#also they forgot the like number one rule of having a protagonist which is MAKE THEM COMPELLING

[stealingpotatoes]

Tales of the Empire (spoilers)

Morgan Elspeth: “My world has been burning since I was a child, why should this world be any different?”

-such a boomer statement, made me instantly dislike her (as if the terrorizing the citizens of Corvus wasn’t enough)

YEAH its wack bc she was a terrible choice to make a short story anthology out of but if they'd actually used their brains they could've made smthn interesting. as it is, her stories are essentially all "morgan kill people she bad" and it feels like someone bullshitting a 3000 word essay on a topic they havent studied. IF INSTEAD they'd made it a sort of mirror to barriss' story and about how people respond to trauma differently, they really could've told a decent story despite her being so meh. like just show how some people don't go "i hope this never happens to anyone ever again" and go against the fascists, some people (morgan, in a good version of this show) become their enemy in their anger and in clawing for their own survival. instead they spent 3 episodes saying literally nothing and pissing on timothy zahn while they were at it

[singular-yike]

Could you summarize all the Tale of Genji references in Len'en so far? I vaguely remember you talking about those but I forgot what they were.

Okie dokie! This is a good chance for me to gather and organise what I know myself too, so thanks for the question~! So here we have:

The Tale of Genji in Len'en

The Tale of Genji (源氏物語) is a classic work of Japanese literature, written during the middle Heian Period (early 11th century), and is interestingly referenced at several points in Len'en.

But before we get into the references themselves, let's first briefly go over the story itself to get a better idea of things:

A "The Tale of Genji" Brief

Background

The Tale of Genji (源氏物語) is said to have been (at least largely) written by the noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki-shikibu.

Lady Murasaki was writing during the height of the Fujiwara clan's power and her work reflects much of aristocratic society at the time. In fact, several characters in the tale are believed to have been informed by the people around her in court at the time.

It is believed that Lady Murasaki would have written the story in chapter-by-chapter installments and delivered the tale to her fellow ladies-in-waiting, as a form of entertainment.

Story & Writing

The tale largely follows the romantic life of Hikaru Genji (光源氏), or "Shining Genji", a son of an Emperor and a low-ranking concubine. There isn't really an overarching plot, events simply happen and the characters age as the story go on.

For political reasons, Genji was given the surname Minamoto (源) demoted to a commoner, after which he pursues a career as an imperial officer.

A very unique feature of the story, is that almost none of the characters is given an explicit name and is instead referred to by some other title, like their role, an honorific or their relation to other characters.

This is also likely a reflection of court manners of the time but makes the story hard to follow at times. Future readers and translations use a number various nicknames to help keep track of the many characters. I'll only be using the most common ones still used today.

The story is large separated into two sections:

Genji's rise and fall (Chapters 1-41)

On Genji's son Karou (Chapters 45-54)

References in Len'en

Now that we've gone over the bare basics of the story, we can take a look at the three references to the tale found in the Len'en series. Notably, they're all found in BPoHC.

Kaoru Kashiwagi

Kaoru, the Emon no Kami, captain of the Goefu, gets their name from the protagonist in the second half of the story, one of Genji's children.

In the story, Genji's nephew, nicknamed "Kashiwagi" (柏木), an eulogistic title for the Emon no Kami in traditional Japanese poetry, forces himself upon Genji's second wife, nicknamed "the Third Princess" (女三宮).

"The Third Princess" gave birth to a boy who is said to always have had a pleasant aroma, hence he is nicknamed "Kaoru" (薫 aroma/fragrance). On official records, he is the son of Genji, not "Kashiwagi".

Len'en's Kaoru Kashiwagi gets their name from a combination of these two nicknames, their own position of Emon no Kami from "Kashiwagi" and their ability to manipulate miasma based on Kaoru's pleasant scent.

The Dragonfly Castle — The Crest of Dragonflies

The Dragonfly Castle (蜻蛉乃城) may also be able to trace its inspiration to The Tale of Genji, although not directly.

While whether the entire castle itself is related is ambiguous, its emblem, The Crest of Dragonflies (蜻蛉の紋), is definitely related.

Below: The Crest of Dragonflies used as the Dragonfly Army's crest at the Outpost Base Camp in the Unlost Woods during BPoHC.

The Crest of Dragonflies comes from Kōdō (香道 Way of Fragrance), the traditional art of appreciating Japanese incense, specifically from games played during an incense ceremony.

For our purposes, we'll be looking at the Kumikō (組香 set of incense) games under the Genjikō (源氏香 Genji incense) rules. In Genjikō, 5 bags of 5 different incense are prepared and five of them are chosen at random.

The incenses are then lit and passed around the participants one by one, where they appreciate and comment on their fragrances. Then, they mark down which of the incenses had the same fragrance by connecting five vertical lines in various patterns.

The participants then compare the patterns they have drawn with the Symbols of the Genji Incense (源氏香の図), where a list of every possible symbol is shown, paired with a corresponding chapter in the The Tale of Genji, with the exception of 2 chapters as there are only 52 possible patterns.

The pattern important to us is the Kagerou (蜻蛉 dragonfly) pattern, compare it with the emblem above an you can see it's used on the bottom of the crest.

A key note to mention here, is that the pattern is likely not only used for its relation to The Tale of Genji but for the fact that incense is a typical offering for the dead in Japan, a jab at Chouki, if you will.

The Dragonfly Castle — Ukifune's Room

The eerie, black and white throne room deep within the Dragonfly Castle is called "Ukifune's Room" (浮舟の間).

However, before we can get into the reference here, we must get into the deuteragonist of the second half of the tale, "Niou-no-miya".

"Niou-no-miya" (匂宮 fragrant court [official]) was Genji's grandson through his third daughter who married the Emperor, hence he is a prince.

He was raised alongside "Kaoru", who was basically a younger brother to him. However, the two were bitter rivals, so fierce were these feelings that "Niou-no-miya" would have all his clothes perfumed to imitate the natural fragrance "Kaoru" had. This is where his nickname came from.

Back to Ukifune's room, it's name references "Ukifune" (浮舟 floating boat), a noble girl from the tale caught in a love triangle with "Kaoru" and Prince "Niou-no-miya".

After her arranged marriage fell apart, "Ukifune" would come into the service of another imperial prince at Uji, there she was talked into becoming the lover of "Kaoru" by another character.

"Kaoru" would manoeuvre to keep and hide her within Uji, so that she would stay his and out of the grasp of "Niou-no-miya", but unbeknownst to him, his rival would sneak in while "Kaoru" was out to see "Ukifune".

The nickname "Ukifune" comes from one such rendezvous, where "Niou-no-miya" invites and takes "Ukifune" to a hidden house across the Uji River.

While on the boat, "Ukifune" would compose a poem where she uses a boat adrift on the river as a metaphor for how she is unsure to whom her heart belongs to.

Ultimately, troubled by being the target of affection by the two rivals, she attempted an escape by drowning herself in a river but was rescued by a Buddhist monk. She then vows to become a Buddhist nun and took into hiding, vowing to never meet "Kaoru" again.

Curiously, Ukifune was introduced near the very end of the tale that we now have and her story was never completed.

In fact, the story abruptly ends with "Kaoru" wondering if "Niou-no-miya" was hiding "Ukifune" from him, as the nun he thought was "Ukifune" (and actually was) refused his letter asking her to come back by replying that he got the wrong person.

Unlike the previous two references, I have absolutely no idea why "Ukifune" was used in the name of the throne room. Nevertheless, I am fairly certain that it is a reference to her, since searching for 浮舟 pretty much exclusively gives me The Tale of Genji.

Of note perhaps, is that ukifune later became a general metaphor for someone/something that is unreliable, although even then I'm not really sure how it connects.

What Does This Mean For Len'en?

While I can't concretely saw what all these references to The Tale of Genji means, I do have a few ideas as to what it could possibly mean, so let's take a look at those:

The Mugenri Minamoto

There are four clans particularly famous throughout Japanese history, for how much they prospered starting from the Nara period and onwards.

These are the Minamoto (源), Taira (平), Fujiwara (藤原) and Tachibana (橘) clans, and amongst them, the first three are particularly famous for their roles in history.

We've already seen some of them referenced in Len'en, Taira no Fumikado and the Fujiwara dynasty of Devanagara being clear examples of a "Mugenri branch" of the Taira and Fujiwara clans.

If you'd remember, Genji, from The Tale of Genji, is actually a Minamoto himself. I propose, that these references points to, at least in one time in the past, a Minamoto presence in Mugenri, which JynX seems to suggest is possible.

Fall of the Minamoto

While my proof sparse, I propose that all this hints at a fallen, or at least vastly diminished, Mugenri branch of the Minamoto clan.

Key to this idea is Kaoru Kashiwagi, the Len'en one. He is the head of the Fujiwara dynasty's Goefu (五衛府 the five palace guards), palace guards entrusted with the Emperor's personal safety.

Specifically, Kaoru is the Emon-no-kami (衛門督), captain of the Emonfu (衛門府) guards. Historically, in real-life, the Emonfu (衛門府) was originally composed by the vestiges of enemy clans' palace guards as well as peasants.

It is that first bit, "the vestiges of enemy clans", that make me wonder if the Fujiwara once managed to score a decisive victory against the Minamoto, which let them swallow up many of the Minamoto, Kaoru being one such member, or a descendant of one.

It's not hard to see why a member of a fallen clan would want to change their name, and "Kashiwagi", which like I mentioned above was an eulogistic title for the Emonfu, seems like a good fit.

The Enemy of My Enemy Gets My Castle

Next, let's look at the Dragonfly Castle, it always struck me as rather odd that the castle with two references to The Tale of Genji would end up in the purview of the Taira.

Considering the Fujiwara's seemingly absolute domination over the capital in the past, perhaps the Minamoto entrusted their secrets of the Dragonfly Castle with the Taira clan, in hopes that they'd be able to make use of it to fight back against their common enemy.

This would explain how the Taira clan now seems to be the keeper of the Dragonfly Castle's secrets, as Fumikado themself confirms.

Secrets Yet Kept

If this was true though, it would seem that the Minamoto haven't completely given up either, as it would seem that they haven't told the Taira everything.

A key revelation in BPoHC, is that the castle doesn't simply invite its chosen emperor within, but that whoever it invites is actually "bait" for the true emperor it wants.

Curiously, this information comes to us via Tenkai Zuifeng, close friend and conspirator of the old dictator, Tsurubami Senri, who was the previous lord of the Dragonfly Castle.

Taira no Chouki was shocked at the revelation, although this was perhaps understandable due to their status as a branch family member and (previously) mere servant to Fumikado.

What's stranger though, is that Fumikado themself seems to have no idea of this either, the key figure the Taira were trying to install upon the throne, clueless as to how the Dragonfly Castle worked.

This is evident in the New Emperor Team's Haze Route, where upon being told that the castle has chosen a new emperor, they seem to completely believe it and panic, which wouldn't make much sense if they knew how the bait system worked.

So perhaps the Minamoto still kept some secrets close to their chest, in hopes that they may one day rise again...

Ending

And that's all I have on The Tale of Genji and Len'en.

The analyses on the references themselves are fairly solid, I'm quite confident on that front (although I do apologise for spending so much time on the tale and not much on Len'en).

However, my theory is a lot more shaky, more 20% canon and 80% extrapolation-fanfiction. Still, I do think some of the possibilities and notes pointed out are of note, even if the overall theory collapses. Which is fine of course, it's just a fun possibility is all.

Welp, I'm done now. As usual, I hope you enjoyed~! :)

[cathoderaysunshinebeaver]

Heretic/Hexen

I love Doom. I’ve never made an attempt to list my favorite video games in a numerical order, but if I did, Doom would likely be one of the highest, if not #1. I’m also a big fan of the “dark fantasy” aesthetic, so discovering the Heretic/Hexen series was a treat, to say the least.

Released in 1994, Heretic was built using the Doom engine by Raven Software, with John Romero himself having helped the team set up their computers and teaching them the basics of how he would make maps for the game. With this in mind, you’d be forgiven for saying what a lot of reviewers said at the time: this game looks like a Doom reskin with a fantasy theme.

This sentiment mostly applies to the first game, Heretic. But in a sea of other “Doom clones” released at the time, it is definitely one of the more competent ones. You play as Corvus, one of the few surviving elves in a world overtaken by the evil Serpent Riders, who have decided to exterminate all the elves because their magical powers make them resistant to the mind control spells the Serpent Riders use to conquer and subjugate realm after realm on their quest for world domination. Unsurprisingly, Corvus is out for revenge, and the end goal of the game is to hunt down and kill the first of the three Serpent Riders, D’Sparil.

The gameplay in Heretic is more similar to Doom than in the later games, but it does the Doom formula well. Most weapons have a distinct counterpart in the game it is based on: the Elven Wand is your pistol, the Dragon Claw is your chaingun, the Ethereal Crossbow is your shotgun, and so on. They are satisfying to use (save the wand, arguably), and look deliciously fantasy-eque, with beautiful spritework. The levels are split into a familiar structure, featuring three episodes with nine levels each (and two more episodes released as an expansion pack). The enemies are varied, with pretty animations and distinct sounds, and play into the Doom experience very well in that the combinations and locations of enemies in each area lends itself to very different strategies (although “run really fast and blast everyone with the crossbow” rarely fails on most difficulties). The two expansion episodes are considerably more challenging, and will require more quick thinking and ammo, sorry, mana conservation. Definitely a fun romp.

The sequel, Hexen, is where the series starts finding it’s own unique twist on the genre, and is the by many regarded as the “classic” that really put the franchise on the map. Again, you’re playing as a vindictive hero on a quest to liberate their realm from the Serpent Riders. This time it’s Korax, the second out of the three. However, now you’ve got to pick a class. This is the first big difference you’ll notice when starting the game. Corvus is MIA from his last adventure, and instead your choice of protagonist is between Baratus the Fighter, Parias the Cleric, and Daedolon the mage. While the game isn’t an RPG, these characters all have different stats when it comes to running speed and base HP. More importantly, they each have access to their own unique set of weapons. Mana is shared between the weapons, which are now split into green, blue and dual mana types, but they all behave very differently. For example, the fighter’s weapons are mostly of the melee variety and consume mana rapidly only for special attack modes, as they can still be swung without mana. The mage on the other hand uses his bare hands to cast a lot of his spells, but they do not burn through mana nearly as quickly. Unsurprisingly, the cleric is a hybrid, and uses both a spiked club and a mix of magical weapons. An “ultimate” weapon is also available to each class, which must be assembled from parts and consumes both blue and green mana, but has really devastating attacks (the cleric’s “Wraithverge” summons ghosts that scream like banshees and tear every nearby enemy to shreds; it’s just as metal as it sounds)!

Beyond the class differences, the level structure is the other major difference between Heretic and Hexen. Instead of a linear series of levels, each episode is now defined by a hub level with many branching areas that can usually be visited in any order. You need to find key items and activate switches in each one to open the way to the next world, and many areas within each sub-level are also locked until you find the right key/switch in a completely different area. As would be expected, this new spin on the level progression comes with both pros and cons. Few players today will be able to complete the game without ever looking at a walkthrough, and based on some comments I’ve read, this is one of those games that many people in the 90s would only dream of beating on their own. That said, there are very few instances where pulling a switch won’t at the very least give you a short message indicating it’s purpose (i.e. “A door has opened in the Wastelands”), and even then those with enough patience will rarely feel completely lost if they’re willing to backtrack systematically through every area over and over, taking note of every single locked door and unreachable area. I doubt it’s something the majority of gamers enjoy doing, but if you’re the type who would rather give up before accepting a hint, I’m happy to report that this game IS beatable even with your play style.

On the other hand, this structure also adds a lot to the feeling of being on a dangerous, epic quest. Metroidvania fans know that there are few things as satisfying as picking up a key and thinking “hey, I recognize this symbol! Now I can finally see what’s behind that door in the swamp!”. Uncovering the world bit by bit in this fashion really lends an air of mystery to the land of Cronos (where Hexen is set), and truly gives you that classic feeling of “pride and accomplishment” when you’re finally able to descend into that forbidding temple that’s been looming on the horizon for so long. And for those of you who are worried you won’t get to blast enough monsters to get your fill, this game still has you covered.

The enemies in Hexen are just as threatening as those in Heretic, and they look even better this time (seriously, if you enjoyed the visual aspect of Heretic, Hexen steps it up tenfold with truly gorgeous sprites, textures, animations and even some environmental visual effects, like thick mist and dead leaves blowing in the wind). You’ve got a fantastic cast of evil wizards, zombies, dog-like orcs, Minotaurs and more types of dragons and dragon hybrids than you could shake a Mace of Contrition at. A good amount of the baddies are initially very similar to those in Heretic, but their attacks are more distinct, varied and dangerous, and there are a whole lot more of these guys this time around. If you have the enemy counter turned on in your automap it won’t be uncommon to see the numbers exceed 400, and some of the weaker enemies will even respawn after a while. Don’t worry though, it’s not frequent enough to be stressful, but instead it really helps the backtracking from getting too tedious. Key hunting is a lot more intense when you never know if an Ettin is waiting around the corner to cave your skull in! However, if you’ve seen any other reviews of this game, you’ve heard a lot of grief expressed in regards to the Minotaurs (and their big brothers, the Maulotaurs). They aren’t the strongest foe in the game, but their shields, their surprise lighting bolts and their sheer numbers can definitely be a pain in the gluteus maximus. On the plus side, it makes killing them all the more satisfying, and you’ll find yourself experimenting quite a bit with your weapons and items to figure out the safest and quickest way to end their existence.

That’s right, I forgot to mention the items. The third and last major difference between Doom and these games is your inventory. The items are largely the same in all the games in the series, and using them can be a bit of a hassle unless you’re willing to fiddle around with your control settings to find a setup you prefer (I would usually bind the item selection keys to the scroll wheel and use them with the right mouse button). Visually, the inventory is similar to that seen in Duke Nukem 3D, and just like in that game, you’ll likely find yourself using some items a lot more frequently than others. Health and mana refills are a major aid, and beyond that you have things such as invisibility, invincibility, flechettes (despite what the name says, they’re more like grenades or mines, depending on your class), and a magical book that gives your weapons a much more powerful firing mode for a short time (although this item is mysteriously absent in Hexen). A special mention also goes to the Morph Ovum/Porkelator/Seal of the Ovinomancer, which transforms an enemy into a chicken/pig/sheep, respectively. A lot of fun to use, and and immense help against some stronger enemies if you’re low on health and/or mana.

If you didn’t find yourself using these items all too much in Heretic or Hexen, the following game might just give you a reason to. Hexen II is the third game in the series, and the final chapter in the Serpent Riders saga. This time you’re in the realm of Thyrion, and the last Serpent Rider, Eidolon, is the one who must be slain to free the land from his curse. In terms of gameplay, Hexen II is a lot more similar to Hexen than Hexen was to Heretic. You’ve got the same type of hub level structure, and you’ll again pick a class at the start, although now your choice has expanded, consisting of the Crusader, Paladin, Necromancer and Assassin, as well as the Demoness in the expansion (yes, all these games have expansion packs and they’re all worth playing in that they’re more of the same, but expanded, duh, and more polished).

The major difference this time around is one you can probably tell immediately from the screenshot: yes, Hexen II goes 3D (and in an exception to the common rule at the time, it is NOT titled “Hexen 3D” despite technically being the third installment). Specifically, the game uses a modified Quake engine. As mentioned, the core gameplay remains largely the same as in Hexen, but the level designers definitely did not waste that extra dimension. The levels are less expansive here, but a lot more complex and full of hidden passages, surprising loops and a whole lot of verticality. Scurring across a courtyard with archers raining arrows down on you from balconies is just as tense as it is satisfying later on to reach the same balcony and return the favor to any ghoul unlucky enough to find themselves below. Overall, the layout and progression in each area feels like it’s been given a lot more consideration and has endured more testing. Most of the time, the key hunting in each area feels more self-contained, and when it isn’t you rarely feel like you have no idea where to go. This is because every lock has been designed to feel more like a puzzle. In practice, your goal is still to find an item and bring it somewhere, but the locks and keys themselves are much more distinct, which helps you remember what to do and where to go. Instead of levers and typical keys, you find yourself looking for artefacts such as potion ingredients that will let you turn metal into wood, pieces of a broken mechanism or symbolic relics that must be placed in the hands of a statue to go in line with a prophecy. There are also more direct instructions in the form of book entries and inscribed stone tablets, which are very helpful in those cases where the puzzle might require a bit more than just item hunting, such as pulling switches in a certain order or lining objects up to create a pattern. It’s still unlikely that you’ll breeze through the whole game without getting confused, but you’ll rarely be at a complete loss; you’ll usually know what you’re looking for or what you’re trying to activate, even if you may need a walkthrough to find a specific hidden passage or to figure out exactly what a contraption does.

Overall, Hexen II feels like a refined Hexen, with more care put into making every area feel very distinct. It is absolutely not any less challenging though. The areas might be smaller in terms of actual units of measurement, and there are definitely fewer enemies on the screen at all times, but this is compensated for in spades. The third dimension adds a thick layer of complexity to every level, and the enemies hit HARD. If you got into a rhythm in Hexen of circle strafing, dodging and picking off targets in an order of perceived priority, you’ll have to learn to dance to a different tune here. Some enemies will close in on you incredibly quickly, and many of them have the ability to turn you into minced meat in a matter of seconds. Now more than ever is when you’ll want to shoot with a steady aim, use your items wisely, keep all the possible paths of retreat in your mental map, and scour every nook and cranny for health and mana to stand a chance against some of the stronger mooks. Hexen II as a whole is a lot more fast paced and tense and also has a more dramatic views and set pieces along with some extra bits of storytelling scattered around the world for those interested.

So, what are my thoughts on the Heretic/Hexen series as a whole? In short, it’s a treat. Combining classic fantasy tropes with the hectic action of Doom (and Quake) was an idea that was bound to happen sooner or later, and in this case, it worked out really well. There are of course other examples of this iconic clash of genres (check out Amid Evil for a totally kick-ass recent example!), but from what I know, the Serpent Riders saga is the one with the most lasting appeal. All the games strike a great balance between frantic, gory FPS action and the slower paced mystery and brooding sense of evil that only dark castles and dungeons can provide, with each game leaning a bit more toward one direction or the other. At a core gameplay level, there is nothing absolutely groundbreaking about Heretic/Hexen, but every element is done well and with care, and the presentation oozes of 20th century gothic fantasy charm, both the visuals and music. If the first paragraph of this review made you go “oh, those are both things I like!” then definitely check these games out. Same goes for anyone who is simply curious about the history of Id software and the impact Doom and Quake had on the gaming landscape. My only warning to you before playing these games is this: keep in mind that these games are from the 90s. There’s a reason many people have memories of booting these games up, getting completely stuck and then never playing them again. That said, as long as you have an internet connection (how else would you be reading this?) and an average amount of patience, there’s a whole lot of fun to be had here. All the games mentioned above are available on Steam (and GoG as well, I believe), and play excellently with modern source ports: gzdoom for Heretic and Hexen, and Hammer of Thyrion for Hexen II are my recommendations.

Finally, there is another game in the franchise. Heretic II returns to the story of Corvus (from the first game) and continues the story beyond the Serpent Riders arc, but due to some licensing issues it is not available on neither Steam nor GoG. Technically you could still buy a physical copy of the game, and I’ve seen mentions of at least one fan endeavor to make the game more accessible on modern computers, but I have yet to check it out. Maybe in the future. For now, I hope you enjoyed this dive into one of the slightly less famous, but still very popular classic 90s “Doom clones”!

[beanicole864]

Fantasy: A Quick Guide in Writing by Bea Nicole Aguilan

Magic. When it comes to fantasy, it is the first word that pops out of our heads. But is magic all there is to fantasy? The fantasy genre had been one of the leading, popular genres for the last two decades and many writers have also chosen it as their chosen niche in writing.

But for those beginner fantasy writers who has no idea on where to start writing, here are 10 tips you need in writing fantasy:

1. Identify your niche.

Fantasy itself is a niche on its own, but it is such a broad genre that you have to have a deeper understanding of each subgenre to know what your niche is. By identifying your niche, you will know who your audience will be and what your writing will be focusing on.

Some of the most common subgenres in fantasy are: Alternate History, Arcanepunk Fantasy, Assassin Fantasy, Coming-of-age fantasy, and many more.

 2. Develop your world through short stories

Developing your world is one of the major key factors that play in fantasy writing. In order for you to start and begin your world, writing short stories is a good way to start. By featuring your characters into short stories while also building your world, you are able to hit two birds with one stone.

You can also think of it as building your plot and your story brick by brick.

3. Plot out your story

One thing most writers forget to do when writing a story is plotting out there story. Even I forgot writing one when I started writing. Fantasy stories are often complex and epic, which is why you need to plot and outline your story.

You don’t want to end up being that person who trips over a hundred of their storylines, do you? In plotting your story, you must also outline and plan the flow of your story.

A good way for you to do that is by outlining first the three major parts of the story, also called the Three Act Structure where you summarize your supposedly beginning, middle, and ending of the story. Once you have finishsed the Three Act Strucuture, you can then start thinking of how you will cut the three parts into sections and placing them on each chapter.

You must also have a chapter outline wherein you will outline the events that would happen in each chapter that would lead to the major plot points of your story.

 4. Tie your worldbuilding to your plot

Worldbuilding is an essential in writing fantasy. You have to know how your world system works. Know your magic system, your government, how the people in your world lives and so on.

Your plot and your worldbuilding should see eye to eye. Your worldbuilding should be connected to your plot in order for it to work. You don’t want your worldbuilding to be out of place while the plot takes place, do you?

 5. Keep your story relevant to real-world themes

If you have any social issues you wish to discuss in your story or anything in particular, that is a real-world theme, you can include it into your story. The real-world theme may have to be relevant to the story in some way, whether you explicitly indicate or implicitly indicate it through foreshadowing.

Be creative on how you express these real-world themes. Make sure to fit it in into your worldbuilding.

 6. Use all your five senses

What makes your worldbuilding alive? The answer is simple, imagery. Be specific on how you describe things, especially since your story is fantasy. Be creative on how you use terms and words, express what your world is through the five senses.

Describe what your character is seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting. Be detailed on how you write your world and your story. Describe it with creativity.

 7. Give your world internal rules

Worldbuilding is great as it is, but you must set rules in order for you not to jump into something that will never make sense in the story. If your world contains people who can use abilities and magic, remember to add a rule or a limit of their use of it.

Create grounded rules that are rational. Rules that makes sense. Rules that does not defy your worldbuilding. And don’t go breaking the same rules you also created.

 8. Have a mindset of a Cinematographer

Having the mindset of a cinematographer can be a good and a bad thing. While some writers may use this advice because it works for them, some may not.

Having a mindset similar to a cinematographer will help you visualize what the scenes in your story look like. You will have the ability to visualize how the scene will play out and how the setting will look like as the scene starts and ends.

 9. Don’t introduce all your characters at once

Just don’t. Introducing all your characters at once will give your readers information overload. It will be too much for them to handle, especially if they were still getting the hang of the world you created.

Introduce your characters one by one, starting with the main protagonist, down to the supporting characters and antagonists. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to introduce them one by one in each chapter. It is up to you how you will introduce them.

 10. Pick a book and read it

And finally the last tip, reading a book. For many writers, this tip may have been burning in their ears for the longest time. It is a tip writers always give to other writers, especially to beginner writers. Choose a book you like and it must be in the genre you wish to write, in this case a fantasy.

You must make yourself familiar and knowledgeable about different fantasy books and troupes, that way you know what kind of writing styles to use and what to look out for. Reading a book is the number one tip any writer can give you and it is very effective for starters.

 And with that, you can now start and write your fantasy. With the help of these 10 tips, you can improve and make your story as fantastic and magical as you can.

Sources: 

Image is made in Canva

Reedsy

[possiamo-andare]

Overdue: JJ Maybank

JJ x Y/N

MASTERLIST

word count: 2.4k

summary: Y/N has been on the waiting list to check out a library book for months. JJ has the long-overdue book. The two coincidentally meet one day at the library.

a/n: ugh I feel like all the fics I write are written at 1am lol. This one is not edited yet but i hope you like it!!

~

If there was one place in the world JJ Maybank knew he'd never step foot in, it was a library. Although more intelligent than he gave himself credit, he felt as though he had a reputation to upkeep and certainly walking through each shelf of his school's library would tarnish his record. So, every week before Pope entered the library for study hall, JJ would write down a list of books he needed Pope to take out on his card. Pope thought the entire idea was completely stupid, thinking no one would care whether JJ read books or not but the boy was convinced. Granted, some people may be surprised but kids in highschool were too worried about embarrassing themselves than to pay attention to anyone else. Unfortunately JJ did not realize this and so, without fail, Pope rented books for him.

What seemed like a foolproof plan quickly escalated into more. Usually Pope showed up everyday to school but one day, almost a year after JJ had first asked him for the same favour, Pope caught a big which turned out to be strep throat. He didn't show up to school for two weeks. This meant his books were overdue by two weeks. Every week was a five dollar fine and now, on account of bot only Pope's illness but also JJ's fear, JJ owed the school librarian ten dollars.

The second Pope showed up to school two weeks later, JJ pounced. He had been nervously waiting around for two weeks and had grown restless. After two weeks, teachers went around to the students classrooms and called there names. Everyone would know JJ had rented Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and he would look like a clown.

To you and I, this seems like a stupid fear. But you have to realize where JJ is coming from. His entire life, his father had made him feel stupid. As if he didn't deserve an education because he wasn't as smart as everyone else. If he had been nurtured like Pope or Kie had, maybe he wouldn't be so scared to rent a book. But now, the damage was done and the book was overdue. It would take a miracle for JJ to not be embarrassed that he actually enjoyed reading. It transported him to another place. A place where there were no demanding fathers or rotten Kooks. Just him and the protagonist. Books gave him an escape.

Pope understood how JJ felt and wanted to help his friend, although he thought the whole thing was stupid. He would've returned Pride and Prejudice himself if it were not for the newly enforced rule the librarian had.

"The person whose card it was rented on has to pay the fine." Pope explained, leaning against the wall beside the library doors.

JJ sighed, running his free hand through his hair. He had his book under his short like it was some sort of contraband. "When did this happen?"

Pope shrugged. "A month ago."

JJ sighs louder this time, lightly banging his fist against the wall. "So, just say you're me."

Pope shook his head, indignant. "No way. If I get in trouble, they'll never let me back inside. Just swallow your pride and pay the fine."

JJ scoffed, looking around before taking Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice out from underneath his shirt. "Yeah? And say what? That me, JJ fucking Maybank, just decided to read a romance novel one day?"

Pope shrugged again, glancing to the clock. He was gonna be late on his first day back. "Isn't that what literally happened?"

JJ frowned for a moment. "Yes. Well, no. It's not just a romance novel, it's so much more than that."

Pope rolled his eyes. "That's not what I'm talking about. Just be discreet. Trust me no one will notice."

Famous last words, JJ thought. He knew Pope was not about to break the rules for him. At least not these rules. The library was Pope's safe space and JJ didn't want to take that away from him. So, doing as Pope said and swallowing his pride, JJ stuffed the book back under his shirt and opened the library door. As he quietly closed the door behind him, he realized that no one looked up from their books. JJ exhaled, clearly pleased no one noticed him enter. As discreetly as JJ could, he tiptoed his way to the librarian's front desk where he knew he could return his overdue book. The woman standing behind the desk was nothing like the librarians he saw on tv. This lady was older but she couldn't be older than 45 and she wore ripped jeans and a loose cardigan. Her hair was dyed a dark black and glimmering pink gloss was painted on her lips. Seeing this as a sign she would not judge him, JJ scurried towards the woman. When he finally approached her desk, she looked up from her book with a smile.

"What can I do for you?" She politely whispered.

JJ looked over his shoulder for a moment, making sure no one was watching. He slowly looked back around to the librarian. "I need to return an overdue book." His voice was just above a whisper.

The librarian nodded, typing on her computer for a moment before looking back to JJ. "Student 1D number?"

JJ leaned forward, glancing around the room for a second time. He quietly told the woman his ID number before she pressed enter. She read his file before turning to him with the same smile on her face.

"This is your first offence," she paused for a moment, clearly thinking she had made a funny joke. "So I won't charge you. Pride and Prejudice is such a good read, I don't blame you."

Much calmer than he was when he first entered, JJ's shoulders slumped. He had been so nervous, and for what? Finally he reached under his shirt once more and pulled out the book. With a smile on his face, he quietly thanked the librarian. Unfortunately, this is not where the story ends. Seconds after the book lands on the desk, JJ hears a voice from behind him. He doesn't even have time to take his hand off the cover of the book before someone else's hand is on top of his. This hand is smaller than his but stronger as they push down on JJ's knuckles.

"Jane, I've been waiting for this book for three weeks! I put my name on a waiting list so you can't give it to him." A girl a little shorter than JJ stands beside him, her voice not as nearly as low as it should be. Considering she's in a library, JJ's surprised she's raising her voice at all.

"He's just returning it Y/N." The librarian, Jane, explains.

JJ thinks he's out of the woods but that's not true. When the girl beside him figures out he's been the one making her wait, her hand only presses harder against his. He whimpers, trying to move his hand but fails. He finally looks to the girl who is as strong as the fucking hulk.

When their eyes meet, JJ feels himself fall apart. JJ knows that as a teenager, everything he feels is heightened but in that moment, he felt his heart give out. She was beyond beautiful. She wasn't like most girls he dated but at the same time, JJ didn't have a type. For the first time in awhile, JJ was speechless as he watched this beautiful girl glare at him.

"You know there's a due date for a reason?" She pressed, her brows only pulling closer together.

JJ only nodded, trying to compose himself. He seriously was trying to look for the words.

When JJ didn't respond, Y/N only rolled her eyes and continued to lecture. "My copy was ruined and I needed this one. What do you have to say for yourself?"

JJ gulped, looking to the librarian who already had her nose back in her book as she let JJ and Y/N sort things out. He looked back to Y/N and finally spoke. "My hand hurts."

Y/N frowns, not understanding him for a moment before looking down. She looks in horror as she sees her hand pressed against his. She had been so angry when she saw JJ enter the library with the book noticeably under his shirt that she forgot her manners. Embarrassed, she let go and she was surprised to see JJ lift his hand off the cover of the book as well. Their eyes locked to each other again and now Y/N had felt had JJ had first felt.

She of course knew who JJ was. This was the last place she thought she'd meet him in but she was more surprised by how her stomach felt as she looked into his blue eyes. Her stomach was making giant flips and she knew what that meant. She had crushes before but she forced herself to swallow it down. Not on JJ Maybank. She wouldn't allow herself to crush on such a player.

"Sorry." She frowned, clasping her hands together. She reminded herself why she was here and finally veered back on topic. "You can only take books out for a week."

JJ nodded, a small smile on his lips now. He had learned how to tell if a girl liked you and he knew, by the way she began to avoid eye contact and when she tucked her hair behind her ear, that she found him just as beautiful as he found her.

"I'm sorry." He smirked, leaning his elbow against the front desk.

Y/N finally snapped out of the daydream, realizing exactly what JJ was trying to do. She had met enough guys like JJ to know him smirking and leaning so nonchalantly against the desk meant he was trying to flirt with her. And she would not allow it.

"Nope." Y/N shook her head, picking up the book from the desk. She placed it underneath her armpit before turning around and trying to make her way out of the library quickly. "Jane, charge this to my account."

JJ was confused at first, following behind the pretty girl. "No what?"

Y/N scoffed, placing her hand on the doorknob but not opening the door. She promised herself after she exited this room, she would ignore JJ. She was sure he would not want to be seen with her and she would feel better if her friends knew nothing about this encounter. Not because she was embarrassed but just because they would ask too many questions.

"No, I'm not doing this with you." Y/N explained, watching as JJ chuckled to himself.

"I'm not doing anything. We're just two friends talking." JJ pressed, his confidence spiking when he receives a little push back from this beautiful girl. If he truly knew that she wasn't interested, he wouldve left her alone. But he knew she didn't want that. If she really didn't want to entertain him, she would've already been out the door and down the hall.

"One, we're not friends. Two, I know you JJ. You came here discreetly to return a novel people will mistake for a romance novel. Now, you're trying to hit on me." Y/N speaks bluntly, wanting to seem unbothered by his attraction to her. She wants to seem as if she gets this kind of attention all the time when in reality, she's never had a boyfriend.

She was sure fooling JJ. "Ah, I see. So you know everything about me."

Y/N shrugged, her hand still not leaving the door knob. "As much as anyone else."

"Well then, you don't know much." JJ counters, the smirk never leaving his face.

"Like what?" Y/N presses, wondering what he is going to share.

"That I save most of my cheesiest pick up lines for the prettiest girls." JJ confesses, a soft smile now on his lips.

Y/N, although her cheeks hot from the compliment, hides it by rolling her eyes. "Like what?"

JJ stops and thinks for a moment. He knows he really needs to nail this because she is finally listening to him for real. "Like... girl, you must be a library book because I can't stop checking you out."

A smile appears on Y/N's face and as much as she wants to hide it, she can't. "That's stupid."

JJ nodded. "Fair point, but it made you smile."

Y/N shrugs, finally turning the knob to open the door. When it's open, she looks to JJ. Talking a deep breath, she speaks. "Okay JJ. Tell me what you want from me."

JJ shrugs, a soft smile written on his lips. He looks out the door and down the hall, watching as Kie and Pope laugh at something the other said. He finally looks back to Y/N before speaking. "I wanna root beer float and I want one with you."

Y/N's face is unreadable for a moment and JJ starts to sweat. He thinks he has been to forward and wants to slap himself. Suddenly, Y/N's lips turn up into a smile and JJ feels himself relax.

"Sure. I don't have much to do either than thread this book another fifty times." Y/N expects JJ to laugh but he only continues to softly smile at her.

For a moment, Y/N feels embarrassed but then JJ reaches forward to grab onto her fresh hand and she freezes. Her hand buzzes with excitement as she feels a small smile appear on her lips. JJ is happy to know she appears as nervous as he is.

"I'd love for you to read it to me." JJ inquires, searching in her eyes for the answer.

Y/N nods quickly, the idea popping I'm jer head a long time ago. "I'd love to."

As they walked down the hall, they allowed themselves to fully get to know one another. Y/N and JJ spoke about school and their lives but most importantly, about books. They spoke over one another many times but never to be rude, only to laugh or add a witty response. And as Y/N held on tight to her book, she felt as though she would have to pay an overdue fine some time soon too.

~

taglist: @dolanfivsosxox @obxrush @bellakellyrose03 @belledutchess @sexualparkour @lueurglow @itsriasblog @maries110911 @ebonyyyy-e @teamnick @tangledinsparkles @sarahsmaybank @91912512 @shawnssongs @ssjiara @amarachoren @haute-shawn @blog-hannahnicole @xlittlemissydjx

[kitkatopinions]

I'm tired of fantasy world writers being like 'oh, this is my allegory for racism in my fantasy world where actual racism doesn't exist, also I'm going to not do any research on how to properly include said allegory, badly portray it, make my main characters affected by this white or white passing, and then use racist stereotypes later.' Long post full of RWBY criticism ahead.

RWBY is terrible with the Faunus racism they chose to make part of their story. They made the White Fang an evil terrorist group, they made Blake lecture fellow Faunus about how they're the ones actually hurting themselves by using violence against each other, they framed comfortable and peaceful protest as the only good way despite establishing that peaceful protest didn't work, and they made their child slave coded character who literally got branded turn into nothing more than an abusive stalker and then had him killed without ever addressing the aforementioned child slavery. Also, the only Faunus among our main cast now that Sun is gone is one of the most privileged of the Faunus. Blake can pass as a human if she wants to, she grew up fairly rich, she has two loving parents, and she comes from an inherently powerful position as the daughter of the Chief. Having Blake be privileged would be absolutely fine, if she acknowledged her privilege, wasn’t the mouthpiece on Faunus rights, if she wasn’t the only Faunus in our main cast, and if she didn’t repeatedly lecture other Faunus.

On top of that, two of our main cast have been racist (within the narrative of the show) towards our main Faunus character, one of them learns from it (even though that as well was badly handled) and became the only member of Team RWBY to ever call out human's being racist after season three. Oh wait, except the other member of our main cast that was racist that never had it addressed because it was treated like a joke now has yelled at a racist once, in an incredibly tense situation, so I guess her racism is gone. It’s good that it’s gone, since CRWBY is pushing her and Blake as a couple, but it’s frustrating that her racism never even got a ‘that wasn’t funny’ and we never see Yang learn any better, because it feels like CRWBY brushed it off and acted like it was fun and quirky instead of treating it like the casual racism it was. They do a similar thing with Robyn in season seven which came out in 2019, when she calls Marrow ‘Wags.’ Also none of our main cast are ever seen protesting for Faunus rights (sans a two second flashback of child Blake at a rally and a non canon RWBY chibi cartoon.) I don't think Ruby - our main protagonist - has ever even mentioned Faunus rights. In a world where Adam was branded with the SDC logo under fifteen years ago at the most, racism and fighting racism should be a big part of the story, and instead, it's brushed to the side and used for the occasional 'we don't like racism btw' moment now that Blake got rid of a Faunus run terrorist group. To me, this implies that the number one threat to the Faunus… Was the Faunus, and although some humans are still anti-Faunus, no one has to devote their time or energy into fighting for equality. In season 7, Blake doesn’t even attend the rally of the political figure running against Jacques Schnee - who as far as I’m aware, is the only business owner or person in power who has ever displayed anti-Faunus racism in the show. By the way, please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. It’s been a hot minute since I watched through the show.

Instead of attending a rally that seems very important for the Faunus, Blake goes dancing with her crush. It’s like she stopped caring about politics and rights after the White Fang got removed. That feels so bad. Also, I'll note that most of the actual POC Faunus that can't pass as white in this show are on the bad side (Sienna, Fennec, Corsac, Lionheart, Ilia, Marrow.) And either they die, or they must learn to give up their destructive ways and become better people. I’m not saying this was intentional, I’m saying it’s a pattern, it’s alarming, and the writers should’ve known better.

I believe Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross have admitted that they mishandled Faunus racism, but first off, it still doesn’t excuse them because they were grown people putting out a product that premiered in 2013 and they should’ve known to do research and do better. But second off, I still feel like they haven't done the research they need to and continue to mishandle the racism by ignoring it when they want to and bringing it up only to let us as an audience know Weiss and Yang aren't racist anymore. They can’t just cut the Faunus from their storyline now, but they can’t just ignore it, and need to actually make it a better allegory. Honestly though, one of the big reasons I'm convinced that they still haven't done any real research on how to properly portray POC or racism is because of how terribly they're handling the Ace Ops.

They're writing a fantasy show, they aren't tied to real world portrayals of law enforcement, but they went the route of commentating on real world police, corrupt police, and use of excessive force. That's fine. But things are already pretty dicey just starting off because of how they've mishandled and continue to mishandle Faunus racism. Outside of Jacques Schnee and his company and business partners, I don't remember seeing Faunus racism in Atlas (not Mantle, Atlas.) If I'm wrong about that, again, please correct me, I may have missed it. But without seeing actual discrimination against Faunus within the police force, right off the bat, that's a mishandling of commentating on police brutality. But also, other than Clover who is now dead, the Ace Ops are all people of color. CRWBY made their bad cops all not white. Even Ironwood - who is white passing - is voiced by a person of color who has said he believes that James is Chinese American. I'll point out that being a Hunter is pretty much just being a cop with more freedom and seemingly less rules. Qrow (a Beacon Huntsman) goes around destroying public property and comments on how some hunters work outside of the law, and yet it's only the Ace Ops who are held to real world ACAB rules and everyone else gets to be a good cop/law enforcement officer. Ruby gets to proudly proclaim herself a Huntress, Weiss gets to arrest people, Jaune gets told that he deserves his Huntsman license, we've been getting told for seven seasons that Hunters help people and do what's right, and we're given long time Hunters and mentor figures like Oobleck, Glynda, Qrow, and now Robyn is being framed that way, and they back that up. Even training Atlas soldiers like Neon and Flynt are fine and fun. But only the Ace Ops are bad, corrupt law enforcement officers. So that way, we can have the entirely white passing Team RWBY beat up the entirely POC, not white passing Ace Ops. Even though Team RWBY is a byproduct of the same kind of program and even though we’ve seen the police discriminate against Faunus in Vale. If CRWBY wants their allegories to be taken seriously, they need to recognize that RWBY and co are also certified police. Also, it’s really not funny to see people use ACAB as a reason why the Ace Ops are of course bad, but then turn around and simp for Winter, and be like ‘We want Winter to be redeemed, but Harriet? What a bitch!’ Like… I’m side-eyeing that pretty hard.

Speaking of Winter, now she’s in charge of the Ace Ops. But unlike Marrow, Winter doesn’t just look sad sometimes and blindly only follow direct orders without protest. She’s actually feeling all kinds of things, and she’s actually being framed as strong, intelligent, and reasonable. I’m sure no one forgot this, but I’ll note it anyway; Winter is white. Having Winter be the only Ace Op to actually listen to JRY and do things without James explicitly telling her to (although I don’t consider what she did a betrayal or going behind his back) is dicey. They could’ve given this moment to Harriet and nothing would change. ‘This lady typically follows orders, is short tempered, and pushes down her emotions, but she can still recognize a fairly good idea when she sees one and can actually think for herself, so although this isn’t a betrayal, she compromises and lets Team JRY go after their friend.’ Yeah, idk guys, I feel like there was literally no reason to slot Winter in with the Ace Ops to be the lone voice of reason when Harriet could’ve become the new leader and played the exact same role. Instead, Winter gets to have a power move where she puts Harriet in her place. Winter is given actual depth and gets to put down the black woman who the writers have made display nothing but anger for the whole season. The fans rally behind Winter because she was given depth and hate Harriet because she has none, but that’s the fault of the writers. Btw, ‘this black woman won’t show any emotion besides anger’ is a racist stereotype. It would probably have taken like five minutes on google for Luna and Shawcross to have realized that it was a bad idea to write a black woman in any sort of position of power to be constantly angry + hiding her emotions. Elm is in the same boat as Harriet, and I was going to say it’s less severe, but then I remembered that she literally attacked Ren for talking about their emotions.

Look, my point is that RWBY as a show has never handled allegories like racism and corrupt police well, and either they should stop trying and stick to ‘make believe land is just different than the real world’ or start putting in the work and fix this. By the way, I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad for watching or even enjoying RWBY, but I hope people can watch it while recognizing that some of the things CRWBY has chosen to put into their show are destructive and that the creators need to be called out. I’ll continue to hope that most RWBY fans do recognize that RWBY is deeply flawed, but I’ve just been stewing recently about someone who told me that I shouldn’t have expected the show to address Faunus racism in the Atlas arcs because that ended when Adam died.

I want to make it totally clear that I agree with and support ACAB in the real world and I'm not against it being used in fantasy works, I just think CRWBY is doing a poor job of portraying it and many fans are misusing it and it feels disrespectful. This is an actual real world movement with actual real world consequences. It feels very bad to see people use it to argue that the writers who have never handled allegories of racism well can make an all POC group be a destructive, violent, easily controlled, easily beat group of corrupt cops that need a white woman and fellow cop to be the voice of reason.

[danieyells]

Yo Danie, I wonder if you've got any ideas on this; in TAS, transients either get summoned to Tokyo because the app reaches out and makes pacts on people's behalfs with willing familiars, or they get summoned by having, like, a wish of some kind and they end up stumbling through a portal to Tokyo to see that wish fulfilled, right? And then they either get unsummoned, or stick around for whatever reason?

Here's the thing; when they get unsummoned, do they go home? The Red Oni in chapter 1 seems pretty convinced that he's going to die unless you make a Summoning pact with him, but Salomon says later that Shiro's familiar whose connection you cut will just end up going home. Further to that, Macan says about Oniwaka when he's vanishing into light that he's going back to his home world, and then when his strength recovers he'll pop right back in.

The thing is though, that there's a remark early on that Stray Transients, who are Transients without a Summoning bond by the game's definition if I'm remembering right, can only maintain themselves for a while by sustaining themselves on the land's energy. Even further, the actual Housamo wiki says that they'll be unsummoned from the game if they don't find a way to sustain themselves, usually by getting into a pact. Guilds I believe are also noted to be one way around this. Does that mean that if you just wait outside of a Pact, you'll go home? Or would you pop back in again after a bit, essentially trapped in Tokyo?

ALSO ALSO, Bathym says that, though this only applies to "his hella demonic self", demons need tons of emotional energy directed at them to survive, and a pact is the most efficient way to get energy.

But we don't see Sitri in a Guild or a Pact (unless you Pact him, but I'm pretty sure that's non-canon), and Sitri also has a family. They're all demons one would presume, so why does he not seem to need anything like Bathym does? We can derive from this that Bathym was either speaking about himself, and only himself, lying to try and get the Protagonist to make a pact with him, or that Sitri has a Pact he isn't chatting to anybody about, right?

HOWEVER. In chapter 4, we see that the Aoyama guild provides supplies for the enormous number of Stray Transients who have nothing and no prospects, but that those strays are unlikely to be guild members. Further to that, she mentions that the ninjas and many other strays are like, literally treated as the dregs of society. So, how come they're still around? Surely the Stray Transient population should be either dwindling all the time, or in constant flux? But I'm pretty sure there's a notable overpopulation issue in canon because of the sheer number of Transients! Not to mention, if they're treated like dirt and killed and traded, you'd think they'd just...WANT to leave, right? So they could just wait until their connection ran out.

AND ALSO, it's noted in the backstory that Transients started pouring through the gates one day in history, and that this generation has never lived in a Tokyo without walls, but the previous generation therefore presumably did; that means like, it's been at least 2 decades, possibly 3. How long could those Transients have stuck around without a pact going by the lore?

Lastly, the Protagonist has the power to rend Transients connections to Tokyo, canonically. How then, do those Transients come back if they've had their connection severed? And shouldn't the Protagonist offer to go to the slums and ask if anybody would like to go back to their homeworld if that were the case? Or will everyone literally just rebound to Tokyo completely?

Further to that, when people fulfil their wish, do they go home? When they've played their Role out completely, is that the end of their tenure in Tokyo?

Basically, I think the whole system is a little underexplained and I've seen you post thoughts here on stuff, so I was wondering as to what you'd make of it all! Am I missing something?

. . .holy shit anon this is an essay innit lol not that i'm complaining, I just was not expecting it when I saw the notification after I woke up. For the record I saw this at. . .7am or so. It is now 11:55 when I'm finishing it. HYPERFOCUS GO BRRRRRRRRR. OKAY LET'S SEE IF I'VE GOT SOME THOUGHTS FOR YOU.

DISCLAIMER: I'VE BEEN PLAYING THIS GAME FOR LITTLE OVER A MONTH AND I FEEL LIKE I HAVE FAR FROM ALL OF THE DETAILS. I haven't read three of the translated past events yet and I haven't read most of the untranslated content(including Chapter 11 although I'm super tempted you don't even know.) These are just my understandings of things, I suppose.

ALSO IDK HOW FAR YOU ARE IN THE STORY. . .I mean you mention them being sold so you're probably up to Chapter 10 at least since that's where we learn about Daikoku selling transients because it gets him off I guess, although they also could have mentioned it some other time and I just forgot lol BUT. YEAH PROBABLY GONNA MENTION SPOILERS.

TL;DR:

Red Oni: summoned to Tokyo without a pact. When rended from the land would disappear, possibly die. Likely this is because of whatever conditions are happening where they came from or having had already been dead when summoned. Possibly also just a false belief because they didn't know well what was going on to begin with. Possibly also just part of the game plan originally but retconned by the devs then never rewritten.

D-Evils: Shiro's Rule is Ressurection which causes an exception when clashing with Rending. The world of the Old Ones is gone, the D-Evils are familiars created by/living in Shiro's book. Entities, abilities, and artifacts from Old Ones are able to be used outside of the app/battle zones, so D-Evils can exist if Shiro just summons them. D-Evils don't go away when rended because they're part of Old Ones and Old Ones is gone--if they go away they return to Shiro's artifact where they came from. They also donct go away because rending them causes an Exception.

Oniwaka; Zabaniyya; Ophion: rended from EXCEPTIONS not from the world. Were likely sent back in order to resolve the exception after being rended and to recover the energy that sustained their physical forms in the first place, not because they had no means of being sustained in Tokyo. Returned due to pacts with MC, positions in Guild, unfulfilled pact, etc once their energy to maintain physical form returned.

Stray Transients: likely have outstanding pacts and thus do not disappear over time. However, some don't and those proper strays will likely return home after an amount of time, but we don't know how long. Alp has been in Tokyo for a few months but isn't disappearing despite arriving because he wanted to be loved/popular. So unattached transients stay around longer than a few months. They may also be attached to the school they were initially meant to go to to be monitored, or someone who works there. They may not want to go home due to poor conditions, being dead, lacking a home or people to return to, etc. Remember, even in real life people immigrate to places that treat them poorly--but that's because even that and the potential in those places is likely better to them than whatever they're running away from. If the transient arrived in distress it's because they wanted to be away from wherever they started out or because they desperately needed something. This new opportunity may be what they need--to find someone they lost, to find an answer, to simply start life over fresh. Even if they're being abused, looked down on, they may simply be happy to be alive. If they want to go home, they hopefully just have to wait--but you have to live if you wanna get home, don't you? Best to survive as well as you can.

Stray Transient Population: constantly increasing to sustain/grow the Game for the World Representatives. The overpopulation is deliberate. They do not care about the wellbeing of these people, they only want to create a stadium to fight in, and for that they need more transients and app users than humans not using the app in Tokyo.

Sitri: Aside from forming a pact with him, Sitri's Sacred Artifact is his wings/are his feathers, which cause people to fall in love with someone who touched them after the feathers that had been touched are attached to a second party. Sitri feeds off of the love directed to him. This is troublesome for him more often than not, but I'm pretty sure that's how he gets the emotions he needs to eat if not via pact.

Being around from the start?: The gates appeared in 1999--it's been at least 20 years, assuming the game takes place anywhere near the present year. Off the top of my head we don't know if any stray transients have stuck around for extended periods. How long someone's been in Tokyo rarely comes up. We know Yule has been in Tokyo for a few years because he went to middle(elementary? Idr) school with Ryota. Sitri is similar with Kengo. As such, given Sitri and Yule aren't in guilds as far as we're aware, assuming being attached to a school doesn't make one connected to Tokyo, we can assume they're stray transients. This means that they'd been here for years, as strays. Given we know stray transients disappear eventually, it's safe to assume that there have been stray transients who disappeared and went home. Assuming it isn't different per individual, stray transients can stay in Tokyo for several months to several years, but to my awareness there's no set number.

Going Home: in order to go home a transient who's been summoned must fulfil their summoner/pacted humancs desire. Surtr, Azathoth, and Babalon all disappear after fulfilling Arc's desire for them to be their family, leaving behind their sacred artifacts which contain their memories until they disappeared. So, yes, fulfilling the desire entrusted to a transient/playing out their role will cause them to fulfil the conditions of their pact, causing them to disappear. However, we don't know what happens when they do. Thus far, those three haven't come back despite the reset occurring. Arc was able to summon their artifacts but otherwise could not reach them. Their artifacts were taken by Breke who was able to channel the memories within and allow Arc to communicate with Azathoth's memories.

SLIGHTLY MORE FULL VERSION WITH A COUPLE SCREENSHOTS

(read the tl;dr anyway because I probably remembered things while Inwas writing it that I didn't remember to put in the 'full' version lol I WROTE MOST OF THE LONG ONE, WROTE OUT THE TL;DR, THEN FINISHED THE LONG ONE SO. PROBABLY WANNA READ BOTH.)

Transients arrive in Tokyo either by being summoned, by being summoned ACCIDENTALLY(someone wishes to have friends/meet someone new, etc), by being pulled in by the Rainbow Of Transient Light randomly(?) sucking them up when they're in distress/have a wish to fulfil, or some combination of those.

In Macan's character quest, MC and Macan learn that the one who technically summoned Macan was MC. The same thing happens in I think Xolotl's. They end up going to the collided past--or a collided memory?--and when past!Macan is in distress over being alone, MC approaches him and says they're there for him, however past!Macan can only hear them, not see them. He calms down and asks if they're searching for him and says he's going to find them--which causes him to disappear and be summoned to Tokyo in search of this person who wanted to be by his side. Macan realizes that's exactly what happened to him--he heard a voice saying that they were with him and, in his desire to no longer be alone, the transient light came along and took him.

(it's written as 'Magan' in Japanese hence why it's written that way here--this was likely translated before his English name was given.) (Such a request, perhaps, means that he's with MC until he's dismissed by them specifically.)

Xolotl was running from being sacrificed to Tezcatlipoca and MC and future!Xolotl protected him. Seeing himself be weak and seeing himself be strong enough to try and protect MC and seeing MC who refused to leave him and hearing what they had to say, he desired the strength to live with the people he loves and for there to not be sacrifices again. He may not have gone to Tokyo if he hadn't realized that desire through meeting himself and MC. In fact, he may not have survived at all(though maybe Quetzalcoatl would've protected him if not collided MC and present!Xolotl.)

SO. If you recall correctly, MC is implied to be a transient as well. There's also the possibility that they're not, and simply are some poor sob the Game shoved 23+ memories in at once, broke the memories of the host in the proccess, and thus we have MC coming to in a park confused about everything but their own name(of course if that were the case surely someone in Tokyo would recognize them beyond their being the trophy/exile from their home world, so it's not likely.) Lil Salomon says that as a summoned transient they can only go home if they find and fulfil the wishes of their summoner. However they neither know who or where their summoner is.

Transients can appear simply due to someone's desire for companionship. But they don't necessarily appear atop that person, hence not knowing their summoner. They just hear a voice, may not even hear exactly what's being said or asked for, and the light picks them up and drops them off with no further info or ceremony. So if someone is pulled into Tokyo this way they have a summoner even if they don't know it--even if the summoner themself doesn't know. So they won't just disappear over time unless that person unwills what willed them there or they die or something. Plus we don't know how long stray transients stick around if they have no pact/summoner--we just know that they disappear eventually. It's more than a few months, because Alp showed up a few months ago and hasn't disappeared yet.

Several characters are attached to guilds which may keep them from being Strays. However some, to our awareness, have neither summoner/master nor guild. At most they may be attached to schools. Sitri, as you mentioned, is one of them, as is Yule--whom Shiro refers to as a stray transient he sees every year without being corrected(although the situation wasn't exactly a good time to clarify that lol.)

Both of them have been in Tokyo for years without disappearing--and the app is a kind of but not super recent creation, so guilds likely didn't sustain them this whole time. Neither have disappeared. Of course someone may have summoned them or they may be part of guilds without it being stated or perhaps being in a school has the same effect as being in a guild. But we don't know that for sure, either.

(Japanese middle school is from 12-15 years old. Kengo's a second year High School student now, so 16-17 years old. Sitri was a first year while Kengo was a third year, so there's two grades between them. Sitri's been in Tokyo at least 2 years. I believe he mentions seeing Lucifuge in a magazine in Ghenna so he hasn't been here his whole life either. So a few years, but not 15.)

Transients that disappear don't have pacts but transients that come back probably do/have formed pacts/attachments to the world. Remember, Oniwaka, Zabaniyya, and Ophion say to call on them if you need them. They're attached to the player now, perhaps having formed a pact incidentally, assuming the situation that brought them there in the first place isn't still in effect(or they're not still bound by, say, their guild.)

Also, much like in real life, sometimes whatever is home is worse than the horrific things you deal with wherever you immigrate to. Or perhaps you've formed attachments somewhere you've arrived and are willing to endure suffering for them. It's rarely as simple as "we're suffering, we wanna go back to where we came from." Especially since transients likely arrived due to distress or wanting to be anywhere else but home. Some of their worlds don't exist anymore(Old Ones) or are collapsing(Yggdrasil; El Dorado.) Some people have no one and nothing back home and this is a new start for them, even if the start is bad. Also they could be waiting until they go home automatically, but what're you gonna do while you wait? Probably live your life as best you can. If you're gojna be stuck somewherefor a few months you may as well make yourself at home.

So why doesn't MC go around rending people themself?

Well, for starters, they're made to be a high school student most of the day. Where would they find the time lol. Second they're a bit busy trying to save the world and all. . .and if some teenager wandered up to you and said they could get you home if you had an app battle with them, would you really believe that when you've been told your best bet is to either find your summoner or wait out your incidental connection to the world? Sounds like a kid trying to stir up trouble, and not all transients have the app anyway. I mean really would you expect the local homeless population to have smartphones? Probably not.

Furthermore. Spoiler alert

This system of the game, the gates, the transients, it's no accident. It's intentional. Tokyo is the setting for this inter-world competition to prove which world is strongest or something to that effect--and the winner gets MC, the host of the exiles and perhaps some kind of powerful system. Of course what they do with MC is up to them. The Warmongers want to keep the game going so they can fight the powerful MV over and over again forever. We don't know what the Invaders want yet afaik but based on the name I'd assume they want to use MC as a super soldier to conquer other worlds. And the Rule Makers want to use MC to support one of their own worlds as its System. /smacks MC on the back) this baby can hold SO MANY rules and roles! Hold up a whole damn world apparently!!

So think of it this way. . .they could go around rending everyone until the transient light returns them home or to the deaths they desire. . .but would the World Representatives really allow that? They'd just keep bringing in transients. They need to fill Tokyo with them--until transients and app users outnumber the humans naturally belonging to Tokyo--so they can have their little contest.

MC alone would never be able to pull off sending everyone home as long as the Game is running. The worlds would not allow their contest to be ruined.

As for who goes where and does what when unsummoned. The Red Oni hadn't been there long. And perhaps wasn't summoned in the first place, nor had anyone likely explained much to them for that arrival. Also if you felt yourself disappearing, felt your connection to this world just torn off and uprooted and fading away, even if you knew better you'd probably think you're dying. That'd be scary. You'd want to avoid it.

Of course it's also possible the oni was dead or dying to begin with and their connection being severed would send them back to death--like Shino, who'd died long ago in the Land of Wa and when he died in Tokyo he went back to being dead.

The D-Evils don't have anywhere to go back to besides Shiro's book. The world of the Old Ones is gone. As such "home" for them is back with Shiro--and remember, their rules clash anyway. Rending and Ressurection don't mix. MC couldn't rend the D-Evils from Shiro properly because it causes an Exception. At best rending them will send them back to the book until Shiro summons them again. Plus, entities from Old Ones can use their powers without the use of the app--including those with Old Ones artifacts. Shiro can summon the D-Evils at any time, even outside of an app battle--so to send them 'home' doesn't really send them anywhere but back to Shiro since they both have no home to return to and were summoned to exist in Tokyo.

Demons needing to recieve emotions seems to be more of a feeding thing than a transient connection one afair. Like Alp eating dreams--he'll die if he doesn't. It's like "I need to external feelings or I'll starve" not "I need external feelings or I go back to Ghenna." Sitri likely survived thanks to his feathers--his sacred artifact which cause people they attach to to fall in love with whoever touched them previously--causing a constant stream of love towards him as he needs it. As such he doesn't need to have a pact to live, he only needs to make people fall for him to absorb that feeling and then take his feathers back to stop eating.

The canon-ness of MC making pacts with everyone is perhaps debateable. However events, character quests, special quests, etc have characters refer to Mc as Master or Summoner. And the story can sometimes reference events and such(see: meeting characters in events before they're part of the main story, meeting them in the main story, and being able to go "didn't I meet you in [season/holiday]?" And they go "yeah, we did! It's nice to see you again!" So technically events and the like are as canon as you make them. Also having a pact doesn't mean that person can't be your enemy or can't hurt you or is fully at your command, which means that it doesn't necessarily not make sense that characters can be in pacts with/summoned by the player while still being against them. MC likely has the ability to form pacts easily/unconsciously.

This is likely(and this part is speculation!) because of MC's role as the Wanderer--as the host of the Exiles of the many worlds, they're a system in and of themself(or they'e able to be one.) As such attachments to them are like individuals having 'faith' in them, the way Systems sustain worlds. Especially those who had some relationship with or attachment to an Exile they host. This may also cause a pseudo pact with people they meet and get attached to(and are attached to them in turn, not necessarily in a positive way)--like people believing in a faith. The attachment to them, love for them, hate of them, fear of them, is a sort of belief that causes them to be able to stay in Tokyo longer because they are now unwittingly part of MC's system. After all MC is a transient and transients, as far as I recall/understand, don't summon other transients to Tokyo, they only summon artifacts because bringing a whole person and their memories requires a strong means to bind them. Transients' connections are already dependent on someone/something else--which is already taxing as a pregnancy--and that'd be hard for them unless they were born into Tokyo.

In cases like Oniwaka and Zabaniyya and Ophion, they likely needed to disappear temporarily in order to resolve the Exception on top of regaining energy to sustain physical forms in another world. Think of it like closing a program on your computer. If the program clashed with another and an exception occurs you close the one of lesser importance. You can then maybe open it again once things have cooled down with your proccesser and it can handle them at the same time--thus, they come back to Tokyo even after being dismissed by fixing the exception.

So they pop back in because they're still bound to Tokyo. MC only rended them from the exception, not from the world itself. But transients who truly have no connection will go back and stay until summoned again. . . .

(Now that I think about it when someone fulfils the reason they were summoned to Tokyo they disappear and seem to disappear for good. We don't know if they die or what. They've been eliminated from the game. This happens with Surtr, Babalon, and Azathoth. After they successfully, properly became like Arc's family and that desire was considered fulfilled the pact was complete and they disappeared, leaving behind their artifacts.

Red Oni may have been summoned to be a tutorial for the player. But also a tutorial for the player character. Red Oni thus would go away completely after fulfilling that desire of whoever summoned them, thus giving them their fear they'd die because they'd served their purpose.

I just happened to remember/consider that lol ANYWAY.)

Basically it's a bit underexplained I agree.

But that's because you, as the player, as the MC, aren't supposed to know everything that's going on. You're supposed to learn as you go while also being denied information by the Powers That Be. You don't have your memories, you don't know what's going on here until you see/experience/hear about it. It's part of the immersive understanding/storytelling proccess. The characters don't tell you how things work because they only barely understand it themselves--and then when they learn 'this isn't just a game, this isn't just coincidence, there's something greater happening here' everything they know gets thrown into question. The people who do understand it aren't going to tell you much because they don't want you to ruin their game. You're just the final boss and the trophy to be won--and possibly the system upon which the game resides, resetting every time you die so you can struggle to be won someday.

You "can't win."

So you don't need to know how it works.

That doesn't stop you or anyone else from trying to find out, though, nor does it stop you from trying to change it.

. . .I hope that helped a bit! 8'D I don't think you missed much, really. You're right in that it's underexplained but That's Storytelling, Baby!

[heknewwhoyoureallyare]

This dance that he did in this video is almost the exact same replica of how he get laid every night. Even the costuming in this video are exactly right. Complete with the backward cap on to show his bad boy status to the world. Let me explain to you about the meaning of this sacred dance: First he walked into a random dodgy bar without any shirt on, only with his black shorts and sneakers, and the backward cap of course.

All bad boy and cocky, while smiling at the bouncer who will then give him respect and letting him in. After he get in, he walked up to the random hottest slut that he sees in that place. He then started to perform his mating ritual by doing his Pec bounce dance at the hot fine piece of ass and the big tits of his choosing. The bitch who tried to be an upstanding respectful good citizen of the society, will pretend that she is disgusted by it (even though, in reality it drives her wild and crazy! Crazy horny that is). She then turn around and show him her fine piece of ass, and bouncing it up and down a little bit, as a retaliation to his pec bounce. All the while pretending to talk to her real ‘friends’.

This Man who got so impressed by her hot bouncy juicy ass started to ask her a for a dance, by only using his fingers. He doesn’t say much only “come here girl” but judging by his body language, he was very commanding about it.

The cumdump who is allready horny because of the pec bounce that he did, can’t resist those killer smile and dominant attitude anymore and accept his invitation to a dance right away, (despite of her jealous friends objection). The two lovebirds then started to grind on each other in the middle of the dance floor, with her twerking her ass on his big dick and him grinding his big fat cut cock in her bum, with only a few fabrics that separated them and their intimate parts from each other. This public show of an affection, has ignite the excitement and intrigue to the emotion of the other people around them, at the bar. The other bar customers then starting to tell each other about what a beautiful and cute couple they really are. Which makes her ‘friends’ even more jealous.

The Bad boy then beginning to realize that bullying is about to be happen. He then realized that his immense charisma, his beautifully sculpted body, his killer smile, handsome face, and his bad boy attitude has led these beautiful but jealous bitches to start putting down his even more hotter and more physically pleasing in-the-eye sexual partner for the night. Their method of bullying is, by calling her demeaning words that are associated to women, for example ‘slut’ and ‘skank’. You know the word that only men are allowed to use in the bed with his sexual partner of his choice? The one to spice things up? Anyway these ratchet bitches try to slutshaming her and making her feel guilty for being with him. They are also trying so hard to make her fight her own sexual urges as a woman, which is her basic natural instincts for reproduction. This type of behaviors is very wrong and extremely toxic in the eyes of this particular Alpha. So just like a real true Alpha out there, this Man quickly take an action to this situation, and save the day. Like a Commanding Soldier helping a civilian at war, or a White Knight saving a maiden from a Dragon/Evil Witches. He then asked her if she would like to join him to go to somewhere else but here. Under the reason that he has a special gift for her. A very special gift!

The Superhot Slut who is beyond horny right now, say yes to whatever he said and start following him around to the street, while at the same time ignoring her used-to-be-friends/bitches say. Our protagonist Alpha Hero then took her to his place, which is practically a dirty room apartment full of jockstraps, huge ass television, some gym equipment, Gangster movie posters, Football equipment, Dirty Dishes, Unwashed Clothes, HP laptop and gaming console. He basically taking her to his Mancave. Naturally The Woman should feel grossed out about this, but for some reason this room awaken The True Essence of Womanhood in her. It gives her a sense purpose, to make her, to want to clean this place and help her Man to have a better and a more convenient life. She also can’t help to smell the arousing aroma in this apartment. The smell of Manliness. The smell of stingky, intoxicating, but protective aroma that can only be found in Alphas room.

The Alpha then say to his Lovely Fuck Meat, “Are you ready for the special gift that I’m about to give you?” The Woman just nodded shyly, he then dropped down his short pant and show her his big fat 10 inch cut cock. The Woman than open her mother in admiration, she never seen such a beautiful cock on such a beautiful man before. The Man then say “I’m sorry I forgot to tell you” The Woman then ask “what is it?” The Man then replied “I’m poor”. The Woman then felt confused and ask him again “so”. The Man then give her The Most Naugthiest Baddest Boy smile that he can ever give and said “I’m poor so I can’t afford some condoms right now, I guess we just have to fuck without protection tonight” say the Man slyly. The Woman start gigling, she become very shy at the presence of his huge amount of confidence. She just said “Can you pull out though?” The Man said “probably, would you care to find out?”

3 hours later The Man is Fucking her Vagina in the most gruesome way as possible. Punching his big fat long cock inside her pussy reaching out to her guts. She allready cum more than 10 times allready because of this, but he have not cum even once. He just got hornier and hornier every minute. When she ask him if he’s tired yet, he just flex his bicep and said “I’m not easily tired” and continue fucking her Doggystyle position. Eventually The Woman felt very tired, she couldn’t take it anymore and she just ask him to cum allready. Feeling pity to this beautiful but exhausted broad, he gave her two choices for this matter, either he cum in her back, but then they would never meet again, or he get to cum inside her pussy and into her stomach and then they can exchange phone numbers for more free fucking session in the near future. The Woman then ask him what if she become pregnant, of which he replied “Bitch than I just have take you to the abortion clinic! I don’t give a shit about any baby, I just want you to respect my seed..” The Woman who hated his personality, but is highly impressed by his big fat long cock, his stamina, and his fucking skill can’t pass up the chance to fuck him again in the future. She then choose the second option, and he started to poured cum all over the inside of her unprotected stomach. He really is such a kidney tickler. After he finished fucking her raw, he went outside fully naked to get some drink and check on his phone. When he came back to his room she allready fell asleep prettyly in his bed. He then take a photo of her using his Iphone and send it to his all boys Whatsapp group friends that called “The Bang Boys”. Where him and his male alpha friends posted all of the photos that the girls that they just bang out, but made promised to each other to never leaked any the photos to anyone outside the group. Any rule breaker will be severely beaten.

Below the photo of this woman, he type the caption “My Conquest for today boys, I made her to take all of my seed for tonight!” The Boys then start cheering him and showering him with lots of admiration, compliments, and congratulations. She really is a trophy fuck. When The boys ask him how did he manage to get such a fine speciment of a woman into his bed. He made this dance in the morning to teach them step by step guide on how to pick up girls his way. The dance has become sacred for the ‘The Bang Boys’ ever since.

[sol1056]

wuxia/xianxia: a loose and somewhat second-hand introduction to the genre, pt1

Sorry for the unconventional q, but i keep seeing Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation everywhere and I kinda want to get into it but a) don't know where to start (web series? live action adaptation?? wait how many are there!) and b) i don't really "get" wuxia / xianxia, that sorta stuff, i find it really hard to cross that cultural barrier and chinese mentality seems very alien. (it's not that i have no experience w different mentalities but chinese in particular is v hard to grasp w/o sources).

So if you have the time and patience, I'd love to hear a summary of it (like, a coherent summary bc all i get on the wikis is a shower of names and concepts that don't make sense to me) and perhaps some "intro for dummies" abt the relevant parts of chinese history and mentality tied to it? not just the cultivation / buddhist part but also re: familial relationships, philosophy and all that. (v brief and low effort of course) Thank you and sorry for bothering you!

("brief and low effort" referring to what I'm asking from you, not to what I need for me - as in i asked for it so i'm more than ready for a complicated essay, but you can write with as much detail as you like, I don't want to ask for some sort of comprehensive tome)

Okay first, you do realize that if you want “brief and low” for anything, you’re asking the wrong person? I was a philosophy major. brief got drilled out of me a long time ago. 

Second... well, explaining what makes The Untamed / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (mdzs for short, from the chinese title, Mo Dao Zu Shi) such a standout story does require understanding some of the wuxia conventions it subverts -- as well as some that it plays straight (so to speak) very, very well. 

I figure the best approach (again, sadly not brief) is to first get a handle on the genre of wuxia. Gonna break this post into two, so you’re not reading in a single three-hour stretch or something. I’ll do a follow-up about mdzs, to hopefully make it a bit more accessible for you. 

before I do that, let me first say: I didn’t grow up with this genre, so there’s going to be parts that I may miscast unintentionally. for an insider’s view, my go-to voices are @guzhuangheaven, @atthewaterside, @dramatic-gwynne, @the50-person and @drunkensword. if any of them are reading this and can point to more/other/better voices, please do.

I have three analogies -- like cultural doorways --  and like all analogies, they break down when you get into the finer details. In the broad strokes, though, they mostly work, and if nothing else, hopefully they’ll demonstrate that wuxia may be a chinese-specific version, but part of a storytelling tradition that’s nearly universal.

The three doorways are: the american wild west, the samurai era, and the british arthurian romances. And, in a tangential way, the regency period in the romance genre. 

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- 

The term ‘wuxia’ can be translated several ways, but I prefer ‘martial chivalry’. Most wuxia takes place in the jianghu, a harder term to unpack. Generally, though, ‘the jianghu’ has connotations not all that different from what americans mean when they reference the wild west. 

More of a concept than a physical place, the jianghu (like the ‘wild’ west) exists beyond the reach of the law and/or civilization. It’s occupied by a diverse cast of farmers, merchants, beggars, and so on, but also by outlaws, gangs, hermits, pretty much all those who don’t like the suffocating nature of the civilized world, for whatever reason. It’s not a lawless place (except to outsiders); it does have laws, but those are only unto itself. 

So, jianghu is a world to itself, for the most part -- which also makes it kind of timeless. Tang dynasty, Song dynasty, Ming dynasty, it could be any of them and all of them and none of them. Just as the heyday of the cowboys and the cattle drives was barely a decade long, a culture’s romanticized history stretches into lifetimes that exist separate from any date you could pin down on a calendar. 

The average wuxia protagonist would fit in reasonably well as knight errants in an arthurian romance, with one important detail in difference: they’re rarely aristocrats. Wuxia protagonists are just as likely (if not more so) to be lower-born, whether the child of farmers, or servants, some common caste. 

This is where wuxia diverges from the british and japanese traditions, which have a bit more noblesse oblige going on (knights and samurai both being upper-class types). Even ‘aristocratic’ characters tend to be so only within the jianghu -- sort of like the way a territory’s elected leader in the wild west would’ve had no pull in Washington, given they weren’t from a fully-recognized state. 

Wuxia does often have politics, between competing sects (think schools of learning), but that political infighting is independent of the capital’s rules or wishes. A lot of stories -- in the rare cases the topic even comes up -- tends to speak of ‘the capital’ in disparaging terms. 

That’s not to say wuxia is all about the flat social systems (it’s definitely not), but most commonly a rank implies some level of competence/study. The title of sect leader isn’t granted, it's earned. Children inherit, but it’s also a common storyline to have an heir with no skills (who then goes through all the trials and tribulations to finally level up and earn that position in turn).

What makes wuxia hard to grasp is its vernacular: the conventions that form the backbone that make something recognizably ‘wuxia’ and not just ‘historical drama set on a frontier in a loosely-defined time period’. 

Frex: in a Wild West story, convention is two gunfighters at opposite ends of the street, and at least one of them is wearing a holster tied to his leg with string in a way that no real gunfighter wore, ever, but Hollywood came up with the idea and now it’s a permanent part of our imagination. In the arthurian romances,  convention is carrying the token of one’s lady love (a distant, untouchable figure who rarely appears on-page), or meeting the unnamed knight in black on the jousting field. Convention are the samurai who’ll die for their lord’s honor, always touchy and prickly at the first sign of disrespect. 

These are things granted the most remarkable gravity, that to an outsider might seem ridiculous. (Why is there always tumbleweed?) 

Now, wuxia is the latest evolution in a long-lived literary tradition (and by ‘long’ I mean like 2000+ years) -- but like any living tradition, each subsequent generation reinvents it for their time. Part of that reinvention comes from particularly influential writers, who put their own spin on things, and their interpretation becomes the next generation’s standard for the genre -- “of course wuxia must have X” or “a protagonist never does Y”. (Like how Tolkien almost single-handedly changed western concepts of elves, in fiction.)

And here’s where I explain what regency romance has to do with it. Another short-lived period, in real history, but along came Georgette Heyer, who took bits and pieces of actual research, blended them with her reactionary politics, exaggerating some things and ignoring other things completely. The result is a time-that-never-was, but she cast (and still casts) a shadow so vast that I’ve seen multiple romance writers complain that readers will see a footnoted-and-researched version as wrong, if it contradicts one of Heyer’s made-up conventions. 

Modern wuxia has its own Heyer-sized influencers -- like Jin Yong (the Condor trilogy, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils), Wen Rui'an (The Four), Gu Long (The Legend of Flying Daggers, The Proud Twins), to name a few of the biggest. If you have a chance or are inclined, the big names get remade on a pretty regular basis, and catching one will at least let you see some ur-tropes in action. 

But it also means that you can’t really extrapolate, in the sense of saying, “in wuxia, people do X, ergo, X is also a factor in Chinese culture.” It’s like... take any western made in the 50s, and the vernacular is simple. The bad guys wear black hats, the good guys wear white hats, the prostitutes wear bright-colored dresses with frills and the good women wear subdued colors buttoned up to their neck. It told an audience exactly what character filled what role, but that’d tell you zero about real people you might meet in Nebraska or Utah, let alone New York City. 

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- 

Almost forgot: xianxia is basically wuxia but with ‘immortal heroes’ -- so there’s gods, divine influences, non-human beings as characters (main or NPC), etc. (Btw, by ‘immortal’ I mean exactly that, like this character is six hundred years old, that one’s a thousand years old, etc.) You can think of xianxia as wuxia, but amped way up on the mystical scale. 

Xianxia will sometimes take place on earth (jianghu) but sometimes in the celestial realm (heaven). Or a mix of both, like stories where a character falls (or is banished, or defects) from heaven and has to go through various trials and tribulations as a mortal human in order to regain a power, rise in rank, fall in love, or whatever their goal is. 

A number of wuxia stories are driven by some sort of mcguffin, but in xianxia, the mcguffin is more likely to be a powerful spiritual weapon. But I can also think of a number of wuxia in which the mcguffin would fit right in, in xianxia (some near-mystical thing with significant positive, or negative, power independent of the wielder, which often amplifies or boosts the wielder to an inhuman degree, etc). 

Thing is, the mcguffin being divine/infernal supernatural isn’t enough alone to make the story xianxia. I’m pretty sure you need non-human or super-human immortals and/or creatures to be considered in the xianxia genre. 

part two

[docholligay]

Doc recommends novels ask: Hi, Doc! I enjoy a fantasy realm or two, but could happily leave the romance/love triangles/etc behind. Also, it would be great to get to know a world that has real impacts and consequences for their magic system, with logical and interesting world-building included. Any recommendations of novels that might fit this description?

This is hard because I don’t generally enjoy fantasy! Which isn’t to say it’s without merit at all, it’s just not something I personally enjoy, partially due to something you bring up, which is that the magic systems are incredibly flexible to the moment, and I don’t much care for that. That and I am less of a person who enjoys building out a fantasy or sci-fi world than I am the person who wants to get into the brass tacks of what people are thinking and feeling and what is the human element of all of it? 

"I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are."--His Dark Materials

Honestly the best fantasy series I can think of with this criteria is His Dark Materials. The fantasy is not a distraction from the story and emotions itself, any romance in the story is not something that the story needs or necessarily even wants you to give a shit about, and to some extent, I would argue that it’s there at all. It IS a YA book, which is my only stop point here, but I would argue its one of the more complexly written YA books, and has good prose, some nice grey moralities, and there’s no system in it so complicated that you have to sit down and pattern out the rules around it. It’s a world very much like our own, only slightly different. 

It also does a really good job with the nature of goodness and gets into some extremely weird and interesting shit about God that I feel a lot of ways about at once. Can’t recommend the series enough on that level. I have read it as an adult and stand by it, and that’s my Big Test. 

"The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die." --A Song of Ice and Fire

Ahahahah there was a time I would have recommended A Song of Ice and Fire in this, which, to a point, I LOVED, I started reading it as a ...middle schooler? Maybe young high school? When I started falling out of love with fantasy. I still think the first few books are good, but I think  Martin’s biggest problem is he simply took too long, and what is the feel of fantasy now, and what most fantasy readers want, is out of his grasp. Though HONESTLY, if someone took a series of mine I hadn’t finished and made me fucking millions, would I keep writing? Or would I be like, “Aw, I’m retired now, I’m good”? I dunno, it’s easy to pretend you have morals when no one’s giving you  ten million dollars. But it also didn’t rely SO heavily on magic or anything, it was mostly about political machination. 

"where the world ends is where you must begin" --The Gunslinger

I almost forgot that The Gunslinger would actually completely be termed as fantasy. The Gunslinger is a fucking fantastic novel by Stephen King. I avoided reading the entire Dark Tower series for years, because people kept telling me, “Oh it’s nothing like Stephen King” and well I happen to very much like King’s THING, even when it aggravates me, so why would I read something that is nothing like him? Fortunately, what they meant was, “It’s not a horror novel.” I don’t know if I can recommend the entire series even though *I* ended up fucking loving it--I read the whole series in a year and that was with a huge break, but if I said it didn’t have it’s occasionally aggravating moments, I would be lying. But when it’s amazing, it’s so amazing, and the first book is all killer, no filler, and if you just wanted to leave it there, that would be fine. If you DO read the series...read the cliffnotes on Wizard and Glass, it’s boring as shit, and it’s clearly all of King’s backstory notes on Roland while he was trying to get back to writing the series, and like, no hate, but also, it made me stop reading the series for months. Wolves of the Calla, the one that comes after it, is an IMMENSELY fun fantasy-western, which in many ways I guess the series as a whole is? But mostly Wolves of the Calla. 

“Time and I have quarrelled. All hours are midnight now. I had a clock and a watch, but I destroyed them both. I could not bear the way they mocked me.”--Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell

This one is given with caveats--I haven’t read it since I was eighteen, and it might not be as good as I remember it being. I’ll look to reread it next year. But I know at the time I adored it! It has a really fun style to the writing that echoes the style of Dickens and the larger styles of the era, which makes the book an immense amount of fun for people named Doc, who are me. It is an INTENSELY English novel in a number of ways, and how both Strange and Norell can be so strangely (hah) fussy and so competent, and yet inept and caught up in their own petty backbiting drama (especially with each other--the story is, in many ways, about their friendship) just absolutely charmed the shit out of me as a youth. Now I want to reread it ahaha. It’s also, as I recall, a pretty easy read, though long. 

"What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the eye of destiny?" --The Dresden Files

Ohhhhhh boy does this come with caveats. This is a popcorn pulp series. It is a popcorn pulp series that at a certain point fails to deliver even on that promise. But for the first, oh, eight or nine novels, GOD did I love the Dresden Files. One of my favorite things was that it made me discover that though fantasy largely does not speak to me, I can quite love what I have come to find out is called ‘Urban Fantasy”. It had me from the moment where it was like, “Our world, but wizards are real, and they also have to go buy milk at the store” and I was like, “Oh fucking sold” because it allowed me to get into magic without all the “She was born of the CLydroffer lineage of witches, which took their power from air. She ran down to the village of Stratford-upon-Badger’s Nose and took to seeing the local Scriddonk” and anyway, avoiding the medieval setting made me enjoy it so much the more. They have a very fun lawful good character, Harry is that kind of smug asshole protagonist that’s JUST this side of enjoyable, and while there’s romance, up to a certain point at which I hope you abandon the sinking ship, you can ignore it.  Like I said, they’re not any great literary giant, but they’re immense fun in the way that like, Anita Blake was fun for awhile (for my mother at least) or Anne Rice.* 

*I don’t know what this counts as, but Interview With the Vampire is a hell of a book.  I can’t really recommend the others. I might, weirdly, have a copy upstairs in paperback? If you want it I’ll send it along, if I do.

[enchantedisabella]

Why Annabeth is not Hermione 2.0

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a long time, because so many people compare Annabeth Chase to Hermione Granger when they’re really nothing alike. Yes, they’re both the smart, female best friends of the main protagonists, but that doesn’t make their personalities identical. Here are my reasons why.

Annabeth has ADHD and dyslexia and is unfocused at times. Hermione has no disorders we know about and is attentive in class. I understand that Percabeth in high school is a very popular headcanon among the pjo fandom, and Annabeth is indubitably ridiculously clever, but she is NOT going to be raising her hands every second of every day in class and she definitely won’t pass every single subject without even trying. I’d be very surprised if she could stay focused for a full lesson. Honestly, I’d expect her to be labelled as even more of a ‘troubled kid’ than Percy, because Percy has spent years in mortal school while Annabeth hasn’t. It would be Annabeth, not Percy, being the one desperately trying to pay attention but the first to lose focus halfway through. Hermione, as we all know, is the exact opposite, and hates when people disrupt classes.

Hermione is a rule-follower at heart. Annabeth is not. We all remember that time when Hermione Badass Granger kept a woman in a jar for a year, right? However, we also remember the numerous times she’s threatened to report Harry and Ron for breaking the rules- mainly in the earlier books, when their friendship isn’t as developed, but she still acts scandalised whenever rule-breaking is brought up. Hermione will break the rules, because she’s a Gryffindor at heart and she will do anything to protect her friends (trap Rita Skeeter in a jar, report the Firebolt to McGonagall because it might have been cursed), but that doesn’t mean she necessarily enjoys it. Annabeth is a different story altogether. In fanon, it’s usually her who is expected to restrain Percy from doing something stupid (like Hermione and Harry’s canon friendship), but in actual pjo canon, it’s the other way around. Annabeth Chase is smart and clever but she’s also prideful, impulsive, and downright reckless, while Hermione is most definitely not. Annabeth will use any excuse to break the rules and sees no point in regulations if they don’t make any sense, and thinks that authority figures should earn her respect. Hermione basically hero-worships all authority figures unless they’re really bad (eg. Snape and Umbridge). It takes a lot for her to rebel against someone in a higher position than her, and she will willingly give teachers her respect even if they haven’t earned it yet.

Hermione is book smart. Annabeth is street smart. I’m not saying that Annabeth doesn’t like to read, because it’s clearly stated in The Lightning Thief or Sea of Monsters (I can’t remember which) that Annabeth reads so much that Percy forgot that she also had dyslexia. However, in school aus, Annabeth would probably not perform that well on tests and she would absolutely not join spelling bees and win, or have we as a fandom collectively forgotten that in SoM, Percy said that Annabeth could have spent the whole night trying to spell ‘cyclopes’ due to the fact that she kept messing up the letters? And if I hear any reasons like ‘they removed her dyslexia because it didn’t fit their fanfiction, and there’s no need to be so pressed about it’, that’s very fucking ableist, for one, and defeats the whole purpose of Rick Riordan (bless him) making the book’s protagonists have ADHD and dyslexia for his son. Also, it says a lot about fans trying to make Annabeth into Hermione 2.0 when she’s very much not, and then fooling themselves into thinking that the girls’ personalities are carbon copies of each other. Hermione is repeatedly described as the brightest witch of her age- she’s deductive, rational and calculated. She has no problem paying close attention to detail. She spurts out so much information in the books that she has been repeatedly compared to ‘swallowing the textbook’, courtesy of Ron. I can’t even imagine how much she would have to memorise to be compared to that. Annabeth would not be capable of that, nor would she even want to be. She would not see the point in memorising facts, because Annabeth Chase learns things by doing, and Hermione Granger learns things from books. In the Philosopher’s Stone, Hermione is distraught at their first flying lesson because she can’t learn it from a book first. You know who wouldn’t be? Hands-on, street smart, capable Annabeth.

Annabeth values knowledge more than Hermione does. Some of you may not understand why this is, but Annabeth is a daughter of Athena and Hermione is a Gryffindor. They have very different learning strategies and if they ever met, they’d be nothing alike and probably wouldn’t even see eye to eye. Hermione canonically scoffs at ‘books and cleverness!’ both in the movies and the books of the Philosopher’s Stone. Hermione is Sorted into Gryffindor because she values bravery over everything else- even knowledge. Annabeth has always put knowledge first. That’s not to say that Annabeth Who-Took-A-Knife-For-Percy Chase isn’t brave, but she values knowledge above else and she’s willing to fight dirty to get it (as is Hermione, but that’s beside the point). It’s understandable that Annabeth would put knowledge above bravery, because of her parentage. Hermione’s choice is also understandable, given the circumstances, and it’s noteworthy that she repeatedly chooses friendship over cleverness in the series just because she knows its importance. Just to reiterate: the girls are different people. Don’t put them as madly competing in your Hogwarts x Camp Half-Blood fanfictions. Do you honestly think Annabeth would compete with Hermione for the best grades in History of Magic, or that Hermione would ever try her hand at sword-fighting and archery? I don’t think so. This might seem like it’s contrasting my point, but Annabeth probably isn’t going to be interested in most of the lessons while they’re taking notes in a classroom without any hands-on work. She doesn’t function like that. She would do well in Charms or Transfiguration and positively shine in Quidditch, not History of Magic or Muggle Studies or Divination. She values knowledge she deems useful, and the only way for knowledge to be deemed useful by her standards is if she used what she’s learnt in practical spells and not note-taking.

Hermione has flexible moral principles. Annabeth’s are set in stone. Hermione is a very complex character. She repeatedly chastises Harry and Ron for breaking school rules on a daily basis, but it was her idea to go through with the Polyjuice Potion in CoS, her decision to keep Rita Skeeter in a jar, her decision to use a Time-Turner to get to all her classes on time. (Well, she also had to appeal to Cornelius Fudge through McGonagall, but it was her idea.) Hermione’s moral code is flexible, to say the least. She won’t break it for mundane days, but will for special occasions, and that’s because she knows that desperate times call for desperate measures. None of her moral code is written in stone. There is always a point where she justifies her behaviour by decreeing that the situation needs it. There is no line that she isn’t willing to cross depending on how bad the situation is. Hermione has a justifiable reason for breaking rules, and though she doesn’t enjoy it, like I said earlier, she will do it of her own accord if the situation calls for it. She has no point where she says to herself, ‘Okay, this is one rule that I’m not going to break no matter what.’ This girl, this brilliant, ruthless girl, is willing to cross every single line if she absolutely must, and that is why she is not at all like Annabeth Chase. Annabeth Chase, whose principles are set in stone. Annabeth Chase, who is prideful and stubborn and who does not compromise her values no matter what. Annabeth is not ruthless; Annabeth is not cruel. She is the embodiment of- not exactly goodness, but fairness and equality. She gives everyone what they deserve. She literally told a Sphinx off for not giving riddles that make you think, but instead asking questions that you just need a certain amount of knowledge of facts to answer. Let that sink in, because it’s the most perfect example I have. Hermione Granger would have answered them quick as a flash and moved on, because it’s an easy way out, she knows all the answers anyway, and she’d probably treat the Sphinx like an authority figure whose test she has to pass, not change. Annabeth Chase, instead, gets offended and demands riddles that make you think because she will not compromise her principles for anyone or anything, and places so much faith in her intelligence (which is why she values it so much) that even if the questions will be harder, she thinks that it’s downright insulting that they aren’t already. She takes it as an insult to her intelligence. Hermione is flexible; Annabeth is hard as stone.

Annabeth has the makings of a hero; Hermione has the makings of a villain. Sure, Hermione started SPEW and cares for the welfare of creatures and is portrayed as sensitive time and time again, but if she believes that what she is doing is right, she will use wrong methods to get to her goal. After all, when the greater good is at stake, who wouldn’t use less morally superior methods to get to it faster? What’s the murder of a few people who deserved it- maybe Bellatrix or Umbridge- when a greater number of lives can be saved? Hermione is unnervingly logical and although she is sensitive, she is not weak. She might feel pity for Sirius’s experience in Azkaban, because he’s ‘good’, in her mind, but would she feel for Bellatrix, who ‘deserved’ it? And of course Bellatrix did deserve it, but Hermione conveniently ignores that they went through the same experience because only Sirius deserves her pity, because he’s good. Hermione wouldn’t sacrifice Sirius for the greater good, but she would sacrifice Bellatrix, and Annabeth wouldn’t, because as I’ve said, Annabeth does not have a flexible moral code. Annabeth would not stand by and sacrifice Bellatrix, because she is still a person in Annabeth’s eyes, but Hermione would, because there is no line she wouldn’t cross. As long as Hermione thinks that what she’s doing is right, she would condone any action to achieve her goal. I think we all know enough about history to know that that is terrifying as fuck. Hermione, under different circumstances, could be a villain; Annabeth would be the hero and do the right thing no matter what.

These two girls are so inherently, intrinsically different that I have trouble wondering why anyone would think that they were anything alike just because they’re smart and friends with the protagonist. There are probably more points, but I’m tired and it’s a school day and I can’t think of anything more to add on. Anyway, thanks for reading this and I hope nobody makes the stupid, stupid mistake of saying that they are in any way similar after reading this, because I could honestly relate Annabeth more to Ron than I could to Hermione.

[negans-wifeyy]

Shake Hands with the Devil pt.1

Summary: Laila was hungry for revenge ever since the death of her sister. The only way to fight the monster who killed her is to confront him in his natural habitat: the Sanctuary. As she infiltrates the kingdom of the leader of the Saviors in the hopes to kill him, things will not go the way she thoroughly planned. What will she do now that Negan has gotten her in the palm of his hand?

Pairing: Negan X OFC

Warning: None for now but eventual smut

Tags: revenge, hate, possession

Word count: 2361

A/N: Hi everyone! This is the first fiction that I ever post anywhere, and I chose Negan as the male protagonist because I’m literally obsessed with his character. I also chose a black protagonist because I couldn’t find ANY good fics pairing Negan with even a person of color on Tumblr, fanfiction.net or even Ao3. Since there wasn’t anything I could identify myself with, I decided to write my own thing. Hope y’all enjoy. PS: English is neither my first or second language so please be patient and correct me if there are mistakes or it’s not coherent. Also, the text in italics is in the past and time-lapse are separated by asterisks.

A/N 2: This is a repost from the @thoughtsandthotsss​ blog. I wanted this fiction and other content to be on a blog focused solely on TWD. So there you have it again and make sure to like and follow again :) 

———–

For the past weeks, I’ve been doing everything possible that was asked of me to do in the Sanctuary. Attending to my duties, keeping my head down, staying away from trouble and most importantly, avoiding the leading man of the Saviors. But here I was now, sitting face to face with him in his “office” and waiting for my faith.

“Well, well, well” Negan started as he stood up from his seat. “Here we are again, Laila. Just you and me. Last time we were here together, you infiltrated my kingdom, killed a dozen of my best soldiers and then, came to this very room with a gun pointed at the back of my head to avenge your sister’s death.”

I avoided his gaze and stayed silenced. Just being in his presence made me sick to my stomach. Unlike everyone around here, I didn’t fear the man with the barbed-wire bat. Whatever reason he called me in here for, good or bad, he could just get to the point, so I didn’t have to converse with him any longer than I wanted to.

“So, you’re just gonna stay quiet? I remember you being pretty chatty the first time we spoke.” He snickered. “Don’t you wanna know why I called you in here?”

“Not really. Whatever sick, twisted mind game you feel like playing today, I don’t think it’s going to require me to respond back to you.” I finally broke my silence.

“Still quick-witted huh? With your track record, I wouldn’t be so mouthy with me. I mean, I did spare your life and let you become one of my hit women. My most reliable one too.” He responded as he got to the seat closer to me.

“I don’t know how grateful I can be after everything that you’ve done” I caught my breath remembering the terror he caused this past year to me and my entourage. “You kept Sasha captive, you used her life to blackmail the Alexandrians and you led her to kill herself. Oh, and let’s not forget you terrorizing and murdering the members of my community. “

“I thought that we buried the hatchet on your sister’s passing sweetheart. And also, on the deaths of your Alexandria buddies.”

“You mean like Glenn and Abraham? They are not my ‘Alexandrian buddies’ they were my family. And no, I still haven’t let that go since I can’t give anyone of them proper justice.” I said angrily to Negan who just stared at me grinning.

“Don’t really remember the two others but I do miss that strong-headed Sasha from time to time” He said which made my blood boil even more. “Could have used her warrior skills here. Good thing you’re here the replace her memory.”

“Leave her name out of her mouth.” I fired at him. His words were really getting to me.

Talking about my big sister again was making me so emotional but I didn’t want Negan to see me vulnerable, so I held back my tears and stare right back into his sneering eyes. I needed to be as fearless and strong as the day I was going to kill him. Even if it was weeks ago and I clearly failed my mission, I still remember that day like it was yesterday.

**

Negan was wandering by himself in his office where he holds up his meeting with some of the Saviors and probably torture some others. I peaked through the crack of the door and as soon as his back was turned, I sneaked in with my AK-47 directing at his head and locked the door shut.

“Don’t you move now motherfucker” I spat at him as he raised both his hands up to surrender. Even in that position, I could still sense the smirk from that bastard.

“Can I at least turn around to see the face of my perpetrator?” Negan eventually said. “I wanna match the face to the sweet voice I’m hearing”

“Empty your pocket first ” I ordered.

“Bossy. Just how I like em” He said as he threw on the floor all his weapons.

“Don’t be smart with me. I’m gonna search you now and I better find nothing” I patted him down to his ankles in all the usual hiding spots and found a pocket knife that I threw with the rest of his armoury.

"I usually don’t need to use this one. Forgot I had it on me. Sorry sweetheart”

“Don’t give a shit. Turn around and stop calling me sweetheart.”

As soon as he saw me, he immediately recognized who I was. And that infamous grin of his slowly faded away.

“Remember me?” I asked, my voice getting angrier from seeing his face so up-close. “The name’s Laila. Not sweetheart or whatever pet name you tryna call me”

“Ok. Laila, it is then. I do remember you; you’re Sasha’s sister. I think it’s pretty obvious now why you’re here.”

“Yes, I am. I’m going to fucking kill you. For Sasha and every single person that I cherished that you killed over your ego power trip. You fucking psychopath. “ I snapped at him. His smirky little face might have gone away but he still was unfazed about whatever I was saying to him.

"Darling, if you want to end me for some sort of revenge, you’re gonna have to take a number” He said back mischievously.

“Don’t call me darling either!” I barked at him as I charged my rifle at him.

“Wooah woah Laila!” Negan shouted finally shaking in his boots "Even though I know you’re very much capable of doing it, you don’t really wanna kill me”

“What makes you think that? I want your head on a stick more than anything”

“Well, with the massacre that you already caused downstairs, adding me to the list would make you an even more disgusting person that I am”

“You and I are not the fucking same. You knew about the damage I literally just did to your people inside the Sanctuary and chose to stay in your own little space, turning a blind eye. How can call yourself a leader after that?” I said to him even more furious than ever.

“Maybe it was all part of my plan” Negan confidently said with a malicious smile.

“What pla—” I didn’t have time to finish when a sharp object hit the back of my head.

As I fell on the floor, the two last things I saw in between two blinks were Dwight behind me with a gun in his hand and a walkie under the table that was open during this entire encounter. After that, everything was blank.

I woke up possibly hours later tied up to a chair in a small dark room. The daylight coming from the small window brightened the room which meant that I was unconscious all night. In the corner to my right, Simon was standing there waiting for me to wake up. I immediately started squirming and moaning in pain when I saw him calling Negan with a radio. I tried to scream for help but the clothe wrapped around my mouth prevented me from it. It wouldn’t have amounted to anything anyway since Negan’s tall figure entered the room as I was struggling to loosen my restraints.

“Morning sunshine!” Negan exclaimed as he approached me doing his signature “leaning back” jig with Lucille tightly gripped in his hand. “As much as I love the sound of your voice with your mouth gagged right now, I’m really curious to know what you’ve got to say for yourself after the shitstorm you caused yesterday.”

He gestured to Simon to leave us alone and took off the cloth to let me speak.

“Fuck you, you prick.” I said to him without even a flinch. He could bound me all he wants but he wasn’t going to take my dignity, and I could see that it was getting him mad. Negan took his precious bat to lift it up underneath my chin.

“It’s not a habit of mine to put my hands on a woman but if you keep disrespecting me like that, I’ll make an exception. Got it? “He threatened me with the most dominating expression I’ve ever seen. Knowing what he could do, I just nodded.

“Now here’s what’s gonna happen. I’ve seen some of your work on the guards that you executed on your way to kill me and I gotta say, I’m very impressed. I don’t usually do this type of thing with perpetrators who try to gun me down but for you sweetie, I’ll bend the rules. From now on, I want you to be a part of this community as one of my hitmen or should I say hit-woman.”

“So, you want me to kill other people for you, even though I tried to kill you? Thanks, but no thanks ”

“Well, I don’t think you really have a choice sweetheart. It’s either you work for me or I feed you to the walkers that we keep in a cage at the back of the Sanctuary”

As he said that, he pushed Lucille harder into my chin. I definitely felt more threatened and trapped. With my hands tied, both physically and figuratively, I had to accept his offer. 

“Fine. I’ll do it”. I finally said feeling like I fell right into the trap of the big bad wolf.

“Good. Here are the conditions: You’re going to work solely into protecting the Saviours which means no going behind my back to help the Alexandrians or to try to kill me again. If you don’t respect this, I won’t be afraid to use my Lucille here. Are we clear?”

“Yes..“ I surrounded. As soon as I did, he let go of Lucille off my chin.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Negan said a leaned closer to me and put his hands on the handles of my chair. “Whatever pet name I feel like calling you, you’re gonna have to accept it. It’s my kingdom after all and if you’re gonna be part of it, you’ll live by my own rules. Got it, sweetheart?”

I just nodded back and at that point, I didn’t know if I was more disgusted by his cruel behaviour or by myself for being a sellout.

**

And just like that, I became one of Negan’s executioner. Although, from my perspective, I became one of the killing monsters who did Negan’s dirty job for him. Any enemy, walker or human, who is a menace to the Sanctuary gets a bullet right in the skull from me whether I like it or not.

The first week was the hardest. I was so miserable being stuck in this place. It wasn’t because I failed my initial mission or even because I was away from my group with no news from them. It was just the daily apprehension of possibly having to gun down Alexandrians who could try to sneak into the Sanctuary like I did. With me going missing and Rick’s thirst for vengeance as strong as mine, it was very likely to happen. Fortunately, another Saviour told me that the day after my infiltration, Negan paid a visit to Rick and the members of Alexandria to tell them that I was now part of the Sanctuary. He also warned them that if any of them tried to come to my rescue, they would risk their life and mine.

It might not have come from the heart, but I still feel like that threat was a gesture from Negan to ease their minds and mine. So that I could accommodate myself better to the situation, I guess. And after that, I didn’t hear from Negan until today.

**

“Alright now, I won’t speak of her again, especially since she’s not the reason I wanted to meet you today.” Negan said after our back and forth about Sasha. I didn’t understand why he would talk about her knowing how it would make me feel. God, what an asshole he could be.

“What is it then?” I asked him indifferent about whatever he was going to respond.

“Usually, when I meet Saviours in this very room, it’s generally to punish them after they did something wrong, to betray me perhaps.” He said with a deadpan look in his face. At first, I didn’t care about the reason he wanted to meet me but, with those stern eyes staring right back at me, I couldn’t help but gulp. As soon as he saw me sweat a bit, Negan chuckled lightly to himself. “Don’t worry honey, it’s not your case, you can relax”

This motherfucker. He couldn’t help himself but to toy with me a little for his own sadistic pleasure I can only assume.

“You have nothing to worry about precious. Your situation is quite the opposite actually. All I’ve been hearing from everyone around here is how great you’ve been doing. And honestly, their opinions don’t really matter since I’ve been keeping an eye on you daily” Negan surprisingly said.

“Like spying on me?” I asked quite unsettled.

“Not spying on, just keeping an eye like I said.” He corrected. “It’s not like you’ve been doing anything shady babe. I observed you from afar and all I saw was a great warrior protecting her community.”

“You mean forced into protecting it? The Sanctuary is not my community.” I told him very truthfully.

“Whether it was intentional or not, I saw how well you fought and I wanted you to know how pleased I am to see that. Which brings me directly to the point of this meeting”

“I thought we were never gonna get there. Why did you call me here?”

"Hush sweetheart. I’ll tell you eventually, but I need you to keep an open mind”

“Ok..”

“I wanted to promote into a position that will give you the best accommodations you can get in the Sanctuary while still being my main hit-woman”

“What position is that?

“I want you to become one of my wives”

[inessencedevided]

The Untamed, episode 18 - watching notes

I know I'm slagging a bit. So sorry, life in quarantine is - somehow - busy. I want to watch the untamed all the time, but I just can't right now :/

Last on "Sophie wstches the untamed": Wei Wuxian is a self-sacrificing idiot but what else is new

Wei Wuxian, third young master, just used his cultivation power to catch a chicken

And icon

And now she's his hunting companion. I fully support them :Dh no, one of the wangxian mirror is hurt 🥺

But I'm glad he's back. I've been anxious to find out what will happen to them

Completely random, but I've just realized that apparently "Shifu" (please pardon my spelling) is Chinese for "Master". I knew the word from avatar the last airbender, but never knew that its chinese 🙈 (I realised this because Song Lan is repeatedly calling "Shifu!")

There is just something incredibly disturbing about people crying tears of blood

So wait, Xue Yang blinded him with some kind of poisonous powder?

Ooohhhh! I never realised that this legendary Master of wwx's mother and Xao Xingchen is a woman? (Or I did and forgot again)

(Sorry. The fact that there is such a disparity between the number of male and female significant characters on this show is maybe the only thing that's bothering me right now. I've seen worse on other shows though and the female characters that are there are great, so I'm not that bothered by it.)

Wen Qing is as much of a fangirl of the Baoshen Wanderer as I'd be :D

OMG they're going to look for her!!! Pleasepleaseplease let them find her! 😭

Also, the way wwx's whole face softens at the mention of some link to his parents 😢

Those needles going like 5 centimetres into Jiang Cheng's skull ... *shudders*

Turning serious for a second: I know Jiang Cheng is grieving right now, but even so, the fact that he can only see worth in either his live or his death if he is able to seek revenge is ... depressing. It says a lot about his source of self-worth, as well as how much he depends on some form of outside validation. Poor guy :(

Not done with my feminist bullshit yet: I don't quite know in what way it is significant, but I love the fact that in a setting where power is largely transfered from father to son or from (mostly) male masters to a largely male student body, our protagonist's powerful ancestors and grandmaster where women. His mother was a powerful cultivator, his father the servant. And his mother also learned from a female cultivator who seems to have acquired almost legendary status within this world. I can't help but think that this exemption to the rule is somehow linked to who Wwx is as a character. He's a trickster. He defies customs left and right and even though I don't know how yet, he will somehow go against the other clans in such a major way that his own sworn brother will find it justified to kill him. But he's still the protagonist. We're meant to root for him. I can't help but hope that in a setting so defined by rigid customs and traditions, including a patriarchal structure, this story will promote that those customs shouldn't simply be upheld for their own sake, that when they defy what is morally right, one should break and reform them. (Maybe I'm going too far with my analysis here, but that is both a feminist message and a very anti-authorotarian stance, the second of which is one hell of a statement in modern day china)

Why do I have a feeling that Wei Wuxian is promising too much? It would be way too easy if this worked :/

Jiang Cheng held his chopsticks the wrong way round 😭🥺

Jiang Cheng: "Tastes terrible"

Also Jiang Cheng:

I live for Wen Qing's silent disapproval

Wei Wuxian ...

He's still going to sacrifice his own golden core, right?

And he's not telling Jiang Cheng...

This is going to be one of those shows again where 90% of the conflict could have been avoided if people had just GODDAMN TALKED TO EACH OTHER, isn't it?

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

The way wwx and Shijie are remembering the home they have lost through food is so relatable, it breaks my heart 💔😔

AAaaawwwwww, oh my god!!!!

Little Wei Ying!!!! 😭😭😭

I did not expect this flashback but it makes me so happy!

I mean look at him!!!!

(Sorry for the shitty pic of my laptop screen but LOOK AT HIM! 🥺)

Shijie! 😍

To be fair to little Jiang Cheng, a kid that she wouldn't understand why he suddenly can't have puppies anymore

My heart ... 💚💚💚

Shijie has just always been there for both of them and holding them together. I can't 😭

Also little Jiang Cheng's "I'm sorry"! He just wants to be loved. Then and now :'(

I don't know, I'm just weak for characters that bear their inner child's pain into adulthood ...

Can you not give me wwx / jc brotherhood feels when I know for a fact where this leads??? 😭😭😭

"You me and Cheng, the three of us, we must be together forever and never ..." "never be parted." - *they immediately part ways*

I CAME HERE THINKING I'D GET MY HEART RIPPED OUT BY TWO GAY IDIOTS NOT BY A TRAGICALLY DOOMED FAMILY! THAT'S GODDAMN FALSE ADVERTISING!

sorry

don't lie to them you idiot!!!

We'll see song lan again, won't we? Cause I still don't understand what exactly happened to him and why

Also, I want to know what he originally wanted them to tell Xiao Xingchen 🧐

"None of them cherishes his own life." Wen Qing knows my pain

That was a hard cut to a battle montage ...

LAN WANGJI!!! 😍😍😍 I've missed you so much!

I'm still about confused about wwx's plan here

Not the goal, just the execution

That mountain shot with the bells is awesome!

Okay, I'm not quite sure what's happening here. This person might be the true Baoshen Wanderer. But I don't think so. I think it's more likely she is either Wen Ning or Wei Wuxian in disguise (I'm sure they could also alter their voice) and Wei Wuxian has not given up his plan to exchange his core for Jiang Cheng's

Either way it's just unfair that this is where the episode ends 😅

@sweetlittlevampire @fandom-glazed @elenirlachlagos @allhailthedramallama @luckymoony (hope you guys are doing okay 💚)

[somegirlsnerdywords2]

Anime i’ve Watched

That begin with a D (Part 1)!

Yep this is how i’m going to bring over all the anime and manga i’ve watched and posted about on the old blog. It’s not so detailed but it will have to do. Anything new I watch or read from this point on will have their own posts.

Dance with Devils:

Genres: reverse harem, demons, supernatural, romance, vampire, shoujo

Synopsis: Ritsuka Tachibana has always been a good student, so she is completely shocked when she is suddenly summoned by the student council. Even more, they seem to think of Ritsuka as a troublemaker. Led by the handsome Rem Kaginuki, the student council—also consisting of Urie Sogami, Shiki Natsumizaka and Mage Nanashiro—tries to question her, but it soon becomes clear that they have ulterior motives.However, this is only the beginning. When her mother gets kidnapped, her life is turned upside down, and Ritsuka gets drawn into a world of vampires and devils. Both groups are searching for the "Grimoire," a forbidden item allowing its owner to rule the world. The return of her brother Lindo from overseas gives her hope, but even he appears to be hiding something. In a world filled with secrets, Ritsuka questions whom she can trust in this dark musical tale, while the handsome and dangerous members of the student council compete for her attention.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 8/10

Finished airing in 2015 with a total of 12 episodes. 

My Thoughts: One of the better animes in the reverse harem genre. Little bit of fantasy, drama, romance. This one was actually a musical... or at the very least had a notable amount of musical numbers throughout the series. I do love me a good musical. To be fair this anime had some big issues, though if you’re just looking for a bit of halfway decent reverse harem fun this should suit you just fine!

Darling in the FranXX:

Genres: action, drama, mecha, romance, sci-fi

Synopsis:  In the distant future, humanity has been driven to near-extinction by giant beasts known as Klaxosaurs, forcing the surviving humans to take refuge in massive fortress cities called Plantations. Children raised here are trained to pilot giant mechas known as FranXX—the only weapons known to be effective against the Klaxosaurs—in boy-girl pairs. Bred for the sole purpose of piloting these machines, these children know nothing of the outside world and are only able to prove their existence by defending their race.

Hiro, an aspiring FranXX pilot, has lost his motivation and self-confidence after failing an aptitude test. Skipping out on his class' graduation ceremony, Hiro retreats to a forest lake, where he encounters a mysterious girl with two horns growing out of her head. She introduces herself by her codename Zero Two, which is known to belong to an infamous FranXX pilot known as the "Partner Killer." Before Hiro can digest the encounter, the Plantation is rocked by a sudden Klaxosaur attack. Zero Two engages the creature in her FranXX, but it is heavily damaged in the skirmish and crashes near Hiro. Finding her partner dead, Zero Two invites Hiro to pilot the mecha with her, and the duo easily defeats the Klaxosaur in the ensuing fight. With a new partner by his side, Hiro has been given a chance at redemption for his past failures, but at what cost? [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 6/10

Finished airing in 2018 with a total of 24 episodes. 

My Thoughts: Ohhhh how I wanted to love this one. After Kill la Kill I have the highest of hopes for anything Trigger releases but unfortunately they tend to fall short of my expectations... such a shame. The art, animation and themes were fantastic but that’s about where the good times end in all honesty. I will never forgot just HOW they operate the mechs.... those images will forever be burned into my memories.... so thanks for that I guess?? This series had it’s moments and wasn’t a complete dumpster fire but overall it just wasn’t anywhere near the masterpiece I hoped it would be. The disappointment factor probably took a few points off in the end. 

Deadman Wonderland:

Genres: action, sci-fi, shounen, horror

Synopsis: It looked like it would be a normal day for Ganta Igarashi and his classmates—they were preparing to go on a class field trip to a certain prison amusement park called Deadman Wonderland, where the convicts perform dangerous acts for the onlookers' amusement. However, Ganta's life is quickly turned upside down when his whole class gets massacred by a mysterious man in red. Framed for the incident and sentenced to death, Ganta is sent to the very jail he was supposed to visit.But Ganta's nightmare is only just beginning.The young protagonist is thrown into a world of sadistic inmates and enigmatic powers, to live in constant fear of the lethal collar placed around his neck that is slowed only by winning in the prison's deathly games. Ganta must bet his life to survive in a ruthless place where it isn't always easy to tell friend from foe, all while trying to find the mysterious "Red Man" and clear his name, in Deadman Wonderland.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 6/10

Finished airing in 2011 with a total of 12 episodes. 

My Thoughts: Just go check out the completed manga is you’re interested in this series and watch the anime for more content. Pretty cool premise with decent art and music but is incomplete and very unlikely to receive another season.

Death Note:

Genres: mystery, police, psychological, supernatural, thriller, shounen

Synopsis: A shinigami, as a god of death, can kill any person—provided they see their victim's face and write their victim's name in a notebook called a Death Note. One day, Ryuk, bored by the shinigami lifestyle and interested in seeing how a human would use a Death Note, drops one into the human realm. High school student and prodigy Light Yagami stumbles upon the Death Note and—since he deplores the state of the world—tests the deadly notebook by writing a criminal's name in it. When the criminal dies immediately following his experiment with the Death Note, Light is greatly surprised and quickly recognizes how devastating the power that has fallen into his hands could be. With this divine capability, Light decides to extinguish all criminals in order to build a new world where crime does not exist and people worship him as a god. Police, however, quickly discover that a serial killer is targeting criminals and, consequently, try to apprehend the culprit. To do this, the Japanese investigators count on the assistance of the best detective in the world: a young and eccentric man known only by the name of L. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 9/10

Finished airing in 2007 with a total of 37 episodes. 

My Thoughts: If you’re an anime fan and haven’t at least heard of Death Note you may have been living under a rock. Or maybe the only reason you know this title is because of that dumpster fire of a live action western remake... if so I am so so sorry. Strong beginning with an alright end. A great psychological series overall though. Unique and iconic. 

Death Parade: 

Genres: game, mystery, psychological, drama, thriller

Synopsis:  After death, there is no heaven or hell, only a bar that stands between reincarnation and oblivion. There the attendant will, one after another, challenge pairs of the recently deceased to a random game in which their fate of either ascending into reincarnation or falling into the void will be wagered. Whether it's bowling, darts, air hockey, or anything in between, each person's true nature will be revealed in a ghastly parade of death and memories, dancing to the whims of the bar's master. Welcome to Quindecim, where Decim, arbiter of the afterlife, awaits! Death Parade expands upon the original one-shot intended to train young animators. It follows yet more people receiving judgment—until a strange, black-haired guest causes Decim to begin questioning his own rulings. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 9/10

Finished airing in 2015 with a total of 12 episodes. 

My Thoughts: Now this was an interesting one! Here we have the concept of death in game form. Each episode a new player is introduced and our leading pair takes them through their chosen game. Morality, mystery and a dynamic leading pair are what drive this character driven series. You’re sure to experience a wide range of emotions while watching this anime and the opening theme was pretty good as well. Why not give it a go if it sounds like your kind of thing!?

Denki-gai no Honya-san:

Genres: comedy, seinen, slice of life

Synopsis:  Umio is a shy kid who just started his part time job at a manga store smack dab in the middle of the city. But his lifestyle isn't as glamorous as the neon lights that illuminate the city. Umio's closest friends are his co-workers who are all unique characters, to say the least, and although they're nice people, they have their quirks. They are a tight knit group of friends, have nicknames for each other and spend their weekends inside, sheltered from the extravagant scene happening on the outside. (Source: MU)

My Rating: 10/10

Finished airing in 2014 with a total of 12 episodes. 

My Thoughts: Something light after this unusually heavy themed list. A lovable cast of characters drive this situational comedy and it’s an abosulte joy to watch each and every one of the antics they manage to get up to. A great series to bang out on a day when you aren’t feeling so great and need a little something to lighten your mood. You’re unlikely to find any deep life lessons here but it’s sure to tickle your funny bone. 

Devilman: Crybaby:

Genres: action, demons, horror, supernatural, ONA

Synopsis:  Devils cannot take form without a living host. However, if the will of an individual is strong enough, they can overcome the demon and make its power their own, becoming a Devilman. Weak and unassuming, Akira Fudou has always had a bleeding heart. So when his childhood friend Ryou Asuka asks for his help in uncovering devils, Akira accepts without hesitation. However, to Akira's surprise, the place they go to is Sabbath: an immoral party of debauchery and degeneracy. Amidst bloodshed and death, demons possess the partiers, turning their bodies into grotesque monsters, and begin wreaking havoc. In a reckless attempt to save his best friend, Akira unwittingly merges with the devil Amon and becomes a Devilman, gaining the power to defeat the remaining demons. Though it grants him great power, this new partnership awakens an insatiable and primeval part of Akira. Having the body of a devil but the same crybaby heart, Akira works alongside Ryou, destroying those that harm humanity and his loved ones. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

My Rating: 4/10

A 10 episode ONA that finished airing in 2018

My Thoughts: And we’re back at it with the dark stuff... I was not a fan. The art.animation had some real cool moments as did the music but it was just a bit much in my opinion. Rushed and nonsensical with characters I couldn’t care less about. Gratuitous violence and nudity. To be fair there are plenty who enjoyed this anime, unfortunately for all of you I was not one of them.

[takaraphoenix]

So... Why do you think Tangled the series is crap?

*blinks surprised* Well, this was defininitely not what I expected in my inbox this morning. Okay. xD

EDIT: So answer under the cut. If you still end up reading it and don’t want to hear criticism of the show, I really don’t know what to tell you…

1. Eugene/Rapunzel

What really didn’t do it any favors was the fact that before I started watching Tang/ed, I had just finished watching Tarzan the animated series for the first time. And, I’ve gone on a lengthy praise-rant about that one but the sum of it is that Tarzan is a beautiful portrayal of a healthy relationship and its growth.

Tang/ed flat-out forgot Eugene existed for the majority of season 1. Like. He was there. Occasionally. More in the background. Showing up after the adventures. And even when he was prominently featured, he didn’t get any romantic scenes with Rapunzel. They severely cut back on the Eugene/Rapunzel interactions in season 1.

Most of Rapunzel’s screentime was spent with New BFFOC #1, while most of Eugene’s screentime was spent with New BFF OC #2.

And I love Eugene/Rapunzel, I love their tenderness and how they got together in the first movie. I had expected a Tarzan level of romantic growth, development and focus on their romance. I mean, seriously, the whole movie had little going on that could have been continued, what with the hair cut and the witch gone, there was only “Rapunzel gets to reunite with her family and her and Eugene’s relationship gets to grow and develop while Rapunzel learns what it means to be a princess”.

Holy shit would I have loved a TV show with that premise and focus.

Instead, they sidelined Eugene for most of season 1 in favor of focusing on the new OCs - and yes, I admit, the Eugene/Rapunzel got better and got more screentime and actual development in season 2, but that’s… a whole-ass season too late in my opinion.

The Eugene/Rapunzel dynamic was what carried Tang/ed the movie, but the show put Eugene on the backburner to focus on its new shiny things. He should have been right there, at her side, every step of the way, not her sneaking off with only Cassandra all the time. He should have been her rock, her number one fan and supporter.

2. The Parents

Rapunzel’s parents? The freaking trauma of the whole thing? The loving reunion, the bonding time? Barely there and even then it sets in relatively late and very much only in between. This should have been one of the main angles of this show; after so many years, a whole life-time in fact, they are reunited with their daughter, now it’s time she learns what you love and what you’re like and you learn what she loves and what she’s like, you get to show her her kingdom and tell her about her family. It does however end up more like the… D story of the cartoon, really.

Half the time, they just Exist. And most of the times that they are prominently featured, it’s for dad to somehow royally screw up, really… Which only made me sadder, because I usually love Disney Dads. Like, Disney creates beautiful dads. Instead, this show continued making him mess up.

The missed opportunity for bonding time, real bonding time, in actual character arcs, not just in throwaway episodes maybe every now and again, is just… so infinitely sad to me as someone who loves a good family dynamic and who, looking at a movie that literally was about “long-lost daughter is reunited with her parents”, absolutely expected that to be in the focus somewhere, not in the background.

3. The OCs

In number 1, I already mentioned New BFF OC #1 and New BFF OC #2, so lets give them names and let’s also dive into them.

I love Lance Strongbow. He is genuinely the one thing about this cartoon that I absolutely adore. He’s the type of personality Eugene absolutely would have gotten into trouble with as a kid. Their dynamic is so well-captured and he’s a delight.

My problem is Cassandra. I really hate that character, hated her even before the reveal that ultimately made me drop the show.

Look. Rapunzel is this incredibly positive sunshine girl. And they… gave her a pessimistic, sarcastic, snarky best friend. That’s a really hard clash and it can work brilliantly, or it fails. In this case, it fails, because Cassandra constantly channels her sarcastic snark into mean comments and insults aimed at Eugene.

Who, the actual ever-loving fuck, would stand for that?

Who would let this new chick just constantly insult your partner, stab at your partner with words, put your partner down, and then decide “Yes. You are my New Best Friend!”. If someone would treat my girlfriend, who is absolutely amazing and whom I adore, the way Cassandra treats Eugene? I would definitely not befriend that person, what the fuck.

And that’s not taken into consideration Cassandra’s side of things. She seemed to think of Rapunzel as her best friend, but she still had to constantly vocally insult Rapunzel’s boyfriend. Who does that? You don’t like him, okay fine, shut up about it though, no reason to always be extra mean to him, especially not while Rapunzel is right there to hear you.

It’s just… I get it, I get when you don’t like your friend’s partner. But… Cassandra has no actual reason to be that way with Eugene? He literally never did anything to her. He saved Rapunzel, he was ready to die to save Rapunzel, way before Cassandra even knew Rapunzel. If anything, he should have her respect, but at the very least he should have the benefit of the doubt.

I don’t like this unfounded hostility toward Eugene and I don’t like how Rapunzel just smiles and ignores it and never calls Cassandra out on it.

And then the point where I stopped watching the show. When Cassandra, who is supposed to be Rapunzel’s best friend, betrays her because of Gothel. Because of course it’s revealed that she’s Gothel’s daughter - they really had to retcon her into being Gothel’s daughter, they really had to do that cheap dump trick, never mind who would have slept with her, when, oh how convenient that her kid is Exactly The Same Age as Rapunzel despite Gothel being literal centuries old, and like fuck that woman would have raised a child on her own like that, the only reason she tolerated Rapunzel was because of her powers. But no, now Gothel had a secret toddler before stealing Rapunzel and instead of ever, at any point, getting her daughter back, she just traded her for superpowered Rapunzel. Which is just such bullshit writing and so cheap and cringey, but to then make Cassandra, who was supposed to be Rapunzel’s best friend and who knew of the abuse, who knew of the trauma that Rapunzel had suffered at the hands of Gothel, betray Rapunzel because “mommy liked you more!” was just… the ultimate Fuck You to me, personally.

And while we’re at OCs and cringey bullshit writing - they really had to retcon Eugene into being A Prince All Along. And not just… any prince, no, no, since she is the sun and her kingdom watched over the sun drop, he is the moon and his kingdom watched over the moon drop and isn’t that super poetic? But that’s beside the point, that comes later, for now just the fact that they couldn’t even let Eugene stand on his own either, they had to also retcon him.

That’s like if the Aladdin show had decided to introduce the sultan of the neighboring kingdom and oh no wait he’s Al’s father now, Aladdin was a prince all along after all actually! No, that show at least kept Al’s suddenly alive father also a streetrat and thief.

That’s what Tang/ed should have done, if they had to retcon Eugene out of orphanhood. Make his dad a supposedly Big Bad and thief until at the season finale it is revealed that they’re father and son and dad maybe never even knew Eugene existed or whatever.

But to make him a prince just like that and have Eugene act so… nonchalant about it all and take it all in such stride, after all these years… it was bullshit.

Also, before we get into the big issue (because yes, so far, this was the small stuff that bothered me), let’s talk about Varian. Man was that a heap of bullshit too. Cute adorable kid who could have become an ally… had to… turn Angry And Bitter and feel betrayed by sunshine protagonist because something happened that was absolutely out of sunshine protagonist’s control. I hate that plot-tool so incredibly much. And then he’s just… redeemed and immediately forgiven and All Is Good. Pff.

4. The Moon

Fuck this. Fuck this. Fuuuck thiiis.

Gods, I can’t put into words how much I loathe the fact that they took “so she had a sun drop, right? Let’s now add–A MOON DROP! *gasps*”… It’s so stupid, it’s so stupid, it’s so stupid.

And badly handled, man.

The contradictory powers would have been cool. The moon drop as the shadow side to her could have had like… potential. But what they did with it? With the weird black stones, with the weird sudden black hair (why in the world would the moon incantation work on her, she is literally the sun drop and has no attachment to the moon drop). Why would the moon drop black stones cause her magic hair to grow back, that was bullshit too.

Like, yeah, the whole hair thing is questionable at best in the movie already, I know - why would cutting it have an effect on the magic, since the magic is inside of her, that was nonsense.

But that it now just… grows back. And like. the full length. For no reason. Not that she just turns blonde again and her hair grows back the normal way, nope. Sudden 10 meter of hair. Because… I mean, you can’t make a Rapunzel show without Rapunzel’s classic long hair, I guess.

That whole sun and moon thing was so… stupid, yeah, and badly handled and executed because the powers just make no sense and the cause and effect there are just so weird. It was very much just “it does whatever the plot requires it to do” and I hate that kind of writing, I prefer set rules within the magic that make sense.

Also, watching this parallel to Elena of Avalor, who also had a sun and moon balance plotline and handled that on a way more evened out playing field? Yeah, that only made Tang/ed look even worse.

5. The Animation

We’re taking the part where I personally think the art style is ugly as fuck out of the equation here, because I know that’d be an unfair point and that others find that style… pretty… for some reason.

The main problem here is more that good gods do I miss 2D movies when I have to sit through these kind of tie-in shows. Because back in the day, a tie-in show actually tied into the movie, in art and animation style too.

I hate that style-break, it’s dumb. It’s dumb on Big Hero 6 too.

Seriously. You’re Disney, you have the freaking budget nowadays, if you make a TV tie in for a movie, at least try to find an animation style that is vaguely in line with the movie…

Like, the argument that 3D animation would be more expensive - or, you know, more easily looks cheap as fuck - doesn’t even count if you consider that this is DISNEY. I’m serious, look over at DreamWorks.

Sure, sure, many were bothered with the cheaper animation of the How to Train Your Dragon series, but it was at least 100% in line with the movie and let’s be real you can’t expect the same animation budget for a show like you got for a movie and that was always the case. But it was close enough.

They could have done this for Tang/ed. Especially considering it’s Disney and they literally have all of the money.

I mean, again, look at DreamWorks - Trollhunters may just be the prettiest 3D animated series out there. That looks gorgeous, in animation.

There’s no reason why Disney can’t do that, can’t put that much effort into its tie-ins of its 3D movies. No reason at all.

Instead, they went with what I assume is a cheaper way of animation and just a huge fuck you to the gazillionaire corporation that has the budget to book its movie stars into whole-ass MCU tie-in shows and would have the budget to fully animate a Tang/ed show in the same quality level as the movie if they wanted (and I’m not even asking for that, really).

It’s cheap. It looks cheap. It’s a jarring clash with the original movie and if you make a tie-in for a movie there should be no clash between the two.

–

Well, there you go. The five reasons why I personally think this show is crap.

I was really excited for a tie-in to this movie and I had really low expectation - like, literally I just wanted to see Eugene/Rapunzel be cute and Rapunzel bond with her parents, that was literally all I expected. And I only got half-assed attempts on both of those, while the focus got completely derailed by a newly added OC and a whacky, very forced plotline.

[gascon-en-exil]

Joining the Game Late: S1E1 “Winter is Coming”

I’ll be starting off with a brief synopsis of each episode, so those following along don’t have to go back and rewatch or look up what happens in each one.

Synopsis

Suddenly, ice zombies. There’s a dead man at court and the queen and her brother are acting suspicious. Rigid Anglo legalism on display in the North in spite of the aforementioned ice zombies. Heavy-handed foreshadowing with dead animals and Bran climbing stuff. The king has a request for Ned and they’re very close, but don’t worry - there’s a dead woman in there to make it not weird. Jon gets called a bastard every two sentences and this makes him sad. Daenerys’s creepy brother marries her off to ethnic Other eye candy, she gets dragon eggs, and then the eye candy rapes her. Dead man’s widow, also Catelyn’s sister, suspects foul play and flees the capital. Bran discovers the Lannister twincest and gets shoved out a window.

Commentary

I had heard that the first few seasons of GoT were consistently decent to good, and after watching this pilot I have to say I’m genuinely impressed. Admittedly if I were coming into the show completely blind back in 2011 I’d have been overwhelmed trying to keep up with the characters and plotlines this episode sets up in very short order, but that’s one of the perks of approaching this kind of media in hindsight like I’m doing. As it stands there’s some interesting plots and some good material for a number of character arcs already, and I’ll be looking forward to watching some of them in particular develop.

But...yeah, like I thought I’m immediately not really into the Starks as the main PoV family. Ned quipping to Cat that “it’s your gods with all rules” is such a lie even when I barely know anything right now about the pseudo-Catholic faith of the southern kingdoms (except that the tolling of their bells for a funeral service sounds suspiciously similar to the bells rung before Mass), because these Northerners and their “old ways” keep to such simple-minded notions of oaths and justice and such. Also, the men of the Night’s Watch have to be celibate for...some reason; I guess with them freezing half to death at the edge of the world for the rest of their lives they’re expected to have blue balls in addition to blue everything else. It’s not like any of the Starks individually offend my sensibilities - hell, if they keep building Ned like this I might actually have an emotion when he gets executed and loses his decoy protagonist role - but nothing about their culture appeals to me. I hope the action shifts to the south soon, even if it’s mostly to the treacherous King’s Landing.

As for the party come up to visit them in Winterfell: Robert’s a boorish slob and I totally get why Cersei’s not into him, Cersei appears to have been placed in a terrible situation to which she’s responded by becoming terrible herself (fully understandable), Jaime is a handsome dick who’ll attempt to murder kids and has the worst taste in places to have a booty call (I would not fuck anyone on the floor of such a filthy tower), Tyrion gets to be poignant with Jon and has a couple of funny lines besides (what do they say about Northern girls, Tyrion? That they wear medieval jockstraps?), and Joffrey hasn’t said anything but I have no idea why Sansa thinks he’s so hot when he’s decidedly average. A crown in your inheritance is like having everyone around you wear super beer goggles, I suppose.

The Daenerys plotline hasn’t got much to it other than what I’ve already mentioned so far. At first I thought the detail about the Dothraki cutting off their braids when defeated in combat was a sign that they didn’t fight to the death and were more pragmatic than might be expected of a warrior culture...but then one of them gets disemboweled at wedding party and his opponent chops off his braid so what’s even the point? Is it just a dick joke? If that’s the case Khal Drogo is fittingly packing, because up until the rape scene he’s really just a built half-naked guy to ogle if you’re into that primitivist look. It’s not like there’s any other male nudity on offer, apart from a scene of Robb and Jon (plus that one guy who hangs around with them who hasn’t been named yet) all shirtless together and looking as bloodless and unimpressive as Anglos always do. But there’s so many topless women, eesh. I guess I should just try to get used to it. It’s a bit odd, too, because already there’s this undercurrent of how men use sex to control women, or how it’s just a hobby for some of them (like with Robert and Tyrion) even as all these topless scenes were clearly shot with the (straight) male gaze in mind. This plays into my theory as to why the details of Dany’s wedding night were changed from the book, where I’ve heard it’s consensual but where she’s also noticeably younger. The way it goes on the show allows it to keep the creepy factor while also casting an actress old enough to expose herself for the camera. So sex as power play used to subjugate women + fodder for fap material, set against a backdrop of a seaside cliff at sunset like a twisted harlequin romance novel cover.

Oh, and I forgot about the dragon eggs. If dragons are supposed to be extinct or nearly so and their eggs so incredibly rare, isn’t it a little strange that someone just gives Dany three of them as a wedding present? I know she’s the one to eventually hatch them, but it’s not like she or anyone else knows that at the time. Would the Targaryen association with dragons count as reason enough?

One last note on the gore: a minor reason I was holding off on watching GoT was because I’d heard that it was graphically violent which is not something I care for. Based on the first episode however the gore seems unrealistic or stylized enough to not bother me, though that could always change later.