#Fable II Aesthetic

[heroine-of-albion]

Fable II Character Aesthetics - Reaver

[aragaki]

Orphaned Sparrow to Hero Queen Lionheart

Had the idea to try and use aesthetic boards to tell the story of my Sparrow (renamed Lionheart after the Spire) as a fun little exercise and I'm in a Fable mood so!! I feel like it hits all the major story beats which I'm super pleased by

[bracketsoffear]

Simon (Hawaii: Part II/Miracle Musical) "I promise you, this dude is in EVERY Spiral and Distortion playlist ever. The album tells an ambiguous story, but this trilogy of tracks within is the most obviously Spiral fable ever that isn't from TMA itself. He is a liar and he is deluded: he is a perpetrator and a victim. Every single possible Spiral motif imaginable appears in his story, both aesthetically and thematically.

Simon talks about himself in third-person in the song Murders, and describes himself "in the forest looking to see the trees, but none were there" and seeking the "fountain of infinite mirror", presumably some fractalline Spiral artifact. Simon finds a girl and is paranoid of "terrors or none were there" & a "shadow of nobody there".

In the song "The Mind Electric", he finds himself on trial for the murder of this girl, which he may or may not have commited - he's an unreliable narrator. He pleads insanity, which may or may not be true, and the judge who appears as a holy figure sentences him to electroshock treatment. His brain is fried and he deludes himself into thinking all the hospital workers are holy people and "spiraling down thy majesty". The song's climax is a cry from him: "Someone help me understand what's going on inside my mind / Doctor, I can't tell if I'm not me", before spurting out incoherent phrases.

In the song Labyrinth, Simon retreats into a mind palace in the form of an ever-shifting maze of impossible geometry. He imagines a woman's voice calling: "See how I circle / Imaginary mind, imaginary lines / Let the maze of my design carry you on".

And then he gets time-travel powers and causes 9/11 or something? I dunno, it's a very ambiguous album."

Adam Smith (Torchwood) "Adam is an alien that can only exist through the memories of others, so he infiltrates the Torchwood team and makes them all think he’s been their trusted teammate for years when really it hasn’t even been two days. Adam uses this memory power to distract the team from discovering he’s not real by variously invoking memories of one’s long-lost brother, inducing false insecurities in one, making one in a relationship with him with all the non-con vibes that entails, making one forget her fiancé, and making the one who was closest to catching him believe he’d murdered three women and that Adam was his savior and accomplice. He wove himself so deeply into the team that the only way to get rid of him was to take amnesia pills to entirely erase those two days, leaving the team unnerved and uncertain of what they had done that was so bad they couldn’t remember it"

[wouldntyou-liketoknow]

What’s a Detective Without a Case?

(Trigger Warnings: alcohol/drinking, mentions of guns/firearms, mentions of murder/death, intrusive thoughts, strong language. Please let me know if I missed anything.)

(One amazing @insane4fandoms has created wonderful artwork for my ego-characters time and time again. So, in order to say thank you, I’ve written a little something specifically for them. This story was inspired by their recent take on ISWM’s Noir Wormhole.)

(Also, just to avoid confusion: all internal monologues are written in bold, but Mark’s internal monologue is in parentheses, and Mack’s internal monologue is in brackets.)

Achromatopsia: an eye condition known for stealing all colors other than black, white, and gray from a person’s vision. It was rare—even rarer than the fabled scenario where a father actually comes back from his trip to the drugstore.

It also wasn’t something that affected The Captain. For a little while, they thought they’d somehow managed to contract an affliction that could only be conceived by the odd mutated gene or two. But nowadays they knew better; according to the things they’d heard, it seemed that everyone around them was a victim of color-vision confiscation.

The Captain supposed the crew could all just be in on an elaborate plan to constantly pretend to share their predicament. The Captain had seen plenty more ridiculous things. Besides, if that happened to be the case, then they couldn’t deny how sweet it was of the crew to want them to feel included.

The Captain strolled down a familiar corridor, nodding to crewmates as they passed by. They made a brave attempt to review the facts: there were always way too many, since The Captain was nothing if not the perfect combination of a psychiatrist’s worst nightmare and dream come true.

Sooner or later, they came upon a door. The glass panel of said door was decorated by a picture of an eye, along with the words PRIVATE EYES—though the S had clearly been added on in a hurry—in order to really drive the point home.

Every little community tended to have a professional snoop. But the Invincible II wasn’t every little community, so it’d pretty much just said “Fuck you, investigators are like chips.”

That seemed like a good enough explanation for there being not one, not two, but three detectives in this joint.

The Captain rapped their knuckles against the door.

From the other side of the threshold, a semi-muffled voice called, “C’mon in.”

The Captain entered, and the very millisecond they closed the door behind them, air rushed past their face as a small blur soared and landed against the adjacent wall with a loud thwip-thunk!

The Captain didn’t even flinch: it wasn’t like this was the first time they’d been shot at. They peered at the dartboard hanging to their right, which had been adorned by a photograph of a certain wormhole wearing a fedora and toting a tommy gun.

Had the wormhole actually had a mug (which The Captain just knew would’ve been set in a smug little smirk), the recently-thrown dart would’ve landed right between its eyes.

The Captain glanced to their left, simultaneously feeling impressed, amused, exasperated, and concerned. There sat trouble, his feet having been kicked up onto a desk across the room.

Mack’s aim had always been a little too good; he wasn’t even looking at the dartboard. He seemed to have something against boards in general, since he was fixing a cluttered corkboard on the wall with a stare that could temporarily make whiskey become sentient and turn itself into water. 

This didn’t sound like much at first, as one might argue that it was irresponsible for detectives to drink on the job, despite how doing so added to the precious aesthetic. But Mack? Mack was not someone who needed intoxicants, even if he’d just end up nursing said intoxicants.

[I can’t believe how slow business has been lately.] Mack’s slight Midwestern accent was as present in his head as it was in his throat. It wasn’t quite as smooth as the other dialects The Captain heard so often, but they found some charm in that uniqueness. [What, are murderers getting all picky and pretentious about how they kill? Are glocks and shivs not exciting enough for them anymore? If so, then they just lack imagination. Anything can be a weapon so long as it’s aimed at the eyes.]

. . .Case in point. Pun very much intended.

When they’d first laid eyes on Mack, The Captain had almost been fooled by the bowtie and newsboy cap he always wore. But even before they’d gotten to know him better, their gut had told them that something was. . .not wrong with him—not entirely, at least—but just off.

He was still invaluable when it came to cases, even if he did seem like a case himself most of the time.

Mack was clearly lost in his thoughts, and The Captain knew better than to startle him out of the trance. So, they turned their attention elsewhere in the room.

Trouble took on a second form, this one standing before the window, outlined by the light that was peeking in between the blinds. His necktie was loose enough to suggest he used it as some kind of stim toy. At the sound of The Captain’s throat being cleared, Mark peered over his shoulder, a pair of dark eyes glinting from beneath the brim of his porkpie hat.

(I always tell myself that one day, one day I’ll actually be prepared for those baby-grays to drill into my soul.) Mark’s mental voice let out a hopeless chuckle. (Celci’s said that I’m a terrible liar; I hate it when she’s right.)

On the one hand, The Captain couldn’t help but wonder what exactly Mark had lied to Celci about. On the other hand, however, it was nice to hear that someone appreciated their eyes, even if there was no actual color to appreciate.

“Afternoon, Captain,” Mark pronounced, politely raising the rocks glass in his hand. “What brings you by?”

“You say that like it’s not part of my job to keep a constant eye on this crew,” The Captain replied, folding their arms across their chest. “And even if it wasn’t, can’t a guy/gal/person of indistinguishable gender check up on their buddies?”

(And that voice of theirs. . .god damn. Never thought I’d hear something more musical than the sound of greenbacks slapping across my palm.) Mark chuckled. “Nice save; you almost answered a question with another question.” (Then again, I can’t really complain. With the alcohol in my system, my heart could stand to do a few calisthenics.)

“A little birdie told me that things could be better for you guys,” The Captain declared, not unkindly. “Is that true?”

“Well, that depends: what kind of birdie did you hear that from?” Mark asked, raising an eyebrow. “If it was a canary, I’d think twice about listening. Sweet songs but sour words, y’know?”

“Good thing this ship is a strict No Canary Zone, then,” The Captain hummed. “I just overheard some gentleman griping about cases. You might know him: trenchcoat, dark hair, looks that could kill. . .”

Mark tilted his head to the side, realization instantly kicking in as he tried and failed to hide the fact that his heart had leapt at that sentiment.

“Can’t be helped, I’m afraid. The squeaky wheel is the first one to get oiled. Isn’t that right, Macaroni?” He asked, smirking like the sly bastard he was.

Under most circumstances, this would’ve been the verbal equivalent to whacking a hornet’s nest with a stick, as Mack hated nicknames like that and made sure to let everyone within earshot know it. Plus, it was pretty much impossible to know a guy like Mack without also knowing that getting him to shut his mouth would take some work.

Right now, however, Mack wasn’t talking. The grin on Mark’s face faded as both he and The Captain glanced at the other investigator across the room. Sure enough, Mack’s eyes were still glued to the corkboard, casually aiming another dart at the wormhole’s photograph.

Mark pursed his lips, clearly having expected a response.

“Hey, Mackerel? Did you hear me?” He called.

More awkward silence ensued. 

Mack must’ve been even more concentrated than The Captain had previously thought. They immediately scanned the room for something to hide behind. Just in case.

“Maaaaack?” Mark’s tone grew more sarcastic. “Earth to Mack.”

“Last I checked, we’re nowhere near Earth, moron,” Mack finally retorted. [Mark’s a lucky guy, I’ll say that much. I’ve helped people dress up as swiss cheese for less than just setting my trains of thought on fire. Those stupid collection agents around the corner wish they could cause a racket like I can.]

Mark rolled his eyes, then gazed over at the sofa in the opposite corner. Lounging on said sofa was a goddess who had apparently taken on the form of a golden retriever wearing an adorable Panama hat. 

At the sight of one of her owners nodding towards Mack, Chica perked up and got to her paws. She trotted across the room to Mack’s desk, rearing up on her hind legs to give the detective some good ol’ fashioned puppy-dog kisses.

Mack flinched out of his reverie. “Augh—Chica! Hey, get down! Knock it off!”

The Captain couldn’t help but giggle at the fact that, despite Mack’s protests, he’d automatically started petting Chica. She just had that effect on people. 

Soon enough, the best girl let up and paced around The Captain’s legs, her wagging tail a blur.

Mack, germaphobe he was, took a few long seconds to wipe at his face in a very melodramatic manner. But when he finally noticed who was in the room aside from his crewmate, his eyes grew nearly to the size of dinner plates. [Oh, damn it. . ! They’re wearing that pinstripe blazer again.]

If it wasn’t for The Captain’s monochrome point-of-view, they’d hazard a guess that an ever-so-slight blush had crept along Mack’s features. Mack rushed to make his expression neutral again, but it was too late.

[They know how pinstripe drives me crazy.] Mack thought, his mental voice growing more aggravated than surprised.

The Captain simpered as they kneeled to hug Chica, as that was very, very true.

Mack caught their knowing, shit-eating smile and huffed a sigh. [Cheeky son/daughter/child of a—]

“You’re welcome, by the way,” Mark coughed. “Thinking so hard can’t be good for your health.”

“Looks like you’re gonna be immortal, then,” Mack snarked. “Someone’s gotta be the brains of this outfit.”

Mark pouted at this. “Hey, don’t get all catty on me. It’s not my fault you were making that face.”

“What face?”

“The one that suggests you’re close to going out, finding a patsy, and pinning a crime on them just to make something happen.”

Mack clicked his tongue, clearly choosing to ignore just how accurate that statement was. “Oh, don’t preach to me when you’ve got a face that suggests someone upstairs has a weird sense of humor.”

“I didn’t stop by for a few laughs, so that can’t be true,” The Captain interjected. “But if you’d rather rub two sticks together, I can always come back another time.”

Although their warning glare was specifically aimed at Mack, both of the investigators flinched. The Captain may have been understanding (and they couldn’t deny how entertaining Mark and Mack’s little squabbles could be), but their patience still had limits. Besides, sometimes the only way to make a deal was to start walking away from said deal.

“Ah, I’m sorry, Captain,” Mack cringed. “Things have just. . .been on edge.”

Mark nodded assent. “Right, right. It’s a bit hard to keep up the whole well-oiled-machine gig with just two people.”

The Captain felt their heart grow a bit heavier as the detectives glanced around them to stare at the coat rack next to the door. The one that was supporting a very familiar deerstalker cap.

This black n’ white neck of the universe was a world of gangsters, con artists, and thugs-for-hire. And, of course, it was also a world of spies, sleuths, and vigilantes to balance out the former. But when it came to professional snooping, everyone on the Invincible II knew that there was one person who could surpass nearly every expectation.

His name was Abe, and he was the ringleader of the ship’s detective trio.

Neither Mark nor Mack were anywhere close to blind, but Abe was the private eye with some serious 20/20 vision. His skills were excellent, especially in euphemistic scenarios. He wasn’t a bloodhound; he was a fox (in more ways than one. Wink-wink, nod-nod, nudge-nudge, kick-in-the-head).

In the beginning of their escapades, The Captain hadn’t had much faith in Mark and Mack hitting it off (sure, the two occasionally hit each other, but that sadly didn’t count). When Abe came along, however, it was like the roulette wheel of life had miraculously malfunctioned in the better’s favor.

Abe and Mark had become fast friends. Of course they had; Mark was an easy guy to get along with, and most certainly loyal enough for anyone to want in their corner. Mack had been a different story, obviously, but what would’ve been a dead end for most was only a challenge for Abe. Apparently he’d seen something worthwhile in Mack’s unhinged and smug nature. 

Lo and behold, both of the investigative-engineers still couldn’t be described as best-buds, but they tolerated one another for the sake of following Abe around like puppies.

So, yeah. There was no doubt about it: Abe was a special character indeed.

He’d also been absent from his and his coworkers’ office for an uncomfortably long while. He hadn’t gone on an errand for milk (he made sure to check in on things via video-call); Abe wasn’t exactly a saint, but he’d never stoop to that level. No, he was simply chasing a particular lead—one so frustrating that he might as well have been disco-dancing while wearing nothing but a pair of boots that constantly squeaked like a colony of chain-smoking rats.

Like clockwork, Mark and Mack had volunteered to help him. They’d done so multiple times, in fact. Hell, they’d even tried the classic trick of secretly following Abe to figure out how this case managed to be so much more infuriating than all the others he’d tackled. 

(This venture hadn’t gone well. The Captain had never managed to get the full story, but they knew it’d involved a whole bunch of questionable whiskey culled from one of the zodiac clouds swirling around The Milky Way.)

“I’m sure he’ll be back soon enough,” The Captain tried.

“I heard the same thing when he went off to that party with his old college friends,” Mark replied quietly. (It was only supposed to be an overnight shin-dig, but look where that went. Why haven’t I worked up the nerve to ask him about what happened that night. . ?)

The Captain chewed their lip, half-nodding. 

They remembered Abe boarding the ship nearly two days later than his scheduled return date. He’d stumbled through the corridors, disheveled and bruised and saying absolutely nothing to no one, before locking himself in his personal quarters and getting noisily sick there while passersby exchanged concerned looks. The next day he was back to his old self again, to which Mark and Mack, not wanting to pry for once, decided to just pretend that his odd actions had never actually happened.

“He could at least give us a few tidbits of information to go off of,” Mack muttered, rolling his eyes to try and hide his anxiety. “If we could toss ideas back and forth and report it to him, then maybe this would progress a little faster.” [We’re like dogs without horses here! The Captain should know better than anyone how important it is to feel useful!]

The Captain lightly shook their head. “Can’t rush these things without causing trouble. You both know how Abe is; this one case is very important to him.”

Being an investigator came with several occupational hazards, and perhaps the biggest one was sheer tenacity. Abe was determined almost to a fault. Having to give up on a case came in third place on the list of things he hated most, right behind birthday clowns and liars. That itself wouldn’t be bad at all. . .if not for his habit of denying assistance from others.

He wasn’t always like that—if he was, then he would’ve never taken Mark and Mack under his wings—but when certain cases came along? He insisted on handling them by himself, no matter how that obviously wasn’t the best idea.

 It wasn’t that he thought his partners were ignorant or incompetent (well, okay, sometimes it was, but not so far with Mark or Mack). It was that he worried about putting his friends in harm’s way. And The Captain understood feelings like that perfectly. Being a leader was all fun and games until the dependability kicked in.

The Captain cleared their throat, moving across the room to take a seat on the couch. Chica padded after them, hopping up beside them and resting her head on their lap.

“Getting back on track,” they pronounced, scratching Chica’s ears in a way that would make femme fatales and mob bosses everywhere proud. “If you guys are looking for something to keep busy while Abe’s gone. . .I think I might have a few new tasks around the space station. Classified ones.”

Almost instantly, the detectives’ eyes lit up. Mack rushed to grab one of his many notebooks and a pen. Mark went through a cabinet by the desk to produce a small, freshly-purchased bottle of spirits.

(I’ve had to come to terms with not being able to choose clients. But The Captain? If I could, I’d gladly request them as a client,) he thought as he brought a clean spare glass over to The Captain, pouring them a drink as an indication that he was very interested in what they had to say.

Mack’s thoughts were already becoming difficult to hear, what with all the potential theories he’d somehow managed to come up with in under a minute. [Finally! Just when I was about to get back at them for ignoring all the hints I’ve been giving!]

The Captain couldn’t help but smile: the two investigators almost resembled schoolchildren who were excitedly waiting for their teacher to read them a story. A quiet chuckle escaped their throat as they took a sip of the offered alcohol, before they leaned back into the sofa and began to explain. . .

@insane4fandoms  @sammys-magical-au  @that-bat 

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #559

Top Ten British Games

God save the King, yeah? Now, I’m not the most patriotic person you’ll ever meet. But there is one thing I thing the British are good at – what is, in the long history of our weird, splintered isle, is our single greatest export – and that is our culture. I don’t mean, y’know, tea and biccies, football or cricket, stiff upper lip kind of culture. No, I mean our cultural output. You could go back to legends of Arthur or Beowulf, then Chaucer, Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens; Beatrix Potter, the Beatles, Bowie, Billy Connolly; Python, Attenborough, Doctor Who, James Bond, and Harry Potter. A vast collection of world-dominating writers, artists, and musicians who have inspired and influenced probably billions of people. Even big American things like Star Wars, the Muppets, or the Alien franchise owe a huge cultural debt to the many Brits who worked on them.

And one of the big, big cultural things which we’re very good at exporting is videogames. Gaming is literally – economically – one of our biggest exports. We’ve been at the forefront of the industry since at least the 1980s, shaping the medium both with hardware (Spectrum FTW!) and software (Dizzy!). So many of the biggest and most lucrative franchises in the world owe Britain a cultural debt – most significantly, I’d say, being Grand Theft Auto and its developer Rockstar. GTA – and specifically Scotland’s Rockstar North – emerged from DMA Design, responsible for Lemmings. Big nineties developers such as Rare, Bullfrog, Core and others splintered, evolved, and spawned so many other developers and game franchises; big companies like Microsoft and Sony snapped them up, made them flagship brands in the ongoing console wars.

Yes, mascots like Mario and Sonic are Japanese; Halo, Doom, and the like are American icons. But as a small nation full of wry, dry weirdos, I think we’ve historically punched above our weight. And, basically, made a ton of great games. And these are my favourites.

Fable II (Lionhead, 2008): I’m a fan of open, accessible RPGs that allow for a great deal of player freedom and customisation, and this is just perfect. Its simple three-button combat system – magic, melee, or ranged weaponry – combined with its incredibly simple design makes just moving through the world and playing an absolute joy. Combined with this is its truly hilarious, incredibly British, Pythonesque take on a fantasy world; and beyond that, its incredible cast, from Stephen Fry to Simon Pegg. My favourite Xbox 360 game.

Perfect Dark (Rare, 2000): only just edging out GoldenEye 007 – if you want, assume it’s both of them occupying this space. GoldenEye has, I’d argue, the slightly better single-player campaign; a bit more streamlined, the nineties spy aesthetic preferable (to me) than the sci-fi trappings of Dark. But Dark remains the single greatest, most enjoyable multiplayer experience I’ve had; from supremely customisable deathmatch modes featuring bots, to its groundbreaking “Counter Op” mode where one player assumes control of the bad guys in the campaign. Funnily enough, like Fable, it’s due an imminent Xbox remake.

Lemmings 2: The Tribes (DMA Design, 1992): the Lemmings games are revolutionary puzzlers, combining tricky problem-solving with decidedly cute characterisation and animation (despite – or maybe because of – the tiny pixel-count). Gorgeous, inventive, and also full of gratuitous violence; what more could you want? Lemmings 2 is the answer, a game that expands and improves on its predecessor. The “tribes” structure allows you to play twelve different campaigns, with distinct graphics and their own move set, making it more accessible and interesting. New modes, such as practice levels, likewise offer new options to play. Basically it’s a perfect sequel. I just wish it’d get a glorious HD remaster.

Crackdown (Realtime Worlds, 2007): I’m gonna level with ya, I’ve never really gotten on with the 3D Grand Theft Autos (Grand Thefts Auto?). I’m sure if I had a PS2 twenty years ago I’d have gotten into it, but by the time I really came to them they just felt too expansive, too serious, too “straight”. Crackdown, on the other hand, embraced the freedom of a fictional city, positing you as a super-cop tackling gangs in a decidedly OTT manner. The roof-jumping gameplay is just a sheer joy, one of the first games to really make you feel like a superhero. The open structure extends to the ability to tackle the game in any order. And it’s really forgiving, with death nothing but a momentary annoyance. It’s so good, in fact, that they’ve basically never been able to recapture the lightning. Which is a huge shame.

Medieval II: Total War (Creative Assembly, 2006): I really like the turn-based strategy of the Civilization games; in fact, it’s probably my favourite game series. But whereas those games take a zoomed-out macro view of human history, sometimes it’s nice to get stuck into the nitty-gritty, and that’s where Total War comes in. For me, the game is one of development and nuance as you slowly build your empire across a map of the world (or, here, Europe and Asia); the 3D battles, though engaging, are the least of it. And that’s probably why, despite dipping into some of the later titles, I still prefer Medieval; I feel I’m crafting my dynasty the way I want. Plus the age of feudal kings feels more suited to that kind of empire-building. I’d love a Medieval III, but even more so I’d love a console version. Please?

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (TT Games, 2022): oh man, where to begin with this, one of the most supremely joyful game series of all time? And which one game to pick? I’m not joking when I say that the most fun I had in the previous console generation was playing Lego Marvel Super Heroes on the Xbox One; it was, basically, the first game my kids ever played properly. Just joy in playing as beloved characters, the jokes and funny spins TT Games puts on the franchises they adapt; the replay factor of the levels and the accessibility of Lego itself. I love it so, so much. All in all, despite some disappointingly thin aspects of the campaign, I think the latest version is the best, distilling so much of what made the series great but improving the gameplay tremendously and updating it for the future. Plus it’s got Mando and Grogu, what more do you want?

Batman: Arkham City (Rocksteady, 2011): so sad to be talking about this after the tragic passing of Batman himself, Kevin Conroy; having him and Mark Hamill reprise their iconic roles added a level of gravitas and heft to this trilogy. Out of the three, I think this middle part is my favourite; something which oddly makes it feel like a classic superhero movie saga. But despite Arkham Asylum’s gloriously pared-down map – giving each arena a sense of depth and flair in its construction – here you had a good portion of the city given to you, enough to make you feel like Batman in Gotham but not too much to burden you with choices or unpick the tense, taught feeling of being hemmed in. Arkham Knight added, for me, too many side-quests, too much faffing about with tanks and robots; give me predator takedowns and locked rooms any day.

Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games, 2021): a bit like Skywalker Saga, this is another one where I’m struggling to find which particular game best encapsulates a superlative series. I’ve focused on the latest one, because it arguably smooths and streamlines the tenets of the franchise, and it’s the prettiest to boot. A sprawling, scenic tour of spectacular sun-kissed landscapes (and Edinburgh), it perfectly marries a gloriously fun arcade racer with a sense of wide exploration and even adventure. Like other games on this list, I appreciate it for being very open and accessible, with lots of options for even crap players like me to enjoy themselves, whilst also providing plenty of challenges for people who are, y’know, good. Honourable mention, too, for that other venerable Xbox racing series, Project Gotham, which I also adore, but I didn’t really want two broadly-similar franchises in the list. So think of Gotham whilst you’re reading this.

Sensible World of Soccer (Sensible Software, 1994): I’m not a big football fan really, but the arcade stylings of early-nineties footie games was always appealing (before FIFA took over, really). Sensi’s combination of charming big-headed zoomed-out graphics, tight, responsive gameplay, and above all a thoroughly British sense of humour made it the king. SWOS is a hell of a sequel, expanding the game to an almost ridiculous degree, offering management options that felt pretty in-depth way back when, and loads of different game modes. My biggest enjoyment will always be creating leagues of custom teams, however. Gotham City Villains versus Ghostbusters FC, anyone?

Worms W.M.D. (Team 17, 2016): once again I have to ask myself, which version of a beloved franchise represents the whole? Well, after much deliberation I think this – probably the most recent iteration I’ve played – fits the bill for Worms, a game series I’ve massively enjoyed since the Total Wormage demo that came on a cover disk with an Amiga magazine in the mid-nineties. Again we have another common factor: humour. These games are funny, silly, and very British about it. Very Beano, very Python; daft wordplay, toilet humour, and gentle fun-poking of British tropes and traditions (how many games give your characters Yorkshire accents as an option?). And – and! – the gameplay remains strong, with a great physics simulation that means your skill and choices matter. So even if, on balance, W.M.D. is probably the best iteration of Worms, let’s face it; the good bits were there from the start. Get under that.

No adventure games, no Peter Molyneux strategy games, and no Lara Croft! What was I thinking?!

[rileywritesnovellas]

Part 2/3

Divinity Original Sin

7/10 & 8/10, looks better as a warrior

Lore: Two twins, both named Ben Olsen, were raised by the order of Source Hunters, and brainwashed into hunting Sourcerers despite both being Sourcerers themselves

Divinity Original Sin II

10/10, quite a funky take on the design

Lore: A Sourcerer who used his magic to swindle money out of folks, eventually getting arrested and thrown into the ship from the start of the game

Fallout 3

5/10, not very Ben like

Lore: none separate from the game itself

Fallout New Vegas

5/10, same as FO3

Lore: A suave survivor from San Fansico, who became a currior in the Mojave for some quick cash before moving on... Or so he thought

Fallout 4

10/10, pretty much perfect

Lore: none separate from the game

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

1/10, the purple body from attempting to make a beard makes him an unviable playthrough character, aesthetically.

Lore: didn't bother coming up with any

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

7/10, shit ponytail options

Lore: Crossed into Skyrim running from a murder he was charged of in Cyrodiil, and was caught up in a skirmish between Stormclokes and Imperials, leading to that iconic cart ride

Fable II

4/10, barely looks like Ben

Lore: none separate from the game itself

Fable III

4/10, looks more like him, but I'm not paying 1 dollar for a dye pack to get his hair the right color.

Gears of War: Tactics

9/10, a godsend I found a base gear who I could actually mold into Ben

Lore: A Saren citizen who was uninterested in joining the Gears, but signed up to Gabe's Crew when his wife was captured by Locust and was saved by one of Gabe's gears

[metalhead-brainrot]

Back to punk.

[Album of the day] Poison Ruin - H​ä​rvest

Philadelphia, PA // 2023

[Genres*] punk: blackened punk, crust punk, goth punk, political punk, early punk

[Themes] fantasy feudalism

[FFO] the Misfits, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

[Thoughts] There is a lot to be said about the content of this album, but the blurb from Relapse Records (attached below) says it better than I could. The instrumentation is fantastic across the board, and the melodies have that infectious, punky drive without relying on punchy mixing. Opting for the muted, black metal style really worked for this album, and I can't wait to hear more from Poison Ruin.

*Trying my very hardest on these tags, but living in Minneapolis has given this metalhead a serious case of Crust Punk Imposter Syndrome. If you listened to H​ä​rvest and think I'm a fucking idiot, let me know how you'd classify the album.

************************************************************************

From the band/label: [Relapse Records]

Philadelphia Punks POISON RUIN make their Relapse Records debut with their new album, Harvest! Evoking a rich tapestry of ice-caked forests, peasant revolts, and silent knights, POISON RUIN stab at the pulsing heart of what it means to live under the permanent midnight of contemporary life. With Harvest, the band aligns their sonic palette to their godless, medieval-inflected aesthetic symbolism, creating a record which strikes with an assured sense of blackened harmony. “I’ve always found fantasy tropes to be incredibly evocative,” vocalist Mac Kennedy notes, “that said, even though they are a set of symbols that seem to speak to most people of our generation, they are often either apolitical or co-opted for incredibly backwards politics.” Kennedy reworks fantasy imagery as a series of totems for the downtrodden, stripping it of its escapist tendencies and retooling it as a rich metaphor for the collective struggle over our shared reality: “Instead of knights in shining armor and dragons, it’s a peasant revolt,” Kennedy explains, “I’m all for protest songs, but with this band I’ve found that sometimes your message can reach a greater audience if you imbue it with a certain interactive, almost magical realist element.” The title track invokes images of feudal peasants, tithes, and money-hungry lords, sounding the horn of labor with the rallying cry, “Isn’t this our harvest? Isn’t this our feast to share?” Tales of the undead rising to take revenge upon those who have unknowingly wronged them spin out like pleasantly cathartic folktales (“Resurrection II”), while other tracks address the profound beauty and spirit of those making ends meet in the forsaken ends of POISON RUIN’s hometown of Philadelphia (“Blighted Quarter”). The band stares into the abyss of modern living with a sober and empathetic outlook, portraying our cracked reality as a complex and difficult to parse miasma of competing desires. With Harvest, POISON RUIN have constructed a richly chilling fable out of modern living. Their tale is as lurid as it is seductive, as much a promising fantasy as it is a dreary portrait of reality itself. 

[songbird-wings]

“Death is not your destiny today, little Sparrow...”

So, I’ve been obsessed with Fable for a few years now and I’ve finally made some aesthetic boards for our four Heros that I’m pretty proud of!

In order: Sparrow-Hammer-Garth-Reaver

(The Sparrow board is specific to my own Sparrow/all pictures were found on Pintrest)

(PART 2)

[gwyns]

brave lionheart.

[heroine-of-albion]

Fable II Location Aesthetics - Gemstone Grotto

[perennialessays]

A: Michaelmas Term. The Colonial, the Postcolonial, the World: Literature, Contexts and Approaches (A/Core Course)

The A course comprises 8 1.5 hour seminars and is intended to provide a range of perspectives on some of the core debates, themes and issues shaping the study of world and postcolonial literatures in English. In each case the seminar will be led by a member of the Faculty of English with relevant expertise, in dialogue with one or more short presentations from students on aspects of the week’s topic. There is no assessed A course work, but students are asked to give at least one presentation on the course, and to attend all the seminars. You should read as much in the bibliography over the summer – certainly the primary literary texts listed in the seminar reading for each week. The allocation of presenters will be made at the meeting in week 0.

Week 1

Theories of World Literature I: What Is World Literature?...What Isn’t World Literature? (Graham Riach)

This seminar will consider what we mean when we say ‘world literature’, looking at models proposed by critics as Emily Apter, David Damrosch, the WReC collective, and others. The category of ‘world literature’ has been in constant evolution since Johan Wolfgang von Goethe popularised the term in the early 19th Century, and in this session we will explore some of the key debates in the field.

Primary:

+ David Damrosch, What is World Literature? 2003

+ ------ What Isn't World Literature, lecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfOuOJ6b-qY

+ WReC (Warwick Research Collective), Combined and Uneven Development: Towards a New Theory of World Literature

+ Extracts from Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, Karl Marx and Friechrich Engels, Franco Moretti, Pascale Cassanova, Emily Apter and others.

Secondary:

+ David Damrosch, World Literature in a Postcanonical, Hypercanonical Age in Haun Saussay ed, Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization 2006 pp.43-53

+ Franco Moretti, Conjectures on World Literature, New Left Review 1 2000 54-68

+ Mariano Siskind, ‘The Globalization of the Novel and The Novelization of the Global: A Critique of World Literature’, Comparative Literature 62 (2010) 4: 336-60

Week 2

English in the world/Language beyond relativity (Peter McDonald)

Primary:

+ The Oxford English Dictionary (especially 1989 print edition and online, 2000-)

+ You should also read Sarah Ogilvie, Words of the World: A Global History of the Oxford English Dictionary (2012)

+ Florian Coulmas, Guardians of the Language (2016)

+ Perry Link’s short essay ‘The Mind: Less Puzzling in Chinese? (New York Review of Books, 30 June 2016), which is available via: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/06/30/the-mind-less-puzzling-in-chinese/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NYR%20Krugman%20on%20King%20Als%20on%20Martin%20Cole%20on%20police&utm_content=NYR%20Krugman%20on%20King%20Als%20on%20Martin%20Cole%20on%20police+CID_9def725d3263b14fe6dce4894ed64907&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=The%20Mind%20in%20Chinese

Secondary:

+ Jacques Derrida, Monolingualism of the Other, or The Prosthesis of Origin, trans. Patrick Mensah, 1998 (French edition, 1996)

+ Charles Taylor, The Language Animal (2016)

Preparation

A (2 students: position papers, maximum 1000 words, on ONE of the following. Please ensure both topics are covered. Also bring along a handout with your key quotations—copies for the entire group) 1. Explain the significance of the epigraphs from Glissant and Khatibi for Derrida’s argument and analysis in Monolingualism. 2. Explain Taylor’s distinction between ‘designative-instrumental’ and ‘expressive-constitutive’ theories of language.

B (all remaining students: single-sided A4 handout—copies for the entire group) Browse the OED, especially using the online feature that allows you to group words by origin and/or region, and select ONE loanword from a non-European language. On one side of an A-4 sheet give an account of the word, explaining why you think it has particular significance in the long history of lexical borrowing that constitutes the English language and the shorter history of the linguistic relativity thesis

Week 3

The (Un)translatability of World Literature (Adriana X. Jacobs)

This seminar will examine the role of translation in the development of the category of world literature with a particular focus on the term “translatability.” We will consider how translation into “global” English has shaped contemporary understandings of translatability and how to reconcile these with the more recent turn to “untranslatability” in literary scholarship. To what extent are the parameters of world literature contingent on a translation economy that privileges certain languages, authors and texts over authors? What room is there in current configurations of world literature for works that “do not measure up to certain metrics of translational circulation” (Zaritt)?

Primary:

+ Emily Apter, Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability (New York: Verso, 2013)

+ “To Translate,” in Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon, Barbara Cassin, ed., ed. and trans. Emily Apter, Jacques Lezra, and Michael Wood (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2014): 1139- 1155. (read introduction online: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10097.html)

Secondary:

+ Antoine Berman, “Translation and the Trials of the Foreign,” trans. Lawrence Venuti, in The Translation Studies Reader, 3rd edition (New York/Abingdon: Routledge, 2012): 240-253.

+ Johannes Göransson, “‘Transgressive Circulation’: Translation and the Threat of Foreign Influence,” Cordite Poetry Review (November 1, 2016): www.cordite.org.au/essays/transgressive-circulation.

+ Ignacio Infante, “On The (Un)Translatability of Literary Form: Framing Contemporary Translational Literature,” Translation Review 95.1 (2016): 1-7

+ Lydia Liu, “The Problem of Language in Cross-Cultural Studies,” in Translingual Practice:Literature, National Culture, and Translated Modernity—China, 1900-1937 (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1995): 1-42

+ Ronit Ricci, “On the untranslatability of ‘translation’: Considerations from Java, Indonesia,” Translation Studies 3.3 (2010): 287-301.

+ Saul Zaritt, “‘The World Awaits Your Yiddish Word’: Jacob Glatstein and the Problem of World Literature,” Studies in American Jewish Literature (1981-) 34.2 (2015): 175-203.

Week 4

Literature and Performance of the Black Americas (Annie Castro)

In this seminar, we will engage with a variety of writings by Black authors across the Americas that emphasize issues of race, nationality, cultural heritage, and performance. This course will serve as an introduction into critical debates regarding the complex interchange of Afro-diasporic persons, ideas, and discourse across the Western Hemisphere. Please come prepared to share a short (approximately 200 words), informal written review of the assigned readings. This review, which is intended to aid group discussion, should place the assigned texts in conversation with one another, particularly in regards to their conceptualizations of race and culture in artistic expression.

Primary:

+ Erna Brodber, Louisiana (1997)

Secondary:

+ DeFrantz, Thomas and Anita Gonzalez, “Introduction.” In Black Performance Theory (2014)

+ Edwards, Brent Hayes. “Prologue,” “Variations on a Preface.” In The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism (2003)

+ Harris, Wilson. “History, Fable, and Myth in the Caribbean and Guianas” (1970). In Caribbean Quarterly: The 60th Anniversary Edition (2008)

Week 5

Theories of World Literature II: Is World Literature Beautiful? (Graham Riach)

Traditional definitions of world literature are heavily based on the idea of universal cultural value. This seminar will consider some of the main issues in universalist conceptions of world literary value, particularly in relation to aesthetics, and the role of interpretive communities in dealing with distances in time, culture and language.

Primary:

+ Simon Gikandi, Slavery and the Culture of Taste (Princeton University Press, 2014)

+ Sianne Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012)

Secondary:

+ Isobel Armstrong, The Radical Aesthetic (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000)

+ Bill Ashcroft, ‘Towards a Postcolonial Aesthetics’, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 51, 4 (2015), pp. 410-421

+ Elleke Boehmer, ‘A Postcolonial Aesthetic: Repeating Upon the Present’, in Janet Cristina Şandru Wilson and Sarah Lawson Welsh eds., Rerouting the Postcolonial: New Directions for the New Millennium (2010), pp. 170-181

+ Peter de Bolla, Art Matters (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001)

+ Simon Gikandi, ‘Race and the Idea of the Aesthetic’, Michigan Quarterly Review, 40,2 (2001), pp.318–50.

+ Peter J. Kalliney, Commonwealth of Letters: British Literary Culture and the Emergence of Postcolonial Aesthetics (Oxford: OUP, 2013)

+ Catherine Noske, ‘A Postcolonial Aesthetic? An Interview with Robert Young’, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 50, 5, 609-621 (2014)

+ Rethinking Beauty, special issue of diacritics (32.1, Spring 2002)

Week 6

Cultural Memory and Reconciliation (Catherine Gilbert)

In this seminar, we will explore representations of conflict and its enduring impact in narratives from South Africa and Rwanda. In particular, we will consider questions surrounding the relationship between testimony and literature, how writers work to convey the complex nuances of trauma and memory, and the role of literature in remembrance and reconciliation.

Primary:

+ Achmat Dangor, Bitter Fruit (London: Atlantic Books, 2004 [2001]).

+ Jean Hatzfeld (ed), Into the Quick of Life. The Rwandan Genocide: The Survivors Speak (London: Serpent’s Tail, 2008).

+ Please also listen to: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘The Danger of the Single Story’ (TED talk, 2009): https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en

Secondary:

+ Jean Hatzfeld (ed), Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak, translated by Linda Coverdale (New York: Picador, 2005). Esp. the chapters ‘In the shade of an acacia’, ‘Remorse and regrets’, ‘Bargaining for forgiveness’, and ‘Pardons’.

+ Madelaine Hron, ‘Gukora and Itsembatsemba: The "Ordinary Killers" in Jean Hatzfeld's Machete Season’, Research in African Literatures, 42.2 (2011), pp. 125-146.

+ Antjie Krog, Country of My Skull (London: Vintage, 1999 [1998]). Esp. Chapter 3, ‘Bereaved and Dumb, the High Southern Air Succumbs’, pp. 38-74.

+ Achille Mbembe, ‘African Modes of Self-Writing’, Public Culture, 14.1 (2002), pp. 239-273.

+ Ana Miller, ‘The Past in the Present: Personal and Collective Trauma in Achmat Dangor’s Bitter Fruit’, Studies in the Novel, 40.1-2 (2008), pp. 146-160.

+ Zoe Norridge, Perceiving Pain in African Literature (London: Palgrave, 2012)

+ Richard Crownshaw, Jane Kilby and Antony Rowland (eds), The Future of Memory (New York: Berghahn Books, 2010). Esp. the introductions to each of the three sections on memory, testimony and trauma.

Week 7

Comics and Conflict: Witness, Testimony and World Literature? (Dominic Davies)

In this seminar we will explore the seemingly prevalent tendency of the use of comics –that is, sequential art that combines juxtaposed drawn and other images with the (hand)written word – to depict conflict zones in geo-historical areas as diverse as Palestine, Bosnia and Afghanistan. Why have comics, a highly mediated form that draws attention to the contingency of its own perspective, been used to document witness testimonies from war zones across the world? How do comics, constructed from a sophisticated architecture of borders and gutters, communicate these testimonies across national borders, perhaps even forging alternative kinds of ‘world literature’?

Primary:

+ Joe Sacco, Safe Area Goražde (2000), Palestine (2001)

+ Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frederic Lemercier, The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders (2009)

Secondary:

+ Ayaka, Carolene, and Hague, Ian eds., Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels (2015)

+ Chute, Hillary, ‘Comics as Literature? Reading Graphic Narrative’, PMLA 123.2, 45-65 (2008)

+ ——, Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics, and Documentary Form (2016)

+ Denson, Shane, Meyer, Christina, and Stein, Daniel eds., Transnational Perspectives on Graphic Narratives: Comics at the Crossroads (2014)

+ Hatfield, Charles, Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature (2005)

+ Mehta, Benita, and Mukherjee, Pia eds. Postcolonial Comics: Texts, Events, Identities (2015)

+ Mickwitz, Nina, Documentary Comics: Graphic Truth-telling in a Skeptical Age (2015)

+ Worden, Daniel ed. The Comics of Joe Sacco: Journalism in a Visual World (2015)

Week 8

World Poetry: A Case Study from India (Rosinka Chaudhuri)

Here, we will look episodically at the development of modern poetry in India in relation to the world; that is, we shall see how the world entered Indian poetry at the same time as it transformed poetry in the ‘West’. The very word for poet - ‘kavi’ - began to be redefined as the Sanskrit word came in contact with modernity in the nineteenth century, at the end of which we have the phenomenal figure of Tagore, who was perhaps the first ‘World Poet’ recognised as such from East to West. The decades of the 1960s-’80s - when Pablo Neruda was common currency and Arun Kolatkar sat at the Wayside Inn in Bombay - to present-day studies of multilinguality and the role of translation shall be explored to devise a notion of poetry in the world over time as it happened in India.

Primary:

+ Buddhadeva Bose, ‘Comparative Literature in India’, in Jadavpur Journal of Comparative Literature, Vol. 45; see http://jjcl.jdvu.ac.in/jjcl/upload/JJCL 45.pdf

+ Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, ‘The Emperor Has No Clothes,’ in Partial Reccall: Essays on Literature and Literary History (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2012)

+ Amit Chaudhuri, ‘Arun Kolatkar and the Tradition of Loitering,’ in Clearing A Space: Reflections on India, Literature and Culture (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2008).

Secondary:

+ Roland Barthes, ‘Is There Any Poetic Writing?’ in Annette Lavers and Colin Smith translated Writing Degree Zero (1953; New York: Hill and Wang, 1967).

+ Rosinka Chaudhuri, The Literary Thing: History, Poetry, and The Making of a Modern Cultural Sphere (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014).

+ Bhavya Tiwari, ‘Rabindranath Tagore’s Comparative World Literature,’ in Theo D’haen, David Damrosch and Djelal Kadir ed. The Routledge Companion to World Literature (London: Routledge, 2012).

+ Deborah Baker, A Blue Hand: The Beats in India (New York and Delhi: Penguin, 2008).

+ Laetitia Zechhini, Arun Kolatkar and Literary Modernism in India: Moving Lines (London: Bloomsbury, 2016)

+ Anjali Nerlekar, Bombay Modern: Arun Kolatkar and Bilingual Literary Culture (Northwestern University Press, 2016).

[bracketsoffear]

Delirium of the Endless (Sandman) "Originally incarnated as Delight, the personification of joy and pleasure, Delirium lost that simple happiness and transformed into the personification of madness and confusion for reasons not even her otherwise omniscient brother Destiny can understand. She can drive others mad or cure them of their mental afflictions with equal measure, but which she'll do depends on her capricious moods - assuming she doesn't just inflict either of these fates completely by accident because she couldn't pay attention. Her realm is a chaotic, sprawling domain that is nigh-impossible to navigate, and her personal sigil is an abstract spiralling swirl."

Simon (Hawaii: Part II/Miracle Musical) "I promise you, this dude is in EVERY Spiral and Distortion playlist ever. The album tells an ambiguous story, but this trilogy of tracks within is the most obviously Spiral fable ever that isn't from TMA itself. He is a liar and he is deluded: he is a perpetrator and a victim. Every single possible Spiral motif imaginable appears in his story, both aesthetically and thematically.

Simon talks about himself in third-person in the song Murders, and describes himself "in the forest looking to see the trees, but none were there" and seeking the "fountain of infinite mirror", presumably some fractalline Spiral artifact. Simon finds a girl and is paranoid of "terrors or none were there" & a "shadow of nobody there".

In the song "The Mind Electric", he finds himself on trial for the murder of this girl, which he may or may not have commited - he's an unreliable narrator. He pleads insanity, which may or may not be true, and the judge who appears as a holy figure sentences him to electroshock treatment. His brain is fried and he deludes himself into thinking all the hospital workers are holy people and "spiraling down thy majesty". The song's climax is a cry from him: "Someone help me understand what's going on inside my mind / Doctor, I can't tell if I'm not me", before spurting out incoherent phrases.

In the song Labyrinth, Simon retreats into a mind palace in the form of an ever-shifting maze of impossible geometry. He imagines a woman's voice calling: "See how I circle / Imaginary mind, imaginary lines / Let the maze of my design carry you on".

And then he gets time-travel powers and causes 9/11 or something? I dunno, it's a very ambiguous album."

[darkacademicx]

A List of Show Recs, While You’re Stuck at Home

This is a huge and continuously updating list.  The first 2 categories are ‘definitely DA’ and ‘Probably DA’, but beyond that all of the shows are sorted by category.  Enjoy!

Definitely DA:

The Living and the Dead - The plot revolves around Nathan Appleby and his wife, Charlotte Appleby whose farm is believed to be at the centre of numerous supernatural occurrences. Set in Victorian times and has ghosts and an excellent aesthetic.  Available on Amazon Prime. 5/5

A Series of Unfortunate Events - This series follows the tragic tale of three orphans -- Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire -- who are investigating their parents' mysterious death. The siblings are saddled with an evil guardian named Count Olaf , who will do whatever it takes to get his hands on the Baudelaires' inheritance. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny must outsmart Olaf at every turn, foiling devious plans and disguises. The series is based on the series of books by Lemony Snicket.  Available on Netflix. 

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina - A dark coming-of-age story that traffics in horror and the occult. In the reimagined origin story, Sabrina Spellman wrestles to reconcile her dual nature -- half-witch, half-mortal -- while standing against the evil forces that threaten her, her family -- including aunts Hilda and Zelda -- and the daylight world humans inhabit.  Available on Netflix. 5/5

Downton Abbey - This historical drama follows the lives of the Crawley family and their servants in the family's Edwardian country house. The programme begins with the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, which leaves Downton Abbey's future in jeopardy, as Lord Grantham's presumptive heir -- his cousin James -- and his son, Patrick, die aboard the ship, leaving him without a male offspring to take over the throne upon his death. As a result, Lord Grantham must search for a new heir. As the programme progresses through the decade, other historical events happen leading up to Lord Grantham declaring in 1914 that Britain is at war with Germany, marking the beginning of World War I, which becomes a major plot on the programme.  Available on Amazon Prime.

Gran Hotel - Set in Spain in the early 20th century, Julio arrives at a luxury hotel to meet his sister, head chambermaid Cristina only to discover she has disappeared. Julio makes it his mission to find her and infiltrates the hotel under the guise of a footman.  This show is in Spanish but available with English Subtitles. 5/5

Penny Dreadful - An exploration of the origin stories of classical literature characters in this psychological thriller that takes place in the dark corners of Victorian London. Sir Malcolm is an explorer who has lost his daughter to the city's creatures, and he will do whatever is needed to get her back and to right past wrongs. His accomplice, seductive clairvoyant Vanessa Ives, recruits charming American Ethan Chandler to help locate Sir Malcolm's daughter and slay some monsters. Available on Netflix and Hulu. 

The Umbrella Academy - On one day in 1989, 43 infants are inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy the day before. Seven are adopted by billionaire industrialist Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who creates the Umbrella Academy and prepares his "children" to save the world. In their teenage years, though, the family fractures and the team disbands. Fast forward to the present time, when the six surviving members of the clan reunite upon the news of Hargreeves' passing. They work together to solve a mystery surrounding their father's death, but divergent personalities and abilities again pull the estranged family apart, and a global apocalypse is another imminent threat. 

Sherlock - Dr. John Watson is a war vet just home from Afghanistan. He meets the brilliant but eccentric Holmes when the latter, who serves as a consultant to Scotland Yard, advertises for a flatmate. Almost as soon as Watson moves into the Baker Street flat, they are embroiled in mysteries, and Sherlock's nemesis, Moriarty, appears to have a hand in the crimes.  Available on Netflix. 5/5

Stranger Things - In 1980s Indiana, a group of young friends witness supernatural forces and secret government exploits. As they search for answers, the children unravel a series of extraordinary mysteries. Available on Netflix. 5/5

Twilight Zone - It's a strange mix of horror, science-fiction, drama, comedy and superstition. Serling introduced each episode, and many of the black and white episodes concluded with a surprise ending. Available on Netflix and Hulu. 5/5.

Outlander - After serving as a British Army nurse in World War II, Claire Randall is enjoying a second honeymoon in Scotland with husband Frank, an MI6 officer looking forward to a new career as an Oxford historian. Suddenly, Claire is transported to 1743 and into a mysterious world where her freedom and life are threatened. To survive, she marries Jamie Fraser, a strapping Scots warrior with a complicated past and a disarming sense of humour. A passionate relationship ensues, and Claire is caught between two vastly different men in two inharmonious lives. Available on Netflix and Hulu.

Probably DA:

The Magicians - Quentin Coldwater, a grad student at Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, has been fascinated by the magical fantasy world since he was young. But as he has gotten older, Quentin and his 20-something friends have discovered that the magical world they read about as children is not only real, but it poses dangers to humanity. While studying at the secret upstate New York school, the friends struggle to cope with the aftermath of a catastrophe that befalls the institution. Available on Netflix, Hulu, and the Syfy website. 5/5

Merlin - This action-packed fantasy-drama revisits the saga of King Arthur and his wizard, Merlin, by focusing on the two characters when they were ambitious young men struggling to understand their destinies. In this telling, Prince Arthur is known to be the heir to the throne (no sword from the stone here). And he is acquainted with all those who will one day form the legend of Camelot, including Lancelot, Guinevere, and Morgana. Merlin is also forced to deal with King Uther's Great Purge, which bans all use of magic. Available on Netflix. 5/5

The Order - When Belgrave University student Jack Morton joins a fabled secret society, the Hermetic Order of the Blue Rose, he is thrust into a world of magic, monsters and intrigue. Out to avenge his mother's death, he uncovers dark family secrets and lands in an underground battle being waged between werewolves and practitioners of dark magic. Assisting Jack in the fight is Alyssa, a tour guide at Belgrave and fellow member of the Order, which is led by Jack's estranged father.  Available on Netflix. 4/5.

Legion - David Haller is a troubled young man who was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a child. Shuffled from one psychiatric institution to the next, in his early 30s, David met and fell in love with a beautiful and troubled fellow patient named Syd. After a startling encounter with her, he was forced to confront the shocking possibility that the voices he hears and the visions he sees may actually be real. Syd led David to Melanie Bird, a demanding but nurturing therapist who heads a team of specialists -- Ptonomy, Kerry, and Cary -- each of whom possesses a unique and extraordinary gift. Together, they helped David to recognize and harness his hidden abilities and unlock a deeply suppressed truth -- he had been haunted his entire life by a malicious parasite of unimaginable power.  Available on Hulu. 4/5.

Comedy:

Derry Girls - Following Erin and her friends as they grow up in a world of armed police in armoured Land Rovers and British Army check points in 1990s Northern Ireland and attempt to navigate the highs and lows of being teenagers. Available on Netflix. 5/5

Detective/military:

Broadchurch - When the corpse of an 11-year-old British boy, Danny Latimer, is found bloodied and dirty on an idyllic beach, a small Dorset community becomes the focus of a police investigation and media madness. Out-of-town Detective Inspector Alec Hardy gets the point position over Detective Sgt. Ellie Miller -- who feels the job should have been hers. Slowly, more members of the community of Broadchurch are drawn into the investigation. While dealing with so much unwelcome attention, Danny's family tries to cope with its grief. When a suspect is named and charged, the ensuing trial sees the defendant promising to expose more of the townspeople's secrets.  Available on Netflix. 5/5.

Haven - FBI Agent Audrey Parker arrives in Haven, Maine, on what she believes is a routine assignment. But the longer she stays, the more curious she becomes -- about the townspeople, who seem to be beset by a range of supernatural afflictions; about the town itself, which contains many secrets; and about her own surprising connection to this strange place.  Available on Netflix and Tubi.  4/5.

A Very Secret Service - At the height of the Cold War in 1960, André Merlaux joins the French Secret Service and contends with enemies both foreign and bureaucratic.  In French with English Subtitles.  Available on Netflix. 5/5.

Criminal Minds - An elite squad of FBI profilers analyzes the country's most-twisted criminal minds, anticipating the perpetrators' next moves before they can strike again. Each member of the "mind hunter" team brings his or her expertise to pinpoint predators' motivations and identify emotional triggers to stop them. The core group includes an official profiler who is highly skilled at getting into the minds of criminals, a quirky genius, the former media liaison who manages to adeptly balance family life and the job, and a computer wizard.  Available on Netflix and CBS.  5/5

Eureka - In the years since World War II, the U.S. government has been relocating the world's geniuses (and their families) to the Pacific Northwest town of Eureka. Daily life there shifts between amazing innovation and total chaos. U.S. Marshal Jack Carter learns this first-hand when his car breaks down in Eureka, stranding him among the town's eccentric citizens. When they unleash a scientific creation still unknown to the outside world, it's up to Carter to restore order. Subsequently, he's let in on one of America's best-kept secrets.  Available on Amazon Prime.  5/5.

Our Girl - Taking destiny into their own hands, British Army female medics of 2 Sections are dispatched on different missions, where they encounter the heartbreak and realities of life on the battlefield.  5/5.

Political:

The Crown - This lavish, Netflix-original drama chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II from the 1940s to modern times. The series begins with an inside look at the early reign of the queen, who ascended the throne at age 25 after the death of her father, King George VI. As the decades pass, personal intrigues, romances, and political rivalries are revealed that played a big role in events that shaped the later years of the 20th century.  Available on Netflix. 4/5.

Victoria - The monarch's life is chronicled as the story begins with the death of King William IV in 1837, her accession to the throne at the tender age of 18 and her relationships with the influential forces around her. With the advice of the prime minister Lord Melbourne and the support of her husband Prince Albert the young queen flourishes and establishes herself in her newfound role. Available on Amazon Prime. 4/5.

[raeofalbion]

No shade or anything, but I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I need to be a little salty right now. So here goes. I honestly take issue with the sentiment that people only focus on the later Fable games because they’re thirsty for Reaver. It feels really dismissive of what the later games have to offer and the interesting direction the games were going in.

To preface, I love the first game. It was a beacon of escapism and joy throughout my preteen and teenage years; I played it so much that I wore out four copies before Anniversary came out. The game feels like home. Almost sixteen years on and the game is still beautiful to me--Twinblabe’s camp, Lychfield, the Northern Wastes, the way the sun sets over Oakvale, the peace of Barrow Fields? Gorgeous, stunning. I can, and do, get lost in all the woods and caves every time I play. The humour’s fantastic, the creatures are scary. The nymphs still give me nightmares. Whisper and Briar Rose still give me heart eyes; all the characters are just so good. Yes, including the Guildmaster (he just wants you to be safe and to eat a healthy diet! <3). And Jack of Blades is honestly one of my favourite villains of all time. But. The reason it’s not my favourite game in the series mainly has to do with the fact that it’s a fantasy game set in a medieval world...in a literal sea of fantasy games set in medieval worlds. And that it’s the first in a series that continued to get better.

Fable II’s aesthetic is probably my favourite game aesthetic of all time. The soft, inspiring wonder of when you first leave the camp; the balance of very dark, unsettling themes, classic lit, and uplifting bursts of hope and warmth from a lot of the people you meet along the way--just really well done over all. I love that the protagonist and the antagonist are coming from the same viewpoint of “I lost my family and I’m going to do something about it”; I love even more that Lucien serves as a warning of what you might become throughout the game and that you can actually choose to act as he intended to by the time you reach the end of the game. The growth of the world and changes in lore are really interesting and I’ll never be over how stunning Bower Lake, Bloodstone, and Oakfield are in the shifting light as time changes. Or how eerie and sad Wrathmarsh and Rookridge are. The Heroes as a whole have such great, strong personalities and their interactions are wonderful; and Theresa has a grandeur and mysteriousness to her in this game that makes her difficult to not be somewhat fascinated in.

While I’m well aware some elements of Fable III are rushed and somewhat lacking, it really doesn’t lessen the game for me. The storyline’s nice and watching what effect your choices have on the gamestate (when you’re evil, specifically) is always gives me a lot of pause and things to think about. The characters, again, are fantastic and Walter is among the best mentors in gaming. Logan felt realistic and sympathetic without negating any of the damage he’s done and all of your allies have really well-defined motivations and personalities that don’t feel cookie-cutter or tacked on. The Crawler is genuinely scary and I’m still very much unnerved by his intro mission (and I still tear up at the end). But, above all, it’s just genuinely fun. Does it have the depth of the other games? No. Is it any less fun or entertaining than the rest of the series for it? Nope. It’s still a joy to play.

I know a lot of people didn’t care about the Journey and didn’t get a chance to play Legends, but they’re also really good and worthy of being talked about. The Journey had a fascinating storyline that filled in a lot of gaps in lore, explained character motivations, and seemed to suggest a new era of Heroes were about to come to the series. It was also beautiful, had probably the most cohesive storylines in the series, and was great fun--I’m really hoping it comes to gamepass with the upgrade to use a controller to play instead of Kinect because I’d really love to play it more. Legends was honestly one of the most visually beautiful games I’ve ever played...I can’t think of anything bad to say about it, actually (and this is with all the glitches and bugs and occasional bad matches in mind). It was just genuinely great fun and a delight to play. The storylines all were well written and had a nice flow and kept me both intrigued and emotionally invested (despite how difficult that is to do in a game where the characters and the people controlling the characters change often). The characters were all witty, charming, and easy to like; the villains were immensely enjoyable and the minor enemies were really great. The tone tended to vary from “light and fun” to “legitimately terrifying” depending on how good a player your match’s villain was and I could have easily sunk into that game like a warm bath for the next ten years if Microsoft would have allowed us to.

The series has so much to offer and it’s been really great to see the growth of the writing team throughout the years--the stories and the world have only gotten richer and more interesting over the years. The characters continue to be vibrant and more enjoyable to have as companions. That is in large part due to how good the first game was (you can’t build a good series without a good foundation), but it’s also a sign of how good the other games were. The devs have clearly put a lot of love and effort into the games and it really shows. The fact that they were willing to explore different time periods in a fantasy setting is a very rare thing that I’m grateful for--I wish more games would do it. So, to bring this to an end, do I like Reaver? Yes. Is he anywhere near the main reason I like the later games in the series? No. I love the later games because they’re fantastic games and I love the series as a whole. Don’t do other fans, or the games themselves, a disservice just because of one character.

TL;DR: Reducing the series to “people only like the later games because they’re horny” undermines the uniqueness and storytelling of the later games and how much the series had potential to grow. If you’re upset your favourite game isn’t talked about more, maybe you should consider making more content for it. We would love to see it! This fandom’s always begging for more content, make something, effect a change, don’t demean others for what they enjoy.

[why-bless-your-heart]

Chapter 6: The Exposure

Chapter title: dun-dun-DUUUNNHH

“Each figure seemed to be, somehow, on the borderland of things, just as their theory was on the borderland of thought. He knew that each one of these men stood at the extreme end, so to speak, of some wild road of reasoning. He could only fancy, as in some old-world fable, that if a man went westward to the end of the world he would find something—say a tree—that was more or less than a tree, a tree possessed by a spirit; and that if he went east to the end of the world he would find something else that was not wholly itself—a tower, perhaps, of which the very shape was wicked. So these figures seemed to stand up, violent and unaccountable, against an ultimate horizon, visions from the verge. The ends of the earth were closing in.” In The Ball and the Cross MacIan says that things come together to a point at the end of the world. This is an apocalyptic theme for Chesterton, and while I don’t think TMWWT was written as an apocalypse there is no denying that it has many of those elements.

“Only three days afterwards the Czar was to meet the President of the French Republic in Paris, and over their bacon and eggs upon their sunny balcony these beaming gentlemen had decided how both should die.” At the time of publication, Nicholas II and Clément Armand Fallières. 

“Then there fell upon him the great temptation that was to torment him for many days. In the presence of these powerful and repulsive men, who were the princes of anarchy, he had almost forgotten the frail and fanciful figure of the poet Gregory, the mere aesthete of anarchism. He even thought of him now with an old kindness, as if they had played together when children. But he remembered that he was still tied to Gregory by a great promise. He had promised never to do the very thing that he now felt himself almost in the act of doing. He had promised not to jump over that balcony and speak to that policeman. He took his cold hand off the cold stone balustrade. His soul swayed in a vertigo of moral indecision. He had only to snap the thread of a rash vow made to a villainous society, and all his life could be as open and sunny as the square beneath him. He had, on the other hand, only to keep his antiquated honour, and be delivered inch by inch into the power of this great enemy of mankind, whose very intellect was a torture-chamber. Whenever he looked down into the square he saw the comfortable policeman, a pillar of common sense and common order. Whenever he looked back at the breakfast-table he saw the President still quietly studying him with big, unbearable eyes.” Syme’s real trial: his duty isn’t just to stop the anarchists, but to keep his promise (made without full knowledge but with complete free will), to Lucian Gregory.

“It never occurred to him to be spiritually won over to the enemy. Many moderns, inured to a weak worship of intellect and force, might have wavered in their allegiance under this oppression of a great personality. They might have called Sunday the super-man. If any such creature be conceivable, he looked, indeed, somewhat like it, with his earth-shaking abstraction, as of a stone statue walking. He might have been called something above man, with his large plans, which were too obvious to be detected, with his large face, which was too frank to be understood. But this was a kind of modern meanness to which Syme could not sink even in his extreme morbidity. Like any man, he was coward enough to fear great force; but he was not quite coward enough to admire it.” Chesterton pulls no punches. 

The Marquis says he wants the personal gratification of sticking a knife into the French president, but the Secretary argues that, ideologically speaking, it must be dynamite, that thought will break up the universe. The Marquis then says that he doesn’t want that quite yet, as he’s still attached to unnamed sins, and Dr. Bull says that it doesn’t seem worth doing those if it’s all meant to be destroyed before the Professor puts an end to the discussion by pronouncing that “nothing is worth doing.” Materialism leads to violence leads to apathy leads to despair.

Jumping ahead again, the melodrama of these exchanges is, frankly, hilarious.

The music of a barrel-organ has a sacramental element in that it takes Syme suddenly out of himself to remind him of the core belief that will let him go down to face his death, phrased in a quote from The Song of Roland:  “Pagens ont tort et Chretiens ont droit,” or “Pagans are wrong and Christians are right.” Like Roland, Syme is now ready to face a warrior’s martyrdom at the hands of the pagans.

Immediately after, Sunday pokes fun at Gogol’s same sentiment when he (somewhat incoherently) exclaims that he will die for mankind and destroy their enemies: “You die for mankind first, and then you get up and smite their oppressors.” His words are aimed at Gogol, but apply just as aptly to Syme’s heroism.

The traitor to the anarchists, the spy in their midst, the policeman on the council, is exposed. It is---Gogol. The twist is like a practical joke as Syme, safe for now despite all of his willingness to die and kill for what is right, collapses, ending the chapter.

[pebblesoasis]

Thank you for the tag @fableroot​ and @bifffybobs​

Rules: answer 21 questions, then tag 21 people (totally breaking this rule) you want to get to know better.

nickname: Jess, Jessie (only family members call me this, please never call me this), Lynnie (my middle name is Lynn)

zodiac: gemini, and boy howdy am I.

height: 5’5 or 5’6 somewhere in the middle.

last thing searched: buffy the vampire slayer reboot 

favorite musicians: Bastille, anyone from the 60s, 70s, and 80s rock genre.

If you had a time machine, would you go back in time or visit the future? Back in time to right a very bad wrong from my life.

do I get asks: From @fableroot ! 😂

following: 120

would you rather be rich or famous? Honestly, I don’t care for either. Money changes people, and fame would kill my nerves. 

amount of sleep: depends on a lot of different factors. But currently I’m getting about 2-4 hours a night.

what I’m wearing: black yoga capris, and a pink tank top

dream job: published author

dream trip: I wanna go to Europe … and just get lost there for a month or eight.

if you were an animal, what would you be? 🦊

what are some of your favorite books/films/shows/games/etc? (why is it, when these questions come up, I can’t really think of anything?? 😂😂)

books: hush, hush saga, house of night, beka cooper series, and a whole lot more that I can’t think off the top of my head. Lol films: I’m not really a big movie person, but I do like a lot of the classic films, even classic horror movies. shows: buffy the vampire slayer, charmed, friends … I’m pretty much stuck in the late 90s and early 00s. games: Fable II and III, borderlands, Halo, The Sims, SimCity, Stardew Valley, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Dragon Age … wow I am way better at naming off games off the top of my head. 😂

play any instruments: does the recorder count??? (I played the clarinet for a year in middle school)

language(s): just English.

describe yourself as aesthetics: idk what the heck i am doing with my life, but hey here i am, love me????

At this point, I’m pretty sure everyone has done it, so I’m just gonna tag the last five blogs I’ve followed and hope they haven’t done it yet 😂 : @satanicmoodlet @fleurgrimm @warmpainting @yellowishsoap @sablesq