#anja grimme

[philosophenstreik]

konfetti ohne ende schmückt den einband von die rassistin... irgendwie komisch. warum konfetti? soll es vielfalt darstellen? an sich steht es doch für silvester oder möglicherweise sogar für party, doch lässt sich solches im roman nicht finden... es ist zwar ein schönes, ein ansprechendes, ein gefälliges cover, doch es hat nicht wirklich einen bezug zum Inhalt, es hält keinen hinweis verborgen, was einem als leser in diesem buch erwartet. was war hier die absicht von anja grimm bei der gestaltung des covers eines hervorragenden Romans?

[witchygirlgray333]

Some Youtuber recommendations

Not sure if anyone's interested but I always love to find new favourite Youtubers and I'm constantly watching Youtube so here's some of my favourites (and if I remember I'll write a brief description of the content they post). Please let me know if you have any other recommendations!

Spill sesh (I love when I actually know about things happening so I can contribute to conversations and these are short videos about current celebrity drama and things like that)

Wood Dweller

Grav3yardgirl - She posts loads of fun content about crazy purchases

Izzzyzzz

Mother the mountain farm - Vlogs of 2 sisters living together in the Australian countryside and running a homestead farm, they do lots of DIY's and it's so inspiring seeing them run the farm, building things such as shelters for the animals, spending lots of time adventuring and spending time with their animals (my favourites are the goats), sewing clothes and lots more

TED-ED - Short informative videos posted regularly posting about loads of different topics

Lady of Faewood - Witchy and fantasy themed DIYs and makeup

Ilymation - Animated story time videos

Zoe sugg - Vlogs about her life, motherhood and family, makeup and beauty, running a successful business and spending time with her friends

Hannah lee dugan - Living in the woods, DIY's, home improvement, teaching herself new skills and her adventures travelling and living in the middle of nowhere

Alyssa Nicole - Vlogs about her pets, witchcraft, reading etc

Hello kitty and friends - Short episodes of the Hello Kitty and friends youtube show, they're so cute and they make my day, they also post cute DIY's

Samantha Jo - Fun vlogs and she has such a funny sense of humour, lots of relatable content and she has the cutest doggo called Dunken

Darling desi - Cosy wholesome videos, major autumn cottagecore vibes

Paperworms cat - Journal flip throughs

Lindsey Kaba - Journalling videos and flip throughs, she has such a fun and creative journalling style and it matches my style so well, so motivating and inspiring and always helps me when I'm in a journalling slump or just need some cheering up

Mindful witch - Spooky / halloween / witchcraft hauls, alt fashion and living a mindful and magical lifestyle

Sierra ann - Vlogs, self improvement, her videos are so fun and I love how open and real she is in her videos

James welsh - Skincare advice

Chloe bunny - Another favourite, her videos are so comforting and relaxing and she does vlogs, book hauls, reading vlogs and more

ANJA - vlogs of her trying new things and living an amazing exciting life and experiencing cool things such as her videos 'I flew to NYC for the love of my life', 'living alone with a nudist in the woods', 'i moved to berlin baby' and 'no phone, 7 countries, 1 month'. I'm chronically ill and on bed rest and I lowkey live vicariously through her videos hehe

Hitomi Mochizuki - Sisterhood, yoga, spirituality, wellness, self love, self improvement

Jaiden animations - Animated videos telling fun stories and vlog style videos such as 'the time when psychics read my future' and 'my childhood stories' and 'my dog stories'

Sophia K - Book videos such as reading vlogs and book hauls

Coco day - Reading / university / lifestyle / art vlogs

Cecilia Blomdahl - Interesting videos about her life on Svalbaard which is an island close to the north pole and she has an adorable dog called Grimm. It's so interesting and fun to watch someone living such a totally different life to me and learning about things such as life in the artic, the midnight sun, polar night etc and there's some beautiful content such as when she's watching the northern lights!

Remi clog - Cleaning motivation, relatable videos about motherhood, living with ADHD and maintaining a clean home

Sky life - Learning about different spiritual practices, wellness, alternative lifestyles etc, such as her video 'learning ancient magic with the modern day cleopatra' and 'I tried ketamine meditation therapy'. She gives me lots of ideas for things to add to my life bucket list and it's so interesting to learn about so many things

Cate van luven - Journal flip throughs, journal with me, journaling supplies haul and they have a really similar journaling style to me so I love watching their video for inspo for my journalling, art and grimoire

Werallgonnadie - Vlogs about starting to learn ballet in your 20's which I love (I'm not particularly interested atm in learning ballet but I love that she posts vlogs about learning ballet for the first time as an adult, shopping, clips from her ballet lessons, coquette hauls, advice, grwm etc)

Karissa love - Witchy videos and vlogs, poetry, self love, makeup

Haley pham - Reading vlogs and other book related content, daily life vlogs, book hauls etc

Dakota Warren - Dark acadamia vibes, book content, vlogs, fashion, hauls etc

Alwyn Oak - Such cosy videos about her witchcraft and these videos always make me feel better, motivate me and help me to connect with my inner child. I look up to her so much and I aim to make my everyday life more like hers. Her videos include her altar, vlogs, exploring the forest near her home which she calls the enchanted woods (she's made a map of it and has named different part of the woods that she connects to and this kind of thing brings me so much happiness, my inner child loved doing these kind of things and her content reminds me to take time to connect with my inner child and enjoy every little part of everyday), DIYs and arts and crafts, books, home makeovers, nature, going on adventures, celebrating the sabbats, recipes and so much more

Lilymaexo - Relatable teen girl content, mainly vlogs

Skalababy - Productive and motivational vlogs of her daily life

Leena norms - Being more eco friendly, making her own clothing, trying new hobbies, books and advice

Brittany Broski - Funny, stupid videos that never fail to make me feel better

Mint Faery - One of my all- time favourites, witchy vlogs, witchy advice and informative videos, showing their beautiful altar, spells and rituals, everyday magic, storytimes, hauls and unboxings, chronic illness witch content

Madi's nursing journey - Nursing vlogs (I'm not even interested in becoming a nurse but I love her vlogs so much)

Fawn child - Vlogs and book videos such as reading vlogs and book hauls

Keelin Moncrieff - Vlogs of being a young mum, self improvement and self care, books, realistic and relatable videos, advice etc

Rachel Maksy - DIY's, cosy cottagecore / wholesome vibes fashion, trying new hobbies such as her video 'I found an old knitting machine in my basement', historical videos (I'm not quite sure how to call them but I love them) such as her video 'I found an 1800's book of etiquette' or 'I tried some old Hollywood eyebrows'. She posts really cosy autumnal videos and she has a really fun sense of humour.

Rattus rattus - One of my top favourite youtubers, alt fashion, DIYs (including ones you can do on a budget), vlogs, thrift hauls and lots more, such a perfect youtuber to subscribe to especially if you're a halloween lover!

Luna Seranova - Witchy videos (vlogs, informational videos, books, divine feminity and seggs magic, hauls and unboxings, makeup and grwms)

Danelle Hallan - True crime videos handled in a polite and respectful manner

Zhirelle - Motivational yet realistic vlogs of a college art student navigating life

Emmie - I love her videos so much, she posts lots of book videos, weekly vlogs which include reading, studying, her adorable kitten Calcifer and general lifestyle things

Drama Kween - Short videos discussing current topics such as celebrities, social media people, bad tiktok trends, tv shows and films etc

Stephanie Harlowe - True crime videos, she handles the topics in such a respectful way and in my opinion she gives non-biased information

Throneofpages - Reading vlogs and other book related videos

Perfectpaperbacks - Reading vlogs and other book related videos

Didn't realise how long this would be... oops!

[kiggundu]

*{Movie}* The Silent Forest 2022 1080p BluRay Crime Drama History Mystery Thriller 5.3/10 IMDb.com Synopsis... Anja Grimm returns to the remote forest area where her father disappeared without a trace when she was eight years old. Her sudden appearance triggers a brutal murder. Disturbances in the forest floor and pointer plants force her on the trail of deeper layers of guilt and crime and trigger a catastrophe. (at Kampala, Uganda) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqVsv4HIr8V/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[melaniemederlind]

MY YOUNG AND FOOLISH HEART | Anja Hilling | Malmö Stadsteater 2014

Stage and costume design: Miriam Grimm

Light design: Carina Backman

[simminginchi]

Sim Dump | 2k followers gift pt. 2

Here’s a handful of sims. They are mostly my cc models, but some have been used in my gameplay as well, so they may have some skills. Some cc is included; anything not included is linked below. They only have everyday outfits.

I really don’t care at all what you do with them or how you change them. Have fun! If you do use them in your gameplay, feel free to tag me because I would love to see it.

Links + Download below ↓↓↓↓↓

In order from left to right, top to bottom:

sim 1: Stacey Grimm | DOWNLOAD

Carnelian hair by @greenllamas

fresco skinblend by @lamatisse

bambam sandals by @dallasgirl79

Rainbow nails by @simlaughlove | recolor by @faded-springs

sim 2: Rose McNally | DOWNLOAD

Cloud hair by @candysims4

fresco skinblend 

atomic eyes by @softerhaze

perfections skin detail by @motherplants

bambam sandals

Rainbow nails | recolor

sim 3: Anja Birke | DOWNLOAD

Peach hair by @enriques4 | Sundance recolor by @faded-springs

Josie skinblend by @sammmi-xox

Wild Sun dress by @anessasims | recolor by @faded-springs

bambam sandals

Rainbow nails | recolor

Sage tattoos by @herbalia

sim 4: Jemima Michaels | DOWNLOAD

Rosewater skinblend by @lamatisse

atomic eyes by @softerhaze​

(k)neat sweater by @captainmrbored | recolor by @deelitefulsimmer

piper shorts by @aharris00britney

flip-flops by @dallasgirl79

sim 5: Claire Peralta | DOWNLOAD

Claire hair by @imvikai

Rosewater skinblend 

Aster top by @viiavi | recolor by @faded-springs

Jean shorts by @greenllamas

flip-flops 

Rainbow nails | recolor

[blackjack-15]

No, the Creature’s name is Fraulein’s Monster — Thoughts on: The Captive Curse (CAP)

Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI, SHA, CUR, CLK, TRN, DAN, CRE, ICE, CRY, VEN, HAU, RAN, WAC, TOT, SAW

Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.

Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it.

If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraphs above, along with my list of previous metas.

These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: CAP, mentions of SAW, mentions of ASH.

The Intro:

The obvious Frankenstein reference in the title of this meta is the only one I make in the whole meta, I swear. It was a mistake to make the monster look like Frankenstein’s Monster, but I’m not gonna drag you guys or the meta down with that.

We’re professionals here.

This is a game with rather big shoes to fill, to be honest — it’s our first game in Germany, comes right after a very well-received “haunting” game and has shades of being a “haunting” game itself, its (small bit of) marketing played off Grimm’s Tales, and Savannah’s comment about staying in a castle where she discovered that the real monster was human cruelty is directly pointing towards it. CAP and its story could have crumpled under the weight of high expectations like MED, MID, and (in a slightly more controversial opinion) SEA did, but instead it did the opposite: in nearly every way, it improved on the Faerietale Formula that SAW inspired, and added to it.

Rather than a spooky haunted faerietale with a Hidden Villain, we have instead a monster — out in the open, even — as our main villain. The difference between ghosts and monsters isn’t really important in, say, a “Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark” or “Goosebumps” book, but it’s fairly important in a mystery, and even more in a Nancy Drew mystery.

As I’ve said a few dozen times in this series — and if you’re not tired of it yet, you will be soon — ghosts are a Reality in the Nancy Drew universe; they exist, they cause trouble, and they sometimes even help the living (or at least coexist with the living).

Monsters, on the other hand, never really exist — not banshees, not werewolves, not malicious wolves with opposable thumbs and the ability to cook poisoned foods, and certainly not monsters that in no way resemble the main villain from a Universal classic horror flick. Monster in the Nancy Drew universe is a Title, not a type of creature. Whenever there’s a monster on the loose, it’s a sure sign that there’s a bitter individual somewhere looking to hurt someone — usually for a personal grudge.

Which, as it happens, is exactly what happened here.

We’re still firmly in a Faerietale game — the ‘Nancy’ games start with ASH — but I do think it’s important to note here that the girls in this game (the victims of the monster, Renate, Anja) are all shadows of Nancy. The previous victims, sharing the designation of the Girl in the Dress with Nancy, are shadows of what could happen to Nancy if she doesn’t change the fate that’s been designated for her — down to the red hair of the original Girl.

Renate is a type of detective, trying to solve the mystery of the tragedies that strike the castle through the actions of the past. And Anja — well, let’s just say that Anja and Nancy have a lot more between then than the first glance might show.

The two women are foiled, especially with their love lives. Nancy’s dating a good man — despite the obvious, glaring problems in the relationship — and so their argument (and her own selfish behavior) isn’t the end of the world, nor the end of the relationship. They stop, they assess, and — with a little help from Anja — Nancy’s determined to try a little harder, leading us straight into ASH. The big thesis statement of the game is delivered, like last game, by our villain — “There’s nothing like love to bring order to a scattered world”. Anja gives Nancy good advice: communicate, and work for what you want.

Anja, however, was not dating a good man; she encouraged him, much like Ned does with Nancy, to be better, to try harder, to really reach for what he could be — only to be cast aside as soon as all the hard work that she had put in to supporting him led to good results. Her world was not scattered before — but after Markus, there was nothing that could put it back together again.

There’s nothing like love, indeed, but when it’s the wrong kind of person…well, the message that Anja took out of it was that somebody, somewhere, should care about her. And if they weren’t going to…well, a tragedy necessitates the force of Fate, and we know what Renate says about fate:

“Fate has a habit of digging in its claws when tempted.”

The last thing I want to touch on in this introduction — which I realize is a bit heavy on themes, but so is the game — is the importance of Titles within this game. The Bürgermeister, The Castellan, The Monster, The Girl in the Dress — this game operates a lot on character tropes, like any self-respecting faerietale, and the titles go a long way to showing who each character is. Karl feels dwarfed and inadequate next to his title; Anja wanted hers so badly that she was willing to lie; the title of Monster strikes fear into the heart of the vast majority of our cast.

And the Girl? The Girl in the Dress is a symbol of helpless fate, a sacrifice to propel the narrative forward. Remember what Renate tells Nancy? “The monster, he is here for you.”

Tellingly, it’s Nancy’s changing of what exactly it means to be The Girl in the Dress that allows our faerietale to meet with a happy ending, rather than a tragedy (the ending normally brought about by Fate, in Renate’s words). In keeping the title but changing the scope of the title, Nancy figuratively beats the Monster, and saves the memory all the Girls that came before.

The Title:

The Captive Curse is, as far as titles go, a masterclass. Nearly all the titles of the 20+ numbers are fabulous, but CAP’s title is a shining star even among them. Let’s talk about the important word in the title — “Captive”.

There are a lot of things that are “captive” in this game. We have the captives of the monster, to start off with, but there’s a lot more where that came from. The residents of the Castle and the castle’s town are also captive — they’re held captive by fear, as evidenced by the doors that refuse to open even when Nancy begs them to.

Shrugging off the idea of keeping this meta even a little bit spoiler-free, I’d also add that Markus is a sort of captive of Anja — there under false pretenses, drawing a web around him to finish him off — and equally that Anja is a captive of Markus’ — the shadow of her dick ex-boyfriend hanging over her dream job, watching him profit off of being a truly terrible person.

Renate and Nancy get in on the action, too. Renate is a captive of guilt, returning to the castle to try to prevent further deaths, haunted by her sister’s early death. She’s also a storyteller — a profession famed for having a “captive audience”. Lastly, Nancy is forced into the costume rather than her own clothes — a captive of the tale that’s being spun by our major players.

The Faerietale

In SAW’s faerietale, Nancy was the visiting prince, the Knight in Shining Armor to look after and save the kingdom. In CAP’s faerietale, however, her role gets changed around — not the least of which because we discover what an actual Knight in Shining Armor really is, courtesy of Renate:

“A knight in shining armor never did nothing for nobody. He never fought. A knight in dented, scraped armor - now that’s what you want.”

This isn’t the cynical take that some might spin it into — the Nancy Drew universe is not and has never been a Nolan-style grimdark-fest, skeptical of any good deed or honest inclination — but instead a declaration that it’s what people do that makes them heroes, that makes them good, that makes them who they are, not what they are (or what they seem to be).

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that, in a game exploring what good a Knight in Shining Armor might be, that the series’ resident Knight appears within the context of his fight with Nancy.

Ned in the video games series is the closest to a Knight that we really get; he doesn’t make mistakes, he��s always patient and kind and understanding, and helps out the best he can without being actually on the scene. In other words, his armor has no dents, nor scrapes, not so much by his choice (excepting possibly CRY), but by Nancy’s. By constantly leaving him behind, she’s cast in him his role as Knight in Shining Armor — but, as Renate points out, that’s not necessarily a good thing. Ned has the potential to be and do more — as ASH will show us.

And yes, there’s someone in the series that fits the knight in dented, scraped armor, but this is not the time for a Francy meta. If ever there is a time for Francy meta.

The biggest thing that changes from SAW to CAP is that Nancy’s learned from last time, and starts trying to figure out the faerietale she’s in the minute it starts in earnest. When she hears Renate’s tale, she’s sure she’s figured it out — guessing it was about Renate’s sister — but we’re shown that her perception is a little off (as the girl was Renate, not her sister). This shifting up of the roles is crucial thematically to our ending, where Nancy gleefully assumes the role of the Girl in the Dress as the hero of the piece, rather than the victim that the Girl had always been.

What Nancy happens upon here I’ll cheerfully call the Power of the Storyteller. All faerietales shift and change depending on who’s telling the story — look at the thousands of versions of Cinderella had all over the world, all too old to just be a knockoff of their geographical neighbor’s story or (yes, I’ve heard this) based off the Disney property.

With Anja telling the story for the majority of the game, it’s a tale about how sometimes the “monster” (and her version of a monster, specifically) wins — and how sometimes they deserve to win, to perpetuate the faerietale as it always has been; as Renate reminds us, “when death goes to take a ride, he follows the road that serves him best.” In Anja’s mind, there must always be a Monster, and there must always be a Girl in the Dress. With Nancy taking over the story, however, it’s about how the victim doesn’t have to be the victim, and that they have the power to assume their own destiny.

In other words, they’re playing out the central conflict that Renate outlines in her first discussion with Nancy: “If our time together is a comedy, then I was brought here by coincidence. If our time is a tragedy, then it must be fate.”

Coincidence and fate are also, coincidentally (heh) the driving forces in a faerietale — except that fate is also a driving force for romance. And because romance is our Chief Concern in CAP’s story, a lot of the story is about fighting against fate. In the end, it’s a coincidence that Nancy arrives, but Anja tries to spin it into fate by making her the Girl in the Dress. It’s only when Nancy takes charge, not letting fate have its say, that she arrives at the ending and is able to best Anja.

One of the great questions that this faerietale presents is about the Monster is whether or not it ever existed. In a Faerietale, the Monster nearly always exists in some form or another, needing to be drawn out and killed by our hero(es) before the day can be saved.

Indeed, in Anja’s modern-day retelling of the faerietale, the monster doesn’t exist — at least, not in its Monstrous form. In her story, Markus is the monster, and she must put on the guise of a monster in order to defeat him — in other words, if a monster is going to win, it’s going to be her.

To quote Ned’s astute observation, “[Castle Finster] has too many monsters.”

But it’s Savannah’s words that we should look to, as she’s a Storyteller just as much as Renate is. Savannah, heavily implied to be speaking of Castle Finster, says that the monster she found wasn’t a ghost — it was human cruelty that made the castle and its history so terrifying.

So we’re faced with the question: did the monster ever exist, or was it solely bad people, stealing cattle and sheep and young girls away for their own wicked purposes? Was there truly an amorphous being roaming the countryside, or was it just a clever way to shift blame from those who would do evil unto others? Remember what Renate tells us about monsters:

“The worst monsters are self-made. They are people like you and me, but they have taken a terrible turn. They let everything awful, everything sad, take up all the breathing room in their hearts, until all they know is revenge.”

The answer I would give is that, for this faerietale, it doesn’t matter if the Monster is real or not. The concern is not the nature of the monster, it’s the people’s reaction to the idea of a monster, real or imagined, that sets off our faerietale and provides the stakes. The fear is real and palpable, and the ends of our villain, while understandable and perhaps even praiseworthy, require some downright dastardly means.

The Mystery:

We open first on a look back at a young girl in an Era Past being captured by an unseen monster in the woods near a castle…only to have Nancy drive up on the Castle Finster itself in the modern day. Nancy’s been called in by the owner of the castle, Markus, who wants any troubles with the legendary monster cleaned up before he and his Rich Investor Friends arrive.

Rather than a welcoming piece of history, Nancy is greeted with a scared, unwelcoming town, the fear of the monster looming large and cutting deep — and that’s before the Curse itself turns its eyes on Nancy, forcing her to play along as the Girl in the Red Dress, the favored victim of the monster. Those in the castle are kinder than those outside of it, but there’s still the sneaking suspicion that someone is up to no good, using the guise of the monster to wreak a little havoc of their own invention — and time is running out before the monster claims yet another victim…

As far as the mystery goes…I don’t like to use words like “spectacular” because let’s face it, every game has its holes, but honestly CAP’s mystery is pretty spectacular. Attention-catching, a bit sad, a bit horrific, and loaded with faerietale tropes, subversions, and themes — there’s honestly just not much wrong here, especially given the limitations of, well, making a Nancy Drew game in the first place. The writing does a masterful job at hinting at horrors that, given the rating, they can’t say out loud, while still telling a fully cohesive story that even the young players will be able to grab at and understand (if not to quite the same extent)

The Suspects:

The game begins with Lukas Mittelmeier, so perhaps we should too. Lukas is the rather precocious son of the head of security of Castle Finster, as well as being Anja’s nephew. Bright, mischievous, and a huge fan of games and pranks, Lukas makes the castle a little more interesting — as well as making Karl’s life a bit more hellish.

Unlike another youth living in a castle (coughJanecough), Lukas is bright enough to be a competent culprit…he just isn’t malicious enough. Sure, he’ll play dress-up, spook Karl a bit, and stall Nancy outside the gates of the castle, but that’s really as far as he goes. He would have been an especially poor culprit, thematically speaking, and so it’s a good thing that the game never really attempts to lead you there. Even his dressing up as the monster is more meant to lull the player (and Nancy) into letting down their guard so that the real monster is a bit scarier.

Next up is the Bürgermeister and bad-luck-magnet himself, Karl Weschler. Having encountered his doppelganger as a small child, Karl has expected — and received — bad luck for the rest of his life, and lives in fear of being the cause of unhappiness to those around him. He’s also a board game enthusiast, having developed the (incredibly fun, it should be noted) board game Raid! and enlists Nancy to help him polish it while she solves the “huge monster problem” that Markus hired her for.

As a culprit, Karl would have been interesting, but thematically a little off. It would have had to be a situation where enough bad things happened around him at the castle to make him want to shift the blame, dressing up as the monster in order to throw the punishment off of himself and onto a nebulous force. An interesting plot to be sure, but not one that fits the more sinister nature of the game.

Our charming castellan and cunning culprit, Anja Mittelmeier is next on the docket. Incredibly good at her job, polished, polite, and fiendishly dedicated, Anja keeps the castle in good running order, gives Nancy advice, and is a doting aunt — all while secretly sabotaging Markus by acting as the monster.

I have a lot to say about how good a character Anja is — which I’ll cover more in the next section — but she’s also the perfect villain. All the information you need to figure out who she is happens to be presented to Nancy pretty quickly, but none of it is in the proper context to make it obvious.  Even her line — “there’s nothing like love to bring order to a scattered world” — is sweet and romantic at the time, and rather chilling and menacing when you have the whole context of exactly what Anja is doing to ‘bring order to a scattered world’.

It seems only fitting that after Anja should come Markus Boehm, the owner of the castle and the ex-boyfriend that Anja is working for revenge against. Markus is snappish, short-tempered, obnoxious about his money, and rather boorish — though he has some of the funniest lines in any Nancy Drew game — and is guilty of a lot, though not of haunting his own castle.

Casting Markus as the villain would have made this game an entirely different faerietale, one that would have necessitated Anja becoming The Girl in the Dress rather than Nancy. It might have been a more stereotypical Nancy Drew story, but it also would have been weaker – after all, a lot of the horror in this faerietale comes from the curse having its eyes firmly on Nancy, rather than on her watching it unfold.

Finally, our most divisive character is probably Renate Stoller, a cake-loving storyteller bound to Castle Finster by a mixture of fate and history. Personally speaking, I’m a total fan of Renate; she has a lot of freedom to liken the situation to stories and to spell out the fact that all stories are ambiguous without being morally relativist or faux-deep.

As a villain, Renate would have been interesting — set to haunt the castle that has haunted her for so long and caused her pain — but it would have removed the Storyteller archetype from the game, causing the player (and Nancy) to doubt everything she’s said, which would have been a shame.

The Favorite:

There’s a lot to love in CAP, both big and small, so I’ll try to tackle this section with some sort of organization, rather than just gushing from point to random point.

My favorite moment in the game is (in a stunning change from 90% of Nancy Drew Games) tied between the beginning and the final confrontation. The old-time film style beginning (a great example of a “cold open” of a type of horror totally distinct from SAW’s brand of horror) through Nancy’s first discussion with Karl is tightly paced and incredibly well done, introducing our main problems, a few characters, and how Nancy is stepping into this faerietale that’s been all but prepared for her. Special shout out to Karl’s “huge monster problem” dialogue, and Lukas’ getting caught at the castle’s gates — just some really great, distinct character writing that we normally don’t get this soon into a game.

The confrontation, which is normally somewhat cheesy, sometimes awful, and nearly always ill-supported (HAU being the best/worst example of this) in a Nancy Drew game, here instead shows off Nancy’s quick thinking and almost triumphant, smug nature when she figures it all out and traps the villain. The games coming up, as I’ve mentioned above, I refer to as “the Nancy games”, as they give us a lot of insight into who Nancy Drew actually is, aside from an amateur/burgeoning professional detective, but SAW and (to a larger extent) CAP really start giving us peeks at Nancy’s character — not as an infallible main character, but as a girl with an actual personality.

My favorite puzzle in the game — and I realize that it barely counts — is quite honestly Raid. Normally, the games that HER comes up with as minigames within their games are lackluster at best and criminally annoying at worst, but Raid (along with the games in ASH which are particularly enjoyable) is fabulous; it gives us more of that faerietale vibe that the game runs on, brings in Germany’s well-deserved reputation of being the King of Board Games, and actually contains a few moments of good characterization for Karl as well.

And I’m a sucker for getting to create your own card for the game. That’s just stupid cool.

One of the things that CAP does particularly well is its characters, so let’s talk a bit about them here.

Renate, a common favorite, mostly lives up to her hype, due to her storyteller’s dialogue, status as a Sage (slightly different from the usual Sage in a Nancy Drew game, due to her backstory), and intense relatability with falling asleep after eating cake.

Lukas is one of the few child characters in the ND games that actually feels like a child, so he gets points there automatically, even without noting how charming he is. Having Nancy talk to him under the table is also gold, even with the sense that she’s just humoring him, and having him dress up as a monster in a fake out that fools nobody (and even better, is not meant from a writing standpoint to fool anyone) feels perfectly in character for a relatively unsupervised rapscallion like Lukas.

Last on the favorite character list is Anja, a character done To Perfection. It breaks my heart sometimes that she’s the villain, but her character also wouldn’t be complete without being the villain — nor would I love her so much. Anja is patient, loving, a great aunt, friendly, gregarious — and a villain. Her line when she’s talking to Nancy about how she was honest and worked hard every day, and no one cared hits me every time. Anja’s a perfect example of a character who is intensely sympathetic and quite relatable without ever having the thought that her scheme involving Nancy was even a little bit okay. She’s a villain that I’d love to have come back, whether as a villain again or as a begrudging helper.

Finally, let’s get down to the miscellany.

The dialogue in CAP is pitch-perfect, from the distinct way of talking that each suspect has, to Markus’ insults, to the one-off phone call with the pamphlet company. The game in part is so fun because the dialogue is so fun, walking the line between faerietale-style narration (Anja, Renate) and almost Buffy-speak modernity (Karl, Lukas, Markus).

The last thing I want to touch on it — yes, you knew it was coming — the fight between Ned and Nancy. Yes, I’m a Francy shipper, and I do love that Frank is the one Nancy turns to for help with the fight, but that’s not what this part is about.

First off, I love that problems that would /necessarily/ come up in a relationship like Ned and Nancy’s are brought up here; Nancy’s constant jet-setting, while a common side effect of the job she does, is also something that would cause tension — especially considering that Nancy doesn’t really tell him when she sets off for another state/country at a moment’s notice.

A thing that has become Increasingly obvious over the entire series is that Nancy is, let’s face it, not gonna win any awards for Girlfriend of the Year, and in fact might win the opposite award. Ned is constantly giving her attention, validation, helping out when she calls him, and is understanding when she cancels; for her to not give the same amount of care to him (in different ways, as everyone needs different things, of course) becomes more and more glaring as time goes on.

My firm stance on being a bit anti-Nedcy comes from the belief that Ned deserves to get as much out of a relationship as he puts in, and Nancy, as the person she is and even as the best person that she can be, just can’t provide that. Their needs as people are just too different for a relationship to be fair for either person – and, as this game demonstrates, though Ned has the shorter end of the stick, it’s not fair for either one of them.

The Un-Favorite:

There’s not a lot that goes into this section, to be perfectly honest.

The forest is probably my least favorite section of the game — the part that I consider before starting a new game over — but besides tweaking it slightly to help navigation not be quite so frustrating (see below), even the forest is a pretty good puzzle.

The bag puzzle — especially if you, like me, forget every time that you can rotate the objects in Renate’s purse — is the only other annoyance in the game, and ranks as my least favorite puzzle over the forest simply for the fact that you can use a walkthrough to navigate the forest, while you can’t use a walkthrough to do the bag puzzle for you.

Other than that, CAP is just a wholly solid game — no least favorite dialogue, no awkward moment, no point where I turn down my brightness to make it seem like This Isn’t Happening.

The Fix:

So how would I fix The Captive Curse?

Honestly, the first and only change I would make is to fix the forest just slightly. I get that it’s a puzzle, but it’s not quite visually distinct enough to make it feasible for a lot of players to learn how to navigate. To fix this, I wouldn’t take out the forest, I would just make each piece of it a little more visually distinct, with more markers so that players couldn’t lose their place as easily.

There’s nothing other than that worth fixing. Even my dislike of the bag puzzle isn’t strong enough to suggest scrapping it, and it’s a type of puzzle that many people like and are quite good at — not to mention the fact that it’s not at all gamebreaking in its difficulty.

The Captive Curse is often sort of a “top middle” or just “middle” ranking for a lot of players due to the fact that it’s not quite as showy as a lot of “favorite” games, and thus can get lost in the fandom shuffle. But looking at it as both pieces and as a whole proves that this game is one of the most solid in the series sporting a great mystery, fantastic characters, and more than a little faerietale wisdom to carry to the next story.

[downloadarmy]

The Silent Forest

28-year-old Anja Grimm takes up an internship in the part of the Bavarian Forest where her father had disappeared when she was eight years old. Her attempts to find out what happened to her father are met with reserve and hostility from the local villagers, and she slowly starts to discover something terrible.

[phantasma-studio]

Wishing all our followers the best for 2020! May it be a healthy, happy and magical new year! Lots of Love, Anja & Sanne #happynewyear #2020 #magic #costumes #cosplay #moonprincess #belle #beautyandthebeast #disney #bellecosplay #grimm #fairytales #fairytaledress #costumesbyphantasma #phantasma #phantasmastudio https://www.instagram.com/p/B6xoac3DWAs/?igshid=igyexsrlsnac

[luoup]

Coming Home, Finding Home: Behind the Scenes

Coming Home, Finding Home was a fic that took me almost a year to write and probably more effort than anything else I’ve ever written.  I put as much fullness and detail into it as I possibly could, but there are some things that were background information, or just never quite made it into the story.

This post is essentially an infodump on all those bits.  Here we go.

Jaune’s hometown Domremy was the village where the historical Jeanne d’Arc is from, and Isabelle and Jacques were the real names of her parents. 

In canon, Jaune says he had seven sisters.  There was no other information.  So… I made them all up.  It was honestly kind of difficult to come up with seven characters out of the blue, but also fun.  I didn’t notice until someone pointed it out that the youngest and oldest sisters were named Marie and Antoinette... oh well.  I basically just cherry-picked favorite French names off the top of my head and from my own family.  Also I never - even through the last chapter - was able to remember which one was Camille and which was Corinne (my bad on making 2 characters with similar names, maybe will spontaneously change that someday).

Antoinette- 23, Dust scientist, Jaune’s favorite, half-sister (same father)

Camille- 22, weapons designer, would be nerd-soulmates with Ruby Rose honestly

Corinne- 20, nurse-in-training turned official nurse by necessity because of the disasters

Orianne- 19, university student, interested in studying grimm and somewhat ostracized because of this, close with Jaune

(Jaune is here, 18 years old)

Fleur- 15, Nicolette’s twin, more introverted but sharp

Nicolette- 15, Fleur’s twin, louder, nicer, struggles in school

Marie- 11, hero-worships Jaune and very angry with him for leaving for Beacon without her

On Jaune’s dad’s team: I’m a sucker for random odd bits of symbolism.  Jacques Arc was a member of Team MRJC, Magic.  Michael was named for one of the angels Jeanne d’Arc saw in her visions.  Roue was named for Rouen, the town in which Jeanne was burned to death in, and she was the member of MRJC who died.  Jacques was named for Jeanne d’Arc’s father, and Saint Catherine was another feature of Jeanne’s visions.  Because I can’t even name single-brief-mention background characters without coming up with some kind of significance for every single one of them.  

I’ve adored Ren and Nora from the start.  I have a lot of feelings about them being best-friends/adopted-siblings, and originally when I was thinking/writing about them I didn’t have any background to go on.  So, again, I made it all up.  Turned out not quite accurate to canon (obviously), but whatever.  I’m probably sticking with my version for future fics honestly – I’m very attached to it now.  This is the fic that details the whole backstory, but in short:

The Valkyrie family consisted of Anja Valkyrie (Huntress from a Hunting family, although most of them are dead now) and Sig Valkyrie (took his wife’s name when they married, a Hunter by education although somewhat less so than Anja), plus Nora

The Lie family was made up of Lie Min (a tailor), Lie Jiaying (a probably genius) and Ren

Ren and Nora’s village was destroyed in a grimm attack when they were children.  Anja and Sig were the only Hunters in the whole town and were quickly overwhelmed.  Ren’s chronic shoulder injury is from this time (his house fell down on him). He and Nora were the only survivors in the whole village. 

They survived on their own until being accepted into Umbra Academy (like Signal where Ruby went before going to Beacon), and from there went to Beacon and became one-half of Team JNPR. 

The internet says that 6-8 months pass between the end of V3 and the start of V4.  Therefore, the timeline of CHFH is as follows: JNR gets to the Arc house 1-2 weeks after the Fall of Beacon.  They spend 3-4 months there, travel for ~1-2 weeks to Patch to meet up with Ruby, and set off as RJNR for 1-2 months before the start of V4. 

Writing CHFH was an incredible experience and although I struggled with it at times, I loved creating this little bubble of in-between time and giving some of my favorite characters time to recover and heal and bond. 

[sarahburness]

7 Crucial Steps to Minimize Drama in Your Life

“When you are not honoring the present moment by allowing it to be, you are creating drama.” ~Eckhart Tolle

Well into my twenties, all of my friendships with women looked a lot like junior high.

One day, we’d be codependent and attached at the hip, sending incessant play-by-play emails throughout the workday like one too many notes in class.

The next day, we’d be dragging each other by the hair into a heap of combined emotional issues, complete with nasty suspicions, unfounded accusations, and a dramatic reconciliation that would inevitably be short-lived.

Shortly after one toxic friendship eroded, I found a new one, like a mythological creature that regenerates its head immediately after it’s cut off. Things weren’t much different with the men I dated.

For a long time, I lamented all the damaging relationships I’d been in, as if I was some kind of victim who always got the short end of the stick.

Then one day I realized there was a reason I always found myself in dramatic relationships: I was attracted to drama like a moth to a flame.

Chaos was the status quo for the majority of my life, and when it wasn’t there, I panicked. I didn’t feel comfortable unless I was fighting someone, or at the very least, fighting myself.

The things I said and did contradicted because it was easier to blame the world and stay the same than it would be to really see myself and make a change.

You might not be a recovering drama queen like me, but you’ve probably encountered your share of relationship histrionics.

Maybe your close friend has as many catastrophes as there are days of the week. Maybe you’re the person everyone calls with their problems. Or maybe you unknowingly turn small issues into major crises and you’d like to stop feeling so overwhelmed.

Whatever the case, you probably have at least a little drama in your life that you’d like to minimize.

With this in mind, I recently asked on the Tiny Buddha Facebook page: How do you minimize drama in your life? I took a sampling of the 183 responses and formulated this guide to diffusing drama:

1. Recognize when you might be creating drama.

You get what you put out. If you act in a way that is positive and minimal drama, you attract the same kind of positive situations and people. ~April Myers

Drama usually comes from my reaction to other people’s actions. I stop to think: Does this really matter in the long run, or am I just trying to be right? ~Anita Grimm-Hohl

I minimize drama within myself. When I’m focused and calm, so is the world around me. ~Cynthia Ruprecht Hunt

Take it off the page:

If there’s drama in multiple areas of your life, be honest with yourself—you’re the constant. Are you creating it? We don’t do anything repeatedly unless there’s something in it for us, so, what’s the payoff?

Are you looking for attention or excitement? Did you grow up with drama and you just plain feel best when there’s some around you?

Now aim to find alternative solutions. If you’re looking for attention, can you get it more directly? If you’re bored, what new adventure can create in your life?

2. Change your perspective.

Be happy about little things, let the big stuff go because I can’t change any of it. ~Grace Foo

I zoom out in my mind to a point far enough away and above so that I can see things in my life for what they are. By doing this, I can see from a distance how small and unimportant the situation is in the big scope of the universe. ~Larry Stilts

Is this situation going to matter a year from now? If not, it’s not worth worrying about. ~Angela Orr

Take it off the page:

A lot of the drama takes place in our own heads, and it’s usually because we’re too deeply immersed in a difficult situation to recognize it isn’t as dire as it seems.

If you feel yourself getting overwhelmed by a situation, step back and realize this feeling isn’t permanent—nothing is. Then focus on action steps—on the things you can control. What can you today to proactively create a solution?

3. Don’t feed into other people’s drama.

Build a reputation for not participating in drama. ~Addy Rodriguez

Just be. Anything you resist persists. Don’t add any negative or positive focus on it. ~Nikki Star

Speak less, listen more. You have time to hear and see the drama and sidestep it. ~Alexis Benjamin‎

Be an observer. Not everything needs a reaction. ~Angelina PhouGui Chan-Ong

Take it off the page:

If someone repeatedly comes to you with catastrophes, give yourself a window of time when you’ll listen, and then take care of your own needs by walking away. Also, resist the urge to jump into a pity party. Oftentimes people calm themselves down when other people don’t validate their complaints.

Lastly, focus on your breath. Your calming energy may even help them let go.

4. Reconsider unhealthy relationships.

Minimize dramatic people in your life. ~Jeff Palmer

Befriend only people with good energy that don’t promote or create drama. ~Carmen Portela

I realize that spending time by myself is always preferable to spending time with someone who wants drama. Nothing wrong with a dull day. ~Stephanie Goddard

Remove the source of drama from my life. It really is that simple. ~Claudia Jacobs

Take it off the page:

Take an inventory of which people in your life leave you feeling stressed and unhappy more often than not. If you don’t want to completely remove a toxic relationship, minimize the time you spend together.

If you don’t want to change how often you see each other, recognize drama triggers. When the conversation moves toward her horrible mother, steer it somewhere else.

5. Be clear and straight with other people.

Be as open and honest and communicative as possible. Listen without reacting. ~Faith McGregor

If I have an issue with someone I go straight to them to talk about it, and I don’t talk to anyone else about it if they aren’t involved. Gossip breeds drama! ~Kristie Sherman

Drama comes about because of either misunderstanding or overreaction. Be as honest and open in all cases as possible. Quell your own negative emotions, which will in turn diffuse the negative emotions of others. ~Vito Ruiz

Take it off the page:

A lot of drama comes from poor communication and confusion. Eliminate it by finding the courage to say exactly what you mean. It may be harder in the moment, but it can save a lot of heartache in the long run.

On the flip side, let people know that they can be honest with you. If someone thinks they need to walk on eggshells around you, they’ll likely hold things in—but they will come out eventually, if not in words, in resentful actions.

6. Be slow to label something as “drama.”

When it comes to people you know you love, always take an extra moment to reconsider, if the “problem” is actually a problem, if it’s worth making a big deal out of it. ~Christian Andersen Hauge

I realize that life is a roller-coaster and my problems are much like others’ at different times. ~Margaret I. Gibson

Love them a little more. It’s who they are. It might even be you. ~Ed Pulsifer

Don’t speculate, good or bad. Simply deal with what’s actually in front of you. ~Michael Stodola

Take it off the page:

Sometimes what we’re labeling as drama is just someone who really needs us. Instead of expelling mental energy judging the situation as good or bad, focus on being there and being a friend in the moment.

Then be a friend to yourself and let the drama go when you walk away.  A lot of the drama we experience in life comes from our interpretations of the things we experience—particularly after the moments have passed.

7. Learn from drama.

I attempt to allow the inevitable episode, extract any potential meaning or lesson, and equally allow it to pass. ~Joel Olmstead

I try to see the learning experience in the drama. And I think of the sentence “Without rain you can’t enjoy the sunny days.” ~Anja Feijen

Accept it, learn from it, and go on with life. ~Vincent Neerings

Take it off the page:

Sometimes it seems like drama happens to us, and we’re powerless to remove ourselves from the cause. Another perspective is that every time we find ourselves immersed in something that seems overwhelming, we have an opportunity to learn how to deal with challenges better.

Life will always involve mini fires that we feel desperate to put out. If we can learn not to fan them, they may actually be able to light our way.

Some of the Facebook responses were slightly edited for spelling; some were part of longer responses with more detail.

Photo by Sebastian Fritzon

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About Lori Deschene

Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha and Recreate Your Life Story, an online course that helps you let go of the past and live a life you love. Her latest bookTiny Buddha's Gratitude Journal, which includes 15 coloring pages, is now available for purchase. For daily wisdom, follow Tiny Buddha on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram..

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