#except its set in like. equivalent of the 90s

[weirderscience]

"Curious, how young Adam resembles his uncle so... There is some rumour that the boy is an illegitimate son, fathered by the doctor in his college years! How scandalous!"

the engineer has a nephew, adam, who has mysterious origins. he’s being mentored by his uncle in the sciences. you know how it is

[gorbalsvampire]

More questions! Would you consider having cross splat play for a group with v5, ww5, and h5? Have the mechanics been simplified/streamlined enough for that to be possible without being a huge headache?

Also, unrelated: I think in today's ttrpg terms WoD5 wants to be a "fiction first" type of game. It definitely has introduced some features that add support in that way, such as the relationship maps, considering Coterie type, and the touchstones. But I think some of its mechanics still cleave to that "simulationist" mindset of the 90s and aughts, and get in the way of what the narrative does well 😅

This is a bit meandering, but I hope you gain something from it anyway.

So for my money, the big issues with cross splat play are thematic. Vampire and Werewolf are asking different questions of their players, and pursuing different kinds of horror. For all that they're nominally set in the same world, they don't fit right when they're shoved in next to each other. It's like how comics crossovers reduce the cosmic splendour of interplanar warfare between godlike entities and the workaday world of a nerdy student/photographer to a sort of spectacular slurry when they're put together - it can be fun, but it feels like less than the sum of its parts because none of them are getting to do what they were designed for.

Hunter is the exception. I think Hunter can dovetail with another splat reasonably well, because the Hunters are real people in over their heads and confronting a supernatural horror; a premise that can adapt to whatever kind of horror the other splat is presenting. Hunter also has tidier mechanics, which brings me to the "why I, specifically, wouldn't include Werewolf in a crossover" part.

When I've checked out Apocalypse in the past, I've found it aggressively America-centric (why do werewolves in the Celtic nations or the Balkans use terms from the First Nations?), not quite selling the "melting pot" pack (maybe this is me, but I feel like a werewolf pack should all be from the same tribe and differentiated by something else, like auspice), and worst of all - dull. Between Tribes and Gifts and Auspices and Spirits and five different statblocks it's managed to make pretending you're a werewolf fussy and pedantic.

I like trad games. I came up with Call of Cthulhu and WFRP. Pass me the percentile dice, we're going in! But the strength of V5, specifically, is that it's modular. From "only players roll" to "only simple conflicts" to "right, look in the back of the book for a combat move", V5 scales to an extent where it can be mechanically present, imposing the bare minimum of Hunger and Predator Type, in even a fairly lightweight chronicle - or it can go full tradgame, if you want it to!

The trouble with the wider WOD, in my opinion, has been the development outwards from Vampire. Most of the splats have started with Vampire's mechanics (an equivalent to blood points, humanity, disciplines, clans and so on) and adapted them and developed on top of them, which means they end up overburdened because they weren't working out from a neutral core. (CofD sidestepped this by starting with the human-focused core game and building very similar sets of numbers into the different splats, one direction at a time.) Combine that with the ever more convoluted world-building of the One World of Darkness conceit - you and I know that no amount of "the Lupines from Vampire aren't the Garou from Werewolf" holds up to the way the Revised books were written - and by the time you get to Wraith, both the system and the setting are overdeveloped and creaking at the seams.

I bring up Wraith because I really, really want Wr5 (technically it'd be the fourth edition, but whatever). I want a Storytelling Game of Psychological and Survival Horror, something that interrogates why the dead haunt the living and poses that as its central question. You can keep your Kingdoms and your Legions, but they're the threats that drive the playable ghosts into the periphery - they've made unacceptable compromises to survive deeper into the Shadowlands, closer to Oblivion. The Guilds offer another way - true death staved off by staying close to the truly alive. Maybe that's been the premise of Wraith all along, but I got the impression the game as published was more interested in building Stygia as a dark fantasy adventure than in ghost stories.

You're not wrong though: the WOD games have always existed in the space between blow-by-blow gun-catalogue tradgame and experimental, experiential storygame. When they're good, they turn that space into a sliding scale. When they're bad... well, when they're bad they're the detailed rules for kung fu in Requiem. The whole thing runs better when you're fiction first, but retain just enough risk/resource management that the mechanics get to intrude and remind you that you're not playing heroes. You are the monster. The more action you take, the more those trackers move. The Hunger is rising. When will you Rage?

[soleminisanction]

Since you’re in a meta-ing mood, what do you think of the fandom trend to portray Tim Drake as a ‘genius idiot’, basically a supercomputer brain for crime and business, but can’t cross the street or talk to people without injury or insult that is always his fault. Lots of times this ties in with the idea he’s desperate to get Robin back and the other Bats will basically have to have an intervention to get him to ‘grow up’ and move to his own cape. As you can see, I’ve run into a meta bog

I can sum up my opinion on that fandom trend in two words: It's bullshit.

It's part of a modern trend that I hate, the idea that "the smart guy" archetype automatically defaults to a (badly) autistic-coded tech bro with no social skills. It gets slapped onto so many characters it never should have applied to, and Tim is a big one. He's not even that much of a tech guy! He liked technology, sure, but that was supposed to flag him as a nerd in the 90s, not as some exceptional talent in the field. Him using a computer in his investigations more than Bruce was the narrative equivalent of teaching your parents how to use social media.

No, I've said this before and I'll say it again: Tim is and has always been a detective prodigy. Which means that his skill set lies in observation, deduction, sociology and psychology.

Tim gets people, he's good with people, he can empathize with them, analyze them, and manipulate them in equal measure. Anybody who pretends otherwise just flat-out doesn't read comic books, because the evidence is everywhere. To the point I really don't feel like hunting it down right now, because I've done it before, and other people have done it before, heck I've reblogged a fair number of them myself under my meta tag because I'm always happy when somebody recognizes it.

But also, like, people could figure it out if they used some basic common sense: not only do detectives need to be good with people, but so do businessmen. Being able to persuade and/or manipulate people is like 90% of that job, especially when you're the company spokesperson.

It's just... so obviously wrong, but people are lazy, I guess. (Looking at you, Wayne Family Adventures. -_-)

--

As for the tie-in with Robin, that's the biggest eye-roll of all. Tim isn't "desperate" to get Robin back, he's slipped back into it because Damian, for all his whining and demands, refuses to do the actual job.

Damian doesn't want to be Robin, not really. He doesn't care about its symbolism, he chafes under his father's command, he's too antisocial to fill Robin's role in the community, and he's not even all that attached to Gotham.

What Damian wants is the respect that comes with Robin as a title, the perceived legitimacy it grants as a member of the Bat-family and within the caped community, and the symbolic gesture of making him the squire to his father's knight. All of which speak to an emotional need that a) is not and should not be "the point" of Robin, a role that by this point is bigger than one person, and b) is clearly not being fulfilled by his attempts to be Robin. The role is far more stifling for Damian than it ever was for Tim.

Meanwhile, Tim is right there, still believing with all his heart in Batman's mission and in the importance of Batman and Robin as symbols of hope and justice, just like he always has, and still perfectly content to fulfill that role if no one else is going to step up and do it. So of course he's going to take the mantle back, it's the exact same thing he did the first time Dick said he wouldn't stop being Nightwing. Tim didn't have a good reason to stop being Robin in the first place.

Heck, technically speaking, he never actually stopped being Robin, not really. People forget this, but the Red Robin persona? Is specifically supposed to be a Robin who stayed Robin and NEVER "outgrew" the role. It was originally created for the Kingdom Come take on the Golden Age/Earth-Two Dick Grayson, who never became Nightwing, he just grew up into a Robin who was more like Batman. Red Robin was just a more serious, less cartoony take on the idea.

I've always thought that's part of why it didn't work for Jason; he's somebody who actually did need to outgrow Robin, partially because he was kind of rough fit to begin with and partially because by that point it was already wrapped up in so much trauma for him that it wouldn't have been healthy to cling. But it worked for Tim because, when you get right down to it, he really didn't have a reason to give up Robin at all -- least of all to coddle the ego of a spoiled brat -- and probably would've just told Damian to go fuck himself if his quest to bring Bruce back didn't involve shady shit like breaking into museums and illegally entering protected heritage sites.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble, been a long day at work and I'm tired but TL;DR -- "genius idiot"/coffee gremlin Tim sucks, the real Tim is sweet and empathetic and only as awkward as any other teenage boy, and he should get to be Robin for as long as he damn well pleases.

[multimediamac]

Stardew valley

100%ed stardew valley today!

Stardew valley has been my latest gaming hyper fixation, while struggling to do much else i set my eyes on reaching perfection within the game, i played on PC via steam with no mods and no glitches, on a whim i decided to play the game after seeing many Youtube shorts on trips n tricks for the game, various things like how to get x or y, I've owned the game for years but as i sated only booted it up a week ago, i think the game does a excellent job drawing you in as it slowly reveals more and more mechanics to you, such as fishing, mining, community Center and many more and as each season goes by in my first, id say 2 years in game, i was having a blast, the game is really fun in the early game when your exploring it, on your way to complete the community centre and scarily await grandpa, however its at the end of the as i would call it early game into the mid game where some problems with the game arise, one i want to focus on is the day cycle.

See, Stardew has a day night cycle, except not really

See the day only lasts from 6am, the time you wake up in game, to 2 am, the time you pass out in game, passing out in the early game is punishing as it takes 10% of your gold... up to 1,000G(the games currency, gold) and in the early game it feels bad, you don't want to loose money as its harder to get, however in this mid game, i define the mid game as after completing the community centre, its more an annoyance then a punishment as the max 1,000G is effectively pocket change, what's much more annoying is the time limit it sets in the game, if i said each in game day is 6am to 2pm, 20 hours, how much do you think that would be in real time, 20 mins? maybe, so, 1 real minuet per in game second, annoyingly its 14 minuets and 20 seconds, it may seem small but i have a big problem with how thats calculated, time only ticks up by 10 mins in game, equivalent to about 7.17 seconds, making it annoying to calculate how long you have left, something something human psychology and how we think in the number 5 and 10, so it seems small but it greatly derailed my enjoyment of the game due to tasks taking weird time, its harder to attentively think how long you have left in a day due to it being this weird number 7.17 seconds, as i said in the early game and late game this doesn't really matter as in the early game you'll be unaware of most things and more worried about loosing money, so the day will rarely even matter as energy is also a factor, in the late game 90% of days will be spent sleeping and that ties into the second big problem with the day night cycle.

It doesn't matter at all, it wants this weird mid ground between Minecraft/Terraria and Don't starve, in the former, night matters but can easily be circumvented in the latter night is always a threat and can never be circumvented, Stardew valley is in a weird mid ground where it wants the night to always matter, but the day night cycle can be circumvented at no cost, id argue at a negative cost, it actively rewards you for just sleeping a bunch through 90% of days especially with some of the last goals of perfection, namely 100% friendship, the golden clock and the museum, to go into each in detail i shalt, but i will sum up the problems, getting 100% friendship with everyone can easily be achieved by giving them a loved gift on their birthday, no interaction is needed otherwise, the game has a built in friendship deterioration meter that won't matter because it doesn't take into effect in time for you to sleep till the next year and oh its their birthday again, another gift another going to sleep for a year till i see them and their friendship is maxed, the golden clock is in a similar camp requiring...

TEN MILLION DOLLARS (Dr evil finger)

The problem is 10 million is not a fun number to grind to, and i know i know its a farming sim its meant to be casually gotten as you play the game, the problem is i cannot imagine getting it casually without sleeping through the week until its harvest season harvest the crops put em in a keg sleep another week rinse and repeat till you grind enough for 10 mill, its a un-fun slog and further grinds in my point that the day night cycle only matters in the mid game as in the late game it will be ignored in favour of sleeping, the only time it mattered at all was in my third problem, the museum and grinding geodes in the caves till i passed out attempting to get the last 5 artifacts needed to complete the place, its very fun when your getting lots and its like oh what will i add next to it ooh cracking geodes and mining worms is very fun, but when you get down to needing only a few it becomes less oh ive got to hunt down these last few and more, oh i have to grind to get a 3% chance at best of getting it, it was the last thing i did to achieve perfection in game and was by far the least fun i had with the game, the last 20% ish percent of perfection is a horrible slog through the worse mechanics in the game, you might say oh well its 100% its only meant for dedicated people as a end goal, i would say that its a grind either way and not fun if you have fun with the game for 500 hours and eventually get the golden clock sure, great passive fun, but most games i 100% don't have a slog at the end and are more a finally of doing the hardest tasks not the ones that take the longest with no actual challenge, the days are also far too short but some say oh that's the point you cant do everything in a day, for me it was just frustration but i guess that parts more taste.

Over my week id say i had great fun beating Stardew valley!, meeting all the characters learning all the mechanics slowly getting everything done for the community centre which forces you to engage in all of the game, a neat design i really liked each room a different skill tree!

Over my week id say i had a monotonous time 100% perfecting Stardew valley... sleeping 5 years to gift people rabbit feet and harvest ancient fruit wine and crack artifact troves...

[realindianyug]

Why does India have a Single Timezone: A Unifying Force or a Hindrance to Progress?

One of the easiest ways to time travel would be to take a step from China to India, and you would have managed to travel 2 hours 30 minutes in time. Technically, this is not a time travel but one of the fascinating outcomes of different time zones across our planet. Time, an intangible yet universal concept, governs our lives in ways we usually take for granted. Across the globe, time zones carve the Earth's surface into segments, each with its own unique temporal identity. However, India, a vast subcontinent with a rich diversity of cultures, climates, and landscapes, stands as one of the exceptions. The other, India's neighbor China is also one that stands out. China’s only timezone is UTC+08:00, and it spans five nominal time zones. For China, it mostly “works” because 90% of the Chinese population lives along China’s east coast, although it is odd when you visit Western China in the late spring, and the sun rises at 8:30 AM. India’s only time zone is UTC+ 05:30, and covers 29 degrees of longitude or two equivalent time zones. Countries like France and Russia have 12 and 11 timezones respectively. The question arises as to why and does having this single timezone actually helps India or whether are there any serious disadvantages. Understanding Time Zones Time zones, the result of our planet's rotation, divide the world into longitudinal segments, each roughly 15 degrees apart. As one moves east or west, time advances or retreats by an hour. This division aims to synchronize our daily routines with the natural progression of day and night. India the 7th largest country in the world, intriguingly, sticks to a solitary time zone, despite its vast geographical extent. While most countries adjust their clocks to suit their local solar time, India maintains a uniform time throughout the nation. The single time zone currently in use is based at a longitude passing near the city of Allahabad (almost 82°). The Rationale for a Single Time Zone in India Historically, India's single time zone originated from a desire for administrative simplicity. When the British established the Indian Standard Time (IST) in 1905, they aimed to streamline railway schedules, telegraph communication, and administrative operations across the subcontinent. This decision was rooted in the colonial era's need for centralized governance, administrative control, and efficient resource allocation. A single time zone allowed for uniformity and coordination across the nation's expansive geography and helped manage its imperialistic goal of simplicity and efficiency. Furthermore, majority of India's major cities (Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai) are relatively close to the central longitude. This is the same case for China, where most of its economy is centered around the Beijing longitude which lowers the impact of solitude time zone adoption. Modern Challenges Posed by a Single Time Zone India's single time zone, however, has not been without its share of challenges. Due to its vast geographical span, the sunrise and sunset times vary significantly from east to west. The eastern states experience early sunrise and sunset, while the western regions enjoy a more leisurely progression of daylight. These variations affect various aspects of daily life. In the northeast, where daylight arrives early, people often begin their routines well before dawn, impacting sleep patterns and work-life balance. Conversely, in the western parts of the country, businesses may extend working hours into the evening due to later sunsets. The “Dong” village of Arunachal Pradesh sees sunrise 2 hours before “Guhar Moti” village of Gujarat. Critics of the single time zone have argued that India should move to two different standard times to make the best use of daylight in eastern India, where the sun rises and sets much earlier than in the West. People in the East need to start using their lights earlier in the day and hence use more electricity. The rising and setting of the sun impacts our body clocks or circadian rhythm. As it gets darker in the evening, the body starts to produce the sleep hormone melatonin - which helps people nod off. Economically, India's single time zone creates hurdles. Stock markets, for instance, operate on IST, leading to a considerable time gap between their opening and the opening of global markets, which follow different time zones. This can affect investment decisions and economic outcomes. The actual timezone of North Eastest states of India is about an hour ahead of the GMT+5:30 which in turn results in wastage of a lot of daylight, thus affecting the productivity. Many government and private offices are forced to open even when the daylight gets low, which results in unnecessary power wastage. By changing the time zone, they will be able to make most of the natural daylight. In a new paper, Maulik Jagnani, an economist at Cornell University, argues that a single time zone leads to a decline in the quality of sleep, especially of poor children. This, he says, ends up reducing the quality of their education. This is how it happens. The school day starts at more or less the same time everywhere in India, but children go to bed later and have reduced sleep in areas where the sun sets later. An hour's delay in sunset time reduces children's sleep by 30 minutes. India has been engaged in a prolonged discussion about the possibility of adopting two time zones. (Interestingly, tea gardens in the northeastern state of Assam have been independently setting their clocks one hour ahead of Indian Standard Time, effectively creating their own informal time zone.) In the late 1980s, a group of researchers from a prominent energy institute recommended the implementation of a time zone system as a means to conserve electricity. However, in 2002, a government committee dismissed a similar proposal, citing logistical complexities. Some experts were concerned about potential railway accidents arising from the need to adjust times at each crossing when transitioning between different time zones. In 2018, India's official timekeepers themselves suggested two time zones, one for most of India and the other for eight states, including seven in the more remote north-eastern part the country. Both the time zones would be separated by an hour. Researchers at the National Physical Laboratory voiced that the single time zone was "badly affecting lives" as the sun rises and sets much earlier than official working hours allow for. Cultural and Societal Implications Culturally, the single time zone affects traditions and festivals. Makar Sankranti, for example, is celebrated with great fervor across India, yet the timing of the festival's ceremonies can differ significantly from one region to another due to variations in sunset times. Societal routines, such as meal times and daily activities, can also be disrupted. The concept of 'Indian stretchable time,' where punctuality is somewhat relaxed, may partially stem from the varying perceptions of time induced by the single time zone. Calls for Multiple Time Zones In recent years, there have been calls for India to adopt multiple time zones to address these challenges. Advocates argue that dividing the country into two or more time zones, aligning more closely with local solar time, could mitigate many of the issues arising from the single time zone. A multi-time zone approach could benefit sectors like agriculture, where daylight hours significantly affect productivity. By allowing regions to set their time according to local sunrise and sunset times, farmers could maximize daylight for their work. The Feasibility and Implementation Challenges While the idea of multiple time zones holds promise, it's not without hurdles. Implementing this change would require significant adjustments, from altering daily routines to adapting infrastructure and communication systems. Coordinating activities across time zones within the same country could also pose challenges. Looking abroad, countries like the United States and Russia successfully manage multiple time zones, offering examples of how this could work in India. However, India's unique size and complexity must be taken into account. Managing multiple time zones within a country can make coordination and communication more complex. Government agencies, businesses, and individuals must always be aware of the time difference when scheduling meetings, events, or transactions. Technological systems, including computer networks and software, must account for multiple time zones, which can be challenging to implement correctly and maintain. Global Perspectives Comparing India's single time zone to other nations, it becomes apparent that India is a global outlier. Most countries, especially those of comparable size and diversity, employ multiple time zones to better serve their populations. India's single time zone can also complicate international interactions, as businesses and individuals must contend with the time difference when communicating or trading with partners abroad. Public Opinion and Political Will Public opinion on the matter is mixed. Some argue that a single time zone is symbolic of India's unity, reinforcing the concept of 'one nation, one time.' Others believe that a more nuanced approach to time would better serve the nation's diverse needs. Politically, the issue has been debated but has yet to result in significant action. Changing the time zone system is a complex endeavor, requiring consensus and careful planning. India's single time zone, born out of historical necessity, presents both unifying and divisive aspects. While it simplifies administration and fosters a sense of national unity, it also creates challenges in terms of daily life, economics, and cultural practices. The idea of multiple time zones, while appealing to some, faces substantial implementation hurdles. As India continues to grow and evolve, it may be time to revisit the question of whether a single time zone truly serves the nation's best interests or if it's time to adapt to a more diverse temporal landscape. In the end, the question of whether India's single time zone is a unifying force or a constraint to progress remains a matter of perspective, and the debate is likely to continue in the years to come. Read the full article

[takeoffphilippines]

HONOR foldable phone coming to PH soon?

Leading global smart devices provider, HONOR, announced the launch of the HONOR Magic Vs. This all-new foldable flagship pushes industry benchmarks in design, display, performance and user experience – making it the perfect companion for business and entertainment. Empowering young budding creators to fulfill their creative potential.

“We are thrilled to introduce our next-generation foldable flagship, the HONOR Magic Vs, which packs groundbreaking innovations and exceptional user experience into an elegant and stylish design,” said Stephen Cheng, Vice President for Marketing. “The HONOR Magic Vs will be our very first foldable flagship to debut in overseas markets and we are confident that it will deliver huge advancements, transforming how people all around the world use their smartphones.”

An Industry-leading Foldable crafted with a Groundbreaking Hinge Design and Large Dual Display

Exceptionally slim and lightweight, the HONOR Magic Vs is 12.9mm thin when folded and weighs just 261g, making it the industry’s lightest foldable smartphone currently, and a delight to carry around. It also packs with a super-light gearless hinge carefully crafted with a single-piece casting processing technology, which drastically reduces the number of components of supporting structure used in the hinge while maintaining its durability and sturdiness. The HONOR Magic Vs is able to withstand over 400,000 folds, equivalent to more than ten years of use with 100 folds per day, creating a new first in foldable smartphone design.

Outperforming existing foldables that often come with a long and narrow external screen, the HONOR Magic Vs boasts a 6.45-inch display when folded, with a user-friendly 21:9 aspect ratio and a 90% screen-to-body ratio, allowing users to view content and input text with remarkable ease. When unfolded, the HONOR Magic Vs delivers a tablet-like experience with an extra-wide 7.9-inch internal display, perfect for users who seek effortless multi-tasking and more screen real estate to enjoy all their favorite content.

Computational Photography and Unrivaled Day-long Performance

The HONOR Magic Vs features the proprietary AI-enabled HONOR Image Engine and triple-camera system comprising a 54MP IMX800 Main Camera, a 50MP Ultra-Wide & Macro Main Camera, and an 8MP 3X Optical Zoom Camera, allowing users to capture captivating images in stunning detail, delivering a superior photography and videography experience.

HONOR’s new foldable phone delivers flagship performance with Qualcomm® Snapdragon® 8+ Gen 1 Mobile Platform, and enhanced GPU and CPU performance that enables a faster and smoother user experience. It also supports the 66W Wired HONOR SuperCharge enabling the battery to be fully juiced up to 100 percent within just 46 minutes.

The HONOR Magic Vs comes in stunning colors: Orange, Cyan and Black and is set to be available in the Philippines very soon. For more information and announcements, you may visit HONOR’s website www.hihonor.com or social media platforms: Facebook (Facebook.com/HonorPhilippines), Instagram (Instagram.com/honorphilippines/) and TikTok: (Tiktok.com/@honorphilippines).

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[ghost-town-story]

Fate & Time Travel

My brain had Thoughts yesterday while at work and I figured “hey why not type them up in a nice lil worldbuilding post for WBW?”

And then I realized it would not be a little post because I have a lot of thoughts. Buckle up kids, cause this is gonna be long lmao

So. Fate and time travel. Aka characters who can only find out, and characters who can fuck around and find out lol.

Time is like a tapestry (yes we’re using this metaphor. deal with it :P). Each person’s life is a thread, woven together to form pictures most people can never see. 

Now, despite the fact that this entire post was brought on by Nova thoughts, we’re gonna start with Astral (because it’s shorter lol). In Astral, there are two types of what I’ll affectionately call time fuckery. The first are seers like Will, people who have the ability to see bits and pieces of the tapestry.

Now, a valid side question is: if they can see the future, why not attempt to change it? Especially in the case of bad things happening *cough cough aka the entire Dragon Ridge arc lmao*? Well you see. It turns out fate/time is incredibly resistant to being fucked with outside of set boundaries. Any attempt to avoid said fate will result in corrections happening that are often worse than the original fate.

Which is where the second type of time fuckery comes in: people like Io, who are able to manipulate the threads of fate directly. That is the only way of changing the future that’s not guaranteed to fuck everything up, and even then, playing carelessly with fate could still result in harsh corrections to prevent the tapestry from unraveling. 

For the most part, this is probably gonna be information that only I (and y’all reading this) know. Most seers are either told or learn from experience that changing the future holds harsh consequences, and those consequences have scared Io out of ever trying to tamper with the actual threads.

Ain’t that the way of the worldbuilding sometimes tho lol. Anyhoot, onto Nova (and all the Thoughts lol).

In Nova, there’s not so much “magic time based powers” but rather “morally dubious government is attempting to create time travel”. However, there are some issues with these experiments. 1. said unforgiving nature of time and tampering 2. considering humanity’s tendency to brute force their way through problems, said initial attempts at time travel are equivalent to blowing holes through the tapestry of time. So yeah. There are issues, and essentially nobody is able to do any sort of successful tampering/traveling through time.

*holds up Jay like a naughty brat cat* except for this lil shit :D

From the outside, Jay’s powers appear to be ye olde typical time travel powers: hop between the future and past and stepping out of the normal flow of time. But on a deeper level, Jay’s time fuckery is the ability to unravel his own thread, hop back and forth on the tapestry, and most importantly, his magic will patch things up and prevent the tapestry from unraveling due to his fucking around. Now, there are limits of course, some paradoxes are unforgivable, but a solid.... 90? 95? % of the time he’s not gonna be destroying the fabric of reality with his fucking about.

Which leads to fun lore about the “Time Travel AU”, which is the entire reason why I started thinking about time and magic and fate and all that jazz

There are three key components to the inciting incident of TTAU: 1. Project Chronos (said time travel experiment talked about earlier) 2. Jay’s nova happening in the vicinity of Project Chronos, creating a mostly-stable rip in time. 3. A certain individual who knows about Project Chronos Said person goes and fucks with the rift left by Jay’s nova, and all hell breaks loose.

Up until that point, Jay’s magic (unintentionally woven into the rift) was doing its passive job of keeping shit from unraveling. But the second somebody else tried to fuck with time, all bets went off. And such, all hell breaks loose as the tapestry attempts to fix itself, paradoxes happen, but the final nail in the coffin is when James gets shot. That is where two lines-of-no-return are crossed. 1. Your younger self dying is one of those unforgivable paradoxes 2. We’ve now paradoxed our way out of having that nice stabilizing magic woven into this mess of a rift in time.

So what’s a guy do to when his younger self is bleeding out in his arms and the very fabric of reality is falling apart around him?

Did you guess create more paradoxes? Cause that’s sure what fuckin happens :D

On the surface, Jay’s plan is to stop said person from fucking with the rift however possible which, considering the ticking clock that is James slowly bleeding out, ends up being caving in the path to Almaraz.

But Nova magic is incredibly instinctual, working on a subconscious level at times. So when Jay uses his magic to collapse the tunnel, thinking I have to fix this, his magic goes Okay and fixes shit. Tapestry repaired (except for the rift), the past few weeks of time scrubbed from existence, every thread woven back where it belongs, plus a little cave in to prevent all this shit from happening again.

And if Jay’s thread is forever splintered, half of it lost in paradoxes, sacrificed to keep the very fabric of reality together, well... it’s not like he knows it’s broken, considering he only starts seeing threads after TTAU concludes.

On that note, one more lil “fun” fact before I stop rambling and queue this post up to sleep lmao

You know that whole deal of “the more you do something the better you get at it”? So the more Jay hops through time, the better he gets at unraveling his thread from the rest of the tapestry. And the better he gets at that, the easier it is for his thread to just... slip a little loose, on occasion. And it’s not like his thread was woven very tightly in the first place, after going nova right on top of attempted time travel experiments.

In other words, Jay’s having a great time with his entire life :P

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

Opinions on Molly Weasley????

You know, I actually don’t think I’m too far out in left field for her. Well, I might be strange in that we tend to see very polarized opinions on Molly: either she’s the greatest mother who ever mothered and the Weasleys are a perfect family or she’s an overbearing manipulative matriarch who’s secretly poisoning Harry with love potions into marrying her daughter.

Sort of like Ron, I wouldn’t say Molly’s a saint, but she’s also not one of the truly nasty characters (she’s not eating babies or feeding Harry love potions or anything). That said, she is far from the warm, generous, matriarch JKR presented her as.

First, she is overbearing . There’s nothing wrong with this, it’s just how her and Arthur’s dynamic works, but at the same time if Arthur ever did have a spine it’s been completely conditioned out of him. It’s also very telling that Ron marries the overbearing equivalent of his mother in Hermione Granger. I suspect Ron’s spine has also completely disappeared by the time we hit that delightful epilogue from canon. 

As for the Weasleys, JKR sets them up to be the perfect family we can possibly (realistically) imagine. It’s huge, they all love each other and are fiercely loyal (except for Percy, the swine, we’ll get into this), they give Harry a sweater, it’s the family he wants so desperately that he marries the only available and socially acceptable option: Ginny (I could go on a rant about this for days, but guys, Harry shows way more interest in men than in women and I think 90% or Ginny’s attraction to him is that she’s a Weasley). 

That said the Weasleys, and Molly herself, have major issues. 

One, the money. I think JKR makes them poor to give contrast to the Malfoys. The Weasleys are nobly impoverished, they’re a wizarding family but understand more important things than money. The snobby Malfoys on the other hand have peacocks in their yard because rich people are inherently evil.  

That said, most of this is because Arthur and Molly completely mismanage finances. There’s nothing wrong with having seven children, but the Weasleys clearly cannot afford to have seven children. More, we see them spend money instantly when they have it. Ron is left without a wand for a year but the second Arthur wins the lottery, rather than save the money, WE’RE GOING TO EGYPT. Even the year before, money that might have gone towards emergency situations such as: my son’s wand broke is used to take Molly, Arthur, and Ginny to Egypt. They buy tickets to the Quidditch World Cup. The Weasleys don’t have that kind of money and then they go and are extremely bitter that Lucius Malfoy does have that kind of money. Yes, I’m sure the Malfoys were always wealthier than the Weasleys, but at the same time the Weasleys are the type to buy iphones for their kids when they’re on food stamps.

I’m getting a little distracted though, back to Molly.

I’d say Molly is far more traditional than JKR ever intended for her to be. She’s progressive enough that she supports muggleborns (they should get to go to Hogwarts and be very appreciative) but she also doesn’t think they should get too far ahead of themselves (we’ll get into this). She’s a raging misogynist (we’ll get into this). She is extremely judgmental and can flip on you at the drop of a hat with the barest of evidence. She never really does anything about Harry’s situation despite having very good evidence of its realities. And despite her family’s extreme poverty, even when all the kids are in boarding school, we don’t see her try to take up a job or even take up some etsy equivalent where she can enchant shit and sell it. There’s nothing wrong with staying home to raise the kids, but at the same time, I think for Molly it’s because “this is what the wife does”. 

Right, well, that actually was a lot.

Let’s start with Harry. Molly is witness to seven years of Harry’s childhood abuse and seems to take no action regarding it. Now, Fred and George are dubious sources, so them telling Molly that “hey Harry’s house had bars on his window” might not be taken seriously. Harry also is generally very private and embarrassed about his home life. That said, there are many many signs, and while Hermione practically lives at the Burrow ever since third or fourth year Harry has to spend every single summer with the Dursleys even before Voldemort’s return.

Granted, I have gone over that I don’t think child protection or even a good understanding of abuse exists in the Wizarding World. I think to wizards you’re stuck with the family you’ve got, and if your pureblood grandfather is raping you then it sucks to be you. That said, the Weasleys are such a central part of Harry’s life that I would expected them to do *something*. Instead it’s like Harry’s situation is... vaguely acknowledged but mostly ignored. 

Now, the Weasleys don’t have the money for an eighth kid (though Harry’s so absurdly wealthy he could help lighten the load were he to live with them) so I don’t hold this too much against them but... I would hope that a truly good family would have noticed Harry’s situation and tried to do something about it.

Right, the judgement part. The Weasley family’s unofficial disowning of Percy was horrible. This is going to be controversial, but Percy actually made some excellent points. Dumbledore and Harry’s story about Voldemort’s resurrection does sound nuts, the guy’s been dead ten years, he isn’t Jesus. More, it comes from Harry Potter who is young, traumatized, and has generally been erratic throughout the time Percy’s known him. And parts of what he says aren’t wrong. Why do the Weasley’s worship Dumbledore and listen to everything this man says? Dumbledore does do things like recruit child soldiers from the boarding school he runs. Dumbledore’s a shady guy. 

Mostly though, while Percy not believing Harry and Dumbledore is bad, I always got the feeling that a lot of the resentment and disowning was that Percy dared to do better than his father. Percy rises through the ranks quickly in the ministry, he’s extremely competent, where his father has been stuck in the same dead end joke of a job for years. Arthur even accuses Percy of having his position because Fudge is spying on Arthur. Which... no, Arthur, no. And the family just loathes him for it. They loathe him and it’s terrible. 

And I’m sure Dumbledore meanwhile is just dying that they’ve forced Percy out when Percy was in the perfect position to be a spy in the Ministry. I can just picture him drinking with Snape after Molly’s told him, tears in her eyes, that Percy is cut off because he betrayed the family, wondering what kind of morons are in the Order. 

Beyond Percy there’s what Molly does to Hermione in 4th year. And good god, this is also where the misogyny comes in. Rita Skeeter writes that Hermione, a fourteen-year-old girl, is a harlot and Molly not only a) believes it but b) becomes extremely judgmental of Hermione and essentially calls her a jezebel to her face. Molly, what the hell? Hermione’s life has been ruined by the tabloids for something that didn’t happen, and even if it did is nothing she should be slandered for, and Molly’s going “THAT WHORE”.

This is after Skeeter had slandered Arthur just that summer over the Quidditch World Cup incident and Molly hadn’t believed any of it for a second. So, either Hermione’s being a girl or her being an uppity muggleborn or both somehow makes this believable...

Molly’s very similar with Fleur. She doesn’t approve and I always got the feeling it was in part because Fleur is not the traditional sort of woman she’d want Bill to marry (Fleur is a working woman at Gringotts and more is elegant refined beauty rather than a girl next door who’d make a great housewife) but also because Fleur’s foreign. Bill should marry a nice, English, woman and instead he ends up with this French quarter-veela. 

Had Harry done anything to offend Molly, or even if Dumbledore had simply gone “You know what, Harry’s awful, we hate him”, then I would expect he too would have been completely cut off and thrown back into the gutter where he belongs.

So, Molly sucks and is not nearly as progressive as JKR intended, but is she feeding Harry love potions to marry Ginny and make the family wealthy? No.

[samueldays]

LitRPG is essentially crappy

Even accounting for Sturgeon’s Law (90% of everything is crap) I seem to come across unusually large proportions of crappy LitRPG writing. After thinking for a while, I have come to the conclusion that the entire LitRPG genre, by its essence and nature, is a bad genre. Even its good works are worse than they could otherwise be. I will now set out the case for this, arguing on the internet.

In brief: LitRPG is like writing a novel in Engrish.

Your story can have a great plot, great characters and a great moral, but writing it in Engrish will make it worse than writing it in either English or Japanese.

The ‘Engrish’ of LitRPG is not a translation between languages but between representations. A paragraph of descriptive text does not embody a man’s skill with a sword any more than a numerical rating does, but both have their uses in estimating that skill. The former is used in most literature; the latter is used in regular RPGs and in some works like Order Of The Stick (OOTS).

LitRPG wants to carry over literalisms from the one to the other and kludge them together without doing the proper ‘translation’, merely word-for-word embedding. This lack of translation is one of the defining traits of the LitRPG genre, and that’s terrible. A LitRPG work wants to reify the game abstraction without properly considering what the abstraction was abstracted from in the first place, and the result is a mess of Engrish.

This is aggravated by a lot of LitRPG not using the actual system of any particular RPG (even an unplayed but designed one), just attaching vaguely RPG-ish numbers to things and making the numbers go up as the author pleases. Examples of this crud could be multiplied without limit; I would rather direct you to the good Harry Potter and the Natural 20 as a counterexample which hews closely to D&D. In the Engrish analogy, this would be comparable to sprinkling in random words to look as though it’s a Japanese translation without any Japanese having been involved. As there’s no language this word soup was translated from, one can’t hope to reconstruct the original meaning, nor learn its equivalent of SVO order and cultural touchstones to better understand and predict it in the future.

This is aggravated further by how often it gets into a vicious cycle with protagonist bias in the many settings that are supposedly LitRPG all the way through, rather than the protagonist being the only one. The protagonist possesses ill-considered abstractions, the power level of the abstractions is itself ill-defined, and the worldbuilding theoretically involves the common NPCs having a dozen RPG-powers each with usable offscreen implications but in practice the author can’t be arsed to do an entire Tolkien and habitually defaults to the offscreen being like Earth except where given screentime. Thus screentime translates directly into having more superpowers, making the protagonist boringly overpowered and overshadowing everyone and the author seemingly not intending or even being aware of this.

Then there’s number padding.

When an author drafts an ordinary work of literature, a good editor may give  harsh feedback along the lines of: “This chapter does not advance the plot, does not have character development, does not do any worldbuilding, and should not be in the book. Delete the entire chapter and reduce its events to a passing mention in the next chapter.” Some authors are even capable of recognizing this in themselves and cutting out the irrelevant tangents.

When an author writes LitRPG, it’s temptingly easy to have a chapter contain character ‘development’ only in the sense of a character’s number getting bigger. This leads to a lot of LitRPG being padded with chapter after chapter of the protagonist practising some trivial action for thousands of words until a number goes up, then repeating it until the number goes up further, then making another number get bigger.

This all described in painstaking detail, listing too many interim numbers, presumably because copy-pasting notifications from a videogame is easier than creative writing to fill pages with. To round it off, the whole shebang is frequently capped off by posting the latest iteration of the protagonist’s character sheet, which lists all the numbers that were just gained, again, plus repeating a lot more numbers that haven’t changed since we last saw them. This is padding. This should have been a passing mention in the next chapter.

Following all that is another complaint which is not essential to LitRPG, but is fairly common there and unique to the genre, so I’ll throw it on the pile of genre complaints. LitRPG frequently features characters who have “Insight 3″ RPG-driven skill while also reading the skill descriptions and using classic-literature thought to make inferences and import knowledge that isn’t in the RPG system. They’re double-dipping. And while this double-dipping might be the interesting topic of a work in itself, or funny once, it gets tiring to see protagonists constantly showing a sort of medium awareness while the author shows no meta-awareness about it. Can other characters do this? If yes, why does the setting so often look like they never did it? If no, why do the characters so often readily accept the protagonist doing it?

[allthingsfern]

More info about my reason for choosing my Sony a7r3

So, @mirzans​, replied to my “From my own experience switching from Nikon DSLR to Sony mirrorless,“ asking about why I did not choose a Nikon Z camera, which is a great question and something I should have explained/added to my post: context. It is important to know when I bought my a7r3 and what my choices were.

Here goes.

I bought my Sony a7r3 back in December of 2017, on the 26th, to be exact. Sony, at the time, was the mirrorless full frame leader and neither Nikon nor Canon had yet released their equivalent mirrorless cameras. After much research, I wound up deciding between the D850 or a7r3. BTW, there were a couple of Fujis I liked, but none was full frame; yes I strongly considered the Fujifilm GFX 50S, which was almost twice as much as the D850 and the a7r3 but had 50 mp (the D850: 45.7mp; a7r3: 42.4). However, from my research, it was rated as a good camera, but more for a studio setting, and did not autofocus as highly rated as either of my 2 final choices, plus the a7r3 was celebrated for its uniquely accurate, for that time, eye recognition focus. So, when I walked into Mike’s Camera, I knew it was either the D850 or the a7r3. Let me add that in 2017, Sony was making big (mostly) positive news with its a7r3. The previous 2 a7r models were promising, but had issues like overheating and horrendous battery life, but the a7r3 had improved on those issues and was then highly recommended. At about the same time that year, Nikon’s D850 was being celebrated as a great improvement of the already superb D800.

A little background about my camera ownership history may be useful here, too, so all y’all understand why I was looking at Nikon and Fuji, and not Canon or any other brand, well, except Sony.

In 2012, I bought my D50 used form a friend. It was already 5 years old at the time. I owned 2 SLRs before that, in the mid 70s and early 90s. Both were cheap, no-name cameras and my photography sucked shit through a brick, but not because of my cameras. I just never bothered to really learn photography, thinking it was just a matter of liking the way something looked and then taking a picture of it.

Oy vey.

However, I owned my baby, my D50, for 4 years. Then I bought a new Nikon D3500 w/ a used 24-200mm lens (sorry, I cannot recall which one, but it was highly recommended by Ken Rockwell and was a great lens)  a lower end starter Nikon DSLR and a used Fuji X100s. I absolutely loved both cameras. Since I figured that I was going to be trading up to a more complex model and I would, in effect, have to learn a new camera system, I knew I wanted to stick with Nikon and Fuji. And yes, Canon and other makes are good to great as well, but I figured I would stick with what I knew.

Except for the Sony. But really, since I needed to learn a new system, I figured I would go to the camera store and give them a feel, then make up my mind.

Now, to a certain degree, the D850 was slightly ahead because earlier in 2017 I got to use a D800 for a photo shoot for work. It was set up for me (the studio was ready for me, all I had to do was point and shoot; it was a special project that I got permission to do the photography for and, sadly, the portraits never were used) and let me tell you, as soon as I grabbed that D800, the ergonomics, the familiar feel, were perfect. That was one sexy camera, at least to me. Still is.

However, when i walked into Mike’s and held the even heftier d850, it also felt good, familiar, but as soon as I held the a7r3, even before I raised it to my face and looked through the viewfinder, I knew it was the one for me. It felt right and was lighter, and with the advanced eye focus, my decision was made immediately. And as I mentioned in my previous post, my camera guy soon realized I knew the specs and was looking at the 2 best choices for me, so he just left me alone and only was there to provide support, if I requested any.

Now, I believe that things are meant to happen, that time and Life give us signs that we are going in the right direction. And when I bought that first a7r3, I wanted the recently released 24-105mm f/4 G Sony lens. If I recall, it had just started shipping in late November, early December, so it was hard to get. And Mike’s had just one, that was pre-ordered, but the person who ordered it did not pick it up, and since it was sitting in the store (and not paid for) for about 2 weeks and was hard to get, my camera guy decided to sell it to me.

Talk about meant to be.

And yes, for any of you who know me who are reading this, I did get all teary eyed and freaked out a bit. I was able to drop so much money on camera equipment because a friend had recently died and left me enough money to pay off half my student loans, my almost $40K in credit card debt, and buy the cameras. (I did not mention I have 2 a7r3 bodies and a lens for each one: the 24-105mm f/4 and the Zeiss 55mm f1.8 made for Sony.) To me, the whole changing lenses thing is crazy making and as a professional photographer friend of mine said (my coworker who was the staff photographer and was always willing to talk about camera gear and was very supportive), I should have a zoom and a prime, and since I could afford the 2 bodies, I should just fucking get them. No regrets.

And to add to the “meant to be” coincidences of that day I bought my first a7r3 and the 24-105mm, while I was paying for the camera and my camera guy was explaining several perks and deals and things Mike’s Camera offered, he mentioned that there was a Sony mirrorless workshop, given by a Sony expert, coming up on January 19, 2018 at the store. That was when I knew my camera purchase was the right thing to do, since that was the anniversary of my friend’s death and I already planned to visit their grave site that day, but the workshop was at night and I could do both.

And fuck, yes, again I got all teary eyed there at the counter of Mike’s Camera.

Finally, you know that friend of mine who was the staff photographer at work, the one who was so supportive and helpful? And, BTW, who actually has a degree in photography? Well, after about a year of my buying my a7r3, I showed him some photos I took handheld at 1/30 sec in very low light w/ high ISO. He was so impressed with the quality of the images, that he ordered an a7r3 and a couple lenses for work. I think he got the 24-70mm GM and the 70-200mm GM, both f/2.8 and both with stabilization, and either the 85mm or 135mm GM. He wound up using the a7r3 for events and outdoor shoots and kept the D800 for studio portraits. That D800 is such a cool camera. But then again, I have another friend who owns a Canon 5D (also a pro photographer) and it is awesome, too.

Anyway, sorry I shared so much, @mirzans. Guess you can tell I just love this shit.

[trainsinanime]

I recently rewatched Raya and the Last Dragon, and I feel like we must admit a fundamental truth about this movie:

The opening is really clunky.

Now, clunky openings for Disney movies are not a new thing. A good example is Frozen, which starts with music that doesn’t come up again and doesn’t say anything about the movie, and the first character it introduces is Kristoff. Sometimes openings are just weird. But Raya really takes the cake, because the opening is just so long and keeps starting and stopping.

We start with Raya in a post-apocalyptic wasteland on her fantasy motorcycle equivalent, and you know, that’s a good image.

But then we immediately go back five hundred years, and hear the introduction about Kumandra, the strife, Druun, Sisu and the countries splitting. Then we jump forward exactly 494 years, where we get an Indiana Jones set piece and get introduced to Dragon Gem and its guardians. We go to the kitchen, where Benji prompts Raya to recount more exposition, this time about the current political state and what the different countries are like. Then, for apparently the first time ever, he brings up not only the big peace meeting, but also, apparently, the idea of peace and unity and Kumandra itself, to Raya's great surprise. Seriously, she doesn’t act like she doesn’t share her father's ideals; she acts like she never heard about them before.

From there we get to the meeting scene, where Chief Benji says hello to everyone, and immediately gets cut off by someone else who is annoyed at the sentimental speech that Benji has not actually yet told. I’m 90% certain that there was a speech here, and it got cut because it was redundant with all the speeches Benji gives Raya. Which was probably correct, but it leaves a hole here.

We get the Rayari interactions, where the voice actors and animators really cannot be praised enough. They really sell this connection, while the dialogue does its best to undermine this. They almost literally say, “let’s list all the things we have in common. Gosh, we sure are good friends, aren’t we?” Thanks to how they say it, we all understand that it’s important, but this could have been handled more elegantly.

Then we get the whole betrayal and the action sequence and the return of the Druun, and only then do we get a final six years forward time skip and are back to the first image of Raya on her Tudykcycle doing a Mad Max impression.

Throughout this all we learned about the world, its history and the main themes of the movie through either Raya telling us explicitly, Raya telling Benji (who already knows), or Benji telling Raya (who should already know but for some reason doesn’t). A lot of the information seems to be essentially randomly distributed between the different exposition scenes. The only thing that feels half-way organic about this is when Namaari tells Raya about the Sisu legend.

Since this is the start of the movie, it’s really easy to forget this once you reached in the end; in fact that’s what I did when I first watched it. But I think the movie could have been quite a bit stronger if it had rearranged the opening. A particular example is the explanation of the different countries - maybe less telling upfront and more discovering it, either when we’re actually there, or just by talking to the people from there, would have been nicer? It could also have developed things more. For example, is Tail always a desert, or is that a symptom of the problems of the movie? That is not actually ever explained, except Raya’s opening narration seems to hint at it. 

I still think it’s a nice movie; I had a great time with it and I can definitely recommend it (at least as soon as it’s on normal Disney+). I just think this is a thing that could have been handled better. 

[hunterguyveriv]

My Hopes and Wants for the new Masters of the Universe series

So in approximately less then 12 hours(if Netflix still follows its "release a new series at 3am" mandate) Masters of the Universe: Revelations is set to premiere on Netflix. While I am still a bit upset about the recent reveal I can't help but feel that I'll be going into another shitshow-reboot that started off with great potential but ended up going to trash. And this is based off going to youtube for Godzilla videos and music and seeing reviewers and vloggers practically all say the same thing.

Lets get one thing straight before all of you jump down my throat. I've been a MotU fan since I was a 2 in the 1984. I had bedspreads,pillow covers, books, toys, pajamas/underwear, even a homemade muscle suit that my mother found the pattern to make at a fabric shop for Halloween one year. So know that when I say I had high hopes for this series from the moment it was announced it's the truth.

Even when it was revealed that when Netflix released it's synapses, and the drama behind the scenes with some youtube vloggers and Kevin Smith over the past group of months I still had hope it would be one of the very few reboots that surpasses the original like 2002s He-Man series, the 2011 ThunderCats, 2012 TMNT series (which could have had a better ending IMO).

I wasn't even upset when it was revealed that King Greyskull and Andra were what people call today "race-bent." Andra was never really that important in the MotU universe only appearing once or twice in the comic strips and again in Injustice vs Masters of the Universe. As for King Greyskull, I grew to accept because of, well my own family. Looking at my family (Aunt who identifies as black gave birth to a daughter who is biracial who then had 3 blond hair blue-eyed kids) so I am taking this as a win for biracial/mixed blood rep.

I even like most of the cast and crew that I recognize with the exception of one, but I never really liked the actress from the 90s. I am talking about Sarah Michelle Gellar. I never liked her as Buffy or any other role she was in. Some may say that makes me bias towards Teela, but you are wrong.

I've always loved the character Teela. Because she is the Sorceress' daughter she has always been Prince Adam/He-Man's equal both in the previous series and comics. Even though she seemed like she was a tsundere towards Adam because she has to even after learning who he is (in the comics), she was always been He-Man's version of what Lois Lane is to Superman, or Abby Arcane is to Swamp Thing, she was his rock - his light in the darkness.

I am still a bit pissed about the Orko thing, but I explain my reasons in one of my previous posts - so I won't go into that.

The purpose of this post on the eve of the series being released is to voice my hopes and wants for it.

1.) Lets get the big one out of the way - Representation. I want representation, (because God forbid there be a series without it these days) to be natural and not the focus or feel forced. Believe me being a mixed-race person who is part Native/White/Black I get it more than anyone gives me credit.

Growing up Star Trek from 1966-2016 was the king of natural representation. Where unless the episode's story called for it NO ONE CARED about race/gender/ or one's orientation.

2.) Developed Story Well developed story that makes you feel like the show-runners have a plan from start to finish. That means a well thought out story, developed characters, what are their contingency plans if no one likes the series, what are their plans if the series is received? It needs to leave you wanting more!

3.) Let the villains be villains! Enough with the frigging "redemption" arcs! A redemption arc worked for Zuko in the Avatar series because of his character development. But ever since A:TLA, it seems every villain needs to have a redemption arc. Characters like Zarkon, Haggar, Lotor, HORDAK who is practically the Darkseid/Thanos of the MotU universe doesn't need a redemption arc or a "happy ending." In the MotU universe genocidal threats like Skeletor and Hordak raise the stakes for the heroes and drive them to win. Evil-Lyn does not need a redemption arc she has ALWAYS been Skeletor's equivalent to the Sorceress.

4.) Fans need to respect each other unlike when Voltron and She-Ra were playing. People are entitled to their own opinions whether they are new fans or old-timers like myself. If we don't like the way a series is going we are allowed to voice our opinions whether it congeals to someone else's opinions or not. Keep in mind that many of us have kept series like Voltron, She-Ra, TMNT, ThunderCats, and many other 1980s cartoon series going for the better part of 40 years for you to watch and enjoy these newer series. Our opinions mater just as much as yours.

5.) If you truly want to support this new series, and MotU as a whole buy official merch to the series. Like it was when we were young, getting the official merch helps the series more than you would expect. Now I am not saying don't support fellow fans who make trinkets and cosplay outfits and so-forth. Just keep in mind if there is a demand for officially licenced merch it can and will help the series.

These are my hopes and wants for the new series. I am still holding out on hope that the critics and vloggers are wrong on Masters of the Universe: Revelations lives up to the original series while being original itself as it has been advertised as when others (see below) with the exception of 3 did not, it has a a Godzilla sized mountain to climb to impress me. But know this when I see this series I will give my honest opinion of it, whether people like it or not. 

[carmenxjulia]

Another Duane interview transcript, coming at you! This one was from a smaller Carmen Sandiego chatroom. There were several interviewers, so that’s why the name of the question asker changes. Get the details below the break! Stay tuned, more interview transcripts coming soon.

Duane Capizzi:

HI EVERYONE! I'M IN!

Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the way haha. Then got lost trying to change my PFP

Thanks for gathering! Shall we get started? Let's do some Q&A!

(as long as they are not geography questions haha)

Fuel:

What characters or plot points were cut from the final product?

Duane Capizzi:

Ooo, starting with a right hook to the jaw!

Let me think about that for a moment: I'm hesitant to give too much away because I'm really hoping we can tell more stories in this world at some point

Which is to say, we tend not to waste anything: if we don't use it when we originally planned, we usually find a way to use something later - and there's usually a "karmic" reason that we waited.

I'll also preface by saying this: I know season 3 was more of a mini-drop and some felt season 4 was rushed. But I wish EVERY season were longer. Season 1: ideally, i wanted the Pilot to be its own event and 10 more episodes after that (but we had to tell the post-Pilot story in 7. At the end of the day, that had its benefits: we got to the Shadowsan turn earlier and I think that's when a lot of viewers realized the ride they were truly in for). Season 2: we initially figured we'd need 5 episodes to have Carmen doing the ACME dance with Chief, and wound up doing it in 3 - mostly because it quickly became clear that Rio needed to be a 2 parter, and the Zack and Ivy backstory a rough 2 parter. So we squeezed 3 episodes worth of plot into 209. It was exhilarating!

So, we had hoped to have more episodes for Season 4 of course. We had a ton of ideas and had to compress things a bit. But honestly in many ways it was for the better. I know we all wanted to live in this world longer, but I think sometimes the flip side is true - when you have big ongoing storylines, it can get frustrating when some things drag out too long. But, we got all the "story" we wanted to tell in Season 4 - we just lost some "incident" if that makes sense. We would have taken longer to get there.

So, all that preface to answer the question: we wanted to do more musical numbers! We had a Bollywood dance sequence in a return to India caper with Paperstar. We wanted to do a famous Elvis suit theft in Las Vegas during an Elvis impersonator convention (Shadowsan's an early elvis guy; Brunt likes the Vegas "jumpsuit" era). We also wanted to do a thread where Gunnar gets captured by ACME so that Julia could interrogate him and he could play mind games with her a la Hannibal Lector and Clarice. CAVEAT TO ALL THIS: these were some ideas that were bouncing around, that may not have seen the light of day if we couldn't get them to work. But they were on our wish list.

re: "other stories" - I could live with these characters for another 32 episodes easily and there have of course been discussions. But alas, that is up to the powers that be. Let's keep fingers crossed - and keep the Carmen love alive online so that someone up there takes note

There is more of course, but those are some things that spring to mind.

Fuel:

Were there any scenes cut for time that were your favorite?

Duane Capizzi:

Not much springs to mind: our directors were amazing at getting everything in the scripts to fit naturally (and in fact, I was the one who was usually suggesting trims to let other things breathe, etc). We were limited to 22 minutes of episode time, NOT counting front and end credits so a little longer than the average show. We have a pretty good idea when the SCRIPT is too long, so the cutting usually happens at script stage before it gets to the board crew so that they don't waste efforts over-boarding material that won't be used.

We had hoped to build out Chase and Carmen teaming up for the first time, meeting at Carmen's hotel lobby etc for more scenes of them together; but had to reduce that to get that all to fit in the VERY packed episode 406. But again, tighter was fine considering. That's one area that leaps to mind. (note that when I say packed, I don't mean that in a bad way: we spend a lot of time pouring over details in editing to make sure everything gets its due).

If I think of anything, I'll circle back at a later point. But the simple answer is that scenes were usually trimmed or compressed at script rather than board or animatic. So nothing comes to mind. I know it's hard to believe, but "shorter is usually better."

except for my answers to fan questions of course

Fuel:

We saw that in s4 episode 6 that Julia's mother(?) is wearing a necklace remarkably similar to the one Julia wears all the time. Is this the same necklace and if so, why was it given to Julia?

Duane Capizzi:

Just when I thought I was detail oriented! Wow! You guys blow me away

I can't take credit for that: it was either the board artist or director who added that. They do slip things in! As I've said before, EVERYONE on the crew really brought their A-game and were as deep thinking and as passionate as I was/am about the show.

It's a nice detail and I would say your interpretation works!

It took me three or four reviews before noticing that the team had slipped in baby Carmen near the play set in Mom's front yard at the end of 408. When I caught it, I was like: bravo!

Fuel:

When they first met, Zack and Ivy said to Carmen that they were the only family they had, do you know what happened to the rest of Zack and Ivy's family?

Duane Capizzi:

I don't. At least, I don't yet until such a time that I might have the opportunity to explore that. It was important to their relationship with Carmen that they be orphans, so they had that common bond (aside from being "thieves who steal from bad guys" - even if it was only gonna be one time for Zack and Ivy).

I know there are writers out there who like to do entire bio's for characters up front but i'm not one of them. It could be a trap in many ways. I like to have a general idea but be open to the demands of the ongoing storyline. You discover things along the way - it's like you're taking a journey with the characters by writing them, and the longer you spend, the better you get to know them (that was not a prepared statement by the way - I just made that up but I'll have to use it again :). So in Z/I's case it wasn't important to the story or Carmen's relationship, we felt. Conversely, we STARTED with Shadowsan's family backstory with 203, but more important to me was that we use it as a platform to explain why he stays with Carmen and crew. He really has no home at that point, so it was relevant to the present ongoing story. Which is what made that especially powerful to me.

Also, there's always a push-pull between telling character back stories while balancing them with ongoing episodic plots. You have to service both. If you just tell back story, then you're writing a biography

Arden:

What was the biggest challenge when designing these characters, especially the pre-existing characters from the series in the 90's?

Duane Capizzi:

This is probably more of a question for Chromosphere, re: challenges. But from my standpoint overseeing that process, the first thing I'll say is that we weren't necessarily trying to be "true" to those characters since we reinvented nearly every one from the ground up. (with the exception of Carmen of course - her trademark red hat/coat weren't going anywhere! But mostly the update with Carmen was in the styling of her "outerwear"

ALTHOUGH: I will admit that I was pushing for Carmen to have shorter hair as Carmen. I thought it would be a cool update. Chromosphere were really passionate about giving her long full hair and I have to see that they were right. The short tomboy cut worked so well for Black Sheep anyway. We had a different hair style for each of her ages.

So about the reinventions: Gunnar is in spirit a similar character to the original (old colleague in Vile and an early mentor if I remember), but his presentation completely different. We weren't trying to be "in canon" with the original. The beauty of CSD is that every incarnation has been its own entity so that freed us to reimagine the characters. THE CLEANERS, for instance: gimme some Cleaner love! There were a pair of janitors from the original game named RICK AND NICK ICK. They were literally janitors, it was too silly for our purposes. But, it's one small step to make them "Cleaners" (in the sinister hit men sense) - and lo, our reinvention.

So to summarize the answer to your question, they weren't really challenges to me so much as FUN to creatively reinvent the original characters (many of which were from the game, so not really "characters" per se with dialogue and inner lives). Whenever we could, we tried to use character names from the originals and update their looks and personalities. Where we couldn't find an equivalent for what we needed, we created characters from whole cloth. For instance, it seemed a miss to do a heist show without a tunnel guy and a high rise climber guy. Hence, LC & ET, everyone's favorite taco truck vendors!

(yes, i've seen some short hair carmen fan art on Twitter - someone did a great one recently!)

Arden:

Are there plans to give us more of the characters in, say, novel/graphic novel form?

Duane Capizzi:

I know HMH has done a bunch and no doubt have more in works. There's currently a novelization of the Pilot with some additional material if anyone's interested. I consulted on the second one, Clue for Clue, because it falls in the timeline while Chase was still Interpol/pre-Acme so was tricky.

And depending on whether another series in this canon makes it to air, I may just approach them about writing one or two myself to get some "further adventures" our there. Anything is possible!

Arden:

If you could go back and change anything about the series, what would it be?

Duane Capizzi:

File under anecdote, but there was what I felt was an important expression on Gray that kept me awake at nights, from his graduation ceremony at Vile. When we revisited those flashbacks in the Gray arc in Season 4, I had them change his expression there (to be more evil less innocent). We had it corrected in 404 so was able to get permission to have Netflix "fix" the Pilot by adding that shot in. I am tenacious!

We really poured over everything, it's the series that I have virtually zero complaints with the end product to be honest. But the simple answer is: I would have gone back to 106 and "un-greek'd" Gray's nametag. It's sort of a rule for international that we scramble signage (which is weird for a show that takes place in many countries/languages, I know I know). It's mostly for localization/translation reasons. And I'm sure there are some countries where Gray's name might be spoken differently. But as a proper name, I think we could have made an exception and seen "Gray" on his name tag. See? Details! But that's about the worst of it

there's also like one small line from Chief in 208 where she indicates she knows Carmen is a good guy (something to that effect) which I felt was too absolute and would have tweaked the line to temper it a bit. It's tiny, but looking back it sort of bugs me and I kick myself for not catching it. But this is absolutely the series I wanted and couldn't be happier.

Carmen:

How did Carmen know she could trust Julia? As far as we know, she has not seen or heard Julia defending her, and in the Fashionista Caper, Julia even held up her gas gun to her, saying she was under arrest. Do you have any opinions on this? Was it just intuition?

Duane Capizzi:

I'm gonna go with intuition

Carmen was raised on an island with some hardened criminal types. I think she's a pretty good judge of character. Poor Julia, trying to be tough with Carmen didn't suit her.

But, great observation! I'd have to mentally step through everything to see if Carmen had any earlier indication but i think you're right there.

Yes, sometimes you just gotta follow your heart

Carmen:

Are there any characters that didn't actually interact that you think would get along well?

Duane Capizzi:

Amazing question! First, I'd have to think more about who DIDN'T meet - you're asking the hard questions haha. But "get along well" is very specific! Hmmm, care to volley anyone?

I'll also add that so many smaller moments get lost in the "binge" of it all, but I am surprised how few fans have noted the first meeting between Player and Julia. THAT was a good one IMO! Very sweet!

Before getting back to your question, I also want to add that we were originally going to find a way for Carmen to lose her earring in Stockholm so that Julia could pick it up and be communicating with Player. BUT, I cut it at treatment stage because I knew we didn't have room in that episode to service it. Circling back to questions 1 & 2, another case where it turned out better saved for later IMO (saving Player meeting Julia, not to mention the earring business in 402 with Ivy).

Oh of course, Julia and any of the other Vile members. It would have been Gunnar for my vote, as mentioned earlier. We probably would not have had Julia meet anyone else and mixed it up more. I like that Cleo sort of became J's personal nemesis.

YES, SONIA & XIFENG (and LUPE PELIGRO, if I can add). The intent was (and is, if we ever get to revisit) to see them again in Carmen's travels. We started to expand Carmen's world but when we finally learned the finite number of episodes we had to finish the story, we drilled back down into the essentials. Would love to see them some day!

I'm hesitant to share too many things I have in mind in this forum for hope that they will see the light of day one day. You know, "spoilers"

Julia:

Do you have any opinions on Zari? Just in general? Some thoughts on her backstory would be nice if possible

Duane Capizzi:

I love Zari! I really don't have any back story on her at this point. She was originally just "Agent B" but when the need arose to give story points to another agent, we chose her because she looked so awesome! And Sharon Muthu gave voice to her so wonderfully.

I love when we finally teamed her with Chase. Hopefully the anticipation was that she would give him a hard time. I love that we defied expectation (organically, of course) and had her respect him by the end of that episode (for believing that he foiled Carmen!)

Julia:

Do you have any thoughts on small facts about any character, major or minor, that you think are fun/interesting to think about, but don't necessarily add to the plot itself?

Duane Capizzi:

Bellum, like myself, likes cats. But you knew that!

I try to put everything pertinent on screen, doing double duty to service any given episode's story but also the overarching story. That "journey" thing I mentioned earlier - we had no idea Chase falling on his own car would be a thing when I first came up with it. But as other characters refer to the incident, it took on a life of its own and made the characters feel more real.

Sorta kinda related to this question and some earlier ones, I will say that I DO think there's more to learn about Shadowsan's past vis a vis Lady Dokuso: it's clear to me that they have a history together, and it's something I hope to explore someday soon (maybe in a book if not another series

Julia:

Are the Carmen Sandiego books a part of canon?

Duane Capizzi:

I only consulted on the first two or three (too busy with series!) and have not read them, so hard for me to answer in a definite way. They are definitely in the universe we've created, but not in the timeline that I know of (which would have been too hard to pull off with our script development running concurrently). But do know that the book team at HMH pays close attention to the series and world so they should be perfectly compatible. Look no further to their clever social media on the series for example.

Kenz:

We saw in season 4 that Julia and Carmen helped each other mid to long term; would there ever be a possibility that Julia would permanently or semi-permanently join team Red?

Duane Capizzi:

Of course there's a possibility. But in a sense, with ACME now finally on Carmen's side, in a sense if Carmen were back in the game Julia, Chase, Zack and Ivy would ALL be an extension of Carmen's crew. But, would J remain with ACME or literally come to Carmen's team at her HQ? As they said in an old radio show: "Only The Duane Capizzi knows ..."

Kenz:

Where do you see Carmen in her retirement (if she retires)? Do you think she would still travel the world or settle down somewhere? Similarly, do you have any thoughts on what some other characters could be doing years down the line?

Duane Capizzi:

That is a big question, and one difficult to answer without some potential future spoilers (and yes, I really want to tell more Carmen stories if you can't tell But I'll answer by giving you one "read" on our open-ended ending as seen in 408 (read no further if you haven't seen it - yeah, right haha). The ending suggests to me that Carmen settled down for a spell to forge that relationship with her mother, to make up for lost time. But, if that is indeed Carmen that we see on the rooftop, I think the ending suggests that Carmen doesn't stay still for very long. If Vile is back, there is work to be done! Carmen has a life mission - she's one determined lady.

But of course, it's deliberately ambiguous: "anyone with your heart, wisdom and courage can be Carmen Sandiego." Is it Carmen? Sonia? Someone we haven't met? I think both endings resonate: Caroline and I always said "Carmen is bigger than a person, Carmen is a movement" would be a great message to end the series on. And I think our ending resolves this chapter of Carmen's journey as a person, but also elevates her to mythic status. Which is why I love it!

And, that seems to me a pretty perfect question and answer to end our chat on. Thanks everyone! Again, I cannot tell you how moved I am to see that we have such a passionate, intelligent and talented fan base. THANK YOU.

Take care guys, thanks again for having me! 'night!

[rjzimmerman]

This potential oil field can lead to massive drilling and environmental destruction. Think other areas in Africa, parts of South America, places in the US west, fracking in Pennsylvania, the Alberta tar sands, Alaska that have been significantly harmed or devastated by drilling, oil production, processing and transportation. But here, in the Okavango Delta, live wildlife that we all desperately want to protect (except for rich, white westerners who want to hunt them).

And this raises a question that has been bugging the shit out of me for years, and which I have posted here on Tumblr for years. Why is it that these oil companies who rape the Earth and its inhabitants, botanical and non-botanical, are headquartered, or were founded in, or whose primary operations are located in countries that were part of the old British Commonwealth? Think: UK, USA, Australia, Canada. What kind of fucking nation-based DNA was passed on to us by those rich old British lords and dukes and kings and queens who lived in castles and liked blowing bugles and killing fox?

Excerpt from this story from Grist:

The first Andreas Mawano Limbundi and his family knew of oil exploration in their village in northeast Namibia was as they watched a drilling site being set up about 200 meters from their homestead late last year. Their village — 90 minutes along a potholed dirt road from the town of Rundu on the Namibia-Angola border — was peaceful, with the sounds of birdsong and the wind rustling the tree leaves. Since January 2021, however, that quiet has been shattered by 24-hour drilling. The family has no idea if they will have to leave their home and, if so, whether they will be compensated. They’re also angry that they were not consulted, and skeptical that they will benefit from permanent jobs despite having to live with the test well on their doorstep.

The rig belongs to ReconAfrica, an oil and gas company headquartered in Canada, currently drilling three test wells in the sedimentary Kavango Basin of Namibia. The company has a license for an area of 9,800 square miles, plus an adjacent area in neighboring Botswana — 13,250 square miles in total. According to a 2019 investor presentation obtained by National Geographic, the company’s goal is to drill hundreds of wells under a 25-year production license. Geochemist and ReconAfrica shareholder Daniel Jarvie estimated the basin has the potential to produce as much as 120 billion barrels of oil equivalent, which would make it one of the biggest global oil finds in recent years.

But ReconAfrica’s plans are touching off mounting questions and opposition. The regions of Kavango East and Kavango West are home to 200,000 people — including the indigenous San — making a living from farming, fishing, and tourism. A network of rigs, pipelines, and roads would sprawl across an environmentally sensitive, semi-arid region that is home to Africa’s largest remaining population of savanna elephants as well as numerous threatened or endangered wildlife species. In addition, the drilling — which may involve hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — also would encompass or border national parks and wildlife conservancies, and could threaten waterways that local communities rely on and that eventually flow into the renowned Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

[izumisays]

dear yuletide author

Thank you so much for reading this and taking part in this wonderful annual conspiracy!


First of all, I hope you have a lovely time! If any of the fandoms below pique your interest, I’m delighted already, and ready to hear all the stories you want to tell.

Fandoms:  Chihayafuru, Nirvana in Fire, Thunderbolt Fantasy

As for reading preferences, I’m happy with a wide variety of tones and genres, of any rating, ranging anywhere from lighthearted antics to dramatic casefics. But the core of all the stories I love has always been character interaction and interplay of their competences.

How the characters play off each other and bring out their best/worst, how they’d react to a divergence of events, how true they’d stay to themselves in a different setting – I love fanfiction for allowing us to reconnect with our favourite stories time and again by asking these questions. And there are so many ways to do it! To name a few favourites, I’m always game for POV hijinks, a missing scene, a casefic, canon expansion, backstories and what-ifs.

You may notice that quite a few of my requests lean towards shipfic – those, too, are welcome in a variety of tones – but I also tried to include openings for gen ideas if that’s your jam. Additionally, while it is not usually my top interest, I don’t have anything against AUs if there is something that you are itching to explore: I tend to enjoy them for a new aesthetic that fleshes out the favoured character dynamics in a new light, or a fusion that redefines the playing ground to allow the characters to exhibit their core competences in new and exciting ways.

I would be very grateful if you could avoid a/b/o and similar kinktropes, played-straight soulmate fic, and character interpretation that runs contrary to their core values. If in doubt, please reach out to me on anon - the askbox is open!

CHIHAYAFURU: Mashima Taichi, Wataya Arata, Suou Hisashi

You don’t have to include all three characters, but I’d love to see a fic that explores the connections between them better. I’m up to date with all manga scanlations.

Wataya Arata/ Mashima Taichi

In the immortal words of Henjin Meijin, Arata is that person for Taichi whose opinion makes or breaks him. (His wording may have been different, but if I go rummaging into the chapter archive to find the exact quote, I’ll end up binge-rereading year three into the night again, and then where would my Yule sign-up be?) (On that note, what kind of a MASSIVE LOSER waxes poetics about Taichi’s boyfriend problems to Taichi’s MOTHER, whom he JUST met? Suou Hisashi, that’s who.) Needless to say, that paramount opinion was not always great, and neither was Taichi’s general wellbeing.

Good news is, Arata is confident in his manliness, and he has no problem acknowledging Taichi’s ridiculously pretty and not too bad at karuta these days, and he’s also moving to Tokyo. Taichi’s definitely pretty and has an apartment in Tokyo, where a country bumpkin of paramount importance may possibly stay over until things are sorted out… eventually. Hint hint.

Jokes aside, I pine for the dynamics between the two of them. I nearly lost it, reading the Meijin semifinals — and if you can show me a person who saw them bawl as they crawled into each other’s laps on Japanese national television and didn’t bawl in response, well, that person is sure not me.

I’d like to see a story that lets them build and explore that connect. I do not object to eventual OT3, but I think Chihaya is on a quest to find her own footing and pursue other goals at the moment, and I’d really like it if she was allowed to do this (join forces with Shinobu to drag karuta into a professional league, girl!). I’d like to think that in that space, different bonds and relationships can develop and strengthen, starting with Arata and Taichi.

Taichi the overanalyzer, the hardworker and the looker, the golden boy who at some point surely hit that red button, meme-style: you will be perfect at everything, you will have everything, except the one thing that you want above all. Arata appears to be his perfect foil: steady and serene where Taichi’s scrambling and flawed, adorably awkward and disarmingly sincere where Taichi’s groomed, smooth and miserable about his own deceptions. But they don’t see it like that! And they keep tripping each other up so beautifully!

I’d love to read your take on them growing closer and hopefully smooshing their faces together. Roommates in Tokyo? Long-distance friends? Figuring out how to tell your flatmate you’ve been in love with him since you were 12? Established relationship while hijinks happen? AWKWARD THIRDWHEELING WITH SUOU?!

On that note:

Suou Hisashi & (or / - wejustdon’tknow.gif) Mashima Taichi

I cannot believe that ridiculous man. Did you see a grown ass adult swoon because his unrequited disciple I mean not-friend I mean Taichi just up and went to meet his relatives??? To  help reconnect them?? One can do things like this?? What next, being able to make phonecalls like an adult??

Does not compute.

I was there, Gandalf. I was there when the story first indicated that we might be getting an unlikely team-up of the world’s weirdest Meijin and Tokyo’s most miserable overachiever. But even in my wildest dreams I did not dare hope to see them sprawled on the carpet on a humid summer afternoon, Taichi comfortable in his own skin and Suou, erm, probably not very comfortable with his fascination :D He did not sign up for this. He, a grown ass man in what must be his early twenties, is too old for this youthful seishun sakura bullshit. And yet it is he who mournfully accosts Taichi’s mom to talk about how this other boy is paramount in Taichi’s universe. He who gets offended because Taichi knowing how to adult and work the social ropes is too sexy and competent. He who finds something compelling in the painful struggle of genius and skill.

Arata - Taichi - Suou

For maximum indulgence of yours truly, bring those into one place. Arata coming to Tokyo and finding Suou a fixture in Taichi’s life how?! Suou being infinitely pissy at the Fukuyi upstart and yet dragging himself to socialize with the boys regardless like a totally-not-pathetic adult with a social life of his own? Arata being mildly puzzled about the antagonism, but in there for the sweet snacks?

You tell me! I delight in my anticipation.

NIRVANA IN FIRE: Mei Changsu, Xiao Jingyan

Is this a complex, narratively inevitable historic tapestry strangling people with its treads, full of delicious politicking and identity porn? Yes, it is.

Is my burning – nay, primal – desire so simple as to smoosh two faces together and watch them kiss? Yes, it is :’)

I mean, I will obviously not say no if the kissing is giftwrapped in the said tapestry of beautiful, politicky plot, but the fever I can’t get out of my system is this: LET THEM KISS, GODDAMMIT. LET THEM BE HAPPY. I welcome canon divergences, alternative endings, fix-its, insert eps and codas where it looks like they would have kissed (erm, or at least confronted each other in a way that would inevitably end with them making out) if only Mei Changsu wasn’t so caught up in self-loathing and fluffy foxfur coats, and Jingyan didn’t talk too loudly about his so dead, so very dead beautiful ex to hear Mei Changsu weep stoically into his beautiful white furs.

I adore Prince Jing. He is 90% cheekbones and 20% heartbroken pouting over his so very dead friends, and all of it noble and awkward and stubborn and deserving of happiness. Mei Changsu is ridiculous, and capable, and twisted into pretzels of his own creation: not above gloating over his enemies while daintily dipping cookies into his tea, he gets too caught up in weaving the tapestry to notice he is a part of it.  Pull him off his high horse, Jing! Render him helpless by being yourself! Do something about being hopelessly charmed with each other, through resentment, loss, bitter pining, and narrative inevitability! JUSTKISSALREADY.gif!!

THUNDERBOLT FANTASY: Rin Setsua; Sho Fukan

I LOVE THIS SELF INDULGENT WUXIA NONSENSE AND I CANNOT LIE!

Sanfan is a mixture UTTER GLEE and deep fondness for the genre staples, self-aware and masterful playthrough of all the wuxia tropes in the book, and one goddamn well-constructed story. It plays the tropes straight, calls them out with a knowing wink, walks the tightrope between the two with panache, and just as you are relaxed and enjoying this trapeze show, it grins cheekily at you, sets the discoball on fire and pulls a bunny out of a hat.  It’s DELIGHTFUL and fun and lovingly crafted, just like a good passion project should be.

I want anything that capitalizes on the absolutely hilarious dynamics between Rin Setsua and Sho Fukan (and while personally I end up using the Japanese versions of their names more often, please feel free to go with the Chinese names if you prefer). Sho Fukan does not want any of those heroic quests, he’s the human equivalent of been there, done that mood, and he just wants to REST and hopefully dump a bunch of magical murderswords someplace safe. Rin Setsua is a Totally Respectable and Non-Villainous Member of Society, of which he will inform you firsthand in the most high spoken and verbose way possible, and maybe even produce paperwork that has definitely not been tampered with. He harbours no ulterior motives, ever, and does not trail behind Sho Fukan for any reason beyond the pleasure of his company, and his mission to personally victimize and cockblock every morally derelict villain in two countries, by no-one’s request.

Whether you go shipfic (yiss!) or canon levels teamup circus (also yiss!), don’t hold back your horses. Everything about this is Extra, and should continue to be so <3

I am okay with both expanding the canon and playing with AUs/crossovers/fusions for this one, provided they retain the character dynamics. I love the extended cast as well: any characters including the Seiyou gang (and on that note, if you want to write the Seiyou backstory for Shou’s gang that has no Rin in it, you’re welcome as well), reappearance of the familiar faces from Touri (read: Rin’s victim list, past, future and present), original characters lined up and waiting to be screwed over (guaranteed) and rescued (the administration does not bear any responsibility etc etc).

Thank you for taking the time to read the letter, and I’m greatly looking forward to reading your story — and hopefully, getting to chat about these ridiculous and wonderful characters post-reveals :)