoran), but also because the Matoran have always been the heart of the franchise — a fact that Legends of Metru Nui comments on.

Many fans feel that Mata Nui: The Online Game is the best BIONICLE media, and it’s a story that largely focuses on the Matoran. You play as a Matoran, you primarily interact with Matoran, you solve Matoran problems… and until the very end, the Toa are mostly off doing their own thing. This makes for a really compelling story, precisely because the Matoran aren’t “awesome” like the Toa. It’s cool when the Toa unite their elemental powers to make the Makuta explode into a pile of scrap metal, but it’s compelling when the Matoran armies, whose leaders previously seemed preoccupied with their own problems, unite to save the ragtag Chronicler’s Company from what would have been a deadly Rahi attack.

The Matoran have always been the emotional heart of the BIONICLE legend (the Toa’s stories do focus on saving them, after all), and Legends of Metru Nui understands this. When Lhikan tells Vakama to “save the heart of Metru Nui,” the Toa Metru immediately assume he’s talking about himself… and that kind of makes sense! Lhikan is, after all, the last Toa, a fearless, noble hero, and the last bastion of light in a city being consumed by shadows. Of course he’s the heart of Metru Nui! The Toa Metru spend most of the film searching for Lhikan, but when they find him, he’s not the hero he used to be anymore — he’s a small, frail Turaga now, and he berates Vakama for seeking out him instead of saving the true heart of Metru Nui, the Matoran. This is a great twist, not only because it finally delivers on some of the spooky foreshadowing from earlier in the film, but also because it sends a clear message to the audience that the Matoran are the heart of this legend.

The plot revolves around Vakama's (voiced by Alessandro Juliani) inner struggle to realize who he is. If that sounds familiar, it's because that was basically the plot of the first Bionicle film, which handled these themes in a much stronger way.

While it’s true that Takua and Vakama both struggle to accept their destinies as Toa, I feel Vakama’s struggle is the stronger of the two, as his is based in the very relatable anxiety of impostor syndrome.

That's largely because Vakama, along with just about every other character in the film, is incredibly boring.

This is one of the comments I mentioned above that makes it hard for me to believe you actually read the comics and novels that tell the rest of the Metru Nui story. Vakama’s character arc is undoubtedly the most complex in the franchise, based in relatable anxieties, and actually has a clear beginning, middle, and end (contrast this with the more repetitive character arcs of the Toa Nuva, who have to learn about the importance of unity several times over before they finally internalize it).

Despite being the protagonist, Vakama has an incredibly erratic and unfocused arc, while Whenua (voiced by Paul Dobson) and Nuju (voiced by Trevor Devall) receive next to no development at all.

This latter statement regarding Whenua and Nuju is true, but I don’t think it works as a criticism of the film, which is clearly meant to focus on Vakama, Lhikan, the Matoran, and the Makuta. Rarely does a film with an ensemble cast give a complete arc to every single character, and if it keeps the film more focused, that’s a good thing.

And whereas the antagonistic Makuta had a consistent, threatening presence in Mask of Light, he's an absolute joke here.

He eats people in this movie!

However, much like Mask of Light, Legends of Metru Nui maintains the problem of poor editing to the point of being laughably bad. There are transitions and cuts that make absolutely no sense. The movie struggles to let scenes settle and develop, with many in the middle lasting no longer than a minute, which is extremely jarring to watch.

Alright, I’ll give you this one — the editing could stand to be a bit more polished. It’s a film that’s trying to juggle quite a few plot threads, though, so I think its ambition makes its editing shortcomings forgivable.

For example, in the comics, writer Greg Farshtey explains why Vakama experiences visions of the future. But in the film, there's no explanation for this at all, making it seem like Vakama has clairvoyant powers out of nowhere (not that his vision [sic] do anything substantial in the film).

This is an extremely odd comment, because it’s just not true on either count. Vakama’s visions are never explained in the comics, but they are explained in the film, barely fifteen minutes in: “Visions can be a sign of madness, yes, or messages from the Great Spirit.”

The claim that Vakama’s visions contribute nothing substantial to the film is also objectively false, since his visions are what compels the team to go after the Great Disks, from which Vakama crafts the Mask of Time.

There are plenty of other small lines and instances that ignore the continuity, like Whenua commenting on how he went from being a Matoran archivist to a Toa fugitive in a day. That's obviously not how it works -- the disk hunt alone takes a while in both the comics and the film, so Whenua's statement makes no sense.

Whenua’s line is, “When I woke up, all I worried about was cataloging.” He does not explicitly claim to have been a Matoran when he woke up. All this line does is show that Whenua thought he’d be able to return to his life as an archivist now that the Morbuzakh and Krahka had both been defeated.

Of course, nowadays, many Bionicle lore scribes have properly allotted the film in the larger Bionicle timeline. But at the time of release, it felt like Legends of Metru Nui was blatantly going against everything that was already happening in the canon, which was upsetting and/or painful to watch.

Do you have a source confirming that fans felt this way at the time? As I briefly discussed earlier, this article is filled with implications that BIONICLE fans in general feel the same way about Legends of Metru Nui that you do (this is even made explicit in the title), but none of these implications are backed up, and this is simply not the case.

For the true fans out there, revisit this film if you want. Just don't expect anything special.

I watched it just the other day and had a great time! And the last time I hosted a stream of it, we all had a great time! And this brings me back to the core issue with this article: the baseless claim, in both the title and contents, that BIONICLE fans generally dislike Legends of Metru Nui. Perhaps it’s odd to write a response like this for what’s probably a pretty harmless article. Perhaps it’s an overreaction. But to see a huge site like CBR publish an article like this, that's not just full of factual inaccuracies, but also misrepresents the feelings of most of this community, is upsetting. To ascribe this kind of negativity to a generally friendly community, a community that so genuinely loves what we love, flaws and all, for some clickbait ad revenue… is upsetting.

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 124: Lion 4: Alternate Ending

“Please tell me my destiny.”

We’ve had Ronaldo as a toxic gatekeeping fan intent on harassing the creator. We’ve had Lars as a disappointed fan whom the creator is desperate to impress. We’ve even had Navy as a false fan who’s only interested in robbing the creator’s spaceship (arguably a rarer breed than the first two). So now it’s time for the obsessive clue-hunter, who parses through the creation so deeply that the original meaning gets lost in the shuffle. And this time, our fan stand-in is Steven.

Lion 4: Alternate Ending is an episode about Steven trying to ruin Lion 3: Straight to Video. All the magic from that first glimpse of Rose Quartz threatens to be extinguished through overanalysis, to the point where his discovery of a new tape is met with dread instead of excitement. For all the Steven Universe fans that get frustrated by Steven not being as invested in the lore as they’d like, well, this is what happens when Steven gets as invested in the lore as you’d like. 

To be clear, I don’t think Steven succeeds in ruining Lion 3, especially because the conclusion of Lion 4 manages to enhance its predecessor. I also don’t think it’s a bad thing that he tries: it fits his post-Storm in the Room state to tear through whatever evidence he's got to figure out why he was born, and it’s properly painful to see him so desensitized to the wonder of Rose’s tape that he’s reduced it to a possible decoded message. What better way to express how Steven feels than tainting a pivotal moment with his mother?

I’m super into stories where a mystery to the characters isn’t a mystery to the viewer: the core example is Cowboy Bebop episode Speak Like a Child, where our 2070s crew is trying to solve the case of a strange antique object that a 1990s audience already knows is a videotape (although a fifth of the way through the twenty-first century, we’re already getting removed from an era where modern audiences would know what a Betamax is, even as a cultural relic). Because the writers don’t have to try to fool us, we can focus more on how the characters tackle a problem instead of trying to beat them to the punch with our own deduction skills. I wouldn’t call Lion 4 the most concrete example of this sort of story, as it’s not impossible that Rose was leaving encrypted messages behind, but to me at least the “twist” that Rose’s tape wasn’t part of some dubious master plan is obvious enough that I can just enjoy the ride.

“Enjoy” is perhaps the wrong word, because while this is an excellent episode, it’s not a fun one. There are comedic moments, because this is still Steven Universe, but watching a kid at the end of his rope struggling to understand his place in the world is bound to be harrowing stuff. Steven’s determination is compounded by his solitude: the Crystal Gems are pointedly absent, as the last time he asked them for answers his dad got abducted to a space zoo and it’s easy to confuse correlation with causation. So it’s just Steven and Lion for most of the episode, and it’s telling that Lion answers Steven’s final cry for help by bringing him to see his dad. Some things can only be fixed by talking, and for all his strengths, Lion isn’t a great conversationalist.

Before we get to Greg, this Steven/Lion solo outing uses constant activity to sidestep the dullness factor that bogged down Steven’s Lion. After a strong first impression of Steven’s mental state as he scours Rose’s tape for clues, going so far as to try to find meanings in anagrams, Lion revs up the plot by retching up a giant key. I love that Steven’s first thought is the same as mine, and likely yours: the chest in Lion’s mane that we first saw in Lion 3, which unlike Bismuth remained a mystery (and it still is, because we never saw what Steven found in there between Change Your Mind and the movie). Even though the key is comically oversized, Steven ignores the obvious and keeps trying to make it fit. So right off the bat, we get two little stories about Steven looking for answers where there clearly aren’t any and doubling down despite the futility out of sheer desperation for the truth.

From here we get a montage of past locations a la Marble Madness and Warp Tour, accompanied by a gorgeous medley of location themes from Aivi and Surasshu; I will never not complain that we don’t get to have an album of their scoring, because this episode’s soundtrack is one of their best. Visiting the Armory harks back to Lion 2 as the tape did for Lion 3, and we also get a glimpse of Rose’s Fountain and Rose’s Room to continue our references to the many known areas tied to Steven’s mom. When nothing works, Steven pleads with Lion for more information, aware by now that the cat has some answers.

While I’m not huge on Steven’s Lion as an episode due to the aforementioned dull pace, it’s awesome to see our heroes return to where Lion was first found. Buddy’s Book already did a great job of reminding us of Lion’s desert home, but now it’s time to finally investigate the area further. 

Jesse Zuke and Raven Molisee paired up for our last episode, leaving their usual respective partners Hilary Florido and Paul Villeco at bat for Lion 4. The ragtag team has so far given us rich visuals, with a particularly expressive Steven and Lion (crucial for the non-talking member of the duo) and a callback to the lovely settings of the past, but every aesthetic choice they make is topped by the desert run. It’s a beautiful shot, evoking the iconic ocean run of Lion 2, but Steven’s exhaustion (aided by Zach Callison’s beleaguered performance as he narrates his thoughts) tinges the scene with melancholy where there was once only magic. Steven’s desperation is no longer the frenzied need from when Greg was kidnapped, or even from the beginning of this very episode, but has been worn down to a weary determination that just breaks your heart. This is Charlie Brown after a yanked football too many; he hasn’t been thrown a single bone in his search for answers, and this might be his last chance.

I try not to include too many images in these reviews, because they can mess with the flow of the text, but screw it this shot is also amazing:

The pyramid-like structures leading to the locked door are the first we see of a new hidden getaway, and retrospect makes Steven’s plight even worse: as we learn in Legs From Here to Homeworld, all he had to do was touch one of them to get a major hint about Rose’s true identity. 

It wouldn’t have solved everything, as Garnet would likely assume they were spoils of war, Amethyst wouldn’t recognize them, and Pearl would keep her mouth shut. And it would’ve ruined the pacing of the mystery for such a strange hint to be presented, so from a storytelling perspective it makes total sense to keep this in the backburner. And it’s not like it’s that weird that Steven doesn’t feel compelled to touch what seems to be a couple of statues when he’s spent the whole episode looking for a lock and it’s right in front of him and he just survived hours of desert travel. But knowing what we know now adds to the drama of how close our hero is to the truth he deserves.

In yet another bummer, Rose’s hidden landfill is worn down to the point where most of the walls had collapsed, meaning Steven didn’t even need the key. Which isn’t to say the key wasn’t important, as it prompts his trip in the first place, but it’s just one more way that the universe seems to be throwing unnecessary hurdles at him. In the same vein, Lion not only could’ve warped him to the destination as he mentions, but he could’ve done so without hacking up the key in the first place. But we’re long past the point where we should expect straight answers from Lion, so I forgive the big lug.

The first thing that came to my mind when Steven saw the dump wasn’t Amethyst’s room, although there are obvious similarities. It was Greg’s storage locker, the place where we first talked about Rose all the way back in Laser Light Cannon, the place where Greg expressed confusion about why a magic woman fell for a regular guy like him. And as frustrated as Steven is, this room is a wonderful unspoken answer to that distant question: among Rose’s many imperfections was that, like Greg, she was kind of a slob. It’s so nice to have a mundane flaw after nearly a full season of focusing on her as a liar and murderer, especially a flaw that reminds us of why she and Greg were so great for each other.

But yeah, Steven isn’t interested in subtext, and his tantrum is both realistic and reasonable. He finds the tape for Nora by accident, right after kicking some garbage in anger, and this is where that Speak Like a Child oomph comes in. It’s crystal clear that the tape was a backup in case Steven was a girl, but he’s so primed for lies and complications that the obvious answer eludes him and he suspects the worst. I honestly can’t blame him. If you learned out of nowhere that your mom killed someone, who’s to say you don’t have secret siblings?

The contrast between harsh desert and soothing sunset is another treat for the eyes, readying is for a cooldown after two distressing acts. Greg’s excitement over seeing the old tape blinds him to Steven’s angst in a way that adds honest tension to the exchange, because he’s trying to give Steven a fun treat but has no idea how much anguish his son has been through to get to this point. To Greg, telling Steven the answers outright would be ruining the moment, but the wait is already killing the kid. In an episode without an external villain it’s such a clever way to present a final “confrontation” to overcome.

When we finally see the tape, it becomes even more apparent that it was a backup for a hypothetical daughter. Still, I love how the strange new version of a video we know and love is only half-seen, as we focus so much on Steven’s reaction at the expense of footage. Where he was once gazing at the marvels of a new glimpse of his mother, his eyes are now furrowed in frustrated concentration. As in Lion 3, he has a viewing partner, and Greg’s welling tears mirror those of Steven and Sadie from the first tape, highlighting that the Steven of the present isn’t feeling an ounce of tenderness.

Tears do come for Steven, but in the form of anxious release. When he’s told that he’s Nora, meaning he’s the person the tape was intended for, Steven still doesn’t get it and exclaims that he’s his mom and his sister; it’s sort of a joke, but boy is it rough to hear him slip that in some way he does see himself as his mom rather than his own person. So thank goodness he’s saying this stuff to Greg, who’s calm at first but leaps to the occasion when Steven frantically asks why he exists.

As is standard by now, Greg's got fatherhood down cold. He adjusts his tone to show he’s taking Steven seriously, but rather than jump in he sits his son down and lets him talk. He addresses Steven’s concerns gently but firmly, leaving no room for doubt that he’s loved and appreciated no matter what. He brings himself into the conversation by saying he changed his name, doing so not to turn the topic to himself but to reassure Steven that it’s okay to not be stuck on one identity. And just look at how perfectly our three main characters exist in the shot during this last talk:

Steven gets those happy post-tape tears after viewing the last part of the video, and our happy ending is earned, but it’s not a full victory. Rose still had issues, but at least Steven has gained some confidence back that she wasn’t all bad. He’ll go back and forth on how much guilt he feels for her actions, but at the very least he knows now that his decisions to try and atone for her mistakes are his to make, and not a mandate from a dead parent looking for an escape route.

Whiiiiiiich means that now he’s able to try and feign a sense of control over helpless situations by assigning blame to himself in new, exciting ways. Hey, it’s not like the show could’ve solved all his problems less than halfway through Act III of the series. Lion 4 thus doesn’t have the conclusive oomph of Lion 3, which closed a trilogy of Lion Episodes as well as the stage of the show where Rose was a well-realized but distant idea more than a full character. For all its strengths, Lion 4 feels much more like Just Another Episode. But that’s okay. It doesn’t owe the past a thing.

Future Vision!

Again, those pyramids return in a major way, because they’re not pyramids.

Greg talks about Garnet’s inability to predict things about Steven, which is an element of their relationship throughout the show but gets major focus soon in Pool Hopping.

Escapism blends the two big Lion Runs by setting it back on the ocean, but making the passenger an exhausted Steven facing one last ordeal before relief in the form of his dad with a guitar.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

It doesn’t make the top twenty, it does make the top twenty-five. Just like Bismuth right before our hundredth episode, this doesn’t mean much now, but it will next time, because I’m expanding again to a Top Twenty-Five when we hit the big One Two Five with Doug Out. 

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

(Kind of unbelievable to me that a Lion Sequel doesn’t have official promo art, but luckily we have discount-supervillain’s measured take on what Nora Universe would realistically look like.)

[aadhiskanmani]

I am back with Part 2 as promised earlier also because it was bugging me that i have left it incomplete the other day. The formatting is going to remain exactly the same way.. am just saving myself some extra text clutter , time and  typing/copy paste this time round LOL. 

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS COMPLETELY MY OPINION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING FEATURES.  I feel the need to say this again because last time too i got a message but x,y,z film has x,y,z issues . I've said it before and i will say it again  It is all a mixed Bag, Mixed Genres, Mixed reasons to suggest them right from the quality to acting to cinematography to story to critical acclaim to some just for PURE ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES.  I makes these lists because I feel these features deserve love and appreciation and because some made me feel Proud and some just for pure entertainment factor . Sidenote.. all titles are actual links where you can watch the features with subs and most of these are On prime video or netflix as well

K.G.F: Chapter 1 |Kannada| *Yash | alt Link  A young man's promise to his dying mother leads him on a dangerous quest for power and wealth.  If I may say so this One pretty much did the same thing in terms of opening doors to kannada film industry like Baahubali did to tollywood. This one  followed the formula and dubbed it in multiple languages and gave it a wide release worldwide which raised eyeballs and got me curious too esp caz this one has a similar plot with the rise of a hero and the hunger for power just set in a completely different world and era. Now the Strength here is the screenplay  and the non-linear pattern which keeps you engaged, with the growth of Rocky being shown steadily. The film is set between 1951 to 2018 and maintains a sense of curiosity as each character is unveiled. Yash is Phenomenal in it as rocky. I said it back then when i watched it and i will say it again He exuded the same kind of charisma say like a 70′s 80′s hero e.g Mr Bachchan from his blockbuster hits where he Played similar roles or salman khan in his typical masala characters basically Larger than life even if he has this arc of being a nobody to Rocky Bhai to Rocky the messiah. One word of Caution... This one gets a lil confusing in Kannada  and with subs as there are too many characters and each one has his/her own agenda. i was confused at many parts but then i watched the hindi dubbed version and it made a world of difference. this one is fairly well dubbed too just like baahubali and what i mean is the voices didn’t sound robotic. Also i personally felt they went a little too far with the dukhi  junta in prison in 2nd half and the violence as in it got very tedious but thank God that got over soon with the rise of this hero but it is worth watching and rest of it is really good, esp the last 15 mins WOWWWWW I cannot wait for part 2. Also my only sandalwood entry.

p.s all dubbed versions are available on prime including Hindi but i have linked the kannada originals  

Fidaa | tel |*Varun Tej, Sai Pallavi  (on Prime as well) Two young people embark on a winding and rocky path to love after meeting at a wedding. First of all supercute romantic, comedy/ family drama but what is refreshing about it is that it is Mainly from the Heroine’s POV and we have a VERY STRONG heroine who has her opinions, her say ,her own thought process and who is just so real. On the surface it looks like just another tollywood rom com but it’s Not. the music is really Good too and Sai Pallavi is A bundle of joy as Bhanu who calls the shots  mostly here. Needless to say it is one of my Feel good films when  i want to see something that makes me smile and gives me that comfort vibe i  go to this one mostly.

Tumbbad|hin|*soham shah . A man and his son encounter a legendary demon while searching for hidden treasure in 19th-century India. 

This one will come as a surprise to many as it is a hindi title but This one a rare gem that is Underrated af and i haven’t seen a finer hindi film in the last year because of how rich it’s content is and how thought provoking it is. The makers have invested years in getting to final result and it shows. this one gave me goosebumps, sacred me, left me mesmerized and make me go WHAT too. This is also on this list because you may not have heard about it at all just like myself who had no idea and jumped into it out of supreme boredom and was left in complete awwwwww and then did my reading and research. This one is a well thought out psychological horror film with strong visuals and metaphors and makes you question as it plays with your mind. Tumbbad is a perfect example of a film that creates a surreal illusion.

Imaikkaa Nodigal| Tam| Nayanthara,Atharvaa, Anurag kashyap: alt link  A suave CBI officer (Nayanthara), is in search of a serial killer who kidnaps and kills the children of important people. The killer, however, is targeting his nemesis next. a revenge thriller with a strong Plot unpredictable and amazing twists.Each character has an important role and Nayan As a Bad ass cop who freaking sets the bar too high for female officers in desi films. THis one is one of the finest Thrillers in recent years which actually gives you thrills and Shocks and most of them one can’t guess. Let me be honest i gave upon this seeing anurag kasyap as the antagonist as i was unable to bear rudra and just his Ottness on top of that atharvaa’s lovestory as the parallel track mad me go ehhh as i initially clicked on it for nayan and there was so little of her in the beginning but then i gave it another try and couldn’t stop & was WOWEDDD by the Film and Nayan as anjali and yeah she is the MAIN CHARACTER so we get a lot of her later. She is at her FINEST as anjali. this is the film one wants to watch to get a high of sorts. WATCH IT FOR NAYAAAN FOR A STRONG FEMALE ACTOR/CHARACTER Taking the center stage and BEING FANTASTIC. This one is so just so entertaining in so many ways and the film one can watch on any given day despite knowing the plot twist. Beware Nayan and Vijay’s little arc is heartbreaking and i cried a lot tooooooooo... i was shattered at that part..... it is so hauntingly shot too. TW: Graphic violence  In that scene 

Mahanati|Tel|* Dulquer Salmaan, keerthy suresh, samantha, vijay D |alt link  Biopic based on  The life story of South Indian actress Savitri, who took the film industry by storm in the late '50s and '60s Mahanati is a film about the rise of the first female south Indian superstar – Savitri. Her story one of the most heart wrenching romantic tragedies of our times.This film tells a story of the Mahanati; her life, her journey to fame, and the dramatic downfall. Keerthy Suresh, elegantly brought Savitri to life, and Gemini Ganesan, played by Dulquer Salman, makes this film a true pleasure to watch. I had no idea who Savitri was i went into it because DQ and Again was BLOWN AWAY by How well made this film is and how it is made with so much sensitivity and rawness. it keeps the real journey part intact as in doesn’t sugarcoats or overly glamorizes things to show Savitri as some mahaan hasti. They make this film the Grand celebration of her life with all her struggles and tragedies  and makes you connect with her in a very real  manner and All this Makes this film so much more than a film. this one becomes that Larger than life Grand,SHE IS A HERO More because she truly is rather than OH because she had this sob story IYKWIM  like hindi Biopics do. They have made savitri Grand By her resilience by her courage by her will power and invested in the character and plot rather than all taam jhaam. This one is By far the best Biopic i’ve seen from desi industries and Not One and i mean it NOT one Hindi biopic even comes close to this one in terms of presentation. Keerthy suresh is a joy to watch as savitri. i am not gonna lie i broke down at few points and that is because of her acting and laughed too i connected so strongly to an actress’s story (who i had no idea about as in savitri i had 0 knowledge about savitri or in general about south industries retro eras ) only because of keerthy’s presentation.Also dulquer is a Joy as gemini ganeshan. he really slipped into it with ease and lived upto the part. they have achieved finesse in  showcasing a life story and recreating old songs from black & white era. If nothing else on this list watch this and imaikaa nodigal and you won’t regret it 

Rangasthalam |tel| *Ramcharan, Samantha :  Chitti Babu, a hearing impaired boat skipper, becomes caught in the middle of a political feud in the village of Rangasthalam. Watch this one for Ram charan’s performance  He is a delight to watch as chitti babua and this easily is his Best WORK till date this character have so much to play with and He ACES IT . The strong and intriguing story line is also a Plus . The film is not just set in the 80s; it also picks a story template from that era and narrates the tale in a refreshingly raw manner but the characters are so well fleshed out they don’t look caricatures by any means. the songs are grand and super fun to watch too. 

Maari 2 |tam|* dhanush, sai pallavi :  Maari, a gangster with a heart of gold, tangles with a new nemesis who is determined to bring about his downfall. First things first this one is mileas ahead of the previous version in everything. A much stronger film in every way. Otherwise it is a pure masala entertainer with all the masala elements and  dhanush and sai make a BOMB pair and their lil story is ahh sooo full of feelz. 

Sudani from Nigeria |Mal|* soubin shahir:  When a soccer club manager brings one of his injured foreign players home to recuperate, they form an unlikely bond despite their cultural differences.. A refreshing sports drama that touches your heart. explores the cultural differences so beautifully. the characters stay with you much longer after the film is over. The film effortlessly explores iissues in the neighborhood and much bigger political issues too. overall SImply an underrated film and one should watch it for it’s warmth and sincerity.

Koode|Mal|*prithviraj,nazriya nazim, paravthy  A family tragedy causes a young man to reflect on his childhood and reassess his future.Anjali Menon and that brilliant cast should eb your reason to watch. i don’t think i need to say another word to convince you but still anyway. it takes you on and emotional roller coaster ride. it is a flawless film with an extraordinary cast. also Naz is as charming as ever in her comeback film. there are very few films who actually jump into exploring the bond between a brother and sister and this one aces it with reflecting upon various issues and things they had to go throughasa family  as well as their individual struggles. AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING. Also Paro and prithvi yeah. .. simply OUTSTANDING film

Varathan |mal|* fahadh faasil,Aishwariya lekshmi:  After losing his job, Abin and his wife, Priya, move from Dubai to Priya's family estate in Kerala, but peace eludes the couple. It takes it’s time in the first half but in second it comes all guns blazing and turns into a worth watching survival thriller. it does makes one uneasy at times with the contsant stalker guys lurking around but it is all worth the wait at the end. trust me..

Chekka Chivantha Vaanam |tam| *vijay sethupathi,arinswami,jyothika,simbu;  An attempt is made on the life of a reigning don, and it sets in motion a succession battle between his three sons. In other words Godfather with Mani ratnam  twists A delicious film to devour it si an out and out maniratnam film with massy fan moments and smart filmmaking techniques. watch it for performances esp. i wish jyo had more to do but she is good at what she does in her supporting role. . this one is a true blue  multi starrer ,family drama.

Merku Thodarchi Malai |tam| Antony, Gayatri Krishnan, Abu Valayamkulam :  it  revolves around the life and times of a group of people living along the foothills of the Western Ghats. basically we travel along with Rangu ( teh pratagonist) who is a daily wage worker and his struggles in bringing that load upto the city  and his one dream to own a piece of land someday. this oen is almost like a documentary. this makes you thank and count your blessings. feel every bit of pain and effort and struggle that these daily wage workers have to go through in their daily lives. i broke down at so many points and i just wanted to do something to help makes lives a bit easier. IDK it hit me so hard at places and made me thankful for all the things i have. 

Mayanaadhi |Mal|*tovino thomas,aishwariya lekshmi : A mule driver in a gang and an aspiring actress try to navigate their way through an unexpected romance. Mayaanadhi is a beautiful tale of love. The emotions it conveys needs to be experienced and the movie gives us a taste of life. Aashiq Abu really knocked it out of the park once again with this one. this one. It is a simple enough tale with a plot that is real to life and familiar.It is perhaps the most Soulful Romantic film i’ve seen in last year or so. 

Takeoff|Mal|*parvathy,fahadh :  A young Muslim woman (Parvathy) struggles to find love and happiness in midst of the ongoing civil war in Iraq. It  an ode to the Indian spirit. This is a riveting survival saga, made by a team gifted with acute political and social awareness. It is, in one word, stunning. Paro Simply have slayed. A bit like airlift as in the basic setting and premise is similar but poles apart. it is one hell of a film( in a good way) PARO,PARO,PARO. this is all i have to say to explain the brilliance of it. 

and with that this comes to an end.. again please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions with me i would love to see you guys actually taking the use of this list and sharing your thoughts. Bye and Have a Wonderful Summer binge watching these hehe. i hope you love them as much as i do. looking forward to your thoughts 

[deviationdivine]

Nightcall (RK800-60 x Reader)

TLDR: Even androids can have nightmares... 

Word Count: 1506

TW: Angst to Fluffy Fluff (One-Shot)

((60 needs more love movement continues until I hop back on the full angst train))

"Do you really think Y/N loves you for you, RK800-60?"  A disembodied voice cuts sharp in the unfamiliar setting. There is no warmth from the very person he held what seems like moments ago. There is clinical cold, stormy in its terrain as the Zen garden appears decayed. No longer connected to anything and slowly dying from its loss of power.  His eyes shift across searching unable to find an exit. It strikes him in the chest. Stress makes his synthetic heart pump in laboring thrums increasing his absolute fear. Is this real? No! It’s impossible!

Please. An internal plea to escape his personal hell fuels his stress levels. Nothing comes from his lips as he remains trapped, unable to work his body. Please, please take me back!

He is free. He’s not connected anymore. How did it find him?

Everything is cold. This is no longer that safe place where he is wanted and loved. He doesn’t have to be afraid of failing. Not with you but this isn’t where you are. This is a nightmare. 

Is this what Connor sees? Does he know about this?!

Frantic, disabled from finding a way out, RK800-60 feels as he did first becoming deviant. It wasn’t his choice but he does not want to lose how he feels. If he does you will fade away. He cannot bear that.

Why is this happening? The android’s eyes dart quickly taking in surroundings. No longer bright or pretty but frigid, barren a drop in the abyss which he falls down to knees.

Dropping there now upon frozen ground he can only be at the mercy of the master program. Trying to reach out now for a sign of that warm cocoon he last remembers, instead his panic stricken gaze lands on the familiar gray sleeves of Cyberlife issue jacket. He holds arms up now studying the return of his mark for them, created for the purpose of destruction. Blue glows stitched in the fabric like a chain as it once again brands him in service. 

No! No, please don’t take me from Y/N! "You're nothing," the voice continues out of those shadows morphing entire garden. A forgotten domain perhaps and in a way it is because there was no more reach to stretch out and capture what it once controlled. Yet it speaks the fears of the trapped android who becomes subject of its vicious taunts. "You’re just a copy. Of the first. The original."

The narrator, moving out of the withering shadows cast by dead trees swallow up in the abyssal garden showing true colors. Starkly its source wore white and looked on with sharp disappointment. "You'll never be good enough. You never were. Not even to me." "Amanda?" His voice finally activates but it is not right. He sounds warbled. As if he is suffering a malfunction. Why can he not scan or run a diagnostic on his system? No. It is not reality. This is an irrational fear manifesting. Somehow this is inside his head.

Get it out! Make it stop! "Look what your disobedience has gotten you. Nothing but a hopeless fantasy and hope is not for androids." The image of Amanda spoke his deepest fears for all to hear within the unmade Zen garden. "Did you think you could escape? Like Connor did? That you could find love, live a free life?”

He sunk further under Amanda’s scolding. Ripping at his free will tore it to pieces. No longer thinking clearly only falling into the quicksand tugging him back into his programming shackles. Only the voice of Amanda twists him. As before long ago at the Cyberlife warehouse when it no longer defines him. That’s all gone. His freedom, his happiness is destroyed.

“You could have been so much more,” Amanda continues to cast down the android where he belongs. In service to his creators as it is meant to be. “You’re a great disappointment to me…”

You’ve been a great disappointment to Amanda you know. You’ve been a great disappointment to me.

Somehow it’s his voice. He watches as Amanda becomes him but with zero emotion, only a shell imprisoned inside his own body. That’s what he is. He’s a machine. 

“Look what you’ve become.” The doppelganger points at the battered, broken android. “A filthy deviant. You made me into this. You allowed it. To become weak. This is where you belong in the Zen garden.”

No, he does not belong here. He belongs only where he is complete. Wake up. Just wake up...

“Wake up,” your voice is too insistent to hide nerves. Attempting to shake him out of stasis for the last ten minutes it’s complete panic at this point. Thrashing around in bed is so frighteningly human you felt sick. What is going on in his head? This is too real now. “Sixty, please wake up!” 

The android’s eyes pop open staring wildly about unable to focus with anxiety levels pushing their limit. Red flashes lighting up dark room in a warning.

^83%

Level of Stress 

Immediately your breath catches when he grabs on desperately and all you can do is press close to still him. His body trembles causing you to cup the android’s face gingerly to soothe the obvious spike in anxiety. It takes everything in your will power not to show how scary this is. 

“Y/N?” RK800-60′s voice muffles. Burying his face into your neck helps. Circling arms around waist presses both of you together. That’s where he stays saying nothing further because he did not have to. 

He is with you now. It’s all he wants. This is real. It must be real because your skin is warmly human against synthetic. 

“A bad dream?” Asking gently you already had an idea. Of all the time that passed since he started sharing this space with you it’s the first it’s happened. Circling his LED with a fingertip calms both questions and his stress as you anxiously wait for it to stop flashing crimson.

“Am I good enough?” The android asks to counter your previous question. Bad dreams. Androids are not supposed to dream or so he thought. 

Good enough? What is...? “Of course you’re good enough,” whispering these feelings brought everything to the surface. For you it’s so simple as it makes this real between you. At least you thought so. To hear him doubt himself only fuels a terrible ache in your heart. “Don’t ever ask me that. You’re everything.”

Everything. He savors the sweet words from your lips. It’s his lifeline. There is nothing else. How can there be when you are the reason?

“Y/N, I-I’m sorry. I just want to be more. How can I be more when I’m a copy, when I wasn’t meant...”

“Stop right there.” You interrupt almost angry. Never at him but this idea is too much to wrap a head around. Tonight started so wonderfully until you couldn’t stay awake any longer. He came to bed as he does every night to mimic your sleep patterns. Falling into stasis after a while as he’s wont to do; your lips touch his burning temple kissing the flashing glow. 

He leans close then. Clutching onto your hips, tangling needful beneath blankets; RK800-60 settles into your body like a satellite orbiting the globe. Attached in his struggle for validity, conscious of laboring breaths escaping your lips and it sends him home. This is home. He fought out of the nightmare to return to you. 

“You’re not just a copy,” you soothe in words and actions. Stroking fingers through his unruly hair, you smile at the soft curls threading through them. “You’re my Sixty.” 

A serial that is a nickname for him now and no longer merely a construct of what he was built as. A copy of Connor. 

The android listens to your heartbeat for a while. Keeping his head atop your chest and focusing on stress levels makes this calmer. He feels better. This traumatic nightmare won’t prevent this life especially with you. 

How gullible, utterly stupid can he be? How could he ever question? Having this love despite his being an android, a copy of another, makes him feel like someone. 

“Forgive me, My Love.” 

A soft declaration on his breath is all you can think about now. He’s that distracting on a good day. “You’re most certainly forgiven, Honey Bun.” 

The light giggle out of you draws his head up and a crooked smile spreads teasingly across his lips. No longer at the mercy of his mind you are the only thing on it at this point. His peppering kisses dusting all over your face, neck and chest answers well enough. Return affection is all he needs to lower stress. It falls moderately and finally yellow blooms beneath your tender touch. 

He keeps your fingers pressed to his indicator. Knowing that you accept him is all the medicine he would need. Even if androids can dream there is only one person he would call out to in the night. 

You.

[autumn-oceanopromises]

13/7/22 - “Lu Zhai”

     It’s 11pm on a Wednesday evening. I’m hunched over, playing video games, an addiction I haven’t been able to shake off for twenty years. One, in particular, I’ve played on and off for nearly a decade. I lost a serious relationship at least in part to this game. I’ve lost days, to be immersed in video games. To play just one more game. I’ve lied to keep my video game time. I’ve lost money, friendships, and mental health to fuel my addiction. I’ve quit, but I’ve backslid. I’m a gamer. I’m a video game addict. It’s part of how I identify myself, both to other gamers, and to myself drinking alone at night.

      A friend messages me on Discord. In a lull moment, I check it. He asks me, “Have you heard of the poem Lu Zhai, by Wang Wei?” I go back to my game, but I’m no longer immersed. I’m thinking about it now. I’m curious.

     One week ago, I was challenged by Stephen Kotler, by reading his book, to list twenty-five things I was curious about. I struggled. Over twenty years of searching up guides for video games, I’ve stopped being curious about topics and started looking for direct answers. I've craved the endings of narratives, instead of living the experience to get to them.

    I carry on a conversation with my friend in lulls. In-game, I’m more aggressive than usual, attempting to make hero plays so that I can get to a lull sooner, rather than later. As far as my friend is aware, I return to his messages within minutes, rather than the half hours that he’s more used to.

     “I have, yes,” I say. I have. Lu Zhai is a poem that I dimly remember browsing over, while looking up obscure poetry forms in Ancient China, one of the entries I finally wrote down on my ‘twenty-five curiosities’ list. But I’m curious about more than this. My friend is a narrator, and a sound editor. He’s also Italian-Canadian. I wonder where he heard of Lu Zhai, and what he intends to do with it.

    “Why do you ask? There’s like, 13 translations of it,” I type out, seconds before my game resumes. Even as I’m speeding through the narrow gap between virtual, brightly flashing projectiles, I’m thinking about Lu Zhai. Something about that poem captured the attention of poets and translators, both solo and in duos, thirteen times. I’m a poet. It’s another of the ways I define myself. I speak - if poorly - the language Lu Zhai was written in. I’m immersed in that culture, but I write my poetry in English. 

    The game starts to drag. Normally, time passes very quickly in-game for me, but at this point I’m thinking more about Lu Zhai, sounding the words out loud, reading it aloud to myself. There is something captivating about the simplicity of this poem, something profound. It throws me into its rhythm, into its imagery. Five words, four lines. Twenty words in total, but there are thirteen very different interpretations in English. Fourteen, if you count the literal.

     I’m dying stupidly in-game so the chat is filled with insults, but I’m already on the empty mountain mentioned in Lu Zhai. I’m inside the fog-outlined forest looking up at the moss. Explosions and screeches abound in my ears, but I’m already listening for the voices that Wang Wei mentions. The game brings up its “Defeat” screen, but I’ve already clicked away from it. Normally I’d go onto the next game, but I want to shape the images I feel into words more.

     My friend sends me the video essay he was watching, that mentioned it: “A Thousand Ways of Seeing The Forest.” Someone’s taken a stab at translating the poem in the comments. There are 1.4K likes.

     I take a stab at it, myself, and immediately run into three snags. Firstly, the title can be translated into a hookup joke - “Deer Tinder...”, which gives the entire verse a whole new context. Secondly, there is a shape to the original that isn’t ever described in any of the translations; the word for person goes, then returns in a direction. Thirdly, translating this poem is hard. It’s simple, it’s incredibly evocative, but while there are words that can mean nothing else (”voices”, “empty mountain”, “forest”, “moss”), everything else is context-dependent. I wonder how many of those translation teams, or poets, looked at a previous translation and thought - “That can’t be right.”

     I’m right here, I’m in the moment, I’m immersed. I’m crafting something, making something, I’m shaping the words that come to me to try to match the shape of the poem that birthed them. I’m only eighty percent satisfied with the end result, but I send the poem to my friend anyway, including the stupid Tinder joke. Regardless, he asks if I would voice the original, because he’s been inspired to organize voice actors into reading the translations, one narrator per version.

     I agree. I close my game’s launcher. I’m curious, and I’m immersed. I watch the video essay, now, experiencing the ways that other people have seen forests, and video games, although a part of me is still in Wang Wei’s Deer Forest, watching sunlight on moss, listening for returning voices on an empty mountain.   

[lizabethstucker]

Asimov's Science Fiction (March/April 2017)

Digging into my backlot of science fiction magazines. A mixture of verse and stories. I've only reviewed and rated the stories. This particular issue is the 40th Anniversary one! 3.8 out of 5 "Soulmates.com" by Will McIntosh Daniel wants someone to share his life with, to love and be loved by. When he meets Winnie through a dating app, he thinks she could be the one almost immediately. Emily, his former girlfriend and current best friend, is more suspicious, doing a deep dive on who Winnie could be. Which, considering they never meet in person despite Winnie being in Atlanta and Daniel in Athens, not that long a drive, is valid. Starts extremely slowly, assumingly to establish the characters. Not my favorite way as most writers don't do a good job at it. I'm not entirely certain that this is actually science fiction, despite the use of Artificial Intelligence. As to Daniel, I found him to be incredibly childish, blind, immature, and boring. He learned absolutely nothing from his experience. I struggled to complete this novella. 2.5 out of 5 "Number Thirty-Nine Skink" by Suzanne Palmer It started simply enough, an expedition designed to bring life in balance to an empty planet. Then the humans left suddenly, leaving Mike willingly behind with Kadey whose programming makes the creatures populating the area. When Mike dies of cancer, Kadey continues her work. Until the night something changes. Poor Kadey, struggling with loneliness, possibly incomplete programming, and the knowledge hidden from her regarding why the humans left. Sad, yes, but with a more hopeful ending that is also a beginning. Lovely story, so well written. 4.5 out of 5 "Three Can Keep a Secret..." by Bill Johnson & Gregory Frost A convoluted tale of assassins, misdirection, love, greed, and con-artistry with an almost noir feel to it. It's almost impossible to give a synopsis that isn't chockful of spoilers. The first person narrator isn't totally reliable, but still intriguing in what he shares. I loved this more than I expected with this strange little story. FYI, in case you don't know, the title is from an old saying. Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead. 4.5 out of 5 "The Ones Who Know Where They Are Going" by Sarah Pinsker A child must suffer so the city can be happy, or so they say. One particular child is taken from her mother, locked away in the dark with no social interaction beyond the delivery of food. As time passes, language is lost and memories of a happier time begin to fade. Then one day the door isn't shut tightly and the child gets out of the tiny dark room. She crawls up the stairs, each step bringing back a particular memory, heading for freedom. But at what cost? Rip my heart out, why don't you? Two and a half pages of the most gut-wrenching narrative. The tightly woven writing is painfully descriptive. And the ending! Oh, the ending. I just cannot deal with it. 5 out of 5 "Invasion of the Saucer-Men" by Dale Bailey Teenagers have been foiling alien invasions for some time. After all, the adults are either locked in their homes consuming television or would dismiss the very idea of aliens. The newest landing of a flying saucer bonds together teens out at the local make-out point. Per the author, his idea was to take the cheesy sci-fi and horror movie titles of the 1950s and treat the core idea with some emotional and thematic nuance. Here we have a group of teen archetypes, from the football star to the nerds to the beauty. There are also the followers that are always found in high school. This brings back memories of too many cheesy nights at the drive-ins in my county. I've always found my sympathies fell with the aliens most of the time, faced with humans whose first response to the unknown was always violence. Horrible ending to this story. Horrible. CW: extremely graphic attack. 3 out of 5 "Kitty Hawk" by Alan Smale After receiving word of her brother's death, Katharine Wriht travels from Ohio to North Carolina to help her other brother. Instead of Orville preparing to pack up for the trip home with his beloved

brother's body, he is trying to continue with the flight experiments that killed Wilbur. Katharine finds herself engaged in helping, even learning to fly herself. This is a complete AU of the Wright Brothers and the birth of flight, through World War I and the suffrage movement. The writing is evocative of the time period and the dangers of experimental flight. I don't know why it didn't click with me, but I struggled quite a bit in reading this imaginative tale. I can see others enjoying this greatly, just not me. 3 out of 5 "Cupido" by Rich Larson Marcel is a genius at chemistry. He came up with a way to make pheromones specific to the pair he's paid to bring together, either by one of the potential couple or by a third party. The majority of the money he charges goes to pay for his grandmother's colon cancer treatment. As word gets around, he finds himself moving to smaller cities to avoid identification. As yet, what he does isn't illegal. He didn't expect to find himself attracted to his potential mark. Frankly, I don't consider this to be science fiction at all. The science is already viable. Add the consent issues which would be called dubcon (dubious consent) and I'm too busy cringing to enjoy. In my mind, Marcel is anything but a hero. 3 out of 5 "A Singular Event in the Fourth Dimension" by Andrea M. Pawley Olive was removed from the reducer pile, adopted by a childless couple to help stave off loneliness. Now that the second grandmother is living with them and Mama was pregnant, Olive is worried that she will be sent back to the pile, no longer needed. A loving, imaginative little android who believes in fairy dust, even if the fairies never seem to do anything magical like in the stories. Love doesn't have to be limited to just humans or blood relations. Sweet and touching. 4.5 out of 5 "The Wisdom of the Group" by Ian R. MacLeod There are theories and studies about group-think, how certain groups can intuit a trend or coming situation without any real knowledge. With the right group, the members could get wealthy or probably save the world, depending on their inclination. Samuel has been part of such a group since brought in by his professor while still in university. Now, years later, Samuel is wealthy, has a liv-in lover, three dogs with unfortunate names, and a gorgeous house in Washington state. But something is wrong, something that seems to be originating from Samuel. The response is usually to cut the wrong out of the group. A complicated basis for a disturbing story. I had to sit on this one for a while in order to determine what I felt about it. Definitely strong writing, could almost be considered psychological horror. I don't know if I would ever say that I liked it, but I recognize the work done and the uniqueness of the story. 3.5 out of 5 "After the Atrocity" by Ian Creasey Abu Hameed, the terrorist behind the attack that left ten thousand people dead, has also died during interrogation. The solution? A machine that can make exact copies, complete with memories, of an individual. Violet Ruiz, operator and creator of the machine, even made a duplicate of herself in order to work 24/7. As Hameed's copies die during the enhanced interrogation, more copies are needed. Soon Violet II wonders about the ethical implications. Well thought out consideration of just how far a nation is willing to go in search of revenge wrapped in the disguise of intel. Patriot Act, enhanced interrogation the Greater Good, dismantling both Habeas Corpus and the Geneva Convention, anyone? 4 out of 5 "Goner" by Gregory Norman Bossert In order to explore space, humans had to be converted from flesh into nanotechnology based creatures. The pilots call themselves Goners. Char's best friend's father is a Goner. Already fascinated with the idea of flying, Char uses a sliver of Pilot Clark to begin changing. While this is complete in itself, the story also begs for more. What is happening to Char? Will he be allowed to live his dreams despite his age? S fascinating a concept. 3.5 out of 5 "We Regret the Error" by Terry

Bisson A series of news corrections from the future. So many corrections, even some corrections of corrections. Taken individually, these are amusing. Pieced together, there is a much deeper story playing out. Oh, and a nice dig at Disney's well-known history of not paying some of their artists for their work. 3 out of 5 "Tao Zero" by Damien Broderick Teenagers, incredibly smart ones, have unprotected sex after winning $370 million in the Mega Millions lottery. The celebration leads to a child, the narrator, and the money to try to trap the Tao, the Way that cannot be named, inside a machine. I tried, I really tried to read this without success. After rereading the first two pages over and over in an attempt to struggle through, I put the story aside, hoping to pick it back up when refreshed. Didn't work. DNF

[aion-rsa]

An Introduction to the Works of Rebecca Roanhorse

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Rebecca Roanhorse launched into high visibility in SFF with her short story “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience” in 2017, and her works have continued to wow readers of all ages (she writes fiction for adults, middle grade, and young adults). Her prose is gorgeous, and she takes a hard right turn from more traditional, European-influenced fantasy in her epic new novel, Black Sun. Along with her original works, Roanhorse has also written several Star Wars stories, and is a contributor to Marvel’s new comic anthology Indigenous Voices. If you’re interested in the future of SFF, you can bet your stars that Roanhorse is going to continue to be in the spotlight.

“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience”

Roanhorse’s short story, published in APEX, won both the Hugo and the Nebula. It’s a story about identity, both who you really are and who the world expects you to be. Told in second person, it follows Jesse Turnblatt, who works at a virtual reality Experience, giving Tourists “authentic” Vision Quests that he’s created based on what the typically New Age customers expect from television and movies. When he meets a lonely young man who seems to want something actually real, he realizes that he also needs a friend. But the story takes a Single White Female twist, and leaves Jesse questioning his own reality. It’s a chilling story about erasure and gaslighting that uses SF tropes to maximum effect.

The Sixth World

With Trail of Lightning, Roanhorse’s first published novel, the author entered the urban fantasy genre, telling the story of Maggie Hoskie, a monster hunter, in a post-apocalyptic, flooded world. She’s been trained by a legendary immortal—with whom she also fell in love, but who abandoned her. Now, she’s struggling to decide whether her talent with violence makes her the hero or just another monster. When she becomes involved in solving a string of killings, she accepts help from modern medicine man Kai, who balances her violence with healing. Den of Geek talked to Roanhorse about bringing Native American characters into the urban fantasy genre, and centering Indigenous heroes in the spotlight.

The second novel, Storm of Locusts, follows Maggie out of the Navajo reservation, Dinétah, as she searches for Kai. The medicine man has fallen in with a cult, according to her leads, but Maggie doesn’t think that’s quite right—there’s more going on than meets the eye. Maggie heads out on a post-apocalyptic road trip to track down her friend, and fight whatever monsters she has to take down to save him. Like Trail of Lightning, the book is told from Maggie’s point of view in a clipped, first person present tense voice.

Roanhorse told Den of Geek that four books are planned, and noted that the most difficult part of writing the series was in getting the representation right. Maggie is Diné—Navajo—and Roanhorse is not. “I’ve lived on the Navajo reservation and I’m married to a Navajo man, but it’s not my culture. I wanted to be very careful about the stories I chose to use, the way that I portrayed people and places and everything that went into the world-building I tried to be very conscious that this was going to be a lot of people’s first introduction to Navajo culture, and that I’d have a lot of Navajo readers. I didn’t want to let them down. I didn’t want to get it wrong.”

Critics have praised Roanhorse’s work—Trail of Lightning was a finalist for the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Award, and it won the Locus First Novel Award—but she has also received criticism from the Navajo Writers’ Association and others for writing Diné characters when she is not Navajo herself. Nick Martin in The New Republic summed up the criticisms, writing an article ultimately supporting Roanhorse and suggesting that, because Roanhorse is also Black, some of the criticism stems from anti-Black prejudice.

Race to the Sun

With Race to the Sun, a middle grade novel for the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, Roanhorse introduces readers to Nizhoni, a Monsterslayer—heir to the Hero Twin of the same name—who has to stop monsters from taking over the world. The mission of the monsters is to destroy the earth (Nizhoni’s first foe, in his human guise, is the CEO of a pipeline fracking on Native Land). Nizhoni has always wanted to be special, but she’s not quite sure she and her younger brother—who takes on the role of Born of Water, the second Hero Twin—are ready for these challenges. Like the Sixth World books, Race to the Sun draws heavily on Navajo tradition and religion and features a fast, first person present-tense voice that makes the action feel immediate. Nizhoni’s personality shines through her narrative, and because she’s a seventh grader, her voice has a lot more levity than Maggie’s. (She also has her horned toad stuffed animal come to life and serve as a guide to her adventure.)

Like several other books in the “Rick Riordan Presents” series, Nizhoni is a chosen hero, given a time limit to fix a grave supernatural problem, who meets up with the supernatural beings of her cultural tradition over the course of her adventures. (The heroes of Riordan’s own “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” books and Roshani Chokshi’s “Aru Shah” books helped establish that pattern.) Nizhoni’s voice also parallels those heroes: she’s got some sass and sarcasm in her narrative that she might not share out loud, but readers are tuned into her inner thoughts, and they hear it all. Race to the Sun includes more of all the things fans love about books from this imprint (which also includes works by Carlos Hernandez and Yoon Ha Lee).

Star Wars: Resistance Reborn

Roanhorse has also contributed fiction to the Star Wars universe, including her Darth Maul vs. Obi-wan Kenobi story in Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Stories of Dark and Light (narrated in audio by Maul’s voice actor, Sam Witwer) and her novel, Resistance Reborn. Set between The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, the novel opens with General Leia still grappling with her near-death—and too-brief reunion with her brother—as she tries to find out why Resistance allies never showed up to help on Crait. Meanwhile, Poe Dameron and his Black Squadron play diplomat while struggling to come to terms with that same question. Is the Resistance really alone in the Galaxy? Unlike Roanhorse’s other novels, Resistance Reborn takes a more classic shared-world style of narration, shifting perspectives among the different characters. Her inner narration of Leia is spot on, depicting both her suffering and her continual ability to move on in spite of it. The tone is reminiscent of the old Star Wars Expanded Universe books, and for readers curious about that same question of why allies didn’t show up until the end of Rise of Skywalker, this is likely to offer a few answers (while giving readers more time to spend with favorite characters).

Black Sun

With Black Sun, Roanhorse moves in an entirely different direction from all her previous work, creating a stunning epic fantasy in a lush secondary world. Like Resistance Reborn, she uses a third-person narration who switches between the characters’ perspectives, but here, she uses beautifully lyrical prose, steeped in the mythology of this new world. Moving in and out of time, Roanhorse weaves together the story of a broken city, once governed by benevolent priests who kept the peace, but now corrupted by political struggles and the interests of foreign nations. The story opens with Serapio, whose mother is engaging in a ritual she’s prepared him for by carving his skin; it culminates in her stitching his eyes shut. As the narrative progresses, readers learn that the ritual allowed Serapio to become an avatar of the Crow god, whose people were brutally murdered a generation earlier by the priests dedicated to the Sun. The point of view characters—Serapio, earnest and justice-driven Sun Priestess Naranpa, and earthy Xiala, a ship captain descended from Mother Ocean herself—are all deeply drawn and sympathetic, even when they are at odds with each other, making it difficult to know who to root for.

In her worldbuilding, Roanhorse leaned on pre-Columbian civilizations, and borrowed a bit from Polynesian navigators, to create a fantasy that feels both familiar and entirely new. “It still seems incredibly rare to find a fantasy inspired by the Americas,” she writes in her acknowledgments. “I think part of the reason is the persistent myth that the indigenous cultures pre-conquest were primitive and had little to offer, when the opposite is true.” Roanhorse’s Meridian is pure fantasy, populated with megafauna such as giant crows that can be ridden, and huge water striders that pull barges, but it shows the richness of being inspired by cultures of North America. The city of Tova borrows designs from the ancient cities of the Anasazi, built into cliff faces, but the divide between the Sky Made who live above and the people of the Maw, who live below in poverty, feels both modern and relevant. Though Black Sun concludes a full story and brings this first volume to a satisfying close, the story is by no means over; Black Sun is clearly the first step in a longer epic narrative, and it’s one readers will be impatiently waiting for until the sequel comes out.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Whether she’s taking on your favorite franchise characters or in her original works, Roanhorse is absolutely an author to watch.

The post An Introduction to the Works of Rebecca Roanhorse appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/370TJhz

[okimargarvez]

METEOROLOGY- Sun

Original title: Meteorology.

Prompt: climatic metaphors, phases of love.

Warning: none.

Genre: drama, romantic, comedy, angst, family, friendship.

Characters: Luke Alvez, Penelope Garcia, BAU team, Phil (Luke’s partner), Phil’s wife, Roxy, Derek Morgan.

Pairing: Garvez, Phil x Lucille.

Note: Multichapter.

Legend: 💏😘😈👓🔦🐶❗👨‍👩‍👧‍👦💍🎈.

Song mentioned: Via con me, Paolo Conte.

Meteorology- Masterlist

MY OTHER GARVEZ STORIES

@itsdawnashlie there it is! ❤🌞

SUN

The sun illuminates the night, it doesn’t turn it into light

(Antonio Porchia)

 -

Before you met her there was nothing.

Before her there was nothing but darkness. Life was not worth living.

Since you are together, everything has changed. You always look at the phone in search of a message that will tear off your usual ridiculous smile. You've decided to say it to the team, you wouldn't have been able to keep it hidden, move on to subterfuge. So, the day after that of the storm you present yourself by holding hands and everyone looks at you strangely. JJ is the first to applaud.

-I knew it! -and she runs to embrace your girlfriend; you realize it's the first time you think about her that way, and it's beautiful. -You must tell me everything- then the blonde feels your gaze on her and hurries to point out: -Well, not really

everything, you can keep the details for you.- everyone laughs out. Then comes the boss. You increase the grip on her hand.

-Did I miss something?- Emily looks at her coworkers one by one and then she notices that detail. She can't avoid smiling in turn.

-If the rule "not fraternize with colleagues" is still valid, I'm resigning instantly.- you announce, surprising even Penelope, with whom you have not spoken of this possibility. -There's always a place for me in task force. I'm willing to give up this job though I like this team. But her, no, I don't give up. - you feel the emotion in her eyes when you look at her for a second. And the cries of your female colleagues, all except Prentiss.

-I've made this regulation. And I'm the only one who has had a story with a "colleague."- Rossi intrudes. -It's no longer in force. As long as you prove that your report doesn't affect the way operations are done and resolved.- you both nod hurry.

Then start the saga of the recommendations, all to you, obviously. You are intimated not to ever hurt her, otherwise you’ll be kicked in the bottom, fired, and so many other tortures you prefer not to remember, the most creative, of course, that elaborated by Reid.

It's another thing to go home with her instead of alone. Gradually she stops more and more often to sleep from you so that you can finally find the courage to make the proposal: -Would you like to live with Roxy and me?- she replies with a laugh because you first nominated the dog but then she grabs you for the neck, kissing you passionately and scandalizing some pensioners who just wanted to grocery shopping.

Every single banal activity becomes magnificent with her company. Even wash the dishes. Make the cleaning. And slowly the walls assume a different, more colorful appearance. They fill out the photographs of the various travels you have made together. Souvenirs founded through America that you bring at her from every mission, transforming tragic events into something positive. It's always the flour of her sack, Penelope's merit, of course: only she could find the way to create positive energy even from the evil.

And both of you talk so much, in these months. Compensate everything you haven't said since at other you met. You tell the past of each other and you become aware of the aspiration of a common future. Even though it's early and you have rush thing. You can't imagine a life without her.

You discovered that you're both orphans, even if she was 18 years old; but in part this she had already told you, the first time you had taken the elevator together, since you had been doing it for the Spanish surname that didn't corresponded to her Nordic appearance. She tells you about the car accident, the anguish and the guilt, the therapies she had followed, including the theater, and it became clear how it's a trauma not overcome, which, in spite of the outside joy, determines all her action. She tells you that long ago a man shot her, and she risked dying, only for a few inches didn’t take the main artery; you find it inconceivable and you remain speechless. Yet she adds that she had never hated him, though his death had given her a relief, which had quickly come to repentance. Just as she had been able to feel pity for another guy who could have killed Reid if she had not taken the boy's gun and fired with it; to the point of to go to attend his execution. You have further evidence of her incredible, inhumane personality, closer to that of the angels.

And she changes you, in the only acceptable way that a person is right to change herself for another: it's a spontaneous process, long and no less suffered. You notice it almost suddenly, in front of the most trivial things. Every opportunity that would be good to let your critical side prevail, and almost (without almost) cynical, is neutralized by her presence. Even taking a public vehicle in her company, it's something profoundly different than doing the same to yourself.

-All those young people sitting and the elderly standing.- you mutter in a low voice, or so you think so. Penelope touches your arm and smiles, a melancholy smile certainly not exalted as in other situations.

-They're still little, they're in that selfish phase in which everything revolves around them. You're a profiler, you should know it well- you don't given her reason, but nether you don't blame her. There is another possibility when it's time to comes down.

-Is the society that sucks.- roll off your tongue a second before you getting a crushed  foot. You grit your teeth, feeling her inquisitor look (what she had accused you of) at you and you take back the not nice epithet that were already stroking your lips, asking for permission to go out.

There is an old lady placed right in front of the doors. And it's clear that this isn't her stop, indeed she remains overslept as other people pass by, but you can't overcome her. And at the same moment when your mind is loaded with negative images, your girlfriend approaches the woman and asks, in a gentle tone: -Excuse me.-

 You're not the only one to talk, even he tells you about his life before he met you, about the loss of his mother and before the death of his father. How much he was stiff, perfectly in line with his wife's Catholicism, but however, they were able to pull on two little children pestiferous in the love, which never missed. He tells you about his frustrations and the visceral hatred that he had come to feel not only for the military body, but all over the system of law enforcement. And you struggle to believe him, thinking of how you knew him, what others have told you about him: proud ranger, always on the front line in the worst war zones. And he sees it, that uncertainty in your eyes, but he doesn't get angry. He calmly tells you that he has been in some trouble when he was a teenager, and about her mother's decision to send him into a kind of reformatory, obviously military. The early months, tragic, the jokes of the big ones, the rising early to him who liked so much to sleep in the bed; until, like had been pushed a button, his entire vision of the world had radically changed. And he began to appreciate the ritual of day-to-day scans of the tasks entrusted to him, lunches and dinners in the community, everyone ate the same thing, no matter what degree of scale they belonged to. Loyalty and trust. He met Phil, his best friend. You immediately realize that him is a fundamental person for Luke, but there is something that obscures that relationship, a kind of melancholy that pervades his voice as he describes him.

Philipp Powell is of his own age, has been married to Lucille for five years but has never been able to have children. The blame is by an "accident", such he wants to call it, which made Phil virtually impotent, but in any case, unable to generate offspring. He's sympathetic, very sarcastic, too much at times, and his main passion is to torment him to find a girlfriend.

-Now he'll finally be satisfied.- he says, interrupting the narration. But you're more interested in knowing what incident has happened to him, although it's clear that this is a hot button, a nerve that would be better not to touch. Between you two, however, if you want it to work, there must be no more secrets, you have to be completely yourself, for better or worse.

Then you ask it explicitly. -What happened to him?- but he doesn't seem to be able to answer. So, you take his hand between yours. And then you pose it right above your heart. He closes his eyes for a moment, you hear him swallow. He's terrified, not only scared. - What are you scared, Luke? What is it you don't want to tell me? Have you not yet understood that there is nothing that can change what I feel for you? Even if you in war had done something terrible. I know you're a good man, I feel it and that's enough for me.- gradually your voice goes out, until it becomes unmistakable, little more than a whisper. -I'm a hacker. How much time do you think it takes me to type the few data I have and find the solution lonely?- he shudders and tries to get away.

At one time, just a year ago, this gesture would have hurt you to the point that you wouldn't be able to complete the mission. You would be keeping in yourself and you would have left him alone to enjoy his pain. But met him, fall in love with him and not only, probably has changed you to the point that you don't have the slightest intention of giving up and let him go smoothly. You'll pull out his pain, even if you should use the hard way. It's your job, to make him happy. -I don't need to do a search to say that what has hurt Phil also hit you. I told you about my trauma and my problems, but if you aren't in the mood to done the same ... okay, I'll respect your silence.- you lie only partially. -But you'll let me at least say that this not help, certainly not help a relationship that has just blossomed.- told this you turn your back at him, a trick of kids that is extremely effective.

-Did not you really read my file?- he asks after less than a second, getting no reaction from you. -Well, I surrender.- he decrees the yield, making your back coincide with his chest. As usual it fantastically warm. He shoots the rest of the words straight on your skin. -Daniel Cullen.- just a name. -Do you remember him?- How to forget the traumatized boy who had been convinced by Scratch to be the Crimson King? The same evening, coming back from the case, was the first time you picked up the elevator together. -You'll know that I caught him in the act. The act was that he was opening Phil in two. I saw it. I can't take those pictures out of my mind. Except when we make love.- he adds the last part almost giggling, but too serious to let himself go.

-You feel guilty.- you just finish the sentence, without much effort. You turn your head at his direction and you try to decipher his gaze.

-I want you to know him. He already know of your existence, I've tormented him a lot to talking about you, and I'm sure he's going to love you as much as I do.- now you're the one who pulls away from him. Not having neither parents-in-laws to meet, his friend become the trial by fire you don't feel able to overcome. He's the most important person for him. Not get along with him would mean compromising everything. Luke also reads easily in your thoughts or perhaps, much more likely, in your attitude. -It will be great, you'll see. Also, because, unless there is a case, we're invited on Friday night for dinner. - panic. And hope; but you can't get to the point of want unsub kills, kidnap or traumatize people just because you literally feel bad to the idea of meeting your best friend.

You realize that in the next few days and the day before at the event. And that gives you the strength to face it. Beginning with the choice of clothes (tragedy n* 1), shoes (tragedy n* 2), hair styling (tragedy n* 3). In the end you still feel inadequate, but Luke forces you to get in the car and he makes sure you can't run away.

He holds you firmly by the hand, until the door opens, and a brunette woman looks attractive but not exaggerated, greeting your boyfriend with a quick, chaste hug and two kisses on his cheek; surprisingly, find yourself out of jealousy and this make you feel strange but proud of yourself. Then her attentions move on you. -You have to be the famous Penelope.- she emphasizes that word, teasing Luke and making you feel at ease. -Phil is cooking pasta.- she explains.

He laughs, obviously there is information that escapes you, but the man is getting ready to fill the void. -It's a kitchen maniac, a real obsessive. You can't even imagine his frustration about not being able to cook when we were in Afghanistan.- Philipp's wife, Lucille, looks up to heaven as if to confirm your boyfriend's words. Then she goes to the kitchen, where a man on the wheelchair is mix the sauce. When he hears the unusual noise of the heels, however, turns to you. He has a delicate face that you would never have expected and despite his paralysis he looks strong and confident. -Hey, brother, look who I brought you? She really exists, I'm not invented her.- Luke pushes you forward, like a sort of banner.

Man scrutinizes you carefully, you feel naked under his gaze, examined thoroughly. Finally, he gives you his hand that feel lukewarm, almost cold, unlike Luke's. -I'm really happy to do your knowledge, Penelope. You explain me how do you endure this hillbilly?- he receives a glance and a funny hit from the latter. -You see it? It's also a jerk! - everyone laughs out.

So, spend one of the quietest and less worrying evenings of your life, or rather an evening spent not alone or with coworkers, but with strangers (more or less) to that life. And you never talk of cases, but of everything else. You see sincere interest in what you tell them, such as true is your curiosity about them. Without malice or intention to gossip.

Many hours later you are so excited and hyper that you force him to slide in you. The clock marks the three o'clock in the morning, the first time you give you a truce. But you're not satisfied, and he certainly doesn't go you away, so start a second round. In the end, when you decide that today is enough, today has become tomorrow, even if it was already when you started. The first pale rays of sunshine try to penetrate into your armor by blankets and braided bodies, projecting shadows on your almost immoveable silhouettes.

[theundergroundarchives]

Band Crush: Advents talks about coming together as a band and new music in 2020

Advents talks about how they come together as a band and introspectively reveals the story behind each and every single that has been released by them since their very inception. Words have it that these boys are going to drop their first, six-track extended play anytime soon!

Words by Ainaa Amirrah & Shafadzlin A. Shaharir

Having formed during late 2017, Advents is a four-piece Britpop band made up of Eiman Arif as the main vocalist slash guitarist, Shawin Albert as the main guitarist and vocalist, Nadree Omar as the bassist and Izaaq Izham as the drummer. With piece by piece being creatively created and digitally released since its very inception that year in 2017, this prodigious quartet has since then, burgeoned their fan base with their music not only reaching to the Malaysian listeners, in fact, also to those in the neighbor countries including Indonesia.

Prior to having three releases which have collectively amassed them a discography that’s worth over 50, 000 listeners on Spotify, truth be told that it took a few years for them to come out as a complete band. Before having formed as a complete four-piece band that bases its music at the core of Britpop, the members were surprisingly all online friends who had never met and only exchanged messages through a group chat; this comes with the fact that Eiman and Shawin had already met with each other before they would discover Nadree and Izaaq who are inextricably close cousins. Shawin amusingly reveals, “Eiman and I first knew each other when we were in secondary two. Honestly, we wanted to form a band but we had nobody to join us.” The search continued and Eiman was led to discover Nadree on Instagram to which, the band’s frontman would approach the latter to join their incomplete line-up once he was found to be flair in playing instruments. Consequently, after having Nadree hopped onto their partially complete musical ride, Izaaq was then spontaneously added into the band as its drummer of the band at once, finalizing the complete line-up of Advents.

Fast forward to 2017, the band eventually met for the first time and coalesced as a complete band after almost three years of sharing the online space of a group chat. The story has it that the band’s name was “stolen” from the very place that they met for the first time. Chuckling, Eiman says, “I remember the first time we met, it was at the Advent Studio in Petaling Jaya. We had no idea what to name our band so we ended up naming it after the studio that we met at. Honestly, we just “stole” the studio’s name and added up the letter ‘s’.” Amusingly, not only did their first meeting consist of a lot of awkwardness as it was their first time of meeting as a whole and having bonded in group, but it was also at the time that they decidedly to kick-start their collective artistry to which they would write their first single, “Television Dream” that would attract more than 10, 000 streams on Spotify since its release in 2018.

Reminiscing their first live performance as a band, it was at Merdekarya in Petaling Jaya, they recall. Nadree says, “Shawin was dancing like a maniac yet he could’t even get any single chord correct!” Confides Eiman, their early days of performing in front of the crowd were mainly consumed by the stage fright but thanks to the never-stopping gig invitations in and around Kuala Lumpur that they got, they get to develop and shape themselves well and better as performers. “When we play music, we tend to mess up on the stage a lot. So yeah, by time, we figured out it’s only best if we just do it!”

Being asked to describe every and each personality of the band member, Eiman shares that Nadree is a realist that’s certainly fun to be surrounded with; the 20-year-old boy approaches things in a logical manner despite he could be containing with so much of feelings, sometimes. Shawin describes Eiman as a lone wolf who takes pleasure from walking alone and visiting the haunted houses; he spends most of his time writing lyrics and alertly, is a very, meticulous person who’d go restless when things don’t turn out the way he visualizes it to be. Shawin is described by Nadree as a go-getter who would work extra mile, precisely when it comes to crafting music. Not forgetting their youngest member, Izaaq who has recently left the band temporarily to pursue his studies overseas (which currently leads them to be borrowing a sessional talent from their fellow band, Not Yet), is described by Nadree as an open book who finds comfort in being himself. Amidst the sudden deafening silence during the interview, Shawin decidedly murmurs, “We’re having an emotional dilemma right now, honestly. We miss him.”

Having taken inspirations from a myriad of established, and classic Western rockers including that of Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, Bob Dylan, The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas as well as the American rap artist, J. Cole and with the list going on, it becomes even more understandable on how they’re able to produce and bring out the sui generis nature and genuine vulnerability in their music. The band confides that music, indeed is a serious game for them, and that they would like to appeal musically different compared to the other existing bands and hit the furthest milestone possible one day. “Music, is our medium of expressing ourselves, definitely,” says Eiman.

Refusing to prioritize fame as their main pursue, the band reasons that they project their musical movement to be something that focuses on a bigger vision that just that; they project their raison d’être inside the music scene as to create more relatable and soul affectations music. “It’s nice to know that there are people out there who actually listen to our music and find themselves relating to it. We love knowing that these people could actually feel the sense of comfort by listening to our songs. Our purpose of existing as a band is to constantly remind our listeners that it’s totally normal and fine to have problems in life, and that they’re not alone,” confesses Eiman, concluding: “We got a goal. We’d certainly like to be part of the musical movement in Southeast Asia that helps link the regional music scene to the Western market, one day.”

Advents’ Discography

Television Dream (2018)

Having written by Eiman Arif, he describes “Television Dream” as an ode to his delicate childhood. He says, “”Television Dream” is certainly about looking up to someone and escaping the reality. When I were growing up, I was struggling because I didn’t think that I had anyone to look up to as my role model. Hence, “Television Dream” is the retelling of what I went through as a child.” Choosing to kick-start their musical movement with a low-lit mood political centric song rather than an uptempo love song that’s vastly common among the start-up bands, the band reveals that they wanted to take off their debut differently by simply escaping the mediocrity. Despite admitting to having formed a love-hate relationship with their own debut song, the band confides that “Television Dream” is actually, the most lighthearted song to be performed whenever they go live at gigs.

Slow Dance (2019)

Ironically, the band eventually slipped into their own “mediocrity” trap that they created as they released their sophomore single, “Slow Dance”; but this time around, it’s twisted as joining the music game of versatility. “Slow Dance”, is a syrupy ballad that musically narrates about a toxic relationship, and was inspired by the 80’s ballad music. Being the most-longest song that has ever been recorded by Advents, Shawin says, “When we finished recording “Slow Dance”, we were like “oh wow, it’s a six-minute track” and shrugged it off. Honestly, when we make music, we just don’t have any fixed format of creating it.” Naming “Slow Dance” as his most favorite track from Advents, Nadree confides, “It’s a hit or miss. We’ve heard some people said “Slow Dance” is the best out of all releases that we’ve had by far, but we’ve also heard some people said that it’s the worst of all three.”

Bad Sense of Time (2019)

“Bad Sense of Time” marks the third and latest single by Advents. Initially was supposed to become a minute-long track,  it was then reproduced by the band to be a longer song through a spontaneous move. According to them, the uptempo and hook-minded single is the most sung song by the live crowd due to its irresistibly catchy choruses!

In near future, Advents is said to have been preparing their first, and six-track extended play, ready to be released. It will include together their previously released singles  – “Television Dream”, “Slow Dance” and “Bad Sense of Time”. Hinting about their forthcoming studio effort, the band says, “Our first extended play will be consisting a lot of pop songs and honestly, it’s going to be more complex.”

The original article was first published in The Underground Archives (Print Edition) Volume 2.

[thatawkwardnerdytomboy]

My Review of the Netflix DeathNote Movie (Spoilers Included)

The Plot

Within the first 10 minutes of the movie, we’re presented with a bunch of cliches of high school life that we didn’t see with the original Death Note. The character, Light, who was a popular respected student at his school has been reduced to a school outcast who gets paid to do his schoolmates’ homework and gets assaulted for protecting his future love interest, a fellow classmate. When he’s assaulted, this love interest, Mia lies to the principal about how he was knocked unconscious and it seems as though Light doesn’t remember anything that occurred prior to this. When Light is approached by the shinigami (death god) Ryuk, in his classroom during detention, Ryuk destroys the room causing Light to freak out. In the anime, Light is both nervous and excited to meet Ryuk. Someone with Light’s mentality should feel entitled and even expect to meet such an entity, not cower and fear for his life before it. 

We’re then introduced to Light’s family...er...dad. Apparently his mother was killed off to provide motivation for him to push him to become Kira and his sister...I guess she doesn’t exist anymore? This scene should have been a way to show that Light has a normal supportive family which adds to his privilege. I feel that this was lazy writing and that it sends a message that people with broken families are more likely to become murders and sociopaths when this isn’t the case. If the writers decided to keep his original family, it would create the message that sociopaths can and do come from normal families. There’s a scene where after Light kills his mother’s assailant, he tells his father about the perp’s death. His father reveals that his mother was against violence but believed that “Karma is a bitch.” Would have been nice if they had some scenes that showed Light and his family bonding before her murder to actually make us care more about it. We get it, it’s terrible but we don’t even know who his mother is. 

There’s a montage of Light and Mia engaging in sexual activity as they kill more criminals and we see a cult of Kira rising around the city. We get a sense that they’re both taking more sexual pleasure from the murders than they are from each other. We’re then introduced to L as he is at the scene of one of Kira’s mass murders of two rival Japanese gangs and L and one of his constituents converse in Japanese. It’s also noted that Kira’s victims write out his name in Japanese on the walls around them before they die which begs the question...why didn’t they just keep this movie Japanese?! Oh wait, it’s just a way for Light to throw detectives off of his path and make them believe that Kira is Japanese and living in Japan because y’know, it can’t possibly be a Japanese American. Though L already figures this out. How? it’s not explained until later.  

We have a scene where Mia prompts L to take more kill requests from Kira worshipper sites online but Light is reluctant. Who’s Kira here? Light or Mia? L reveals that Kira resides in Seattle because one of his victims death’s was only exclusively televised live in Seattle and that his name and face was revealed to Seattle residents only. L makes his address to the city to call Kira out and of course, Light can’t kill him. I thought that it was an obvious but decent decision to have L masked even he’s supposed to make his public address on TV. I like the scene where Light sneaks up behind his father out of the darkness to ask him about the investigation and the conversation that ensues--the one time where we see Light in the correct character. Why is this guy not in the whole film?! 

Mia gives Ryuk the idea to kill all the agents who are investigating and stalking Light and even though he’s not supposed to, Ryuk goes through with it, having them walk off a building before the uncaring emotionless gazes of a woman and her child. Light’s father calls Kira out in a public address to which Light freaks out about being tested again and when he survives this, L becomes convinced without a doubt that Light is Kira. L confronts Light at a local eatery and accuses him to his face. Light freaks out when L pushes him too far--which is out of character. Light is also supposed to befriend L to keep his suspicions at bay and assist his father with the case but apparently, in this portrayal, Light isn’t smart enough to do this. 

When Light forces Watari to find L’s real name for him, L also begins to break character and freak out. The real L wouldn’t even allow this to happen. L also randomly shows up to the Turner household (Light’s dad doesn’t show the proper amount of shock at this moment). Mia is sent away while L interrogates Light and his father about why Light sent Watari away. L and his team then search the house. In the anime, L bugs Light’s house instead to spy on him. This also creates a sense that L is becoming unstable which detracts from his position of power over the situation. Watari is killed before he can tell Light L’s real name. Meanwhile, Light is at a school dance, doing normal teenager stuff to keep the agents spying on him off his back and we find out that Mia caused Watari’s premature death when she removed the page with Watari’s name. Manipulative much? Again, who is the real Kira here? Light or Mia? I think that the writers were seriously confused about this. Misa would never do this unless instructed by Light. 

We then have a cliche chase scene between Light, L and the cops who were ordered to protect Light. These two assholes knock people over as they’re running through a restaurant. As a worker comes into the alleyway to see what’s going on, L blabs to this random stranger about Light’s true identity and the worker who turns out to be a Kira cult member, clocks him with a 2x4. Very professional move L... The following scene is probably the most absurd nonsensical scene in this movie...Light and Mia trap themselves on a ferris wheel to escape the cops and they both admit to each other that they wrote each other’s names in the book as an act of revenge. The ferris wheel begins to collapse and they both plunge to their deaths, killing Mia. Light’s page’s magically and conveniently floats into a burning trash can and Light survives. A man later revealed to be a pedophile collects the Death Note and returns it to Light while he’s in the hospital. Light’s father then enters the room and accuses Light of being Kira because he found out that Light stole the newspaper clipping naming his mother’s killer from his room. We then learn (mostly through narration of course because lazy writing and this movie is too short) how Light killed Mia and saved himself as he explains it to his father. L loses his shit as he contemplates how Light slipped through his fingers. 

This movie was way too short and succumbed to lazy writing and cliches. It’s bad enough that they fell into American movie studios’ mistake of white-washing the cast which was supposed to be primary Asian actors (yes, Asians can be American too!), but to deviate from the anime’s source material so much confuses Death Note fans like myself. Even from an objective standpoint and my struggle to not compare this movie to the original source material, it’s still doesn’t bring anything new to the slew of vigilante justice movies out there in terms of the plot or the characters. Where the original Death Note subverts the cliches of vengeance and casts the protagonist as a villain, this adaptation falls back into the cliche of the protagonist being an angry young adult who’s had family taken away from them...as if we don’t have tons of films with this subject matter already. The cinematography in this movie, while decent, in my opinion was not enough to save it from it’s lack of direction and poor decisions. If I had to give this movie a grade/rating, I’d give it a 1/5 and I’m being generous. 

Light

Light isn’t portrayed as the sociopathic genius that he’s presented as in the anime, but clearly, just another angry teenager with a twisted sense of justice. He’s more reactionary than calculating and often makes decisions based on what’s going on at the time instead of being 2 steps ahead of his opponents like Light from the anime. If pushed far enough, he becomes frightened and paranoid whereas anime Light keeps his composure no matter what the situation is. He often mentions that part of his motivation to seek vengeance against the criminals in society is the murder of his mother but the film makes the mistake of failing to show us his relationship with his mother and why she was so important to him as well as her murder. A lot of films and TV shows tend to do this but the writers on this movie clearly don’t learn from other movie’s mistakes (especially about white-washing the cast) so I’m not surprised about this. I personally, don’t even think it was necessary to include this plot point to provide a motivation for Light to become Kira. Because another part of Light’s becoming Kira stems from his superiority complex and I believe that that the story would have been more gripping and psychological to show that this character feels so intensely entitled to assume his position as a god over the rest of his society. 

Misa

Misa’s (Mia) character in this film is completely different from the anime. Other than the fact that she is no longer a celebrity, she seems to be more like Light’s character than Light himself. She’s vengeful, sociopathic and calculating (exactly how Light is supposed to be but isn’t) instead of cheerful and hyperactive like Misa, which I think detracts from the tone of the story. In the anime, Light and Misa have a Joker and Harley Quinn type of relationship and Misa’s naive and cheerful air despite being used by Light punctuates her unsettling devotion to him. If this portrayal of her was used in this movie, I think it could have also provided a much needed break from the serious tone of the movie and added some contrast between her character and the other characters in the movie. I can understand why they chose to change celebrity Misa Amane’s character to that of average high school student, Mia. Could be that people who aren’t familiar with the Death Note anime would find it unrealistic and strange that a celebrity would be attracted to an average person (even though this does happen in real life and it adds to Light’s power and Light is in fact, not an average person in the grand scheme of things). I think that having a famous celebrity become obsessed with Light/Kira would show the impact of his actions on society. He’d be shown to be so powerful that after protecting this beautiful famous person, she’d fall under his power. Another thing that I think that the writers missed with their relationship is that when Light realized how obsessed this girl was with him, he used it against her and used her as a tool to achieve his goals. He was never interested in having a sexual relationship with her, but only keeping her satisfied so that she would stay attached to him and comply with his commands. 

L

Keith Stanfield’s portrayal of L was surprisingly decent/ok. Upon watching the trailer, I expected his performance to be laughably terrible but it was actually not the worst I was expecting. I thought that his his suspicions of Light were premature. In the anime, L didn’t suspect Light until they met and Light took an interest in his father’s investigation. Also, in the anime, Light became L’s friend to keep him guessing about his suspicion. In this movie, we get mounting suspicion, paranoia and a cliche chase scene like in a typical crime movie. Where L’s character fails is that he’s still missing a lot of L’s personality. It’s not enough just to make him an eccentric and intelligent man with a sugar addiction and strange quirks, L was supposed to be a childlike prodigy who’s patient and so meticulous and attentive that we watch him awake investigating every bit of footage and file on his desk while the rest of his team sleeps. Stanfield’s portrayal, while not the worst, was also not a good enough portrayal of L’s character. His physical appearance was nothing like L’s and I’m not just talking about the casting. But L is supposed to look Haggard, disheveled and he’s supposed to wear jeans and a white shirt to make him look as distinguishable from a law enforcement agent as possible. Stanfield’s character’s attire looks either ninja-esque or like something out of a NYC modeling catalogue. It’s just wrong and nothing like L at all.  

Plot Holes

This film has a lot of plot holes. For example, in the anime, the rules for the usage of the Death Note are clearly explained. However, in this movie, only a few are. So when Ryuk takes matters into his own hands and kills a group of agents, this comes to Light’s dismay. In the Death Note anime (unless I am mistaken) a shinigami (god of death) is not allowed to kill without the Death Note owner’s usage. We never find out why Misa lied about Light being knocked out by that bully and it makes it seem as though this might have been some way to manipulate him. But Light is supposed to be the manipulator, right? We also never find out what Mia’s motivations are for wanting to murder people other than her being bullied by that one guy at their school that one day. Misa from the anime had a valid reason to but Mia didn’t. Big lack of character development there. Also, through everything that happened, where were Mia’s parents? Are they not involved in her life? Is that why she’s so mentally fucked?  Stray Observations:

-What happened to Light’s sister? Why does her character not exist?

-There’s a shot of L giving his public announcement to Kira and to the citizens of Seattle and there’s an American flag waving behind him. We get it...this is the American version of Death Note...don’t bludgeon the fans of the anime over the head with this fact. We’re insulted enough as it is that this movie even exists. 

-When those police jumped off the building, there’s a woman and child who watched them walking into the building looking a bit curious. As the police are jumping, before they collide with the ground, their expressions hadn’t changed, especially the little girl’s. You would think that watching a bunch of people fall to their death would make these two background characters cry out in horror. Has Kira made people this accustomed to seeing death around them or do these two people just not have the capacity to show emotion?

-In the scene where L and Light are at the diner and L knocks all those objects off the table, none of the employees came over to see what was going on? Or were they told not to interfere with their discussion?

-At the end of the chase scene where L corners Light, a man enters the alleyway to see what’s happening and L tells the man that Light is Kira. If you’re a law enforcement agent and you’re investigating a mass murderer, why would you blab out that information to a random stranger especially when you know that said murderer has a cult following and this person is extremely dangerous? I hope that getting clocked in the head taught L a lesson about that. 

-This movie should have taken place in NYC, in my opinion. Whenever L made an address to the city, it should have been on screens mounted on the surrounding buildings in the city like it is in the anime. They could have taken advantage of the screens in Time Square and used the fact that NYC is so diverse that whenever something happens here, it quickly spreads to the rest of the world. The main and surrounding casts would have also been more racially diverse. No offense to Seattle residents but this story needs to take place in a bigger, more famous city. 

[recentanimenews]

Soaring Into Skies of Dark Blue: Ace Combat 7’s Engines Roar With Excitement!

Does the color of the sky mean anything special to you? Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown opens with this question, as the narrator recounts her view of seeing the sky as a “deep, dark blue,” blurring the line between the open blue skies we see from the ground and the inky, dark unknown of space. Taking place in a world similar to our own, Ace Combat presents a story of two nations at war, the philosophy of humans taking to the sky, and the shifting landscape of war in the era of the drone.

All of this is revealed to us in a photorealistic opening movie, and helps to set the tone for the game itself that follows. But more than that, Skies Unknown’s interest in the “dark blue” freedom of the skies translates into a game that seems committed to giving people what they have been wanting from Ace Combat for a long time: the right to rule the sky and battle for that right in slick dogfights!

It’s been over 5 years and nearly an entire gaming generation since the last Ace Combat game, Ace Combat Infinity, and Ace Combat 6 came out 12 years ago (woah, even I've forgotten it's been THAT long!), so in many ways Skies Unknown feels like a revival more than it does a continuation to the series itself. And, frankly, it succeeds on all counts, presenting a gorgeous game with tight flying controls and the mixture of flight sim and arcade combat that initially caused the series to gain so much popularity during its earlier releases. I’ll be honest in saying that after a few disappointing games a generation ago, I had really given little thought to Ace Combat, remembering fondly the earlier days of playing Ace Combat 1 and 2 on my shared PlayStation with my brother, and giving the PlayStation Portable iteration a fair shake when that system was my primary means of entertainment. But since then, I had little but nostalgic memories of Ace Combat and the dogfights it had given me, still somewhat stuck in my mind as a type of gameplay I couldn’t get anywhere else, ironically even from other Ace Combat games. When I got into the first few missions of Skies Unknown, however, I quickly found myself back in that same mind space, screaming my jet over low ground or rocketing into the stratosphere to avoid enemy missiles and get the drop on my opponents.

Two of the most important parts of an airplane game are the controls and the feel of your plane. If the controls are too jerky or imprecise, it ruins the illusion that you’re soaring through the skies in a jet fighter, and if your plane doesn’t feel like it’s really “there,” the sense of realism vanishes in an instant. Ace Combat itself has struggled with this, and many other plane based games have as well; Ace Combat is supposed to blend arcade action with simulation, and if any of those two things don’t mix properly, it can easily spoil the entire experience. The game needs to impart that sense of realism and simulation, of needing to measure your speed, thrust, trajectory, and weather conditions like icing up or rain obscuring your vision, while also giving quick, punchy combat controls with lock-on missiles and explosive action. While the series spent some time in the clouds in this regards, the time spent on developing Skies Unknown seems to have not gone to waste, because I found the game addicting and hard to put down, always looking for one more sortie before doing something else.

To scratch that itch, Ace Combat gives you two main arenas to fly your heart out in: campaign and multiplayer. The campaign spans 20 missions, following two seemingly unrelated stories that intersect in interesting ways. The mysterious narrator of the cutscenes is a woman on the ground, whose love of flying gets her unwillingly and unwittingly roped into the emerging war between two nations; her story eventually intersects with the player character, known only by their callsign “Trigger,” who finds themselves betrayed and searching for redemption and a potential way to end the war once and for all. Without spoilers, there are some interesting twists and turns in the plot, and the shifting POV in various cutscenes makes the story much more engaging than it probably would have been normally, with much of it being relayed by people on the ground, away from the player character themselves. Missions generally are preceded by a briefing, where electronic maps are used to simulate a war-room briefing of what’s going on and what needs to be done. These briefings can be a bit long, and if they are further preceded by a cutscene, it can at times seem like the game takes a while to move from story mission to story mission. That said, the missions themselves are quite long and tend to evolve over time, meaning these little breaks in the gameplay serve to let you rest your hands after a particularly hairy mission!

The briefings serve a further purpose in presenting the player with objectives, and skipping these can leave you somewhat in the dark about what you’re actually supposed to be doing at the start of a mission, or whether you want Air-to-Air or Air-to-Ground weapons, or even what type of weather you might encounter. The campaign story itself is perhaps not the reason most people would look to play Ace Combat, but it was entertaining and has a mixture of somewhat expected archetype characters in a military simulator game, like the cocksure rival, the war weary narrator, and plenty of double crossing. The story itself hits mostly general themes of war is bad and the human toll of warfare, making its focus on the dangers and seeming evils of drone warfare probably the most interesting aspect of the game. Of real note is the narrative of hope and freedom that comes from the game over time, focusing back to the narrator’s dreams of the dark blue sky, of what lies in the skies above us and where that could one day take us.

When not in campaign, players can take to the multiplayer section of Ace Combat 7, which for me was where the real fun actually lay. I decided I wanted to get some real experience in with the multiplayer before getting this review up, and I was not disappointed for my efforts! The multiplayer of Ace Combat works in a lobby system, much like you’d find in other shooter games, but ironically, I found it somewhat reminiscent of a fighting game lobby system, such as Bandai Namco’s Tekken series. Players can search or create rooms, setting them between the two available types of play at the moment: team deathmatch and battle royale. Either way, players can play with up to 7 other people (for a total of 8) in either team sorties or huge free for alls. One of the most intriguing options is that players can select limitations on the cost of planes that are allowed to be used, limiting players to smaller or cheaper loadouts, as well as disabling special weapons, meaning you’re only equipped with your starter missiles and machine gun!

Having the option to disable and enable certain limiters was welcome, although I actually don’t know if I minded too much; flying through the skies in my starter plane from the campaign and taking out people much further along the customization tree than I was revealed to me probably the most important aspect of the game’s multiplayer: fancy toys are great, but you better have some real skill if you want to get things done! I appreciated the fact that Ace Combat rewarded solid play and strategy in the air over progressively more powerful loadouts and planes, and while they can make some difference, the option to simplify combats is a nice touch as well. I’ll pull the curtain back here and bit and just say that I enjoyed multiplayer so much, I kind of delayed this review a little bit by accident from playing!

No matter what mode you play, or any combination you play, you get access to the Aircraft Tree, where you can buy and unlock new planes, parts, and upgrades. The money you earn in campaign missions and multiplayer is shared, meaning that when I dipped back in to finish off campaign, my plane became a super charged beast! There are multiplayer only upgrades too, however, which are some of the most interesting customization options, with effects like longer lock on range, better speed for your missiles, and other helpful tools that don’t give you a surefire edge, but will help you confirm your kills the more skillfully you play. For campaign, however, you’ll likely find that a well kitted out plane from later in the list will probably easily decimate your AI opponents… if you’re playing on easy or normal, that is! Ace Combat’s got a fair AI difficulty curve, and my early missions on normal really threw me for a loop with how cunning they can actually be; after having gotten used to the game again, I found it easier, and I tried out hard for the sake of curiosity and was rewarded with some pretty savage computer competition! And that’s fine by me, because another bonus of the various modes is getting to see the different arenas of combat that are available to you.

Something that I haven’t touched on yet is the fact that Skies Unkown is frankly a GORGEOUS looking game, with amazing weather effects and solid visuals, making the places you fight and fly through thrilling to look at (if you have a chance while dodging missiles, anyway!). Flying through clouds to hide from opponents or dropping from high altitude to surprise someone is accompanied by numerous great visual touches, like icing on your windshields and a real sense of motion and speed. Honestly, while they look good, I’d say the game itself looks better than its cutscenes do!

If you ever played Crimson Skies for the original Xbox, you might understand where I’m coming from, but I think that the lack of a good, exciting multiplayer dogfighting game has gone on for far too long. While I loved the campaign of Ace Combat, the multiplayer is really where the game shines. Although it doesn’t have quite that level of close combat that Crimson Skies had (let’s face it, the Ace Combat jets move probably 10 times as fast than a biplane), it does bring back that sense of amazing excitement when you manage to finally take down that fighter you decided was your arch nemesis, or coming to the aid of a team mate with too many bandits on their tail. Ace Combat’s multiplayer is addictive, smooth, and fast, and the game is probably worth the time just for that mode alone. If you’ve never played an Ace Combat game or a plane combat game, this is probably an amazing place to jump on, as the game is accessible and exciting from the start. And if you’re a returning pilot, I think you’ll find a lot to love in Ace Combat: Skies Unknown. What color is the sky for you? For me, it's a bright, energetic, deep blue that I can’t wait to get back to playing.

  REVIEW ROUNDUP

+ Controls combine with atmosphere to give that perfect sim/arcade mix of past Ace Combat

+ Multiplayer is an absolute blast, easy to set up, and based on skill and practice over upgrades

+ It’s really everything you’d want in an Ace Combat or dogfighting game

+ The VR missions are fun; however if VR makes you motion sick, be forewarned

+/- Your mileage may vary on the campaign quality and storytelling. Some good bits, some overwritten bits, a bit hammy military style stuff at times

- Some missions, like the stealth missions, are a bit weird and forgettable

Are you an ace pilot, returning for more? Or are you new and curious to try out Ace Combat for the first time? Let us know what you think of the game in the comments! And if you get shot down by “Midnight Moon” Ellyberry, it’s nothing personal!

----

Nicole is a features and a social video script writer for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[michaelpatrickhicks]

2017 Year In Writing Review

2017. Jesus, this fucking year. What a mess. It felt about fifteen times longer than it actually was, thanks to the constant barrage of Trump and having to regularly and routinely call our lawmakers to plead with them not to kill us or destroy our Internet or ruin our finances. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't. And then Patreon recently tried to fuck over both creators and supporters in new and exciting ways, and just before Christmas because fuck you, that's why, ho ho ho!, sparking a massive outcry that prompted them to thankfully reverse course and keep the status quo. Things seem to have stabilized with Patreon, and now that they are back in my good graces if you would like to check out what I have to offer over there and maybe lend your support, click here! I'll be releasing an exclusive short story available only on Patreon for $1 this weekend, so sign up now.

Mostly 2017 has just been exhausting, with a significant ramp up with so many different things competing for our attention, time, and money. I spent an awful lot of this past year feeling like I was not accomplishing as much as I should, particularly as our second child came at the end of October and threw all my plans into a tailspin. I had goals for this year. So many goals! And a lot of them fell by the wayside. I definitely was not as productive as I should have been, and was certainly not as productive as I had wanted to be. Mentally, this took a pretty big toll on me, and I've been struggling to correct course and try to get more done. 

In February, I began writing a trilogy of historical horror novellas, each of them about 30,000 words each. I was able to motor through the first one fairly well, and the second installment proved to be a bit of a challenge. But this third book? Holy shit, this third book has been like pulling teeth out of a kicking and screaming baby covered in olive oil. I've had to fight for every word. And it's not just all because of the story itself. A lot of it is because of my own personal time deficits, along with learning how to cope with various life stressors. 

I spent a lot of 2017 feeling tense. My wife and I brought our second child into the world, which is awesome, and he's a terrific little baby. Granted, I could do without the perpetual exhaustion from sleep deprivation as the little one wakes up with poopy diapers and an empty belly. And then there's the overly large fear factor of having an insane man as my president, one who is constantly on Twitter stirring up shit and actively trying to provoke wars when he's not actively trying to turn Americans against one another and dismantle our government from the inside, or proving to the whole fucking world over and over again what a fucking incompetent and crazy moron he is, and nominating ghost hunters who write pro-KKK blogs to lifetime federal judicial appointments. Months before my son was born, Neo-Nazis started marching openly, hate crimes rose to serious levels, and Trump was babbling about launching nuclear missiles and insulting our allies. Thankfully as we work our way through the holidays, he's mired his craziness to merely ranting about how climate change can't possibly be real because it's cold outside in New York in December, and attacking the United States Postal Service. Really. I can't help but feel this is maybe a bit of a stressful period in history to bring a brand new baby into the world. My stress levels have been super high, and I was pretty high strung and anxious for the bulk of this year. The antidepressant I had been on for the last few years just wasn't cutting it anymore, and my doctor and I decided to go with a stronger medication. It's helped some, but I'm still feeling the effects of this fucking year.

Even though I didn't accomplish as much as I had wanted to, I somehow still got some shit done. While there's been a whole lot of a bad stuff to measure 2017 by, there's also been some good stuff, and it's important not to forget that! Both professionally and personally, there are a few things I am immensely proud of, and I'd be remiss not to (finally) highlight those!

Over the last few years I'd been fortunate enough to have been invited to contribute to a few anthologies, which meant I had a backlog of a handful of short stories to publish. Toward the end of April, I published Preservation: A DRMR Short Story, and Black Site in May. Last month, I released the last of this bunch with The Marque, which means any outstanding old material I had in the trunk is now out in the world.

In August, I released my novel, Mass Hysteria, in print, ebook, and audiobook (wonderfully narrated by Joe Hempel!). I knew going in that this release would likely have a pretty small audience, given its splatterpunk horror genre, and its taboo story elements. While horror is typically known for its sometimes ruthless confrontations of societal issues, there are still certain taboo subjects, such as the murder of animals and children, both of which feature prominently in Mass Hysteria. (I got to speak about taboos in horror during my first-ever appearance as a panelist at the Howell Comic Con with the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers in October, which was super cool.) 

I was absolutely delighted, and more than a little surprised, to see Mass Hysteria make a couple Best of the Year lists from a few bloggers. Cedar Hollow Horror Reviews selected Mass Hysteria as one of 2017's best, and Brian's Book Blog named it one of the year's best post-apocalyptic audiobooks. I'm happy to report that many of those who have taken a risk on this particular novel have enjoyed it, which certainly makes me happy. Those who have taken the time to write reviews for the book on Amazon, Goodreads, and Audible have been overwhelmingly kind and generous, which is also gratifying. This novel was a bit of a risk for me (or it at least felt risky to me), and it's nice to see there's been some rewards to go with it.

Mass Hysteria has also been nominated for Best Horror Novel of 2017 in the 20th Annual Preditors & Editors™ Readers' Poll. If you dug Mass Hysteria, please take a moment to vote in the P&E Poll.

I've also been thrilled to see Revolver getting a fair bit of attention this year, as well. I suppose it's appropriate given the state of the US at the moment that this particular dystopian, anti-fascist story would be gaining some traction again, two years after it's original publication in the No Way Home anthology. Reviewer Adrian Shotbolt gave Revolver an honorable mention in his Best Of picks over at Grim Reader Reviews (and check out his original review here). And Author Kyle Warner (Rakasa, Death's Good Intentions) named Revolver one of his Favorite Reads of 2017, placing my story alongside Stephen King and Kealan Patrick Burke, two of my own personal favorite authors. High honors, indeed! 

2017 still has a couple days left in it, as does the Smashwords End of Year sale, but the plug will be pulled on both soon! If you're looking for some steeply discounted or free reads of mine, head over to Smashwords. You can get short stories, like Revolver, for free, or check out the DRMR duology of Convergence and Emergence for $1 each. Even recent titles, like Mass Hysteria, are marked down to give you the most risk-free reads of the year. Check it out!

Hopefully once 2017's life support shuts down, we can burn its corpse and salt its ashes before tossing it to the wind. Hopefully 2018 will treat all of us better. In the meantime, I'm going to keep plugging away at Historical Horror Novella #3 and focus on my plans for next year. I've got some pretty big plans for 2018 and into 2019, and I'll be talking about those soon over on Patreon. 

See you next year!

Carried to Earth in a freak meteor shower, an alien virus has infected the animals. Pets and wildlife have turned rabid, attacking without warning. Dogs and cats terrorize their owners, while deer and wolves from the neighboring woods hunt in packs, stalking and killing their human prey without mercy.

As the town comes under siege, Lauren searches for her boyfriend, while her policeman father fights to restore some semblance of order against a threat unlike anything he has seen before. The Natural Order has been upended completely, and nowhere is safe.

Soon, the city will find itself in the grips of... Mass Hysteria!

Out Now!

[fountainpenguin]

“Oliver Quill. Dragon expert and treasure hunter. I’m searching for a crystal and ruby staff capped with a hook like a golden feather on one end.”

Hooooly cow, guys, guess what I found in a drawer in the shed last night!

If you guessed “Rudy McLean’s original story”, then you know me too well.

Rudy (or Oliver as he was called back then) actually made his first appearance in Book 8 of my Tears For a Lost Dragon series. It’s as poorly written as I remember (This was from a decade ago) but there is absolutely no question that he’s the same ol’ Rudy we know and love. Or I love, anyhow.

Our narrator, a human spirit named Casey Moonfire, first bumps into him while wandering an underground cavern. Despite the fact that he’s convinced she’s going to kill him if he turns his back, the two team up to make their way through the maze, outbrawning, outsmarting, and/or befriending dragons as they go.

Moonfire entered the caves after getting in a bitter argument with her best friend and telling him that if he truly cares for her, he’ll come after her. She also has with her an apron comprised of blue dragon scales and griffin fur that renders her invisible to anyone who doesn’t love her- and of course hurts her best friend deeply when she puts it on and disappears in front of him.

So Moonfire’s kind of wandering around regretting her choices and being super stubborn. Oliver, on the other hand, has made searching the maze his life’s work for the last couple of months (guided by his on and off magical ability to view what’s around the next corner from afar). He feigns to Moonfire that he’s lost and is looking for a way out, and dodges the questions about the food and supplies he has with him. In actuality, he’s on the search for an ancient treasure- and with Moonfire’s help, he stumbles right into it.

The treasure is guarded by an enormous red dragon (The Hoarder) who traded his sight for an extended lifespan centuries ago. He’s sleeping when they discover him. Moonfire’s first instinct is to slip away, but Oliver sees the scepter near The Hoarder’s forepaws. He goes for it and The Hoarder wakes, leading a desperate Moonfire to kill the dragon.

Moonfire’s friends eventually find her, and they talk things out. Surprisingly, they actually go separate ways, because Moonfire needs some time to be alone. Reluctantly, her friends let her be, and escort Oliver back to their home.

Knowing Rudy, you can imagine what happens next. Turns out - surprise! - the scepter is the long-lost Scepter of Entanglement, and the moment he steps above ground and can wield its magic, Oliver enslaves everyone in the valley. That’s my boy.

So Oliver spends the entirety of Book 9 as the villain. The funny thing is... he’s not even doing anything. He’s perfectly content ruling his little valley, because he doesn’t need anything bigger. He had no reason for turning on Moonfire’s friends except bored curiosity. Despite the fact that, oh yeah, he now controls an army of dragons, he has no interest in conquering anyone or doing anything. He just loves lying in the grass and enjoying the sense of power. As a bonus, he also developed a crush on Moonfire during their time in the maze, and so her apron of invisibility can no longer fool him.

Eventually, news that her friends have been enslaved gets back to Moonfire and the dragons she’s been hanging out with. Book 9 is about she and her new friends gathering forces who can contend with the twelve-year-old. Suffice to say, if Oliver wields command over any character who was written into this story, the odds are not looking good.

Remember when I said this story was poorly-written? Yeah, so here’s where it gets weird. Moonfire and her friends basically brave this abandoned and overgrown shrine, and all end up making sacrifices along the way (One character gives up a rib that becomes a magical compass, another permanently enters a magical bubble in order to free the shrine’s guide, etc.)

Moonfire, on the shrine’s highest step, offers herself as a vessel for her goddess. And - spoiler alert - that goddess is her author. It’s always the author. Anyone remember that time Riddle referred to himself as “Mom’s second avatar”? Kudos if you guessed Ivy was the first, but nope! It was Moonfire!

So now you’ve got Moonfire. While she’s still very much in control of herself, she’s technically hosting the author’s spirit and, no longer 100% a written character, is now immune to the Scepter. She flies back to the valley with her one dragon friend who made it through the ordeal to face Oliver down. 

The showdown is significantly less impressive than it would be if I rewrote the story now, but to sum it up, the Scepter shatters in the fight. Since a huge portion of the author’s power was contained inside, Moonfire goes down with it. The shock flings the author’s essence out of her body, leaving her vulnerable and without a willing host... so the world begins to crumble around them all. For all intents and purposes, the story ends with everything erasing.

I was a savage child. I’m fascinated by watching characters shatter, and since I’d already had so many deaths throughout the TFALD series (I killed the original main character in Book freaking 1), yet another death didn’t seem the right way to end it all. So I just flipped the rules and tore everyone down.

I distinctly remember writing a one-shot about the author’s essence struggling to take a new host and stabilize the world for a creative writing assignment in fourth grade, but my teacher gave me a poor score because it was “confusing” and told me to “knock it off” and “go back to writing seriously”. “You can’t use the Fourth Wall as a plot device”, everyone always told me. It’s simply not done. Well. Maybe one of us ought to change that. Audiences suspend their disbelief all the time. Perhaps they’re willing to suspend it for me, too?

Caught in the chest by the explosion of the Scepter (and, specifically, stabbed in the stomach by the golden feather end), Oliver got scrambled up, but not entirely wiped out of existence. He’s trapped between worlds now. He has no home to return to, which sort of cut off his access to “heaven”. He just... wanders. Alone. Forever. He jumps from world to world- harmless at first, like a tourist, taking notes in a journal called the Quill Book and recording discrepancies, until after dying his first death since the Scepter thing went down (his first full, complete death, might I add!) he does make it to “heaven”! 

But he’s not impressed. This is when he steals the Golden Quill and takes off running along the Fourth Wall for good, forcibly writing himself into every universe he can find in the hopes that he’ll find one he can call his home and enjoy forever. In every world he enters, he and the Quill are separated, and he races against that story’s avatar to reclaim it before they can use it to write his death scene and fling him out of their universe. See, he can’t go back to any world he’s died in. Eventually he’ll run out, and have no choice but to stay stuck in the Heaven Corridor forever, surrounded by a hall of locked doors...

So, that’s Rudy’s origin story! Oliver Quill clung on in the back of my brain for a couple years until in 2013 he made his debut as Rudyard McLean, the child who religiously believes in the existence of the Fourth Wall, suspects that his author has selected a new avatar who is trying to seek him out and finish him off because he’s The One Who Got Away, and who can’t shake the feeling that long ago, he was more than a simple stone quarry boy managing a temple.

Aaand this is also where we get How to Tell a Lie, when Franny Adcock becomes the fourteenth avatar after Rudy tumbles into his world, leaving our redheaded friend little choice but to lock horns with him. If any of you read my original work obsessively, perhaps you recall meeting the fifteenth avatar too!

Anyway. You all know how I feel about canon. I’ve pretty much accepted the fact that my brain has to treat everything I’ve ever written as canon. And if that means I’ve got avatars chasing Rudy through every one of my worlds, then that means I’ve got avatars chasing Rudy through every one of my worlds. Can’t help it, love.

Look at my son up there. I love my son. You’re doing amazing, sweetie.

[planbeeeee]

Belief is Better- Life of Pi

IT’S PI DAY! Worldwide March 14 (3/14 = 3.14 = ‘π’) is annually celebrated as Pi Day. The day is usually celebrated with a feast of pies at parties. I say, let your minds feast on this………

Admittedly, I am 5 years late on this post but it’s been sitting in my drafts for far too long so I figured, no better time than now to break down my favorite movie of 2012: Life of Pi. 

The Life of Pi was originally a book by Yann Martel that was released in 2001. In November of 2012, the film adaptation which was directed by Ang Lee was released. It remains the only PG rated film to win Best Director in the last 30 years! No, it’s not on Netflix, so if you’re not about that Kodi life, you can rent it on Amazon video for $4. Do it! The naturally befuddled feeling after watching the ending scenes led to a satisfying quest to peel apart the layers and find its purpose.  I can truly say the journey was great, but the destination was even greater.  Join me as we breakdown: LIFE OF PI   

****************SPOILER ALERT**************** 

DO NOT GO BEYOND THIS POINT IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FILM! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! 

_____________________________________________________________

         The story WITHOUT the Tiger was TRUE!   The ending to Life of Pi begs its viewers to answer the question: “Which story was true?” After telling both the long-winded story with the Tiger and the story he gave to the Japanese officials, Pi asks the novelist in his home, “Which do you prefer?” To which the novelist replies, “The one with the tiger, that’s the better story.”  "And so it is with God,“ says Pi.  God and religion were mentioned early in the movie but for the majority of the film there was no mention, explaining in-part why the statement is so unexpected and profound. "And so it is with God.”  Essentially it means that choosing the Tiger Story means choosing God.  That God is the “better story.”  However, the question of truth still remains… Which story is TRUE? And the answer, I believe, is… IT DOESN’T MATTER!   In the original story there are a few details that are far-fetched or, as the novelist calls it, “incredible." 

"Bananas don’t float.” One Japanese official calls out a discrepancy in Pi’s tale where he claims the orangutan floats to the boat on a pile of bananas.  Pi sticks to his claim and says “Sure they do, try for yourself.” As minor a point as it is, the issue seems to be brought to light with some purpose.  Questions the validity of the story.

An island with an unlimited supply of vegetables growing from the roots of trees and meerkats covering every square inch while an acidic lake eats away at night?! Doubt it.

Finally, the elephant in the room. How can a boy actually survive with a tiger for 227 days???  (By the way, 22/7 =  ~3.14…. BOOM!)

On face value it seems like Pi is just trying to appease the Japanese officials in their quest for a story that is “believable” when he tells the story of his mother, the happy Buddhist, the cook, and himself stranded on the boat.  He seems to just be replacing the animals in the original story with people in the new story in order to suffice the officials’ inquiries. The story seems made up because of its parallels to the story we (the viewer) saw unfold, however, I believe there was truth permeating through that story.    Although I loved the film from beginning to end, the growing pains with Richard Parker seemed to drag on a bit too far. So if you have not heeded my SPOILER ALERT and are reading this without having seen the film just use the following Life of Pi Chart as a replacement for watching the “at sea” portion.  

At a young age, Pi was searching for God.  He was introduced to Hinduism by his mother.  Then he was introduced to Christianity by a priest after going into a church to drink the Holy Water.  He was introduced to Islam after attending a prayer service.  Finally, he is introduced to atheism or agnosticism by his father who tells Pi “Religion is darkness.” Recalling his quest for truth, Pi tells the novelist that “None of us know God until someone introduces us.”  Basically, we are introduced to organized religions from external sources.  Stories of Vishnu, Muhammad, and Jesus are experiences each of them had a long time ago and are not experiences of our own.  However, these stories are passed down from generation to generation and are applied to our lives to give our lives meaning.   

Whether its Yashoda seeing the universe in the mouth of Krishna, Muhammad’s Hijra, or Jesus in the wilderness, each experience significantly affected their lives.  Their experiences pointed them towards a relative truth.  Some beliefs can be shaken and some can be strengthened through the experience.  Like the juxtaposition of Pi’s father attributing 'Western medicine’ as the cure for his polio versus Pi’s mother using religion as her cherished connection with her displaced family.  For Pi, surviving at sea is the experience that significantly shapes his new found worldview. 

This is the key: In order to fully internalize a worldview or religion we must experience it for ourselves. Like Pi’s uncle who named Pi after the Piscine Molitor swimming pool where “a single swim there changed his life.”  Experiencing the pool himself changed his life.    

Upon landfall, Pi is seen with his face buried in the shore.  Narrating from the present day, Pi says he was starring down Richard Parker as he slowly walked away from Pi and the boat.  Before entering into the wilderness Richard Parker stopped.  At this moment Pi was hoping for a final acknowledgement of their time together. A roar or even a look-back.  But he got nothing and Richard Parker entered the expanse of the wilderness never to see Pi again.  

Just as the story was interpreted by the journalist, Richard Parker represents Pi.

This sequence is a representation of Pi’s new self leaving his old self behind. Upon entering the “wilderness of water” he found truth and no longer needed to search for meaning.

What Really Happened at Sea?

Well to put it plainly… Cannibalism.  

From Pi’s second story to the Japanese reporters we know the happy Buddhist, the cook, his mother, and he are on the boat after the shipwreck.  The happy Buddhist was wounded and put out of his misery.  Eventually, the cook, being the “resourceful” man that he was, ate the remains of the happy Buddhist.  After a few days, Pi’s mother and the cook got in a fight and the cook stabbed his mother and cast her overboard for the sharks.  All this much we know.  

Now for the presumption… In the retelling of the story Pi says that the day after the cook killed his mother, he killed the cook.  He goes on to say…and hear this out… “I did to him what he did to the sailor [happy Buddhist].” He follows with the statement, “He [the cook] was such an evil man, but worst still, he brought the evil out in me.” What the cook did to the sailor was kill him AND eat him.  That’s what Pi did to the cook.

The film sets out to establish that, along with his mother and brother, Pi is a vegetarian.  At the dinner table with his family his father takes a bite of the lamb curry and says it’s the best dish on the table and everyone else is missing out. Also, when his father gets in a fight with the cook in the mess of the ship it is because Pi’s father requested a vegetarian meal for Pi’s mother and the two sons (This is when the happy Buddhist comes over to offer his rice and gravy).  Although a minor point, Pi’s vegetarianism is highlighted to be a stark contrast against his cannibalistic behavior to emphasize his struggle to survive.  

The sustenance from the mysterious island was symbolic of the fruits of his cannibalistic acts. It was not until he encountered a human tooth (paralleling the tooth in the seaweed of his story) that he felt the guilt from what he was doing.

If that hasn’t convinced you:

The name 'Richard Parker’ is associated with real and fictional stories of people being shipwrecked as well as individuals being cannibalized. 

In 1846, an apprentice by the name of Richard Parker was among the 21 victims of a shipwrecked Francis Spaight.

In Edgar Allen Poe’s only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, published in 1838, Richard Parker is a mutinous sailor on the ship Grampus.  After capsizing in the storm, Parker suggests he and the three other lone survivors draw lots to see which of them should be killed and preyed upon.  In a turn of events, Parker himself gets cannibalized by the others. Oh and by the way, the main character of the novel, Pym, has a dog named Tiger.

Not convinced yet, how about this…In 1884 a yacht by the name of Mignonette sank. Four people survived and drifted on a life boat. The cabin boy named…you guessed it…Richard Parker, was cannibalized by the other three.  If that wasn’t enough…the yacht made a cameo in the movie! This is a PlanBeeeee exclusive screenshot you won’t see anywhere else…

Life of Pi is an epic tale and visual masterpiece that sets out to essentially describe Pascal’s Wager.  Pardon my oversimplification of it but here’s the basics:

God exists or God does not exist

If you believe in God and he exists then you’ll have an infinite reward and if God doesn’t exist you’ll lose very little in your life anyway.

If you DO NOT believe in God and he exists then you’ll receive infinite punishment and if God doesn’t exist you’ll have gained very little.

Therefore, it is rational to believe in God 

***DISCLAIMER*** 

The following is my interpretation of the desired message of the film, it does not represent my own personal views:

The film adaptation of Life of Pi is telling us that life sucks. Death and tragedy are some of its only guarantees. We humans need something MORE. Something to give us hope. We need a story that will be better than our reality. We need a BETTER STORY….”and so it is with God.” Belief in the story of God will improve our own quality of life since we are winning at Pascal’s Wager and betting on what is the “rational” choice. The truth behind whether God exists or which god is the right God, is irrelevant. Life of Pi says, beyond all things, BELIEF IS BETTER THAN TRUTH.

My Takeaway

Pi gets caught following his crush Anandi after their dance practice. Here’s their exchange:

“Pi Patel: None of the other dancers did that. What did you mean? The God of love is hiding in the forest. (Referencing her interpretive dance moves)

Anandi: No, that also means the Lotus flower. 

Pi Patel: Lotus flower is hiding in the forest? Why would a Lotus flower hide in the forest?”

This is an analogy of the message. The Lotus flower is tangible, it is the cannibalism story, it is the tragedies of your present circumstance. While still somewhat hard to believe why the Lotus flower is in the forest, or how Pi survived, or how YOU have been down on your luck, it’s still a smaller leap of faith than the alternative. 

That alternative is Richard Parker, the orangutan, zebra, and hyena. That alternative is a mysterious island and floating bananas. That alternative is BELIEF. It is the God of love hiding in the forest. 

The Life of Pi taught me that God is out there. We must seek God, in order to find Him. True belief has a foundation in experience. Every one will encounter a time in their life when they as the all important questions:

“Who am I?

Why am I here?

Where am I going?

What can I do to help?”

The story is yours now … The God of Love is hiding in the forest, go find Him for yourself!