#HAD to draw the OGs real quick for Star Wars Day!!!!

[khiquii]

✨May the 4th be with you all!✨

[reslari]

Time to clutter up the timeline, but I had the idea to follow up on the Soulstober post I made with some fun comments that I didn't put on the actual AO3 work (mostly because they sort of interrupt the flow of the very short stories), so I'll do it here where only the real OGs will be able to see what I say.

Day 1: Wings

Lot of people drew Malenia for the wings, and that's fair, but almost all of them did her second phase. I love her Scarlet Valkyrie imagery (and her helmet. God I love that helmet), and the fact her trinkets in Elden Ring reference the wings and victory just was a no-brainer.

Day 2: Scavenge

I linked the fic to my girlfriend. About two minutes later I just hear her yell "Damn it, Patches!" from the other room. Clearly I did something right.

Day 3: Eye

Just wanted to do something for the dead Choir dude you find with the Cosmic Eye Watcher badge on their corpse. Also wanted the Upper Cathedral Ward to fall apart in a lot of the same ways and for a lot of the same reasons as the Research Hall did (In the Hunter's Nightmare, at least). Parallels!

Day 4: Cold

I wanted to go contrary to how many people were drawing Friede (and one or two of Priscilla, bless those folks) for this. Also, wanted to fit as many references to many different kinds of "cold" as possible. Cold tension between Maria and her mother, cold weather at Cainhurst, Maria's slow descent into a much colder personality, and of course, cold and dead. (Ask me what I think Maria was like at Byrgenwerth pre-massacre sometime)

Day 5: Stars

Back to predictability, it's just a quick post-script to the Age of Stars ending from Elden Ring, with a gender-neutral Tarnished. Yes, I do rather enjoy that ending.

Day 6: Rot

Most people associate Malenia with rot, which is fair! Hers is the strongest association, of course. But Friede is the OG on that one.

This is just a quick blurb about what I think was actually going on in Ariandel. Read this and it'll be obvious why I decided to write Rosenrot in the first place.

Then ask me about my Friede headcanons/interpretations sometime.

Day 7: Rune

Caryll is just a silly little guy. Also I know the game calls them "inhuman mutterings of the Great Ones" but I just love playing with the idea that the language of the Great Ones is a whole entire Experience that isn't actually like listening to words.

Day 8: War

Golden Order vs. Caria and Marika's decision to sic Radagon on Rennala. Whether or not that was a good idea or Marika shot herself in the foot in the funniest way possible will depend on what you consider the relationship between Radagon, Marika, and Rennala all was.

Also I love unhinged Marika. The original ending of the chapter had her cursing her steward to never be able to talk again, but it flowed weird.

Day 9/10: Window/Sibling

I had this really strong image of Lothric sitting at a window and talking to his brother. In lieu of trying to come up with a second prompt for the second day, I just combined the two together into one.

I love Lorian and Lothric. Fun characters, probably my second favorite boss fight in Dark Souls 3. Banger soundtrack.

Day 11: Fear

So my girlfriend started a new Bloodborne playthrough last weekend, and while I was sitting on my computer playing a much brighter and friendlier game, I couldn't help but note just how panicked and fearful the huntsmen are wandering the streets of Central Yharnam when they attack you (and even when you hear them muttering to themselves). They're absolutely terrified of you, of your Hunter. There are a lot of things to fear in Yharnam, but your Hunter seems to be one of the most central ones. When disempowerment of the player/character is sort of a hallmark of the Souls series, Bloodborne flipped that on its head in a way, too, just like the slower Dark Souls combat. You're the apex predator here. You're an unknown variable, and you're terrifying.

Then you kill the townsfolk, and their gods, and you sort of prove them right in a way; they SHOULD have been afraid of you.

Man I love Bloodborne.

Day 12: Rain

Breakdown of cycles, weather patterns. Also a slight reference to that post in the main tags that's like "Bloodborne: Sopping wet, Dark Souls: Dusty and dry, Elden Ring: Normal amount of humidity".

Like what if the "dry" was a side-effect of disrupted weather cycles due to the Flame's waning?

(I say "dry" but you run through all kinds of mud and puddles in Dark Souls, and places like Irithyll are still snowing. So, there's still precipitation somewhere.)

Day 13: Mystery

Fia and Rogier and something akin to pillow talk. Going to Stormveil Castle and plumbing the depths beneath it can only end well for Rogier, right? :')

[arlingtonpark]

Winter 2020 Anime Round-Up

I decided to do a round-up of all the anime I’m watching this season because, turns out, most of the shows I was interested in were bad!

I.D. Invaded.

This is a psychological thriller sci-fi mystery type show. It’s about a police unit who uses this sci-fi technology to detect a killer’s murderous intent and create a sort of virtual reality projection of the killer’s mind.

They then take a special agent and insert him into the projection to hunt down clues and find the killer’s identity and whereabouts.

Enjoying this show is not cheap. It asks a lot of you.

1. Don’t laugh at how ham-fisted the exploration of how a killer’s mind works is.

2. Don’t laugh at the special agent’s official designation being “The Brilliant Detective.”

3. Don’t question the ridiculous premise of the show; they use a killer’s particles to create the projection of their mind to hunt for clues, but are later shown using those same particles to pinpoint the killer’s location.

4. Don’t laugh at one of the police unit’s agents being a teenage girl.

5. And, of course, don’t notice all the expository monologuing for the audience’s sake.  

The show is silly, but there’s some intriguing stuff in it. The conflict between the unit’s field squad and the desk workers can be good, though the locus of that conflict being about what seems to be a bureaucratic oversight is pretty weak.

The teenage girl is the most bald-facedly ridiculous thing about this show, but she is unironically the best character. She does some daring, crazy shit in this show and I was legitimately shocked by it.

Oh, yeah, I forgot.

6. Don’t laugh at the OP using recycled production materials and footage from the first episode.

Signs of a quality production right there.

 Plunderer.

>.<

This. Show.

I feel bad for Sarah Wiedenheft. She voices the main heroine in the dub. The in-over-her-head, naïve, helpless heroine, Hina.

God, help us!

Hina is a woman with a mission. She is bubbly and naïve, but stubborn and she gets in over her head by the end of the first episode. Why?

You know why, fool! So she can be rescued by the hero.

This show puts a creative spin on the typical shonen formula. Many shonen shows are designed to be wish fulfillment for teenage boys, with Mary Sue main characters for them to project onto.

The crazy spin on the formula here is that it’s wish fulfillment for sexual predators.

That’s not a joke.

The show takes place in a magical world where everyone is branded with a “count,” a number that increases whenever they complete a task specific to them.

Hina’s count goes up whenever she walks 100 km. Another’s count goes up whenever her food is complimented.

The count is denoted by a number that’s branded somewhere on their bodies. Hina’s count is located on her inner thigh, just below her crotch.

Meanwhile, this is what the hero does to Hina the first time they meet:

This is them at the end of the episode after he rescues her.

You know how in Dragon Ball, Master Roshi was this old pervert? The hero here is like that, except he’s young, not old, and a predator rather than just a pervert.

Licht is the hero; his count goes up whenever he dates someone, I guess, but the thing about him is that he’s a predator, so his count is actually -999. If your count reaches zero, you’re Kylo Ren-ed off into an abyss never to be seen again, so negative counts shouldn’t even be possible.

The reason the hero isn’t dead is because he’s actually.

Wait for it.

The Legendary Ace!

A badass fighter spoken of only in legends!

Who is this show even for?

It’s clearly supposed to be a wish fulfillment kind of show, but the only people I can see projecting onto the hero are, like, really, really pathetic people who fantasize about sexual assault.

(Another female character’s count is located on her left breast.)

The heroine is looking for this legendary ace, but even though she’s lived in this world her whole life, and has traveled throughout it her whole life, she knows nothing about how the count system works.

That was necessary, you see, for two reasons: so the system can be explained to us in monologue, and so the heroine can be made helpless and in need of rescue.

Those with a higher count have a high social status. This could have been a cool exploration of how luck is underappreciated as a factor in one’s social status, since how counts are determined is completely arbitrary and some are easier to increase than others, but no, we don’t get that.

People with a lower count must obey people with a higher count. But you’re in the military, there is an appeals process: if you have a lower count and are ordered by someone with a higher count to do something, you can challenge the high count to a duel and if you win, you can ignore their order.

You can then take the loser’s count and add it to your own.

These duels are called “star stakes.” >.<

Hina, naturally, is suckered into one of these duels and is about to lose everything when Licht saves her by agreeing to duel Hina’s opponent on her behalf.

And just to emphasize how infantilized Hina is in this show, Licht not only saves her physically, he even provides her with some emotional support, but phrased in a way that totally talks down to her.

 Asteroid in Love.

I’ve already seen the first episode three times, and I have no shame!

Doga Kobo is the Kyoto Animation of the past few years. Just as KyoAni made a name for themselves with a string of shows about cute girls doing cute things, Doga Kobo have sort of taken on that mantle.

Three Leaves, Three Colors; Gabriel Dropout; New Game; Senko-san; and now Asteroid in Love are all shows with good characters with good design work and animation better than they had any right to have.

This show is about a girl named Mira who meets a boy named Ao during a camping trip. He has a thing for astronomy and Mira is completely won over by it. They promise to discover and name an asteroid together.

Tragically, that one camping trip was the last they saw of each other.

Comically, they happen upon each other at the start of high school and wouldn’t you know it? Ao was a girl the whole time!

She was very tomboyish at that time in her life, so Mira mistook her for a boy.

But whatever, Mira’s friend still ships them.

They’re both passionate about astronomy, so they reconnect and become good friends real quick.

The friendship between Mira and Ao is by far the best part about this show; unfortunately, everything else is very generic.

High school club? Check.

Club member who’s boisterous and excitable? Check.

Club member who’s serious and down to earth? Check.

But in spite of all that, I could watch this show all day.

The presentation is excellent. The character designs are lovely and the direction and animation are amazing.

 Magia Record.

A spin-off of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Magia Record takes place before Rebellion, but in an alternate universe where the events of Madoka Magica haven’t happened yet. There’s a new cast, but the main cast of Madoka Magica will be back as major characters.

InuCurry, who did the artwork for the witches’ labyrinths are back, this time as series co-directors and co-writers.

The Magica Quartet, the brain trust of people who created Madoka Magica, Gen Urobuchi, Akiyuki Shinbo, Ume Aoki, and Atsuhiro Iwakami, are back too. The four are collectively credited with coming up with the story.

Shinbo, who co-directed Madoka Magica, is back as an animation supervisor. Aoki is back in her role as character designer. Iwakami is co-credited with series planning.

Yukihiro Miyamoto, who co-directed the original series alongside Shinbo, is back as assistant director.

This show…it’s just good to see it all back. The character designs are a bit different from the original series, but they nailed the aesthetic otherwise.

Magia Record draws heavily from plot elements first used in Madoka Magica, but it’s not what I would call uninspired. Anyone who’s seen Madoka Magica will notice the callbacks, but they’re fun, not cringeworthy.

It reminds me of how The Force Awakens brought people back in to the Star Wars universe by heavily echoing A New Hope, but Magia Record is much more creative in its echoing than Force Awakens was.

Everyone who likes the OG series should check this out.

There’s already much intrigue in the story. A magical girl whose wish was granted, but also apparently simultaneously erased from existence, rumors of a city where magical girls can be “saved,” and a Kyubey who is a separate entity from the others.

The show is an adaptation of a mobile rpg. This is from a cutscene.

Iroha Tamaki, the main character of Magia Record, and Homura Akemi. 

Get excited.

 Bofuri.

This show is like Asteroid in Love, in that it would be totally boring if it weren’t totally charming.

This is the type of show that takes a silly phenomenon in the real world and makes it the premise of the whole show. Maple is a girl who’s just gotten into video games. Because she’s a newb, she puts all of her points into defense at the expense of even basic stuff like speed and strength.

Thus ensues hilarity.

There’s not much to talk about here. Maple is endearing as a video game noob. The artwork is great. The writing is legitimately funny in a subdued way.

A+

 Darwin’s Game.

I watched this show because the premise reminded me of King’s Game.

For those who don’t know, King’s Game is widely considered to be the worst anime ever made. It sucks.

King’s Game is about a death game administered over the phone and it the point is that everyone dies. It tries hard to do horror and it fails hard. I watch it every Halloween. :D

Darwin’s Game is about a mobile app game that pits players against each other in death matches. You win by killing all the other players.

With some shows it’s clear the writer can’t decide what they want to do. This show can’t decide if it wants to be trash or legit good.

Immediately you can tell this show is going to suck because the artwork is terrible. This is an ugly show to look at.

The show opens with a cold open clearly made to make the audience ask questions. It succeeds too well.

The opening depicts a random person being chased through the streets and then killed by an invisible furry.

Seriously.

By God, the fanservice in this show…

This doesn’t even fully capture the shamelessness of it. If you watch the episode, you’ll notice her dress has frills from the waist down.

Except for when we see her kneeling down, when her dress is suddenly a single piece of cloth. So we can better see her ass outlined through it.

Things temporarily get good when the main character has to fend off the furry from the opening. It really is thrilling, but everything goes back to crap when the mc has to fight the dress woman in the above picture.

He doesn’t kill her though. Oh, no, he doesn’t.

She becomes smitten by how strong he is and the episode ends with her asking him to bed her.

-barf-

[thesffcorner]

Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel

Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel is written by Daniel Jose Older, and it’s one of the new ‘canon’ novels in the Star Wars universe. It takes place in 3ish different timelines: the first is just after ROTJ, as Han and Lando come together to find a mysterious device called the Phylanx; the second is 10 years prior, right after the events of Solo, as Han Chewie and Sana come across the Phylanx; and the third is before the events of Solo, when Lando and his sidekick L3-73 also cross paths with the Phylanx, neither man aware how important and/or dangerous the device really is.

I was shocked to see so many 1 or 2 stars in the reviews of this book. And then I remembered that this is Star Wars, and I became sad all over again. Don’t get me wrong; I have my issues with the direction Disney is taking with the franchise, and I even have issues with this book. But for me this wasn’t any different than watching an episode of the Mandalorian or watching the Solo film. Let’s start with the positives. 

This book is action packed, filled to the brim with so many locations and characters from the SWU, and at points very funny. The pacing is fast and even, the OG characters are mostly well done, and the new characters fit well within the universe and the story. There is suspense, there are some elements of horror, and overall it’s a very quick and fun read. I think that might bother people if they come into this expecting Empire, when they get Solo, but if you go into it with proper expectations it’s a fun story, but with very little substance. That’s kind of the main issue with this book; the stakes are low and the substance is lacking. Older writes all the characters well, and it’s clear he has some interesting ideas, but whether it be because of a Disney mandate or his own lack of bravery, this book feels inconsequential. We know nothing bad or even noteworthy will happen to Han, Chewie, Lando or Leia, so the stakes rest on how much you get invested in the supporting cast or enjoy the plot. The plot is rather straightforward; it’s a fetch quest, told in 3 timelines and full of fan-service. There isn’t a single place in this book that isn’t some kind of reference or throwback to the films or the show, which made the journey fun, but what the characters are after is really just a big radio, which dramatically diminished my investment. The real draw for this book are the characters. For the most part, I found Han and Lando very accurate, with Leia being the standout; she was the most interesting one even if she isn’t in the book much. The supporting cast was a lot better; Taka was great, I loved the fact that we get an Ewok slicer (and seeing Conder was amazing, even if it was just for a scene). I also felt like Aro was a middle finger to George Lucs and anyone else who keeps hating on the Gungans. I actually liked Sana’s brief cameo here way more than I liked her in the comics, and even L3 was significantly less annoying than she was in Solo. If you have no idea who any of those characters are, that’s where we run into the first problem. This book is not a book for newbies; this is a book for fans, specifically fans of the Disney run Star Wars Universe, who have kept up with all the different media that Disney has put out. Haven’t read the Marvel Star Wars comics? Too bad you won’t get a proper introduction to Sana here. Haven’t seen Solo yet and have no idea who L3 is and why she’s talking about robot rights? I’m sorry, maybe you want to watch that first. Han is heartbroken over a girl? See point b, and watch Solo if you want to find out. I have been decent about keeping up with the SWU, but even I was lost at some points. I had to pause and read Wookipedia for the different races and characters, because I was never sure if I was supposed to know who they are from a different property or if they are just being introduced. At times, reading this felt like I had accidentally turned an episode of season 5 of the Clone Wars, when I’ve only seen season 1. Once I got into the groove, I did have fun. The characters and events I did recognize were done well, and I loved a lot of their banter, especially between Han, Leia and Lando. I actually got really invested in the new characters, which isn’t surprising; I feel like authors have a lot more freedom and leeway to flesh the new characters out, because they aren’t being constrained by Disney mandates like they are with the established ones. Even though I liked Han and Lando, I did feel like Older wrote them to be too similar. Lando isn’t Han; he’s not someone who comes up with a plan 3 secs before execution, he is a smooth talker, a charmer, a politician. Even though in the book he acts like the Lando we know, he doesn’t really talk like him; by the dialogue alone I couldn’t really distinguish them. The book also tries to juggle a few different themes, and it’s a hit or miss. For example, I really liked the discussion of PTSD and triggers; Han talking about how he doesn’t like helmets because they remind him of his soldier days, Taka and Leia’s grief over the loss of Alderaan, even Lando’s remorse and guilt over having to sell Han out to Vader to save Bespin were all done very well. But then we have what Older was trying to do with L3 and the healing droid, this tension between what a droid is programmed to do and what they think is right, which was imo done much better in the season finale of the Mandalorian. That show isn’t even about droids, but IG-11 made more of an impact and had a lot more plot relevance than any of the droids here, aka there WERE NO droids, in this story about a droid virus. Mr. Bones was a more prominent character in Aftermath, and he was programmed to tear people’s limbs off! This book also suffers from a weak villain. Fyzen Goor was an interesting premise of a villain, but much like Dryden Vos is Solo, the book doesn’t do anything with him. He’s at once a mad genius, who managed to survive for 30 years and wreck all this havoc, and yet he’s a complete non presence. He has ties with all the major crime syndicates in the Galaxy, and yet every time we see him he’s jaunting with his green backpack like he’s Bobba Fett. While I liked most of the new crew, some characters were just unnecessary. Kaasha was a potentially interesting character who had nothing to do the entire novel; in fact I forgot she was even in the plot for the entire first half of the book, and she was on the ship! She is just a love interest, and a really bad one at that; I am never a fan of female characters who are introduced to be love interests to characters who are popularly accepted (and according to Kassdan are) queer, especially with Lando, whose entire character arc revolves around her, when she herself has so little personality and things to do. Also for a book that’s set in Star Wars, there are a LOT of sexy scenes. Too many. Then we have Han whose main struggle is feeling inadequate as a father and a husband, which was also his arc in Aftermath. Look, I’ll buy that Han struggle with parenthood, but since when is he having issues with expressing emotions? He very clearly asked Leia what was happening between her and Luke in ROTJ, and expressed both his love for her and understanding if she rejected him. He’s not an emotionally stunted man, even if he would be uneasy at raising a child. The other issue is that this book isn’t about this struggle at all; he mentions Ben a few times, but for the most part Ben and Leia don’t factor into the plot at large at all. So do I recommend this? Maybe? If you like the Clone Wars/Rebels/Solo, if you have read at least the Aftermath trilogy and if you don’t mind inconsistent characterization, then I think you’ll like this. If not, then maybe skip it; I’m sure there are better Han/Lando books out there.

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