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rayclubs · 7 months

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Ever since watching Live Action One Piece, I can't stop thinking about how good the writing is in the actual show, so I'm going to seriously analyze it for my own fun and pleasure.

OP is kind of notorious for being nonsensical, whimsical, goofy and not particularly loaded with themes and heavy-to-grasp concepts, so a lot of people think of its arcs as mere sequences of events without an underlying thematic structure. This is what the Live Action gets wrong, but to the original show's credit, the formula is so intricately woven that you can't easily define it like in other serialized media. It's also a bit more... Nebulous? Okay, I can explain.

At least four of the earliest arcs follow the same formula. I'm sure it applies to later arcs too but they get longer and things become muddled down the line - not in a bad way, the core concepts still apply, just differently, so I'm only going to talk about the first four important ones. The formula is this:

The main character, Luffy, is introduced to another character who, in one way or another, displays a character flaw that prevents them from achieving their goals and dreams.

They encounter a foe who displays the exact same flaw in a different way.

Luffy confronts the foe on moral grounds and demonstrates a virtue that overcomes and overpowers the villain, leasing him to victory.

The newly introduced character, inspired by Luffy's example, experiences a change of perspective, which helps them overcome their own flaw and take a step towards their goal.

If you're thinking that sounds about right, then holy shit, our wavelengths. If, more likely, you're thinking "this is kinda far-fetched", then oh boy do I got proof of concept for you.

It's incredible how clear and well-executed the parallels between heroes and villains are. Like, okay, listen, here's Zoro's arc.

The villain, Axe-Hand Morgan, is a self-assured, self-centered tyrant who treats his comrades and subordinates as expendable tools and has no loyalties except to his own greatness.

Zoro isn't a tyrant, he's kind-hearted and has a strong moral compass, but he is still flawed: like Morgan, he doesn't have any loyalties except to himself. He's self-assured as hell. We learn later that he used to have mercenary friends but they went their own separate way at some point, and when they meet again, Zoro shows no clear loyalty to them - he's kind-hearted, so, of course, he cares, but he was never bound by their alliance and obviously considered the three of them to be drawn together by coincidence.

And to be clear, in the world of One Piece that is a flaw. Most characters swear allegiance to factions - pirate crews, marines, revolutionaries, other groups - and draw strength from them. Villages and towns are shown to survive hardships through unity and companionship.

Even Zoro's ultimate goal, the person he swore to defeat in mortal combat - Mihawk - although he appears solitary and not "bound" to a crew or a cause, we learn later that he is affiliated with the government. But that's a bit off-track.

While trying to save Zoro from execusion by Morgan, Luffy demonstrates a stubborn determination to work together. As soon as he recognizes that an injustice has been done to Zoro, he works not to solve the problem by himself, but to help Zoro deal with it. While another character tries to free Zoro from captivity directly - literally untie the ropes that are holding him - Luffy hands him his swords first.

Notably, Zoro is the only main character who defeats the main villain of his arc, all others are defeated by Luffy. I say "notably" because Zoro specifically is ony able to achieve this through cooperation with Luffy.

As the show goes on, Zoro's loyalty quickly becomes one of his core traits.

That's just one of them, so let's do Usopp's arc next.

The villain, Kuro, is a pirate captain who gave up his name and title. He is trying to turn away from who he is, remake himself into someone new through deception and trickery.

Usopp is doing the exact same thing, albeit in a decidedly more innocent way. He lies about his heroic feats and achivements, about his strength and the size of his crew, about practically everything. His lies aren't a flaw per se, as he never stops lying in the future. It's not his cowardice, that doesn't change much either. It's his conflict with himself. He's a pirate but he isn't. Pirates are coming but they aren't. He's proud of his heritage but he doesn't really get to be proud all that much until Luffy comes along.

Luffy defeats Kuro by being a better pirate, or by being better at being a pirate, or by being a pirate at all. Luffy has simple, clear-cut views and ambitions, he knows what kind of person he is and what kind of person he's trying to be, and he lives by it. That's the virtue.

As Usopp says his goodbyes before leaving his village, he gathers his little "crew" of kids together and makes them state their ambitions - one wants to be a writer, another dreams of owning a bar, etcetera - this is him imparting a lesson he just learned himself, on knowing who you want to become and living to be that person.

Usopp's best friend Kaya, inspired by him, resolves to become a doctor.

All this is also a showcase of Usopp's legacy, but don't get me started on legacy in One Piece, we'll be here for an hour.

So there we go. Let's do Sanji's arc next, it's way easier than Usopp's 3D chess pirate-gender.

The villain of the arc, Don Krieg, engages in malicious dishonesty to secure advantage in battles because he doesn't believe himself to be prepared enough for the journey he's undertaking.

Sanji is exactly the same but without the trickery. He justifies his inaction with the vague concept of being indebted to his mentor, even though his mentor considers the debt fully paid and sincerely wants him to live his own life.

Luffy defeats Don Krieg via stubbornness, bravery, endurance and ingenuity. It's similar to his other fights and not emphasized enough, which is probably why it's always been one of the more boring parts to me personally, though it's still wonderfully executed.

More importantly, Luffy reduses Sanji's mentor's journal, stating he wants to have his own adventure, not follow in someone else's footsteps. This is almost word-for-word the lesson Sanji needs to learn. Get out of there and do your best, you're ready, you'll never be more ready than you already are.

And finally, Nami's arc.

The villain, Arlong, believes himself to be inherently superior to those around him. If he recruits help, it's out of convenience, not necessity. If he forms bonds, they're business, not camaraderie. He does care for his fellow fishmen but that has more to do with the extended fishmen backstory and politics than anything so I won't touch on it.

Nami is equally flawed by hubris. She thinks she's better, more competent, more capable than the people around her, she has that complex you get when you don't have any friends in high school and end up doing all the group projects by yourself.

While fighting Arlong, Luffy makes a point out of stating and showing his own reliance on his own crew, and even lists off the skills they excel at that he himself doesn't possess. It's very on the nose but still awesome to watch.

He then absolutely fucking wrecks Nami's old prison-slash-workshop, demonstrating symbolically that, while her skill is great and important, it's not the main reason he values her as a crewmate and friend.

Nami gets over her hubris, begins to rely on others as allies more than assets, and relaxes a little about her paranoid hypercompetence. Good for her.

Okay so hopefully this convinced you. This was also going to be the part where I go on a long tangent about why Live Action One Piece fails on so many levels but then I realized I'd need a whole separate post for that, so I'm just gonna state the main point and leave it at that.

Netflix screenwriters seemed to have watched One Piece (roughly up to episode 130) and decided the arcs did not have any thematic uniting element even though they clearly did, as per above. They proceeded to rework the plot to introduce what they thought would work as unifying elements (introducing Baroque Works early, having Coby in every episode, cutting out Don Krieg and replacing him with Arlong) which inadvertently undermined the story structure and ruined the show.

Anyway, there's more. One of the earlier arcs is Buggy's arc which follows a different format. It doesn't see any new additions to the crew but it does see Luffy's worldview challenged by an outside force. This is an early example of a Luffy arc. Other examples include Loguetown, Jaya/Skypiea, and Foxy's arc (regrettably). Also Marinford and the events prior but that's, like, self-evident, I think. This story format borrows from classic romance literature and is way more straightforward. Buggy being an early example of it in the show, while being a comedic element himself, also introduces a lot of these story concepts. His journey could also be considered somewhat parallel to Luffy's, but that's a bit of a stretch, to be honest.

I completely forgot how I was going to end this analysis but hopefully reading it was worthwhile anyway. Live Action One Piece sucks. Cheers!

#one piece

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rawliverandcigarettes · 4 years

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Mass Effect Retribution, a review

Mass Effect Retribution is the third book in the official Mass Effect trilogy by author Drew Karpyshyn, who happens to also be Lead Writer for Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2.

I didn’t expect to pick it up, because to be very honest I didn’t expect to like it. 9 years ago I borrowed Mass Effect Revelations, and I still recall the experience as underwhelming. But this fateful fall of 2020 I had money (yay) and I saw the novel on the shelf of a swedish nerd store. I guess guilt motivated me to give the author another try: guilt, because I’ve been writing a Mass Effect fanfiction for an ungodly amount of years and I’ve been deathly afraid of lore that might contradict my decisions ever since I started -but I knew this book covered elements that are core to plot elements of my story, and I was willing to let my anxiety to the door and see what was up.

Disclaimer: I didn’t reread Mass Effect Revelation before plunging into this read, and entirely skipped Ascension. So anything in relation to character introduction and continuity will have to be skipped.

Back-cover pitch (the official, unbiased, long one)

Humanity has reached the stars, joining the vast galactic community of alien species. But beyond the fringes of explored space lurk the Reapers, a race of sentient starships bent on “harvesting” the galaxy’s organic species for their own dark purpose. The Illusive Man, leader of the pro-human black ops group Cerberus, is one of the few who know the truth about the Reapers. To ensure humanity’s survival, he launches a desperate plan to uncover the enemy’s strengths—and weaknesses—by studying someone implanted with modified Reaper technology. He knows the perfect subject for his horrific experiments: former Cerberus operative Paul Grayson, who wrested his daughter from the cabal’s control with the help of Ascension project director Kahlee Sanders. But when Kahlee learns that Grayson is missing, she turns to the only person she can trust: Alliance war hero Captain David Anderson. Together they set out to find the secret Cerberus facility where Grayson is being held. But they aren’t the only ones after him. And time is running out. As the experiments continue, the sinister Reaper technology twists Grayson’s mind. The insidious whispers grow ever stronger in his head, threatening to take over his very identity and unleash the Reapers on an unsuspecting galaxy. This novel is based on a Mature-rated video game.

Global opinion (TL;DR)

I came in hoping to be positively surprised and learn a thing or two about Reapers, about Cerberus and about Aria T’loak. I wasn’t, and I didn’t learn much. What I did learn was how cool ideas can get wasted by the very nature of game novelization, as the defects are not singular to this novel but quite widespread in this genre, and how annoyed I can get at an overuse of dialogue tags. The pacing is good and the narrative structure alright: everything else poked me in the wrong spots and rubbed how the series have always handled violence on my face with cruder examples. If I was on Good Reads, I’d probably give it something like 2 stars, for the pacing, some of the ideas, and my general sympathy for the IP novel struggle.

The indepth review continue past this point, just know there will be spoilers for the series, the Omega DLC which is often relevant, and the book itself!

What I enjoyed

Drew Karpyshyn is competent in narrative structure, and that does a lot for the pacing. Things rarely drag, and we get from one event to the next seamlessly. I’m not surprised this is one of the book’s qualities, as it comes from the craft of a game writer: pacing and efficiency are mandatory skills in this field. I would have preferred a clearer breaking point perhaps, but otherwise it’s a nice little ride that doesn’t ask a lot of effort from you (I was never tempted to DNF the book because it was so easy to read).

This book is packed with intringuing ideas -from venturing in the mind of the Illusive Man to assist, from the point of view of the victim, to Grayson’s biological transformation and assimilation into the Reaper hivemind, we get plenty to be excited for. I was personally intrigued about Liselle, Aria T’loak’s secret daughter, and eager to get a glimpse at the mind of the Queen Herself -also about how her collaboration with Cerberus came to be. Too bad none of these ideas go anywhere nor are being dealt with in an interesting way!!! But the concepts themselves were very good, so props for setting up interesting premices.

Pain is generally well described. It gets the job done.

I liked Sanak, the batarian that works as a second to Aria. He’s not very well characterized and everyone thinks he’s dumb (rise up for our national himbo), even though he reads almost smarter than her on multiple occasions, but I was happy whenever he was on the page, so yay for Sanak. But it might just be me having a bias for batarians.

Cool to have Kai Leng as a point of view character. I wasn’t enthralled by what was done with it, as he remains incredibly basic and as basically hateable and ungrounded than in Mass Effect 3 (I think he’s very underwhelming as a villain and he should have been built up in Mass Effect 2 to be effective). But there were some neat moments, such as the description of the Afterlife by Grayson who considers it as tugging at his base instincts, compared to Leng’s description of it where everything is deemed disgusting. The execution is not the best, but the concept was fun.

Pre-Reaperification Paul Grayson wasn’t the worst point of view to follow. I wasn’t super involved in his journey and didn’t care when he died one way or the other, but I empathized with his problems and hoped he would find a way out of the cycle of violence. The setup of his character arc was interesting, it’s just sad that any resolution -even negative- was dropped to focus on Reapers and his relationship with Kahlee Sanders, as I think the latter was the least interesting part.

The cover is cool and intringuing. Very soapy. It’s my favorite out of all the official novels, as it owns the cheesier aspect of the series, has nice contrasts and immediately asks questions. Very 90s/2000s. It’s great.

You may notice every thing I enjoyed was coated in complaints, because it’s a reflection of my frustration at this book for setting up interesting ideas and then completely missing the mark in their execution. So without further due, let’s talk about what I think the book didn’t do right.

1. Dumb complaints that don’t matter much

After reading the entire book, I am still a bit confused at to why Tim (the Illusive Man’s acronym is TIM in fandom, but I find immense joy in reffering to him as just Tim) wants his experimentation to be carried out on Grayson specifically, especially when getting to him is harder than pretty much anyone else (also wouldn’t pushing the very first experiments on alien captives make more sense given it’s Cerberus we’re talking about?). It seem to be done out of petty revenge, which is fine, but it still feels like quite the overlook to mess with a competent fighter, enhance him, and then expect things to stay under control (which Tim kind of doesn’t expect to, and that’s even weirder -why waste your components on something you plan to terminate almost immediately). At the same time, the pettiness is the only characterization we get out of Tim so good I guess? But if so, I wished it would have been accentuated to seem even more deliberate (and not have Tim regret to see it in himself, which flattens him and doesn’t inform the way he views the world and himself -but we’ll get to that).

I really disliked the way space travel is characterized. And that might be entirely just me, and perhaps it doesn’t contradict the rest of the lore, but space travel is so fast. People pop up left and right in a matter of hours. At some point we even get a mention of someone being able to jump 3 different Mass Relays and then arrive somewhere in 4 hours. I thought you first had to discharge your ship around a stellar object before being able to engage in the next jump (and that imply finding said object, which would have to take more than an hour). It’s not that big of a deal, but it completely crammed this giant world to a single boulevard for me and my hard-science-loving tastes. Not a big deal, but not a fan at all of this choice.

You wouldn’t believe how often people find themselves in a fight naked or in their underwear. It happens at least 3 times (and everyone naked survives -except one, we’ll get to her later).

Why did I need to know about this fifteen year’s old boner for his older teacher. Surely there were other ways to have his crush come across without this detail, or then have it be an actual point of tension in their relationship and not just a “teehee” moment. Weird choice imo.

I’m not a fan of the Talons. I don’t find them interesting or compelling. There is nothing about them that informs us on the world they live in. The fact they’re turian-ruled don’t tell us anything about turian culture that, say, the Blue Suns don’t tell us already. It’s a generic gang that is powerful because it is. I think they’re very boring, in this book and in the Omega DLC alike (a liiittle less in the DLC because of Nyreen, barely). Not a real criticism, I just don’t care for them at all.

I might just be very ace, but I didn’t find Anderson and Kahlee Sanders to have much chemistry. Same for Kahlee and Grayson (yes we do have some sort of love-triangle-but-not-really, but it’s not very important and it didn’t bother me much). Their relationships were all underwhelming to me, and I’ll explain why in part 4.

The red sand highs are barely described, and very safely -probably not from a place of intimate knowledge with drugs nor from intense research. Addiction is a delicate topic, and I feel like it could have been dealt with better, or not be included at all.

There are more of these, but I don’t want to turn this into a list of minor complaints for things that are more a matter of taste than craft quality or thematic relevance. So let’s move on.

2. Who cares about aliens in a Mass Effect novel

Now we’re getting into actual problems, and this one is kind of endemic to the Mass Effect novels (I thought the same when I read Revelation 9 years ago, though maybe less so as Saren in a PoV character -but I might have forgotten so there’s that). The aliens are described and characterized in the most uncurious, uninspired manner. Krogans are intimidating brutes. Turians are rigid. Asaris are sexy. Elcors are boring. Batarians are thugs (there is something to be said with how Aria’s second in command is literally the same batarian respawned with a different name in Mass Effect 2, this book, then the Omega DLC). Salarians are weak nerds. (if you allow me this little parenthesis because of course I have to complain about salarian characterization: the only salarian that speaks in the book talks in a cheap ripoff of Mordin’s speech pattern, which sucks because it’s specific to Mordin and not salarians as a whole, and is there to be afraid of a threat as a joke. This is SUCH a trope in the original trilogy -especially past Mass Effect 1 when they kind of give up on salarians except for a few chosen ones-, that salarians’ fear is not to be taken seriously and the only salarians who are to be considered don’t express fear at all -see Mordin and Kirrahe. It happens at least once per game, often more. This is one of the reasons why the genophage subplot is allowed to be so morally simple in ME3 and remove salarians from the equation. I get why they did that, but it’s still somewhat of a copeout. On this front, I have to give props to Andromeda for actually engaging with violence on salarians in a serious manner. It’s a refreshing change) I didn’t learn a single thing about any of these species, how they work, what they care about in the course of these 79750 words. I also didn’t learn much about their relationships to other species, including humans. I’ll mention xenophobia in more details later, but this entire aspect of the story takes a huge hit because of this lack of investment of who these species are.

I’ve always find Mass Effect, despite its sprawling universe full of vivid ideas and unique perspectives, to be strangely enamoured with humans, and it has never been so apparent than here. Only humans get to have layers, deserving of empathy and actual engagement. Only their pain is real and important. Only their death deserve mourning (we’ll come back to that). I’d speculate this comes from the same place that was terrified to have Liara as a love interest in ME1 in case she alienated the audience, and then later was surprised when half the fanbase was more interested in banging the dinosaur-bird than their fellow humans: Mass Effect often seem afraid of losing us and breaking our capacity for self-projection. It’s a very weird concern, in my opinion, that reveals the most immature, uncertain and soapy parts of the franchise. Here it’s punched to eleven, and I find it disappointing. It also have a surprising effect on the narrative: again, we’ll come back to that.

3. The squandered potential of Liselle and Aria

Okay. This one hurts. Let’s talk about Liselle: she’s introduced in the story as a teammate to Grayson, who at the time works as a merc for Aria T’loak on Omega, and also sleeps with him on the regular. She likes hitting the Afterlife’s dancefloor: she’s very admired there, as she’s described as extremely attractive. One night after receiving a call from Grayson, she rejoins him in his apartment. They have sex, then Kai Leng and other Cerberus agents barge in to capture Grayson -a fight break out (the first in a long tradition of naked/underwear fights), and both of them are stunned with tranquilizers. Grayson is to be taken to the Illusive Man. Kai Leng decides to slit Liselle’s throat as she lays unconscious to cover their tracks. When Aria T’loak and her team find her naked on a bed, throat gaping and covered in blood, Liselle is revealed, through her internal monologue, to be Aria’s secret daughter -that she kept secret for both of their safety. So Liselle is a sexpot who dies immediately in a very brutal and disempowered manner. This is a sad way to handle Aria T’loak’s daughter I think, but I assume it was done to give a strong motivation to the mother, who thinks Grayson did it. And also, it’s a cool setup to explore her psyche: how does she feel about business catching up with her in such a personal manner, how does she feel about the fact she couldn’t protect her own offspring despite all her power, what’s her relationship with loss and death, how does she slip when under high emotional stress, how does she deal with such a vulnerable position of having to cope without being able to show any sign of weakness... But the book does nothing with that. The most interesting we get is her complete absence of outward reaction when she sees her daughter as the centerpiece of a crime scene. Otherwise we have mentions that she’s not used to lose relatives, vague discomfort when someone mentions Liselle might have been raped, and vague discomfort at her body in display for everyone to gawk at. It’s not exactly revelatory behavior, and the missed potential is borderline criminal. It also doesn’t even justify itself as a strong motivation, as Aria vaguely tries to find Grayson again and then gives up until we give her intel on a silver platter. Then it almost feels as if she forgot her motivation for killing Grayson, and is as motivated by money than she is by her daughter’s murder (and that could be interesting too, but it’s not done in a deliberate way and therefore it seems more like a lack of characterization than anything else).

Now, to Aria. Because this book made me realize something I strongly dislike: the framing might constantly posture her as intelligent, but Aria T’loak is... kind of dumb, actually? In this book alone she’s misled, misinformed or tricked three different times. We’re constantly ensured she’s an amazing people reader but never once do we see this ability work in her favor -everyone fools her all the time. She doesn’t learn from her mistakes and jump from Cerberus trap to Cerberus trap, and her loosing Omega to them later is laughably stupid after the bullshit Tim put her through in this book alone. I’m not joking when I say the book has to pull out an entire paragraph on how it’s easier to lie to smart people to justify her complete dumbassery during her first negotiation with Tim. She doesn’t seem to know anything about how people work that could justify her power. She’s not politically savvy. She’s not good at manipulation. She’s just already established and very, very good at kicking ass. And I wouldn’t mind if Aria was just a brutish thug who maintains her power through violence and nothing else, that could also be interesting to have an asari act that way. But the narrative will not bow to the reality they have created for her, and keep pretending her flaw is in extreme pride only. This makes me think of the treatment of Sansa Stark in the latest seasons of Game of Thrones -the story and everyone in it is persuaded she’s a political mastermind, and in the exact same way I would adore for it to be true, but it’s just... not. It’s even worse for Aria, because Sansa does have victories by virtue of everyone being magically dumber than her whenever convenient. Aria just fails, again and again, and nobody seem to ever acknowledge it. Sadly her writing here completely justifies her writing in the Omega DLC and the comics, which I completely loathe; but turns out Aria isn’t smart or savvy, not even in posture or as a façade. She’s just violent, entitled, easily fooled, and throws public tantrums when things don’t go her way. And again, I guess that would be fine if only the narrative would recognize what she is. Me, I will gently ignore most of this (in her presentation at least, because I think it’s interesting to have something pitiful when you dig a little) and try to write her with a bit more elevation. But this was a very disappointing realization to have.

4. The squandered potential of Grayson and the Reapers

The waste of a subplot with Aria and Liselle might have hurt me more in a personal way, but what went down between Grayson and the Reapers hurts the entire series in a startling manner. And it’s so infuriating because the potential was there. Every setpiece was available to create something truly unique and disturbing by simply following the series’ own established lore. But this is not what happens. See, when The Illusive Man, our dearest Tim, captures Grayson for a betrayal that happened last book (something about his biotic autistic daughter -what’s the deal with autistic biotics being traumatized by Cerberus btw), he decides to use him as the key part of an experiment to understand how Reapers operate. So he forcefully implants the guy with Reaper technology (what they do exactly is unclear) to study his change into a husk and be prepared when Reapers come for humanity -it’s also compared to what happened with Saren when he “agreed” to be augmented by Sovereign. From there on, Grayson slowly turns into a husk. Doesn’t it sound fascinating, to be stuck in the mind of someone losing themselves to unknowable monsters? If you agree with me then I’m sorry because the execution is certainly... not that. The way the author chooses to describe the event is to use the trope of mind control used in media like Get Out: Grayson taking the backseat of his own mind and body. And I haaaaate it. I hate it so much. I don’t hate the trope itself (it can be interesting in other media, like Get Out!), but I loathe that it’s used here in a way that totally contradicts both the lore and basic biology. Grayson doesn’t find himself manipulated. He doesn’t find himself justifying increasingly jarring actions the way Saren has. He just... loses control of himself, disagreeing with what’s being done with him but not able to change much about it. He also can fight back and regain control sometimes -but his thoughts are almost untainted by Reaper influence. The technology is supposed to literally replace and reorganize the cells of his body; is this implying that body and mind are separated, that there maybe exists a soul that transcends indoctrination? I don’t know but I hate it. This also implies that every victim of the Reaper is secretely aware of what they’re doing and pained and disagreeing with their own actions. And I’m sorry but if it’s true, I think this sucks ass and removes one of the creepiest ideas of the Mass Effect universe -that identity can and will be lost, and that Reapers do not care about devouring individuality and reshaping it to the whims of their inexorable march. Keeping a clear stream of consciousness in the victim’s body makes it feel like a curse and not like a disease. None of the victims are truly gone that way, and it removes so much of the tragic powerlessness of organics in their fight against the machines. Imagine if Saren watched himself be a meanie and being like “nooo” from within until he had a chance to kill himself in a near-victorious battle, compared to him being completely persuaded he’s acting for the good of organic life until, for a split second, he comes to realize he doesn’t make any sense and is loosing his mind like someone with dementia would, and needs to grasp to this instant to make the last possible thing he could do to save others and his own mind from domination. I feel so little things for Saren in the former case, and so much for the latter. But it might just be me: I’m deeply touched by the exploration of how environment and things like medication can change someone’s behavior, it’s such a painfully human subject while forceful mind control is... just kind of cheap.

SPEAKING OF THE REAPERS. Did you know “The Reapers” as an entity is an actual character in this book? Because it is. And “The Reapers” is not a good character. During the introduction of Grayson and explaining his troubles, we get presented with the mean little voice in his head. It’s his thoughts in italics, nothing crazy, in fact it’s a little bit of a copeout from actually implementing his insecurities into the prose. But I gave the author the benefit of the doubt, as I knew Grayson would be indoctrinated later, and I fully expected the little voice to slowly start twisting into what the Reapers suggested to him. This doesn’t happen, or at least not in that slowburn sort of way. Instead the little voice is dropped almost immediately, and the Reapers are described, as a presence. And as the infection progresses, what Grayson do become what the Reapers do. The Reapers have emotions, it turns out. They’re disgusted at organic discharges. They’re pleased when Grayson accomplish what they want, and it’s told as such. They foment little plans to get their puppet to point A to point B, and we are privy to their calculations. And I’m sorry but the best way to ruin your lovecraftian concept is to try and explain its motivations and how it thinks. Because by definition the unknown is scarier, smarter, and colder than whatever a human author could come up with. I couldn’t take the Reapers’ dumb infiltration plans seriously, and now I think they are dumb all the time, and I didn’t want to!! The only cases in which the Reapers influence Grayson, we are told in very explicit details how so. For example, they won’t let Grayson commit suicide by flooding his brain with hope and determination when he tries, or they will change the words he types when he tries to send a message to Kahlee Sanders. And we are told exactly what they do every time. There was a glorious occasion to flex as a writer by diving deep into an unreliable narrator and write incredibly creepy prose, but I guess we could have been confused, and apparently that’s not allowed. And all of this is handled that poorly becauuuuuse...

5. Subtext is dead and Drew killed it

Now we need to talk about the prose. The style of the author is... let’s be generous and call it functional. It’s about clarity. The writing is so involved in its quest for clarity that it basically ruins the book, and most of the previous issues are direct consequences of the prose and adjacent decisions.The direct prose issues are puzzling, as they are known as rookie technical flaws and not something I would expect from the series’ Lead Writer for Mass Effect 1 and 2, but in this book we find problems such as:

The reliance on adverbs. Example: "Breathing heavily from the exertion, he stood up slowly”. I have nothing about a well-placed adverb that gives a verb a revelatory twist, but these could be replaced by stronger verbs, or cut altogether.

Filtering. Example: “Anderson knew that the fact they were getting no response was a bad sign”. This example is particularly egregious, but characters know things, feel things, realize things (boy do they realize things)... And this pulls us away from their internal world instead of making us live what they live, expliciting what should be implicit. For example, consider the alternative: “They were getting no reponse, which was a bad sign in Anderson’s experience.” We don’t really need the “in Anderson’s experience” either, but that already brings us significantly closer to his world, his lived experience as a soldier.

The goddamn dialogue tags. This one is the worst offender of the bunch. Nobody is allowed to talk without a dialogue tag in this book, and wow do people imply, admit, inform, remark and every other verb under the sun. Consider this example, which made me lose my mind a little: “What are you talking about? Kahlee wanted to know.” I couldn’t find it again, but I’m fairly certain I read a “What is it?” Anderson wanted to know. as well. Not only is it very distracting, it’s also yet another way to remove reader interpretation from the equation (also sometimes there will be a paragraph break inside a monologue -not even a long one-, and that doesn’t seem to be justified by anything? It’s not as big of a problem than the aversion to subtext, but it still confused me more than once)

Another writing choice that hurts the book in disproportionate ways is the reliance on point of view switches. In Retribution, we get the point of view of: Tim, Paul Grayson, Kai Leng, Kahlee Sanders, David Anderson, Aria T’loak, and Nick (a biotic teenager, the one with the boner). Maybe Sanak had a very small section too, but I couldn’t find it again so don’t take my word for it. That’s too many point of views for a plot-heavy 80k book in my opinion, but even besides that: the point of view switch several times in one single chapter. This is done in the most harmful way possible for tension: characters involved in the same scene take turns on the page explaining their perspective about the events, in a way that leaves the reader entirely aware of every stake to every character and every information that would be relevant in a scene. Take for example the first negotiation between Aria and Tim. The second Aria needs to ponder what her best move could possibly be, we get thrown back into Tim’s perspective explaining the exact ways in which he’s trying to deceive her -removing our agency to be either convinced or fooled alongside her. This results in a book that goes out of his way to keep us from engaging with its ideas and do any mental work on our own. Everything is laid out, bare and as overexplained as humanly possible. The format is also very repetitive: characters talk or do an action, and then we spend a paragraph explaining the exact mental reasoning for why they did what they did. There is nothing to interpret. No subtext at all whatsoever; and this contributes in casting a harsh light on the Mass Effect universe, cheapening it and overtly expliciting some of its worst ideas instead of leaving them politely blurred and for us to dress up in our minds. There is only one theme that remains subtextual in my opinion. And it’s not a pretty one.

6. Violence

So here’s the thing when you adapt a third person shooter into a novel: you created a violent world and now you will have to deal with death en-masse too (get it get it I’m so sorry). But while in videogames you can get away with thoughtless murder because it’s a gameplay mechanic and you’re not expected to philosophize on every splatter of blood, novels are all about internalization. Violent murder is by definition more uncomfortable in books, because we’re out of gamer conventions and now every death is actual when in games we just spawned more guys because we wanted that level to be a bit harder and on a subconscious level we know this and it makes it somewhat okay. I felt, in this book, a strange disconnect between the horrendous violence and the fact we’re expected to care about it like we would in a game: not much, or as a spectacle. Like in a game, we are expected to root for the safety of named characters the story indicated us we should be invested in. And because we’re in a book, this doesn’t feel like the objective truth of the universe spelled at us through user interface and quest logs, but the subjective worldview of the characters we’re following. And that makes them.... somewhat disturbing to follow.

I haven’t touched on Anderson and Kahlee Sanders much yet, but now I guess I have too, as they are the worst offenders of what is mentioned above. Kahlee cares about Grayson. She only cares about Grayson -and her students like the forementioned Nick, but mostly Grayson. Grayson is out there murdering people like it’s nobody’s business, but still, keeping Grayson alive is more important that people dying like flies around him. This is vaguely touched on, but not with the gravitas that I think was warranted. Also, Anderson goes with it. Because he cares about Kahlee. Anderson organizes a major political scandal between humans and turians because of Kahlee, because of Grayson. He convinces turians to risk a lot to bring Cerberus down, and I guess that could be understandable, but it’s mostly manipulation for the sake of Grayson’s survival: and a lot of turians die as a result. But not only turians: I was not comfortable with how casually the course of action to deal a huge blow to Cerberus and try to bring the organization down was to launch assault on stations and cover-ups for their organization. Not mass arrests: military assault. They came to arrest high operatives, maybe, but the grunts were okay to slaughter. This universe has a problem with systemic violence by the supposedly good guys in charge -and it’s always held up as the righteous and efficient way compared to these UGH boring politicians and these treaties and peace and such (amirite Anderson). And as the cadavers pile up, it starts to make our loveable protagonists... kind of self-centered assholes. Also: I think we might want to touch on who these cadavers tend to be, and get to my biggest point of discomfort with this novel.

Xenophobia is hard to write well, and I super sympathize with the attempts made and their inherent difficulty. This novel tries to evoke this theme in multiple ways: by virtue of having Cerberus’ heart and blade as point of view characters, we get a window into Tim and Kai Leng’s bigotry against aliens, and how this belief informs their actions. I wasn’t ever sold in their bigotry as it was shown to us. Tim evokes his scorn for whatever aliens do and how it’s inferior to humanity’s resilience -but it’s surface-level, not informed by deep and specific entranched beliefs on aliens motives and bodies, and how they are a threat on humanity according to them. The history of Mass Effect is rich with conflict and baggage between species, yet every expression of hatred is relegated to a vague “eww aliens” that doesn’t feed off systemically enforced beliefs but personal feelings of mistrust and disgust. I’ll take this example of Kai Leng, and his supposedly revulsion at the Afterlife as a peak example of alien decadence: he sees an asari in skimpy clothing, and deems her “whorish”. And this feels... off. Not because I don’t think Kai Leng would consider asaris whorish, but because this is supposed to represent Cerberus’ core beliefs: yet both him and Tim go on and on about how their goal is to uplift humanity, how no human is an enemy. But if that’s the case, then what makes Kai Leng call an Afterlife asari whorish and mean it in a way that’s meaningfully different from how he would consider a human sex worker in similar dispositions? Not that I don’t buy that Cerberus would have a very specific idea of what humans need to be to be considered worth preserving as good little ur-fascists, but this internal bias is never expressed in any way, and it makes the whole act feel hollow. Cerberus is not the only offender, though. Every time an alien expresses bias against humans in a way we’re meant to recognize as xenophobic, it reads the same way: as personal dislike and suspicion. As bullying. Which is such a small part of what bigotry encompasses. It’s so unspecific and divorced from their common history that it just never truly works in my opinion. You know what I thought worked, though? The golden trio of non-Cerberus human characters, and their attitude towards aliens. Grayson’s slight fetishism and suspicion of his attraction to Liselle, how bestial (in a cool, sexy way) he perceives the Afterlife to be. The way Anderson and Kahlee use turians for their own ends and do not spare a single thought towards those who died directly trying to protect them or Grayson immediately after the fact (they are more interested in Kahlee’s broken fingers and in kissing each other). How they feel disgust watching turians looting Cerberus soldiers, not because it’s disrespectful in general and the deaths are a inherent tragedy but because they are turians and the dead are humans. But it's not even really on them: the narration itself is engrossed by the suffering of humans, but aliens are relegated to setpieces in gore spectacles. Not even Grayson truly cares about the aliens the Reapers make him kill. Nobody does. Not even the aliens among each other: see, once again, Aria and Liselle, or Aria and Sanak. Nobody cares. At the very end of the story, Anderson comes to Kahlee and asks if she gives him permission to have Grayson’s body studied, the same way Cerberus planned to. It’s source of discomfort, but Kahlee gives in as it’s important, and probably what Grayson would have wanted, maybe? So yeah. In the end the only subtextual theme to find here (probably as an accident) is how the Alliance’s good guys are not that different from Cerberus it turns out. And I’m not sure how I feel about that.

7. Lore-approved books, or the art of shrinking an expanding universe

I’d like to open the conversation on a bigger topic: the very practice of game novelization, or IP-books. Because as much as I think Drew Karpyshyn’s final draft should not have ended up reading that amateur given the credits to his name, I really want to acknowledge the realities of this industry, and why the whole endeavor was perhaps doomed from the start regardless of Karpyshyn’s talent or wishes as an author.

The most jarring thing about this reading experience is as follows: I spent almost 80k words exploring this universe with new characters and side characters, all of them supposedly cool and interesting, and I learned nothing. I learned nothing new about the world, nothing new about the characters. Now that it’s over, I’m left wondering how I could chew on so much and gain so little. Maybe it’s just me, but more likely it’s by design. Not on poor Drew. Now that I did IP work myself, I have developed an acute sympathy for anyone who has to deal with the maddening contradictions of this type of business. Let me explain.

IP-adjacent media (in the West at least) sure has for goal to expand the universe: but expand as in bloat, not as in deepen. The target for this book is nerds like me, who liked the games and want more of this thing we liked. But then we’re confronted by two major competitors: the actual original media (in ME’s case, the games) whose this product is a marketing tool for, and fandom. IP books are not allowed to compete with the main media: the good ideas are for the main media, and any meaningful development has to be made in the main media (see: what happened with Kai Leng, or how everyone including me complains about the worldbuilding to the Disney Star Swars trilogy being hidden in the novelization). And when it comes to authorship (as in: taking an actual risk with the media and give it a personal spin), then we risk introducing ideas that complicate the main media even though a ridiculously small percent of the public will be attached to it, or ideas that fans despise. Of course we can’t have the latter. And once the fandom is huge enough, digging into anything the fans have strong headcanons for already risks creating a lot of emotions once some of these are made canon and some are disregarded. As much as I joke about how in Mass Effect you can learn about any gun in excrutiating details but we still don’t know if asaris have a concept for marriage... would we really want to know how/if asaris marry, or aren’t we glad we get to be creative and put our own spin on things? The dance between fandom and canon is a delicate one that can and will go wrong. And IP books are generally not worth the drama for the stakeholders.

Add this to insane deadlines, numerous parties all involved in some way and the usual struggles of book writing, and we get a situation where creating anything of value is pretty much a herculean task.

But then I ask... why do IP books *have* to be considered canon? I know this is part of the appeal, and that removing the “licenced” part only leaves us with published fanfiction, but... yeah. Yeah. I think it could be a fascinating model. Can you imagine having your IP and hiring X amount of distinctive authors to give it their own spin, not as definitive additions to the world but as creative endeavours and authorial deepdives? It would allow for these novels to be comparative and companion to the main media instead of being weird appendages that can never compare, and the structure would allow for these stories to be polished and edited to a higher level than most fanfictions. Of course I’m biased because I have a deep belief in the power of fanfiction as commentary and conversational piece. But I would really love to see companies’ approach to creative risk and canon to change. We might get Disney stuff until we die now, so the least we can ask for is for this content to be a little weird, personal and human.

That’s it. That’s the whole review. Thank you for reading, it was very long and weirdly passionate, have a nice dayyyyy.

#Mass Effect #mass effect retribution #me critical #writing #mass effect novels #anderson #kahlee sanders #Aria T'loak #paul grayson #liselle #salarians #IP conversation #omega #mass effect lore #reapers #book review

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saemi-the-writer · 3 years

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What are your top 10 akumas? 🦋👿

Thanks for your ask! This is quite the challenge to pick, so I will establish some "rules" first:

Only akumas, no amoks or combination Akuma/Amok.

I am rating the akuma, not the whole episode! Which means: the akumas' designs, their power(s) and the fight they have mostly, not the reason the person was akumatized (that could be another top 10).

Very subjective opinion: do I like the design? Is it fun/entertaining to watch? Is this akuma a real threat or a joke?

Now here goes, fly, my pretty akumas, fly!

10. Dark Blade

As I mentioned it already, Dark Blade is an akuma I still enjoy a lot. Probably because I've always loved knights and a good swordfight. Otherwise, Dark Blade is quite a good menace, he knows how to lead his troops and has solid fencing skills. I really like how even his manner of speech gets even more mediaeval and that he has his own motto. The fight is fun to watch

9. Riposte

Swords again Her determination is chilling and her design is neat, I like how her sword has become an extension of her arm. I don't know what to add more, try having a furious ladygirl like that chasing after you and I guess you might have an idea that she's not to be messed with? Also, how she just cuts the sarcophage just proves she's not kidding.

8. Party crasher

I admit that I'm not a big fan of the look, but it fits his theme quite well and he does an excellent job! I mean, if it wasn't for Kim and the Monkey Miraculous, all the other heroes would have been doomed! For an akuma that was created on the spot for an emergency, it was far better than a lot of others. Tip of the hat for this guy.

7. Robostus

While I'm not a big fan of the trope "Machines/Computers/Robots turn against humanity", it can still be interesting and awesome if done well. And here it does quite a nice job, it is quite a good mix of funny and menacing. The fact that Robostus turned against Hawkmoth earns it bonus point, I like when minions turn against the big bad.

6. The Mime

"Be careful of the quiet one" don't you think? His power is really awesome, I mean, he can even create a car! And fighting against invisible weapons is really hard, I love how imprevisible he can be and his expressions in general. If he could mime more thing at once, he might have got closer to get the Miraculouses.

5. Dark Owl

It's a nice tribute to comics heroes like Batman, the design and gimmicks are spot on (pun intended) and he does a great job! The fight is really one of the best to watch and captivating.

4. Zombizou

Not a fan of zombies and yet!! I love the mix of cute, sweet and creepy plus threatening she looks! The way she moves and talks (at least in French, haven't watched other dubs for this episode) gives some shiver at how joyful she sounds! And while I always find it funny how the victims are all "Bisou! Bisou!", it gets spooky when imagining them as classical zombies. I think it hits it well how creepy forcing people to be affectionate and love-starved would turn out.

3. Volpina

Thought I would leave her out? Nope! Now this is a good foe! Volpina is ruthless, clever, vicious and vindicative, very good ingredients for a villain. And the way she uses her power are just... *claps*. This is the episode which got me thinking "Good thing she's an akuma and not a real miraculous wielder! If she can do that as an akuma, I'm afraid of what she would be/do with the real fox miraculous!" she's kinda OP in the end but anyway. Once you see past her illusions, she's less dangerous especially on her own, but as an ally or part of a villain team? On top!

2. Chat Blanc

Okay, as said above, I am not here to critisize the whole episode, etc. And as an akuma, honestly, I cannot put him lower! I was never hyped for the fan theories of Chat Blanc, I found them kind of meh at the time (not all of them though), however, I really like what they did for the official: blue eyes, chilly presence, the bordering insanity in his voice and movements, especially when he sees Ladybug after so many years all alone... MAN, I was all on board for some tragic, heart-wrenching battle and confrontation! Chat Blanc has a lot of tragic villain in him, I really wish it hadn't been wrapped up in only one episode. I grew up watching DBZ so don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of battles/fights that keep going on and on for 10-15 episodes, but there are fights that are worth to be lingered on. Chat Blanc is basically a Chat Noir without restrain and who loose his sanity, so it makes him incredibly dangerous just with that, but his power is also enhanced, no wonder it went to apocalypse! I wish the battle had been longer though, as said before, since not only could have it been even more emotional and amazing to watch, but it would also have add more (obvious) weight to Marinette's trauma and fear that is still present in season 4. That is the reason I can't put him 1st place, that and because he lacks a little spark that brings some excitment.

Honorable mentions: M. Pigeon, Evillustrator, Dark Cupid, Kwami Buster and Princess Fragrance. Some just missed the top 10!

1. Stormy Weather

I never got tired of her! I wish we had more akumas and fights like hers, she had it all! She is the reason why I got into ML in the first place, I still get excited and am impressed at the battle scene. She has presence, uses her power flawlessly and has a lot of rage in her, she is wonderful!! screw Stormy Weather 2.0 why wouldn't you show us that freaking volcano battle?!

#miraculous ladybug #akumas #Saemi's top ten lists #akuma top ten lists #best akumas #in my opinion

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yunoteru4ever · 4 years

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Why do you like Mirai nikki?

It’s tough to even explain it all because there is so much.

One big part is just how intensely twisty it is - the end of every chapter/episode usually had me freaking out for the next installment in a way no other anime or manga has done to me. Esuno is the best I know at introducing a setup, giving you characters that you think you “get,” and then completely flipping expectations into something utterly unexpected that still fits those characters in a wild way. Only Mirai Nikki and Big Order (the manga) have delivered on this to such a degree.

The structure is odd and distinct from most other manga/anime because Esuno is incredibly efficient and focused entirely on keeping big events moving. The “all killer, no filler” mentality of ignoring immediate fallout from events in favor of just skipping all that and focusing on the next major event for our lead characters‘ relationship and/or their “game” is one of the most divisive elements of the thing. Esuno made a conscious decision to ignore the consequences and aftermath of some big things - the bombings at the school, the fugitive experience of our lead duo - in favor of maintaining an intense, driving forward momentum. It’s not that he doesn’t allow for there to BE any fallout, mind you. He inserts big significant timeskips to allow for them or has some simple throwaway dialogue to reference off-panel events, but it’s not something he’s going to spend his time on, and you’re either against this and call it “bad writing” or you totally get what he’s doing and are here for the intense ride this helps create. I am the latter.

Another big part is the soundtrack of the anime, which is just... utterly dynamite. The score by Tatsuya Kato is still the best I’ve heard on any anime with amazing tracks ranging from the pounding “Final Showdown” to the touching “Here With You.” And the actual songs chosen for the OPs and endings.... I mean... that original OP, “Kuusou Mesorogiwi” is still considered among the GOAT for very good reason, and I might like “Blood Teller” even more.

But of course, you know the main reason is the characters. That’s always going to be what keeps me coming back. Yuki is the most relatable and sympathetic protagonist in manga/anime, reacting like a real person to the bizarre and horrific things around him while also struggling with his own fear of getting close to others. His opposite, Yuno, is one the most fascinating characters I’ve seen in fiction, and I could’ve just written this entire response about her and her depths and how much I adore the twisted-yet-beautiful relationship she shares with Yuki. She’s as desperate for a human connection as Yuki is avoidant of them, she’s as brilliant as she is warped, and somehow paradoxically as confident as she is insecure. Minene is so focused on what took her family from her that she can’t sense how much she longs for what she most. Most of the “diary holders” are deeper than they first seem (with a couple of exceptions... I am not going to claim that Third has much going on), and even many simpler characters like Kurisu are expertly handled and utterly captivating to me through a combination of visual flair and hard left turns.

And my god, I haven’t even talked about Akise yet - his origins, what they reveal about both Deus and himself, how his interactions with his friends and MurMur and Reisuke color him in further to make him so delightful to watch and root for...

It’s hard for me to STOP going on about the things I love, I suppose. But I also try to acknowledge the many things people might not like - and even if I talked about the way it’s plotted, I haven’t discussed how cynical and dark it gets. It has a very grim view of human nature in many ways, and that’s very much inherent to the message it tries to send. The more cynical you are, the more likely it is to hit home, I find. But if you’re sensitive to certain topics... well, let’s just agree it’s not for everyone. There is some very, very raw and delicate stuff handled not-so-delicately herein.

I also haven’t addressed the MOST popular thing to hate, which is the central relationship. I get why people are uncomfortable with it. It’s... problematic, to say the least. There are many valid reasons it can turn people off. It’s often unhealthy. But it involves two people who are mentally unhealthy, and it supports the idea that those people are still worthy of love... and that that love can come from the most unlikely of places when you’re least expecting it. Yuki sets out with everything he’s got to avoid Yuno and remember that she’s creepy as fuck, but in the end, he can’t deny how she perfectly provides the things his life was missing. Their fates and Minene’s ending all give a cynical story an ending of optimism and joy - a reminder that if life can be arbitrarily unfair, so too can it become arbitrarily lucky. And for me, that’s just another thing to love about it.

#mirai nikki #future diary #the future diary #sakae esuno

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kmalexander · 4 years

Text

My Reading List for 2020

It’s no secret 2020 has been a challenging year. While upon reflection, I found it to be surprisingly full, like many of us, I still spent the majority of my time at home. One benefit of our new socially-distant stay-at-home culture was the amount of reading I managed to accomplish. Just like previous years, I’ve compiled a list of the books I’ve read over the last three hundred and sixty-six days, and as always, I want to share them with everyone.

This year was hit-or-miss for me reading-wise. There were books I loved and many books I ended up loathing. I found books I know I will re-read and proselytize, but they were often mirrored by other books I hate-read. I also found myself reading a few histories for pleasure, not something I normally do, and I dipped into science fiction much more than in previous years. Audiobooks (

) used to be the mainstay of my daily commute, and this year they became the soundtrack to housework. Not a bad tradeoff. Oh, and as always, I beta-read a couple of great books, and I’m excited to see where those go in the future.

This list correlates with my Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge, but it always includes a few extra since Goodreads doesn’t let me count beta reading, and I don’t list comics or short stories or poetry (new this year!) over there. Remember, this is all strictly reading for pleasure—I typically forgo listing any research/history books I’ve read for a project as I read those differently than I do fiction. This list is always enormous, so l skip reviews except for my favorites in each category. However, I’d invite you to follow me on Goodreads, where I occasionally leave other reviews.

New for this year: with a few exceptions, most links now go to IndieBound instead of Amazon—2020 has been rough on small businesses, and now more than ever, be sure to support your local bookstore. When possible, I am now linking to each author’s personal website—if you’re on the list and I didn’t find your website, please let me know about it. (I won’t link to social media, sorry.)

Novels & Novellas

Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) by Rebecca Roanhorse

Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #1) by Tamsyn Muir

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare

Prosper’s Demon by K.J. Parker

The Crimson Campaign (The Powder Mage Trilogy #2)

by Brian McClellan

Jade War (Green Bone Saga #2) by Fonda Lee

Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

by Patrick Radden Keefe

The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War

by Joanne B. Freeman

They Mostly Come Out at Night (Yarnsworld, #1) (Link goes to Amazon) by Benedict Patrick

Frank on a Gun-Boat by Harry Castlemon

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington, #1) by David Weber

The Reign of the Kingfisher

by T.J. Martinson

RADIO by J. Rushing

Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1) by William Gibson

The Fireman

by Joe Hill

The Cipher by Kathe Koja

The Mist by Stephen King

Control Point (Shadow Ops #1) by Myke Cole

Blood Standard (Isaiah Coleridge #1) by Laird Barron

City of Miracles (The Divine Cities #3) by Robert Jackson Bennett

The Iron Ship (The Gates of the World #1) by K.M. McKinley

Vita Nostra (Metamorphosis Cycle #1)

by Sergey & Marina Dyachenko

Thieftaker (The Thieftaker Chronicles #1) by D. B. Jackson

BETA READING (Literature) by REDACTED

Circe by Madeline Miller

Terrier (The Legend of Beka Cooper #1) by Tamora Pierce

Red Storm Rising

…. again. by Tom Clancy

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Clutter: An Untidy History by Jennifer Howard

The Half Killed by Quenby Olson

The Toll by Cherie Priest

Jurassic Park …again. by Michael Crichton

Seveneves

by Neil Stephenson

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson

Foundation (Foundation #1) by Issac Asimov

Consider Phlebas (Culture #1)

by Iain M. Banks

BETA READING (Historical Horror) by REDACTED

The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper

Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen

Metro 2033

by Dmitry Glukhovsky

Favorite Novel of 2020

In the Valley of the Sun

by Andy Davidson

This sun-baked vampire horror set in Texas unexpectedly became a new favorite. A surprisingly tense, character-focused narrative. Brutal. Anguished. Tormented. Bloody. Lyrical in ways that remind me of Cormac McCarthy without the weight. It’s not shy of confronting the cracked ugliness of humanity and finding the beauty between the fissures. Davidson is an incredible writer, and I immediately purchased his more recent novel after finishing In the Valley of the Sun. We need more horror like this.

Favorite Novel Runners-up of 2020

RADIO

by J. Rushing

A jazz-infused, opium-soaked, historical fantasy that explodes from the opening chapter and never relents until its final pages. A thoroughly fresh debut that’s unlike anything I’ve read before. Rushing brings his unique, well-researched world of 1920s Paris to life with a captivating voice. Don’t expect a saccharine overly-romantic version of Paris; this is a stained, broken, and bloody place—a welcome addition to modern fantasy literature. Jim’s a friend of mine, so be sure to read my interview with him.

City of Miracles

by Robert Jackson Bennett

In recent years, the Divine Cities have become one of my favorite urban fantasy series, mostly for its fresh approach to the genre, atypical characters, and serious exploration of themes oft-ignored within mainstream fantasy. With City of Miracles, Bennett wrapped up the trilogy with a heartbreaking yet thoroughly satisfying ending. This story is a bit tighter and more focused than the previous two while wrapping up various loose ends rather nicely. It’s rare to find a final book in a series that resonates with me as much as City of Miracles did—it’s easily my favorite book in the trilogy.

Honorable Mentions of 2020

I started doing Honorable Mentions in 2018 so I could highlight some of the other standout novels from my year of reading. Below you’ll find many more excellent books, I’ve listed them in order of reading.

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse A unique southwestern approach to post-apocalyptic urban fantasy.

Prosper’s Demon by K. J. Parker A subversive fantasy with a fresh voice and plenty of twists. Nice quick read.

The Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan An excellent sequel, one of the best examples of massive and complex military operations in fantasy.

The Field of Blood by Joanne B. Freeman Phenomenal nonfiction detailing the history of violence in Congress leading up to the U.S. Civil War.

The Cipher by Kathe Koja Deeply unsettling transgressive horror that felt far too familiar. Visceral and enthralling.

Blood Standard by Laird Barron A dark crime/P.I. novel with a heart and a sense of humor. I will be reading more in this series.

The Iron Ship by K.M. McKinley Thoroughly fresh fantasy—huge world, great characters, interesting plot, unique setting. Nearly made my runner up list.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones Disturbing modern horror built around the experiences of first-nation people and the rural poor.

Clutter: An Untidy History by Jennifer Howard The history of stuff told from an all-too-relatable personal experience. Ended up buying a few copies for my family.

Seveneves by Neil Stephenson The moon is destroyed, and humanity only has a short amount of time to survive.

The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper Unique cosmic horror that explores gender identity, relationships, and poverty with a fresh perspective.

Short Stories

An Inhabitant of Carcosa …again. by Ambrose Bierce

And Now His Lordship is Laughing by Shiv Ramdas

How the Trick is Done by A.C. Wise

The Yellow Sign …again. by Robert W. Chambers

Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island by Nibedita Sen

Give the Family My Love by A. T. Greenblatt

The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power by Karen Osborne

The Masque of the Red Death …again. by Edgar Allen Poe

The Repairer of Reputations …again. by Robert W. Chambers

Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu

Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar

Tideline by Elizabeth Bear

Favorite Short Stories of 2020

The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power

by Karen Osborne

Generation ship! Class struggle! Religious ritual! Rebellion! Murder! Control! The complexity told within this genre-mashup was astounding. Such a rich world crafted in a way that feels effortless while maintaining a rich narrative was impressive. It’s no secret I’m drawn to stories that are hard to pigeon-hole into a specific genre, and that is fully represented here. Well worth a read.

Favorite Short Story Runners-up

Paper Menagerie

by Ken Liu

This heartbreaking story about magical origami, cultural identity, and family was the first piece of fiction to win a Hugo, a Nebula, and a World Fantasy Award. And after reading it, it was easy to see why. Touching and reflective. A masterwork of speculative short fiction.

Graphic Novels

Preacher: Book One by Garth Ennis (Author) & Steve Dillon (Artist)

Saga, Vol. 8 by Brian K. Vaughan (Author) & Fiona Staples (Artist)

Preacher: Book Two by Garth Ennis (Author) & Steve Dillon (Artist)

Once & Future, Vol. 1 by Kieron Gillen (Author), Tamra Bonvillain (Artist), & Dan Mora (Artist)

American Vampire, Vol. 2 by Scott Snyder (Author) & Rafael Albuquerque (Artist)

Paper Girls, Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan (Author), Cliff Chiang (Artist)

Preacher: Book Three by Garth Ennis (Author) & Steve Dillon (Artist)

Die, Vol. 2 by Kieron Gillen (Author) & Stephanie Hans (Artist)

Favorite Graphic Novel of 2020:

Preacher: Book One

by Garth Ennis (Author) & Steve Dillon (Artist)

I didn’t expect to like Preacher. I bounced off the series hard when I was younger, writing off Ennis as a “blasphemous shock jock” and nothing more. But revisiting it as a middle-aged adult revealed a different sort of comic. The offensive transgressive material is still there, but beneath it is something much more—a book with more heart and humanity than one would be able to judge by its surface and laced with merciless satire that still rings relevant twenty-five years later.

Favorite Graphic Novel Runner-up of 2020:

Paper Girls, Volume 2

by Brian K. Vaughan (Author), Cliff Chiang (Artist)

Volume 1 nearly made my runner-up list last year. On the surface, it’s a time-jumping story about a group of friends caught in the middle of a future war. But beneath those sci-fi trappings, there is so much more here. It’s a book about being a kid and the expectations therein, complications with friendship, and the complexities of growing up. The characters are fantastic, and the story moves along at a clip, making it impossible to put the trade down. I’m ready for volume 3.

Poems

So this year, I’m including some of the poems I read in 2020. I hinted at doing this last year. But this is really a trial run. In reality, I read more poems than listed below, but I didn’t do an outstanding job keeping track of them. Because this is the first time for poetry on this list, I’m going to skip picking a favorite. Hopefully, I’ll be back on track next year.

Small Kindnesses by Danusha Laméris

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendel Berry

Beneath the Sweater and the Skin by Jeannette Encinias

The Woods by Melanie Batista

I Confess by Alison Luterman

The Waste Land …again. by T. S. Eliot

Near a Raven by Mike Keith

Insha’Allah by Danusha Laméris

We Lived Happily During the War …again. by Ilya Kaminsky

Christmas Greetings to Felis …again by H. P. Lovecraft …again.

Passing Solstice by Ken Hada

Winter Solstice by Hilda Morley

Childhood Memory from the Old Victorian House on Warner by Beth Cato

Raw With Love by Charles Bukowski

So that’s my reading list for 2020. It’s been an interesting year in reading for me. As promised, we now have a poetry section, and I hope to expand that in the future. There are some great poems there, so be sure to explore them further. Despite my ups and downs, I’m overall quite happy with the books, stories, graphic novels, and poetry I read over the last twelve months. They were excellent distractions from the chaos of the year, and it was refreshing to lose myself in other worlds. 2020 will be behind us soon, and I am looking forward to the worlds I’ll discover in 2021.

How about you? What were the standout books, graphic novels, short stories, or poems you read this year? I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment and let me know!

Are you looking for a good book? Want to see my reading lists from previous years? Check any of the links below and see what I was reading in the bygone days of old.

• 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 •

Next year, why not join me? Goodreads does a reading challenge every year, and I am an active participant. First, follow me on Goodreads (leave me a review while you’re there), and once the New Year arrives, participate in the Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2020.

Want to stay in touch with me? Sign up for Dead Drop, my rare and elusive newsletter. Subscribers get news, previews, and notices on my books before anyone else delivered directly to their inbox. I work hard to make sure it’s not spammy and full of interesting and relevant information. SIGN UP TODAY →

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redfire-blackash-whitegold · 5 years

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Citizen’s Arrest

Trevor wasn’t usually the one to suggest the city-wide antics, the odd and violent games the Lads liked to play. And to be fair, it was maybe more of Gavin’s idea than his, but it was still something Trevor said that sparked the idea, Trevor who allowed the game to play out, Trevor who set the rules.

Jack and the Lads were playing a game of their own at the time, calling muggers on Gavin. They took a sadistic pleasure in letting the mugger succeed, only to rip his victory away from him along with his life. Trevor joined the party late, more hoping to end the game than play it himself, stop it from getting too far out of hand as it often did, and reign them in for a meeting. He caught the next mugger himself, calling out “citizen’s arrest!” as he did so, and took the mugger to the police station himself, thus interrupting the game as it was being played.

There was something about it, how Trevor let the guy live, how he changed the rules so completely that captivated Gavin. So after the meeting, he proposed a new game, only this time, Gavin wanted everyone to play.

And it did have its advantages in its own way, a game that was a complete and total mockery of the police force, both with the amount of criminals they would bring in as well as the ops that would likely get destroyed, but also that it would be them, the Fakes, bringing in the criminals, right under their noses. Not to mention the advantage of taking down so many rival criminals, or at least enough foot-soldiers to cripple business for a short time.

So Trevor agreed to play Gavin’s game, and agreed that everyone else would too. The game: whoever brings in the most criminals within a 24 hour period wins. They would start at eight in the morning the next day, so no one would have too much time to plan. There would be no killing allowed, or at least it wouldn’t count towards the total; they couldn’t themselves be arrested; and the quarry either had to be caught doing a crime, or the Fakes had to present enough evidence for the cops to recognize one.

Matt got the biggest head-start on the game. He had files already stored, ready to eventually turn over to the police or sell to the highest bidder. Incriminating evidence he spent months collecting on various gang members, white collar criminals, and hackers, anyone with a paper trail. By 10 in the morning Matt had doomed ninety eight people to a lengthy court process. He burst into the penthouse where only a few Fakes were hanging around, plotting their own schemes, to mock them. His win was short lived, however, as it was determined that since Matt wasn’t the one to bring them in to the station, it didn’t count.

Jeremy’s strategy, rather than wasting time trying to find criminals, was to make some. He walked around the streets, trying to pick fights with people. When he found someone walking alone or in a pair, he would bump into them, then yell. Laying the blame on someone else for something that was very clearly Jeremy’s fault never failed to spark a bit of tension. The real trouble was getting the poor hapless sap to throw the first punch. And stopping him from doing it himself. Jeremy was good at getting into fights, good at running his mouth. A bit of pushing, a touch of jabbing and most people could be convinced to commit assault. Then it was just a matter of winning the fight and dragging them in to the station to press charges. By the end of the day Jeremy had 14 arrests.

Ryan didn’t have to look very hard for criminals, he already knew where some were. There was a gang muscling into their territory, begging to be dealt with. And the Fakes were going to deal with them eventually, once they had a chance. But there’s no time like the present and Ryan was drawn by the idea of getting multiple people all at once. The hard part was taking them down without killing them. And getting everyone over to the station by himself. The logistical issues were not something Ryan had to deal with a lot in the crew, so he ended up spending most of the day planning out a night raid. He got his hands on night vision goggles, rubber bullets, tasers, stun guns, smoke grenades, and mace. The mace was especially fun to use. As for bringing them in to the station, he tied everyone up to various poles in the warehouse and took them in two-by two. He had 14 arrests too.

Fiona knew where to find plenty of criminals herself. Her old clients. The issue was, she didn’t want to sell out her old contacts on the off chance that she ever needed them again. Of course, that didn’t stop her from using them to try to win the game. So Fiona found herself a partner, in this case Alfredo, to play the game alongside. She would lead him to her old contacts, make sure they got evidence, and Alfredo would be the one to take them out. The idea was that they would share their numbers, so that at the end of the contest they would have made the same number of arrests and either win as a team or lose as one. The pair stayed up for the entire 24 hours, planning, planting, and nabbing their targets. By hour 18, Fiona was getting tired and antsy, less and less able to stay patient while Alfredo had all the fun. So she herself threw on a makeshift mask and made some arrests of her own, then decided to forgo the mask altogether. After all, she did love to kick some ass herself. Together, they had 21.

Gavin basically had the same strategy for this game as the last one. He called muggers, low level drug dealers, and fixers to him, rather than going out and finding any in the wild. Gavin made sure to buy extra taser charges for the sake of the game. At the end of the day he only had 5 arrests. For him, a lot more of the fun came from watching others, and so he spent a lot of time tailing his fellow crew-mates, watching from the penthouse, following behind them mostly unnoticed, even joining Geoff for an arrest or two. It was a game he knew he was going to lose from the very beginning, so he wanted to make sure he was having as much fun as he could, how he could. Jack, similarly to Ryan, planned a raid. She took the day tricking a whole chain of arms dealers to one of their own warehouses, where she gassed the entire building with knockout gas. She loaded them up into a bus she got her hands on, where she drove them down to the station for a total of 23.

Matt’s actual strategy involved him basically acting as a vigilante. He roamed the streets on the hunt for crime, planning to interfere if he ever found it. He wasn’t entirely sure how the hell he was going to take down any criminals, maybe wave a gun at them and hope they surrender? Luckily it never came up. Matt’s actual number ended up being 0. Geoff went after criminals and dealers he knew, a strategy made difficult by so many other crew members doing the same. 7. Michael made an interesting decision to walk into a corporate building to try to root out white collar crime, leading to his own expulsion by security and consequent arrest after he fought with the security guards. Disqualification. Lindsay somehow managed to kill every criminal she came across. 0.

Trevor himself had a much different strategy for playing the game. He stayed awake all night before they began, studying law books, reading up on weird laws online, familiarizing himself with any and every way to commit a crime. Misdemeanours, indictable offences, all the different ways to commit fraud, all the different ways to commit mischief. When the day started he was catching people for doing all sorts of things, jaywalking, rolling stops at stop signs, parking too close to a fire hydrant. In fact, the sheer number of parking offences made Trevor incredibly frustrated, as it was far too time consuming to track down the owners of the cars in order to bring them in. Picking up a penny off the street was theft of government property, a typo on a sign in the window of a corner store was false advertising, throwing a frisbee without permission at the beach was one of those weird laws that even the cops didn’t know about when they took Trevor’s statement for the millionth time that day. In fact, Trevor did so well in the first half of the day that he even went home to get four glorious hours of sleep before continuing his crusade. By eight in the morning the next day, Trevor had 54 legitimate arrests.

The police stations were busy as three shifts of officers over three different detachments had to deal with a sudden influx of citizens arrests being made in Los Santos. The stations were hectic as people tried to find space for everybody, scrambled to get paperwork done, and tried, half heartedly, to figure out what was going on. Trevor had, without a doubt, won the game, crippled the LSPD, and created the perfect opening for a heist the next day. An opportunity the FAHC never bothered to capitalize on. Everyone was far too exhausted to do anything but sleep, even Trevor.

#fahc #fake ah crew #fahc trevor #fahc gavin #fahc fiona #fahc matt #fahc ryan #the crew #it's my turn to write

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trust-goes-both-ways · 5 years

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Winterprincess Week 2019 Day 4: Enemies to Lover’s AU

A/n: Well I’m super late to the party. But after getting this idea at 9 am this morning and spending literal hours on it, I’ve managed to turn what was supposed to be a short oneshot for winterprincess week into..something else. I can’t believe I’m gonna try and do it again tomorrow. Well later today by now. Sorry about any grammar/punctuation mistakes. Hope you enjoy!

The United States Military had been crazy to send soldiers into Wakanda. Even their elite Captain America, who’d never failed in a mission. Well- never failed in a mission so far. Tensions had been rising between the two countries for the last few years, ever since America learned there was a ‘potential’ source of vibranium under the mountains of Wakanda. But the rest of the world, Wakanda had no intention of being duped into allowing America access into their borders and to their resources. When America realized Wakanda wasn’t just some third world country that would be ever so grateful for American aid, she turned next to what she knew best- war.

Okay, so they weren’t actually at war. But Shuri was smart enough to know where there was soldiers, there was a fight brewing on the horizon. A fight she didn’t want anywhere near her peaceful country. Which is why she sat on the other side of a jail cell, distastefully studying the prisoner they’d brought in.

“Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, part of the 107th Infantry Regiment. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 10th, 1993. Sniper, with at least a dozen confirmed kills. You’re team has spent the last few years dismantling HYDRA facilities and taking out remaining Nazis. So tell me, Sergeant Barnes,” Shuri lowered the tablet she was reading from and looked the man straight in the eye, “Why are you bothering Wakanda?”

Barnes stood with his arms crossed in the center of his cell, staring right back at her. He was by far the dirtiest thing there. The cells of the prisoner were kept sparkling clean and sterile. Barnes on the other hand was caked in mud and sweat, along with dried blood from a few minor injuries. He showed some bruises and scrapes but nothing serious. His posture rigid, his stare dark- he said nothing.

Shuri sighed, and looked at the guards on either side of her. The two Dora Milaje mimicked the soldier’s stance. She could already tell this was going to take a while. So instead of focusing on the first issue, she zeroed in on the one she’d been curious about.

“What happened to your arm?” she nodded at the metal plated appendage on his left. It was silver except for the Captain America logo painted below the shoulder.

Finally, the soldier reacted, quirking his eyebrows slightly. “What, it doesn’t tell you in that file you found on me?”

“Just that you lost your arm in service to your country on a classified mission.”

“You hacked the US government.” Barnes observed.

“Your government is easy to hack.” Shuri told him bluntly.

Barnes may have actually smiled, but it was so small a motion she couldn’t tell. He rolled his left shoulder back, holding up the arm for her to observe. “Fell off a train in Austria.” He told her. “Arm was ripped off on impact.”

“Was that one of your team’s efforts to take down HYDRA?”

“We were bringing in Armin Zola himself.”

“The workmanship is shoddy.”

“Excuse me?” Bucky said, genuinely caught off guard and just maybe offended. Good, Shuri thought.

“Your arm.” Shuri clarified. “That model won’t last more than a few years, it’s not nearly sophisticated enough to serve more than a few basic functions, I’m guessing the wiring needs consistent replacing and fixing, and even from here I can tell you don’t get full range of motion.” She listed just a few of the problems she saw with the arm. She could build a better one in a day. Hell, give her a week and she could design and build the perfect upgrade.

Her mind was halfway through the schematics when she remembered to tap down the need to improve, and create. This was an enemy soldier, not someone who needed her help.

“The best scientists in America built this arm.” He told her. Oh yeah, he was definitely offended.

“I pity American science if that’s the best they can do.” Shuri told him.

“I’d like to see you do better.”

“Believe me, I could.” Shuri promised.

Now Barnes definitely smiled. It was a dangerous look. Despite the fact he was in the cell and she was keeping him there, he looked at her like a wolf that had caught sight of its prey. Like all he wanted to do was dig his claws under her skin. It was dangerous and sexy and errant and promising all at the same time. Shuri bit down on her lip. She should not be eyeing the attempted colonizer.

“And I thought Wakanda would be another country stuck in the last century. Instead it’s got technology that would make a Stark cry and a princess that would too.” Bucky said. Wait, was he teasingher?

Shuri allowed herself a small smile. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ayo tensing. It’s okay, she thought. We’re just talking. I’m establishing myself with the enemy. Building trust so he talks to me. At least that’s what she told herself.

“Wakanda has many wonders, Sergeant Barnes. You can understand why it makes us protective.”

“Secretive is the word I’d use” he told her.

“But not threatening. All the records we have show you and the Howling Commandos have done good work taking out HYDRA, rescuing POWS, shutting down the human experiments in Sokovia; all those good deeds, and yet you come armed and uninvited into a country that just wants to be left alone. That doesn’t add up to me.” Shuri stated.

It was true, that even in Wakanda they knew about the Howling Commandos, America’s elite combat unit led by the super-soldier Steve Rogers, aka Captain America. A SHIELD scientist had developed the serum that turned Captain Rogers into the perfect warrior, but had been assassinated just afterwards by HYDRA. In order to avenge him, Steve Rogers had organized the Howling Commandos with the intention of taking HYDRA down once and for all. James Barnes had been there since the beginning; Steve Roger’s oldest and closest friend.

“I’m a soldier, princess. I go where my country sends me.” Bucky’s tone indicated she hadn’t gotten him to spill; he’d merely decided to let her know.

“So you don’t even know why your government sent you here?” Shuri pushed, but Barnes didn’t answer. “If I were you, Sergeant Barnes, I’d be a little more helpful. Your team has retreated back across the border, and they won’t get in again. If you want to go home, you need to tell me what the Americans want.”

“I’ve been taken prisoner before, Princess. Trust me, they’ll come for me.”

Sensing she was getting no further today, Shuri stood up to leave, but not before turning over her shoulder to say, “You should settle in, Sergeant Barnes. You’ll be here for a while.”

A while turned into a week, which turned into a month, which in turn started to drive Bucky insane. He often found himself mentally berating Steve and the rest of the Commandos, thinking he was ready to be rescued whenever they would hurry up and get here. Of course he knew it wasn’t really their fault. Steve would never leave him to rot, which means the princess had meant what she said about them not finding another way into the country. Either that or SHIELD had pulled them back. Fucking government bureaucracy.

At least he couldn’t really complain about the accommodations. Wakandan prisoners were nicer than some motels he’d stayed in back home. He’d been able to shower and given clean clothes every day. Even the food was insanely good. The only problem, besides being a prisoner, was he was bored. There was nothing to do except stare at the ceiling all day. He was so sick of being left with his own thoughts, he looked forward to his daily visits from the princess.

To be fair, he probably would have looked forward to those anyway. The young princess of Wakanda had made very few public appearances with her brother when he emerged to address the world. The few pictures and minimal information on her did nothing to convey how beautiful she was in real life, or how clever.

She’d asked a decent question- why had they come to Wakanda? Truthfully the mission hadn’t sat right with any of them, but since they had finally dismantled HYDRA, SHIELD and the higher-ups had been eager to put the Howling Commandos on other missions, ones where regular Ops teams were likely to fail but where their elite soldiers would succeed. They’d been tasked to come scout the areas where there was thought to be possible sources of vibranium. The number of doubts in that sentence alone should have convinced them not to do it. But they were good soldiers, loyal agents. So they’d taken the assignment and gotten ambushed by border guards for their trouble.

Of course one thing Bucky knew now is that Wakanda did have vibranium, and lots of it. He could see the city from the small window of his cell, and even the tech he could see within the prison was unlike anything he’d ever seen. Stuff that Howard or his wayward son Tony Stark could never dream up was operating commonplace in the city. It was brilliant.

And it didn’t take him long to realize who was behind the brilliant inventions. Shuri had schooled him enough times in their conversations he quickly put together a picture of just how smart she was. And she was. Like could probably teach Stark or Banner a few things smart.

And damn if she wasn’t nice to look at too.

Bucky blamed his irrational feelings of the boredom. Of course he’d be attracted to the one person who made his day any interesting. If she happened the beautiful, charming, bright, incredibly intelligent princess of the nation currently holding him captive, so be it.

Fuck. Bucky hoped Steve would get here soon.

Shuri knew after a few weeks that Barnes had told them all he would without resorting to more extreme interrogation tactics. And frankly, Shuri had no desire to do so. It was clear to her Barnes wasn’t some radical or extremist. He wasn’t driven by greed and power like Klaue had been. He wasn’t trying to kill anyone. What he’d said that first day was true- he was a soldier, and he went where his country told him. Shuri could sense he was regretting that decision.

It wasn’t Wakandan policy to reach out to other nations, which means they had to wait for the American government to open discussion to get Sergeant Barnes back, which they had yet to do, probably because they didn’t want to admit they’d sent agents their in the first place. But a quick hack into SHIELD communications told her the rest of the Howling Commandos weren’t happy about the wait, and that a much more likely course of action would be their return for their comrade.

It was a messy situation that didn’t come with a simple answer. Shuri found herself spending more time at her daily meetings with Sergeant Barnes in an attempt to understand him and his team. She didn’t even bother bringing Dora Milaje anymore.

“You seem to have a lot of faith in your team, Sergeant Barnes, even after all this time. What makes you so certain they’ll come for you?” she asked one day.

“I’ve been with them for a long time. I’ve got their backs and they got mine.” Barnes said while leaning against his cot. He didn’t seem to mind talking to her about these things. “When you go through the kind of things we have, it forms a bond of trust that nothing breaks.”

“You mean your missions together?”

“Some of them. But it’s other stuff too. Nat’s got a past she’s not proud of. Barton’s got secrets he doesn’t want anyone to know. But we know. All of it, everything there is to know about another person. Because when you’re out risking your neck and trusting someone else with your life, you realize you can trust them with anything.” He told her seriously. He got a faraway look in his eyes, and Shuri actually pitied him. At the same tie, she envied him.

“I can’t imagine having that kind of bond with someone.” She admitted.

That brought his focus back to her. “Don’t you have people you trust?”

Shuri crossed her arms. “Of course.” She said. Then, “I mean, I trust a lot of people. I trust the Dora Milaje to protect me because it’s their sworn duty. I trust my assistants to do their job, though maybe not with my life. I trust my brother completely. But he’s so busy being king these days he hardly has time to see me.”

Barnes leaned forward. “But what about friends?” he pried. Shuri wasn’t unaware of how their positions had reversed, and he’d become the interrogator. But she only shrugged.

“I don’t have a lot of friends.” She admitted, eyes drifting away from him. “Most of the time I’m too busy, and even when I’m not there aren’t a lot of people who are willing to be themselves around a princess.”

When he didn’t respond she looked back at him, only to find him staring intensely at her. The look made her breath hitch. It made her feel like he was seeing straight through her. It made her nervous. It made her excited.

“I can’t imagine how anyone wouldn’t want to be around you, princess.” He said finally.

Shuri felt her face turn red and knew she had to get out of there before she said something she’d regret. Hastily she stood up from her chair.

“I have to be getting on.” She explained. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sergeant Barnes.”

“Bucky.” He called as she turned to go, stopping her in her tracks. She turned back to face him.

“Pardon?” she asked.

“Call me Bucky.”

She was definitely blushing, but she nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Bucky.”

Shuri stared at a holographic schematic for 20 minutes before realizing she hadn’t made a single effort to work on it. She looked around, checking to be sure her lab was empty. Seeing it was, she dropped her head into her hands and groaned.

This could not be real. She could not be crushing on a foreign agent. That was currently in her prison. An American foreign agent who was in her prison for attempting to invade her country.

T’Challa was going to kill her.

Except… it wasn’t that crazy, was it? He was just a patriot, doing what his country said. If T’Challa asked her to do something for the good of Wakanda, no matter how immoral it may seem, wouldn’t she still do it?

And Sergeant Barnes…Bucky… had been so real with her. She new she wasn’t an expert on everything; that a lifetime of an overprotective family and burying herself in her work had left her naïve about relationships and men, but this didn’t feel like manipulation. It didn’t feel like he was playing with her emotions. It’d been six weeks and he hadn’t once tried to convince her to free him, just continued resolutely believing his team would come for him. And the way he’d looked at her… maybe she wasn’t crazy after all.

Or maybe she’d really spent too much time alone in her lab and now was falling for the first person to pay attention to her all because he was dark and mysterious and incredibly handsome.

Yeah, T’Challa was definitely going to kill her.

It was in the middle of their daily ‘interrogation’ when his arm fritzed out. Bucky felt the spark feedback into his shoulder, causing him to yell in pain and jump up mid-sentence, wrestling the thing off him. He twisted and pulled at the shoulder joint, cussing the whole time with words that would have gotten his mouth washed with soap if his mom had heard them.

He had just gotten it detached when it was taken out of his hands. Looking up he found Shuri standing right beside him, carefully examining the metal appendage.

“It’s supposed to get weekly maintenance to keep that from happening.” He explained. “They circuitry is super complicated, in order to let me have as much motion as possible. Problem is there are so many parts the electric currents can move too fast, which overheats the system and blows out the electrodes reading my muscle movements.”

Shuri was examining the smoking end of the limb with such inquisitiveness he had a bad feeling his arm was about to dismantled and studied. What she said still surprised him though.

“I can fix it for you.”

“What?”

“The electrodes. It’s an easy replacement. I can open it up and see if I can do anything about the circuitry too, if you’d like.” She looked up at him with a gaze so full of hopeful eagerness, Bucky immediately knew this was what she lived for. Developing technology. Taking things and making them better. Finding ways to constantly improve in order to help others.

“Have at it.” He told her.

She left at once to run back to her lab, arm in hand. It wasn’t until after she’d gone that Bucky realized what had just happened. She’d stepped inside the cell with him. Of course he knew the barrier keeping him locked up was a special force field designed with his specific DNA so he couldn’t pass through. The people tasked with bring him food and necessities were always able to come in by simply walking through. But Shuri had just walked in. She hadn’t hesitated to come help him. She hadn’t been afraid to enter the cell with him. That alone made him unbelievable, unreasonably happy.

Fuck, he needed Steve to save him soon before he did something stupid like fall in love with the Princess of Wakanda.

Shuri stared at her screen, the faint glow illuminating the otherwise dark room. Her bedroom computer wasn’t used for much besides personal entertainment and correspondence, and jotting down the basics of an idea when she had one at random in the middle of the night before falling back asleep. But the notification ping was set to loud and she’d been sleeping lightly anyway, so she found herself staring back at an email at 2 am while the rest of the country was asleep. She almost couldn’t believe what she read. Almost. Her faith in technology held her over.

Steve Rogers had replied to her email.

T’Challa’s decision to open Wakanda to the rest of the world had been a huge surprise to them all, but completely out of the blue. With superheroes appearing all over the world, aliens showing up, calls for the Earth to band together, now was the perfect time for Wakanda to come out of the shadows. And sure, the Howling Commandos attempted infiltration wasn’t the most important thing on his mind, but he was smart enough to know he wanted to be in control of entering their borders, and that one attempt was likely indicative of more.

It would be a big process, so T’Challa had been ready to put everyone to work on what would he hoped would be an open cultural and scientific exchange. Before he could disappear into the project though, Shuri had been sure to catch up with her brother and put in her suggestion to return Bucky to his home. Surprisingly, she hadn’t needed to push at all.

“I agree it would be best to return Sergeant Barnes before we go public. We want America to know they trust us. He can act as an olive branch. See him returned but do it quietly; I don’t want the whole world knowing we’ve held an American hero prisoner for the past several weeks.” He’d instructed her. Shuri had quickly found Captain America’s personal contact information and sent a short message explaining the situation. And only several hours later, here was his reply, wary but still willing to do whatever it took to get Bucky back. For a minute she was almost tempted to hold off on the reply. Replying meant action, and action meant Bucky would leave, and she’d be back to having no one to talk to.

She shook the selfish thought off as soon as she had it. Bucky was a good man. He deserved to make it home.

Bucky was dozing when the sudden sound of footsteps rose him. He pushed himself up on his good arm instinctively, only to find Shuri and two Dora Milaje arriving at his cell.

“What’s going on, Princess?” he asked.

“It’s time to go.” She said simply, pressing a button to disable to barrier. The wall disappeared.

“Go, go where?” Bucky asked, still confused. Surely this wasn’t an attempt to spring him. Even if Shuri had gotten it into her head to commit treason, the Dora Milaje would never.

Shuri smiled then, and it was so bright and adorable he suddenly decided he didn’t care if this was a rescue op or a dead man’s walk. Fortunately he didn’t have to worry about that.

“On your feet, soldier.” Shuri ordered. “Captain America’s come to get you.”

Shuri joined Bucky in the back of a truck while the Dora Milaje rode up front. The two sat on either side facing each other, with another bench across the front. In the advanced Wakandan car, it would be a short journey to neighboring Kenya. The meeting point Shuri had given Captain Rogers was only a couple miles from the border. Close enough to get there quickly and far enough that they shouldn’t have to fly to close to Wakandan airspace.

The ride felt unnaturally quiet. They both buzzed with a nervous, excited energy, but neither new exactly what to say to one another. Finally, Shuri saw an opening when she caught Bucky looking at the case by her feet.

“Here,” she said, picking up the case and placing it on the seat between them. She opened it and sat back, giving Bucky the chance to examine its contents, “this is for you.”

He leaned forward, studying the prosthetic arm with care. He picked it up with good hand, seemingly surprised at the lightweight.

“This isn’t the arm I gave you, Princess.” He observed. Shuri chuckled.

“No the one you had before was…embarrassing. I really did mean to fix it, but I got so caught up in improvements it was easier to just start fresh.” She took the arm from him and held it up to point out some of the finer details. “It’s made of vibranium.” She said. “I thought Captain America didn’t deserve to be the only one with a cool vibranium weapon.”

“Technically, Steve’s shield is not a weapon.” Bucky pointed out. Shuri chuckled again.

“It’s completely myoelectric, and I’ve designed the sensors so that they can pick up on even micro-movements. It has full range of motion. You’ll be able to everything you could with your real arm. Except this one is ten times stronger, unbreakable, and completely detachable.”

Shuri’s face glowed as she described the invention. Bucky couldn’t even focus on the arm- he was completely taken by her smile.

“Oh, and I want to show the best part. Put it on.” Bucky took the arm, and with a little help from Shuri quickly figured out how to latch it into place. He felt a faint buzz in his shoulder at first as the electrodes adjusted, and found Shuri was right. He had full control over his new limb. Amazed, he rolled his shoulder, curled his fingers, twisted his arm. The arm worked perfectly.

“Princess,” he started to say but stopped when he found her kneeling in front of him. She caught his new arm by the wrist and held it palm up.

“I want to show the best part.” She said, and ran a finger down his palm. Bucky shuttered at the tingle it sent up his arm, then gasped and stared in amazement.

“I noticed your last arm didn’t have an sensory indicators. Functional, but it didn’t really let you feel anything. So I made sure you’d be able to feel anything you touched with this one.” She punctuated her point by tracing her finger over it again. “Feel that?”

“I do.” Bucky answered, still staring at the incredible girl in front of him. She looked nervous, focusing on his open palm instead of his face.

Not totally sure what he was doing, Bucky pulled back his arm and Shuri with it, pulling her up to sit on the seat next to him. They sat turned to face each other, neither saying anything for a minute. But unlike the silence from before, this didn’t feel unnatural. This felt expectant.

“Can I ask you a question, Bucky?” Shuri said softly.

“Ask me anything, Princess.”

“You said you lost your arm in a fall. But I did the math and the physics that would cause an arm to be ripped from the body…would kill you instantly. How’s that possible?”

Bucky sighed. Shuri was afraid she’d pried too far, but he answered before she could take it back.

“Do you remember the day we first met, and I told you I’d been taken prisoner before?” Shuri nodded. “That experience wasn’t nearly as pleasant as this one. Zola’s boss, Johann Schmidt, was obsessively trying to recreate the super soldier serum that gave Steve his powers. He used prisoners as test subjects. He injected with something. Not the super soldier serum but something close, that gave me the strength to survive the fall.”

Shuri’s face twisted in horror. “He experimented on you.”

“Horrible as it was, I’m grateful it happened. If it hadn’t I’d be dead.”

“I’m still sorry.”

“Don’t be. You know, you’re the first scientist I’ve liked since then? The rest of them give me anxiety but you, I know you’re never gonna use your inventions for evil. It means a lot to me knowing you can be so good.”

Shuri’s breath hitched. In the dark truck bed, they leaned closer, until there was only a hairbreadth of space between them. Which is exactly when the ride jerked to a stop.

“Your Highness,” one of the Dora called from the front. “We’re here.”

“As is Captain Rogers.” The other said.

The two pulled apart, all at once relieved and devastated to have missed the moment. Standing, Shuri pushed open the back to reveal a SHIELD quinjet waiting in the plain. Standing by the entry ramp, looking impressive, imposing, and incredibly patriotic was the one and only Captain America. Several people stood waiting on the ramp behind him, all anxiously watching the truck. These were the Howling Commandos Bucky had talked about. The friends he trusted so much.

“Looks like they’re waiting for you.” She told Bucky.

“Yeah.” He replied. “Looks like it.”

She stepped back to allow him to hop out of the truck. Immediately faces of the waiting soldiers lit up, relief and excitement flooding their features. Shuri new she should let Bucky go to them, so she didn’t say anything. But her heart leapt when he turned around to address her one last time.

“Thank you, Princess, for everything.” He took her hand delicately in his. “Maybe if Wakanda really does open to the rest of the world, I’ll get the chance to see you again.” He pressed a gentle, gentlemanly kiss on her knuckles. Never breaking eye contact while doing so.

Just as he turned to leave, Shuri tightened her grip and said, “Shuri.”

Bucky turned around, brow quirked. “What?”

“You can call me Shuri.” She said, and then before she had time to think too much, she leaned out of the trucked and kissed him. Their lips met and she swore there were sparks as she kissed him soft but firmly. It lasted only a second and was over all too soon.

“For the next time we see each other.” She explained, pulling herself back into the truck. Then Bucky smiled, wide and happy this time, with promises of laughter and kisses. It was just as sexy as that first, dark smile had been all those years ago.

“I’ll hold you to that, Shuri.”

#winterprincess #royalwolf #winterprincess week 2019 #winterprincess week #winterprincess fic #bukri #bukri fic #@winterprincess-week

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nomadicism · 7 years

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Space Explorer Kogane

I try really hard not to read too much into what I call “Vehicle Voltron coincidences” that I spot in Voltron Legendary Defender, but the way that Keith’s father looks suspiciously like Commander Hawkins has kept my attention since S2. I assume this might be a case of “some tropes just write themselves,” but here’s what I came up with anyway.

First, what do we know about Keith’s father?

During the Blade of Marmora trials, Keith’s mind placed his father in the shack. Hypothetically that means that his father used the shack earlier in Keith’s life, and before Keith used it prior to the events of s1e1 (unless what’s shown is a mind-scape collaged together from Keith’s wants/desires rather than having any basis in real memory).

Keith’s father is shown as using the equipment in the shack. Equipment that looks like what you’d use for tuning into wave frequencies (radio or otherwise).

He gives Keith the Marmoran blade, telling him that it belonged to his mother.

Wears brown/neutral colors (even though the sequence has a sepia tone wash, other colors are present enough to compare against).

Physical traits: dark hair lightly parted on the left and swept to the right, square jaw, prominent cheekbones, thick eye brows, dark/grey-ish eye color, and small scar through eyebrow on left side.

What we don’t know about Keith’s father:

When he gave Keith the blade.

When he last used the shack.

His whereabouts and reasons for it appearing as though he is no longer a part of Keith’s life.

How he met Keith's mother.

What we can infer/assume:

Since this is a Y7 show and Keith’s background is already complicated, it’s safe to assume that this is his biological father.

That he was looking for something without support from authorities, and does not appear to be a crackpot amateur.

That his clothing, shack, and gear/tech is rugged enough that he was working on this while off-grid, likely to hide what he was doing as the windows in the shack are shown covered.

That he must have liked an alien enough for Keith to be born, which means that he wasn’t a xenophobe and not put off by the idea of a relationship.

Someone’s got something to hide.

About Commander Hawkins.

The top two photos at the beginning of this post are from the DDP comics, and the middle two are from the Vehicle Voltron season of DotU.

In the DDP continuity, it is Hawkins that sends Keith, Sven, Pidge, Lance, and Hunk to Arus in search of Voltron. He does so without approval or support from his superior officers in the Galaxy Garrison who don’t believe that his theories regarding Voltron are true. Even after he’s proven correct, he’s demoted as punishment. The reason that I bring up the DDP comics is that several “new-to-Voltron-continuity” concepts that appeared in DDP made it into VLD with some iteration and those concepts are not insignificant (I list them in my answer to @aquaburst07s question about cross-continuity borrowing).

In Vehicle Voltron, Commander Hawkins leads the S.S. Explorer (with Vehicle Voltron in tow) in search of new worlds to settle on behalf of the Galaxy Alliance. In DotU, Galaxy Garrison refers to the command center for the Galaxy Alliance based on Earth. The Galaxy Alliance includes humans, and two alien species (both represented in the Voltron team).

Despite their many encounters with the Drule, Hawkins never holds a grudge or ever acts with xenophobia or hostility. He goes out of his way—even at risk of his life—to make overtures of peace to the Drule and work out a solution to their mutual problems. He is always the welcoming face of hospitality to Drules that they encounter and bring aboard the Explorer—showing them kindness and concern for their comfort—even when it’s a situation where betrayal (e.g. Captain Twyla) has occurred.

Commander Hawkins has the following traits:

Incredibly friendly to hostile aliens, even when fellow crew members are wary or angry/holding grudges. (VV)

A firm believer in peace and in his ability to diplomatically convince others to give up violence. (VV)

Strong determination for peace—he never gives up—and optimistic about peace even in the face of bad odds. (VV)

Kind, but also stern and won’t back down when he believes he’s right when giving orders to subordinates. (VV)

Believes that Voltron exists even when others don’t, and willing to risk his career to begin a covert mission to search for it. (DDP)

Resourceful and capable of getting things done without support. (DDP)

Capable of covert ops and investigating suspicious situations. (DDP)

Capable of escaping Drule captivity by commandeering their own ship and flying it to safety. (DDP)

His uniform is brown/beige in both Vehicle Voltron and the DDP comics.

Physical traits: dark hair lightly parted on the left and swept to the right, square jaw, prominent cheekbones, and thick eye brows. Dark eye color in Vehicle Voltron, blue eyes in DDP.

If ever there was a prior-continuity character that would have a relationship with an alien from a hostile empire while searching for something unusual in an off-grid shack conveniently close to Galaxy Garrison, Hawkins would be the one.

As for the scar.

That scar seems like it is meant to thematically connect Keith’s father with Kolivan (another square-jawed commander with well-defined cheekbones). I’m curious if we’ll ever see more about that.

#keiths dad #commander hawkins #vld keith #vehicle voltron #voltron: legendary defender #voltron meta #vld #here there be meta

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kawakaorin-aho · 6 years

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So, I wanna talk about him

[sighs] Ok, I'm doing this with no deep reasons, i think, but anyway, it's just about one of my favorite character from one of my favorite anime, Zoro from One Piece.

(And I don't mind that no one's gonna see this, I actually know that.)

Take a seat, this gonna be long...

I often hear/see things like people talking about his "lack of development" as a character, his "inhuman qualities" or even, his "cliche and standard personality" (the badass, in this case). And the most annoying, hearing comparisons between him and Sanji. 💨 Ok, ok, hands down, no one here is going to talk shit about Sanji, because, SURPRISE~ I like him, I'm a Zoro fan, and I like both!

So...

As a fan that's nearly enough of hearing so much bullshit all the time about him, I thought that it was time to talk about this in somewhere, and here I am.

The First Mate and (yes, he is) the Vice-Captain of the Straw Hat crew is contanstly said as <Ahem>:

- Cliche badass guy

- 0 personality development

- Shallow character

- "All about strenght"

- Little elaborated etc, etc...

And u wanna know something?

This is partly true!

No, don't kill me, this isn't a troll post. I said "PARTLY". Yes, let's confess, it's obvious that he IS the badass archetype of the damn anime, such as a bunch of other animes does have. Not even 5% of his backstory was shown, and the little part that was, wasn't thaaat deep, I'll get there. Oda loves to show how he's totally obsessed with training and make look like he's just that: all about training, sleep, drink and fight. But he ISN'T just this..!

Remenbering well, in East Blue saga, he used to laugh a lot and even make jokes at some point. It all changed after Mihawk beat him and after he realize how little he was next to him. He was just a frog that didn't knew the sea. Is not a coincidence that after this, his behaivour turned more serious, grumpy and kinda mature? He was the first damn one to realize the life and the path that they was about to take, and take it seriously! Something that not even the freaking captain did!

In the most serious and delicate situations he always was the only one to have a cool head and not be taking by the moment or feelings. He looked at the situation like no one in the crew did in first place, putting Luffy in his Captain place. (Water 7, anyone?? C'mon, THAT was trully badass!) And being rational and calm in this kind of situation don't make him "inhuman" or "antipathetic", it does exist real people that's way worse than that... (And that speech that he had with Luffy in W7 made me fall in love with him.) Srly, his sense of responsability is one of the pillars of the crew.

His arrogance it's based on his swordsman skill, not more, not less. He's actually pretty chill, quiet and rly mature, he even acts like an old man sometimes, reading journal, fishing and declaiming "swordsman poetry" in the middle of a fight like some wise elder hermit (nobody else but that guy use a haramaki, i mean, how old is he? 80?) XD; not to metion his "paternal side" that's just so adorable.

Wise. That's the word. This guy is wise af for someone that young. Again, like an old man. And is a swordsman thing, u know, drink alcohol and be wise. :P

Oh yea! Can I remenber of the "badass cliche guy" and remenber u guys that, besides he being that "awesome" and "cool"... He's a total dork!!

WHO THE FUCKING FUCK GETS STUCK ON A CHIMNEY!?!? FREACKING SANTA DOESN'T!

So don't come to me and say that he's just the "100% badass shitty thing all the time", that man fought with a BIRD because of food! And NO, don't make me mention his most famous gag, we all know that if Zoro takes the helm, they find One Piece in 2 episodes..!

We still have the humanity and simplicity of his past story. Some people like to call that "without depht", knowing well the way OP is, this may be true; Putting his backstory side to side with the crew ones, his is sure rly "shallow". But that can also be his differential, like not needing an oversad (dunno if that word exist) and overwhelming depressing backstory, to be a good character. Simple things could have been enough to make him who he is. And we have Wano coming~ So m a y b e we still can have more from him to come, just time and Oda can say that... #wanohype

About the "tough manly powerful" image of him, he IS a good guy. Even if he likes to pass the image of a cool, strong, fearless and without weak spots dude... He is totally soft and protective with a stranger girl and got arrested in trade of her security. The "hard outside, soft inside" type, and that's precious.

He being psychological strong don't demerits him! A lot of people in OP are weak or disturbed internally, and he doesn't follow this is, someway, amazing! It's not because he don't shows it, that he doesn't feel pain. He just don't want and don't like to be reason of concern to anybody, and to me, this is as hard, as this is brave. ("Nothing happened", huh? *shivers*)

Of COURSE... <Sighs> let's go.💨 He and Sanji are 2. Different. Characters; They have different personalities and ideologies; They were made in different ways; This CAN'T BE COMPARED, OK..? Just because Sanji had his own "year", and added more things to his story like a 2nd flashback (that only LUFFY HAVE!), "family", origins and stuff don't automatically makes him "better" than anyone. Sanji, in fact, is at the moment more developed "historically" than almost all of the crew💧. He have waited a damn long time for this to happen, so as Zoro too. We just need to wait. Maybe Oda is also planning more for him, that we just don't know. The point is DON'T. COMPARE. THEM. JUST... They r 2 different and singular characters, if u have your preference like me, great. So STOP this shit, is annoying as fuck, thanks. (Sorry, but I needed to say this 😒)

I left this one to the final. No, I didn't forgot his greatest, most beautifull and (to me) captivating quality. His incredible loyalty.

If in W7 speech scene I fell for him, in this he just broke in the gate to my heart and stole it for him forever.

What to say about this? Not only one of the most epic scenes of all OP and animes, but also a powerful and perfect resume of who is Roronoa Zoro. I always say to my friends, "his best scenes, isn't the fight ones";

The fact that this proud man bowed in favor to someone else, asked to be stronger so they never pass trough that again; always surpass the limits of his own body to protect the crew, not even bothering If he's going to die or not; seing Luffy not just like a helper for him to be the greatest swordsman, but the man that he handed over his own life to protect him...

And Kuina.

He carries the dream form both, his and hers. The honor of her it's with him, and just like her Wado, his will to protect the dream never broke.

This was to everybody that insist to talk shit about him, I won't stop anybody to think in some way different, that's NOT my purpose! But if it's just hate and shit... Just. Don't.

WUF! 💨

That was WAAAY more than I expected.. 😅

It got damn long! But I don't regret it. Call me "tard" If u want, I don't care, nothing will change what I feel about him XD

That post will probably not be useful anyway, but well, that's my thought, and simply this. A little more of love to the wronged marimo <3 (I probably made this in my apex of my missing of him) (and because I'm done with this shit)

Sorry for bad english~!

Sleep well, mossy guys~ ( °v°)

Fuck, I forgot to sleep.

#i just needed #stop this shit #no hate #no comparison #no competition #one piece #roronoa zoro #zoro #god this got long #sorry not sorry

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ear-worthy · 2 years

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Investigative Podcaster Amy Westervelt Interviewed On Paramount Plus’s Black Gold Docuseries

Exxon’s elite team of scientists discover the greenhouse effect, but when they report their findings, the company’s bosses are less than thrilled. Exxon slashes research funding, but NASA scientist James Hansen’s testimony to Congress reveals a startling secret!

The producers for the new Paramount+ docuseries Black Gold knew there’s one voice you need to tell any story about “the plot to trade our planet for profit” by oil tycoons: Investigative climate journalist Amy Westervelt.

An interview with Westervelt helps frame the narrative, with Amy doing what she’s done her whole career: Explaining in clear, vivid language the misdeeds and machinations of oil companies in facilitating climate change and then covering their tracks.

Westervelt is one of the most prominent and prolific reporters revealing spin and lies from oil companies in articles (see her recent work in The Guardian) and several hit podcasts: Drilled, a true-crime style podcast about climate change, currently airing its sixth season, about “New Climate Villains.” David Wallace Wells of the New York Times called it “eye-opening, gripping, outrageous.”

Damages, her newest show, which dives deep into climate lawsuits around the world. Why are some countries declaring “ecocide” a crime? How can wild rice sue someone?

Hot Take, her conversational podcast with climate essayist Mary Annaïse Heglar, recently acquired by Crooked Media.

Rigged, her podcast exploring the history of disinformation. Launched last fall, season two coming later this year.

You can listen to Westervelt’s podcasts here.

Paramount+ released its gripping three-part documentary BLACK GOLD from Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky’s PROTOZOA and TIME Studios on May 17.

“We are incredibly excited to bring such a captivating documentary from such a renowned filmmaker to Paramount+,” said Tanya Giles, chief programming officer at Paramount+. “BLACK GOLD offers viewers the opportunity to gain insight and immerse themselves in the investigation into a global conspiracy that is relevant to today’s current events.”

“BLACK GOLD is the truly epic story of a scientific discovery that rocked the world and a conspiracy to cover it up that threatens our existence,” said Darren Aronofsky. “I am thrilled to be working with TIME Studios, Paramount+ and Iconic to bring it to theaters and screens around the world.”

BLACK GOLD is the story of the cover-up of the century — of the boss atop a trillion-dollar industry who discovered a shocking truth 40 years ago, created a black ops conspiracy to hide the evidence, and would stop at nothing to keep the money flowing as the world burned. A CEO nicknamed Iron-Ass, whistleblowers from Exxon’s own labs, professional climate deniers and spin doctors, a NASA scientist and a U.S. vice president are among the characters in this thriller based on a decades-long plot to trade our planet for profit.

CBS News partnered with TIME Studios to produce BLACK GOLD, leveraging the reporting and access of TIME in combination with the rich archive of CBS News to chronicle the decades-long conspiracy.

In a release, Steve Bunnell, chief executive officer of Iconic Events Releasing, said, “Anyone filling up their gas tank these days and wondering about the price at the pump should want to see this movie immediately. This is excellent quality investigative journalism, and it’s as real, timely and topical as any issue facing this country and our world today. Iconic is proud that this specially created theatrical version will be presented as a cinema event prior to its platform debut.”

From the perspective of the podcasting industry, the valuable contributions of podcaster and investigative journalist Amy Westervelt reveals again how podcasting is at the forefront of identifying and reporting on critical social, cultural, economic and environmental issues.

What Erin Brockovich did for a town, Amy Westervelt is trying to do for our planet

#podcast #environment #climate change

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bentenharuki · 7 years

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Haikyuu Chapter 289... A sort of TAO for me?

I mean... there are things which have hit home base with me...

(like... THIS?)

I had to free such a gorgeous, evil grinning face from all the knots the net had in the original image... This alone is worthy all the rest of the terrible things Furudate has put at the end of the chapter, so all considered this one STILL a positive chapter right?

But just look at him!!!!!

Those eyes... the fact the Lord can look so mischievious and troublesome and dangerous while extruding passion in rivulets makes me... evaporate of passion myself. For all those who dare to say this boy is emotionless... REALLY?

This is the kind of boy who can get you naked with a single glare. It’s just about to know how to IGNITE his passion. Not the fact he has not gotten it, because... man, this guy BURNS with passion.

Woahhhhh...

But okay, let’s start with the chapter.

It starts very well.

We have the wonderful thoughts of both Miya twins, who are very well etched and functionally worthy characters, whom I love DEARLY.

Osamu is even saltier than Tsukki sometimes, but beside being very talented, he is a great observer and somehow even a sort of philosopher...

I love the way the twins are competitive with each other, while of course being bonded with that kind of unbreakable bond only twins can have. They look out for each other a lot, and look AT each other a lot, so that the observation we can get through their eyes about themselves are poignant and even poetical sometimes. This of course works wonderfully while they play as well.

And... they have the cutest banters.

Osamu is adorable, but Atsumu... Atsumu is one of the best characters Furudate has put out. He is childlike but also sadistic... a mixture which is just so uniquely mashed one can either fully love or fully hate him.

I FULLY LOVE HIM.

He also has so much in common with Kags, while being VERY different as manners and general behaviour. But they are the same type of player in more than just some ways.

So it’s natural for me to love Atsumu, of course.

He is a straight up kid with TONS of talent and a ballistic personality. The kind of types I generally like... ;)

This specific play Atsumu does is very beautiful, and very well put in this moment in this draining game. He is a fine strategist, but what comes always off which I like is that he is very creative at what he does, and he has no fears. He is filled with curiosity, which captivates me.

Poor Suna... ;) Here Atsumu is the twin of Kageyama as well. This kind of thoughts... EVERY living setter has gotten them soon or later. It’s just... DNA ;)

All these panels describing the game are thrilling and exciting. They really mirror a game you could see in real life.

Of course the “fans” of Haikyuu created by the poor service Furudate has done with a protagonist who has no real attachment to the truth of volley consider this game “long” “boring” and “uneventful”.

Why?

Because in a real game the fictional protagonist of this manga has gotten no much space (and still, it is WAY too much for the space he shall get, which shall be ZERO...) and therefore his fanboys who have no concept of the beauty of the sport for real, they cry rivers of tears at every episode where they feel their “hero” hasn’t gotten any real role.

Of course he has not: in volley you gotta have HEIGHT. BRAIN. POWER. Hinata has none of the three, and never will have them so... why there?

These “fans” are a shame for volley, but since it’s easier to be dull than smart, and there are way more readers who are not particularly bright compared to those who are (in general... it’s a world rule to have less smart individuals than not), we have Furudate keeping glorifying a terrible protagonist just to maintain the appeal for the masses who have no clues about sports at all.

It’s a crux.

We gotta carry along I guess.

But THIS game still amazing, it is the best game Haikyuu has ever displayed, since in it the wide majority of the players playing are exponentially proving themselves and some of my best babies have come so far. during the sets I get shivers...

And where MY BEST BABY, the one and only, is playing like the GOD of Volley he is, becoming more and more awesome.

Look his form... and notice how the dump can happen fruitfully because despite the ball ain’t easy, both Kags’ teammates and adversaries have learnt in this game there is NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE to the Lord’s class.

So they feel he can and will set that ball while... my perfect perfect Lord instead...

DOES THE THING ;)

Kunimi’s face is priceless, HONESTLY.

Almost as much as Osamu’s... while I LOVE the way Atsumu just realizes here he had better not called the omnipotent Lord “Goody Two Shoes” a mere month before.

See, Atsumu... You think YOU are smug and manipulative? The Lord is pure and not manipulative BUT... he can send you home (and he will) if it’s about playing until the very end of possible resources and tricks.

I love the way Atsumu just seems to feel content in seeing THIS side of Kags.

Now, you two... become best buddies and exploit the chances of life ;)

Ops ;)

But the best output of Lord Kags’ winning smug play is Salt Master Tsukki’s evolution after it.

I ADORE Kei’s face in these. He is so aware, so focused, so registered, and DEADLY LETHAL.

I mean... if you like volley and don’t adore Tsukishima Kei, YOU ARE WRONG.

AND UNWORTHY.

Of the basic things I mean... You don’t like Tsukki? You are automatically disqualified from reason.

Full stop. :)

Now dear Tsukki please, set up a daily routine of physical training with the Lord and put up some muscles on your bones.

And then you’ll be the Lancelot to Lord Kags’ King Arthur role.

;)

Sadly while the chapter was being good, Furudate had to do something idiotic to give the midget some space.

since he cannot make him grow magically at a worthy height for his supposed role, he is making a fuss out of trivial and basic volley things when done by Boku No Hero Karasuno, to trick those light head people who like the midget into believing what he does is anything remarkable (NEWSFLASH: It’s NOT).

It makes me angry because here for instance Tsukishima does a great receive (and also Tsukki wasn’t the best with those some months before...), but do you see ordeals of sqwaking choruses for him like we had for the midget last time?

Of course NOT. You know, Tsukki is tall, and seems born to play volley and is very smart... so the simpletons cannot make a fuss out of him.

They don’t relate enough... (rolling eyes).

And from here onwards, Furudate really does a number in making the episode go like what Hinata does in it is some sort of magic miracle.

Of course it’s just a BASIC REQUIRED ACTION PLAY at any level in volley.

But Boku No Hero Karasuno is very short, so ehi... that means anything he does is “fantastiiiiiiiiiic!!!!” (cut the sarcasm... well not. keep it. It’s band aid...)

At least here and there there was still something good to see...

But now cut into the panels the fact that while Tanaka does THIS action (before it, feast your eyes at Lord Kags impeccable butt and low lining toss, thank you very much...)

Okay, sorry I was drooling... where were we? Ah, yeah, I was saying how Tanaka is already ANALYZING and slowing down an imperfect play, being him VERY good at playing the right way, and while he was doing this (a thing which would have been worthy of peanas when only done by the midget... ):

... we had the right words of Ukai, trying to slow down too fast plays (a thing which is common in real volley, when points get well fought and the game gets late).

All fine?

NOT. At. ALL.

Because instead of just cut it there, and let the action develop, Furudate creates the comedy (NOT) and makes a SIMPLE and OBVIOUS play a thing worthy of a NASA explanation:

So basically the midget for once decides to slow down a play.

WHOOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHH...

NOT.

What is so incredible?

Hinata plays at a competitive level since YEARS. All the rest of the team knows already what he is just learning to do.

Is it worthy of praise?

NO WAY.

Hinata should have learned it AGES PRIOR, all of it, all that he is doing now and even all that he will do ater this game, because HE IS STILL MEDIOCRE AT MANY FUNDAMENTALS OF VOLLEY.

But then we have that useless entity called Sugawara EVEN CRYING at such a triviality the midget has done and I cannot take it, and even less I will stand to see MY CAPTAIN SAWAMURA trying to sell me that what Hinata has done is anything different than a normal eye blink.

Really Furudate... this you’ve drawn in this final panel is not even funny.

I fear what we will see in final point next chapter.

There are no boundaries with the way the obvious gets glorified if performed by an annoying orange midget who shall never be part of a manga about volleyball, let alone being its protagonist.

Furudate... I am expecting that next chapter you will outperform yourself and probably make Hinata instantly grow 15 centimeters just to piss me off.

In some ways it would still MORE BELIEVABLE than the shock you have poured all over all the characters for such an idiocity in the last two pages of this chapter 289.

*sigh*

I still have this to look at... at least:

Which is some kind of painkiller and it’s worthy of a repetition.

Time to get ready for Friday Disco time with friends I guess ;)

See ya.

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whisperandmantra · 7 years

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My Favourite Shows of 2017

Happy New Year! It’s time again for my list of favourite shows of the year. Here’s to another year of good anime. Thank you for following and I hope you are enjoying the good anime we had this year. I present the list, in no particular order.

ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka

Political intrigue, double crossing, and a secret coup. This show was excellent at world building and making the world seem like a real and interesting place. It’s rare to find a nicely wrapped up show in one cour especially when there were so many different plot lines going on with the characters.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen

Continuing off a few years after the first season ended we get to hear the rest of the story. Focusing more on Konatsu and Yotaro, we see the story of Yakumo taking on an apprentice and trying to keep rakugo alive. The second season was a roller coaster of emotions and had some of the most beautiful scenes.

Little Witch Academia

Trigger back to save anime again! This time making a series out of an OVA. This show is charming and adorable. Akko is a genki girl with so much spunk and the supporting cast is just as awesome. In typical Trigger fashion the show amps up the stakes in the final arc and we get a grand finale that is both wonderful and sweet. The animation is great as expected in a Trigger production, and the various little Easter Eggs always make me smile.

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon / Miss Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon

An otherworldly creature takes up residence in a office worker’s home and decides to live with her. Hi-jinx ensue. This show is full of warm fuzzies and Kana is the cutest. Plenty of jokes to be had here and the animation is very smooth, as expected of Kyo Ani.

Re:Creators

Take the isekai trope and reverse it, that’s what you get with Re:Creators. Fictional protagonists get transported to the real world.Add a dash of Sawano and you have an entertaining series with quite a few twists and turns. I enjoyed that they pulled in different types of protagonists from different genres of shows as well. A mech pilot, a chivalrous knight, a magical girl, and a mage to name a few. I was thoroughly amused by this series and it was good fun. The antagonist was a little too much for me at times with their over powered abilities. But just a minor annoyance in an otherwise great show.

Uchouten Kazoku 2 / The Eccentric Family 2

The long awaited sequel to a show I never thought would get a sequel, but I am so glad that it did. Rejoining the antics of Shimagomo family we get introduced to a few new characters. I love the colours in this show and how vibrant everything looks. Yasaburo is also a babe <3.

Made in Abyss

Wow, this show took me by surprise having heard virtually nothing about it before watching the first episode. The world building is fantastic, and the character designs are so unique. The creatures living in the abyss are also terrifying. Also the soundtrack is PHENOMENAL and inspired. Do yourself a favour and watch this show. The suffering depicted throughout their journey into the abyss was pretty gut-wrenching as well.

Mahoujin Guru Guru

Where do I even begin with this show. I think it was one of the most consistently funny shows that I watched this year. Every episode has me laughing out loud at one joke or another. The gags don’t get stale even when re-used. Kukuri is so precious and her smile must be protected. The animation is really smooth and consistent and they occasionally use 16 bit animation. It actually feels like I’m watching an RPG, they even have status bars that show up throughout the show that sometimes show their levels. It’s really quite hilarious.

Princess Principal

Female spies in an alternate universe steampunk-London. If you can handle a non-linear story progression then you should take a look at this show. The soundtrack is done by one of my favourites, Yuki Kajiura. The episodic nature of the show allows some of the side characters to really shine and I actually like a side character as my favourite character because of their backstory. It’s rare that an original show like this manages to be so captivating so early on in it’s run.The artwork and character designs are nice and Victorian England makes for an exciting setting for spies.

Garo Vanishing Line

I know this show is 2 cour and will spill into 2018, but the first cour was excellent and warrants it’s inclusion on my list of faves. I really am getting into the Garo franchise and Mappa is doing an incredible job of showing their strengths with this franchise. It’s got plenty of action and an interesting plot line. The first cour was mostly episodic in nature, introducing the characters of the series and now the second cour I think will delve into more lengthy story arcs. But so far it has me entertained.

Houseki no Kuni / Land of the Lustrous

OMG this SHOW!!! I think I can say that it is my number 1 favourite show of 2017. Everything about it is so stunning and gorgeous. The choice of using CG has some people divided, but I love it. I’ve been a fan of CG shows since Knights of Sidonia and Ajin, and Houseki no Kuni demonstrates the epitome of awesome things you can do with CG. The camerawork is stunning for fight scenes and you can do things that you’d never see in 2D animation. I think CG is the perfect format for a show like this. The colours are gorgeous and the characters are so endearing and full of life. The show’s universe is mysterious and I desperately want a season 2. I could literally talk about how much I love this show for hours, but I’ll just tell you that you have to watch it. It’s criminally under-watched in my opinion. Story wise, you have these genderless gemstone characters who fight against the Lunarians who are trying to kidnap them, break them into fragments and use them as weapons to capture the remaining gemstone characters. There is also an air of mystery going on and you barely scratch the surface of the truth behind this universe. I love this show it’s a masterpiece of art.

Inuyashiki

Well this show was a pleasant surprise. Not only does it have a complete adaptation, but it’s a pretty badass show. So this old man and teenager get turned into super powered robots. Then you see how different they react with their new found powers. They mix a little CG in when they use their robot powers. It’s a bit clunky at times but the story is compelling enough to make me not notice it. Also the OP is sung by Man With A Mission, one of my favourite Japanese groups so that’s a bonus.

Kekkai Sensen & Beyond / Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond

I didn’t think it was possible to top the first season of Kekkai Sensen because it was so cool. But this second season is WAY better. Now you have to be a fan of the episodic format as each episode is pretty much standalone except two two-part arcs. We get a lot more time with side characters and learn more about the background of my favourite character, Chain. <3 <3 Also Steven (total DILF) gets a lot more screen time which is great. It has the same humour and upbeat zany atmosphere as the first season but it really feels more like a labour of love where the characters are given time to shine. And the characters are the strong point of this show. The OST is also really great as it mixes jazz, RnB, rap, hip hop style songs as it’s supposed to be a take on New York. It also has some amazing sakuga scenes because it’s got the BONES people working their magic.

Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou / Girls’ Last Tour

This show really surprised me. It was so comfy, yet melancholy. Two girls are just travelling around in a tank in what appears to be a post-nuclear/apocalyptic Earth. The background and atmosphere is really great, it reminds me of Blame or the city of Sidonia with layered city structures and industrial almost steampunk type environment. It’s kind of a lonely show with just snippits of their lives together roaming the wasteland. The OST is glorious and relaxing though. I’d say it’s kind of like a slice of life except not heavy handed with the jokes. You really feel that they are the last few remaining people on Earth. The voice actors also have excellent chemistry as it’s just those two girls talking to each other essentially the entire episode, yet the show remains engaging.

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