#and adaptations always do stuff like this so as the core traits of a character stay the same

[orangepterodactyl]

extremely tempting to write an entire paper on my thoughts about sonic adaptations, its relation to other multimedia franchises, and why only sonic seems to have concerns about keeping consistent characterization across adaptations

[imperiuswrecked]

Do you think Jonathan Hickman has a good characterization of Namor and Doctor Doom?

Short answer: Not really & maybe.

Long answer: Not really, for Namor. Hickman's Namor is very much a product of his story line, he's Namor is a character pushed to the very edge of his limits, a character who's desperate, who's throwing away any honor he has left to ensure the survival of his people. While I do think that Namor would do that, and its very in character for him to do so, I also think that Hickman's Namor is rooted in characterization taken from Sub-Mariner (2007) and Avengers vs X-Men, Phoenix King Namor, and not the Namor that's been around for decades, its a very modern take on Namor and not one that I think encompasses the full range of his character. Don't get me wrong, his Namor is very enjoyable, he's like the biggest bitch and I love it, but I have issues with Hickman's Namor and more accurately with how people after Hickman have stuck to using that characterization without all the stress the character was under. Hickman uses Namor and T'Challa's B plot to keep things moving along and parallel his A plot between Doctor Doom and Reed Richards. Two men who have hurt each other in the past still locked in that hate/love relationship with the weight of the world (s) on their shoulders. So while I enjoy his Namor in the moment, when taken against the backdrop of the greater characterization of the character I think it was the final nail in the coffin of Namor's modern and current characterization and I don't think fans will ever get the Noble Sub-Mariner of the late 60s-90s back. Which is fine because Namor as a character is very flowing and adaptable so long as his core traits are still there. I feel Hickman really pushes Namor to the edge and it was very good for me to enjoy Namor's unraveling. I think my biggest complaint about Hickman is having him bow to Proxmia Midnight, and then use them to do his dirty work, like that is very Un-Namor like, he would never bow to anyone and never let anyone do stuff that he feels is his duty to complete, especially revenge.

I say maybe for Doctor Doom because I always feel unsure when it comes to talking about Doom's character as I haven't read everything about him, but I have read a fair amount of his character to say that I love a lot of what Hickman does with Victor, the God Emperor Doom was a great story line for the character and his and Reed's interactions are so great but I honestly don't think Victor likes Susan in any romantic or sexual way so I really don't think he would have been with her. Idk I just feel sometimes Hickman has to throw in the heterosexual side thing in his works. Hickman was right to have Doom and Reed be the entire connecting thread of the series and honestly I do think Hickman writes a great Victor, and I love that he remembered that Kristoff is Victor's son and included him. I can say that I feel Hickman's Doom and Namor are great for the story he writes for them but I have more complaints about how it affected Namor after the fact. Current writers only ever refer back to Hickman's work and never get other sides of Namor's character. But I suppose that's true of many characters written today in comics, however I do like to complain.

[disasterghaster-moved]

💸 📘 🔋

Question about the muse—send a symbol!

💸  = Has your muse written their will yet? If yes, what have they decided to give to people? If no, why not?

So, Devang has a weird thing going on with her 'will'.

I don't know if it's legally binding in any country so much as held by certain persons capable of ensuring the enactment of it. And it's got a whole preface to it that involves...times and circumstances.

It's not really built to be activated, per say, by her death so much as by a specific period of Total Absence. She had it drawn up with help from several Contractual Beings to hammer it out into very specific wording and a careful placement of words.

She has died A LOT. But never fully moved on spirit wise. It's part of the whole reason she's a 'Ghaster' now. So! With that in mind she'd rigged the will special.

Every so often she updates the testament.

At this point, the will is just what is to be done with her assets and possessions should one of two things happen:

The Impossible Due To Death Curs: Die.

Or

More Likely Due To Death Curse: Disappearance Without Return.

Option two is the idea that something also common to Devang's life until fairly recently is that Devang will fucking DISAPPEAR at random to some other universe or reality at the whim of who the fuck knows what at any given time. And with that in mind it's always possible that, unlike in the past, she will never find her way back.

That's primarily what the will is for.

She has a lot of Hidden Wealth in the form of money, estate, and resources that will be give to mostly her children that are alive at the time. With some wordage about the money just moving down the line if they have children. Some does got to people like Charlie and Worth, but they get a smaller hashout just because she knows they won't be comfortable getting that many digits to stuff in their couch cushions.

The pizzeria is going to Maya unless Maya gives it to someone else.

Sentimental items are more directly named inheritors.

Remaining stuff is to be liquidated into cash and either separated to previous survivors or funneled into carefully curated charities--like Rook's and Miles'. (People she's already anonymously depositing random unsuspicious sums to when they take such things.)

However, if and when this Will is every activated remains to be seen.

📘  = Describe an AU verse/story that you have written out for your muse that you’d love to roleplay. Why did you choose to make them that way?

SCREAMS ALL OF THEM MOTHERFUCKER ALL OF THEM ALL THE TIME I LOVE ME A GOOD AU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE ME A GOOD OLD "FLING THIS-VERSE DEVANG INTO ANOTHER FUCKING UNIVERSE PLOT"! I LOVE!!!!!!!!! AUS?????????????? YESSSS.

None of them are written out. Earlier today I thought about updating the AUs pages in this site's about...

I've also continued to think about Well-Adjusted-Crown-Royal-Devang!!!

I just never...get to...do the Thing!

Oh! I also forgot that I was working on a The Last of Us!Devang series of fanfictions, but I just...had a hard time thinking anyone liked them so I lost the gumption to continue it--but it was kinda fun for a minute, I guess. I have no doubt I'd do it a little different each time if I kept picking it up to redo it, though.

I try to keep true to the character, always, but I do love mixing and matching experiences to the character to see how they're the same quintessential self while they behave differently due to their very different life influences. It's fun as heck!

Devang, especially, for me is a character I have a fairly easy time adapting to anything and anywhere. I think because she's the longest standing and the one I know the best to keep those Core-Devangy-Traits no matter where she ends up or becomes some-where/place else.

🔋  = Who or what drains your muse the most? Who or what helps to revitalize that energy?

I don't think people drain Devang. I think circumstances drain Devang. I'm not sure how to word this in the way of how much her Life Events generally take their toll. You probably know what I mean.

I do know that aside from that, there's a drain that comes with her being in public spaces. Her mind kind of overworks itself into a tense anxious type of paranoid frenzy.

And that sounds like those people in highschool that are always like 'yeah, dude, I ONLY sit in CORNER booths with my BACK TO A WALL'--but that's kind of how she lives a lot of her life. She might not always put her back to a wall, but she's always counting doors and windows and peering into reflective surfaces. Things like that.

That's very exhausting. Especially if she doesn't get the payoff of a Paranoia Well-Founded.

Her recharges tend to be Box Time. Which--she has to do different now after the Boo Box and now the Graveyard Hole. But just somewhere quiet, small, dim, and ostensibly Safe is enough. What she does in the box can vary. Snoozing with partners or family, reading a book, playing a handheld game, playing something on her phone, a movie--whatever.

If she whirls into a bottle of alcohol and takes to sitting on her porch then she's doing the opposite while making it look like she's let her guard down. She hasn't.

[solitaireships]

how bout 2, 11 and 17 ? :) (@eid0lons)

I'm gonna do a little bit of a grab bag here!

2. Gush about your f/o’s voice!

I love Rita's transatlantic accent. It started out as something that she did mainly because that was a thing that you did as an actor back then, but it eventually just kind of evolved into her natural speaking voice. I find it really relaxing to listen to, especially in quieter moments, and it's just so distinctly her that it's hard not to love it

11. Gush about your favorite chapter/book/episode/scene etc. your F/O is in!

This is a small one for Bruce, but I did literally start crying in the theater when I saw this the first time, so I'll bring this up. But in the most recent movie, he has an ending monologue, and there's a bit in it that sticks with me "people need hope". It's such a fantastic moment and to me embodies everything that B4tm4n should be as a character. At the end of the day, hope should always be at the core of him- hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a real change. That's one of the traits that he embodies the most, and it's why he's able to keep going after everything he's been through. Because he always has hope that things can be better, and I think that's just so amazing about him

17. Gush about how talented your F/O is!

Chae-Yeong is a ridiculously talented person. There's the obvious of how she was a ballerina growing up, and while she hasn't actually done ballet in years, she definitely is still a good dancer. And that's obvious even just in the way that she moves- there's a certain grace to it that's impossible to miss

But she's also adaptable, and that's something that you can see in her movements too. Her whole demeanor changes when she enters into Scarlet Shepherd mode, and it's really impressive how she's able to switch everything up like that, even to the point of changing the way she walks. And of course the way she fights as the Shepherd is different than anything she did back when she was a Huntress. It's rougher, and a little more brutal, but every move that she makes is calculated and controlled. She knows exactly what she's doing, knows countless different martial arts styles, and she's real just a wonder to watch

I'm gonna try and not make this too long bcs god I could talk forever about how talented Chae-Yeong is, but she's also incredibly smart. And that's not just something you see with her battle strategy and planning for Shepherd stuff. She's a skilled business woman and knows how to run her company, making sure that she's doing it in a way that lets her helps as many people as she possibly can. Then she's so knowledgeable about space too, it's cute listening to her start talking about it bcs she always gets so excited. She's good at figuring out how people work and playing to that, and she's honestly just so incredible. I love my wife so much <3 <3 <3

[interact-if]

Day 5 of the interviews! let’s give it up for Ligia! :chinhands:

Ligia, author of Love the Guard, Be the King

Latino Heritage Month Featured Author

Mathias' heart has been bleeding since his father, the former King, decided to punish you for his mistakes. As the youngest child of a lesser bourgeois, you were raised in the castle, between the King’s cruelty, the Queen’s friendship, and  Mathias’s kindness (or supposed kindness?).

Now, more than twenty Carnivals since your arrival, the King is dead and the Queen’s sickness  worsens each day. As the azure taint spreads in the kingdom and the Opalean Wars come to an end, it’s Mathias’s time to sit on the throne.

Will the docile Prince become a kind King, a violent Monarch, or a ruthless Tyrant? Will you have any say in it? And how much will your relationship change?

Love the Guard, Be the King Demo | Author’s Kofi | Read more [here]

Tags: historical, romance

(INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT)

Q1: So, tell us a little bit about the projects you’re working on!

With pleasure! Right now, I’m working on three main projects. My personal Visual Novel project, “Love the Guard, Be the King,” a second Visual Novel I’ve been secretly working on with a good friend for the past 10 months or so, and I also have an ongoing book series about hot, quirky supervillains—but I’ll focus only on the first two cause that’s what we’re here for, right? Hahaha.

LtGBtK is a really intimist experience, focused more on the MC’s and RO’s character arcs and how we can change depending on our experiences and how we feel about them. The entire plot happens in only four days, but it takes into account almost 30 years of history—basically Mathias’s (the only RO) entire life!

“Crystal Library” has mystery, romance, magic, 6 ROs, and a ton of memorable scenes already. I’m working on the graphics and the programming for this one, while Coco Nichole (@dreamybard), one of my favorite writers ever, is the brilliant mind behind the plot and all of CL’s characters! I can’t wait to share this one with you all. Romance is optional in both. :)

Q2: What excites you most about using interactive fiction? What are some of the biggest challenges?

What I LOVE and FEAR about all types of interactive fiction is how it invites players to, on a much deeper level, be part of the narrative. When reading books, we all work hard to translate beautiful sentences and scenes into images in your head. We interact with it, yes, but when playing IFs, we also explore the narrative in a different way; we have so much more agency over what happens! We sometimes have different paths to choose from, beautiful illustrations to unlock, or character traits that change depending on our choices… it’s amazing, and, IMO, it’s a very unique way to experience narratives.

But it’s also very complex, very demanding, and it can easily get out of hand if you give the players too many options/branches to follow, mainly when working with small teams or, in my case for LtGBtK, alone. *takes a deep breath* I just hope I’m doing a good job. .-.

Q3: What has been something in your project you’ve had to do a weird amount of research for?

Besides programming lol basically everything. For LtGBtK, I’m trying to create this weird fantasy with a modern-medieval society (?), so I’m constantly researching medieval customs, traditions, tools, and weirdly specific stuff like socks. Did people wear socks in the medieval era? What were their playing cards made of? When was ice cream invented? How did they shave? How did kids become knights? What were their perfumes made of? And soaps? What did they eat? How different was their wine? And what kind of materials or slang or fabrics can I use, and what can I change without completely breaking immersion?

 And then I shove all that into a pot and adapt it to a world where Mathias can literally put the world on fire with a wave of his hands. ♥

Q4: Which of your characters is most like you? How?

I think I’m a mix of them all, but mainly Mandra and Rafa (one of my main characters in my supervillain books). They have wildly different personalities and stories, but those two have clear views of the kind of person they want to be, they’re not afraid of their soft sides, and they are ready to work hard to become good at what they love. Rafa has a specially strong connection to her brother, like my siblings and I, and Mand is often locked in an eternal state of wanting to be alone and wanting to be surrounded by family/loved ones, so I guess we meet there too!

Q5: Does your heritage influence your characters as you create them? (How? Why or why not?)

Yes! There are the very basic ways, like habits, names, food, family dynamics, settings (mainly in my books, which are all very Brazilian), and Holidays. And then there’s a more personal way that I’m not entirely sure I can explain because I lived in Brazil for 28 years, and I’m not sure I can put that into words. The classics of our literature are different, Art, architecture, and music developed differently, my country was violently colonized and still faces the results of that violence (including but not limited to structural racism, classism, misogyny etc), I learned some Capoeira in my physical education class at school, we call non-Brazilians “gringos,” and so on. This is my normal, and this is what my characters would see as normal too, because I don’t know any different.

At the very core, all my characters are influenced by my country’s history, by our relationship with other countries, and by the values my parents taught me, passed down to them by my Indigeous-Spanish-Portuguese-German foremothers/fathers. :P

The main, more palpable way my heritage influences my characters, though, is through humor and theme. I think Brazilians have a very specific, sharp, and often very smart kind of humor that, IMO, stems from the type of history our country has, and the way we look at life, sometimes translating pain into humor. As for themes, I usually write about what makes me angry... and there’s a lot in Brazil’s history and modern society that causes me that. :)

But all I know for sure is that I want to show the world Brazilians are much more than samba and soccer.

 Q6: What is something you love to see in interactive fiction?

Other people! In the same way I add my history and worldview to my creations, I always approach stories thinking that there’s a whole, well, history behind them. And I love that! Also, I adore choices that feel impactful + good friendships and family relationships + soft romances with mutual respect. ♥

Q7: Any advice to give?

Hmm. Be proud and celebrate who you are and where you’re from. Learning and understanding the world inside us is a life-long process, so it’s always a victory to discover new pieces of ourselves. :) Also, if you can, talk to people that come from different cultures than yours to expand your worldview, don’t be afraid to be soft (the world needs more kindness), and please study personal finance. Seriously. XD

[imthepunchlord]

Marinette’s Best to Least

Adrien, Alya, Nino, Kagami

I kinda miss doing these. 

OK, here’s how its going to work. People can have miraculouses that fit them best (can immediately pull them off with little to no issues), then there’s 2nd best (which is middle gruond, not ideal but doable), and then the least (struggles with most). Best can range from 1-3 depending on the individual. Those who have 3 best are pretty uncommon, and are more along the lines of miraculous prodigies, of the 5 none are actually a least fit, there are just two that are 2nd best. 

Peafowl power is essentially the canon but tweaked so it’s power is making golems exclusively through the user, no reaching out to another and doing something based on what they’re feeling. And how complex and elaborate the golem is will depend on the user (specifically if they’re capable of feeling and thinking). At the core, the golem exist to serve whatever purpose it was made for and won’t deviate from that. Also golems are not made through little feathers but by a section of the fan, one quill = one golem. You can have multiple golems but you won’t end up with much of a tool. 

So now that that’s out of the way, let’s get this latest version of Best to Least going! 

Starting with Marinette. 

Marinette at the core is a dualistic character, who can either be direct in how she handles things, or prefer to do things from the background with less attention on her and can be underhanded in her initial choices (examples seen in Refleckta, Mime, Copycat, and Anansi; to name a few). She is actually ruled by both her head and her heart, which has her rely on logic and facts that allows her act as necessary, but also makes her a huge people pleaser who will go above and beyond for others.

At the core, canon is setting her up to be a miraculous prodigy, so many of these she should get down pretty well, though some she may struggle with more than others. 

Her best are Butterfly, Fox, and Bee, who all meet how she works and she can use either of them quite well from the immediate start. As these work off her strengths, depending on what she has can shape her growth and which she would wind up leaning more towards. 

Starting with Butterfly, we can see that Marinette is good at recognizing potential in people, know their strengths and what they can pull off. Actually as we see, her first thought process when she got Tikki was to pass her on to someone she thought would be more fitting, thinking Alya would a solid hero (which she is right about). She’s also open and eager to reach out to others for help and is a big team player. This miraculous also leaves it open if she wants to be a leader or not. This does also play off her nature to assist others with their problem, and her willingness to give them a needed boost if needed, any sort of boost they may need. 

Growth wise, this would have her learn to be open more to the idea of asking for help and reaching out to others, learn that she doesn’t have to shoulder everything herself. It can also be good to help her learn to put some distance between her and issues, that sometimes people need to be given a chance to solve those problems themselves without her helping or trying to make it better.

She and Nooroo would be a very sweet pair together as both are very considerate and ruled by their heart. And this being a more emotion related miraculous, Nooroo himself would be quite good in helping Marinette deal with any emotional issues.

Fox works off her observation skills, her capability to step back and take things in and consider her options, and her able to come up with complex, elaborate plans that secures their win. It also matches her inclined moments to help from the shadows and use underhanded tactics. While she’s not an outright deceiver, she is a good manipulator and is resourceful and creative enough to work things into her favor. She can also match Fox as a risk taker, for this is a daring animal that will take risks that they believe they can win. It’s not often that she will, but she is ready to try her chances. 

In terms of growth, this miraculous would lead to her relying more on underhanded and crafty tactics, and settle herself more into a background role. She still has good leadership potential and could direct a team if required, but as this miraculous is more being a background manipulator, she’d wind up less inclined to have attention on her and rather influence situations and people subtly.  This can really help her grow in terms of resourcefulness, cunning, and how well she can work/manipulate things into her favor. 

Marinette and Trixx would actually be a solid match up, as what we see, while Trixx prioritizes duties and responsibility, they’re observant enough to pick up on their user’s feelings and can address said issues. And playing headcanons that Trixx is more morally grey, can allow Marinette to not be inclined for “the greater good” all time. There are times that Marinette is more inclined for underhanded tactics (Refleckta). And observant and sharp herself, Marinette can mentally be Trixx’s equal, and won’t be solely guided/influenced by the kwami. I see this as an equal and engaging partnership that could be fun and have some interesting conversations. 

With Bee, this works off Marinete’s strength as a leader, her capability to be direct and aggressive (when required or when she wants to be), and to be a capable teamplayer as she is fine not always being the leader and is content to be a follower (hence her largely following after Alya instead of taking the lead). And if you want to factor in symbolism and traits, of the 5, Bee matches her most. Actually outside her color coding, everything about her screams Bee: being a creator, being team oriented, leadership potential, a source of nurture, warmth, and support, being a gardener, a source of assistance, being an active multitasker and busy bee, and capability to fight back but often as a last resort/response than starting something herself. 

In terms of growth, this miraculous would have her embracing the strengths of her being more direct and involved, and can add onto this idea to restore order and happiness for others and fix problems herself. It could allow her to truly bloom into herself as a leader, multitasker, defender, and provider for those around her. 

Kwami wise its not as ideal (though everything about canon Pollen is incredibly problematic). Canon wise, Pollen would be a good source of support and encouragement, and with Marinette being engaging with her kwami and considering them more her equals/friend than a servant, can prompt Pollen to start growing mentally and emotionally. Unlike Trixx, Pollen would be more morally uptight, though I don’t see her having the same intensity as Tikki in that moral uprightness. And until Pollen grows in wisdom (which takes experience), Marinette will largely have to figure stuff out herself, which potentially could be for the best (as Tikki will voice her concerns and then rely on Marinette to figure out a solution). This is a partnership where I see Pollen having more to gain than Marinette (though she’ll have a very loyal and supportive kwami which will be nice). 

Marinette’s 2nd best choices are Turtle and Peafowl. These technically do match her and she has aspects to her character that can allow her to use them well, but they aren’t exactly matching to the entirety of who she is and there are better more immediate matches. These do however offer alternative growth potentials for her. 

With Turtle, this matches Marinette in her need to step in and assist others, take the brunt of the problem herself, matching her nature as a more direct supporter. The issue though is that Marinette is more the sort to go and address the problem than hang back as a protector for others. This can also count as a miraculous of self-protection, which can be a good thing for Marinette to learn to be more conscious for her own safety (not just physical but emotional and mental). 

Growth wise, this largely will help her learn self-care, and to put distance between herself and a problem, allowing others to handle it while she focuses on those who need immediate support. This miraculous will also strengthen her drive to be a protector and helper to those in need, but learn to pick her battles better and that she can help in other ways than directly addressing a problem. 

Of the kwamis, she and Wayzz are actually closest in similarities and would get along very well. Wayzz, like Marinette, wants to address problems quickly but smartly. He is also adaptable and observant, will pick up on personality quirks of his humans, and adjust himself to meet them so they can get along better. As such, he’d learn quickly that he can be a good source of calm for Marinette, offer up logic when her imagination runs wild with her overthinking things. He would add onto the want to involve one’s self in issues and probably both wind hovering close by if there are any issues. He may spark off a tea addiction in Marinette. 

Peafowl would work off her creativity, imagination, and ingenuity. If there is an issue, she will know just what golem to create to address said problem. This is another miraculous that leaves it open if Marinette would like to join the heat of things or not, either leaving it to her golem alone or joining her golem in a fight. Like Fox, this is also a miraculous more designed to play by the user’s own rules, and Marinette has her tendencies of playing by her rules. Biggest struggle though is that golems made serve a purpose and her creations can end up more closed off to other things around them. I can also see Marinette regarding her more complex creations as “alive” when they aren’t truly. 

In terms of growth, this miraculous could help her learn to focus on one thing at a time, while she is a skilled multitasker, Marinette does have issues of taking on more than she can chew, and this is a power that’s more about focusing on one issue at a time. She can make multiple golems, but could ultimately end up weaponless as each golem is made through a piece of her fan. 

Of the little we see of the restored Duusu, I will presume that she and Marinette would get along as we see Duusu is affectionate, chatty, and very open. She has an amiable personality that Marinette can get along with. 

Between the Cat and Ladybug, Marinette is actually good with both. She has the creativity, ingenuity, and resourcefulness for the Ladybug. For Cat, she has the reflexes, instinct, and the willingness to take risks and be direct with issues. She can pull both of them off incredibly well. And as a creator, Marinette is capable of using both, as Ladybug creates and Cat destroys, and destruction is a form of creation. But between the two, if she had to have one, I’d actually vote for her to have the Cat instead. Not only is there an appeal of a creator having destruction, as she as a creator will know how to best destroy something (for when creating, you are destroying an item’s current form) but...

...A big part of this stems from the kwamis themselves. Tikki has been good at building up Marinette’s confidence in the end and does has helped open Marinette’s eyes to alternative choices and actions. Unfortunately, she is incredibly morally upright, to a point she can be overly critical and nitpicky of Marinette and is adding onto a developing Atlas complex that Marinette is starting to have. Tikki also has issues of prioritizing others over Marinette, and pushes for Marinette to be more considerate of others and putting them before herself. Which in itself is not bad, but self care is important too. Canonly, Tikki is no longer a good kwami for Marinette to have. 

Plagg though, in terms of personality, actually would’ve been a better match for Marinette. Not only is he calmer but also more lax and lenient. When her imagination runs wild and leads to freak outs, he can calmly offer logical counterparts to it to bring her out of the anxious episode. Nor will he pile more responsibility onto her that she herself is uncertain of adding. Like Trixx, he is along the lines of morally grey and won’t discourage underhanded tactics that Marinette wants to intitially try. Plagg is a kwami that actually prefers having his humans figure stuff out, and this works in his favor as Marinette is the sort to figure stuff out on her own. He will offer the smallest call outs and she will factor it in and change tactics. Plagg also will not be prioritizing Marinette to put others before herself, she will do that on her own and he will be a reminder to consider herself as well. 

She does incredibly well with Ladybug and is a solid Cat, but between the “two most powerful”, I’d lean more Marinette having Cat instead. 

[thekingofwinterblog]

Getter Robo Retospective - Getter Robo Part 1 -Ryoma Nagare

So, Iv’e been wanting to do an overall retrospective of the Getter Robo manga franchise for a while now, and since the Getter Robo Arc is nearing it’s finale as of the time of this writing, and will either give it a definite ending, or be the final nail in the coffin that the series will never be finished before Getter Robo falls into public domain, I thought now might as well be the time to do it.

As such, I’ll be doing an overall analysis over the entire collection of Ken Ishikawa’s Getter Robo manga series, it’s plots, themes, characters, and covers the various ideas this crazy and amazing sci-fi series covers.

Also, this retrospective will NOT cover the various anime adaptations, or the behind the scenes stuff that has gone on with Getter Robo over the years, such as Go Nagai being credited as the writer of the original manga despite only having come up with the overall concept and designs for it(the rest was by Ken Ishikawa), or the way that Ken went back and added in some extra chapters in the original two manga to explain some things and to tie the early manga more closely into what came after.

For the purposes of this retorspective, I will be focusing exclusively on the manga itself, and what it has to offer, without going into anything else.

And of course there is no place better to start, than the beginning.

So, what is the story of the original Getter Robo Manga?

Well, the overall plot of the original manga is about the conflict between two sides of a conflict, as laid out rather well in it’s prologue chapter.

The first is our protagonists, the Saotome Institute of Japan, who’s leader and namesake has invented the titular giant mecha, the Getter Robo.

Powered by a revolutionary newly discovered form of energy called “Getter Energy”, this enormous metal behemoth is a fighting machine unlike any other.

This war machine was originally supposed to be used for space exploration, but due to necessity, it has instead been reworked into a fighting machine.

It’s only weakness is that it requires 3 different living pilots to operate it to draw upon its full strength.

Opposing the Saotome Institute, is the forces of the Dinosaur Empire

An empire of humanoid Sentient Dinosaurs that long ago was forced to flee the Earth’s surface after it was bombarded with a strange kind of energy from space that was deadly to their kind, their only way to survive being to use their incredible technology to hide on the only place on Earth where the rays couldn’t reach them. The Earth’s very core.

Now, after millions of years underground, and the rays that forced them beneath the earth to begin with having seemingly ceased, they have finally returned to reclaim the earth’s surface for their own. At it’s disposal, it has incredible technology, and giant cyborg dinosaur monster in it’s quest to wipe out the newcomers, the human race, to achieve total dominance over the Earth.

If you think this premise sounds very generic, and you’ve seen it in some form or another in countless other Mecha series, you are not wrong. Ancient evil group attacking the protagonists, and only the new giant robot can stop it, probably the biggest stock plot in mecha overall, having been done in everything from Neon Genesis Evangelion to Megas XLR in some form or another. The set pieces and details are different, but the overall plot is the same.

However, where Getter Robo fits into this, is that it was one of the first giant robot manga there was, and many, many of the tropes and ideas it pioneered would be used and imitated by its successors.

In fact, I would argue that Getter is the second most influential mecha series in history, only second after it’s big cousin, Mazinger Z.

However, we are not here to detail how it influenced the manga industry, but how Getter holds up on it’s own, and in this regard, despite having a plot that has been overused time, and time again by it’s successors, this isn’t really that much of a problem for Getter Robo. Because like any good Mecha series, Getter’s biggest strength is it’s cast of characters.

Starting off in chapter 1, we are introduced to the first of the Robot’s giant pilots.

Ryoma Nagare.

Each of the pilots of Getter Robo is given an introductory mini-arc to set them up, and Ryoma’s is easily the best of the 3.

We are introduced to the main character of most of the franchise at a very unusual spot to open a main character, especially for a Shonen protagonist.

At the end of a revenge story.

To put it bluntly, Ryoma does not start off this series as a particularly likeable, nor good person, as his introductory scene is him crashing a perfectly legal martial arts tournament and beating the everloving shit out of it’s referee, it’s participants, and the judges who arranged it.

His reasons for doing all of this?

Revenge for his old man.

As it turns out, Ryoma had a massive beef with the arrangers for this contest, as his father, Ichigan Nagare was a pro karate champion back in the day, whose reputation was purposely destroyed by those arrangers.

Now he’s come to take revenge by utterly crushing their disciples on national television, to hammer in the point that his father’s martial arts was superior to theirs for all the world to see.

During this whole thing, we also get a very good look into how Ryoma thinks at this point in time.

When the arranger tries to appeal to the “Sacredness” of the Sport to get him to stand down, Ryoma laughs in his face, proclaiming that there is nothing sacred about combat at all. The only thing that matters is who emerges as the victor.

This is backed up by how he doesn’t show the least bit of compassion or honor to the first of the contestants he defeats, easily smashing him to the ground then gloating over him after having demonstrated the sheer difference in the combat prowess between the two of them.

He is very blunt about the fact that he believes that one should pursue strength for strenght’s sake alone, and never stop until you have crushed anyone who stands before you. Always train to get stronger, and always seek out those who can challenge you and beat them too.

Might makes right.

This is a REALLY good introduction for showcasing Ryoma as a character. How he thinks, his immense near superhuman strength, his ruthlessness, his pride in his own strength.

It also ties in directly into the themes of this series, as this kind of thinking is essentially Evolution itself boiled down to it’s bare core. The survival of the strongest. What is the point of Evolution after all, if not this? Those with the traits to survive and thrive will do so, while those who cannot, will be crushed by those who can, who in turn will pass down what made them successful to begin with.

Of course that is not what the actual message of this series is, but it is a concept that this series is rather blunt about, and it’s not a coincidence that the most prominent of all the main characters of this series began his journey while believing wholeheartedly into that ideal.

All in all this scene is just great, and it sets up Ryoma really well, as well as making it clear that this is a boy who has a lot of growing to do as a person.

And so, having achieved his life’s work that he’s trained for for years and years, Ryoma nagare quietly leaves the arena, leaving behind a dozen bruised, battered and broken men on the ground.

Of course this display of power has not gone unnoticed, as in the audience were two men from the Saotome Institute who came here hoping to find someone strong enough to pilot their giant robot.

As it happened, they just found one that fit the bill rather spectacularly.

Then in the next scene we are showcased Ryoma’s home.

Ryoma Nagare, a fighting genius that at the tender age of 16-17 smashed the greatest karate practitioners in Japan with ease while being outnumbered a dozen to one, lives in a ramshackle part of town, in a rundown old building that has broken windows, a leaking roof, and can at best be called a ramshackle cottage.

It’s a rather brutal contrast to the sight of the prestigious, well made and maintained karate tournament building we were just in.

Inside we find the sight of something else rather unusual for a Shonen protagonist. Having now achieved his goals, and avenged his father’s memory, Ryoma is slowly starting to come to the realization that this has all been one giant waste of time. He hasn’t actually earned anything on this journey. His father is dead, he’s still poor, and his only belongings is this shitty building and the clothes on his back.

As we learn here, Ryoma has spent his entire life being trained in martial arts, to insane degrees even for an adult man, much less for a child. All for the purpose of one day doing what he did today, and avenging his father’s memory.

This scene really hammers in the fact that for all his ridiculous strength, Ryoma is a child, and he has a child’s way of looking at things.

He thinks back fondly on being pitted against stray dogs in death matches, and he reveals here that in his mind, this was all about “Redeeming” martial arts somehow, as if this display would really change anything in the grand scheme of things within the sport.

It wasn’t of course. This was all about revenge. Everything Ryoma ever trained for was for this moment, this moment of what should have been absolute and total triumph as he achieved a truly spectacular victory and proved his father’s fighting style the best in all the land and he has proven that he himself is the strongest fighter in all Japan.

Instead he is coming to the realization that so many people that wasted their lives on vengeance have come to over the years. That it was all a giant waste of time.

Revenge is a suckers game.

Having achieved his goals, Ryoma has found them to be completely empty, and has nowhere to go. This is a really fascinating way to open up a character arc, as usually a character that learns the lesson that David Xanatos knew so well, happens either at the end, or somewhere later down their line. Ryoma however, learns it in the very first chapter, and now has to find something else to live for.

However, his soul searching is then interrupted by a few gentlemen from the Saotome institute.

Who immediately tries to kill him.

Now before I discuss the next part, I wanna praise this overall scene, because it really works great within the context of this chapter.

Ryoma has been introduced as a massive asshole, who firmly believes in the mantra of Might makes right, and he doesn’t feel any regret at having brutalized a dozen of innocent people, just the fact that he realizes that there was no real satisfaction to be had from it. Now the other shoe drops, and HE is attacked in his own home, completely unprovoked for reasons that frankly he has no personal involvement in on his own side. While this attack does have an in universe reason behind it, it main purpose is that it serves as a nice cathartic moment for the reader, as while he’s never going to legally punished for what just happened at the tournament, he is punished by the narrative for his actions, which is something i’ve seen far, far too many stories do over the years fail to do with asshole protagonists.

It also serves to put Ryoma’s current belief in Might Makes Right to the test. After all, aren’t these men doing exactly what he said that those who practice martial arts should do? Seek out those stronger than them, then crush them.

All of this makes it a shame that it is horribly undercut by the one, genuine stain on the original manga. Namely that one of the attackers is this guy.

And it’s at this moment you realise, oh yeah, this was made in 1970’s Japan. The unfortunate fact is that Mangaka of this period generally based their depiction of black people on early American comics(Which had plenty of this kind of artwork), and Ken Ishikawa was unfortunately not an exception to this rule.

He would THANKFULLY not repeat anything like this later down the line(his depiction of black people is far more natural and realistic in later manga), but hot damn is it both uncomfortable and distracting to read the pages with this guy. And it’s a real shame too, because frankly, not only is the following fight scene very good as a narrative punishment for Ryoma, but it’s just a good fight scene in general.

Unlike the Tournament fight, which was mainly a beatdown to establish Ryoma’s ridiculous strength, this is an actual fight, which showcases Ishikawa’s ability to draw energetic, exciting fight scenes where action flows very naturally.

It also shows that for the kind of ridiculous strength Ryoma possess, he isn’t some superhuman, as early in the brawls he’s heavily wounded by the rather mundanity of taking a throwing knife to the shoulder. This is in general something that makes action if Getter Robo stand out from other shonen series too. When characters, or Robots for that matter, takes hits, they rarely shrug them off with no problem, instead taking real, genuine damage that doesn't just instantly go away. They might power through them, but that isn’t the same as them disappearing into the ether.

In any case, the battle ends up outside the house when Ryoma is thrown through the wall.

He’s then forced to do the classic, catch the blade between the palms of his hands trope, which is depicted much more believable than most cases I’ve seen, as despite succeeding, it still left him bleeding from those palms.

Ryoma then redirects the blade into the big guy who is attacking him from behind, killing him. I really love how the artwork sells that this is a desperate move on Ryoma’s part. He is genuinely fighting for his life here, and he’s pulling out every trick he has to to win despite his wounds.

He then follows that up by ripping the blade out, and throwing it at the knife thrower guy. I also like that after doing so, he immediately falls flat on his ass, in a rather realistic manner(he is fighting in the rain after all, so the ground is undoubtedly pretty slippery.), while also showcasing the force of the throw. My only main complaint is that for this one panel Ken forgot to include the wound and the knife on his shoulder, as I think it would really sell just how desperate Ryoma is here if we’re visually reminded in the moment that, oh yeah, he’s powering through and using the arm whose shoulder has a knife in it to to throw this thing.

Thankfully, that missed opportunity for visual grittiness is more than made up for by the next part.

Having now effectively won the battle(I think the swordsman broke his foot in the fall, at least that’s how it looks), Ryoma suddenly realises that, holy shit, he just killed someone. The contrast between here and how he looked as he challenged the tournament fighters couldn’t be more different. The cooky, arrogant youth is completely gone, and you're reminded that Ryoma is just a kid. A kid who just had to kill someone. The bravado is completely gone, leaving only a kid who is tired, confused, in pain, and probably pretty scared.

He is then approached by the man who just had 3 grown ass men jump and attack him, Dr. Saotome.

Wounded, and mentally exchausted as he is, he is in no position to argue as Saotome declares that Ryoma is what he’s been looking for, and as one of his men rips the knife out of his shoulder, Ryoma screams before losing consciousness from the pain. Afterwards he is dragged into a car, and bandaged up.

Then as they're driving, the’re attacked by a giant flying dinosaur that grabs unto the car and flies away with it, Ryoma and Saotome barely managing to get out in time, alongside one of Saotome’s unlucky goons who breaks his neck in the fall.

And so ends Chapter one of Getter Robo.

All in all, other than the horribly racist black guy, this is a really good first chapter, that sets up Ryoma Nagare really, really well, showcasing his way of thinking, his origin, and where he needs to grow, while also showcasing his ludicrous strength, and that he is fully capable of going balls to the wall to win a fight, which will be showcased many, many times in this series. It also ends on a reminder of the fact that oh yeah, this is a series about one side vs dinosaurs, as Ryoma gets his first introduction into the enemy he will be fighting time, and again in this manga. It also gives a distinct first impression of just how ruthless Saotome is, as he is perfectly willing to send 3 dangerous goons on a teenager just to test his prowess in battle, which is absolutely going to come into play in future chapters.

All in all, it’s a good start. Not an amazing beginning, but certainly a good introduction to our first main character.

[hawkland]

(Mostly) Destiel Fic Recs #5

This is a LONG recs post because it’s been a while since I did an update and I fell hard into reading one author’s work (DeanRH). In fact I could easily do a rec post just of their fics alone, but for this round I’m just going to pick out a handful of my absolute favorites so far, the ones I’d recommend to start out with, along with more other authors’ works I’ve especially enjoyed lately.

Absolution at the Five-and-Dime by DeanRH (125k)  - this is perhaps THEE DeanRH fic to start with if you want a good, long read with a little bit of everything (Roadtrips! Intriguing casefic! Americana! Tasty Dean/Cas pining! Wing!kink and unique angel lore! Kinky soul fisting and tentacles!) It’s kind of two of parallel stories in one: the first, a flashback to Dean and Sam's first year hunting on their own (as well as trying to avoid hunting, and John in general); the second on how Dean and Cas finally get together during an unusual case and when Dean is able to really let go of his past trauma and accept himself/accept love from Cas. 

What I love about DeanRH’s work is that they write from the unique point of view of a drifter, so they understand living on the road, traveling place to place, and the highs and lows of that life like no others I’ve encountered in SPN before. (The author’s notes are often as much fun to read as the stories themselves). They also write a kickass angel!Cas and never lose sight of his non-human traits and background. Their writing style is unique - almost poetic in nature, and I know some readers have found it difficult to get into. But it works really well for me in their SPN fic...gives it the flavor of oral story telling as might actually happen at a drifter’s camp (with one story written exactly as such). Be warned this particular fic does play up the idea of John Winchester being mentally abusive and Dean having to turn tricks when he was younger in order to support him and Sam, so there is some dark stuff. But as someone who grew up with mentally abusive parent, reading this was extremely cathartic to me and believably written (unlike some stories that go too over the top with abusive John, or just don't understand how that kind of abuse leaves lifetime psychological scars.)

The rest of this round’s recs below the cut.

Carnevale by DeanRH (18k) - Actually the first fic by this author I read, because I just couldn’t resist a story set in my favorite place in the world, Venice, Italy. Castiel is the Angel of Venice, banished there for so long he does not even know or remember the reasons why. But Carnevale season is the one time a year he can let his wings out - figuratively and literally. And during this particular Carnevale season, he meets an intriguing masked young American tourist there with his brother and their one night stand turns into something far more powerful than either expected. This one’s hot, romantic, and achingly sad at the end as it all ties together unexpectedly with canon-verse...though with a hint for the future so it’s definitely not totally sad. I loved how DeanRH clearly understands Venice as a fellow lover of the city, the side of it most tourists never see unless they spend a long time there. This story made me cry just from wanting to be back in Venice again.

Ice cream was sweeter, food more satisfying, everything was an epicurean delight. There was just something magical about Venice, and he had lived here in the city for hundreds of years, so the shine should have worn off by now.

But it didn't, and there was always something more, something wonderful to discover around the next corner. The painted eaves of a church. The beauty of two women dancing with flowers in their teeth across the Piazza San Marco one day, overcome by the sheer joy of just being there. The way the university students still created Venetian masks, like Castiel's extravagant volto mask and Dean's humble servetta muta, with crafts that had been handed down across the generations. The morning silence that lay against the stones.

Hard Landing by DeanRH (26.9k) - A bit similar in theme to Carnevale. A pre-series Dean and Sam are sight-seeing in Spain when an angel, struck by a babel-spell, crash lands right in front of Dean. A strange yet seriously hot encounter with the angel turns into something much more complicated when the brothers return home and realize something more serious is afoot and they are both trapped in the middle of it. This is another story where things are very much not as they seem at first (as fun as that is!) It features master strategist Cas at his best, with a side helping of delightful trickery care of Gabriel and Balthazar as they deal with Lucifer, Michael...and a few others along the way.

The Sacred Band of Thebes by DeanRH (14.5k) - The last DeanRH fic I’m gonna allow myself to include in this round up, because it’s just very soft and sweet and beautiful - for a story about Dean & Cas being magically transported back in time to ancient Sparta! This is another story infused with a great knowledge of place and history, with some wonderfully delightful original characters added in that make it all the more enjoyable to read.

And now on to some other authors, I promise!

IPAMIS OL OLPRIT by emmbrancsxx0 (56k). A really wonderful fic that take a different look at what might have happened with a temporarily resurrected John Winchester during Season 14. Dean & Cas are in an established relationship here, and John here isn’t too happy about it — though mostly because he sees Cas (and Jack) as monsters, the kind of monsters he spent his lifetime hunting. This is a great fic for the emotional complexity of how John, Dean and Cas are all handled. John isn’t a cardboard evil dad, Dean is struggling between his loyalty to his father and to Cas, and Cas is increasingly bitchy/frustrated at Dean still being so desperate for his father’s approval (and all the more complex for not just being a quietly suffering perfect supporting boyfriend.) There’s some great action sequences in this too along with the emotional angst and a delicious dose of hurt!Cas if that’s your thing (as it is for me :D)

Abrenuntio by Neonbat (51k). A very dark but compelling AU take on the/a apocalypse universe. Dean, Sam and John are all alive in this post-angel war-apocalyptic world. They are part of a group of human survivors fighting against the angel army when they manage to capture “Blue” — a particularly feared angel of death. Dean is tasked with bringing Blue in for interrogation and he becomes a prisoner in their camp after John is killed. As mentioned, this is a pretty dark/sad fic (with some rather gruesome torture scenes) but I still found it quite compelling as a look at how things could have gone in some other parallel universe. And somehow the author manages to make the Dean/Cas relationship come together despite them starting out as complete enemies. This is one of those AUs that works for me because the core of the characters really shine through despite the differences in the setting.

if it all fell to pieces tomorrow by spocklee (37k) - a gorgeous post-Empty rescue fic that takes an approach I haven’t really seen explored in detail before (despite being something I’ve actually thought about as something that could’ve happened.) What if Cas has spent so long denying himself happiness, and then trapped in regrets and false-rescue scenarios created by the Empty, that he can’t trust that his rescue is real? And so he runs off to be on his own - literally stealing the Impala because he can’t handle being in Dean’s presence one moment longer - and only slowly comes to terms with the idea that it’s over now and he can be happy with/around his friends and family. This one’s both deliciously angsty and at times funny/sweet, looking at Cas’s relationships not just with Dean but with Sam, Jack, Claire, even Eileen. It does some fun stuff with other returned angels and demons who now find themselves back on Earth (and human), and...I just really enjoyed this one a lot.

Both Saved and Lost by angelfishofthelord (13.7k) Gen Cas character study, absolutely gorgeous and sad and one of those fic I couldn’t stop thinking about the day after reading it. AU where Apocaverse!Cas isn’t immediately killed by our Cas during 13x22 but instead hitches a ride back to the main ‘verse. Dean and Sam want to keep him alive for information on Michael; Cas is torn and trying to figure out just how similar—or different—they really are. Some great angel stuff here (I also highly recommend this author’s Jack & Cas “dadstiel” fics, they’re equally lovely and heartbreaking at the same time.)

flesh of the mighty by Mudprophet (2.7k) - THEE “What exactly did Dean eat in Purgatory, anyway?” fic you’ve probably already heard about. *cough* I’ve been trying to work up the courage to read this one for a while and finally gave in and OH MY CHUCK I’m so glad I did. It’s perversely disturbing and beautiful at the same time, Cas is wonderfully DERANGED and ALIEN in that way that I love it when fics managed to convey just how much angels are NOT human. Do heed the tags.

Full of Grace by ilovehowyouletmefall (11k) - Another one for the weird-as-fuck-angel!Cas lovers’ list. Heaven/canon-compliant fic where Dean knows he should feel happy and at peace but he just...isn’t, even with Cas and all of his friends and family there. He finally goes looking for Cas when he’s been absent for a time and, for the first time, gets to not just see but experience his true form. Another one that hits some kinks I knew I had and others I didn’t...until now. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

don't ask me where i've been by saltwound / @1x06 (8k) - I can never resist a good 09x06 fiction gap fic! What makes this one really stand out is how well it captures Cas’s internal voice - his struggles adapting to human senses, limitations and emotions versus what/how he experienced things as an angel. The longing and feelings between Dean & Cas here are so achingly beautiful and I just wanted to cry when Cas says he misses hearing Dean’s prayers, so Dean, he...oh, I’m not going to spoil it. *happy sigh* Just read it.

this room is wrong by DarkHeartInTheSky (12k) - Sometimes I like torturing myself with some good 15x03 divorce arc angst and this fic hit that button just so. It’s an alternative take on where Cas might have ended up after leaving the bunker and features some great Cas & Sam friendship feels, when Sam sets out to try to bring Cas home. It’s all the stuff you’d wish the writers would’ve let them talk out in canon.

Well that’s more than enough for this round! Go forth, read and give some great writers some kudos & comment love!

[mc-critical]

Could you do a personality reading/analysis on Nurbanu? Her development, crucial points in her story. Also, do you think she truly loved Selim or only cared about becoming a Haseki and then working towards becoming Valide Sultan? Early S4, we see her asking Canfeda if Selim is going to become Sultan, which raises the question if she was plotting for her own benefit or actually fell for Selim?

I find Nurbanu to be a character ripe with personality, despite that she only has a single season of material. Just like with Selim, or perhaps even more so, I find what was done with her fascinating. She's the second character that follows the general pattern of a "SOW" arc and it's interesting to see how much she parralels and differs from that arc.

While Hürrem starts out on the ship that was going to the Ottoman castle, we meet Nurbanu already there, standing right in front of the doors outside; sharing the same fate as the others next to her, yet it looks like she's entering there like an external witnesser of a whole other culture. But she hasn't forgotten who she is. She's used to a fairly calm life she looks very much proud of, the life of a Venetian noble woman with dignity and pride, and that is suddenly snatched all away from her. She justifiably resents those that have done this to her. She wasn't willing to go through the harem life at first, so she wanted to take her own life. I feel this comes from her genuine hopelessness that overtook her in the beggining, the situation she was in might have been way too much for her. After all, she isn't faced solely with a sense of lost identity, her current position in the harem is the exact opposite of what she was meant to do before. But after she was saved by Selim, it was perhaps then she decided to fight and survive in her curcumstances.

That said, while it may be result of her more condensed development, I always remain surprised of how fast Nurbanu found out what exactly she had to do to go on top. Maybe I shouldn't, since part of her motivation may come from not only her natural instincts, but also her will to return to the closest equivalent of her previous position once again, but the way she orients herself, how quickly she tends to react, the way she decides exactly how to act following both instinct and logic. I really like that about her. She reacts so well in tense situations, knowing which buttons to push to get the wanted effect in all her interactions with Hürrem, Selim, Canfeda, etc. It's telling of how much one particular event can change a person, opening up traits and qualities one may not have previously demonstrated. And for me, Nurbanu is one of the best examples of this.

Her "tertiary character trait" is very unique for the show, and overall: her ability to read the stars is amazing on its own and should be more appreciated, but the way it complements her character makes it even better. It's like a consitent guide for her: whether she's going on the right direction. And when she sees she's supported by fate itself, she gets even more of a push to rise up in the hierarchy and pull a victory. I loved the scenes where she went out to see the stars and where she told Hürrem of her future - they establish a lot about her. I only wish we saw even more of it. (I feel that ability of Nurbanu's works pretty well in a thematic way, as well: it enforces even more strongly that times/eras change, just like the positions of the stars change. And the motif of changing eras is major for her future conflict with Hürrem and the SOW, as a whole.)

Nurbanu also has a very psychological side of hers that was key in helping her realize what exactly Selim needed to get the motivation necessary to fight for the throne. She so often understood what exactly he needed and what had to be done, making her a voice of reason for him that could give him her word of advice. And that evolved even more as time went on: first she helped him to stand on his feet, then both of them made plans on how to get further ahead in the game, in conjunction with her own rise in the hierarchy. Even her provocations (mostly towards Huricahan, but Hürrem too later on) seemed more intentional than anything even when they weren't. Most of the time, she knew where to hit and what to say.

Even though she had a tendency to work more alone and had the intention to rise to power from the start (similarly to Hürrem), I think she fell for Selim. Wanting power, knowing what you need to do to get it and still caring for the person next to you that advances your power aren't mutually exclusive things, especially not in that time period. Maybe all Nurbanu felt for Selim was gratitude for saving him at first, but when she went to Manisa, she did come to love him eventually. She felt jealousy anytime he touched other women and always strived to comfort him in his problems and I don't think it's solely out of manipulation, knowing the core of her arc.

For me the major goal of Nurbanu's character development, her gaining more agency to fight her way to become Valide Sultan aside, was her slowly and mostly letting go of any possible scruple left in her in order to win- letting go of her more human side. We see in many instances in S04A that there's much humanity left in her and sometimes she isn't ready to do cruel stuff, even if asked to and no matter how much she wanted to adapt, she didn't realize how far exactly did she have to go to achieve her goals until a certain point. Because Nurbanu is a very patient character that goes more "one step at a time" in Manisa. She's focused on one certain aspect of the goal that contributes to the bigger victory: first it was to go to Manisa, then to win Selim over, then to make sure no one stands in the way, then to help him get advantage, then to grow herself, then help him defeat Bayezid, then erase the obstacle of Defne, as well, to become Valide, with little to no break in between. And sometimes both her own mistakes (like beating up Huricihan) and the system's cruelty (like Mustafa's death) tend to surprise her and go to paths she didn't expect to go otherwise.

I summarized most of the major story beats in her development (and talked a bit more about her in general) here, but I'll delve into them more. Her relationship with Hürrem demonstrates the best of Nurbanu coming into her own. It's not to be denied that Hürrem was the one who gave her a head start with giving her the name and sending her to Selim's sanjack, Nurbanu's arc began with her being loyal to someone else. But she's just as brave, ambitious and determined as Hürrem and for that reason their paths were always meant to separate. Nurbanu wanted for her own time to come, not to be bound by someone else, hence she isn't one that would blindly follow orders. From the beggining she had her own compass and instincts she would follow and that slowly made her clash with Hürrem, who envisioned Nurbanu as someone loyal to her first and foremost. The distance also helped in separating them, with them only sending letters to each other, when Hürrem was doing her own thing in Topkapi, while Nurbanu - in Manisa, both working for different goals entirely. The first challange of her loyalty she faced was also connected to her humanity, to the demise of someone close to her. Even though she obeyed the order (albeit more accidentally), she swore not to repeat it again and her remaining loyal was put at doubt right then and there. But what sealed the deal was Huricihan, where I feel Nurbanu got completely disappointed at Hürrem not wanting to cover for her, which is why she put out that ultimatum in the first place.  Even then Nurbanu was surprised to detach from her completely, even though the hints were there before. I don't think she truly expected for Hürrem not to support what she worked for with Selim in the end, because it was only natural for Nurbanu to help him fight, not only preventing and covering his mistakes. Turning against Hürrem was more of a necessity for Nurbanu - she knew where she came from, but she was ready to fight for her position, even if it meant fighting against Hürrem herself. She was careful enough with her before they became full on enemies, though- she asked her for help when Selim messed up in Topkapi, she was reporting to her about the progress in Manisa, she showed the necessary respect for Hürrem. But that appeared to be over when she stole the ring, the symbolic demonstration that now, the power is in Nurbanu's hands - that's the truth and that's the future, no need to lean on the past anymore. And it's the main thing she would capitalize on now.

Her humanity shone most in two personal aspects of hers: her relation to Nazenin and her fight with Dilşah.

Her relation to Nazenin is probably the clearest showcase of her old ways she's still letting go of. Once they arrived in the harem, Nazenin seemed to adapt way faster; their dynamic changed to a point they were already on equal ground, something Nurbanu isn't used to and doesn't take very well, as a result. When Nazenin is the one supposed to go to Manisa instead of her, Nurbanu didn't like it, either, and wanted to be the one to take that chance instead of her. And when they reunited, they had to deal with the difference in their changed positions much more openly, with "fighting" about who's superior. It's like their dynamic changed in the blink of an eye and it's moments like these where Nurbanu shows her remaining pride to people in front of her, because seeing a person in a lower position before being elevated as highly as her, no matter how much she would care about her, wounds the pride she once had as a noble woman and that was on her way to keep going on. Even then she certainly didn't want for Nazenin to die and her death was about the last fraction of Nurbanu's past going away and the first step of her human side going away, too. Despite their strained relationship, Nurbanu lost a close person who's been with her from the beggining in this game. [Nurbanu and Nazenin have their share of parallels with Hürrem and Gülnihal: both pairs were together from the start and were forced to stand against each other through an order (though for Nurbanu and Nazenin that wasn't the entirety of it), both Nazenin and Gülnihal wanted to gain their agency and became understandably proud of what they've gained and both Hürrem and Nurbanu were against that and did something to them that put that kind of conflict to an end. Nazenin could also be the "Leo" to Nurbanu in terms of the past to an extent.]

Her dynamic with Dilşah, while mostly being a fight for Selim we knew Nurbanu was going to win, caused another human side of Nurbanu to go away - her bringing a dog in the harem and that dog ending up killed by Dilşah. (similarly to Valide killing Hürrem's horse, which played a role in comforting her during the Isabella arc.) That strongly implied that Nurbanu had a soft spot for animals and that she had a warm, caring side, contrasted with her otherwise cold and pragmatic nature. The killing of the dog, done solely to hurt her, helped to further enforce that coldness and pragmatism and went against any attachment, because perhaps such attachment would only render you vulnerable. 

But Mustafa's death was the turning point of Nurbanu's arc, just like with Selim. It sealed even further the path of no return when she saw something she doubted was ever possible ("can a father kill his son?") and while she has "played dirty" before, now the methods she was slowly developing were even more assured. It's like she and Selim had to become unscrupulous at all costs.

In spite of her plans working almost everytime, she has definetly acted irrationally and that is a part of her pride. She acted against Huricihan mostly out of sheer pride and she wouldn't allow for someone to challange her position, even rightfully. That ounce of pride doesn't consume her, however, and doesn't go in the way of her plans, and even if it does, she can turn things around in her favor, like with her part in Huricihan's death.

In the end, Nurbanu has reached a point where she is fixated on her own power and victory at hand, mostly discarding anything else. She looked like a very strict mother the moments we saw her as one - wanting the best for Murad and keeping an eye on who he interacts with. She's developed a huge perceptiveness and sensitivity of future threats that extended to Defne and fixed on Safiye - I feel she realized she would be a danger later down the line during their scene together, even if we leave alone her being raised and gifted by Mihrimah. She may not have expected the amount of Safiye's growing power and influence and that may have caused her to be drastic. We're meant to believe through Safiye's words that Nurbanu became crueler as a Valide Sultan, but that could be coupled by both her development and Safiye's own distinct view on Nurbanu. She probably used means similar to both Ayşe Hafsa and S04 Hürrem.

I see Canfeda as Nurbanu's guide in the Manisa harem itself that also helped her in quite a few ways. But they always came to work more as a unit, considering what is best for Selim and the future in that moment. Both of them are smart, quite opportunistic and dedicated to what they do, that's why they complement each other so well. Canfeda, similarly to Nigar, saw Nurbanu's potential to elevate, but still insisted on following the harem tradition when it was needed. (like with Selim's concubines) Nurbanu seemed really eager to learn from her. They had soft spots for each other, but the quickly changing circumstances they were in didn't allow for many "heart to heart" moments.

[fairy-serigala]

this is for the wonderfully talented @fairytail-multishipper. go give xvi some love, goodness knows they deserve it <3

(this may end up being multiple posts long, who knows, once i get going with headcanons not much can stop me).

so a bit of backstory for this sort of au that has been brewing on and off for a few months now:

this is an idea i had to make lisanna a demon, like natsu. the idea was that as lisanna was supposedly dying, mira's magic acted up in a way she has yet to replicate - it took lisanna's soul and it attached some of mira's magic to it, to keep it from deteriorating further. and later on, mira and levy figure out how to put that magic into a book, like the etherious, so that lisanna's semi-exposed soul can be protected and hidden from the material world.

(it's a very barebones au, but i think lisanna would be an incredible demon). -

so lisanna would go through some changes, as you can imagine, there is now satan soul magic running through them and their soul is partially demonic. so, they have to adapt to this.

this happens via lisanna's own takeovers taking on a more... demonic appearance. instead of relatively realistic animal takeovers, they more resemble yokai creatures.

instead of a cat take over, lisanna would have something akin to a bakeneko which are known for shapeshifting abilities, high intelligence especially when learning languages, immunity to poisons, and are associated with fire (particularly in relation to things like house fires as their tails are said to act like torches).

instead of a snake take over, lisanna would end up resembling a tsuchinoko which are known for deceiving people, as well as they ability to jump really high and far.

lisanna would also have takeovers in which they resembles a tanuki (think tom nook), which have a particular reputation for magic and mischief, such as orchestrating pranks and stuff. they are masters of illusions, also with the ability to shapeshift.

there's also the kitsune which have two separate kinds of interpretation - one in which they are known for intelligence and wisdom, and are reveered, whilst others use this intelligence for more... sinister means. the kitsune are sometimes associated with fire magic, but they're more so known for charms and illusions, possession and even mind control.

there could be many, many more, too. -

and lisanna would carry some of these demonic traits through their daily life, since their soul is half demonic and they're pretty much a cambion now.

firstly, they'd get some fangs. are they small and cute and able to cause pinpricks? or are they some of the largest fangs in the guild, even rivalling out the dragon slayers? you decide~

next, they'd have an innate and heightened sensitivity to other demonic sources and dark magics - they'd probably know that natsu is e.n.d. loooong before anyone else does. and since they knew the longest and was fine with it, by the time his nature was revealed to everyone else, they'd be the most supportive and protective.

and of course, there's gotta be some horns. little spikes? full on ram horns? idk.... it all sounds badass~

they'd also have a preference for dark and the night, maybe they'd have a fondness for wandering into the woods or visiting stereotypically spoopy attractions to see how genuine they are.

(i also like to imagine lisanna eventually getting digitigrade legs eventually because i think they look really cool and the idea of a hooved non-binary person running at you is both scary and fucking cool.)

(also body diversity for the win :D and that including fantastical body types?? even better.) -

maybe since their soul is "incomplete" in a couple ways, it subconsciously feeds of demonic energy so that it can complete itself. and maybe someday, instead of being a cambion, they'll just be a demon.

etherious natsu dragneel and yokai lisanna strauss? gahhh name a better duo.

to anyone who doesn't know them, they'd be so spooky and scary (little do those people know that they're actually the softest dorks in the guild, but the enemies don't need to know that, all they need to know is that they'll eat your soul if you're not careful.)

and if lisanna gets to be the buff badass that they were always meant to be... even better~ (let the girls and femme characters have aaaabbbss pleeease...) -

however, even though many humans find lisanna intimidating and scary to approach, they're still an animal mage at her core.

so kittens coming up to them, in favour of "more normal" humans? that would be an almost weekly occurence.

animals are thought to be able to sense and read energies, anyway, so of course the sweetest and most boopable member of fairy tail would get the love! that just makes sense!

is this the kind of feral you were hoping for??

[astrology-india]

Dating a Scorpio Man - Vital Things a Woman Must Know

New Post has been published on https://www.astrology-india.com/dating-a-scorpio-man/

Dating a Scorpio Man - Vital Things a Woman Must Know

Are you thinking about dating a Scorpio man? If so, chances are you are probably trying to figure this fella out.

His deep, dark, and mysterious ways are likely to intrigue you. This bad boy type of the zodiac is a natural head-turner. But I am sure you cannot stop wondering,

“Is there more to this guy than meets the eye?”

Best Match for Dating a Scorpio Man

At the surface level, the Scorpio male seems like a good fit for all zodiac signs that have been attracted to him, or, at least that is what they convince themselves.

But it is below the surface, in the deep waters of this emotion-based sign, that make or break a relationship with this man.

A guy born under the zodiac sign of Scorpio can be a deep and complex water character. Getting to know him will likely puzzle you.

He is much less of a head-scratcher than his fellow water’s- female Cancer and Pisces who tend to form close emotional bonds with the Scorpio man, and through them, they remain loyal.

Of course, the Scorpio male is a good match for other Scorpios as well.

The secret of dating any man, but especially one born in the sign of the Scorpion, is that you bring out his deep-rooted obsession of being a hero to the woman he loves.

I don’t mean a hero as a knight in shining armor on a white horse rescuing a damsel in distress.

But a woman allows her guy to feel his love by doing things that will create harmony in the relationship.

If you want to understand one of the main components of successfully dating a Scorpio man, I suggest you listen to relationship expert James Bauer who explains His Secret Obsession here.

Scorpio Man Dating Habits

So, the two of you decided to go out? You are probably imagining that the Scorpio is going to pick you up and take you out on his motorcycle and then share his heart with you.

Well, he may do the first, but definitely not the latter!!!

He is adventurous though, and quite the passionate guy. So, if it is exciting, the Scorpio wants to go there, and since he likes to feel as though he is leading, this is where he will take you.

A date with this man can be anything from a night out on the town dancing, to a restaurant he is really into, a concert, an art show- the list goes on.

Scorpio Man Dating Traits

Few could ever turn down the gaze of a Scorpio man. The intensity of it will make your jaw drop and pull you right in.

But after he says “hello” and you chat it up a bit with the charming fellow, where do you guys go from there?

If it is on a date, then there are a few things you need to know.

Scorpio is a water sign. But let us forget everything you know about them, like with the go with the flow Pisces or friendly and helpful Cancer, for instance. This guy is completely different.

Water signs are ruled by their emotion and Scorpio is ruled by Mars, the planet of energy, action, and desire.

With the Scorpio, you have an intense, burning, and passionate type of water. For many romantics, you are probably saying “say no more” right now.

The man is also a doer. He is going to get the job done one way or another. This can be accredited not only to Mars but to his sign being fixed also.

Due to this aspect, he is more grounded than the other water signs, but he is also less adaptable and fluid- less willing to budge.

But he is loyal. If he lets you into his deep-running well that is his inner-world, it means the man is committed.

And if he lets you into his bedroom for some fun, then you can rest assured that he is mad about you.

And “mad” is the correct word because the Scorpio can be a many-layered individual.

Scorpio Man Characteristics

His characteristics are deep, dark, and mysterious for a reason.

Nobody is deep, dark, and mysterious only to be a ball of sunshine and have all of their “stuff” together after you get to know them (unless they are faking the funk).

For the Scorpio guy, it is not a show or a “cool guy” act that he puts on at all.

The Scorpio man is this way because he is truly and deeply emotional to his core, and sometimes these emotions can be dark and troublesome.

He can appear mysterious because he is as complex as his feelings are. The Scorpio man is really just trying to figure them all out on the inside, even if he looks stoic to the outside world.

This is why he does best with other water signs. Because not only can they relate, they also do not mind messy emotions and the dark places of others.

This may be something that more grounded, light and cheery signs will have a hard time dealing with in the long run.

Sex with a Scorpio Man

The Scorpio man’s whole vibe is sexy. In fact. The Scorpio is the most sexual in the zodiac.

Due to this, the male sometimes gets a bad wrap for sleeping around, but contrary to popular belief, the Scorpio does not approach sex lightly.

Sex with a Scorpio is usually intense, passionate, physical, and emotional.

Those that have experienced it have said that it is nothing short of mind-blowing.

It is a spiritual experience where two souls become one. But let us be clear, this guy is not going to show this side of himself to just anyone.

The Scorpio male understands probably more than anyone that sex is a spiritual experience shared with a person you are emotionally connected to and physically invested in.

He has an active mind and an even more active imagination, so a woman whispering in his ear during lovemaking will drive his erotic senses to boiling point.

Sexual relationship expert Felicity Keith explains this powerful technique The Language of Desire here.

Dating a Scorpio Man Long Distance

The best thing about dating a Scorpio long distance is that you can be pretty sure he will stay loyal.

He is one of the signs that can make any phone conversation or facetime session seem interesting, because not only is he deep emotionally, but he is psychologically this way as well.

If you two are not discussing your feelings, he will be asking you about your day and actually listening.

That, or he will be going on about something he is passionate about, which there is always something.

Scorpio represents “things hidden”, and his ability to turn over rocks and penetrate the core of just about any topic rarely makes for boring convos.

Long-distance dating inevitably throws up problems in communication. Phone calls and emails are no substitute for human touch and personal connection.

Drifting apart can easily occur if you have no system in place that reinforces the emotional bonds.

A program that has helped 100s of women to connect with a man’s subconscious mind, has been developed by relationship expert Amy North.

It is called Text Chemistry and has been successful in sowing the seeds of desire in a man’s mind, and even re-uniting couples after a breakup.

If you want your guy to focus his attention on you, then listen to this short video in which Amy explains the words that will have him dreaming of you.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking to give it a go with the Scorpio guy just be sure you like intensity and emotions, and sometimes, emotional ups and downs that can take some sorting out.

The romantic journey with Scorpio is for the long haul. This is one of the most – if not the most — dedicated signs of the zodiac.

If you are not bothered getting dark every once in a while, then the Scorpio man relationship will be exciting, intense, passionate, romantic, and if handled correctly will last for the long haul.

[davidmann95]

I think you’ll enjoy the Snyder Cut as funny as that outcome will be, but honestly the only analysis of the DCEU from you I’m interested in is comparing Cavill and Hoechlin. S&L shows that it’s not necessarily a darker tone or “realism” that caused the problems with Cavill.

You guessed true! I was indeed made a fool of for maximum comedic value. And now that we’re through Superman & Lois’s first ‘act’ for its inaugural season I’d say there’s a decent amount of material to work with for comparison. It’s actually a fair one to make: along with the series drawing a lot on Man of Steel aesthetically both takes on Superman are rooted in the notion of realistic consequence, albeit one focusing on the personal and the other on the global. But curiously if not surprisingly, the shorthand impressions of the two have pretty grievously screwed up the general interpretations on the two not only in terms of relative depth, but what sources they’re drawing on.

It’s funny; when Hoechlin debuted on Supergirl it was just about the most positive press Superman had gotten in over a decade, but by the time he showed up again the narrative had fully set in that he was a shameless, inauthentic carbon-copy of Christopher Reeve designed in contrast to Cavill, and it held until the debut of his solo show made people reckon with the quality of his performance on a weekly basis. And even that opened with a lovely bit of nostalgia bait that reinforced the idea that Hoechlin is a neo-classical ‘iconic’ take on the character shaped by his mass-media, while Cavill is the modernized serious update rooted in Deep Comic Book Lore. The truth is that between the two it’s the big screen take who hews a lot closer to the Christopher Reeve model, stoic in the face of danger, sweet when given the opportunity, somewhat distant most of the time but unquestionable in his good intent. Hoechlin meanwhile while paying his dues to almost every mass-media Superman interpretation to date one way or another is as a personality rooted in the comics in a way no prior adaptation approaches. Especially the work of Busiek and Morrison as a modernization of ideas originally stemming from the 60s and 70s of Superman as an emotionally vulnerable figure, unshakable in his heroism but driven by unique personal experience and a mindset bordering on neurosis almost as much as decency.

Perhaps the core of the divide that the differences in their performances stem from - beyond that from day one back in the Supergirl days, for me at least, Hoechlin simply felt a lot more authentic and charismatic - is specificity of motivation. Henry Cavill’s Clark Kent is a burdened figure, with no shortage of factors in his life acting against his journey to becoming Superman so as to make that transformation all the more remarkable: a lack of built-in inclinations in the same way as the rest of his species, his powers tormenting him throughout his childhood, social isolation, his family discouraging his heroics out of concern for his safety, the looming threat of the global sociopolitical impact should his existence be revealed. But for all that buildup, there’s little effort given to why in spite of all of that he would become Superman anyway, other than - for all the effort to make this a grounded, ‘real’ take on the character - that he is Superman, and when offered a chance at greatness as either one who does good or evil, he will naturally choose good. He’s a largely passive everyman figure, adrift for years until a place is given to him, and then in the tradition established by Byrne and company in the 1980s (reversing Siegel and Shuster’s original concept) only able to fully unclench when wearing the glasses rather than when enacting the mission and role he finds thrust upon him. He’s just a perfectly okay joe doing the best he can under increasingly impossible circumstances because he has no real choice but to go with the flow lest he let everyone down. Weird dickishness when Batman’s around aside, he’s broadly who ‘you’ would hope you could be if you were handed a cape and told to save the world.

With Hoechlin it’s incredibly clear where most of his driving traits come from even by the end of the pilot: his community-minded sense of ethics from his parents, his sense of larger duty and destiny from the literal voice of his heritage, his alienation from his unique responsibilities and powers and the secrets that come with them, his protectiveness from just about all of the above with the death of his father probably playing no small part. They’re traits that make him a natural as a big savior hero - he doesn’t need to put on an act or force himself into it, he’s really like that, especially with his natural goofy earnestness - but massively complicate his life as Clark Kent dealing with interpersonal relationships, tripping him up and complicating his priorities. He powers through on determination and the fact that under his issues he’s fundamentally a good person, but not all that deep down he’s someone with a lot of powerful and frequently conflicting drives that don’t always manifest in the healthiest ways even as he tries to improve.

Neither’s my ‘ideal’ version of Superman - there’s stuff I’d change or refocus with the both of them, even if Hoechlin’s a lot closer to what I’m looking for. But their outward presentations are misleading as to which of the two takes the character more seriously: the array of weights on Cavill’s shoulders are such that he as a person is largely squeezed out. The version Hoechlin plays however, in taking Superman at face value, ends up asking harder questions of what would shape that sort of person and how those personality traits would play out, and the results capture nuances that across 80 years no other major adaptation has managed.

[seventh-line]

Team 8 Harry Potter Wands

Including Kiba, Hinata, Shino and Kurenai. This took a lot of work so enjoy 💚

Kiba Inuzuka

Sycamore wood with a dragon heartstring core, 13” and an unbending flexibility.

I will admit I was not particularly inclined to the notion of Kiba having a sycamore wand. After my good friend Regina suggested it, the idea gradually grew on me.

My original thought was redwood, as Kiba could be described as impulsive and hot blooded, but perhaps it would better to match him based on some more of his positive traits as well.

As J.K put it, “Sycamore makes for a questing wand, eager for new experience”. Kiba is always on the go, in my opinion the most adventurous of the Konoha 12.

This wand is great at adapting to and learning new spells. Kiba enjoys this particular trait as the more spells he learns, the better chances he has at beating Naruto.

It takes much determination and strength to control this wand. It is easily won away if it becomes bored, more so since the core is dragon heartstring.

Thankfully Kiba is the type who can provide all the fun, adventure and determination needed to keep his wand loyal.

The wand has incredible potential when properly synced with Kiba, though it may take some time and practice to get there.

Kiba’s wand looks like a stick.

His wand is quite resilient, literally. It’s survived quite a few beatings, and Kiba isn’t known for be careful or cautious in general.

The wand probably has a few bite marks on it. Whether from Kiba, Akamaru or both, his team doesn’t really know.

For Kiba’s wand length and flexibility, I chose them to be the same as Naruto’s, to demonstrate their similarities.

Both are determined and bring an undeniable (and loud) presence with them.

Hinata Hyūga

Larch wood with a unicorn hair core, 10½” and a supple flexibility.

Larch is a good fit for Hinata, as the wand acts as a support system for her and she has qualities that a larch wand would seek.

This wand helps Hinata grow as a person, helping her gain more confidence in herself.

Hinata has shown unexpected strength and courage hidden within her.

Unicorn hair fits well considering her naive and innocent personality.

On a more technical level, unicorn hair produces the most consistent magic, which fits well considering the Hyūga as a whole have amazing chakra control.

A paring of larch and unicorn hair makes for a truly loyal wand.

Her wand length indicates her reserved and nervous nature.

A supple flexibility shows she is more easily influenced by those around her, often a people pleaser and more willing to compromise.

This does not mean she will compromise her beliefs for the sake of pleasing others. She may bend, but will not break.

Hinata’s wand is refined and elegant, befitting of one from the main branch of the Hyūga.

Yet it still retains a look of humbleness to it that is hard to describe.

Overall, she truly grows and discovers her true potential with this wand.

Shino Aburame

Acacia wood with a phoenix feather core, 10” and an unyielding flexibility

This is a peculiar wand for a peculiar wizard, and Shino Aburame is just that.

Shino was somewhat difficult to place, however acacia fit well, as it is a picky wood demanding an owner of sufficient subtlety.

Like his wand, Shino is sensitive of his surroundings, yet able to remain detached from them.

Aware of his shortcomings and strengths, Shino and this wand have become so in tune with each other it could be considered a symbiotic relationship.

This wand is the most sentient of the Konoha 12’s wands.

I almost chose dragon heartstring, but felt that ultimately phoenix feather would be a better match.

Phoenix feather is the most personalized of the three cores, and that fits well with him being in tune with his wand.

A length of 10” indicates his more closed off nature, as well as to emphasize that this wand produces subtle magic.

An unyielding flexibility is suitable, as Shino is objective, logical and more by the book. He sticks by who he is and often holds grudges he does not easily forget.

Shino keeps his wand hidden up his sleeve. It gives him in an advantage in duels, surprising opponents, and in some cases helping with quick draws.

Shino will talk to his wand. The others understandably find this odd.

His wand looks as though a termite has been nibbling at it.

Kurenai Yūhi

Pear wood with a unicorn hair core, 12¾” and a quite flexible flexibility.

A kind woman with a nurturing nature, pear seeks a ‘warm-hearted’ and ‘generous’ individual.

Adaptable, and able to overcome what has been thrown at her, she is resilient and tough without sacrificing her kindness.

She also has a clear morality, something which pear also seeks.

I chose unicorn hair for Kurenai, which may not produce the most powerful magic, but the most consistent.

Unfortunately, I think that unicorn hair might be a regular occurrence among the women of Naruto. I’m sorry Kishi doesn’t know how to make good (female) characters with much depth** :(

Which means I don’t have a lot to work with here.

Her wand length may show an ambiverted nature with a lean towards extroversion.

A length of 12¾” can also indicate someone more well rounded.

Able to reach into the minds of others and adapt accordingly, quite flexible was suitable choice.

Kurenai is famed for her abilities in both occlumency and legilimency, and rightly so. She has honed and her skills and is an expert, especially in ligilimency.

Kurenai’s wand has dignity and elegance in its design. It is embellished with stones that change colour depending on who’s looking at them.

Like Kurenai, this wand still looks, and is strong strong despite everything they’ve endured.

Aaaaaarrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhh. This was so painful. It was constantly on my mind. I’m just really good at procrastinating. But I’m gonna do it again. And I will continue the series, because I love writing this. But I hate getting my mind to form sentences.

Big thank you to @hatake-no-sharingan . I would die without her. Such a bright light. She actually chose Shino’s wand wood.

And also @cloverywands because as I read more of their stuff, I really, really appreciate how much time and effort went into it. So thank you for your incredible resources.

**In all fairness, Kishi did have to write and draw a chapter each week, putting a lot of effort into his work with such a short timeframe. So it was a little harsh to judge him without knowing everything. So of course Naruto is rushed.

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Eevee Line

Part 1. Because seriously.

DESIGN:

Eevee was intentionally designed to be some sort of generic wild critter that could exist but doesn’t. Given traits of all sorts of small, furry things, the purpose of Eevee is to be cute, lovable, and evoke the feeling of ‘some animal.’ It is simultaneously known to everyone and completely unknown. Everyone recognizes Eevee but nobody actually knows what it is.  Eevee is, above all else, THE ‘normal’ Pokemon.

And honestly, it’s totally freaking adorable. Eevee is the best rabbit dog fox kitty thing that ever was, and nobody doesn’t love Eevee. Its design basically couldn’t be better. There’s a reason this fuzzlewuzzle regularly competes with Pikachu for being the face of Pokemon. Sure, it can’t quite win, but it’s up there.

But the concept of Eevee is really the interesting one. Eevee was the first Pokemon with branching evolutions, and while other Pokemon have gotten such since then, Eevee has always had the most. Starting with three in Generation 1, there are currently eight possible evolutions of Eevee, and there could easily be more on the way. This puts the Eevee line in a really notable position. I always love when a Pokemon has a unique gimmick, and while in combat each Eeveelution might just be another, having an Eevee with so many options to choose from makes it an interesting Pokemon to obtain.

But before we discuss the designs of any evolutions, let’s talk about the non-evolved alternate form: Gigantamax. Like Pikachu and Meowth, GIgantamax Eevee is just a gimmick. The Pokemon’s not strong enough to be used, and Gigantamax Eevee can’t actually evolve, so it’s just there to be big and fluffy and cute… and it just fails at that. It’s not that Gigantamax Eevee isn’t cute- of course it is- but it’s not cuter than Eevee is normally, and the big bushy collar isn’t nearly as fun of a unique touch as Meowth being memes or Pikachu going back to its fat gen 1 design. Sadly, Gigantamax Eevee is a waste of everyone’s time.

And now onto the actual evolutions.

VAPOREON: 

Vaporeon is an interesting and unique creature, with large fins on its head and small ones down its back and tail giving it the appearance of a fish, but still with a clearly mammalian mouth and legs. Vaporeon is clearly aquatic and clearly related to Eevee, but other than that it simply doesn’t look like anything. And yet Vaporeon still has a clear design and aesthetic, as something that could maybe possibly be something between a dog, a seal and a dolphin. It’s an elegant, clean design that looks fantastic without looking absurd. 

JOLTEON:

Jolteon’s just yellow with spikes. It’s simple, but it works. There’s nothing weird about Jolteon’s design in the least, though admittedly that means there’s nothing overly special about it. Jolteon is just what happens when you take Eevee and make it cool, and other than the bright coloration there’s nothing particularly odd about it. One of the more subdued Eeveelutions, I like it, it’s cool, but I don’t exactly have specific praise for it.

FLAREON:

Flareon looks even more realistic than Jolteon. The red coloration’s a bit bright, but other than that it’s just a big ol’ floofy floof. The shape and color of its fur suggest fire, but unlike many fire types it doesn’t feel the need to actually be on fire.  Like Jolteon, Flareon is a good, clean design.

It’s also noteworthy here that the first three Eeveelutions have big collars, like Eevee does. The rest do not. Honestly, I really like this part of the design, but I understand why not all would have it.

ESPEON:

The psychic evolution, Espeon’s purple colors are a bit more out there than the previous three,  and my first instinct when looking at it is that it’s supposed to be hairless like a Sphynx Cat, but then it has those huge tufts on the side of its face that are clearly hair despite it not having tufts or even signs of fur anywhere else. They’re too high to be whiskers, too, so they just come across as weird. In fact, everything about Espeon is weird, and not always for the better. The split tail is a cool design, but I don’t understand what it’s going for. The jewel on the forehead I DO understand as a psychic focus, but it’s so obviously artificial compared to the previous Eeveelutions that it feels out of place. In fact, the core concept of Espeon feels a bit out of place. Most of the Eeveelutions are the result of stone or location radiation, and Umbreon happens at night. Espeon levels up in the day time with affection, and somehow becomes a psychic type. A psychic type whose pokedex entry calls the Sun Pokemon. 

Eevee’s whole gimmick is that when exposed to weird stuff it transforms, so I have a hard time understanding why a happy Eevee turns into a psychic type during the day. If it was just about the strong bond with its trainer, why does the sun matter? And if the sun does matter, what’s going on with its everything?

Espeon ultimately just doesn’t work for me. It reads wrong as a creature and I don’t understand how it fits in with other Eevee lore.

UMBREON:

Okay, what’s up with those circles? Black fur I get. Gold stripes I get. Floofy tail, red eyes, sleek body, sure sure sure. I am totally on board with that. But those clean, obvious golden rings absolutely take me out of this design. I get that they’re supposed to be moonlight rings or something, but I’d have been much happier if this thing had golden spots instead of such clean shapes, to make it look more like a realistic animal. 

As far as actually fitting though, it makes sense as a Night-based Pokemon, but the Moon thing is a bit more of a stretch. It’s not nearly as bad as Espeon and the Sun, but Eevee plus Moonlight should result in a brighter, glowing Eevee, not a darker, more sinister Eevee.  Umbreon also has a serious issue of its abilities not being what it says they are. For example, the Pokedex says it’s got poison; Umbreon has never naturally learned a poison type attack. Its rings glowing is supposed to be one of its key features, but none of its abilities reflect that.

This isn’t to say that I dislike Umbreon or Espeon overall. Some of my favorite Pokemon have been Umbreons and Espeons. Their designs just really don’t sell the story that they’re trying to.

LEAFEON:

So, now this is more like what I’m talking about. Eevee + Moss Rock/Leaf Stone = Eevee that’s turning into a plant. It’s still an animal, but with its ears and tail and some of its fur turning into leaves so it can now photosynthesize. Also the leaf is a sword because that’s bitchin’.

Now, while I am totally on board with Leafeon’s concept, I do think the design could’ve used a bit of tweaking. The head and tail are great, but the little leaf things coming off the body look a bit odd, and I’m not really sold on the mostly tan color scheme. I think it’d have looked better with more browns and greens. Specifically, brown legs and belly, green back and neck. Maybe a leafy collar like the original Eeveelutions all had collars. Still, I like it overall.

GLACEON:

I don’t particularly like Glaceon. While it reads as an Ice Eevee it doesn’t read as an Eevee infused with Ice or adapted to Ice so much as it reads as an Eevee with design elements that look ice-like. The sharp diamond shapes over it don’t actually have anything to do with ice the way Jolteon’s spikes are the result of electric charge or Flareon’s floof looks like fire. Further, the addition of what is clearly a hairdo is just sort of weird. It’s too sharp to look like it comes naturally and while it makes for an interesting visual element it doesn’t mean anything or serve any purpose in the Glaceon itself. At least Espeon’s split tail was supposed to be for sensing things. Glaceon just has huge flaps that are definitely a disadvantage in a fight and don’t seem to serve any purpose other than possibly attracting a mate. 

Glaceon is a solid design for a creature but not for ‘this is an Eevee mutated by the ice element.’

SYLVEON:

OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ABOMINATION!?!?

Oh, it’s a cute fairy Eevee that’s pink and blue with ribbons and bows? You’d think so, and I don’t mind the color scheme for a fairy type but THOSE ARE NOT RIBBONS AND BOWS. Those are ‘feelers.’ Those are FLESH. Fur-covered, wriggly, boneless flesh. 

This is bad. This is wrong. This is not okay.

This is not a fairy. This is an eldritch horror. Foxes should not have tentacles, and tentacles should not have fur. 

And that’s not even getting into how much I hate Sylveon’s evolution method. Eevee evolves into Sylveon when it has affection and knows a fairy type move… but Eevee can just learn Baby-Doll Eyes on its own at level 15, so this isn’t a feat or anything special, it’s just a normal part of raising an Eevee. The worst part is that this is some weird new and special method to explain why you couldn’t have done it before, but the only actual change here is that Eevee didn’t learn Baby-Doll Eyes naturally before, so instead of something being discovered the world has just been rewritten to allow Sylveon to exist.

Because Sylveon is a monster from outside reality that has forced its way in here.

I hate Sylveon. I hate Sylveon so much. And to truly understand how much I hate Sylveon you need to understand that I love Eevee. I have two Eevee on my nightstand- named Artemis and Apollo after my Espeon and Umbreon from Gold and Silver. I make it a point to use Eeveelutions in every game, because I love them so much. One of my oldest RP characters was a Jolteon named Flash. On Halloween, I had one of my video game characters dress up as an Eevee to go to a costume party in an MMO. Which obviously didn’t have an Eevee costume so I had to assemble it. So my hate for Sylveon isn’t just ‘oh, this is an icky Pokemon,’ but I take its existence as an insult to Eevee, who I love so much.

You came to the wrong Eeveehood by Dakunart

TYPING:

What type do you want? Eeveelutions come in eight different types, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. But that’s Pokemon for you. And in the future we’ll probably get even more types. I just hope they have good designs and aren’t disgusting abominations.

STATS OVERVIEW:

We’ll talk about stats of Eeveelutions individually, but for now let’s note what they all have in common: numbers. Every evolved form of Eevee has a 130, a 110, a 95, two 65s, and a 60, for a total of 525 base stats, making for Pokemon that are highly specialized in some areas and very weak in others. This results in all of them having at least a decent stat array, except for Flareon, though whether their array is offensive, defensive, or more balanced varies.

Eeveelutions by Endivinity

MOVES OVERVIEW:

As with stats, we’ll discuss them for individual evolutions, but as they’re all evolved from Eevee they do share a large amount of their move pool. Eevee is notorious for learning Baton Pass naturally, a move so powerful and useful it’s been banned in many formats, and though it requires chain breeding, Eevee’s one of a relatively small number of Pokemon that can learn Wish.

Yawn, Substitute, Protect, and Rest all offer strategic options, and though not available in the current generation, Eevee could previously learn Toxic. 

Actual attack forms for Eevee to learn pre-evolution are pretty limited, but an Eevee can learn Shadow Ball and Iron Tail, both of which have their uses.

Eevee does have a number of unique attacks, primarily from Let’s Go Eevee but also the Z-Move Extreme Evoboost. While all of these are viciously powerful to the point of being outright broken, Eevee’s evolved forms can’t learn them, and thus they’re not relevant in most competitive play. 

Next time, we’ll start going down the list of forms and discussing them in the specifics. This one’s a doozy.

Eeveelutions by Lushies-Art

[amuelia]

I'm not sure if you've ever mentioned anything about this but how do you feel about show Roose? I was really sad to see his character get cut so much but I really like his voice,,,,it's a good Roose voice ( also it's CRIMINAL how they took away the Bolton's pink like they don't even wear anything but black in the show 😭😭 ) (( also also I absolutely love your art YOU MAKE SO MUCH GOOD ART OF UNDER APPRECIATED CHARACTERS ITS SO GOOD TO SEE 🥺😭♥️♥️ ))

I think the actor is very handsome and talented! I like reading his Interviews, he seems very intelligent and you can see the thought he put into his character and his scenes. He did a great job with the material he was given, and i think it’s very understandable and professional that he read the first books but then decided to focus his portrayal on the show scripts, because the way they wrote him was too different.

Did you read the books before you started filming? I read the books before I started. Well, I read two of the books, and then I stopped actually. Because the character in the books is very, very different to the character in the show. The core differences were he spoke with a whisper. He never raised his voice. He had no emotion on his face. I remember there's a [line] that joy and laughter were very similar. So you couldn't play that. It's fine if it was the Roose Bolton show, you could do something like that. The character was not written like that at all. So it kind of did me a disservice reading the books. So I put them aside and just concentrated on the character in the scripts. - Michael McElhatton, IGN interview

But also, in the end, what he mentions about the difference is part of why, as a book stan, the show version doesn’t interest me that much; it’s not even about him specifically, but just a general thing all the show characters share. Just like most other characters they adapted, they completely suck the fun out of the character grrm wrote - no leeches, no icy eyes or pale face, no pink house sigil; ending up with a character that pretty much looks and acts like every other dude. I don’t need Roose to look like Dracula (as much as i love it, the long dark hair for example is not book canon, since his hair is never described), but he should be memorable! Instead, i often hear that people new to the show don’t remember his s2 scenes, or mix him up with other regular looking dudes like Stannis, or otherwise don’t remember him. One of grrm’s biggest strengths is how with just a few traits he makes every character memorable and distiguishable; think about any random character and youll probbaly remember at least one “special trait” that sets their appearance or personality apart from the rest. The show completely falls flat in this regard, ironically making it so that the books make better use of the “visual medium” than the show does.

Apart from that, visually the actor is ok; Considering a Dance with Dragons came out at a similar time as the first season and the casting process takes a while, I don’t blame them for leaving out some details of his character descriptions (for example his “ageless” appearance or the small close-set eyes are only mentioned in aDwD). His height (175cm, influenced my hc for the book version) and body type are close to the book, though i wish they’d left him clean-shaven like in s2 for the entire show. He has a bit of a long face which fits with the book’s northmen. He’s no Supermodel but i heard him called handsome frequently, so idk if that fits with the book description “not handsome but not quite plain”; i love interesting faces more than conventionally attractive ones so i can’t really judge objectively. Voice is imo too deep (imdb also calls it “commanding”), i imagine him having more of a mid range voice; and the actor also just talks normally instead of being notably whispery/quiet.

In terms of characterization, as the actor hints at, I do not think they are written very similarly. Roose in the books is a character who is ruled by an underlying fear/anxiety that drives him to, at all times, ensure his own safety and health (I elaborate on this more in this meta); The show version the way i remember it does not show this a lot. He doesn’t have the leeching scene and if he has scenes about being obsessed with health they werent prominent enough for me to remember (maybe the Jaime scene included some book dialogue?). He is serious, but he does not act emotionless to hide his feelings (Though the show scene where he says he doesn’t drink was a nice touch; it is not completely congruent with book canon, but brings across the same idea that he wants to be in control of a situation and his feelings).

For a bigger example: Show!Roose’s characterization in the Red Wedding episode shows him acting very confident and in a great mood, bantering with Cat, and staying in the room the entire time while wearing chainmail; while in the books he barely eats and doesn’t talk to Cat, is shown exchanging threatening glances with Walder, and leaves early to ensure his own safety only to return fully decked out in armor to give Robb the final blow. In the books, imo, you can see that he is stressed out by the situation; because while he planned it very thoroughly with Lothar Frey, it is still a great risk for such a cautious man to take, and he needs to trust that Walder doesn’t backstab him.

Bolton had made a toast to Lord Walder's grandsons when the wedding feast began, pointedly mentioning that Walder and Walder were in the care of his bastard son. From the way the old man had squinted at him, his mouth sucking at the air, Catelyn knew he had heard the unspoken threat.  

They are not necessarily great story-changing differences, but to me still paint a different picture of his character. People always say “oh a character doesnt need to look exactly like the descriptions as long as the actor works for the story, oh you dont need to adapt every little character detail as long as the story is intact”, but do this too much and somewhere along the way you lose what makes the character themselves. The small details and human traits are what makes me love a character, so if those are missing i end up not seeing them as a an adaptation of the same guy, even if the plot is similar. I do think there are scenes in the show where you can see the scriptwriter read the books and put in some of the book characterization, but the general direction of the character is still different.

I also loathe the s2 change that had Arya as Tywin’s cupbearer; it removes one (/two) of Roose’ best chapters and also the one that establishes a lot of his character traits and Red Wedding foreshadowing. The Tywin-Arya scenes are everything wrong with the show; changing scenes arbitrarily to prop up fan-favourite characters (later culminating in stuff the s7 wight hunt), bad “feminism” (like Arya saying “most girls are idiots”), having characters act OOC to be more “likable” or “sympathetic” (like that weird “fatherly” way Tywin acts towards Arya), ignoring how people in that time period and universe act (as if a man like Tywin would even glance at a servant), etc etc... here is a great post on that scene by @turtle-paced.

As far as the post-s3 scenes go I’m not a fan (though i did not rewatch those a lot, so feel free to remind me if i forgot something). i don’t like that they made Ramsay the main character of the plot, with Roose merely as a supporting role side character; the books give Roose a great arc starting in aDwD that imo is needed as a continuation of the Red Wedding plot. They pretty much cut out the Winterfell aDwD story (one of my fave storylines in asoiaf) entirely and replaced it with forgettable scenes. Replacing Jeyne with Sansa not only makes no sense for Littlefinger but also for Roose, since that makes him antagonize the Iron Throne. His death scene was so bad that it makes me hopeful he will have a bigger story in the books, and that they just culled him because they wanted to thin out plots like they did with Mance, Barristan, and Stannis.

Though in the end, while i don’t like the show’s writing and visual direction, i do still thank them for making the Boltons such prominent characters; They seem to have gained a lot of fans through the show, and are regarded as very important characters (i even see them in some “great houses” gifsets). They are of course also important in the books, but not as prominent/central as for example Ramsay was in s6. So even if they are adapted badly (Show Ramsay is especially bad), if they make people interested in their book counterparts, it’s still some sort of a win in my book.

(Also, thank you so much!! Glad you enjoy my art ❤️❤️)

[axiang-n-chengling-s-dads]

MDZS Donghua Review:

(Thoughts on it as  (i) an adaptation of the novel and (ii) as compared to CQL  ((this is kinda long))) 

As an adaptation of the novel: (feel free to add your thoughts and discuss!)

Beautiful imagery, does full justice to the locations and aesthetic, the hyperrealism (though a bit jarring against the 2D animation of the characters), is breathtaking on its own

Action scenes are amazing, all the different camera angles used in them make it a legit treat to watch

Things like the Inquiry process and shields are shown very beautifully

Maximizes the gore potential, zombie cannibalism is everywhere and is great

Fully portrays the strength of both wwx and lwj (and just cultivators in general) 

The plot is concise, but not to the point of cutting out important parts, the story still holds well. 

The donghua takes up max angst potential, wherever there can be angst, there will be angst. (this makes me particularly excited for the scene after the Nightless City Massacre, imagine the angst). 

(More points below the cut!)

I have a few problems with th characters, but i’ll leave that for the CQL comparison, I want this one to be full of (fully deserved) praise for the donghua

A non-linear timeline may sometimes be difficult to depict, but the donghua does this well, especially since it retains the novel vibe of going continuously back and forth between the past and present. 

 Its two seasons in with a lot of stuff gone by, with regards to the romance, I have been told it is also subjected to the same censorship so we don’t have much hope there. (More on this below) 

It does a great job in portraying humour and fun and the highschool kind of silly romance in the first bit (by which I am referring to the linear beginning, the part where adolsocent wwx comes to study at Gusu.) 

All in all, it’s a great adaptation of the novel, and anyone who loves the novel will like this version too!

In comparison to CQL:

I’ll talk about the things they did better than CQL right off the bat: the action scenes were much, MUCH better, and I think that the type of action scenes in the novel are much better suited to animation. 

They also didn’t have as much gore restriction as the live action, so they didn’t have to do much canon divergence and deliver well there.

Concepts like power fields (like those circular shields) and Inquiry etc are explained much better. Cql cgi is pretty shitty in a lot of parts, so the Donghua takes all the awards there 

I mean i do have some minor concerns like why do ljy and lsz look the same, and also lwj and lxc HELP HOW DO I TELL THEM APART

Okay now my concerns with the donghua/ what cql did better: the thing i miss most from cql is the light moments. The donghua does very well in that section in the linear beginning (read: when young wwx first comes to gusu), but later this deteriorates to a few seconds of happy scenes that mostly give away to plot. Wwx also seems a lot less his usual gremlin self (which can be explained with y’know, the fact that he sacrificed his golden core, stayed three months on a burial ground and probably did some cannibalism there) but one of my fav (read: not good for your mental health bb) character traits about wwx is his insistence on always smiling and trying to be light-hearted no matter what, and he loses a lot of that charm in the later parts of the story. 

While the donghua maximizes on the angst potential it leaves out many key character-defining moments, like the part where it’s revealed jc was the one who wanted wwx to name jyl’s baby, the shijie catching baby wwx as he falls from the tree, jc being proud of wwx moments, wwx and wq camaraderie moments at burial mounds, these are just some from the top of my head. I hope they can somehow fit these in for the next season, (also will we get to see a drunk lwj??? pls), but yeah these are some that i feel heartbroken are not there. 

Cql deals with improving things like jin zixuan’s character dev, the part of how lwj fell for wwx, the complex relationship between wwx and jc, and some other things better. Some of this can be attributed to the fact that it’s animated: for example, it is absolutely too much to expect them to animate micro-expressions by lwj to explain his internal emotional journey.

If cql is said to sacrifice plot for character, the donghua does sacrifice a bit of its character dev for the sake of the plot (which is really not necessarily bad but unfortunately i’m a slut for character moments) 

As for the romance, they are also subjected to censorship, so eh, but (maybe i’m too used to cql saying fuck censorship lol) i feel there could have been more soft moments between the two. I really like the cql change that they were already friends before the resurrection, but even in the donghua post-resurrection there are maybe two moments that i can truly call soft, wish there were more of them 

While everything else about the donghua is great, my biggest problem will probably be that it lacks heart– those moments that make you smile and feel warm inside. 

Final conclusion: the donghua is a great adaptation of the novel, but lacks heart. Cql is a great adaptation of the novel, but sacrifices plot for character development. But if you put the two together, you will find an unstoppable, amazing force that has both heart and plot.