#but i don't think it's super plot heavy spoilerable

[ilybigman]

MAGMA GGG DOODLES P1!!

did a magma w some friends and even though this wasn't the first batch i drew, im putting it first because. its a whole other category of "at least one click clack per image" because i like click clack. ok

oh also, an awesome bonus from my friend @starrycataclysm (and others);

tip tap. aka baby click clack.

enjoy this thing i guess

posting part 2 tomorrow!

[deathandthesoul]

Hey you! Do you like LA by Night and NY by Night? Want to branch out into watching more VtM actual plays? There's a few I really enjoy that I'd like to share. They are all 5th edition

Blood on the Grand Strand/Are We Dead Yet? from Huddyvonschland Coterie clans: Ravnos, Tzimisce, Salubri, Tremere, and some more regulars who swap in and out. And then also oops all Thinbloods! The tourist town of Myrtle Beach enjoys a vibrant nightlife. An eclectic Anarch coterie must contend with the Camarilla (and later Sabbat) making moves in their city while the Second Inquisition begins their operation. There's funky cults, a suspicious drug operation, weird Thinblood stuff, and a lot of juicy worldbuilding which sometimes brings in other elements of the World of Darkness. The players are an absolute delight, Huddy's storytelling is fucking delicious, and the table has a ton of chemistry. The atmosphere is moody and it's a very chill time. I consider this my comfort chronicle

Vegas by Night from Mayday Roleplay Coterie clans: Ravnos, 2 Malkavians, 2 Gangrel, Warrior Salubri, Lasombra This show is nuts. It has everything. Vividly gritty ST narration, occult mysteries, a coterie of forcibly Camarilla kindred in way over their head, wacky Vegas hijinks, lifelike and captivating characters, a meat house, Lake Mead being terrifying, so much buck wild combat. A gospel singer Ravnos who sounds like Elvis and the world's horniest Malkavians. Every plan goes haywire. They always pick the solution that will create the most consequences for them. It's super high energy but man it's fun. Caleb has spread such a wide web of plots that all somehow interconnect. It's really impressive seeing it all gradually unveil and all make sense together in the greater scheme of things. His brain is seriously huge

Legacy of Bulls from Adventure Tavern Coterie clans: [Spoiler], Hecata, Brujah, Toreador A Birmingham coterie inherits the grudge of their forebears and has to race against the clock to solve a mystery and prevent any damage. I'm in love with CT lmao he's my favorite representation of that clan I've ever seen. The chronicle has elements of the occult/magic, investigation, and an atmosphere that is often moody and tense with the occasional chaos. I love the drama in this one

ATL by Night from the Facility Productions Coterie clans: Brujah, Tremere, Ventrue, Gangrel. And some more regulars who swap in and out. In later seasons there is a new coterie: Lasombra, Thinblood, Hecata, Tremere, Gangrel, Ravnos After taking heavy losses during the Final Nights, kindred society in Atlanta must rebuild. Many were hastily embraced during those confusing times and the coterie is tasked with bringing those lost childer into the fold. There is a focus on character development and kindred Politics with heavy Second Inquisition involvement. All in all I find it to be very cozy and intimate, it's really relaxing to watch

The Rook and the Rascal: Montreal by Night from ThreeKingsLoot (audio only) Coterie clans: Tremere, Toreador, Nosferatu It's been a while since I listened to this one so I forget a lot but I remember there were werewolves, Pentex, and a lot of over the top violence. And something about a cult leader, I think? But it's also very cozy and has themes of community and friendship. They utilize True Faith in a novel way and the characters and narration are very charming. They don't follow the game mechanics exactly but it makes things way more high stakes and dangerous and interesting. I had a good time listening to this

[onnahu]

Batkids as AO3 users

Dick - I don't think he'd be a writer. He just don't give me the vibes, ya know? He would, however, read fics about people he knows. And himself. He's deep in superhero fandom, and at some moment he gets super invested in some rarepair and actually menages to set them up. I also think as a teenager he would stumble upon some E rated fic for someone he knows, then promise himself he'd never touch it again, and then a few years later he reads them a lot, is just super secretive and guilty about it. He does not, however, touch Batman E rated fics with a ten foot pole.

Tim - you'd think he'd write Hero RPF, huh? No. He's deep into Formula 1 RPF. He writes, he reads, he's just very active in fandom. Most of his works are some kind of Formula 1 murder mystery.

Jason - he is the one from Hero RPF. He doesn't read it, he just writes it. In various AU's, ranging from some inspired by his crazy adventures to those from classic literature. When he was still Robin, he wrote Pride and Prejudice Superbat fic, that became crazy popular. After ressurection he sweared he wouldn't touch it, but after checking it out once and realising how tragic his writing style was, he rewrites the whole thing. He reads fics from fandoms he does not know the original works of. He finds a fic he likes, and learns things from it. Then he spirals deep into fandom. Like many of Batfam fans I imagine. That's why he doesn't write, because he feels he can't without knowing the original, and he sure as hell ain't watching some kids show called Ben 10.

Babs - I think her beginnings were in something like Twilight of DCU. She would regret it forever. Currently she's involved in some shows she watches when on break from work and Oracle. I'm not really into TV series but maybe something like Bridgertons or The Boys or something like that. She writes only one-shots and is active on Tumblr. She has like a thousand bookmarks and she posts fic recs with the most wild analysis of writing style, plot consistency and just vibes. She stays away from any RPF's, but esoecially Superhero RPF. She's got it enough on day to day basis thank you very much.

Steph - that girl post Robin writes the most sick gore body horror fics change my mind. And she does it in fandom's you would least expected. She also writes Spoiler/Batgirl fics, that are really fluffy but also full of action and actually made the pairing wildly known.

Cass - she reads everything Steph writes for Spoiler/Batgirl. Steph does not know Cass knows she writes them. Cass is really charmed. She tried writing one, but it came out really dark and she didn't like how clumsy it was and gave up on trying to be an author. She reads heavy angst, crack, or Steph's Spoiler/Batgirl fics, nothing else. She's the person that leaves very short but very sweet comments on literally averything she likes.

Duke - that boy is in the same circles as both Tim and Dick. He actually finds out it's Tim that writes his favourite Formula 1 fics as Tim finds out it's Duke that leaves those super insightful comments on them that start's conversations with author and other readers. They have one talk about it and then forcefully forgets about it and continues as it was. He writes Batman and Robin and Robin Gang fics. He's really good at it, and that's how he found Duck Grayson. Not that any of them knows that's the other on the other side of the screen. And yes, he's Steph's beta reader, and she's his. They don't talk about it, it's just how it is.

Damian - he reads Batman and Robin fics but only about himself. He also draws fanart and makes comics about Batman and Robin (himself). Later he gets involved in Teen Titans fandom, then the Justice League one, and suddenly he's a wildly known fanartist in the whole Hero RPF community. And he did draw a fanart for Jason's fic ones. They both don't know it's the other. He also gives aby superhero an emotional support fictional pet. Dick think it's adorable. (He was the one that introduced Damian to fandom.)

[queenofapeacefuldawn]

SPY × Family: Chapter 94 analysis unhinged thoughts

hello hello! i am back with my thoughts for the latest chapter! please note that there are spoilers ahead for chapter 94! (Long-ish post incoming?)

Okay, so I loved this chapter. I'm a person who loves locked room murder mystery type stories, so this definitely scratched that itch for me. Obviously, I'm biased.

Analysis (of sorts?):

Right off the bat I can say that this chapter isn't really oriented on emotions or certain character dynamics. It is pretty plot heavy (but. not to the main plot. this chapter in itself has a plot to its own, but I really really liked it).

So the chapter starts with Bondman facing off an enemy in a snowy mountain...

which, of course, inspires Anya to have an adventure of her own. She asks Loid to take her skiing, only to be flatly denied...

BUT! Agent Anya has tricks up her sleeve (threatening to cry), and that works on our dear, super-spy Agent Twilight (he's so weak and stupid y'all.)

side note:

he thinks he's soooo cool. he's not.

Anyway, we get Twilight trying to explain skiing to Yor, which... fails, kinda. we also get gymnastics from Yor, (SHE's the cool one), and a half-baked explanation from her about learning all that from a gymnastics teacher.

The Forgers are trapped in a snowy blizzard, which leads them to take refuge in a lodge. They meet a group of young college students, who regale them with a tale of a bloody snowman who kills people in the dark.

Might just be me, but this design reminds me of Type-F from the new Code White movie (note: this isn't exactly a spoiler, I haven't seen the movie, but this is what's on the wiki and in the trailers). The snowy backdrop + this Type-F-esque design might be a homage to the movie? Probably just me, though, haha.

Anyway, onto the main focus of the story (kidding, it's not):

WE COULD'VE HAD IT ALL..... YOR AND LOID SLEEPING ON THE SAME BED.... WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN....

(jk, it probably wouldn't have happened, but a girl can dream)

"Eh, why not?" Certainly, these words CANNOT exist in the vocabulary of THE Agent Twilight! Perhaps.... no, it can't be... he's finally RELAXED for once? Feeling secure enough to ASSESS THE LAYOUT FOR POSSIBLE ESCAPE ROUTES WITH HIS YOUNG DAUGHTER? No... it can't be possible....

(Sorry, I know I'm unfunny. I don't think that'll change)

But, genuinely, this just shows how at ease he is with his wife and daughter. He might not know it yet, but I know it (← somebody whose opinion isn't worth shit).

Finally, onto the main crisis of the story:

the would-be murderer.

There's something to be said about how he jumped into action to save the guy's life, (as one does), BUT. BUT

OHOHOHO. The minute Yor's in danger (see: the man reached out to grab her but Loid just grabbed his hand) he decides to find the killer to prove her innocence. (You know his adage? A spy should never draw attention to themselves.) The minute his WIFE was in danger he resolves to find the killer and prove Yor's innocence their guilt. HMMMMM. Agent Twilight, you ain't slick. I think you momentarily forgot about about your #1 lesson to never draw attention to yourself just to prove Yor's innocence. OHHHHHH. The fanfiction is fanfiction-ing

(I'M SORRY I'LL TRY TO BE FUNNY FROM NOW ON)

To summarize the rest of the chapter: Anya realises with her telepathy that the killer is the lodge owner, and meddles in the investigation to nudge Loid in the right direction, and the police arrive to the lodge to find the incident resolved. Everyone's happy, right?

Not... really.

Anya's excited because, "Wow, I solved a murder! So cool, best trip ever!"

But Yor and Loid aren't that happy. Loid is worried that this kind of meddling will get Anya in danger... and he's more worried that she isn't really grasping the gravity of the situation.

Which. She kind of isn't. A man was almost killed, but she's not showing any signs of shock? Remember, he was this worried even after the hospital visit where she makes a mess of that sand-model thingie, and after the bus hijacking arc, when she's hyped about the Stella, and he tells her that the Stella was "not for the reckless way you defied those hijackers."

Which.... is a lot of character development from the man who was A-OK with leaving her alone in the apartment, to now how he constantly worries about her wellbeing. Growth.

Also, another tidbit:

I feel like this chapter showcases another facet of his personality. Not Agent Twilight's, or Loid's, but [REDACTED]'s.

[REDACTED] always wanted to help. Even in the War Arc, when, in Luwen where he was staying at his great-uncle's house, we can see that he wants to catch fish for his and his family's dinner, while, in the backdrop, children are laughing and playing. It's always been in his character to help, and, hell, it's partly the reason he is who he is today. Agent Twilight wants to think that he left [REDACTED] behind after that fateful bombing in Luwen, but [REDACTED] is hanging around him like a ghost, and some of his character bleeds through the facade that is Agent Twilight, which is masked by the facade that is Loid Forger.

Final thoughts:

Loved the chapter. It's probably just me reading into it too much, but... that scene where he grabs the guy's hand who was trying to tie up Yor. Hm.

This entire chapter might have been a locked-room murder mystery type chapter, but I genuinely think that it showcases how much of an effect this family has had on Agent Twilight. What with taking Anya on a sweep of the premises to look for escape routes, to trying to prove Yor's innocence that definitely betrayed his number 1 rule as a spy... this man is truly so oblivious, I wanna cry.

(Also: did he not stop for a moment to think that him performing first-aid on the victim, or trying to build a radio from scratch OR playing detective to prove his wife's innocence IN FRONT OF A GROUP OF OSTANIAN PEOPLE would raise suspicions? Obviously, it was all overshadowed by the discovery of the would-be killer, but... at least one person had got to have been suspicious of Loid.)

(Also also: He's so weak. One look at her crying face and he's gone.)

This was just my thoughts from a preliminary read of the chap, so if I get more thoughts, I'll probably add onto it in a reblog or a new post. Tysm for reading! Hope you liked it, and have a great day/night! Remember to stay hydrated!

[askhezureviews]

Think you’ll ever do a review of Arcane? If you have seen the whole series, what are your basic thoughts on it?

OH HELL YEAH IM WRITING A REVIEW FOR IT AS WE SPEAK

Uhhhhh,,, oh man I'm gonna ramble SOOOoo much about this show it's my most favorite show of all time.

Season 1 is super solid, LOVE the character arcs and build up, they are INCREDIBLE. The animation is solid, the storyline set up is full of hype, the butterfly effect is very prominent in the story telling and I love me a good action packed story heavy series surrounding politics. Boy howdy does this show give us depthy characters, I'm LOVIN it! Season 2 arc 1 is also pretty solid.

Arc 2, ep 4,5,6 however.... they have some interesting ideas but are otherwise a complete and total mess. Our entire cast straight up disappears from the plot, rushed to all hell (we needed a season 3 SOOooo badly) Every single member of our main cast has contradicted themselves, often within the same episode. The narrator is unreliable.

The final arc of season 2 picked things back up, and while its not perfect by any means, it was breathtakingly unexpected. I enjoyed so much of it. I feel like our characters had good wrap ups, I just hate how we got here. One could argue the show also ship pandered the ending quite a bit and I'm not gonna disagree, I hate to say that was ironically the best part for me.

I was actually mentally, physically, and emotionally unwell for an ENTIRE week after the finale. I stayed up all night watching it. I've never seen a show pull something so insane in my life. I was astounded. I don't think anyone could have predicted how things would have ended up. If Arcane had a season 3 to actually sit down and give more time to explore the ideas they shoved into season 2, I feel like people would be less divided on it. Despite my disappointment for season 2, I still think this show is very good and would recommend it to everyone, even my own mom, ahahaha. ~ Spoilers below for an overall issue I have with Arcane, for both seasons. A really annoying pet peeve of mine

The writers have a problem with plot devices. There has been one per season and they're not good. Sky Young and Isha. They're used to rush a character to the next step in their arc. My personal belief is that these two are wasteful. They only exist for a member of our main cast. They are not their own characters or have any legit relevance to the overall story.

Sky Young is there as a symbol of Viktor's 'humanity' even when the methods of her death or how she's used in the story don't make any sense down the line. She's just an 'obsessed' one-sided love interest that forces Viktor into giving up on the Hexcore- to give up on Piltover and Jayce. Only for him to drop/kill her a SECOND time in season 2 regardless of his initial guilt and distress over "losing" her.

Isha is used to force Jinx to live up to a symbol of rebellion against Piltover, as well as be Jinx's "redemption arc" (she didn't NEED one??? wtf) morality pet, as well as force Jinx into a situation where she'd consider unaliving herself so Ekko can come in and save her.

I am so annoyed with how these characters were handled. Sky should have been more than a lab assistant crushing on Viktor, and Isha should have been more than Jinx's redemption arc morality pet. It's shocking we have such flat plot devices in a show with such insanely depthy characters- especially the other women! I'll talk more about them in my video, but any time I see them on screen, I just want to skip over them.

[corvid-ae]

So you want to listen to Main Range?

Great! I know how intimidating it can be to try and start listening, so I’ve tried to compile a guide to the main story arcs. More under the cut (minor spoiler warning)!

Also known as the Monthly Adventures, it’s a great way to get into the DWEU and definitely one I would recommend. It is also accessible, with the first 50 stories available on Spotify, or available to buy from Big Finish or second-hand fairly easily (or, you know, via less-legitimate means).

Main Range involves stories from the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors, and various TV and original companions. If you are a fan of eighties and nineties Who, then Main Range might be for you! My general recommendations for people are to pick a specific doctor AND companion(s) to listen to and go from there. Although, if you’re looking for a first story to try, why not start at the very beginning (a very good place to start) with the Sirens of Time.

While many Main Range stories are stand-alone, there are also some overarching plots, which are actually very companion-focussed. Trying to understand these arcs and listen to them in order can be intimidating for people looking to get into listening, however its probably simpler than you’d think.

To help you out with all of this, I have done my best to write down the stories that are probably best listened to in order, with a bit of an explanation about how it fits into TV continuity if relevant. The order is pretty easy to follow as it is pretty much just in release order. No, Big Finish did not intentionally try to confuse their audience by releasing stories out of order (okay maybe they did just a little). However I have provided the story number in brackets [like so] for clarity.

Also, to be clear, all of the arcs are self-contained, so seperate arcs don't have to be listened to in the order I've written them down in, unless I've specified otherwise (like with the Evelyn and Hex storyline).

Again, it is not super important to listen to things in order. If you are getting bored with a story or with listening in order then feel free to skip things. Maybe you could just skim the Tardis Wiki page for the plot if you like. To help, I’ve also marked any of the super plot-heavy stories with an asterix. Most other stories, especially ones that I don’t mention here are standalone and can be listened to however you like.

Also feel free to let me know if I miss anything! Happy listening :)

Fifth Doctor:

The Erimem Arc

This takes place after Planet of Fire and before Caves of Androzani, and features the Fifth Doctor, Peri and an original character called Erimem - an ancient Egyptian princess. This is a pretty good arc and one I would definitely recommend. Please feel free to skip Nekromanteia though it’s genuinely terrible.

[24] The Eye of the Scorpion*

[38] The Church and the Crown

[41] Nekromanteia

[56] The Axis of Insanity

[59] The Roof of The World

[69] Three’s a Crowd

[71] The Council of Nicaea

[81] The Kingmaker

[99] Son of the Dragon

[102a] The Mind’s Eye

[104] The Bride of Peladon*

The Key 2 Time

A trilogy featuring the Fifth Doctor and an original companion called Amy which acts as a sequel to the Key to Time. It is set between Planet of Fire and Caves of Androzani. The Fifth Doctor meets Amy again in the boxset Wicked Sisters.

[117] The Judgement of Isskar

[118] The Destroyer of Delights

[119] The Chaos Pool

The Stockbridge trilogy

Featuring The Doctor and Nyssa and set in the fictional town of Stockbridge which was first introduced in the Fifth Doctor’s DWM comics. Knowledge of that is not at all essential however. Set between Time Flight and Arc of Infinity.

[127] Castle of Fear

[128] The Eternal Summer

[129] Plague of the Daleks

The Older Nyssa Arc

This is set between Enlightenment and the King’s Demons and features Tegan, Turlough and an older Nyssa - some years after the events of Terminus.

[136] Cobwebs*

[137] The Whispering Forest

[138] The Cradle of the Snake

[146] Heroes of Sontar

[147] Kiss of Death

[148] Rat Trap

[159] The Emerald Tiger

[160] The Jupiter Conjunction

[161] The Butcher of Brisbane

[172] Eldrad Must Die!

[173] The Lady of Mercia

[174] Prisoners of Fate

[195] Mistfall

[196] Equilibrium

[197] The Entropy Plague*

The Hannah Arc

A very short trilogy featuring the Doctor, Nyssa and another original companion - Hannah - an Edwardian woman. Set sometime between Time Flight and Arc of Infinity.

[185] Moonflesh

[186] Tomb Ship

[187] Masquerade

The Season 19 Gang Arc

Set during the events of Season 19, these stories feature the original gang of the Doctor, Adric, Tegan and Nyssa.

[221] The Star Men

[222] The Contingency Club

[223] Zaltys

[234] Kingdom of Lies

[235] Ghost Walk

[236] Serpent in the Silver Mask

The Kamelion Arc

There’s not much to say about this apart from that these three are probably best listened to in this order? Set between the King's Demons and the Five Doctors (i think) and featuring Tegan, Turlough and Kamelion.

[247] Devil in the Mist

[248] Black Thursday/Power Game

[249] The Kamelion Empire

The Marc Arc

These stories follow the Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa, and an original companion Marc - a man from ancient Greece. It is set sometime between the end of Arc of Infinity and Mawdryn Undead.

[256] Tartarus*

[257] Interstitial/Feast of Fear

[258] Warzone/Conversion*

[266]Ghost Station/The Bridge Master/What Lurks Down Under/The Dancing Plague

[267]Thin Time/Madquake*

Sixth Doctor:

The Evelyn Arc

One of my favourite arcs with some great stories, and maybe where things get a little confusing. This arc features the Sixth Doctor and an original companion, Evelyn - an historian from modern-day England. Set sometime before the Sixth Doctor meets Mel I think.

This arc set up some story aspects which are explored further with the Seventh Doctor’s stories - specifically, the Forge trilogy. There are a few ways you could listen to these but to keep it simple I would also recommend listening to the Seventh Doctor story the Harvest before you listen to Thicker Than Water, and then A Death in the Family once you’ve listened to all the Evelyn stories AND the Forty-Five anthology. This could also be listened to concurrently in release order with the Hex storyline which I’ll outline a bit later.

[6] The Marian Conspiracy*

[9] The Spectre of Lanyan Moor

[11] The Apocalypse Element

[22] Bloodtide

[23] Project: Twilight*

[37] The Sandman

[40] Jubilee

[43] Doctor Who and the Pirates

[45] Project: Lazarus*

[57] Arrangements for War*

[58] The Harvest (7th Doctor)*

[60] Medicinal Purposes

[73] Thicker Than Water*

[100] 100 BC/My Own Private Wolfgang/Bedtime Story/The 100 Days of the Doctor*

[143] The Crimes of Thomas Brewster

[144] The Feast of Axos

[145] Industrial Evolution

[115] Forty-Five anthology (7th Doctor)*

[140] A Death in the Family (7th Doctor)*

You can theoretically listen to the following before or after Thicker Than Water if you want - they are sort of standalone stories with the Doctor and Evelyn:

[78] Pier Pressure

[84] The Nowhere Place

[108] Assassin in the Limelight

The Charley Arc 2.0

This is best listened to once you’ve listened to the Charley Arc with the Eighth Doctor. Featuring the Sixth Doctor and Charley.

[105] The Condemned*

[111] The Doomwood Curse

[114] Brotherhood of the Daleks

[116] The Raincloud Man

[124] Patient Zero

[125] Paper Cuts

[126] Blue Forgotten Planet*

The Flip and Constance Arc

Featuring the Sixth Doctor and two original companions, Flip - a girl from modern-day England - and Constance - a woman from World War II. Set sometime before the Doctor meets Mel.

[143] The Crimes of Thomas Brewster*

[156] The Curse of Davros

[157] The Fourth Wall

[158] Wirrn Isle

[182] Antidote to Oblivion

[183] The Brood of Erys

[225] Vortex Ice/Cortex Fire

[184] Scavenger*

[204] Criss-Cross*

[205] Planet of the Rani

[206] Shield of the Jotunn

[218] Order of the Daleks

[219] Absolute Power

[273] Colony of Fear

[220] Quicksilver*

[231] The Behemoth

[232] The Middle

[233] Static

[263] Cry of the Vultriss

[264] Scorched Earth

[265] The Lovecraft Invasion

The Older Peri trilogy

Featuring the Doctor and Peri from after she marries King Yrcanos.

[192] The Widow’s Assassin*

[193] Masters of Earth

[194] The Rani Elite

Seventh Doctor:

The Hex Arc

A great arc that sort of starts with Evelyn’s arc. I would not recommend starting this until after you’ve listened to Project: Lazarus, but maybe at least listen to The Harvest before Thicker Than Water (no stress if you don’t want to juggle listening to arcs concurrently). Features the Seventh Doctor, Ace, and an original companion from 2020s London - Hex. Set after the end of Classic Who.

[58] The Harvest*

[67] Dreamtime

[74] LIVE 34

[79] Night Thoughts

[82] The Settling

[89] No Man’s Land

[92] Nocturne

[106] The Dark Husband

[115] False Gods/Order of Simplicity/Casualties of War/The Word Lord*

[120] The Magic Mousetrap

[121] Enemy of the Daleks

[122] The Angel of Scutari*

[139] Project: Destiny*

[140] A Death in the Family*

[141] Lurkers at Sunlight’s Edge

[149] Robophobia (side note: this is our introduction to Liv Chenka who is one of the Eighth Doctor’s main companions from Dark Eyes onwards).

[151] The Doomsday Quatrain

[152] House of Blue Fire*

[162] Protect and Survive*

[163] Black and White*

[164] Gods and Monsters*

[181] Afterlife*

[189] Revenge of the Swarm

[190] Mask of Tragedy

[191] Signs and Wonders

Also at some point before or after the Angel of Scutari you can listen to the following as they are standalone stories:

[226] Shadow Planet/World Apart

[245] Muse of Fire

[268] The Flying Dutchman/Displaced

The Klein Arc

An Arc featuring The Seventh Doctor and an original character, Klein - a woman from 1940s Germany. Set after the end of Classic Who.

[25] Colditz*

[130] A Thousand Tiny Wings

[131] Klein’s Story/Survival of the Fittest

[132] The Architects of History

[175] Persuasion

[176] Starlight Robbery

[177] Daleks Among Us

Klein is also involved in the final story of the Daniel trilogy which spans the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors.

Eighth Doctor:

The Charley Arc 1.0

The best Main Range arc in my opinion. If you listen to anything, listen to this. Featuring the Eighth Doctor and original companion Charley, with another original companion C’rizz in Part 2 of the arc.

Part 1:

[16] Storm Warning*

[17] Sword of Orion

[18] The Stones of Venice

[19] Minuet in Hell

[28] Invaders from Mars

[29] The Chimes of Midnight

[30] Seasons of Fear

[31] Embrace the Darkness

[32] The Time of the Daleks

[33] Neverland*

[50] Zagreus*

Part 2:

[52] Scherzo*

[53] The Creed of the Kromon* (TW for sexual assault in the Creed of the Kromon. Feel free to stop listening after episode one or just read the Tardis Wiki page for relevant plot info)

[54] The Natural History of Fear

[55] The Twilight Kingdom

[61] Faith Stealer

[62] The Last

[63] Caerdroia

[64] The Next Life*

[72] Terror Firma

[75] Scaredy Cat

[77] Other Lives

[80] Time Works

[83] Something Inside

[88] Memory Lane

[101] Absolution*

[103] The Girl Who Never Was*

The Mary Shelley arc

A short arc featuring the Eighth Doctor and Mary Shelley! Yes, that Mary Shelley.

[123d] Mary’s Story*

[153] The Silver Turk

[154] The Witch from the Well

[155] Army of Death

Multi-doctor arcs:

These are mostly trilogies featuring stories which Big Finish probably mostly intended to be listened to together.

The Forge trilogy

Relevant to the Evelyn and Hex arcs - best listened to in conjunction with the rest of their stories.

[23] Project: Twilight (Sixth Doctor)

[45] Project: Lazarus (Sixth Doctor/Seventh Doctor)

[139] Project: Destiny (Seventh Doctor)

The Villains Trilogy

[47] Omega (Fifth Doctor)

[48] Davros (Sixth Doctor)

[49] Master (Seventh Doctor)

The Harvest/TheReaping/The Gathering trilogy

^^^ I’m naming it that because the other name I’d give it would be a big spoiler lol (if you saw me forget the Harvest out of this no you didn’t)

[58] The Harvest (Seventh Doctor)

[86] The Reaping (Sixth Doctor)

[87] The Gathering (Fifth Doctor)

The Brewster Arc

Thomas Brewster is also vaguely relevant to the events of Stranded with the Eighth Doctor but it’s not really important.

[107] The Haunting of Thomas Brewster (Fifth Doctor)

[113] Time Reef/A Perfect World (Fifth Doctor)

[143] The Crimes of Thomas Brewster (Sixth Doctor)

[144] The Feast of Axos (Sixth Doctor)

[145] Industrial Evolution (Sixth Doctor)

The Sorsha trilogy

[165] The Burning Prince (Fifth Doctor)

[166] The Acheron Pulse (Sixth Doctor)

[167] The Shadow Heart (Seventh Doctor)

The 1963 trilogy

These don’t really have an overarching plot as far as I can remember, they were just released as part of the 50th anniversary.

[178] 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men (Fifth Doctor)

[179] 1963: The Space Race (Sixth Doctor)

[180] 1963: The Assassination Games (Seventh Doctor)

The Companions Trilogy

[198] The Defectors (Seventh Doctor)

[199] Last of the Cybermen (Sixth Doctor)

[200] The Secret History (Fifth Doctor)

The Master trilogy

[211] And You Will Obey Me (Fifth Doctor)

[212] Vampire of the Mind (Sixth Doctor)

[213] The Two Masters (Seventh Doctor)

The Daniel trilogy

[237] The Helliax Rift (Fifth Doctor)

[240] Hour of the Cybermen (Sixth Doctor)

[244] Warlock’s Cross (Seventh Doctor) (Klein is in this one if you want to listen to her arc beforehand)

Edit/addendum:

If you’re like me, you’ve maybe been intrigued by Main Range from seeing/hearing other fans talk about some of the excellent stories there are. Personally, when I am struggling getting through a series, it helps to have a specific story or episode to look forward to. As such, here are a few of my personal favourites from the above list that are definitely worth waiting for (at least in my humble opinion):

5th Doctor:

- Warzone/Conversion

6th Doctor:

- Jubilee

- Doctor Who and the Pirates

- Arrangements for War

7th Doctor:

- Afterlife

- Master

8th Doctor:

- Seasons of Fear

- Zagreus

- Scherzo

- The Natural History of Fear

[quijotine]

I binged all of Pantheon amd I have Thoughts.

ok first of all. w h a t t h e f u c k

this show was a mindfuck and like, you know it is because the premise is one of those jargon-heavy sci fis. but you STILL have NO IDEA how mindfuck-y it will get

that being said, I love the premise and the characters, but I feel like the execution kinda flopped.

Spoilers ahead.

I feel a show like Pantheon really lent itself to go buckwild with the animation, especially because you're dealing with digital realities and that sort of thing. In more skilled hands, this show would have been INSANE to watch. I just keep thinking like, what if someone like Fortiche or Science Saru had done this. Indie animation would have had better ideas on how to stick the landing than the standard, boring marvel-like animation.

Then, the story. I know it got canceled and props to the production team for hardly letting it show but my issue with it is in how it handled the characters throughout the show.

So, Pantheon's premise is that there is a company inventing technology to upload brains to the cloud. But there is a catch. They have to laser off your brain in order to do it, so you effectively die, but then you get to live forever digitally. The other catch is that your brain technically still behaves like a brain and it degenerates, making you worse than mortal because as a computer, your brain wears off faster and you end up like a braindead lump for the rest of eternity. So there's this wild goose chase to figure out how perfect the method to save the people that have been uploaded so far, and avoid the apocalypse of these uploaded people suddenly having enough power to end humanity because they're like more powerful than AI or anything ever invented. And at the center of this, there are Maddie and Caspian, two prodigy teenagers. One is the daughter of the second-ever uploaded person who everyone thought was dead. The second is the actual fucking clone of the guy who invented the technology and is now dead/frozen in criogenesis(who is one of the big bads of the show) and was birthed specifically to finish the bad guy's life work.

The premise is super good but the problem is that the show takes itself too seriously.

Off the bat, the tone of the show is too serious without it needing it to be. It hits you with all this jargon instead of easing you into it. It tries too hard to leave the impression it is an intelligent show—and it is, it's just that it does a lot of telling and not a lot of showing at the beginning.

It also tries very hard to catch you off guard with the plot twists when you can smell them MILES away because of how obvious the context clues are and this makes the pacing be slow and even boring at times. But this is mostly an issue in the first season.

The second season's problem is that it has to rush to tie up what looks like four seasons worth of content in 8 episodes, so for a show that was already plot-dense, this leaves absolutely no breathing room for the characters.

Everything is justified by the plot and the moral dilemma it tries to present. The characters, especially Maddie and her mother, and then later on Caspian and Maddie, are vehicles for this dilemma but without tying them believably to realistic human motivation. You could basically plug in any other person and you would wound up in the same situation because they are just that, vehicles that take a guess on how anyone would react without giving them individuality.

Like pretty messed up shit keeps happening to Maddie and Caspian all the fucking time but you don't have time to process it because these poor kids are always pushed to the next event in the plot and their emotions come off as "this messed up thing happened, this is how a person in this situation should feel. you get three seconds before becoming a plot device again, chop chop". There is not one single moment of introspection or buckling under the pressure.

Which brings me to my biggest issue: The romance between Maddie and Caspian.

There was ONE, maybe two moments in all of season 1, where you could tell that these kids would prob end up together. One. And when I tell you that it happens out of nowhere in S2, it truly happens out of nowhere. Like, there were so many opportunities prior to them "confessing" their feelings to each other to build the rapport, and it just doesn't happen. Caspian and Maddie are constantly at opposite ends of a moral spectrum, but when they clash, the show tends to ignore the fact that have feelings for each other. There is not enough interpersonal conflict and this is a pity because the characters themselves have the potential to be wonderfully contradictory and flawed but they're just vehicles for the dilemma.

It is also a pity because of the way the show ends. Especially because of how the show ends. The satisfaction of the end hinged on the relationship between Maddie and Caspian, which is not well executed because other than a few "tell-not-show" scenes, you can hardly tell they're in love. So the ending, while mindfucking and really cool, is simply not as satisfactory as it could have been. It's not a "in all the worlds, in all the timelines, only you could show me this" moment, when that's actually what it's trying to sell you.

All in all, I do still recommend it because it's a very brainy show and the characters still do have a moment or two that make them endearing. The ending is buckwild, and it is worth a watch.

That being said, I know that the show is based on "The Hidden Girl and Other Stories," but the show actually fleshes things out more than the short stories.

Anyway, I hope this show eventually gets more traction so that I can have my fill of character-driven conflict on AO3 lol.

[wordsandrobots]

All right then.

I've finished watching Fang of the Sun: Dougram. And the first thing I will say is that for 75 episodes, it makes a very good attempt at justifying its run-time. There's a sense of things steadily ramping up over the course of the first twenty-odd episodes, helped immensely by the framing device of knowing the titular mecha is going to wind up burnt out in a desert somehow (it's literally the opening shot of the show). Things do flounder a bit halfway through, yes, but somewhat less than you'd think. The show keeps coming up with new developments and overall has the feel of a particularly long, rather old-fashioned sci-fi war novel that is committed enough to what it's doing to earn trust for the time investment.

Your mileage on that, however, will vary considerably with how you feel about the plot and specifically whether you actually want characterisation with it. But more on that later because the first thing I absolutely have to talk about is the mecha design.

Fang of the Sun is, I believe, the second series to fall into the 'real robot' category, following the original 1979 Gundam. Coming out in 1981 and with mechanical design also carried out by Kunio Okawara, it self-consciously sheds some of the more 'super robot' styling of Gundam. The 'combat armours' of this show have aircraft-like cockpits in place of heads, are carried about by heavy-duty helicopters or flat-bed trucks rather than flying aircraft carriers, and there are no space-battles to be seen. Everything is strictly terrestrial, with events mostly transpiring on the twin-sunned colony world of Deloyer. We are in capital-G Grounded territory this time around, with the combat armours really being the sole sci-fi excess in battles populated by normal tanks and 'Duey' attack helicopters.

And with the greatest respect for 'hard sci fi' as a tradition, I find this somewhat silly. Not because it doesn't work on its own terms, but because this is presented alongside faster-than-light wormhole travel that makes interplanetary hops equivalent to intercontinental commercial flight. While the mechanics are trying very hard to look like they belong alongside proper Airfix kits, the science is softer than Gundam in all respects save the actual psychic powers (Fang of the Sun does not indulge).

Furthermore, Deloyer is pretty much just Earth with an extra sun in the sky. There's no effort made to make it visibly alien, regardless of the multiple biomes the protagonists travels through. It's presumably been terraformed as part of the colonisation process, but exactly when and how that took place is irrelevant. There is some justification for setting events on an alien world rather than on Earth, as we learn Deloyer is supplying resources to a depleted homeworld and is positioned to allow colonisation of three further planets. However, for the most part, you'd be forgiven for thinking there was no need to place the action in another solar system. Since the wormhole traversal is done station to station, we don't even get any particularly memorable space sequences.

Thus, when the the mecha are mostly literally Gundam-style robot suits without faces, it does rather feel that the visible attempt at a more grounded approach is fighting with other parts of the set-up. And that kind of sums up my overall feelings towards this series. In some respects it is extremely strong. But I came away with the impression what the creators thought was really interesting didn't quite align with the framework they were working within.

(Cut for spoilers.)

Fang of the Sun tells the story of the Deloyer independence movement, creators of Dougram, from their beginning as a scattered guerrilla groups, through a back-firing attempt to neutralise them by the ruling Earth Federation, to the formation of a united army and the establishment of a true, self-governing state, and the ultimate betrayal of the movement by its less radical elements. In terms of this narrative, I have very few complaints to make, save perhaps that it is, from my perspective, not especially original. It is ambitious though, as it attempts to thoroughly chronicle the main beats of a year-long epic. I won't say it always succeeds in this; there are one too many 'and then the narrator bridges the gap most conveniently' moments. But as I said above, it's got a good handle on set-up and pay-off, as characters come in, establish themselves, and then disappear for a while only to return when it makes sense.

I will also give it props for how it renders political manoeuvring, with a roster of high-level characters including Federation Council Chairman Donan Cashim, puppet Deloyan representative Colonel Von Stein, dissident leader Professor Samalin, and most especially Donan's scheming secretary Helmut J Lecoque, the show's main antagonist, who engineers a rapid rise to power as his employer's health fails. The way these men drive the plot and have the consequences land upon them is very satisfyingly handled. Lecoque managing to come out supreme by the final few episodes, in control of a supposedly liberated Deloyer after engineering everyone else's downfall, only to be shot to death at the last minute by the traitorous sell-out he'd been using to play each side against the other is positively Shakespearian. And satisfying. So very satisfying. You would not believe how eminently punchable this man is. He practically leaves a slime trail everywhere he goes.

But that's only half the story. Or it should be, seeing as the characters we are actually supposed to be following are the 'Fang of the Sun': Donan's rebellious son Crinn and the Deloyan gang he falls in with after accidentally leading the Federation to the secret hangar where Dougram was being constructed. So what about them?

Well. Yes. What about them? You see, this is my big criticism of this show. It doesn't seem to care very much about its protagonists. Oh, they're there throughout, fighting battles, getting into scrapes, having amusing bits, and generally fulfilling the need for a mecha anime to have a bunch of explosions every episode. Yet I can't really say that they develop or grow or change over the course of events. They're stock characters in every way that matters. We've the daring leader, the teen hero, the big guy, the kid, the nerd, the blow-hard, the weirdo and the woman. And if that is doing Canary a bit of a disservice, it's only because she gets to be the most all-in for the fight a couple of times, because the Federation killed her brother.

Crinn Cashim is particularly egregious, giving a passionate final episode speech about how much Dougram means to him after everything when he has largely failed to display any real emotion that isn't 1) rushing blindly into danger, 2) staring into the distance and 3) screaming in agony as he is hit by enemy fire for the bazzillionth time. Seriously, they only stop the arrrgh!/urrrgh!/oooogh! reaction shots around episode 73. Up to then, you'd be forgiven for wondering why the hell the dimwit isn't used to it by now, given Dougram seems to have all the evasive ability of a barn. Lucky it's got Gundanium really good armour, isn't it?

And I've just realised: there's a half-hearted plot-point early on about how Deloyer is passing through an 'X-nebula' that is screwing up electronics and long-range comms -- basically Minovsky particles only always on. One of Dougram's key features is being 'X-nebula-proof', whatever *that* means. But I think they just drop that completely after a while? They certainly stop mentioning it, reasonably so since it has virtually no bearing on the plot beyond a couple of 'woo woo we can't use radar' moments.

Anyway, lest you be tempted to blame Crinn's inexpressiveness on the animation, which is purely serviceable on most levels except the quite good storyboarding, I should point out that Crinn is also one half of the central romance of the show; a romance that consists of his cousin following him from region to region so she can occasionally show up and shout 'Crinn!!!' at him while he gawps and yells 'Daisy!!!' back. It's truly pathetic fare, empty of any real content. Daisy is a limp lettuce who gets to traipse around, partaking of a roster of service roles as befits beautiful young lady in this kind of thing. She makes Mirai Yashima look like a masterclass in nuanced character growth.

Indeed I can't help but compare this to Gundam 79 and it can't help but come up horribly short. The places the narrative sings are when it is focusing on the political, command, and high-society levels of the conflict. The rest is just there because I suppose it had to be. Putting Crinn next to Amuro Ray is a hilarious downgrade, and I don't even particularly like Amuro Ray as a character! Crinn a void, there to do Stock Hero Stuff and not one iota more, surrounded by the sketches of good characters and a plot that is honestly carrying itself along fine without him nine-tenths of the time.

Oh, and? That opening shot of Dougram destroyed, with the strong implication Canary is the only survivor, mourning her lost comrades? Pffft. Nah. Totally not what happened. Yes, one of the gang does die early on (in a very contrived accident involving an exposed rivet snagging the pin of a grenade while its bouncing around inside a motorcycle side-car, no I am not kidding), but he is almost immediately replaced with a near-identical (IN UNIVERSE!) replacement. Thereafter, everyone in the title sequence has their plot armour on.

Well, except Rita. Oh gods, Rita. The 'fun' revolutionary ditz who joins for the middle arc, who is revealed to have a secret origin involving the traitorous sell-out, Destin, and thus tricked into betraying the gang, then shot dead to give everyone else feelings for a couple of episodes after which she is never mentioned again.

Yeah, this show is sexist in very typical and uninteresting ways and that's only not a big deal because there are precisely three female characters of any note (three and a half counting Nurse Dalloway, who I will concede does get to be awesome for a moment).

What else should I say while I'm, burying it? Right. Very few of these characters have any backstory to explain why they are where they are and doing what they are doing. Gang leader Rocky and Canary get a bit, as do Crinn and Daisy, and of course Rita, but it's almost laughable how flat everybody else is. I kid you not, we get some set-up that disgruntled Federation officer Zalstev and roving Che Guevara-alike J Locke have a history together and when the time comes to reveal it, we are treated to a three second slide-show going 'oh, yeah, these dudes are like mortal enemies who've been fighting for years which is why J Locke is going to bring Zalstev into the rebellion now he's gotten fed up with his superiors getting in the way of him bringing down Dougram'. It's comically half-baked. We never even find out the remotest thing about J Locke himself or why he's leading the GI Joe branch of the liberation movement. He just springs out of nowhere to be all cool and effective and then toddles off until he's needed again.

What a guy.

I'm being harsher on this show than I want to be. It is gloriously cynical in its approach, despite its toothlessness, but never without extra wrinkles. There's a lot of cowardice and regret on the part of the factions selling out or doing underhanded things, such that some tension is retained over how far exactly they will go to save their skins. Some of the stuff with Lecoque in particular is a great study in ambition and resentment. And roving journalist Lertoff is a hoot, particularly when he gets to spar with the people in positions of power.

I just wish he'd been integrated better as a way of telling the story. Which -- yeah, that's it. For all that Fang of the Sun does well, there's a checklist of elements just flapping around loose inside the walls of the actual story, never cohering in more than a lip-service sense.

[mirror-imaged]

it's my niche microblogging platform and i get to talk about being frustrated with ai nirvana initiative again. heavy spoilers under the readmore for both aitsf games and zero escape. (i know i already did this i think i just have different points and feelings i'd like to articulate? in addition to the ones you can find here if you'd like to read them. this post is kind of... a sequel! crazy.)

i've had time to sit on aini, and the more i think about it the more upset i feel. i really REALLY liked the original aitsf, like, really obviously so. the character writing in that game all felt like it was in service of a greater narrative that - while it contains some issues - is one of the most memorable games i've experienced in the past decade. i honestly think it's my second favorite of uchikoshi's entire game library, right behind the original ds version of 999. the story is really interesting, it contains some super fascinating themes relating to the human mind and personhood, the complexities of family, and identity. uchikoshi's titles all feel like they're kind of put together out of the same building blocks mixed and matched, along with being utilized in different ways. the unique characters and settings really make them stand out as individually enjoyable stories, even if they share a lot of lifeblood. like, i notice parallels between titles of his i've already played that seem at first glance to have really similar stories if you read a plot summary, but the experience of sitting down to play them makes all the difference.

(side tangent here, but like, seriously. dastardly old man with deep personal connection and involvement in an event that happened X number of years ago - bonus points if it's a multiple of 3 - weaving together the lives of the main cast? uniquely preventable tragedy all in service of someone's greed? autistic weirdgirls with deep personal baggage? bodyswapping and mindfuckery outside of the range of the genre's conventions? anyway!)

i feel like so much of what came out of aini's story is really counterproductive to the point of the original game. in my original post, i compared a lot of it to virtue's last reward and the things i found particularly disappointing in that title, which i still stand by to a degree. i think some of the feelings i had about it overlap, for instance when i first played VLR i actually really disliked it. i was extremely upset with the way it treated the canon of a game i'd formed a deeply personal emotional attachment to, but my feelings have changed over time. it's a game i like conceptually and as a total product more than i like the actual experience of playing through it again. part of that emotional response is felt in aini as well, where i was so emotionally attached to specifically date, mizuki, and aiba that the fact that the story went in the direction of kicking date out of mizuki's life for another six years crushed me. not in a good or tragically heartbreaking way, kind of just in an irreverent way. i had really wanted to see mizuki and date happy in a way that worked with the story of the original game, with the conclusion it ended on.

partially, i think i needed to take a step back and let my emotions subside before i could start critically analyzing the bits and pieces there. that was what i'd needed before i started to enjoy VLR more, in fact. but still, there are so many parts of aini that feel unfulfilled to me and like they needed more time in the oven. i think my mutual cosmicpines put it best in the comments on my original post, actually:

"The plot twist isn't even not foreshadowed. It's just the game erodes away so much of your trust in the writing that you don't think the hints are hints. Why does Hitomi say she hasn't seen Date in years? Why does Mizuki not have more of a reaction to her parentage or to Date? Why does Boss absolutely lay it into Ryuki for not that big of a fuck up? All of that is supposed to be hints, but they all just feel like sloppy writing."

thank you to her for that, i hope it's okay for me to quote it in this. i'm really sorry to essentially be using this post as my game journalism career i'll never get to have because i'm going into psychology and am not seeking a career as a writer, i'm just autistic and love mystery media, but some of the stuff they pull in the story doesn't work for me at all. the writing feels disjointed, and i think part of what's upsetting is that yes, it is supposed to feel disjointed. but the fact that it is supposed to feel that way doesn't make the end result make sense, it makes it feel like it's pulling out excuses. with 999 and the original aitsf, there were these beautiful moments where i felt everything slotting into place as i made connections in my mind. there's this buildup that's absolutely palpable in the atmosphere and story's stakes, and when everything clicked it felt like a switch was flipped in my brain. aini doesn't have that 'eureka!' moment for me, it felt like a slow burn that kind of fizzled out at the end. and i played it over the course of about one week, too, so that's not on my dreadful schedules.

that doesn't even address specifics in the story. i've already been upset about the use of the prototype psync machine while also disregarding the thing that made it unique to the story in the first place (again, the word irreverence comes to mind...) but i'd also like to really stress something else that i've come to become more upset about in time: mizuki. in my original post, i'd felt that mizuki had been severely shafted by the writing and this huge loss of time in between the events at the cathedral and the present day. that doesn't account for the fact that she's splitting time with bibi, who is virtually an indistinguishable character from her. i want to reference another aitsf post about mizuki found here made by jackass-jones and their tags.

part of what is so impactful about mizuki and date's relationship in the wider context of the story's themes surrounding family is that, as they put it, the okiuras are what is considered "normal" by society at large. they are a 'biological,' 'heterosexual,' wealthy, (previously) married family. the purpose behind that in the first game is clearly that they are extremely dysfunctional, so it's showing that the norm isn't necessarily what's best for kids. now, this is called into question in multiple ways throughout the initial game (they get divorced, renju begins a new relationship that is NOT heterosexual, et cetera) so there's precedent for maybe using the fact that mizuki was adopted by them in a way that slots into that analysis. however, that's clearly not what the intent was in the original game, so it doesn't work at all and comes across as an obvious retcon. mizuki being taken in by date is very clearly framed as BOTH of them learning to understand that family can be more than just blood, because neither of them have ever known anything else. part of the reason this reads as the intention to me is also that most of the relationships in aitsf that ARE bound by blood are at least somewhat dysfunctional! saito and so, so and iris, manaka and iris, renju, shoko, and mizuki, moma and rohan, mayumi and ota, et cetera! the relationships in the story that come across as the most caring are born of circumstance, like iris and hitomi along with mizuki and date.

mizuki in aini being adopted is, moving past that, fine i guess, but bibi being directly her clone kind of throws a wrench into this entire central theme of the original story. it's upsetting to me. mizuki never gets to explore her own feelings about the fact that her foster father, somebody she clearly loves and cares about, just... disappeared for six years after she finally had stability. it feels like a big fuck-you to the audience who cared so deeply about their familial bond in the original story. there's even a way this kind of misery from fate can be done interestingly, and i think VLR does it better. when i was originally upset by the story's shattering of my view of 999, it was largely centered around akane and junpei's relationship. however, able to look back and read it from a thematic lens, it works much better for me. akane kurashiki is somebody who has spent her entire life suffering. she has never known anything but working toward an end goal greater than herself, because she has been cursed with a power that gives her knowledge greater than any one human should possess. it makes so much sense that by the end of VLR chronologically, she has become somebody who continues to dedicate her life to something greater than herself. it makes me wonder if she feels selfish for dedicating so much time and hurt from both herself and others to something like saving her own life. and with that, tenmyouji has become somebody who has spent forever chasing this image of her he's created in his head; unable to see her after years and years, he can only remember her based on the two brief periods of their lives they'd spent together. their relationship means a lot to me, it's one of the most interesting dynamics i've seen put forth in a story.

aini doesn't do that. aini sidelines mizuki in what was supposed to be her own story. hell, it even sidelines ryuki, who gets the most screentime out of every main cast member. i like ryuki! i think he's great! it's just that outside of his route, you kind of... barely see him. i don't particularly mind the way the story has ambitions of using him as an unreliable narrator based on his own wonky perception of time, in fact i think it could be used really well if they'd done it better. but they don't! so i continue to be frustrated about it! i wish mizuki and ryuki got to have a relationship on-screen, especially considering the way that plays into her not getting allowed to process her feelings about losing date. he is partially responsible for what happened, and i don't know, i wish she got to feel some kind of way about that! even if it was unjustified anger, that would at least make some amount of sense? mizuki and date have always been bad at communicating directly with each other, even if they do both really care about each other. even so, mizuki has been shown to have big feelings! she hides them from people because her mother literally physically abused her when she showed them, but that doesn't change that she does! mizuki getting aiba as a partner was really interesting to me, not just because they both had a preexisting relationship with date, but also because they had great chemistry as a working pair. but there, in my eyes based on this decision, is another place where the story just fumbles so spectacularly this extremely easy opportunity to have interesting character dynamics due to that no-spoiler rule. aiba has been updated with counseling software in the literal UI of the game. this makes sense for ryuki and tama, but with mizuki and aiba it is just a huge chance for them to have mizuki open up to aiba - someone who also knows date very well - about her emotions related to his disappearance! it would make sense with the mechanics they literally added onto this game separate from the first one! but they didn't!

i don't know how to wrap up this post. i've already written... uh... well, 1.5k words in the last post, and currently over 2k words in this one. this is longer than some of my college essays. this is longer than some of the fanfiction i have written, and honestly it is kind of fanfic about a game i wish aini could have been. thank you for reading if you have! i know this is extremely long, so massive props once again to both of the people who i've mentioned that have made me think lots about this game. i hope i make any amount of sense and am not just babbling into the void, because truly, a lot of these ideas are things i've said out loud to myself in the shower.

[hampink]

Kingohger G Rosso Show #3 Summary (1/2/24 & 1/3/24)

i went to see the g rosso show with @valentinezlove! recap/summary on the whole show + my thoughts below~ ❤️🤍 (warning: spoilers, really long)

SPOILERS AHEAD for basically the whole plot of the g rosso show (though i left some stuff out) i believe this show is going to be livestreamed at some point so pls be aware if you're going to watch that and don't wanna be spoiled!

also, despite seeing this show TWICE i am so bad at remembering things and get distracted way too easily. i left out details and scenes im not confident in my memory abt😭 also this recap is a personal account so its probably jeramie heavy and there Will be giramie ramblings from my annoying ass

THE SHOW

the show starts with kamejim scheming evilly, as kamejim does. he calls forth grodie (!) to do his thing, and he appears as a recording on the big screen. grodie begrudgingly brings some dead sanagims back to life and he's like “ok go crazy/好きにして” and then kamejim orders them to go forth and destroy humanity/the whole planet. the sanagim are about to attack the audience on the front row when suddenly we hear giras WAHAHAHA and the five kings, gira, himeno, yanma, rita and kaguragi descend onto the stage!!

cue really epic fight

at this point i was like ah i see i guess jeramies coming in the middle of the show… but then NUH UH. SUDDENLY RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES A SPIDER DROPS DOWN FROM THE CEILING ON HIS WEB IN THE AUDIENCE!!

the first time we saw the show on the yan/hime/gira day, our seats were a bit further back so when jeramie came down it was in a perfectly clear view in front of us!!! i SRSLY GOT JUMPSCARED I THOUGHT I HAD A HEART ATTACKK on the 3rd we were sitting really close to the front so i kept looking behind us in anticipation when i knew jeramie was going to make his appearance eheehe..

also when jeramie appeared he said “otto! dont forget about me!” and gira was the first to go “jeramie! you came!” 🥺

anyway they finish beating up the zombie sanagims and kamejims all like fufufufu i am cooking up an evil evil plan to destroy this planet Best Beware u silly kings and then disappears

after the fight the kings convene and discuss what they should do abt kamejim and the new super villain threat that is the galactinsect king and the jesters. but how could they ever beat them? what power is possibly strong enough?? wherever will we find a source of such power?

suddenly kaguragi goes aha! and he begins to recount to everyone an old myth he’s heard about a village back in toufu

apparently theres a 2000 yr old legend that a comet once fell near a village and it left behind an object the village ppl called the "star drop" (星の雫), which looks like a magical orb

the village ppl have kept the star drop for generations and legend has it that the orb has mysterious powers to grant anyone a wish, perhaps we can use it to defeat kamejim

upon hearing the wish part the kings all go WHAT!! and lean in with interest except gira who doesnt react and just kinda stands there (he doesnt seem that interested …?)

the spotlight goes onto yanma and we hear him monologuing abt how he wants to use the wish to make his super computer (i think its hilarious he never gives up on this)

the spotlights goes on himeno and she says she wants a cure all that can cure any wound (🥺)

the spotlights on rita and they wish for a super deluxe limited edition something something moffun 

the spotlights on jeramie and he says, in a very dramatic voice, この2000年生きる語り部が知らない伝説なんて、気に入らない、気に入らないぞ！💀 (a myth that I, this 2000 yr old storyteller has never heard of? i don't like that!)

we dont get to see what gira thinks regarding his wish 0_0 and technically jeramie too bc THAT WASNT A WISH KHGDDDH and also kaguragi because obviously we can never look into his mind hes sussy! (more on dat later tho….)

unbeknownst to the kings, kamejim was hiding and listening in to their conversation the whole time. an orb that can grant any wish…? interesting…

cut to the team arriving at the secluded, very hidden away village. its full of old looking tombs and temples overgrown with vines and such

suddenly from the audience a bunch of people come in parading one of those long dragon puppets and doing a festival-like chant. apparently this dragon is a symbol of the village spirit/guardian born from the comet myth. i think???? i cant remember this part really well because Both times i saw the show i was ALWAYS distracted by gira playing with the dragon really cutely in the background (he’d ruffle its hair or pat its head and the actor would hit gira on his head not to touch it and he would bow in apology😭 🙏)

also upon arriving the village jeramie says "in all my 2000 yrs of living, even i never knew about this place" (i love how they bring up his thousands of years wandering as a cryptid and how much he loves chikyuu and knows it so well,,)

they meet the village elder, whom kaguragi greets but instead of welcoming his king the elder yells at all of them to go home, you shouldnt be here and theres no such thing as the star drop here!! leave us be!! the myth that theres a power that grants wishes here is just that, a myth!

and the teams like zamnnn so we went all the way out here for nothing…? yanmas like kaguragi im gonna beat the shit out of u and in the end everyones like Welp i guess we should go home and everyone except jera start to exit the stage. gira is like wait guys are u sure!?! and watches them go off one by one. in the end jeramies like come on now and either drags gira away or on the show i saw on jan 2nd he casually gently pushes gira on the chest (?) WOULD BE BETTER IF I DREW IT TO EXPLAIN BUT IT WAS CUTE😭)

and then jeramie leaves the stage too but then a few seconds later he walks backward and reappears from the curtain and goes な~んてね (just kidding/as if)

he says “honestly, those kings really cant read between the lines huh? this village is obviously hiding something they dont want us to know”

and so jeramie alone walks in the other direction and leaves to the right of the stage

~the middle of the night~

the village elder is sneaking about, two other village men join him, theyre all whispering very discreetly

the elder is like “are they gone yet?”

“sir yessir theyve gone.”

elder says smth like “good! we cant let any of them get their hands on the village treasure that weve guarded for generations''

the elder decides to go to the tomb to ensure the star drop is safe

cut to jeramie sneaking around trying to find where theyre keeping this dang orb. while he’s looking for it he suddenly hears footsteps, turns out its yanma and himeno who ALSO came back to sneakily look for the orb themselves , jeramies like oh crap seems like theyve caught on as well, he goes to hide behind a platform and this part is absolutely ridiculous like whats wronggg w him tbh

like at first when jeramie goes to hide he lies on his side and had his whole one leg up before belatedly putting it down. yanma and himeno are fighting above him and each time they get closer jeramie would flinch dramatically and at some point hes just striking different poses 😭😭😭 also the one i saw on january 3rd when yanma and himeno get way too close to jeramie, yanmas actor accidentally hits jeramie with his sword probably bc he didnt know what improvised pose he’d be in lol…

we cut back to the elder at the tomb, he says some spell in an unknown language and the tomb opens up and reveals the orb (sitting on a pedestal) he goes to take it but doesnt realize that rita was standing there the whole time

the elders like “what are u doing here!!” rita says something abt how they can tell when ppl are guilty of hiding something/lying 👁👁

then suddenly gira waltzes in and is all like “wooow the stars are so pretty…. wait rita? and elder? hi!! man the stars are just so pretty out here i that i got lost wandering around, can u show me the way back? wait a minute whats that youre holding? :0” (note: GIRA WHO LOVES STARGAZING REALLLL)

elders like NONE OF U CAN HAVE IT!! BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN IF THIS FALLS INTO THE WRONG HANDS! 

ritas like anyway whatever give me that orb, and lunges at the elder to grab it

at this point himeno and yanma arrive to the scene and himenos like that orb is MINE!! and they all fight over it 

rita ends up getting it and IMMEDIATELY they wish for “moffuns warmth” and then moffun actually appears fr on stage 😭😭 while rita is busy going crazy over moffun and hugging it the elder chants another incantation which appears to have reversed the wish and moffun goes away.  yanma gets a hold of the orb next but right at that moment jeramie swings by on a cord and snatches it from him!! 

jeramie lands on the ground, orb in hand all pleased with himself but then.. someone sneaks up from the shadows behind him and its kaguragi!!! and he has his sword to jeramies neck while hes backed against a wall and jeramie goes otto~ (it was sexy as hell tbh)

so kaguragi has the orb now and hes like “so it seems the myth is true. thank you everyone for confirming this for me”

everyones like kaguragi... could it be…? u were just using us to get the star drop yourself this whole time!!!??

and kaguragis like maa maa dont worry abt it (FORGETTING A LOT OF DETAILS HERE but something abt how if a village in his country has been keeping an object so powerful it only makes sense it should be in his hands or something , maybe?)

but anyway no one wins this round because THEN suddenly kamejim appears and takes the hot potato orb from kaguragi 

and hes like ufufufu and then uses the star drop to make his super evil plan to destroy the planet come true, and when he says his wish suddenly the orb starts going crazy with an immense dark force , its glowing purple and its all crackly like a thunderstorm is inside it, the ground shakes and everything around them starts falling apart

the elders like nooooo and tries to take the orb back but kamejim flings him away and the elder is knocked unconscious

in the end, gira manages to get a hold of the star drop but he struggles to keep it still in his hands bc of the wild dark energy, gira tries to repeat the incantation he heard the elder say earlier but it isnt working, then gira is like “i have no other choice!” and it looks like gira holds the orb close to his chest and the stage goes dark as he screams and then a few moments later he reemerges as…… ~Dark Gira~ 

Gira is silent for a moment but then he growls in a rlly low voice “i am the tyrant king… and i will destroy this planet!”  and starts blindly attacking everyone

evil gira doesnt do the classic evil laugh at all… hes eerily silent and mostly growls and groans a lot. he moves creepily like hes possessed, sometimes he crouches rlly low as if hes on all fours like a wild beast, he pounces on kaguragi and pins him to the ground like a predator 😱 (it was scarYyyy). his evil voice is also super super deep (huge win for the actual!evil tyrant gira enthusiasts…)

everyones like gira whats wrong with you!! gira snap out of it!! dont you recognize us?!?! but it seems gira has completely taken in the dark energy of the orb into himself

giras so powerful in this state that he defeats all the other kings. jeramie was the last to try and fight gira and smth ppl pointed out that Indeed i noticed was true on my rewatch is that evil gira mercilessly went for jeramies bugnarak arm 😭(AAAA)

in the end everyone can only lay defeated on the ground. jeramies dramatic ass says “ah, is this how the story ends? what a tragedy..” 

the curtain slowly closes on evil gira standing alone center stage as he once again yells “i will destroy this world…!”

later, kaguragi, yanma, and rita gather together to reassess their plan. himeno joins in late, she just got done treating the elders wounds. he should be fine, and jeramie is looking after him now.

(note: i was internally screaming at this. ever since ep 42 when himeno was taking a look at injured racles and went “jeramie” and jeramie immediately knew to Web up his wounds i was like oh… theyve done this before. himeno and jeramie have been spending time tgt treating ppl/himeno has been teaching jeramie things and vice versa OOUGH MY BELOVED HIMENO AND JERAMIE FRIENDSHIP. JERAMIE NURSE IN TRAINING REAL) (also fuel for my 1677282 different headcanons regarding jeramie and how he deals with his own injuries... himeno getting mad at this 2000 yr old spider w 2000 yr old habits and teaching him how to take care of himself..)

rita is like no wonder the village ppl guarded the star drop so fiercely… 

its a great, dangerous power that no one person should wield..

ah… so the myth is actually a burden/responsibility kaguragi let his ppl carry for 2000 yrs…. kaguragi wanted to help his own ppl, not selfishly use the wish for himself..

yanma deduces that the orb takes on the intense feelings of whoever makes a wish, and to cancel out the dark energy in gira right now, they need a feeling thats more powerful than That

but what?? from where and how?? 

then suddenly, evil gira reappears, still possessed by the dark energy

himenos like i know!! surely his feelings for us kings/our memories together as his friends are stronger!!

(the kings look at the audience)

OF COURSE!! we’ll use the power of everyones emotions here!! everyone, lend us your help, at the count of three, everybody shout gira’s name!!

whenever the audience shouted giraaaa, he gets hit with a sparkly effect, its working!! yanma goes hypeman cheerleader mode and is like CMON IS THAT ALL YOUVE GOT!! SAY IT LOUDERR

and we shout gira a couple times and finally we shout the incantation (it was rlly cute and sweet sobs)

a transition, gira is back to normal. the orb is also back in one piece

jeramie conveniently comes in after the whole thing all “ah, is gira back to normal already?” 💀💀 tuxedo man meme ass…

anyway now that they have the star drop again hot potato is BACK on and they fight kamejim for it one final time.

gira chases after kamejim and theres a funny bit during the chase where kamejim goes into the audience and gives the orb to one of the audience members and hes like “that persons holding it” and giras like oh sorry excuse me! could u please give me that orb? KHAHSHSJSN

then FINALLY once they got the orb back, they manage to actually destroy it for real so that smth like this never happens again. and thus the kings save the village from ruin! the elder is thankful to kaguragi and the others for saving them but ah… now this village no longer has a legend of its own. but then jeramie says “but we have rewritten it by creating a new legend! the story of the six heroes who saved this village!” our 思い (feelings) will be a new legend~

jeramie has this long winded ass curtain closing speech, going on abt probably the power of friendship and 思い and stories that we have to 心に刻まないとね♡ (carve it into our hearts) . i didnt see it on the show i saw but yes, this is where the infamous giramie hug happened :') the one i saw on the 2nd, jeramie said this while putting his hand on giras shoulder and leaning into him, on the 3rd he put a hand to his heart and looked into giras eyes…or visor. he titled his head all cutely and shit too ARGGGHH

and of course jeramie finishes the entire show by going …とさっ♡ (or so the story goes) and since gira and jeramie are standing next to each other center stage the curtain frames the both of them right before the show ends... aaa...

END!

G ROSSO WAS SO GOOD AND FUN AND CUTE, HIGHLY RECOMMEND! if you can, def tune into the livestream theyre doing at some point which is gonna feature the non suit actors in the show!!!

thanks again @valentinezlove for going to see both days w me~ because these days had the special stage greeting from the actors (and thats a WHOLE NOTHER THING IVE MADE SEPARATE POSTS ABOUT), there was no after show handshake with the suit actors but i still got to shake kuwagata-ohgers hand walking into the venue ;7; i will never emotionally recover...

(also i pulled jeramies trading card twice thank you shugods for looking out for me ahsjkd!!!)

[electronickingdomfox]

"Dreadnought!" review

Novel from 1986, by Diane Carey. There have been other books before this one, that focus on original characters instead of the usual crew. But those characters tended to be either a "lady of the week" or a scientist, on the same level as Kirk and the others. For the first time, this story presents the viewpoint of the underdogs: a group of junior officers that look up in awe (and sometimes amused) at their superior officers from the Enterprise. And it's a refreshing change of perspective.

The protagonist, and first-person narrator, is Lieutenant Piper, just transferred to the Enterprise from the Academy. She gets accidentally involved in a plot to steal a new Starfleet super-ship, and avoid a coup d'état, and needs to hone her commanding skills against the clock. Her friends include Sarda, a Vulcan who's initially hostile to her due to a past grievance, Merete (a medical student) and Scanner (a technician, with a southern accent I think). Together, they form some kind of lesser-scale triumvirate, with Piper being clearly a younger, inexperienced version of Kirk; Sarda being an emotionally immature Spock; and Merete and Scanner forming together the McCoy (including Scanner bothering Sarda with his constant touching and emotionalism). They aren't carbon copies of the originals, though, and have their own dynamics and conflicts. Piper is a fun, relatable protagonist, and some of her remarks are pretty hilarious. I don't understand why so many reviews label her as a "Mary Sue". She isn't anything like that, and very often shows insecurity, or is a bit clumsy. It's just that she has good potential as a leader, the ability to improvise and follow her intuition in seemingly desperate situations, and a bit of luck on her part. That's just literally Kirk! Including her tendency to body slam on security guards.

Leaving aside the characters, the novel expands on some types of ships (the dreadnought and destroyers), that up to this point had only appeared in technical manuals, or as very brief mentions in the movies. It also presents a less-than-flattering view of Starfleet, at least in substantial sections of the top brass. And it's neat that the book includes an organigram of Starfleet and some drawings of scout ships. Another thing that was elaborated on are the Eugenic Wars from the 90's, here blamed on the ascent of communist dictatorships all over the world (after all, this novel was published before the fall of the Berlin Wall).

Overall, it's a fairly good book with likable characters, and the portrait of Kirk and co., as seen from outsiders' eyes, is actually more spot-on than that of many other novels. Besides, it includes one of the most exciting ship battles to ever grace the pages of these TOS books.

Some spoilers under the cut:

Lieutenant Piper impresses Kirk at the Academy, by almost beating the Kobayashi Maru test through some unorthodox tactics, and he request her to join the Enterprise crew. There she meets her new roomates: Merete, Scanner and Sarda. The latter is a Vulcan who's currently struggling to reach Kolinahr, and at first doesn't want to even talk with Piper. It seems that she made a serious blunder at the Academy, recommending Sarda for his proficiency at weapons. Even though she was well-intentioned, this fact ostracized Sarda from his Vulcan colleagues, that didn't approve of his interest in weapons due to their pacifistic philosophy.

The Enterprise is soon assigned a new mission: the new dreadnought Star Empire has been stolen by terrorists, and they have requested a rendezvous with Kirk's ship (the fact that Starfleet has been developing such weapon-heavy, offensive ships like a dreadnought, and that it's called "Star Empire", should already be a red flag). However, the specifics for the rendezvous have been encoded in such a way, that only Piper's biocode can decrypt them. Due to this reason, Piper is called to the bridge, in time to see Star Empire being surrounded by Klingon ships. Kirk orders her to take the helm, but Piper is terrified and can't respond accordingly, which makes her doubt her abilities for command. Star Empire takes a bad beating from the Klingons, and is seemingly crippled. But just then, the real dreadnought emerges from its hiding place behind some asteroids, and destroys the enemy ships. As it turns out, one of the new capabilities of the dreadnought is projecting fake copies of the ship to lure enemies. Now surrounded by copies of Star Empire, the Enterprise decodes the message using Piper's bio data. Her boyfriend Brian appears on the viewscreen, speaking on behalf of the rogue commander, Paul Burch. He assures Kirk that their mission is one of peace, and that they're not terrorists, and requests a party to come aboard Star Empire, including Piper and at least one Vulcan. Suspecting Piper to be on league with the hijackers, Kirk arrests her on her quarters... without much in the way of security (which makes Piper wonder if Kirk actually expected her to escape).

Using an easy trick that she learned from Brian, Piper escapes her confinement, and steals a fighter ship from the hangar. Sarda unexpectedly joins her, since he also wants to know what's going on in Star Empire. The Vulcan had designed the dreadnought's projector, but Admiral Rittenhouse, the mastermind behind the whole project, took all the credit. From this point onwards, Sarda will warm up to Piper little by little, as they come to understand each other. They escape the Enterprise in the fighter, but never reach Star Empire. Rittenhouse has arrived in the destroyer Pompeii, and captures their fighter in a tractor beam. Aboard Pompeii, the Admiral tries to convince the cadets that Burch has gone insane, and explains his plans for the future of the Federation. A future without wars, or Klingons, or Romulans, or any kind of dissension... And Piper starts realizing that Rittenhouse's plan is a road to hell paved in good intentions, and how the new dreadnought fits into all this. Left alone for a moment, Piper and Sarda investigate the computers, and find out a disturbing pattern, where all the key positions in Starfleet have been filled with Rittenhouse's minions during the past years. They try to warn Kirk about the conspiracy, but Rittenhouse discovers them and puts them in the brig.

Nonetheless, a brief power malfunction opens the brig's force field a while later. Piper and Sarda escape, in time to see Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty entering the briefing room of Pompeii, to discuss the situation with the Admiral. They hide in a secluded part of the ship, and use their communicators to signal their friends, still in the Enterprise. Merete and Scanner materialize next to them, and they get a link to the briefing room, to spy on the conversations. They see Kirk objecting to Rittenhouse's plan of killing the hijackers without even meeting with them first. And the Admiral arrests Kirk and his men, putting one of his pawn-captains in charge of the operation. Piper and her friends rush to the rescue, and use some wacky tactics to distract the guards (the bunny hop!?)... Just to find out that Kirk had already freed himself without their heroic assistance (of course, that's the value of experience). Kirk and his senior officers leave for the Enterprise on the transporter. But just when the juniors were about to follow them, the Pompeii transporters are deactivated. Then, the cadets have to make a last-ditch escape in a couple of fighters from the hangar.

Evading the Pompeii's weapons by staying close to the hull, Piper and the others reach at last Star Empire. There, they meet with Burch and Brian, who stole the dreadnought to stop Rittenhouse's totalitarian schemes, and are trying to man the starship with a skeleton crew. The last part comprises a pretty intense battle, with Star Empire and the Enterprise facing Rittenhouse's destroyer and his loyal ships. While the inexperienced crew aboard the dreadnought try to learn how to maneuver the mammoth ship, under such extreme conditions.

Spirk Meter: 3/10*. The relationship between Kirk and Spock doesn't escape Piper's observations. She notices that both of them share some kind of silent understanding, where a look to each other is enough to communicate their intentions. There's also a humorous bit, when Piper is surprised to learn that Spock is literally half-human. All this time, whenever she heard about Spock's "human half", she thought they were referring to Kirk himself!

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[scribblingmuchlyrexan]

aaauuuugggggghhh

starting season 2 of my Invincible rewatch, and i think i figured out why i only watched it once, rather than the five+ (now six+) times i rewatched season 1 lol:

(spoilers for seasons 1 and 2, and a brief aside about season 3)

(i might be remembering season 2 incorrectly since, yeah, i only watched it once at the time it was released, so it's been a while. i've also currently only watched season 3 one time)

______

the Angstrom storyline is the main one, the story the season begins and closes with

and it's. just not as interesting as the season 1 plot

season 1 is about colonialism and about trying to figure out a potentially terrifying truth of someone close to you, and then needing to re-understand that person and live with a subsequent new life. (among many other things, but those are some of the main themes surrounding Nolan and his family)

i LOVE the B-plot of season 1 with the security guard and his stepson, and that B-plot helps emphasize the commentary on colonialism, especially the moment when the guard and his stepson are outside the palace of the Queen of England: "She comes from a long line of tyrants" and that whole bit

season 2, as far as i remember, doesn't have a B-plot with a symbolic connection.

and Angstrom, while his actions come from a place that's understandable for his character, we as the audience are still just "He's incorrect -- that's not the same Invincible as he's trying to get revenge on. 'Our' Mark never helped Omni-Man or the Viltrumites."

and there's no fun commentary or symbolism in "He's wrong" lol

season 3 aside: even Scott Duvall in season 3 is more interesting than Levy's conflict, even though there's a heavy hand of "He's wrong (and trying to get revenge on Invincible)" about that storyline. the difference is, in Scott's case, he DOES have some points that are never fully refuted: Invincible and many other superheroes DO receive a lot more laxity from the government than an ordinary citizen would, and the ordinary citizen has no way of knowing Invincible is sorry for what happened, other than formal statements, which can mean almost nothing

additionally, Duvall's motivation can be applied to aspects in the real world, with government and law favoritism for the upper economic classes and politicians, so there's an interesting commentary there

(end season 3 aside)

i only realized where my disinterest in season 2 might be coming from because early into the first ep i went "uuuugh, the Angstrom Levy plotline." i had to sit with that thought for a moment because i've never DISLIKED Levy, so i was surprised at the strong negative reaction -- i never thought he was a poorly written character. again, we can understand where he's coming from, but we can still disagree with what he's doing. so i was surprised at that thought and had to pick at that reaction for a moment and compare what i enjoyed about season 1 to the season 2 Levy plotline

(if this is old news for the Invincible fandom, don't mind me :p i very purposefully have avoided a lot of fandom stuff for this series so as to avoid spoilers, since the comic's complete and i prefer the storytelling in the show compared to what i started with the comic. i.e., i'd rather experience the story first thru the show then read the comic when the show's completed :) )

edit: something else to mention that made season 1 so rewatchable: re-interpreting or now being able to understand different actions and reactions, once we have more information from a whole watch through

Nolan especially is super fun for this, since he has the conflicting feelings of his loyalty to Viltrum and his love for Mark and Debbie. he calls Debbie "a pet," but he does care about her far more than that. his dialogue isn't fully reliable or truthful, even to himself, and that's so fun in a story

[according2thelore]

Are you still doing the ask game?

If yes, have you answered for:

5, 25, and (I'm so scared to ask) 30 😭😭😭

hi, anon! <3

i will ALWAYS answer ask games, haha! :) thank you for the ask!

5. What's a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies?

"bittersweet ending" or "unhappy ending" (and variations therein, like "angst with unhappy ending," "no happy ending," etc.)

those tags immediately have me clicking out of a fic, i'm not going to lie. so i'm always trying to rationalize it to people about to click on my fic like "b-but 🥺 i promise it's more sweet than bitter bestie 🥺pls don't do this to us🥺"

only a few of my fics have this even apply to them, but whenever they do i go...hm...maybe i can put this as spoilers at the bottom of the fic instead? </3

25. Is writing the whole thing beforehand better or worse than writing it as you go?

depends! for fics over 20k i prefer an outline.

for example, when writing the BUABS rewrite, i watched the whole episode and took notes on canon timeline (i had a literal time line of events lol), and mannerisms meg!sam did when she thought she was losing control of a situation. that outline sheet was pretty funny, lol, but other than that i pretty much free-handed it.

i could NOT have gotten through or made "house song" or "we didn't get it right" coherent without an outline. for plot-heavy fics, i prefer to do an outline, and i still have most of them if y'all are ever interested, lol.

but if it's under 20k, outlining becomes tedious and the helpfulness decreases exponentially. sometimes, fics get away from me. for example, i didn't have an outline for "love potion no. 9," the hanahaki fic, or "souls tied." your average according2thelore fic has no outline at all.

30. Describe a fic that almost happened, but didn't.

oh boy! there were multiple! i have almost written a million fics, with varying levels of completion/planning. here are a few that came the closest!

fic where dean is cursed to think sam has abandoned him, and can't see sam no matter what sam says or what he does; sam has to find the cure while watching dean go through all of his stages of grief for him. [reason for abandonment: no plot, lmao; originally mean to fill "isolation" space for WW July]

fic where they get accidentally married, can't get farther than a mile away from each other without collapsing, and have to go on a quest to get a magical divorce but end up realizing they don't actually want to get a divorce [reason for abandonment: way too ambitious for a WW July fic; originally mean to fill "in sickness and in health" space]

"someone was listening" was meant to be a ~30k fic exploring more of junior's resentment of dean. i wrote a two page outline of what i wanted to happen, it was gonna be huge. [reason for abandonment: ran out of time, plain and shrimple. i'm still not super happy with it, and hope i can eventually come back and actually finish it.]

quote: "So much of my life has been about you. So much of my life was spent waiting for you, like you'd walk back in through the front door any second. Dad kept your keys on the hook." "You and Dad didn't talk for a few years, right? Before you came to pick him up from school? It was like, my whole life, Dad was just waiting for you to come pick him up again."

fic where sam has to decide what to do with all of dean's items after he's dead (i.e., toothbrush, dishes, clothes, trinkets, DVDs, records, etc.). i put up a couple of snippets for a wip ask game a while back! [reason for abandonment: i simply could not live in that constant wave of consuming grief. my stomach would sink every time i opened the doc; written originally for a WW event, can't remember which prompt though.]

thank you again for this ask, anon! <3

from this writer's ask game here!

-lizzy

[harpoonsandmusicals]

Ok so I just got around to listening to the very first episode of Dracula: The Danse Macabre, diving in with zero idea of what its about other than the title. and guys. 😍 im obsessed 😍😍 i'm so in

Gabriel Urbina is back at it again with the most vividly real scenes you've ever seen conveyed through only audio. I was completely engrossed in the world from minute one. The bit with the flies? The wolves distantly howling at every spooky part?

I'm also enjoying the characterization, from a noble and kindhearted but slightly stupid Jonathan Harker, to a very creepy ominous Dracula, to possibly the highlight: Mina's very pragmatic, dead-pan, snarky and yet no nonsense attitude (and her trusty typewriter)

This is going to be one of the most unique, out-there Dracula adaptions around and I am SO interested to see where it winds up heading

the rest of this is going to be super spoiler heavy SO GO LISTEN TO EP 1 RIGHT NOW PLEASSSSSE ITS SO GOOD ITS ONLY GOING TO BE FOUR PARTS AND DONT SPOIL YOURSELF

i trust that everyone who has not listened is gone. so.

THOSE PLOT TWISTS FOLKS????? WHAT EVEN.

the vampire-hunting organization thing came out of NOWHERE and had me genuinely giggling in delight. I also am intrigued by the idea of Dracula being the exception to a species of mindless beasts. Is it because he keeps eating the souls of smart people? I'm not sure about him apparently thinking smart people are genetic and that he's eaten all the ones around here, that feels very icky. I hope its an intentional character belief that they're planning on unpacking and examining.

About halfway through, I began to suspect that "Jonathan" might really be Vamp!Jonathan due to the very uncomfortable tension between him and Mina, especially after Mina's rant about Jonathan being noble and kind which seemed to very much be in the past tense. I was not expecting full on Dracula-just-using-Jonathan's-voice. Wow. It's so well done, too, because the transition into the voice is so smooth (I didn't even realize they had the same voice actor for a really long time), and its straight out of the original book so I knew to expect that bit from listening to Re:Dracula (it was just as creepy as Karim Kronfli's take), but the idea that he isn't just doing it to wig Jonathan out for a minute or two, that's just his voice now??? And then of course it reframes everything we've just seen between Mina and "Jonathan" this whole time. What a twist on the central conceit of the story, our assumed protagonist is just dead now. AND. I didn't read the "about" section for the podcast cause I wanted to go in blind, but even if I had, the line "dialogue between two of the novel's most iconic characters" CAUSE OBVIOUSLY THE AUDIENCE WOULD ASSUME MINA AND JONATHAN. BUT ITS DRACULA INSTEAD. WHICH ARGUABLE FITS "MOST ICONIC" BETTER. Aah I just can't get over it.

The whole scene with Mina and the priest was priceless. I think my favorite line might be "Aw, I'm here, you're here, the corpse is here, why don't we live a little?!" Iconic. And the perfect response to casual sexism. Second fav might be the bit where Jonathan talks about lock-picking being such a fine and delicate art...*cue loud smashing sfx* "Not having time for such things, I smashed the lock." Wonderful.

I'm so endless curious about what chain of events ensue to end with MINA and DRACULA in some random cabin(?) talking to each other and putting the report together instead of, you know, MURDERING EACH OTHER???? I can't wait for the next episode. I hope it will also have me giggling from sheer delight at the immense creativity the whole time

[imperial-nuisance-rudje]

i've seen a lot of "assign exaltations to media" posts recently and i wanted to get in on this, this time with final fantasy 14

major spoilers up to 7.0/Dawntrail! also, only hitting major msq characters bc i will actually lose my mind if i have to do all the side stuff and minor characters too, even though i know i'm already accidentally skipping some characters just bc the cast list is the size of the pacific and my brain is a bit fried.

"wait some of these aren't exaltations at all" sometimes it is more interesting if a heroic character is Just Some Guy

Meteor Survivor/Default Warrior of Light - Dawn Solar. It's not even close. The WoL is a very large hammer and all the world is a nail. Even their more magicy stuff they approach like a Dawn rather than a Zenith! Couple arguments that could be made for their Supernal, for trailer-WoL I'd probably go for Melee. Like I have to actively fight the game for every scrap of Not-Solar I give my own WoL, the default WoL is super fucking Solar-coded.

Minfilia - okay hear me out. she's an Exigent of Hydaelyn and her Exaltation passes down to specifically young girls who fit other certain criteria. “Oracle of Light, Minfilia” ends up a sobriquet that devours even the girls’ names in the end. 

Ryne - See above. Exigent of Hydaelyn, just one able to make her own name for herself after it all. 

Thancred - just some guy!!!!! Not an Exalt at all he's just some dude! the stealth thing he can do could easily be a mutation rather than a power related to Exaltation.

Urianger - mortal sorcerer up to 5.0, exalts as a lunar during the time gap. Can be talked out of this, it's a gut read. E: THE GUT READ IS BC HE DEALS SAFELY WITH THE FAE AND TRICKS THEM IN TURN. Changing Moon, definitely. Spirit shape is something both ominous and benefic in terms of omens.

Y’shtola - gut is that she's a mortal sorcerer but I'm not sure if/when she exalts. I feel like the best point for that if she does is actually in the future for her, assuming my read of the plot thread tea leaves is accurate. Assuming nothing else changes, probably a Solaroid, though you may be able to argue Infernal over Solar for her.

Lyse - Deeb, Fire Aspect, same as her sister. I don't have much reasoning for this, it just feels right.

G’raha - I have tried to come up with not this but he really is just the Exigent of the god of the Crystal Tower… You could probably argue for deeb, bc of the royal eye thing, but i feel very strongly that he hasn't Exalted when he first shows up and that pushes him over the deeb exaltation age limit and I personally need some kind of major explanation to accept breaking that rule and while the Crystal Tower could probably manage it... given the physical changes he shows as the Crystal Exarch in ShB I think it works better if it's a very costly (to the Exalt) Exigent exaltation.

Papalymo - Mortal sorcerer. He dies because it was the only way to fuel the spell caging Shinryu as a mortal.

Alphinaud & Alisaie - I'm torn with the twins, honestly. I lean towards them being mortals but you can definitely argue for them having an Exaltation, especially after Coils or ShB, and they're young enough to be late-bloomer deebs if you want them to light up mid-story.

Erenville - Believe it or not I do think he's an Exalt. He's a Wood Aspect Dragonblooded like his mom and he put all of his points into dealing with critters and logistics and lifting heavy things and absolutely none into combat. (You could probably also argue for Earth, honestly, I can't articulate why I feel so strongly about the Wood aspect.)

Wuk Lamat - Dawn Solar, with her Exaltation coming when she breaks through to reach the Queen Eternal again at the end of MSQ. Shockingly social-focused Dawn, but still a Dawn.

Aymeric - Air aspect Deeb. His idealism nearly gets his ass killed like three times I am not budging on this.

Haurchefant - Water aspect deeb. WAIT HEAR ME OUT: i know the easy answer is to slap Wood on him for horny crimes and call it a day, but the way the rest of his personality actually is he fits water way more, including the part where when he's at his limit he's an unstoppable terror that doesn't know restraint. I could also be convinced to assign him Fire. (He's too flexible for Earth and too practical/grounded for Air, imo.) It also fits with his family since the Fortemps we meet all kind of vibe as damp-adjacent at minimum.

Krile - Joke answer: Sidereal bc i nearly forgot to add her-- :V

More seriously, the whole "refugee from another reflection" thing makes assigning her an Exaltation difficult. Alt timelines exist in this game but reflections are explicitly not those, it's more akin to Autochthon's relationship to Creation, and (barring some serious ass-pulls from the writers in the patches) Krile is an ordinary woman in terms of physiology. She's also not dead or associated with death, so I guess that means there's four options she absolutely cannot be rather than ones she can be.

Zenos yae Galvus - Does not Exalt until after 4.0, where he rises as a Dusk Abyssal. Because it fits with how fucked up he is and StB/his arc that he, a mortal man, is able to cause problems until the WoL starts taking him seriously. I could also be open to him being a Casteless Lunar bc lunisolar bond w/WoL (I love a good Fated Nemesis and so would he) but in general I feel like his everything works better if he doesn't Exalt until he tries to remove his own head and it's important to his story that he is Very Dead-Seeming after that point which makes options very limited.

Varis zos Galvus - If he is an Exalt, he's a deeb. Earth aspect, but I could probably be talked into Fire too. The “if” is because I'm torn between him being a disappointment because he never Exalted or because he's the same aspect as his dad but never reached the same potential in grandpa’s eyes. The Garlean upper class generally maps surprisingly cleanly to Dynasts.

Emet-Selch - Honestly this applies to all three of the Unsundered, I'm just keeping the family together, but: I truly believe those three are narratively closer to Deathlords than anything else in Exalted, and I say this while also acknowledging that Zodiark is more like a Yozi than one of the Neverborn. I do not know how to square that circle.

Thordan - Deeb. Air or Earth aspect, either could work with his personality.

Sphene - Orichalcum Alchemical. Living-Sphene was mortal. (Why not liminal? Quite frankly, bc she is not made of meat and still retains her living memories, both of which are disqualifying factors.)

Zoraal Ja - Mortal. I think it adds to things if part of his violent insecurity is that he never lights up despite being his father's son.

Fandaniel - Could admittedly go with either Abyssal or Infernal, depending on what aspects of him you want to emphasize, but I personally see him as a Daybreak.

Gaius - Fire aspect deeb.

[sideblog-usernametaken]

Spoilers for Pokemon Horizons Episode 67 below:

So the battle between Liko and Roy was fantastic, it showed off how both of them have progressed as trainers and how much they've bonded with their pokemon. The fight choreography was great, Floragato learning Feignt by accident and Fuecoco evolving were both hype, and the pacing was tight with excellent animation. Like, this is how you script and direct animated pokemon battles.

However, I'm still a bit bitter about the outcome of the match.

Narratively, it fits and shows their character growth. This is Liko's first real loss that she takes without it having a massive emotional impact on her, and now that Roy has started fighting strategically instead of move spamming it makes sense that he's gotten much better at battling. The latter is especially important given his goal is to battle the Shiny Rayquaza.

It also makes sense from a more meta narrative too: Roy was the only one with an evolved starter so it makes sense Fuecoco evolves now and it makes sense that he goes on to win the battle after. Not evolving Fuecoco would've either resulted in Roy stagnating, or Fuecoco just becoming too strong to be believable anymore. They could've turned it into a subplot where Roy is concerned Fuecoco hasn't evolved when Quaxly and Sprigatito both did. But no other pokemon has gotten that level of concern regarding evolution and Roy isn't the kind of character to get hung up on a detail like that so it definitely would've felt forced. This was the right time for him to evolve and I kind of expected it going into the episode.

So why do I feel bitter about the battle's outcome if everything about it makes sense and it met my expectations for the episode?

Because Liko deserves a break.

Seeiously, she has been fighting uphill for this entire arc with nearly every battle putting her at a heavy disadvantage in either typing or level. Her basics test? Yeah throw her at the Bug type gym leader, her only two pokemon are Grass and Psychic which are both weak to Bug. Her double battle against Rika? Yeah have her go up against the one Poison type on Rika's team (This one is slightly less egregious than everything else because the Clodsire does lose its stab poision damage and Katy is helping for the first half, but still). Her implementation test? Yeah, send her to the Ice type gym leader who's pokemon are at minimum 5-10 levels higher than hers, don't worry about the fact that both of his pokemon are super effective against her main too (Ice and Flying both beat Grass). She has to confront the Explores on her own? Have her run into Amethio and his Fire/Ghost Ceruledge that can counter both of her pokemon. She has a climactic battle with one of her friends in the finale? Yeah pit her against the one with the Fire main and Flying second (Which has paralysis moves to cut down Floragato's agility). Oh, and for funsies, give Liko the other disadvantage of her second pokemon only really start battling this arc, so she doesn't have the time to get a good sense of how she battles until it's too late.

Seriously, the only battle in this arc that I can think of where Liko had at least a type advantage was against the Garganacle. Even then she was battling against someone trying to take her out instead of someone battling for fun.

Meanwhile, Roy more often than not gets type advantages, and Dot's arc focuses almost entirely on her character outside of battle so it doesn't really matter if she wins or loses because either one works. It's like the writers are intentionally putting Liko at a major disadvantage because she's genuinely become a really good trainer, but the plot demands she keeps losing for character development.

Seriously, the level of strategy and competency she showed in her fight against Grusha should've gotten her a passing grade. It would've gotten her a passing grade from any other gym leader, heck she probably could've beaten most of the other gym leaders. But instead the narrative keeps beating her down so she has a valid reason to have low self esteem instead of letting her have some wins to give her a better sense of self confidence. Like, Roy failed his first try at the implementation test because he needed something to deeply rattle him to bring about a change in his fighting style. That's an example of a loss being effective for character growth. But with Liko? It's like she's not allowed to see the progress she's made until the second to last episode of the arc, and in the finale she gets shown up by Fuecoco evolving.

The only real saving grace of the battle's outcome is Geeta and Rika reaction. They recognize that Liko has the skill to take on the Champion track and seem completely unbothered by the fact she lost to Roy. That means they probably realized all of what I said above, and came to the conclusion that if Liko's this good working against these kinds of disadvantages then she'd be incredibly strong once she levels up some more or catches a full team. If that's true, it would explain why they didn't have the same talk with Roy since he's largely had an advantage in most of his battles.

Ideally, I'd end this fight in a tie. Have them knock each other out at the same time to establish that they're on even footing, and they both get the benefit of technically not losing. This ending would also build tension for their inevitable rematch.

I really hope the next arc gives Liko some more wins because she really needs it. At this point in her character arc having her continue to lose and deal self esteem issues would just mean she's stagnating. They need to have something more substantial to show her growth, especially since one of her main character flaws before this arc was her letting other people win when she could've beaten them. You can't just tell us she's talented, then show us she's talented, and then keep making her lose unfair fights so you can drag out her self esteem issues longer. She doesn't have to win every fight but she should at least be able to show off in a fair fight every once in a while.