#fallout protagonist support group

[vaas]

cassie: hey

cassie: what do you think about men getting pregnant?

pia: can you shut up

coeur: its about time they get a turn

pia: like i am actually so sick of you

[bryce-bucher]

Basidia Post #1

Introduction:

The Winds of Basidia is an adventure roleplaying game that I am co-developing alongside Modus Interactive. It's a sequel to his previous game The Snow of Basidia. Our main inspirations for this project include the n64 Zelda games, Fallout: New Vegas, Nausicaa, and Pathologic.

Tha Plot:

The kingdom of Basidia faces an apocalypse in the form of an extremely deadly, infectious basidium storm that is set to hit by the end of the next three days. Luckily, following an assassination of the king, the protagonist (a lowly nobody) chances upon an ancient artifact that was lost during the altercation. With this artifact they can relive the last three days of this beautiful, dying land over and over in order to try and find a way to save it.

Tha Factions & Misc. Basidia Politics:

There are three major factions in Basidia that are all trying to realize their own solution to the storm. Through their actions, the player can aid and join them on their respective quests. These factions include the Basidia Military, the Basidia Church, and the Rebellion (note: these are all working titles). The military and the church are in the process of fighting for primary control over the kingdom following the king's assassination. The military feel as though they have the majority of power and resources, so they should be able to take charge. On the other hand, the church feel as though they were second to the king in terms of closeness to God, so they have a right to be in charge. The military would prefer to just eliminate the church, but they cannot. The church is extremely important to the citizens of Basidia, and the military cannot risk losing that support. Operating in the background of this tension is a relatively small, organized anarchist-rebellion group. They were responsible for the king's assassination as a means to cause infighting in the kingdom. They operate through a horizontal hierarchical structure, and they are made up entirely of any Basidia citizens that believed in the cause. I'll leave it at that for now. Maybe I'll go into more detail with these factions and their motivations another time.

Tha Mechanics:

So this game is taking a while to develop due to how many interworking mechanics we need to build (as it turns out making a whole rpg is a lot of work). We want to emphasize player freedom (shocker ik), so we have to account for things like the player being able to kill whoever they want and go anywhere they want. This game has a timeloop, open-ended world, murder, infected areas, gliding, resource gathering, a weird marble lock system, a bomber's notebook type thing, etc. Maybe I should go into detail about the gliding since the game is kinda named after it. The player is going to be placed in a fairly vast world that takes a while to traverse on foot; however, as the game progresses the player will acquire various different types of gliders that they can equip and use. With these gliders the player can, well, glide freely to get around quicker, access new areas, and generally get more stuff done within the time limit. Sorry this section is poorly structured and rambely, but there are so many details I could go into for each mechanic that its probably best I just save a lot of it for individual development posts.

Conclusion:

There is a lot going on with this project, and I can't wait to share more of it. I'll see you next week when I probably talk about the marble lock system and/or the journal system that I am currently developing. Also go follow Modus and play Snow of Basidia if you haven't.

[lazyworksinprogress]

I've just finished Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang which was a middle-of-the-road read for me. My Goodreads review goes into a lot of the issues I had. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was fine but I didn't lol or snort in amusement at all whilst reading it. I sound pretty negative in my review but I'm at peace with that because I compromised by rating it three stars.

I found myself thinking of other books and stories that follow similar themes. I'll list a few because I haven't seen many recc lists that are created around unlikeable, chronically online protagonists and I have read a few decent ones.

The Survivors Group - an excellent and memorable short story by Khanya Mtshali - kept coming to mind. The unsettling portrait of a character and situation has a lot to say in a concise and significant way. It's concerned with social media cancellation, intragroup workings, communication, and what support feels like online.

The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya is also about two women in the entertainment arts who fallout on social media. The ambition and self-destructive mistakes made are familiar and sharp. People will probably resonate with the insecurities and neuroses of the main characters as well.

The Shame by Makenna Goodman has a lot to say about white middle-class women's relationship with social media, capitalism, and their own frustrated ambitions.

A Novel Obsession by Caitlin Barasch is also written from the perspective of a white woman obsessed with another. The social media stalking and self-loathing, self-obsessed protagonist are unflinchingly depicted as the story hurtles towards its catastrophic conclusion.

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

Okay, so we've all been thinking about Harvey's tea-spilling attempt not to spill Magicians tea since yesterday, and IT WOULD BE IRRESPONSIBLE NOT TO SPECULATE, so I'm speculating. Ground rules first? Yes, always, for safety.

The rules to celebrity gossip are, I don't know shit about shit and this is all for fun. Seriously, I'm just bullshitting here, trying to spin an interesting story, this absolutely did not happen the way I'm suggesting, how could I possibly get this more than like, 5% correct? I'm just some asshole on the internet.

Okay. So first off, we know Harvey and Hale are tight, so whatever Harvey knows, it almost certainly reflects what he's heard from Hale, i.e. what he's aware of is Hale's version of what the set was like (and probably Summer's as well, as she seems solidly part of that friend group).

And I don't want to overanalyze specific word choices from that interview, since when you're babbling on the spot, sometimes you don't use the exactly perfect wording. However, there does seem to be two tangled-up threads in Harvey's babble -- the business about how everyone was young and hot, which perhaps let slip that there was some romantic drama happening, and also the business about lead roles, of course it's an ensemble but there are leads, which seemed to indicate that there was some friction over status within the cast -- who are the leads, precisely, and who's just in the ensemble? And from the way Harvey jumbled all that together -- I'm inclined to think those issues were jumbled together, or were perceived to be.

Now, in mid s3 when Harvey first came on set, what was he coming into, script-wise? Well, you have Jason pretty solidly centered in the overall story -- almost anyone would understand him as the series lead, reasonably enough; the show is based on books where Q is indisputably the protagonist. How's everyone else faring?

It's hard to tell whether I view this neutrally or not, but it seems to me that consistently throughout the second and third seasons, the best stories and most robust character development have been going to Team Fillory -- to Eliot and Margo specifically, who have kind of risen out of the s1 "ensemble" of People Quentin Knows to anchor their own ongoing stuff about trying to rule Fillory. Julia is also anchoring s3 plots of her own, all the stuff about her God Spark that's been the fallout from what she was given in s2 with Reynard and Martin and Persephone. Penny and Kady seem to have been cemented as supporting players; they get some scenes, but they're not really driving any conflicts or getting to do anything with high stakes, especially after Penny 40's death. What's always been noticeable to me is that Alice is operating very separately from the rest of the cast, and will be until deep into s4. After her relationship with Q falls by the wayside, she's very atomized -- sometimes she interacts with Julia, but they don't seem to be close friends. Alice doesn't seem to have close friends in the main cast.

So if someone's unhappy with what they're being given to act -- well, it could be anyone, a young ambitious actor could always want a more up-front role, but if I were in Olivia's shoes, yeah, I'd be kind of tense! She entered the show playing the protagonist's main love interest, got written out of that role, and not only does the show seem to fumble around when it comes to what to do with her, you have these two other characters who were almost comedy relief in the first season, and they're eating up episode after episode of drama and adventure. One of them, as of oh, mid s3, looks a little like he's starting to be positioned as the protagonist's new love interest.

Awkward, yeah? Now. Imagine on top of that pressure as people are comparing their relative roles and screentime -- imagine the series lead is hanging out kind of a lot with certain members of the cast. Imagine some people are turning up a lot on each other's Instas, and imagine, perhaps, that in this cliquey little circle, there's a higher than average degree of flirtiness among hot coworkers.

So now that's the narrative, right? Better scripts and more screen time are flowing to certain people, not because no one else has the acting skill to handle it, but because certain people are always in Jason's hip pocket. It doesn't take long for that, in a high-stress environment, to become a circulated story: that the best way to become a lead on this show is if you're besties with Jason -- or if Jason seems to really want to fuck you -- or if he is fucking you. That's how it goes with hothouse rumors, right?

I mean, I'm not trying to pin it on Olivia specifically and entirely -- this shit takes on a life of its own sometimes. But you get this certain swirl of resentment and jealousy and factionalism happening, and suddenly we're headed into s4, and some really interesting things start happening. Hale gets to play a really fun, scenery-eating sort of role, the kind actors love. The early scripts really drill down into the building tension of Quentin being willing to risk everyone else to save Eliot. And then--

Something happens, right? The Monster plotline, which has dominated the season, wraps up abruptly and anticlimactically. Qualice is back on, without much reason given. And Jason, we later learn, resigned at some point.

Again, I'm not trying to single out Olivia -- for this to become widespread On-Set Drama, it can't have been attributable to any one person. A lot of people had to believe that 1) Jason had too much power over the course of the story, and B) was misusing it to benefit people he had a personal investment in. It's not hard to see how that could escalate -- into the writers trying to jerk his chain to prove he didn't control them, and into Jason deciding he was fucking over being in the middle of all this.

The beauty of my story here is that it makes sense out of all Harvey's remarks, if you view him as Hale's friend loyally taking Hale's position circa mid-s3. There were sparks, everyone was young and hot (read: whatever fooling around happened, it happened for ordinary showmance reasons, not out of any self-dealing on Hale's part), and there were leads in the cast (read: Hale's high profile at that point was earned, he wasn't given favors; he was being treated as one of the second leads because he was good at his job).

[veresiine]

Headcanon and thoughts dump; the vast majority about Leon because I've been having almost nonstop blorbo thoughts for over half a year, but there's some stuff on some other SwSh characters too in the background.

Topics:

Ages

Battle Tower

Leon as League Administration

Darkest Day and Eternatus

On Dragapult

Hop and Leon's Family and Early Childhood

Consequences of this

Others' Family Backgrounds

Rose

Relationships and Orientations

How I got to be so obsessed anyway

Actual content under the cut due to length

Ages:

At the time of the game, Leon is 22, and Hop and the protagonist are 14-15 years old. Sonia is the same age as Leon, maybe a few months older. Raihan is maybe around two years older than Leon and Sonia. Nessa's around the same age but I'm hoping she's closer to Raihan's age than Leon's and Sonia's, because I sincerely hope she wasn't dealing with the double whammy of being a child athlete AND a child model for a long time, because that's just FAR too much pressure to put on someone, even if she seems so well-adjusted.

So this means that Leon was Champion for 12 years. Yes, in the fic I wrote, I'd had him 20 years old and champ for 10, but I have since changed my mind after thinking it over for a while.

Battle Tower:

In addition to actually winning and losing, Battle Tower gives points for battling style / showmanship, and takes points away for damage to the surroundings.

Leon is in charge of operating the tower and is also its final boss (most of the time; sometimes other pro trainers like Raihan or Mustard might step in briefly), but he's graded on the same system as everyone else, and he had lost quite a few points for damaging the battle area before he and his pokemon re-trained themselves to be more restrained and less destructively showy. It's a different style from how he battles in the stadium!

Leon also considered that the gym challenge requiring endorsements means both a lot of nepotism and also, talented trainers without connections being SOL; he's since added the ability to get an endorsement from Battle Tower performance.

Battle Tower supports itself financially both from a small entrance fee, and from virtual tickets to higher-level matches; all this gets turned around into paying the staff and providing prizes. This is not a for-profit thing; this is a "let's have fun and make each other stronger!" thing that has to be financially solvent to justify its existence to the League

Leon as League Administration:

Instead of one single assistant in everything (i.e. Oleana), Leon ends up with a group of 4-5 senior League staff he goes to for advice a lot, and who help keep him on track.

He's known half of them since he was a kid so at this point they're basically extended family

He was still pretty emotionally conflicted and fragile for a few months after the whole Darkest Day thing and then losing his title, and needed some time to regroup and find himself again. Leon was in touch with the League during this time, and trying to do his part to untangle the League and Macro Cosmos and deal with the fallout of the Darkest Day, but he wasn't doing anything in any official capacity; he just kind of stuck himself in the middle of things and did what he could, mental health permitting, in between training sessions.

And he wasn't actually offered the chairman position until those few months had passed and Leon had had some time to sort himself out, and some of the investigations had wrapped up, helping to clear the League's image.

Rose had Leon attend all kinds of events and sometimes listen in on meetings while he was Champion; it wasn't Rose's intent to train Leon to be his successor as chairman, but it does mean that Leon's not going in completely blind; he has some prior experience.

Leon is concerned about the League, yeah, but he mostly just wants the region's trainers to have fun as they reach for the top, provided they play fair. He's a lot more hands-off than Rose was, with one major exception:

During the gym challenges, he lets meetings slide a bit so he can watch as many of the battles as he can, and has taken to delivering little notes to the challengers, encouraging them or telling them an aspect of their style that really impressed him. And if a trainer is really struggling, he'll praise their perseverance.  He aims to get each challenger at least once in a season so no one feels left out; part of this is thinking back to Sonia.

And in the years after that, he extends the note thing to gym trainers and League staff as well during the challenge season, since they need encouragement too!

He really wishes there were more battles and fewer meetings, but that's part of what his involvement in battle tower is for; getting him to blow off steam so he can tackle more admin stuff.

Darkest Day and Eternatus:

Leon was up there fighting Eternatus for a few hours by the time Hop and the PC arrived to save the day; after all, the protagonist and Hop had time to fly to the opposite side of Galar, wander through the Slumbering Weald, get the artifacts, fly back up to Hammerlocke, battle Rose, and THEN finally confront Eternatus. With a battle that long, mistakes are inevitable.

There is security camera footage of the first 15-20 minutes of Leon vs Eternatus, but the cameras got knocked out after that.

I think the anime mentioned something about Galar particles converting to electrical power? And presumably they do so naturally at some rate, but can be more efficiently converted with the power of technology.

Before Dynamax bands were introduced to the stadiums, Magnolia had made SURE to test that the Galar particle exposure involved in using a Dynamax band had negligible side effects on trainer and pokemon, and had introduced some kind of shielding to make it even safer. The one dynamax per side per battle rule is also there out of an abundance of caution.

But that's Galar particles from a Power Spot, not a source of INFINITE Galar particles. Exposure to the levels Galar particles and electrical effects released by a rampaging ETERNATUS cannot be healthy, never mind whatever type of poison Eternatus is packing. Exactly what effect, temporary and lasting, all this had on Leon and his pokemon, I don't know, and I frequently change my mind and up the stakes, but whatever it did, it was bad, and some of it was permanent.

The player character, Hop, and their pokemon weren't facing Eternatus for anywhere near as long, so they shouldn't be as affected.

... Physically, anyhow. Everyone who was present for that battle is probably more than a little shaken-up, psychologically.

On Dragapult:

I love Charizard as much as the next person but I feel that Dragapult as a pokemon is a better representation of Leon

Dragapult is Galar's pseudo-legendary, and pseudo-legendaries usually go to / reflect champions.

Though it is not 1:1, as Hoenn had 2 pseudo-legendaries and while Steven and Metagross fit to a T, Salamance is just kinda there, vibes-wise. Being awesome without being linked to a trainer

Also Dragapult gives Leon 2 repeat types on his team; 2 dragon (haxorus and dragapult) and 2 ghost (aegislash and dragapult) and it's nice to have that theme/consistency.

And Dragapult's evos match his story a bit. Dreepy are super weak; Leon started out as a kid out in the middle of nowhere with only one friend and not much else going for him. Drakloak look after their younger evolutionary relatives, it's their whole Thing; Leon was left to raise his younger brother, and also his entire dream is to look after / inspire all Galar's other trainers to encourage their growth. And then Dragapult is a pseudo-legendary; Leon's a champion for a long time, and Dragapult have the whole thing about lock-on and targeting; pokemas Leon has a special skill that makes his moves NEVER MISS, regardless of base accuracy (this only applies to Leon's sync pair with Charizard though).

Also I like the idea of there just being Dreepies everywhere, and all the Dreepies flocking to Leon as much as they do to Dragapult; he's totally their dad too.

Hop and Leon's Family and Early Childhood:

Leon and Hop's grandparents' are their mum's parents; their dad married in and wasn't particularly well-liked by the grandparents. When Leon was little, they tried not to argue in front of him, for his sake, but Leon probably picked up on some of the tension anyway.

Then the dad got sick when Leon was around 5; mum was busy being his caregiver, and the grandparents were busy with tending the wooloo flock and also errands; this left Leon to pick up some of the household labor in the form of more chores than expected of a kid that age. Mum was concerned about offloading too much onto her kid, but the grandparents didn't really care.

Then mum was pregnant with Hop and that meant that she couldn't do as much around the house, and so more work fell to Leon. Then Hop was born, and their dad was taking a turn for the worse, and it was not a very happy situation to grow up in, even if Hop and Leon's actual parents did care about their sons and wanted them to have a happy childhood, but unfortunately, circumstances didn't work out that way, and the grandparents were borderline neglectful, in part because of their feelings about their daughter's husband.

So yes! Leon does have some domestic skills! Like cooking and cleaning and the like! He's not great at it, since he hasn't had much practice since he became Champion, but the basics are in there somewhere!

This is also where we get Sonia's observations, both in-game and in the anime, that Leon didn't have time to spend with other kids, because he was busy helping around the house and with his little brother, and 'practically raised' Hop. Which isn't to say that their mother did nothing! She certainly tried, and after the dad finally passed away, and she'd had some time to mourn, she made a point of trying to do more for her kids and to get them to have more happy childhood memories.

This is how Leon ends up going somewhere and getting his Charmander. I've heard theories that he must've gotten him from Mustard on the Isle of Armor (and that's probably when he trained there) and I am definitely not opposed to this (it makes sense!) but also haven't directly addressed it.

Hop would have been 3 years old or so at the time Leon left on the gym challenge, old enough to remember his promise about becoming Champion.

Consequences of this:

Hop never knew his father; he died when Hop was too young to remember. Leon is the closest person to filling that role for Hop.

Leon does remember his father, but not very well. He mostly remembers how much his father meant to his mum, and how much his death broke her. He does have a few good memories of his dad playing with him and reading stories to him, but as the years passed, he realized that Rose had ended up being more of a father figure to him than his own dad had a chance to be.

No one in the family really talks about Leon and Hop's father; Hop learned quickly that asking his mum made her sad, asking his grandparents made them angry, and asking Leon mostly got him shrugs as answers.

Mum is very protective of her kids' health after what happened with their father; this is part of what caused Leon to take such an interest in fitness, as a way of saying 'don't worry, mum!' He does really enjoy being physically active in general, and always has, but that's an additional layer on top of it.

Leon probably had her worried sick with all his wandering around lost; she was extremely grateful for Sonia (and Yamper) for bringing him back from wherever he'd ended up. She's glad that Hop doesn't have the same issues, and only ends up in the middle of nowhere if he wants to.

Because Hop didn't bear as much witness to hostilities from his grandparents, he takes more interest in them and their Wooloo flock than Leon did, and his grandparents are the ones to let him pick his favorite Wooloo to be his own personal pokemon.

Leon actively tried to keep Hop away from the spotlight so he'd have a chance to have a normal childhood; Rose encouraged this as well, but Leon eventually decided that Hop was ready to give it a shot (as of the start of the game), since he wanted his little brother to have a chance at having an adventure with pokemon, too, as much as he hoped Hop wouldn't have to deal with all the pressures and expectations of the public. This caused some friction with Rose, but they talked it out and smoothed things over eventually.

Others' Family Backgrounds:

Sonia is not Magnolia's only grandchild, but she is the only one who's stayed in the area. Magnolia had a few kids; at least one of them moved to a different region following their career path. Some of her grandchildren probably did, too.

Sonia is also one of, if not the oldest of Magnolia's grandchildren.

Raihan has a sister who works in the archives. He lived with his sister, away from his parents, for a few months, before going to live entirely on his own. The circumstances behind this change pretty much every time I bounce them around in my head.

At least one of Raihan's parents is/was an architect.

Rose:

HHHHHHHHHH

I've considered the possibility that Rose gave Leon his Aegislash (either at its current evolutionary form or earlier ones), since Rose is a Steel-type specialist, and also there's Aegislash's whole pokedex entry about it sometimes being manipulative.

Macro Cosmos and the League being so closely tied together is only a recent development, and it's Rose's doing. Separating the two entities is going to be a long process.

Rose genuinely feels terrible about how things turned out. He didn't want anyone to get hurt (physically, anyhow); though he had accepted it as a possibility, he wanted to avoid it in possible, and thought that no matter what happened, it would be worth it in the end. Spoiler alert: it wasn't. He screwed up big time, and I hope he realizes WHY he screwed up.

That said, I HC he was the immediate successor of that one Chairman who tried to rig matches, causing Mustard to leave the League, and because of that, Rose is very popular for having 'drained the swamp' in his own time. League veterans like Opal and Kabu really appreciated him for that. Opal appreciates him significantly less now that she’s gotten Bede to open up to her.

Relationships and Orientations:

Nessa and Sonia are in a relationship

Other than that it's just a big murky mess of 'I make every character I get my hands on bi and/or aspec, though exactly what flavor combination depends on the weather, the day of the week, and what's on sale at the grocery store'

How I got to be so obsessed anyway:

I didn't actually like Leon at first. He and Hop gave me name-related psychic damage (I could explain but that would require at least 3 paragraphs of personally identifiable information as context), and his initial interactions with Sonia rubbed me the wrong way.

After that rough introduction, it was 'ah it's this guy again;' he existed and I had no strong feelings one way or another. He still annoyed me slightly, but he was helpful and clearly trying his best.

Then he had Charizard shield Hop and the player, and I decided that if nothing else, I appreciated how much he cared, and what he was willing to do.

And then

AND THEN

His losing animation hit me right in the feels. When I saw him pull his cap over his eyes, my first thought was "I understand this man on a spiritual level". Everything about that animation was perfect. I could see myself in him. Everything fit into place. Terrible sense of direction? Check. And that's not something I often see in fiction; I guess there is Ace from HnKnA but I'm not a fan of yanderes, thanks. Hiding emotions behind a hat? Check. That was a staple of high school me. The anger, but forcing it down and letting it go? Over the course of a few seconds? *chef’s kiss*.

More importantly, pushing himself to be the strongest, to help others, to bring them up to his level, to entertain, and to protect the region? That's the exact kind of power fantasy I used to try to live in MMOs and part of why I (almost) always play a tank. And of course, with being a tank comes having an ego, but Leon doesn't put people down to build himself up, which is really nice to see in such a confident character.

Then everything I learned about him after that just made me love him more.

TWILIGHT WINGS. All of it. That honestly made me go from loving Leon to loving all of the SwSh cast, honestly; it even got me to sympathize with Oleana! I mean yes, what she did to Bede (and to Goh and Sonia in the anime) was beyond messed up and I am not justifying her actions, but at the same time, I appreciate her character.

Battle Tower outfit 12/10! A solid half of my blorbos over the years are fancy bastard wizards and battle tower Leon gets to look the part too! It's great!

I love how the anime and pokemon masters fleshed out his interactions with other characters, especially with Sonia and Raihan.

I could go on and on and on but I won't, especially as there's some self-recognition through the blorbo I'm not ready to admit to

[cosmererambles]

How many people died?

In my novel, the initial war kills millions of people in the blasts around the country (And globe, but the book is US based.) Major cities like New York and Los Angeles are struck more than once in a thermonuclear blitz, but most major areas, not all of them population centers, only got one bombing. Minneapolis, where the book takes place, received one 1MT blast (While in reality payloads vary, for my own sanity I'm making it 1 MT for research purposes). This killed all the people in the immediate fireball radius (Ground strike), killed thousands with the shockwave destroying structures, and the week that followed killed thousands more from radiation damage. However, it was the disruption of necessities and are trade that killed even more. There was no transport system; cargo sat on docks, including life saving medical supplies and food stuffs. While support remained for about 6 months after the war, people slowly died and migrated away from these population centers. There are entire stretches of interstate choked with abandoned cars as people ran out gas and had no way of getting to gas inside stations without electricity. Mass graves became common as the dead piled up, and eventually the dead were left to rot as there was no one left to bury them. After 6 months, the last remaining vestiges of law and order fizzled out, and it was then that looting and rioting became common place. My protagonist is smart; holing up in a government buildings basement, and goes with a man to loot supplies in the dead of night. It helps he's in an area that people avoided due to it being near the deadly fallout plume. He and the group he was with only survived through mettle and determination, rationing what little food they had and looting what they needed. The climate change after the event killed even more people. World wide people died as famine became common place. Without the ability to store preserved food (Those without functional grocery stores to loot canned food from, for example.) people starved. Some areas fared better, but like I said, this is a US based novel so I haven't thought too much about other areas of the globe. Humanity is, functionally, extinct by the end of the first year after the war. There are pockets of survivors left, and they are the ones features in my novel.

[readitreviewit]

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[artbyblastweave]

There are, like, a lot of very good reasons this couldn’t be done in an animated children’s show, but a plot beat I’ve always wanted to see in an animated show is that you’ve got, like, the typical animated show set-up, plucky and idealistic rebels against a massive and nebulous evil allegorical empire, you’ve got all the archetypical characters who show up in shows like that, you’ve got obvious implications atrocities are being committed by the bad guys but you never hone in on it beyond the general signifiers like burning buildings in the background. (yes I am thinking about She-Ra here.)

You’ve got your peridot type or your Scorpia type or potentially your zuko-type. The clearly-antagonistic-but-obviously-engineered-to-be-likeable-enough-to-get-a-redemption-arc type of character. You have them slowly go through the motions of realizing the empire is bad,  or realizing the power of friendship, or having a moment of connection with the protagonists and realizing that they aren’t Thriving (tm) under the oppressive system.

 So they do what these sorts of characters usually do and defect to the protagonists side, and the protagonists chalk up another win for team principle and compassion, and they accept the defector with open, if cautious, arms...

And then a supporting character pulls out a gun and shoots the would-be redemptee in the head, because their entire family was in one of the buildings that the redemptee set on fire in the background during a previous one-off episode. 

And, to be clear, this wouldn’t just be a mean gag or a one-off commentary on audience sympathies or out-of-universe discourse on redemption arcs. Episodes going forward would deal with the fallout of such a nakedly ruthless act of retaliation.

 It’s now next to impossible to deal with would-be defectors in good faith anymore because it’s been proven the heroes can’t stop acts of vengeance in their own homes, its not clear who among the heroes is even extending the olive branch in good faith to begin with or if it was always a trap. If things ever turn in the heroes favor, Bad guys are now escalating the stakes and fighting to the last man, because they know they aren’t gonna be forgiven if the nicest person in their ranks couldn’t be forgiven. There’s internal political tension about what to do with the assassin (nothing, they need the manpower) and how to go about disavowing the action when half the group doesn’t even want to disavow it- the redemptee might have been nice, but they also burned buildings full of innocent people, a lot of people are just glad they weren’t the ones who had to pull the trigger. Friendships end over this.

A lot of narratives about forgiveness in these kinds of shows are more about how it’s interpersonally healthy and beneficial to forgive and let people grow. I want to see a narrative about how that’s also, like, politically the only path forward if you don’t want to lock your society into an Orestian blood bath, which I have always found to be a much more compelling argument against revenge in general, just as, like, a rule utilitarianism thing. I want a bittersweet ending that’s essentially tracible back to that cathartic, unretractable decision to kill that one likable flunky.

Of course, it would be very difficult to set this up without telegraphing that this is the kind of show that does That Kind Of Thing, and the actual killing can’t really happen until season two at the earliest, so I’m having a hard time figuring out a way to execute this where it would maintain its punch.

[lucidasidera]

Actually, I did hope for Stucky

I know it feels a lot safer (and saner) to preface any discourse about Endgame with something along the lines of “Stucky fans never THOUGHT it would be canon, geez” but I confess that I did.  Or rather, I didn’t think it would ever be confirmed but I did hope that, if Marvel was feeling very brave, they were maybe going to let it stand as it was: an entirely justifiable reading of the source material.  And let’s be clear, it’s awful that we’re still at the point where the best a queer reading of a blockbuster movie franchise can hope for is the equivalent of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell but it’s not unreasonable for fans to have gone into Endgame thinking the studio wasn’t going to systematically ignore 10 years worth of content.  There’s a reason, in Infinity War, why the first dusted hero we, as the audience, see is Bucky from Steve’s perspective. It makes narrative sense, it packs the strongest emotional punch for the protagonist and the fans, because of everything Bucky means to Steve. Canonically. And then Endgame proceeds to not just ignore the fallout of that, but to literally erase it. They purposefully write a scene with Steve leading a support group for those who lost loved ones in the snap, they purposefully write a queer character talking about the loss of his partner, and they have Steve talk about Peggy, a woman who died of old age years earlier and whose last on-screen conversation with Steve was specifically about her wanting him to live his own life because she’d gotten to happily live hers.  It’s not just that they didn’t let Steve talk about Bucky, it’s that they set it up as a parallel precisely so he could reject it.  But it’s a nonsensical rejection because in the MCU as they wrote it there is no Captain America - not Steve Rogers, but Captain America - without Bucky Barnes. Bucky is the reason Steve picks up the shield and the reason he drops it, twice. And the studio never lets that play out because they preferred removing Steve from the timeline, and everything that made him Steve in the first place, to even just stepping back and letting things stand as written.  So yes, I did, actually, hope for Stucky in Endgame because it was close enough to canon as written that it needed nothing more than to be left alone and I thought maybe, just maybe, even Marvel could manage that.

[vaas]

fallout protagonist support group having to expand into including kitty is so. its funny for me but these bitches are going to kil each other. shes a politician and bos shill shes chomping coeurs bit, annoying to liu, and a fascist to cassie and pia and ghost. of course they all also mostly dislike each other already but adding her to the mix is like universally enraging

[jackdawyt]

Today I’m breaking down the newly-revealed story of Dragon Age 2’s cancelled expansion that would’ve acted as a precursor to Dragon Age: Inquisition, planning the events of Dragon Age II’s sequel more accordingly, whilst giving our player-protagonist Hawke a good farewell.  

The DLC was called “The Exalted March” and was canned because of Inquisition’s scope, and the team’s shift to the Frostbite engine. Thanks to BioWare’s Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development book, we have an in-depth look at this cancelled Dragon Age II DLC with concept art and detailed plotlines to follow.  

I’ve already broken down the Dragon Age 4 related-secrets discovered in this book in my last news update, so I recommend you checking that video out for the latest on the next Dragon Age’s current project. With that said, let’s take a behind-the-scenes look at Dragon Age II’s planned, and unfortunately cancelled final-DLC.

“The Exalted March was a cancelled expansion to Dragon Age II meant to bridge the gap between the events of DA II and the planned sequel, Dragon Age: Inquisition. The expansion focused on the fallout from Kirkwall’s explosive finale, with Corypheus serving as the villain.”

“After the end of Dragon Age II, when Meredith turns into the big red lyrium statue, she basically infests Kirkwall and you end up with what actually ended up being the red templars taking over Kirkwall and being essentially Corypheus’s army, Dragon Age II cinematic designer John Epler says.”

“To stop him, Hawke recruited various factions, having to choose between groups like Isabela’s Felicisima Armada and the Qunari at Estwatch, forcing the hero to split loyalties and risk relationships in the process.”

“It was supposed to bring Dragon Age II’s story to an end,” lead writer David Gaider says. “And it was supposed to end with Varric’s death. I was very happy with that, because all of DA II was his tale. The expansion was supposed to start at the moment Cassandra’s interrogation of him ended in the present. And we finished off the story with Varric having this heroic death.”

“it tied things up and would have broken so many fan hearts, something the writers on Dragon Age notoriously enjoy. But between a transition to the new Frostbite engine and the scope of Dragon Age: Inquisition, the decision was made to cancel the expansion, work any hard-to-lose concepts into Inquisition, and in the process, save Varric’s life.”

“Concept art for The Exalted March explored new areas previously not depicted in the Dragon Age universe, with costumes that reflected next steps for familiar characters. Varric was going to war. What would he wear? With Anders (if he survived Dragon Age II), the plan was to present a redeemed Warden.”

“A character that vaguely resembled Sera in Dragon Age: Inquisition was first concepted for Dragon Age II’s expansion content.”

“The writers sketched out plans to end the cancelled Exalted March DLC with Hawke having the option to marry their love interest. This included alternate ceremonies for party members like Bethany and Sebastian if players opted not to wed. There was even a wedding dress made for Hawke. The assets found its way into Inquisition, donned by Sera If she marries the Inquisitor, or the Inquisitor if they marry Cullen. The dress can also be seen in an ambient NPC wedding after a chain of war table missions.”  

“The destruction of a Chantry was explored in concept art as it might have happened in Exalted March. This idea would carry to the beginning of Inquisition.”

While its bittersweet uncovering the story of this canned DLC, especially with the planned send-off having Hawke potentially marrying their love interest, and witnessing the explosion of the Conclave first hand as a cliff-hanger leading into the next game. I’m very grateful that BioWare revealed the development secrets of this cancelled DLC to the public.  

I respect Dragon Age II a lot, it’s a title that was given way too much flack by the mainstream considering it was created within 9 months of production, and had one of EA’s lowest budgets for its creation. Yet despite that, the game stands on its own two feet with a 40+ hour story, new protagonist and a roster of remarkable characters that join the journey.  

“Dragon Age: Origins had the longest development period in BioWare’s history. Dragon Age II’s was the shortest. Production of Dragon Age II officially lasted just nine months, while the team was still supporting live content for Origins.”

One of the biggest reasons behind Dragon Age II’s “different” narrative was the fact that the developers were working insane hours, with zero time for rewrites and revisions, meaning that the first drafts conceived for stories and characters were often the final outcome.  

In light of that, David Gaider felt that the cast of Dragon Age II were some of his favourite Dragon Age characters to date, he believed that the game had some of the best writing throughout the series.  

“As we were writing, I realized there was going to be no oversight – that everything was going to be a first draft. Because nobody had time”. David Gaider says. “I sat down with the writers and I said: ‘Look here’s the conditions we’re working under. A lot of what we’re putting out is going to be raw. We’re not going to get the editing we need. We’re not going to get the kind of iteration we need. So I’m going to trust you all to do your best work.’”  

In summary, Dragon Age II is a remarkable feat, and doesn’t deserve the harsh criticism in my opinion. I adore the characters, narrative beats, and lore introduced in Dragon Age II that have been fundamental to my personal enjoyment of Dragon Age.  

While, it would’ve been nice to have this DLC finalised for Dragon Age II. There are many fundamental aspects of Inquisition that would be completely different if this DLC wasn’t canned. For example, Varric would be dead, having no appearance as a companion in Inquisition... Just thinking about that as a reality - that’s not a world I want to live in at the moment.  

So, while it’s sad that this DLC never came to be, there are (at least) a couple things, like Varric’s life, that we can be happy about, regarding “Exalted March’s” cancellation.  

[augment-techs]

I'd like to learn more about your SDMI Aus, they sound very interesting. Specifically the Time travel AU.

0_0 Ohhhh, boy, of all the questions to ask about my love of SDMI, those AUs are some of the most detailed. Strap in. The Time Travel AU: You know that narration the Nova Annunaki gave us just before everything really went to hell, showcasing all the Children of Nibiru leading up to our disaster babies? The Time Travel AU started because I had this very weird idea of a group nearly identical to that, but working under the guidance and jurisdiction of the Annunaki. Who did not care about a treasure or a curse or anything that complicated--they just wanted to FIX THINGS. Then I thought to myself, "But I also hate what happened to the Gang's parents," and an image of the parents I actually like superimposed itself onto my brain. They're no good at being noble, but I figured if the reasonable ones had a little help, it would be nice (delightful) to explore. Because Jones came off as actually pleasant, but no-nonsense in post-Nibiru, I decided to give him every unpleasant thing I could think of and let him actually work his way into a more fitting redemption arc. Give him anxiety, give him a guilt-complex, give him not-quite DID with The Freak hanging around in the back of his mind; but also make him actually put some effort into his job, and reign in Bronson's idiocy, and recruit Janet as an aid before slowly easing her into taking his place as Mayor--because, I also decided to have The Entity get pissy and super-ultra curse him for his defiance. He wants to turn his back on over twenty years of haunting Crystal Cove? Fine, in that case he can keep his speed and his strength, but also can't leave the city limits or experience extreme emotions without getting horribly sick. Angie gets a pass on anything too bad, because I hc that the talisman around her neck actually served a purpose and she's probably the most put-together person in this group--despite keeping her knowledge of the unknown and the future away from her husband, because she figures she can shoulder that burden. No, I decided to make Angie lose her fucking mind as she finally paid attention to just what the hell Velma was doing in her "relationship" with Shaggy and drive herself up the walls trying to deter negative fallout and broaden her daughter's horizons when Angie wasn't helping to save the world. The Blake parents did and didn't need as much of an overhaul as I thought they would, just a little blunting of their sharper edges and some deep diving into backgrounds that there is no fucking way the canon was going to give us. Nan Blake has a host of mental health issues going on in the background that get laughed off as dark humor? Not here. Here she gets to be a little bit like every other Stephen King protagonist/antagonist with dormant psychic abilities from her house being built over the Entity's tomb and living in the Cove her whole life. Haven't decided if she can merely feel or see when a choice their group makes can lead to real ripples of change, or if I should give her something like that thing Mina Harker had when Dracula had a go at her. Barty Blake was the one I had to sit and contemplate on the most, because he both reminds me of Fred and Brad, but also like those movie stars from the '50s that could have been from another planet for all they acted like human beings. So, I gave him foreign heritage, a Trans-Atlantic accent, his last name coming from his wife, ties to royalty and the ability to actually use a sword if he has to; all from his sometimes forgetting words in canon and Daphne's dislike for the Swedish family that owned that graveyard reminding me of that weird thing between the Danes and the Swedes. The Annunaki possessing Nova is their emotional support alien-eldritch god and also kinda doubles as Miss Exposition and a pseudo-service animal to Jones having a bad time. None of them fall specifically into the roles previous groups filled in their inter-personal relationships or that whole element thing, because, again, for them it isn't about solving mysteries, it's about keeping their kids--and the world as an

afterthought--safe. Jones isn't a coward and could kick everyone's ass; Angie's knowledge is strictly focused on the occult and people as they are; Nan is vain and air-headed and could also kick ass, but needs someone constantly there to remind her to stay in the moment; Barty is very goal oriented, but unless something ties directly back to his family, it's only a passing concern for him; and Annunaki-Nova is the one that has help these idiots save the world while experiencing things from the perspective of a dog that can fit in a handbag. Then of course I'm working on a No Mask/Alternate Dimension/Not Everyone Dies AU. A Star Wars AU. Episode Tag-Canon Divergence AUs. Honestly, I have so many.

[whitehotharlots]

The point is control

Whenever we think or talk about censorship, we usually conceptualize it as certain types of speech being somehow disallowed: maybe (rarely) it's made formally illegal by the government, maybe it's banned in certain venues, maybe the FCC will fine you if you broadcast it, maybe your boss will fire you if she learns of it, maybe your friends will stop talking to you if they see what you've written, etc. etc. 

This understanding engenders a lot of mostly worthless discussion precisely because it's so broad. Pedants--usually arguing in favor of banning a certain work or idea--will often argue that speech protections only apply to direct, government bans. These bans, when they exist, are fairly narrow and apply only to those rare speech acts in which other people are put in danger by speech (yelling the N-word in a crowded theater, for example). This pedantry isn't correct even within its own terms, however, because plenty of people get in trouble for making threats. The FBI has an entire entrapment program dedicated to getting mentally ill muslims and rednecks to post stuff like "Death 2 the Super bowl!!" on twitter, arresting them, and the doing a press conference about how they heroically saved the world from terrorism. 

Another, more recent pedant's trend is claiming that, actually, you do have freedom of speech; you just don't have freedom from the consequences of speech. This logic is eerily dictatorial and ignores the entire purpose of speech protections. Like, even in the history's most repressive regimes, people still technically had freedom of speech but not from consequences. Those leftist kids who the nazis beheaded for speaking out against the war were, by this logic, merely being held accountable. 

The two conceptualizations of censorship I described above are, 99% of the time, deployed by people who are arguing in favor of a certain act of censorship but trying to exempt themselves from the moral implications of doing so. Censorship is rad when they get to do it, but they realize such a solipsism seems kinda icky so they need to explain how, actually, they're not censoring anybody, what they're doing is an act of righteous silencing that's a totally different matter. Maybe they associate censorship with groups they don't like, such as nazis or religious zealots. Maybe they have a vague dedication toward Enlightenment principles and don't want to be regarded as incurious dullards. Most typically, they're just afraid of the axe slicing both ways, and they want to make sure that the precedent they're establishing for others will not be applied to themselves.

Anyone who engages with this honestly for more than a few minutes will realize that censorship is much more complicated, especially in regards to its informal and social dimensions. We can all agree that society simply would not function if everyone said whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. You might think your boss is a moron or your wife's dress doesn't look flattering, but you realize that such tidbits are probably best kept to yourself. 

Again, this is a two-way proposition that everyone is seeking to balance. Do you really want people to verbalize every time they dislike or disagree with you? I sure as hell don't. And so, as part of a social compact, we learn to self-censor. Sometimes this is to the detriment of ourselves and our communities. Most often, however, it's just a price we have to pay in order to keep things from collapsing. 

But as systems, large and small, grow increasingly more insane and untenable, so do the comportment standards of speech. The disconnect between America's reality and the image Americans have of themselves has never been more plainly obvious, and so striving for situational equanimity is no longer good enough. We can't just pretend cops aren't racist and the economy isn't run by venal retards or that the government places any value on the life of its citizens. There's too much evidence that contradicts all that, and the evidence is too omnipresent. There's too many damn internet videos, and only so many of them can be cast as Russian disinformation. So, sadly, we must abandon our old ways of communicating and embrace instead systems that are even more unstable, repressive, and insane than the ones that were previously in place.

Until very, very recently, nuance and big-picture, balanced thinking were considered signs of seriousness, if not intelligence. Such considerations were always exploited by shitheads to obfuscate things that otherwise would have seemed much less ambiguous, yes, but this fact alone does not mitigate the potential value of such an approach to understanding the world--especially since the stuff that's been offered up to replace it is, by every worthwhile metric, even worse.

So let's not pretend I'm Malcolm Gladwell or some similarly slimy asshole seeking to "both sides" a clearcut moral issue. Let's pretend I am me. Flash back to about a year ago, when there was real, widespread, and sustained support for police reform. Remember that? Seems like forever ago, man, but it was just last year... anyhow, now, remember what happened? Direct, issues-focused attempts to reform policing were knocked down. Blotted out. Instead, we were told two things: 1) we had to repeat the slogan ABOLISH THE POLICE, and 2) we had to say it was actually very good and beautiful and nonviolent and valid when rioters burned down poor neighborhoods.

Now, in a relatively healthy discourse, it might have been possible for someone to say something like "while I agree that American policing is heavily violent and racist and requires substantial reforms, I worry that taking such an absolutist point of demanding abolition and cheering on the destruction of city blocks will be a political non-starter." This statement would have been, in retrospect, 100000000% correct. But could you have said it, in any worthwhile manner? If you had said something along those lines, what would the fallout had been? Would you have lost friends? Your job? Would you have suffered something more minor, like getting yelled at, told your opinion did not matter? Would your acquaintances still now--a year later, after their political project has failed beyond all dispute--would they still defame you in "whisper networks," never quite articulating your verbal sins but nonetheless informing others that you are a dangerous and bad person because one time you tried to tell them how utterly fucking self-destructive they were being? It is undeniably clear that last year's most-elevated voices were demanding not reform but catharsis. I hope they really had fun watching those immigrant-owned bodegas burn down, because that’s it, that will forever be remembered as the most palpable and consequential aspect of their shitty, selfish movement. We ain't reforming shit. Instead, we gave everyone who's already in power a blank check to fortify that power to a degree you and I cannot fully fathom.

But, oh, these people knew what they were doing. They were good little boys and girls. They have been rewarded with near-total control of the national discourse, and they are all either too guilt-ridden or too stupid to realize how badly they played into the hands of the structures they were supposedly trying to upend.

And so left-liberalism is now controlled by people whose worldview is equal parts superficial and incoherent. This was the only possible outcome that would have let the system continue to sustain itself in light of such immense evidence of its unsustainability without resulting in reform, so that's what has happened.

But... okay, let's take a step back. Let's focus on what I wanted to talk about when I started this.

I came across a post today from a young man who claimed that his high school English department head had been removed from his position and had his tenure revoked for refusing to remove three books from classrooms. This was, of course, fallout from the ongoing debate about Critical Race Theory. Two of those books were Marjane Satropi's Persepolis and, oh boy, The Diary of Anne Frank. Fuck. Jesus christ, fuck.

Now, here's the thing... When Persepolis was named, I assumed the bannors were anti-CRT. The graphic novel does not deal with racism all that much, at least not as its discussed contemporarily, but it centers an Iranian girl protagonist and maybe that upset Republican types. But Anne Frank? I'm sorry, but the most likely censors there are liberal identiarians who believe that teaching her diary amounts to centering the suffering of a white woman instead of talking about the One Real Racism, which must always be understood in an American context. The super woke cult group Black Hammer made waves recently with their #FuckAnneFrank campaign... you'd be hard pressed to find anyone associated with the GOP taking a firm stance against the diary since, oh, about 1975 or so.

So which side was it? That doesn't matter. What matters is, I cannot find out.

Now, pro-CRT people always accuse anti-CRT people of not knowing what CRT is, and then after making such accusations they always define CRT in a way that absolutely is not what CRT is. Pro-CRTers default to "they don't want  students to read about slavery or racism." This is absolutely not true, and absolutely not what actual CRT concerns itself with. Slavery and racism have been mainstays of American history curriucla since before I was born. Even people who barely paid attention in school would admit this, if there were any more desire for honesty in our discourse. 

My high school history teacher was a southern "lost causer" who took the south's side in the Civil War but nonetheless provided us with the most descriptive and unapologetic understandings of slavery's brutalities I had heard up until that point. He also unambiguously referred to the nuclear attacks on Hiroshmia and Nagasaki as "genocidal." Why? Because most people's politics are idiosyncratic, and because you cannot genuinely infer a person to believe one thing based on their opinion of another, tangentially related thing. The totality of human understanding used to be something open-minded people prided themselves on being aware of, believe it or not...

This is the problem with CRT. This is is the motivation behind the majority of people who wish to ban it. It’s not because they are necessarily racist themselves. It’s because they recognize, correctly, that the now-ascendant frames for understanding social issues boils everything down to a superficial patina that denies not only the realities of the systems they seek to upend but the very humanity of the people who exist within them. There is no humanity without depth and nuance and complexities and contradictions. When you argue otherwise, people will get mad and fight back. 

And this is the most bitter irony of this idiotic debate: it was never about not wanting to teach the sinful or embarrassing parts of our history. That was a different debate, one that was settled and won long ago. It is instead an immense, embarrassing overreach on behalf of people who have bullied their way to complete dominance of their spheres of influence within media and academe assuming they could do the same to everyone else. Some of its purveyors may have convinced themselves that getting students to admit complicity in privilege will prevent police shootings, sure. But I know these people. I’ve spoken to them at length. I’ve read their work. The vast, vast majority of them aren’t that stupid. The point is to exert control. The point is to make sure they stay in charge and that nothing changes. The point is failure. 

[yesterdanereviews]

The Master Key (1945)

Film review #469

Directors: Lewis D. Collins, Ray Taylor

SYNOPSIS: A secret Nazi organisation operating in the United States has kidnapped Professor Henderson in order to force him to finish his "auratron" invention that can make gold out of seawater, and use the gold to fund the Nazis operations. Tom Brant, an FBI agent, hunts down the Nazi spy ring with the help of Detective Jack Ryan and his contacts in the police force to find Professor Henderson and bring the Nazis to justice.

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: The Master Key is a 1945 serial released by Republic Pictures and comprised of thirteen chapters. The serial centres around a Nazi spy ring operating in the United States, who kidnap Professor Henderson and force him to complete his "auratron" invention, which can turn seawater into gold, which the Nazis will then use to disrupt America's industrial might. The only thing standing in the way of their evil plans is FBI agent Tom Brant and his companions in the police department. The plot centres around this Nazi spy ring who identify themselves with a key that has the letter "M" and a number engraved on it. They are given their orders by the "Master Key," who conceals their identity from even the group. That's all the "Master Key" of the title refers to, and yes, it's a rather uninteresting premise, given the keys serve no purpose other than to identify the spies, and are used at the start of each chapter to "summon" the master key who explains the plot. The main focus of the plot is Henderson's invention which apparently turns seawater into gold, an idea which is sounds ridiculous even by the serial format's standards. The chapters involve the typical plot structure of the heroes trying to rescue the professor and his invention...the amount of serials that enact this same plot is too many to count, and most of them do it better than this one. The plot has very little direction otherwise, and the back-and-forth between the protagonists and antagonists is painfully slow, and explained through long scenes of exposition that slow the pacing down to a crawl. There's some cliffhangers that incorporate more impressive large crashes or explosions, but they are usually, and obviously, stock footage or models, and the fallout is never really shown, only explained further with the shot of a newspaper front page and even more dialogue.

The characters are the usual bunch you associate with the serial format: there's the young male leads who get into the fights, the older men who serve as support, and some token women who get the role of journalist or secretary. The villains likewise are uninteresting and have no character or role other than being henchman. The main villain we never see until the very end, instead giving orders through some sort of radio...thing. There's constantly very little for the viewer to grasp a hold of, and as such, it is difficult to maintain attention on the serial as a whole. There's some supporting characters including a bunch of younger street-wise teenagers who help out under the watch of Aggie, a similarly street-wise woman. Again, none of the characters really stand out or do anything of merit.

Released in April 1945, The Master Key was released in the very dying days of World War II. As such, it is difficult to see how relevant the whole Nazi spy ring plot was. The wartime serials typically focused on Japan as the primary U.S. enemy, and choosing the Nazis as the villains is perhaps an odd choice at this time. Each chapter opens up with a disclaimer of sorts saying that the serial is fiction that "could never happen," and states that it takes place in 1938 before the war even started. I assume this was in order to keep the serial in line with the requires of the regulatory bodies, perhaps setting it before the war was necessary to not give the illusion that the Nazis were still a threat to the US in the then dying-days of the war, and that the U.S. was too powerful for something like this to happen anyway. It's interesting then that they allowed it during wartime: perhaps they needed people to be on their guard, but on the verge of the Nazis being defeated, the tone changed to saying that there was no way that anything like this could ever happen to America. It's also interesting that the serial clearly identifies the enemies as Nazis and shows their flags in their hideout: again, most serials previously did not mention the Nazis by name or show any of their insignia, instead showing enemies that were working for a "foreign power" which obviously was meant to be the Nazis. Again I assume the requirements of the film regulators changed at the end of the war, and by being able to identify them and place them in the past, it signified that they were a product of history, and no longer a real threat. Also a small note concerning the invention that can apparently turn seawater into gold: it's so outlandish and nonsensical even by serial standards that it's very hard to take seriously.

Overall, The Master Key is a poor showing, released at the wrong time. It has very little direction in terms of story or characters, and the long-winded scenes of dialogue and exposition overshadow any action scenes. It exists at a strange point in history where the Nazis were no longer credible or interesting villains, but also before the post-war serials, which turned either to America's military war heroes battling foreign spies (implied to be the soviet union) or more sci-fi adventures. As such, The Master Key falls between the cracks and fails to find very little relevancy or entertainment value.

[mudwingpropaganda]

Arc 2 Timeline Rewritten

I’ve been thinking about my headcanons and I’ve been seriously struggling to get across the plot points that I want to happen within my headcanons. So I decided the best way to figure out what was important for the sequence of events was to just smash arc 2 on the ground and rebuild from the shards. 

From now on, I think I’ll be referring to this when working on my own characters (or my headcanons)! It’s not the most eloquent, but this is how I’ll be reasoning the events of the books. 

Arc 1 is valid. All arc 1 needs is more foreshadowing for Thorn and a little less forced love interests. Anyway, feel free to absorb by “ideal timeline” if you so desire.

The Second Brightest Night takes place. 

(I have my own handful of headcanons about my take on the Second Brightest Night and less magical ending for that night, but lets sum it up by saying that Burn dies via the snakes, unfortunately, Blister is killed by Thorn, and Blaze suffers substantial injuries but survives and goes missing after Thorn ascends to the throne.)

AT LEAST a year or two passes as the RainWing Queendom is focused upon, until Jade Mountain is founded. 

Queen Glory requested her siblings’ attention to help set up the tribe before jumping into their next war reparation project. This included the punishment of NightWing criminals, the state of the ex-experiment RainWings, and the customs that were lost when Queen Grandeur gave up on her bloodline and the title was shared between multiple dragonesses. Handsome, especially, assists in this restoration of culture and stability. Ex-Princess Greatness tries to give Glory her tribe’s history and customs, but ultimately gives up her title and acts as a figurehead to reach her subjects.

Jade Mountain is formed at least 2 or 3 years after the end of the war.

As a resolution of treaties, the Dragonets convinced the queens to enroll students in their peace building project, Jade Mountain Academy. Sunny already had the favor of Moorhen and Thorn, Tsunami took a little convincing of Coral, knowing she could bring in her siblings, Glory had the authority of her own two tribes, Clay reached out to Peril and Queen Ruby, and it took a little extra effort of reaching out to Queen Glacier. But after her approval was given, the school could finally take full initiative. 

The opening of the school was met with the ominous reappearance of Queen Scarlet. This caused unrest and disaster within the first month of school.

As a result of her disturbance, students who had previously been optimistic about the school’s opening were now uneasy. The attempted assassination of Princess Icicle’s life, the death of multiple students on Sora’s hands, and thicker tension in the air of the school. The disappearance of the entire Jade Winglet lead the school to be temporarily shut down. Classes were suspended and students were asked to stay in their rooms or go home. (This is saying that Jade Mountain was equipped as an escape for those in bad home situations. Though. Not very successful as an escape, per say.)

Scarlet’s antagonism opens the arc, introducing her “alliance” with Chameleon. 

Both by terrorizing Princess Icicle to do her bidding or tricking Peril into coming back to her clutches, the terrible things Scarlet did in her reign comes to light, namely the kidnapping of Prince Hailstorm and the mental deception of Princess Tourmaline/Ruby. Chameleon acts as a servant of her, facading as Soar for a majority of the time, acting as Peril’s technical father. Though, it’s obvious that while he serves her, he has not necessarily dedicated his life to her. Chameleon disappears for the sake of Peril’s resolution to wrap up Scarlet’s tyranny. But Chameleon’s near murder of Kinkajou sets up more antagonism on his part.

Chameleon generally becomes the main focus of antagonism for the rest of the arc. He causes the team to split up so Winter could do some soul searching and Kinkajou could coma, I guess.

After the Jade Winglet physically joins Peril and Turtle to resolve Scarlet’s arc, Chameleon is now gone of a powerful ally. He attempts to pick the group apart. Conflict between Winter, Moon, and Qibli, over the injuries of Kinkajou, and the spite between Peril and Winter, leading to Winter having his side trip to the IceWing kingdom with Hailstorm, where no one else could follow him. The Jade Winglet hangs out in Possibility, I guess, I’m still working out the details.

When trouble stirs in Possibility, Qibli accidentally pulls the group into SandWing trouble, revealing the alliance between Vulture and Onyx, as well as Chameleon disguising under their ranks.

Vulture and Onyx begin to be relevant. This was set up and foreshadowed, of course, but I’m not writing these books. Onyx was a dragon who went missing when things started going awry at Jade Mountain, as she decided playing into Sunny’s favor to get close to Thorn wouldn’t work. As Qibli hints at knowing something about the danger encroaching on Possibility, he flees to warn Thorn, but gets caught up in his past. He’s fully aware how to get himself out of these situations, but now he needs to protect the Jade Winglet from the likes of his family.

Onyx and Vulture’s plot relates, once again, to the thrones that were shifted by the Dragonets’ meddling, as Onyx tries to take the throne from Thorn.

Onyx has a more valuable role in this rewritten timeline. Her opinion on royalty isn’t disregarded, and her father legitimately shows remorse for his daughter rather than??? his girlfriend Thorn (which doesn’t happen in my headcanonverse). The concept of a fourth heir to the throne seemed like it would be such a significant plot point for Tui. Darkstalker took over that. In this version, Onyx is an important character, with Vulture pulling the strings, promising she has a chance at the throne. His point being: if a criminal can take the throne based on a child’s word and a magical necklace, another criminal can work for the throne based on his wit and his access to a true blood heir to the throne. 

After the royalty plotlines are addressed, Chameleon is separated from his allies by the Jade Winglet once again.

Thorn eventually wards off Vulture and Onyx, with the somewhat support of her subjects, but the event left the SandWing queendom uneasy, as it still has work to be done. Thorn loses the Scorpion Den to the two of them, leaving Chameleon identified again. After being separated from his allies, once again, Chameleon becomes more focused in his vengeful plots against these children, but he does have his own points, especially in relevance to Kinkajou’s abuse she faced against the NightWings experimenting on her. When all else fails, he resorts back to the scroll itself.

As a final grasp for power, Chameleon attempts to become the previous owner of the scroll, leading to the storyline of Darkstalker. 

Chameleon attempts to create a charm that will turn him into the true owner of the scroll. So Chameleon destroys the scroll in the process, as Darkstalker overtakes Chameleon’s body and, instead of it being a mask, similar to his disguises, Darkstalker is capable of using his magic to use Chameleon as a vessel as a whole. Jade Mountain begins to collapse with his old body’s sudden disappearance. And Darkstalker plot happens! 

Darkstalker is still bent on revenge and restoring his kingdom’s former glory, but more in the sense of a more magically manipulative kind... the idea of magically changing people’s minds and changing people as a whole as he sees fit is focused upon

The twisted scene like Fierceteeth being turned into Clearsight has much more gravity. And directly affects our protagonists. While yes, a plague begins to wipe out the IceWings, and Queens and influential individuals are simply made to accept Darkstalker as a king, Darkstalker also realizes that the best way to get his friends - and enemies - back is molding them from the closest things to them. Moonwatcher being Clearsight, the two of them being striking similar in appearance and mannerisms, Turtle being Fathom, a timid descendent of another SeaWing animus who was afraid of his powers, Winter being Queen Diamond, someone he could kill, over and over, just as his mother was. Kinkajou? Oh, she’s irrelevant. Peril would have to be taken care of. But Qibli’s a wise one, thoughtful, and craved for validation. Perhaps he could help him perfect the spell.

This makes the story moving forward less about MAGIC as a whole and more of the concept of forcing dragons to do things against their will. (Which leads into the Pantala arc but first...)

Darkstalker is defeated, of course, after hinting about the existence of Pantala, and causing a “glitch” in magic system which has caused a lull in enchantments and animus dragons.

After a few obnoxious monologues, a bit of trickery and secret exchanging on Qibli and Kinkajou’s parts, and the sibling drama of animus SeaWing royal siblings, the free Jade Winglet (including Peril) was able to kill Darkstalker, who’s weight on the magic continuism caused magic to “break” momentarily in the Wings of Fire continuum, (just for Pantala’s conflict to be wrapped up without cheat codes). The residue of magic is left on the world, which accidentally manifests into a whole new dragonet. Peacemaker. (I’ll elaborate on my ideas for Peacemaker one day but... as much as I HATE the resolution of Darkstalker getting once another second chance, I love the idea of a whole separate identity facing the consequences for another’s evil. I’ll figure it out later.)

The students will resume classes again. Maybe Stonemover becomes useful to attempt to help out with the consequences of Darkstalker. The NightWings begin grappling with Glory’s rule, even more than usual, after the progress that they made. Pantala’s arc will be moreso about the fallout of Darkstalker, the accidental marks that Clearsight made, and the longlasting magical residue of Fathom. But those are ideas for later posts. 

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #472

Top Ten Suggestions for Future Star Wars Games

Concluding an accidental trilogy of Top Ten lists that feature the word “Star”, here we journey back to a galaxy far, far away. This is also one of those lists that’s been bubbling under for quite a while, since the announcement (feels like ages ago now) that Disney have shopped the Star Wars licence around to a number of developers, and we’ll get future games from companies other than EA. But really it goes back even further, because for me Star Wars and gaming are inexorably linked. I associate my teenage PC gaming phase very closely with Star Wars, because it occurred in the mid-nineties, when Star Wars games were truly ascendent. In a run that I would argue stretched from the release of X-Wing in 1993, right through to Knights of the Old Republic in 2003, it felt like just about every genre was getting a nod from the House of Skywalker, and generally speaking the games were excellent. This time also saw the resurgence of Star Wars as a multimedia powerhouse, with the films getting reissued on video (and in Widescreen!) before the 1997 release of the Special Editions, the subsequent DVD releases, and then in 1999, the beginnings of the Prequel Trilogy with The Phantom Menace. You could argue that that’s when the wheels fell off, because even with the “Han Shot First” controversy and mixed reaction to some of the new effects shots, the late-nineties releases had been warmly received, Star Wars felt cool and exciting all the time, and anticipation was building to fever pitch at the thought of new movies. Amidst the Jar Jar hatred there was, I think, a bit more antipathy towards stories set in the Clone Wars, and although there were still some very good games being released (the first LEGO Star Wars came out in 2005!), the spark of the Golden Age was mostly absent.

Could we be entering a new Golden Age, or at least a Silver Age? Maybe; hopefully! I really, really enjoyed Jedi: Fallen Order and Squadrons, even though neither are perfect and both have plenty of rough edges. Now that the Skywalker Saga is out of the way and the franchise as a whole is spreading out into new areas (check out the number of Disney+ shows on the way), perhaps we’ll see all different facets of the galaxy explored in games too. And that’s what this list is: ten possible games, set in the Star Wars universe, that I think would be cool.

For the most part I’m not trying to invent a whole game; rather, it’s “Star Wars in this genre” or “Star Wars with this hook”. There’s probably an exception or two here and there, but you’ll get the drift. Some of these have been in my mental wishlist for years, from right back to when I first played X-Wing on my mate’s Mac, or when I installed a friend’s copy of Dark Forces from floppy disk (we, er, did that in those days). One of the best things about Star Wars is that it contains multitudes; George Lucas really did create a whole galaxy full of weird side characters, intriguing backstory, and funky-looking locations (aided and abetted, of course, by a bevy of talented collaborators). What corner of the universe couldn’t support a game of some kind?

So here’s to the future, to the newly-rechristened Lucasfilm Games, and to ten titles that could all benefit from beginning with those classic blue words on a black background.

Jedi Padawan RPG: I’ve wanted a game like this for about twenty years: a third-person action-RPG where you play a Padawan. You create your character and build your lightsaber, and then follow your master on missions around the Republic, learning the ways of the Force and developing your character. In a way, Fallen Order has adopted some of these ideas; the fact you only use a lightsaber and Force powers, for instance. But in my mind this is more similar to something like the first Fable, or maybe Mass Effect, where you’d have a hub to return to (the Jedi Temple) and then go off on missions that you could choose. All the while there’d be a plot bubbling up, and an arc to follow, and all sorts of quasi-open-world Jedi shenanigans. It’d be cool if they could make lightsabers feel like the really dangerous one-hit-kill weapons they are in the films, or if you could use them to, y’know, open doors and stuff. Maybe this could be set in the “High Republic” era we’re starting to explore.

Deus Ex-style first-person RPG: I suppose this one could be reductively called “Cyberpunk on Coruscant”, but the idea is you’d play someone – not a Jedi, in my mind – going on quests or solving some kind of mystery, shooting people in first person whilst also upgrading your body and abilities in typical RPG style. I wouldn’t want it to be too dark; I don’t like it when people try to make Star Wars “edgy”. But that Mandalorian or Rogue One tone of seriousness interspersed with Star Wars’ typical melodrama and weirdness would be good. I see your character as a small-time crook or maybe a minor mercenary who by circumstance is forced to take missions for either the Rebels or the Empire (or maybe First Order and Resistance); perhaps mirroring Poe Dameron’s journey from spice smuggler to X-Wing superstar. It’d be cool if there was Fallout-style hit-modelling on characters, and if your arm or whatever got damaged, you could have it replaced with a robot one.

Star Wars meets Elite: I even have a title for this one: “Scoundrel”. Basically, like I say, it’s Elite but in the Star Wars universe; you have a ship, you fly from planet to planet, you trade goods or offer passage, you spend your money on upgrading your ship or buying a new one. You’re Han Solo, basically; hence “Scoundrel”. In my mind it’s set at the dawn of the Rebellion, so you can choose where your allegiances – and your ethics – lie. Take on official Imperial assignments? Help their war effort? Stay neutral but legal? Stay out of the politics, but, y’know, smuggle a little bit? Run a bit of spice? Or do you go all-in and work for the Rebellion – even take part in military action? Maybe it could even run all the way up to Return of the Jedi and give you the chance to fight in the Battle of Endor! C’mon, this one has “hit” written all over it.

Clone Troopers turn-based “Tactics” game: by “Tactics” I mean like X-COM or, well, Gears Tactics; turn-based team combat games. I think of all the groups of military characters most suited to this style, it would be the Clone Troopers; they’re a well-organised military force that functions as part of a team. We know there are loads of types of Troopers, with different uniforms for different jobs, so there’s lots of room for customising your team, as well as experimenting with different classes. Plus if they die there’s more to come, they’re just in vats! Get Temuera Morrison to voice them all for added authenticity.

A point-and-click adventure: this was the first ever idea I had for a Star Wars game, because at the time I was really, really into adventures. This could be anything; I’m not too fussed on the plot. Some kind of mystery obviously lends itself to the format. Whether you play as the same character all the way through or switch protagonists (a common genre trope), I don’t mind. But I want it to be a fairly straightforward, old-fashioned point-and-click game, with no action or QTEs. Make it look like Thimbleweed Park, make it look like Clone Wars or Rebels, make it look as real as possible, it’s all fine; just give me a slow-burn narrative adventure story in the Star Wars universe please.

Lemmings, but with porgs: yeah, there’s nothing more to add to this. Maybe you play one of the Space Nuns, or even Chewbacca, and you have to help out all these crazy porgs? They’re just wandering around, getting into mischief, chewing on the Falcon or playing with a lightsaber, and they’ll kill themselves if you don’t help. That’s it. That’s the game. Lemmings, but with porgs.

Rebel base construction/management game: my template here would be stuff like Evil Genius or Two Point Hospital: real-time games where you build different rooms or services in a given play space. So, the Rebels are constantly darting all over the galaxy, setting up shop temporarily and then evacuating when the Empire comes a-calling; here, you have to kit out the different bases, often to service different aims (a recon base, an aerial support base, a training centre, etc), and in different planetary conditions (think Hoth, Yavin, or Crait). Obviously there are essentials: communication, power, accommodation. Then you can build starship docks, weapons arrays, bacta tanks, astromech services, even Jedi training rooms. Instead of attracting “customers” the idea is to be recruiting new Rebels, so the bigger and better your base, the more troops you have. Maybe there can even be some kind of meta-game where the progress of the war is smoother if your bases are better? But there’d be virtually no combat, apart from maybe shooting probe droids or scaring away wampas. Anyway, I think it sounds cool.

Rebel Commandos cover-shooter: I guess this could also be a Clone Trooper game, but we’ve already had a Clone FPS, and I just invented Clone Tactics up the page a bit, so let’s spread the love. It’s basically Gears of War but with the Rebel Alliance. Think about the Battle of Endor or the Battle of Scarif; teams of well-trained and battle-hardened troopers up against superior odds but still kickin’ ass. Unlike the rent-a-clone nature of the Tactics game, this would be more story-driven, with a small team (four, maybe, as it’s a good number for co-op) who have to infiltrate and/or assault heavily-fortified enemy positions. I think this could be good with a nice narrative behind it, fleshing out the Star Wars universe, and maybe offering a bit of those Rogue One-style shades of grey.

Fallout Shelter-style Jawa Sandcrawler management game: utini! Jawas are great aren’t they? Whether it’s electrocuting Artoo, cheering at podracers, or just eating the shit out of a great big egg, everyone loves a good Jawa. How can you make a game about Jawas? Well, what about if you’re this tribe or group or whatever of Jawas, and you’ve got your own knackered sandcrawler. And as part of the game you have to develop it, tart it up a bit, recruit new bands of Jawas, and then, y’know, rob droids and flog ‘em. Like Fallout Shelter, you have to build and maintain different rooms in the sandcrawler to grow your people and earn more cash from droids, but you’re constrained a little by size. The sandcrawler can’t be expanded too much, and although you could upgrade to bigger ones, you have to make strategic decisions about where to allocate precious space. I see this as being quite low-fi and stylised (bring back Yoda Stories!), and working as a kind of chilled-out time-wasting game on Switch or something.

Homeworld, but in the Clone Wars: and we’re back to the Clone Wars again! But here, we kind of have to, as it’s the only war in the Star Wars wars that features two huge and evenly-matched armadas (Rebels vs Empire and Resistance vs First Order are both very much “scrappy underdogs up against vast organised militaries”). Playing as the Republic or the Separatists, you have to maintain huge fleets of capital ships, support craft, fighters and bombers, and go on missions to attack, defend, or escort. It’s probably the best way to recreate the feeling of that absolutely vast battles we see in the opening minutes of Revenge of the Sith. Maybe an add-on could even give us ground battles too, recreating scenes such as the Battle of Geonosis. Anyway, sounds cool don’t you think?

Incidentally – and speaking of the Star Wars of it all – this is the first week that we’re not watching a War for our family movie night. We’ve done ‘em all! All the episodes of the Skywalker Saga, the two live-action spin-off movies, and even (well, me an’ the eldest) the animated Clone Wars movie. I might do another Top Ten ranking them, based on the kids’ opinions; that’d be interesting. Although – of course – we’ve only got a couple of weeks to wait until the two Ewok movies hit Disney+. What a time to be alive!

Now, the Ewoks – there’s a good idea for a game there…