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valhallanrose · 3 years

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The Red Plague

The art above was created by Nix Hydra, and can be found in the Minor Arcana Art Book (or where I got it - off the fandom wiki page, because who’s going to stop me)

Much of Zelda’s story in the non-apprentice timeline delves into the plague before, during, and in the aftermath of Vesuvia, and I wanted to compile my lore and headcanons for it in one place before I delve into her story fully. I will incorporate as much canon as possible, but given that that isn’t a large amount of info, a lot of this is based off research and personal worldbuilding.

CWs for discussions of disease, death, body horror, I guess spoilers but I’m surprised if it is for anyone considering how the info is everywhere in game in all routes. This is also, again, personal headcanon and I don’t expect it to fall in line with everyone’s thoughts on the plague.

The Timeline

I’m going to go with a comprehensive timeline first, and this part is all based on canon information. I’ll try and provide as many sources as I can as well, but some of this is pulled from multiple books and I might forget exactly where something came from.

As we learn in the Lucio tale, Dawn of the Grub, Lucio strikes up a deal with the wyrm of pestilence (Vlastomil) - his parents’ hearts in exchange for a disease that will allow Lucio to kill them both. The Lucio brought the disease back to the tribe, which weakened his father enough for Lucio to kill him. His mother Morga, however, fights off the disease, referring to it as a ‘summer cold’, and Lucio flees the tribe and joins a traveling mercenary band which allows the plague to spread.

I don’t have a particular reason why Morga would have survived the plague. Her sprites in the game never show any sign of the plague that are generally acknowledged - no red sclera, no veins, no signs of weakness, so on and so forth. The best theory I can posit is that Morga either genuinely had a summer cold, or that the plague only took hold in Lutz rather than them both. Either way, unsatisfying, but we’re going to call Morga the exception and not the rule.

Because Lucio did not fulfill his end of the bargain with Vlastomil, the plague continued to spread, following Lucio as he traveled the continent. This is also the point where the beetles appear - more on them later.

The implication in the game is that the disease reached other countries and areas, but the next canon mention of the Red Plague’s spread occurs in Portia’s route, book X - Wheel of Fortune. A map is discussed where dates, places, and sightings of the plague are noted by Julian in his study of the plague - the Painted Fields, Blue Mountain Ridge, and Annyala Gate are all names that arise.

Nasmira recognizes the name of Annyala Gate and points out that Nazali was at that battle, in which a band of mercenaries was sighted - and their leader needed an arm amputated, which is confirmed to be Lucio. Nadia states that Lucio came to Vesuvia not long after that battle, and the next time the Plague was seen was in Vesuvia.

It is never seen again outside Vesuvia, and this brings us to the three years before the game, where Lucio’s ‘death’ heralds the end of the plague, and it is never seen actively again in the Arcana world.

The headcanons I have are to help establish a solid timeline. Dawn of the Grub tells us the deal is made on Lucio’s 18th birthday, and I personally believe that Lucio’s death occurred on his 40th birthday, giving us about 22 years of time for us to work with for the spread of the plague.

Some more headcanons mixed with canon:

Lucio is newly titled Count in the tale Travel at Night. Based on personal age headcanons, this tale probably occurs at minimum 17 to 18 years pre-canon, putting Asra at (at most) 10/11, Muriel at 14/15, and Lucio at a startling 22/23. It could occur later, as art style can influence perspective on age, but Muriel and Asra really don’t feel like they could be much older than that.

During his mercenary days (sometime between the ages of 18 and 22/23) Lucio was contracted by the former Count of Vesuvia, Count Spada. This battle occurs at Annyala, mentioned above, and is the battle where Lucio

At a certain point, Lucio was contracted by the Count of Vesuvia at the time, Count Spada, for a battle where he "made a name for himself." Story implications indicate that this was the battle during which he lost his left arm. It was amputated by Julian to prevent his death from blood loss. After he won the battle for Count Spada, he became friends with the Count and privy to secrets about Vesuvia and the Palace. Spada would eventually name Lucio his heir, and upon his death, Lucio earned rulership of Vesuvia.

The plague eventually appears and ravages Vesuvia’s population

Plague patients are sent to the Lazaret away from the city and cremated, then scattered on the beach.

Lucio contracts the plague and defies the average lifespan of those who contracted it by lasting a few months rather than 3-10 days.

Lucio dies on his birthday, not of the plague but as a result of the ritual he was attempting to gain a new body.

I tried to map most of that out here, and wow, what a sad little diagram. Nix Hydra, y’all are cowards for not going hard on this. I, however, am not, and I am about to go more apeshit than I already have.

The Spread

Cracking my knuckles on the history degree, baby, I’m borrowing some real life inspiration from across multiple time periods to tie all this together.

I personally think the whole “Oh, the plague arrives wherever Lucio goes and disappears when he leaves” thing is a copout, and we’re drop kicking that out a window.

I do believe, as canon states, that the plague follows Lucio. It spreads obviously to regions he visits, but I don’t think it just disappears when he leaves. I really, really want to believe someone would have been smart enough to see the connection if the plague suddenly appeared and was later yoinked out of existence as soon as Lucio left town every single time it cropped up somewhere way sooner than it was noticed in canon.

I don’t think the plague was as isolated as the game implies, and when it was in Vesuvia, it was probably also elsewhere. The epicenter was Lucio, of course, so Vesuvia faced the worst of it, but I think there would have been pockets with much smaller numbers in other parts of the world.

Earlier I mentioned a few locations cited in Portia’s route as to where the plague had been before Vesuvia - the Painted Fields, Blue Mountain Ridge, and Annyala Gate. I think once these areas were hit with the plague, it would have continued to spread even after Lucio left. Across multiple routes, it’s made clear that the only ‘cure’ to the plague is Lucio’s death, which is why Julian had intended to kill Lucio after making his deal with the Hanged Man. The lack of Lucio’s presence would have kept the plague from continuing to escalate, but in these regions, it probably would have spread when the region’s people attempted to relocate, or ceased when the population died out.

Annyala Gate, or the Great Gate, is a location I can dive a little deeper into. It’s the last location the plague was sighted before Vesuvia, and because it ties into my OC Zelda’s storyline, I have many a thought.

Lucio is in Annyala sometime between year 1 and year 4/5, though I believe it’s on the later end of that spectrum, so let’s say year 4 to clearly predate his title as heir to Vesuvia. For reference, here is a map of the Great Gate as provided by the art book:

Jeebus. Terrible photo quality. Ah, well, on we go.

The Great Gate is situated between the Sea of Persephia (left) and the Salty Sea (right), and as the map currently stands, is the only point on land that gives access to the southern part of the world map. In this area in particular, I feel like a number of factors would have kept the plague alive long after Lucio left.

Narrowest point on the world map for transport of goods between ports and seas, which would be a more efficient route than traveling around the continent to reach the same point

As previously stated, this is the only known access point to the south, and travelers heading through this area could possibly be carriers of the plague or catch the plague from the area

The only way for the plague to stop would be with the death of Lucio, so once it was inflicted upon this area, it continued to spread and infect the population in adjoining areas

The game repeatedly has emphasized the proximity of the Red Beetles (known harbingers of the plague) to water, such as the Nopali village in Asra’s route and the red stains attributed to them in Julian’s route, and we receive further confirmation in Portia’s route that the water supplies are contaminated during the period of the disease

Fun bit of trivia from Nadia’s route - in the Strength book, Nadia mentions that she remembers the beetles, and that once they had been used as part of a pigment used to dye fabric crimson, which was all the rage in Vesuvia. Should this trend have continued, people wearing fabrics dyed with this beetle pigment most likely would become infected, and thus, the cycle continued.

I will also point out here that pigments have been used in makeup across history, and I’m sure applying some beetle-laden makeup would have really fucked some people up. Eyeshadows, blushes, lipsticks...contact with any of these areas, particularly the eyes and mouth, indicate a possibility of infection.

This does, however, leave a fifteen year (ish) period where the plague would have been active in this region until Lucio’s death. Historically, diseases can last such broad swathes of time. For the sake of displaying precedent, I will point out some examples here:

The Black Death, lasting 1346-1353

The third cholera pandemic, lasting 1846-1860

The third plague pandemic, a major bubonic plague like the Black Death, lasting 1855-1960

The HIV/AIDS pandemic, which has been ongoing since 1981 in the US

However, some of the most devastating plagues have lasted only a few years, which I will touch on later when I discuss Vesuvia’s case of the plague. All of the diseases listed above are additionally categorized with death tolls over a million people.

(On a side note, if you would like to contribute to programs searching for a cure for HIV/AIDS, I will suggest donating to organizations like amfAR, the Black AIDS Institute, or the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, all of which are linked accordingly and deserve your support if you are capable of making a contribution)

Remaining question: if the last place the plague was seen was in Annyala, more than fifteen years before it was seen in Vesuvia, what the fuck happened during that time beforehand?

Vesuvia - Before the Plague

Here’s the thing. The timeline given by the devs is a fucking mess. So, what I’m going to propose here is almost entirely theory, and I ask that you keep that in mind.

Lucio ascends to the title of Count by the time he’s about 22 or 23. Spada dies, presumably, and there’s no noticeable mention of his death via plague or the establishment of the court.

For some fascinating lore on how the government in Vesuvia works, I’m going to point you to this post by @sunrisenfool, who has one of the biggest brains and is gracious enough to allow me to reference their work a little for this one.

I don’t think the court as we know it existed when Lucio became Count. I agree with sunrisenfool here that Valdemar has been the Palace’s cockroach for a while - which was actually also confirmed in the Star book of Portia’s route, in which we see Count Prospero (founder of Vesuvia) summon Valdemar and ask for their aid in creating a city that will never die. The remaining courtiers would be gradually established as time continued on, all demons who struck bargains with the Devil in one form or another placed into positions of power alongside Lucio. We also cannot forget Valerius, who made his own deal with the Devil, and played his own role in this scenario.

We know that Lucio was also a pawn, later on, in the Devil’s agenda to bridge the gap between the main world and the Arcane realms. The ritual discussed in Portia’s Star book is described as a vessel to do just that -

“...every 777 years, the physical and magical world will collide...the laws of magic will no longer be immutable, and the world will bend to our will...So long as the Countship and canals remain whole, so shall the power to reshape the world. You need only await the conjunction. Perform the ritual and lead the city to glory heretofore unknown. I, Count Prospero, first of my line, declare the founding of Vesuvia. The city eternal. My legacy.” - Count Prospero

It’s confirmed after this scene that the ritual, using the canals as a conduit, opened a ‘door’ so to speak to the Arcane realms. It’s also said there is a three year window to perform this ritual, and that at the time of game canon, we are at the end of that three year window.

So. Borderline conspiracy time.

Circling back to the lovely sunrisenfool’s work, I’m going to pull a particular excerpt here:

...the Consul of Vesuvia is the second most important/powerful political figure in Vesuvia, directly after the Count/ess. Aside of the political and civic duties I have already explained, the Consul acts as a “protector” of Vesuvia, albeit not in a paternalistic politically-conservative way (which is how paternalistic policies would be understood in our world). Instead, the Consul is meant to rule the City if the Count is absent or incapacitated, therefore being the subsidiary depositary of the secret of the foundation of Vesuvia, and the importance of it’s Canals.

Lucio makes it pretty clear he doesn’t know much of anything about the ritual during Portia’s Star book, but he was told about it by Spada before his death as it was a secret kept close to the court. That gave him something of leverage, even if he wasn’t aware of it,

My thought as to why the plague did not spread in Vesuvia sooner is that Lucio had knowledge of this ritual, however minimal, and the Devil needed him alive to eventually use the ritual for himself. So, as Vlastomil (the wyrm of pestilence who granted this curse) was established in Vesuvia as Praetor, the plague was kept at bay for the time being while the city came under the full control of the Devil’s demons.

I cannot imagine the only person who knows about the ritual is the Count, because that feels like a woefully flawed plan, so I do believe the Consul would have also been privy to such a secret in case the Count was in a position they could not share it due to absence or incapacitation. Basically, a rehash of sunrisenfool’s point, but I digress.

As the window drew nearer for the completion of the ritual and it became clearer that Lucio knew next to nothing about the ritual and how it worked, the Devil decided to take a different approach. The plague was unleashed once again by Vlastomil, with the goal that Lucio become infected and eventually die, and that Valerius take over the Countship. Lucio no longer was useful to the Devil, and should he be removed from power, someone like Valerius - who knew the purpose of the ritual, who was under the Devil’s bargain by this point - would be an ideal candidate to finish the task at hand. Leverage, it works wonders.

I don’t think the ritual performed to gain a new body could have been mere chance. I think Lucio knew more than he let on about the canals and the magic in Vesuvia from Spada. Yes, I know the first three were written before Portia, but come on, the timing is insane. He’s no magician, and performing something that complex and magically charged right at the beginning of the three year window when the ritual is supposed to be performed feels far from coincidental. Fight me.

But, on to what happens in Vesuvia once the plague is free to spread again.

Vesuvia - During the Plague

The first sighting of the plague is in year 20, and I personally believe the plague lasted about two years or 24 months. The period is divided into three ‘waves’ - the first six months, the year leading up to Lucio’s death, and the six months following Lucio’s death.

The First Wave

The first wave begins when the first known case of the Red Plague is confirmed, and in this period, the spread is rather slow.

Here is the introduction of the Lazaret, which I do believe is a building that existed before the plague - this is personal thoughts, but the odds of this being the first major disease Vesuvia experienced feel pretty slim, and I do think this was a previously established quarantine that was renovated/expanded for the Red Plague outbreak. In an effort to get ahead of the disease, the space was designated a quarantine, largely staffed by volunteers when the palace seemed to not acknowledge the growing situation. It would slowly begin to increase until the plague boomed at the six month mark, heralding the beginning of the second wave.

The Second Wave

This is the ‘bad period’ of the plague. I say that loosely, because it’s all bad, but I digress.

I headcanon that the apprentice dies in the beginning of the second wave, when spread of the red plague rapidly begins to increase and the call goes out for researchers to search for a cure. We know how that story goes, so moving on to the details of this wave.

There were two groups at this point in the plague - those assigned to research, working out of Valdemar’s dungeon/lab/carnival of horrors studying the plague, and those assigned to the Lazaret, caring for the sick and dying and maintaining the facility.

I’m going to focus more on the Lazaret for this, as the research aspect is pretty well covered throughout Julian’s route and conversations with him in other routes, and this post is already getting long.

The Lazaret was home to the dying, where they would be cared for in their final days and eventually cremated. My thought is that the remains of the patients were carefully catalogued in the beginning, returned to families willing to claim them, and those left unclaimed were scattered on the beach at the Lazaret. Later on, as more and more people died, less remains were claimed, leading to the black beaches that still mark the shores of the Lazaret in canon. Often the staff here were a mix of healers, doctors, apothecaries, anyone willing to try anything to ease the pain of such a disease.

The staff at the Lazaret began wearing layered masks - the plague mask with its herb-stuffed beak, another facial covering beneath for an added layer of protection, and a head covering that sealed the gaps between the mask and the face. They were also required to wear gloves, tight-fitted sleeves tucked inside, and their pants tucked into their boots to reduce the risk of infection through contact. Their days would start in locker rooms on one end of the facility, removed from the patients, and suit up for the day while leaving belongings in the lockers. The end of the shift consisted of showers and disposal of garments to be sterilized, they’d return home in the clothes they came in, and by the time they returned a new uniform would be waiting for them.

Lucio caught the plague during this period, most likely halfway through. He lasted several months, but the exact length is unknown, aside from he ‘lasted longer than most victims of the plague’ who died between 3-10 days.

I don’t think the averages are entirely accurate. There were most likely some who were asymptomatic until the plague was in very late stages, or those who presented symptoms very early on and survived for long stretches of time. All would die bearing the red sclera, veins, and other symptoms depicted above. Basically, this disease is claimed to be unpredictable, and I think that would also stretch to the duration at which each patient had it. Those who were physically frail likely would have died sooner than those who had been in oprtimal health before the plague, making the times vary rather drastically. I’d suggest perhaps a month at the longest, a few days at the shortest.

Policy wise - during this period, the ports would have closed, and Vesuvia would have shut down. Nobody in, nobody out, not without rigorous inspection and quarantine before exiting to the city to avoid further spread. Often the only people allowed into the city were doctors from other regions affected by the plague called to help research, but during this year, I would estimate Vesuvia lost easily 30% of its population to the Red Plague.

The Third Wave

This wave is the period that occurs after Lucio’s death at the Masquerade, three years pregame. I’ll touch a tiny bit more more on this in the next section, but this is where we see the gradual end of the spread of the plague, and the last cases shown in Vesuvia. It’s the end of the plague period, and I give this about six months for the official ‘all clear’ to have been given by those tracking case counts.

The Lazaret is eventually decommissioned and now sits abandoned, a shadow on the horizon to remind those who survived what had been lost. The city mourned, the gates slowly opened, and gradually, we reach the point of comparative normalcy we see in the game set three years later.

Vesuvia - The Aftermath

Lucio’s death would, ultimately, mean the end of the plague. Rather than immediately disappearing and all those suffering from it be cured, however, I would be inclined to say that the spread came to a halt.

The last wave of the plague, in the six months after Lucio’s death, would have been a decrease in new cases until there were no new ones being reported, and the last of the patients who had been infected finally passed.

The final duties of the doctors at the Lazaret, after all remains are cremated, would have been the incineration of all materials that could not be sterilized. Linens, spare uniforms, unclaimed personal affects, so on and so forth until the time came to return home. I do not remember the exact location, but I am fairly confident of a mention of the MC remembering barrels burning doctor’s uniforms and masks in the days after the end of the plague. It was, for a lack of better words, a purge - an attempt to erase the last physical memories of what the city had endured.

Events like this are traumatic for all involved. They are painful wounds, and for the rate of death I imagine occurred in Vesuvia, the odds that someone lost no one are slim. There was likely a long period of mourning, and as noted in the present of the game, rarely is the plague spoken of outside of the context of the investigation in the primary routes.

Many of those medical staff members who survived were those assigned to research at the Palace. The proximity of the staff to the ill at the Lazaret quarantine likely would have made the rate of infection far higher for the caretakers, meaning that often the staff would end up caring for colleagues in their final days.

Even three years removed, the time of the plague is a raw wound for those in Vesuvia - but I do think the period is fascinating and I love exploring the different facets of it in my own world building. And, well, shameless self promo, but I am eager to write it myself when I get into Zelda’s backstory.

If you made it this far, thank you. Go drink some water or something, idk, wellbeing checkpoint bc what a long ass post

#red plague #worldbuilding #long post #the arcana #the arcana game

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sweetbitgaming · 4 years

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The Development of the Zelda Oracle Games

Sweet Bit Gaming Mysteries: The Legend of Zelda The Seed of Courage

The Legend of Zelda Oracle series of games is often overlooked when it comes to focusing on the franchise as a whole. Certainly, there are more popular handheld Zelda games out there than the aforementioned pair; however, what if the entire concept for these games was fully realized? What if the trilogy Nintendo had promised fans was a reality and not just the topic of the day? Within this article, I’ll go over the development of the Oracle games. From many name changes to cut storyline ideas, this is the history of the Legend of Zelda the Oracle games.

Some of the earliest information out there in regards to the Triforce Series of games came to the public on July 28th, 1999 within an article published by IGN. IGN would state that Nintendo is “hard at work” on six different Zelda Gameboy Color titles. Within the article, it mentions that four of the new Zelda titles were being produced in conjunction with the Japanese design studio Flagship. This development studio was headed by Resident Evil lead Yoshiki Okamoto. Okamoto had revealed earlier in the year that Flagship would be working closely with Nintendo’s EAD team in regard to future titles on the Gameboy Color. Within this same interview, Okamoto would also reveal that Flagship’s work was restricted to the design of scenarios and storylines. While not much information was given, this “leak” would take place roughly a month before Nintendo’s Space World 1999 event was set to take place.

Any hope for the public to demo the game was seemingly heightened by an IGN web article published on August 20th, 1999. Their source of information would be cited as Weekly Famitsu. IGN within the headlines were promoting they were the first to have screenshots of the upcoming Game Boy Color exclusive Zelda game. This article was published roughly a week prior to Nintendo’s Space World 1999 event, which took place on August 27th-August 29th of that year. The game at the time was believed to be called The Legend of Zelda: The Mysterious Acorn and was also cited as being published by Capcom and Nintendo.

In the preview of the game within the article, IGN would mention that Princess Zelda was managing the four seasons within the Land of Hyrule. Zelda would be kidnapped by Ganon and it would be up to Link to manage the Rod of the Four Seasons and track down the eight pieces of the Triforce to save Princess Zelda and also bring balance to Hyrule. With Hyrule’s seasons becoming jumbled up, chaos would ensue and Link would have to travel between Hyrule and this “other dimension” while being guided by spirits residing in the “Tree of Mystery” and also a strange “Uura Tribe” which would be found in this alternate dimension.

Ricky the Kangaroo and Maple the Witch were mentioned briefly within this article as well. Not much information was given on these characters other than they would be allies to help aid Link in his quest to save Princess Zelda. Also mentioned were more details about the Rod of Four Seasons and how it would be required to solve certain elemental puzzles throughout the game. Possibly the most infamous amount of information detailed within this article is the mention of the Link System and how there would be three upcoming Zelda Gameboy Color games and they would all be a coherent story without getting lost within each other due to the Link System that Capcom and Nintendo were developing.

With Space World 1999 taking place, a lot of hype and media focus was still latched onto the Nintendo 64 DD, another story within itself. Zelda Gaiden, later to be renamed The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask was also playable at this event. Demo copies of The Seed of Courage were also seemingly playable at this event. An interview would be conducted with Miyamoto by Nintendo Power Source and Miyamoto would give more detail and insight on Zelda Gaiden and the recently renamed The Legend of Zelda: Mysterious Fruit.

Q: After hearing rumors of Ura Zelda for Nintendo 64 Disk Drive, Zelda Gaiden for the Nintendo 64 cartridge format was a pleasant surprise. Can you tell me how these two games came to be developed?

A: We are working on two follow-ups to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. "Ura Zelda" uses the same system as Ocarina of Time but uses the 64DD to add game data. The story in "Ura Zelda" will be similar to Ocarina of Time but with new maps and scenarios. Zelda Gaiden, on the other hand, is a completely different game, although it too uses essentially the same game system as Ocarina of Time. Everyone has enjoyed the Zelda series but there's typically at least a 3 year wait between sequels! People who are in Junior High School when they play one Zelda game would be in High School by time the next game comes out, and those in High School will graduate before the next game came out! So, we wanted to make a new game in the series sooner. "Ura Zelda" will use the existing Ocarina of Time cartridge but with different dungeons, and new locations for the treasures. Since the 64DD media is cheaper than a new cartridge, this is an inexpensive way to make a sequel. We may also consider using network technology for "Ura Zelda." Right now, most of the staff is concentrating on Zelda Gaiden.

Q: How involved are you with the different Zelda games?

A: As time goes on, my direct involvement has become less. On the first Zelda, my involvement in directing the game was, say, 100%. With Ocarina of Time, my involvement was about 60%. For Zelda Gaiden, it will be about 20% and for Zelda: Mysterious Fruit for Game Boy, only about 10%. Until Ocarina, I was the Producer and Director of the game-not of everything but some parts. For Zelda Gaiden I will be in a Producer role. In that capacity, I'll decide the overall direction of the game, but I won't write the actual specifications myself. If Zelda Gaiden turns out to be fun to play, from now on we'll see new entries into the Zelda series with shorter time intervals in between. And, I'll probably have less direct involvement in the games. I've been saying all along that I have a lot of confidence in my teams, and I think they will make some good games.

Q: What kinds of things do you do as a Producer?

A: I just tell the staff members what kind of game it should be. The staff then figures out the details of the scenarios. So far, we've had thee big meetings to reviews the game's scenarios. As Producer I approve and disapprove of ideas in these meetings. Mainly I say things like, "If you try to go in this direction, you will never finish the game!" I help set the development priorities, and make staff recommendations. Q: So, what are some of the overall directions you have given to your game developments teams on Zelda Gaiden? What are some of the things that you want the players to experience in this game? A: I had several ideas that I wanted to incorporate into Ocarina of Time but that didn't make it. I've already given those to the staff. In Zelda Gaiden, players will meet some characters that they previously encountered in Ocarina of Time. There were many characters in Ocarina of Time who were in the background-- those characters will be more involved in the story of Zelda Gaiden. You'll talk to them more, and in the end you'll feel a deeper connection to the story of Ocarina of Time. Another thing we want to work on is time in the game. In so many games, you have, for example, eight dungeons. Finish four of them, and you're halfway through. You can guess how far you have to go. But that's not the true nature of interactive entertainment-it shouldn't be like reading a book and knowing you're halfway through it. That's not just something we're working on for Zelda Gaiden, we need to improve this for all of our games. The beauty of interactive media is it is different from other types of media, so we need to concentrate on those differences. Finally, we really want Zelda players to come away from this game feeling that they've played something totally unexpected. Q: In Zelda Gaiden, the moon is slowly falling towards the planet, and the player has a limited amount of time to save the world before it is destroyed. So how does the time limit in the game work? A: What can I tell you….hmmm. There are certain time limits in the game, but, you can play it again and again. If you don't do something in one game, you can try to do it in the next game. The amount of different things you actually do in the game will depend on the player's ability. This isn't a totally unique concept, but we do want to try something new with game time in Zelda Gaiden. To do that we are working on improving the "density" of the world. For example, say you have three days of game time. We are trying to see how many different events we can fit into those three days. That is why we need the Expansion Pak for this game-to keep track of all the events that are happening simultaneously in the world. Q: So the world actually exists and different things happen in real-time, even if you're not there to see them. OK, how about the masks? How many different ones do you think will be in the game? It looks like there is space for a lot of them on the Subscreen! A: There are three main masks-these are the only ones that make you actually change, or morph, into something different. Several other masks will have "human" like faces, and will be necessary to trigger certain events. You can use these masks to disguise yourself as different people. As for the actual final number of masks in the game, that will depend on time. I'm aiming for just under 30 different masks, but that depends on how long things take to develop.Q: You mentioned that the story in Zelda Gaiden will be closely connected to Ocarina of Time. How about the Running Man-will you finally be able to beat him?

A: Maybe you didn't see him in the Space World version, but there is a Running Man who is four times taller than the one in Ocarina of Time! We are experimenting with this character to see if we can make him interesting and fun. Did you see the dogs? In Ocarina of Time, they would follow you. In Zelda Gaiden, their reaction will vary. When you morph into a Goron, they will bark at you and run away. As a Zora, they will approach you. Don't try to become a Deku Scrub if there are dogs around, though! They will try to bite you! Q: What about the other fairy that is shown with Navi in the introductory cinema scenes? A: I don't know, I need to ask the staff about that! I have a feeling it's going to be an important character! Q: Things are busy on the Zelda front with the Zelda games for Game Boy Color that Capcom is developing. How did that deal come about? What is the plan for these three titles? A: Well, it's the same situation as when our team develops a Zelda game-the quality has to be high. Mr. Okamoto (head of development at Capcom) is a young and energetic game developer who says he came into the industry because of games like the original Donkey Kong and Zelda. He came to me and was very serious about developing a Zelda game. He has great teams of developers and he promised to use his best people on this project. A company called Flagship has 20 or so people who are working on the scenarios. Some people have asked me if this means Nintendo will be allowing other companies to develop games using our characters. But this is a very special case. I felt good about Mr. Okamoto and his team. We're not going to be letting everyone work on our characters. We'll be checking the quality of these three titles. Q: What is the connection between the three titles?

A: This project originally started to convert the original NES Zelda to Game Boy Color. So one of the titles will be a perfect conversion of NES Zelda. However, in working on this game, we have come up with a lot of new ideas, so there will be some new features. Basically I can tell you that there is a connection between the three tales. You can start with any one of them, but if you play them in a different order than someone else, the two player's games will be different....

In January of 2000 IGN would publish an article stating that a new Zelda game was planned to be released every six weeks. The first of these Gameboy releases in the “Tri-force Series” was set to be The Legend of Zelda: The Mysterious Acorn: The Tale of Power. After this initial release The Legend of Zelda: The Tale of Wisdom was set to be released and then the trilogy would conclude with The Legend of Zelda: The Tale of Courage. These games were also mentioned within this article to have the capability to link up with each other and exchange data. Miyamoto would do an interview with IGN on May 11th and state that the games would link up using a “password system.” No other details were given about the games during this interview.

By May 13th Nintendo would officially release some promotional images in regards to the Tri-force series games which were now titled: The Legend of Zelda: Mythical Seed of Power, Zelda, Mythical Seed of Courage, and Zelda Mythical Seed of Wisdom. Also on May 13th, IGN would conduct another interview with Miyamoto about the Triforce Series games and Miyamoto would disclose:

IGNpocket: What is your opinion on the Legend of Zelda trilogy in the works for Game Boy Color?

Miyamoto: Mr. Okomoto from Capcom is the producer on the games for the Game Boy Color, and he has been giving me the materials for the games. And what we have now is the games are becoming late, especially because of the "link system". With the link system, we're thinking about letting the gamer play whatever game first, and what happens in one game affects another game. And with that, the variable scenario is just increasing the work, and that's why we are late in schedule. But we can release the games later this year.

IGNpocket: How does the link system interface work?

Miyamoto: Well, for example, there are similar events in all cartridges. So if you've already finished one event on one cartridge, it makes the quest in another cartridge a little easier. Another example is if you find a specific item in one cartridge, then something special will happen on another cartridge.

IGNpocket: But how does that information get from one cartridge to the other?

Miyamoto: Password system.

By July 24th, Nintendo of Japan would decide to cut one of the games out of the Triforce Trilogy. It was reported that this was due to numerous delays and difficulties getting the link system to work properly. This was an effort to still have the other two games out by Christmas of 2000. Nintendo within this press release didn’t mention which game was on the cutting room floor. Nintendo of America hadn’t commented on the cancellation of the game at the time and it was unclear if the two remaining games would still be released six weeks apart from each other. By October 20th the concept within the unique release schedule was scrapped and rumors were abundant on IGN that the games would release sometime in January of 2001 in Japan.

By November 9th, IGN would report a brief “Chapter” of the latest Zelda game, now being titled The Legend of Zelda Chapter of Time and Space. This is the game that had been covered mostly in American publications through screenshots and leaked information while the remaining Gameboy Color game would go without much new information being provided. This other game in development would be rumored to go by the name The Legend of Zelda: Chapter of the Earth. It was suggested that this game would play much like the other Gameboy Color game and a link system was still set in place for the two games. By January of 2001, more information would be released by IGN in regards to the Chapter of the Earth title. This article would feature screenshots and storyline concepts for the upcoming games. By the end of the article, it was mentioned that the two games would be released in February and a potential American release date was planned before the start of Summer.

In an article published by Nintendo of Japan on their Director Interview series, Hidemaro Fujibayashi would be interviewed and give details on the origins of Capcom becoming involved with Zelda on the Gameboy Color. Here is that interview:

t seems that you first started making Zelda with Capcom.

Fujibayashi　Yes. At first, it seems that my Okamoto (Yoshiki Okamoto, managing director) had proposed to Shigeru Miyamoto, "I want to make Zelda with Capcom." That was about two years ago. After that, a free man started making 2D games based on the Famicom Disk System "The Legend of Zelda". The concept is to convey the goodness of Zelda in the NES era to children today.

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■ Was Mr. Fujibayashi also a Zelda fan?

Fujibayashi　Yes, when it came to the Famicom Disk System, I went to a toy store first to buy it. I remember squeezing New Year's gifts and running to buy them.

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■ Did Mr. Fujibayashi participate in the project from the beginning?

Fujibayashi At　first, I participated in the form of a clerk who summarized the overall opinions. At that time, I was only told about the concept, but gradually I became involved in the game production itself. First of all, I decided to give a presentation to Mr. Miyamoto, so I wrote a proposal based on Okamoto's concept.

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■ Was the content of the game decided at the time of the proposal?

Fujibayashi　Almost the pillars of the current game have been decided. In other words, it should be released as a Color Game Boy, use the four seasons, and retain the taste of 2D Zelda. It was decided that it would be released in a series of works, so I thought of a link system as an idea to make use of it. For example, if I missed a bad guy in the first game, I wanted to make the software so that the bad guy would appear in the other game. Since Zelda is a game with a solid view of the world, I thought that even a Game Boy could fully bring out the "living feeling" of the characters expressed in the 64 series.

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■ How was Mr. Miyamoto's reaction?

It　was your first time to meet Mr. Fujibayashi Miyamoto. I went to a presentation with Okamoto, but it was my first time to work directly with Okamoto, and I was thrilled because I was going to meet a famous person from another company. While explaining the proposal, Mr. Miyamoto was silent from beginning to end, so I was nervous. But when I finished reading, I was told, "I was thinking of going into it because there would be various holes, but it looks like it's done." I liked it, "I think it's good."

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■ After that, do you work at Capcom?

Fujibayashi　That's right. After that, I proceeded with the scenario while reporting the situation to Okamoto. As a role, I am a director and planner.

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■ I heard that Capcom games create scenarios first.

Fujibayashi　Yes. However, I think that the scenario came out in the Zelda series after the hardware specifications went up. Originally, Zelda in the early days was a pure action RPG, and there wasn't much talk about it. This time, I was hoping that the two could be fused. However, at first I was supposed to make a work that was one tenth of the current volume. However, as I made it, it got bigger and bigger, and it gradually became my own work.

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■ Did you make "Chapter of the Earth" and "Chapter of Space and Time" by different teams?

Fujibayashi　No, the same team made them in order. At first, I was interacting with the scenario team alone. So, while I was making the scenario, I secretly talked to the graphic artists and programmers who thought "I like it" in Capcom. Such personnel were actually decided by Funamizu (Producer Noritaka Funamizu), who reports directly to me, but I thought it would be better for me to consult with him first. I was angry at Funamizu, saying, "It's my job," but I was able to get the staff I wanted.

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■ After that, I think it's the work of actually making a game, but please tell me the procedure easily.

Fujibayashi At　first, I'll start with an image. After thinking about what kind of terrain it is, start making a map. After making it roughly, I thought about the character next. We will modify the scenario while making the game.

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■ Do you sometimes rewrite the entire field?

Fujibayashi　That's every day. If you actually move it and think it's different, fix it. When about 60% of the total was completed, Mr. Yamada of Nintendo participated as a supervisor. From that time on, I had the opportunity to hear Mr. Miyamoto's story. So I absorbed something like Mr. Miyamoto's view of Zelda.

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■ Are there any interesting episodes about the joint development with Nintendo?

Fujibayashi I　was playing Nintendo games and thought that every game had a common scent. When I met Mr. Miyamoto, it became clear that there was a way to make sense in the game that Mr. Miyamoto thinks. It was a great learning experience for our team to get it. After that, Mr. Yamada and his colleagues ask the character that we casually placed, "What is the name of this character?" Certainly, giving a name brings the character to life and makes the staff feel different. It seemed as simple as "give a name", and the important thing was that I was surprised. That's just one example, but I feel like I was taught the know-how of Nintendo's "making warm games." What I was most happy about was that both Mr. Yamada and Mr. Miyamoto treated me as if I were an employee of Nintendo. Rather than Nintendo or Capcom, he talked to me as a staff member who made games together. In the end, I think that kind of personality is reflected in Zelda.

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■ At the same time, I think this is a game that has a Capcom feel to it.

Fujibayashi It's　more about the individuality of Capcom's Zelda team than it is about Capcom. I tried to make the world view interesting with a slightly dark character. What is the difference between Kyoto and Osaka? The place where a little outlaw character appears may be Capcom-like. However, I don't think there is any difference in the system in the game.

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■ Please tell me if there is a story behind this.

Fujibayashi In　"Chapter of Time and Space", there is a tower called "Tower of Darkness", and there are people working there, but there are lines that say "I can't finish my charge" and "I can't go home". Some of our team couldn't go home (laughs), so I put them in a parody. However, we are a very homely team, so I was happy with the Nori. The person who came to give the message was involved in the meeting and talked for about 2 hours.

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■ That kind of homely atmosphere may be oozing out in the game. Then, what are the highlights of "Mysterious Tree Fruit" from Mr. Fujibayashi's point of view?

Fujibayashi　This time, Zelda was created with the individuality of the entire team. The highlights are the many events and mini-games, and the dungeon gimmicks. I thought about various big tricks that Game Boy can do. The ideas of all the staff are included, and I think it's quite full.

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■ What do you recommend for the link system?

Fujibayashi If　you play the two software as a continuation of the story using "Aikotoba", you can enjoy a deeper view of the world. You can also experience the true ending after the story is over. There will be new characters and there will be many events, so please give it a try.

On May 14th, 2001 both of the games, now titled the Oracle series, would release here in America. The games would receive positive reviews and critical praise for the link system that Nintendo and Capcom had developed. Over the years, the games have seemingly faded out of the minds of Zelda fans. Only hopes and rumors of potential remakes are the only true discussion these games draw these days. The concept within the trilogy of games was very similar to Ura Zelda to where Miyamoto wanted what was done in one game to affect that area in the other game. Also, did Majora's Mask overshadow these games? The development of these games runs parallel with each other and Majora's Mask is a beloved game within the Zelda community. Here's to remakes of these games happening on the Switch here in the near future.

#zelda #zelda fandom #nintendo #lost media #game beta #link #loz zelda

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ardeawritten · 4 years

Text

Halo 4

The game-player in me is thrilled with the very pretty levels, new weapons, flashy enemies and more creative, less linear methods of level progression/interaction. Lovely soundtrack as always, though the random peppy upbeat music overlaid on a race-to-save earth battle is still hilarious. This game was fun and enjoyable to play, a great few evenings' worth of distraction and some nice catharsis for a little current-events-related attitude. The last quarter felt like a meat-grinder slog, but then, it's endgame of an FPS. What else is it going to be?

The writer in me is rolling their eyes.

(there’s an whole essay under the cut) ((I really hope these cuts work on all platforms, if not I am sincerely sorry; it’s like a thousand words long))

Ok, so the first three games were a fairly standard blank-slate FPS protagonist. Play as an armored super-soldier fighting to save Humanity from the Monsters, with a Sexy AI Sidekick and some Battle Buddies. Not what I'd call high art in gaming, but I can understand its popularity and the enduring appeal of a simple, straight-forward "if it moves shoot it" style of play. No escort missions, no puzzles, really no boss battles requiring tricks and analysis. Just "if that didn't kill it, keep shooting or use a bigger gun."

Writing-wise, there's not a lot of characterization but overall Indications that MC is well-recognized, well-liked, has a sense of humor and a camaraderie with his co-workers, is pals with his Sexy AI and is a generally level-headed person-shaped brick. It's an early 2000's Military FPS, it's not about the characters, it's about role-playing as an indestructible military hero who always saves the girl. It's the game equivalent of John Carter of Mars-genre action hero stories (books, not movie.) This does not absolve it of the crime of woman-as-sexy-or-dead, but it is par for the course.

So on to game #4.

This game was released in late 2012, in a post-Mass Effect gaming market. #4 has a ME2/3 feel to it, which makes sense. They're both very popular flashy scifi action games with similar graphics/design feel (and with Sexy AIs but that's another conversation about the literally unreal 'idealization' of womanhood in a male-dominated creator/created space!)

It opens with the storyline revelation that MC is a brainwashed and conditioned child-soldier, alleges he's got some issues with performing basic human functions and clarifies that Cortana's existence is the "band-aid" applied to that problem. On the MC side, Cortana's expiration date has passed and she's fragging out, giving MC a personal reason to want to get home. This combines to give the player a sense of urgency- if Cortana dies, it's not just "sad," it's "MC will lose his band-aid and all his humanity will bleed out." This is also I think the first time the POV is, narratively-speaking, third-person (we know things MC doesn't or couldn't know) instead of solely first-person (I'm not counting Arbiter’s story as breaking first-person, as it's still limited to player character POV.)

As a Writer, here's my issues:

- MC is given a traumatic backstory as a brainwashed child-soldier to what? Justify a damaged emotional state, as if emotional wounding and isolation isn't a very common, very human point to reach after having experienced and participated in war at any age? Justify being unable to function without Cortana’s hand-holding? And then the game never goes back and addresses that opening cut-scene.

- Cortana's existence had a built-in, known expiration, but she was still (retconned?) created to provide MC his primary band-aid. Either this was extremely short-sighted of the Spartan R&D team, or MC likewise was expected to expire on the same timeline. There's no talk of planning ahead for this problem that would render an extremely expensive asset fundamentally useless. (ok there’s Cortana’s “they’ll pair you with someone else but it won’t be me” line, but that isn’t exactly smoothing the transition any.)

- We the audience/player now know Cortana's death will have personal, negative repercussions on the MC's health outside of grief and trauma over loss of a friend and partner. She exists solely for his benefit, and must continue existing for his benefit, and the plot's urgency driven forward by his need to continue benefiting. It's not about saving Cortana, it's about saving MC. This would be fine if her character existence was framed as "computer service program," but it isn't. Prior to this game, narrative and gameplay repeatedly tells the audience she's a character and not just MC's security blanket.

- The above, coupled with her "stock naked lady sexy" design, has Implications of how the writing team figured they could fit a female character into their narrative. So far we have A) woman who fails to complete a heroic sacrifice and is shot in the back and dies pointlessly, B) woman whose visual and intellectual existence is tailored solely to benefit the MC and has no autonomy outside of that existence and C) woman as 'fallen mother/evil crone' who perpetrated the brainwashing on the MC. (Female Spartan in the mammoth got a whole three lines; female scientist with a bag of nukes? She… died pointlessly.)

(I swear I did not intend this to be an analysis of female roles in the Halo main game franchise but hey, my first memorable introduction to the FPS genre was Mysteries of the Sith where, playing as female jedi Mara Jade, you save the guy by making him acknowledge the value of a non-romantic peer relationship! That game was made in 1997.)

For Cortana, in 1 I got the impression she was a shipboard AI like EDI in Mass Effect, not an AI specific to MC. Her characterization feels like it's been shifted each game from a warship AI capable of coordinating fleet-wide maneuvers and going toe-to-toe with Guilty Spark to a cowering captive of Gravemind needing physical rescue to a Pocket Pal for MC to cover for his emotional shortcomings and inability to interact with technology more complex than "a button."

Having an AI programmed to be essentially a therapy dog or social caretaker, and exploring the complexities of that role related to the invisible and unquantifiable damage violence visits on the human body and brain would be a very interesting story. An AI designed for coordinating war on a massive scale who despite "winning" each battle finds its platform systematically reduced until the only "ship and crew" left are just one person would also be an interesting story! Why are we left with "my girlfriend's dying and I'm going to starve because she's the only one who knows how to cook."

tl;dr: the opening cutscene was detrimental to the plot, characterization and world-building. The game would have been fine as a story about a soldier coming to terms with his best friend’s inevitable death while trying to save the planet, and would have preserved Cortana’s game 1 identity as an autonomous AI who lost her ship and partnered up with MC of her own free will. The ending of “we saved each other, if just for a little while, and will grieve but will continue on” would have been stronger IMO than “I’m going to save you-I’m going to save you-NOPE.”

#text post #long post #long text post #long ass essay text post writing rant #also why does she get more naked with every game #I mean I know why from a revenue standpoint but what's the in-world justification #here let me beat what I'm sure is a very dead horse because I'm eight years late to the party #don't worry there's a tl;dr in there at the end #does anyone else remember the AI in Flubber who fell in love with the MC and then gets mashed and copies herself?#because that was a more satisfying character arc #Ardea Plays Halo

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christinaroseandrews · 4 years

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Certified "Sex Doctor," Kira Murphy has always been a free spirit. She's passionate about preventing STIs, making sure kids get all of their vaccines, and celibri-stalking her favorite politician - Barclay Lucas. Sure, he might be a Tory (for U.S. Peeps that's the equivalent of the Republican Party), but despite his party trying to dismantle social protections he's one of the good ones. He's out to save the world and look good in a Savile Row suit. But celebrity crushes aside, Kira's out to make sure her patients receive the best care possible. So when a depressed, young man with HIV enters her examination room she's going to do what she can however she can to make sure he's given the help he so clearly needs.

Barclay Lucas has always been the responsible one. The reliable one. Mr. Fix-it. But when his brother, Henry, is diagnosed with HIV and falls into a depressive spiral, Barclay doesn't know what to do. However he doesn't need to, the eccentric and quirky doctor at the NHS hospital has managed to get through to him. But she's not his actual doctor. So Barclay needs to change that.

And with that, staid and conservative Barclay meets weird and wonderful Kira and their lives will never be the same.

I'm torn about this book. I've loved Susie Tate's writing in the past and Kira's been a long time favorite of mine since I first read about her in Beg, Borrow, and Steal. So I was super excited to read this book. I like politics stuff.(Anyone who knows me in Real life can tell you that). Plus, Anything but Easy has two of my favorite tropes -- Fake Dating and Enemies-to-Lovers -- it's like this book was tailor made for me.

So why am I so torn?

Let’s start with the some of the good.

Kira is still her quirky fun self. She's unpredictable and has a very idiosyncratic way of speaking. I loved seeing her interact with her patients. She's like the definition of Manic Pixie Dreamgirl. She's tiny. Quirky. Out to save the world. And she possesses very little in the way of common sense or self preservation. But, just like the character herself says (which nice lampshade hang) she's a bit of an acquired taste. She reminds me in a lot of ways of Fandom!Darcy. You know the one who is able to draw Bruce out of his shell, keep up a prank war with Clint and/or Loki, and ride herd on all of the scientists while winning the heart of whatever avenger the author wants to pair her with. You know, that Darcy. I like that Darcy.

But like Fandom!Darcy, Kira does some things that people in real life would find questionable or in really bad taste.

So I liked Kira. She’s a nicknamer. An idiosyncratic talker. She’s a bit like me, but with less fashion sense.

So on to something I didn’t like.

The hero.

I don’t know if it’s me, but Barclay didn't grab me the way I wanted to. And I admit a lot of it is because of the current political climate. The Tory party is the one behind Brexit. The party of Boris Johnson, Theresa May, and Margaret Thatcher. I had a hard time rooting for him because for all that he was a nice guy, he's still on the political side of a party that has caused a great deal of harm to marginalized people. It’s like I said in a recent post, you may claim not to be a racist but if you support a racist institution and work to keep it in power then you are, in fact, a racist. That’s true here. The Tories are doing that in Britain just like the Republicans are doing that in the United States.

Barclay may care deeply about his brother. But he still felt his brother’s HIV diagnosis would hurt his political career. This is something that actually happened in the book!!!

He may like Kira’s quirkiness, but dear Gods is he embarrassed by it. He’s selfish. He does things that make it difficult for Kira to do her job effectively and doesn’t apologize for it. Because he doesn’t care about the people Kira is helping only himself.

So I didn't really like him.

Unfortunately, my dislike of the hero played into my "meh" feeling regarding the romance. It didn't land for me. The chemistry felt forced. It’s also the main reason I didn’t like The Duke, the Lady, and a Baby by Vanessa Riley.

I'm also leery of obsessed-fan hooks up with the object of their obsession and finds true love. As someone who has had to be the person to stand between the fan and the person they're obsessed with, I can tell you this isn't how it works. I’ve read a few other stories with this trope and it really bugs me. Probably because of the objectification but also because of my own experiences with being stalked.

Back to the good.

The writing is on point. Funny. Witty. Great banter. Seriously I really love Susie Tate's writing. The scenes with Henry and Kira's friends are some of the best. The creative nicknames and insults are faboo. I will need to add some of them to my repertoire.

Since Tate is a doctor herself in Britain the medical stuff is on point. I loved the scenes where Kira got to show just how awesome a doctor she was. Give me competence porn, I am so here for that.

The story toes the line on sexy. It's steamy and acknowledges that sex takes place but most of the scenes are closed door or hinted at. So people looking for super clean, this likely isn't for you. Nor is this for someone who wants spank bank material in their romance. I wasn’t in the mood for sex at the moment, so this worked. But I don’t like the moralizing that’s often in so-called “clean romances”... sometimes you don’t have to have explicit sex to have a good romance.

Back to the not so good. I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending. It was okay. Not bad, per se. Just not my cup of tea. I like to see more agency in my leads, and while Barclay had agency in his storyline, Kira did not.

Ask my editing clients and one of the things I tend to ding them on is characters, especially their female leads, having agency in their own stories. That they’re the ones driving the story arc and not the other characters -- particularly the male characters.

So while Kira’s story was resolved, she didn’t have a lot of agency in it. Which fed into Barclay tramping up and down all over her agency.

This book needs a whole heap of content warnings including: depression, suicidal ideation, frank discussion of STIs, frank discussion of HIV/AIDS, Medical truama, medical neglect (not by the heroses), sexual harassment, workplace sexual harassment, parental neglect/abandonment, mentions of past child neglect/abandonment, mentions of stillbirth/miscarriage, ableistic language in regards to mental illness, sexual assault, use of the g-slur in reference to clothing/appearance (This was not in reference to the Irish Travellers who do call themselves by the g-slur but in reference to clothing/appearance/lifestyle choices of two white characters.), use of food descriptors for POC skin (cappuchino instead of brown or Black), microaggressions in descriptions of natural hair (wild and unkempt). The last three are things that are easily correctable. But they are things that do exist and I hope the author educates herself as to why they are problems. (I provided links to some resources when I sent in my review so she can’t say that she wasn’t given sources. We’ll see where this goes.) In all, I liked and both disliked this book. I still love Kira. I loved Henry. Libby, Mark, and Millie are great as always. But because of the issues I've listed above I feel like I can only give this: Two Stars.

If this is your jam, you can get it here.

If you like these kind of honest reviews, please consider supporting us here!

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley

#romance review #contemporary romance #medical romance #political romance #romantic comedy #this was a miss #I like the author's writing #but this didn't work #Susie Tate #Rose and Lark review books

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tlbodine · 5 years

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A Plea for Some Non-Cringe Native American Representation

There’s something that has bothered me for a real long time, and I haven’t said anything because it didn’t really feel like my place to say it. But if pasty white folks across the country will insist on continuing to make these books and comics and movies, then I guess this pasty white girl can make a plea to do it better.

So. Here’s the deal. Native American representation in fiction sucks.

We’re going to talk about why, and then talk about some ways you can do it better. And it’s going to take a while, so join me under the cut.

PROBLEM #1: Erasure

The first problem with First Nations people being represented in fiction is that it, uh...doesn’t happen very often. It’s pretty rare for a show or movie or book to have a Native character, and even rarer for that character to exist without being a vehicle/mouthpiece for some kind of hamfisted message.

And, of course, Native characters who do show up in movies are sometimes played by non-Native actors, which is just. Um.

somebody fucking kill me I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

PROBLEM #2: The Same Stock Character Over and Over and Over

There’s this weird thing where TV shows have A Very Special Native American Episode(tm) where a Native American character shows up in a storyline designed to, idk, provide a tidy outlet for the viewer’s white guilt or something. I see this a lot in superhero stories for...some reason:

Batman and Chief Screaming Eagle (ok, it was the 1960s, surely things have gotten better right? oh...) who’s butting heads with a villain over a bad contract for, uh, the chief’s ancestral lands

There was the Buffy episode “Pangs” where a Chumash vengeance spirit is the villain-of-the day after being disturbed by some construction (and this is honestly one of the better treatments of the premise, at least the episode is well-written)

There was the Smallville episode with Kyla Willowbrook, the Kawatche Skinwalker (I know, I know) who for bonus points dies tragically in Clark’s arms (I KNOW) and who was deeply concerned with...with some construction...disturbing her sacred homesite...(this is starting to sound familiar)

And then there was The Flash episode where Barry is forced to fight with the complicated-yet-tragically-evil Native American activist woman whose crimes involve stealing cultural artifacts that belong to to the museum (yes I’m screaming) and also murdering people...y’know, for vengeance and stuff.

I could keep going but I really don’t think I have to. When your only representation of a culture is a character (frequently a smoking-hot member of the opposite sex to the hero) who is an ambiguous villain who is motivated by vengeance and/or justice over having their land/cultural artifacts disturbed, and who has a valid claim but is really going about it in the wrong way and whose tragic death and/or defeat really gives the white character something complex to think about for two seconds.... well. That’s more than a little racist.

PROBLEM #3: These Are Not Your Stories to Tell

You know what white people love doing?

They love appropriating Native culture! Seriously! They love it! And who can blame them, really? Native people have so much rich symbolism and mythology and cool clothes and neat aesthetics. Painted war ponies and buckskin dresses and shapeshifters and monsters, oh my! Indian burial grounds and vengeful spirits (oh for fuck sake enough with the vengeful Indian trope)

But here’s the deal:

The mythology you’re borrowing from belongs to a group of people who are still alive and sometimes practicing the religion you’re liberally reinterpreting

There is no such thing as a “Native American” myth. You’re talking about literally hundreds of different tribes who are culturally distinct from one another and have their own complex histories of interaction, diplomacy, war, friendship, etc. with one another for centuries before white folk got here. You erase all of that when you treat Native culture as a grab-bag of cool things you can mix and match to your liking.

Maybe, just a thought, stop it with the oppression narratives about activists and/or vengeful spirits who are real threatened by white people disturbing their homes? It’s not that there isn’t a lot to unpack in that -- I mean, white people really did conduct mass genocide against a race of people, for starters -- it’s just that this isn’t really your oppression narrative to tell.

It seems to me that folks writing about Native Americans don’t actually have any idea what Native people are like? They either think of them as anachronistic figures, an extinct and ancient group, or they think of them as people really hung up on their cultural past. Because maybe people can’t think of anything to do with a Native character other than use it as a vocal mouthpiece of one very specific part of their cultural oppression.

But please. Please stop. That is every bit as stupid and racist as making a Black character who only talks about slavery, or a Jewish character who only talks about the Holocaust, or giving all of your gay characters AIDS.

So what do you do instead?

Writing Native Characters in a Way That Does Not Suck - A Quick Primer

I can’t write a definitive guide on writing good Native representation, because there is no such guide, and if there were it would take a whole book probably, and I am not in any way even remotely an authority.

But I can give you some pointers that will help you.

(And to be honest, Native representation is so awful that the bar here is really super low, even just attempting a tiny bit is a really welcome breath of fresh air)

Choose a Tribe

Step one: Figure out what kind of Native people you’re writing about.

Because, as previously noted, Native People Are Not A Monoculture.

How do you pick a tribe? Well, start with geography. Where do you want the story to take place? Obviously people move around, so you can find folks outside of their ancestral lands, but they all started someplace, and a lot of people live where their parents and grandparents and cousins all live.

So where does your story take place? Pick a spot. Then find out what tribes live in that region. It’s not a secret. There are maps:

(Source: http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/native_american_tribes_map.htm)

Or maybe you want to go about this in a different way. Maybe you have a specific story idea in mind and you want to write it in a way that would be accurate and respectful. Cool! A good first step on that is to figure out what tribe actually does the thing you’re wanting to write about.

Skinwalkers, for example, originate in the Navajo Nation (Dine` people), although there are related myths from surrounding tribes in the area.

If you’re writing a story about Wendigo, then you should know those myths originate with the Algonquin people of Quebec and Ontario.

If you’re writing something with spiritually significant buffalo, you should probably choose a culture that actually interacted with buffalo -- ie, a Plains Indian tribe like the Lakota-Sioux people.

And so on and so forth.

(Note that this is only the first step. You still have to do a lot of research after this to be sure you’re doing everything properly and respectfully. And, y’know, maybe reconsider if you actually want to tell a story respecting that mythology, or if you just want to sound cool and exotic)

Also, personal preference: Please don’t make your characters Cherokee if you’re just going for “character with Native ancestry.” Please choose a different tribe. For a lot of complicated (and sometimes surprisingly racist) reasons, white people have been claiming Cherokee heritage for a long time, and even when it’s true, it feels cheap and cringey in fiction. If you want to tell a story about the Trail of Tears or something set in Tahlequa, Oklahoma, great! Write Cherokee characters! But if you just want a Native American character for other reasons...pick a different tribe.

Choose a Name

Fun fact: Modern Native people that you meet out on the street don’t have names like “Stands With Fists” or “Running Bear.”

If you have an impulse to name your character any kind of descriptive “adjective + animal” name...just don’t. Please. And don’t go to BehindTheName or some other random site to pick out something that “sounds” Native.

Names in other cultures are tricky. Some (but not all!) Native people may have a cultural tradition of having multiple names, including naming ceremonies (often as a rite of passage in adolescence). Some tribes have clan names. Everybody’s different. But these special names are culturally sensitive, often sacred, and are not a thing readily accessible to white people. White folks spent centuries trying to wipe out Indigenous people’s belief systems; they deserve to have some things kept private and sacred.

So what I’m getting at here is that white writers really, really should not touch on the “Indian naming ceremony” trope at all if they can help it, because it’s gonna be real hard to get the details right, and getting the details wrong is going to make you sound like an ignorant racist. And most of the time, it’s not really that important to a story.

Most contemporary Native people have regular English names. They may also have tribal names and clan names (that they may or may not share with outsiders). But lots of tribal members don’t, and that doesn’t make them any less Native.

My recommendation for naming your Native characters? Find real people from the time period, tribe, and region you’re writing in. Find a phone book or newspaper from a town on or near a reservation for your chosen tribe. Look at names of participants in powwows. Look at the sports rosters for Native schools. Look at historical records like census data from the year you’re writing about. Don’t just make things up.

** One Note: You know how “black” names are a thing? You encounter a similar sort of thing in some contemporary Native Americans. I grew up with a lot of kids who had “weird” names like Kirby, Sheriden, Baskerville, Sterling and Precious. (and by “weird” I mean “names middle-class white people don’t tend to use”). There’s also a lot of black-sounding names in Native populations. There’s some complex reasons behind this, and a lot of sociology of naming, and I won’t spend too much time on it right now but just...so you know. It’s a thing.

Write a Human Being

This really is the biggest thing, and it’s true of every writing you do, all the time, no matter what: Write a real person and not a caricature.

Native people are people first. Their cultural heritage affects them the way anyone else’s culture does. The things they eat, wear, do, believe, the stories they know, etc. are all affected. But Native people don’t have a responsibility to be walking representatives of their tribes. And they definitely shouldn’t be a vessel for white guilt.

(Fun fact: “Iron Eyes Cody,” maybe best known for the “Crying Indian” role in a commercial about pollution, was an Italian-American born Espera Oscar de Corti)

Here’s a really, really good article I found while working on this rant that might be of interest to you as wellas you set out on this quest: https://mashable.com/2015/03/24/american-indians-tv/

I still have so much to say on this topic, and maybe I’ll write more in the future, but this is already very long so I’ll stop. I hope this has been at least a little bit helpful for y’all. Go forth and write non-terrible characters, I beg of you.

*Disclaimer: I am not a Native person and do not claim any special knowledge or ownership of Native culture, and I beg you to please listen to Native voices when possible in your creative endeavors. I’m just a gal who happened to have spent most of my life living near reservations and growing up around Native people and having Native friends and being taught about historical cultures by my mother who has a degree in Southwest Studies and has done a lot of formal and informal research due to her own interests in the topic.

If you found this article helpful at all, please consider dropping a tip in my tip jar.

I also have a book coming out! You can pre-order it now! It features a main character of mixed heritage, New Mexico reservation border towns, and zombies trying to get by like everybody else.

Pre-Order now on B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/river-of-souls-t-l-bodine/1131956124

Or on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/River-Souls-T-L-Bodine/dp/1950305015

Or from the publisher: http://journalstone.com/bookstore/river-of-souls/?fbclid=IwAR14Qna5tMgWBV0We2uGSLreBkmyvZ5SoDAzPQpTKeFn4JR4PWSyKGl0VEo

Or add it to your Goodreads library: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46183381-river-of-souls

#how to write #writing advice #native americans #cultural appropriation #representation #long post #but please do read it #I worked on this all day

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sleepymouses · 4 years

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tagged by @littlepetbee, thank uuuu <3 i spent way too long thinking about htis lol,

Rules: pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions, tag a bunch o ppls to do it too (if y’all want to, supes no pressure or anything!)

Natsume yuujinchou (a teenage orphan who sees spirits/monsters sets out to free the spirits who were bound in magical contract by his grandmother after he inherits a powerful book, aided primarily by a spirit who appears as an exasperated fat cat (who is just as fun as he sounds). Titular character is like my Fave boy in the whole world, he’s so kind and soft despite all the hardships he’s faced, the series has very gentle pacing/character development, and each episode is a carefully crafted lil story that have often moved me to tears, chuckles, or outright chinhands of fondness as u watch natsume slowly find a home in the world and amongst the humans &spirits around him. big focus on friendships, there’s like no romance with any of the main characters, lots of cool different creatures (most of whom arent all that scary once u get to know them), its just literally everything i could ever dream for in a show and it exists! <3)

Leverage (team of modern day robin hoods ruin rich peoples’ lives via delightfully crafted spy cons to give back to the regular folks the rich people hurt. Extremely good, strong found family vibes, and v cathartic)

Brooklyn 99 (follows diverse cast of character who make up a NY precinct. Hilarious, immensely wholesome & groundbreaking, & probs the most lighthearted crime show besides like psych tbh)

Blackspot/Zone Blanche (spoopy french/belgium crime series set in a small village way out in the mountains surrounded by misty, mysterious and murdery woods. eerie and atmospheric, but also like one of my fave characters (everyone calls him teddy bear) keeps a pet guinea pig at work, so it’s not entirely grim and bleak)

Longmire (a modern western crime drama centering around the titular sheriff and others in their small town wyoming county, well written and lot of chracter development revealed alongside some really good case mysteries bc i love trying to figure out whodunits apparently based on a book series well adored by dads btw)

who is your favorite character in 2? (leverage) ahhh,,, this is hard... Eliot maybe? like Hardison is baby ofc, but i relate to elliot a ton (i think if i was on a team i would want to be the hitter tbh?) and love the subversion of so many action hero tropes that he is, also endlessly amused by how very put upon he is despite all his rad/random skills

who is your least favorite character in 1? (natsume yuujinchou) oh seiji matoba for sure, he can go eat a mouldy tree stump. absolutely evil nasty dude

what is your favorite episode of 4? (blackspot) the end of the road. great opening, didnt end up too devastating unlike a lot of the cases, Hermann was gr8, cool twist i hadnt super expected in the plot which was neat.

what is your favorite season of 5? (longmire) probs 1, walter reeally started to piss me off being Such A Man in later seasons, also me being extremely anxious about Henry and his life choices later, that creepy stalker storyline starting up with Someone and when Someone else in the main cast got died really suddenly and upsettingly later on as well, also when a weird relationship started between some of the characters that i really aint feeling so. before all that happened was nice (also sorry if this is super vague, im trying to avoid spoilers)

who is your favorite couple in 3? (B99) Besides Jake/Amy and Holt/Kevin (bc oviously theyre gr8) uh.. i know it was a long time ago and didnt last very long, but i thought rosa and marcus were really sweet? it brought another layer out to her character, even when they broke up that helped rosa starting to show emotional vulnerability and all, even tho it ended it was still just, idk, i liked them.

who is your favorite couple in 2? (leverage) Does trio count, cos Parker/Eliot/Harding 4 life yo

what is your favorite episode of 1? (natsume yujinchou) i have sooo many faves ahhh!!! i dont think i could pick just one on pain of death, every episode is acrefully cosntructed gem all on its own and i have too many that i love and adore to pick jsut one :((

what is your favorite episode of 5? (longmire) Dog soldier!! ive rewatched that one a ton, so so many good bits, really satisfying resolution of the case despite the shitty system that was revealed, and i rmr getting chills by the end the first time i saw it.

what is your favorite season of 2? (leverage) i guess season 1? just, idk, everything being set up and watching all these grumpies/less grumpies who have no plans to stay together start working together as a baby team, and just the joy of seeing their first heist together with the first plot twist, just.. such a delight, but all seasons that ive seen so far were all excellent, it’s a stellar show

how long have you watched 1? (natsume yujinchou) oh idk exactly, like years and years man... defs the longest out of all on this list

how did you become interested in 3? (b99) i think it was just on netflix way back in season 1 and i started watching it, loved it and never stopped? i think that might have even been before it got rlly popular lol

who is your favorite actor in 4? (blackspot) i dont rlly know any of these french peeps? but teddybear’s one of my fave characters, so hopefully the person who plays him is also cool, in which case hubert delattre (if not, Suliane Brahim does a v good job as the lead)

which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5? (natsume yujinchou, leverage or longmire) um... real torn between natsume and leverage here, they’re both such lovely gems that do found family so, so well.. leverage is a team of modern robin hood-esque spies with brilliant writing and exciting heists and multiple delightful plot twists every episode and great character building and so much catharticism in ruining evil rich peoples lives.

but natsume’s title character is one of my very favorite characters ever, hes been through so much but he becomes the most kindest and thoughtful boy ever, and its so, so soft and gentle in its development of characters and their slow build of getting to know each other and becoming friends, and the interactions with the paranormal world are very rarely entirely malicious/scary, and there’s pretty well no romance, at least like no romance for plot/with the main characters anyways, and there’s lots of female characters who have important roles but arent sexualized/killed off for man feels/exist for romo (which sadly cannot be said about a lot of media, especially manga/anime tbh, even leverage does not win entirely on that front).. its defintiely my favorite anime ever (i dont watch loads, but literally no other one can ever come close to topping its perfection),

i guess tho, leverage is over, and natsume is still technically ongoing, so i guess for that then i have to go with natsume?

which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3? (natsume yuujinchou or b99) Natsume for sure, they’re so short its easy to power thru like half a season in an afternoon

if you could be anyone from 4, who would you be? (blackspot) i would probably want to be someone who didnt live in villefranche actually haha uh, it’s a pretty spoopity place.. even some of the characters i do like make some Bad decisions that are v bothersome. Dr. Leila barami seems to have a good head on her shoulders tho, so if i Must be a character here then let’s go with her

would a crossover between 3 and 4 work? (b99 or blackspot) oh god... the cheery upbeat department at the 99 meet up with a grim, misty tiny mountain forest village with bleak day to day life, solving crimes amidst small town paranoia and weird maybe cult-related conspiracies and honestbhly something/s paranormal and menacing going on in the woods?? i just... cant see any of the characters even interacting lol, im just picturing jake’s confused befuddled face when he hears something weird but like x 10000

pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple? (natsume yujinchou) hm... i mean, one of the things i love about Natsume is that there arent really any romo relationships tbh? at least not with any of the main characters in the main storyline (so far), just like the odd one-off of minor characters (and takashi’s adopted parents ofc, but that’s different). so, yeah, i cant really think of one (although i think the big fandom fave ship of takashi and his worst enemy is rlly.. nope, and i dont know what’s going on there? takashi and tanama however, that would make sense, tho it is not unlikely so i cant answer this question with them)

overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5? (b99 or longmire) b99! cos ya know my annoyances with some of the stuff happening later on in longmire lol, b99 just got better n better as it went along, and it’s still going :’)

which has the better theme music, 2 or 4? (leverage or blackspot) blackspot has a real good eerie atmospheric theme which is gr8 and i love it <3 (leverage’s tune is like, elevator music/cheesy jazzy spy tune, which does suit it tho lol)

and idk, anyone bored and stuck at home who wants to do this? no pressure if ur like nah but if u wanna go ahead.... @creepy-friend-of-darkness @anna-wa @rhinky-thingz @rexbasileus @aeolian-harp @warrenkoles @softbrobarnes @damnitttana @cluelesswolf @moondoggiestyle @blloodorangeisthenewblack @my-nail-beds-suck @frankiecolours @savvylikeyeahhh @lake-effectkidx @justhugharry @casualmisandry @j4ya @galaxygalpals @thesecondwarm @dealwright @knipperdollin @curlycombover @kaspbrakeddie (and if i didnt tag u and u still wanna do this, consider yeself tagged)

#littlepetbee #long post #littlepetlouis #thank u for tagging me in these <333 sorry im rarely here to do them but i appreciate em and try to keep track when im on #heather watches things #also this was a fun thing to think about bc urgh i am so tired of same old shit day in and out these days oof #natsume #k now im real emosh about natsume ahh #leverage #also come scream at me if u watch any of these ahh #longmire #askables #black spot #b99

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phosphorescent-naidheachd · 5 years

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I saw TROS earlier today and, well, it was definitely a Star Wars sequel movie, for better and for worse. I can see why some people on my dash hated this movie and why some of them loved it. I can also see why some of them threw their hands into the air over it and shrugged. (FYI, I’m in the third category.) More scattered and spoiler-laden thoughts below the cut:

--“Never underestimate a droid.” This line would have been so much more meaningful if the spy had turned out to be a First Order droid rather than Hux. A droid that had broken free of its programming, just like Finn (and later Jannah and the other unnamed former stormtroopers). But as always, the Droid Revolution that we deserve is probably never going to be a thing, at least not onscreen where it counts.

--Just like TFA, the copy-and-pasting from the Original Trilogy was painfully obvious, but what was forgivable in the first film of a new trilogy is less so in said trilogy’s concluding film.

--Trần Loan/Rose deserved more screentime and prominence. And did we really have to turn Poe into a former spice runner? Really? *sighs heavily*

--Zorii Bliss felt sort of shoehorned in? I didn’t hate her, but it felt like TPTB only introduced her to give Poe another person to flirt with. And I say this as someone who was not expecting PoeFinn or any other LGBTQIAP+ relationship between named characters to be made canon in this movie at all. Hopefully fans will give her more depth in fic!

--Jannah was really interesting and I would have loved to see more of her. Once again, hopefully fans will take her character and deepen/explore it in fic.

--LANDO!

--Finn was all but explicitly confirmed as Force sensitive, and it’s What He Deserves.

--I mean, Finn also deserved his own storyline and a stronger conclusion to his character arc in this film, especially considering he was promoted as one of the leads of the sequel trilogy. But while I’m irked that he was relegated to a side character, I can’t say I didn’t see this coming, especially after TLJ.

--Likewise, I knew Reyl0 was going to be a thing after TLJ. I found their relationship less grating than Anida1a in the prequels, but it still didn’t do much of anything for me in this film. Do I understand from an objective POV why some people enjoy it so much? Yep. It’s the grand, tortured, Byronic Romance™, where it isn’t really about whether the characters have anything in common or even like each other, it’s about their near-mystical connection and their inability (and lack of true desire) to be rid of it; it’s about the lengths to which they will go for each other/themselves; it’s about the powerful man who is emotionally vulnerable and eager to serve his True Love at the expense of all else. It’s also the whole enemies-to-lovers trope, and so on. I understand the appeal of this mashup intellectually, it’s just not my cup of tea here. YMMV and all that, and that’s as it should be.

--Palpatine back from death is as ridiculous here as it was in the old EU, but I can roll with it. I think the movie made the right decision not to explain all the nitty-gritty details of how he cheated death or manipulated the whole Snoke deal... ultimately, it doesn’t really matter, y’know? Ditto to Rey Palpatine lol.

--Leia’s death felt pretty narratively cheap to me, but I understand that there was only so much TPTB could do with the footage they already had of Carrie Fisher in costume. Still, poor Leia. She drew a deeply shitty hand in life, didn’t she?

--That said, it was nice to see Leia training as a Jedi in flashbacks, however briefly. (Is it just me, or did her saber hilt vaguely resemble Obi-Wan’s?) Does it make a lot less sense that she would then send Ben away to Luke if she’s had Jedi training? Yes. Can I created headcanons to explain this? Also yes. And do I really care about this particular inconsistency when there are far worse ones out there and this one makes dudebro sections of the fandom spitting mad? NOPE.

--I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m not inherently against the redemption of Kylo/Ben. But, as I had suspected/feared, they “redeemed” him at the narrative expense of other characters I personally find more interesting... and they still didn’t manage to make said redemption feel narratively earned to me. Is there undoubtedly ancillary material in SW books and comics that give more background behind Kylo/Ben’s turn to the Dark Side and eventual turn back to the Light? Yes. Do I want to read it? Not really, no. Also, unless something happens onscreen in the SW universe, it doesn’t really count as true canon. So it’s disappointing that the movie shoved other characters and plots to the side to make room for Kylo/Ben’s redemption arc and then didn’t even do a good job with it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

--Also, of course TPTB had Kylo/Ben die saving someone rather than narratively deal with what it means to work towards redemption after having done lots of terrible things, and having to recover from having been manipulated/groomed by Sidious. Not surprised in the slightest.

--I would have preferred a Stormtrooper Rebellion storyline, but I’m not going to blast TROS or the sequel trilogy for being what it is rather than what I wanted it to be. I will, however, blast it for its sloppy execution of its existing storylines. Which leads to my next point...

--Even though TROS was long, it still felt rushed and, like the first two movies in this trilogy, it felt largely disconnected from the other sequel trilogy films. The Star Wars Story Group really should have planned this trilogy out better. If TPTB were going to go with two different directors/writers, they should have made sure said directors/writers were on the same page rather than seemingly fighting each other’s visions of what the overarching story should be at every step.

--I’m willing to handwave a lot of stuff that happens in TROS, mainly because I’m long past expecting coherence from this franchise... or pretty much any major franchise, tbh. (For instance: Thousands of people show up to aid the Resistance when Lando calls them but not when Leia did in TLJ? OK. Force Ghost Luke shows up to catch Rey’s lightsaber but not to help her against Palpatine? Sure.) These issues don’t really make or break the series for me, so I can work with them with a minimum of grumbling. Which isn’t quite the same thing as letting TPTB off the hook for their laziness and inconsistencies.

--Honestly, I hate to say it, but it would have made for a stronger story if Chewie had died aboard the ship when Rey and Kylo/Ben were fighting over it; that would have driven home the consequences of Rey’s lack of control and lessened the artificiality of the stakes in this movie. But I get that this is ultimately a family film, so it’s more of a minor quibble than anything else.

--It’s kind of weird that Rey’s hair is back in the three buns again for the entirety of TROS after she wore her hair differently for almost all of TLJ. But that’s a fairly minor quibble too, and one of the sort I can easily create a headcanon to explain. Actually, come to think of it, I wonder if they didn’t do this at least partially to be able to recycle some of the unused TFA clips with Leia and Rey?

--Frankly, I’m not sure why Rey suddenly cared so much about what Luke thought, considering A. he was a huge jerk to her for most of TLJ, and B. she seemed to have broken with following his advice towards the end of TLJ. And since she didn’t have a great relationship with Luke, it seems weird that she’d take his last name. Shouldn’t she have gone with Organa or even Solo, if she’s naming herself after a mentor? But whatever, I get that it’s about the symbolism more than the character or logic. And I can create headcanons to explain all of this.

--It’s a little weird that there wasn’t any more resolution to Kylo/Ben’s storyline and Rey’s feelings about it after his death. But with Leia dead, I guess there isn’t anyone left who’d especially care if Kylo/Ben turned back to the Light aside from Rey herself. Still, there should have been something more. Especially since Ben didn’t show up as a Force Ghost alongside Luke and Leia on Tatooine.

--While I’m at it, I wish we could have had a minute’s conversation with Rey telling Finn about her heritage, if only because I think he would have understood. But I wish we could have learned more about Finn’s heritage (which didn’t need to be a known SW lineage, btw) too, so...

--For that matter, I wish we could have had Finn get a chance to tell Rey about his being Force Sensitive, which might have made her feel slightly less alone. I wish we could have seen Finn figure out what being Force Sensitive meant to him. And so on.

--Not sure where people are getting the idea that Lando & Jannah were flirting, because I didn’t read their interaction that way at all.

--General Poe and General Finn were great, but also sort of felt unearned after the events of TLJ.

--The abilities that come from being part of a Dyad are overpowered and a little silly, but hey, they’re also following a long-established SW tradition of overpowered silliness, so... *shrugs*

--Confused as to why Rey suddenly killed Kylo/Ben when she did?? I mean, if it was because she was angry Leia had just died, wouldn’t that be acting from the Dark Side and shouldn’t that have, idk, narrative consequences for her?

--I don’t see why some people loved or hated Rey’s ending so much. It’s pretty open, IMO, just like the endings for all of the surviving characters. Who says Rey is going to stay on Tatooine or be alone there, after all? For all we know, she just stopped there for a few days to bury the lightsabers, grieve for Kylo/Ben, and meditate. For all we know, Finn or one of her other friends from the Resistance is going to drop in any moment now. Heck, for all we know, one of her friends is hanging out inside the Falcon where we can’t see them, giving her a little space. (Was her friendship with Finn and Poe depicted pretty shallowly in this movie? Yeah. But so was her relationship with Kylo/Ben tbh, even with the Dyad Force bond thingamajig.) Rey has a whole world of choices available to her. Does it suck that we didn’t get to see that onscreen? Yeah. Does it mean she’s doomed to be eternally lonely as a hermit on a desert planet? Not in the slightest.

--Someone really needs to tell the writers of these big franchises that using ring structure is pointless if there isn’t meaning behind it. There’s nothing inherently significant about repeating events or revisiting locations.

--Overall, I felt pretty meh about TROS. I didn’t love it or hate it. As with any movie in a series, there’s good stuff to be mined from it, and bad stuff to be handwaved away or given headcanon explanations. But mostly, I just can’t dredge up the energy to care very much. And I’m not in the mood for TROS fix-it fanfiction so much as I am TROS crack fics.

--I haven’t talked about everything that worked or didn’t work for me in TROS here, but if you have any questions, I’m always happy to answer them to the best of my abilities!

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karazor--el · 5 years

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‘The Flash’ Showrunner on Season 6, How New Villain Bloodwork Leads to “Crisis”, and More

*Be aware that SPOILERS are discussed*

The CW series The Flash, now in its sixth season, not only has a new showrunner in executive producer/writer Eric Wallace, but it also has a new feel, with new storytelling devices and a new villain with interesting parallels to the show’s titular hero, and it’s all leading to the big “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover. In the season opener, called “Into the Void,” Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candice Patton) are dealing with the heartbreaking loss of their daughter Nora, and Team Flash must, yet again, save Central City from their greatest threat yet.

After a recent screening of the Season 6 premiere, held at the offices of The CW, showrunner Eric Wallace answered questions about the episode, what’s to come, how it all leads to the “Crisis on Infinite Earth” crossover, and where they go from there. During the chat, he talked about how Barry and Iris will be dealing with the knowledge that Barry will die and how that will differ from when Iris’ life was at stake, the parallel in storylines between Barry and Bloodwork (Sendhil Ramamurthy), the first villain of Season 6, getting to see much more of Iris’ work as a journalist, Cisco’s (Carlos Valdes) love life, Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) and Killer Frost’s agreement, expanding the meta storytelling, the latest Wells (Tom Cavanagh), the return of John Wesley Shipp and Keiynan Lonsdale, and the science of it all.

Question: With The Monitor telling Barry and Iris that The Flash must die, how will they grapple with that, this season?

ERIC WALLACE: That would be the plot of Episode 602. “Crisis” turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to The Flash because it created an immediacy to things. We know that, on December 10, 2019, The Flash will die. He said it. We’re not messing around. So, as a married couple, they can count the number of days and weeks. The countdown begins next week. What kind of urgency does that give them? An extreme one. It turns the dial up to 10, and it makes them think, is every moment together our last? What can we do? Should we find this? Is it inevitable? Those are all of the things that they’re grappling with, for these next seven episodes. Episode 608 ends and it’s “Crisis” time. It’s time to go off to, literally, cosmic war. So, their relationship is strained, but it’s also going to bring them closer together than ever before because that’s what tragedy does.

In Season 3, Barry and Iris had a similar situation when they learned that Iris was going to die in the future. What did that experience teach them, that could help them now?

WALLACE: You should watch [Episode 602], when that exact question is asked and answered. That is literally the plot. What this story has enabled us to do is to look back at any other time, when somebody was facing life and death, and see how they reacted then. So, in the writers’ room, we had a lengthy discussion about it being the other side of the coin. We know how they reacted with Iris, but how will they react, in Episode 602? I will tell you that, it’s different. It’s not the same because of what they learn next week. That’s the great part of this story. The Monitor showing up and making a cosmic pronouncement drives them to extremes, in order to fight against or except the coming crisis. Episodes 602, 603, 604, 605 and 606, especially, are all about, do I accept death, or do I fight it?

This show seems to sort be setting up “Crisis”, in its own way. How did you balance telling the story of Bloodwork, while also setting up this massive crossover?

WALLACE: Fortunately, it worked out really great because “Crisis” is about grief, and about death, and about the end of all worlds. You have the Bloodwork villain, who is facing the end of his own world. So, from his point of view, who cares about “Crisis” because he’s more concerned about the immediacy of his own life. Now, does that mean he could perhaps live past “Crisis”? That’s the real question that he has to grapple with, and I won’t give you the answer. So, it turned out to be the most fortuitous set of story events possible, dealing with life and death, dealing with his death as a villain, and dealing with the death of all worlds. When all of the showrunners got together to talk about “Crisis”, I pitched them what Bloodwork does, and they were like, “Oh, that’s great!” And then, all of this synergy started to happen. The Arrow folks said, “Hey, we’re gonna do something crazy in Episode 801.” And I went, “Oh, that’s perfect!” It was this dominoes situation that fell. There’s a lot of cross collaboration. It might not seem like it, at first, but it all comes together very nicely in “Crisis”, our crossover event. It all feeds into itself.

How aware is the rest of the team about what’s going on with what The Monitor said?

WALLACE: You’ll have to watch Episode 603. You’re right on the money. We asked that same question in the writers’ room, so we made it an episode. You’ll get your answer in Episode 603.

Is Barry aware that Oliver Queen is also working for The Monitor right now?

WALLACE: No, and when they both find out, it’s good stuff. It’s so great. I can’t tell you when it happens, but I will tell you that is a scene that happened. It is a moment, and it is coming. Let’s just say that people might get pissed off, a little bit.

In the “Crisis” comic book story, both The Flash and Supergirl died, and there were variations of them later. What were your thoughts about that, when it was done?

WALLACE: I was the perfect age for “Crisis”, when it first came out, and it blew my mind that so many characters that were beloved died, and then they were re-booted. So, when we were approaching the writing of “Crisis”, obviously, we can’t just kill all of our number ones on our shows. That’s insane. You can kill a couple of them, and we do, but you have to find the balance. What it meant to me was that we should tap into that feeling that the readers in 1985 would have had, when reading that story, with the tectonic shifts in the comic world, underneath. When you watch the crossover, you’re going to feel those tectonic shifts, especially at the end. It’s not small. It’s game-changer, in the same way that the ending of “Crisis”, the comic book, was a game changer, and it opens up to a whole new world.

How much more of Iris, as a journalist, will we see, over the course of this season?

WALLACE: You’ll be ridiculously happy, this year. Before I even got here, as a fan, I kept asking myself, “Why isn’t this woman a journalist? I don’t understand. She doesn’t have a staff. She has no office. That’s a pretty crappy journalist. Does she work out of her house?” If we know, from Episode 518, that she becomes a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and that she has an empire, we need to start building those seeds, and we need to do it now. So, we have very urgently done that, this season. You will meet her new staff member very soon. The new staff starts in Episode 602. Why waste time? We just get to it. Depending on how the back season goes, because we have a budget, it might be a small staff at first, but it’s very much about seeing her take charge of what we refer to as Team Citizen. They will appear, and they will be getting into trouble, especially in the back half of our show because now we have a new way to bring in meta storylines, with her investigations. It doesn’t always have to be a bank robber anymore. It’s been the blessing, from the story gods.

Will Iris meet Lois Lane?

WALLACE: I’m not going to answer that, but I think you know the answer. Is that clear? I’m not saying a word.

Cisco’s relationships haven’t always been well-served on the show. Will it be, this time?

WALLACE: Yes. In fact, we love Kamilla. That’s why, when we skipped forward four months, we wanted to just rip the band-aid off and be like, “She’s already in the family. She knows Barry is The Flash, and she knows about Vibe. They’re doing just fine, and having a healthy relationship that’s not Barry and Iris. As far as their relationship ups and downs, and highs and lows, they won’t be having that kind of drama. They’re doing great. That’s one of the themes of his season arc that plays over all 22 episodes. Can you be happy, being human? Can you be happy, not being a meta? Can you be happy, not saving the world, every week? Yeah, you can. You can get a beer at the picnic, and maybe you do punch in nine to five and let The Flash handle everything else. That’s nice. That’s a big thing that Cisco will be struggling with, all season, and Kamilla is a part of that.

With Killer Frost and Caitlin coming to an agreement, what will we see from Killer Frost, trying to live a life?

WALLACE: Now that she has a life coach? It has been a pure delight, writing Killer Frost this season. She’s much more in the forefront than Caitlin is. That life coach stuff starts in Episode 602. It’s the second scene, and we honor the promise of the premise. We deliver, and it’s led to these hilarious situations. We talk of her almost as a teenager who finally got the keys to the car, but doesn’t know how to drive, and then she’s gotta drive to go to the store, or the movies, or wherever. Everything is new, through her eyes, which means she’s gonna make some mistakes, which is great. It’s going to lead to some more tears, but she’s also going to grow into something that didn’t exist before. Maybe you do lose that Killer. Maybe it’s just Frost, down the line. And Danielle is having a blast. I told her what’s coming in the back half [of the season], because that’s what we’re breaking. We’re at graphic novel number two, and the result of where she ends up, emotionally, in graphic novel one, gives her the strength to face what lies in graphic novel two.

Will we be seeing more meta storylines that show different types of metas that aren’t criminals?

WALLACE: Yes. It goes back to honoring the old of the first five seasons, but finding new ways to make it fresh. You should just watch Episode 602. There are two new story devices to bring in cases. One is that they don’t have to be a bad guy, and the second one appears next week. It’s a new way to get stories in because it’s based in character. That’s part of the fun. Let’s see different kinds of stories. Just ‘cause this show is The Flash, it doesn’t mean another main character can’t take center stage for an entire episode. Look for that, ‘cause that’s happening. We have such a talented cast, so why aren’t we using them?

The synopsis for Episode 602 mentions John Wesley Shipp. Which version of him will we see?

WALLACE: It’s Jay Garrick. Season 6 is a little more serialized now, which probably comes from me having been on Teen Wolf. Sometimes we pick up right from where something left off. We fooled the audience [with the premiere] because we did a direct pick-up, but then we jumped forward five months. But a lot of the episodes, especially Episodes 602, 603 and 604, end, and then, it picks up one second later because I want the immediacy that audiences get when they’re watching a streaming show that’s eight or ten episodes. That’s our competition, quite frankly. I want that same immediacy brought to The CW, and I love them so much for saying, “Do it. We support this.”

The Season 6 premiere talks a lot about getting to know a new version of Nora, eventually. Is there a pregnancy storyline bubbling for Iris, at all?

WALLACE: Not this season, but that doesn’t mean a huge hint about Nora isn’t coming, this season. There will be two. One will probably be misinterpreted the wrong way ‘cause it’s a deliberate misdirect. I like that, and I like mysteries, but it’s real. So, look for that. The comic book fans will be watching Episode 602, and they’ll see a particular thing and go, “Oh, my god, I know what that means.”

In the Bronze Age comics, we learned that Iris was actually born in the 30th century and was sent back in time. Is that a story that would ever be adapted to the TV show?

WALLACE: Yes.

Can you elaborate?

WALLACE: No, but I’m telling you yes.

What’s the process for honoring the stories that so many of us know from the comics, and yet presenting them in a way for modern audiences, where you can deviate a little for surprises?

WALLACE: As a Bronze Age reader, myself, I know what storyline you’re talking about, and I love it. The comics are so rich with wonderful themes and ideas, so that’s what we want to honor, every week, and draw from. But ultimately, what we have to do is tell modern, contemporary, grounded stories, so we have to find a way to mix them. Everything should start with, “What cool thing do I want to see? I just want to see that because it’s insane, or because I love it. When I was reading my Bronze Age comic book, this is what happened. And then, I’ll sit back and go, “Well, we do need Iris to get to this place, emotionally, and now this storyline supports that.” So, suddenly, we’ve got a piece of Bronze Age hard data, and we’re incorporating it into a story. That’s why it, hopefully, feels a little seamless, and it rewards the Bronze Age and Silver Age reader, and even the modern readers with Bloodwork. Bloodwork is a contemporary villain, who’s in the comics right now. That’s something I specifically wanted to do. I wanted to pull in a new kid who’s reading The Flash right now and goes, “Oh, I love Bloodwork. He’s so crazy!” I want him to connect to our show, too, and not just his dad, who’s probably my age and has had a long Flash connection.

We haven’t yet met the new Wells, so what can you say about Tom Cavanagh’s latest character?

WALLACE: He’s my favorite since Harrison Wells, the Reverse Flash of Season 1. He’s cool and suave. This is a man of adventure. This is a man who can get in a fight and old his own. We haven’t seen a Wells like that. There’s this completely unexpected side to him, which I will not spoil, that’s just wonderful, and he has a secret. It’s a secret that will be slowly dripped out in graphic novel number one, but which will really mess with his mind, literally, in graphic novel number two. It’s going to lead him to an emotional place that’s similar territory to one of the other Wells, and I don’t want to give a spoiler away, but it takes it in a completely opposite direction. It will be very apparent, by Episode 606, what his secret is. You all will ask yourselves, “Wait a minute, that’s like the other Wells, but I don’t think it’s gonna end the same way.” It’s a very emotional story that we’re very excited, and I know Tom’s excited about it. And he looks good in his costume. He’s having a good time, and I’m loving it. I’m laughing, as I write it, which is great.

Sue Dearbon has been teased a bit. Will we be meeting Sue, this season, and could you ever see Ralph and Sue in their own spin-off series?

WALLACE: I’ll answer the second question first, and yes, without question. We’re actually writing the episode right now, where Sue first appears, and boy, are we having a blast because Sue is such a delight. Sue Dearbon will appear in the back half. But sometimes what you see, isn’t what you see. Is that opaque enough?

Keiynan Lonsdale has said that he’ll be back this season. When might we see that?

WALLACE: We’ll start breaking his episode next week, and my nervous problem is that I’ve talked to him and he said he’s gonna be in it. I’ve heard that he’s still saying it, but I’m dreading the phone call of, “I’m busy. I’m doing another album.” I support, so much, his music career and his other artistic endeavors, which I think are terrific. But if all goes well, we should be breaking his story, in the next couple of weeks. I’m trying my best to honor that and get Kid Flash in for a couple [of episodes] because the story is so good. Kid Flash will now meet a classic villain from the classic days of the classic comic books, and maybe he’ll have to save The Flash’s behind, which is what I want to see. He’s not a kid anymore. He’s grown up.

How do you approach the science of it all, on this show?

WALLACE: I’m a science nut. I used to write a comic for DC comics, called Mr. Terrific, which was super sciency, to the wazoo. And I used to work on Eureka, back in the day, which was a science-based, family comedy-drama. I got in a habit, way back in the Eureka days, of just reading Scientific American and Googling websites and NASA sites, on a regular basis, so science is my friend. I like to use the Stephen King rules of writing, where you come up with the crazy idea, and then find the facts to support it. We’ll write the science in the scripts, in a way that’s very complicated and very technical, and then, we’ll do what we call a simplicity pass to make sure everyone can understand the basic concepts. And then, we’ll do another pass for how much we really need to explain because it is a science-fiction and fantasy show, but we don’t have 800 pages. We have 42 minutes, and the scripts will get too long, if you bog them down with that type of stuff. It is a balancing act, but I do like to put as much real science into the stories as possible because there might be young people watching this and going, “I wanna be a scientist, like Caitlin. I wanna be a scientist like Cisco.” Suddenly, maybe there will be one more scientist in the world, and that would be really awesome. So, I take it very seriously, the messages that the show is presenting to our young people and to people of color.

The Flash returns for Season 6 on The CW on October 8th.

Collier.

#The Flash #Crisis on Infinite Earths

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jinjojess · 5 years

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DR Kirigiri Vol. 5 Summary Part I

God, does it feel so nice to back with the characters and storyline that’s arguably my favorite of the franchise.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

So to refresh your memory of DRK4, Yadorigi--seeking revenge for the death of his partner Uosumi in DRK2--solved a case with a bunch of mystery dweebs at an old abandoned school in the mountains and was picked up by Lico via helicopter, Samidare felt up some girls who were tied up in coffins in an abandoned girls’ school, and Kirigiri figured out that Tsutsumi had done a sloppy job of setting up a mystery at the Center for Twin Research which forced him to call her bluff and crash his car off a bridge. Last we left, Babygiri was unconscious and at the mercy of a literal killer.

So clearly we pick back up with Samidare at the girls’ school, because why wouldn’t we?

Honestly, I’m pretty happy with this, since I don’t want the Kirigiri plotline resolved too soon in this book (remember, I need Samidare to think she’s dead for awhile and grieve) and Lico and Yadorigi wasn’t a huge cliffhanger or anything.

Anyway, when we last left Samidare, she had discovered two high school girls tied up in coffins at Libra Girls’ Academy after chasing a black-caped suspect into the room only for them to disappear. The two girls in question are Nada Tsukiyo, a loud-mouthed brat with traditionally Japanese features like long black hair and pale skin, and her friend and classmate Tooakitsu “Naz” Nazuna, the red-headed, bob cut-sporting calm and polite one. Their physical appearances are both supposed to be ironic given their personalities. Another classmate of theirs, Takezaki Hana, was found dead by Samidare right after she woke up.

Chapter 1 The Mania of Existence: Libra Girls’ Academy - Samidare Yui

In this book, Samidare spends a few moments musing over what the hell Ryuuzouji’s true goal is with these cases, which I also want to know about as well since, as I’ve pointed out before, the rules here make no sense from a dude trying to win or even be fair. Samidare remembers a few things that Ryuuzouji said to her in DRK3 when he wanted her to become his apprentice, like how they both hate evil and will do anything to stop it, and how to do the right thing, sacrifices must be made.

Samidare thinks that’s bullshit though. She hates evil, it’s true, especially since her sister’s death, but she’s nothing like Ryuuzouji. His whole “sacrifice is necessary for the greater good” kind of thinking only makes sense if you’re operating on the kind of genius-level a Triple Zero detective would have; to regular old Samidare, she thinks there are better alternatives.

This is actually really interesting, not only because in the last book Yadorigi has that self-introspection moment where he acknowledges that he’s becoming just as bad at the Committee in the name of vengeance. It’s also because there’s that implication that Samidare could have gone to Kibougamine if she’d continued in high jumping/athletics in general, but she chose not to in order to be a detective, which she considers much more fulfilling given the whole sister abduction trauma she’s got going on. It really highlights the whole culture of excellence that the DRverse is subsumed in and I like that DRK is tackling similar issues as the rest of the mainline series but in a more subtle and personal choice-based way.

It makes Samidare kind of like the anti-Hinata in a way--she rejects her natural talents to do something else she feels is right. I just find that fascinating.

Anyway, Samidare suspects that part of the challenge in these twelve cases is to prove that she’s distinctly different from Ryuuzouji in world view, but she’s got to solve the case in front of her before she can do anything else.

While last time Tsukiyo and Nazuna were accusing Samidare of being the one who tied them up, this time they decide to try and figure out what the last thing they remember is. Turns out, both of them remember hopping a taxi to get to school because of bus delays and not wanting to be late to school. Samidare posits that the Committee might have been behind the traffic jams so that they could get both girls into cabs driven by their operatives and bring them here.

Privately, Samidare considers Nazuna a little too calm and rational under the circumstances, which makes her suspicious, but there isn’t much else to go on at this point.

Tsukiyo muses over why anyone would want to kidnap her. Is it because her parents have money? “You’re rich?” Samidare asks, to which Tsukiyo replies that there are richer people around her. Nazuna also reveals that Takezaki, the victim Samidare found when she woke up, was in the lower caste of their class, so it doesn’t make much sense why she’d be targeted. Samidare also muses that shitty cliques between girls are apparently ubiquitous.

Nazuna is also not believing that Takezaki is really dead without seeing a body, but she can’t exactly stroll over to the other room with her hands and feet bound as they are. Tsukiyo demands that Samidare let them free, but the issue is that the key is nowhere to be found. Samidare tells them to be good while she goes to search for a key.

“What else are we going to do? Hurry up. And while you’re out there, look for a bathroom. You’d better not make me hold it,” Tsukiyo adds.

On her way out of the room, Samidare notes a couple of interesting things: first, the door is a sliding door that closes on its own, similar to sliding doors in hospitals; and there’s no sign of a keyhole or locking mechanism. Since the sliding door rail is on the inside of the room, Samidare wonders if maybe the culprit put a bar in to keep the door closed after they ran inside, but there was no sign of anything holding the door open in the room. And it couldn’t be that the caped figure was just holding the door closed, since Samidare was pulling on it the entire time and they wouldn’t have time to hide.

Huh.

The girls start to yell at her to get going already, so Samidare takes stock of the building. There’s the small, round room with the coffins, connected to the larger chapel with a small hallway. Directly across the way is another narrow corridor that leads to the other round room with the corpse where Samidare woke up. At six o’clock there’s the main entrance, boarded up with thick planks Samidare doesn’t think she could pry off by herself. The chapel itself has about twenty pews plus a pulpit and a raised area with a statue of the Virgin Mary on it and a cross on the wall. There’s also two bathrooms, for men and women, each of which have windows, but they’re boarded up as well. There are no windows anywhere else, all the light provided by bulbs set into the walls.

Samidare notes that the building is in a cross shape, which is common in religious buildings (I personally see it more as an upsidedown capital T, but hey.)

The fact that she’s trapped with no phone or any other way to contact the outside world could be worse, Samidare thinks, since they have that check in call thing set up from the last book around midnight, and once she doesn’t check in, the others will come to her aid.

Well, so long as every other detective on this case isn’t ALSO trapped in the Duel Noir venue.

Shit.

Congrats, Samidare! You lasted ten whole pages to start worrying about Kirigiri!

...Was Kirigiri-chan okay?

There probably wasn’t any reason to worry she wouldn’t solve her own case. Then I remembered that something bad might happen to her during her dogged pursuit of truth and started worrying again.

I figured it was stemming from my fear that she might disappear forever someday.

I’d get out of here somehow and Kirigiri-chan and I would go back home to the dorm together.

I needed to hurry up and solve this case.

Oh, I’ve missed you, you big insecure gay disaster.

All this thinking of Kirigiri suddenly has made Samidare remember what she said to her on the train before they parted ways in a melodramatic fashion in the last book--keep an eye on zodiac signs.

Oh yeah, guys, did you forget that Ryuuzouji is a Homestuck? Cause I didn’t.

This causes an issue though, since Tsukiyo’s birthday is July 30th and Nazuna’s is August 21st, which makes neither of them Libras. The victim isn’t a Libra either, so either their student ID cards are forged/incorrect, or none of them is the culprit.

Could it be that the zodiac signs don’t have anything to do with the case? But if Kirigiri has given the theory such serious consideration, Samidare can’t just ignore it.

Trying to figure out where the culprit in the black cape could have gone, Samidare checks under the pulpit at the front of the chapel, but to no avail. She inspects the Mary statue next, only to find that oddly enough this Holy Virgin is sporting some bling...oh no, wait, it’s a key!!

...Too bad the chain is in too small a loop to fit over Mary’s head.

Samidare considers bringing the other two girls into the chapel to the statue, but it would tricky to use the key on such a short chain and such a raised platform on their hands AND feet, so there has to be another way.

Maybe I could get the key if I broke the head off the statue?

There was no way I could do something so blasphemous, though. The Virgin Mary watched over all the students at the school I attended too, so I mentally couldn’t bring myself to break her.

Jesus Christ, Samidare.

Junko: Which will you choose, Yui-san? Kirigiri or this statue of the Virgin Mother? One of them is going into this volcano one way or another.

Samidare: Errrr...

Kirigiri: Onee-sama, are you serious?

Samidare: Leave me alone! I’m thinking!

Anyway, the good news for Samidare’s eternal soul is that there’s a wheeled platform in the corner that she use to transport Mary into the other room with the key.

The only problem is that when she gets back, announcing she has the key, both girls are missing.

Before she has time to process this though, Tsukiyo tackles Samidare to the ground and shouts for Nazuna to steal the key from her. They’re both pretty shocked and upset to see that Samidare doesn’t have a key on her (though good on them for getting back at her for the unsolicited pat down).

“There’s no key? So you lied to us?”

“It wasn’t a lie,” I groaned. “If you hadn’t attacked me like this, I’d have just handed over the key!”

“Quit your complaining, you kidnapper!”

“I’m not a kidnapper!” Of all the things in the world I could be accused of, that was the one thing I wanted to be called least. “I’m a detective!”

I shoved Tsukiyo off of me and stood up. She gazed up at me from the floor, cowering and looking terrified. Nazuna also looked upset, kneeling on the floor.

Dusting off the sleeve of my coat, I adjusted my collar and took a deep breath to collect myself.

“My name is Samidare Yui. I haven’t told you yet, have I? You may not trust me, but...honestly, I still find the two of you pretty suspicious. So let’s keep an eye on each other and call a truce for now. Is that okay?”

The other two nodded silently.

Samidare then uses the key on the Mary statue to free Tsukiyo, who thanks god and does the sign of the cross. After Tsukiyo frees Nazuna, Samidare gives them the reader’s digest version of the situation they’re in and suggests that since Takezaki is already dead but the case isn’t over and they’re still trapped, the two of them aren’t out of the woods yet and could still be targets. They need to prioritize getting out before anything happens to them.

Nazuna requests to see Takezaki’s body for herself, which Tsukiyo doesn’t seem interested in until Nazuna appeals to her by saying they owe it to a fellow classmate.

Samidare leads the way back to the other room, chatting about the chapel and everyone confirming that they haven’t been there before, but the school looks pretty good for having been abandoned for 17 years (longer than they’ve been alive, heh...), but Samidare explains that the Committee probably spruced it up to be the set for the Duel Noir.

The two girls also say that they get the feeling that they may have felt someone else’s presence in the room before Samidare opened the coffins, but they couldn’t be sure.

Once they reach hallway to the room where Takezaki is, Samidare has this horrible feeling--she can see that the door, which should have shut automatically--is wide open and showing an empty room. There aren’t even any bloodstains or anything left behind.

Samidare starts having a breakdown about this, throwing out the possibility that the culprit moved the body while she was checking the bathrooms, while Tsukiyo gets disgruntled and wants to look for a way out so she can make her violin lesson on time.

Too bad the door to the small room isn’t opening.

Nazuna tries it too but can’t open it either.

Tsukiyo at this point loses her shit.

“Th-This can’t be happening? We’re trapped in here, with no TV or phones or anything?” Tsukiyo said, aghast. “Ah, I didn’t even get to go to the bathroom yet!”

“Uh oh, we may be stuck in here for the whole time...”

“What do you mean ‘the whole time’? How long is that?”

“Worst case scenario...six days.”

If the other detectives didn’t come to my rescue, and the culprit intended to win by time out, then we might have to resign ourselves to being stuck here for six days.

“NO! If we stay here for six days, I will die!” Tsukiyo pounded her fists on the door in a panic. “At least bring us food and water! But not hard tap water! Make it soft mineral water! And let me go to the toilet first!”

Nazuna meanwhile is more puzzled by how the door isn’t opening given it doesn’t have a lock on it. That’s when Samidare notices that unlike the other room, the track for this door is on the outside, on the hallway side. She and the girls muse that the caped culprit locked them inside by setting up a bar to prevent the door from being slid open.

Well then.

Samidare’s ego is taking quite a blow.

I guess I really couldn’t do anything by myself.

What would Kirigiri-chan do in this situation?

She was always thinking one step ahead.

And she’d never stopped her trek toward the truth.

That’s right, she’d never avert her eyes from the case in front of her...

I couldn’t give up.

I had to get up and keep going.

“The only thing I can think of is that the culprit’s using some kind of trick.” I stepped away from the door and looked around the room. “I don’t think the body going missing and us being trapped here are unrelated. There’s got to be a secret hidden here that we haven’t found yet.”

“A secret?” Tsukiyo and Nazuna asked in unison, looking over their shoulders at me.

I nodded.

“I will definitely figure out the secret to this mystery,” I announced, not only to myself, but to the culprit who could also be listening.

Part 1 End

I’m so glad the moral of this chapter was WWKD (What Would Kirigiri Do).

Apologies for any typos or anything you may find. I’ll edit a bit later on.

Guys, I am having so much fun reading DRK again. This was a good plan.

See you soon!

NEXT PART >

#DR Kirigiri #DRK5 #DRK5 summary #Samidare Yui #translations #long post #DRK updates on Father's Day is peak irony

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marika-kurohime · 6 years

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Tales of Vesperia: “Yuri is The Morning Star “her” self as “she” should be” theory (11/26 complete)

First of all, sorry for BAD English here.

Previously I’ve tried to post this on youtube, but... here is the full version of it.

We all are confused at the moment by Tales of the Rays storyline and Vesperia’s postgame situation especially.

It's crazy for NO JOKE. Let's do this. If you're fine to think of Vesperia as something simple with yaoi/yuri ships - for now you can STILL do so, but

you have to see optional dungeons of this game: "Labyrinth of Memories" with Kratos Aurion in it and "the Necropolis of Nostalgia" (Patty got the key to start that VERY HARD and annoying dungeon (enter is in Zaude) which explains the whole "Сhildren of the Full Moon" thing and this world's past), open up all the skits and so on... It'll rise A LOT of questions, believe me.

This is where you can read this

I'm NOT fine with yaoi/yuri ships and there seems to be the one and only RIGHT way to understand all this mess, but it's crazy.

I don't want to write the theory before we have at least some facts, So, I'll only warn you for now that:

1)Yuri is with Raven ALL THE TIME in ALL worlds: Link, Asteria (chapter 4), even Rays where we have Estelle with us... you will read something... strange... (yeah... "strange" is a good word for it) between Yuri and RAVEN all the time.

2) It seems that Yuri and Rita have some sort of connection to Iria's and Luka's (Tales of Innocence) god-powers.

To sum this up: or this game is just plain and stupid or it has a different gender system. Think about this:

Rita's dresser scene, and also, how Yuri lived his life before and after his attempt to join the knights (some skits hinted this... and we got THIS dirty card of him for New Year)

I can't say any more right now, we all want some facts regarding, well, his gender, current behavior and his postgame relationship with Raven and Estelle,

BUT one thing for sure. HE IS NOTHING close to what you'll expect of him even if you ship him and Flynn together.

Maybe, from now on (Tales of The Rays arc 3) this line will be shown for the first time, I don't know... thanks to PXZ2 I'm afraid to know...

There is more to this. In his True Knight outfit,

he has pointy ears for some reason.

And to top it all: so-called fanservice in the Rays' special anime just killed me on the spot.

NO NORMAL explanation for THIS. He is not only nothing even close to a human (half-elves included) and can BE confused with a woman as with Leon (Tales of Destiny) and his sister (Leon is only 16 years old ), ALL NORMAL men see Yuri THIS way at his... well he is 21 at the beginning of the game and 22+ by the end.

No facts. They've been MESSING with us for two years before DE's worldwide release. And It gets waaaay more serious from now on...

JUST LOOK at...him(???) from the God Eater collaboration trailer...

No, no, no, I don’t think that I’m seeing things...

And so, to make a long story short: 360 version was incomplete (or "censored" by Namco themselves is a better way to say it) to the point when you can't get this story at all.

Are you sure you want to know more?... for a joke, it went tooooo far somewhere after we left Heracles,

but what I'm reading now... makes me split my tea and think of dropping it all for good because of Yuri and Yuri alone.

Tales of Asteria made it even worse. In chapter 4 we have 3 lines about returning memories to a person, who the character holds dear: Jude-Milla, Collette-Lloyd, AND Raven-Yuri...

guess which one was mature, tragic and romantic the most?

And he wasn't called Yuri in the title of his Chapter. It was something like: "The fate of the Morning Star". Just like in the at least two tracks from OST of the original game. This and that one too. And who the hell is this so-called Morning Star???

Well...

So... basically, the main character here is RAVEN.

And it's a story how he got himself our dear "hell of a goddess"

for a...

sorry... for a friggin substitute of his lost love

(and Yuri resembles her greatly to make it worse).

Tales of the Rays arc 2 was HELL of a read for me because of Yuri alone...

He is living with Raven, нe worried sick for Flynn's wellbeing,

he constantly shakes off Estelle on Rita...

FOR a friggin YEAR! Main Vesperia's story explains NOTHING

of what you really need to know.

You need to 100% clear this game only to get some dirty hints and a mind blow trying to put all this mess together.

If you know Japanese, then Drama CD's help as well.

Update: And yes, THIS was some anniversary to add the fuel to the fire. And as I feared, it is NOT only Asteria’s problem for sure.

So, we love Tales of Vesperia only because people do not bother to find out, what “VESPERia” means.

“Vesper” means Venus (or Astar/Astarte, Morning (male form - Anunit)/Evening Star) GODDESS OF LOVE and justice, yeah, yeah...

... and prostitution,

homosexual relationships and war and a lot more). Goddess, damn it...

Remember this statue at the Baction Shrine?...

Update: actually all this mess isn’t just about him being who he is, the main problem is THIS map

which is clearly our Mother Earth and not their Terca Lumieres AT ALL! Add to this what The Morning Star himself tried to say in Project X Zone 2:

Sooo... does it mean, that he got his reputation in our Earthly mythos simply living out his life to the fullest on some sort of “vacation trip” and is remembered by two names

(as Shamash and his twin sister Ishtar)? Daaaamn,

as if Judith’s novel wasn’t bad (I mean great) enough...

And now goes our final mythos based theory: Yuri isn't exactly a goddess, he is just a very high-ranked and powerful anunnaki. And he has THIS level of mental disorder separating Shamash

( light: True Knight in the heart, kindness (love), and justice)

“ His friend wasn't a knight, he was part of a guild. His friend didn't believe in "justice" and "virtue" but rather "resolution" and "morality". ” About Yuri from Flynn’s biography in the Tales of the Rays.

Although often cynical, he has a strong sense of justice and possesses an earnest desire to aid the weak and the powerless. (c) Crosspedia PXZ2 (2015)

and Ishtar...

sorry, not this one. Ishtar (Anunit, The Morning Star)

(dark: a whore to the bone, love (means sex) & war) parts of his personality. That means that both of "them" aren't whole and...

well, it’s better to stop here for now and see how bad our Dark Venus with a hero syndrome:

will be from the point when...

when “She” gets (regains?) “Her” full self-awareness...

*PXZ Project X Zone (sorry, spelled it wrong, but I’m too furious, you see, to check small details. I hate so much I even had to write all this about MY favorite MALE character I mistook “HER” for... to begin with. Hate the very thought people still didn’t know WHOSE Anniversary it is. If Namco wouldn’t give proper explanations, or they will be worse than what we can assume now... well, I did everything I could for HIM... before all the HELL this body really is for

breaks out. because It’s impossible to continue like this

and Yuri himself already understood that even Flynn saw him in a different light for all his life.

Update:

and with a new skill like that (by-the-books Lightbringer to me), it all will be confirmed/over in a few months at best.

Gods!

...this is not fun even for me anymore. I'm starting to pity "her" for real. DE isn't even a remake, you know...

It's PS3's remake but PS3 and 360 are NOT one and the same. What did we do to deserve this ten years after? (5 for me) ...Oh, what a mess.

It can only be compared with Estelle's new dress.

Screaming "dawn"+"bride" 100% Aya (as a silly child in her dreams to make it the worst situation possible for her for Aya has no info about her in the mythos so you can imagine on whom she is based on personality-wise from now on).

And the whole Namco's Universe is Unus Mundus based. This much is obvious from Anima&Animus + Ix's-zerom connection thing as they have shown it.

So... Vesperia's story so far (all with "probably" before every statement):

1) Something horrible happened to right-handed "HER" before he is shown left-handed 7 years old boy. (Luke and Schwann are both left-handed, Damuron, Raven, and Asch aren't).

2) Something horrible happened to HIM after the movie resulting in a second kinda split of what should be The MORNING part

into what I call Shamash and Anunit "twins". Damn.

3) Something truly horrible happened to "them" atop of Zaude for he has a blastia and that "survival" of his now....looks really fishy.

4) And a TOTAL SHIT happened in the end atop of Tarquaron. for "their"'s body is Istar's avatar kinda thing and we got that Brave Vesperia "star" smashed in pieces, so it is a spirit now... and you can imagine what we have in the Rays in addition to “them” (total four of them: Shamash for Estelle, Nergal for Judith, Ishtar for Flynn and Anat for Raven...

or even more) and “their” problems... This gonna be a once in a lifetime experience if our dear author is bold enough to drag ISTAR (Sirius star WOLF GOD) here to play the Fenrir's part not just our poor Anunit (Nanaiya) "girl" based on goddess Sakuya.

And what in the world was 360th Yuri then who earned 8.5. years of love, respect and admiration of the fans worldwide before Claw bitch in Asteria ruined EVERYTHING “he” сould for him? Who suffers so much from the mistreating he gets from everyone at their Dorms?

Hah... just a half of something really close to Luke's kind of existence

...without his own body.

This whole Rays "story" is a ONE BIG MESS meant to explain THIS.

AND this gonna hit really hard even those of us who are well prepared because Duke’s event and info from the near future were unexpected and crazy enough for me to get shocked despite all this lore digging. Then I did even more lore digging and dropped it all for good after chapter 9 of FR arc.

I just want to see how people will react if all the shit you just finished reading here about our favorite world and character

will be proven as even HALF-right in the near future as the story in the Rays progresses.

This still looks too simple for me. The real deal SURE is worse. I’m 100% positive only concept-wise mostly because of how he will look in GEREO’S world,

because he doesn’t look human at all and the symbols on his outfit are clearly Istar’s. I’m not bold enough to write how I think the real story will turn out...

, but our CONCEPT-based theory is enough for me to drop it all until it is over... and remember HIM

as he was AND by Shamash’s name only.

P.S. translated Rays’ screenshots are from Lol’s Youtube channel

#tales of asteria #tales of the rays #tales of vesperia #yuri lowell #tales of

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theonceoverthinker · 6 years

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OUAT 2X19 - Lacey

I don’t know what this episode LACED itself with, but I’m tripping over how good it is!

Read below the cut and find out why!

Press Release

Mr. Gold enlists the aid of David to help him try to jog Belle’s now cursed memories and get her to love him again; and when it is revealed that the magic beans Anton and the dwarves have been harvesting have begun to grow and could possibly transport everybody home, Emma is torn over whether she would want to live in fairytale land or stay in our world. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, Rumplestiltskin forces Belle to accompany him on a hunt to kill a thief, whom she had freed in the name of mercy. General Thoughts - Characters/Stories/Themes and Their Effectiveness Past I love this flashback. We get to see the first chronological bit of good that Belle sees in Rumple, and it feels pretty earned. The structure here is good, showing Rumple reveal more and more of his goodness as it progresses while still not shying away from the more monstrous aspects of his personality. I’ll talk about that shortly, but that is so important to do when making a Rumple centric. And Belle is fantastic here too! While believing that Rumple can change, she’s true to her desire to be a hero and isn’t afraid to dole out vigilante kindness, something she does later on in the series! Present LACEY IS MY QUEEN! Look, I know that she’s little more than a one off in a lot of respects, but fuck it. I love this character. She’s part Valkyrie and part Cruella, a total boozer, but a wickedly fun time, too! Lacey is not just the anti-Belle, but she’s someone so fun and distinct. She drinks and plays pool and listens to rock music and is okay with beating the crap out of people! But what makes her so great in my eyes is how strong she is in her convictions that she’s not Belle and that Rumple has to respect her identity. I just love how she refuses to be projected on!

For as much as I like Emma, I feel because barely any time was dedicated to her subplot regarding returning home (Apart from giving Regina her first inklings of suspicion about the beans, which she could’ve learned through other means, honestly), it would’ve been better off being cut in favor of some DESPERATELY needed Rumple/Neal screen time. That having been said, I liked two and a half of the three scenes that the subplot revolved around for the stellar character interactions. All Encompassing More than anything, I appreciate this episode for how it handles Rumple’s character in both realms. Rumple is a difficult character to do because he cannot nor should be Woobie-fied. Here is a great example: Rumple has a monstrous nature. It’s not one that can’t be overcome and the narrative sets out to show that much, but it, even more than his cane, is his crutch for when he feels like the people in his life let him down. When outside influences of good can’t be depended on for a moral dessert, Rumple will default back to that nature. And when they can (Or at least give him a good ole pep talk), he proves himself capable of taking it down. What works about this episode for me is how that mindset is not framed as a good thing. Rumple’s reliance on his more monstrous nature as a crutch may have earned Lacey’s affections, but that aspect of the ending is not framed positively (Everything from the music to the lighting to the parallels to the past says as much), nor should it. Insights - Stream of Consciousness -The most unrealistic thing about this dream sequence is the fact that Rumple would ever hold a birthday party in his shop. I mean, look at that cake! He wouldn’t be smiling! He’d be grumbling about how frosting was getting all over the counter the whole time! -So Rumple CAN sleep! His bed is comfy! I’m just going to HC that one can either imbue sleep upon themselves with magic or that as one gets more seasoned with the Dark One curse, they can sleep. -This entire bit with Regina and Rumple realizing they’re family just cracks me up! -I really love the set that Regina and Rumple walk through during their conversation. I wish we got to see it more often. The windy path and the red fences make it damn memorable! -I like how Belle has finally accepted that Belle is her name! About time! -”You’ve been locked up long enough.” True dat. -Rumple, that pillow is gonna do fuck all to drown out Belle’s sobbing. She can’t press her head into that! -Rumple, that was a very un-you like way of poofing! -I love Rumple’s flair for the dramatics with that fucking arrow! I love you, you little shit! -”All magic comes with a price, and in your case, dearie, that’s me.” Is it just me, or does that sound like the opening to a Rumple/Robin Hood porno? XD -”I’m sure Mr. Gold will be thrilled.” He will by the end of the episode! XD -”The package.” Well, he certainly does have that, but just call him Hook! -Yes! Whoever is dangerous will matter if you go back to your land! Stop them here first! -Awww! I love seeing Anton! And he’s good at darts! Now I want him to play with Killian! FIC IDEA!!! -Grumpy! Why are you being so mean to Anton! Did you two have a domestic? -Anton is just the sweetest!!!! I just want to give him a huuuuggg! -”After what I did to Cora, I think restoring our land is the best way to mend it.” HOW?! Like, how would that work? Cora would still be dead (not that I believe for a second what you did was wrong, but I get it: guilt) and as Emma pointed out: “DANGER.” -Unngghh. I hate the latter half of this Charming family scene. Snow and David are offering Emma nothing but platitudes (And empty ones) in the face of her very real concerns. -I love Rumple’s pissed off face in the hospital. He looks like he sucked on a lemon. -I love the bartender at the Rabbit Hole! He’s so nice and proud of the joint, but still smart enough to be afraid of Rumple! -Lacey in that blue sleeveless top makes me...feel things. Very gay things. By the way, does Red Lace (Ruby/Lacey) exist? And if not, why not? -Rumple’s biggest act of cruelty is making Belle wear a fucking ball gown for however long it was between when Belle and Rumple first made their deal and when Rumple finally got her another dress. -Belle is such a BAMF with how she saves Robin Hood? -”I’m sorry. Do I look like a one-handed pirate with a pistol?” No, but you would ROCK that look! -Okay, the more I hear Regina talk about Neal, the more I want Rumple and Neal to CONVERSE! Like seriously! It’s been three episodes at this point! -SHEEP BROOOOOOOOSSSS!!! -I gotta say, I don’t appreciate the Lacey shaming, Rumple. -”David Nolan still won Mary Margaret’s heart.” No, he didn’t! -”Overpraised lasagna.” I take back what I said earlier: THIS is your biggest act of cruelty, Rumple! -”Someone who’d have killed all of you.” THANK YOU, RUMPLE! -”If you do, for the first time ever, I’m gonna owe you a favor.” DO IT!!! Like, pun intended, that is an offer good as Gold! XD -Gotta admire Belle’s poker face as Rumple prepares to torture Robin! XD -Jeez! Way to make Rumple sound like Gaston with her schtick about books! -”People who steal magic never have good intentions.” Speaking from experience or something, Rum Rum? -Rumple, you’re at a 10 and you need to come down to like an 8, okay? Cool. -I love Lacey listing off all of these bands and I completely HC that Weaver rocks out to ALL of them! -You can just see the cogs in Lacey’s brain twirl as she decides to give his suit-claden square a chance! XD -”Don Juan was nothing before he made a deal with me.” Rumple is basically the Hitch of the OUAT world! XD - I love how Emma is trying so damned hard to get along with Regina while also not losing the bite in her that someone would have after Regina and Cora tried killing her family. -I fucking love Lacey! She knows she on a date with the richest guy in town and she is gonna string him along for every fucking cent! XD Chicken parm and white wine? Hell yeah! -Lacey, stay forever! Like, I want Belle to take that serum so we can keep Lacey because she is just amazing! What a personality! What a funny and dark woman! -”I see a man who wouldn’t hurt anyone.” Rumple...you are something special, man. Warped, but special. -Lacey, I know you’re about to ditch, but at least glug some of that GIANT ASS glass of free wine you just got! Like, for fucking real! -Thank you, Rumple for finally giving Belle a dress she can conceivably move in! -”What would people think if I spared the life of someone who stole from me?” Considering you tortured him for a short while and the only reason he escaped was because of a third party, they’d probably still be pretty scared! -Belle ROCKS those gloves! -Sheriff, quit while you’re ahead! -Marian!!!! Hi!!!! -Honestly, Rumple, you’d be better off if Robin didn’t die. Then TWO people could ward off people from breaking deals with you. -”You are not the kind of man to leave a child fatherless.” As @onceuponatimeihadalife pointed out, you can see how these words affect Rumple. He’s reminded of both the prophecy he got from the Seer AND how Bae was left fatherless by his and Milah’s actions. It’s such a cleverly written show of Rumple’s other soft spot and how Belle on some level gets Rumple, even this early in their time together. -”She may have loved you, but I am not her.” LACEY FUCKING ROCKS MY SOCKS! I love how adamant Lacey is about her own identity! She forces Rumple to understand that she won’t be pushed into being someone she isn’t just to be his manic pixie dream girl, and that loudness is just fantastic. -”New guy always buys.” With what money?! -Ooh! I love that tracing magic Regina uses! It not only looks pretty, but is such a smart move on her part! -I feel bad for Keith. The one time he’s not the worst, he gets beat up for it. -Seeing Neal carry Henry is both funny and adorable! -Awwww! August and Henry are buddies!!! -Killian’s baccccck!!! And in fully bondage (I’m willing to bet @killian-whump appreciates that)!!! Arcs - How are These Storylines Progressing? The Storybrooke Citizens Going Home - This arc honestly hasn’t left much of an impression on me. I’d say it was due to lack of suspense, but even on this go around, I’ve found arcs that I knew the ending of to still be thrilling. This one, less so. It’s barely been brought up, and in this episode, we’ve barely seen Emma take the time to really go into greater details about her...dil-EMMA! And I don’t get everyone’s hurry to get out of town because there’s just as much danger back in the Enchanted Forest, even without Rumple and Regina (And even still, they could totally get there, let’s not fool ourselves). Rumple getting back to his son - I’m kind of frustrated that it’s been THREE episodes since Rumple and Neal spoke to each other in a scene. THREE. Rumple spent a century trying to get back to his son. I feel like he should be all but hounding Neal to spend time together. I want to see the payoff to this passion that drove Rumple to create (or at the very least steal) a curse that would screw over an entire land! Even just a one off acknowledgement of him trying to see Neal would be great! But no! Favorite Dynamic Sheep Bros. Not much to say here, but David and Rumple have a great rapport and seeing David help Rumple woo (or seemingly woo) Lacey is just funny! Josh and Robert have great chemistry and seeing Rumple and David’s personalities clash is a real treat! Writer Adam and Eddy have really had a terrific season! They’ve landed several astounding episodes, and I’m happy to say that this is another! There’s a very careful balance with character depiction and storytelling balance on display in this episode. Rumple and Lacey’s characters are handled so delicately. With Rumple, I like how there is no ambiguity of the fact that his morality can change on a dime. He has the power over how he conducts himself, and he very much values gratification for his efforts and will change his tune should things not work out in his favor. With Lacey, A&E went a long way to ensure that Lacey was someone who was annoying to Rumple, but not to the audience. She’s funny and the sheer fact of how much of an opposite to Belle she is just makes for an engaging ride! I did however not enjoy some of the dialogue. To me, some of the lines were either deceptive of character traits or a little heavy on platitudes. Culture I have thoughts on exactly who Lacey is as a character, mostly in regard to whether or not she is Belle’s true cursed form. I personally don’t think Lacey is Belle’s true cursed form, and I come to that conclusion based on not only pre-Regina instances of her cursed self, but the cursed selves of others. First, let’s talk about Belle post-memory wipe. If you recall, Sneezy had a memory wipe too, but he strictly reverted to his original cursed version. In the same manner, so did Belle. And when we finally got some extended scenes with her, we see she’s nothing like Lacey. While pretty panicked due to all the magical stuff and the car accident and all, she’s more or less pretty similar to her real self. Just listen to Belle’s kindness when Rumple talks to her early on in this episode at the hospital. Those words could’ve so come out of Belle’s mouth just as easily. She’s all set out to help Rumple aspire to be good and even shows him some real kindness again!

That brings me to my second point. When we look at the cursed Storybrooke characters like Snow, Charming, Ruby, and Grumpy in comparison to their real selves, there’s so such dramatic deviation the likes of Belle and Lacey. Their personalities chime much closer to home with maybe one or two differing qualities (Ex. Snow’s missing her bravery as MM, Charming’s missing his sense of honor as cursed David). This holds true for Belle’s memory wiped self pre-Regina far more than post-Regina.

So what does that make Lacey? IMHO, a corruption -- possibly even a reset. Regina clearly magicifies that matchbox to give Belle false memories, and the ensuing personality is something that is only made to screw over Rumple. In the past, Regina didn’t put much effort into Belle’s cursed form because as far as she knew, Rumple would never discover her. However, now that she’s about to be a player in Rumple’s life, Regina decides to stop her influence. I mean, I know Rumple claims they’re her “cursed” memories, but I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem right to me.

At the same time though, as I was writing this, I had a great conversation with @mrs-stiltskin where she pointed out that Belle’s relatively tamer pre-Regina cursed personality was more of a result of being a blank slate and Lacey was the actual creation of a personality, and that’s an interpretation that I also readily accept, AND it supports Rumple and Regina’s words too! Rating Golden Apple. What more can I even say? The story and its execution are fantastic. A&E balanced Rumple and Lacey like fucking katana swords. It’s a charming story (pun always intended) that’s pretty freakin’ funny when it needs to be while also being emotionally satisfying. Even the stuff I didn’t like gave way to some good scenes and I only disliked them because there was more that I wanted to see (*cough* RUMPLE AND NEAL *cough*). Flip My Ship - Home of All Things “Shippy Goodness” Rumbelle - The past has some pretty good Rumbelle. For one thing, I love how Rumple stumbles over trying to explain why he didn’t kill Belle. Suuuuuure, Rumple. Also, you gotta love how Rumple gives the Sheriff of Nottingham the most well deserved punishment ever for attempting to trade Belle like cattle! XD Also, that hug post-sparing was just ADORABLE!!! Finally, the library scene shows the first inklings of Rumple falling in love with Belle as their themes merge and the thematically binding line of the episode is spoken. AND before we go into Golden Lace territory, let’s talk about some present Rumbelle. Just look at Belle’s face and voice when Rumple appears in the hospital alive! She’s so happy!!! And it’s so nice how now that they’re able to talk, Belle can connect with Rumple so much more easily. Finally, I really like how angry Rumple gets at Regina for forcing Belle to revert to her cursed self. Golden Lace - Rumple is trying so freakin’ hard to impress Lacey and it’s adorable! Look at him tripping over himself as he tries to hold the menu at Granny’s! It’s honestly adorable! And Lacey couldn’t be more thirsty for Rumple’s darkness if she was locked in fucking Care-a-lot for a year beforehand! I love this bit of ANOTHER villain ship!!! Swanfire - Emma and Neal only get two minutes together, but they take full advantage of it! I like how Emma and Neal, while not fully knowledgeable of the other’s situation, are able to understand each other. And they have some nice chemistry! Aww! And Neal believes in Emma’s ability to figure the truth of August’s message out! ()()()()()()()()() What a great episode!!!! Thank you for reading my review and to the fabulous folks at @watchingfairytales! Btw, after exactly one vote (Thanks, Sarah!), I have decided to combine the finale review! It’s gonna be a LONG one!

Next time, while Lacey may be my queen, there’s another one just waiting to be in the spotlight once more. See you guys then! Season 2 Tally (157/220) Writer Tally for Season 2: Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis: (50/60) Jane Espenson (35/50) Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg (31/50) David Goodman (24/30)* Robert Hull (24/30)* Christine Boylan (17/30) Kalinda Vazquez (28/30)* Daniel Thomsen (18/20)* * Indicates that their work for the season is complete

Operation Rewatch Archives

#ouat #once upon a time #watching fairytales #ouat 2x19 #ouat rewatch #jenna watches ouat

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 7 years

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When I look back at Bendis’ career and impact upon Marvel and the characters I know and love I realize more and more he did far more to harm than to help.

His take on Spider-Man in in large degrees responsible for the ‘YOUNG YOUNG YOUNG Spider-Man’ fetish we’ve been been enduring for so long now.

His invention of Miles has erupted into fan wars which have served to tear down and denigrate the original character.

He invented what may well be the most worthless and shallow legacy character ever in the form of Riri Williams.

He eviscerated the Guardians of the Galaxy.

He destroyed the Avengers and sacrificed their central appeal in order to mark them the centre of the Marvel universe to the point where they are not only impenetrable to all but the most ambitious of fans, but he made being an Avenger meaningless because who ISN’T an Avenger anymore.

His take on Spider-Man in the Avengers further hurt the character and reduced him to a useless manchild who apparently liked being an Avenger and needed to be on most major formations of the team despite contributing NOTHING.

He brought Luke Cage back to prominence, which was a good thing (along with his relationship with Jessica Jones) but he sucked the personality out of Luke and rendered the character who whilst dated and cheesy, was ultimately charming because he was dated and cheesy. Now he’s just...bland.

He rendered Mary Jane out of character by putting her in the Iron books where she increased sales but also contributed NOTHING.

He began a fetish for sticking major characters from one franchise into another on the alleged premise that you can generate uniqueness from doing that and then failed to ever prove that to be true (see MJ in Iron Man, Spider-Man and Wolverine as Avengers, Kitty, Venom, Ben Grimm, Carol Danvers and Iron Man as members of the Guardians).

Created Maria Hill who is just the fucking worst if you read her in...most things actually. Civil War and Standoff might be her worst outings ever but it’s not like those were OOC for her. Her value amounts to basically just being another notable SHIELD agent besides Nick Fury, but actually we’ve had plenty (more memorable) ones of those in the past.

He created precedents for MJ as a reporter (which is incredibly derivative of Lois Lane) and for Norman to be a mutated monster (which goes against the central themes of Norman wearing a mask) and for Spider-Man to be ‘a hero in training’ under the eyes of older heroes (again, not the point of Spider-Man).

He fucked up Wanda’s character by ignoring how her powers work, ignoring her history (he does this is ALL the characters he works on actually) and casting her character as mentally ill (which you could argue is more than a little sexist actually).

He treated Kitty Pryde as his waifu multiple times. She gets to date Spider-Man, become Star-Lord’s fiance (after a mere TWO YEARS of stories), become the new Star-Lord and beat Galactus.

He unmasked Daredevil, an idea derivative of older runs in the first place, but more poignantly created HUGE narrative problems for the character that he just ignored and left up to other people to clean up because he didn’t care.

He wrote some of THE WORST EVER Marvel crossovers and events and helped set the precedent for the indulgent event fatigue we’ve been enduring for over 10 years now.

Secret War: Cynical, overly dark and depressing bullshit storytelling that abuses the characters in the name of ‘realism’ and makes Nick Fury at least MORE of an asshole than he was. I’d evenargue it’s what turned Fury from a gruff leader of a government/military body who tried to do the right thing most of the time into a manipulative piece of shit asshole.

Avengers Disassembled: Requires a willful ignoring of how Wanda’s powers work and her established history. So fucked up that the Young Avengers guys needed to fix it via retcons in the infinitely superior Children’s Crusade storyline.

House of M: Same problems as above and he needed to kind of fix some of it himself 7 years later in another bullshit event. The event itself though REQUIRED the ‘heroes’ to be you know...UNheroic by deciding to just murder their friend instead of finding a better way. Fucked up Wolverine by just removing most of the mystery from him in ONE shot. Began the insufferable misinformation about Spider-Man really loving Gwen Stacy more because she was in his ‘ideal world’ during House of M. Turned Quicksilver into basically a villain. In fact the whole premise of House of M as an ideal world is never made any sense anyway. That’s how little thought Bendis actually put into this story.

Secret Invasion: A Battlestar Galactica rip-off

Dark Reign/Siege: You know how people incorrectly claim Norman Osborn rips off Lex Luthor? Let’s just wholesale MAKE him like Lex Luthor from the DC Animated Universe and the main DC universe during the time he was President. And also forget he has super powers. And also forget he’s Spider-Man’s Big Bad to the point where the story is more concerned with Hawkeye’s beef with him than Peter Parker’s. Meanwhile Spider-Man is robbed of his biggest villain for a prolonged period of time.

AvX: Heroes vs other Heroes AGAIN. Hooray. Haven’t seen that every year since 2004.

Age of Ultron: A confused, overlong set up to introduce and Image comics character into Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man 2099 into Superior Spider-Man and also set up Secret Wars.

Civil War II: Who hasn’t talked about what a turd this was? A bullshit false premise built upon everyone required to be out of character and also devoid of basic logic all in aid of ANOTHER hero vs hero fest that exists to tie into a superior film and promote Carol Danvers ahead of her own movie by tearing her down in the worst way possible. Also to set up Champions and Secret Invasion and make Miles Morales’ existence a way bigger deal than it should be for the ‘everyman’ character.

And then there is the precedent for decompression and writing for the trades. Not only is this frustrating as a reading experience but also harmfully impacts comic sales overall since it is so frustrating month to month and thus encouraging to just read the trades.

Bendis made Marvel a lot of money there is no denying that.

Bendis’ role in the Ultimate Universe might even have helped Marvel out of financial straits to a certain degree.

But from a creative POV, his impact upon the Marvel universe as a whole has been incredibly toxic and the sooner he fucks off the better.

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tomeandflickcorner · 7 years

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OUAT Episode Analysis- Greenbacks

So, it looks as if we’ve reached the point when they’ve wrapped up the ‘introduction’ stage of this new chapter in the OUAT universe, having fully explained how all the main players came to the Parallel Enchanted Forest and started on the journey that ultimately led them all to getting cursed and whisked off to Hyperion Heights. Now we just have to fill in the blanks by exploring what happened between then and now. Including that moment we saw in the S6 finale, which showed Henry and Lucy in the parallel Enchanted Forest, and how Tiger Lily came into the picture. (I’m hoping A&E haven’t forgotten that they involved Tiger Lily into this story.)

In the Parallel Enchanted Forest storyline, we take a break from following Henry, Parallel Cinder and the rest of Tiana’s Freedom Fighters to explore Tiana’s origin story. It’s revealed rather early on that Tiana and her mother lived in wealth because Tiana’s father was a former cook who became a celebrated war hero. As a reward for his services in the war, Tiana’s father was given a medal of honor that contained a priceless gem called the Firefly Ruby. But as the episode opens, it’s revealed that Tiana’s father passed away. And now that the royal family have raised the kingdom’s taxes, Tiana and her widowed mother are in the position where they must sell many of their treasured belongings to make ends meet. Otherwise, they might lose their home. Both women are deeply saddened by this, and go on for a bit about how things would be better if the father was still around, because they would have a hero to fight for them. This ultimately leads to the conclusion that Tiana needs to marry a prince so they would once again have a hero to fight for them and the people.

So Tiana seeks out the aid of Dr. Faciler, who is portrayed pretty much the same as he was in the Disney movie. Her belief is that Dr. Facilier would be able to locate her a heroic prince with his voodoo magic or something. Upon meeting with the man, he informs Tiana that he will ensure she find her prince, much to her delight, sending her to a tavern called the Crimson Crow.

Sometime later, Tiana enters the indicated tavern and gets accosted by some guy who wants her earrings. At that moment, a man who later introduces himself as Prince Marias swoops in and comes to Tiana’s defense. Tiana, thinking that this might be the heroic prince Dr. Facilier promised, is immediately charmed by him and takes him back to her family’s mansion. For a while, they seem to hit it off, with Tiana even showing him her father’s war medal. But when Tiana’s back is turned, Prince Marias swipes the ornament. Thankfully, Tiana discovers this before he can make his getaway, and when she confronts him, Marias confesses that he’s not really a prince. His real name is actually Robert, and he admits that Dr. Facilier put him up to it. Turns out, Dr. Facilier wanted the Firefly Ruby embedded in the war medal and, in order to get it, blackmailed Robert into getting it for him by capturing Robert’s lady love and turning her into a frog. Even though Robert knows he can break the spell with TLK, he can’t kiss her when she’s trapped in Dr. Facilier’s house. So Robert was planning to swap the Firefly Ruby in exchange for his True Love.

Tiana is upset by the news that Robert isn’t’ the hero prince she was looking for and dismisses him. But as she reflects on everything that happened, along with a little heart-to-heart with her mother, Tiana comes to the realization that if she really wants to find a hero who can save the people of the kingdom, then she doesn’t have to look any further than herself. She’d seen firsthand that there were people who were far worse off than she was, and she wants to do what she can to help them. So Tiana once again goes back to Dr. Facilier in order to give him the Firefly Ruby, demanding that he release Robert’s lady love. Dr. Facilier ultimately agrees, revealing that the Firefly Ruby is a magic gemstone that he can use to appease the voodoo spirits so they won’t drag him down to the voodoo underworld. Or something along those lines. He then escapes with a combination of a voodoo doll he constructed of Tiana, as well as some voodoo magic. Either way, Tiana has taken her first step at becoming the leader of the Freedom Fighters, focused on stopping the corrupted rulers from persecuting the people within the kingdom.

Oh, and it’s also revealed, when Robert kisses his froggy lady love, that he wasn’t quite honest about how Dr. Facilier cursed them. They were actually both frogs, but Dr. Facilier cursed Robert into the form of a human. I admit, that was kinda cute.

In present day Hyperion Heights, Sabine/Tiana reveals a special talent for making beignets. Encouraged, I guess, by Lucy’s love of the beignets she makes, Sabine decides to take a risk and start selling the beignets for a profit. She’s confident that this new business venture would be so successful, it would enable her and Jacinda to be forever free from Victoria, who just jacked up their rent again. In fact, she’s so confident, she went and spent all of their rent money on the ingredients for the beignets. Jacinda, understandably, freaks out upon learning how Sabine just risked so much on the proposed business venture. But Sabine convinces Jacinda to try taking a leap of faith. And much to the delight of the two women, their little beignet bakery seems to take off, and business is instantly booming. But that’s when disaster strikes. Victoria manages to get her hands on one of the beignets and, upon tasting it, realizes that Jacinda and Sabine’s bakery might actually succeed. Not willing to let this happen, she sends one her underlings to set the bakery on fire. Which he does, resulting in significant damage to be inflicted to the place.

In the aftermath of the fire, Jacinda immediately slips into defeatist mode, yelling at Sabine for throwing away all their money and criticizing her for being a constant dreamer. She goes off on this whole rant about how sometimes, things just don’t get better, and there comes a time to just put childish dreams aside. Now, I totally get why Jacinda is upset and all, but at the same time, it’s not as if Sabine’s plan wasn’t working. They were clearly making money in selling the beignets. Even if the fire had been an accident, it wasn’t a reflection of Sabine’s dream being a failure or anything. So I was a bit confused why Jacinda was going off on Sabine like that. Regardless, Sabine clearly takes Jacainda’s words hard and announces that she plans to move out of their shared apartment, as some sort of self-inflicted punishment for putting Jacinda’s future with Lucy at risk.

However, after some moping and doping, Jacinda, thanks in part to Lucy stepping in, realizes that she overreacted a bit. She ultimately comes to the conclusion that Sabine’s nature as a dreamer helps keep her going each day, and that they truly do need each other. To prove her words, Jacinda reveals that she used the money they’d already earned while selling beignets to purchase an old truck that she picked out after Detective Rogers kindly granted her access to the police station’s impound lot. She announces that they can turn it into a beignet food truck. And so, the two women apparently are going to continue with their new business. Hopefully, this means that Jacinda can leave that fried chicken restaurant for good.

There’s also a subplot with Detective Rogers/Wish Killian, who is continuing his mission to locate a missing girl named Eloise Gardener. To date, we have no idea who this girl is or what importance she has to the overall story. All we know is that this is the case Detective Rogers has been concerned with finding her for quite some time. His main lead is this sketch book that Eloise had, which isn’t much to go on. However, while at the station, he comes across this guy who was just arrested at a club. Rogers notices that the guy has a tattoo of a compass on his wrist, which is identical to a sketch in Eloise’s journal. Rogers questions Tattoo Guy, who insists that he doesn’t know anything about a girl, and that the symbol is some sort of old protective charm. In the end, Rogers decides that he’s still at square one, and because the club’s owner decided not to press charges, Tattoo Guy is allowed to go free. But once he’s back on the streets, Tattoo Guy makes a mysterious phone call that reveals that he DOES know something about the missing Eloise. And once again, we know nothing about who this Eloise is, or why she’s so important.

But it’s Subplot C where the main plotline exists. Victoria/Parallel Evil Stepmother is still trying to get Mystery Witch to conspire with her in ways to destroy Lucy’s deep-rooted sense of hope. Because that’s the key to resurrecting Anastasia. However, she’s getting more and more frustrated and starts taking it out on Ivy/Drizella. Ivy, seemingly getting sick and tired of being constantly mistreated by her mother, makes a call to Henry, promising to help him get dirt on her mother. But it’s ultimately Roni/Regina who comes to meet with Ivy. She ended up intercepting the text during a scene when she was talking with Henry and decided to interfere.

That scene is one I really want to discuss, because it really kinda bugged me. It starts with Roni/Regina cornering Henry, having found out he shared a drink with Ivy at the end of the last episode. Henry explains that he believes that Ivy might be willing to help join their resistance movement and essentially be their mole. Of course, Roni isn’t convinced that Ivy can be trusted, and I can’t blame her for being skeptical of Ivy’s trustworthiness. But I fail to see the logic behind her accusing Henry of possibly falling for Ivy or whatever. I’m just saying, all Henry and Ivy did was have a drink together. Why does that automatically mean that Henry is possibly developing a romantic interest in Ivy? You know who else had a drink together? Killian Prime and Belle. And technically, so did Emma and August in S1. And nothing even remotely romantic happened in either case, did it? I’m just saying, Roni could have stood to have a little bit more faith in Henry here instead of drawing her own conclusions.

Regardless, Roni ends up going to meet Ivy instead of Henry, in order to confront her and tell her to not try and seduce Henry in order to spite Jacinda or whatever. But Ivy insists that she’s not interested in getting one up on her stepsister. To prove her words, Ivy brings Roni to the secret room where Victoria/Parallel Evil Stepmother was keeping Mystery Witch. There was an earlier scene when Ivy was spying on her mother via security cams and saw her enter the secret room. However, Mystery Witch is nowhere to be found. But Roni finds a wall-mounted safe with a photograph inside it. To her surprise and confusion, she sees that the photograph is of herself. Or rather, of Regina in Storybrooke, with Young Henry at her side. Because Roni doesn’t yet remember that she’s actually Regina, she is puzzled by the picture, as she doesn’t currently recognize the town, or the clothing she’s wearing in the picture. Let alone the little boy she’s standing next to. As the episode comes to a close, she apologizes to Henry for intercepting his text message from Ivy. But then she shares her discovery with Henry. The picture ends up shocking Henry, too, as he is able to identify the little boy in the picture as himself.

So now, both Roni/Regina and Henry have physical proof that Lucy was right about them being under a curse that made them forget who they really are. So I’m very curious about what happens in the next episode. Does this mean Henry and Regina will be the next people to wake up properly? After all, we’ve seen that Rumpelstiltskin is already awake. Although, that just leaves Wish Killian. (I wonder if Lucy will mistake him for her step-grandfather, Killian Prime.)

But that brings me to the final moments of the episode. Victoria, possibly because she’s angry that Jacinda and Sabine came out on top with their beignet food truck and seeking to take it out on someone, once again belittles and insults Ivy. Once she’s alone again, Ivy returns to the secret room. This time, Mystery Witch reveals her presence. In the process, it’s revealed to the audience that Ivy already knows that she’s actually Drizella, and she and Mystery Witch are in cahoots. Which is something that really threw me for a loop. Does this mean that Drizella is the true Big Bad? Is it ultimately going to be revealed that Parallel Evil Stepmother seemingly set things up with Mystery Witch to cast this new curse, but in reality, the Mystery Witch was actually working for Drizella, who was simply playing a long game with her mother because she was sick and tired of the endless verbal abuse and lack of appreciation? And therefore, it was Drizella who outstripped her mother in terms of villainy? If that’s where they’re going, then that is just ingenious. And I would be widely impressed.

(Click here to read more Episode Analyses)

#ouat episode analysis #ouat 07x05 #tiana #sabine #dr. facilier #jacinda #parallel!cinderella #lucy mills #victoria belfrey #parallel!evil stepmother #ivy belfry #drizella #henry mills #roni #regina mills #detective rogers #wish world!killian

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