#I feel like these all pull it off by playing into genre conventions tbh. The audience *could* question mob's explosions or reigen using mob

[muninnhuginn]

When series begin to question their initial premise and in doing so pull the rug from underneath the audience's feet. Like, walking up a hill and sitting on a bench only to find out I actually just sat down on a roller coaster

[ghostwriterofthemachine]

will you pretty please tell me about how teen wolf is a shonen??

Oh Griffin you're gunna be so sorry you asked.

I started thinking about this in the first place because I was pondering about the genuinely weird fan reaction to the first couple of seasons of Teen Wolf. Mostly, how people went "this is a concept we like!" and then had no idea what to do with and how to react to the main cast.

To be totally fair, part of this is because the writing of the first season is even worse than you remember it being and the Scott/Allison romance, which is supposed to be the show's centerpiece, is maybe the worst written part of all of it. Another part of it is that the acting talent skewed very young (Dylan O'Brian and Tyler Posey were both only 19/20 during season 1) and their ability to work with this frankly terrible material was a little bit uneven (Posey got WAY better as the show went on and by the end of it was really great imo, but oh man. that first season is not his best work).

But I also think there's a genre and genre convention thing going on here. Let me explain.

(disclaimer because this is a public post on tumblr: this is not that serious and is mostly a thought experiment in genre conventions please don't take it that seriously)

When did Teen Wolf first air? 2011. What were some comparable shows coming out about that time, or that an audience who wanted to watch Teen Wolf might also have watched/been aware of?

The Vampire Dairies, Supernatural, probably something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

What do some of these shows have in common?

Snarky/sarcastic main characters (Dean Winchester, Buffy)

Main characters who are often gray-moral or struggle with a pull to The Dark Side (the moral compasses in these shows are usually part of the supporting cast) (and are always high up on the list to be killed off for drama tbh)

Pre-streaming TV formula (episodic monster-of-the-week builds to a larger plot which is resolved in the last 4th of the season)

Romance that relies strongly on will they/won't they, love triangles, and edgy angsty 2000s vampire shenanigans.

You will notice that Teen Wolf has. basically none of this?

Teen Wolf has:

A painfully sincere main character

That same main character is about as moral and stick-to-his-guns as they come

Said main character gives Big Sweeping Speeches that convince irredeemable bad guys to be on his side instead of theirs.

Structured in clear and well-defined arcs, no episodic monster-of-the-week, where the bad guys keep getting bigger and scott's party keeps needing to power up to deal with them.

Audience knows who Scott is gunna end up with pretty much immediately (even when Scott moves on from Allison because of IRL cast fuckery, he always has one main romantic objective and works toward that)

Liberal application of coming-of-age themes/The Power Of Friendship

,,,,,Hm, I think to myself. That sure is something that feels more familiar to the way a shonen is structured than how a western supernatural teen drama is usually structured.

Scott in particular is an archetype that feels very foreign to the landscape of the western supernatural drama at the time. Protagonists of those types of shows were rarely as good and pure and kind as Scott is, and I think it's a big reason why so much of the audience didn't know what to do with him at first and instead attached to Stiles (who is gray-moral and sarcastic and would not feel out of place in a show like spn or btvs) (yes yes I know the sterek thing is also a big reason but go with it for a second here). However, Scott is NOT an archetype that would feel foreign to Shonen Jump at the time, particularly in an era where Naruto was still ruling the world.

Honestly, the whole cast of characters feels out-of-beat with a 2010s Western supernatural drama. The dynamic of the main cast in early seasons — Pure of Heart-Dumb of Ass hero, Tragic Cold and Competent foil (Derek basically playing the role of Sasuke here, lol), Powerless Childhood Friend, Love Interest with a Badass Weapon to Hide Her Vulnerability — all feels much more familiar with the tropes of a shonen (something like Shaman King specifically jumps to mind) than something that would show up in The Vampire Diaries. In Western supernatural dramas, you usually had a Snarky-Angry Hero, Tragic Brooding Love Interest, Concerned But Useless Friend/Sidekick.

,,,,,,Tbh, in a standard western teen drama, the Derek character would have been Scott's love interest. Which. Honestly, what the hell, now I want that, that sounds like an awesome show. Probably better than the Teen Wolf we got.

Oh. Also, there's a hot murder uncle. which is for-sure an anime thing.

ALSO-also, there are kitsune in this show for one season for like no reason because they're never mentioned again and vanish in the next season which happens WAY MORE THAN YOU THINK IT WOULD in this DUMB BAD NONSENSE SHOW —

clears throat. nevertheless. My thesis:

1: At the time it came out (2011), Teen Wolf was structured more like a shonen than a western supernatural teen drama. 2: That is part of the reason why fans had weird reactions to it — they were expecting one genre and it gave them another one, which a lot of the audience likely wasn't that familiar with. 3: this whole show is batshit bonkers.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk. *bows.*

[aerequets]

can you give me some webtoon recommendations? name some of your favorites! :)

i am here to answer folks 😎

all of these webtoons can be found on webtoons.com! I'm not sure about the whole daily pass thing they've got going on (which sucks tbh) but like,,, you could probably find it online illegally. NOT THAT I CONDONE ILLEGAL ACTIVITY HAHAHAHA ᵖˢˢᵗ ⁱᶠ ʸᵒᵘ ˡᵒᵒᵏ ⁱᵗ'ˢ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ

I'll split these up between completed and in progress :) most are still in progress though

COMPLETED

1) Gourmet Hound (166 chapters)

this is like, my all time favorite webtoon. it follows Lucy and her quest to find all the chefs that left her favorite restaurant, Dimanche! it’s a really heartfelt story and the food illustrations make you really hungry, so make sure you have a snack before you sit down to read it. each character’s name is also food-related, so that’s pretty cool too! and the diversity in this webtoon is AMAZING. it’s the only webtoon i’ve ever read that has a hijabi character in the main cast. the development is done really well and it explores themes of loving and letting go. all in all, it has a bit of everything. i personally love food-related things, and this centers around it, so i was set LOL

(also a bonus is that this webtoon has NOT succumbed to daily pass hell, so you can binge read the whole thing. legally.)

2) Hooky (200 chapters)

if you like stories of witches, this is the one! the summary and beginning chapters are deceptively lighthearted. DO NOT BE FOOLED! the story really develops further on and explores numerous conflicts, a big one being (if i remember correctly) witch vs. nonwitch. if you like to see struggles between two sides, not a good-and-evil but just people-who-want-the-best-for-themselves-and-their-loved-ones type of thing, this is good for that. also, sibling love! the two main characters are Dani and Dorian, and while there is someee romance, i like how this story centers around the siblings first and foremost. ALSO THE ART??? I LOVE HOW THE AUTHOR DRAWS SETTINGS SO MUCH and am unabashedly jealous because i am completely incapable of doing so   just like,,,, even if the story doesn’t pull you in, you can at least stare at each panel for long stretches of time.

(unfortunately succumbed to daily pass, but you can read it on mangaowl or manganelo!)

3) Spirit Fingers (167 chapters)

aww, this one is cute. Amy is 18 and lacking in self confidence (her family definitely doesn’t help). but HEY she joins a wacky art club!! without her parents knowing!! HECK YEAH!! unfortunately it takes more than joining an art club for her to learn to love herself (it is a long journey after all!). i love this webtoon because it explores the problems of multiple people, not just amy: her high achieving brothers, her mother who had to give up her dream, the different members in the art club, Amy’s girl friends. the art is unique and has a cool watercolor-y texture! and the main couple is just adorable, too. if you’re an artist especially, i recommend this because that’s a big theme and you get to see these characters expand their art styles! which is very cool!

(you can read this one fully on 1stkissmanga)

now here’s where the majority of my recs are:

IN PROGRESS (all can be read on webtoon.com)

1) The Makeup Remover (currently 71 chapters)

i look forward to this every tuesday and friday because oh man!!!!!!!!! idk about you guys, but i am thinking about beauty standards A Large Amount of the time, especially when i consume media. and this webtoon is all about beauty standards (specifically in Korea, but still applicable like. everywhere). Main character Yeseul ends up having to partake in this beauty competition and, with her experiences through it, she begins seeing makeup and beauty standards for the huge role they play in society. i said it already but i LOVE LOVE LOVE this webtoon because it really challenges you as a reader to think about your own perspectives. why do we find the things/people beautiful that we do? what shapes our perception? how much of it is marketing, and how much of it shows in our daily lives? what assumptions do you make about people based on how they look? AGHH im sounding like an essay prompt instead of a reviewer but man. if you like webtoons that examine society through a critical lens (gosh i sound like an english teacher), this is the one. 

2) Odd Girl out (currently 261 chapters; on season 2) 

okay, first and foremost: if you’re NOT into long winded drama, this probably isn’t it for you. i will admit im not a fan of long problems that get dragged out, especially in a school setting, but i did keep reading this webtoon and i am glad that i did! the character development here is amazing and ONE CRUCIAL THING is that the whole first season (which is many, many chapters. at least over 100) focuses on the friendship between our main 4 girls. if you don’t wanna wait for a romance storyline (which comes in season 2), then you’ve gotta have the patience of a saint. i loved this though because lots of romance webtoons cast friendships aside or use them to further the romantic plot. platonic relationships are great to read about and this one does it masterfully! main character nari is resilient and emotionally strong, and it’s great to see her ruin her enemies

3) Cursed Princess Club (currently 110 chapters; on break before the final season)

this is another one about beauty and societal expectations, but in a fantasy setting! it’s really funny and the cast of characters is heartwarming. Gwen is a princess, but she doesn’t look like the typical princess. she accidentally stumbles upon the Cursed Princess Club, which is exactly what it sounds like: a club for princesses that have been cursed and are trying to find their self worth despite not being conventional princesses! now that i think about it, this is like a lighthearted mixture of Makeup Remover and Spirit Fingers. although while i do say “lighthearted”, this webtoon has its fair share of mysteries and exploration of deeper topics. but its funny throughout

4) Brass & Sass (currently 83 chapters)

ahh this one is really cute and the art is cute, too! i also like how this has a diverse cast. high schooler Camilla kinda sucks at band, but dangit if she’s not passionate. Victor is some type of musical prodigy but he’s a brass-hole (hahaha get it. no that’s not original i ripped it from the summary). now i KNOW I KNOW, the whole “perky girl and asshole guy” is so overplayed BUT DON’T FRET! this isn’t the type of story where the girl “fixes” the guy, or where the guy is an asshole to everyone except the girl. believe me, the character development and relationship development in this story is SPLENDID. there’s no real antagonist. it’s just a bunch of high schoolers trying their best to make themselves and everyone else happy, and that’s hard! the story is carried more by the characters than by the plot, but it works well in this case since the characters are strong and each one has a presence. 

5) Surviving Romance (currently 10 chapters)

this one is relatively new compared to my other recs but it’s by the author of the Makeup Remover so yaknow i had to hop on it. BUT IT IS VERY DIFFERENT! first off, it’s a horror, so keep that in mind. the best way i can describe it is a mixture of the standard “girl falls into a story” genre, Groundhog Day, and zombies. Yeah. Bascially, Chaerin is our main girl and she’s in a romance story that’s she’s read a bajillion times, so she knows the day has come for her male lead to confess his love! except he doesn’t! because he becomes a zombie instead! hahaha well that sucks! it’s only got 10 chapters but i am very into it, and it seems to be taking an emphasis on platonic relationships, so i am very closely watching 👁👁

6) The Witch and the Bull (currently 60 chapters) 

another witch story! and the art is GORGEOUS. more witch + nonwitch conflict, too! our main dude, Tan, is the royal advisor and he’s hella bigoted against witches. our main girl, Aro, happens to be a witch. and Tan needs her help to make him into a human again (because he got turned into a bull. that is worth mentioning). this is a very barebones summary and there’s a lot more that goes on, but that’s the general gist of the beginning!

ANYWAYS. this got very long, predictably, and i rambled for each title, predictably. i’ve got more that i’m reading, but i really like these 9! i also made comments on the art for a lot of them, which might not matter to some people, but i feel like my art was very impacted by each webtoon i read. if you’re an artist i recommend finding a webtoon you like and studying the art; try implementing parts you like into your own style! 

anyways, i am FINALLY done talking. bye yall 

[olderthannetfic]

the "not authentic" accusation is something that makes my blood boil. Some part of it might be because I find the fluidity of culture really cool, like how cultures mix and evolve and people innovate. Immigrant food and food in general is probably the most straightforward example of it at work, but music and media is also so interesting.

But also it on their very limited idea of what culture is and how it works, not to mention how lowkey colonial a lot of it ends up being. A lot of the time what is "authentic" is imposed on a culture, usually by a more powerful group that wants to consume their culture or is making them jump through hoops to "prove" their identity so they can get the bare minimum respect for their cultural needs (I'm thinking especially of indigenous people here but it can apply to a lot of entertainers). So sure, BTS may draw a lot from rap and other western genres, but it's still reinterpreted and filtered through a Korean lens. Hybridization and inspiration is not less authentic than more... I think mainstream for the source culture might be the right way to put it? And BTS deciding to go translate stuff into English, yes there is an argument for how it's pretty unfair that success often requires English in a globalized music industry because of the current cultural hegemony, but it's also super unfair to blame BTS for going along with it. We live in a society a global mediascape that has certain conventions artists have to balance with their own artistic visions and that's hard and it's often unfair and easier for western English-speaking people but it's not the artists' fault any more than it's my fault for putting on my customer service voice at work. The moment someone pulls the authentic card on something I think 9 times out of 10 the authenticity is performed and curated as much as anything bc tbh real personal authenticity simply tends not to be marketable to the masses.

--

Yeah, I am plenty personally authentic. I can assure you that it does not always play well to all audiences. 🤣

And, in fact, it gets read as super fake by a lot of people a lot of the time, from "self confidence is inherently fake" to "Nobody really speaks like that" to "You must secretly just listen to Taylor on repeat and not A Tribe Called Red", yadda yadda. (I have had many people go "Holy shit, you actually talk like that" after meeting me.)

The feeling of realness in the sense of personal emotional vulnerability and intimacy for fans in somebody's vlog or something, is a performance in the same way that real blood does not look as "real" in a movie as the correct stage blood. If you want to accurately communicate yourself to your fans--even if you are actually trying to hold nothing back, which no sane mainstream performer would want--you must be fake to do it at least in some sense. It cannot be 100% off the cuff without any thought put into how it will come across because that leads to misunderstandings. Communication requires... well... skill and intent.

Even aside from the overwhelming demands of the marketplace, there are problems with the idea of "authenticity" full stop.

[bookofmirth]

Hello! I’ve recently seen the argument that e/riel will happen because the acotar spinoff books are in the adult romance genre (compared to the acotar books being put in ya), and adult romance books don‘t pull a “bait and switch” with love interests the way ya/na books do. Instead, adult romance books supposedly only put effort into developing one couple and will pull through with that couple until the end.

Tbh I don’t read much adult romance - usually just ya or adult fantasy - so I’m not sure how true this is, but I thought this argument was interesting because it literally would disprove e/riel lol.

Like if you look at the entire acotar series, then Elain and Lucien were mates before there was any indication of anything between Azriel and Elain. So then it would make sense for them to be the couple that will be endgame. And Az/Elain will be resolved without a huge romantic subplot because they really don’t have serious feelings for each other, it’s just following a pattern with the way Azriel attaches to unattainable women to avoid rejection and Elain trying to avoid the problems and feelings she needs to face by latching onto the ‘safe’ option.

And even if you are only looking at acosf since it’s the only book classified as adult romance from the beginning, then Az/Gwyn have more interactions throughout the entire story than Elain/Az. Like I guarantee if someone read acosf without reading the previous books, they would think Gwynriel would happen - especially with reading how the bonus chapter ends with Az thinking of Gwyn, not Elain.

I also think it’s interesting that e/riels claim it will happen because of their development, when in fact, the reason they probably won’t is because of their complete lack of development.

Sure, Az/Elain may be a bit farther along in the sexual attraction phase, but that’s it. They’ve been stuck in this limbo for 2 or 3 books? Nothing in their dynamic has changed. At all. That’s not development. They went from being polite acquaintances to polite acquaintances with sexual attraction. There is no indication that any deeper connection between the two has formed. Maybe some romances start off that way, but that’s just not how SJM writes. Even with Nesta and Cassian, there was actual development through acomaf and acowar and acofas before they got together in acosf. Nesta and Cassian go from hating each other, to Nesta revealing one of the most traumatic events of her life to him (the attempted SA), to saving his life because she realized she didn’t want to live without him, to becoming emotionally distant again over winter solstice, etc. You can actually chart the progress of their relationship - if you did with Elain and Az, it would just be a straight horizontal line.

Elain and Lucien have actual relationship development, even if they aren’t quite as far along yet. Their dynamic has shifted - from Elain avoiding him, to seeking him out, both of them going from being wary of the other to inquiring about the other’s wellbeing, etc (I don’t remember all of the elucien moments since it’s been a while since i last read the series, but I distinctly remember noticing changes in their relationship).

Sorry this got so long! But what do you think?

Hello! Sorry this took me a few days to get to! I think I know what discussion sparked this, and I gotta say that people need to understand that genres are a suggestion, not a rule book!

First off, the adult/YA distinction is about audience, not content. There is no "YA genre" or "adult genre". There are books intended for adult readers that could be of multiple genres, and there are books intended for younger readers that could also consist of multiple genres. I read a widely across both audiences and multiple genres.

Anyone who tries to say "but in adult romance this one specific thing always happens!" Well, no. Romance is probably one of the most rule-bound genres out there right now because readers want 1) consent, and 2) a happily ever after or the implication that it is to come. However, there are people currently writing romance, and they call it romance, where even those basic conventions are played with or ignored. Sometimes reader get mad, but that doesn't mean the writer is banned from using the phrase "romance" or else they will be thrown in RWA (Romance Writers of America) jail. There are multiple tropes, character types, story lines, there could be fantasy, it could be contemporary, it could be historical. And back in the day, consent was very dubious in romance, a lot of the time. I remember sneaking my mom's books. My point is that genres change, constantly, because of the stories that writers want to tell, and the stories that readers want to read.

Now granted, I don't read much YA romance because... I'm a grown ass woman. I've outgrown it, tbh. However, I wonder if people are referring to "bait and switch" in the way that sjm changes love interests? Because I haven't seen that as a "feature" of YA romance in particular. In acotar and ToG, the love interests changed not to trick the reader or make us off balance, but to reflect how the characters were growing.

There is literally nothing about romance as a genre that says that a love interest cannot change, and even if that were one of the major tenants of the genre that people expect, writers could still say "fuck this imma do it" because... genre is a guide, not a rule.

And Az/Elain will be resolved without a huge romantic subplot because they really don’t have serious feelings for each other, it’s just following a pattern with the way Azriel attaches to unattainable women to avoid rejection and Elain trying to avoid the problems and feelings she needs to face by latching onto the ‘safe’ option.

THIS.

They went from being polite acquaintances to polite acquaintances with sexual attraction.

AND THIS OMG

You can actually chart the progress of their relationship - if you did with Elain and Az, it would just be a straight horizontal line.

lmaooooo omg I love you

I agree with all of this. I also agree that it would work against the people who originated this argument to say "this ship has existed longer and so that's why people expect it or it should happen, because X genre says so".

1) This is not strictly romance, it's fantasy romance

2) Elucien were mates and a ship in the fandom months before e*riel were so this argument does seem self-defeating

3) There are zero rules that prevent sjm from fucking around with e*riel and then finding out they are poorly suited

4) Even if this were a regular ol' romance, there is no reason why a character can't have multiple partners so long as the HEA is still there or implied, if we're all gonna get up our butts about following romance conventions

5) Adult romance standalones do typically focus on one couple. However, that is not a guarantee. See: genre as a guide. I can think of multiple off the top of my head where an MC is in a relationship with someone else at the beginning of the book, or where the ex is a very recent, not quite dealt-with factor. acotar - I can't believe I have to write this - is not a standalone. Even if this spin-off series is described as following separate couples, it is a series, and the plot and character development don't just sprout out of nowhere in book five or six.

6) Genre theory is a thing, people can look it up! I am tired of typing haha

[sourwolfstories]

Hey!! Can you rec some of the most famous sterek AUs in the fandom please? Btw, I love your recs. Thanks :)

The Comic-Con Incident by raimykeller

Stiles and Derek are actors on the same show, but secret boyfriends in real life. What happens when Stiles accidentally spills the beans at Comic-Con?

Starstruck (Or Not) by literaryoblivion

Derek takes his daughter Lia to a convention of her favorite TV show because he’s a good dad (and can’t seem to tell his daughter no) and ends up meeting a special someone.

#OTP: Assholes in Love by stilesanderek (minxxx)

After being outed as bisexual in a sex tape scandal by his ex-girlfriend Kate, Derek struggles to find an acting job until he finally lands a promising role in an HBO supernatural show called Shapeshifters, in which he plays the main character. Derek instantly falls in love with the cast, with whom he has immense fun with, especially Stiles, whose relationship with Derek consists of mainly sarcastic and teasing remarks.

Which is why when Jackson shows him a fanart of Stiles and him having intense sex he gets confused and doesn’t understand this whole “Sterek” thing Jackson is talking about.

Hiding in Plain Sight by inmydreams

Popular talk-show host Stiles Stilinski has to interview movie star Derek Hale live on tv. The only problem is they have been in a secret relationship for the past couple of years and they have to get through the interview without anyone finding out.

Here’s to the Static by matildajones

Stiles spends most of his college break in a coffee house where he stares after Derek Hale. For some reason, Stiles is unaware of the fact he’s quite the musician, and Derek amuses himself at Stiles’ obliviousness.

soulmates tbh by bleep0bleep

“It’s been five months,” Derek says darkly. “Why am I still getting these proposals? You know these are probably all fake marks.”

Five months since the paparazzi had snapped that photo of him with the overzealous fan tugging at his shirt, five months since millions of people on the Internet realized that the birthmark revealed was in fact, the mark, five months Derek was inundated by claims from people who desperately wanted him to believe that they were his soul-mate.

How The Light Gets In by dryersheetz

A Teen Wolf / Notting Hills AU

Stiles Stilinski’s life as a comic book store owner in Beacon Hills, California had been satisfying enough, but he’s been inevitably becoming increasingly bored and antsy with the cyclical nature of his life in a smaller town.

Enter Frame: The famous Hollywood bad boy and contender for Sexiest Man Alive, Derek Hale, who proceeds to turn his world upside down, but somehow brings him closer to the things he knew were most important he had lost sight of along the way.

(Title from the Leonard Cohen Poem)

Play Crack the Sky by WeAreTheCyclones

Excerpt from “Hale Pulls the Plug on the Future of Rock,” Rolling Stone, Issue 1203 – Oct. 2014“Fans and music industry vets alike are left reeling in the wake of bassist Derek Hale’s sudden departure from Smokes for Harris. At a time when the foursome from Beacon Hills, California seems to be on the cusp of rock superstardom after just one double platinum record, Smokes has everything to lose.”

Excerpt from “Smokes for Harris: Gladiator,” SPIN.com – Feb. 2015“Smokes for Harris gives in a little to the pop punk of yesteryear in their sophomore effort, but rather than pandering to fans of a lost era they elevate the genre in a way that hasn’t been seen in quite some time. Frontman Stiles Stilinski works double duty as singer and primary songwriter and proves that he can handle the task even without former bassist Derek Hale.“

Trust Fall [Into My Bed] by ofherlionheart

Stiles’s eyes light up. “Did you see him, though? No wonder the dude is an Oscar winner. He’s amazing. I mean, I’ve worked with, like, Liam Neeson and Natalie Dormer. But Derek is something else – I don’t know, I can’t describe it. There’s just this, this thing about him, when we’re in a scene together, it’s so easy to just click with him, and you know some people hate how much I improvise, but Derek just takes it and rolls with it and adds stuff of his own –” He breaks off when he finally notices Lydia smirking. “What?”

“You’re rambling,” Lydia observes.

“And?”

“I guess you aren’t too tired to talk about Derek.”

—

In which Oscar-winner Derek Hale and sidekick-to-the-top-guns Stiles Stilinski are thrown together to star in a new, powerful film. Mix in feelings, long days, late nights, terrifyingly omniscient agents, the Hale clan, Canada, and some UST, and come out with a long story with liberal amounts of UST and fluff.

Sourwolf Candy by relenafanel

When the Sourwolf Candy franchise offers a $10,000 annual scholarship to the school of the winner’s choice, Stiles jumps at the chance to enter. It doesn’t matter that the other prizes are a day with one of the Hales and a lifetime supply of Sourwolf Candy. The sacrifices are worth it, because if there’s one thing that Stiles hates more than Sourwolf Candy, it’s Derek Hale.

So of course he has to spend a day with the guy who made the catchphrase ‘Don’t be such a Sourwolf’ popular: Sourfaced Derek Hale himself. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t get his scholarship money.

Derek just wants a little sugar. Or a lot of sugar, as the case may be.

A whole case of sugar.

(He stress-eats sugar, ok?

If We Could Match by forestofbabel

As Stiles waits behind the camera during an interview, he thinks he should maybe quit. Because, in all honesty, despite the charming smile the actor is pulling out for EW, Derek Hale is kind of a jerk.

my heart’s been offline by thepsychicclam

31/M/New York. Rich, lays in bed all day, likes to read (aka Derek Hale, son of an Oscar winning actress, brother of one obnoxious reality star and one rebellious fashion designer, hates the paparazzi so much he’s a recluse)

26/M/California. Boring office job, likes to read (aka Stiles Stilinski, co-owner of a 100 acre organic farm with his dad and two best friends, writer of obits for a newspaper, has absolutely no life)

Or, where Derek and Stiles meet online, and Stiles has no clue Derek’s part of a famous family.

[danisgotagun]

Yooka-Laylee

2017 was heralded as the return of the Collectathon sub-genre of 3D platformers. I would be inclined to agree. Hat in Time and Super Mario Odyssey are amazing games that use that formula. But the first big one we got in the year was... Not so great. 

Of course I’m talking about Playtonic Games’ “Yooka-Laylee”.

To preface my thoughts on this game, now that I have completed it 100%, I have never played Banjo-Kazooie. Or any of Rare’s classic 3D platformers, surprisingly. It’s definitely one of my favorite genre! But for this I see it as a positive as I wasn’t going in with any real expectations based on the names. Also, I own the PS4 version of the game, so I may have had a more buggy experience than PC/Switch players. 

The Collectathon sub-genre never truly died, I think. The core of what made those games what they were transferred to a lot of modern games. One of the big reasons that genre took off was the jump to 3D itself, and being able to explore a 3D space and discover its secrets was a novel concept. Trophies, achievements, open world games, etc. all pull from that to some degree. So for the Collectathon, as we know it, to come back (and man do I want it to come back) it has to present itself in a fresh form. We’re stripping a game to the core, and using basic gaming conventions and we have to make that enjoyable with new ideas. Super Mario Odyssey did this exceptionally well. This is a point I think Yooka-Laylee fell short on. 

Not only did Yooka-Laylee not bring something truly fresh to the genre, any real modernization for it to hold its own in the current market, it failed to do a lot of the things the Collectathon genre entails. Given the pedigree of the developers, this was the most shocking thing to me and most people who found themselves disappointed in the game. 

There are plenty of collectables. But finding them, especially the quills, feels awkward. Things seem to thrown around the level haphazardly. It’s not as bad as I anticipated; that one quill in the Tribalstack Tropics was definitely the worst offender, but it never really got better past there.  

Which brings me to the levels themselves. We have 5 big worlds that can be expanded once to make them even bigger. It’s a cool concept, in theory, but it doesn’t really mean much when the levels feel so barren. You’re running around huge levels with no real way to fast travel, finding paths that lead nowhere and getting tired of finding maybe a few quills in one entire section of the level. The characters that inhabit the levels don’t... really inhabit the levels. Nothing changes when you complete a task, characters don’t interact with you in any significant way really. I would’ve liked if they at least responded to you attacking them or jumping on them, something that even the early Collectathons like the original Spyro trilogy, had accomplished. It’s little things like that that truly tie a game like this together. But Yooka-Laylee is a very loose experience.

There’s no structure, is what I really want to say here. Most of the game doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The jokes, while some of them are good, are everywhere and usually shoehorned into dialogue. Hints and clues for completing certain tasks (and even move descriptions!) are obtuse at best. The Sonar Splosion says “Do not ussssse near glasssss.” The average player would think this means it would break open the cracked glass walls you run across. But no. What breaks those? The Spin Dash (which, coincidentally, feels like it should be the move to break the blocks Sonar Splosion breaks.) The huge levels are easy to get turned around in, landmarks and consistency in direction (especially when you’re going after quills off the beaten path) is a mess. The best level in the game, as far as structure goes, also feels like one of the emptiest ones to a degree, that being the final world, Galleon Galaxy (which personally I loved tbh but it was still large but not dense.)  

And then there’s “identity.” The game wants you to feel nostalgic for the genre, but it doesn’t seem all that concerned with making you feel attached to itself. Characters are generally bland, up to and including Yooka himself, and aren’t all that memorable. Laylee is fun with her wisecracks, but even those get annoying. (Ironically, one such joke is her talking to Rextro about “annoying character dialogue.” Hmm.) And despite this lack of personality, characters will drone on and on and on. You can skip through a lot of dialogue, but the transitions between speech bubbles is slow itself, and there’s no skipping that. There’s just no real charm, nothing to really let the game hold up. If it wanted me to think it was an old collectathon that hadn’t aged well, then it would have succeeded. It lacks a lot of polish. 

But here’s the thing. I could continue complaining about the game, and saying things that have probably been said a million times before against it. But the most frustrating thing about the entire game is that you can see the potential. To me, that is the worst type of bad game: One where the potential is right in front of your face. You can’t just simply dismiss it as garbage, and it’s a strange and terrible feeling when you play a game and think to yourself “this could have been great!” 

The designs are cute, and the worlds, while empty, are beautiful to look at. Some of the challenges to get pagies were clever; and there’s neat areas like the Icymetric Palace. The music is fantastic and whimsical. 

On the note of good traits, I want to talk about perhaps the best part of the game: Capital B. A great villain design, has the most personality of anyone in the game, and the final boss fight is genuinely fun. Albeit, it’s a long fight with unskippable transitions between and even within each of its 4 phases with no chance of healing anywhere. It would have been a perfect final boss if the second phase was maybe a little shorter, and butterflies appeared occasionally (especially in the 4th phase, where stamina recovery is almost necessary.) But overall, Capital B is an excellent, cleverly designed antagonist.

The game has so much quality in it that the overwhelming lack thereof that is also there feels all the worse. I spent about 3 days doing a 100% run, and I genuinely had fun. I don’t regret buying this game. 

Now, what exactly do I want to take away from this experience? I want to hold out some hope for Playtonic Games. Yooka-Laylee teases (in more than a few ways) that it will get a sequel. While I hope this isn’t Playtonic’s only IP over the course of its (hopefully) long life, I do want them to perfect Yooka-Laylee before they move on. I hope that they listened to all the criticisms people made of this game, and polish a sequel to be up there with the great collectathons of yesteryear and the ones that are reviving the genre today. If a Tooka-Laylee comes out, I am definitely picking it up, and I sincerely hope that it is a huge success and Playtonic can become a renowned developer that helped save collectathon platformers. 

I feel like Yooka-Laylee was a labor of love from the Rare alums, and their ambition and creative freedom may have got the better of them. I genuinely believe their next project will be an improvement, and I look forward to seeing what they have in store for us.