#I think what was cool about her role is that the archetype she's playing is usually ascribed to younger actresses

[ratlesshonret]

honestly i do love every single one of the lobcorp sephirah. this is an appreciation post.

Yesod can be kinda an asshole but in a really fun way. His development surrounding his Core Meltdown is also very interesting.

Hod is absolutely adorable, and also incredibly relatable. Her struggles sometimes come very close to my own and I identify with her heavily.

Netzach is just cool as hell. Absolutely based. I’d totally hang out with him.

Tiphereth (A) is a bit mean and sassy, but that’s exactly what I love about her. It’s a character archetype I’ve always enjoyed.

Tiphereth (B) also seems very interesting, despite how very little we seem to ever see of him.

Chesed is pretty. And honestly I do enjoy his character, despite not having much to say on it. Maybe I’ll have more to say after I play more LoR.

Gebura is hot. As fuck. And also she’s really cool. And badass. And her character arc in LobCorp is one of my favorites in the game. And her Core Suppression is really fun despite being kinda infuriating sometimes.

Malkuth.

Binah is also hot. As fuck. And cool. I love how unapologetically cruel she is, despite the signs of something more that seem to occasionally seep through, especially in one of her discussions with Gebura that I cannot remember when it happens. Definitely a very interesting character that I look forward to seeing more of.

Hokma is another character I don’t have much to say on, but I do enjoy his role in the story and want to see more of him as I progress through LoR. I think his motives are very intriguing.

I also can’t go through this without talking about Angela. My babygirl. I love her so much. I cannot wait to see this “amazing character development” I’ve been hearing about, but I also fear for her mental health regarding some suspicions I have on things I’ve been vaguely spoiled on.

[teaveetamer]

more on like. FE misogyny is like. Thinking about which characters are what gender and why. Like there's a reason why seteth has a daughter and not a son. There's a reason(s) why dimitris retainer is a man. Why Hubert, an underhanded and manipulative person, who nonetheless plays second fiddle to byleth (you) is a man instead of a woman. These are all very interesting decisions with a lot to think about irt gender, misogyny, narrative, and it's fuckin annoying that taking note of it is seen as evidence in itself of misogyny. Much of it has to do with female characters not allowed to be unappealing. (Tho this leads into why I enjoy Leonie for being allowed to be genuinely unappealing wrt to jeralt after remire). Reading your and Ezra's stuff on fe misogyny is really great cause I get to finally see people talking about this from like, a cultural and marketing sort of perspective.

To your last bit, anon: I think that's something a lot of people misinterpret when they read discussion of misogyny in media in general (and occasionally my posts specifically). Acknowledging that the world is kind of a fucked up place is not an endorsement of the world being a fucked up place. Arguing that pointing out misogyny is the ~true~ misogyny is like having a pipe burst in your house and insisting that every plumber who comes over to fix it is actually the cause of the leak.

Except it's not even that, because that assumes their own house is actually going to be affected by the leak. Most of these people don't have their lives affected by denying the existence of misogyny. It's more like your neighbor has a pipe burst and you're chilling in your window taking pot shots with a BB gun at every plumber who pulls up to the driveway to help fix it, then patting yourself on the back for "keeping your neighbor's pipes safe" when they all flee in terror. As your neighbor is literally sitting in six inches of water wondering why tf no one seems to be coming over to help with that pipe.

But anyway circling back to the first part of your message, yeah there are a lot of subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways the genders of characters play into stereotypes and archetypes we've come to be familiar with. There's a million examples of characters who just would not work the other way around, largely from an appeal/marketing standpoint, because of gender expectations. Sylvain the male shameless flirt is seen as a cool player but if he were a woman he'd be a slut. No one wants to marry "used goods" which is why we don't have a ton of female shameless flirt characters in FE.

A dad (Seteth) protecting their daughter (Flayn) to the degree where he'll try to screen and control the people (especially the men) she speaks to is seen as endearing and an extension of paternal duties, if a wee bit overprotective. A mother doing the same to her son would be seen as a creepy harpy engaging in emotional incest and stunting her child's natural development. Men find it humiliating when they're treated like children, but society expects women to be treated like that. That's why we don't have a whole lot of mommies with shotguns in FE.

If anything the idea of overcoming the overprotective father and being the one to usher a girl into womanhood (this sentence felt gross to type ew) is a power fantasy in itself. The fantasy of a woman being kept pure by some mechanism until a worthy person (i.e. the protagonist) is ready to claim her. There's stories through the ages of this kind of thing. Noble virgins (or devoted wifeys with husbands lost at sea) dutifully staving off waves of suitors until the right one, the worthy one, swoops in, proves their worth by some means, and sweeps her off her feet. If you think about it, that's really part and parcel of Hubert's role in the Edelgard-Byleth-Hubert trio. He's the clinger-on who the virginal woman rejects endlessly to show her purity and devotion, until her proper suitor comes. Her appeal would probably disappear like a puff of smoke if, say, she'd been FWB with Hubert for years before the story started and Byleth was just another notch in her belt.

I could probably make a whole post on that last one too tbh cuz you can point to a lot of really varied examples with the same undercurrent. Like, I'd say a story of a woman having tons of meaningless sex with people until her Worthy Man(TM) unlocks the key to her heart and opens her eyes to the beauty of making love (or whatever) follows the spirit of the trope even if it doesn't follow the letter of it. It's still a woman keeping some piece of herself (in this case her ability to form emotional attachment to the men she sleeps with) held back, exclusively to be shared with the Worthy Man(TM). What makes someone the Worthy Man(TM) can range from having the strongest bow arm to being the only one who understands the ~true~ her and makes her feel comfortable... but I'll stop here for now.

[nihilnovisubsole]

i wasn't going to keep cluttering people's dashes up with my ffxiv stream-of-consciousness posts. but after a chance run-in with @arcanistvysoren in the dusk vigil one night, i was encouraged to make more. so, hey! heavensward! that was a lot!

one thing you can always count on final fantasy to do is give you leitmotifs. sad scene? leitmotif. climactic battle? leitmotif. quest accepted? leitmotif. hey, dragonsong is nice. why not?

it's difficult to overstate how habitually this game throws beautiful atmosphere at you and makes it look effortless. i know i keep repeating myself, but it keeps being true. the quiet desolation of riding through the coerthas western highlands at night with a blizzard battering you and fog obscuring the horizon. ough

i was looking forward to royce's role as a self-exiled ishgardian in this part of the story, and i was very much not let down. heavensward spends a lot of time emphasizing what an irreplaceable asset the warrior of light becomes to ishgard, so the bitter taste that she would have experienced during the early coerthas ARR quests rises to a nauseating pitch. oh, now the ishgardian authorities care. now they want her around. now they want to heap praise on her for pulling them out of the fire. when they did nothing to help save her squad five years ago and went damnatio memoriae on her when she vanished. they're lucky she's too heroic to let them burn.

i'm not exactly sure how she works through her feelings by the end. i'll have to think about it. write about it, maybe. we'll see.

the dragon plot is fine. it works! it's cool! it's all very mythic in scale and appropriately tragic. i'm just more drawn to the expansion's mundane side. it's easy for final fantasy to get carried away with itself when it's got aether and primals and multiverses flying around, so we need the periods where we deal with interpersonal conflict to keep it grounded and speak to lived human experience.

i mean, the windows into how ignorant ishgardian citizens are and how deep their religious indoctrination actually goes? that's meaty. a church covering up everything from their archbishop's love child to the history their core theology was founded on? that's the good stuff

god, it's hilarious how much estinien and aymeric were engineered in a lab for fans to fall in love with them. they're elves, they're tall, they have deep voices and piercing eyes and swooshy hair, they're brooding, they're burdened with great and terrible responsibility. estinien is beat-for-beat the "character 1" archetype of otome games: mysterious and mean, but defrosts over his story arc. you have dinner at aymeric's house! the dev team had to know that these fellows were going to have a following and leaned into it.

actually, wait, does aymeric fall into the "responsible authority figure" otome archetype? is haurchefant the "flirty, excitable younger guy" archetype? am i onto something here? pepesilvia.jpg

poor haurchefant ):

speaking of characters, cid is growing on me. i didn't pay much attention to him in ARR, but i like that he continues to play a major role. he's a fun guy to have around. royce draws heavily from cyan garamonde, who's a notorious technophobe, and i wonder whether she inherited some of that character DNA too. you are a good man and i trust you but do not dare augment my lance. more power means more parts to break. cold steel will never fail you

the vault and baelsar's wall are awesome as dungeons, but lol, lmao. there is something to be said for bark trigger volume. filthy rats! [crackling fireball noise] sickness must be purged! [explosion] filthy rats! [griffin sword swing] sloppyyy!! [another explosion] sickness must be purged!

i have finally found a part of the game i dislike: leap of faith. UGHHH. why am i good at every GATE except that one. UGHHH

oh i have THOUGHTS about that duel with raubahn

emmanellain's job is just beach

[aspoonofsugar]

Magical Girl Weiss

RWBY takes inspiration from many different genres to the point each girl embodies a famous archetype in the anime industry:

Ruby is the idealistic shonen protagonist that can inspire everyone else

Yang is the powerful shonen protagonist that fights her way through problems (Goku)

Blake is the inversion of a harem protagonist, but also a ninja in fighting style (Naruto)

What about Weiss? She is Remnant Magical Girl:

Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or forms of measure. And all of it… irreplaceable.

Her Trailer opens up by praising the irreplaceable power of the heart and her glyphs materialize metaphors of her inner world.

Weiss's abilities are rather layered, but so far she can:

Use her rapier as a wand, so that she can cast magic with her dust and glyphs

Summon avatars who fight for her

Before volume 9 started, I was thinking an interesting evolution of this would be if Weiss started to use her avatars in a more dynamic way, which she does in Rude, Red and Royal:

It would be very cool if Weiss started to summon attributes of her avatars to combine with herself and others. Just like a magical girl transforms herself when she fights, Weiss could acquire wings, swords or spears depending on the situation. A mini magical trasformation, if you want:

It would tie thematically, as well, since Weiss's avatars are parts of who she is and by transferring their abilities on herself, she would symbolically integrate with them more.

Speaking of integration, we got this beautiful shot:

Weiss's Nevermore summon is coming together, but it is still not complete:

She has summoned the Nevermore's wings. It is meaningful she succeeds here because the Chess Fight is clearly meant to call back to RWBY's first fight against the Nevermore. It shows how far the team has come and the Nevermore is symbolic of RWBY as a whole, so it fits.

She has yet to summon the whole thing and I am interested to see when it will happen. So far, each of Weiss's summonings has played an important role in her arc. In particular, the Knight and the Queen Lancer have represented Weiss's resurrections. I am expecting the Nevermore to be the same, especially since Weiss "died" last volume when she fell with the others.

The Nevermore's glyph combines all the other ones.

It has snowflakes, like Weiss's simplest glyph and the Boarbatusk's one:

It has swords, like the Knight's:

It has spears, like the Queen Lancer's:

To all of this, the Nevermore's glyph adds wings.

This is very cool because it can easily tie with a Jungian interpretation of Weiss's avatars:

Weiss's summons can be linked to Jungian archetypes, aka collective ideas theorized by psychologist Carl Jung to explain how human mind works. The truth of this theory is unimportant. What matters is that it is widely used in literature.

They are:

The persona - how one appears to the outside

The shadow - what is buried deep inside and repressed

The anima/animus -the feminine part of a man and the masculine part of a woman- It represents a persons's duality

The self - it incorporates all the other archetypes and represents the person as a whole

In Weiss's case, we have:

The Queen singing to the mirror on a stage as Weiss's persona.

The Huntress fighting in the darkness for her freedom as Weiss's shadow (the shadow is also called inner beast hence the Boarbatusk).

The Princess trying to integrate with the Knight/Prince as the Anima/Animus.

All together, they make the self aka Snowhite.

Weiss's growth starts with the shadow (the Hunter/the Boarbatusk) shattering Weiss's Queen persona and goes on with the Anima/Animus (The Knight/Queen) integratiion.

Weiss initially awakens the Knight within herself and fights side by side with him. Later on, she is able to integrate with the Queen and summons the Queen Lancer, which is nothing, but a synthesis of her 2 parts. The Grimm is both a Queen and a Lancer (a kind of Knight) because this duality lies into Weiss herself.

In summary, Weiss's avatars represent:

The Boarbatusk > The shadow

The Arma Gigas > The animus

The Queen Lancer > The persona

All together they make the self, which will probably be represented by the Nevermore:

Our Snowhite is really a Snow Angel deep inside!

[astrals-and-pirates]

given that the cast just revealed their classes in campaign 2 (HYPE!!!!), heres me trying to predict what subclass each of them are gonna take based on player vibes and the setting hints (and also general thoughts and hopes?)

im basing this off of the assumption that were gonna be seeing a lot of gritty city characters with the freelance detective prcoedural-ish premise of s2

Red - either Oath of Redemption or Oathbreaker Paladin. i think this one's fairly obvious because Red has a clear type for Big Guys with Tragic Backstories (see: Binh from the atla two-shot and Red's love of Eliot from Leverage). i also think a backstory heavy character would be really interesting to contrast with Kyana who is very backstory-lite. Also interesting to have Red play a character with connections to a god or entity that supplies their powers and i'd love to see her play a character who is more of a schemer (given the high charisma stat) than Kyana.

Sophia - College of Whispers Bard and ??? Rogue. i'm not super familiar with rogue subclasses but i think any of them would be super cool and work well depending on the character's role. Arcane Trickster or Phantom if Sophia wants to lean towards a magical character, Inquisitive or Mastermind if she prefers a more detective/investigator character and maybe even Scout or Thief if we're getting another street rat. For the bard subclass, i remember a Q&A where Sophia mentioned enjoying that subclass and given the Rogue multiclass, Whispers seems like a good in-character pairing. Also given the Recently Divorced archetype Sophia mentioned enjoying, i think it would be very fun if she played a depressed, wet-cat-vibes older character in contrast with Dani's hyperactive youth.

Wally - Gloom Stalker Ranger. Given that the table is already established and comfortable with each other, i'm excited to see if were gonna see more of Evil Wally in this campaign, and i think the Gloom Stalker subclass works with a sort of tricksy character with questionable vibes he might enjoy playing. Wally also mentioned thinking abt sprinkling in some Cleric and i think that would be so fun, even if i have no subclass i can predict for that (i think Death, Grave or Trickery Domains would be fun tho).

Noir - College of Lore Bard? This is the one i'm the least sure about bcs theres so many fun types of bard, but Noir mentioned Lore as one of his fave bard subclasses and i think it makes sense with this version of the party i've invented. he would probably fill in the researcher/smart guy/magic user role and Lore Bard feels like a good standalone class to start with at the start of the campaign. i do feel like its the most similar to VR-LA so i am apprehensive with my prediction and do think Noir would enjoy mixing it up a bit, so i'm excited to see how he'll surprise me. (College of Eloquence maybe? so Noir can back his speeches up with dice rolls?)

so yeah, campaign 1 isn't over yet but im already so excited!! i <3 'gil

[cyanoscarlet]

Actors/Behind the Scenes AU, in which FF16 is a duo/trilogy of movies, and the characters are actors in said movie -

Headcanons that inspired Peppermint and Chocolate Chip (aka, that one Actress!Benedikta fic).

Outside of FF16, Clive is a dork. A quiet but nice guy who likes games. He’s a fan of the FF franchise, and his fave is FF8. (Inspired by Ben Starr talking about his FF experiences. Also I'm projecting.)

Joshua’s two actors are totally attached at the hip. They’re not related but everyone is astounded at the resemblance, no wigs were needed even! And Adult!Joshua adores Kid!Joshua and protects his mini-me with his life. (I'm actually thinking of them both having Joshua as a middle name! Something like Andre Joshua and Allen Joshua. Btw, Adult!Joshua is Clive's actual brother.)

Jill is an indie pop singer. Sometimes busks. She loves everybody! She baked sugar cookies for the cast and crew once. She still burns the oven sometimes, though. Also she takes up kendo to improve her stage action scenes but tells no one of her rank because it’ll scare them (and they’ll make her teach everyone else on set, and that’s a pain). Her favorite FF is 10...... 2.

Benedikta is actually an awkward bean. She IS the hottest thing right now, an it-girl if you will. But she IS an awkward bean off-set, and reality shows exploit this for all they can. Oh, and she’s a big eater. -> This is what became the actual Benna fic

Hugo’s a comedian, actually. He’s also an amazing cook. He and Benedikta get along well. They’re cool besties. He often invites her to his YouTube channel to cook for her.

Barnabas Tharmr: A-list actor. Everyone’s beloved leading man. Very versatile, hot, in-demand. He’s perfect, oh, and he sings too. Confusing af love life. -> Referenced in the Benna fic

Dion’s probably following in Barnabas’ footsteps career-wise. That recent boy-next-door role he played had all the teenage girls want him as a boyfriend. They don’t know that he takes cues from real-life experience, and a real-life boy-next-door that captured his heart. 👀

Oh, Cidolfus Telamon: where to begin? Also another A-list actor, like Barnabas. Action films are his specialty, although you also see him in heavy dramas. All his works are guaranteed hits, no questions asked. His relationship with Barnabas, although professional, currently leaves much to be desired. Rumors abound that he used to have a thing with Benedikta, although both sides deny it. Also The Original Troll on set. He's fun to have on talk shows, but that's only when he feels like showing up.

Terence is Dion's best friend from theater. The original boy-next-door, and Dion's real-life partner. Knows just enough pop culture to get by, so he doesn't understand how he got this role, but if anything good comes out of this it's getting to work alongside Dion again. Greagor knows how long ago their last production together was ever since his love shot to fame on TV/Film. (Oh, if only he knew who suggested him to the director, because "he's good at his craft." 👀)

Sleipnir's that one cocky archetype co-actor you usually see in these kinds of cast ensembles. He's actually nice, though! Just innocently insensitive at times. Terence hates him with a passion, but Sleipnir likes to believe they're Vitriolic Best Buds. (And they actually are. Dion agrees but doesn't dare say it to his bf's face.) He's a horrible troll, just like Cid.

Jote's an adorable Tonberry rookie actress! She briefly had ensemble/swing stints in another theater troupe (Adult!Joshua's, actually), before landing this role. She loves posting pictures of sunflowers. Laments her dark clothes. Looks up to Benedikta despite their only scene together being a violent one. -> Referenced in the Benna fic.

There MAY be a part 2 of these headcanons. If I feel inspired, maybe even an actual fic featuring another character in the same vein as the Benedikta one. Will probably make it an AO3 series when that happens!

[thatcryinggayboy]

Alone in religion.

I think it’s kind of funny, how my faith progressively gets further and further from mainstream, and yet the only thing I want is a community. When I was a child, I was an atheist. Well, when I suppose when I was around 5 I thought that being Christian was just part of life because I was a gullible child, it wasn’t until my parents were like “no you silly child, that’s not the only religion” and when I realized it wasn’t just a fact of life, I quickly dropped it.

When I was older, maybe around 10, I learned what an atheist actually was as I began to use the internet more commonly. “YES, that’s it, I’m an atheist” but like, not a fully spiritless atheist. I still believed in ghosts, I have since I used to see them around my house. That was a belief I’ve never been without.

So in 2015 I was an angsty teenager, I used to make stupid jokes and one that I had for some reason was “I blame witchcraft”. It was my first pride and I was road tripping to the big city with a couple of friends from a local LGBTQ+ group.

When we arrived at our destination, my friend E informed me that our other friend W was a Wiccan. “What the hell is that?”, I was briefly explained it was a religion based on witchcraft. “THERE ARE WITCHES?!”. I apologized to W and when I got back home, I did some research.

Now for some context, my parents always said the male equivalent of witches were warlocks. I always thought that was dumb, I always in turn said “why aren’t they both witches” because functionally, they aren’t the same. So when I found out that male witches were just… witches, I found something that connected to me. I COULD BE A WITCH.

And yes, I knew it wasn’t like the movies, I’m not that silly.

Cool, now I’m a Wiccan…. Who is god? So I did a couple of very brief google searches. “The Horned God and The Moon Goddess”. And who are they?, well, according to the first website I checked, specifically Pan and Hekate. No explanation to the archetypes and roles they were meant to play, just Hekate and Pan. Well, okay, two Greek gods, I’m down with that.

I suppose I was never truly an atheist but I didn’t want to identify as agnostic, that term never felt like me.

So now I’m a 13 year old, still figuring out who he is and now he has a religion. I’m autistic and this just became MY WORLD. Immediately I was searching and searching; eventually I found out how the horned god and moon goddess worked but now that I have these two, I’m set…..

Well not exactly. I became obsessed with the images of fertility goddesses, something about it all was so fascinating to me. And then I looked into more gods, more goddesses, different pantheons… and I did something I’m not proud of.

I was unaware of the topic of cultural appropriation when it came to religious systems. It had never come across my feed and I was never told that it was a thing. I probably should’ve known but I didn’t.

I found a new goddess I felt really connected to.

Kali.

I made her offerings, burnt incense, listened to music about Kali, and yet outside of her own religion. She felt so motherly to me, but it was not my place and to say it simply, I learned from my mistake. I discovered how insensitive it was and I sang her goodbye, but she was never meant to be my goddess to begin with.

——————

So eventually I became less and less in love with Wicca. The practice wasn’t meant for me, I still practiced witchcraft but the community was not mine.

“Well, I already have a couple of Greek gods under my belt, what is that whole thing like” so now I’m looking into Hellenic Polytheism…. Sort of. I didn’t know that there was a full religious movement, so I kind of just, felt it out. AND THEN I FOUND IT, after a little while of winging it.

And you know what, this was my place, I never felt at home more with anything else. But over time, when you study and study and pray and think and read and just sit there, your world view will change drastically. As I learned, my beliefs were a little bit more complex over time. Basic Hellenic Polytheism might not be JUST IT.

I was looking into Orphism, the Eleusinian Mysteries, I was looking in as many cults as I could to see which one perfectly matched with how I believe. I would practice for a while, see how it felt, and move on if it didn’t feel right. And I would follow multiple gods at a time, I’ve always been a a devotee of Zeus since I became Hellenic. He was the one thing I felt was right.

But I became overwhelmed, and I burnt out.

I wasn’t making offerings, saying prayers, building Kharis, I wasn’t even thinking about the gods. I still called myself a Hellenic Polytheist, but was I?

————

Okay so side note, I love learning about religions, in an effort and interest in broadening my understanding and educating myself. And I found another love, that I didn’t think I would ever be a part of so I appreciated it from a distance. I really love Judaism. Everything about it, the laws, the cultures, the language, the fact that no Jewish person is the same and that’s embraced. But I was unaware that converts where a thing. For a while.

Eventually I found out that conversation to Judaism existed, but I still stood back.

In 2022 I went to work for a summer camp further up the coast from my hometown. I was so excited. I worked in the kitchen and while I didn’t interact with the counselors much, I wanted to befriend them. They were so full of life, they had that city energy that I so badly craved. And there were two in particular that I was able to become semi-closer with. Not by much because I don’t actively seek out friendship, I just hope it happens. But I still considered them the closest friends there. I’ll call them P and B.

One day in the kitchen, we were preparing lunch and P & B came in, they looked directly at me and asked me if I was “part of the tribe”, maybe they weren’t meaning to look at me because they were friendly with other kitchen staff but it felt like they were. I said “…huh?” And they asked “are you Jewish”. I told them no but I did like the religion. That was that and they moved on. But something in me didn’t.

It was almost as if my soul was looked into, I could feel that question in my very fibers.

Fuuuuuuck.

I just don’t know who I am do I? Will I ever? I feel like Trisha Paytas, I can’t just be playing dress up with religions, especially not closed ones. I didn’t want to take advantage of other people beliefs for my own benefit. That’s not chill.

——————

So back to where I was before. My religious beliefs were sort of fading. I wasn’t fully connected anymore, even if I still loved Zeus. Eventually, I stumbled my way onto Jewish TikTok.

So many creators who I enjoy, Jewitches, Danielle Silverstone, and Zara Zahavah (side note but it was like a dream come true when she answered my comment about whether or not furbys would be classified as kosher).

One night, while watching a Jewitches livestream, the switched kind of flipped, and I wanted to pursue this.

But wait? I live in a small town, there’s no synagogue for miles. The closest one is 4 hours away. There’s a community here, but I have really bad imposter syndrome and I don’t want to push my welcome. So I didn’t reach out.

I did however, start taking intro to Judaism classes online, and it was going well for a while, until I had a very uncomfortable conversation with one of the teachers. And I stopped going.

Eventually I reached out to that group in my town, but I left due to their overt Zionism, it didn’t come out fully until around the 3rd session. After that, I decided to go back to my place with the Greek gods.

It was shaky getting back into it, and as I went back into my research, I came across the cult of Hypsistos.

Hypsistarians believed in Zeus Hypsistos (most high), a monotheistic group that didn’t worship with statues but rather with the light of a flame. “But I still believe in Apollo, Aphrodité, Hermes, etc.”, as it turns out, so did they, not as gods per say but rather as angelic messenger manifestations out of Hypsistos. This fits perfectly with what I believe…. But there’s not much to work with.

There is a scarcity of sources about the group, and as far as I’ve been able to tell, I am the only one. All I’ve ever wanted is a community, people to worship with, talk about our experiences and share something so meaningful to me. And even if there were another one of me out there, I have to make educated guesses about Hypsistarians based on their ancient influences, so most things are up for interpretation.

————————

I suppose the real point of this post is to express something I can’t express to many, even if I’m speaking to the void.

Thank you.

[lunas-otome-blog]

Luna's Review: Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~

Official Summary:

Venture into a reimagined steampunk version of 19th century London. Follow the adventures of the poison-skinned maiden Cardia, the men trying to help her, and the mysterious organization intent on capturing her.

Experience a visual novel adventure brimming with literary and historical characters including Victor Frankenstein and Abraham van Helsing. Will Cardia find love, or destroy those she cares for? Her story is in your hands.

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(Spoiler-Free) Luna's Thoughts

This game was ok! It wasn't the trainwreck that was "even if Tempest," nor was its storyline as convoluted as "Cafe Enchante." I liked the historical figures and other fictional references, and the art was lovely.

A small thing that annoyed me is that they keep referring to Cardia's skin as "poisonous." I believe poison has to be ingested, so it would be more correct to say she is "acidic," but I guess that's not very charming to say lol. There are also a few plot points that seem a bit silly, and I didn't think the true end character necessarily deserved that role.

But overall, this was a solid game. The steampunk London setting was cool AF and I enjoyed the emphasis on airships and steam power. All the routes were pretty different, and though I would have liked to see more crossover between them, none of them felt extremely out of line like in some other games I've played.

I wasn't excited enough about it to bother with the ample supply of bonus content on offer, but I did like it and would consider playing it again in the future.

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(SPOILERS) Common Route

Honestly, Cardia's backstory is the weakest part of the game as writers scramble to explain why she can't wear normal clothes or stay in one room for long. She can't eat with normal utensils, for example, but nobody is concerned that she might melt through her bed because her hair covers her back and her hair isn't poisonous for some reason. Some details were given a lot of thought and some are just explained away with "science" that happens off screen.

None of that is truly an issue, but I feel like it could have easily been more streamlined to say, for example, that Cardia can melt living things. That would still have the effect of making her isolated, alone, treated like a freak and unable to interact with humans. But it would do away with some of the more contrived details such as how she avoids melting into the ground.

The scene that should have been one of the most emotional — when Cardia tells the story of how she was trapped in a cave and accidentally killed her mother figure — ends up feeling frustrating, as you yell "just melt the rock!" at the screen the entire time. She does, but not until too late. "But she didn't know she created toxic air!" you say. Ok, but surely she didn't want to sit in the cave indefinitely? She could have just started work to melt the rock immediately. Maybe the result would have been the same, but at least it would seem more logical.

I thought the first choice to ignore Lupin's offer, which dead ends the game as Cardia sets out on her own adventure, was very funny. I also liked how she starts becoming more expressive as she spends time with her boys. My favorite part is how it shows her gaining skills and learning to fight and defend herself. That's refreshing compared to some other series where the protagonist is always being protected.

Below follows some thoughts on the actual routes, in the order I played them.

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(SPOILERS) Impey Barbicane

What I thought was going to be my least favorite route ended up being my favorite. Impey is the flirt archetype, and also the genki character of the game. His route was the lightest, as he carries the least baggage of all the characters, but his sincere nature got to me.

Unfortunately, his flirtiness makes him annoying in other routes. Like, boy, I'm romancing someone else, back off!!

I do wish Impey being a vampire was more relevant to the game in general. I know that angsting over the fate of the vampires was more for Victor, Helsing and Delacroix II, but having Impey be a vampire was basically thrown in for shock value and didn't end up being super relevant.

I did think Nemo was an extremely fun villain and his design and speech pattern are so unique. He was a good foil for Impey, as they have similar reasons for becoming engineers, but he becomes the typical "mad scientist" here and takes everything a little too far.

I'd say Impey's route was the simplest of the five, but for that reason, I also thought it was the most solid, and the one that left me with the least questions.

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(SPOILERS) Saint-Germaine

Call me nitpicky, but Saint-Germain is the character with the most baffling design choices IMHO. His hair is ridiculous. He only wears half of his coat the entire time. He has watches all over his arms that seem to do nothing. Truly some odd decisions were made during his creation.

Aside from Victor, I'd say his route was the most angsty as he rebels against his job and his nature to save Cardia. Unfortunately, this results in him being off screen for a lot of his route as he kills his way through the other members of Idea to save Cardia.

I thought the whole route felt a bit overkill-y. This is a man who essentially caused the Black Plague, who knows what one bad decision can do, and yet instead of choosing to stay by her side and defend her, he abandons her to preemptively fight the other Idea members, none of whom are given a sprite except Guinivere. (Side note: I adore Guinivere. Easily one of the most rad characters of the game.)

What's stopping any other of the Idea members from attacking Cardia while she's left defenseless? It falls apart under scrutiny. Perhaps this is because Saint-Germain's attraction to Cardia was the least convincing for me. I just didn't feel much of a connection there.

I do love how you basically only see his eyes on his route. It makes it all the more threatening when you do. And despite how critical I'm being, I did think the concept of the Apostles of Idea was pretty cool. I just thought it was a little far reaching for the framework of this particular game.

While one of the more interesting routes, I'd call Saint-Germain's route the least romantic.

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(SPOILERS) Victor Frankenstein

Personality-wise, Victor is my favorite character. He's got baggage but desperately wants to reverse the damage he's done inadvertently. And he's so sweet and wears glasses! I did want to know what was up with his headphones but they're never addressed.

Victor's route is the one where you have to deal the most with Queen Victoria, and at least for me, this kind of ruined her character for me. You learn she was the instigation behind a lot of dark incidents and has an even darker one planned that basically equates to genocide. While in the true ending she fesses up and seems to have grown as a character, it was hard for me to get behind her again after seeing how needlessly cruel she was in Victor's route.

I absolutely adored the development of the Queen's relationship with Leonhardt in this route. Honestly I ship them more than most of the characters in this game with Cardia. Even if you want to interpret them as having a more father-daughter relationship, it's still really sweet. He clearly cares so much for her and just wants to guide her down the right path.

But back to Victor. I like that, despite being the gentle nerd of the game, he can still fight in his own way, and even teaches Cardia to do the same. It was nice to see him come out of his shell and become more confident as the game progresses.

Victor's route was solid and his relationship with Cardia is very believable. After all, he's done so much for her. He's the reason, in every route, that she can eat with the boys and wear different outfits. Cardia returns the favor by forgiving him for being involved in her creation. I did think the brief "is Victor my father" storyline was pretty funny. I mean, he kinda is though.

All in all, one of the better routes in my opinion.

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(SPOILERS) Abraham Van Helsing

Man, I wanted to like this route more than I did.

Van Helsing is the closest thing to a tsundere in this game, so I thought I'd like him and saved him for last before the true end. Unfortunately, he's so cool and collected that he rarely breaks, and he comes across as cruel a lot of the time, even when it's revealed that he's doing so to keep Cardia out of it. She's kept at arms' length so much that I didn't feel the relationship developed naturally. She isn't present for a lot of the conversations, either, though we do get to see them off-screen.

Helsing's route is also the one that's least connected to the rest of the storyline. He's got a few tie-ins, most notably to the Vampire War, but his dealings with Aleister didn't relate to the overall mission. It felt a little disjointed to me.

I also thought we'd see more of Delacroix II in this route. I figured it would be Cardia helping the two of them become friends. Delacroix needed to learn that Helsing regretted his actions. But we honestly don't get a lot of that. I also figured it would be more angsty, with Helsing's death wish being relevant, but again, that didn't come up a lot.

I do find it extremely endearing that he can't cook to save his life. And I feel bad that his is the only route that ends without him being able to touch Cardia.

I don't think this was a bad route. It just wasn't what I was expecting so it made me a little disappointed.

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(SPOILERS) Arsene Lupin

Lupin's route was ok. My gripes are mainly the same as with the true end of Collar x Malice: I don't think he's fitting for a true end character.

Not only is he visually the least interesting character, but his backstory is also not particularly interesting or impactful. A lot of stuff happens on his route just because it's the true end, and we have to wrap up the game. Lupin himself isn't particularly relevant to that.

He's a nice guy, sure. You can't help but like him and his positive attitude. I think his route is the one that most treats Cardia like a human, but this comes at the cost of not allowing her to do a lot. This could be seen as a positive, I suppose. She's spend most of the other routes convincing other characters that they should be forgiven, so it's fitting to have the final route involve forgiving Cardia herself for being created.

All in all, the game wraps up pretty well, and it felt like a suitable end for everyone. I just wish Lupin was a bit more interesting of a character.

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(SPOILERS) Side Characters

Here, I'm going to comment on a few side characters in the game.

Finis

No notes. Flawless character design. My theory for why he looks like this is that the original Finis and Cardia were both female. Maybe this is explained in the bonus content, idk. I've heard his hair donuts are part of the headband and not his actual hair. Either way, adorable. More male characters like this, please.

Herlock Sholmes

Upset this character wasn't a datable option. Perhaps that's for the bonus content. Either way, I wanted to see more of him. I thought he'd be more relevant in Lupin's route, and you do get to learn a bit about him, but not enough IMHO.

Queen Victoria

Who approved this outfit? I just wanna talk... Seriously, this is the worst sprite in the game. I get that her whole thing is about bees and visually there are a lot of honeycomb references, but surely we could have a black and yellow outfit that doesn't make her look like she raided an antique store.

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Lingering Snowblood: The Saga of Oyuki

Alright class, who’s ready for a fun bonus post? Waaay back in the start of this journey, we talked a little about Okiku potentially being inspired by a figure it the story that is likely an inspiration for Kin & Momo. Lone Wolf & Cub, it’s one of the most famous series of classic samurai movies. What Hawk & Chick are based on for any Bob’s Burgers fans and the TV adaptation had the actor Oda’s said their names come from in the lead role. 

In that franchise, there’s a woman named Oyuki who pops up a few times. Dancer background, unassuming lady who’s absolutely deadly when pressed, tattoo used a lot like the mask, and has a calling card of taking topknots from her fallen foes. Sounds a lot like Kiku, yeah? And if you didn’t know, “yuki” means snow so we do have that shared motif. Feels like in both cases, and the ones we’ll get to, the archetype is leaning a bit on the mythological Yuki-Onna. I was wrong though, that was just the tip of the iceberg. 

So...this character transcends franchises. Wano has made me really interested in jidaigeki, I’ve actually grown quite fond of them and have a buddy who’s into old Westerns so we love talking how they play off of each other. As an aside, any RPG game masters out there...go binge an old Western TV show like Tales of Wells Fargo and you will find a gold mine of session ideas! Turns out Oyuki has a pretty cool history, and yeah it includes Kill Bill. 

The funny thing is...if we’re talking Eiichiro Oda’s influences, it actually calls into question what was really pushing him to dust off Snowblood. See, she is a figure in jidaigeki, but a little before his time. That’s not a huge deal, Smokey and the Bandit came out over a decade before I was born and I still thought it was a cool Sunday afternoon movie that’s stuck with me from that single viewing fifteen years ago. Kill Bill was directly inspired by Lady Snowblood, coming straight from Quentin Tarantino himself. Oda loves Hollywood and American movies, so which one really piqued his interest for Okiku?

Because y’all...the deeper we go the more obvious this was part of the inspo for Okiku. Wano’s just a big kid giddy to show his young readers all the shit he thought was cool growing up.

Yeah, I bet you know this woman’s entire deal looking at this. Proper lady right up until that short sword comes out of the parasol...though she’ll probably whoop a wave of mooks with the umbrella alone. At the end it’s her standing in the middle of a dozen dead bodies without a drop of blood on that pretty kimono. The dancer or acrobat background is really common, vengeful motivation driving her as well as lowborn origins. Gotta have some reason she’s not content to start a family and all, right?

So this 1973 movie based on a 1972 manga’s it right? Lone Wolf was a little later and Oyuki there was mostly just a one-shot appearance that they reused for a movie. Well...see, we can go deeper. 

Finding stuff like this is what makes digging so worth it. See, if we’re talking beloved Okiku...the Kill Bill/Lady Snowblood inspo is missing the mark on one big thing. Kiku’s not cold-blooded or vengeful. Let’s go back to the late 60s though, the same era that gave us a pretty feminist wave of Japanese media like Attack no.1. This was a TV drama that ran for a season, Red Swallow Oyuki. Starring the lovely Junko Miyazono who’d go on to have a nice run of movies playing the same type of kickass lady. One of those by the way was Hannya no Ohyaku. Fun bonus tie. This aired in 1968, so likely influencing Lady Snowblood, and you can find the first two episodes on Toei’s official Youtube page. With subs! It’s awesome, imagine Samurai Champloo if Fuu was the badass in charge...so Bakura Town.

Where I really think this initial iteration of Oyuki shines through in Kiku is the personality. This version, she’s really cutely naive. Raised in isolation and trained to pass on her father’s sword style, but he balked at the end. Sent Oyuki away to “become an ordinary woman.” Only use the sword to protect yourself. But of course, when push comes to shove she’ll use it to protect the innocent. Yes, it does end up feeling a lot like Himura Kenshin which is it’s own obvious part of Kiku’s DNA. 

I also love this idea of Oyuki sorta taking on a life of her own. It’s very Kabuki, it was a cool character concept so why not lift and repurpose. Not quite the same, but reminds me of the thing about the name Kikunojo. How it has a history as a stage name for many famous Onnagata. But seriously...watch one episode of Red Swallow and tell me that isn’t what a story with Kiku in the lead role would feel like.

[declanowo]

31 Days of Horror - Day 17 - An American Werewolf in London

17/10/23

Living in rural England as a child, London feels like a mystical place. I remember playing games, watching films and hearing about this world captured inside of the town. When I finally went down to London, I was visiting a Lego exhibition there, I had some pretty mixed feelings. There is something so distinctly different about London to so many other places in England, and An American Werewolf in London captures that perfectly, this beautiful juxtaposition. 

I remember a while ago my mum tried to get me to watch this film, but I felt somewhat turned away by it for some reason - I think it’s because her taste in movies had, until that point, been pretty confusing to me! However, now that I have seen it, I must retract my previous prejudice against her choices! Because An American Werewolf in London is so fun! 

For starters, I enjoy the premise a lot - two American backpackers are attacked by a werewolf in rural England, perfect! It really adds to the theme of unfamiliarity and isolation! Everything feels so alienating to begin with, especially at the pub, which is a great set piece filled with an amazing cast of locals that truly make the audience feel as if they don’t belong. That first part of the film feels like listening into a secret in your family, but being too young to fully understand it. Of course, the title does allow us to infer what is happening, but there is still some ambiguity in regards to their involvement. I love the landscape here, and the movie being shot on film makes it look so pretty, everything about this feels perfect. 

I enjoy our characters! David Kessler, played by David Naughton, is a great protagonist, he is incredibly easy to understand and empathise with. I also really enjoy Griffin Dunne as Jack Goodman, and I found his makeup to be especially cool; I love the way it evolves throughout the film as he deteriorates. As much as I enjoyed Jenny Agutter’s performance as Alex Price, and I think she has some great moments, her role does feel incredibly infused with the male gaze, and it is very obvious she was written by men. Her goal is tied to David, and I wish there was more of her and what she wanted, instead of her constantly being ruled by a desire for David. 

Of course, I can’t talk about this film without discussing how amazing the transformation sequence is, and oh my it is great! I really have nothing to say about it, what more can be said? Everything about it is perfect, and certainly my favourite part of the movie! 

I will say, a close second favourite is the sequence in the theatre, which I think blends the themes of horror and comedy excellently, while also balancing a melancholic tone. Not only is the set great, the comedy film playing in the background leads to some very funny moments, but I found the rows of “zombies” to be really fun, as David is haunted by all the people he has killed. It puts the whole film into perspective, and makes it all the more terrifying! Here, I felt the reality of the film hone in on me, and I think that is where the scariest parts come from - the psychological element. Sure, being mauled to death by a werewolf is scary, but being the creature tearing through people without a single cognitive thought about it is terrifying. 

As well as all this, the ending is tragically beautiful! I love hopeless horror, I think it just makes the film a lot scarier - although I don’t think every horror movie should end with tragedy. What differs this film from the archetypes of a Greek tragedy, or otherwise, is that the hero doesn’t fly above their reach. No lesson is learnt, the punishment is dealt unjustly. Other than a bout of naivety and furious curiosity, we watch our protagonist's life waste away as a result of a careless mistake. It becomes even more upsetting as he is offered a final moment of redemption - a chance to survive, only to be cemented as nothing more than a creature uncable of love and human compassion. 

I also really love most of the vignettes of kills in this film! Especially the tube kill, which is crafted with a fun amount of suspense, and I just found the setting to be a great use of the London setting! The eventual kill it leads to is great as well - just an amazing horror sequence! 

Other than the hospital scenes, as well as those with the doctor, I find the film to be very fun and all round great! This is one I will continue to think about for a while, I find it becomes more haunting the more I think about it! Confidently, I can call this my favourite werewolf movie I have seen! 

9/10

[parasitoidism]

can i ask you about your persona 1 opinions. like do you enjoy eriko

YES I do I heartbreakingly did not really get to see her much in p1 bc I did sebec and she wasn't in my party but I really really so much enjoy her whenever she shows up I need to go back to an old save in p2 so I can play her route!! and see lisa too. my friend. but I just enjoy strange girls so much tahts like a top 10 character archetype realy enjoyed her introduction where shes like

and then when everyone's like Yeah we can also all use personas shes like. oh well. thats funny. anyways people undersell persona 1's writing and story a lot I think like I've said this before but it's definitely like, there's less of it, like less cutscenes and stuff but what's there is genuinely really good.. it has the air of "figuring things out" and I think that persona 2 definitely represents a more refined version of what it set out to do but that doesn't make the original like. bad. if only more people knew about MAKI SONOMURA oh also my other persona 1 thought is that . its kind of a persona 2 thought. but it's that I just really really really love that they gave (almost) everyone roles in p2 that actually like, show where they're at and how their characters have developed now I wish theyd gone a little more into some of them (MAKI) but it's just cool to see that . thanks.

[dokidokitsuna]

Glory the Dire

This is the first time I’ve really spoken about this idea in public...but I haven’t posted any art to Tumblr in quite a while (I don’t know what it is about this site that intimidates me...), and what better way to get myself back into it than to embarrass myself a bit? :P

So this is a story concept I’ve been tossing around for about a year, about a civilization of robots living on Earth in the extremely distant future. It was meant to combine a lot of my favorite design aesthetics into one concept, and that’s pretty much how it’s stayed since. I like thinking about the characters and the world and the story, but I don’t really have a lot of desire to work on it seriously as a comic (tbh I think it’d work best as a 3D animated series).

However, those qualities make it a great fit for the DokiDraws channel, and I’m trying to get these character designs ready to show off and talk about at length later on. This is the first decent drawing I’ve ever done for the concept... ^^;

It’s mostly a size comparison exercise: on the right, we have Zein (age 11 mo.), the main character and a complete idiot. 👍 I think he’s the closest I’ve ever come to writing a ‘shonen protagonist’ archetype; the only thing he’s missing is that air of hyper-competence: he’s the weakest and least capable member of the cast for most of the story. ^^; And even after he masters his powers he’s not really ‘special’. But I think he’s a more interesting character for it.

Now in the middle, we have Noesis (age 72), Zein’s mentor and the most capable member of the cast. She teaches Zein how to use his powers while he and his friends follow her on her journey. Not much to say about her; she’s really just the cool deadpan character meant to play off the insanity of everyone else. What makes her interesting are her actions, but I’m not gonna explain all that here.

Finally, on the left we have Catechin (age 130), the recurring antagonist, who follows the group around mostly because he has a crush on Noesis. :> Before that, he spent most of his time kidnapping other robots and hoarding their mangled limbs like a creepy dragon, which is how these three met in the first place. His character concept is probably the most interesting: his angelic appearance is because he’s a member of a group called the Scions, which is like...like if ‘jock’ was a social caste that existed outside of school. There’s no official membership; you just acquire certain skills and look a certain way, and other people begin to recognize you as such.

There are lots of other Scion characters; their role is generally to worldbuild and show the viewer what these robot people are capable of, scientifically and philosophically. And in that respect, despite his looks, Cat is considered small-fry: not only is he relatively young, he’s pretty simple-minded. He has the same reality-shattering powers as his peers, but petty bullying is about the extent of his interests. ^^; He goes through some character development though; just like Zein.

This was a nice warmup; now I feel a little less nervous about bringing these designs to the channel. Someday soon~

[missmonkeymode]

So on Disco Elysium.

I think I see some of your points, like a lot of people really connected to the specific game play and narrative combo. I guess that's probably where it's just like, full divergence from the people getting angry at the tweet for me. Like I just... I don't know. I played through a bit of it, and I just really didn't connect to the character of Harry or even really Kim at all. I guess knowing it's intentionally a deconstruction is neat.

I liked the level up system (a lot), the chance and dialogue differences based on your perks felt like someone took FO1/2/NV speech/skill dialogue options and made that into an entire game based on like, every pop culture cop archetype and I'm here for it. I'll admit that is in part connected to the character of Harry the cop and his position in the world, but as a slate for other archetypal characters (like a witch) it really wouldn't be that hard to, at least, on the surface, I feel, make apply the mechanics in other interesting ways in other games with different narratives. (Also Twin Peaks quirks transfer over to a witch game).

The world (the bits I explored, I didn't get very far-- it was just ultimately kind of dull, for me) did feel lived in, and I liked the quirky characters you could meet. My thing is, I didn't really care about the story or the characters-- so for me, a system of game mechanics like this actually makes a lot of sense to use on different types of games, because I found that mechanical system to be cool and a really interesting way to resolve conflict and create game play tension and all that fun stuff.

Harry was alright, I guess. Not really, to me, but people like him so I try not to be too mean. I just don't really like cops at all. I don't need to play through a however many hour game to know that they're incompetent pigs-- I can just go outside. Or even online and type "cop shot black child" and see what new result comes up this week. My mom can't close her fist because a pig shattered her hand during a "non-violent drug offense" arrest. Does Harry ever actually do any police brutality? I never got that far-- is it like...? A different ending type thing? Where use of certain tactics over others produces different results for the case? That's neat if my random guess is anywhere near right-- as it was it just felt like a cop simulator but quirky. Like they get nothing done like regular cops but this time he's likably incompetent.

I also thought Kim was poorly done, honestly. I mean-- not really my place to say, but it feels like the only Asian representation is either tropey Indian or pale East Asian (and sometimes those roles aren't tropey)-- and Kim is very tropey. Like he's the classic stoic sidekick who's more competent than the lead. I know he's got a lot of depth, but... I don't know. It didn't leave a great taste in my mouth. Ultimately he's a non-white sidekick to do all the work the boisterous white lead can't and won't in silence. Also, as far as I got there were no other POC in the game. Maybe there are some tokens... but honestly, it makes sense-- DE takes place in like, a fictional Slav country, right? Not a lot of brown people. I still feel like it would have been more of a deconstruction of the genre if Harry was a Black high femme lesbian who is only a cop because she wants to kill with impunity.

Sidebar-- the OP of the twwet mentioned Harry was an old white guy. It feels weird everyone's calling her hypocritical when she did suggest someone young and very much not a guy. It doesn't feel hypocritical to me to leave her race as white since, like fictional slavland being mostly white, so are the Alps to my knowledge. I mean I'd like her more if she was Latina too, but I also would just connect more to a cute little baby witch than a drunk cop.

Anyhoo like... I don't know. Like our world is a literal dystopia where we spend so much time reliant on technology made with stolen resources and stolen labor, that we ourselves buy wit our own stolen labor, and he cops exist to protect the treasure hoards of the thieves.. That isn't to say we can't have dystopic fiction or games-- that's one of my favorite genres-- but I just wasn't able to connect to DE on any levels where I found the lead characters, many aspects of the world, or the story, engaging, interesting, or important. I liked the mechanics and the dialogue. I think if we had this kind of focus on a game about a little witch girl and her cat that'd be really cute and relaxing.

I am a witch though, so I'm biased.

Also, I didn't find your response rude or anything. I'm just happy to talk about things.

I mean this in a way that does not mean to offend you in any way, but I just think the game isn't really for you. If you don't really like the main character and don't really jive with the gameplay, it's fine to simply go "yeah I don't like this"! I don't want to insinuate that you're dumb or lesser or whatever for not liking the game, but sometimes you just don't like something yknow?

On the surface, I do agree that you can take the concept of "24 characters are constantly feeding you information a la ttrpg rolls and checks" and apply them to a different game, but I feel as though the gameplay and the story are too married to each other where it can't really shine without the other. As for Harry and police brutality, he can and cant if that makes sense? You are given the chance to shoot cunoesse (although its a immediate game over if you do) and generally just be shitty and abuse his position as a cop, but you're also given the chance to not to that, so uhhh it depends on how you play the game. Player decision and such. On your poc point, I can see where you get the perception of him being "stoic and competent" especially since (from the sound of it) you stopped playing early on, but as you play the game you discover that Harry is a highly competent cop (despite like being a mess of a person). I don't want to speak too much about the poc in the game, mostly bc I'm white passing and I'd feel like I'd be speaking over your points about the limited amount of poc in the game and how they're handled so uh yeah. I do disagree with the idea that Harry being a femme black lesbian would work towards the deconstruction though, but that's mostly because the way that I see it Harry gets away with a lot of shit (like routinely showing up to work drunk and high, losing his gun and id simultaneously, letting a corspe just kinda chill outside as he goes on a 3 day bender) because of his position as a white man in a hypermasculine field, and changing him from a white man to a black woman would weaken the critiques that its making. And the game does comment about those who join the police force to live out their fantasy of holding a lot of power (but the characters profession isnt really cop, just cop adjacent, but I feel like that's worth mentioning at least). For me at least, I see op going "i don't want to play as a white man, but a white woman" is hypocritical because in her talking point against the game, she used "white" as a negative to harry, but in the same breath turned around and suggested a white woman instead. Does that make sense? It's like someone going "I don't like this shirt because it's a red shirt and I don't like the color red, I'd much rather wear a red dress", the clothes are still red, the only thing that changed is the article of clothing.

I don't want you to come away from this post and feel as though I'm trying to bash on games like "a witch trying to find a lost cat". That's a wonderful game concept, that is not what most people are upset about (as far as I can tell). People are upset because the tweeter is taking a complex, gritty game that talks heavily about politics and is trying to remove the complexity from it and flatten it out into a wholesome game (whether knowingly or unknowingly). You can't really have a game like disco elysium and take out the parts that make disco elysium disco elysium, and that's generally what people are talking about. Also I'm you didn't find my response rude, I like chatting about things and explaining things.

[karmathehalflander]

Broad character rewrites in MV in quick bulleted list form: -Michael, Taylor, Ostin, Hatch, Sharon (Michael's mom), Zeus, McKenna: Broadly fine as they are, but willing to play by ear for taste

-Jack: The plan was to rewrite his introduction to come from the opposite angle where instead of a bully, he has a reputation of the school 'fixer' who can get you what you want if you pay the price, he has more of a criminal-y vibe early on but it turns out he's really not bad and he waives the fee for the drive to California upon hearing it's to rescue Michael's mom. He still has a military big bro who he learned a lot from but make it less of a 'man, the Marines are so cool!' thing just because I don't like US imperialism

-Wade: Backport most of his RotE/BotA characterization of being slightly more cowardly into PoC25's events, make it clear he's got a gay crush on Jack that he keeps to himself until the blog is revealed in BotA

-Quentin: More early screen time (have him tag along with Tara when she's giving Taylor the tour? Make their relationship shockingly healthy despite the whole sitch?), ongoing subplot, maybe explain why he's the leader of the group more/earlier

-Tara: Play down her earlier sadism, make it clearer that her might-makes-right worldview is something she's adopted to make Hatch happy/like her

-Nichelle: Also downplay the sadism a hair, though don't erase it because I still want it to be there when she joins the Electroclan later for a 'well I'm glad she's on our side now' moment-possibly give her some occasional check-ins at the taco job we find her working at during HfJD? So she comes less out of nowhere. Maybe introduce RESAT tech in development during PoC25 that makes her nervous about being tossed aside so that explains why Hatch dumps her so quickly. -Tanner, Grace: They're probably mostly fine, Tanner has an interesting little arc as The One With A Conscience even if he's not used much, and Grace is Fine as a flat character, not everyone can be fleshed out.

-Bryan, Kylie: Just give them a bit more than 'the dumb one' and 'the materialistic one'. -Ian: He really needs more to do. I mean, he does a lot, a lot of spotting and info-giving, but he has the least personality of the Dungeon Trio. I'd honestly play up his role of the pessimist of the trio to balance out McKenna's optimism and Abi's hesitancy.

-Abi: I do like her role as the nervous one who doesn't like fighting but i feel like that sidelines her into the Shy Healer (kind of) archetype. Maybe play her up as the moral core of the group a bit, make her more able to stand up for her beliefs?

-Torstyn: Absolutely make him less of a maniac so his heel-face turn goes down smoother, give him a few mentions as being Away during PoC25 for foreshadowing purposes (Tessa and Cassie, I need to swirl around in my head a bit more. and I do have random other thoughts, this is just like, basic stuff 2 me)

I love that angle for jack! It would make me much more sympathetic to his character and make him much more interesting overall. I think he would be a nice guy but kinda fall into somewhat shady stuff out of necessity.

Wade needs more character and his death would affect me much more if he did. 

I genuinely didn’t feel like Tara had a redemption arc it was like she joined them and everyone just forgot how sadistic she acted. 

I love Nichelle and any more characterization would be awesome!

Ian desperately needs more character! I love him and there’s so much missed potential! He would tell dark jokes and be pessimistic but I imagine he would be generally pretty chill in serious situations. 

Abi would work well as a moral center I feel like that kind of character was desperately needed. The story would have been much more balanced that way.

[jodjuya]

Is Ken Villainous?

Or

"My Thoughts About The "Barbie" Movie Because I Had So Many That Things Got Way Too Long And Thoughtful For The Ephemeral Nature Of A Facebook Comment"

For context, this is what my thoughts were replying to. Green is OP, Fuscia is me, Purple is a third person:

{💜💜💜💜} okay cool. I was just checking how words were defined.

Because I think I was thinking in terms of essentialism, and about villainy as a character trope, and how subversions of a trope can tell us interesting things about a character.

Talking about villainy with more of an eye towards a functional role within a story, not about the villainous traits of him as a character specifically; it's not about the literally-villainous things he does within the social environment of his character. (Which are plentiful, and accurately called out by {💚💚💚💚})

Because Ken is not a person. He is a person-shaped thing. The human being characters in this story, the mother, the daughter, the Mattel goons; they're all people. They all have rich inner lives dictated by the complex social webs of their species, orbiting the fixed anchoring points of their biological necessities.

But all the Barbies and Kens are literally just characters come to life. Flesh golems puppeteered by living stories; the stories of children playing with dolls.

[This is a set of ideas that Terry Pratchett LOVED playing with: the idea that stories are literal beings, magical things that have lives and live through controlling the actions of mortal beings, who desire powerfully to continue living and will do whatever it takes to accomplish that, yet they are compelled to repeat themselves and always do things the same way.]

Like, especially with Ken's immediate 180° back to being a fawning himbo at the end. To me, this made it seem like his anti-social behaviour was anti-social in the way that human toddlers are anti-social; where for very first time they're learning about communication, and then self-awareness, and then boundaries, and then greed.

So, like, Ken was doing villainous behaviours, but not in an archetypal kind of way. Ken was not villainous in the same way that you would say "Dracula is villainous" or "Lord Frieza is villainous"; where villainy is literally the entire reason those characters are part of the story.

Ken was villainous because all of his behaviours were the 2d cartoon roleplay of children with dolls; children using play to explore the thoughts and feelings children have about conflict and power and boundaries and control and deprivation and respect.

(Which then feeds directly into the actual main message of the movie: adults need to be the cycle-breakers, we have to do the difficult painful sucky miserable work of being the revolutionaries who chose to do things differently; because children literally learn how to be human beings by copying us. So therefore we need to get our fucking shit together and proactively teach pro-social behaviours by walking-the-walk and leading by example. Be nice to people and teach your children to be nice to people, and then everybody will get to live in a slightly-nicer world, and then maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to get our shit together in time to survive climate change extinction. PS. If we falter in our hope for the future in any way, our children will internalise that and it will become a cursed sickening spreading through the population; a death-cult of hopeless existential despair and mindless consumerism to numb the existential despair.

This cycle is even directly depicted in the film, where the mother's anxiety and helplessness fed into her teenage daughter's teenage angst, which lead to the daughter's brutally hard-core misanthropic emo rage, where she can't cope with her big feelings of helplessness and lashes out aggressively at anyone who gets in her way.

[As per: the entire school being actively terrified of her and her reputation of having an attitude so bad that it inflicts psychic damage on everybody around her. (And we get to see that for ourselves in the whithering emo monologues she dumped on Barbie.) ]

This is then fed back into her mother's vulnerable mental health, so then her power-of-imagination magic sketchbook created Suicidal Ideation Barbie and et cetera, (which magically came into existence as toys and then magically spread out into society with a fully autonomous marketing campaign and everything—cue cutaway gags to corporate sales reports of these Miserable Barbie dolls being *incredibly* popular toys where supplies can only just meet the high demand)

Resulting, ultimately, in that spreading insidious sickness afflicting society's most vulnerable people: children. Blinkering their perception of the world and filtering out everything but grimdark misery and resigned helplessness: The world is fucking shit and all the humans are fucking shit and everything is fucked to shit and we can't do a goddamn thing about it and I hate you all so fucking much how dare you create me and force me into this miserable fucking piece of shit dying planet where all humans are fucking scum and blah blah blah blah.

MEANWHILE, Barbie is moving though the world going "woah! Look how beautiful the world is! 🤩 Look how nice nature is 🤩 look how beautiful and supporting and uplifting and completely utterly lovingly human this place is! Look how beautiful it is when girls and women have loving interconnected supporting collaborative emotional relationships!!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Look! The cursed malaise of patriarchy—actively dooming humanity to extinction with its arrogant, short-sighted, extractivist individualism; its toxic-masculinity machismo, and its general proclivities toward fascism—is NOT the only lens through which we can see the world! Of course the world looks bad if you think the only way things can be done is in The Belligerent-Greedy-Moron's Violence Way!

But look at all these wholesome nice loving uplifting moments instead! That's what Girl Power is truely about: maintaining the prosocial behaviours of our loving childhood innocence as best we can while excising our power as fully-autonomous adults. Yeah! Hooray! Good-feels montage! 🥰🥰🥰"

Then, of course, Ken's image of the world is about how much patriarchy fucks, and about how much he can selfishly benefit from participating in Doing Some Patriarchy, yeah! And on top of that is all the stuff [💚💚💚💚] pointed out as lampshading real-world gender politics, a mirror held up to the crummy behaviours of real-life boys and men, and how much everybody suffers from the unequal/unfair/inequitable power dynamics that AFAB people are subjected to.

[I love this movie so much; it accomplishes so many different things simultaneously and I have so many thoughts and feelings and opinions about it! 🤩])

So anyway, Ken is villainous where his villainy is literally:

"hah! I'm Naughty Ken now! And he's the bad guy and he bosses everybody around! He even took over the Barbie Dream House and changed everything to make it the Ken's Mojo Dojo Casa House instead! All the fashion posters are now cowboy posters! And all the Kens wear cool sunglasses and all the Barbies tell them how cool they look and also they took all the money so they're rich now and they can do whatever they want! Mwah ha ha ha!!"

Like, yes, you are literally correct to say "he's a villain", but it's 100% a pastiche of villainy. Arguing over the metaphysics of whether or not somebody "is" a villain is uninteresting to me.

Because there's way more interesting conversations to be had than the playground-level silliness of "ken was actually the villain!"

"was not!"

"was too!"

"was not!"

"was too!"

[perexcri]

twice the fool PLEASE and also idk which one is vampire byler but THAT ONE please 🤲🧎‍♀️i would like to know what ur most excited about in those ones & also if you would mayhaps like to share a line/snippet~

HI LARK thank you so much for stopping by :D 💜

twice the fool (stonathan): this is my stonathan btvs au for the upcoming stonathan week!!

i'm very excited for it because i'm taking one of my favorite btvs episode plots and applying it to stonathan! if anybody can guess which buffy episode it's from i'll give you a gold star and dedicate my next cat to you~

i'm also excited to work with the older teens from st for once, and i think it's been really nice to creatively switch things up for me this way. i've loved getting to apply some of the buffy character archetypes to st characters: Robin is basically Buffy, i've made Nancy a mixture of Willow and Faith, Hopper is Giles (💀), and Steve is kind of the Xander figure

here's a snippet because i am very excited for Chrissy's role in this fic :)

Chrissy Cunningham – The Spelling Bee! – Serving all your Hawkins High magic needs – knock three times on the table in the woods behind the football field – walk-ins only! The teachers had been mercilessly scraping her fliers off the hallways’ corkboards, and Steve had grown so used to them that he hadn’t bothered to really consider them anymore. Since the hellmouth had been opened last year thanks to Will’s disappearance, all kinds of weird shit had been attracted to Hawkins, and Hawkins’ citizens had, in turn, become more attracted to some of their town’s oddities as well. Namely, a lot of the Hawkins High students had become interested in magic, Chrissy being the most interested of them all. She’d transformed from a total popular cheerleader type to the girl who sat in class and played with crystals or read people’s palms. She was still popular as hell and had the top cheerleader spot of course, but everyone had agreed she’d grown a little…odd. But Hawkins has always been weird, just grown a bit weirder, and odd is exactly what Steve needs right now.  Magic is what Steve needs right now. He knows Jonathan still feels something–he saw it in Jonathan’s eyes, in the way his fists had shook against his crossed arms. It wasn’t Jonathan’s heart that had made that decision, but his head, that infernal logic that’s been trained by years of abuse from a deadbeat father that said it was better to cut and run before you end up with a fist against your teeth.

in throes of increasing wonder: an interview with the vampire au i haven't touched in a hot second but never say never amiright lol

working on this one has been most exciting for me because it's set in New Orleans, a city i have spent a lot of time in!! i haven't really seen any byler fics where they're in the south (which like,,,i understand bc the south is The South,,,,,,but also there is some cool stuff here, and not everyone is horrible, right?). so when i have worked on it, it's been fun to incorporate my own knowledge and experiences with the city into my writing. i also will die on the hill that most US cities are largely the same and don't have much variance, but i do think New Orleans stands apart from the rest and has its own really unique vibe/culture. i know every major city will say but like,,,do they have Mardi Gras? do they have king cakes and jambalaya and beignets and a city that sits below sea level? no. they do not.

here's a snippet!

He approaches the mirror, and he examines the damage. Spots speckle all up and down his throat; when he tugs at his collar, they continue down his clavicles and shoulders. His lips are swollen and his hair is a mess, but what draws him in most is the bite. That’s all it can be–what it has to be. Teeth marks, sharp and punctuated against his skin, blood crusted around where the openings have swollen shut. He presses at them, flinches at the throbs of pain they send like shockwaves up to his head, which spins with dizzying delight. More dried blood flakes off and falls like crimson snow against his shirt, which he dutifully swipes away with a half-hearted hand. 

It’s not the strangest thing, especially in a place like New Orleans. He’s seen plenty of people in the wake of a passionate night out with all sorts of discombobulation: torn clothes, patches of hair missing, teeth fillings scraped out and matching tattoos scrawled into each other’s skin. It just means he has to wait for it to heal, to cover his neck like he’d have to anyway. Damn the October warmth; the least he could’ve done is have the foresight to do this in January or February, where he could at least put on a scarf.

thanks again Lark!! i'm wishing you all the best and sending you the best of vibes for writing fantasy au pt 2 :] 💜💜💜