#Sequence and series problems and solutions

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Quick Draw Tatas + Make Sorn Suffer Agenda

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

June 2025 Week 2

Ongoing Series - Thai

Knock Out (Fri WeTV ) ep 5 of 12 - pronoun negotiation, how much do I love thee/thou/you? So much! My/me/mine favorite. P’Yai!!! that you? Why sleeves? Still, great casting choice for a boxer! We are dealing with yet another financial crisis but this is still the boyfriend era and these are def 20 year old gay boys. I adore them (all 3x) and this show. Still great.

Next week, P'Yai has no sleeves AND no shirt! As the BL gods intended.

We stan a man who says what all Tumblr is thinking.

My Stubborn (Sun iQIYI) ep 7 of 10 - Sorn is ridiculous and we just want him to shatter hard at this point. I think he must completely lose Jun before he'll come to his senses. I’m looking forward to the big suffer next ep. I’m hoping there is adequate pain and that they are separated for a while. Emotional torture is required.

On a different note, you should be getting those allergens off him in the shower not deep-dking him on a sink, much as we appreciate the sentiment. Speaking of dking-out, you better learn to eat your veg baby boy if you wanna keep bottoming that hard. Fiber is v important.

(What? This an educational blog srs.)

Reset (Mon iQIYI) ep 2 of 10 - This show is GREAT! But it better not hinge on one of those “why don’t they just talk to each other” plot devices. I will blame it entirely for such a tragic flaw. Meanwhile, I like everybody here, adore the Assistant. Nice to hear Thai spoken badly in such a very American way.

That said, I thought we discussed this already. Thai BL is not allowed wigs. We settled that in the 2019 UWMA Wardrobe Accords. 

The Bangkok Boy (Sat Gaga) ep 8 of 12 - Uh oh. Well, we all knew these two were gonna be great together once they got together but also not allowed to be together. I can’t see that this is gonna end well for anybody. But my goodness did they serve us some chemistry. Might be one of the best sex scenes in BL. Like. Ever. So I guess we gotta appreciate what we get?

Pit Babe 2 (Fri iQIYI) ep 7 of 13 - AKA The Fast and the Furious Bangkok Drift. The story of my life and BL right now is the fact that there’s not enough time spent with any of the side couples. But honestly that’s kind of my story with BL as a genre. Shall we get onto the mini trash watch that seems to be my relationship with this show right now? Ready, here it is:

Tumblr is officially engaged in tata watch 2025, participation mandatory. Erm, mammotory?

*insert bah-dum-cha here*

My Sweetheart Jom (Fri YT) ep 5 of 12 - ooo some action with a nonviolent social media shaming solution. Nice. Good thing he had cell reception out there. I’m still not getting a ton of chemistry from our main pair, but they are acting a bit more like boyfriends now, which I kind of like. So maybe they were always shooting for a slow burn, it’s just not Thailand’s forte? Neither is plot, but I’m finding this one more enjoyable when there is plot. So who knows what’s going on here.

The Next Prince (Sat iQIYI) ep 7 of 14 - death stairs 2.0. Same stairs just wider. Why doesnt Calvin have a bodyguard? Why did the others all forget about him and leave him at the bar? Why am I activating my brain to try to understand this show? Stop it brain.

Nice to see our prince with some agency and acting the part. I also love the language status change that meant capitulation. Spoiled prince (literal) meets doting protector type dynamic is actually nice, and the sex scene was as prettily executed as one expects from their pair, but there wasn't enough of the other couples.

Boys in Love (Sun iQIYI ) ep 6 of 12 - it's cute but where is it going? Puppy eyes plus an arse slap? The teachers are my favorites, contest has ended.

I Promise I Will Come Back (Mon WeTV) ep 4 of 10 - The problem with a high heat fantasy sequence for the second lead, is now we all know how good those two actors could be together. Dangerous territory little show. And Best is a really great actor, and I hope we get more of him as the lead in a BL.

Eye Contact (Weds WeTV) ep 5 of 6 - oh its so bad. It went totally off the rails. Main plot reminds me if like The En of Love series or Future only way more toxic. The sides are all early yaoi rapey. (Chain better go to the cops! Nu better dump Sun because of his TOXIC friends. And the GL, well i guess it's kinda there? And the high school is this whole other disconnected arc. What in all BL hells is going on?  Must keep watching. Why am i like this? I'm spiraling here.

What I will say is, I unequivocally do not recommend this show. Please nobody else join me in this particular dumpster.

How the mighty have fallen. Can you believe this was once top of the standings?

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Sweetheart Service (Korea Fri YT) ep 6 of 12 - I love the confrontation with the parents so much. Minwoo is such a tiny adorable badass. This so is so cute, it's do cute, it's so cute! 

Ball Boy Tactics (Korea Thurs iQIYI) ep 2 of 8 - oh it's SO GOOD. He is so baby. Beyond baby. Poor thing. Why is jock boy torture teasing baby while dating someone else?

The actor playing Eunoh looks like Great’s Korean cousin and you can't convince me otherwise. 

Moon and Dust (China YT) ep 4 of 6 - Diary reading and everything! This show is beyond suss and nesting in evil. Fun fun! A true BL horror show. My kind of horror. Even language play, you understood that one, right? Younger bro wants to be called "older bro" for very explicit REASONS? okay? Okay. Moving on. 

The Sparkle In Your Eye (Singapore Sun Gaga & Viki) eps 7-8 of ? - I did warn you that since this was Singapore but they were doing it in Mandarin it was probably gonna go dark. And they have rolled out the cancer card. * this is my shocked face (it looks the same as my regular face*

It's airing but......

I Became the Lead in a BL Drama 2 AKA Zoku BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita (Japan ????) 6 eps - Another 2nd season I did not want started 6/13. This time the story tells what challenges they face as a relationship. Also the story of the managers. While I am intreagued by the second couple, I can't be arsed to track this down.

The Proper Way to Write Love (Japan) from Tokyo MX was suposed to start on 6/13, and... that's all I got.

The Ex-Morning (Thurs YT) 10 eps - sorry all I dropped this half way through ep 3. I just felt like it was pulling teeth to keep going and I was just angry at it, at GMMTV, at the script, at the characters. That's not healthy for any of us. I do this for fun. If it's really amazing in the second half I might give it a try, but for now, I'm out.

Loy Kaew First Love (Fri YT) 6 eps - Dropped at ep 4. Just too much other stuff too poorly acted, edited, scripted, just everything bad.

Season of Love in Shimane AKA Ai no Kisetsu: The Season of Love (Thai) 8 eps - Sequel to Kiseki Chapter 2 which I intensely disliked. I won't watch this.

Mission to the Moon (YT) 12 eps- Watching but I can't keep track. Too short, too many, too YT. I will report at end.

In case you missed it, 'cause I did

Stealing My Brother‘s Fiancé AKA Bound To My Brother’s Fiancé

Aired as a short form vertical at the end of last year, and it popped up cut together on YT.

It is profoundly not good but it is an unusual BL. It’s exactly like one of those Chinese het verticals, just gay and in Thai. So exactly I’m surprised they got around to switching some of the dialogue to the correct gender. Frankly, I think they only even bothered with that because Thai pronouns are that flexible.

For plot, it says what it is on the tin. There’s arranged marriages, fiancé swapping, and too much plot to handle revolving entirely around a handful of pretty bitchy boys. Battle of the power bottoms.

Anygay, it reminded me of that 2017 censored mumbo-jumbo from China Mr. CEO is Falling in Love with Me. Only not censored and in Thai. What a profoundly odd experience. Recommended only if you want to try something completely different from normal BL. 5/10 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Coming Up

6/16 Revenged Love (China Gaga) 16? eps - A remake of 2015's Falling in Love with a Rival. From China ON GAGA? Wild. What alt-reality IS THIS? I have had them for 3 seconds but I'm already obsessed with the side couple.

6/17 SunTiny (Thai iQIYI) 10 eps - MaxNat are back as SunNuea from their Y-Destiny showing. The spoiled prince with the hot tutor (in case you forgot). They in an LTR and then... bodyswap. I know I know, I'm confused about all of this too. But Cooheart is looking FINNNEEEE so what the hell.

6/20 Memoir of Rati (Thai Netflix or YT) 12 eps - GreatInn in a HISTORICAL with a class divide and everyone's favourite side couple, AouBoom. Initially I was v excited but now 2 things: Netflix (I do not chill) and sad ending. I might save this to binge. I am getting serious I Feel You Linger in the Air vibes. And I can't go through that again right now.

6/20 Depth of Field (Japan Fuji TV)

2025 Line Up

BL Announced for 2025 - PART 1

BL Announced for 2025 - PART 2

20 BLs Announced for 2025 That I'm Really Excited About

GMMTV 2025 Line Up - My Totally Biased and Wildly Flawed Feels

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENT

Illegally cute. (Sweetheart Service)

Knockout. I mean Bangkok Boy gave us the best sex scene this week (one of the best in years IMHO) but they had stiff competition.

(Pun intend... oh do I even have to say it at this juncture?)

(last week)

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

[o-craven-canto]

Filters in the way of technologically advanced life in the universe and how likely I think they are

1. Abiogenesis (4.4-3-8 billion years ago): Total mystery. The fact that it happened so quickly on Earth (possibly as soon as there was abundant liquid water) is a tiny bit of evidence for it being easy. Amino acids and polycyclic hydrocarbons are very common in space, but nucleotides aren't, and all hypothetic models I've seen require very specific conditions and a precise sequence of steps. (It would be funny if the dozen different mechanisms proposed for abiogenesis were all happening independently somewhere.)

2. Oxygenic photosynthesis (3.5 billion years ago) (to fuel abundant biomass, and provide oxygen or some other oxidizer for fast metabolism): Not so sure. Photosynthesis is just good business sense -- sunlight is right there -- and appeared several times among bacteria. But the specific type of ultra-energetic photosynthesis that cracks water and releases oxygen appeared only once, in Cyanobacteria. That required merging two different photosynthetic apparati in a rather complex way; and all later adoptions of oxygenic photosynthesis involved incorporating Cyanobacteria by endosymbiosis. For all that it's so useful, I don't know if I'd expect to see it on every living planet.

3. Eukaryotic cell (2.4 billion years ago?): Probably the narrowest bottleneck on the list. Segregated mitochondria with their own genes and a nucleus protecting the main genome are extremely useful both for energy production (decentralized control to maximize production without overloading) and for genetic storage (less DNA damage due to reactive metabolic waste). But there's a chicken-and-egg problem in which incorporating mitochondria to make energy requires an adjustable cytoskeleton, but that consumes so much energy it would require mitochondria already in place. Current models have found solutions that involve a very specific series of events. Or maybe not? Metabolic symbiosis, per se, is common, and there may have been other ways to gene-energy segregation. Besides, after the origin of eukaryotes, endosymbiosis occurred at least nine more times, and even some bacteria can incorporate smaller cells.

4. Sexual reproduction (by 1.2 billion years ago): Without meiotic sex (combining mutations from different lineages, decoupling useful traits from harmful ones, translating a gene in multiple way), the evolution of complex beings is going to be painfully slow. Bacteria already swap genes to an extent, and sexual recombination is bundled in with the origin of eukaryotes so I probably shouldn't count it separately (meiosis is just as energy-intensive as any other use of the cytoskeleton). Once you have recombination, life cycles with spores or gametes and sex differentiation probably follow almost inevitably.

5. Multicellularity (800 million years ago?): Quite common, actually. Happens all the time among eukaryotes, and once in a very limited form even among bacteria. Now we'd want complex organized bodies with geometry-defining genes, but even that happened thrice: in plants, fungi, and animals. As far as I know, various groups of yeasts are the only regressions to unicellularity.

6. Brains and sense organs (600 million years ago): Nerve cells arose either once or twice, depending on whether Ctenophora (comb-jellies) and Eumetazoa (all other animals except sponges) form a single clade or not. Some form of cellular sensing and communication is universal in life, though, so a tissue specialized for signal transmission is probably near inevitable once you have multicellular organisms whose lifestyle depends on moving and interacting with the environment. Sense organs that work at a distance are also needed, but image-forming eyes evolved in six phyla, so no danger there (and there's so many other potential forms of communication!). Just to be safe, you'll also want muscles and maybe mineralized skeletons on the list, but I don't think either is particularly problematic. An articulated skeleton is probably better than a rigid shell, but we still have multiple examples of that (polyplacophorans, brittle stars, arthropods, vertebrates).

7. Life on land (400 million years ago): (Adding this because air has a lot more oxygen to fuel brains than water (the most intelligent aquatic beings are air-breathers), and technology in water has the issue of fire.) You're going to need a waterproof integument, some kind of rigid support system, and kidneys to regulate water balance. Plenty of animal lineages moved on land: vertebrates, insects, millipedes, spiders, scorpions, multiple types of crabs, snails, earthworms, etc. Note that most of those are arthropods: this step seems to favor exoskeletons, which help a great deal in retaining water. Of course this depends on plants getting on land first, which on Earth happened only once, and required the invention of spores and cuticles. (Actually there are polar environments where all photosynthesis occurs in water, but they are recently settled and hardly the most productive.)

8. Human-like intelligence (a few million years ago?): There seems to a be a general trend in which the max intelligence attainable by animals on Earth has increased over time. There's quite a lot of animals today that approach or rival apes in intelligence: elephants, toothed cetaceans, various carnivorans, corvids, parrots, octopodes, and there's even intriguing data about jumping spiders. Birds seem to have developed neocortex-like brain structures independently. Of course humans got much farther, but the fact that even other human species are gone suggests that a planet is not big enough for more than one sophont, so the uniqueness of humans might not necessarily imply low probability. (We seem to exist about halfway through the habitability span of Earth land, FWIW.) The evolution of sociality should probably be lumped here: we'll want a species that can teach skills to its offspring and cooperate on tasks. But sociality is also a common and useful adaptation: many species on our list (octopodes are a glaring exception) are intensely social and care for their offspring. I mentioned above that the land-step favors exoskeletal beings, which in turns favors small size; but the size ranges of large land arthropods and very intelligent birds overlap, so that's not disqualifying.

9. Agriculture and urban civilization (11,000 years ago): Agriculture arrived quite late in the history of our species, but when it arrived -- i.e. at the end of the Wurm glaciation -- it arrived independently in four to eight different places around the world, in different biogeographic realms and climates, so I must assume that at least some climate regimes are great for it (glacial cycles are a minority of Earth's history; but did agriculture need to come after glaciations? Maybe a shock of seasonality did the trick). And once you have agriculture, complex urbanized societies follow most of the time, just a few millennia later. Even writing arose at least three times (Near East, China, and Mexico), and then spread quickly.

10. Scientific method and industrialization (300 years ago): We're getting too far from my expertise here, but whatever. The Eurasian Axial Age suggests that all civilizations with a certain degree of wealth, literacy, and interconnection will spawn a variety of philosophies. Philosophical schools that focus on material causes and effects like the Ionians or Charvaka have appeared sometimes, but often didn't win over more supernaturalist schools. Perhaps in pre-industrial times pure materialism isn't as useful! You may need to thread a needle between interconnected enough to exchange and combine ideas, and also decentralized enough that the intellectual elite can't quash heterodoxy. As for industrialization, that too happened only once, though that's another case in which the first achiever would snuff out any other. I hear Song China is a popular contender for alternative Industrial Revolutions (with coal-powered steelworks!); Imperial Rome and the Abbasid Caliphate are less convincing ones. For whatever reason, it didn't take until 18th century Britain.

11. Not dying randomly along the way: Mass extinctions killing off a majority of species happened over and over -- the Permian Great Dying, the Chicxulub impact, the early Oxygen Crisis -- but life has always rebounded fairly quickly and effectively. It's hard enough to sterilize an agar plate, let alone a planet. Disasters on this scale are also unlikely to happen in the lifespan of planet-bound civilizations, unless of course the civilizations are causing them. A civilization might still face catastrophic climate change, mega-pandemics, and nuclear war, not to mention lesser setbacks like culture-wide stagnation or collapse, and I couldn't begin to estimate how common, or ruinous, they would actually be.

****

I have no idea how common the origin of life is, but the vast majority of planets with life will only have bacterial mats and stromatolites. Of the tiny sliver that evolved complex cells, a good chunk will have their equivalents of plants and animals, most of which may have intelligent life at least on primate- or cetacean-level at some later point. At any given time, a tiny fraction of those will have agricultural civilizations, at an even tinier fraction of that will have post-industrial science and technology. Let's say maybe 1 planet with industrial technology out of 100 with agriculture, 100,000 with hominid-level intelligence, 10 million with animal-like organisms, 100 millions with complex cells, and 10 billions with life at all?

[maxwellatoms]

Have you ever regreted letting certain things go on air?

Like a scene in which you noticed something off that either could be improved upon or maybe something you just realized ruined the overall flow.

Oh yeah. All of the time.

TV Animation schedules are not for the weak of heart. Most of the time, by the time it's your turn to touch something, it's already on fire. I just told the story about how we had maybe two weeks and no resources to create our main title, and that's not unusual.

There were SO many times (especially in my early seasons) where something would go wrong or come back from overseas looking weird, and we just wouldn't have the time or resources to fix it. All of those Mandys smiling in Season One? I was having a hard time convincing board artists that Mandy should literally never smile, so they'd throw them in. I'd remove them, but I'd occasionally miss a panel and she'd come back smiling. Due to the vagaries of dealing with overseas studios, it fell to us to fix the problem and at the time we didn't have any actual animation staff.

Later in the series, I'd take stuff like this, screen-cap it, and reanimate it. There's an entire sequence in Big Boogey where I personally took two days to add burn marks to the characters. Is that something a show runner SHOULD be doing? Probably not. But when you're the last line of defense, you've got to do it yourself if you want it done.

TV Animation is a collaboration. But it's also (at my level) a compromise. There will never be enough money, time, or staff to really get things where you want them to, so it's all about finding the solution that gets you most of the way there.

[onlycosmere]

Least Favorite Novel of the Cosmere 

GodsShoeShine23 :  I'd say Alloy of Law. I just honestly didn't really care about Wax and Wayne until they were more fleshed out in Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning. For Once, Brandon kind of just threw us right into the action from the get-go, but did so in a way where I had no real motivation to root for the main characters of the book other than them being the main characters of the book.

Brandon Sanderson: I wonder sometimes if I should do a full-on rewrite of Alloy. It would also be my vote for weakest Cosmere novel. (I think it's probably my weakest novel overall.) The big problem came from it being a short story, that became a novella, that became a fun little novel not meant to do any heavy lifting. But the series went from there to get some of my strongest books, as I fell in love with world and characters, and became a full-blown era rather than a pit stop between tow large eras.

So you have something weaker, meant as a kind of "Secret History" novella, to a load-bearing pillar of the Mistborn series. And it's the place where already (coming off the main trilogy) where people were the most likely to abandon Mistborn as a larger mega-series. So I have my weakest cosmere book in a pivotal place in the sequence.

The solution could be to just take it and give it a ground-up rewrite with more depth of characterization and narrative rigor. But then, we have the problem of their being two significantly different versions of a book, which causes other logistical problems.

GodsShoeShine23: I find it hilarious that the one time I’m not praising your novels, you end up stumbling upon my comment, lol.

In all seriousness, I thought Alloy of Law was still a pretty fun read. I like the expansion on the magic system that was built up in Era 1, and Wayne honestly ends up being one of my all time favorite characters in the cosmere. I always thought to myself that Alloy of Law read like a novella, so it’s actually interesting to see that it was originally based on a short story idea essentially.

I will say this though; I expected to see most people vote Elantris as the weakest book as seen in the comments, but I honestly found it to be much more entertaining than people lead me to believe. Hrathen may be my favorite antagonist you’ve written, and I’m wondering if more will be revealed about his charcater in the sequels.

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Preliminary Round

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Mars House by Natasha Pulley

In the wake of environmental catastrophe, January, once a principal in London’s Royal Ballet, has become a refugee on Tharsis, the terraformed colony on Mars. In Tharsis, January’s life is dictated by his status as an Earthstronger—a person whose body is not adjusted to Mars’s lower gravity and so poses a danger to those born on, or naturalized to, Mars. January’s job choices, housing, and even transportation options are dictated by this second-class status, and now a xenophobic politician named Aubrey Gale is running on a platform that would make it all worse: Gale wants all Earthstrongers to be surgically naturalized, a process that can be anything from disabling to deadly.

When Gale chooses January for an on-the-spot press junket interview that goes horribly awry, January’s life is thrown into chaos, but Gale’s political fortunes are damaged, too. Gale proposes a solution to both their problems: a five-year made-for-the-press marriage that would secure January’s financial future without naturalization and ensure Gale’s political future. But when January accepts the offer, he discovers that Gale is not at all like they appear in the press. And worse, soon, January finds himself entangled in political and personal events well beyond his imagining. Gale has an enemy, someone willing to destroy all of Tharsis to make them pay—and January may be the only person standing in the way.

Science fiction, romance, fake marriage, adult

The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon (The Downworld Sequence series)

Endorsement from submitter: "Trauma, gays, and body horror. What more do you need?"

WHEN AN AI DIES, ITS CITY DIES WITH IT WHEN A CITY FALLS, IT LEAVES A CORPSE BEHIND WHEN THAT CORPSE RUNS OFF, ONLY DEVOTION CAN BRING IT BACK

When the robotic god of Khuon Mo went mad, it destroyed everything it touched. It killed its priests, its city, and all its wondrous works. But in its final death throes, the god brought one thing back to its favorite child, Sunai. For the seventeen years since, Sunai has walked the land like a ghost, unable to die, unable to age, and unable to forget the horrors he's seen. He's run as far as he can from the wreckage of his faith, drowning himself in drink, drugs, and men. But when Sunai wakes up in the bed of the one man he never should have slept with, he finds himself on a path straight back into the world of gods and machines.

The Archive Undying is the first volume of Emma Mieko Candon's Downworld Sequence, a sci-fi series where AI deities and brutal police states clash, wielding giant robots steered by pilot-priests with corrupted bodies.

Come get in the robot.

Science fiction, dystopia, mecha fiction, experimental, adult

[kristoffera]

Andor is a miracle

In a time when the Disney factory owns everything Star Wars, I am amazed and excited that we have a series like Andor. In that context, the series is a miracle.

The series was created and written by Tony Gilroy, and he knows how to write a script, with previous scripts for Bourne 1-3 and Michael Clayton.

I can understand if Andor is a tough sell for many. An entire series about the guy who was with Rogue One. A Star Wars series without lightsabers and Jedi, which is a very slow burn, which is first and foremost about the characters and how they experience and live with the bureaucratic evil of the Empire. It is a series stripped of romantic depictions or a black / white story about evil versus good. Andor presents us with a very gray world, which in tone is more reminiscent of the paranoid political thrillers of the 70s than cozy Star Wars. In other words, it is not a series for children in any way.

So I get it. But you have to jump, because it pays off! Even if you don't know about Star Wars or like sci-fi in general!

The series is about what happened in the run-up to the first Death Star and how the Rebels came into being. It shows what it means to make a revolution and not least what it costs. How we often forget the actual actors and instead celebrate those who came after as heroes. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo get medals, but their actions were only possible because of the people who for the very first time dared to stand up and fight an all-encompassing system that crushes people. They were the gravel in the road that later became The Rebel Alliance.

The series is also a fascinating look at how totalitarian regimes operate seen through a Star Wars prism. The Empire is a system that is designed so evil that all its practitioners automatically become part of the banality of evil, where evil is legitimized by a strict bureaucratic approach, new laws and a new language. There is also a sequence that directly mirrors the Wannsee Conference, where Nazi Germany decided on the final solution to the Jewish question. So the real historical parallels are very clear.

The series has many fascinating characters and what they all have in common is that they all seem like real people with real problems and not just archetypes that are supposed to drive the plot forward.

The entire cast is fantastic, but Denise Gough, as the fascist boss lady Dedra, and Stellan Skarsgård, as the ruthless Luthen, make a special impression.

So yes, Andor is the best Star Wars related we have had since the original trilogy and worth subscribing to Disney plus to watch!

[himiko-yumehellno]

Kodaka very obviously wants to make Danganronpa 4, but as many people have pointed out already, this would conflict with the ending of V3. I thought I would make things easier on our resident murder mystery writer who appears to really like making mascots that remind me of Whisper from Yo-Kai Watch, and come up with some solutions to this problem! Organized in approximate order of increasing silliness and grasping at straws, with some additional director's notes from ✨me✨!!

So, how can Kodaka make a new Danganronpa game that works with the ending of Danganronpa V3?:

Danganronpa isn't actually a killing game franchise loved around the world; Tsumugi either lied or was lied to herself (probably with the use of a Flashback Light to make her believe she was a willing ringleader). Allows for some interesting angst if it's the second option.

Despair made a sudden comeback and took over a good portion of the world. Tsumugi fudged some details, but it's true that a lot of the world now enjoys killing games, because normal life is just boring to them (a life without despair and death?! Ugh! Who'd want that, am I right?). We find out in a later installment that the survivors joined with other forces fighting against despair. Danganronpa 4 explores a separate killing game also put on in the name of this new global wave of despair.

Danganronpa 4 turns out to be a prequel (possibly featuring a killing game that the in-game franchise was inspired by, possibly just being one of the numerous previous installments Tsumugi threw out there in her exposition monologue, possibly some secret third option), and ends up with some ridiculous name so fans don't get confused on the sequence of events. Personally, I hope the name is Danganronpa Negative Four.

As so many postgame fics have taken to declaring, the entire game was a simulation. Except to make this work, it probably wouldn't be a simulation designed by Team Danganronpa – no, no, no! Perhaps this killing game was put on by Remnants of Despair or – *exaggerated gasp* – the Future Foundation themselves, hm?

Danganronpa V3 was a really fucked up social experiment and none of the "reality TV" backstory was real. No one knows how it got past the ethics committee, so don't ask.

It was all an alternate dimension/timeline. ... Look, if all it takes to brainwash someone into mass murder is forcing them to come to anime night, they can throw in a little time or dimension travel!

To piggyback on that last idea, the "reality TV" backstory was true; Danganronpa V3 and all the previous installments in this series were fiction... in the Rain Code universe. Or some other video game setting made by Kodaka. Nothing of the sort happened in the actual Danganronpa continuity, however.

Danganronpa V3 was Junko Enoshima's idea of heaven. Of course, it wouldn't have been complete without the despair of her ideal world being destroyed, hence the survivor trio shutting down her killing game show. Danganronpa 4, therefore, takes place in the living world, continuing off vaguely where the Danganronpa 3 anime left off. Notably, all questions about how Junko's heaven works and why she even got to go to heaven in the first place are not solved until a separate anime series, where we find out it was originally supposed to be her hell until she made the demon in charge of looking after her quit and give her full range of the place. It's never answered whether the participants of the killing game were other dead souls or just beings she created.

The entire thing was just the Monokuma Children playing with dolls. ... Or, knowing them, dead bodies.

Before V3 came out my brother had this whole theory that all of the characters were in a pseudo time loop where every time a killing game concluded, they'd just roll out a set of clones of everyone and start all over again, presumably killing off the survivors of the last game. I have no idea how this would solve Kodaka's issue but I want to see if they could find a way to make it work.

I'm excited to see what becomes of Kodaka's newest works, but apparently by his own admission he's interested in returning to Danganronpa at some point, so I thought I'd do the hard part for him. Feel free to take any of these ideas and run with them, Kodaka!

(feel free to add your own suggestions on how to make the ending of V3 work with a new Danganronpa game!)

[swordfright]

What do you think is your most controversial dsmp take?

I got this ask a while ago and I've been wracking my brains trying to come up with something, but honestly...I don't think I really have many hot takes? At least, not ones that I'd consider controversial. Most of my controversial takes are about fanon/how the fandom interacts with the source material, which I assume isn't what you're looking for (but BOY DO I HAVE A LOT OF THOSE.) I also have likes and dislikes when it comes to duos and shipping stuff, but that's subjective obviously and more opinion than lore interpretation.

I guess if you put a gun to my head, I might say these are my most controversial Actual Lore Takes, but they're not all that interesting imo:

The experiments in the revival lab happened AFTER c!Dream's incarceration, not before it. My understanding is that most people interpret that sequence as occurring prior to the incarceration because...why would c!Dream let himself be locked up, relying on his knowledge of the book to be his life insurance, if he hadn't tested the damn thing out yet?! This logic tracks, but I think you could also flip it to argue the opposite: that he also could have conceivably waited to fully test the book until after escaping. During the run-up to the Disc Finale, c!Dream was incredibly busy with the fallout from Dethronement + Exile + Manburg related stuff etc, as well as busy preparing for the confrontation with c!Clingys, plus arranging the staged finale with Punz. The guy was busy as hell and he was also like...still kinda in the midst of a manic episode. Also, keep in mind that while the book was his life insurance for the finale and its immediate aftermath, he had no idea that c!Sam was going to betray him. Considering all that, I don't think it's inconceivable that c!Dream may not have had time to thoroughly test the limits of the revive book beforehand, and he likely didn't realize quite how vital his knowledge of revival would become during his incarceration period. So yeah. I'm open to either interpretation, but I am partial to the possibility that the Vikk and Lazar necromancy montage happened after the prison era. And the exact date/location of the lab are never specified either, which makes me even more open to the post-prison necromancy option. Not a hill I'd be willing to die on, but a hill I like to sit on and admire the view from.

End of Las Nevadas is the weakest stream of the Las Nevadas series. I found it narratively unsatisfying, and not in a clever way. I don't hate that stream, I think it had some really interesting moments, but overall I'd say its messaging was convoluted and the tension was pretty poorly mismanaged. I'd be willing to go on about this if you want, but I think a lot of other folks have probably already articulated it better than I can. Oh, I'll add that I also have complicated thoughts about c!Slime as a character. Don't hate him, don't love him...but I am puzzled about the role he was presumably meant to play in the story vs. the role he actually ends up playing. I could go on about this in detail but it's late and I'm sleepy.

c!Quackity has very simple goals and motives, but his pursuit of those goals is oftentimes way more convoluted than necessary, which ends up making him read as a more complex and dynamic character than he really is (I like this btw!) Another way to put it would be that Q is not a terribly complex character in terms of motivations and ambitions (dr3 has rly good meta on this btw), but he does tend to needlessly complicate his own life and the lives of the people around him in pursuit of simple goals. I think one of his big failings is that he sees violence as an easy solution to his problems but in reality it just creates more problems for him. It's like he keeps failing some sort of foresight check, over and over again. Take the formation of Las Nevadas, for instance. Most of the country's members were intimidated/threatened into joining, not because they're people Q particularly wants to hang around with, but because they're people Q sees as either strong (i.e. they are capable of contributing to LN) or directionless (i.e. they're in need of an owner a leader.) Quackity doesn't really forge alliances, he just...buys people, basically? And then he's shocked when this backfires. His relationship with Purpled is the most obvious example of this, but also LN as a whole: in LN5 (?), Quackity's angry and offended and hurt that only a tiny handful of people show up to the opening ceremony, even though by all accounts the reason the turn-out isn't bigger is because the server has by this point become a chaotic and violent place where anything can happen to anyone for any reason and most inhabitants feel safer sticking to their own turf...and that atmosphere of chaos and violence is something Q has ostensibly contributed to, even before Pandora. c!Quackity creates a country that no one is truly loyal to, inhabited by people who are closer to employees than allies...and then his solution, when he realizes nobody really gives a shit, isn't to try recruiting people in a more equitable way, it's to bioengineer a slime army. That is insane. That is an insane way to solve your problems. In no way is bioengineering a slime army a normal or well-adjusted solution to any conceivable problem. This is what I mean when I say he's a relatively uncomplicated character who complicates everything - he's constantly jumping through hoops of fire to avoid changing his behavior and taking any kind of accountability whatsoever.

I have tons more takes but they're mostly about silly subjective stuff and/or fanon, so I'll leave that for another day if anyone's interested.

[kirk-spock-fics]

All Time Fandom Favourites

Looking for popular spirk fics? Here are some fandom classics:

a sequence that you never learned by annataylor ★

explicit TW: implied childhood sexual abuse aos, kirk/spock kid fic, fake marriage, getting together, first time words: 64,624 'When Jim gets it in his head to adopt an eight year old Vulcan, Spock presents a logical solution to the issue of Jim's humanity: marriage to a Vulcan citizen.'

Sha Ka Ree by ThereBeWhalesHere ★

explicit tos, kirk/spock, au canon divergence slow burn, mutual pining, hurt/comfort, falling in love words: 180,505 'The year is 2258. Jim Kirk is a Lieutenant on the U.S.S. Farragut, Spock the science officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise. When the ships come together for a priority landing party, these two strangers find themselves fighting against the odds for a chance at life in an alien world, and the only way they'll make it through is by relying on each other.'

Warm Thoughts by lettered ★

teen tos, kirk/spock mind melds, hurt/comfort, episode: amok time words: 22,296 'Kirk contracts a condition that makes him feel perpetually cold. Spock has to perform mind melds to convince Kirk he’s warm.'

Bitter Dregs by kinklock ★

explicit tos, kirk/spock angst with a happy ending, mind melds, episode: plato's stepchildren 'When they had first met, Jim had known not to touch his hand.'

this is what happens when you save earth, apparently by WerewolvesAreReal ★

teen tos, kirk/spock, post-canon getting together, fluff, humour, post-five year mission, starfleet academy words: 5,454 '“So, why haven't you settled down with some lucky lady yet?” the interviewer asks. Maybe it's the blinding set-lights, or the fact that he hasn't slept in thirty-five hours. But for some reason Kirk blurts, “Honestly, they all end up getting jealous of Spock.”'

You Could Call It Love by lurikko ★

mature tos, kirk/spock, post-canon getting together, fake/pretend marriage, slow burn, unresolved sexual tension words: 45,791 'If marrying Spock is what it’s going to take to get them both back on Enterprise for another five-year mission, then Jim Kirk damn well is going to marry Spock.'

Spice by eimeo ★

explicit tos, tos movies, kirk/spock, kirk/others post-series, TMP, post-TMP, slow burn, realllly slow burn, angst with a happy ending, getting together, getting back together, mutual pining words: 276,553 'It’s a question of biology. Vulcan biology. The problem with falling in love with a member of an insanely private species is that it just might take you the best part of a five year mission to work out that the feelings are requited. And then you might discover that he’s already decided that the two of you can never be together. And what are you supposed to do if he won’t tell you why?'

An Excercise In Setting Oneself On Fire by alestairwrites ★

teen tos, kirk/spock fluff, getting together, accidental ashayam, misunderstandings words: 5,017 '“Ashayam, I must disagree.” There’s silence for a moment, and it takes Spock less than a second to realise the mistake he’s made. He allows himself a single moment to close his eyes, before opening them to face his fate.'

Unspoken by williamspockspeare ★

teen CW: mild descriptions of violence tos, kirk/spock t'hy'la, tarsus iv, drunkeness, fluff, angst with a happy ending, 5+1 '“If even in dreams, Jim lacked the courage to say the words, when would he ever say it?” Or 5 times Jim Kirk stopped himself from saying I love you + 1 time he didn’t.'

Desert Rose by Borealisblue ★

mature tos, kirk/spock, au spock didn't join starfleet slow burn, soulmates, bonding, mutual pining, vulcan culture, vulcan kisses, mind melds, first kiss, falling in love, slash words: 135,649 'The Captain of the USS Enterprise is sent to Vulcan on behalf of the Federation to assist in the discovery of some ancient ruins. The ruins' very existence may be a threat to Vulcanian Society because they hint at a mythical bond long ago lost. But before their select team is able to seek them out, they must first study up on the old culture within the ancient libraries of ShiKahr city, accompanied under the supervision and tutelage of a professor from the local Vulcan Science Academy, a Mr. Spock.'

[the-big-nope]

So if you've never played Mass Effect 3 (specific spoilers excluded), you are given three choices at the end of the final sequence to determine the fate of the galaxy going forward. None of these options are ideal: one of them maintains the status quo (or whatever remains of it) at great sacrifice, and the other two are pretty much leaps of faith into the unknown that may not work, one of which will cause significant change to the entire galaxy's population without anyone's consent. Unfortunately, the player character is alone, cut off from everyone else, was only just presented these choices at the end, and has literal minutes before the last bit of resistance in the galaxy is wiped out. Only you the player can make that choice. Some people don't enjoy this ending, but I do. The imperfect nature of it feels fitting, given the scale of the conflict the series is dealing with, and having to grapple with a choice that has no perfect solution and will require some degree of sacrifice/moral murkiness is always a fun last step for whatever version of the main character I'm exploring that playthrough.

My problem with the Bells Hells, despite also facing several imperfect choices that will massively effect their world regardless of which morally murky choice they may make, is that they DO have time. Not much of it, but some. They are not cut off from the rest of the world, and they have numerous allies in very high places from all across Exandria. And yet, despite Ashton's claims that they stand for the little people, Bells Hells haven't shared any of the things they've learned or any of the options available to them, not even with their close allies. The very metaphysical fate of Exandria hangs in the balance, and yet it hasn't occurred to them to ask.... pretty much anyone that these changes would actually affect what their opinions about it would be. Why do they keep bemoaning the weight of making these impossible choices while also neglecting to even try sharing the burden?

It would be one thing if the Bells Hells were convicted one way or another. If they were collectively set on banishing the gods/releasing Predathos regardless of anyone else's opinions it would make more sense, but they're not. If the people of Exandria are who they care about most in the outcome of this conflict, why do they keep endlessly seeking the opinions of higher beings rather than the ones of their fellow mortals?

The ending of Mass Effect 3 works (for me at least) because the whole series up to that point had been about the PC being the only one able to make the tough choices in the moment. The most pivotal points in the story often leave you with no time, or cut you off from any support, or leave you as the only one with the experience to make any sort of reasonable call. The ending is just that final step: the ultimate uncertain decision that you have no choice but to take a leap of faith into, trusting in the gut instinct and moral code that's led you this far. This isn't the case for Bells Hells. They've had time. They have readily available, experienced allies who have been through insane crises and dealt with powerful extraplanar beings. They don't HAVE to be the only ones making this choice, and the fact that they're acting like they are despite holding the fate of millions in their hands, and doing so rather cavalierly at that, is both confusing and... continuously frustrating to say the least.

[tobiasdrake]

Don't mind me, I'm just going to go off on a tangent about Homura.

I've said this before but when you really break it down, what Homura did to Madokami was workplace automation. When you get right down to it, that's what she did. She automated the Law of Cycles so that it no longer required a human operator.

Automation is a hot-button issue right now because. Y'know. Capitalism is terrible and is seizing control of automation in ways that make all of our lives shittier. Computers are stealing our jobs and that's bad because our economy requires us to have jobs in order to live.

(Also because computers are stealing creative jobs that people want to do instead of life-destroying manual labor but that's a separate issue.)

But that's a problem of economics. Our economic system is not sustainable in the long-term, especially post-scarcity. We're already past its breaking point, and the rise of automation is accelerating the rate at which its ability to serve the population is breaking down.

In a vacuum, not crippled by a doomed economic system, automation is good. Being able to automate shitty jobs is good. Having (non-sentient) systems in place that provide necessary but unpleasant services so that real human people can enjoy life is good. Making life better for people is the ultimate goal of society.

Madoka's sacrifice to create and become Madokami was an amazing gesture of progress for Magical Girls everywhere. But it's also an unpleasant service. Pretty much any time the series ever talks about being Madokami, it's described as a miserable and lonely experience. In the show itself, as she's making the wish, Mami calls it a fate worse than death. Rebellion shows her arm covered in scars when she reaches for Homura during one of its metaphorical sequences.

Madoka outright tells Homura she wouldn't want that for herself in Rebellion. She doesn't understand the full context of the sacrifice she's made. But it is 100% a sacrifice she was coerced into by circumstance.

It's made complicated by the fact that Madoka herself feels crushed under mediocrity; A big part of her character arc is languishing in the hopeless feeling of wanting to be special but not being so. But. Like. So far as solutions to that problem go, deleting herself from existence so she can accumulate all despair in the universe inside herself and filter it into hope is a bit extreme?

What Homura did is basically an upgrade. The Law of Cycles, the thing Madoka created, the legacy of her great influence on the universe still functions. She just. Doesn't have to do the manual labor anymore.

Homura basically wrote an algorithm to let Madoka have the hours of her life (all 24 of them per day) back that she would normally have to spend in her office pressing the button. Based on everything we have ever heard about Madokami, in the series itself and in Magia Record, this seems like a net good for everyone with no drawbacks whatsoever.

Good job, Homura.

Now, if Madoka comes out and says, "Actually I really enjoy being Madokami and doing the work myself; That is what I, in clear-headedness and sober consideration, want to do with my life," then that changes the equation.

But based on everything that's been established thus far, Homura's choices aren't just understandable from her point of view; She's actually right in the grand scheme of things. Madoka created a system to rescue and heal the victims of Kyubey's predation at the cost of herself, while Homura rescued the one victim remaining.

[liluziversity]

How Haruhi fans solved a mathematical puzzle

The world of anime fandom is no stranger to passion and creativity, but in 2011, 4chan users of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya achieved something extraordinary—they contributed to solving a mathematical problem that had puzzled experts for decades. This unexpected intersection of anime and mathematics is a testament to the diverse talents within fandom communities.

The story begins with the unique airing order of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. When the anime first aired, its episodes were presented in a non-linear sequence, sparking debates among fans about the "correct" viewing order. This led to a playful, yet complex, question: if you wanted to watch all 14 episodes in every possible order, what would be the shortest sequence of episodes required?

This question is rooted in the mathematical concept of superpermutations, which involve finding the shortest string that contains every possible permutation of a set. For a set of 14 episodes, the problem becomes exponentially complex. Mathematicians had been grappling with this challenge for years, but it was an anonymous fan on 4chan who made a breakthrough.

The fan's solution provided a new lower bound for the minimal length of superpermutations, offering a fresh perspective on the problem. Mathematicians, including Robin Houston and Jay Pantone, later verified and expanded upon this work, incorporating it into academic research. While this all initially took place in 2011, the discovery largely went unnoticed until 2018, when the mathematical community's interest was renewed in solving the problem, and the Haruhi discovery was made well-known.

This remarkable story underscores the power of curiosity and collaboration. It reminds us that inspiration can come from the most unexpected places. For fans of Haruhi Suzumiya, this achievement is yet another reason to celebrate the series' enduring legacy.

[time-traveling-fetus]

I think one issue with the logic of point and click puzzle games is that there's a disconnect between what the game allows and what the player thinks is possible. I'm sure devs were also incentivized by various other factors to make puzzles difficult and wacky too, but that's a separate thing. Any game with a sufficiently simulated world or interactivity will have players questioning what interactions are available to them.

As game development has progressed, both parties have begun to meet in the middle. Players have a better understanding of game design conventions and generally what's feasible for developers to implement, while developers tend to put more consideration into designing for player expectations. A simulation that becomes too complex might become unpredictable and therefore unintuitive for players getting consistent results. On the flip side, a player may forego any solutions to a problem on the assumption that it's simply not possible.

"This game is about manipulating others, but how complicated is their psychology? Do they have memories and biases and common sense or are they simply automatons following a flowchart? Will I be punished because I dropped a dead fish at their feet earlier and now they think I'm too weird to talk to? Am I able to distract them by telling them that their elderly mother slipped and got sent to the hospital, or am I relegated to throwing coins or turning on radios in other rooms?"

Any unique interaction available to the player therefore needs to either be communicated to a player, hinted that the player should experiment, or if the interaction is not important enough to the main gameplay, left unacknowledged so a creative player finds it organically. Unfortunately making these things too explicit lessens the impact of doing them. It's very rewarding to naturally deduce that placing a banana peel in front of someone's mother might cause her to slip and get driven to the hospital by her daughter who is now conveniently absent from the room in which you're trying to commit a crime. It's less rewarding if you have a voice telling you that you should do each and every one of those things in thst order, but you also may not think it's possible if you think the video game doesn't simulate hospitals are human compassion. This creates a dialogue between player and designer, in which both are trying to guess what the other would think without saying too much, and it's a careful balance.

Thats why it's so hard to work in a genre in which your player could ostensibly obtain any object ever and combine them in hundreds of configurations. If you make puzzles too straightforward then your game is a series of "obviously i would use a match to light a fire to boil the water that my protagonist said he needed because this is what I do in real life every day. This is not a significant revelation for me." Which is not nearly as interesting as, idk, figuring out that you need to dump a bag of flour over the edge of a roof to trick someone into thinking that it's snowing so it's cold enough to brew a cup of hot coffee so you can drug it with sleeping pills so I can steal the key he keeps around his neck. But the hurdle you need to get over as a game designer is whether your players would think that that sequence of events is at all possible to execute. Your players aren't guessing how the puzzle can be solved. Your players are guessing how you think the puzzle should be solved.

[devanitoland]

ghost hill / house toland lore dump

key history

the tolands were a lordly house of some strength by the time of nymeria’s conquest, some thousand years ago as one of the main allies of mors martell and princess nymeria (a shrewd move on nymeria’s part to forge an alliance with a key landing point on the sea of dorne). it is not noted whether they were orignally first men or andal in origin, but as mors' house was founded by an andal, i like to think they were andal. however, the tolands' origins have been lost to time thanks to marrying into rhoynish families, and the tolands of today are considered to be rhoynar.

the tolands successfully resisted the dragons of aegon the conqueror during the first dornish war. the lord toland at the time sent out his champion to face aegon. after aegon slew the man, he learned that the man was lord toland's mad fool, and that lord toland himself had escaped.

once a mighty house, house toland has suffered through two generations of poor leadership. devani's father was rather uninterested in the life of a ruling lord, and his wife, devani's mother, is known to overreach her position and regarded as a social climber. once he passed, lordship fell to her brother aditya, the current ruling lord, who has made a sequence of poor decisions including a feud with the jordaynes. devani's sister, pallavi, married doran uller and was later executed for her role in trying to assassinate him. aditya's current heir is devani, who has spent most of her adult life missing after running away as a teenager and has only recently returned.

devani's paternal aunt married into house manwoody and is the mother of joy manwoody and her sisters. joy's position in court gave the toland's some protection, but after her death, they are once again in a precarious situation.

castle

their ancestral seat, ghost hill, lies on the southern shore of the sea of dorne, near the broken arm.

located atop a hill, ghost hill has chalk-white walls that shine against the deep blue of the sea of dorne. there are towers at the corners of the castle, which has a great central keep.

despite the name, ghost hill is a bright, welcoming castle with beautiful architecture and overall a pleasant place to be, if you can tolerate the ruling lord and his mother. devani toland is rarely found within the walls of ghost hill, as she is one of those who cannot tolerate their company.

sigil, words and values

prior to the dragon, the toland banners displayed a ghost. in later days, the tolands would take a new banner, showing a dragon biting its own tail, with the colors green in gold in memory of the motley of their brave fool - a mockery of the targaryens’ vain attempt to take the Toland seat

there are no canon words for house toland - however, i like the idea that their words are "the spirit is stronger". the word spirit has a double meaning - both in the literal sense of the spirit of the tolands, and a reference to their ancestral seat of ghost hill.

house toland is known to value wit, trickery, creative thinking, and unconventional solutions to problems, and is incredibly proud still of their history in doing so.

climate & geography

the ghost hills region takes its name from a series of hills and mountains in the area, inspired by the eastern ghats of andhra pradesh. the hills make up the most striking features of the landscape and are shaped by several rivers that flow through the area, emptying into the sea of dorne. the castle of ghost hill is atop one of the hills.

toland lands border that of the martells to the south, and the jordaynes to the west. north east lies the broken arm of dorne, with the sea of dorne serving as their northern border. most of the land is generally fairly fertile, with small amounts of desert at the inland border where the ghost hills meet the tor.

the ghost hills sees a decent amount of rainfall and occasional monsoons, usually blown across the sea of dorne from the stormlands. clean drinking water is not scarce in this region.

flooding is not uncommon closer to the coastline, but the more arid areas nearer to the desert occasionally suffer drought, and are forced to move towards the rivers and ocean.

population

the smallfolk are mainly organised into small towns and villages that operate as communities, and are usually part of extended family structures. once a year, the communities gather in the town at the foot of the ghost hill keep in a large festival that is primarily focused on marriages between the different communities.

music, dance and the arts is important to each community, who have their own different, but related, dances and songs. artists are highly revered.

most smallfolk are illiterate, and possess no formal education. those who can read, write, and perform mathematics are usually employed as traders around the port.

those who live in the ghost hills speak their own language, which is equivalent in the real world to telugu, often as their first language with hindi as a second. the smallfolk in particular are more likely to speak only telugu. around the port town, small amounts of low valyrian is not uncommon due to the essoian visitors. devani herself is fluent in telugu, hindi and common tongue, though she picked up many more languages in her time in essos that she keeps in her back pocket.

flora & fauna

birds: jerdon’s courser, blue flycatcher, jerdon’s baza, bustard, spot-billed pelican, hoopoe, spotted owlet, crow pheasant, pied cuckoo, pitta, brahminy kite, myna, spotted eagle, vulture, whistling thrush

mammals: grey slender loris, blackbuck, civet, treeshrew, mongoose, sambar, bison, boar, muntjac, small population of leopard, dhole, hare, tufted grey langur, flying fox, macaque, smooth-coated otter, reed cat,

reptiles: geckos (golden gecko, granite rock gecko, and slender gecko), skinks, snakes (shieldtail snakes, sharma’s racer, beaked worm snake, rock python, coral snake, bamboo pit viper, king cobra), mugger crocodile, turtles (black turtle, flapshell turtle, tent turtle, softshell turtle), star tortoise, psammophilus, sitana, chameleon, monitor

amphibians: rock toad, frogs (cricket frog, bull frog, burrowing frog, tree frog, golden back frog), caecilian

fish: razorbelly minnows, south indian flying barb, channa barb, ghostfin catfish, river carp, sunstripe perch, glassfish, rasbora, mullet, threadfish, trout

flora: acacia concinna (soap pods, used to create hygiene products particularly for hair), goldenleather fern, plants in the ginger family, neem (used for medicinal purposes), mosquito fern, periwinkle, turmeric, hiptage, club moss, jasmine, mango, cobra saffron (used for medicine, fragrances, and psychedelic effects), bullet wood (fragrant, used for oral hygeine), murraya exotica, lotus, holy basil, amla, serpentine wood, sandalwood, ashoka (a sacred tree, believed to be linked to fertility), teak, bamboo, orchids

industry and economics

the ghost hills are a fertile area with a great range of flora and fauna, as well as natural mineral resources found in the mountains. this includes granite, iron, limestone and quartz, with limestone being the primary material for buildings in the region.

farming is a huge part of industry in the ghost hills, both in terms of pastoral grazing and crop growth. traditionally, the tolands have sustained economic growth by exporting crops to less fertile regions of dorne.

other notable goods produced in the region include pottery, woven baskets, items crafted from bell metal, and lumbar (primarily for construction).

due to its proxemity to the ocean, the keep of ghost hill and the town surrounding it houses a small port, though it has no ships of its own, it conducts trade through visiting ships from other regions. it was these ships that varun toland sailed on in his youth and devani toland would use to escape dorne as a teenager.

the ghost hills are economically a little backwards, and money is not generally used apart from for taxes and by the toland family. instead, a bartering system is used by the majority of the smallfolk. the notable exception is in the town at the foot of the ghost hill keep, due to its importance in trade matters. the bartering traditions means poverty does not exist in a traditional sense. most smallfolk live within extended family units, ensuring basic needs are met and cared for by their own. whilst this provides a comfortable life for most of the smallfolk, it does make moving to other areas more difficult.

government, crime, and the law

taxes may be paid with coin, or in the form of agricultural products that would then be sold on.

the line of succession is as follows: 1. aditya toland (the current ruling lord) 2. devani toland (the sister of aditya) 3. kheerat toland (the son of devani, whose existence is unknown) 4. slya manwoody (the sister of varun toland, devani and aditya's father) 5. the twin infant sons of armaan yronwood and joy manwoody (slya's grandchildren) 6. the other manwoody siblings

both varun and aditya have taken a hands-off approach to the smallfolk, allowing them to largely self-govern within their own villages and communities and remaining distant figures. in contrast, devani enjoys spending time amongst the small folk since her return, and often can be found weaving baskets, visiting their communities, taking part in their music and dance, and is generally well-liked by them.

the ghost hills have endured two generations of lax leadership from varun toland and his son, aditya. as such, crime has gone less punished in recent times, and theft, smuggling, and other acts of criminality are common. criminals are usually handled by local communities, to varying effects. mob justice is not uncommon, and punishments are often decided by the elders of the villages. more serious crimes, such as murder, may be passed along to the tolands for judgement.

martial & defence

there are a series of forts within the peaks of the ghost hills, primarily used for defence in the past, but today more commonly used as marketplaces.

soldiers of the ghost hills are part of a small land army, primarily infantrymen, numbering roughly 2500 men. primary weapons are clubs, spears, bows, and firangi swords. there are an even smaller number of cavalry men, but they are expected to provide their own horses. the army is split into six ranks. in times of need, the smallfolk are expected to volunteer, though there has historically been no punishment for not doing so.

as is dornish tradition, the people of the ghost hills favour sneaky tactics and guerrilla warfare, utilising the features of the hills and mountains in order to get the upper hand.

death and mourning

a notable custom of house toland is in their mourning practices. after a body is cremated of a family member, or other significant person, a chalk ghost is made to represent them and left in the grounds of ghost hill, open to the elements. the mourning period can only end once the ghost has eroded away. tolands of the past have been known to strategically place the ghosts depending on how they felt about the deceased - due to the shame devani's sister brought upon the family, for example, her ghost was positioned so it would constantly feel the spray of the sea of dorne, and thus was eroded within months. in contrast, devani's great-grandfather built an alcove in the walls of the castle for the ghost of his daughter, and it still stands to this day, almost a century later. the latest ghost to be installed in ghost hill is a memorial to dante uller.

[dccomicsnews]

Review: Birds of Prey #18

Review: Birds of Prey #18

Writer: Kelly Thompson Art: Juann Cabal Colors: Adriano Lucas Letters: Clayton Cowles Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd     Summary The assassins are coming for Sin!  Dinah and Barbara devise a trap that gives the "sisters" a chance for a "get away" weekend.  Meanwhile, more nonsense with Barda and Cassandra.

Positives Bird of Prey #18 starts out strong as Barbara gets some intel indicating that the assassins from whom Sin was liberated back in Birds of Prey Vol.1 #95 (2006) are coming to take her back.  This is a nice continuity callback by Kelly Thompson.  It's a good use of DC history.  Contemporary comics don't get this right as often as they should.  The opening pages with Dinah and Sin give some insight into Dinah's character which is appreciated and connect to the same story referenced as it ties into Dinah's fighting prowess and how she values skill in hand-to-hand combat.

Barbara's concern for her friends and development of the plan is a solid use of her role as Oracle.  Barbara responds to a call for assistance is a nice touch even if it isn't executed well.  There's some nice storytelling as Dinah and Sin communicate non-verbally as they become aware of the assassins that have surrounded their "safe house" and are preparing to attack.  This whole sequence shows that Thompson can be a good writer. Negatives Despite the very good start to Birds of Prey #18, the secondary plot with Barda and Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) is unfortunately more of Thompson's nonsense.  It's obvious that Thompson doesn't know how to handle this cast effectively.  Instead of Bara and Cass doing something worthwhile they are seen playing video games before heading off to help John Constantine.  It  makes sense for these two to have something to do while the smaller mission that Dinah and Sin are on runs, but it just seems like a weird solution to send these two on a magical mission to assist Constantine.  Thompson has tried to push this series into the magical and supernatural and it is like fitting a square peg in a round hole.  In this particular issue, it points out that Barda doesn't really fit into this friend group and Thompson has to find something for her to do, the same with Cass who's usually more of a loner.

It also demonstrates that Thompson doesn't know how to manage a larger cast effectively and make it all feel like it fits.  The plotline with Dinah and Sin is a more grounded and personal thing that fits the characters, while the mission for Constantine is just a distraction from that better plot.  Not only should Barbara have just called in some magical types to help Constantine instead of sending Barda and Cass.  This is so much wasted space for the issue that could've been used to move the Dinah/ Sin plot forward.  Thompson has done this in this series.  The Birds of Prey concept can be a tricky one to crack, it takes the right balance of action and character moments and part of that is knowing how to use the characters.  This has been a problem for Thompson throughout the series.  

I doesn't really make sense that Barda and Cass are just sitting around playing video games...waiting...for something.  I don't think this is their life.  They have other things to do.  Thompson wants to get smaller personal moments, but they have to be meaningful and it doesn't make sense that they are just sitting around...waiting.  Also, Thompson's inability to write quality humorous moments doesn't help.  Half this issue should be replaced with something meaningful instead of the nonsense.  It would be better to show actual personal moments unrelated to a mission with the pair bonding instead of playing video games. Verdict Birds of Prey #18 is a mixed bag.  Half of the issue is really good, and half of the issue is wasted.  Thompson can't write a complete issue and gets in her own way allowing the good stuff to be undermined by nonsense that has no value to the story or characters.  I had real hopes for this issue, but it's more of the same.  This series will not improve until a better writer takes over.

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[catenary-chad]

Feverishly writing out my wildly Americanized Stex reimagining concept. So much goes the way of “Immer pünktlich” in that it works so well in ways it was never intended to, and makes no sense outside of one regional audience (and people who have physically gone there by train)

I need to iron out some stuff but hopefully I’ll post the whole concept soon. It would be moderately sacrilegious, but also weirdly bring it in line with how the Railways Series was written (heavily rooted in how trains actually were at the time). While also providing some surprisingly elegant solutions to some long-term problems the show has, and implement a lot of stuff it’s tried to do over the years in really clunky half-baked ways.

“Starlight Express, Are you real, yes or no/I don’t want you to go” goes from “haha train god” to “passenger trains nearly vanished from the US altogether after WWII largely due to the government’s actions and those are genuine reflections of that”. The fundamental thing is you need to totally rewrite the Starlight Sequence to be about “you alone are an engine not a train” and emphasize that banding together as a group is the actual way to make systemic change (and also one of the main strengths of trains!).

Just saying, in the 80s (and even now) a steam engine as the high-maintenance celebrity who’s a neutral but obstructive figure with an entourage who follows them around is a fun and accurate depiction of mainline excursions (and the problems they cause can so fun and versatile to explore)

And New York City is right at the epicenter of where passenger rail was repeatedly set up to fail by the government, and how dated and worn out many electrified lines are is perhaps the most visible and vulnerable symbol of that.

A kid playing with a mismatched train set half consisting of their grandpa’s decades-old rails and wiring and wondering why the new engine they got for Christmas doesn’t work well is a very on the nose depiction of Amtrak in the 70s-early 80s. They think about what to ask for their birthday, toy cars? Planes? Tanks? And then a funny crowd of voices yells “TRAINS!”

“Coach sexism” becomes actually compelling in the context of how the position of US passenger rail and women in the workplace vaguely correlate post-WWII, the steam heat/head end power changeover around the 60s-80s is an underrated metaphor for orientation (and give Pearl even more depth as a glass slipper if you make her a then-new Amfleet car), and with an electric protag you can finally replace Hydra/Dustin with a nuclear flask and have it make a ton of sense. It feels like they wanted to make him nuclear coded so badly with how he’s shown as a green-hued, sinister-looking, but heroic alternative energy, but it’s total sci fi to apply it to a steam locomotive.

Oh yeah, it’s also a blank check to bring back Slick and/or barely-modified Trucker Caboose, along with a lot of other popular old things that suddenly fit again (Dinah’s Disco, OLC Belle, There’s Me)