#and it's a really nice story and dialogue where they're conflicted on what they want to be and why can't they just stay the same

[dangans-ur-ronpas]

i read 'the gender of mona lisa' and i feel. both extremely seen and yet incredibly infuriated

[theo-grayson]

Anyone who's taken a look at my notes knows I Fucking Ramble, so don't look here unless you wanna see me share way too many thoughts about Our Life: Now and Forever (including way too much about my personal life)

Guys. Oh my god. Where do I even start. Maybe with just:

Little things I love about the demo

I am a sucker for character customization, and this game delivers that in spades. You can choose so many different things, from your appearance with a doll maker/picrew type thing, your gender and pronouns (with a BUNCH of customization), to what your bedroom looks like, to little stuff like what kind of drink you get at a restaurant. This was present in the first game too, Our Life: Beginnings and Always (OL:BA), but it's more in-depth here, and I love it. And I love that you can see your little avatar when your character speaks. I feel like it just flows so nicely, and it makes me wanna replay it with different characters. Of course, you also get many different dialogue choices, and there are so many choices to pick from. I LOVE it.

So, I absolutely adore OL:BA, and I love Cove with my whole entire heart. But man, inside of me there are two wolves: one of them is a Summer Disliker, and one of them is a rabid Autumn Pinterest Girlie. I ADORE fall, colourful leaves, mushrooms, rain, etc etc etc.

So seeing that Our Life: Now and Forever (OL:NF) takes place in a sleepy town in the AUTUMN?? With scenery like THIS???

I want to live here in real life.

The art style in general is just so beautiful. The colours, the softness of it all, the spritework, the cg art: everything is so stunning. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing too.

On a different note, the extent to which you can customize your relationships with Qui and Tamarack is so cool. You can go through a slow-burn romance, as neighbours to childhood friends to crushes to partners. You can have a cute love-at-first-sight childhood crushes story. You can avoid romance altogether and have a chosen-family dynamic. You can have a poly relationship and date both of them. Not ONLY that, but even the way that they interact with you can be customized;

That's so cool!! You can choose whether a character looks up to you or takes care of you, or whether they prefer to compliment you or tease you. And you can choose the same kind of thing when you interact with them in turn! A visual novel having this level of depth in a relationship is so awesome. The game will even remember things: like, if you react negatively to certain types of interactions, the characters can remember and act accordingly in the future. That's so cool!

I like that this story seems to be a little bit more serious than the last game. OL:BA has basically zero stakes, and very little serious conflict. That's not a bad thing at all, it's very much supposed to be a comfy, indulgent game. But OL:NF begins Step 2 by showing that the main characters have drifted apart as they've grown older. Not only is that nice realism, but it also adds both possible comfort potential (bringing your old friends back together and having good times) AND possible whump/angst potential (watching who used to be your best friends drift apart completely). The (optional) jealousy mechanic could also add to this. Obviously the game isn't finished yet and I could totally be off the mark, but even if this kind of thing doesn't end up happening, the fanfic potential is also there!

I really like how complex the characters are. Even as kids, they have wants and motivations and flaws, and they're so likeable. They change throughout the story, because not only are they growing up and older, but they have their own experiences and personal struggles. And speaking of characters:

Quick thoughts about Main Characters

> Tamarack Baumann

Oh my goodness. Ohg. Tammy. She is so so important to me. She is so sweet and supportive, and she's so pretty. Look at her. Oh my god I love her.

I absolutely adore Tamarack, and part of it is that I relate to her in a couple ways. I grew up as the insecure fat girl. I love frogs and toads. The cello is my favourite instrument, and I would love to learn to play one day. When she first said that she lived with her Omi and Opa, I literally gasped in real life, because I lived with my Omi and Opi for about a year, when I was her age.

> Qui "Autumn" Lin

QUI!!!!!! I love them so dearly, their mannerisms and the way they speak are so so endearing. They change a lot throughout the story, which is going to be so interesting to see. And they are ALSO so so pretty. Oh my god.

As a trans person myself who is definitely playing as a trans MC, I'm so curious to see the interactions with Qui, since they struggle with their own gender identity as well. Also, when they do figure out their identity in Step 3:

What??? That's so cool!!!

In which I get a little bit too personal:

This is probably tmi but I don't care. To make a very long story short, I had a really shitty traumatic childhood. Especially around ages 10-15. Even disregarding that, I was always a 'mature for my age' child, who followed all the rules and was terrified of ever stepping out of line. I never got the chance to be a normal kid.

So, getting the chance to go through this game, being able to experience growing up in such a beautiful area, with a supportive family and no trauma and friends that care about you. It's just. So nice.

-

Anyways. I'm gonna go now and make a bunch of OCs to play through the demo with and make different choices, because the hyperfixation is truly all-consuming

[yuseirra]

Been playing episode Aigis lately, (about ten hours in) and here's my honest review on it:

There's a whole lot of grinding.. they really did keep to the original source material. It isn't bad, but the whole structure of this DLC is clear a dungeon->a little snippet of plot->more dungeon->story (on repeat) Oh, I do like how the "doors" have names that are related to Dante's Divine Comedy... it's the one work I always attempt on reading but never make it past Inferno...I'd like to complete reading it one day.

Reload did a pretty good job with adding some extra interactions, thus enhancing the characterization, that part of it isn't totally gone in this DLC either, but there is too little plot compared to the fights. I had fun fighting in Tartarus in the main game, but I find it to be a bit tiring on this one (bet that was even more stronger in the original FES)

The best part about this DLC is Metis for me, she's really pretty and I like her character. It's nice seeing Aigis having a cute sibling who cares about her well-being. The dungeon dialogues are pretty nice too, I think I like that second to Metis, it's good that it's there.

The rest are spoilers regarding the plot~

Another thing I felt about the story is that, it actually may be Akihiko who took the protagonist's loss the hardest besides Yukari and Aigis who are clearly suffering... he used to be very kind and understanding while being pretty righteous, but now he seems to be constantly on edge. I get that coming from him, because he keeps losing all the people he's wanted to protect, it's his third time now. The link ep in Reload really does add to his character if you think of it, I think he thought of the protagonist as his little brother and decided he wanted to watch over him, but that couldn't happen. Mitsuru and Junpei and Ken are seemingly taking it relatively better, I guess. Koro and Fuuka.. they're the quiet type so...There's no wonder why Yukari and Akihiko had the biggest conflict upon how they should handle the keys later in the DLC. They both hold very strong thoughts about how things must be resolved, and it's hard to find a middle ground.

I wish they added more to the story, there were some opportunities like adding a new third-tier persona, or the characters talking more about the protagonist and sharing some thoughts about him. I kind of feel a bit disappointed that they don't address him so much at all, after all those times they spent together.. I see how hard it'd be for them to bring him up, but as a player, you want you to be acknowledged.. We had a bond, guys...!! Moving on and forgetting, being a source of trauma.. that's sad! ;v;) talk about him more, he did so much for you guys!! (and that's where Yukari's whole, "Now everyone needs to realize their own feelings. Think about who he was, and what he meant to us."- comes in - it's there in the the trailer too- that line resonates with me. She does have a warm heart)

Yukari's like the only one who suggests, "We have to go back to save the protagonist from death if there's a chance to!" out of the entire SEES group;; If it weren't for her, I feel like the story would have ended at the spot with everyone agreeing to move on. Even if it's wrong, I feel like she's the one who brought a different perspective to things that's helped lead to a perfect ending. You need a thesis and an antithesis to form a better synthesis and that's what happened.

They seem to have taken out the part where she tries to grab Aigis's key out of desperation in Reload and I honestly didn't like that, because.. if someone's life you love is on the line and if it's your last chance to get them back, it doesn't matter if you're sweet or anything, it's natural to be desperate. I really liked that part of her in the original, she'd do ANYTHING to try and get him back alive. It was the only way to see him alive again, even if it were to be flawed...It felt real and alive. It was something pretty powerful and what's made her my favorite girl out of the series. I was really looking forward to seeing that scene happen again as I bought this DLC and I find it a bit of a bummer after having learned this... o<-<

but Reload Yukari seems to be a much more softer person... a lot less thorns in her, maybe that's what will make her more appeal to more people..she always had that caring side to her too, and it's a crucial trait, she's ultimately a loving person. It's love that makes her do things. If that part of it is intact, it's a bit of a shame on my end but I'll still care for her.

Override was a really good piece of work, it handles what could be episode Aigis if she's the one that's gotten together with the protagonist as well as the female protagonist being there in the story too, I'd like to take that as semi-canon in my head :) Um, I really would like to draw fanarts for it in the future, when I have time and some focus, right now I'm quite distracted with life and other works hehe

anyway, that's it for now! Changed the difficulty to "Peaceful" for this one..; overall, I don't regret having bought the DLC but it's been..tedious. That's my honest feelings towards it. There are some things I appreciate about it, but I think they could have done more with it.. but considering how reload was in the first place, I guess they went with preserving the experience and making minor adjustments overall. It's not a bad remake, it's very true to the original material, but certainly.. warmer and toned down. That can be both positive and negative, and considering the theme of the story, it can have many different effects. I guess it's its own thing on that regard.

[androgynouspenguinexpert]

Hello! Fellow English child here lmao. I was wondering if you'd be interested in sharing your thoughts on Cutie?? I really like the way you think :D

If not, no worries, and have a nice day!

*cracks knuckles*

i would like to preface the following rant with the blanket statement that people are products of their environment. how you are treated affects the way you treat others.

cutie is the first real example i can think of (from here in the shallow end of the asmr paddle pool) in which the listener is placed in the role of the abuser in a relationship. and i don't want to mince words - i believe cutie was emotionally manipulative and abusive, and the series treats that with an appropriate amount of weight and respect.

i also think that cutie, like geordi, displays a great deal of insecurity, and expresses it by being controlling rather than as geordi's avoidance. listener backstories are left up in the air to allow for people to put on the mask of the character, save for a handful of small and usually inconsequential details (see darlin's fling with quinn, ollie's partner having a rocky relationship with their family, etc) - but i agree with the people saying that cutie probably comes from a similarly emotionally manipulative environment.

telepathy is a super compelling wrench in geordi and cutie's already unstable relationship. thoughts are (to us, anyway) as private as you can get. literally nobody has to know what's going on in your head if you don't want them to. that's why i think cutie's repeated breaches of geordi's trust make me and i think a lot of others extra uncomfortable - the idea of someone being able to hear everything you think at any time with no warning is terrifying! cutie cites wanting to know what geordi is 'really' thinking, but geordi is 100% correct in the assertion that bypassing the filter of what's in someone's head versus what comes out of their mouth is essentially skipping over their personality entirely. i think that cutie's environment (whether that be upbringing, a past relationshop, or something else) has made them somewhat paranoid of people keeping true feelings from them. this means they're a lot more likely to pry, seeking 'the truth' of what geordi thinks of them, unable to take his word for it.

personally, i find that cutie is the most distinct Character out of the listener group - not just because they're multifaceted, but because they go against the grain of what most of the audience expect from a pov character. i know i'm not the only person who was incredibly disappointed in cutie listening in on geordi's thoughts after their argument about that exact topic - and that's good drama! it takes a lot of talent and incredibly good writing to build a compelling character that never has a single line of dialogue, let alone conflicts between that character and others around them.

geordi, and by extension the narrative, acknowledge that cutie isn't a bad person. they're not trying to be malicious, but they end up hurting the people they care about because they don't know any other way to maintain control over their life. i find it very refreshing that cutie is not being treated as a villain or as an innocent bystander. they hurt geordi by repeatedly crossing a hard boundary, and he's justifiably upset. however, cutie (presumably after trying to direct that controlling insecure behaviour at something or someone else and failing) does seek outside help to start to work those learned behaviour knots loose.

geordi and cutie's story doesn't have a villain. neither of them are The Bad Guy, and even geordi acknowledges that they're both partially to blame for the shaky foundation of their relationship. even without a voice, i believe that cutie has potential for a really strong character arc where they learn to examine the reasoning behind their actions instead of trying to maintain a death grip on every aspect of their life.

so the moral of the story is... maybe listen when someone sets a boundary. it'll save you a lot of trouble.

[onyxisnotuniqueenough]

i don't exactly know how to deal with this - I'm not a big enough person on tumblr to have ever been confronted to this type of comment :

but it still surprised me to see this when my experience on here has honestly been overwhelmingly positive and I've never really talked or met someone who'd comment something like that on here.

i don't honestly think it's wrong to put this person on "blast" (even though, let's be honest, me posting about it is less of a blast and more of a nice summer night breeze.) since they have commented this publicly for everyone to see - so i see no issue in answering in a just as public of a way.

anyway just wanted to say that I think it's kind of sad that you value fictional characters and people in general based on their physical appearance, and that you seem to forget there is an actor aka a real person behind that role.

and oops - guess what - whatever you think of the appearance of any fucking actor - that's not the part of their job that fucking matters!!

Now, let's try to see walk a few centimeters in your shoes. In your eyes, Foggy is ugly as fuck. So that means he can't get the girl, right? Is that how the story goes? Whatever his personality, his humor or his charm - everybody always only looks at physical appearance and there is not ONE person on this earth who cares, or should care, about what's really underneath.

now apparently, Hallelujah, Karen is attractive in your eyes so she deserves love. Ugh, but that is SO RUINED by the fact that she's ANNOYING AS HELL.....EW.....

There's 2 ways for me to take that Karen is annoying comment.

1 - it's the Skyler White Syndrome and any woman who worries, cares, makes mistakes or has any kind of character flaw is just a nagging annoying woman who's ruining your badass man show. like "guys? what the fuck? there's someone else than a muscular superhero dude or the very evil/murderous/manipulative/actually annoying guy that i somehow forgive on my fucking screen!!! hide that shit or else my masculinity will dissappear!!!!!!!!!"

Now since I don't know your gender or your background - this could be either internalized misogyny or plain old sexism at play. Couldn't care less. Either way it's stupid to think that a female character is either perfect or horrible, a mary sue or a bitch. and that you'll complain either way.

2. I give you the benefit of the doubt. You finding Karen annoying has nothing to do with your gender or what you think of women in media and entertainment and more with the fact that you honestly do find her annoying. What exactly has she done to be described as annoying? Is her dialogue bad? Is her story taking away from Matt's? Are her decisions stupid or irrational and you just can't take it when a character makes actual mistakes?

What exactly are you criticizing her for? Because since I've written my post about romantic relationships i'm willing to bet that your "Karen is annoying" thing is said in a romantic context and that it's just the way she speaks or her personality that you dislike, and this has nothing to do with what actually makes her character interesting or how her backstory has shaped her actions and behavior.

Now I get that we all have our favorite characters - and we have characters we don't like to see on screen. But I wouldn't say that Foggy "being ugly" and Karen "being annoying" qualify as legitimate reasons for you to think they don't deserve to have romantic relationships or that they. "TERRORIZE" MATT??

What kind of show have you been watching? Did you get a bootleg iron man dvd and get confused? where are you getting this from?

Are you saying that you take any conflict that Matt can have with his friends is terrorism? That they're ruining his life? That every time they say they're worried, everytime they tell him not to be Daredevil, because of their own love for their FRIEND, that's terrorism???

Matt cares about them just as much as they care about him, and I'd hardly qualify their overprotectiveness, or honestly, with Matt putting himself on the brink of death all the time, just protectiveness, as TERRORISM.

These "two bums" deserve to be on the show because they're an essential part of Matt's character development and Matt's life in general. He needs loved ones to protect, loved ones to worry about him, loved ones to encourage him, loved ones to call him out from time to time, loved ones that have been through it with him and have stuck with him for a long time.

And the two actors that play them deserve just as much of a chance to get to bring something new to their performance and get to share the screen with long-time friends.

you know.

in the reboot of a show that they were major characters of.

i think i got everything out. hope you're willing to expose yourself to a different opinion and that you read this whole post @nyxxhecate

also. your blog is pretty empty. you should get on that if you don't want people to think you're some spam account.

the end :)

[hamletisintown]

After finishing the story for Genshin Impact's 4.1, I actually have many thoughts. Spoilers under the cut.

Okay so. Genshin continues its long trend of having so much potential and failing to meet it because the people in charge want it to earn money first and foremost.

Here are a few things we could have had from this patch, and didn't get (which i'm mad about, but not surprised, sadly):

1) a social commentary on justice and prisons, and the role they fulfill on society

2) actual interpersonal conflict between important characters, and characters who are actually deep with interesting motivations instead of just being Nice :)

3) a story that is interesting not because it mashes more and more things together in the hopes of staying , but because it actually dares to step out there and give us interesting ideas (and maybe even a good execution)

Once again, we didn't get any of that despite the 4.1 trailer being absolutely phenomenal and filled to the brim with dramatic voice lines.Before I go into more details, please bear in mind that I am only so negative and critical of Genshin Impact because I do love it. I see its potential, and I know it could be exceptional instead of just good. But sadly, it's a game whose entire purpose is to earn money, and so it never takes any real risks, and well, that's the whole problem, isn't it.

Anyways.

1) About justice and prisons.

Fontaine's whole storyline was always going to be revolving around the idea of justice, and initially i wasn't expecting much out of it, but after Sumeru's story my hope was elevated a bit. There's so much to be said about how justice works today, what it means for people, both those who are being helped by it and those who are on the receiving end. You could do so much in a story about justice.

When we first saw the Fontaine trailer and learnt about how in Fontaine, trials are treated like opera, like... entertainment?? Man, I was so interested. A country in which the suffering of others is being ostensibly used as entertainment. How cool of a concept is that? What does it mean about the society of Fontaine? About its people? Except so far, the story doesn't bother to ask those cool questions. Instead it's all about the prophecy, which, okay, that's intriguing, sure, but I'm really hoping it's going connect back around to the whole premise of suffering as entertainment in some way because I'm really expecting cool shit from that and I'm not seeing any of it so far. We participated in 2 trials and none of them even so much as addressed the core problem of witnessing trials as if it was a fun play. We just went in there Ace Attorney style, investigating shit and bringing the truth to light, which was fun but incredibly shallow.

Then comes 4.1, we get to infiltrate Fontaine's prison. There is so much to be said about prisons, how they're cruel and don't fix anything, how they feed the cycle, how they prey on the marginalized. But nooo, not in Teyvat. Here, the prison is not really a prison, it's just uhhh. Gathering grounds for exiled. In a fortress at the bottom of the sea. Ooookay. And it's so nice here that a lot of people actually stay even after finishing their sentence. Ooookay? Ah, we get a throwaway dialogue from a convict about how even if you go back out after your sentence, you'll still be branded a criminal and no one will want to hire you for work. Interesting. Can we get more of that? Nope? Okay that's. that's fine. Maybe later. Ohhh wait hang on turns out they're using the prisoners to built their machines!! Interesting! Oh we're not gonna explore that either? Man.

I MEAN. The fortress is even built like a panopticon. A circle with the dormitories along and the administrator's office smack-dab in the middle. Add to that the fact that it's actually confirmed that Wriothesley was following our entire investigation somehow, watching from who knows where (and all the cameras!! don't forget about the cameras!! They didn't serve for anything important but they sure as hell were there!!), and well. It IS a panopticon, you can't tell me otherwise. How is this not intentional?? And if it IS, then how come it just stops at that. Can you believe it?? This prison is so nice that if you work 3 days straight, the nurse in person will make food for you to help you with your exhaustion.

Do you see all this potential? Do you see how much NOTHING they made out of it? I am so mad about this.

2) Lack of real conflict.

This is not really new and i've actually complained about this to friends several times, but it just keeps happening and I'm now convinced that's just how it's gonna be for the whole rest of the game.

Here's the thing. The conflict in genshin is either a) coming from external forces (the fatui, evil gods, random NPCs who are introduced specifically just for one story bit to be the villain and then disappear, etc), b) very shallow (like for example Alhaitham and Kaveh's relationship, they're always fighting but it never comes to anything substantial, it's all just for shits and giggle), c) incredibly short-lived and often with no real consequences (like the conflict between the shogun and watatsumi island in the inazuma storyline, they fight a bit and then we beat the shogun which somehow convinces her and then she's nice again and no one gives a ashit that she destroyed so many lives with her idiotic idea) or d) under-exploited (the beef between Diluc and Kaeya? Who cares we're 4 regions later now this is irrelevant and will never be brought up again probably).

You know what I want? I want characters with opposing ideals, incompatible personalities, deep flaws, fighting each other because they're HUMAN and that's what being human means. Hell, I even want some playable characters who are ASSHOLES, who do some FUCKED UP SHIT. You know what we're getting instead? Characters who are NICE. They're all so NICE. They get along. They're finally starting to actually make characters interact more and they're ALL NICE AND FRIENDS AND I'M SO SICK OF IT.

The only characters who are allowed to be fucked up and evil are the Fatui Harbingers. La Signora was evil and she died before she could get an actual character arc. Dottore is evil and he fucked off god knows where so I'm waiting to see what they do with him. Childe is fucked up but now that we're past the liyue questline he's just our friend that happens to be a harbinger and we just meet him and we don't even question his motivations all is well???? This guy kills people but no one gives a shit anymore he's friend now. Idk I just wish there was more to this but okay, better than most I suppose. Scaramouche was fucked up and evil AND got a cool backstory about it but then he just erased that actually??? So now h e's just a random guy and no one gives a shit about him, allt he significant ties he had with other characters just stopped existing and possibly don't mean anything anymore. Nahida put a leash on him and now he's the resident grumpy boy. I'm so mad about that I love his character you can't do this to him give him his substance back.

Do you see this shit???? The nice guys are simply nice, and the evil guys aren't properly exploited. I am. So. Mad.

In the 4.1 trailer, you get a bunch of cool lines. "Wriothesley, where did you take my siblings?!" "Even if the truth may not be pleasant?" "Since they have no way to dispose of the leftover remains, they have ways to transform them into other forms, and keep them in the fortress forever." Does that sound cool to you? It did to me. Man, I thought, finally some good fucking conflict. What in the hell is gonna happen to Lyney's siblings. What the fuck is Wriothesley up to.

Well. What we get instead is one single cool scene of conflict between Lyney and Wriothesley (with a very mellow build-up to it, honestly), and then that conflict is immediately resolved. Turns out Wriothesley never meant to hurt anyone and just played along to try and get a randezvous with The Knave from Lyney. Everyone is saved and everyone is cool afterwards. Not even a word of resentment from Lyney over how Wriothesley manipulated him.

You know what I wanted? I wanted Lyney to be more of a villain, more of what's expected of a Fatui. He's polite and charming and mysterious, but he's also way too honest and trustworthy with the Traveler. It's no fun. We know we can actually trust him. There was some vague attempt at putting us at odds with him and Lynette in the 4.0 story when they revealed they were fatui, and it was so badly done that it just fell flat. Ok cool you're part of the fatui, that's scary, but my best friend is literally a harbinger, cool story though.

You know what I wanted even more?? I wanted Wriothesley to be more ruthless, more of an asshole, more self-centered. The guy runs a prison, scares all of the convicts, Neuvillette even warns us about him!! But you get there and he's actually reformed the prison to be a nice place, and the only time he actually does some bad shit, not only is it not serious, but turns out it's because he's trying to get help with the secret ship he's building to save the people of Fontaine from the flood. So it's only a "good intentions, bad methods" type of situation!!!

All! Of them!! Are!!! To nice!!! It's BORING. It'S SO BORING. Everyone is so nice in this game that even THE FUCKING MAFIA IS NICE. THE MAFIA. THEY'RE ALL GOOD PEOPLE. I AM LOSING MY MIND. I can't take it anymore. I just want people with actual flaws. I just want people who aren't just good but are actual people, with all that it implies of shitty behaviour and stupid decisions and hurting each other over dumb stuff. Or even less dumb stuff. Just anything but all this fucking sugar-coating over funny colorful little characters who you want people to give you money for.

You're gonna tell me "Castor, this is a gacha game, this is literally the poin-" I KNOW. I KNOW. I'M MAD AT MYSELF FOR ACTUALLY EXPECTING MORE. STILL, I AM ALLOWED TO BE MAD AT IT.

Anyways let's move on before I just throw myself out of the window, shall we.

3) A good story.

See, what Genshin impact is very good at is throwing multiple concept together and linking them in fun, intuitive ways, to make them all new and shiny. What if our game had an elemental system but also the elements are actually integrated into the character's personality, and also they're an integral part of our story? What if we made a region for the vegetal element, and there's actually a jungle there and the jungle symbolizes the interconnectedness of this weird fantasy-internet system the scholars use, and in fact this big connected fantasy-web is itself a literal metaphor for the wisdom of a people, and also the vegetal-element is using very technological and futuristic visuals now because all of this now makes sense in your player's mind and you are ready to just accept it as a normal thing even though we weaved this entirely new ensemble of concepts together in the span of just a few quests.

And that's great, honestly, I think that's really one of the biggest strengths of this game, it actually is very creative with the concepts it puts out in the world.

This game has very good concepts.

The problem is. The good concepts are rarely followed by a good execution.

Take the story of Inazuma. The premise is this: the electro god wants a land where things never change because she's afraid of losing people close to her. Her solution for this is to take away people's visions, which are the embodiment of the ambitions of people. She is effectively breaking the spirit of her people by force to make sure they never want to rise up and change things. This is incredibly good. This is a strong metaphor that exemplifies terrible rulership. There's so much substance in there, so much to be done with this idea, so much that could be said by a good execution.

What do we get instead? A nice start where you're shown a very, very closed off and unwelcoming land (including being unwelcoming through the sheer brutality of its landscape and weather, which was incredibly cool!!), the dire consequences of a person losing their vision, some little pockets of resistance that are planning an uprising... And then it all falls apart because the way you solve the crisis is by following the shady advice and plan of the shogun's best friend, who basically just send you off to fight her and then intervenes to talk to her, deus ex machina style, and it turns out the ruler was actually a shut-in who let a puppet with a very flawed algorithm walk around and make decisions in her place (which, in itself, is also a really good and interesting concept, but it's just thrown out there out of the blue and then never really exploited?). She simply gets out of her magical room and reverts her decision and then keeps on being the ruler of Inazuma and no one is mad at her.

And a lot of this failure hangs on the fact that the writers aren't allowed to make characters who are actually bad because hoyoverse wants to make sure people like their characters and want to pull for them. I don't want to badmouth the writers, I'm sure they're perfectly capable of making great stories and most of why it doesn't work is because they're being forced down a road where everything is shallow and shiny and beautiful so the game can make the money it wants.

In fact we KNOW they can write good stories because they've done it!! With the Sabzeruz Festival storyline in Sumeru! Imagine walking into a brand new region, marveling at the landscape, laughing a bit at how they've got internet here, and then being thrown into a literal nightmare with basically no warning, for the first time of the game cut off from the exterior world for 3 hours of absolute madness, spiraling out of control and not understanding SHIT. Only that's it's going DOWN. The Sabzeruz festival was an absolute banger of a questline and I'm still thinking about it now, months later. It was the bst the game ever had to offer and I will forever be chasing after this high in genshin impact. It was psychological horror mixed with a mystery genre glued on top of a time loop trope. It was a commentary on how putting "hard" science on a pedestal and deeming the arts and social sciences to be a waste of time and resources leads to unethical practices by callous scientists. It was a whole journey and I simply felt dizzy when the quest ended, almost as suddenly as it had started.

The rest of the story of Sumeru kinda fell flat, after that. Even though it was, honestly, pretty good.

My point is. Fontaine feels like Inazuma right now. In fact, I would say it might feel... worse than Inazuma. It has a great basis with some really cool concepts to be used. But it doesn't even start out that strong. I'm, of course, going to wait and see before I make any judgement about the story of Fontaine, as it is far from over.

What I can say for sure is that I am... disappointed by how it's coming along so far. I really hope it gets better.

[alitgblog]

s9 vol 7 thoughts: ah fuck this season has its problems but I don't think I've ever been this conflicted over love interests in a while

STEFAN 😍😍😍 literally I have to change my top five islanders now like I'm so sorry evan. AND he's an artist?? And it's my own fault for already buying into the second chance romance bit before he even showed up but like he's not ugly? omg stop. oof it's tough, like, shit I'm so sorry Natasha and Hamish I don't know who to pick in this love square they've got

him illustrating his sister's book for his sisters?? 🥺 I may be folding for that alone

I like Cassius' design. I like it more than Theo's but he does remind me of Liam unfortunately. and also he's looking like my MC's cousin this season so I gotta pass this time but makes it easier for me. but he does seem great, I like him and he's sweet without being boring (so far), but I also kinda wish we had an LI that gave us more pushback/banter? bc I picked a few options that disagreed with his whole thing about love/fate and he was just like "yeah fs that's a cool opinion too" which OK I get it he's nice but I'm just kinda sick of all the Islanders being so agreeable to MC. I guess Marshall is supposed to be the banter-y one but I have problems with him being here so I wish it was Cassius instead.

that being said they're fucking teasing me with this response to why are you here though

also at some point Cassius calls his season boring and I thought it was funny fusebox was dunking on themselves bc I didn't finish s7 either but no he was just referring to the fact he got dumped quickly.

I'm glad Lyle is back, like I'd be upset if an islander was only brought on for a date and then left, so I'm not mad at this even though he was momentarily mad at MC (and that became nothing?? like just take out that plot point) and i dont really care hes only coded in for Kat now. I'm just more upset bc they've literally already done this in S8 bc your LI has to pick between Sienna and Bea when they get "dumped" and then Sienna comes back in Casa.

And then we get to marshall and I don't even wanna talk about it. And ive made separate posts and reblogged some opinions on that so ill just add that also i hate his orange outfit. him dressing all white and ozzy all black was peak I hate he's out here in orange smh.. anyway so that'll be easy for me to not pick this season

although we get this and I thought it was funny like OK fine you got me marshall

he says it with a smile too not even angry/sarcastic

then after that I honestly don't remember what happens apart from way too many challenges all at once and the whole Stefan storyline. I wanted him to be a little upset initially bc it did seem like MC had some misunderstanding and then left him so quickly like I just wanted a little bit of angst where he came in with the gameplan of wanting to give her a piece of his mind and was on the show bc he couldn't contact her any other way, before he realized he was being silly and just was happy to see her again. like if anything, the story beats that Lyle goes through being snarky at mc in episode 1 then immediately asking for forgiveness by episode 3 makes more sense for Stefan but nah instead it just feels like another perfect li loyal route (which is fine but I like some tension in the story). like we can still have the terrace scene where he explains things though.

also if I saw this on love island? I'd be voting for them without question the angst is so good

OK I'm looking thru my screenshots and am now remembering I was upset at raunchy races for being subjective again. notable offenses:

straight out the gate, most creative boy and Kelly says "craft brewing is creative" gtfo as if it's not Chen the set designer (and anyone who brought back Lyle from the dates, I'd imagine musician over craft beer brewer as well)

Kat somehow doesn't win best dancer

I love Kelly and sure, biggest foodie but not when my mc is a chef smh at least in S6 the dialogue would change slightly with your occupation lmao

the physical challenge is OK but I just think it doesn't belong in casa. like on the actual show where they spend real days in casa it's fine but for the game that has to shorten it bc the volumes definitely don't add up to the length of real love island, it feels like a waste. if anything, the real villa needed a physical challenge rather than continuing to do variations on excess baggage type games.

someone help Kelly out with the mask pls

anyway the OG islander to visit instead of a postcard is interesting. I think a postcard makes the most sense but bc the game has to fabricate drama while also probably wanting most of the guys to still look good since the villa is like 75% love interests for MC, maybe it makes sense?

I think having it be MC's partner doesn't give us a lot of drama unless MC wants to bring up Stefan. Finn and Hamish could be interesting whether you're pursuing them or not. Like under the guise of them checking in on their partner, but they just care about MC and are asking her not to forget them. Most likely i think it'll be Kat's partner and he'll make up some lies about what's happening in the villa.

anyway a little rough first few weeks of the season but I'm enjoying at least this episode, surprisingly, so we'll seeeeee.... I think the seasons generally gets worse post casa so I'm not betting on this being a good season overall, but I'm not calling it a flop just yet.

[wildskissed]

companion romance guide

In a 'character is a b3 companion' style format where you can actively get scenes in each ACT to romance them (and can't proceed unless some scenes trigger), Eve's 'romance' arc would be as follows:

[ACT 1] The Sorceress of the Glade

The main character comes across Eve out in the forest, her hands glowing and a bush on fire. She's had a magic surge, but while she's obviously having a little freak out with herself, she acts as though nothing is wrong. Of course there's some perception and history checks to do here though, to be able to tell that she is hiding something, but she won't admit it even if you call her out. She'll just extinguish the fire and then start rambling about the forest and the nautiloid, and then suggest you travel together, which will start her companion quest line should you accept. You can also ask her about the scar on her face but like with invading Gale's mind off the bat, she's going to immediately tell you to mind your business. You can, however, invade her mind with the tadpole if you wish a get the vague face of what appears to be an Elven man and she won't tell you anything about him.

As far as the romance starting, she'll start warming up to you, and even tell you about how she used to be a Druid upon entering where the druids are chanting in the Grove. She's weary about what they're doing and wants to speak to Khaga as soon as possible. You'll get some extra bonus points with her if you take her with you to go see Khaga, and this is where she'll either start crushing on you, or will start being sassy as all Hell towards you: you must save Arabella. If you do, she will become endeared to you, and tell you about how she was a child during conflict as well, and how important it is to take care of each other. It'll also make her a lot more smiley towards you, but if you let Arabella die, she'll be far more curt with you because she'll believe she knows all she needs to know about you, which is that you don't care about the innocent. You can do a persuasion roll to try and appeal to her, but she's unhappy if Arabella dies.

Recruiting Scratch and the owlbear cub will make her so happy to have animals in camp that she'll start flirting with you in little ways like bringing you things she's been bartering traders for, and smiling at you a lot. Commenting on your bravery and your finesse in battle, etc.

There is an optional mission to go to the High Forest and meet her family and her pegasi, and while it will get you more approval with her, not going will not actually make her upset with you. It'll give you some extra dialogue later on though.

As long as you save the Grove, Eve will like you even more. You've protected all the kids, and the Tieflings getting the short end of the stick, and she'll want to spend alone time with you at the Tiefling party. You can't sleep with her yet, but there will be flirting and kissing and promises of things to come when she feels more ready to tell you about what she's been through.

[ACT 2] The Sorceress of the Glade (cont.)

Eve is not a fan of the Shadowlands in the slightest, but being a former druid, she is big on you respecting nature. She is easily influenced if you're kind to her and reassuring that the shadows can be vanquished, and really wants to help Halsin and Jaheira.

You will also get bonus points with her if you let Arabella stay at camp, and if you are kind to the Tiefling kids in the Last Light Inn. She is elated at besting Raphael at lanceboard, and approve if you tell the kids that you will save Mol for them.

She will continue to fall for you the more you do nice things, admittedly, like saving Isobel, saving the Tieflings, and the big kicker: letting Nightsong go. This is what will actually trigger her love scene after Nightsong and Shadowheart have their long talk and figure out Shadowheart's true story. Once she gets her memories back and all of that, Eve will want another private moment with you, where she'll talk you up and how she hasn't felt this way in a long time. She'll then tell you all about how she got her scars, and how it is hard for her to trust another lover, but that after watching you deal with all of this, she's not worried that you would ever betray her, and she'd like to show you just how much she cares about you by 'taking your intimacy to a new level'. Tender, sweet, and she will go down on you first before anything else happens.

[ACT 3] The Sorceress of the Glade (cont.)

Eve is so thrilled to be in the city, even with it's craziness, and any comments about how cute she is fawning over things will keep her at that Exceptional rating with her, and honestly she wants to do everything. She will also, like Scratch, keep randomly bringing you things she has gotten off of traders because she was thinking of you.

You can now kiss her whenever you want, and she is a face grabber. She will cup your face and draw you in and kiss you for a bit, say something cute and cheeky as her arms circle your shoulders, and then steal one more kiss before she lets you go. She will also alternate between calling you 'my darling' and 'my love' and will offer massages and snuggles to help you to relax. Every couple of long rests she'll also offer to have you share her tent with her.

She has a couple of endings for a romance, depending on what it is that you choose to do with the brain. If you become the new Absolute, she will peace out. That isn't what she wants to be a part of, but she'll wish you well and express her deep regret that your love story couldn't go farther than this. However, if you get rid of the elder brain, she'll suggest a future together where you don't have to part, though she will make it clear that she does need to go back to the forest to deal with her family and the fallout of her actions pre-tadpoles, and will offer for you to go with her to do that, but you can wait for her instead if you so choose.

[Epilogue] The Sorceress of the Glade (cont.)

Romancing Eve means that you're together in the epilogue and depending on what your character wanted to do, while she is still working on controlling her wild magic, she works with animals now. She just wants to be settled and with you, and have a family and enjoy your years together. She can do that anywhere that you are, be it the forest or the city or wherever.

tagged by: @elkenbulwark tagging: literally all of you!! please tag me if you do it because this is so much fun.

[voyageofthenautilus]

Mod Blue's Thoughts

Finally able to write up my thoughts on the last few chapters of 20k Leagues. Both myself and Mod Pluto have been very busy with other things, so we may not getting around to reading/reblogging everyone's posts in a timely manner, but I personally have been enjoying following along with what everyone has to say!

The Red Sea

-I like Aronnax's knowing, "hint-hint" comment to Nemo at the end of this chapter: " It would be most unfortunate if such a secret were to die with its inventor!” And how Nemo just changes the subject immediately. Come to think of it, I love the way the dialogue in this story is structured. Lots of back and forth without too many descriptions of the way it's being spoken, or what the characters are doing/how they look when they say it, and yet the dialogue itself completely gets across the way they're saying it and how they look. Reminds me of a script, almost.

-I wonder if Nemo praising the French explorers (de Lesseps is not the first one he praised in the story) is Verne's attempt at misdirecting the readers into believing that he's a Frenchman. (That, and the scene where [SPOILERS].) That would be very ironic if he were, and Aronnax didn't recognize a fellow countryman... but we all know he isn't (and I believe that can be inferred even without reading The Mysterious Island). Funny, then, that Nemo should have so much respect for the French, and now here's a Frenchman who showed up on the Nautilus- maybe that's one reason why he's attracted to him, because he admires his country.

-"There can be no secrets between men who will never leave each other." DAMN.

Arabian Tunnel

-Ned's skepticism about the tunnel at the beginning of the chapter is so amusing to me. "Who ever heard of such malarkey?" LOL. And of course, he's proven wrong.

-Actually, Ned is amusing throughout this whole chapter. "We're old chums, whales and I, and I couldn't mistake their little ways." LOL again. And "I've never killed anything like that!" (I'm honestly starting to wonder why Ned was made Canadian and not American, as some of his traits seem very stereotypically American- but I also enjoy that he COMPLETELY subverts the "nice Canadian" stereotype! (which of course is probably a more modern thing...))

-It's adorable how Conseil genuinely believed the dugong was a mermaid for like, half a second. That, and the comment about a second Nautilus. Does nothing faze this man?

-...Something tells me that dugongs don't work the way Jules Verne thinks they work.

The Greek Islands

-So yeah, the "neutral like Switzerland" quote was an invocation of Twilight, and I am so pleased to know there are people out there for whom this phrase was NOT ruined (because they never read the books/saw the movies), because my brain is unable to divorce this phrase from Kristen Stewart's delivery of it in the movie Eclipse. Anyway: things are starting to come to a head here, and it's about time. Aronnax has been thoroughly dazzled and absorbed by the Nautilus, and Ned is not having it at all. He has a life that he wants to get back to. No amount of scientific research and wonders can obscure the fact that he's a prisoner. And he's not going to accept any vague "surely this voyage will end!" comments from Aronnax, because deep down (or not so deep down), Aronnax doesn't want to leave, and Ned knows that if one person stays, everyone else will stay. So he's ready to make a decision, which Aronnax is not ready to do in the least. Acckkk, this conflict gets so much harder to read as the story goes along...

-Also, poor Conseil really needs to stop living and dying by Aronnax's decisions, as I said at the beginning of the book. But I feel like he might choose to stay as well, which complicates things for Ned even further.

-Originally I had the Feb. 14 and 15 emails scheduled as one big entry, before I realized that the 15th can be sent as its own email, so the heading we got for Feb. 14 is more appropriate for Feb. 15... but Valentine's Day or not, I fully believe that infodumping to Aronnax IS Nemo's love language.

-Y'all are so much smarter than me. Even having read this book a few times, I was just as much in the dark as Aronnax was about what Nemo was up to with the gold ingots.

-Speaking of which... the scene with Nemo doing all of this in full view of Aronnax and then immediately brushing it off, BWAHAHAHAHA.

The Mediterranean In Forty-Eight Hours

-"It was obvious to me that this Mediterranean, pinned in the middle of those shores he wanted to avoid, gave Captain Nemo no pleasure. Its waves and breezes brought back too many memories, if not too many regrets. " Kind of an oddly specific assumption to make, there...

-Interesting to read the bit about how the Earth will die from losing its heat. If anything, it's seemed to me in modern times that the Earth will die from becoming TOO hot. And funny comment about the Moon, too- now that the theory that the Moon was once a chunk of Earth that broke off in some sort of collision and fell into the planet's orbit has become the most commonly accepted one when it comes to how the Moon was formed, I'm very amused by the thought of people thinking in Verne's time that it had simply "lost its vital heat" like they predicted the Earth would eventually. (If I'm wrong about anything I've said here, please correct me!)

-“Then we have ample time to finish our voyage,” Conseil replied, “if Ned Land doesn’t mess things up!” Lmao, burn. Someone's feeling a little testy when it comes to Mr. Land? (I feel like this definitely shows that Conseil would prefer to stay on board, regardless of his "master.")

-"...although his catalog is a little dry..." Speak for yourself, Aronnax!

The Bay of Vigo

-Wow, Aronnax has got it BAD for Nemo, secretly hoping that Ned's plan will fail and worrying about causing him distress by leaving. Oh, Aronnax.

-"Never was hospitality more wholehearted than his." You say about the dude who drugged you and locked you in your room to keep you from spying on him?

-There's the portraits of freedom fighters! Yes!! Nemo definitely places himself among them, as we are going to see later in the chapter.

-I said it already, but that one part in this chapter where Nemo bursts in and completely derails Aronnax's train of thought never fails to amuse me, and is one of my favorite Nemo moments in the whole book.

-I'm half-convinced that Nemo knew they were planning to escape that night (although how would he know that?), because it seems VERY convenient that he'd show Aronnax the treasure of the Bay of Vigo right when Aronnax was planning to leave, thus ensnaring him further. (That, and the physical impossibility of getting to the surface in time...)

-FUCK YEAH the ending of this chapter! Nemo is 100% right in this regard (in my opinion anyway). When Aronnax was talking about the company assigned to recover the lost treasure, I was thinking... "there's no way he seriously believes the wealth would ever be distributed to those who need it?" But then again, Aronnax has proven himself to be surprisingly naïve and idealistic when it comes to the government and corporations (and tbh, naïve when it comes to individuals as well, seeing how deeply he trusts in Nemo). If only his love for Nemo would radicalize him... but his privilege may stand in the way of that.

A Lost Continent

-Major eye-roll at Aronnax trying to convince Ned that Nemo's not all that bad, really. Ned is already 100% set in his opinion that they need to get the hell off this ship and nothing Aronnax can say will change that. In fact, Ned probably just hears (what sounds to him like) demented ravings when Aronnax is talking about Nemo and what he witnessed.

-As for the rest of the chapter: GORGEOUS. And what a romantic notion in general, of Atlantis being discovered and explored under the sea.

[kckenobi]

fic writer interview

Thanks for the tag @katierosefun! Took me a minute to finish this and post but.....

Name/nickname: kasey!

Fandoms: I feel like I tend to be on the fringes of fandom for most media lol, with Star Wars being the only one I've really been active in. But I guess the ones floating around in my brain most often are bly manor/hill house and Star Trek tng?

Two shots? I don't actually know if I have any, except if you count Room to Grow and A Moment and A Memory which were connected (completely forgot the titles of both of those for a sec, wow).

Most-popular multi-chapter fic: as far as subscriptions and kudos it's probably bloodlines, my fic about Dooku, Obi-Wan and Anakin getting stranded together. But more recently Rhapsody and Blue, my orchestra au, has gotten some lovely attention, which is nice bc that one's definitely closer to my heart!

Actual worst part of writing: "oh god that's a huge plot hole"

How you choose your titles: I usually try first for a theme from the fic that can be summed up in a word or two, but after that I pick from song lyrics or poems lol

Do you outline? Yes, usually! Or I at least come up with a plan. I have to outline for longer projects or I'll forget where I was going and run out of steam. For shorter ones, I usually try to at least have a beginning, middle, and end thought out from the beginning, even if they're not fleshed put! Doing that just keeps me from hitting a wall and fizzling out when I get stuck, bc I at least know what's supposed to come next.

Ideas you probably won't get around to, but wouldn't it be nice: hmm, I like to think I'll eventually get around to everything I want to? But there's definitely a handful of ideas I've started only to put them on the back burner—I was thinking about a sequel to Rhapsody in Blue for a while, but i just had a hard time deciding what the conflict in that story would be since Palpatine is dead lol. But I'm not saying I won't get to it, because I still might!

Callouts @ me: how—many times—can you put an em-dash in one paragraph—also you write about the same themes over and over again—

Best writing traits: Hmm, I think one of the things I've gotten good at over the years is structuring a scene/structuring a longer plot. It's something I think was hard to learn, like as far as pacing and the balance between dialogue and action, and how to weave multiple plot lines into something that feels cohesive. Reading my old writing vs recent stuff, that's just been something I've noticed!

Spicy tangential opinion: the whole "only queer people can write queer stories" idea hurts people who are closeted or questioning more than it protects anyone, and no one owes you any piece of information about their identity to justify their writing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

tags: @calltomuster @meantforinfinitesadness @pandora15 @giggles-and-freckles @indigostars @tessiete

[katerinu]

I have arrived at the Yashahime is Over Party! I never, ever wanted a sequel, I was much happier with my own opinions and headcanons as to what happened after the show was over. (As I'm sure many fans were.) InuYasha has always been this great, big sandbox, where you can do whatever you want. Yashahime basically came in and stomped on everybody's fun time, so now I'm just trying to rebuild what I had! This rewrite isn't exactly my thoughts to a T on what I think should have happened at the end, rather, I tried to keep in mind the premise of Yashahime and just... fix it!

I know that my likes and opinions tend to be a bit disjointed from the rest-- for example, I LOVED the filler episodes. To this day, some of my favorite episodes that I go back to rewatch have been filler. I like slow and steady, I like lots and lots of dialogue. But Yashahime? Not like this. Never like this. For my rewrite, this is no longer a fantasy romance action adventure whatever. This is slice of life.

For my rewrite, Moroha becomes the main character. The story follows her as she travels around Japan, basically meeting old friends of her folks, and meeting some new ones along the way. InuKag and MirSan live generally happy, peaceful lives, with the Root Head demon being the last of their major problems for a long while.

I love the idea that with InuYasha and Kagome being a committed couple in an "unusual" relationship with an "unusual" daughter, Kaede's village over time becomes a safe haven for weak demons, half demons, and like-minded humans. It expands into a vast and bustling town, with plenty of colorful characters in addition.

Sango spends a lot of her day training Hisui and Gyokoto. She doesn't go out herself much anymore, and has basically passed the torch to her children and, of course, younger brother. Her time is mostly spent now creating and repairing weapons, though her real passion is in experimenting with fabrics to create stronger, more resistant material. Miroku continues to travel (so long as he stops by to say hello to his wife once and awhile) alongside his daughter Kin'u, who basically apprentices under him. He's so proud of who she's become.

Moroha is at that age where she longs to see the world outside their humble home. She packs her things, says goodbye to her mom and dad, and sets off. I can totally see her keeping the bounty hunter job as it would be a great way for her to make money on her own. And with her being loved and reasonably fed, whenever she loses a head, it can *actually* be funny. She still uses the rouge to become Beniyasha in tough times, but without the red pearl. (No pearls in this, the pearls are stupid.) She made a promise with her momma to only use the rouge in DIRE situations, since it can be dangerous. Of course, she's looked over by grandpa Myoga... and Shippo!

Shippo is much older now, but given that he's a demon (and I do subscribe to the demons age slower HC, despite the shit I give it) he appears to be around, or a little younger than Moroha. They're about equal in power which means they have to work together a lot to get out of sticky situations. They act as brother and sister since Shippo was basically adopted by InuKag, so there's no romance between them. It's purely familial.

Over the course of the series, Moroha meets old characters, both filler and canon, from the OG series. (Some Shippo recognizes, some he doesn't.) They help out with whatever problem-of-the-week is going on, as the episodes are primarily laid back and focused more on character interaction and development. They meet old faces like Jineji, Botan and Momiji, Kanta, Bunza, and even Shiori!

Shiori would have an episode or two, going more in depth on half demons and their human nights.

To keep the "mystery" aspect Sunrise TRIED to do while also putting a long term goal/conflict in the show to prevent it from getting boring, I would include Towa/Setsuna. But here's the kick-- I would combine them into one character.

Zetsumetsuko would sometimes run into our main cast and cause issues, mostly based on what the audience infers is some kind of misunderstanding or jealousy. This character will butt heads with Moroha, similar to how InuYasha and Sesshomaru were, but with her having a bit more sass.

Moroha says they smell familiar, but she can't place her finger on it. Zetsumetsuko tends to say some cryptic stuff, saying she knows some info that Moroha doesn't. This character is basically a wild card, and is to keep the audience on their toes. It is of course, later revealed that this character is the daughter of Sesshomaru. (Not that it's hard to guess, haha.) It happens when the main cast run into Rin. Zetsumetsuko appears to try and cause more trouble, only for Rin to excitedly shout, "Sister!" And begin doting upon her.

With tensions eased, the characters manage to sit and chat calmly. Zetsumetsuko feels like she doesn't belong, and struggles to find a place in the world similar to InuYasha. They barely knew their own father, raised primarily by Rin and Jaken. She doesn't even know her own mother. Zetsumetsuko has been following Moroha out of a sense of jealousy, since they're related but their paths have been so different. She basically reveals how lonely she's been, too. Which leads to her joining the group!

I wanted to introduce Zetsumetsuko as the daughter of Sesshomaru at the same time I introduced Rin as her sister, basically cutting Rin out of the running for potential mother right away.

The mother would be Kagura, who... I don't have a design for, ah! I heard a lot of talk and rumors about Kagura having become a goddess and I think I would apply that idea to my rewrite. It would explain why Kagura wasn't around for Zatsumetsuko growing up. Ah, now I have to make a Goddess!Kagura design, hahaha.

In conclusion, my sequel would be made purely for nostalgia's sake. No retcons, barely even touching the original plot of InuYasha. It would be a way to see the old cast through new characters, who would be charming in their own right without relying on their parents, and would allow us to revisit one-off and filler characters again. The sequel wouldn't be a necessary watch to enjoy InuYasha, it would just be a way for fans to go, "Oh, I remember that character! Good times!"

That's about it! I worked really hard on the character designs and thinking about their personalities and how they fit in, so if you haven't yet, it would be nice if you took a look at the links I put in and read a bit more about their characters! Please feel free to ask questions, I'm not the best at explaining myself at length since my mind gets jumbled, haha.

Thank you!

[dxrlingdaydreams]

Elemental Writer Asks

counting @bodoramzap 's unofficial tag as an invitation to do this

tagging: @writeouswriter and @fmarieray

Rumor has is that this once started out as an ask game, but unfortunately I don't know who started it. If it's you, let me know and I'll drop your @!

Water: How did you start writing? Honestly, I started writing in middle school. It began as writing roleplays with my friends, but then I fell in love with characters who's backgrounds I really wanted to explore.

Earth: What do you think is the foundation of your WIP? Honestly, the theme of one's right to equality and representation.

Fire: What’s a scene that you are dying to write? The one that I'm currently stuck on. :)

Air: What’s the easiest part of writing for you? Big picture planning. I can come up with large overarching plots relatively easily, but get lost in the little details.

Shadows: What’s the darkest theme you’ve ever written about? I'm terrible at writing any form of conflict, but the most stomach-churning things I've written are about sexual assault and a graphic description of an execution.

Lightning: What’s the most shocking plot twist you’ve ever come up with? I don't really have an answer for this one, I feel like I never write anything close enough to completion for large plot twists.

Rain: Have you ever made yourself cry with your own writing?  If so, what was it? Literally today, writing about some religious trauma for an OCs background.

Grass: What’s the biggest change you’ve made in your WIP since you started it? It started out as trying to save a person and turned into trying to save a nation.

Ice: What do you always get stuck on when writing? Conflict, conflict, conflict. I'm so happy to work on all other aspects of my work, but the climax escapes me. Always.

Sand: What’s the softest scene you’ve ever written? I think that's yet to be written.

Rock: How do you deal with writer’s block? I don't.

Clouds: How clearly do you picture a scene before you start writing it down? Honestly, I usually wing my writing. I've recently started to put more effort into worldbuilding so that I'm better at establishing scenes.

Metal: What’s the hardest part of writing for you? Oftentimes, coming up with dialogue. That, and stopping myself from overusing reiteration for emphasis.

Space: Where’s your favorite place to write? I love sitting at my desk on a rainy day, with incense burning and a nice beverage. :) I'm into beverages.

Spirit: What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received on your writing? I think the highest compliment to me is always when someone leans into my writing. Like, literally gets closer to it because they're so invested.

Psionics: How do you get into the heads of your characters? I make them playlists or moodboards!

Summer: How do you know when you need a break from writing? When my head aches, my eyes are dry, and my words are blurring together.

Winter: Have you ever written a story based on a holiday?  If yes, which holiday was it for and what was it like? Nope!

Spring: Have you ever scrapped (a huge chunk of) a story to start over?  Why did the change come about? Recently I completely started my longest wip from scratch. I kept the ideas of the OCs but changed their names/personalities/challenges completely.

Fall: Have you ever completely abandoned a WIP?  What led to that decision? I don't ever intentionally abandon my work. I usually get burnt out and tell myself that I'll finish it later. When later comes back around, I end up having a completely different idea that I want to get down.

[sleepymccoy]

I need a bit of advice

You're one of my favourite writers. I love everything about the way you write and I aspire to be as good as you

I've been planning a series of books for almost three years. I, being an idiot, have written nothing down. I want to write everything down but there's so many little details and things, I have no idea how to organise it all. I know that over planning probably won't help too much, but these characters and their stories matter so much to me. Also, I really enjoy planning things out. I have no idea what to do or where to even start.

And, any advice on getting over writers block/not being able to look at the screen when I write because I'm cringing so hard?

You are my favourite. You make me so happy. I want you to have a wonderful life.

(Also I think this applies to more people than me but I 1000% think of you like a celebrity and me speaking to you right now is so cool I'm fangirling really hard. You're awesome)

This is very kind of you, and also buck wild cos I'm just a dude, my mate. Also, I appreciate your commitment cos I haven't posted in like a year whoops. I still write tho, promise!

I've also been trying to write a book for a few years, and I have not done so at all so take my advice with many grains of salt. Esp cos I don't plan anything, I just scrawl

I had a lot of trouble with setting characters and relationships up, cos I'm used to that work being done already. So I just started skipping that. For the last year I've basically been writing fanfic of my og fiction plot that still only lives on my head. It's a lot of fun, I made these characters the way they are cos I like that, it's fun writing them in different little stand alone fic scenarios

In terms of starting to write, everyone has a different method that works. Some people write complex fic plot summaries that they follow, some do dot points, some think it through to finished, and some just start with a vague idea of where they're going

I'm the last type, I prep nothing. Hence why I'm not sure my advice will apply to you, given you love planning. I have reluctantly written dot point summaries of my fics when they're nearly done just to make sure the plot does actually move forward correctly, and I only do that when they're quite long and I'm struggling to keep it all in mind at once. And so I can more easily see where I can insert my random little side moment interactions I've written in-between bits

I write by aggressively imagining the scene, and desperately writing the dialogue only as quickly as I can so I don't pause my imagining at all. Then I read over the dialogue beats and edit them until I'm happy, then start actually adding dialogue tags and descriptions and paragraphs.

I dunno if any of that might help you. I have my docs set to dark mode and do a lot of first draft (dialogue only) writing in bed.

There's advice I've seen around that you should write the scenes you want to. Like, just start the fun scene. It's what you wanna write, it'll be what others want to read cos it's the cool scene. Just keep skipping the bits in-between and writing the fun scenes, and you may find there's a lot more done that you thought.

Like, if your plot layout has, I dunno,

Characters meet... Setting summary... Plot hook... First plot conflict... Pleasant evening... Tasty, heart breaking breakup scene... Get back together... Second plot conflict... So on

But all youre thinking about is the tasty heartbreaking scene, just write that out. You might change the plot completely down the line, and that scene that got you started is suddenly character study (or, fanfic) rather than a scene. That's chill. That's good

Alternatively, maybe don't plan on a screen. Draw out the plot arc on a piece of paper. Back of a newspaper. Something that won't feel so big and important as your nicely filed and properly named document

Ily

[tribow]

So I watched MURDER DRONES

Yeah this is a bit of a weird one for me to talk about. This is a pilot episode directed by Liam Vickers and animated by the GLITCH animation team on Youtube. I've seen Liam's other works and they can be pretty good, but I'm going to try my best not to directly compare the old work to this one.

The pilot episode for Murder Drones got a lot of views, more than 3 million. It has been showing up on my youtube recommended for quite a while too. I was a little put off by the thumbnail and title, but I decided to finally check it out. (If you haven't watched it I'd recommend doing so before reading all this as I try to discuss my thoughts about it and I can only be so vague about a 25 minute pilot.)

Immediately I'm hit with the amazing aesthetic Liam is just so darn good at. It's this really heavy and horrific atmsophere that's juxtaposed by comedic banter and hijinks. There's always the crazy poweruful and maniacal chracters with wild expressions that somehow lack intimidation despite how dangerous they are. It's really cool.

The character designs are super good too. GLITCH does a really good job with the models and capturing Liam's aesthetic. The animation looks real nice too. In terms of visual quality this is very well done.

The audio is fantastic as well. It's so good I didn't even really notice it, and you know audio is good when you don't notice it. In all seriousness though, the audio mixing is great and many of the sounds really sell the impact of what's happening as well as providing great environmental detail as well.

Unfortunately this is where my praises end though. I love the production, but the way the story plays out was a disappointment. The premise is laid out very cleanly, humanity built highly advanced robots to do slave labor and then eventually wiped themselves out and killed all life on the planet. The worker robots are now free to do whatever they want, but unfortunately for the workers, some murder drones are deployed whose sole purpose is to murder the workers since the company who built the robots wants to get rid of them for vague reasons.

What makes this fall apart is first the lifestyle of the robots. It very heavily resembles a human lifestyle which is strange. They go to sleep, they have families, there's a school system, and other activities that seem very uncharacteristic of robots. This in itself isn't bad, the issue is that this lifestyle isn't really addressed in any kind of way. I dont get an answer for how the robots age or if they're organic in any way or why is there even a school. Not even a vague one. That is, I didn't have an answer until the second issue became increasingly more apparent.

The reason for the school and families and angsty main character? It's so the show can make fun of a trope. Every single joke feels like it's just poking fun at the trope it's representing to the point where it feels like there is no other reason for the trope to be there except for that purpose. Liam has jokes like this in previous works, but it's actually excessive here. There's nothing wrong with pointing a cliche here or there and having self aware dialogue is fine, but every other line feels like it's doing that. I wonder how someone hasn't experienced these tropes much even feel watching this. This may be alienating some viewers.

This issue also affects the 3rd issue as well and that's the character conflicts. This affects several characters, but I'll just talk about the big one. The main character has daddy issues and does not agree with his approach of dealing with murder drones, which is hiding away and building a wall the blocks the drones from getting in. She wants to fight back. So eventually she does fight back and it results in some fairly bad consequences. The father is suddenly faced with a dilemna: trust that his daughter's weapon works and shoot it at a drone, or put up a wall that should keep the workers safe. His choice was the latter, but later on this choice frames him as this bad guy when it seemed completely understandable given the situation? The walls have never failed up until his daughter messed up so is he really at fault for trusting what has worked before?

I realized that this doesn't matter though, because the trope is that the angsty rebellious teen has bad parents or something. Maybe this isn't the intention and the conflict is genuine, but even so the outcome is just unsatisfying.

I hate having these big issues with this pilot since I feel like these are problems Liam hasn't had before. If this pilot does continue I hope these problems can be addressed.

[diana-prince-s]

i'm literally fighting to keep my eyes open at this point but i just want to add one last thing YES, I KNOW. I'M SO SORRY C, I TALK A LOT

i believe rosé is super observant and a lot of the times when i'm reading i swear to you i feel her watchful eyes on denali even when you don't mention it anywhere. during the supper, it didn't seem to me like she was giving most her attention to either denali or deimos, it felt to me like it was evenly and naturally split between the two, yes she was having a conversation with deimos at the dinner table while denali was mostly quiet, but i could imagine the scene and how she would be extra careful not to let denali feel excluded, how she would look over to her from time to time, ask for her opinion and ecourage her to speak, and such. and when deimos stood up to go take care of their daughter, rosé asked if denali was having a good time. even when denali first came in, and sorry because i switched off my ipad where i wrote my notes so i can't give you the exact quote, but rosé smiles at her reassuringly, she puts her hand on her back to guide her inside even though denali's been there many times and would know her way without rosé needing to touch her. and here's the thing, rosé doesn't need to touch her most of the time but she does, because she wants to. because it's her way of showing affection. there is really no doubt in my mind, although their dynamics are different, that she loves denali just as well as she loves her husband. she only hadn't realized it before denali asked her, but when she did, she didn't shy away from it. and she didn't feel threatened by it. also, the fact that rosé invited denali for supper when she could've just waited for her man to leave and then have denali come over shows that she wants to include her and wants to show her how she lives, she's opening her home to her in a way that she wasn't doing when she would just let denali in just to usher her into her bedroom to have sex. this feels real, this feels serious. this feels like rosé cares about denali, and wants her to understand how she lives, and wants her to have a real place in her life. i don't know, to me there's so many obvious signs that rosé is smitten with denali, i can't believe these aren't coming across to everyone!!!

man i could really write a whole manifesto on your rosé haha

- leo (duh)

I'm going to be honest, writing Rosé is really fun. Not necessarily because anything I write is super related to real-life Rosé (they're very distant to me at this point, completely characters), but because I always project onto her. I always write from Denali's perspective. I usually do this in a pairing, it's really odd, but I almost primarily write as that one character in every fic for the pairing (unless I'm doing both POVs, but I'll usually favor one even then). This Rosé is so different from my other Rosé's, because this is such a different story. And I love her.

I purposely kept a lot of the dinner out and didn't write much dialogue for it. One, because I was really tired and I had had the idea for the in-bed dialogue scene in like September, and sometimes when you have a story in your head that long it's exhausting to hang on to (see: this fucking final chapter of leave before you love me). Two, because I don't write a lot of men into my stories, I'm not used to it, it's out of my comfort zone, and the men here really aren't important. The women are important, and their feelings about the men in their lives are more important than showing how the men treat their women. Three, because what really mattered there was that Deimos is a good guy, he's nice to Rosé and treats her like an equal, Rosé loves him, they're an ethereal Spartan couple. But definitely if I had written it, Rosé would have included Denali and Deimos would have been very kind.

I had conflicting feelings about writing that scenario, too, because while Rosé was well-intentioned in inviting Denali, wanting to include her in her life outside of just sex (because she loves her), she doesn't yet understand that Denali loves her and would be jealous. I mean, I've literally been there -- I was once really into this girl and she and my best friend got together, and then they tried to invite me to do things and it fucking sucked. Rosé just doesn't get it. She means well. But I think it highlights even more, like you said, that she loves Denali and she loves Deimos. Because she wants them both to be together where she can experience domestic love.

Once again, Leo, you got it spot on. Like literally. Look at you, teaching me things about my own story

[loopy777]

Non-Review: Free Comic Book Day 2021 - The Legend of Korra (Also Featuring Avatar: The Last Airbender)

With all the hype around 'Suki Alone,' it looks to me like most of the fandom missed that an additional Avatar comic with a story from each cartoon's era was just released for Free Comic Book Day. You can read them for yourself on either Dark Horse Digital or Comixology where it's mislabeled as being for ages 17+ (free accounts are required for both), but I'm sure one of the reasons you all love me is because of my willingness to jump in between you and these comics like the deadly bullets they can be. Well, I'm happy to die (metaphorically) for the sake of (a little anonymous internet) love, so I'm doing a full snarky review for each ten-page story. Also, I'm bored, and it's more fun to make fun of mediocre stuff than to praise stuff I like.

It's time for me to review "Free Comic Book Day 2021 - The Legend of Korra (Also Featuring Avatar: The Last Airbender)" or more specifically "The Legend of Korra: Clearing the Air" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender: Matcha Makers."

CLEARING THE AIR

The cover makes this look like a story about Jinora and Ikki having a sibling conflict. That's a lie. The Air Sisters arguing is merely the inciting incident for Tenzin telling a story of his youth. I should note that, as inconsequential as the Air Sisters stuff is, it's actually written very well because it posits Ikki as a victim of circumstance and Jinora as a bully who terrorizes her little sister with threats of getting thrown in jail by Metalbenders for an accident, cementing the characterization from the cartoon. This is not sarcasm. I really do think Jinora is presented by LoK as a Holier Than Thou little snot who just so happened to be naturally gifted with magic spirit-powers, but for some reason the rest of the fandom doesn't agree with me.

Anyway, Tenzin comes in to find the arguing (and Meelo just running amok for the fun of it and so far these characterizations are perfect), and rather than telling Jinora to shut her stupid face, he delivers a tale of his youth about conflict resolution.

So the meat of the story is how, when Tenzin was "a few years older" than Jinora, a pair of vandals got onto Air Temple Island and burned some graffiti into the spinning-panel things that Korra will destroy out of frustration during her Airbending training. Literally, the vandals are depicted as scorching the wood with enough smoke to be seen across a plaza. Tenzin goes after the vandals and they flee across the bay back to Republic City proper (one of the vandals is a Waterbender with a surf-plank). Tenzin pursues, catches them, and attacks them hard enough to smash some dockside crates. They are all then arrested by Metalbenders and dragged before Chief Toph. She's going to let Tenzin go (yay Toph!) and throw the vandals in jail (YAY TOPH!) and makes this face, and this entire comic is worth it:

However, Aang arrives and instead arranges to forgo the jail-time in favor of an Air Nomad Conflict Resolution Ceremony. This is nice and in-character, but I'm totally with Tenzin that these vandals should have been thrown in jail. They literally burned insulting graffiti into antiques from a genocided culture. But instead, Aang demonstrates conflict resolution by having Tenzin explain why he's hurt and what needs to be done to redress the wrong. And so the vandals help Tenzin scrub the graffiti off the panels with water and rags and mops- how, I don't know, since they were literally burned.

They also do a ceremony thing where they each take turns bending their element into a central space between them to 'clear the air' (GET IT GET IT HA HA IT'S ALMOST LIKE A PUN BUT NOT), so it's a good thing they were all Benders because this is kinda racist. This fixes all the problems and everyone is friends. Yay!

In the present, though, things are not so nice, because Tenzin's kids are still screaming at and provoking each other. Korra comes in with Asami at the end to ask what's going on, and Asami says nothing, so I still think everyone is characterized with perfect consistency with the cartoon.

I made this sound silly, but (aside from the spinny-panels getting cleaned with a little water and elbow-grease, which doesn't matter because Korra will eventually blow them all up anyway), I actually like this one. It has Tenzin demonstrate how much he's always had to work to be the Perfect Air Monk that everyone expects him to be, and Aang acknowledges how this is unfair but that Tenzin will never let him down no matter what. It also has Katara come in at the end (for just one line, boo!) to acknowledge that this was an especially easy little conflict for Tenzin to practice on and he'll eventually face worse. I found it a nice adult moment in a story that's otherwise clearly aimed at 8-year-olds.

The art is good. It's simpler than the LoK cartoon, with flat colors, but it captures the story and has enough liveliness for everyone's character to come across in their look and body-language. The brief action-sequence where Tenzin attacks the vandals is well done, moving quickly but showing the full flow of the fight and every move Tenzin makes.

MATCHA MAKERS

Apparently, "Matcha is finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea leaves, traditionally consumed in East Asia" according to Wikipedia. I had to look that up. I'm curious how many people understood the full reference in the title, especially since these comics are aimed at kids too young to be allowed on the internet.

This is a very simple story about Iroh in his tea-shop in Ba Sing Se. He has an assistant/waitress named Feng, a new character who wears glasses, ruining the hopes and dreams of all the fanfic-writers who were so sure he'd rescue Jin from the Lower Ring. A frequent patron of the tea shop is an elegant, older lady (very clearly Upper Ring material) named Li-Mei, who cannot go a single panel without giving Iroh a HEY BIG BOY look. She is very clearly smitten. Also, I feel the need to clarify that she knows his name is Iroh, so apparently Ba Sing Se is okay with the Dragon of the West serving tea to their wealthy. I don't say that as a criticism, I'm just noting it.

That night, Iroh meets up with his friends- the Pokemon-style spirits that we saw in Legend of Korra. (I don't know if they're the actual spirits from LoK, or just new spirits in the same style. This is because I would sooner grind matcha into my eyes than rewatch Book Spirits.) He serves them his special blend of tea and talks about how he's totally into Li-Mei but isn't going to pursue it because he's feeling old and doesn't want to take a risk. At this point, I could stop describing the plot because between the title and what I've said so far, I'm sure you could figure out every single plot beat that will follow.

The next day, the spirits trip Feng so that she drops Li-Mei's tea and Iroh needs to bring a replacement, and they've drawn hearts on top of the replacement tea with foam or sugar or milk or whatever. I don't know because I've never bought tea in a place that will even put the bag in the hot water for me. Iroh gets out of the situation without starting any love-affairs and runs into the back to tell the spirits to knock it off, dudes, they're totally embarrassing him! The spirits respond by giving him a flyer for a romantic restaurant. I don't know how they got it, so I can only assume that some Upper Ringer had their mail diverted.

Iroh refuses, so when Li-Mei orders more tea and he brings it to her, the spirits hover just out of her sight and threaten to smash the furniture. I am not making that up. They literally threaten to smash Iroh's furniture unless he asks the lady out. He submits to their tyrannical threats, Li-Mei happily accepts the date, he happily accepts her acceptance, and the story comes to a close. Iroh thanks his spirits friends for opening him up to new experience, but hopes that next time (so I guess Iroh is signing up for Tinder after this?) they won't threaten his shop.

At best, I can describe this story as 'harmless.' But it's been a long week and I just got a bunch more extra work at my day job that I really don't want to do, so I'm going to go ahead and call this story 'dumb.' It's rote, leans towards humor without actually being funny at all, and turns the spirits of the setting into Pokemon. And not even the cool dragon kind.

The art is strangely stiff. The coloring is soft and nice, but the drawings seems more 'assembled' than actually drawn. I swear there are even a few panels that reminded me of 'How I Became Yours' with janky poses, horrifying expressions, and just enough resemblance to the original cartoon to make me think a screenshot was partially traced and then ruined. (I'm not accusing the artist of tracing, BTW. I wouldn't even condemn the artist for tracing if they did. I'm just describing that HIBY feeling I got.) It was so stiff that rather than hear Iroh's dialogue in Mako's rich tones, I instead imagined Greg Baldwin doing a stiff Mako-impression with no naturalism to the delivery.

This story is definitely worthy of its "Also Featuring" billing. I'd rate it below Gene Yang's Mai and Suki FCBD short stories, but above everything else he wrote for Avatar.

So there you go. Overall, this is very middle-of-the-pack for Avatar FCBD stuff. It's very much of the nature of the 'Team Avatar Tales' stuff, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Iroh story was a leftover from that project. On Free Comic Book Day, you often get what you pay for.