#also very little fight scenes more of a mysteries elements

[bellaroles]

'The fourteenth year of Chenghua' is so good! Why haven't I read this sooner? Well I love Thousand Autumns but I'm starting to love this more!

[dragonagecompanions]

Could you do like a head cannon for like 1920 noir inquisitor companions/romances

You have to listen to this while you read.

Cassandra: She's a hardened murder cop with a hidden love for romance and no mercy for the criminal underground. She wrote the book on playing by the rules, but when things get tough she'll stab the book and do what's right.

Varric: Sometimes an author has to know his element to discover the truth. Few people would expect the renowned serial novelist to be caught dead in a speakeasy as seedy as the Hanged Man, but with a pencil behind his ear (and a hand always ready on a pistol with his lover's named carved into the barrel) he's always on the hunt for a story.

Solas: A bartender more comfortable with spirits than people, the elf behind the bar at the Dread Wolf is a hard man to read. Good for stiches in a pinch and no slouch in a fight when it suits his fancy, he owes no power in the city alliegence-- and no one knows his end game.

Blackwall: It takes guts to fake your way into a gang like the Wardens, but Thom Rainier's in too deep to back out now. With a dead man's name and street rep to keep the dogs at bay the hardened enforcer can only try to atone for his past-- and fight for a better future.

Vivienne: Very little is known about Madame de Fer, owner and operator of the more exclusive brewery this side of the Tevinter boarder, except that her gin has never seen a bath tub and the Templars don't bother her supply.

Any resemblance to the renowned socialite Vivienne the Enchantress is rarely commented onl; those who do rarely repeat the mistake.

Sera: With the gang warfare, the police cracking down on the littles and the templars hunting any unregulated booze for their prohibition on alcohol someone has to look out for the little guy. No one is really sure who Red Jenny is, but everyone knows that the street kids and pick pockets and beat down element knows her name-- and she is always watching.

The abandoned warehouse on the dock is her headquarters, full of her ill gotten gains and home to the fences who turn it into cash. Nobody starves and everyone profits. A tidy business, yeah?

Dorian: Everyone knows that there is more going on behind the scenes of the Halward Pavus Memorial Library than meets the eye, but no matter how many times it's raided the head archivist is always completely above suspicion. Books and learning are all that linger in those hallowed halls--please try to be quiet on your way out.

But everyone knows that at night Dorian Pavus puts down the index carts and hard backs to pursue his true passion-- and that the Tevinter will pay up to four sovereigns for a fresh corpse*. Medical science is varely stumbling into the light, and if his books on anatomy -so accurate as to be used as reference during surgeries- then the long hours spent on the dissecting table are well worth it.

The Iron Bull: Someone needs to make sure that the beer, wine, whiskey and gin finds its way from hidden distilleries to the thirsty patrons of the city's illicit watering holes. The Chargers are the best, expensive but worth the money to get things where they are going. With a sapper from the wars on tap rumor says they have their own tunnels under the city, but no one knows anything for certain. He runs a clean crew, dependable and honest. Madam de Fer makes frequent use of them.

And if The Iron Bull also reports to the higher ups in the Qun, the north side gang just waiting for a chance to take it all, that's his own business. Straining loyalties may bring it to a show down, but for now he's willing to ride the knife edge.

Cole: No one can really remember when the fortune teller's shop opened at the edge of town. One day it was simply there, mysterious and festooned with gauzy curtains and wreathed in fragrant incense. The nug motif is...a little odd, sure, but tame compared to the figure behind the crystal ball.

It's hard to see his eyes behind the wide brimmed hat, and those who do meet his gaze can't claim to enjoy the experience. But Cole has a way of getting into your head to the deepest thoughts and secrets waiting there and finding the best solutions. Whether he can see the future or not, enough people are willing to try to keep the doors open.

For now.

(I really couldn't figure out the romances. Hope this serves!)

(*in Canada and the US, the resurrectionist movement was still going strong into the late 1950s!)

Mod Fereldone

[shannankle]

On Narrative In Shadow Part 2

Well my attempt to just write some first impressions on Shadow part 2 has grown into 3-4 different ones I'm writing. It seemed appropriate to finish this first since I'm ruminating on the ending.

In this post I’m going to think about how narrative is coming up in part 2 as a way to discuss one possible reading of Dan and Trin’s endings. There will be a small detours into the topics of aromanticism and reception and marketing.

I have another post where I look at how narratives are tackled in part 1: here!

Oedipus and Dan

In my first meta on Shadow I discussed Hamlet in relation to the show. In there I talk about how Hamlet has a tradition of being interpreted and performed through the lens of the oedipal complex. I suggested that while Dan has metaphorically killed his father that it was unlikely they’d go with the shadow being his mom and fulfilling the sleeps with mother part of this equation. Instead I believed they might go a queerer route and embrace queer time and the death drive a la Lee Edelman (I think there is something there but I want to explore that in another post cause this post is long already).

But!

If the shadow created Dan for his father, that kind of technically makes it his parent. So Dan has metaphorically killed his dad and supernaturally gotten frisky with his supernatural parent. So I guess the Oedipus complex is more alive than I gave it credit. Apparently my clown glasses had me seeing 20-20. 

Beyond the Oedipus complex bits, Dan seems to line up a lot with Oedipus as a character. He is cursed/fated at birth. His mother hangs herself. Oedipus tries to outrun his fate by running away only to unwittingly fulfill the prophecy by doing so. He acts with hubris by trying to outrun the oracle’s prophecy and this causes his tragic end. Dan tries to escape first by running from the shadow and then by accepting the shadow despite others warnings. He acts with hubris towards Nai assuming he knows best and he unwittingly is drawn back to the shadow where he came from. 

What might these parallels tell us beyond foreshadowing? Let me return to that in a little bit!

Identification, Dis-identification, and the Destruction of Identity 

I mentioned in my Hamlet post how Dan seems to deny identification with Hamlet as well as with straight narratives. I find it interesting that, up until the last few episodes, Dan denies identification with romantic narratives throughout the show (not just straight ones). As I discussed with some folks over on discord, he’s very busy being in a supernatural mystery narrative, while Josh, Nai, and Cha-aim are trying to be in their straight and BL romance narratives respectively. This shifts when Dan and Josh fight and when Dan and Cha-aim chat in the shadow’s realm. Suddenly he fits their narratives: Josh's romantic rival and Cha-aim's main romantic lead. Cha-aim even asks him if he read the book and her notes until the end as if begging him to fit a story. The space their in also has elements of the theater in it as if he is being demanded keep acting in a play.

In terms of Hamlet, Dan seems to switch to aligning himself in part 2. Joe and Dan have a conversation about how to understand Hamlet as a character and his madness. After this, Dan doubles down on his resistance towards Anurak and starts trying to buck the system by rooting out the one-armed man. He believes that the shadow is protecting him at this point, and starts to adopt the Hamlet narrative more fittingly. During the play, he may have given Josh the Hamlet role for a bit, but Dan is entirely channeling Hamlet in that scene. Just like Hamlet he ups the drama and stages a play-within-a-play to confront his new father figure/enemy with their own crimes (or at least what Dan perceives to be Anurak's crimes). 

So what's going on here? Well, let's bring back Oedipus.

By the end of the show, Dan has been taken over by narrative. Like Oedipus chooses to blind himself, Dan chooses to die. He becomes Oedipus, Hamlet, a character in a straight love story. Yet despite being full of narrative, or perhaps because he is, Dan is quite absent from the last two episodes. From the moment he reaches the climax of his play-within-a-play, he loses consciousness and dies. From that moment he is largely absent from the story that is Shadow. 

What do we do when narratives don’t contain us? When we don’t see our identity reflected in them?

We might try to read resistantly. We might de-identify and find ourselves a new identity in alterity. But what happens when these narratives don’t leave room for alterity or resistance--when they still try to consume us and bend us past the breaking point? 

In my first post on narrative, I point out how differences such as queerness and disability compel narrative, and how they must be talked about in certain ways that contain them. (This element is made even more clear in part 2 when the woman who originally told the one-armed man story admits to embellishing.)  

I wrote the following in that post: 

“Such difference compels discourse while suppressing actual voices. It’s no wonder then that queerness gets attached to haunting–difference must always be stated and forcibly visible but never fully included or co-existing”

But I think the later half of Shadow takes the horror a step further. What happens when such narratives consume us? When we lose so much control over our narratives that we disappear completely?

We get Dan.

I think Dan’s fate in Shadow could be read through this lens. He tells Cha-aim that "being awake or asleep is equally agonizing." While this stands for trauma and depression it also marks how Dan is placed where he can neither fully enter the narratives of society nor forge his own path because both choices harm him. Such narrative violence can destroy us, can traumatize us, can leave us with no identity at all. 

This resonates deeply with a political landscape in which history and alternative narratives are erased. It’s in this context that the shadow creates Dan and to which he is forced to return. Dan’s dad literally creates him in order to maintain the perfect heterosexual marriage where toxic gender roles can remain intact. In the end, Dan is absorbed by narrative and trauma. He exits the story of Shadow because he is crowded out--it is all too much for him to exist at all.   

Side note: On aromanticism

Watching through Shadow, I often read Dan as expressing a relationship with romance that aligned him with aromanticism. His dis-identification with romance early on feels right at home. As does the sense of self-effacement that occurs as romantic narratives take over his story. As someone who is aro myself, this resonated deeply with me. Particularly the way in which amatonormativity can be so dominant a structure (narratively or otherwise) that we are rendered as inhuman, invisible, and nonexistent. It ties to the way that we are framed as lacking. Amatonormative discourses assume we are empty, needing to be filled with narrative, just as throughout Shadow these narratives overwhelm, subsume, and erase Dan. In the end he is nonexistent but not because of his dis-identification with romance.

Addendum 1: Trin

Trin's ending is heavily tied to Dan's so I wanted to add some thoughts on how we might read Trin's fate.

I wrote in yet another post about how Trin continually has his narrative taken from him in part 1. This starts in life and continues when he disappears. Before Dan is consumed by narrative in part 2, Trin suffers the same fate. There is a horror and perhaps violence in Trin taking Dan’s body. But perhaps also a flip side of very bitter hope (at least by comparison). Trin has managed to come back and continue his story. In Dan’s body, he can move in the world again without the same extent of stigma and harsh narratives that he faced after being outed. Dan might be a bit of an outcast, but he hasn’t yet had his stigmas publicized to the world in the same way.

Trin is writing when Joe comes to visit him/Dan. When the pen runs out of ink, Trin is handed his pen by Joe, just as he is handed back his narrative.

Now, this brighter reading is far from perfect. It already says a lot that Trin would have to become someone else, to hide his differences, in order to have narrative agency. And he will likely have to face what it means to navigate the world again while acting as someone else if he chooses to stay this way. Or perhaps he'll dare to do it all again, continue to push against the system loudly and see what happens now that the collective trauma of the past has been revealed.

On a darker level, however, we might read Trin's fate as another form of erasure. The last shot we get is Trin standing in front of the bathroom mirror as Dan. He uses the tap water symbolizing the shadow's domain to show his face as Trin in the mirror.

In Jacques Lacan's version of psychoanalysis, he focuses on what he calls the mirror stage. This is when a child goes from seeing their reflection as other to recognizing their self. This has more literal applications but Lacan also used it more metaphorically at times to explain identity and its fracture. From the moment we recognize the self in the mirror we are presented with a disconnect between our body which has no organized identity and an idealized self (ideal ego). He terms this self-alienation.

Some of the nuances don't translate perfectly, but we can see multiple times in the show that Trin is presented in mirrors, suggesting this connection is thematically relevant. In this final scene we might read Trin as literally self-alienated. His ideal ego in the mirror is his face but his body is Dan's. It's an ideal that he can no longer reach. Meanwhile Dan body remains a body, disconnected from an organized sense of self. We might wonder if Trin has escaped the shadow's clutches at all.

Addendum 2: On Expectations and Marketing

If we go with this reading of shadow, that it is about the power and violence of narrative, I think we also should consider what the show hopes to ask of us as viewers. I've seen a number of folks feel let down by the second half including because it felt disjointed and didn't seem to fit with the first half. And I have to wonder if this is an intentional move on the part of the show especially given the drop schedule. If that's the case, the shift might be seen as an attempt to subvert the narratives that we place on the show as viewers. Heck, even this analysis I'm writing now is me placing a narrative on the text.

It's certainly a thematically consistent move, though a risky one. Leaving things that way means that your message will inevitably drive away at least some part of your audience. Meanwhile I stumbled my way to this reading through hours writing and analyzing, and not everyone wants or has the time to do that. It means that folks who value other elements of a story won't resonate much with the back half of the show.

And this effect is compounded by the marketing of the show as a romance rather than a broader queer piece. Though I imagine that is up to marketing and Gaga more than the those working on the show itself. Perhaps we can see this as a real world example of narrative being placed on the show, subsuming what it might otherwise want to say. It certainly feeds into the narrative confusion at play to say the least.

It also raises questions about the slowly blurring line in Thailand between BL and queer media. There are advantages that come with this shift and certainly many folks in BL fandom already view many pieces as queer despite some BL elements, if not just fully both queer and BL. On the other hand we get trouble when romance is assumed to be the sole topic a queer show out of Thailand can cover and it is classified as a BL because of this. While I wouldn't call this queer baiting (it's definitely a queer show), I do think it does narrative harm in this context. Which is unfortunate given the shows nuanced take on the topic.

Conclusion: Shadow's Ending

Shadow doesn’t give us a happy ending, and what hope we read into it is very open to interpretation. But it does present a thought provoking ending--one that is deeply engaged with the power and violence that is caught up in and perpetuated by narratives. In that sense it speaks to the darker side of living under these systems in a way that resonates sharply--a narrative we strangely identify with shadows and all (see @brifrischu 's post for another great take on this darkness). I suspect there will be folks for whom this directness, this identification will be too much, and that's okay! But for others it will resonate as a narrative that is strangely both painful and welcoming.

[chaoxfix]

hm. upon replaying frontiers. the cutscenes and character talks ... are. not as good as i remember. so im doing a belated frontiers review, focusing more on characterization than gameplay -- because i have very few complaints with the gameplay, except for chaos island. because fuck that volcano in particular smh

anyways -- for all my criticisms here, i still like the game, and i see the characterization as lightyears beyond forces, and its definitely doing damage control for about a decade of bad characterization... but... all i can still say for certain is that its a step in the right direction but definitely not without some flaws i really want to write out to get out of my head. because some of the conversations are kind of. hm.

anyways. im gonna go a little more in depth with whats rubbing me the wrong way about a few characters under the cut, ALONG WITH SOME POSITIVES, but if you don't want to see anything negative about frontiers, please don't read! i don't want to damage anyone's perceptions of the game if you love it. and i do stand by the gameplay being really genuinely fun, its really just the characterization that has a few things that are bugging me -- which is surprising because i really liked it the first go around. anyway, here we go.

okay so here's whats bugging me about the following characters: mainly amy and tails, and following them, in order of most to least 'off' to me -- sage, eggman, sonic, and knuckles. that being said, even the negative points COULD spin to a positive, and i'll end with the positives after i explain what's bugging me and why.

amy, the negatives:

she just seems incredibly melancholy. yes, the atmosphere of the game is overall mysterious and melancholy, but amy seems more affected than anyone else. it also feels like no one was quite sure what to do with her character in this game, and she has a moodness that she's never had in other games (other than crying over sonics literal dead body in 06).

the interaction with her and sonic and reuiniting the koco with its long lost love ... "would you really not help a person in need?" and i think sonics response was really good -- a gentle "no, but we need to prioritize XYZ first" -- ... yet we're meant to sympathize with amy? why? to me, the emotional impact of this scene with the kocos just did not land. it has the bones to be really impactful, but there are just some elements of the conversation between them that feel really, really off-putting. amy seems very pushy and defensive, and i don't feel inclined at any point to root for her, which is a shame, since sonic clearly seems to.

continuing with the kocos scenes -- amy asking the kocos to be careful when they finally reunite -- it feels really ooc and quite melodramatic. it makes me think they're trying to go with overprotective mother character for amy now, which i just really dislike, and doesn't quite feel like her. i hope they can make her more of the elements of her characterization that best suit her -- headstrong and protective, and inclined to do things herself, in her own way, even if she's taking too much control of a situation.

on that note -- agency. i get that she doesn't have agency in this game (none of the digitized friends have much) -- but unlike knuckles and tails, amy doesn't seem to try and do much herself. she asks sonic to do tasks for her, but it just seems that compared to the others, she's not putting in much work or taking much interest in her surroundings. knuckles tries to fight sage, and tails helps with a few tech things -- what does amy do? why was she written into this position -- no agency, and picking fights with sonic and attacking his character when he doesn't follow what she wants? i don't like this for her. i want her to be written well so badly but at every turn in the games, there's nothing to show what a well-written and compelling amy would even look like.

lastly, the scene where she says, "and i want to share that love with the world, no matter how far apart it takes us" -- i viewed every single side story and overanalyzed every detail i could find. this part still doesn't really track for me. what exactly does she mean by this? what type of love is she sharing and how? frontiers seemed like it was trying to set up side stories for all sonics friends, but... if amy goes on a solo adventure, what will it actually be about? how will it make her grow as a person? what will her character arc be? based on what she said here, i have no goddamn clue! right now, i feel like not enough seeds have been planted for her, unlike with some of the other characters. hers is the least clear set-up for a solo story beyond this, and i find that very disappointing. i hope she still gets one, but an amy-centric game will already have a difficult time selling given the niche market sonic fills in the gaming world -- she doesn't need even more sabotage to a potential solo-game by a poor setup.

overall, it just confirms that the amy i want to see most in a game, is an amy who simply has never existed. in sega canon, the only thing that's ever been consistent is that she has a crush. meanwhile, the fanbase might be pretty divided, but from what i can tell, fans; most consistent characterization desires for her are that we want her to be: extremely compassionate, maybe nature-focused, an incredible friend. protective and hot-headed, always taking charge even if she should probably think things through first. a girl with some growing-up to do, but she's always someone who takes responsibility for her friends' safety and will do whatever it takes to bail them out. she loves the world and everyone in it, and wants everyone to have a chance to find happiness and love. she's a huge romantic -- and yes, she has a crush, but it shouldn't be the most central thing to her identity. yet... i cannot point to a single game that's given us that, without an extreme level of gunk to wade through in-between decent traits. i want to love amy so badly -- but at some point, she has got to actually be written well again, or she'll be beyond saving.

tails, the negatives: (many of these are more minor, things that just really nag at me, and aren't as grounded and consistent as amy's)

this one kind of hurts me to even mention, because im really not sure how much was the script and how much was just voice actors not putting emphasis on the right words. but it kills me. in the like, very first scene with tails, sonic's getting cyber corrupted, and they have a back and forth that's EXCELLENT on paper, but the VA delivery really puts me off. to summarize the conversation, "[fancy version of] im digitized and the cybercorruption is super bad for you" "uh, in english?" "im fine, you're not, and i'm worried." "ill be fine! and i need this power to rescue you!" "you're always rescuing me, and... lets focus on the now. what do you need?" -- and ON PAPER, seeing it written, it's mostly fine, though could use a few more filler words in some areas to make it sound a bit more human. but tails's VA puts such weird inflection on the 'you're always rescuing me, and' part of it. it just doesn't make much sense as-is. for the effect it seems to be going for on paper, the last bit of the conversation should have been altered to be a heavy-sounding: "heh- i'll be fine! and I need this power to rescue you, anyways. don't worry about me, i can handle this." "yeah, but... you're always rescuing me. i just wish... for once i could... - nevermind. let's focus on the now. what do you need?" -- it doesn't change the substance of the conversation, but the tone would have been so much more compatible with the rest of tails's lines. i really wish they would've had more time to tweak the script and voice acting, because so much of this game could've been stellar, but it just barely misses the mark for me.

creepy energy when sonic shows up looking visibly exhausted and injured and tails not only doesn't acknowledge it. but puts on a huge smile and grins and waves at him as he leaves? what the fuck was that about? putting on a brave face would be a great move but fr what is he trying to do here? sonics not even looking back at him, why is he grinning and waving when his brother's badly hurt?

overall i think i just had a few nitpicks with voice acting but i have way fewer problems with tails than amy <3

sage, the negative:

i. honestly do not like her character. her death was sad but for most of her screen time, she was just so needlessly frustrating to interact with, and ive never been a fan of "the conflict only exists due to someone purposefully withholding information." shes aggravating.

i did not like her song. it was mad funny which was not the point.

it implies eggman could be a good father figure. bite bite kill kill etc.

she worsened every single cutscene where she was watching from a distance. get out of here sage... im trying to watch sonic talk to his friends :(

dialogue just sounds stiff

if she JUST TOLD SONIC WHAT WAS GOING ON IN THE FIRST PLACE.........

eggman, the negative:

father figure eggman??? in this good christian minecraft server?

sonic:

overall, i quite like him here! i think my main complaint is that there was clearly so much more planned that just was not implemented very well, so its sonic's story arc that suffers most

the amnesia storyline is literally SO juicy that i feel robbed that almost all of the dialogue is nearly impossible to trigger, and almost nothing comes of it in the main cutscenes.

i feel robbed that his cyber corruption was resolved with zero effort. i would have KILLED for a cyber corruption fight, or some cyberspace levels that were super fucked up and needed some outside thinking to beat and escape back into reality.

notice how all of these are mainly wanting MORE though -- his actual lines, characterization, line-delivery, etc -- i don't have a problem with any of what we got. my issue is i just wish we'd gotten to see the finished product that we all know the game devs were hoping to finish before they got crunched. :( amnesia sonic i'll love you til the day i die

knuckles:

hes a little stiff at times but i have literally no complaints hes great. knuckles sweep etc

no but for real i do have a few issues with how congested and stiff he sounds. there are also some really weird pauses in the middle of conversation? it was most noticeable with knuckles, but i did notice it with all the others. i think they probably should have edited the sound a bit better to make it flow more, like a conversation and not like VAs just reading lines one at a time in a booth

something about the way he interacts with the koco rubs me the wrong way but i can't put my finger on it.

i still don't love the idea of commander knuckles.

NOW FOR THE PART WHERE I TALK ABOUT THE POSITIVES.

Because believe it or not, most of the negatives can be re-framed, AND/OR, are intentionally left somewhat lacking to set up for a transitional period so that the best characterization doesn't come premature. as in, if the characterization was perfect, it'd be like "haha, let's just pretend the last decade and a half didn't even happen. forces who?" instead, this takes the bold choice to acknowledge it and say, "yep! that happened. it sucked. we're doing better, but like real people, you have to go through the period of 'sucking less' before you get to the holy grail of self actualization.

so here's some of what i think are the positives, and/or the hidden meanings with some of these characters. but first i do want to go with a quick theme because its something i certainly believe while watching/playing.

the koco theory:

the kocos that each of the friends latch onto are ones that specifically project their issues from forces. it's most obvious with tails, but knuckles and amy have the same thing going for them.

with tails, the koco was a hero's assistant/pilot/whatever who fell short when the hero wasn't around. not much to say about it -- the game makes it super clear. tails even directly addresses 'just like when i fell apart around infinite' (paraphrasing). but just because his is the most obvious doesn't mean the others aren't doing it, too.

with knuckles, the koco were in a war against impossible odds... and knuckles was forced into a sudden commander position and didn't end up physically fighting much -- just like in forces. in forces, we hope he was fighting behind the scenes, but from what we the player saw, he was just in a supervisory position. sonic makes a dig at him for this in frontiers -- and i think it was meant to be a playful jab in-universe, but knuckles clearly takes it a bit more seriously. it bothers him to be in a supervisory position, and he's clearly a leader who researches military tactics, because he would've studied echidna war maneuvers, etc. i think this was partly meant to forgive forces / explain the role he was put into, but also to apologize to him as a character. he likes fighting even more than leading; putting him in a position where he's too immaterial to fight is torture for him, and he's grateful that sonic can help when knuckles himself is unable.

and amy... the koco she sees are lovers who are separated in a war zone; one is clearly a high ranking soldier, and the other, their lover. they come back together and confess their love just in time for both koco to die. this isn't a perfect 1:1 metaphor, but bear in mind that everyone thought sonic was dead. for six months. to them, he died in battle, with zero warning. of course amy would want a reunion between lovers before it's too late and someone dies. i think she has some serious survivor's guilt and regret going on. i still feel less overall emotional impact from amy's, because i'm just not a fan of love stories in general and i don't love how pushy she is with her scenes. but i think even sonic can tell that there's something going on with the way she's reacting to the kocos.

with that in mind, i'll add in a few other notes for each character. because the kocos being trauma-projection maps doesn't perfectly fix everything, but it does offer some explanations for some of the gaps in the stories.

amy, the positives:

despite still not being an amy characterization that i truly and unabashedly like..., this is still leagues better than any characterization i've seen for her in. ages. maybe ever. there are no moments where i think she's a bad person or aggravating -- instead, she seems very melancholy and thoughtful. i wished i could like her more, but we do see that sonic cares about her feelings deeply, and that's a step in the right direction.

notes about amy being knowledgeable about nature -- this is a trait that amy hasn't always had, but between this and prime, im liking this direction for her as a nature protector.

amy having a knowledge of the arcane! it's back and i couldn't be more pleased! i just think it's a very fun characterization trait for her and i quite like it

for the more mellow conversations, she seems like quite a sweet and friendly person. neat!

tails, the positives:

oh my god every single scene with sonic

no listen. listen. we've been waiting years for this to happen. tails getting some more room to breathe and grow up a bit? legendary!

i actually thought he grew up a bit too fast; the fact that they gave him the 'im mature and independent now!' arc in the VERY FIRST 3D SONIC GAME is kind of why the rest of the games have slowly watered him down and chipped away at his characterization. they played that card too soon, and too far. now we get to have that arc again and a bit slower; we're setting up in this game to see the real thing in a future adventure, and i'm very pleased by that.

little bro / buddy -> partner growth? holy shit... i adore this sm

the way tails reaches for sonic to physically try and hold him up -- twice in this game. my heart.

his vocabulary feels about right. it's not so over the top that it's aggravating.

he and sonic play off each other quite well, and understand each other fine -- aside from one joke about "those sure are words you said just now" (when sonics actively weakened by the corruption), sonic is insightful and his IQ isn't watered down just because tails is using higher vocabulary. this is clearly a duo that talks to each other frequently and understands each other quite well.

tails and sage's discussion is the only time i liked sage. i liked the way they communicated; i liked tails's ability to get to her by saying, 'my trust in sonic is also backed up by a lifetime of data' which was also super sweet <3

tails clearly cares about sonic and worries about him in return; he got an opportunity to see sonic when he was clearly not at his best. but he ALSO has a hero's mindset for most of this island of not trying to be a burden. granted, he does still need multiple pep talks, but his focus is to be useful and efficient as much as possible. you can also see that sonic has rubbed off on him in that way; you don't have to wonder where tails learned to push through negative feelings -- but he's still young enough, and sonic's a good enough friend, to help him open up. (unlike sonic who remains rather stoic through the end -- but thats just how i like him)

sage, the positives:

im putting a bulletin here so you don't think i forgot her. yeah.

eggman:

the fact that all the Deep Lore are from eggman and in the big fishing minigame. holy shit. i was SO PLEASED to find that out. this was such a fun way to give lil sprinklings of lore

and the content of the eggman voice logs were all great! he was in character and very fun to listen to

sonic:

my sweet summer child this is the best youve been written in so long. i am kissing you on your forehead you sweet blue creature.

optimistic and driven. focused on helping his friends. not stupid -- but he will follow the only lead he has, because what choice does he have? even then, he's not antagonistic towards sage, because he wants to have the bigger picture. he clearly doesn't completely trust the weird sky voice, otherwise why would he keep seeking out sage's information? he knows not to put all his eggs in one basket, it's just a pity that sage refuses to share information

RESILIENT LITTLE PUNK. i love him so much. he gets put through SO MUCH this game, and i really liked seeing it because it just drives home that he's an actual hero. this is doing damage control from forces, where he was allegedly tortured (yeesh) and was suuuuper chill about it, to the point that he has no reaction whatsoever when being freed. in this game, he's thrown through walls, shot missiles at, chased by giant buzz saws, keeps having to start titan fights without the last emerald -- and he presses on. we get to SEE him struggle. it's not heroism without struggle, and by seeing that it can be actually-difficult, his story is more impactful, and he's more interesting as a character.

his dynamic with each of his friends is unique, but he remains consistently characterized. it's fantastic. he's confident and devil-may-care while being a good friend and genuinely caring about each -- but with amy, there's a sweeter and more earnest undertone, with knuckles there's a clear rivalry and 'holding each other accountable and picking up the slack where the other fails' dynamic. they care but they're also both extremely stubborn about it so their affection is shown through tough love, and it's great. and sonic and tails's interactions are all gold. siblings, yes -- but sonic being tails's primary caretaker, there's a lot of responsibility there, even if it's largely masked by friendly banter. they care about each other, but it's clear who the older brother who's giving the pep talks is.

love that he continues to follow his views of right and wrong, without it being too in your face. it's not that he's stupid about sage -- but he knows she knows something he doesn't, so he won't antagonize her as long as he thinks she might crack and change sides -- he's seen it happen often enough, y'know? he's not the most patient guy for some stuff, but he's persistent when he needs to be

loved the voice acting in general. very fun sounds when running, especially the chuckles when you kinda miss a jump. he just sounds like he's having a blast on this adventure

loved all the mentions of the landscape etc as he's running. gives personality to both him and the area around the player.

no clue what sonic's doing after this game -- if all his friends are on solo missions, i hope he gets another one too. i know everyone wants him to house-sit for everyone else but i still love sonic going on adventures. i think he could have a fun solo adventure too :( storybook part 3 when? take sonic through a counseling book and make him fight all his demons from forced lol. by that i mean make him kick infinite's ass. kidding. mostly.

knuckles:

loved all his feelings about the architecture

he's definitely going through something and i love it

his friendship with sonic really shines here. yeah they're rivals but clearly they have a deep respect for each other. they also call each other out on shit which i think is important for both of them.

i liked his 'i think i'll have my own adventure after this' spiel best out of the 3 of them. yes even more than tails's. very well set-up. him and sonic sitting on the ledge just chatting felt like the most natural friendship in the world, and i get why knuckles is jealous.

that scene where the ruins are about to be destroyed. it got the perfect balance of 'deeply upset and worried' and 'can't express strong feelings well' ... beautiful

i loved so much of it but i actually don't have a lot to say specifically about him -- ares island was very atmospheric and i just liked him and his interactions with the landscape and sonic and the ruins.

overall?

more positives than negatives, truly. yeah, the characterization does still feel off in a few ways, and i don't like sage, and the cutscenes still aren't quite as good as i remember on my first run through. i think i wish they'd zoomed in a bit more, or made the digitized faces clearer, to show more feeling. i think i did also wish for deeper conversations than we got... especially with amy. but aside from some stiff conversations in some of the ruins-chatting, and some VA nitpicking where i wish they'd tweaked the lines or had lines closer together (there are some really awkward pauses in a conversation thats meant to be flowing) ... or done a few more takes of some things ... overall, i still don't dislike the characterization. it has room for improvement for a lot of these characters... but, there's officially positive trajectory now. i hope that these characters will continue on their upwards journey!

and bear in mind that i believe almost all of these could have / would have been fixed with a bit more time -- but that's sega's fault for rushing their franchise-saving game. the gameplay is a lot of fun, sega -- but everything else could've been even better if you just gave your game developers TIME. fuck's sake.

[13eyond13]

Hello, can I ask from this ask game :

https://www.tumblr.com/threecheersforinking/677824836625694720/anime-ask-game?source=share

For anime/manga : Death Note and Berserk.

Thanks 🌻

Hi! Sure thing:

DEATH NOTE:

Favorite Character: L was basically a "love at first sight" situation for me and the main reason I ever checked out the anime (I just really loved eccentric loner sad boys at the time and he just looked exactly up my alley at a glance, hahaha). And he has stayed extremely dear to me and my favourite cartoon guy ever basically since! I actually think Light is a bit more of a complicated/interesting character than L is to think about in-depth, and has become also kind of my favourite one in the series in a different way over time, but L is def the one that I was really obsessed with from the start.

Favorite Arc/Episode/Scene: I love everything up until the Yotsuba arc the most I think, I just find it so much fun in the beginning of the story when everything is so well-written and so exciting and tense and fast-paced. The university arc stuff MIGHT be the part that I just find the most fun and funny in the way that Death Note is known to be, with all the detailed little mind games and bitch moves and shocking reveals every other page, ahahah. I remember laughing out loud so many times during that section of the story just due to how ridiculous it gets and how often everyone is pulling the rug out from under each other nearly constantly.

And my favourite scene is probably the "first ever friend" scene in the manga. I WILL NEVER STOP THINKING ABOUT IT it's just so funny and mysterious and intriguing and layered to me

Character I Think is Underrated: Mikami is fairly underrated, but at the same time I myself am not the best at intuitively understanding him or creating content about him either...

Character I Think is Overrated: Matt (sorry I actually like him in the manga, but I just don't think he's that interesting really)

Favorite Ship/Pairing: Lawlight! I never needed much convincing about this.... I went straight from watching the anime to going "omg they should have kissed..."

Something I Love About the Show/Movie: The anime's audio elements are just so iconic and so good a lot of the time! It makes some of the manga scenes SO MUCH better just with stuff like the gregorian chanting while Light's writing the names. And no lie, it's really easy to follow as a story without even seeing what's happening onscreen, too. I used to listen to the English dub while drawing or doing my work sometimes and it felt almost exactly like an audio play.

-

BERSERK:

Favorite Character: Guts is by far my favourite! Which was a total surprise to me, because I thought he was going to be a pretty boring macho action hero cardboard cutout type guy going in. I got very attached to him while reading the manga after a few volumes, and now he's one of my all-time faves...

Favorite Arc/Episode/Scene: I'm going to be very basic and say The Golden Age, but IT'S JUST REALLY GOOD OKAY. It's better than good, it's the reason the series went from just "ok this is pretty interesting" to "OMG WTF THIS IS SO GOOD I'M SO INVESTED NOW"

And my favourite scene?? Hmm.... extremely hard question, but I feel like the sword fights between Guts and Griffith are definitely some of the peak moments. Their first one is iconic in so many ways, but the second one in the snow really got me in the feels and made my stomach drop and my heart beat a bit faster as well!

Character I Think is Underrated: I feel like Casca is just kinda hard to talk about with other fans. She's my second favourite character in the series, but I feel like it's just really difficult to discuss her without it just getting either depressing or into too sensitive territory or something? I love her dearly in the manga, but the fandom space here seems only much fun to talk about Guts and Griffith in for me

Character I Think is Overrated: I am not THAT well-versed in who is overrated or underrated in this fandom, but I feel like mostly almost all the characters aside from maybe Griffith and Guts are a bit underrated and under-explored in fan stuff that I've seen? That might be entirely on me and the fact that I'm mostly looking at griffguts stuff, though...

Favorite Ship/Pairing: griffguts drives so much of the angst and the drama and I think is basically canon to me at this point... I don't think it's hard to interpret Griffith as in love with Guts, but I also think Guts is in love with Griffith too in just a more furtive sort of way

Something I Love About the Show/Movie:

I only partially watched the 1997 anime so far, and the Guts theme song in it is so good! My god that's still such a good fitting song for him and his personality somehow. And I'd never actually heard it before I read the series either!

[littlechibs]

Chibs Media Thread Entry #7: Kamen Rider Ryuki (2002)

Lemme preface this with the note that this is only my second fully finished Tokusatsu series ever, and my very first Kamen Rider series. Read (or skip) to the end to see some of my favorite tweets from my livewatch thread. Over a month ago, one of my buddies had been posting pretty regularly about their favorite character from Ryuki and I had been considering it. They told me it had mystery elements to it given the overarching story about mysterious disappearances and the main character being a journalist, and I'm absolutely not immune to mysteries whatsoever, so that got me EVEN MORE curious about it. And then, a few weeks later, I decided to watch it.

TBH, at first I wasn't especially vibing with it, but I decided to keep going and give it the 3 episode rule. Even after 3 episodes I was only somewhat having fun, but I considered it enough to keep going because my friends REALLY REALLY liked the show and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about! I started really having fun about episode 5 or 6 (I can't really remember) and that's around the time that I started posting about it. I made my full properly official Ryuki Watch Thread at episode 7, when my Blorbo-in-Law Shuichi Kitaoka appears. By this point I was having quite a bit of fun.

I don't really need to type all of that but I just wanted to. I'm really glad I kept going and kept watching more and more episodes simply because my friends liked it and I wanted to see why, and also once I started the thread it was part to make them happy. Because once I finally started truly getting attached, I was having SO MUCH FUN. I just needed to get into the Kamen Rider formula because I was still pretty new to Toku shows in general, but EVEN MORESO new to Kamen Rider as a series. It was a whole different vibe for me and I just had to give myself time to adjust. And I'm unbelievably happy that I did. Over the course of the past month and a half I had grown more and more attached to the cast of Ryuki, both good guys and bad guys and in between, and would get so invested in their various character arcs and fights. And ALL of that culminates into today, the final episode.

The final episode is just... My buddies kept telling me that the show breaks you at SOME POINT and I joked here and there that I wanted it to break me but good lord that final episode really and truly broke me. The second to last episode already had me staggered and just feeling nothing but this sort of empty despair I didn't know the show was capable of, and just kinda in shock. The last episode was a total culmination of all of those feelings and emotions and attachments to each of the characters, both good and bad, and I don't know how to properly word it but each scene with each character slowly chips away at you until it strikes the final blow at 16 minutes in and just totally breaks you. I'm not someone who cries easy at all and I'm not joking when I say the finale of Ryuki made me cry for a solid 10 minutes straight. That's not even an exaggeration either I tweeted the very moment I started crying and when I finally calmed down and looked at how long it had been, it had been a little over 10 minutes. It just hits you in such a way and you think about all the things that had happened and all of the characters you grew to love and the tears just keep coming and coming. And then of course the ending just makes it all so much more worse. It's a bittersweet one, and its bittersweet in a way that you're happy but you're also once again totally heartbroken, while also relieved.

I'm glad I took a chance on Ryuki. I'm glad I watched it. It was a wonderfully special experience from start to finish and I'll forever have a special place in my heart for it. Granted, all media that makes me cry that hard earns a special place in my heart, but Ryuki is truly exceptionally. I don't think I'd change a single thing about the finale, even with as bittersweet as it is. A story about loss, and letting go, I think I would say is what it is. I'll never forget Shinji or Ren. Or Yui. I'm so glad I got to experience this show.

ANYWAYS. Since you've made it to the end (or skipped reading to get to this) fair warning for Spoilers Under the Cut, but here are my favorite moments from the Ryuki Watch Thread.

[neversetyoufree]

I just realized that there are a lot of similarities between FMA and VnC; from certain characters and their dynamics to story beats. And that’s because Mochijun’s inspiration was Hiromu Arakawa. Isn’t that right?

Hey anon, I'm super interested to hear what dynamics and story beats you think parallel between FMA and VNC, because I'm personally having trouble thinking of any? Like I genuinely really want to hear more about this idea and what connections I'm missing.

I suppose you could make the small angry+strong sunshine duo comparison between Ed and Al and Vanitas and Noé, but just about every other thing about their dynamic is very different lmao. It's been a hot minute since I read FMA though, so I could be forgetting something.

As for Mochizuki being inspired by Hiromu Arakawa, I actually didn't know that until you said it here! I did some googling, and here's an interview (in French lol) where she talks about that for anyone else curious. Thanks for the fun fact, anon :D. I know they've also talked in public before about being fans of one another's series, which is extremely cute. It's always exciting to me to see the creators of things I enjoy supporting one another's work.

That said, though, I'm not sure how much I think FMA was an influence on VnC specifically? Mochijun has talked about her inspirations for VnC, and a lot of it came from Interview with the Vampire, Sherlock and Watson, and her actual visits to Paris. I suppose the whole thread of Paracelsus and the Babel Incident could be inspired by Van Hohenheim's whole deal? But we know so little about all that right now that it's hard to say if there's much parallel beyond "mysterious alchemical history."

Now that I've finished saying, "huh, I dunno about that" in various tones to every part of your post, though, I do have one way that I agree FMA and VnC are similar! I have a longer post about this in my drafts that I might dig up someday, but I think they're similar in the way that they approach their shonen/action elements.

Shonen tends to often be really driven by fights/action. The characters want to get stronger, and the process by which they get stronger forms the heart of the series. It's why training and tournament arcs are such staples lmao. With FMA and VnC, however, the action isn't really the series' core. There are a lot of fight scenes in both, but the fighting and getting stronger is never really the point.

I hesitate to get more into the specifics of what I mean by this now because, frankly, I haven't reread FMA in like six years, and I'm almost certainly going to forget something big and/or say something wrong if I try to talk about it in too much detail. But I hope you can kind of get what I mean?

They're both series that are very invested in forcing their characters to examine certain themes and question themselves. To be a little reductive, FMA is about ethics and VnC is about death and salvation. It's just that sometimes the means by which Ed, Al, Noé, and Vanitas are forced to question those ideas is by fighting.

A lot of shonen (though certainly not all) falls into the category of "stories about action and fighting that also have themes," whereas FMA and VnC are more "stories about themes that also have action and fighting."

[ordon-shield]

Interesting Things in the Final TotK Trailer (Part 1)

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Starting at the very beginning, we get a shot of the sky above Hyrule, and see a soldier construct fighting a chuchu — that opens up some fun gameplay opportunities if you can get them to fight monsters for you or vice versa!

Next we see a glimpse of Hateno, which seems to have grown… mushrooms? This might be related to the underground elements. The most effected building seems to be the one that in BotW sold armour sets, so they’re probably selling something else now. My guess is either potions or fireworks! There also seems to be a new trend of mushroom hats, so maybe they’re still just doing clothes.

Next, we see a camp in Castle Town, with a little Link walking through. They’re rebuilding! Hopefully this is a quest like Tarrey Town, where we can help them out as we run around Hyrule.

A better look at the ring structure spotted in previous trailers and the shrine-like structures! There seems to be some scaffolding around the ring, maybe the Sheikah are investigating it? The shrine-structure also has two colours (green and blue) in its spiral where before we only saw green. Is this just a better look or does it mean it’s not fully activated yet? Kakariko itself seems fine, even if some sky island debris seems to have narrowly missed it.

Typhlo Ruins, now without shadow! I wonder if we’ll find anything interesting there now we can actually see? Also, rather than disappearing altogether, the shadows surrounding it may have just gone up, as there’s a cloud seen in a previous trailer that looks oddly similar.

A mysterious structure rising from the ground… could it be a dungeon? Maybe even the Arbiter’s Grounds or Desert Colossus?

Our first glimpse of Ganondorf, all powered up by the Blood Moon. I wonder if this is when he first wakes up and rises Hyrule Castle from the ground, or just before Link fights him at the very end of the game?

Link trying to grasp Zelda’s hand, and just missing — is it just me or does his arm look a lot more malice-y than the previous times we’ve seen this scene? Maybe it bursts out just as he’s about to catch her?

Pits opening up in the sand, possibly leading to caves below? There’s also a glyph in the background that might represent a character we see later in the trailer.

Underground! Based on the lava and rock type, this might be the heart of Death Mountain itself, and possibly a dungeon! There’s also the return of the flamebreaker armour, although it looks like its received a bit of a redesign.

[scentedsstuff]

Song of Silver, Flame like Night

By Amélie Wen Zhao

Rating: 2/5⭐️

This was a book I really wanted to love, from the gorgeous cover alone to the actual premise given, it seemed perfect for me, unfortunately that didn't turn out to be the case.

It started off quite promising with the mystery behind Lan's seal, which I was very invested in. The pacing and overall atmosphere at the beginning of the book immediately drew me in, unfortunately the interest was lost about halfway through and the book was finished more for the sake of it then any actual enjoyment of it.

As far as main characters go, I figured as the book continued I'd become more attached to our female lead, Lan, but I found that the more we got to see of her, the more she fell flat as a character, only fulfilling the role of your typical YA female lead.

She's described as someone having been forced to grow up too fast, someone street smart, yet there's little to show for it, barely living up to the description. Then you have her prodigious abilities, where any task or training she undertakes she naturally excels at. With this in particular it just felt rushed, there is an explanation given for this later on but I felt it was more of a cop-out, an excuse to rush past the training stage to push her into cool fight scenes right away and establish her as some force to be reckoned with, conveniently in time for some epic showdown in the latter half of the book.

Our male lead Zen was just there in my opinion, the typical stoic male character whose walls slowly crumble due to the female protagonist. He's got his own demons (literally and figuratively) to deal with but didn't interest me much from there.

I found myself not being attached to any of the main or side characters. Throughout the book it felt like the same process of being introduced to a new character, being told that they mattered somehow to one of the main two and that in turn we should also care for them without there being much to show for it.

Did I like the relationship between the two main characters? Sure. Was I invested? NO. (apply this to any and every important relationship in this book and it still rings true)

I mentioned it briefly before but there was a lot of info dumping done throughout the book, which on one hand I understand because it is only the first book in a duology and the author is trying to set the groundwork, but at times it was too much.

It wasn't all bad, there were elements of the book that I did enjoy, such as the mythology, the lore and the magic system. It was all very fascinating to learn about but it can only do so much to keep you reading if the characters and the plot aren't doing much to maintain your interest.

All in all, it's a 2 star read for me, but this is merely one review out of an endless sea of mostly 4-5 star reviews so it might just be the perfect book for someone else.

[bookwyrminspiration]

To be fair, basically all of the prefaces to the books also technically count as clickbait as well /s

Despite my efforts, I have no clue what to do with that tone tag so I'm going to just move forward blindly and hope for the best

The thing is the prefaces are all consistent in that. For the entire series they've been the same vague abstracted reflections on the contents of the book. Giving miniscule information while prompting questions and overanalysis in preparation for the new book. That's what they do, they're all like that.

But all the covers except Flashback's accurately (for the most part) represent their scene. In Nightfall, Keefe, Sophie, and Linh really do float up with a giant ball of water and it's one of the Main Events of that book, and it really is that dramatic. In Everblaze, Fitz and Sophie really do jump from a burning tower, and the healing is a Main Event of the book that is as dramatic and dangerous as it looks--though yes, Oralie was omitted because she's not a main character. But that doesn't change the drama and fear accurately captured. Nothing essential is missing without her. When reading, the scenes the rest of the covers represent follow through and match in intensity, they deliver

Including the non-dramatic ones, like Exile. it's not playing up the scene, but instead accurate to the cautious, wonder-filled mystery of finding the Black Swan hide-out. It doesn't like, make the dwarf there an ominous figure and make him out to be a threat on the cover when he really was just an unfamiliar new person helping out.

Book 1 could be considered an exception because of the big glow, but I'd argue it's a choice made to display the fantastical elements of the series and lantern, because exactly accurate would make you think it was a normal lantern--and that would be inaccurate. And Unlocked doesn't have one specific scene on its cover, but Shannon explained that and I think it works

Flashback though? It makes out that scene to be more dramatic and dangerous than it really is, overhyping it. Looking at it without context, you see a blade flying, you think fight. Danger. Risk. Sophie's stepping up and making moves. Someone's coming, they're coming fast. But...they're literally just kinda hanging around the area while Wylie and Tam casually work out how illusions work and get a little nervous. It doesn't follow through when all the others do. And like Roisin said! There are other scenes that do have that kinda tension they could've drawn from! Or they could've chosen a different moment from that scene to better capture the feel of it. it didn't have to be dramatic, they changed the portrayal to make it seem that way

I'm just! I'm always miffed about Flashback's cover for doing that. And I know it's very minor, but I'm also very passionately annoyed at it and going to complain. The prefaces are fine, they what they do, but the covers don't. Except for that one...my nemesis..

[andypantsx3]

andie, im roughly plotting a multichapter fic rn -- and im curious how you go about writing your main conflicts/storylines? ive been writing for ages, but am relatively out of practice with multichaptered fics, and somewhat worried about coming up with conflicts that suit the setting/characters (rather than being able to really toy with both when writing original content.) obviously, you dont need to get super in depth, im just curious about how you come up w a main conflict for a fic, and how central/present it is (like a somewhat subdued conflict that is almost somewhat passive in comparison to a very present conflict, like a fight scene written and shown with detail.) feel free to ignore this/this isnt super pressing, but im just sorta curious + looking for some motivation. i love your work, and think youre Incredibly talented <3 have a lovely day and eat some good veggies for me

Hello my love!! Omg sending you my best plotting vibes and hoping you come up with something good!!

I have to say the conflict really varies from story to story and depends on the kind of story I want to tell. A lot of my fics are lighter, so they don't have much in the way of central conflict. So I'm not sure I will have great answers here, but I will try my best.

For the lightest level of fun, feel-good fic, I think the things that work best are common struggles that the average person faces, and/or ridiculous situations, because those are not very mentally taxing to read or work through along with the reader, except in terms of second-hand embarrassment lol.

For example, I've previously gone for project deadlines and working with a difficult partner (savvy, statistically significant), overcoming self-doubt/obliviousness and realizing someone loves you (if i could keep cool, fingerprints, vested interest, unconventional).

Or I've given the characters some ridiculous prop/costume (just my (blood) type, baby are you playing tricks 'cause you look like a treat?) or situation like a quirk accident that actually facilitates a confession rather than prevents one (damage, all in a day's quirk).

For fics of like, intermediary lightness, I think some sort of situational obstacle that prevents the characters being together works well, just because it is a more complicated situation, but you can get kind of fun/ridiculous with how absurd the situation is as well. I obviously have a super huge thing for class differences so that is usually my main bag (Deceiving the Duke, in cinders), and I will throw in some hidden identity element on the side to complicate it just a little bit further.

Only on rare occasions do I try my hand at a larger-scale external conflict. I'm not quite sure how to give tips on how to pick one out. I generally tend towards a sort of case fic/mystery approach to these, like, who is committing a string of crimes? (ab intra, war paint) or how do we confirm someone is doing bad stuff? (something in the water), and lastly, how do we keep someone alive in the face of targeted hate? (incendiary). It's these kinds of fics where the fight scenes generally come into play, and act as a sort of pay-off or climactic moment in the fic.

What I have never tried my hand at but I think makes a truly amazing conflict is a combination of case fic plus some societal snapshot/commentary, like Mermie does in her fics.

The throughline in Mermie's fics for the big three (surrender, something (just like this), and the eventual Shouto fic), is an anti-quirk terrorist group targeting quirkless civilians and attempting to give them quirks, which typically results in them being unable to handle the new power and either accidentally killing themselves or hurting others around them. The pro heroes are constantly working the case, trying to figure out who is behind these efforts, while also trying to protect the Reader characters who inadvertently get involved.

It's really consistent with the themes of BNHA as a whole and serves as a similar snapshot of a society still struggling with the concept of quirks. And it allows for a very strong throughline of tension as you have opportunities to lay out a mystery, grow the tension, and insert fight scenes or other scenes of societal devastation.

Anyway I'm not sure how helpful this was, but these are my general thoughts!! Please let me know if you're looking for more specific pointers, though, and I'm happy to try to dig more into some of this!!

[spacepunksupreme]

What is some good vampire media i. Like just came to the realization that I don’t know much. Finishing Dracula and watching the movie soon, watched the Netflix castlevania and i wanna watch iwtv soon (both of them)! I ask because I trust ur taste :-]

AH Hi! Feeling very honored that you trust my taste aha

I hope you enjoy Interviw with The Vampire and whichever Dracula movie youre watching! There is certainly no shortage of Dracula movies out there for one, both actual attempts at adapting the book and otherwise. There is literally (at least) one for every year from 1969-1979 lol so if you dig 70s stuff that’s certainly something to explore.

Obviously there’s vampire stuff out there in a range of aesthetics and subgenres, so I’m gonna try to cover a little variety of vibes off the top of my head, and hopefully one of these things is in your preferred flavor of vampire :) 

unorganized list with brief synonsis’ under the cut

As for serious vampire series the only thing that comes to mind rn are some anime/manga. Vampire Hunter D is a light novel series with two anime film adaptations. The newer one, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000) is like an all-time favorite animated movie for mine. D is an angsty half-vampire vampire hunter, and it’s also set in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi/fantasy world. Really good mix of more traditional vampire lore with science fiction elements. Vampirism is implied to be the effects of a plague that swept earth as well as like a magical affliction in this.

Trinity Blood is a similar post-apocalyptic hard sci-fi/fantasy mix. Leaning more on the gothic fantasy side. It’s set in a world where we’ve gone back to the Catholic church being the dominate like governing force, so the main character Abel is (again an angsty half-vampire vampire hunter) a funny little priest man. The vampires are like really demon/angel vibes in this, but are also implied to be the result of intermingling with an alien species that humanity fought pre-apocalypse, if I remember correctly. I havn’t read or watched any of this since high school so it might suck now lol

The Hellsing manga/Hellsing Ultimate OVA. An all time fav of mine, but I also havnt reread any since high school so, again, it may suck now lol. This one is more modern than anything traditional fantasy. It’s set in the 90s and centered around Abraham Van Helsing’s (great?) granddaughter, Integra, running a vampire-hunting organization, with thee Dracula now calling himself Alucard (lol) as her weird devoted man-slave. The villains are undead nazis who have come back to take over the world after scientifically achieving vampirism in the pursuit of immortality. So it’s basically like Dracula and his cool lesbian boss fight vampire nazis … with guns. It’s good stupid fun. And Alucard is a really good example of vampire character who is both a gleeful killing machine and a miserable “I regret the loss of my humanity and the fact that I can never die” poor little meow meow type.

And in non-serious and non-anime (lol) there’s also the What We Do in The Shadows TV show which I’ve seen best described as “what if vampires were gay and stupid”, pokes good fun a lot of common vampire media tropes. And the characters are great. The 2014 movie is the same premise, but different characters. 

Some other movies I might recommend are Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974) cheesy 70s movie but has some really great exploration of lesser-discussed vampire lore; the main vampire antagonist doesn’t drink blood but drains youth with a kiss, can have their hypnotic power projected back at them with a reflected surface, and causes dead animals to come back to life when passing over them in the ground, etc. It’s also got fantasic sword fighting scenes, and really fun characters. Kronos in particular is definitely supposed to be a mysterious badass type, but he really just comes off as a socially awkward loveable weirdo. He’s super strange and he smokes weed lol. Set in like a mid-19th century fantasy germanic country. 

Lost Boys (1987) or Blade (1998) for more edgy modern vampires. Both movies are stupid. Lost Boys is fun for the vamp characters which are southern Californian teenage biker gang members (gay). and Blade is fun because it’s just so bad it’s good, it’s a movie to be watched for laughs, with vampires who are just like goths that go to blood raves and sit around in suits in fancy rooms. Blade himself is also another angsty half-vampire vampire hunter (I’m realizing I’m fond of this type of character lol). 

And finally if you’re looking for something more similar to the Dracula novel, I think I can only recommend Le Fanu’s Carmilla. Older and shorter than Dracula and perhaps a little less exciting, but a solid classic in vampire literature (and lesbian literature), and has a lot of its own adaptations ranging from serious to silly as well. 

[shivunin]

Helloo ^^ I come bearing some distraction/company while you write! Mostly, I was curious: who would you say has influenced your writing style the most? And/or what writers do you admire for the way they write?

Happy writing!! I hooe you get lots done today XD XD XD

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the company 💗

Hmm that's hard to answer! I have always been a voracious reader, so it's hard to pinpoint major stylistic influences. I absolutely devoured everything by Robin McKinley (and she remains one of my favorite authors ever) from a young age, so I think a lot of my ideas about what narrative should be come from her. I also read a variety of poetry, so rhythm is something I edit for when I'm working on a project. And translating lots of Latin---I think I have funny ideas about sentence structure because of Ovid especially c:

One thing I will say (and I am not specifically recommending the series, because these books are really not for everyone) is that the way I write close third person was heavily influenced by the Downside Ghosts series.

It's set in a ghost post-apocalypse. The protagonist is a witch, one of the few capable of investigating and dispelling ghosts. She is also a drug addict and her love interest is the enforcer for her dealer, for whom she (illegally and secretly) investigates ghost things on the side. Chess, the MC, struggles so much with who she is and it is so vivid and compelling that I was shocked to realize the whole series wasn't in first person. There is also a whole dialect of English spoken by the people in her neighborhood that was so interesting to me (anthropology degree rears its head lol). I don't think it's a style I necessarily echo, but the series really altered my perspective of writing in third person---and I think I can do a lot more with it than I used to be able to specifically because of these books. I went in skeptical that I'd like them, but I think I read all five in two days.

As for recommendations...

Lately, I've been reading a lot of urban fantasy, so Seanan McGuire (I recommend really anything by her, but my favorites are the October Daye series). She has this really, really beautiful way of winding plot elements throughout the story so that when they come to a head/find resolution, the reader gets this gorgeous moment of aha! of course! that still feels very earned. Everything cycles in her writing in a way that I cannot praise enough; the beginning is the end is the beginning again, and I love anything where the story is also a little bit about story itself. If that makes sense!

I also enjoy Ilona Andrews (especially the Kate Daniels series, but the Hidden Legacy series is also great--ignore the covers). They do a great job with action sequences, which wind up feeling neither too long (I am...not partial to fight scenes in books) nor gratuitous. The worldbuilding is also really consistent and thoroughly researched, which I value highly.

Again, Robin McKinley, who has a way of layering story in such a beautiful way. I just love how her writing is structured. It might be a little slow for some people, but her books are very much about the journey over the destination and that's what I love about them. Juliet Marillier is another author I love for the same reason.

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. (I know, I know, my thing with memory loss...) It's about a chief administrator for a secret society of magical/superpowered people. She wakes up in the rain having no memory of who or where she is and discovers letters from herself in her pockets. Past Her knew that she was going to lose her memory and prepared all these materials to help her adjust or disappear. The book switches between letters from Past Her and the life of Current Her as she tries to solve the mystery of who took her memory. I really enjoy the style of it because it switches between formats, and I think the tension between these two versions of her who will never meet is unique and compelling.

[horse-girl-anthy]

ENOKIDO YŌJI INTERVIEW. “THE REALITY OF THIS WORLD CALLED ANTHY”

–Today I wanted to ask you about Anthy.

Enokido: So Anthy is “a symbol of when you know reality.”

–Hm. What does that mean?

Enokido:：I mean, Utena exemplifies the “ideal” and Anthy exemplifies the “reality.” Utena is a character that is easy to understand: she’s the type to set  her sights on a goal and dashes towards it. You might say she is a heroine-type. And yet, I think that perhaps the one who is the most “Shōjo Kakumei Utena” in this show “Shōjo Kakumei Utena” of this show is Anthy.

–. I’m not really sure. Could you explain a little more on Anthy and “Reality”?

Enokido: Director Ikuhara thought up one element that “Shōjo Kakumei Utena” has that no other show has: Anthy. Anthy is a symbol for when “reality” enters into the drama. We did that deliberately. And so, when Anthy enters a scene unexpectedly or does something cryptic etc, it would be good to see that as being connected to the themes of the show.

–. Taking a concrete example, in episode 5, the harshness of Miki’s “reality” is personified in Anthy? Is that what you mean?

Enokido: Yes definitely, like Miki thinks he is fighting on her behalf but then hears words like “That’s right, go get him Utena-sama.” So I think it is easy to understand Anthy’s position from those words. Miki from episodes 4 and 5 only sees Anthy through his own subjective lens and consequently, she thrusts “reality” back to him. However, I think there are show viewers who were surprised when watching that last episode. That might be because they think that it is unbelievable for Anthy to be so cold to Miki, who is fighting so hard for her. It is because those surprised are also viewing Anthy through their own subjective lens, just like Miki (though on a different level).

–. Ahh. So you  mean the viewers, along with Miki, are getting “reality” thrust back in their faces .

Enokido: I wasn’t sure if we communicated that aim very well but yes, that was what we were thinking when we made it.

–. I see.

Enokido: I thought of something as we were creating Anthy. Anthy is a character that symbolizes “reality” so we made her by sketching the “reality” that we felt. But, the Anthy character that shows up on the tv screen is incredibly unrealistic. I even thought, “like there is anyone like this!” (LOL). She ended up as a surreal character.

–. Though there couldn’t have been any character as realistic as this (LOL).

Enokido: Isn’t it mysterious. Thinking back now, the people in this world that we had thought were “realistic” were, unexpectedly, not “realistic” perhaps.

–. At the same time as being a character that symbolizes “reality,” Anthy herself must think she is a realist, right?

Enokido: That’s right. There is never a more realist than her.

–. In other words, she isn’t fooling herself when it comes to “reality”?

Enokido: Yup. She recognizes all of “reality.” When you have the strength to recognize “reality,” it is like that.

–. So the duelists who live relying on fantasies like “I want something eternal” or “I want something shining” are a complete contrast to her.

Enokido: Because even us creators can’t understand Anthy’s inner thoughts (*note: naimen = inner feelings, interiority, true self). We created her while in search of that.

–. You can’t understand anything?

Enokido: That’s right. After all, there are things about “reality” that neither I nor Ikuhara can understand. Like you know how in this world we live in, there are things we think are absurd or things we can’t confirm (認められないこと). We wanted to understand that inside and out and maybe as a result, Anthy became that kind of a character.

–. In other words, to depict Anthy is to search for “reality.”

Enokido: That is right.

–. So we can think of “Shōjo Kakumei Utena” as the drama between Utena, who lives searching for the “ideal,” and Anthy, who lives facing “reality” straight on.

Enokido: Basically yes. It is orthodox to create a drama on the clash between realistic characters and idealistic characters. And, as for which side influences the other, that should be up to what the author wants to depict. In other words, is this a drama that concludes with the idealistic characters winning like, “Ah it is so wonderful to believe in ideals after all.” Or a drama that makes it known “Ah, reality is so cruel after all.”

[dirtyoldmanhole]

before we hit ch25, the last few lines of this one are pretty nutty in an emotional implications way.

corrin's fam is a bit fucked up, y'all.

(that's a roundabout way of saying mikoto's growing on me in a big way this playthrough.)

if you successfully run through this stealth level, possessed!mikoto tries to trick you with the last door. I'm pointing this out to show the increasingly more blurry line of possession as these last few levels go on. corrin's starting to get the idea, thankfully.

don't always take them at their word, basically. watch the actions.

(ignore the different corrin/player character, i had to snag a screengrab off of a let's play.)

... geez. that's chilling.

when you add in all of the more autonomous(ish) possessed characters together (mikoto, takumi, gunter), you start to see common patterns with how anankos presses on their psychic wounds.

mikotos, as you could take a gander with the last post, craves more time with corrin. her mother's instinct gets warped in a way that anankos can bend in a way that (nearly) guarantees corrin's destruction.

i find it interesting that her psychic wound here mirrors her magical barrier with how she drains nohrian troops of their will to fight. 'surrender/stop resisting/in the name of (twisted) love'

(I can't talk much to takumi's possession/his psychic wounds as much other than a 'yeap looks like anankos really whacked hard on that competitive/insecurity nerve there. but it does look quite consistent with the other two.)

mikoto's boss fight is up.

.... the massive spoiler that (one of) mikoto's lovers was human!anankos (aka corrin's bio!dad) just hit me, actually.

this whole exchange is exceptionally twisted with that in mind.

corrin defeats her. before we hit her actual death scene, you get the items, if you had completed the stealth level successfully.

(gunter's line here is a throw-away in the great scheme of things, I'm pretty sure it's nintendo throwing one last hail mary of sorts to the denser players of 'hey remember this guy, he's about to be very important wink wonk')

(also, imo, it's not a coincidence he keeps randomly showing up whenever corrin's parents are involved.)

corrin's starting to get it.

mikoto's hoshidan children get a chance to huddle around and say their good-byes before she dissolves into the water bubbles that signifies complete "body is dead" anankos' possession. (water being the element he and the other vallites are heavily linked to).

speaking of, we get a revelation ba dum tishh here....

in terms of plot twists, this one's actually not that surprising. nintendo's kind of wearing a little thin of 'oops actually royal of x country' twists but this one makes more sense with how mysterious corrin's past is.

no shit sher-

........ uh

w-w-what are you doing here sir

i am pretty sure i did not see you in the screenshot .02 seconds before when mikoto got vaporized

(why are you all alone there too that's kinda really ominous)

uh

uhhhh

you're standing kind of close man

(seriously though, analyze all the other screenshots and he's always a respectful body-length distance away from everyone, especially corrin. the difference is an immediate big fat "!!!" subconciously even if it doesn't read as well in the screnshots)

..........

..........NOT OMINOUS AT ALL NOPE

whyisthiskindofhot

corrin babe

you might want to talk things out with your hubby there justsayin'...

BECAUSE

this is the brilliant bit about the complete and fucking total shift into 'camera's weirdly all the sudden treating your psuedo daddy gunter like a villain what the fuck' (the visual equivalent to 'why do i hear boss music all the sudden')

we find out in about two chapters that gunter has a burning decades long nursed hatred of royalty (for not unjustified reasons) (but)

combine that with the 'gunter lowkey always holding some kind of romantic/??? unresolved pining for corrin' (especially if you're coming from conquest headcanons)

with

the knowledge of anankos hating corrin's guts and willing to twist anyone dear to her in some pretty depraved ways

.....

if your reaction is 'oh geez. that suddenly got some real fucky undertones real quick'

YUP

OHO YUP IT SURE DID

gunterfuckers know what's coming up next >:)

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

I keep forgetting to write my thoughts about Part 8 (Jojolion). I don't have anything in particular to talk about, but as a resident Part 7 hater (/ex), I feel like I should give my poor followers an idea what my opinions are this time around.

I will try my best to make what follows spoilers free, however, it will include Part 6 (Stone Ocean) spoilers. Further Parts spoilers will be under the cut.

I clearly enjoyed it a lot better than Part 7. I kept dropping Part 7, which is not super typical of me (and didn't match how I enjoyed Part 6 either), and I had to regularly force myself to stop reading Part 8. I wish it could have been longer, because like other people pointed out, the ending wound up feeling a tad rushed.

I think Part 8 particularly shined at the start. I was pleasantly surprised to find out this part everyone always refused to tell me a single thing about was actually - and simply - a Mystery. The initial mysteries made brilliant use of the pre-conceived notions the reader would definitely have from having read or watched Part 4 in the past. Although I'm not fond of "canon AUs" which is exactly what everything past Part 6 is, Part 8 didn't have constant reminders of that element, and as I just said, made good use of its renewed use of a certain setting and certain characters. The "main family" of new characters also highly benefited from this format.

Unfortunately, this good use of mystery sort of weaned out as time went and the main mission was made clear. That being said, I enjoyed the specific placement/rhythm of certain flashbacks that revealed the truth about a certain mystery to the reader.

I liked Jousuke (I don't even know why people call him Gappy and at this point I'm too afraid to ask, so what I'm using to differenciate him from the first Josuke is a supplementary U... a wonder, truly), and I wish his - and everyone else's - definite autism remained obvious throughout the story. Yeah!! Fight me about it!!! He's a sweet and a strong little guy.

I was a bit underwhelmed by Yasuho, but not everyone can be Jolyne, so it's fine, I guess. She's nice, and her relationship with Jousuke is very pleasant. I think she's realistic and her "not so bizarre" experience is not an uninteresting addition to the story. You eventually get a glimpse of what was bizarre beneath the surface, and it's giving me food for thought. It did bother me how easily she was just sexually harassed or even assaulted - the justification is weak, and I don't like how casually this just. Happens. To fictional characters who happen to be women.

The following will contain spoilers for Part 8.

I was mostly underwhelmed by the ending. If the Kira family had to lose everything, I wish it could have been a bit more... ... or just, addressed at all. I definitely see how the ending scene, with the Higashikata family, is bittersweet, and I actually like that aspect - how Jousuke is included too. I think a stronger image of both Yoshikage and Kei, maybe in the past, had been shown. (If Part 8 ever gets animated, please give me this, the way Foo Fighters was added at the end of Part 6 👍 thanks.) Rai, too, but I definitely feel like there's an obvious reason to include an implication of how Yoshikage would have felt about this. (Which could be passionating, by the way. Though I'm obviously biased - was he ready to give up everything when he sacrificed his life to free Josefumi? Did he understand there was no winning then? I would take a short image of Yoshikage accepting Part 8's tragic outcome!)

Kei? Btw? Bestie they gave you nothing. What the fuck.

Something that is missing about Kaato, who is a very interesting character, is information about whether she was blindsided by the Higashikata family's curse. Did she know it before marrying Norisuke, or before getting pregnant with Joubin? Or was she only told when it was too late? I think whether she was blindsided or changed her mind should be an important part of characterisation. Both can make for great stories.

I guess for my own mental health, I will try to ignore the well-known loose ends in this part. Though I'm curious how they wound up being left behind - if Araki was genuinely rushed, or if he changed his mind about having certain things be canon, etc. (Karera bothers me... When did she take that photo. Where did she go. What)

Hato was literally the only nice person in the Higashikata family, lol. I'm curious how Norisuke, who's characterised as literally. Nice. Managed to raise such bad kids.

I might just be getting bored of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's tendency to end on a rather extreme bittersweet note. "So many people die, but there's some good 😊" The bad often outweighs the good to me, and maybe it's just getting old. Though it could be interesting to compare how Part 7 ended, with the Jojo protagonist "winning" while Gyro lost it all, to how Part 8 did, with the Jojo protagonist actually losing his fight, while someone else gets the "win". Or maybe both stories just want to say that the Higashikata family keeps winning.

I think that's all I have to say for right now? I mean, I've made it obvious I fell in love with Kira, right? Don't ask me why, I don't know.

I really liked the little doodles in between chapters.

Like I mentioned in some tags earlier today or yesterday, I was thinking of representing Jousuke as a fusion in a Steven Universe style, but having finished the story, I think he's more so "if Greg also had to die to give birth to Steven." They're GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNEEEEE!

Lucy is bestie... ... ... oh and Johnny deserved that. Idiot

Oh yeah, and Tooru was definitely a character. I think Yasuho's point of view of him interests me more than he does at the moment.