#I used ai for this because I suck at storytelling.

[wraithowl]

In the dark forests surrounding Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, a fierce battle was about to take place. The moon was full, casting an eerie glow over the clearing where two werewolves stood facing each other. Onyx Faolan, with her black fur glistening in the moonlight, bore the scars of many battles on her face. Her silver eyes blazed with determination as she prepared to face her enemy. Fenrir Greyback, the male werewolf known for his cruelty and ruthlessness, snarled at Onyx with malice in his yellow eyes. He had gathered a pack of followers, all eager to do his bidding and spread chaos throughout the wizarding world. But Onyx was not alone in this fight. By her side stood Chiara, a silver werewolf whose beauty was unmatched, but whose strength matched Onyx's own. As the two sides clashed, claws and teeth flashing in the darkness, Onyx and Chiara fought bravely against Greyback and his minions. The sound of growls and snarls filled the night air, echoing off the trees as spells and hexes flew back and forth. Onyx and Chiara moved as one, their bond stronger than any magic as they fought side by side. Despite their best efforts, Greyback's followers were numerous and fierce. They outnumbered Onyx and Chiara, threatening to overwhelm them with sheer force. But the two werewolves fought on, refusing to give in to fear or despair. They knew that they were fighting not just for themselves, but for the safety of their fellow students at Hogwarts. As the battle raged on, Onyx and Chiara managed to take down several of Greyback's followers, their fangs and claws stained with blood. But Greyback himself proved to be a formidable opponent, his strength and ferocity unmatched. It was only through sheer determination and skill that Onyx and Chiara were able to hold their own against him. Finally, with a great yell, Onyx leapt at Greyback, her claws slashing through the air. She managed to wound him, drawing blood and forcing him to retreat. The werewolf capture unit, who had been lying in wait, sprang into action, capturing Greyback before he could escape. Though he managed to break free, the capture unit had dealt a severe blow to his forces, forcing him to lay low and regroup. Once the battle was over, Onyx and Chiara returned to Hogwarts, their fur still bristling with adrenaline and victory. They knew that not many of their fellow students would ever know the truth of what had transpired that night, but that didn't matter to them. What mattered was that they had protected those who could not protect themselves, ensuring that Hogwarts remained safe for another day. As they lay under the stars, the moon casting a soft glow over them, Onyx and Chiara knew that they had forged a bond that could never be broken. They were warriors, yes, but they were also lovers, their hearts intertwined in a way that only true mates could understand. And as they drifted off to sleep, the sounds of the forest fading into the night, they knew that no matter what challenges lay ahead, they would face them together, as one.

[xalygatorx]

was looking for google docs alternatives (and found a couple, yippeeeee) but one of the apps that came up was a fkn ai novel generator

“90k word novel in seconds!” built off the shredded corpses of the graft that came before I guess

with my whole heart, fuck off x

[brasideios]

I really should stop paying attention to the AI stuff but this is seriously getting to me; so much so that I’m considering quitting writing altogether.

I’ve been digging into my thoughts about this lately and I wanted to break it down a little here; to explain to myself, as well as you poor souls who engage with my bullshit, why I think AI fundamentally sucks and why I’m struggling to find a way to share my work anymore.

It begins with the fact that I strongly dislike the entire concept of traditional publishing.

In a nutshell, publishing houses get to decide what you, the consumer, will read, always based on what will be popular and make them the most money. They have the power to decide what you can’t read, what you shouldn’t read.

How many excellent stories have never been published because they weren’t riding the zeitgeist?

Millions. Millions.

And let’s not get into the ridiculously low percentage of income an author makes from a book published by a traditional publisher. Holy shit, it’s appalling.

Even as an indie author I earn about 32c for every $12USD sale of an ebook at best, and it is much, much worse through a publishing house.

Anyway. I digress.

In my opinion, all stories have a place, a meaning for the people who are listening for them, which is why finding the fanfiction world was so amazing to me.

Every voice here has an equal chance of being heard, and equally, we all have a chance to find the story we’ve been looking for. No one can stop you from publishing whatever it is you feel compelled to say. Whatever it is that drives and moves you.

It was honestly a relief to find stories without perfect prose and grammar getting the love they rightly deserve. Stories with silly or fun premises, LGBTQ+ people taking centre stage or - *insert thing that the publishing world would never publish here* - because it makes people ‘happy’ (whatever emotional form that takes) - both to write and to read.

But that well is poisoned by the people cashing in on that work via AI scraping, making unknowing slaves of creative people - pouring their love and time into a piece of writing only to have it stolen.

And in their own way, people using AI to make stories are just as bad. They too want to take advantage of the labour of others to get some buzz of dopamine from kudos/likes or whatever, which is completely unearned and undeserved.

I’m just going to mention here, while I’m on the subject - if you’re one of those wretches feeding other people’s unfinished fics to the AI to get an ending - I hate you so much there aren’t words. You are actually the worst. I hope none of my followers would do this - but if you do, check yourself.

Moving on…

The thing is, I just can’t understand how writers especially (and not just fic writers) can’t see that AI rips out the heart of storytelling.

Writing as a process is entirely personal; it comes from inside the self. At least in my experience, the process is more important than the end result. The discovery and exploration of themes and emotions entirely your own is only to be found in the process; it can’t be replicated by a computer spitting out strings of words others wrote.

It just can’t.

And I’m just going to say this now - if you, as a writer, don’t think this is important at all - if you don’t think that coming up with ideas and developing them yourself is literally what writing is - then I honestly don’t know what you’re doing, but it isn’t writing.

Anyway (again).

Where in all of this is there a place for a writer who doesn’t want their stories to be grist for the mill, to be regurgitated in some altered, souless form and sold off as if it was someone else’s?

Who’s sick to death of putting money in some other son of a bitches pocket, while they do the work out of love and passion?

I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore.

As it stands, we are powerless to stop any of this unless we simply stop writing, or sharing that writing. That’s a miserable acknowledgment to have to make for someone who quite literally just wants to write and share those stories with others without them being stolen.

It shouldn’t be a lot to ask.

[sacredglitch]

i have eeped, woken up and cried

I have some thoughts. MW3 spoilers below.

Major thing out of the way; everyone is gonna experience the campaign at different lengths depending on skill and difficulty they choose. I started around 9/10pm and finished at 5am, so it took me quite some time, predominantly with issues in the Weapons Free missions and the Ally AI just never backing me up? Felt a lil like Rudy in the Ghost Team mission yknow?

But it was a fun experience in gameplay standpoint. There was elements of both MW and MWII alongside some new things that I still gotta get used to once MP drops. But story wise?

Something felt weird. Like it wasn't as consise as MWII with its storytelling. All that took, what? A few days? Maybe even weeks to come to completion. With this game, bar the flashback mission, I never knew how closely related each mission was unless it was explicitly clear, like Passenger and the mission with Farah inspecting the debris. You know that was only hours apart from one another.

Characters also felt a little odd. Like there was moments where it felt like yeah, these are the crew I know and others where it's like....who am I listening to right now? There was just an air of tension with it all, and yes with who they were dealing with ofc there's tension...but idk again the flow wasn't there like the other two games.

Okay elephant in the room; Soap and Makarov. The amount of times Soap was on the verge of whipping out his pistol or knife and just ending it and no one letting him? If Makarov was such a major threat; sometimes the information he may or may not have had just isn't worth it. Thousands would be alive if Johnny was just let loose and take out the trash. But because he wasn't he's now dead.

And Makarov lives. What the fuck, Activision? Infinity Ward? Fucking Sledgehammer?! What was the point of killing off someone who they know damn well is beloved in the fandom (yes, he died in the OG but hear me out) as is his actor, let the baddie get away, and then just....end it with the 141 spreading his ashes. No revenge for Soap, no honouring what he wanted from the beGINNING, no nothing. Just somewhat dull words from the team, his ashes spread and roll credits.

It's giving rushed story for no fucking reason. I wouldn't be so mad if they just did something after that. Sure, one could say this is them building up to MWIV but it also could have been dealt with one more mission. It truly feels like a slap to the face for the fans, cause we know OG Soap's death was agonising but it had its resolution with Price honouring his men.

If this was the second game then it would also make more sense, build up to the conclusion. But no, this was what most of us expected to be the big finale of Makarov and this current story of Modern Warfare, and it wasn't. Just more prolonged waiting that they're probably going to rush to get out next year. It's truly a shame on the big trio working on this game, but also towards the new fans and in my eyes, Neil too. This was his big break in sorts and it's clear by fan interaction he loves being Soap. I'm glad he seems to be the main protagonist of Zombies which makes me hope he'll be in more things or some pre campaign things but damn. Imagine getting the role of a beloved character, giving them an incredible performance just to be shot point blank and given a dull ending. That would make me feel betrayed but ofc I won't speak for Neil, I have 0 clue how he feels on all this. Hell he could be all for it. Just...truly sucks from a fans perspective.

One final thing is the questions and confusion that ig are open ended because whoop de doo another game, more cash for Activision. For starters; who was the 'Shadow' giving Makarov intel? Was it supposed to be Shepard? Considering he was kidnapped and all that would make sense, but Makarov specifically said Shadow. In my eyes if he had meant Shepard, he would have said US Official or something.

Speaking of Shadows; why did Graves sell him out? What's he gonna gain from that? A redemption arc? Fuck that shit I didn't spend almost two hours fighting the tank for him to come back and be all "am sowwy"

Was Urzikstan truly cleared of any wrong doing or is it one of those things where it's like "Welp it's one General's word against our opinions". Also not to get into irl things but seeing some of the stuff during the Passenger mission had me thinking of how the world is currently with certain ongoing fights. Sometimes COD gets the realism down.

Maybe it was because of the situation they were in and how big the threat was, but there wasn't much of a dynamic going on with the teams. At most, there was some Soap and Ghost banter, and then Graves with his Shadows but that was kinda it. No idle chatter just head in the game type of deal. Does make sense ofc but maybe that's why the characters really felt off at times.

One that's just a personal thing; since it's confirmed that at least in 2019, Price, Soap and Ghost knew one another, makes sense cause the trio were SAS, but it's got me thinking why is Ghost the only one allowed to call him Johnny? It was teased in MWII with the interaction in Prison Break but...it's not been elaborated on. Even Price, when Soap was losing his shit over Makarov in the Heli, called him John.

What did Ghost do or say that Soap decided he could allow him to call him Johnny? This isn't anyway me asking "OooOO, are they fruity???" no I'm curious. If it was a thing he allowed his superiors that he was friendly with to say, then Price would be included that. Alejandro and Rudy would be included. What makes Ghost so special?

The last thing that my grief riddled mind can think of is where is Soap's family? I don't think I can truly believe he doesn't have one. It's canon he joined because of his cousin so...why was the 141 the ones to spread his ashes? Again it could have been his wish and all...shit just also adds to the rushed story feeling. I ain't asking for the MacTavishs to make an appearance or be canon or whatever but as someone who has a loved ones ashes, the small urn you get would have made more sense. That they decided with the ashes his family gave them to throw them off the cliffside in what I assume is Scotland.

If he didn't have family then holy shit it makes his death even more hurtful but no way impactful.

I'm just rambling angrly now so I'll stop my thoughts. Overall the game was fun, interesting concept with the Weapons Free missions but the story was lackluster compared to the previous games, as well as a slap to the face for Soap's character. It was just there for the sake of sadness.

I wasn't expecting a happy ending, I was just hoping for a honourable conclusion.

[rappaccini]

it's been a year or so since arachnophobia was drafted so i guess i'll do a retrospective

warning: this is a salty, sappy ramble

so to get it out of the way: atsv is a massive achievement in animation, and one of the best superhero movies ever made. it pretty much guaranteed that miles morales is going to be an a-list hero forever, told an ambitious and well-executed story, and-- look, everyone's talked about how great it is. it's a movie that'll define a generation. it's an instant classic. it changed the perception of what's expected for cg animation. college classes will be taught about its animation, score, and storytelling. its legacy speaks for itself and i don't need to praise it anymore than it already has been. i do agree with most of that praise.

it was also a terrible working environment for its animators. none of that artistry is worth hurting your employees, and if you have to hurt people to make 'good' art, then maybe you suck at it. it probably wouldn't have gotten so bad if the writers had a coherent plan from the start, stuck to it and actually gave a shit about the artists who they keep flaunting on their social media and dragged out for the oscars campaign to insist that Atsv Is Real Art. oh so now you want to recognize the artists? when they might get you a trophy? okay. we'll see how bad the btsv work environment gets now that you got away with it and have even more pressure to deliver an even better final product for an even bigger audience on what's sure to be an inhumane deadline given that the initial release date was two months ago.

(who wants to bet there'll be an ai art controversy given that sony just publicly admitted they want to use it to make their movies now. sure lord and miller said they won't but can we really believe anything they say?)

it's also not a perfect movie. which, sidebar: there is no such thing as a perfect movie because perfect movies are impossible to make. there is always something that can be improved. and critiquing something you love is a good thing because it's always good to challenge things to be better.

a few criticisms off the top of my head:

the spider-society allegory is underbaked; more on that soon.

the two days in which the plot takes place mean it's fast-paced, but the emotional beats of the romance don't make sense when you realize how little miles and gwen actually know each other.

the romance itself is efficiently delivered. every moment is carefully crafted to advance it, the pop songs and score used under the scenes are beautiful, the cinematography is gorgeous, the actors and animators worked their ass off to give miles and gwen chemistry. but the relationship is still hypocritical when you actually hold it up to the themes of the story. more on that later. it's like a perfectly-organized essay that answers the wrong prompt. a+ for effort, but what the fuck do you think this is about?

and then you read a little deeper and realize all their main points were plagiarized from other students' papers. shit analogy i know, but that's how it feels when you realize all of miles and gwen's big romantic moments were ripped off of other relationships they have with other people.

and then you realize that they spend so much time arguing for one specific point, and accidentally present a countersolution to the one they're offering that's even better. yes, this is about 'gwen should be able to fall in love with spider-man and it should end well' being the argument, with miles presented as the guy who can do it... as hobie emerges as the spider-man who gwen has the deepest bond with, trusts the most, and who's actually taken action to support and empower her for months (as opposed to miles, who she barely knows, doesn't listen to her or make her feel safe enough to tell the truth to, and whose support of her consists of saving her from falling twice, making her laugh a few times and getting her a plate of food at a cookout once). and as hobie is presented as a genuinely sincere person with good motives, instead of the shallow bad boy rival he's introduced as. like... guys? you accidentally wrote a story about how hobie is the better boyfriend and ended it on "but we're still going with miles, for some reason!". how did you not catch that.

the story would've been stronger if miles HAD been recruited to the society. give him actual time to reconnect with gwen, peter and peni. let him befriend margo, pav and hobie for more than five minutes each. let him slowly discover that the society's bad instead of instantly finding out, and make the price of his inclusion the total compromise of his values. especially since his relationship with gwen is so heavily focused on. more on that later.

and especially since the spider-society narrative isn't intersectional enough. it's about race, but fails to discuss how gender, sexual orientation and class would also factor in to who's accepted by society: yes, miles is black. but he's also straight, male, from a middle-class background with an upwardly-mobile-looking future-- there are a lot of ways for a boy like that to advance within the system, especially when you consider--

-- that miles and miguel are already foils. wish they'd spent more time together to highlight that. especially since they're introducing miles's flaws in atsv to set up the reveal of prowler miles/ the 'you should've been a villain' twist. massive missed opportunity to not sit them in a room together and let them talk, or give them a mentor relationship before it devolves in them ripping each other apart.

... honestly? a lot of miles's metanarrative feels like it was ripped off of hobie. right down to the 'you're supposed to be the prowler' twist, and being the one spider-man who's supposedly good for gwen. i love the 42-miles-is-the-prowler twist. but i can't help but go hmmm at all that, especially since hobie's in the movie and is acknowledged to have a revolutionary motivation and a special connection to gwen that are both treated as secondary to miles's. what's going on here. why are we taking hobie's metanarrative away from him and dangling it right in front of him.

like. to be perfectly honest? it'd make more sense if miles were on track to become another miguel than a prowler. he's the nonwhite spider-man who's the controversial heir to peter parker's legacy, who's fixated on finding his way into the multiverse to get a girl whose name starts with the letter g back. who will only be tolerated if he obsesses over collecting canon events like pokemon cards, and wants to be liked and accepted by the general public so badly that he might sacrifice being representative of his own community to get it. and miles almost drank the kool-aid before he found out about his dad's death event. shouldn't we focus more on that?

the decision to focus so much on shouting "take that" at the racist fans who don't want miles to be spider-man, while avoiding saying that racism is the source of that hatred and attributing it to fanboys checking off canon event boxes... was a choice.

and also not necessary, when this movie could've ignored those fans and just been about spending even more time with miles.

making the brownest depiction of miguel o'hara yet the face of that hatred and describing him as 'animalistic'... was a choice. and frankly, a cowardly one that offsets the blame for the miles backlash onto other poc projecting their internalized trauma onto him instead of what it is, which is racism coming from mostly white people.

it's also dishonest to imply, through making miguel found the society after atsv, that the fandom toxicity started with itsv miles. with respect to miles, he's not that special. that shit's been here since 1960. it would've made far more sense if the society were as old as spider-man's canon itself-- and if miguel were its latest custodian instead of its founder. institutionalized oppression wasn't created by one guy after all. the metaphor would've been stronger if it acknowledged that the people who created those systems are long gone, and everyone is both complicit in and being harmed by them.

including miles. which is probably why we're going the 'miles is excluded' route: to avoid implicating him in pulling on some of the society's levers of power. you know, like the ones that are hurting gwen.

weird as hell that the spider-society's canon doesn't acknowledge that it isn't largely based on peter parker. hello? he's half the population of hq. why are we not talking about that? why does peter b not react to this?

peter b parker was character assassinated. to artificially inflate the miles-gwen connection into something deeper than it ever was.

after itsv set miles and ganke up as best friends, ganke did nothing and miles cold-shoulders him the whole time. okay.

pav and his world are great, but they could've been anybody. so they should've been swapped out with a female spider-person so gwen has literally one female friend she's nice to and miles has one female friend he isn't trying to make out with. someone like anya or cindy.

there are like five different beginnings and endings to this thing.

and coming from a gwen fan: gwen is the worst thing about atsv, the same way she's the worst thing about itsv. respect to the people who see gwen as a co-protagonist, but no, she isn't. atsv is not ~gwen's movie~. she did not ~steal the movie from miles~ (if anything, hobie did. good for him). and this isn't a white savior story (yet. if gwen gets btsv's big hero moment of saving miles's dad and world from the spot and is rewarded with a romance with him, then it becomes one, but we're not there just yet). just because she has a pov and more screentime doesn't mean she's on miles's level. she'd have to have a primary plotline that doesn't revolve around supporting miles for that to happen, not just a subplot about her conflict with her dad that's resolved so she can go get her actual resolution where she earns the respect of... the parents of a boy she hung out with for two days over two years and promises them that she'll take care of their son and help him support them.

[like. honestly. all they had to do was show gwen consciously choose to put on her sweater instead of his hoodie-- and therefore confirm to his parents that she's his friend, not his girlfriend. if it were a friendship story instead of a romance, that scene would mean gwen's choosing to stand up for miles and do right by him to redeem herself for the sake of being a good ally, and not so she can show her future boyfriend's family how loyal she is.]

indulge me this rant:

that's the problem. it's not that spider-gwen is a bad character, or a bad fit for the spiderverse movies. she's an amazing character, and perfectly suited to a story about exploring different spider-man universes and questioning the canon they're held up against. atsv in particular more than justifies her presence because of that fuck canon message because there's no better female character to put in these movies to deliver that message than spider-gwen.

and it's not that gwen 'has no place in a story about miles' -- when she's the bellwether for if he's actually learned his lesson in the end. if miles really understands the importance of breaking canon, and wants to be different and make things better for everyone, he'll encourage everyone to break their canon, even if it means he won't get what he wants from them anymore. if gwen breaks hers, he won't date or end up with her. if miles knows that and still supports her, then he's a fully actualized hero.

the problem isn't gwen. it's gwiles. it's that the writers care more about making gwen miles's girlfriend than about making gwen her own person or following through with their own themes about representation, inclusivity and breaking the boundaries society imposes on you. the problem is that gwen was literally only put in itsv to kiss miles at the end and they simply cut the kiss.

and now gwen's only getting a pov in atsv and btsv so she can kiss him at the end of the trilogy. her perspective is only being tolerated because she'll be miles's girlfriend in the end... which ultimately means it's still all about him. her backstory is here to make her sympathetic to him and show how compatible she is with him, and to give her loneliness issues he can fix and a need to belong somewhere so she can regard his world (... and moving into it when they end up together-- there are so many hints through the subtext that ~gwen doesn't belong in her own world, but she could belong in his~-- and you know he's not moving to e65) as a positive. her action scenes are to show how useful she'll be to him (because that mary jane backlash from the raimi movies is somehow still going). her plotline's about how he's so special that he can inspire a gwen stacy to end up with a spider-man and live. the spiderverse movies inverting the gwiles narrative to make it about gwen defying canon to be with him isn't a good change. yeah we sure ~Did Things Different This Time~ but what's the point of doing things differently if you're going to do it worse.

and it is worse. how exactly is it an improvement to take a story about a queer girl refusing to give into a system designed to kill her or take her agency away by forcing her into a romance with a straight boy who'll always have power over her (same difference tbh), and... straighten her up* to make her okay with being that straight boy's supportive secondary girlfriend? it's not. it's fucking not.

(*yes, gwen is trans-coded. but coding isn't explicit representation; everyone who doesn't want gwen to be trans can say she isn't and be technically correct. and they still stripped her of all her sapphic qualities. odds are making gwen trans-coded was just a way to say 'look, we didn't straightwash her! ((but if you don't want her to be queer, hey, we don't either. just don't bring it up and you're good))' while still making sure she's all about miles. and even then, this trans-coded girl's story is still probably going to boil down to 'if this straight boy loves me and his family accepts me as his girlfriend, i get to live and be happy.' what the fuck. gwen could've been the landmark representation for an entire generation of queer girls with a story that uplifts them and tells them they have a right to exist without compromising themselves, the same way that miles is that for black and brown kids... and now that may never happen-- in the movies, in the comics, anywhere-- because miles needs a white marketable girlfriend more, i guess.)

it's stunning, insulting, dishonest, deeply sexist, more than a little homophobic and somehow not surprising that they're twisting her metanarrative into 'what if i can get a boyfriend and live!' instead of 'what if i don't need that boyfriend at all and am better off without him,' and painting miles as the shining hero who'll make things better for gwen instead of the guy who's currently most responsible for putting her in that position. most of all how gwen accepts canon as a given and needs miles to teach her that she's a person, and only breaks canon For Him. are you fucking kidding me. like please unpack if it were miles needing gwen and peter to explain to him how he doesn't need to follow a stereotypical narrative, and then he only breaks canon to help them, the white people, to show them how supportive of them he is and how sorry he is for not showing up for them more even when it would have hurt him, and the narrative only rewards him when he does something in their interest. you see it now, right?

my thoughts on that haven't changed.

if anything they've gotten worse because that depiction isn't going to stay in the spiderverse movies. no, i can't "just ignore the movies" because their depiction of gwen is already spreading. now with gwen's comics being derailed to make her more like spiderverse gwen and an entire generation of kids' perception of spider-gwen now being "she's miles's girlfriend! isn't their love story great?", and all the discussion of gwen's character now revolving around miles -- if you like and defend her, it's because you want her to end up with miles; if you hate and deride her, it's because you don't want her to end up with miles-- its not a stretch at all to say that miles morales is the worst thing that has ever happened to spider-gwen.

gwen stacy had peter and the bridge, spider-gwen has miles and the earth-8 babies. exactly fifty years after that first fridging, and ten years after spider-gwen's creation fixed that problem... we're right back to square one with spider-gwen being Spider-Man's Girlfriend all over again. the only difference is, now it's miles instead of peter, and somehow that makes it even more dangerous-- because at least peter had such an established relationship with mj that we all knew meant if gwen got girlfriended it wouldn't last, but miles doesn't have that yet which means gwen might actually stick to him. good luck tiana.

and it's much more insulting. they really found a way to make sure miles's story always centers a white person, and gwen's always centers a straight guy and they're framing it like it's this mindblowing, special thing that no one's ever done before, when a hero-gets-the-girl plot is the most predictable thing they could've done and both of their characters have already gone on to do so much better apart. really. we're doing this shit again. okay.

yes, btsv might not go through with getting them together. yes, all the pieces they need to reframe gwen's interest in miles as her projecting her need to belong onto him are there. yes, they could end the movie as friends who got over their fixations on each other and are better for it. but i have no faith in that given how hard they went with gwiles in atsv, and how they clearly love that they did it. i hope they don't! i have no faith that they won't!

and now that the synergy's kicking in and lord and miller are in charge of the sony spider-tv shows and will probably keep doing gwen dirty there too if they get the chance and another spiderverse movie using their version of gwen confirmed to still be in development, the damage they've done to spider-gwen might be irreversible. gwiles will probably be a thorn in her side for decades, when it could've just been one awkward mistake eight years ago that we moved on from, and miles can't have an actual friendship with gwen because every time they're together they're going to be pressured to kiss. the spiderverse movies could've done something genuinely new and introduced gwen and miles's relationship to the general public as a platonic friendship where miles supports gwen in resisting that girlfriend role instead of trying to reel her into it like he does in the comics. instead, they tripled down on reinforcing a shitty canon while acting like they're reinventing it. now they've pretty much guaranteed that miles is and will remain primarily responsible for gwen losing her autonomy and having to conceal her queerness. and because of the way marvel's internal hierarchy works, gwen will never be able to confront him. she might not even be able to avoid him at this point.

my one silver lining is that spider-gwen is now a well-known enough figure in mainstream culture that she'll never disappear, more people have discovered her comics, and an entire generation of kids now know who she is-- and plenty of them eagerly see her as queer and sapphic, even in spite of the movie's heavy preference for gwiles. hopefully, more of those kids will read gwen's comics someday. hopefully when they do, they'll find gwen as her own person in her own world with her own stories, and won't have to find out that she used to have those things before being miles's girlfriend took it all away from her. hopefully, the spiderverse trilogy will turn out in hindsight to be the last dying gasp of the straight gwen camp before her queerness takes center stage and she never has to date miles or peter again. hopefully she'll leave that shit behind for good in a few years instead of a few decades or never at all. and if not, hopefully when those kids take control of her character, they'll do better by her.

but there's just no guarantee that their takeaway will be that gwen's her own person, given that the movies are working overtime to tell you otherwise, and a lot of them don't care to look up gwen's original story, or see the gwilesified version as better. and if they do... who knows what damage will need to be undone by the time they get some level of creative input into her. god forbid that gwen end up having gwilesbabies that need to be retconned, if they ever can be.

anyway. watching atsv was a dissonant experience. everything else about the movie is mostly phenomenal, but as a gwen fan, i'm here for her first. so seeing gwen's world fully realized... and then fully realizing that gwen's narrative has been twisted to make her all about miles... was something. scene after scene of gwen's personality being finally complex and comics-accurate, but her motivations being entirely off. having romantic feelings for her peter parker? she would not do that. being passionately in love with miles? she would not do that. telling him 'oh i wish we could end up together if only canon would allow it'? she would not do that. letting gayatri singh, an alternate version of herself, remain in danger because canon says so? she would not do that. only interfering with canon for miles? she would not do that. needing a boy she hung out with for two afternoons to tell her she should define her own narrative, and deciding to do it but only to protect him and give him what he wants and be his love interest? she. would. not. do. that.

i left the movie theater very disappointed, very aware that marvel's synergy would mean the sv movies would have that effect on comics-gwen, and pretty much immediately started outlining this fic on the drive back. it started as a one-shot au where miguel accidentally sends gwen to comics-65 instead of sv-65 and she talks to her comics self, then it morphed into a story where gwen fully snaps and becomes a supervillain, and that led to dusting off a bunch of half-finished spider-gwen fics i had lying around: sv-gwen finding her headstone in a 1610 graveyard during itsv, gwen-8 hating her life, gwen-617 forming her council, among others. in a sense i guess i've been writing this thing for years, and then brought it all together at the last second.

and then it took off from there. i reread every spider-gwen appearance, every gwen stacy appearance, the refrigerator monologues, and then some. rewatched all the amazing spider-man and sv movies, and all the cartoons where gwen features. took a shitload of notes. and then four weeks later the outline was complete and the first chapter was ready to go.

in general, the aim of the fic was to reimagine atsv as a story where gwen's a true co-protagonist by giving her a storyline that can be read mostly in parallel with miles's, in which she explores her own canon, all the bad implications and missed opportunities, why the fandom and the writers keep insisting that she has to replay it again and again, and what the effect of that would have on gwen and her relationships. say everything canon can't, and give her the happiest possible ending that canon won't ever give her.

to do that we had to expand the spider-society metaphor by directly implicating the movie's own canon. no, atsv, you're not the exception, you're literally doing the exact same shit you're claiming to be different from. can you really meaningfully subvert or break canon when your story itself is canon-- and is so canon that all the other canon starts imitating it?

and we have to make the metaphor intersectional. the society's a great introduction to allegorical sci fi. the movies did a great job applying the spider-society metaphor not only to spider-man canon (and comics/storytelling) as a whole, but to greater society... but only from the perspective of race. and that's a problem because the second they made gwen the deuteragonist, they expanded the metaphor. the spider-society can't just be racist-- it has to be sexist and homophobic too, because society and storytelling/comics/the spider-man canon are those things too. and the story has to challenge those systems and end in taking them down, not in gwen saying "i will actually totally submit to them with a smile on my face. this is what i needed all along!"

therefore, we have to acknowledge that in the same way that miles and gwen are black and white in a racist system that harms miles, makes gwen complicit in that harm and challenges him to rebel against it and her to sacrifice her comfort to support him and his community and put his needs over her wants--... they're also a straight boy and queer girl in a homophobic, misogynistic system that harms gwen, makes miles complicit in that harm and challenges gwen to break out of it and miles to sacrifice his comfort to support her and her community, and put her needs over his wants. atsv completely failed to acknowledge the latter... because it wants to continue that cycle, with the only change being that miles benefits from it now.

(like. can we please unpack that the spiderverse movies are full of sociological theming relating miles's journey as a character to his experience as an afrolatino boy... and then conveniently ignores the sociological undercurrent behind a black boy who feels isolated from his community and tremendous pressure to succeed in a white world viewing a hypothetical relationship with a white girl he puts on a pedestal and sees more as a concept than as an actual person as a quick and easy way to get himself that validation. or a queer girl who's been violently rejected by her community for her queerness, and was homeless for months while being bombarded with messages that she's supposed to be a straight guy's girlfriend and her life is meant to revolve around him even if it kills her, suddenly fixating on getting a straight boy to claim her as his girlfriend in order to be accepted somewhere, even when she literally tells him it will only hurt her. they laid it all out in atsv, and yet every scene between miles and gwen hinges on '~but them wanting to be together is the Real Subverison and aspirational somehow~.' because the movies don't want to acknowledge that their favorite ship will fuck up their trilogy's central themes by turning a celebration of difference and deviation from the status quo into an assimilation narrative if miles and gwen end up together. )

which, indulge me this rant: means the core theme of the spiderverse movies is probably going to shape out to be hypocritical (the spiderverse is for everyone! as long as you're a straight boy!) and miles as a hero will immediately have his morals compromised in the end, because the first thing our great champion of inclusivity will do after he breaks his harmful canon is smile at another marginalized person he claims to love and encourage her to remain in hers so he can kiss her whenever he wants. the fundamental problem with this ship hasn't changed in the adaptation from the comics to the movies. because the problem is inherent to the ship itself and you can't fix it without violating the core of who these characters are as individuals and what their stories are about. as bluntly as i can put it: if gwen and miles get together, miles instantly becomes miguel, someone who thinks he's superior to canon, breaks it when it suits him and forces everyone else to conform when doing so means he gets what he wants. and he becomes the villain of her story because he is now the primary reason why it's being taken from her. the only way for him to break that cycle is to voluntarily refuse to participate in it and choose not to be in a romance with her at all.

that was one of the big goals of this fic: deconstruct the societal forces screwing gwen over, how miles is unintentionally complicit in reinforcing them, how that would destroy their relationship, how both of them can be better than this, what it would take to fix things, and what it'd look like when it's better. examine those things in depth, and then reconstruct the story in a way that actually fixes the problem.

and, where appropriate, use atsv as a model: show gwen being initially enamored with the society until she realizes what canon's going to do to her, discuss what prejudices are preventing her from being a fully actualized character and how her own friends are reinforcing them, give her a moment where she says 'fuck it' and interferes with canon in mumbattan, give her a confrontation at hq with miguel over her anomalousness and her useless mentor over how they failed to protect her, give her an ally in hobie brown refusing to go along with how the rest of the society and his own friends treat her, give her a demonized alternate self in a supposedly broken world to empathize with, give her a societal structure to break down at the end of the story, and utilize the spot as an existential threat to the worlds in which she and other gwen stacys have their own stories. and unpack gwen and miles as narrative foils, but you know, actual foils dealing with the same problem in opposite ways, and not just ~ooh, we have so much in common, like being teen superheroes from new york with the default traumatic experience and powers for spider-people and similar gpas, artistic hobbies and cop dads, we're so star-crossed.~ if gwen really were the co-protagonist of atsv, that's what her arc would be.

my thought process was, 'if the spiderverse movies really are going to redefine gwen's story to make it about getting a boyfriend again, and everyone in the fandom either has no idea that gwen's story was ever something different or genuinely thinks that shit's better, there needs to be a rebuttal. and it needs to be so good that people have to give it a chance based on the quality alone.' so the fic had to do everything. it had to be about gwen stacy, spider-gwen, female characters in spider-man and comics and fiction in general, girls and queer girls and queer white girls, how the roles girls are given in fiction mirror the ones they're allowed in real life, how canon and fate are arbitrary and written by people who don't want the status quo to change, how fanon can reinforce and subvert the status quo, a coming of age story, a love story, a self-love story, a feminist story, a spider-man story that knows it's a spider-man story, deconstructs the meaning of a spider-man story, examines it, and then reconstructs it. it had to do everything and it had to be so fucking good that even if you don't like what it has to say, you can't deny that the presentation was excellent and that it's one of the best fics in the fandom. i have like ten posts of painstaking notes on this blog and i still don't think i've annotated half of it.

which is the goal i suppose. another of the edicts was: if atsv is going to seriously make the argument that comics, animation and comic book movies should be regarded as high art, and analyzed as such, then the same should also apply to this fanfiction. arachnophobia was built to be enjoyable as a first read, and even more so as a reread. it's meant to be dissected, and if you do you're going to find a lot of spider-gwen canon, spider-man canon, comics canon, and beyond. there's a reason these chapters open with quotes from film, television and literature that already are classics or will be classics someday, and it's to put this fanfic in direct conversation with them. the spider-society directly imitates structures of heteropatriarchy, and gwen's arc takes her on a big journey through and away from them, on purpose. like atsv, this project was ambitious by design, and it is meant to be analyzed from the lenses of comics canon, storytelling as a whole, and the sociology that they reinforce.

i think i pulled it off. not to swing my dick or anything, but i'm genuinely so pleased with how it all came together. so many happy accidents, so many tie-ins to so many canons, working on so many different levels. it's not perfect, but boy does it work. i'd never be vain enough to claim that it's The Best Fic In The Fandom (there is no such thing) but i wrote it with the purpose of getting it up there, and it's up there.

however. i would do some things differently in retrospect. i will discuss them in excruciating detail.

i tried a greek chorus/second person angle, with the narration acknowledging the presence of "you,"-- eventually revealed to be the audience-- and the narrator being a spider-gwen herself. there was a whole twist at the end of chapter one where gwen was in the graveyard with her 1610 self, and the narration lets you know it knows you're watching and that you're complicit in what's happening to her and that shit was cool. it got too messy when miles showed up because it became easy to confuse him with you. make of that what you will. so you-the-reader got third partied into being the spider-society extras, who excessively monitor gwen and comment on her actions. gwen can still be annoyed with you, but there's enough distance so you don't feel like you're being directly implicated. even though you are. idk. i kinda wish i kept it.

this fic was written over the summer of 2023. even over the course of one year the conversation about gwen's character has massively changed. if i were writing it now, knowing that we're one conversation away from gwen confirming her bisexuality, and that her world, her queerness and her age are being stripped from her to force her into spiderverse synergy? that would have absolutely changed things. specifically i'd have been so much cuntier in my author's notes right away instead of sneaking it in later.

also, that joke about gwen and em jay never getting around to their toxic hookup would've been replaced by them being exes. in a world where gwen isn't constantly being dragged away from home, they would've worked out their feelings.

initially the gwen-a conversation was with gwen 65 as she is in the comics; very multiverse-focused. however the idea of meeting a gwen65 who never dealt with multiverse baggage was too great. this is what we're missing because of sv synergy and editorial cowardice: gwen, in her own world, living her life. however this also means we can't confront the situation that gwen a is being forced to compromise herself and leave everything she loves, to be like gwen b. and to have gwen b disown that concept and flip off the synergy more definitively. if i were writing it now i'd add some indication that gwen-65-no-subletter is out there somewhere and they just can't talk to her or something. best of both worlds. damn!

the fic does go into sv-gwen's trans identity, how it informs her perception of gender, her need to comphet her way to being accepted, and how she stops trying to assimilate into straightness by the end. but i think i could've done more to discuss how the society feels about it. i should've added some note somewhere about how the society recognizes her as a girl, but not a trans girl. no one's allowed to bring it up, including her; same way that gwen's trans-coded but can't say it out loud during the movie: plausible deniability so people who don't want her to be trans don't have to think of her as such. i'm gonna explain it as "the bar's so deep in hell that gwen's just happy they're calling her by the right name and helping her transition. she hasn't thought through why all these grown men who are attracted to her don't want to acknowledge that she's amab because if she does, she'll realize what they want to do to her and lose it.'' if i write the hobie fic i think that'll come up there. he would definitely have put it together.

speaking of hobie, yes the fic's interpretation of him is as a queer person. his particular kind of queerness is unlabeled and based in an understanding of gender and sexuality from the '70s and therefore disconnected from gwen's 2020s headspace. it's mentioned in the margofic but there wasn't a point where gwen herself brings it up here. should've found one. damn.

likewise with hobie and gwen's relationship-- it's somewhere between a qpr and relationship anarchy. since gwen's in denial about it and doesn't have the language to articulate it, that's never mentioned. bet i could've slipped that in somehow though. damn.

i still have mixed feelings about gwen 617's depiction. she had to be that way because the council had to be started by sv-gwen to justify her being the protagonist, but 617's too important. i still feel like i could've done her better. damn.

i have more mixed feelings about miguel being the leader of the spider-society now. if i were writing it now i'd just ignore the movie saying miguel founded the society, and reinterpret it as an institution that's as old as the concept of spider-man, where miguel is just the latest custodian. that would've drawn more attention to him being as much a victim to canon as he is an enforcer of it. and i'd have miguel be following the lead of a peter parker mentor, the same way miles is, but that relationship would be the reverse of miles and beter's: cold and full of constant put-downs and do-it-like-me's. too late to change that. damn!

there's one more aspect to peter's culpability in the death of gwen stacy that was left out of his convo with gwen. peter telling her 'by the way i put on my mask and stalked her to london, so she came back to nyc because she figured there was no point in hiding from spider-man in england if he just followed her there' (he did all that! it's canon!) kind of undoes og gwen's agency in returning. which she would have, because the writers wouldn't have ever let her go. also fic-gwen would never have forgiven him if he told her that. didn't gel with the themes.

given the later realization of the possibility of time passing differently between dimensions (and earth-65 having an unusually fucked timeline because of society meddling,) i would have used that. something like gwen realizing miles will eclipse her and keep advancing while she stays the same, and the inherent imbalance there. atsv's peter pan analogy in reverse: gwen is a girl who's being prevented from growing up so she's always young and available for the boy who wants her, unable to access the time to process that she doesn't want him, and always disadvantaged whenever they fall out because she can't process her thoughts or feelings as fast as he does. it even ties in to comics-gwen having her age reduced over and over to keep her a teen and lessen the age gap between her and miles. damn!

later realizations that gwen's world was retconned to take place in the 90s/early 00s would've absolutely changed her perception of 65a, which is in the mid 2010s. that's a fun change! would've loved to differentiate 65 a and b that way! or play up how the time unique to spider-gwen was scrapped to make her derivative of peter's, acknowledge the retcon with gwen returning from miles's dimension and being like 'why is it 2001 now' and use that to discuss how the society's deliberately fucking with earth-65's reality to force gwen out of it for good so they can girlfriendify her, the same way canon currently is. the sinister implications of the society deliberately making a trans girl's world more hostile for her for years to wear her down emotionally so she'll be eager to move into miles's marginally less transphobic dimension would've been insane. damn!

these changes aren't worth going back and editing the fic for, but it would be different if i were writing it today.

........ but i DID make some changes after it finished. i'll own up to them here:

changed chapter titles once my 'female fronted rock bands preferably with a spider-theme in the song' playlist finally hit the nine needed for eight chapters and a title.

in general: jess's world didn't have a subnumber when i wrote the fic so i had to rely on the wiki. when it was confirmed to be 332, i went back and changed it.

chapter 2: tbh i was so sure i'd get fried by the fandom for writing a fic where gwen dumps miles that i pulled a few of the spiciest lines from chapter 2. snuck one section back in bc enough time passed that it felt safe. that's the one where she asks him if he was lying when he said he wanted to be her friend. (he did! he immediately started treating her like his fake girlfriend from canada! that sucks! let's unpack it!)

the spiciest line still isn't there by the way.

chapter 3: after gwen being closeted bi was basically confirmed in smash 4 i snuck in a bit in chapter 3 about gwen having a moment of bi realization over gayatri. and pav's reaction. it WAS gay, as several ppl pointed out. and i can't help but sprinkle in more salt about canon gwen being unallowed to be anything but straight because she Has To Fuck A Spider-Man.

chapter 4: letting gwen say she hates spider-man and that meeting miles and peter is the worst thing that's ever happened to her. because she probably should, and it is because look at where meeting them led. if gwen had never met miles or peter, she'd be home, and able to mature and be queer in peace. they are why she can't have any of those things.

overall explaining why making gwen have miles's babies is evil.

-> in chapter 3 we add a bit to her mention of her transition to discuss her intentionally not wanting kids. and the society having opinions about that.

-> in chapter 4, gwen puts together why that's game over for her character: it means she can never be her own person again and will always tied to the guy who impregnated her, seen as an accessory to him-- and even to her own children. if gwen dates miles, she can dump him. if she marries him she can divorce him. but if she has his kids, she will always have to return to him and will be demonized every second she isn't picking up after their spider-brats.

-> and in chapter 7 we meet a gwen who's stuck in that web and get her perspective on the matter: it sucks.

chapter 5: clarifying the sexualization situation. the reason why spider-gwen is treated Like That by the society in the fic is reflective of how she's treated by canon and fandom. as bluntly as i can put it: all the men want to fuck her (even when she's underage.), and if they personally can't do it they'll use whichever self-insert they relate to most as a proxy-- miles being the latest one. that is the status quo spider-gwen specifically can't escape. so the in-universe application of this phenomenon is that the society's grooming gwen. all this time they've been slowly isolating her, wearing her down emotionally, and pressuring her into submitting to an inevitably-sexual relationship with someone they've preselected for her. the hiccup in this situation is that gwen unexpectedly refused their candidate and started rebelling. gwen has slowly but surely put it together over the course of the fic, earth-8 just clarified it for her, which is why she's such an emotional wreck. the confrontation with miguel made her finally ready to tell it to herself bluntly and now that she's all out of fucks to give, not afraid of death, and in a safe place to unpack it all, she does.

chapter 6: added gwen a cracking a gwen m = gwenom joke. didn't think of it when i wrote the fic. then realized given the alternate spider-person variations, peter b. and miles g., follow the naming convention of [firstname +middle initial] the most prominent gwen variant we'll probably get in btsv is a gwen m. and a perfect pun on gwen m, is making her a gwenom. (didn't switch a to m elsewhere because at this point it'd be too exhaustive to go line by line. plus, fic-gwen has such a deadname-related kneejerk hatred of her middle name that she wouldn't fuck with it)

chapter 7: further clarifying the gwiles-8 situation as a sham of a relationship where gwen and miles pretend to be perfect in public but in reality are much colder; and both did something unforgiveable to each other and neither is willing to admit to being the victim or having victimized each other. in gwen's case, she initiated a sexual relationship with a teenage boy even though she was 20, which is gross. and years later he turned the tables and basically babytrapped her. and they've been living in the epilogue of gone girl ever since. not sorry! i hate this world and what its creation has done to gwen! and i'm so interested in the implications of gwiles if it were ever acknowledged that they'd be terrible for each other!

chapter 7: mentioned earlier, but i'll repeat it for the sake of thoroughness: gwen-8 having miles's kids doesn't guarantee her survival. the second those kids are old enough to get their own titles, she's irrelevant and will probably be fridged, assuming she isn't already. and gwen-8 knows and hates this.

chapter 8: further clarification that miguel wants to use the spot to erase worlds that don't match the canon. you know. synergy. a way to make the society cross the line into outright evil, and create a more existential threat to all the gwens, who know that the way to force them to be the Girlfriend is to make it impossible for them to have their own worlds. and salt, because that's what's happening to gwen in the comics right now.

so those were the big changes. overall i'm very pleased with how the fic spun out. idk whatever was in the water last summer that made me write something this dense and layered in two months, but i hope the city pumps that shit back in!

i'm surprised it got the response it did. spiderverse fandom has its highlights, especially in regard to the artists there and the incredible creativity they're capable of. this is another one of those fandom creativity incubators. in ten years a whole cohort of animators, visual artists and comics artists are going to come into their own, and this fandom and the relationships they made here will have been the starting point for many of them. and i am very excited to see what they do.

but. this fandom is also a nexus between the worst comic bros (the ones who don't even read the damn comics they're cyberbullying people over) and the most annoying puriteens (the ones who think hobie's 30 because they can't read context clues). some of you are smart! some of you are very dumb! some of you are nice people! some of you are assholes! some of you get it! some of you are straight-up bigots! some of you are trying so hard to be forward-thinking that you've horseshoed yourselves into being accidental bigots! some of you are gwiles shippers, and not all of you suck but whenever someone's being an dumbass or an asshole in this fandom, it's always one of you! i made the right choice staying in my own little corner and i was 100% sure that given how toxic the fandom is and how defensive certain members are over their headcanons, they wouldn't take kindly to me taking a weedwhacker to the movie they love and to their fandom's perception of it.

like. i am VERY aware that we jump the shark in every chapter. in 2, gwen gets a glimpse of Planet Ghostflower, hates it and intentionally dumps miles in the meanest way possible, in 3, she kinda steals the fandom cinnamon roll's girlfriend, and thinks about killing him. in 4, she tells the schlubby dad character she hates him, disowns her girlboss mentor, and miguel's one bad decision away from trying to make out with her. in 5, the love interest who's going to last is the one nobody wants and they were fucking on the down low the whole time. in 6, fandom sweetheart peter 65 was an incel school shooter allegory and gwen-65 was never into him and manslaughtered him. and in 7 gwen and miles don't get together, mutually agree a relationship between them would be terrible, and Planet Ghostflower Gwen says that her relationship with miles is a pr stunt that went too far and that she doesn't love their perfect little gwilesbabies.

that's... a lot. and i get that.

by and large the people who read the fic seem to have liked it so... whew. met a few nice people as well, and the fic convinced some people to try gwen's comics, which is really the best thing i could have hoped for.

as for the margofic, i have less to say because i didn't plan to write it until it happened, it's not dealing with fifty years of canon, most of the structure was already defined by the gwenfic, and i didn't get any hate from it. i'm glad it exists, and margo as a character is treated terribly by the fandom, and fuck those people. the flowerbyte fandom seem like nice people, i simply do not usually go there. and from a writing perspective it was nice to get into her side of the events and the 'why do diverse legacy characters matter' debate. i will die on the margo-is-an-mj hill.

and finally, there are two more fics technically planned for this accidental series-- one for miles and one for hobie. i have very long outlines for them that keep getting longer. but

1) i don't have the time to write them

2) i'd rather wait and see how miles-42 is characterized and how the spot fight goes down before going in on those

3) i'm intimidated by how dumb the discourse is around both of these characters and idk if i want to have people coming after me for what's gonna be in these.

a fic about how if miles genuinely joined the society he would've tripled down on the exceptionalism mindset he bought into at the end of itsv, become complicit in reinforcing gwen's canon and started turning into a mini miguel before margo yanks him back from the abyss, or how hobie's relationship with gwen pulls him out of a passively suicidal mindset, helps him find a balance between his personal life and his politics, and how his narrative is multiversally linked to gwen's and miles's in very different, very fascinating ways.... nah those would've been too much i think. with respect, i don't think the fandom's smart enough to understand that miles has flaws, or that hobie isn't miles's yes man and has a personal life outside of his politics.

especially when both of those fics involve showing the offscreen fight between miles and hobie that was over gwen on the surface and subtextually about how miles is realizing he can't use her to hide from his insecurities anymore and lashing out at the easiest target he can reach as a final effort to avoid them that absolutely blows up in his face. it's a great scene! no way am i posting that! i don't want to invite demons into my life or my inbox!

so yeah uh. that will be all i think. maybe i'll write the milesfic and hobiefic someday, maybe i won't.

4) maybe i'd rather slowly dip out of sv fandom because there are better uses for my time than staying around and waiting for a movie i have a bad feeling about, that will certainly be visually stunning but is probably going to bother me a lot from a narrative perspective and have a lot of skeevy labor practices behind the scenes. especially since lord and miller have proven with atsv that they're willing to write an entire movie to respond to fan hot takes they don't like, i'm fully anticipating them spending all of gwen's scenes agonizing over How Perfect A Girlfriend She Is For Miles in response to the misogyny the fans threw at her for not being cartoonishly devoted to him.

indulge me this rant: does gwen need to apologize to miles and work to earn his forgiveness? yes! should miles get to be angry at her? yes! but he should also be angry at peni, who also helped chase him down! and he should be even angrier at peter b, the adult who knew miles better than gwen ever did, who wasn't being coerced by miguel the whole time, who was taking selfies with his baby while chasing miles down. and idk man but watching fucking spider-gwen crawl after the spider-man they're forcing her into a romance with, begging him to forgive her for not being supportive enough when her own death's hanging over her head? gwen interacting with an alternate self and likely being encouraged to Defy Fate by Getting A Boyfriend in a reversal of the council of spider-women plot point from her comics designed to make it all about dating miles when the entire point of the original plot was to save her from that? gwen probably being 'rewarded' in the end for being miles's loyal little helper with a kiss? gwen either finding the will to live or literally being saved from death because she ~loves miles that much~? a reference to earth 8?

i simply don't want to see that shit and i have no desire to spend years in a fandom where i'm anticipating something that'll make me angry and sad. whenever i've been in that situation before-- especially when it comes to a female character being handled by a bunch of straight guys who only see her as the male character's accessory-- it was always the smart move to bow out early and observe from a safe distance.

so maybe i will. i want to give it a chance. i don't doubt that it'll be beautiful and groundbreaking and slick and wonderfully scored and that it'll mostly do right by miles... but i'm here for gwen first. and because i'm here for gwen first, my gut's telling me to get in the lifeboat now before the iceberg hits and i'm going to listen to it. hopefully i'll be in such a different place by the time btsv comes out that i can completely ignore it if it goes that route. if i don't ever write those fics, hey, leaving off on giving gwen and mj their own fics is kind of nice.

and that goes for most spider-gwen stuff. we're at this frustrating crossroads now for her character where we've never been closer to gwen coming out of the closet and it's never been clearer that all her creatives know she's queer and want her to get there... and yet the general audience is demanding her and miles, and she's been dragged out of her world by editorial for movie synergy to be set on a bench for miles to kiss for the third or fourth time, and that'll only happen again when btsv releases. and god only knows what'll happen with miles's inevitable live-action movie; if gwen's his girlfriend there too, which is currently more likely than not, then it might be over for her for decades. i have no interest in seeing that, and i'm not touching any of her comics until she's out of the closet and/or back in 65; or any piece of media with spider-gwen where she's shipped with miles, period. at this point it's a coin toss as to what'll happen to her, and i don't like that uncertainty. so depending on how shit goes, i may never get back to gwen.

so in a sense, this fic was also meant as a way to mentally barricade myself against btsv screwing gwen over and her canon possibly never recovering from gwilesification. and... i'm still mad about it. i'll never not be mad about it. but i feel like i've gotten my thoughts together on the situation, turned them into something positive, and let a few other like-minded people in her fandom know they're not alone in being unhappy about this. if the worst case scenario hits and gwen goes full earth 8, then i at least left on a high note. the problem's been acknowledged, diagnosed, and a solution's been laid out. now the ball's in the fandom and canon-makers' court to do something with it. i hope that happens a lot sooner than i'm assuming. i'll always root for that last dying gasp of straight gwen to happen, and to happen very soon. and god knows i'm already clowning myself hoping insomniac pulls a fast one and makes gwen cindy's love interest in spider-man 3.

if you actually made it to the end of this note.... thanks for indulging me.

oh, also sometimes when i'm Really Done with a fic i lock it because people have scraped my shit to repost on wattpad and that sucks, so if arachnophobia and something more vanish, they're not gone, you just have to log in.

[thenighttrain]

Yeah, I feel you with AI and I think it's very important to draw a firm boundary with regards to its usage. I know that machine learning algorithm (that are commonly used in AI) improves efficiency in some workloads but there are times where AI crosses that ethical boundary e.g. copyright concerns and that's a big no-no to me :-/

But I really hope the AI isn't the only thing that will define the Pluto in Aquarius era. I really hope this will be era where we have the technological advancements to move towards something more eco-friendly e.g. the significantly better battery life + lower energy consumption like in my new computer!

That's very valid! Because we only heard two songs from The Good Witch so far, it's too early for me to decide whether I prefer YSUFT vs this album. Though I do notice that the new singles sound vastly different to her pre-2022 work and that's fine!

btw when you've mentioned about preferring You Signed Up For This over the singles from The Good Witch, the former album is a Virgo Sun. So perhaps you might relate more to the Mercury influence of the album (e.g. more focus in the wordplay / storytelling) comparing to the water influence of the upcoming album?

Regarding Taurus albums, I also had to look up my Spotify library but I quite enjoy Two Ribbons by Let's Eat Grandma! I'm sure I'll think of more LP's in due course!

P.S. I'm glad that I'm not alone in the Taylor situation! I'm still looking forward to listening to what she comes up for Speak Now TV, but I also think it's perfectly valid to take a step back & branch out a little bit.

I find that it takes quite a lot of courage to properly branch out - being an astrological Fixed dominant myself I can relate: it takes a long time for me to get invested in something & let it go. This situation really sucks bc I've been into her stuff for more than 10 years, but I've been catching up some some new book / music / cinema releases & learn some new skills, so that's keeping me productive.

I want to assure you that you're not being dramatic: yours is a very valid take & I totally relate as well 💖

i totally agree! haha i probably do love you signed up for this because of the mercurial influence bc i do love the rambles and wit in it. hopefully the good witch is good! yes i need to take a step back with taylor. isn't it annoying that we're NTJs and don't easily get invested in things omg. and when we do, it's 100%. i'm happy you're into new books and music and movies though! and new skills, what are you learning? and thank u so much for the reassurance<3

[tineteenieworld3]

Like I just will never fully get it. AI IS a great editing tool, yeah it still makes mistakes and it doesn’t know how to improve writing because it lacks any human emotion so it can’t really tell stories, but it can fix your punctuation and spelling and add more advanced word choices. But the point is, that executives aren’t understanding, is that a writers job is to be a storyteller, there’s so much more to it than just words being put together. There’s millions of pieces that go into writing a compelling story that an AI can’t grasp because it’s still just a computer. It can answer questions but it can’t hold true opinions or feelings.

In the end they’re just going to have to do more work to get a good story out. It’s a great tool, it can’t exist on its own though without a lot of human input.

Like you can’t tell it to just write something, you have to give it a shit ton of examples of what the writing style looks like, what the themes are, who the characters are, and still it sucks because an AI can only take that stuff at face value.

For example: talking about byler or ST, if you have that story to an AI it would not understand the underlying implications or the things not said aloud. It can only take information it’s being directly told. It can’t lie, it can’t feel, it can’t create in the way people seem to think it can.

It’s so frustrating to see watchers being like ‘lol go ahead let AI do it’ because they sound so dumb. Do you not want quality TV or something? Because we’re not going to get it with AI, it’ll be crap that we still have to pay for. Besides the whole point about the arts and entertainment is PEOPLE, we’re watching the creatives minds of humans that can relate to us and make characters and worlds that make us feel. Creativity is what makes humans special and alive.

We’re going to keep giving these dumbass power hungry executives money while any semblance of creativity and art is stripped away

[grimwood-notice-board]

WOULD THE REAL WRITER PLEASE STAND UP

By Eldon Macwood

(Trigger warning: I'm not afraid of cussing, and it shows. If you have virgin ears that gets offended easily, don't read on. You do you. Reader discretion is advised)

So the other day, I learned that even though I have been writing off and on for over 13 years (longer, but I mean seriously), even though I have 100's of 1,000's words (pretty sure overall tally would end up in the seven figures) across my many wips, even though I have published some stories (through small presses, a couple on my own), that I am just a pretender, and not a real writer all because I now use AI as a tool in my writing. I was told this by another author. Of all the people to say such gatekeeping bullshit. I won't name them as that's frowned upon, unless you ask me directly. Although we share many mutuals on Facebook, I'm sure some who read this post will know who. I have literally imported my own material for fucks sake. Okay, moving on...

AI does come up with some great ideas. And yes, AI can write some okay prose. But the thing of it is, there's this thing called editing and rewriting. And back in my day, when I was considered a real writer, rewriting was considered WRITING. And of course, even then, people bickered over it being writing. I can't speak for REAL WRITERS, since I'm just a figment of your imagination as per the gatekeepers, but for people like me, the first draft always sucks. It's through multiple drafts where the story really comes together. For me, my first draft is called, draft 0. It's the word vomit of the story in a structure that's the clay on the wheel. Which is what I use AI for, along with my own writing in the pre-prose phase.

But now that AI is here, I am all wrong. Forget where I come from. Forget that rewriting is writing. In fact, even if you don't use AI, when you rewrite, you're not writing. Wait, maybe you are, since you didn't involve AI at all. I dunno, ask the fucking gatekeepers, they are the gods on the subject. They know all. They're the real gods of storytelling. Just ask them. They do enough chest-beating to prove it.

Gatekeepers do what I call, minimizing. It's when you hate a group of people for your own ignorant reasons, then you minimize them. They are suddenly not Human. They suddenly don't have the street cred that they held for years. Not to say I was some kind of best selling author with Sanderson level backlog, but still, I had enough cred as a writer. Now that has all changed, apparently. Not sure when, or how, but the gods have spoken.

According to one former friend and a writer (yes, he's still a writer even tho he's a gatekeeper, I don't take that title away, I don't have the right), any use of AI whatsoever will make what I write trash. Nice to fucking know. I have learned soooo much. Like who to unfriend. Don't get me wrong, with everything I have been going through lately, this is a cakewalk. I actually like having something less serious to be mad about. I mean, it is serious, but not on the level of my life right now.

But it still pains me because the writing community has went through so much in the past ten years. It just seems like this one is petty as fuck, all because some writers use a tool that abusers have, well, abused.

Again I say it, and I will keep saying until it sinks in, I don't support abusing AI. I support small presses trying their own best to keep out the AI submissions. I support authors choosing not to use AI one bit. I hate it when abusers steal an author's name and work and then posts it as their own. That's not what I consider gatekeeping. Authors all have their own rules for their writing process, and authors have a right to their brand and work. All presses have their rules for submissions. This has always been a thing, and it's a thing I fully support. Just like I support the writer/actor strikes going on right now, because they have every right to oppose AI replacing them. They deserve their jobs, and the pay to afford bills, and a life.

Me, I just use AI for my own shit. If I submit anywhere, I'd write under their rules, as it's their house. No problem.

Because I'm not a dick.

Now, when a gatekeeper wants to shit on me for my own use on my shit that I will publish, I will sink my teeth into their necks, not literally, that's gross. My reason for this is simple; you're free to avoid using AI all you want, but you're not free to shove it down my throat. You do you, you stay in your lane. I will do the same. But the moment you swerve into my lane, we will have problems. And it's serving in my lane when you trash talk authors like me, and the books I write. You do that, fuck you.

And I noticed from another author who is gone now, they did make a post I kinda agreed with. Although they still hate writers like me, they were mad because of the abusers who don't make it clear that they use AI in their books. Be it in the cover, or in their writing. As where I actually make it very clear I do use AI. I also make it very clear that I write a lot of my own stuff, and that AI is just a tool. I'm terrible at being a pretender as I'm not only an actual writer, but I also freely admit to using AI in the process. But they don't think about that.

While yes this is a rant, it's also to point out the growing divide between writers/readers, This will get messier. People are making their stands. It's sad. And it could have been avoided if many would have just took the time to get to those of us who use AI as a tool. Kinda like how bigots usually don't take the time to get to know the people they hate. They only confirm their own bias. But many love to be divisive, and to commit, othering, which then makes the other side, like mine, do the same. Because it's natural for the consequences to go there.

Get to know us. Get to know the people who aren't abusers. You might be surprised. And who knows, maybe we can start to mend this schism. Maybe. I'm not very hopeful about that, currently I'm saving all of my hope for my mother's health. But it would be nice to see this battle between us shrink. I will play nice if you do. Of course, that goes the other way as well.

Sometimes I have to remind myself when to stop because a thick head won't listen. And then I'm just wasting my time.

This being said, if you respect me, and respect writers/authors who use the tool, we're good. If you don't we're not. Don't waste our time fighting. If you gatekeep, leave me be. Unfriend or block. Just pull the plug. I will leave you alone, no worries. That way we can just focus on our own shit. Don't add more fuel to the fire, thus making the gatekeepers look worse than they already look.

I want to share shit I enjoy. I want to have more positive interactions on here. I know we are all burned out, I know we all have shit we care about and defend. But these days, we need to do better. Lets actually do our research. I know, that's not a popular term. I mean it as in, don't confirm your prejudice. I mean, challenge your prejudice. I did. When I came to AI, I looked at all the sides before I made my stance. And even as a pro-AI person, I was skeptical about AI in writing. But looking into it, and getting to REAL writers, I saw that I was wrong. It's okay to be wrong. There's no shame in that.

I want to get to the point where I don't have to make disclaimer after disclaimer when I talk about using AI. Sadly, I don't see that happening anytime soon. Lately, I have been putting distance between me and other authors who gatekeep. Many of them are self-published authors who have faced gatekeepers shitting on SP authors and books all because some people have abused SP books.

Abuse in publishing, and stealing works is nothing new. It's easier now, but it's not new. Assholes will do what assholes so, shit everywhere, make a fucking mess, with zero disregard. That's why they're assholes. But other authors, or writers, should fucking know better. We should stand united on matters like this. I'm tired of seeing us split apart. We already have plenty of reasons to not get along thanks to stupid politics, but at least with writing, we could come together some. Well, now that's not a thing unless we find a segmented group we can get along with. And each group is getting smaller, and smaller.

If you're a decent person who just wants to learn more, please reach out to me, or look up channels on YouTube where authors go over what AI tools mean for creating stories and art.

Check out Sudowrite here, if you're curious about the site.

Check out what kindest author I know has to say on the matter: Ekello Harrid.

Check out the Nerdy Novelist, Jason Hamilton here.

Check out the Future Fiction Academy here.

Check out Sudowrite's YouTube channel.

These are the top channels that I watched when I was deciding on using Sudowrite. They also cover other platforms like, Claude, Poe, Chat GPT, etc.

I really hope to meet more like-minded creators, and authors, and writers, and story-tellers (whichever term you prefer) who are pro-AI for legit purposes. I will never befriend an AI-abuser, or an AI-phobe. I will draw the line on both.

Thanks for reading, and I'll catch you later!

(If you're not a troll, if you don't spew hatred, feel free to leave a comment!)

[wraithowl]

My Dearest Chiara,

As we embark on this new chapter of our lives in Romania, my heart overflows with gratitude for the love and strength you have brought into my world. The journey we have shared, from Hogwarts to this gothic cabin sanctuary, has been nothing short of magical.

Your resilience and unwavering spirit inspire me every day. I promise to cherish and adore you, just as my family has welcomed you with open arms. Together, we will create a haven where love reigns supreme.

I am in awe of the way you have embraced your true self, standing tall against those who seek to dim your light. Your courage and grace shine brighter than any moonlit night.

Chiara, my love for you knows no bounds. With each passing moment, I am reminded of the depth of our connection and the beauty of our shared dreams. You are my rock, my guiding star, and my eternal companion.

Forever yours, Onyx

My Dearest Onyx,

As the moon rises over our gothic cabin in Romania, I am filled with a love that burns as fiercely as the tattoo of the thestral on your skin. Your silver eyes pierce through my soul, igniting a fire within me that only you can quench.

In your arms, I have found a sanctuary more precious than any creature we care for. Your strength, both physical and emotional, is a beacon of hope in this dark world. And when you proposed to me under the moon's watchful gaze, I knew that my heart belonged to you forever.

Your family has embraced me with open arms, showering me with love and acceptance that I never thought possible. And as we fight alongside The Order of the Fianna, protecting those who cannot protect themselves, I am proud to stand by your side.

Onyx, my love for you is as eternal as the moon's phases depicted on the ring you gave me. Thank you for adoring and spoiling me beyond measure. I am yours, now and always.

With all my love, Chiara

[mostlysignssomeportents]

All the books I reviewed in 2020

I know it's a little late for Xmas shipping, but I'm FINALLY getting around to publishing a roundup of all the books I reviewed in 2019!

Part 1: FICTION FOR ADULTS

I. AGENCY by William Gibson: A sequel to The Peripheral for the Trump years, about seductive bitterness of imagined alternate timelines, filled with cyberpunk cool and action.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-01-24/agency-william-gibson

II. RIOT BABY by Tochi Onyebuchi: An incandescent Afrofuturist novella that connects the Rodney King uprising with contemporary struggle, pitting supernatural powers against dire politics.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/23/riot-baby/#Tochi-Onyebuchi

III. OR WHAT YOU WILL by Jo Walton: A metafiction about the desperate attempt of a character to pull his writer into a fictional world to save the both from human mortality.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/07/little-bro-with-snowden/#metafiction

IV. A BEAUTIFULLY FOOLISH ENDEAVOR by Hank Green: Sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing - a madcap and sometimes brutal tale of social media influencers, alien invaders, disinformation, and runaway capitalism.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/08/absolutely-remarkable-thing/#carls

V. FAILED STATE by Christopher Brown: A legal eco-thriller that imagines the end of capitalism without imagining the end of the world - cyberpunk meets ecotopianism, with anarchist jurisdictions, show-trials, and rewilding.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/12/failed-state/#chris-brown

VI. AFTERLAND by Lauren Beukes: Eerily well-timed road-trip novel set after a prostate-cancer plague wipes out nearly every man on Earth, except for the protagonist's teenaged son, who is now being hunted by the (all-female) US government.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/28/afterland/#XY

VII. BALLISTIC KISS by Richard Kadrey: Sandman Slim confronts the worst demons of all - his own trauma and self-doubt.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/25/anxietypunk/#bk

VIII. SQUEEZE ME by Carl Hiaasen: Hiaasen was writing comedic whodunnits about improbable Florida Man types decades before the memes, and his Mar-a-Lago gator plague novel is a hectic and hilarious tale for our times.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/05/florida-man/#disappearing-act

VIII. The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson: KSR says it's his last novel and I say it's the book he's been training to write all his life. If you like your climate fiction wrenching but still uplifting enough to move you to tears...

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/03/ministry-for-the-future/#ksr

IX. SET MY HEART TO FIVE by Simon Stephenson: An absurdist robot-romp in the mold of Kurt Vonnegut about a robot who catches the disease of emotions and tries to treat it by moving to Hollywood to write screenplays about robots.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/01/cant-pay-wont-pay/#robot-rights

Part 2: NONFICTION FOR ADULTS

I. A PUBLIC SERVICE by Tim Schwartz: An incredibly practical, detailed guide for would-be whistleblowers (and journalists who work with them) to staying safe while spilling the beans.

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/08/a-public-service-a-comprehensive-comprehensible-guide-to-leaking-documents-to-journalists-and-public-service-groups-without-getting-caught/

II. THE MONSTERS KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING by Keith Ammann: A sourcebook for RPG game-masters explaining how different kinds of monsters can use a variety of combat tactics that add depth, texture (and challenge) to your games.

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/10/the-monsters-know-what-theyre-doing-an-rpg-sourcebook-for-dms-who-want-to-imbue-monsters-with-deep-smart-tactics/

III. SNOWDEN'S BOX by Jessica Bruder and Dale Maharidge: The incredible, true tale of how trust among friends allowed Snowden's leaks to safely transit from his home in Hawai'i to the hands of Laura Poitras and the journalists who reported the story.

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/03/31/snowdens-box-the-incredible-illuminating-story-of-the-journey-of-snowdens-hard-drive/

III. ABOLISH SILICON VALLEY by Wendy Liu: A personal journey from a fully bought-in believer in Silicon Valley's meritocracy to a ferocious critic who demands tech to serve humanity, not a human race in service to the tech industry.

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/04/14/abolish-silicon-valley-memoir-of-a-driven-startup-founder-who-became-an-anti-capitalist-activist/

IV. THE CASE FOR A JOB GUARANTEE by Pavlina Tcherneva: A fierce little book setting out an economic program to rescue the nation and the planet from a system that insists we can't even hope for a better world.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/22/jobs-guarantee/#job-guarantee

VII. SUBPRIME ATTENTION CRISIS by Tim Hwang: What's worse than having our lies destroyed by surveillance to manipulate us with ads? Having our lives destroyed by surveillance in order to fuel a fraudulent market in ad-based manipulation.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/05/florida-man/#wannamakers-ghost

VIII. MONOPOLIES SUCK by Sally Hubbard: There are plenty of *great* books about monopolies and the resurgence in antitrust, but Hubbard's is the most practical, providing the reader with excellent advice for actually *doing something* about monopolism.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/27/peads-r-us/#sally-hubbard

IX. BREAK 'EM UP by Zephyr Teachout: The most lucid, readable, infuriating, energizing book on the rise of monopolies. Teachout never loses sight of the systemic nature of the problem, even as she uses individual stories to tell the tale.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/29/break-em-up/#break-em-up

X. BOUNDLESS REALM by Fox Nolte: There has never been a better book about the Haunted Mansion (indeed, this is one of the best books ever written about environmental design in general). Nolte goes *way* beyond trite wisdom about "storytelling."

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/09/boundless-realm/#fuxxfur

PART 3: GRAPHIC NOVELS

I. YEAR OF THE RABBIT by Tean Viasna: A graphic memoir of Viasna's harrowing boyhood during the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. It's a tale we've rarely seen through the eyes of a child, and brilliantly realized.

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/22/year-of-the-rabbit-a-graphic-novel-memoir-of-one-familys-life-under-the-khmer-rouge/

II. FEMALE FURIES by @misscecil​: Castellucci uses an obscure and anachronistic all-woman cast of DC Universe b-characters to tell an incredible, smart, pitiless story about #MeToo, comics, solidarity and betrayal.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/29/female-furies/#apokolips-now

III. LONELINESS OF THE LONG-DISTANCE CARTOONIST by Adrian Tomine: A memoir of intensely felt impostor syndrome, a forceful reminder that comparison is the thief of joy - and that the traits that keep an artist going at first go toxic over time.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/21/the-thief-of-joy/#tomine

IV. CONSTITUTION ILLUSTRATED by R Sikoryak: The Trump years were an unhappy crash-course in Constitutional law, but Sikoryak's genius adaptation of the Constitution in the style of dozens of cartoonists is a pure delight.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/27/ip/#r-sikoryak

PART 4: KIDS AND YA

I. SEND PICS by Lauren McLaughlin: A YA novel that's a thrilling revenge-play about "revenge porn," a cyber-heist novel that's also a sneaky and forceful book about teen girls' sexuality.

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/04/21/send-pics-ripping-brutal-amazing-novel-about-teens-sextortion-revenge-and-justice/

II. IMPOSSIBLE MUSIC by Sean Williams: A YA novel about a music-obsessed kid who loses his hearing is the frame for a book about ability, adaptation, music theory, family, Deafness and what dreams are really for.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/30/deafhood/#impossible-music

III. HARD WIRED by Len Vlahos: A 15 year old discovers the truth behind bizarre dysfunction of the world around him: he's an AI in a sim, and the guy he thinks of as his long-dead father is actually the research scientists who created him.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/31/ai-rights-now/#len-vlahos

IV. ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL, by Daniel Pinkwater: Like every Pinkwater novel, it defies description, it is brilliant, and it is his best to date. Ghosts, Revolutionary War fleshbots, papaya juice, and supernatural beings from the Catskills!

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/25/dwergish-girl/#you-are-a-pickle

V. WITCH by Finbar Hawkins: A beautiful debut novel about a pair of 17th century sisters who avenge themselves against the witchfinders that murdered their mother. A superbly told historical.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/01/the-years-of-repair/#witch

FINALLY: I published *four* books in 2020!

I. POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER: My debut picture book, about a little girl who turns her toys into weapons and torments her parents by hunting monsters all night, with wonderful art by Matt Rockefeller:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627

II. LITTLE BROTHER/HOMELAND: My multibestselling YA novels were reissued last summer in a gorgeous package with a (fantastic) new introduction by Snowden.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583

III. ATTACK SURFACE: A standalone, adult sequel to Little Brother and Homeland. The New York Times called it "vocal and unflinching" and "ultimately optimistic"; the Washington Post called it a "riveting techno-thriller."

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

IV. HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM: A long pamphlet/short book that makes the case that Big Tech manipulates us and spies on us because they have monopolies - not because they've developed devastating, data-driven mind-control.

https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Ore Monogatari, Episode 13-15

In which we get our first genuinely mishandled arc, an interesting point is let down by confused messaging, but things quickly turn around as Takeo becomes a teacher.

An Unpleasant Turn

Well, folks, we just hit an interesting speed bump: for the first time, Ore Monogatari has given me an arc that I don’t quite think works. After twelve episodes of pretty much the sweetest, most effortlessly wholesome rom-com imaginable, we spend two episodes on a side plot that hits this show’s first real sour note. It’s far from dealbreaking, and it’s honestly not that bad an arc in and of itself, but it’s the first time that Ore Monogatari’s storytelling has alienated me more than it’s sucked me in. And that’s not a pleasant feeling to sit with. It’s never a good time when a show you like does something you dislike, but especially with a show as comfortable and welcoming as this one, feeling it push me away is especially disconcerting. Hopefully this isn’t indicative of future troubles to come, because after how much I’ve loved this show over its first half, I’d hate for its second half to let me down.

So. The problems pretty much all stem from the new side character who’s introduced to be the driving agent of this arc’s plot. He’s a guy named Oda, and he’s got a crush on Sunakawa’s sister Ai, who, as we might remember, has a crush on Takeo. Ai has already turned him down and made it clear she’s not interested, but he’s followed her back home from college anyway to meet Takeo and learn about the guy his crush fell in love with. The reason why? He wants Ai to confess to Takeo so she can finally get over her feelings for him and move on, thus opening herself up to other romantic prospects- in other words, so Oda can make his move on her. Yeah, it’s exactly as scummy as it sounds. We’re constantly shown Oda pushing past Ai’s boundaries, contriving situations to make his plans work, and just overall taking advantage of Takeo and Yamato’s inherent kindness to insert himself where he clearly doesn’t belong. And it’s... weird. It’s weird and uncomfortable in a way I don’t think the show recognizes. Sure, Oda gets his fair share of ribbing, constantly freaking out at Takeo’s overwhelming size and ultimately failing to make Ai confess, but it feels like the show’s treating him as a nosy, but ultimately harmless dude who’s trying to help Ai get over her shit. Except he’s also ignoring Ai’s explicit rejection and taking Takeo’s battery out of his phone when he’s not looking to try and force a situation, and his inner monologue reminds us a lot how he’s doing this so he can get “his turn,” and it’s like... is this guy supposed to be genuinely overstepping his boundaries or just being kind of a prick? Because it doesn’t seem like the show really knows either?

The Jinx of Life

And that sucks, because it really throws a wrench into Ai’s development when the character drama behind it are so confusing. There’s a great conversation to be had in regards to crushing on people you know you don’t have a shot with, and how you go about dealing with those feelings. By far my favorite scene from these episodes comes when Takeo and Suna are riding the haunted boat tunnel and talking about how this amusement park supposedly has a jinx where couples who come there are destined to break up. But Suna points out that really, it’s less about a jinx and more about the fact that a good chunk of romantic couples just aren’t going to work out. A lot of relationships fall apart for all kinds of reasons, not because of some outside fate or forces, but because it just wasn’t meant to be, or they just weren’t right for each other. It’s a powerful, insightful conversation about the reality of romance, especially teen romance, that doesn’t always come up in rom-coms, especially not rom-coms as fluffy as this one. And in classic Ore Monogatari fashion, the philosophy goes down with a heaping teaspoon of hilarity as Takeo’s quiet thoughts are interrupted again and again by him screaming over the ride’s countless jumpscares. In that moment, you can see what this arc is trying to be: an exploration of the reality that some relationships just don’t work out, and when it’s best to move on when you know there’s nothing more to be done.

And honestly, I think Takeo and Yamato’s side of that story still works really well. It’s a simple enough metaphor, but it still tracks; there’s no jinx or fate that will determine your relationship’s path. If you want to make it work, then it’s up to both of you to do your best for each other, whether that’s as simple as finding each other in a crowd to watch the festival together or involves deeper questions. But I’m really not sure what I’m supposed to take from Ai and Oda’s side of the story. Am I supposed to be glad Ai didn’t tell Takeo her feelings? Does that mean she’ll be able to move on, or is she still holding on? Am I supposed to be thankful for Oda pressing the issue, or does the show really not realize how uncomfortable his lack of respect for Ai’s boundaries is? Neither of their feelings are any closer to being resolved, so whatever point it was trying to make with them is still in stasis. It doesn’t even serve as an effective parallel to Takeo and Yamato, because there’s no closure for us to understand how Ai and Oda’s situation is similar to or different from theirs. And it weirds me out that this show is usually so damn good at parsing out meaning from closure and letting characters come to realizations about themselves and their relationships that stick with them in subtle but noticeable ways from then on. So why did it drop the ball on this one? Were it not for how lovely Takeo and Yamato’s moments were, this would feel like something out of a different, much weaker show.

P-O-P-U-L-A-R

Thankfully, episode 15 immediately picks up from the previous arcs’ missteps and gets right back to the good stuff. The focus this time is on Takeo’s popularity with other girls, and it leads to some fascinating new dimensions for him. Takeo, in a rare moment of being perceptive of Yamato’s feelings, is quick to reassure her that he’s not really popular with girls, so she doesn’t need to worry about someone else stealing him away. But as Suna rightly points out, that’s not entirely true. Takeo is popular with a lot of people, boys and girls alike. He may be intense enough to weird people out, but like I said last time, his natural earnestness and desire to help makes people gravitate toward him just as strongly. Which is interesting, because despite Takeo’s desire to help people, he doesn’t always spend much time really thinking about them if they’re not in his immediate purview. Even something as simple as everyone being much slower than him is a realization, he’s never really paid attention to how fast other people run, or why some people might be dissatisfied with not being as fast as other people. The way he sees it, everyone just has their own pace, some faster, some slower, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s always been his greatest strength; he doesn’t judge people for not living up to some bullshit ideal of who they’re “supposed” to be. But it also means he’s slow to realize why these things matter to people so much, and how to go about helping those around him overcome them.

Which makes it such a beautiful twist when Takeo takes on the position of a mentor for the first time in his life. Now he’s not just helping his classmate Saijo by saving her from some bad situation, he’s actively helping her better herself by getting better at running. He’s not entirely sure going in what it means to be a mentor, but he figures out along the way how best to motivate her and commits to it. And he still doesn’t judge her for not being as good a runner as everyone else; after all, she’s no less worthy a person just because she’s not the most athletic girl in the world (Side note, I appreciate how the show draws her noticeably more chubby than most anime girls). It’s clear Saijo has a bit of a complex about her weight and thinks it’s something to be ashamed of, but Takeo never treats her as anything less than normal, because that’s just the kind of guy he is. You get the sense that he’s stepping outside himself in a new way, putting in the effort to meet other people on their level while still holding fast to his fundamental desire for good. It’s a step on the road to becoming more social, and once again, you totally understand why Saijo becomes so enamored with him as a result. But there’s another fantastic twist waiting: she’s not actually in love with him as Yamato feared, she just really admires his work ethic and wants him to keep training her so she can continue on the road to self-improvement. That’s fucking great. It’s an acknowledgement that there are more ways to be popular than simply being an object of desire. Popularity can mean people looking up to you, valuing your advice, recognizing you as someone they can rely on. And that all starts from understanding people and doing right by them, as Takeo has always tried to do and is only getting better at.

Of course, though, it doesn’t really matter to him if or how he becomes popular. He’s just doing what he believes to be right, making the world a better place in his wake. And as long as he’s popular with Yamato, that’s the only sort of female affection he’ll ever need. It’s a lovely sentiment to close out this episode, and it handily washes the bad taste of the previous arc out of my mouth. As long as Ore Monogatari keeps its heart in the right place, I think it’s gonna be just fine.

Odds and Ends

-”The ending was different from the book, but it was still entertaining.” Lol, there’s a mood.

-”We must be pretty good for a perceptive guy like you to be oblivious to all this.” snrk

-So I’m not sure how to react.” Man, I love Suna’s relationship with Takeo. He doesn’t even remember his own birthday, but his best bud is here to make sure he has a good time on it.

-ksdjfhsdkjf the fuckign pecs wiggling

-”I’d still love you even if you got buff.” What a dreamboat.

-Aaw, Takeo even respects big sis’ boundaries when she’s visiting! What a good egg.

-”That was straight to the point.” The Sunakawa family’s entire purpose in life is to clear up dumb teenage misunderstandings, and god bless them for it.

-”If we get separated, just use Takeo as your landmark.” askjdhaskdhask

-TAKEO IN CAT EARS. MY HEART IS SLAIN.

-”That was more violent than I anticipated.” Never underestimate the spinning teacups.

-”Sorry. I always seem to have the worst timing.” SUNA FOR FUCK’S SAKE

-Aaaaaw, even Takeo gets embarrassed to talk about how he finds Yamato cute! He’s human after all.

-”Did you fake it?” Pfft. Sometimes he picks up on things fast.

-”Towels are so fluffy!” Listen dude you’re adorable but you might wanna check u on your GF’s approaching mental crisis

-Okay, the comedic cuts in the “who gets to carry Saijo” scene had me cackling. Good lord, this show.

-wait a fuCKING SECOND WAS THAT A PARASYTE REFERENCE IN THE NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW GOD DAMMIT MADHOUSE

Man, what a roller coaster. See you next time!

[ellie-s-machete]

My thoughts on The Last Of Us Part II

This is my general opinion about the game as a whole. Spoilers ahead

The main reason why I love this game is because of its bold story. Playing half of the game as the antagonist and trying to make the player understand her point of view is ballsy. It worked for some people, it didn't work at all for others but you gotta admit that this isn't lazy storytelling, or bad storytelling. I totally get that some players didn't like the game, this is a divisive, polarizing game, and it achieved its goal. But once again, and I cannot stress this enough, not liking the story doesn't mean the story sucks. On the contrary, The Last Of Us Part II is brilliant.

To appreciate the game, three things are required: (1) try to understand each character's point of view, (2) keep in mind that there is no hero and no villain, (3) analyze what you're seeing, especially characters' behaviors and actions. I'm not trying to sound pedantic, but you have to use your brain and analyze the shit out of this game. You don't need a high IQ or whatever, just make the effort to understand what you're witnessing. The Last of Us Part II is not comfort food, it's not something you play to just relax (and if that's what you're looking for in a game, great! just play something else, because you won't get what you like with part II). If you're out there playing the game and draw conclusions just by looking at the tip of the iceberg, no wonder you will find the game shallow. Dig deeper, I swear it's not that hard. Maybe you still won't like the game, which is fine, but if you don't make the effort to try to understand, then you're not giving the game a chance in the first place.

Gameplay wise, Part II is far better than Part I. The melee combat with the dodge mechanic was amazing. It felt like stealth was harder in Part II, probably due to the improved AI. The AI was sooo good, and I played on moderate so I can only imagine how tense the gameplay would be on survivor. Because let's face it, even on grounded the AI in part I was clunky, stealth was so easy. Part II offers you a real challenge. The only thing I didn't really like was the different weapons in the second part of the game where you play as Abby, I didn't like the crossbow and the other guns. The only good add-on was the pipe bombs.

Now I have to say that I didn't enjoy Abby's part of the game as much as Ellie's (I still liked it because of the intense combat sequences though). And what I'm about to say is the biggest flaw of the game, at least for me: at one point it didn't feel like I was playing a tlou game (feel free to share your thoughts about this because I didn't see any player bringing that up). For me the most important element of this game is your connection to the characters, and unfortunately it didn't happen for me. I was completely neutral regarding almost all characters in Abby's part. The two only engaging characters were Abby and Lev. To be quite honest I didn't care at all about Owen, Mel, Manny, Nora etc... And this aspect of the game really contrasted with Ellie's part: I loved every single side characters (Dina, Jesse, Tommy, or even Maria). So the lack of attachment to secondary characters in Abby's part was what made the game feel off for me. The only thing that really grounded the story in the world of The Last of Us was the presence of the infected, with multiple memorable encounters which overall made Abby's part more intense than Ellie's. It's just a shame that I didn't really care about the characters. I'm not saying that the second part of the game was bad, I'm just saying it felt underwhelming for me. But I see a bunch of people say that they preferred Abby's part which is great!

Important thing about the story: I see a lot of people say that the story is messy, and I don't agree at all. Everything makes sense, everything is meticulously interwoven, everything is logical. What people aren't used to are the multiple timelines, the story isn't linear like the first game was, and I love it. Also it was something that was predictable if you're familiar with Halley Gross' work on Westworld (if you are confused with the timeline of Part II, don't watch Westworld lol). For me the non-linear narration makes the story powerful because you get hit with these mini epiphanies throughout the game, and it's thrilling. And the game was perfectly balanced between action, stressful moments, and moments of levity. What I thought was amazing is that the game first makes you believe that flashback sequences will be moments of levity, which they are in a way. But these flashbacks are also anxiety inducing, as they contain key story elements (mostly linked to Ellie and Joel's relationship and its evolution throughout the 4 years spent in Jackson) that everyone was craving for (like Ellie confronting Joel about the lie). This is awesome because flashback sequences first give you a false sense of security, you feel like it will be a moment where you can just breathe and relax, but nope. It's also reinforced by the fact that they chose to make some of these flashback sequences longer and playable with the inclusion of combat encounters. The pacing was really good in my opinion.

A lot of the encounters were memorable, but the most intense for me was the Abby/Ellie confrontation in the theatre. I hated it and loved it at the same time. I hated it because I really thought I was going to kill Ellie as Abby (didn't see any leak of that part). I was shaking, I didn't want to hold the controller anymore, I didn't want to see Dina get killed, it was by far the hardest part for me, emotionally speaking. I just couldn't believe what was happening, it was insane. No other game had made me feel that uncomfortable before, I was going through a wild range of emotions, the whole sequence felt like a vivid dream, or nightmare should I say. And that is why I love that part. It's the best climax I have ever experienced in any form of media, a real climax. What a ride!

Part II proved that both Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross are fantastic writers, and that them working together was a great collaboration. They figured out a great balance between their respective ideas, considering that they often have diverging ideas. It just proves that a lot of thoughts were put into the making of the game, that everyone's opinion was taken into consideration (even the actors' opinions), which resulted in a well thought-out game that hasn't been rushed.

[popwasabi]

“Picard” S1 Review: Doesn’t boldly go but is nonetheless engaging

Produced by CBS All Access

Starring: Patrick Stewart, Isa Briones, Allison Pill, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera, Evan Evagora, Harry Treadaway

Many fans had high hopes for “Picard” going into CBS All Access’s continuing voyage into the Star Trek franchise.

Fans wanted to see the lore finally expanded into the future after its previous three ventures (Enterprise, Abrams Trek, and Discovery) took place in the past, bring modern themes and ideas to Star Trek’s futurist’s world view in a way that felt fresh and relevant, but most importantly continue the story of the franchise’s greatest captain; Jean-Luc Picard, of course.

(He’s the best captain. This is not up for debate. Don’t @ me!)

In some ways the new series succeeds at this. We get glimpses of the previously untouched world of Star Trek post “Nemesis,” new themes that are resonant with real world events and exploratory, even critical, of the Federation’s worldview, and of course plenty of Picard himself as he navigates the strange new galaxy he inhabits.

But Picard ultimately misses the mark due to rushed storytelling, half-baked side plots, and just plain poor execution overall. It’s sad because “Picard” and this very talented cast and production team have their moments throughout this first season’s ten episode run but somehow even with 10 episodes of content to work with fans still end up with a somewhat jumbled mess.

(Me by like the eighth episode.)

This isn’t to say “Picard” isn’t worth your time if you’re an avid Star Trek fan or just someone who likes Patrick Stewart in this role in general but the first season will leave you still hungry for more and not in a good way.

“Picard” continues the story of the titular captain, now retired admiral, many years after the events of “Nemesis” as a retired Jean Luc reflects on his life in Starfleet and of his late friend Data who gave his life for his. A synth ban has been enacted in Starfleet after a major riot on Mars some years prior and Picard is understandably sour on the idea, given his relationship with Data, while also fighting Starfleet on not helping the exodus of the Romulans after the supernova that wiped out their homeworld in “Star Trek (2009).” When a young woman comes seeking Picard’s aid after an attack by mysterious assailants, revealing that she is an android and the possible daughter of Data, and gets killed, it is up to the retired Admiral to find her twin sister before she suffers the same fate.

Before we get started let’s throw out some of the bad faith arguments on why this series wasn’t all that good.

“Picard” doesn’t suck because it has “politics” in it. At this point, if you are complaining about the existence of social viewpoints and political/philosophical discussions in your Star Trek, or let alone any series for that matter, I don’t know what the hell you’ve been watching the past few decades. Star Trek has always been more than just a show about cool-looking spaceships and laser beams, you neckbeards.

(Hell, even the other “Star” got more going on in it than that.)

It’s also not bad because of female representation or “girl power.” Again, Star Trek has always had this and frankly having a few more instances of the women of Trek taking center stage doesn’t even come close to rebalancing the scales on the overall massive representation of cis white men across the genre and even the series anyways.

Also get the fuck over the use of curse words in this series. While certainly some instances in this show felt awkward, the use of the word “fuck” does not dilute Star Trek’s overall story.

(It would have made earlier season’s funnier for sure.)

Now that that’s out of way let’s get into the real reasons that, for me at least, the series fell short of an otherwise promising goal of delivering great new Star Trek.

The main problem stems from the series overall jumping off point in its first episode. Picard is understandably still upset about the death of Data and having him deal with survivor’s guilt is a great way to bring this character into the future and reexplore the humanist viewpoints Data touched on in the older series. But also having Picard deal with his fallout from Starfleet, both from the synth ban AND the Romulan exodus, creates chasmic diverging plotlines that never quite come together. The story really needed it to be one or the other. Either Picard wanting to advocate for the continued existence of synthetic life or the rescue of the Romulans post super nova. The latter is touched on a bit through the addition of the character Elnor but doesn’t quite work given that majority of the Romulans in this series are portrayed as villains.

There is definitely a post Brexit, anti-immigrant hysteria message being told there but not enough depth and nuance is given to make it look like Starfleet was particularly wrong here to abandon them given that they do end up being spies committing espionage in the Federation and the clear villains of the first season. The showrunners could have brought these two stories together by perhaps making Soji a Romulan bent on bringing down synthetic life because maybe her twin sister died in the riots on Mars, making Picard have to choose between his commitment to both minority groups abandoned by the Federation but of course, that’s not what the series goes with.

Also suddenly shoehorning in a convoluted anti-synth worldview into the already ultra-secretive Romulan empire was muddled to say the least.

(A decent summation of the Romulans, pretty much ever. Also why is the only Asian actress in this scene in Osaka depicted as an alien, Mr Kurtzman?...)

Some of these ideas could’ve been saved through better editing and pacing though but not enough is done in this first season to mitigate these issues. Too much of plot is told through plain exposition; people sitting down and talking for five-ten minutes about prophecies and backstory instead of having the story simply show us instead. It makes the pacing often slow even by Trek standards and grinds the action to a halt even when there are lasers being shot at one another in the next scene.

Many of these plots get barely any attention too. The Borg cube, why it’s abandoned, and why Hugh is working for the Romulans through the Federation is given surface level development at best. Seven of Nine returns and at one point is momentarily hooked up to the Collective and she doesn’t really say much about it after it happens. The new character’s Rios and Raffi both have side stories given to their development that get touched on once and never brought up again. Dr. Jurati straight up murders her lover and is set to turn herself into the Federation and it’s just kind of forgotten about in the finale. And Elnor, well, he gets to do his best Legolas impression slicing and dicing fellow Romulans with his sword I guess.

(He is still best boi though :3...)

The main co-star however, Soji the perfect android, has a particularly rushed development going from a scientist unknowing of her nature, to supposed prophet of doom, to predictably the savior all in one season. Her arc needed more time to develop with perhaps her Romulan love affair with Narek being the first season’s main driving force and her realization as an android being the climax. 

Instead we get basically four seasons of Battlestar Galactica’s Sharon arc crammed into one season and it unfortunately makes the story feel half-baked.

(Ok, Boomer.)

Don’t get the wrong idea, all these new characters have great individual moments as well throughout the season but sooooo much side plot is shoved in already into a muddled overarching narrative that it feels like several seasons worth of storytelling stuffed and edited down into a ten episode arc. Why the series felt it needed to conclude this robust story about synth hating Romulans in “Picard’s” first season feels like an unforced error in this reviewer’s opinion even if Sir P Stew only has maybe a couple seasons of extensive acting left in him anyways.

But the season isn’t completely worthless, as much as this review has been spent dunking on its less than stellar parts. The cast is exceptional, even working with the spare parts they’ve been given. Episode 5’s “Stardust City Rag,” in particular, stands out as a good mix of old and new Trek, with a decent dosage of cheese featuring Patrick Stewart trying on a French accent in a space bar. Santiago Cabrera is delightful as the ship captain Rios while also playing various forms of himself in AI form in equally enjoyable roles. Evan Evagora is fun as the deadly yet somewhat aloof Elnor, even if his character doesn’t do all that much except cut up a few Romulans. Seeing Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis reprise their roles as Riker and Troi respectively in episode 6 was heartwarming and felt the most like TNG out of all the episodes. And Jeri Ryan seems liberated in this series in this version of Seven of Nine, no doubt glad to be rid of that restrictive corset and Rick Berman’s meddling hands.

(Big “Fuck you, Rick Berman” energy going on in this scene.)

The production value is obviously high level as Trek has rarely looked this good on the small screen. There’s some great cinematography throughout the season whether it’s Picard’s chateau winery, the haunting nature of the Borg cube, or the synth homeworld in the season’s final beats. The spaceships look cool as always and the world of the future feels well futuristic.

The musical score is also top notch, with a great opening theme that feels very much in line with Trek at its futurist glimpse into a hopeful cosmos.

The season’s best moments though are between Picard and Data and will remind you why they were more than likely your favorite characters on TNG. Generally speaking, exploring the humanist themes of artificial intelligence in new Trek was a good choice and having Picard deal with survivor’s guilt kept the pulse of the muddled story still beating. Brent Spiner is still great as Data and will remind you all again how talented he has always been as an actor and though his age seeps through the makeup a bit he is nonetheless still a perfect android.

Though the finale as a whole is underwhelming, the characters do share a nice final moment that is both touching and reminiscent of everything a fan loves about Star Trek. It’s a great cap to an otherwise ok return to Star Trek for TNG’s top characters and its truly touching in the best way that this franchise has always been known to be.

(Deactivating my emotions chip because I just..can’t! I just can’t, ok! *Sobs*)

But great acting and high production value can only mask so many flaws with a convoluted plot and “Picard” unfortunately suffers from the bloated and uncooked nature of its many ideas. What the story really needed was three season arc not just ten episodes and it shows. I guess the plus side is with this particular plot wrapped up it leaves the door open for new ideas and a fresh start in the second season but it does feel like an overall miss for Picard’s homecoming back into the universe of Star Trek.

Overall, though there are worse ways a Star Trek fan can spend their quarantine than watching “Picard” and there’s certainly enough here for fans to latch onto and have hope for better things in the next season.

Hopefully things are less rushed or at least more focused in the second season and we can see a more proper return to form for both Picard and future Star Trek.

Here’s hoping the producers and writers make it so…

VERDICT:

3 out of 5

Let’s hope we get a return of Q in the next season.

[jorrmungandr]

2019 was a good year for games.

Lots of interesting new ideas in the space, and some refinements of old ones. Here’s a list of my personal favorite games of this year, in no particular order. Making an ordered list can be fun, but it’s ultimately pretty pointless.

Video games are such a diverse medium at this point that it’s really like comparing apples and oranges. How does Baba Is You stack up against Dragon Quest XI S? They have almost nothing in common, and their aims are so different that it makes no sense to compare them directly.

Speaking of….

Baba Is You

There are a lot of indie puzzle games out there. Making a little mind-bending puzzle is something that’s easy to do on a relatively small budget. There are also a lot of games that mimic old pixel art aesthetics of earlier game systems, to greater and lesser success. Making a truly great puzzle game, though, is a true accomplishment. Something that combines a wildly different array of elements in interesting ways, but maintains a simple readability that allows you to return to puzzles after months away and instantly recognize what’s going on.

Baba Is You is a game that accomplishes this and more. It operates on very simple, basic rules, but the way they escalate over time and require you to think outside more and more boxes with every single puzzle is simple astounding. A lot of puzzle games escalate their difficulty so quickly that it’s easy to get discouraged, put off by the impossible tasks you’re being asked to perform. Where Baba shines is that it gives you a perfect runway, teaching you things slowly but surely through a series of challenges.

This is a game where you will instantly go from feeling like the world’s greatest super-genius to a complete and utter fool in a matter of moments, from finishing one stage to starting the next. Over and over again, for dozens and dozens of levels. No game has ever better demonstrated the value of brain rest, stepping away from a problem and letting your subconscious work on it for a while. Every time I came back to a puzzle after a couple hours, I would suddenly see some option I never saw before.

One final note, the graphics are actually a perfect fit for this game. A lot of times, pixel art feels like a gimmick, something to do when you don’t have a good idea, or just mindless nostalgia-baiting. But here, it serves a gameplay purpose, giving you an absolutely clean view of the elements in play at a glance, and also serves as an homage to the simple-yet-challenging puzzle games of those older eras.

Code Vein

And now, for something completely different: An extremely anime-styled souls-like. I remember hearing about this game years and years ago, and thinking that it looked kinda… bad. But, in the meantime they really brought it all together into something fun, if not very innovative.

Code Vein is exactly the sort of thing I look for in a souls-like: it takes the basic formula and adds some new mechanics to it, and has an identity of its own. Instead of a medieval fantasy world, it’s a post-apocalyptic modern city crawling with vampires and zombies. It takes inspiration from stylish, gothic anime of the past couple decades: Code Geass, Blood+, Tokyo Ghoul, etc. The character creator is extremely detailed, but mostly when it comes to clothes and accessories.

The gameplay is… fine. It’s balanced around always having an AI companion, so they can throw bigger groups of enemies at you. It doesn’t require the same sort of intense caution of the Souls series, but that makes it more of a fun, casual experience. At least until you’re fighting a boss, then it suddenly requires you to really be on your game with dodging. If I have one complaint, it’s that the difficulty is incredibly bumpy, some areas are a cake walk and others have you struggling through every encounter.

Oh, also the area aping Anor Londo from Dark Souls. Not because it’s derivative, that’s totally fine, but because it’s a maze where everything looks the same and it’s a real pain to get through. Souls games are at their best when areas have good landmarks and make a kind of logical sense. Earlier in the game you pass through a big parking garage, and it’s perfect, just the sort of thing that translates well to this kind of game. But this cathedral-ish area… it just sucks.

It really is quite shameless.

Overally, it’s just a solid souls-like. I enjoyed the crunchy RPG elements, switching classes and balancing your weapons and armor to get good mobility and damage. The ability to just equip cool-looking attack moves as skills you can use, like spells in Souls games, is something I’d really like to see in more games in this sub-genre.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I was kind of skeptical about this game before it came out. Mostly because it was bringing back weapon durability, a mechanic I’ve always hated in these games, but that ended up being a non-issue. Also the school setting made me a bit wary, thinking it was just gonna end up being some Persona-esque thing where you spend tons of time on mundane nonsense while an actual war is going on.

That was all baseless, it turns out. They balance the idea of a military academy with a traditional Fire Emblem structure remarkably well, giving you a lot of freedom around what you want to do when you play the game. You can run around the monastery talking to students, managing your relationships, or you can just do a ton of tactical battles if you want.

The storytelling was remarkably good, though I feel like it was harmed a bit by the weird way it handled multiple routes with different big mysteries. Some routes ended up completely ignoring or just not getting around to some pretty major mysteries. I’m a person who likes long games, but expecting someone to go through all four routes to figure out what’s going on is a bit much.

But more than that, the way it holds back certain reveals hurts the writing in other ways. The actual revelations can’t really have any effect on the characters and their relationships because it all happens at the very end of the game. It keeps the world feeling a bit flat, without any reactions. The mysteries feel extraneous to the plot, in a weird way, when they are so important to certain characters’ identities and the core conflicts that drive the second half of the game.

The gameplay is okay, though a few of the maps are way too big. The portable Fire Emblem games reigned in the map sizes from the old NES and SNES ones, which was a great thing. But now we’re back to moving a whole army one unit at a time for multiple turns just to get to the next group of enemies. The class system was fun to engage with, balancing learning different skills to open up new opportunities, but the gender-limited classes were a real disappointment. Why can’t men ride pegasi? Why can’t women punch good? It’s bizarre, and honestly felt like it had some stuff left over from early drafts, like the pointless dark mage classes.

This has been a lot of complaining about a game I played for close to a hundred hours. Why is this game even on my list? Because the characters are fucking fantastic, and on a basic level the tactical battles are a lot of fun. It offers a paternalistic form of power fantasy, fostering and guiding your children-warriors and then seeing them destroy your enemies. It is just incredibly satisfying to play. And for all that the mysteries end up a bit frustrating, they are intriguing, and do a good job of motivating you to get through a very lengthy game.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Ah, love a good IGAvania.

This was a year where I really reached for comfort food games a lot, and this is maybe the king of that category. It’s just an old style of game that doesn’t get made anymore, done extremely well by the guy who used to make ’em all the time. Nothing super different or innovative, just the same old thing with a couple new tweaks.

It’s an easy game, but that’s entirely by design. It’s about running around this castle killin’ monsters, collecting new abilities, just exploring and poking around the corners. It’s a game that is, ultimately, designed to be comfortable. And in a time of such strife in the world around us, what could be better?

Disco Elysium

There’s already been a lot written about this game, tons of praise heaped on its writing and its interesting, hauntological world that is so similar to our own, and yet so different. Frankly, I’m really glad I got turned into this before it even came out, if I heard all that overblown praise I’d never have ended up actually sitting down and playing it.

Here’s what I’ll say: This game is a look at an ugly world, and it gives you a lot to think about, but it actually doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are a ton of extremely funny moments, a lot of straight-up goofy-ass jokes. This is not medicine that you have to suffer through, just take it as it comes and it’s a good time. This is what allows its writing to really land, it’s not lecturing you from on high, it’s engaging on a lower, more personable level.

It’s also not some super serious text that you have to pore over and consider extremely closely at every moment. It’s a game, you can save scum and try to exploit mechanics and look up answers to mysteries. Much like Souls games, people come up with all sorts of weird rules about the “proper” way to play games like this, but in the end your experience is up to you.

One final note: the game does start off with a kind of off-putting ironic tone. Some people try to downplay this, but it’s there. I can only say this: if you give this game a chance, you’ll be rewarded. It is worth getting through a few sarcastic jabs to get to the good stuff later on. It’s not some perfect audio-visual experience that will entrance you from the opening moments to the credits, it’s just a video game.

Dragon Quest XI S

I first played Dragon Quest XI last year on PC, and I enjoyed it a lot! But I didn’t actually finish that version, not really. I put a lot of time into, but ultimately burned out on the grind towards the very end.

The form that games come in is very important to how they are experienced. Dragon Quest games work best as portable games, I truly believe. It also helps that this version on the switch added the ability to speed up regular battles, so you don’t have to sit through some long attack animations over and over. The more important aspect, though, is simply the ability to pick it up and put it down more easily.

Sitting down at my PC, plugging in my controller, and pulling up a game is a subtly labor-intensive thing. It means I’m devoting a lot of attention to a game, and it has to do something to earn that on a moment-to-moment basis. The ability to just push a single button on the switch and get back into means that I’m willing to forgive a lot more down time.

Anyway, the game itself: this is not just a very good Dragon Quest game, it is the ultimate Dragon Quest game. It truly shows the value in iteration over pure innovation, taking all sorts of different mechanics and ideas from past games in the series and bringing them all together in one big package. But it doesn’t feel overstuffed, it’s just doing the same thing these games have always done, just really, really well.

Dragon Quest XI successfully pays tribute to the older games in the series while also telling a new story with entertaining twists and turns, and fun and interesting characters. It’s beautiful, everything runs smoothly, the writing is charming and light. It’s not on the same level as Disco Elysium, but it’s not aiming for that sort of thing. It’s a fairy tale, a fable, a reflection of the world in a different sense.

A lot of game critics missed this game because it’s long. And that is absolutely fair, it’s hard to fit a 100-hour game into a review schedule in this day and age. But it’s an absolute gem, a truly wonderful experience from beginning to end. I’d recommend it to anyone who just wants a game to relax with at the end of the day.

Monolith: Relics of the Past

Like some sort of Christmas miracle, there was an expansion pack released for one of my favorite roguelikes on Christmas day, just last week.

Monolith is the best twin-stick shooter roguelike, I will make no bones about it. Forget your Gungeons and your Bindings of Isaac, this is a classic NES-styled game with an absolutely pitch-perfect aesthetic and sense of humor. It serves both the twin-stick shooting and the roguelike parts of its genre perfectly, giving you a strong basic weapon to rely on, and also a guarantee of something more interesting but random in every run.

Man, there are games that I enjoy more, but I really, truly feel that this is one of the best-crafted games of the past few years. And this expansion only made it better: fixing up the UI and tooltips to make things more clear, rebalancing the weapons so that they are all useful, adding more variety to runs.

I’m not the best at Monolith, it took me quite a while to get a full win, but that doesn’t make it any less fun to play. In my youth, I was really quite good at bullet-hell games, but nowadays those reflexes aren’t there. It’s a game designed for people who can dodge endless bullet curtains, and also, now more than ever, for those who struggle with it.

It’s truly inspiring to see something that takes from the past and the present and fuses it together into something so wonderful. There are other games that really capture the NES aesthetic and sensibility, like Odallus or The Messenger, but this one really gets the spirit of that whole era of games. It is at once light and airy, and also punishingly difficult. It offers tricks and outs, but also remains utterly mysterious and intimidating.

And that’s it. There are more games I enjoyed this year, like the remake of Link’s Awakening, but these are the big ones that stick out in my mind.

There are a lot of big narrative-heavy games I never got around to finishing, or even starting. It just doesn’t really fit with how I play games these days, listening to podcasts and aiming to relax, not engage with something on a deep level.

That’s okay, though. I’ll get around to ’em in the fullness of time.

Games of the Year 2019 2019 was a good year for games. Lots of interesting new ideas in the space, and some refinements of old ones.

[lcvedol]

time: start! | entry 1 | prologue

x/x/x

I don’t know what to do. How to start..it’s so confusing. I’ve never really needed to mark my words down in a place like this, I’ve never had this much in my mind before now. Is anything going to ever read this? I mean- I write down things a lot! Song lyrics, thoughts, secrets.. I’d like to think of it as just something that belongs to me. It’s comforting, reassuring, even if It’s just me basically talking to myself. Maybe this is like a vent log? I can’t really look at this like a diary yet, so I guess I can just ramble here until further notice. 

I had to do a bit of counting, and I checked three times- there’s a total of nineteen people here, including me. We all just woke up in this..dusty, dirty room with no recollection at all of how we even got thrown into here. I can’t remember what happened, how I ended up here, but I was supposed to be on some kind of tour. Trapped in this room with so many different prodigies was a little stressful, but also kind of weird. My classmates..they’re all really different compared to one another. So many different talents! There’s even some kind of Vending Machine Placement Scout (her name is Atsu, and I like her hat). 

It’s so weird, I feel so alone despite the fact I’m with so many people. We all had to solve some kind of escape room puzzle? Everyone worked really hard to get out though, and I wish I could’ve been a little bit more of help..I’m not really the smartest- so I couldn’t really understand what to do. It was freaky, though, we were basically locked in! If we didn’t get out, would we have starved..? Would someone have just left us in there to die? God,I don’t want to think about it, but a REALLY tall guy managed to solve the puzzle (Cape! I think? He reminds me of a Pokemon, but I don’t know if he’d like me calling him that, so I won’t say it to his face! ^^;;). It was all number based, apparently, after we all put our heads together. It took a couple of hours, but I’m so relieved we got out all in one piece (I can’t say the same for my brain, though). 

I should probably talk a little bit about the people here, I guess! I haven’t gotten to talk to all of them, but I got to converse with a couple of people- maybe I can just talk about what I think of them? Is that rude? Probably, but I think I have an excuse for the time being. Whoever threw us in here must be happy with themselves, because I feel like I’m going insane already. I don’t have any idea who threw all of us into a room together, but it sucks, as you can probably guess.

Okay, first, I tried to pair up with this one guy..but I don’t think he was looking for friends? Not sure, but he seemed kind of down in the dumps (understandable have a nice day), so we paired up together! I didn’t get his name, but he had bleached hair and some black glasses. He didn’t directly seem rude, though, I’m sure he was just kind of cautious! I get that, maybe I shouldn’t have been so forward trying to befriend him? Ah..I’ll work on that later!

Tatsu-chan! I took a break from looking around to talk to her. Really excited girl, I like her a lot! She keeps messing my name up, but I don’t really mind, I just don’t want to seem rude if I try to correct her a lot. She’s the Ultimate Urban Legend, and I’ve heard a little bit about her? I scroll through the internet a little more than normal people, so I’ve caught some glimpses of her name. She’s an off the rails kind of girl, but she has good intentions. She just wants to have some good fun! I can understand that. There was this person in a grey bodysuit that came over in an apron, looked at me, and then immediately BOLTED. What did I do!! Was there something on my face??? God, I really don’t want to make a fool of myself in front of 18 other people!! They’re a chef, though, because I got to help them out a little bit in the hallway once we broke out of our freaking jail! They just seem shy, though, so that’s cute! I don’t mind shy people, it just takes time for them to break out of their shell. uvu

Setsuko-chan seemed helpful in our investigations, Atsu-chan as well, they both seem smart. One’s more friendly than the other, but I’m sure they’re as worried as I am. Ultimate Secretary, Ultimate Vending Machine Placement Scout, kind of wary about Setsuko-chan, but she reminds me of my mom, a little. Not in a weird way or anything- she’s just seems to be really mature and hard-working, so I’ll respect her anyway. I haven’t talked to Atsu-chan much yet, but she did a lot to break us out of here, so I respect her too! I just don’t want to be a bother to any of them, I was probably one enough not doing much in our investigation..T_T

Yves-chan made some kind of remark about someone bashing our heads in?- I don’t think it was a threat, but now I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight. :( Wtf :’( But she seems pretty! And cute! I like her hair! I’m sure she only said that because she dabbles in the horror genre, so I understand. It’s worth a chance to talk to her later, though! Her and Hisanobu-chan, the baker, paired up and got along pretty nicely I think? He likes to use “OHOHOHOHOHO” a lot! Except not in capitals. And not that loud. That probably seemed offensive, please don’t read this, ok?? <_<

There’s Elliot-chan! Tall, muscular, bartender, pretty good looking for a high-schooler, but I’m not hitting on him or anything!! He seems nice, but I haven’t really spoken to him. He seems like he knows what he’s doing, though! So that’s nice to have in this big dysfunctional family of ours (I mean class I’m just joking I swear I don’t know anyone here). 

There’s..uh...team...Team Fen..Fenrir? I think that’s what the monologue man called it? It’s ran by Protagonist-chan! I’m kidding, but he keeps calling himself that and I don’t get it!!! This isn’t an anime we’re in, it’s an escape room, I kept telling myself! But he has cool shoes that light up in the dark, so he automatically gets Shizuka Points! +500! Then there’s the bowlcut dude! He vapes, but I don’t know anything about vaping, but at least he didn’t blow it into my face or anything! Him and Rune-chan are bros, I think? And there’s Fleur-chan! She’s pretty, I like her hair a lot! She’s tiny too, and overall just pretty soft looking! Dirty mouth, though. And that’s the team! Maybe it’ll expand, later? I’m happy that they’re getting along.

There’s..someone in a gas mask. I don’t know who it is, but they seem kind of rough and tough like the bleached-hair dude. Haven’t spoken to them, but maybe I will...later?????? Idk? It depends on the time and place. Why are they wearing a mask though? :thinking emoji here: It’s a mystery!

The ice skater! Diantha-chan? I think? Yeah, her. She kind of rubbed me the wrong way just a little bit with the random comments, but I’m sure there’s more to her! I’m just kind of a little worried to see it, an ice queen at heart, I guess!

There was this random guy who gave me the sink eye when I tried to politely bribe the keypad (it had emotions- idk technology is crazy ok!! It looked like it had an AI), so I guess he doesn’t like me much! He’s the merchant, from what I read about him, but I won’t spare any details- he’s scary, and I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to try and talk to him. I’m going against my own morals on this one!

Mitama-chan! She seems like a real mom, and she was helpful too! Really nice and strong, pretty much the perfect girl from what I’ve seen of her! She’s an art appraiser, so I guess she has a pretty sharp eye, too. She’s someone I’d love to talk to over a cup of hot chocolate or tea! Whatever works for her.

Oliver! Ollie! Ollie-chan, yeah! Haven’t talked to him, but he seems like a real storyteller! He’s kind of uptight (which is again- understandable, have a nice day). He’s a writer, so I’m sure his mind is an enigma. I don’t know much about him otherwise. Cute name though! ^v^

Then there’s Kihaku-chan! He’s super chill and he’s a musician too! A taiko drummer! I can play the guitar and piano, but not the drums- so I applaud him for that! He’s a rhythm gamer, too, at least from what I remember when we talked! We did like the briefest collab in the world (when I was carrying someone too! Lololol), but we sounded absolutely beautiful together! He’s super talented and I admire his work a lot, even if I’ve only heard him once! I hope we can be friends and work more together!

And I think I covered everyone! What a colorful class I have, right? I hope I can meet their standards. I’ll update this more once I get the chance as time passes, mostly about people, events, the usual! Maybe write a couple of song lyrics in here when I get the chance? Might as well work in this, too! Hopefully nothing bad happens, but I’ll still write it down just in case.

Signing out,

miya☆

[silent-partner-412]

I HAVE FINISHED ZERO TIME DILEMMA

tbh it’s been a long time coming… me and my friends played 999 last year over the course of a week, and then we took quite literally a year to start and finish VLR. genuinely we started it in June last year, and due to us sucking ass at scheduling we didn’t finish until this month. it wasn’t even an issue with the game, i loved VLR, just that the game is so long and we sucked at committing 😭

anyway i just sped through ZTD in three days by myself and it’s been very interesting. somehow i’ve found a lot to love about the game but also i kinda understand why it has something of a reputation among Zero Escape fans. i have a few thoughts.

first of all, since this is the first ZE game i played by myself, the escape rooms were a fucking treat. i never needed help on any of them but they still were super confusing and puzzling in the best way. i have multiple pages of notes from this game and it was such a joy to go through one of these games without the help of my friends who are way smarter than me. idk if the escape rooms are as good as VLRs but i loved the experience i had regardless.

second of all, the overarching plot was definitely not as good as the last two games, it was kinda convoluted and left a lot about VLR unanswered or unsatisfying. but there was still a lot to love, D team was on the whole fantastic (the fact that this is the only team Uchikoshi wrote himself really shows) and while C team wasn’t as good i thought Carlos was absolutely precious and Junpei and Akane have only continued to grow on me as this series has gone on. honestly, the two endings for D team were just fucking fantastic, i really liked Diana as a protagonist and the amount of lore we got for Sigma and Phi was just wonderful. definitely all my favorite moments of this game were with this team.

but then… there’s Q team. and goddammit if this game has an achilles heel it’s these bitches. these three just do not work as a unit; pretty much all their scenes range from boring to nonsensical to frustrating, and when that started spilling into scenes with the other teams it was immensely frustrating. Q/Sean was fine i guess, he was a little bland but mostly interesting as like the AI type character?? but the other two… my god. Mira was mostly a non presence but when she did do something in the story it kind of fell in the “so bad it’s good” range for me? like her serial killer shit is on the Korekiyo range of ridiculous, but at least it was kinda funny lol. Eric on the other hand i think is fucking terrible all around. pretty much all the worst and least interesting conflict surrounded him; as a villain he was boring and stupid, but then when the game wanted to make him sympathetic he just ended up being pathetic because his entire emotional core is fucking MIRA, a SERIAL KILLER. 9/10 times when i was groaning or yelling at my screen it was because of him, the story would probably still have a lot of issues without him but having him gone would’ve saved me so much headache. definitely the worst Zero Escape character imo.

honestly tho i’m just happy to finally say i’ve completed this series. it’s a shame ZTD was so low budget and didn’t come together how a lot of ppl hoped, but this is still a super awesome VN series that does a lot of interesting things with the idea of timelines and unconventional storytelling, with some super fun gameplay segments to boot. i don’t really expect a ZE4, but i guess i’ll be ok with AITSF2 in the mean time lol.