#I LOVE IT but also I would like to focus on a bigger more cohesive bbrae project

[withlovelunette]

How to construct character psychology!

– Introduction

Hello hello! :D I’ve been very slow with my writing lately due to uni work (and some unforeseen health issues), but I’d like to still be able to make content and be interactive in the writing community, so I’m here again to share some advice based on my own experiences! One of my favourite things about writing is writing characters, specifically constructing a character’s psychology. I’d like to preface this post by saying that while I’ve had formal classes in psychology, I’m by no means any sort of expert within the field, and I also don’t believe that every aspect of how a character is written needs to be rooted in realism. However, I do want to share some insights that I got from it, and also because I feel like “character psychology” has this very mystified weight to it that makes it seem a lot bigger and intimidating than it needs to be.

So! My goal is just to share some advice on how to break down a character’s psychology and work from there! If you like what you read and would like to read more, I’ve also written a post about creating “complex” characters, which you can find the link to here! Aaand yes I think that’s about all I have to say beforehand, I hope you enjoy :,)

What do I mean when I say psychology?

Before getting into the nitty-gritty, I’d like to start with the basics, just to make sure people are on the same page when reading this post. When I’m talking about psychology here, I’m specifically referring to a character’s cognition, as in how they process information and act on it/make judgments. I’m not necessarily referring to personality in this case (although personality is an aspect of psychology, but I’m more so referring to personality as a consequence of cognition here, rather than as a collage of traits and behaviour).

Another thing I want to clarify is that exactly how much of human behaviour is nurture vs nature is a hotly debated topic that I’m completely under-qualified to take a stance on, but for the sake of this post; I believe both are equally essential aspects of human behaviour, so just keep that in mind! (I’m looking at any behaviourists in the chat rn). That being said; I’m not really comfortable treating psychology as “nature” (as such rhetorics are often used in gender-essentialist and other bigoted ways of thinking), so my main focus will be nurture, since that’s what is most readily observable!

Determining character motivation

If you’re working with very little or bare minimum characterization, my recommendation is to consider; what motivates a person to act? And by this, I’m not referring to the external quest or goal behind the character, but rather, what’s the core of what motivates your character to act at all? Even in grand, epic adventures of good vs evil, where the external goal is as simple as “putting an end to whatever evil the bad guys are doing”, there needs to be a reason a character is specifically on the side that they’re on. Multiple characters can be on the same side, but they might find themselves on that side for vastly different reasons, even when their exterior goals are the same. From there, you’ll want to consider what informs this motivation in particular.

One technique I love to employ, when still figuring out my character, is to have them make some sort of bizarre decision, a decision I’d initially think to be improbable for this particular character, and then try to list off various justifications or variables that would allow for this character to make this particular decision. There’s a couple of reasons for why I do this.

1) It removes some of the pressure to have a perfectly cohesive, perfectly put together and neatly defined character from the get-go. The drafting process isn’t just for plot and story structure’s sake, it’s also there for you to experiment with characters! Having your characters make story altering decisions that possibly challenge or contradict themselves is a great way to make sure that you’re writing active characters as opposed to more passive ones, and I think the first couple of drafts should really be a playground for you to see just how far you can stretch your characters based on their characterisation.

2) It helps me clarify what is and isn’t important in my character’s decision making. I’m a firm believer that most decisions/actions aren’t inherently in or out of character; it just depends on whether or not the readers/viewers can understand the character’s thought process behind their decision, and this ultimately comes down to how well you, as the writer, conveys the character’s priorities when they make decisions. If you’re established that a character acts based on a code of honour, an exterior source to morality and conduct, then the justifications and reasonings they would use to justify murder would likely be very different than a character who acts based on their own convictions. This is also a great way to show character development; by showing how a character’s decisions gradually change as their cognition change as they develop.

3) It allows me to explore nuance and make note of potential contradictions within the character’s way of thinking—which is often the most interesting aspects of a character’s psychology, at least in what I enjoy to write and read. Most real people don’t have perfectly cohesive morals, and most people can’t always act congruently with their morals either, so allow for your characters to make some bizarre decisions! See how far you can stretch their cognition! These decisions don’t have to be canon to the story, but it’s a good way to actually solidify what line of thinking your character makes when faced with difficult and potentially morally indicative choices.

Work your way backwards!

If you already have the overall traits and behavior of your character pinned down, you can always work your way backwards! As a pantser, this is a very common occurrence for me. I have a character with a clear goal and defined characteristics, but they’re completely uninformed so far, as I usually discover the cause of their motivation and characteristics as I write the story. As such, most of my characters don’t have any sort of backstory established until I’m much further into the process, as I discover it as I go along. So here’s some things I look out for in my character writing when creating a backstory after I’ve already established a character.

1) What are some things the character is often drawn towards? Humans are typically very habitual, a lot of us enjoy some sense of familiarity (to varying degrees depending on the person), and taking note of what your character tends to gravitate towards can be a great stepping stone to fleshing out backstory. An example could be a somewhat cold, stoic character who’s incredibly picky with their relationships due to trust issues (pretty common characterization) has a tendency to let their guard down more when around elderly people. Why is that? Maybe they were raised by very old parents, or even grandparents. Maybe it’s a cultural thing to treat elderly with more respect. Maybe it’s a religious thing. Maybe it’s because elderly people have treated them with more kindness in the past, etc. Note that this can be flipped too! Maybe this character feels uneasy around people closer to their own age, or even people who are younger than them.

2) How does your character socialize? The way a character approached social settings can often be very indicative of how they were raised, as that tends to affect how people form attachments (according to attachment theory in psychoanalysis, at least). Are they very sociable? If so, why? Is it because they’re accustomed to being around a lot of people? Maybe they had a very large family, or maybe they had a family that took part in a very active social sphere. Maybe this character just comes off as sociable because they understand the value of social connections. Why’s that? Maybe their family have a political influence, or maybe they have a business they want to sell, etc. Or maybe it’s the complete opposite; maybe this character grew up with little to no family at all, and that’s why they want to make friends and connections. If so, then maybe that affects how they make decisions, leaving them incredibly loyal and somewhat co-dependent. Even the smallest character traits and behaviours can be expanded upon to inform you of how that character was possibly raised, it’s really just about digging into said behaviour!

3) How receptive are they to new experiences or other people’s perspective? This is also somewhat linked to attachment theory, but it doesn’t have to be approached that way! The reason I bring this point up is because I find that a character’s receptiveness is often a good way to gauge their relationship with their parent. For example, a character with very strict, traditionalist parents might adopt that outlook on life because it offers them a sense of stability and security. They weren’t raised to be adaptable or to adjust themselves to new experiences, and thus have a difficult time accepting things outside of their established paradigm. This would suggest that this character likely didn’t rebel much to their parents’ outlooks on things (or if they tried, they failed), since they adopted said outlook for themselves. Another way to write this character (with the same premise) is to have them react in the opposite way; maybe they are super open and receptive because the rigidness of their parents prevented them from ever experiencing anything. Maybe the status quo bored them, or maybe they see their parents as narrow minded. This characterisation suggests that there’s possibly more tension (not necessarily in a negative way) between the character and their parents.

Interplay between morals & behaviour

A character’s morals and behaviour don’t always have to align. Like I mentioned in an earlier point, humans hold a lot of contradictions, and how people cope with those contradictions can vary. However, how do you determine if a contradiction is purposeful rather than a case of out-of-character writing?

Let’s say you have a character who views all animals as sacred, and this is something they were raised with. Suddenly, this character is thrust into a situation in a different world/kingdom/region/etc. where eating animal meat is the only viable food option to survive. They decide to do it, despite their morals directly conflicting with this behaviour.

One way this character might justify this is by thinking “well, my intentions matter most, and my intention was never to hurt animals, so while I feel bad for killing an animal for food, my intentions of doing so respectfully makes this action more acceptable to me.”

But another character in the exact same situation might not be satisfied with such logic. Maybe they see intentions as irrelevant, and only care about the consequences of their actions. If it’s been established beforehand that a character is consequentialist, then this action, paired with the justification above, would feel incredibly out of character, because the logic behind the justification is not intuitive to the reader.

Whether a contradiction feels purposeful or out-of-character ultimately boils down to what information and how much of it you’ve given to the readers, so that they have the information necessary to break down the interplay between the character’s morals and behaviour. 

Using other tools (cognitive functions, socionics, enneagram, etc.)

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I’m very interested in various types of typology (mbti probably being the most popular and well known one), and while I consider all forms of typology to fall under pseudo psychology, I often use these tools to help me better understand my own characters better! I personally gravitate towards cognitive functions (which is not the same system as mbti, even though it uses the same letter system) as they help me put into words my character’s cognition, and enneagram, which describes behaviour and motivations that arise from a person’s upbringing and coping mechanisms. There’s other things you can take into consideration as well, like socionics, temperaments, attitudinal psyche, etc!

I’m not suggesting you use these as replacements for developing characters, but they can be great supplements when trying to dig deeper into your character’s psychology! I’d also argue that you get more out of putting these systems into use if you learn about typology and analyse your characters yourself instead of taking a test for them, but I’m also very biased in this regard, since I enjoy analysing my characters myself :,) And there are times where I’ll take a few tests to help solidify my breakdown if I’m having a difficult time labelling my character correctly. Honestly, just have fun with it!!

– Outro

Sorry for yet another lengthy post! And sorry it was a bit later than I’d anticipated, I had a much busier weekend than I thought I’d have, so I kept having to squeeze writing in anytime I had enough spare time to sit down, and then I stumbled across a series of health complications that I’m still trying to sort out. Which, speaking of, thank you so much to everyone who’s been wishing me good luck! I’m still working on figuring out what’s wrong, but I’m making progress!

As usual, my asks and messages are always open, so feel free to shoot me a message about anything! Even if I may be slower with my replies ^^; Thank you for reading! <3

[stupidrant]

Thank you for tackling another facet of fandom's misogyny which is justifying the hatred for and dismissal of story important female characters and their no less important relationships with male leads by means of invented (and often completely ridiculous) M/M ships. Hei**tre*s is a perfect example of that as it's preferred over a canon romantic storyline for Atreus (which is Atreus/Angrboda). Whereas Heimdall is worshiped and prioritized over Angrboda despite the fact that he is a textbook filler character and a stereotypical two dimensional secondary antagonist "who dies first".

Yet Angrboda whose every single scene brings something new to the story or moves the plot and whose interactions with Atreus are so vital to said plot you cannot omit a single one of them without the game becoming completely different and Atreus's arc crumbling and losing logic, cohesion and sense is dismissed as "boring".

This is that "woke misogyny" that we discussed before (and proves yet again how gamebros and "progressives" are in fact the two sides of the same bigoted coin, just like Alphas and Nice Guys).

Furthermore, this "progressive misogyny" pattern often includes those people making up "arguments" as to why male lead's relationship with a multi-faceted female character is supposedly "unhealthy" or "forced" (which is laughable given their own fanon ships have zero basis in canon). But their imagined M/M ship is somehow "complex and inspiring" because they want a male character they (often undeservedly) put on a pedestal (in this case Heimdall) to get a trophy in the form of another character (Atreus). Whom they - and that's the most absurd part - often also hate as much as they do his canon female love interest. But deem this "worthless and annoying fun-sponge" to be good enough to be a prize for their favourite man.

It's the same toxic thinking that, within the non-romantic realm, reduced Atreus to Kratos's prize and then concluded he wasn't worth becoming one. However, trolls decided that Atreus still might fulfill their fantasy of Thrud/Atreus or Heimdall/Atreus and become a prize for one of them. That's why their favourite moments in their interactions is when Thrud or Heimdall exert physical violence against Atreus and "put that runt in place".

Meanwhile, Angrboda is also seen as an "unworthy" prize, just for Atreus. It all boils down to dehumanization and treating one character as an accessory for another (and shoes how sexism affects characters regardless of gender, just in a different way). That's why canon Atreboda makes trolls so angry as it's an equal and supportive relationship for both of them.

You are also correct in seeing the potential in Skjoldr, sadly, likely becoming that glorified secondary male character whom trolls might use as a perfect cover for their misogyny. So they could continue dismissing or putting down Angrboda to prop up Atreus's interactions with Skjoldr and Thrud. Another scenario that isn't out of the realm of possibility is, as you noted, Atreus forming a trio with Skjoldr and Thrud, with Angrboda being pushed to sidelines.

Now, obviously, canonically neither Skjoldr nor Thrud would ever become Atreus's love interests and are most likely going to have a romantic arc of their own, with one another. But before it happens or in the process of it happening the writers/developers might opt for the "bros over romance" route in regards to A/T/S trio vs Atreboda relationship. It's all the more plausible if the other, grim scenario I suggested before comes to pass and Skjoldr is ultimately sacrificed for Thrud's angst (and, in this case, Atreus's as well, in a platonic sense).

With the criticism she gets, i think they will go against the “bros over atreboda” thing. I think atreboda will be a bigger focus and understandably so (or at least im hoping they will. as i said before, they continued with atreus despite trolls. Im expecting them to do the same with angrboda) I’ve noticed most main (or only) love interests get treated like this. And its usually the female ones in particular. i dont understand why so many people hate on them all the time? Its not like theyre always the same yet there is smth “unappealing” to so many people about said love interests all the time. I wonder if it has to do with the “not like other girls” sort of thing..

[khapaleaf]

Done with my unfair run, finally (well, I was done with it on the 10th, but I wanted to celebrate by gorging myself on extremely sour candy, and afterwards I needed a day to calm down). It took me longer to finish than I had initially anticipated, but it was a grand experience filled with fun times. Anyway, trying to organise my thoughts here, because it will be interesting for me to see whether my opinions will change over time later on, and so into archiving mode I go.

First things first, I think Owlcat did a fantastic job at making this versatile and complex setting accessible to those who are not entirely familiar with it. Prior to playing the game, my own knowledge of this universe was limited to a small number of short stories and a much bigger number of memes without context. Yet going into the game, I never felt overwhelmed with new information, and felt right at home in the Koronus Expanse (or about as much as one can in this grim and unforgiving setting). The in-game glossary and the informative mouseover parts that can appear during dialogues to briefly explain what this or that organisation does, or who that person is and so on helped immensely in helping to ease into it. Bless all developers who do this, honestly. The soundtrack (10/10; not a single bad track, a triumph of a mood-setting music that seamlessly blends with the visual style), art design (pretty fucking metal – love the skulls everywhere; and it is also very interesting to see how Owlcat makes progress with each new game in terms of graphics), and characters all also play a big role in making the game a cohesive and truly engaging whole, and allow to uncover the myriad of complexities native to this setting. I laughed, I wept, I felt a myriad of powerful emotions. This is really it, this is what I want in my rpgs! And I want to play it over and over and over again. Fortunately for me, my brain is wired in a way that allows me to do just that without getting bored.

The main story itself is ultimately not all that complex, but the way it is built up within the game is genuinely interesting and engaging even despite the relative emptiness of the post-Commorragh chapters. I like that the planetary quests are structured a bit like self-contained episodes, while at the same time falling neatly into the puzzle that paints the bigger picture of the state of the Expanse. Still, I wish that there was a kind of overarching red thread present throughout the narrative like in the Pathfinder games (even though, yes, I get that these are vastly different settings and narrative experiences). For example, in Kingmaker, the kingdom has to resolve numerous issues throughout the years, but the threat of Nyrissa destroying it altogether looms over the heroes at all times – that is the kind of red thread I am talking about. It seems to me that there is a distinct lack of such a detail in this game, but if it were actually present in the story, the momentum after the third chapter would not have been lost, and it would have added some gravitas and an emotional punch to the later part of the game. Maybe there should have been more focus on Theodora’s involvement in the grand scheme of things, and how it affected the present timeline, maybe there should have been an overarching antagonist... There should have been more interactions with Nomos, definitely. Still, even with the blemishes, the story managed to draw me into a state of fascination and infatuate me with its vast cast, even though at times it felt as if I am taking part in a quietly moving tragedy, with every small decision slowly leading to a point of no return (but it fits the setting, so no complaints there). And really, this is not my first time loving a game with a less than stellar closing chapter. After all, both Tyranny and Kotor 2 stand among my favourites.

I do wish that it were possible for the player character to be a bit more involved in/written into the setting in terms of reactivity to their background and selected class. The amount of variation in the character creator with all of the different backgrounds, archetypes, skills and triumphs and so on is phenomenal, but the fact that it is all there pretty much only to serve the game mechanics side of things instead of the narrative is honestly a bit of a letdown. I suppose that this could be related back to Theodora’s insistence to forget their previous life in one of the earlier dialogues, but the option to acknowledge the character’s background would have been a fantastic touch nonetheless. I thought it was ridiculous that my first (and main, as is customary for my playthroughs) character, a voidborn, had the option to ask Vigdis to explain just what the hell a voidborn is, and how their lives are structured, but no actual option to relate to her on that level. Of course, it is entirely possible to disregard those questions completely, but then there would not be much to talk about with her, unfortunately. And she explains things so poetically, too. Just... give my character the option to relate to this experience (even though, as far as I understand, the rogue trader cannot be too voidborn-y, otherwise they would not have had the option of becoming a rogue trader in the first place). They did apparently add in some reactivity options along with the big patch back in February, but I do not have a save from that early in the game, so I cannot check whether anything at all was written in for this particular instance, or if this reactivity meant something else entirely.

Also, when it comes to the player character, I am still not entirely sure whether I enjoy the conviction system or not. I like that it restricts certain items, decisions, colony projects and such to specific conviction levels, but I do not like how it ties into the endings in the sense that one with the highest rank overrides everything else without taking into consideration the actual decisions made in the game. Basically, do tell the story of my character’s deeds, but do not presume to know what they were motivated by. My character had the most points in the Iconoclast branch (though it was roughly equal points-wise with the Dogmatic branch prior to the lock-in), and was described as an open-minded, merciful soul because of it. Open-minded, perhaps, certain in-game decisions do point to that being a possibility, and I do not even mind the fact that the Imperium feels the need to go to war with the entire Expanse because of those decisions – this fits, more or less. But was she merciful and compassionate? I do not think that a person who servitorises people left and right, uses them as fertiliser, thinks that cutting out the tongues of servants is a great idea to emulate, executes entire noble families as a precautionary measure, nukes and purges whole ass planets, and pretty much channels her inner Camellia on a regular basis is the space mother Teresa that the game makes her out to be. She is a basic bastard, but she is my basic bastard like all of my characters are, but I enjoyed her journey and I am rather protective of her, for lack of a better word. Perhaps it is a minor thing, but I do not like that the narrative makes assumptions about my character like that. And what of nuance? Sure, she did offer help to certain individuals, but it was done more from the point of view of someone who wants to ensure their loyalty, not someone who is genuinely concerned for said individual. That one dialogue with Cassia in particular was a defining point in her character building.

So here I am, trying to make a cohesive portrait in my mind, taking mental notes on what makes my character tick, and then the ending slides come up, and introduce their own static idea of what my character was like. Oh well, I suppose such are the limitations and restrictions placed on the character due to their native environment being a video game. Perhaps I could simply ignore this part, as I did with the whole kidnapping shenanigans timeline in WotR. Something to think about, I suppose.

Fortunately, the other characters, both the companions and the support characters are all a colourful bunch. And largely consistent in their attitudes and beliefs! Each of them speaks and acts in ways unique to no one but themselves, and I really like when the companion characters specifically chime in with their opinions and even have their own back and forth interactions in conversations. There is a lot of that, more than in any other Owlcat game to date, I would say. Still, when it comes to the companions specifically, I wish there were more deeply developed ways of interaction present. What I mean is that there is no option to really get to know them and become confidants, if not friends. I do feel attached to them as a player, but I would like to see my character actually interact with them more outside of their personal quests. Talking to Pasqal while he is being involved with all of the tech stuff on board? Cool! Cassia visiting the rogue trader to ask for their advice? Excellent, give me more of that, please. Getting drunk with Jae? Absolutely fantastic and hilarious (well, that was actually part of her quest, but it was still pretty unique bit, I think). I wish there were more scenes like that throughout the entirety of the game, but that is honestly my wish for any game that features companions.

On a smaller note, I also think that the book excerpts, letters and notes were wonderfully written, and I could easily imagine the personality of the author behind them, their worries, their beliefs and their desires in life.

I do think that there should have been a bit more voiced dialogue, especially when it comes to non-companions, to get a better feel for their personality as well as their presence in this world, but at the same time I am also not at all upset that a huge bulk of the dialogue happens through nothing but pure text, as I generally prefer to read and skip past the voice acting in video games on subsequent playthroughs, anyway. Unless the lines are really good, of course. And what is actually voiced is fantastic – Owlcat always manages to pick voice actors that are so vibrant and memorable and are a joy to listen to, always. Even now, I can read a line, any line, and imagine that it is spoken by Ekundayo or Jaethal, for example, all with their unique speech patterns and inflections. Here as well, the voice actors did such a remarkable job of bringing life to the characters, that I find it easy to imagine what their unvoiced lines sound like.

That said, I did not particularly enjoy the voice sets for the player character this time around, at least initially. It seems to me like they all have a bit too much personality, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I am used to selecting these voices as a mere formality (so that the character would make noise when they are hurting in combat, or when they find something on the map), not as a pretty damn defining feature for my characters. It definitely took time to adjust. Still, it was an interesting experience, because these voice lines, somewhat surprisingly, helped me develop the character even further because I go into games without having a clear vision of what the character is going to be like, and instead develop them on the go. But! The voices for the dudes are all kind of revolting to listen to. Unfortunate, but not surprising, because I also disliked all but one in the Pathfinder games. They all sound like they have a fish bone stuck in their throat and need someone to german suplex them to get it out, looney tunes style. How will I ever experience the romance with Lady Cassia under these conditions, damn it?

Speaking of romances, I think it is hilarious that the one my character ended the game with (Marazhai) is on the opposite spectrum in terms of pretty much everything to the one I wanted her to end up with (Yrliet) before playing the game. On my first run, I was certain that the latter caught a bug sometime during its course, and thus ended abruptly without even having a proper start, but apparently Yrliet does not like it if one decides to stab a dude in the neck in front of her, as it was later explained to me. Not a fan of such colourful methods of courtship, then. But it is fine, I would rather see the characters fit together rather than force anything by having my character act in ways that do not fit them to keep the romance going. So in comes Marazhai. The dude definitely has some enviable home decor skills, is very useful in combat encounters and deals a ton of damage, sends out a bunch of his kabalites to kill the enemies of the dynasty, gives not one, but two very cool and useful buffs (and they are intangible, which means more place to equip all sorts other beneficial items – and there is such a wide variety of items to choose from, it is incredible), and is pretty hilarious overall. Also! He managed to take out nine fucking participants (five of which were at full health) of the Aeldari ambush all by himself after the rest of the party was taken out of commission. That was the most clutch moment of the game for me. So... A worthwhile investment, I say. And, most importantly, he and my character actually fit. It is stupid and hilarious, perhaps unintentionally, but they fit.

The combat! I approached it cautiously because, while I do enjoy turn-based combat, I did not actually like what I saw of it in WotR, because it seemed a bit too wobbly to me, as if the camera was swimming all over the place whenever I tried moving the party, and that made me nauseous (I never finished the fallout-bunker-type side quest due to this). To my surprise, I ended up enjoying it very much from day one, even with my immensely stupid decision to experience the game on hard difficulty during my first run of the game. I am not going to say that it was an easy task, but it was fairly manageable, and I also think that it actually helped quite a bit with making the story feel more fittingly uninviting and grim, given the amount of obstacles the characters had to overcome. Thus far, I have three full runs in total: my main run, which I did twice now, and a kind-of-sort of gimmick run with three officers in the party (plus three other characters to bash enemy heads in), though playing an officer and controlling a party member that happens to be an officer feels different to me, and I have to admit that I did not actually enjoy having the main character be one.

For my unfair run I decided to take my first character, partly because she is the one I consider to be my main, and I wanted get a more polished version of her journey, partly because I read a brilliant comment of someone saying that the warrior class is shit in this game, and my character is indeed a warrior. Well, a warrior/psyker/assassin, with the psyker disciplines being telepathy and biomancy (some people shit on telepathy, too, but it is my favourite due to offering quite a few ways to debuff and damage enemies). Still, I became curious whether she is fit to handle the unfair difficulty. And she is! My strategies may not be the best, and my builds do not allow for instantaneously killing the big bosses (oneshoting a creature with over 20000 hp? In your dreams, maybe), but they do get me through the entire game without me ever needing to lower the difficulty. And at the end of the day, so long as there is more of the enemy on the floor than there is of my guy and their party, that is the only thing that matters. Here are some of her greatest hits.

Considering that she is a bit of a hybrid build, and thus has to juggle between more ability scores than a pure warrior class, I think the results she can show are pretty good. These are all from the last zone, of course, but she is indeed able to hold her own in a fight and dish out substantial damage, both mental and physical, throughout the entirety of the game.

Overall, I was expecting the unfair difficulty to make me feel like the tussles with the wild hunt in Kingmaker did – as if I am about to experience explosive diarrhoea and vomit at the same time. And while there were numerous times when I felt like a single enemy attack could dismantle my entire party (fortunately, that tension is all part of the fun for me), ultimately as the companions levelled up their archetype abilities, and the number of available actions and manoeuvrers grew bigger, most of the fights stopped presenting a challenge in a way where it felt that the deck is truly stacked against them. I often felt like going into the difficulty settings just to check whether it is still set to unfair. Still, while I do not think Owlcat has plans for such a dlc just yet, I would actually enjoy going through a purely combat-focused one, perhaps with a planetary multi-level dungeon with an extravagant amount of dudes to have mega tussles with. More challenges, please!

But I will also admit that I do not yet understand how to build some of the party members to make them valuable in combat. Idira should be extremely powerful, in theory. And she is, but she is also doing way too much damage to the party and often gets taken out of commission during the first round, and look – now the party has to fight a shit demon on top of these other twenty guys. I am missing something crucial here, a way to prevent that from happening, a way to reduce the perils of the warp phenomena from occurring. Could it be the difference between a sanctioned and unsanctioned psyker? Mine is able to spam both damaging abilities and buff the party when the purple warp bar is at full capacity, and yet no demons will be summoned, what the hell?! Heinrix is another character that I do not know how to build properly just yet in a way that would make him strong on the lower levels. Passing out during his own quest? Pathetic!

I know it is my own fault for failing to build him properly, but come on dude, work with me a little!

I have not yet grown fond of the space battle mini-game within the game. I can see them being thematically necessary an largely unavoidable when taking the setting into account, and yet I appreciate them only slightly more than the puzzles in their previous games. I think I would have liked them more if the battles were presented in storybook format (with skill and equipment checks and so on) in order to make them feel less like padding in the game. Oh look, the green field is now positioned in a way that forces the ship to fly in the opposite direction of its enemies! And now the damaged enemy ship is attempting an escape, and now our guns cannot even reach them, and now they are successfully leaving the battlefield. And I have to reload the entire thing and try to shoot them down immediately because I cannot accept anyone making a successful escape. I understand that one enemy ship escaping still counts towards our party’s victory, but I need to see everyone in pieces.

Well, I am probably forgetting about a number of smaller details I would have liked to talk about, but the main thing is that I loved the game. Top 3, definitely! I will not deny that there are quite a few blemishes that hold it back, and there is still a lingering feeling that it game could have been even bigger and more complex, if only the development time was longer. Hopefully, that potential will be tapped in a sequel, if Owlcat ever decides to make one. And I hope that they will stay true to themselves when they do so.

[dongzhou3kingdoms]

Yellow Sky Revolt Review

Tipped off by @sunfin3k this might be worth a try, grabbed kindle edition (for less then £3 so thanks for that price).

Baptiste Pinson Wu (who can be found on twitter and 3k communities) has taken a concept people often discuss for a game or other media. Life via the eyes of Liao Hua, Turban who lives to see the fall of Shu-Han, but actually did it. Being book one, this covers the beginning (the title may be a bit of a clue) but from a farmer's boy rather then a yet grand figure.

Wu has drawn upon a mix of sources, history, novel (with a leaning towards the novel), TV shows for his characters (he explains this well in his author notes) and managed to keep it cohesive. So you will get nods to both historical characters and novel figure (also a lot of Turbans), including new figures for Liao Hua's circle while reflecting them from a young Liao Hua's view. When making a choice of how one would write a character, such choices won't please everybody all the time but we all have different angles of how we portray someone and there are certainly fun nods for those who know the era.

I had fun and I do look forward to reading the next book. Deeper thoughts below (no spoilers)

The writing style is easy to read and he aims to be accessible, smoothly inserting explanations, but, perhaps in a bid to touch upon the culture of his wife, the use of the odd little Chinese (pinyin) word is possibly not a great idea for first timers? Not without a small glossary for it? He doesn't overdo it and usually (either via a line that follows or context) easy to understand but I do wonder if that might put one or two off.

Each character gets a brief appearance description while avoids the issue some have with the romance of throwing so many names at people. Figures gradually come into Liao Hua's life and only need to focus on a set few at a time, those he focuses on do make an impact as they are built up over their time with Liao Hua.

Humour aims for the boyish humour that people of Liao Hua's age would go for and ones aimed over his head (my fav bit involved Zhang Fei's memorable entrance). Goes for a sometimes harsh world with corporal punishment at the ready but bar one scene, didn't think he overdid it.

Liao Hua in this is both the elderly defeated general, looking back over his life and able to use that to help inform the narration, and Liao Hua the youth who is on a distant farm and is young, with so much to learn. A kid, unaware of so much and treated like one by those around him. Wu manages to knit together that balance well of the old head and the youngster.

I really admire how Liao Hua doesn't have major knowledge of things he shouldn't. No "and he knows the eunuchs are evil" or "woe, the Han court is evil and uncaring", more it is a distant entity most of the time and what he picks up are rumours or talk that may or may not be 100% accurate.

On the balance between "you want Liao Hua to be central enough to the story" (ie seeing events, interacting with figures) vs "avoiding being the special one", I think Wu keeps that balance. One situation I thought might go potentially too much towards the special one avoided that trap.

Book is split into two parts. First part I loved, the farm, the distance, the youthfulness vs the world, why Liao Hua became interested in the Turbans, the people he met, his being drawn into something bigger. I was a big fan of how the issue of magic was handled. It faded for me near the end when it came to a bit close to the novel, the build up to the scene was good but despite playing it from a different perspective, didn't quite land the moment, and the transition to part 2 was not the most exciting.

On paper I wasn't sure what I would feel about phase 2 initially when I saw the direction but soon found my attention fully engaged again. I don't think I can speak about what I enjoyed without spoiling it but felt that it was well pulled off involving figures I'm fond of. Got to see Liao Hua grow both during moments of peace then as danger reasserts (well done sense of the world changing) and an enjoyably teasing way to end.

[kitkatt0430]

This is also still the Wally + Cisco outpowering Barry anon. . . I've read your salty ask abt Eric Wallace's decisions of 'The Flash' and. . . which characters storylines you'd have changed? And what it'd be about and why?

I think this is all. Sending good luck and may things be looking up for you. 🍀🍀🍀

While Eric Wallace didn't really take over until S6, I'd have started with S5. Instead of Iris and Barry's time traveling daughter Nora, bring in Meena and some other speedsters - like August Heart - who were given powers at the end of S3 and were puttering around in the background of S4. Much as I do like Nora, bringing in characters from the actual comics would likely been better received and opened up better options for adapting comics story-lines to the show.

There would have been no splitting Frost and Caitlin into separate bodies in S7. And no shoehorning in another bland love interest for Caitlin just to drop him when evil not-really-Ronnie showed up. No Mark Blaine. Bring back Lisa Snart to pick up where her brother left off on forming the Rogues - she'd make an interesting counter point to Amunet. Where Amunet exploits metas to make a profit, Lisa offers protection and mutual gain (a true partnership).

Iris' mirror arc would have been a lot more tightly plotted and wouldn't have had the whiplash of her coming into her own and poising her to save herself only to immediately reverse course to make her Barry's damsel to save.

There wasn't much I liked about S7 and S8 I largely skipped, so a lot of that would have been chucked out the window. And while there were parts of S9 I enjoyed, the show really struggled to balance itself in those final seasons. Either it was dragging plots out way too long (mirror arc) or not giving them enough time to breathe (the Red Death arc) or giving the impression that they had no idea what they were doing and had just kinda thrown darts at a board to decide what the plot was (Armageddon). Taking the focus off the core members of Team Flash - Barry, Cisco, Iris, Caitlin - to put on newer characters - Allegra, Chester, Khione, Blaine - also really hurt the show because none of it felt cohesive with earlier seasons and meant that plot lines we'd been looking forward to for a long while - Iris making the Central City Citizen a success being the most notable - happened either as secondary plots or even between seasons and episodes where they weren't shown at all. They were things we were just told afterwards.

Honestly, Iris suffered the worst of the core Team Flash members in the latter seasons. Her big success with CCC happens in between S7 and S8. How'd it go from a handful of people in a small office down the hall from Ralph to a big sensation rooted in a much bigger office in a completely different part of Central City? Who knows? They certainly never showed it happening. A lot of Iris' early arcs were mirrored poorly in Allegra's development, heaping more responsibility on to Allegra than she had the actual experience needed to take on. We got to see more of Allegra the reporter working for the CCC than we got to see Iris the reporter and CEO running the CCC. Allegra also got handed a stronger relationship to Cecile than Iris got to have, already a problem because Cecile and Caitlin seemed to have a tighter relationship than Cecile and Iris too. Of the all the characters established in S1 who were still there in the later seasons, Iris was consistently the one with the least amount of personal ties and weakest relationships with the rest of the characters. So I think that's what I'd want to fix the most.

Anyway, thanks so much for your asks. I really enjoyed answering them. I love getting to ramble about fandom meta and fanfic ideas. :D

[gillianthecat]

please do write your thoughts on blueming if you want/have the time, i would love to read them 🙏🏻

Hi Anon! Thank you so much for asking, I'm excited that you want to hear my thoughts on Blueming! I loved this show and all its characters so much.

Sorry this took a while, I wrote it up and was planning to organize it more, but I've decided just to post it as is. It got pretty long, so it's below the cut.

My initial reaction to Blueming was of being viscerally transported back to my 18 year old self. That eventually faded as I got immersed in the characters and their world, but the sense of realness and weight to worldbuilding remained.  I’ve never been a film student in S. Korea (or anywhere), but it felt completely plausible that this is what it was like.

At the same time, there was a kind of a fairy tale, magical feel to the show.  Which, interestingly, added to the feeling of realness rather than taking away from it.  Perhaps it’s just the effect of looking back through the mists of time, but my first year of college did have a slightly unreal, anything-is-possible, the-whole-world-is-new kind of feeling, which I thought that Blueming captured.  Part of it was in the cinematography, and I think part of it was the pacing, where transition scenes were skipped and things left unsaid.

Pacing

I’m not sure how I feel about the show’s pacing overall.  As I said above, it did contribute to that fairy-tale, nostalgic-for-the present feel, but it sometimes just felt like things were missing. This was only my second short form S. Korean BL, so maybe it's just something I have to get used to. But the rhythm of Semantic Error’s eight slightly longer (18 to 27 min) episodes felt more natural than Blueming’s eleven shorter (11 to 16 min) episodes. My feeling that the pacing was slightly weird might just be because I’ve had no ability to focus recently and kept pausing and taking breaks, but I’ve been doing that for most shows so I don’t think that’s the problem. 

It really felt like Blueming wanted to be either a single cohesive film or a longer series. It was the length of a longish film: two and a half hours. And it was about film making, so that seems like a natural fit. It also felt like it had a film-like reticence, a not needing to have everything said out loud or explicitly depicted.  It kept a lot of things as inferences or implied.

 I realize that it was made from a webtoon, so the episodic divisions and titles come from that, but they didn’t really fit this version.  The 12 minute chunks felt arbitrary rather than natural to the rhythm of the story.  Or rather, it felt like they manipulated the story to fit into those 12 minute chunks when maybe the story wanted to be told another way.  

It also felt like the story could have been expanded, although I also suspect that would have ruined some of its specialness.  There were a lot of fascinating supporting characters that felt like real people, and we only got glimpses of their stories.  Part of me wants to have more of their stories, and part of me thinks just glimpses were perfect.  It made the world feel fully realized, without distracting from the main story of our main couple.  The mothers, for example: both seemed like fascinating people on their own, but I also think we got as much of them as we needed for them to feel like real people.  

The bigger question is, are we missing important parts of Cha Si-won and Hyeong Da-woon’s story? It sort of felt like that and sort of not.  I liked the elliptical feel, where you have to read between the lines to figure out the progression of their relationships in places.  There were a few points that were actively confusing, about how much time had passed, or how they got from point a to point b.  But mostly it worked.  

Hyeong Da-woon’s fantasy!

Or maybe it was a dream, but it felt like a fantasy to me.  Actually, I wasn’t sure it was a fantasy while watching.  I thought so at first, but then when he went out into the kitchen, it seemed like his hopes for his parents, even in his fantasy, were so (heartbreakingly) low. They didn’t acknowledge him even in his wildest dreams of happiness. So by the time he met Cha Si-won I had decided it was reality and didn’t realize it was a fantasy until we saw Cha Si-won in bed the next morning.  And it felt like a switch, but I guess by that point I identified enough with Hyeong Da-woon to go along with it. I too wanted him to get the love story of his dreams.

Anyways, about the content of the fantasy.  It low-key broke my heart.  He wants his parents just to be home with him sometimes. And he wanted Cha Si-won to choose him.  Of course the easy forgiveness without a proper apology or a conversation is a fantasy, and he knew that wasn’t a reasonable thing for him to want.  But the other parts. In his fantasy, Cha Si-won was the seme. Cha Si-won was the one stepping forward, to come to his house, to pull him into the hug, to take his hand and pull him along, to initiate the kiss.  And that low-key broke my heart. I do think he truly loves Cha Si-won as he is, flailing insecure mess and all.  But Hyeong Da-woon! He just wanted someone to choose him! Someone to go out of their way to bring him into their life. The whole show, he was the one reaching out to the people he loved.  He was shown calling his parents.  He was the one pursuing Cha Si-won.  Yes, he was popular and acquaintances approached him, but that’s not the same as being chosen by someone who loves you for who you are.  And again, I don’t think he’s unhappy with Cha Si-won as he is, its just… I don’t know, I love that that tension is there and is never resolved even with the happy ending.  

The Ending

I do love their ending though - the apology and that whole conversation.  And Jo Hyuk Joon’s acting was subtly wonderful - the way he braced himself for the conversation, the way his face fell when Cha Si-won walked away, his utter relief and hope when Cha Si-won came back.  And I loved that the issues between them weren’t simplified, it was about pulling strings, but it was more about how Hyeong Da-woon reacted to the conflict. And I loved that Cha Si-won was mature enough, had grown up enough to see that that was the problem.  Hyeong Da-woon may have been the one pursuing him, but he was strong enough and present enough to want to shape their relationship as well.

Both the actors were amazing. Well, everyone was, but the two leads in particular, and I was surprised to see they were both new to acting (if MyDramalist’s lists are complete). They perfectly embodied their characters, neither over-acted or under-acted.  I personally like it when the actors are older, as an older person myself. And they both convincingly passed as university students, even the 31 year old Jo Hyuk Joon.  There was alway that one guy who just looked more grown up than anyone else, you know. 

Themes I Noticed & Other Unorganized Observations:

~ Appearance and lookism, obviously.  Although it felt like this faded away after the first 2 or 3 episodes.  I initially thought they were going to be acting students because of this lookism thing.  But it wasn’t so much about beauty per se as about how people perceive you vs. how you feel inside/who you really are.

Fatphobia, related to the above but not the same.  And honestly not really addressed.

~ Parents - both sets of parents were imperfect - overly involved and under involved.  I like that Cha Si-won’s relationship with his mother was never really resolved, he says ‘she never did apologize’ - I think that would have felt too pat and fake.  There would have needed to be a lot of onscreen work shown to make that feel real, and the story wasn’t about that relationship.  But at the same time, I could really feel the genuine love between them, and how the mother thought she was doing the best for her son, within her somewhat self centered worldview.

~ The whole thing with Hyeong Da-woon pulling strings.  On my second rewatch, I noticed the scene where he’s at the Cha family dinner and the mother is complaining about the costs of their school project.  My impression was that’s the reason he did it, or at least one of the big motivators.  He saw a problem that he could help solve.  And he of course didn’t know that Cha Si-won hadn’t submitted his scenario himself, so he thought that he wanted to win the prize.  (I think the conflict would have been somewhat different if Si-won had been trying for the prize himself.) 

Maybe it’s because I have a bit of a crush on him myself, or maybe over-identify with him, but I’m not as angry at him about the string-pulling as some people I’ve seen. He was just trying to help out the guy he liked! He’s only 20, he hadn’t thought it through. And he grew up in the film industry world, where connections matter, it probably felt like a normal thing to him - that’s just how business is done in that world.  And honestly, we don’t even know exactly what he asked his parents - was it, “pick this guy, please” or, “take a look at this guy's script, he’s a friend of mine.” If it was the latter, then the parents are more to blame. (they’re to blame either way, but Da-woon has less blame.) I know I sound like a Da-woon apologist. Probably because I am a Da-woon apologist.  

Don’t get me wrong, I think Si-won was right to get angry at him.  He fucked up. It helped Si-won in many ways, but it was also legitimately hurtful.  Da-woon wasn’t thinking about the impact on Si-won. (To be fair, he didn’t know him all that well at that point when he made the request.  And another person could have been more straightforwardly grateful for the boost.  Although I don’t think that’s a person who Da-woon would have fallen in love with.  

~ Si-won’s beach scene speech about pain.  I was like, oh, Da-woon’s gotta be falling for him hard right now.  He looks like he wants to kiss the fuck out of him.  So I was really glad that happened.

~The kisses were great! They felt real, and what’s more is they felt absolutely in character, which I don't always feel even from objectively good kisses.  I think maybe it helps that the actors are older?  I don’t know, I was just trying to think of other in character kisses - Old Fashion Cupcake.  Billy and Seng in both shows I think did pretty good.  Vee and Mark? Semantic Error? Yes to both.  So maybe it’s not as rare as i think.  But I guess it also felt like the way they wrote the kissing - the whole bit with Si-won kissing too hard and Da-woon’s laughter and telling him to relax - it felt like there was character development alongside the kissing, which was nice.  

~First watch, I thought Ba-woo (the guy with glasses) had a crush on Yun-jeong (the short haired girl), but the second time I realized it didn’t show that at all.  Which was nice, because then I could freely root for Cha Si-yeong (the sister) without feeling sad about breaking Ba-woo’s heart

~ I loved the sister’s courtship of Yun-jeong! I loved Yun-jeong in general.  The scene with the bad guy was wonderfully real and nuanced.

~ The bad guy was well drawn.  He felt real.  A plausible film student asshole.  

Out of the non-bad guy characters, the sister is the one who fucked up the most, submitting the script without permission.  I would have been furious with her if it was me.  And the show didn’t really get into this - it showed Si-won getting mad at her, but didn’t follow up much.  And oddly enough it worked for me. I guess because she’s young, and the family is already shown to be overly enmeshed in each other’s lives. And the story wasn’t about that relationship, so i didn’t mind that that thread was dropped.  And I was still able to like her and cheer on her courtship of Yun-jeong.  Perhaps another factor is that her doing that was a driver of the plot, so as an audience member I can’t be too mad.

~ More to say on Da-woon’s brand of perfectionism?  I actually liked that we didn’t get to see him crack til the end.  And the very last scene was of him starting to tell his story back at their hotel.  The balance of the show felt right that way. And that even when Si-won gave him permission to speak, validated that his struggles mattered, he didn’t start talking right away.  That felt real - too distracted by just wanting this person who was willing to see you for who you were.  He didn’t have anything to complain about in that moment, his life was great!

~ The more I write, the more I can see why Da-woon fell for Si-won.  It intuitively made sense while I was watching the film, and the actors built great chemistry that made it feel real.  But in analyzing this, I can see how Da-woon was drawn to somebody like that.  I mean, at first I think it was just attraction, a crush based on superficial things.  But Si-won is willing to be so vulnerable with Da-woon, right from the beginning.  It’s not intentional, I don’t think, I think it’s just that Si-won has this stormy mix of feelings inside him - attraction and jealousy and probably other things - and all his flimsily constructed facades of “coolness” just fall apart around Da-woon.  But Da-woon is drawn to that vulnerability in a cute guy.  Notice how in that drunken conversation he said, 'I thought we were alike.'  He sees this other guy being put up on a pedestal and pressured to be perfect, but the difference is the other guy won’t stay up there. And while Si-won feels like he’s a failure for falling off it, I think Da-woon, being already attracted to this guy, is drawn to, and envious, and protective of that vulnerability.

~ And despite all his mixed up feelings, Si-won feels safe with Da-woon.  He trusts him to fall apart on, he trusts him enough to be “bratty” and rude.  Which normally isn’t how I would recommend trying to court someone, but it makes sense for these two men, so invested in presenting an image of perfection to the world, that letting down that image, letting your vulnerabilities be seen (Si-won), or not being scared off by those vulnerabilities (Da-woon) is an immensely appealing form of intimacy.  Si-won had been flawed and vulnerable with people before, but it had scared them away (other kids) or they told him to change himself (his mom).  Here was a person who seemed to like his insecurities! Who thought he was cute! Who didn’t run away when he said, “here I am, and I’m a mess.”  How could he not start falling for Da-woon?

~ I’ve read a bunch of reviews where people said they had trouble liking Si-won until later in the series, but oddly enough I never had that problem.  Maybe because I was so viscerally transported back to my own college years, that right off the bat I identified with him and his anxieties and insecurities, even though I’m not actually that much like him.  So while I can see how he’s very annoying, I never got annoyed at him

~ To be honest, I think a lot of both their initial interest in each other was sexual attraction.  Which they each responded to very differently. But that attraction pushed them to really look at each other and gave them the chance to see a person they liked and connected with and fall in love.  

~ I think a reason why this series resonated with so many people (besides being well made) was that it’s about the idea that falling in love is about seeing someone and allowing yourself to be seen. The whole mortifying-ordeal-of-being-known quote.

What other shows are about this vulnerability?  My Beautiful Man, but in a very different way.  Blueming talks about this idea openly.  I guess My Beautiful Man does too.  I guess all love stories deal with this implicitly, but not necessary overtly. (I wrote a little about how various shows are about this idea of vulnerability but it didn't really fit here.)

And maybe why this didn’t quite feel like a BL to some?  Too honest, not quite enough fantasy?

~ This is another one of those ‘bubble’ korean bl’s that absolutebl talks about, where they never directly acknowledge queerness or homophobia, so it’s hard to know how much of an impact that has on the characters.  But it definitely feels like it could be part of the story (in a way it doesn’t as much in Semantic Error) given their concern with perfection and hiding and how they’re seen.  The fact that so many of their conversations aren’t shown allows the audience to imagine they do talk about this. If not during the time period of the show, after it’s over and they’re finally having open conversations.~

~ Second season.  I’m guessing it focuses on other characters? But a second season focusing on these two could work, along the lines of I Promised You the Moon.  They both  still have growing to do.  Although they end in a much more mature point than Teh and Oh-aeow did in ITSAY.  So it would be tricky to make something that balances A) a compelling plot/conflict, B) staying true to the characters and their journey thus far/doesn’t undo their growth just for the sake of creating drama, C) feels like a story worth telling, and D) ends with them in a better place.  Even I Promised You the Moon didn’t quite manage, and that was a story I thought worth telling and that the characters needed. 

Cinematography

Cinematography was so beautiful. I don’t know enough to analyze it really, but the light and the colors and different filters at different times and moods were great.

I like how they set up these beautiful symmetrical shots, which gave it that stylized slightly fairy-tale feeling, but then had random people walk through the frame, which kept it grounded and real.  I’m thinking of many of the scenes in restaurants in particular.

That love scene in the hotel was so beautifully shot.  I don’t know exactly what S. Korean censorship rules around how much sex can be shown, but I liked that the scene felt very intimate and clearly implied they were going to be having sex. 

Thanks for asking, Anon! If you want to write back and share your thoughts I'd love to read them.

[jeanvanjer]

What would a good/successful redemption arc for Anthony in S2 look like in your opinion? I want to see him reckon with his actions and apologize to Violet, probably Daphne as well (I loathe Daphne lol but I guess she deserves one too). Siena apparently isn’t in this season, but he should somehow acknowledge his wrongdoing with regards to her too. I suppose this could be accomplished with a conversation about her with Kate. I just hope the show doesn’t take the approach of Kate “fixing” him.

Let’s start off by saying this is my opinion. I’m surprised anyone wants it 😅. I do have a habit of giving it anyways prompted or unprompted. Anyone can agree or disagree. Sometimes I’ll think one thing and I’ll see someone else’s POV on something and go “ hmm that’s pretty true as well” so no offense of anything in here can be deemed offensive. Also this is unreasonably long. I don’t know why I’m like this.

There’s a lot to unpack right?When it comes to this beast of a man. You have two portrayals of him. Book and S1. S2 will hopefully merge the two into a more cohesive and successful portrayal of who Anthony Bridgerton truly is. Show!Anthony needs to deal with a lot. He’s classist, misogynistic and just dumb. Theres a lot to be done for him, in terms of his views when it comes to women (regardless of class or relationship to him) and his relationship with his family, especially Violet.

Communication is key to Anthony’s arc. Communication with his family, more so Violet and with a Kate as well. I see both Daphne and Ben play a role in helping him along? Maybe experiencing a season along side Eloise will help heal some of more misogynistic views. He was more removed in Daphnes season. But when it comes to the core of his arc Kate and Violet both will be a bigger part of it.

Jonathan Bailey did mention in the Tudum event that he gets to have space to deal with a lot of things he didn’t have space to deal with before and that’s it’s tense. Someone else mentioned that there was one scene so intense it bought a lump in their throat or tears something along those lines.

That, IMO, will be a conversation between Violet and Anthony. I’m assuming it would be after what would be the bee scene if they haven’t changed it. I think that sort of event would be a reasonable catalyst for the two to discuss not only Edmunds death but also how it’s changed so much for these two specific characters since then. This confrontation I know will make me sob like a bitch. And hopefully we see a more healthy relationship between mother and son more akin to the book. This pair and how they heal the tension between them will probably be more focused on than the others you’ve mentioned. How his relationship will change with Violet key to Anthony’s development from his s1 portrayal into the book one.

So I’m of the opinion he doesn’t have much to apologize for Daphne?? Like there’s not much that’s unresolved between them? They’ve kinda just moved on. I think whatever happened, both Daphne and Anthony have moved on from her pre-marriage events. I mean he was an ass (the biggest really). And I do see him acknowledging it at one point but I feel like much of their explicit tension has already been resolved in S1. I do think, now that Daphnes married, she’s more “worldly” now so she will be somewhat of a support system for Anthony. In a funny sisterly way, she’ll probably get to take her revenge and be as annoying as he was when helping him look for potential brides. Maybe she’ll be the one to push him towards Kate. She’s the only one who knows of his current aversion to a love match. Who knows. But I think their relationship is past the drama from s1 to account for much confrontation. They’ll probably have a much healthier relationship from s1. I don’t think they’ll focus too much on this pair though, at least too much.

Sienna. See I like Sienna as a character but the relationship they had made no sense to me as far as Anthony’s characterization in the book. Book Anthony values both his family and love so this relationship was weird. It was heavily transactional and Sienna just became a means for him to escape his responsibilities to his family, somewhat of a coping mechanism for his struggles. They never really valued the same things. I think he will acknowledge where he went wrong with Sienna. I don’t think he’ll talk about her with Kate. It will probably happen in relation to Kate though. One night in his study he’ll think about what happened how it went wrong, understand how his love for Kate is different from his relationship with Sienna and how his own struggle led to him making her a means of escape and not value her as a woman. Do I see him explicitly apologizing? I dunno. I wouldn’t mind it. But a distinction between his relationship with Sienna and his love for Kate should be emphasized. Kate isn’t just a replacement or suitable just because she might be from the same class. This very important one not only for Anthony’s arc but for Kate and Anthony’s love story as a whole.

I don’t think the show will take the approach of Kate fixing him. I hope not. The show let me down a lot so we’ll see. both Kate and Anthony are able to start working on their problems and insecurities due to the fact that they relate to each other so well. they give each other strength to tackle those issues but they never solely rely on the other person to be the solution to their problems. If Kate coming into his life is a catalyst for his healing, there’s nothing wrong with that. Kate, implicitly and explicitly, will definitely be the catalyst to his arc. Interacting and falling in love with her will push him realize a lot of things he needs to work. I think some things he’ll come to on his own and other things Kate might tell him straight to his face.

But I see what you mean. We need to see more of Kate than just what she’ll mean to Anthony and his progress. I hope Anthony’s redemption arc doesn’t take precedence over Kates story in the show. I hope her story is far more fleshed out from the books. Given more nuance and whatnot. Both Kate and Edwina more than deserve this.

But let’s face it. Anthony will definitely do and say a whole bunch more shit in s2. And in light of a lot of the changes made to Kates story/background, it will be very uncomfortable and downright dumb (god forbid it’s classist and borderline colonialist). And he is human. He’s done some shit but isn’t completely irredeemable. Hopefully we will see him change and grow into the Anthony we’re more familiar with and one that deserves Kate as his wife.

All in all I just hope S2 brings these characters justice. These babies deserve it. This couple will forever hold in a special place in my heart. I don’t want the show to ruin anything.

[engekihaikyuu]

Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyuu - The View from the Top 2

What’s In Tokyo Interview Translation with Daigo Kotarou, Akana Ryuunosuke, and Kiyama Ryuu

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“The View from the Top 2” will be the closing chapter in Engeki Haikyuu’s five-and-a-half-year history. As the performance draws nearer and nearer, what is your current state of mind?   Daigo: Since this will be the final production for Engeki Haikyuu, we’re definitely more enthusiastic than usual, and I’m so excited I’m thinking, “Can we get started already?”   Akana: We’re working very hard at rehearsals and really putting everyone’s strengths together to show people this incredible climax for Engeki Haikyuu. We want to deliver the best show we can. Ryuu: I haven’t been back since “Fly High,” when I made my appearance as a representative at the national youth training camp. This will be the first show to feature Kamomedai High School and the first to feature a match of ours. When I think that this will also be the last time, I get a little sad. I don’t want to have any regrets, so right now I’m just exhausting myself giving it my all everyday at rehearsals.

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Full interview and more photos under the Read More! Please do not repost my translations

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Daigo: Ryuu-kun hasn’t been with us for about a year and a half, but just like the last time we were in a show together, he is a kind senpai who looks after me and speaks to me very candidly. When I mess around and drop honorifics like, “Hey, Ryuu!” he’ll just mess around right back and say, “I’m your senpai, you know!” (laughs)   Ryuu: It’s already a running gag now. (laughs)  

Daigo: Ryuu-kun has always had such a welcoming aura ever since we first met, so it doesn’t really feel like there’s any distance between us. I can ask him for advice about anything. But this time we have the Kamomedai High cast in addition to Ryuu-kun, and so I keep carefully probing around to see when it might be good to talk to them (wry smile). But Ryuu-kun always bridges the gap, and I’m very grateful for how attentive he is. Also, Ryuu-kun's movements and dancing are really clean and precise. I kind of want to mimic him, so I’ve actually been observing him in secret for research. He hides such amazing potential! I’m talking about all this because this is an interview... but I don’t actually want to admit all this. (laughs) Ryuu: Kota doesn’t praise me like this at rehearsals so I’m really happy to hear that! Man, interviews are great. (big grin) Everyone: (laughs)

Since starting rehearsals, what’s the teamwork on Kamomedai been like? Ryuu: We haven’t yet managed to gather everyone in the cast yet. But when it comes to the cast members who are at rehearsals right now, we’ve been trying to define our individual roles little by little, and gradually in response we’ve been getting more coordinated as a team.  

Kiyama-san, do you have a specific image in mind of what kind of team you want to create? Ryuu: I talked about it with our director, Worry Kinoshita-san, and with the elements we aim to show on-stage, we'll be a team that’s a sort of hybrid between Shiratorizawa and Aoba Johsai. This the Spring High National Tournament quarterfinals, and we’re the powerhouse team that stands in Karasuno’s way. So the image we’re aiming for is, “When they’re strong, they’re strong, and when they’re excellent, they’re excellent.” And I want to really get into that aspect.  

From your previous experience, do you have any particular advice for your teammates?   Ryuu: The parts that you create as a team make up a huge portion of Engeki Haikyuu, and the way we craft this play is very different from other plays. At the very beginning, I did tell them, “It’s going to be tough, but it’s important that you get used to the Engeki Haikyuu method first. Let’s work hard!”  

Daigo-san, Akana-san, this will be your 4th time with this production, so how has the Karasuno Team powered up compared to before? Akana: We’ve become a really solid unit! Things like, “Right now, we should have this,” or “Now is the time when we have to do that.” Any one of us can just give a little comment like that, or judge the atmosphere, and we get to work. We don’t even have to talk, we’ve gotten to a point of incredible mutual understanding.   Daigo: We’ve spent so much time together, so now we don’t even have to talk to be in unison on counts or with timing, so rehearsals proceed really smoothly. Of course we discuss the acting portions with Worry-san, and I hope that we can have a nice friendly rivalry with everyone on Kamomedai as we work to create this play.  

I feel like this will unfold into a really speedy match that keeps us on the edges of our seats, but how are you personally thinking of crafting all this? Daigo: Rather than a series of scenes with really hectic matches, we want to draw focus to individual emotional moments... In particular with Karasuno Ace, Azumane-san, but each individual player’s emotional journey too, and Hinata and Hoshiumi’s “Battle of the little giants.” We’re going to show our relationships with all of our past rivals even more we did before. It’s going to be a little bit different from how we’ve presented things up to now where it’s felt like a festival no matter where you look around on-stage. We’re paying more attention to the drama of it, and I feel like this is turning into a production with an appropriately dramatic ending.   Akana: From last spring’s “The Strongest Challengers,” we’ve been steadily progressing with all of the Spring High matches. Even if it’s a really tough match, in their hearts, the players are having fun just playing volleyball. That’s the image we’ve portrayed, and for those of us on that stage, we’re also feeling the exact same and having fun. So I just want to look the Kamomedai cast in the eye and together enjoy the fun of volleyball.

What about you, Kiyama-san? Ryuu: As a team, we’re being very conscious of becoming one cohesive unit, and for me as Hoshiumi Kourai, I’m thinking about how much influence Hinata and Kageyama will have on me and how best to show that. I also personally want to be able to push Nosuke and Kota with my acting. As an actor, the biggest aim is to master the role and see how much you can move people’s emotions, and this is of course essential for Engeki Haikyuu as well. So that’s what I really want to focus on.  

Now I know that Engeki Haikyuu rehearsals can be particularly rigorous, but do you also add on additional voluntary practices and training? Daigo: I do 100 shuttle runs every time we finish rehearsals. I sweat it out, go home, eat, take a bath, prep for the next day, and then go straight to sleep! It’s basically exactly the life of an athlete on a team. (laughs) Akana: Everyday after we finish rehearsals, I go with Yamamoto Ryousuke (Tsukishima Kei’s actor) for extra weight training. Normally I do a bit of weight training on my own even during rehearsals, but in order to make my body even bigger than before, I haven’t skipped a single session. I’ve also been very conscious about my protein and carb intake.   Daigo: It’s crazy how much he can eat. On Nosuke’s desk at rehearsals, there’s basically a mountain of rice balls.   Akana: Yeah. Even if I feel like I’m gonna throw up, I make sure to eat every bite. (laughs) Ryuu: After “Fly High,” I actually started training with a parkour instructor in order to prepare for our match against Karasuno. Akana: Ehh?! That’s insane! Daigo: That’s why all your movements are so clean!!   Ryuu: Parkour is a sport where you eliminate all unnecessary movements, so adding my parkour training, I now have more variation and range in what I can do for this show. All of the ways in which I can express myself have expanded thanks to other shows as well, so I would like to keep on this track.  

And now I’d like to ask about your memories from past tours. Can you tell us about a particular scene or a particular line that left an impression on you? Daigo: For me the tour that left the biggest impression on me was our most recent one, The Battle of the Trash Heap. It was so fun to be in a play together with Nekoma’s Takato-kun (Kozume Kenma’s actor). Even after the tour, we continue to contact each other in our spare time, and I’m really happy that our relationship has progressed to that point. He motivated me so much, and because of him I now aspire to become someone who can also influence everyone around me the way he did. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Takato-kun is an inspiration to me.  

Do you have any motivational or supportive words from that beloved senpai then? Daigo: I was honestly so happy that Takato-kun, whom I admire and respect, said to me, “I love Kota’s acting.” And I’m sure that he’ll come to see this tour as well, and I don’t want to disappoint him, so I’m really keeping his words close to my heart (laughs). I want to face this play with complete sincerity and with all my heart.  

Akana-san, do you have any scenes you can’t forget? Any lines that are precious to you? Akana: This isn’t a specific scene, but what’s precious to me is Engeki Haikyuu itself, because it really taught me how precious it is to see something through to the end together with your teammates. We move around so much it’s absolutely exhausting, but the sense of accomplishment you feel when you safely accomplish a tour is incredible. And it makes me happy because every time I can also really feel how much I myself have grown and improved. I feel like this production hasn’t just helped me establish the baseline for my acting career, it’s taught me important things for just life in general.  .

And for you, Kiyama-san? Ryuu: The tour that left an impression on me is “Fly High.” For “Fly High,” I was part of the youth camp and even with just that, I was like, “I have this much stuff to do?!” So it was rough, but the Karasuno cast had about double the amount we had to do, and even so everyone was just at heart having fun with volleyball. That left an impression on me. I can pound my chest and say that we made a really fun show! The fact that we pulled it off and met our goal is a source of pride and confidence for me.  

Kiyama-san, what’s the most important thing you’ve received from your time with Engeki Haikyuu? Ryuu: “Don’t leave people behind.” In any sequence, if even one person loses count, everything comes to a halt. And when that happens, there are people who will get appropriately upset with you. It might feel like they’re being strict and unforgiving of your mistakes, but it’s because they think of you as an equal, and so they have expectations of you and love for you. And that is why I’m able to get a grip and never give up, no matter how rough it gets.   Daigo: I feel like if you go through the Engeki Haikyuu experience, it really improves your social skills and thoughtfulness. “Even if it’s hard, don’t run away.” “What should I do to best foster my relationships with these people?” These are things above and beyond what an actor normally thinks about. But if you hold back for even a moment and slip up, people get hurt. We have acrobatic routines that are that precarious, so it's really important to be constantly communicating with each other and to never let up our focus. I feel that through Engeki Haikyuu, and of course other shows too, I've really taken to heart that this level of consideration is necessary for everyday life too.

And lastly, please give us something that those of us who are looking forward to the show should keep an eye out for.   Ryuu: This work is going to cram in a huge amount of content, so it may be difficult to grasp everything on one watch, but there is a very important them eat the center of all of that. I think that it’ll be a production that fans of the manga will enjoy, of course fans of Engeki Haikyuu, and even people who may be watching for the first time. We’re in the midst of putting all of our effort into making sure of that. Please come to see our gallant figures one final time.   Akana: The focus will be on Hinata and Hoshiumi’s “Battle of the Little Giants,” on the bond between Hinata and Kageyama, and the relationships between Karasuno High and all of the rival schools that we’ve defeated to get here. As Ryuu-kun said, this production is going to have a lot of things to keep an eye out for. Engeki Haikyuu is about Passion, Courage, and deep Emotion, so I hope that people will come to see us at the theater and take that all in. Daigo: In the manga, there’s a famous line that Coach Ukai says during the Shiratorizawa match: “Volleyball is a sport where you’re always looking up.” We hope we’re able to convey all of the emotion behind those words to the audience, especially given the current circumstances. We’ll try with all of our might to do so through this play. Engeki Haikyuu began about five-and-a-half-years ago, and the time that our generation has spent running with this baton is about two years. Engeki Haikyuu is popular around the world, and this production is one where I can pound my chest and say, “It’s fun! It’s interesting and great!” I think I will be able to convey that to many many people.   I would love for you to see that with your own eyes until the moment that the final curtain falls. Please look forward to it!

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You can read the original Japanese interview here: (x)

Please do not repost my translations!  This includes screenshots of bits and pieces taken out of context, especially if they don’t link back to this full post. If you appreciate the work I do for this blog and want to support my translation efforts please consider donating a ko-fi! (x)

[fatmclassic]

Ceremonials time, and this one seems to be the favourite of most people, especially American fans. I rarely listen to this in one go, it's exhausting but I needed to see how it flowed. A huge album, darker in tone compared to lungs. Florence wanted to explore that huge sound she'd started in lungs with drumming song and cosmic love create a cohesive album. A science concept album was quickly scrapped, as was a drake collaboration. Originally titled violence, it was renamed ceremonials after an art exhibit flo saw.

Only if for a night is a strong opener that sets the darker tone for this album. Mix of supernatural metaphor and personal issues. It's a dream like song which is apt as it's based on a dream. Very different vibe to dog days. The church bell tune at the beginning is a lovely touch and goes well with this album heavy with religious imagery. It's heavy drums and echoey piano make it sound huge and that will be the recurring sound here. 8/10.

Shake it out, another hangover song. The most commercial song with a catchy hook and upbeat mood. More church references with the organ opening and the beat is like a European marching band. The video for this is one my favourites and perfectly captures the 1920s art deco theme the album was going for. This is the dog days of ceremonials and there's a great remix too. During this era I found the live performances a bit disappointing as she let the choir do the heavy lifting and kept doing a weird goat warblee at times but in recent years it's been improved. 9/10

What the water gave me. Here come the water and literary references. Again, it's huge and I was so excited when this came out. There's a lot going on here and the ending is euphoric and overwhelming. The live version has a cool electronic but added to it as well. 8/10.

Never let me go is a song I know loads of people love, but I'm not a fan of the slower ballads. Music wise this song isn't interesting, a bit of piano and some echoing drums the real focus here is the vocals. She veers between delicate and strong here, and the lyrics are some of her best. The big finish is my favourite part but I still don't love it as much as most people. The video was so weird too, an ice rink and weird black goo and I still don't get it. 7/10

Breaking down feels like it was put in for a breather. Most low key track here, but only by ceremonials standards. A bit spooky. It makes me think of London at night but it got a shitty Lana del Rey type video. Not really a proper single or anything but still. It's fine, the acoustic is better. Nothing special here. 6/10

No light is one of my favourites here. I think it was one of the first songs written for this album and I've heard it described as the bridge between lungs and ceremonials and it sounds like it. Lyrics here are hard hitting for me personally 'tell you what you want me to say' especially. Lots of drums,harp and heartbreak lungs style. And then the organ like synths for ceremonials. A really great track, unfortunately marred by that ill advised video. 10/10

Lover to lover is a song used to dislike. Coming back to it now it's alright. But it sounds like a generic soul song. It feels like a cover but I know it isn't. Lyrics aren't very interesting either and it's just a painfully average song. And vocal wise it's not great either. It's video was very hbhbhb I thought. 5/10

Seven devils is probably a bigger parody of Florence than anything on dance fever. So melodramatic and loud with loads of religious imagery yet again. It's also goes on for about 2 minutes too long and a lot of it is unintelligible. I can still enjoy for what it is though. I actually wrote a story for school based on this, where a nazi set a barn on fire to smoke out partisans. I got an A, so thanks Flo. Still a bit below par for her though, despite the Halloween release so 5/10.

Heartlines now and she's straight into the augury. This song struck me as something a person who was inspired by Florence would make, it reminds me a lot of castles by Freya riding. It's a poor man's dog days and very forgettable. The chorus is boring and it goes on too long. It's not bad, but not interesting. It feels empty despite the heavy drums.The metaphors and water references are here but it's just mediocre at best. A filler track, feels like someone realised the album was a bit heavy and from and they needed something inspiring. It's just kind of there 4/10

I personally think spectrum is a leftover from her science album idea that was scrapped and it's great. This is what a Florence dance song sounds like. Fast paced, driving drums and the harp getting some time to shine. I love the video for this song and I quite like the Calvin remix as well. It's basically everything heartlines tries to be but it's just better. It's a more claustrophobic song with so many instruments but it works. I admit I was disappointed with it live, again she skips parts or leaves it to the choir but she did say it's a hard song to sing. 9/10

I thought I was going finally come round to all this and heaven too for a moment. It's a slower, sweeter sing song that's fairly meta, a love letter to language. Fairly light and airy song. But then it got to the last minute and I remembered why I don't like this song. That final minute is a big jumbled mess of noise and it sounds awful on an otherwise perfectly produced album. 3/10.

Leave my body is something I wasn't impressed with at first. It's no blinding. But I gave it another go after my sister found it almost too scary to listen too. It is a bit spooky I suppose, and the lyrics about history pulling you down is neat. The ending is nice and mysterious. I've warmed a bit, but it's still just an ok song for me. Also by this point I've had so many big echoing soul songs that I'm tired now. Hard to even find a decent live recording 6/10.

Strangeness and charm is a song I've had the privilege to see live. Part of the science album concept. I remember being shocked seeing it relegated to the deluxe version but it makes sense. Quite similar to spectrum, harp, drums, fast pace and long. I can see why she felt she had to choose and I think spectrum was the better choice. I still kind of have a soft spot for it, even if this feels like a demo 5/10

Bedroom hymns

I love this. One of the first songs performed from this album and then it was just a deluxe track. Lmao. Guess the standard album needed to be family friendly 😂 8/10

Remain nameless is a controversial song. One of the few songs I see fans activity dislike. And those people are tasteless because this song is great 😌. Reminds me of fever ray. It's a very sinister, spooky song. Like making a deal with a demon who agrees to hold back unless you want them to act. A foreboding electronic track that is still unique in her discography, and if she ever decides to explore this area in future she has my full support. 9/10.

Landscape is odd. It's a demo but feels like a finished track. Sounds like it belongs on lungs imo, metaphors about the weather. And it's unusual as it's sing partly in third person. The usual tribal drums. I like it, and wonder why she never finished it. Guess it doesn't fit on the album. 7/10.

Breath of life. This is exactly how I imagined a song made by Florence given an enormous budget would sound. Massive and dramatic. Some say it strayed into self parody but if she never got to do a song like this you'd be disappointed, admit it. Massive drums, full orchestra, big choirs, it's Florence turned up to the max. Shame it was for a shite film. She does love doing cool tracks for shite movies. I remember hearing this and wishing she'd use brass and male choirs in future. One wish was granted. 8/10.

Sweet nothing. Saw a lot of snobby reactions to this being announced at first. But it's great, loads of fun and a perfect dance track. Calvin usually delivers and iirc he was desperate to work with Flo, and she only agreed in exchange for a remix. Food Idea because she got 2 number one hits. The acoustic live version on Florence's tour isn't amazing,it's fine, but this is meant to be a dance track .Calvin's tour version is a blast. 8/10

Over the love is from a film that slots perfectly into ceremonials art deco, 1920s theme. And seeing as Florence is currently doing a great Gatsby musical, she love it too. Baz luhrman also interviewed Florence a year before. But it's a ballad and quite sharp on my ears. And I only really enjoy the last 30 seconds about the green light and I wish this part was longer. 5/10

I really do love this era. Florence found ' her' sound and cemented it. It is far more cohesive and that was her intention. It's a big, big album and I remember being worried that she'd struggle to perform it live. And she did, between this and lungs she had little room to rest during gigs and the choir she had took up some of the slack. It's very heavy on religious and mythological imagery and I love that. She said she wanted a 'catherdral in the sky' sound and she achieved it with church bell intros, echoing drums and piano, organ music and constant references to god, devils and angels. But I admire, it's difficult to listen to as a full album, and I mostly return to select songs. There's also some filler tracks here that drag on a bit.

[narahairline]

not necessarily a doodle prompt but like. since your characterizations mean the world to me id really love to hear what you'd do if you got the chance to write boruto :]

tysm!! im so happy they resonate with u!! 🥺🌻✨

my reply got way longer than expected so im gonna put a cut

also took this more seriously than necessary but my god. do i have opinions on this.. 🤪

tl;dr pretty much nothing the writers are doing gbhfjsdk just have it be ninja adventure slice of life

tbh theres a lot of things i feel just.. dont really work about the entire concept of it as a sequel

imo its pretty apparent that theyre struggling to form a cohesive plot based on a series that didnt have the most cohesive writing/worldbuilding/lore to begin with and there’s the whole issue of trying to shift focus on a new set of protagonists when the old ones are considered the strongest in their universe and literally killed a god. it leaves the writers with no other options than going even bigger and bigger (like idk. implanting boruto with aliengod.zip) and at some point it just feels.. very out of proportion and like the writers are struggling to bring it all together in a way that makes sense 🤔

not to even mention the original series theme of revolution resulting in... none of the systems changing... the protagonists complacency in the very systems that traumatized them, that became their drive to fight for change... idk its so disheartening lol

as for what i do think would work, its probably short stories or arcs 🤔

little snippets of their life like the hokage inauguration short, which i think showcased the best of boruto lol juxtaposing their everyday life with them all just having these immense powers, having the older and younger generations conflicts intertwine, showing them adusted/adjusting to a different life entirely

also really liked the anime’s mitsuki arc since it linked established conflicts from the original series to those of the newer generation in a way that doesnt alienate the viewer if they havent seen naruto. focused on processing the war and how to move forward, change things for the better, trying and failing. what it means to be human and what it means to create life. worked really well imo.

but yeah more of that basically!! how has the world changed, what remains, how are the systems changing; focussing the legacy theme on the last 3 generations instead of the otsutsuki

for example i really like the parent/child training filler episodes or the idea with the internships and differing career options lol (tho i still think they shouldnt make kids work full time jobs at age 12 but what do i know)

so basically just more of that!! and more actual change lol. when they said they hadnt done a single thing for ame in those 15 years.. oh rage. theres kids living in sewer systems.. literally killing themselves for an organization promising them the change they desperately want... sounds familiar 🤔

you know (boruto spoiler!!) maybe konoha deserved to have kara snatch some of jiraiyas corpse dna idk

all that being said i still think the best option for a sequel wouldve been one set ~5 years after the end of shippuden. have team 7 lead their own teams. have kakashi be hokage if there really has to be one. theyre still relevant, can still show their powers without taking away from the new teams developement too much. put more focus on how the world is changing after what happened with pain and the 4th war. show how theyre rebuilding and reforming the systems that lead to those events.

[rivalsforlife]

What're your exact thoughts on AA5?

ooh anon are you sure you want me to get into this?

It’s... complicated? Like, as a game on it’s own, it... still has MAJOR flaws but it’s not too bad. As a sequel to AA4? Pretty terrible. 

I guess let’s start with that angle. What makes me angriest about AA5 is that it kind of... completely erased any chance of proper closure to some of the story arcs and themes that AA4 opened up. Like, people will try to claim 456 as a “trilogy”, but it’s nowhere near cohesive enough to pass as one. AA5 pretty much pushed Apollo (who was supposed to “succeed” Phoenix as the protagonist, being kinda the point of the case literally called Turnabout Succession) to a secondary character role. It shoved Trucy completely out of the spotlight so her only role was to hang around the office and then get kidnapped once (which has such little role in the story it’s completely forgettable). It completely abandoned Klavier and had him come back as a kind of bland “ja achtung herr forehead I’m a rockstar ;)” character who only shows up to play a minor role in a minor case. In contrast with, say, how JFA treats the major cast from the first game (consistent protagonist, Maya having a bigger role and more of her history and family drama explored, Miles getting huge amounts of character development and being a major part of the emotional arc) it is an extreme letdown. It also just automatically brings back Phoenix as the protagonist and... doesn’t even touch on the lasting consequences of his disbarment? Not even just the “he became a lawyer again right away and doesn’t really bring up the effect disbarment had on him” kind of thing, but the story itself kind of forgets about him being disbarred. For a game entirely about the public’s perception of the legal system being in the dumpster, not one person ever questions Phoenix’s eligibility as a lawyer or whether he forged the evidence. Like, sure, he was cleared of all charges, but that doesn’t mean that the public would automatically see him as innocent, especially considering his massive influence over the trial that essentially proved his innocence! Like, “oh, you practically ran this trial that said you didn’t forge evidence? Okay, we love you, you’re a hero.”

And I do love Athena, and I like her overall story with Simon, I like them both as characters and I like their general plotline. I just think it came in at a veeeery bad time. Adding Athena as a protagonist in the same game you add Phoenix back as a protagonist means that not only do none of the protagonists end up with the sole focus of the game for their development, but also her major role in the plot pushes back any chance for exploring the story of AA4. Athena gets a joint protagonist-assistant type role, so Trucy isn’t necessary anymore, since the only assistant role is filled by one of the other lawyers. So, no Trucy development. And as a protagonist she is immediately overshadowed by Phoenix in the very first case.

I... like to think the first case is a very good example of DD, because it starts with Athena being immediately overshadowed by Phoenix who is back to his normal trilogy self, and Apollo ends up bleeding on the ground.

I mean, in some ways, I get it, because this is a game that was written six years after Apollo Justice and had a completely new writing team, not to mention being on a completely different console, so already making a direct sequel to AJ would be complicated considering that a decent amount of the people buying the game possibly would have never played an AA game before (considering the 3DS ports weren’t there at the time.) And apparently Phoenix’s characterization in AJ, and AJ in general, was poorly received, so from a marketing standpoint they did kinda need to abandon as much as they could. But from a story standpoint, it’s really bad.

There’s also the issues with the plot in general, namely the “Dark Age of the Law”. Because... the law has been TERRIBLE in this series for as long as the series was around. If there’s a Dark Age, it’s been going on for a looooong time. And, of course, there’s no real way that Phoenix’s disbarment and Simon’s arrest were what initiated this Dark Age, because the people who have ALREADY been arrested should have been much, much worse. Like we’re talking about an undefeated prosecutor known for forging evidence, the Chief of Police, another prosecutor being accused of murder, not to mention the investigations games tackling down an ambassador and the former Chief Prosecutor/ head of the committee that’s SUPPOSED to stop corruption. After all that, the breaking point is a defense attorney and some rookie prosecutor?

(One good explanation is what Saturation’s take on this all happening is, but considering the games haven’t said it was like this...)

Also again with the issue of Phoenix’s disbarment. The game assumes that once Simon is cleared (in an unofficial trial) and Phoenix’s name is cleared (again in an unconventional trial) the public is magically going to start trusting in the legal system again. ... Good luck with that. There’s no way that’s going to happen.

And there’s also a lot of wasted opportunities with the whole “the ends justifies the means” nonsense in general. Like, I think I’ve talked before about how the first case of Apollo Justice pretty much embodies the “the ends justifies the means” approach. The evidence has been destroyed by the true culprit, and the only way to have them safely convicted is to present forged evidence: what then? Or even RFTA’s “there isn’t any evidence that this person is the culprit, but we KNOW they are, and if they continue to get away then they could hurt people, so isn’t forging evidence the right thing to do?” It’s a complicated morally grey thing they can dig into, but instead, DD goes for the “but I want to present forged evidence to win!!” which everyone can agree is wrong. 

(It’s also incredibly ironic that Athena talks about “Mr. Wright is going to bring us out of this dark age!” right in the middle of the third case when confronting Means, when, you know, Phoenix used the EXACT “ends justifies the means” approach just a year later. but you know, no one’s going to say anything about that, because Phoenix Wright is perfect and can do no wrong.)

Plus thematically the game is all over the place. Unlike say the second investigations game which had a solid theme about “bonds between people” with a focus on “bonds between parent and child”, I... can’t really figure out what the overall theme of DD is. When I replayed the game prior to UR-1 incident, I could come up with about like five things that they maybe focused on in the last case but none of them were concrete enough to be called the overall theme. Incredible that the game was written two years after the one with one of the most solid overall themes! 

Also, the villain was weak overall; they were TOO unpredictable and the fact that absolutely no one noticed something was off with him (particularly not the girl who can literally read emotions) was rough. Everyone immediately turning on him despite the exact same case talking about believing in your friends even if there is evidence against them is a little weird. And their motives, whatever organization they worked for, it’s all unknown (and completely abandoned in the next game, of course, so we’ll never know.) Which may be the point, not everything NEEDS to be solved, but the fact that none of the characters ever express concern about this (like why an international spy who killed someone to impersonate them has a realistic mask of Phoenix’s face) is also weird.

... This is a lot of negativity. Uh, there are things I do like, I swear. I like Athena and Simon, I like uhh... the soundtrack... ... ... you know I do like the game a lot more when I am in the process of playing it. Despite the undoubtable fanservice that was Miles’ appearance (OH THAT’S ANOTHER NEGATIVE THING, I didn’t like how Athena didn’t have a major role in the Phantom’s takedown despite that being the guy who killed her mom) I like being able to see Miles and I like seeing what comfortable terms he’s on with Phoenix now. Some elements of the individual cases were lots of fun (the father-daughter relationship in the second case, the focus on the friendship in the third case, and I enjoyed the DLC case overall.) ... This has gone on long enough, so I’ll leave it at that!

[fillingthescrapbook]

Dear Potential Zoey's Extraordinary Third Season

The second season finale of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist ended a chapter on Zoey's emotional journey as a person. From a girl who was friendly but disconnected, she is now someone who is willing to take risks and leaps on faith alone. Honestly, if Zoey's journey ends here, I will be okay.

But seeing the spark of the show come back in the last two episode, I do want Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist to live on with more seasons. So here's my pitch to the musical universe for what I wish a third season would look like:

Diving Deep into Zoey's Musical Powers

We could spend the first five episodes of the season with Zoey trying to figure out how Max was able to hear a heart song. Did she pass her powers on to him? Was she able to share her powers with him because of the connection they shared? The love? What if she's not just sharing it with Max? What if Mo or Maggie can hear heart songs too?

Of course, this magical music mayhem doesn't have to take all the focus during the first arc of the season. It's something to keep Zoey occupied, like in Season 1 when Zoey and Mo were trying to discover the extents of her ability, while a bigger A-plot is happening.

Like, vis-à-vis Zoey wondering about the implications of sharing her powers with Max, we could have Simon dealing with his new position that allows him to uplift people of color in the tech industry--and the complications that arise from that. And then when Zoey and Max have differing opinions on how to help someone whose heart song is screaming for help, the show could explore the new dynamics between Leif, Tobin, and McKenzie. Maybe with Leif deciding to move to Simon's department.

We could even have an episode that centers on how Zoey sharing powers with Max affects Zoey's relationship with Mo. And maybe connect that to Maggie's decision to date again and how David deals with it.

Basically, I want the potential third season to keep moving the characters forward. No more step backs. And no more Maximo subplots. Simon getting his own department to lead at Sprqpoint is an opportunity for the show to give him new challenges without taking him out of Zoey's orbit. That was one of the challenges the show failed with Maximo: it gave Max and Mo surface-level conflicts that kept pausing Zoey's progression just so she could be present for when Max and Mo need to sing. Simon's subplots do not need to be connected to Zoey, but they do need to be connected to her world. The show is called Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist after all.

And, maybe, while Zoey and Max are still figuring out the powers--they could do a glitch episode again. Like, maybe during Mitch's death anniversary, or when Maggie first takes off her wedding ring, Zoey could have a particularly heart-wrenching session with her therapist that leads to her opening up her world to Max and/or Mo, showing them heart songs in key moments of her life?

So many things can be done to explore Zoey's powers without letting it be the main focus of the show. Because an ideal third season of the show for me would explore more of...

Zoey's Extraordinary Relationships

Mo, Maggie, and now Max are Zoey's heart lines. They represent parts of her that we need to keep growing: Mo is the curiosity that gets her to step out of her comfort zone, Maggie is the safety she comes home to when the world becomes too scary, and Max is the courage that empowers her when its time to face the consequences.

Through Mo, Zoey could meet new people--and new heart songs to hear. I really want to go back to that one neighbor Zoey and Mo have who is too scared to leave the apartment. I would also love to see Mo bump into her ex-boyfriend Eddie while still figuring out the ropes of her relationship with Perry. Mo is Zoey's window to the outside world. And I really hope the show doesn't keep Mo away from Zoey again.

With Maggie, Zoey could explore and challenge her safe space. I love that Maggie wants to live life again, and I think it's important for Zoey to see Maggie making mistakes. Like maybe Maggie and Deb could meet a Mr. Wrong at the cruise they're going to. Or Maggie could want to take the next step in a new relationship only to realize that being with someone new isn't going to be the same as being with Mitch--who she loved and live with for so long. Zoey could progress into a more grounded character as she becomes more open to the problems her family faces via their heart songs.

And then Max could be Zoey's guide in exploring the relationships that Zoey already has and is continuing to navigate. Like, how does one deal with an ex you still have to work with? Especially an ex who did nothing wrong--while you're dating the guy he wasn't supposed to be worried about? What happens when Zoey's decision to include more women in the coding floor become an impediment to productivity? Especially when Leif and Tobin examine the ways they are different now that the latter is dating McKenzie, compared to when Leif was with Joan.

I also really want Joan to come back and see how much Zoey has grown. Even for just a guest appearance. And speaking of comebacks, I also want to see Abigail again. Maybe as a new hire for Simon's new department or Zoey's own team.

I want the show to live in the world they're building. Like, what happens when Zoey and Max meet Autumn again? Or what happens when Simon starts dating Tatiana, goes out for a business dinner with Zoey, and then they come across Jessica? I know San Francisco is a big city, and I know the characters introduced aren't bound to stay where they are all the time. But the show really flies when it focuses on relationships that have already been established. On characters that are already connected. On stories that are already there and are just waiting to be told.

Zoey's Extraordinary Thesis

I want a cohesive third season that has a clear beginning, middle, and end. The first season of the show introduced us to a Zoey who is apprehensive of the world but would do anything for the family she loves. Season two Zoey was a bit of a mess, but the finale allowed her to become a more grounded person. The third season should be Zoey exploring what her purpose is.

The first arc would be her figuring out her powers and its effect in her life. Why did the universe want her to hear people's heart songs? Dream Mitch says it's one way of the universe telling her she doesn't have to be scared, and that everyone has fears, vulnerabilities, and struggles. But where does Zoey take that lesson?

For the third season's first arc, maybe Zoey meets a person who doesn't want to be helped. Or maybe Zoey and Max ruins a person's life the more they try to help? The first arc could start with Zoey making a decision to lose her powers--and by its end, she could find a process that would stop people from singing their heart songs to her. And then the second arc, while exploring Zoey's relationships, could have Zoey's C-plot be her accomplishing tasks that would lead to her giving her powers up.

And then, of course, by the third and final arc of the season, Zoey would have an epiphany--of how much better her life had become because of her powers; that now she has honed her ability to help people, because of Maggie, because of Mo, and because of Max. And now she realizes that she enjoys helping those who want help. And that she would want to continue with her extraordinary playlist.

. . .

I may have given this too much thought.

[faelapis]

even ignoring the fact that SU is ending next month. i bet some people are concern that the last 10 eps wouldn't be enough to properly answer any 'future' plot lines and may feel rushed

so… to me, something giving you encyclopedic answers to every possible question does not mean it’s well-paced, and it’s not poor pacing or rushed storytelling to not explore everything equally. a lot of the time, these are contradictory and doing encyclopedic fanservice hurts cohesiveness & pacing.

to support this, i’d say “the rise of skywalker” favors encyclopedic fan answers over theme, character, story & organic worldbuilding. it suffers a lot for it. by contrast, the sopranos has an ending very much in line with its themes. it doesn’t answer everything, deliberately so, and that’s part of its point. it’s good for that story to leave some things unsaid. it reinforces that the main character is always living in uncertainty.

similarly, steven’s perspective is limited and that’s part of the point. 

i don’t think cactus steven should return, for instance, because the whole idea is that steven screwed up as a “parent” and is now excluded from its life. he shouldn’t get to see what happens next to it. like sadie said, some things are private. if you care about validating those who cut off parents, you shouldn’t want steven reunited with cactus any more than pink being reunited with the other diamonds. it would take away the message for the sake of cheap “satisfaction”.

or like. let’s go to a bottom-tier “10 things SU future DOESN’T answer” youtube clickbait example. let’s say we took a break from steven’s internal struggle, what future is shaped around, to learn random things about the world. let’s say we dedicate an episode to boringly, painstakingly confirming out loud every single way the SU earth is different from ours, like russia’s crater.

why would we do that? it doesn’t feel like something steven is Dying to explore right now. if you want an SU encyclopedia to go into the history of the tunguska event, that’s your business, but it has nothing to do with the core of future. it’s pretty easy to infer as just a “here’s a small way gemkind shaped the earth to set up the galaxy warp & keep humans away from it” detail. that’s all it needs to be. 

i like that the world is bigger than steven, and a bit ambiguous. it’s one of those things that isn’t central to his life, so he doesn’t need to ask. it would hurt pacing to excessively focus on this, not help it.

when asking a question about x, you need to ask whether its really a question that needs answering, or something the audience can infer on its own. then, you need to ask what it adds to the overall story, not just trivia for its own sake. not because you can never have trivia - but you need to be elegant about it. overstuffing is rarely the way to go.

for my money’s worth, i like the deliberate narrative choice that steven will never have the answer to everything. that’s like. VERY explicit this season. i like the sense of sublime theater, the feeling that there’s stuff beyond what you can fully experience, which is very true for SU and something RS has talked about multiple times. the world is always “more” than steven understands.

that’s what it’s like to be a person in the world, rather than a god or omnipresent narrator. we would lose a lot, thematically, if we took that away. it wouldn’t be “steven universe”. 

i think there’s beauty in those instances where we have an idea of what happened, but because it’s outside steven’s sphere (or tied to people’s trauma to the point where they don’t want to tell him every detail, and steven is stuck with limited information), it’s ever-so-slightly out of reach. i love that. it’s a part of the magic, for me. 

now, i want to be careful here and say that there are things the show should absolutely cover before it ends. 

obviously steven’s angst needs to go somewhere, and things that have been set up to be followed through on (like jasper, the chest being opened) should also be given room. these are questions deliberately raised by the narrative, rather than things you happen to be hyper-invested in to the point where you refuse to accept anything even intentionally ambiguous.

i’m not writing this as a catch-all “anything the show doesn’t want to explore is fine”. but i’m not all that worried either. SU is pretty solid about following through on things that need further exploration. 

this entire epilogue is a great testament to that, how steven adjusts to a world where he no longer has that aching pedestal-mom purpose. he’s a microcosm of the growing pains of the world around him, what it means to live “free” of that. he’s a consequence of the path he’s followed thus far.

as for how it should end… SU has a bittersweet tinge and i would never want to take that away. it’s faux-endings (times it Could have ended, like ocean gem and cym) have been more hopeful than 100% happy. it wants you to feel like things are working out, not that the world has come to a standstill. which, to me, fits its philosophy of continuous, never-ending growth.

that is much more satisfying to me than seeing everyone coupled up in “endgame” relationships, or living out the next millennia - because i don’t buy that this is a universe where things will ever stop changing. and that’s okay.

[sagemoderocklee]

2020 has been a weird fucking year, to put it mildly. There have been a lot of ups and downs, and with New Year’s Eve and the start of 2021 upon us, focusing on the ~positive~ seemed like a better way to end the year, and hopefully start 2021 feeling inspired and proud for overcoming this horrendous year.

For many people, it was difficult--even impossible--to get anything done this year (myself included), and that’s okay! But if you were able to make progress on writing projects, even if it was just one or even if it was just part of one, you should celebrate that! I wish I’d thought of this sooner and organized it better, but regardless I wanted to celebrate my own accomplishments with regards to my writing, and encourage others to do the same! I was going to tag people, but I’m not sure with it being 2 hours til midnight for me if that would feel like putting too much pressure on others, so if you want to do this too please do!

This wrap up is honestly just a self-indulgent look back on the works I’ve made and what I learned/gained from each, maybe what I don’t like about them, some totaling on what I did, and some resolutions for the next year. It’s silly, but I think it’s kinda fun and if you missed any of the things I have posted this year, you’ll find them here!

2020 Fic Wrap Up:

Kado: Parts II+III (COMPLETED)

Kado was started in September of 2019 for the @puregaalee​ summer event. This was a last minute thing that I started the day the prompt was due and managed to write the first part in about 6 hours while sitting in a cafe--remember that? Sitting in cafes? Man, I miss that. I hadn’t anticipated working on Kado, but I decided that I was going to finish it this year, and I’m honestly amazed that I did. This fic is sweet and fun, and surprisingly popular, though it isn’t my favorite of my works. However, it is a light, fluffy little romcom modern AU, and I learned a lot with it because despite my struggles with modern AUs and their horrible lack of political intrigue, this fic forced me to work within set parameters. I was only writing a 3 part story, and each part could only be 9 scenes long. For those unfamiliar, kado is another term for Ikebana, and in Ikebana there are specific elements to follow. Certain styles will only use three branches, some will use nine. So my goal was for the structural elements of the fic to mimic Ikebana. In doing this, I was able to do something I don’t usually do, which is keep this story more concise.

I’m still not sure how I personally feel about the ending, but I think endings are always a struggle, especially with something like this.

Gate of Dreaming (COMPLETED) 

This is a fic that I started last year, then left to sit untouched with only 2k words. Getting back into it was a bit difficult because I was writing something very different from my usual: stream of consciousness. This fic was very experimental for me not only because of the stream of consciousness, but also because of the changing tenses. This was another exercise--unexpected though it was--in brevity. With this particular story, it couldn’t be dragged on and on, because--despite the 100 year time span--the events take place within the Infinite Tsukuyomi. This was also the first time I’d worked from Lee’s PoV in quite some time, so that was fun because I do enjoy writing him, but usually write from Gaara’s PoV. This is definitely one of my favorites from this year, and since it had been sitting on the back burner for so long, I’m so excited that I could finally get it done.

Another one where the ending really wasn’t easy to achieve, but I did end up liking it more than I expected, and I think the best thing is that it’s open-ended which leaves room for others to guess at what the future holds.

It Eats Your Heart (WIP)

This was an unexpected fic for me in every way imaginable. Starting another fic? Making another modern AU? Tackling the horror genre? None of those were things I’d planned to do this year, but lo and behold, that’s just what I did. I really enjoy a good bit of horror, but it is NOT an easy genre to work within, and this fic has definitely been a push for me. But with it being such a push, the payoff is far more. Stepping out of my comfort zone is something I like doing, but I think this is the biggest step outside of that and I am so incredibly proud of how that first chapter turned out because of it. I was really able to surprise myself with this fic, and I am hoping to update the next chapter early on in the year.

Absolution (WIP)

This fic is probably the second oldest idea/longest unpublished fic I currently have up. Formerly a much longer title, the idea for this fic came to me in May of 2017 when a friend, @brianadoesotherjunk / @brianadoesart, posted a piece of GaaLee fanart that sparked inspiration. The fic took off, morphed into something much bigger than the one scene depicted by the art, and now 3 years later, the first part is up. Initially, this was meant to be a long shot, but after sitting with this for so long, I realized that I needed to split it up into 9 parts, which allowed me to use this for GaaLee bingo and finally publish it. Much of the first part was already written before this year, but I’d been quite stuck on it until now. This is actually probably one of my favorite GaaLee concepts to date. I remember back in the day, there weren’t a lot of different takes on getting Lee to Suna so he and Gaara could fall in love, so (at the risk of sounding cocky) I think that Lee as a nanny is rather inspired. I think with this fic, I pushed myself the hardest to get past the hurdle of writer’s block and accepted that publishing is probably the best way to motivate myself to keep going. The feedback for this fic has been really motivating, so I think I’m probably right about that.

I do think there are some parts in the middle or towards the end that could maybe use some tightening up, but I’m just happy to finally have this fic out in the world.

The Art of Love: Chapter 11 (WIP)

TAoL is such a ridiculous labor of love. The chapters for this fic are novellas in and of themselves, so each time I update it takes a lot of work to get them out. This fic is one of those like magnum opus type fics. I have put so much into it, and I’m honestly amazed that it’s only been up for 3 years because I’m approaching the halfway mark on it, and I don’t think I expected to be there by now. Despite being able to churn out 30k chapters, I have a hard time focusing on one thing and I often struggle with mental health related writer’s block, so big works are always sort of sporadic in their updates. 

This particular update of TAoL was definitely one of my favorites though. Initially, I didn’t plan to go the sort of dark fantasy rout that I did with Shikamaru, but I actually really love what I’ve done with him, though I worry others won’t be as into it or that the execution isn’t quite there. One thing I would like to work on with future chapters of TAoL, however, is maybe pairing things down a bit--though I’m not sure that’ll always be possible. The next chapter is a Naruto PoV chapter, though, so I expect that one to be a MUCH shorter chapter than the last three and should be able to get it out sometime next year.

Before I could publish this chapter, however, I did go through and make some big changes, which is something I often struggle with because of such long breaks in between working on certain projects. I will say, though, that TAoL continues to push me to greater heights as a writer, and I look forward to actually finishing this fic someday.

Thirteen Strokes: 1 + 2 (WIP)

Another unexpected fic this year, however, this one was actually an idea for about a year, unlike IEYH. This fic has really given me a lot of perspective on my own writing and world building, and has inspired me to sit down and really start committing the things I’ve developed to paper to create a cohesive view of Suna, Wind, and the shinobi world. This fic is meant to be a Romance. Like just full on Romance. I write a lot of tragedy and focus on a lot of darker themes in my writing, so while I don’t think of this as stepping outside of my comfort zone, it is very different from my usual, and a really nice change of pace. I think, in all honesty, it is one of my best works, and I do hope I can continue to deliver on the remaining 11 parts of this story.

if this were the last i felt you breathing (COMPLETED)

Ugh. This fic has been my enemy for 2 long years. I signed up for a Secret Santa exchange, and of course, I regretted doing it when I found that I was not motivated and, after the month of October where I was churning out fic after fic for GaaLee Bingo, that I was massively burned out. I wasn’t able to think past writer’s block, and so I ended up settling on dusting off an old, unfinished piece for my giftee, and I hope they can forgive me for not coming up with something brand new for them.

This fic was a struggle. Working so closely with the canon--following the Rescue Kazekage Arc as closely as I did for this fic--made this a much bigger challenge and this fic sat and sat and sat for two years, untouched and incomplete. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. I know it’s not my best work, but I am glad that this fic isn’t hanging over my head and that I was able to deliver something to my secret santa giftee.

My goal with this fic was to rewrite this particular arc from Lee’s PoV to give more depth to the arc and shift the emotional core of it away from Naruto. Naruto as a character has a lot of flaws that never get addressed, and one of the things that is consistently frustrating for me is the way the emotional core of the series rests on him in unrealistic and often superficial ways. Naruto hasn’t spoken to Gaara in three years, but I’m supposed to believe he’s this affected by Gaara’s kidnapping? Temari and Kankuro are right there! Lee is right there! I wanted to see that, so that’s what I set out to do, and ultimately I don’t think I fully succeeded, but I tried. I guess not everything can be a resounding success

---

This year I managed to do a lot more than I realized. New works, updates, and COMPLETED pieces?! I never would have thought, but staying home gave me more free time, and when I was too broke to work on costumes, writing fanfiction was something free I could do.

Total new works: 5 Total updates: 9 Total completed works: 3 Total words this year: 143,587

---

I have a lot of goals for the coming year, and I know I won’t make all of them, but that won’t stop me from trying.

2021 Writing Resolutions:

Reach 1million words (+238,073 words)

Finish IEYH

Finish Pearl-Filled Lungs

Update TAoL (Chapter 12 and 13)

Update Absolution

Update 13S

Update Find Me (Chapter 6)

Start the Ballad of the Dragon and the Phoenix

Start editing Alliance

Return to working on Honor Bound

Return to working on We Need Not Be Yellow Tulips

[mc-critical]

Asking because I’ve seen you say it on here: What is it that you disliked about Mahifiruze and Aysë as characters (writing or otherwise?)

It's not a problem of sympathy alone, because while these characters have quite a few offputting qualities and have certainly done some heinous deeds, it would be unfair to judge them only by that. There are way worse people in the franchise, which turn me off way more, after all. (*cough* MCK Turhan *cough*) Sympathy-wise, I'm overally ambivalent towards both Ayşe and Mahfiruze and if we only take that into account, I can take or leave them. It's their writing, however, where things take a different turn. Almost everything went wrong there.

The critical problem I find with both of the characters is that they're engrained in one and the same character archetype the writers refuse to get them out of. That brings harm not only to their characterization and the way they're built up, but also to the sympathy we're supposed to feel for them, because, more often than not, it didn't have a ground to stand on. It's true that archetypes often risk to make a character bland and one-dimensional, but the way they went with it is strange and unfortunate, because this all could've been averted quickly.

Magnificent Century's character core is mostly built on archetypes of a soapy drama and Magnificent Century: Kösem seemed to be following that trend. I understand that choice, in a way, because well, it could've just been easier for them, they could've thought they would win their former MC audience once again, playing it "familiar" and "safe". Thing is, the whole franchise overally does pretty well with archetypes: they either subvert them, deconstruct them or break them entirely later, either (in the case of MCK where we saw many previously established MC archetypes) use them with some core conceptual changes and a different theme in mind, which, as far as writing goes, worked very well with many characters. (see: Dervish - Ibrahim; Dilruba - Mihrimah; Atike - Mihrimah; Davud - Rustem, etc.) The thing is though, the writers didn't give Ayşe and Mahfiruze any of that and their archetypes felt like they only were in the beggining line, going almost nowhere beyond that and making the characters feel very often as cardboard cutouts as a result. They're going with archetypes, but they somehow give only a single fraction of these archetypes to figures that play a relatively big role in the story.

Comparisons to other usages of the character archetype of Mahfiruze and Ayşe's help even less, because everything now not only turned out to be a bad concept, but and a shaky, underdeveloped attempt at something done way better before. Mahfiruze and Ayşe both fit in Mahidevran's early season 1 archetype - the rejected, jealous woman, previously valued and loved by the Sultan, which loses everything quickly, planning and ready to do anything to take the rival down, including petty sneers, irrational decisions and will for murder. But even at its worst, Mahidevran's characterization was balanced overall, having moments where we could sympathize or condemn her respectively and had character fleshing out come to the surface as often as the reducement to this one sole archetype, which was lacking severely in Ayşe and Mahfiruze. I'll talk about the similarities they share with Mahidevran only briefly when I analyze them, because I'm admittedly very biased when it comes to this (especially with the double standarts I encounter with the YT comments, where the same people judge Mahidevran and Ayşe by the exact same metric and yet, they love one and can trash the other all day, eh.) and I don't want that to take over the topic at hand so much.

Mahfiruze has the problems I listed above to a much lesser extent than Ayşe, but that doesn't mean they're not present at all. She has a very familiar character role and personality - she is a mother to the eldest heir of the throne and gives jabs and insults to her rival. And.. that's all there is. It's undeniable than Dilara Aksuek's Mahfiruze definetly had a tough act to follow, since the former Mahfiruz screamed potential and promise the latter character was expected to fulfill, but they did the barest possible minimum. (and I don't think Dilara's a bad actress by any means: she acted amazingly in the show Istambullu Gelin as Ipek, an arguably similar and much better written character.) It definitely felt as more of a regression than a progression, because Mahfiruze had no fleshing out or development at all. Her meanness to Kösem seemed central to her character, she barely had any interactions with the rest of the cast and what is worse, used her as a plot device for a plot-line with Ahmet's enemies and then when her role was fulfilled, they.. killed her off just like that without any warning or elaboration. She was the very definition of a one-dimensional obstacle to Kösem that seemed to exist only for the sake to be an obstacle to Kösem. It was as if she didn't matter. And when she did, it was only as a narrative instrument to stir the conflict between Kösem and Osman (which I find very interesting, but I feel it would've been way more impactful if Mahfiruze wasn't only... this.) It was as if the writers ran out of stuff to do with her, which is a very lazy copout for me, because she could've had interesting storylines, if only they just wished to "shake up" the traits of her archetype for a bit.

Ayşe's character is where this repetitive problem shines through the brightest. We can argue that the love triangle plot and Farya's Mary Sue stance ruined it all for her from the get go, but for me, the foundation of her character is what truly did. Ayşe wasn't used simply as a plot device as much, she wasn't even underutilized at all, she was put into an archetype which undermines how different she is as a character in practice and the greatly dissimilar circumstances she's under. They tried to fit Mahidevran's S01 archetype in an environment it would never do in the first place. It not only becomes a stagnant, more over exaggerated repetition of a concept and forces unnecessary drama to prop another character up, it way too often puts a sole angle of Ayşe's character into focus, making Farya the center of her writing. Not to mention that for long, we didn't have a cohesive reason to root for her, her early love for Murat being the thing that was the least fleshed out about her and could make her too obsessive and yandere at times. Her interactions are criminally underdeveloped, as well, and unlike Mahfiruze, that could honestly be cut shorter except for Osman, they were something Ayşe desperately needed. We got only hints of her relationship with Kösem, Silahtar and Gevherhan and that was far from enough. Most of her scenes were either with her maid or Farya. Her alliances with Gülbahar and Sinan respectively were... fine interarion-wise, to be honest, but writing-wise, they only enforced the fairly consistent endorsement of the soapy aspect of her character beyond any measure.

Now, I can't doubt the development in her later episodes, where the writing admittedly improved. I'll always love her scene before the death of Gevherhan and her message to Murat, because that's the Ayşe I wish I saw more often. The self-awareness she gained of how Murat screwed her over was amazing and something I wish happened more gradually and over the span of more episodes. But it was all somehow "too little, too late" for me and it didn't completely save her messy writing. And it's a crime, because Ayşe played a much bigger role than Mahfiruze in the narrative, she was basically a main character and she got robbed of a good, organic fleshing out and arc.

Ayşe was the most egregious example of the severe flawed writing of repetitive archetypes and catch me forever mad about it, because she could've been much more. It's a mistake that had no business being there at all. And it was anyway.

[chdatz9000]

The Past Haunts

Aka Depression’s a Bitch

Korra has been feeling depressed lately but she tries to hide it from Asami, until she can't.

words: 2921

The two girls were lounging in one of the many family rooms in their mansion home, silently enjoying each other’s presence as they rested upon each other. Asami was just relaxing with not much on her mind, while Korra was lost in her own thoughts. Something was off and it was bothering her more and more as the days progressed. Things have been finally slowing down; Republic City had been repaired, Future Industries had steadied out their production rates and was no longer being repurposed for city reconstruction, and finally there hadn't been any major incidents in the world that demanded the Avatar’s attention. Even with their life entering a time of tranquility, Korra’s mind treaded on thin ice as her gaze was unfocused.

Asami loved listening to Korra’s breathing, she found it ever so relaxing, so it didn’t take long for her to notice that sometimes Korra would stop breathing for a few seconds before returning to her normal pattern. She wasn’t really concerned about it until it was happening more frequently, and sometimes even longer.

“Korra?” Asami broke the silence of the room, worried about her fiance. The words seemed to be absorbed into the walls of the mansion as there wasn’t any answer back, Korra too much inside her own head. Her thoughts weren’t even cohesive, stretched in many different directions causing her to slightly...panic? Is this what this is? She began to think of older adversaries that she had to fight in the past, but why? They’ve all been dealt with, taken care of, why would any of this bother her now, years removed? She had a new home, a new life, a life of returning peace and a very bright future with the love of her life. Wouldn’t this be the thing she should focus on today? What is today? How long has it been since she’s left the city? The kingdom? How long has it been since she’s been to the Southern Water Tribe, her home? Wait, this was her home...wasn’t it? 

“Korra?” Asami asked again, this time succeeded in getting Korra’s attention. Korra, startled, quickly snapped her attention to Asami.

“Hm? What’s up?” She tried responding cheerfully, hoping that would hide her internal chaos. 

“Are you ok? You stopped breathing for a bit.” Asami moved so she could look into Korra’s eyes and also so she could grab hold of Korra’s hand to squeeze it.

“Yeah! I was just thinking…” Korra lingered on following up her answer, hoping something would come to mind to not make Asami worry. But when Asami leaned in closer to her, she knew she ran out of time to find a lie. “...Well, about how I’m kinda homesick. I mean, with being away from the Tribe for so long.” It was a half truth, perhaps it would be enough.

“Oh, Korra.” Asami leaned in to kiss Korra’s temple and squeezed her hand tighter. “I’m sorry we haven’t had an opportunity to go back in such a long time, I know it’s been rough on you.” She gave Korra a quick kiss on the lips, which made Korra’s heart flutter, she had a knack for doing that. Asami sat up to stretch a bit before going back to find her spot on top of Korra, but before she did she noticed that it was snowing. “Korra, look.”

Snow. Waterbending. South Pole. Southern Water Tribe. 

“It looks so pretty!” Asami exclaimed, there was a slight pause before she continued. “Hey, I have an idea.”

Korra perked up, almost lost herself in her mind again, “What is it?” She was now able to give Asami her full attention.

“Get dressed. We’re going outside! We can’t go to the South Pole, but we can definitely get you some similar sights of being there!”

Korra couldn't stop herself from giggling, this was really sweet of her and yet so simple and cute. “Ok, if that’s what you want to do.”

“Of course it’s what I want to do! If it’ll make you feel any better, I want to do it. And besides…” she started to walk out of the room to get her jacket, “...it’s warmer here.” She finished with a cheeky grin.

“Pfff. Don’t worry though, I’ll keep you warm too.” 

“I was counting on it.”

***

The two found a good spot on the outskirts of the property, facing the mountains and a good ways away from any road or light source they could. Asami, having spare dry wood,  placed logs in a small pit that Korra then lit with her bending. She brought with her a two person chair, so they could easily and comfortably cuddle. 

While sitting down, Asami placed a hand on Korra’s leg, “I know this isn’t exactly perfect, but you can’t argue with the view.” The snow fall had gotten a little heavier and the flakes were getting bigger, nothing the two couldn’t handle. There was something ethereal with just looking up and watching the snow fall. Korra couldn’t explain it, but it did resonate with her.

Snow. South Pole. Mountains...cliff

Korra. Loved one, Family. Father...mother….

“This was a great idea.” Korra said as she wrapped one arm around Asami’s shoulder, “Thank you so much for this. It’s kind of a silly idea but...I’m really enjoying it.” She faced Asami with a loving smile. 

“Anything for you.” Was all Asami needed to say. As if on cue, they both leaned in to kiss each other. It was a longer kiss, both wanting nothing more to show their love for each other. 

They pulled away, both smiling at each other, “Are you serious about that turtleneck though?” Korra teased, rather ruining their small moment. But Asami was quick to retort, “You lose a lot of heat in the neck,” she didn’t want Korra having the last word. Asami laid herself onto Korra’s chest once more, continuing the cuddle session, albeit it being colder and clunkier with some winter clothes on.

A few moments passed, the snow got slightly heavier, but still nothing the two would be concerned about. Korra stared off into the horizon, just into the mountains and the snow flickering by. Asami stared at the fire before her but she wanted to talk to Korra, nothing really of importance, but something lighthearted to make her smile. Maybe wait a few more moments so Korra could center herself. 

Korra. Home. Fire. Mother. Father. Mother burning, she burned alive. 

Cold. Snow. Mountains. Cliff. Water crashing below. Failure as Avatar...new reincarnation. 

Negative thoughts were prevailing in Korra’s mind, and creeping into Asami’s. Asami has had a few moments every once in a while about her past. Even so, she would always be so happy with Korra, but she always wished that her mother could meet her future wife. She strongly believed that she would’ve supported them being together and even gotten along with Korra.  Her father, on the other hand, would’ve probably taken longer to persuade. Mayhaps not, his grievances against benders only started because….

What was the cause of all these past memories rushing through Korra’s mind? No one was trying to kill her anymore. She had prevailed through them all! She was strong...right? Was she a failure for having three major enemies all within a year? And then one caused by her decision to leave? Followed immediately by two more just because of the last one? Avatar Aang probably didn’t have all these problems like this. Was she too weak in the eyes of the world? Was she a disappointment to all the past Avatars? She felt small, mattering less and less as the seconds go by in her mind of seemingly infinite minutes. 

The smell of burning flesh, the smell of oil and fire, the sound of metal smashing metal. The smell of poison gas...the sight of Korra saving you. Korra, the love of your life. The person who you would want to spend the rest of your life with. The person who you were trying to do everything in your power to be happy. Your mother made you happy.... 

Asami then wondered what plans her mother would come up with for their wedding, but it was harder to theorize as she was killed when Asami was still young. She let out an audible sigh, trying to shake off her residual depressing thoughts. Taking a deep breath, she moved her gaze to the ground, now having a layer of snow. Something moved caught her eye, it was the snow. On one of the legs of the chair, the snow was slowly crawling upwards and then fell. But that was nothing to what caught her attention next, the fire. It was growing, shrinking, gone out, lit itself again, turned blue, and more unnatural reactions, how could she have not noticed this sooner? 

Asami shot up and looked at Korra, her eyes focused on something that wasn’t there. Korra’s breathing was irregular and short, and unbeknownst to Asami, her muscles were spazzing. Asami could then make out that her eyes were watering, how long was I out?! She panicked. 

Did the world really need the Avatar? Was Amon right, were benders inherently evil? Did Vaatu and Unalaq cause her to lose the legacy of all of her previous lifetimes? Did Zaheer break her in ways that no other Avatar has been broken? Was he right that the Avatar has no place in the new world? Was she putting innocent lives in harm’s way because of her actions? Was--

“Korra!” Asami shouted. Korra came back and sharply inhaled, as if she had not been breathing the entire time. Her sight was only Asami, who was now kneeling directly in front of her. Her face was full with worry as she was firmly grasping Korra’s shoulders. 

"...Hey…." Korra's reply was shaky as she returned to the reality in front of her. Asami didn’t respond back, she just stared at Korra, increasingly concerned as Korra took longer to continue. Asami just looked at Korra, with her eyebrows raised and eyes wide open, as she waited, impatiently, for her to respond. 

“Sorry…” Korra continued, still catching her breath, “..It’s just…,” another pause, she didn’t want Asami to worry so much. Korra knew that she had to tell Asami the full truth, but damn it would hurt Asami more, especially over things that happened years ago. They’ve moved on from all those incidents, the pain. This was absurd, it was as if they travelled back in time, she felt all those same fears and pain as she did long ago. 

Korra swallowed, “It’s…” she tried to say something, but only began to chuckle instead over how ludicrous all this was, and it seemed that was enough to let the tears she was holding back to finally fall. “Sorry…,” she said again, “...I just feel silly.” She sniffed. Asami moved one of her hands to cup Korra’s cheek, which Korra leaned into and placed her hand over Asami’s. Closing her eyes, she resumed, “I’ve been having these never ending thoughts about like when I was crippled. All those things that Amon, Unalaq, Vaatu, Zaheer, and Kuvira had said. Losing my connection to my past lives. Feeling just as hopeless and useless as I did way back when I lost my bending. I…”She took a staggered breath, eyebrows furrowed, “It happened so long ago, and I know I should be over these things, it’s all been over and dealt with. I thought I was done with these stupid thoughts.” Her breathing picked up, “I just feel so stupid and worthless!” She painfully admitted, tears now flowing faster. She opened her eyes to look at Asami, hoping that she didn’t cause too much pain.

Asami smiled softly and stood up, Korra still holding onto her. “Hold on.” she said tenderly. She removed Korra’s hand and stood up. Undoing her jacket, she sat back down on the other end of the chair and had her arms open. Hands gesturing her partner to come to her, which Korra obliged without any hesitation. Korra placed her head on top of Asami’s chest and breathed with her. 

“It’s ok,” Asami began, “You’re ok to feel those emotions again. You’re still as strong as ever. You’re just as useful as ever, to the world and especially to me. You belong here, and matter to everyone alive, even the spirits.” Asami placed her hand on top of Korra’s cheek again and began stroking her thumb across. “It’s not silly or weak of you to feel what you’re feeling again. We all have our days. You’ve had near death experiences, you can’t just get over something like that and not be bothered by it ever again.” She kissed the top of Korra’s head, trying in every way that she could to reassure Korra. “Can I tell you something?” She asked.

“Mmhmm.” Korra didn’t really have the energy to say anything else. 

“You gotta promise me that you won’t get upset.” Asami said cheekily. There was just a slight pause before Korra nodded to agree.

“Ok, well, just now, I was thinking about my parents and--” Korra shot up, interrupting Asami. She felt extremely guilty, how dare she be upset about anything when Asami was grieving. Asami knew this would happen, “You promised you wouldn’t get upset.” She said with a smile, “It’s ok, come back to me,” she said tenderly. Korra slowly placed herself back onto Asami’s chest. “What I was going to say, is that even I still get wrapped up in those thoughts, I believe everyone does. Some are better at hiding it than others, but we still go through it.” She hugged Korra tightly, “And  no matter what other people say, no matter what the press says, no matter what your head says, you’re still as strong as ever and you’re still important as ever. Always remember that I love you, Korra, with my entire being. Doesn’t matter what the world does to you, to me, to us. As long as we’re together, I know we can handle it together.” Asami affirmed. 

There was a small moment of stillness until Korra slowly raised her head to look at her compassionate and caring lover, “...Thank you...I love you too, Asami.” She sniffed again, her tears had stopped for a small moment. “...I made your turtleneck wet.” It was Asami’s turn to laugh. 

“It’s fine. I know you can bend it out.” She said with a chuckle.

“Do you want to talk about your parents?” Korra asked quietly, still trying to regain her composure.

“We can, but first I want to know if you’re ok. Once you are feeling better, we can talk about me. I don’t want you to feel down.” Asami leaned in and kissed Korra. “I just want to make sure that you know that I care about you and that you can still talk to me about anything, even if you think it’s ‘silly.’” They kept their eye contact, until Asami pulled Korra back down. “Do you think going to the South Pole will make you feel any better?”

Korra barely raised her shoulders up, “I don’t know...I think I just wanted to be somewhere familiar.”

Asami started to lightly rub Korra’s arm, “I’m sorry that the mansion isn’t really a cozy and familiar place for you yet. I hope one day it will.” Asami paused, “Or…,” she tilted her head and looked up, “...I could sell the mansion and we could get a small one bedroom apartment or house! And then...wait no, it’d have to be a two bedroom. Naga needs her own room.”  Korra laughed out loud, there she is. Asami couldn’t help but to chuckle along with Korra, her happiness was indeed contagious. “Then I can turn this into another warehouse and--”

“Stoooop,” Korra groaned lightly. “We don’t need to sell your home. Besides...there’s a lot of memories for you here. And…” Asami’s Mother. Asami’s Father. Asami’s past. Asami’s livelihood. Me moving in. So many nights here of just us. Us. Our future. “...I want to make more memories with you here.”

Asami’s heart swelled, “Korra…,” she didn’t know what else to say. “...come here.” Korra obliged and moved in. They kissed tenderly, while Asami wraps her arms around the girl she knows she’s going to spend the rest of her life with. Korra pulled away slightly, just so she could stare at those gorgeous emerald eyes. “Korra, you’re so sweet, and I hate to ruin this moment, but can we go back inside? I’m getting cold.” She laughed. 

Korra looked confused, “But what about you? Don’t you want to talk about what was bothering you?”

“I would love to talk to you, but I want to get inside first. I promise we can talk there.”

“Ok.” Korra said softly.

“I have an idea. You keep me company while I cook us up something warm to eat, and I’ll tell you what was going on. And then we’ll eat, talk some more about this if you need to.” Asami pulled herself up from her lying position, Korra following suit, and stood up. “And then…” she led on with a very intentional long pause.

“...And theeeeeeeeen...what?” Korra asked curiously.

Asami shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll see.” Asami deflected playfully. “Come.” She put out her hand.

Korra stood up and quickly bent the fire out and grabbed hold of Asami’s hand. They walked together towards their home. 

Home. My home. Our home. Our future.

***