#for fun plot points without necessarily taking his agency with it. and getting to see his stubborn side lol

[quirinah]

log

[springtrappd]

Thoughts on the popular ‘vanny and ggy are viruses possessing Vanessa and Gregory’ theory?

but for real: it's not something that i necessarily i think won't happen, but one i hope doesn't happen. it perpetuates the exact kind of pop culture bullshit around identity (as a concept) that drives me up the wall & encourages some of the absolute worst, most boring takes on the characters and their situation possible. it has the exact same problem that i have with the vanny virus narrative as a whole, which is that it denies the characters agency & provides an easy fix for conflict. it wasn't them, the virus did it! they aren't complicated people, the virus did it! there's no need to be afraid because the virus did it! there are times when stories are like that are appropriate but this ain't exactly one of them.

(and note that even in the core 6 games, the animatronics -- despite being possessed by children -- are not portrayed as Secretly Good in that if you flip a magic switch they'll be safe to be around; they're children, yeah, but they're not kind children. you get their happy ending by treating them as such, but choosing to do so is a risk... and their happy ending isn't them being 'fixed' -- because what happened to them cannot be undone; rather, it's them having the chance to be happy. what purpose does having the glamrocks be infected with evilitis every time we see them serve, narratively? what would 'curing' them accomplish, if they're still trapped within the same dehumanising system?)

like. which is more abjectly horrifying: an inescapable spectre of the past recreating your childhood trauma by positioning itself as your abuser and manipulating you into committing horrible acts, the kind that leave you questioning who you are and the lengths you are willing to go to survive -- and if your survival is even worth anything at all, if it means inflicting similar suffering on others... or the Evil You being Evil. i know which one i'm interested in!

and like. it's not like the series has never grappled with anything similarly mature in the past; for all i hate tfc, the one thing about it that isn't incoherent is what it has to say about circus baby and charlie. you cannot hide behind "well it's for kids" or "well you can't expect that kind of thing from the series" when the shit explicitly meant for people who can't handle horror games Went There so hard it gave up on having a coherent plot for the sake of it.

really the only way i would accept something like that is if vanny was some kind of traumademon manifesting from, well, the trauma inflicted by the events of that story up until that point. the problem with that is that unless it all resolves with vanessa accepting her/purifying her/etc, externalising her like that just serves as another excuse to toss vanessa's relevancy out the window... and, yknow, the structure they've set up for themselves doesn't really allow for stories like that. you can't exactly do something deeply personal when you're dedicated to making everything as vague as possible -- for fear of ever actually saying something.

and ggy is dumb and stupid and i hate it because all it does is yoink vanessa's entire shtick without the pathos (vanessa is recreating the horrors of her own past by recreating the horrors of fazbears! what is gregory doing? being sad??) for absolutely zero reason. "gregory is possessed by Evil™️" is a lot less fun (and a lot less interesting in terms of his relationship to vanessa) than "gregory is a kid in a bad situation willing to make whatever choices he has to to survive". like. i usually see ggy brought up as a rebuttal to arguments abt him being fucked up for doing All That Shit to the glamrocks, but...... he isn't possessed? in sb?? that is the point??? if it's meant to be someone else why would his behaviour be the exact same???? if the virus is meant to make him act like the opposite of himself why is his opposite of "yes murder!" attempted murder????? what SIGNS even ARE THERE for ANY OF THIS I HATE ALL OF YOUUUUUUU

[ikemenomegas]

Rock Paper Scissors

It's been almost six years since bsd started airing, and I decided to go back to season 1 after watching the season 4 premier last night and reading the latest chapter (best Wednesday of 2023 so far).

It's been so long I forgot that Atsushi's entrance exam starts with Kunikida and Dazai playing rock-paper-scissors

Where Dazai wins every on of the three rounds and sends Kunikida to crawl around on tables and tackle Tanizaki. We don't assume from this point that it's a manipulation, only that it's typical comedy or maybe someone being very good at guessing the other person's body language.

By chapter 105, we've seen Dazai manipulate his way into impossible situations before, and once again playing a game with a partner in front of a supposed life or death situation.

This arc has exposed a lot more of what is Dazai's more serious and less performative side of his personality than the other arcs before. We know he, through Mori's training, is a master at game theory and pragmatic strategies. Even after working with the ADA for nearly three years by this point* Dazai manipulations in preference to explaining, even distracting his own coworkers from what work he does behind the scenes in order to prevent them from worrying and/or keep his movements free from scrutiny.

*(time gets wishy washy in bsd, but Atsushi has been with the agency for quite a few months by where we are in the manga and all the light novel things apparently take place between what we've seen from the anime and manga so far. With the events of even the Hunting Dog arc to now stretching nearly a month or so, I estimate at least eight to nine** months since Atsushi's recruitment to now, even without much seasonal change, simply because there is otherwise too much going on with the light novel missions included, but that's not necessary for the meta)

**amendment after reviewing events through overthinking, it's more like 5-6 months max given Akutagawa's promise, which I forgot about. The timeline does make Dazai trying so hard to save Atsushi's life in the Guild arc more poignant, it's really a mentor choosing a new apprentice to take care of and it makes how the rest of the agency operates around Atsushi during the cannibalism arc also make more sense)

It's sort of fun to realize that in the first few chapters, Dazai's hand was hidden. What's maybe even more fun is getting a "glimpse behind the curtain" of Dazai's scheming. We know he plans for a lot of scenarios, he reads the flow of things in Yokohama and predicts likely scenarios from small bits of information.

Even Ranpo says that he's hard to deal with. Ranpo sees a lot more than most people do, he probably has most of the same information Dazai does a lot of the time, even if he doesn't necessarily have the context for it (having not spend time in the city's underworld).

Which maybe again begs the question of why Ranpo and the Agency have struggled so much against the Decay of the Angel. Fukuchi might have more resources, but so did the Port Mafia and the Guild. Dazai technically beat Dostoevsky during the Corruption arc even if Dostoevsky might have been expecting the scenario.

Fukuchi's sword sort of means he can see a few seconds into the future, but he still has a harder time beating Fukuzawa, who from what we've seen is probably the better swordsman in every sense of the word since Fukuzawa's way of the sword has a lot more to do with lifestyle and Plot Themes than with simple martial capability.

The last few pages of chapter 105 lay out clearly that what Dazai and Dostoevsky do is this illusionist type manipulating and misdirection, practiced and subtle enough that no one around them really realizes they're doing it. At this point, I wonder if they even notice.

In the way that young Ranpo and his genius parents didn't notice that the rest of the world is not lying, they just don't make deductions the way Ranpo does. Dazai and Dostoevsky feel isolated from other people not just because of their abilities but perhaps in part because the redirection is almost second nature. Dazai's power generally distances him from exactly the kinds of people who might be able to understand what it's like to live as an ability user. I suspect Dostoevsky's power has something to do with causing proportional harm to people who want to hurt him, but it's possible he determines what "hurt" means, or that he's unable to control whether his ability reacts to someone wanting to hurt him versus whether they intend to act on it (ie Ango's subordinate who tried to handcuff him and ended up dead? likely dead).

I don't know why Dazai says this to Sigma, of all people. They've never met before, despite Sigma having some similarity to both of his protege's backgrounds, or maybe because if Dazai gets his hands on the Page, there's every possibility Sigma will just disappear. Or I suppose, there is something I do understand in that Sigma is considered the epitome of the "average human" even though Dazai is right and there is technically no such thing.

This is a story that tells uses the names and backgrounds of story writers. One of my favorite things to read, and which I myself have a difficult time emulating, are short stories about the lives of normal people - how they perceive the successes and failures of their small day to day actions, how they invent or experience grand cause and effect even when there is likely no such thing, how they lie to themselves and how they invent truth.

I think a lot of people who relate to Dazai, both the character and the author, can understand having a fear of people. Humans are unpredictable, and those moments of unpredictability are what make things dangerous.

If you can predict someone's actions or even entice them into going the way you expect, it can make things safer. It can also make them very very lonely. Dazai is also smart enough to see how things might go if he didn't manipulate things, leading him to wonder when is anyone being genuine with him if he can himself alter most situations. It's a self perpetuating problem that others around him can sometimes insert themselves into, but it's not easy. Dazai's level of intelligence, his sense of humor or habitual "clowning", and his depression each have served to isolate him in different ways from "normal" people.

And yet:

"I am not a superhuman beyond the limits of human wisdom."

I think he knows that members of the Agency are starting to see him for who is is, but more importantly, Dazai himself is finally acknowledging that despite the layer upon layer of facade, despite the fact that he may not be understood at every single moment, he's not completely unknowable.

In the context of his ability, his recently killing Chuuya (maybe for real and maybe for good but we hope not, we hope that the water tank is maybe part of the "tension and timing") and a lot of other people, this undeniably dark part of him that we've never seen before, Dazai is somehow more transparent than at any other time. He's a human who likes playing games, who is resentful of this nearly month long imprisonment, whose bandages stop before his elbow, who is angry with other people and what they represent to him, and who is trying to show someone who has only seen how people can use him that maybe there's some way to protect himself, some way to become individual and break out of the meaningless tale Fyodor has tried to write them into, that no person's way of being human can ever be average.

Then again, everything is one hand or the other, so who knows what lies behind this confession yet.

[thedeadhandofseldon]

The Anti-Mercer Effect

On the Accessibility of D&D, Why Unprepared Casters is so Fun, and Why Haley Whipjack is possibly the greatest DM of our generation.

(Apologies to my mutuals who aren’t in this fandom for the length of this, but as you all know I have never in my life shut up about anything so… we’ll call it even for the number of posts about Destiel I see every day.

To fellow UC fans - I haven’t listened to arc 4 yet, I started drafting this in early August, and I promise I will write a nice post about how great Gus the Bard is once I get the chance to listen to more of his DMing).

Structure - Or, “This is not the finale, there will be more podding cast”

So, first of all, let’s just talk about how Unprepared Casters works. Because it’s kind of unusual! Most of the other big-name D&D podcasts favor this long, grand arcs; UC has about 10 hours of podcast per each arc. And that’s a major strength in a lot of ways: it makes it really accessible to new listeners, because you can just start with the current arc and understand what’s going on!

And by starting new arcs every six or seven episodes, they can explore lots of ways to play D&D! Classic dungeon delve arc! Heist arc! Epic heroes save the world arc! Sportsball arc! They can touch on all sorts of things!

And while I’m talking about that: Dragons in Dungeons, the first arc, makes it incredibly accessible as a show - because it lets the unfamiliar listener get a sense of what D&D actually is. (It’s about telling stories and making your friends feel heroic and laugh and cry, for the record). If I had to pick a way to introduce someone to the game without actually playing it with them, that arc would definitely be it.

And I’d be remise not to note one very important thing: Haley Whipjack and Gus the Bard are just very funny, very charismatic people. Look. Episode 0s tend to be about 50%(?) those two just talking to each other about their own podcast. It shouldn’t work. And yet it DOES, its one of my favorite parts, because Haley and Gus are just cool.

And a side note that doesn’t fit anywhere else: I throw my soul at him! I throw a scone at him - that’s it, that’s the vibe. The whole podcast alternates between laughing with your friends and brooding alone in a dark tavern corner - but the laughs never forced and the dark corner is never too dark for too long.

Whipjack the Great - Or, the DM is Also a Player!

I think Haley Whipjack is one of the greatest Dungeon Masters alive. The plots and characters! The mechanical shenanigans! The descriptions!

Actually, let’s start there: with the descriptions. (Both Haley and Gus do this really fucking well). As we know, Episode 0 of each arc sees the DM reading a description - of a small town, or the Up North, or the recent history of a great party. And Haley always strikes this tricky balance - one I think a lot of us who DM struggle with - between giving too much description and  worldbuilding, and not telling us anything at all. She describes people and events in just enough detail to imagine them, but never so much they seem static and unreal - just clear enough to envision, but with enough vagueness left to let your imagination begin to run wild.

While I’m thinking about arc 3’s party, let’s talk about a really bold move she made in that arc: letting the players have ongoing control of their history. Loser Lars! She didn’t try to spell out every detail of this high-level party’s history, or restrict their past to only what she decided to allow - she gave them the broad outlines, and let them embellish it. And that made for a much more alive story than any attempt to create it by herself would have - but I think it takes a lot of courage to let your players have that agency. Most Dungeon Masters (myself included) tend to struggle with being control freaks.

And the plots! Yeah, arc one is built of classic tropes - but she actually uses them, she doesn’t get caught up in subverting everything or laughing at the cliches. And it’s fun! In arc 3, there really isn’t a straight line for the players to follow, either - which makes the game much more interesting and much trickier to run. And her NPCs are fantastic and I will talk about them in the next section.

Above all, though, I think what is really impressive is how Haley balances mechanics, and rules as written, with the narrative and rule of cool - and puts both rules and story in the service of playing a fun game. And the secret to that? She’s the DM, but the DM is a player, and the DM is clearly having fun. Hope Lovejoy mechanically shouldn’t get that spellslot back, but she does, and it’s fun. The changeling merchant in Thymore doesn’t really make some Grand Artistic Narrative better, but wow is it fun. And she never tries to force it one way or the other - the story might be more dramatic if Annie didn’t manage to banish the demon from the vault, but it’s a lot cooler and a lot more fun for the players if Annie gets to be a badass instead - and the rules and the dice say that Annie managed it.

Settings feel like places, NPCs feel like people, and the narrative plot feels like a real villainous plot.

Anyway. I could go on about the various ways in which Whipjack is awesome for quite a while - she’s right, first place in D&D is when your friends laugh and super first place is when they cry - but I’m going to stop here and just. Make another post about it some other time. For now, for the record I hold her opinions about the game in higher esteem than I do several official sourcebooks; that is all.

Characters - Or, Bombyx Mori Is Not an Asshole, And That Matters

Okay, I said I would talk about characters! And I will!

Just a general place to start: the party! All of the first three parties are interesting to me, because they all care about each other. Not even necessarily in a Found Family Trope sort of way, though often that too. But they generally aren’t assholes to each other. The players create characters that actually work together, that are interesting; even when there’s internal divisions like SK-73 v. Sir Mr. Person, they aren’t just unpleasant and antagonistic all the time. Listening to the podcast, we’re “with” these people for a couple hours - and it isn’t unpleasant. That matters a lot. (To take a counter-example: I love Critical Role, but the episode when Vox Machina pranked Scanlan after he died and was resurrected wasn’t fun to listen to, it was just uncomfortable and angering and vaguely cruel).

All of the PCs are amazing, and the players in each arc did a great job. If you disagree with me about that, well, you have the right to be incorrect and I am sorry for your loss. Annie Wintersummer, for one example: tragic and sad and I want to give her a hug, but also Fuck Yeah Wintersummer, and also her familiar Charles the Owl is the cutest and funniest and I love him. And we understand what’s going on with Annie, she isn’t some infinite pool of hidden depths because this arc is 7 episodes and we don’t have time for that, but she also has enough complexity to be interesting. Same with Fey Moss: yeah, a lot of her is a silly pun about fame that carries into how she behaves, but a lot of how she behaves is also down to some good classic half-elven angst about parenthood and wanting to be known and seen and important. (Side note: if your half-elf character doesn’t have angst, well, that’s impressive and also I don’t think I believe you).

There are multiple lesbian cat-people in a 4-person party and they both have requited romantic interests who aren’t each other. This is the future liberals want and I am glad for it.

Sir Mister Person, the human fighter! Thavius, the edge lord! Even when a character is “simple,” they’re interesting, because of how they’re played as people and not action-figures. And that matters a lot.

In the same way: the NPCs. There really aren’t a lot of them! And some of them come from Patreon submissions, so uh good work gang, you’re part of the awesomeness and I’m proud of you! The point being, the NPCs work because enough of them are interesting to matter. It’s not just a servant who opens Count Michael’s door, it’s a character with a name (Oleandra!) and a personality and history. They’re interesting. Penny Lovejoy didn’t need to be interesting, the merchant outside the Laughing Mausoleum didn’t need to be interesting, but they ARE! And Haley and Gus EXCEL at making the NPCs matter, not just to the story but to us as viewers. I agree with Sir Mister Person, actually, I would die for the princesses of the kingdom. I actually care about Gem Lovejoy of all people - that wouldn’t happen in an ordinary campaign! That’s the thing that makes Unprepared Casters spectacular - and, frankly, it’s especially impressive because D&D does not tend to be good at making a lot of interesting compared to a lot of other sorts of stories.

And, just as an exemplar of all this: Bombyx Mori. Immortal, reincarnating(?), and described as the incarnation of the player’s ADHD. I expected to hate Bombyx, because as the mom friend both in and out of my friend-group’s campaigns, the chaos-causer is always exhausting to me. And yeah, Bombyx causes problems on purpose! But! She is not an asshole.

And that’s important. Bombyx goes and sits with the queen and comforts her. Bombyx gives Annie emotional support. Bombyx isn’t just a vehicle to jerk around the DM and other players; Bombyx really is a character we can care about. To compare with another case - in the first couple episodes of The Adventure Zone, the PCs are just dicks. Funny, but dicks. Bombyx holds out an arm “covered in larva” to shake with a count, and robs him of magical items, but she also cares about her friends and other people! She uses a powerful magical gem to save her fertilizer guy from death! Yeah, Bombyx is ridiculous, but she’s not just an asshole the party has to keep around for plot reasons; you can see why her party would keep her around. And one layer of meta up, she’s the perfect example of how to make a chaotic character like that while still being fun for everyone you’re playing with, which is often not the case. And I love her.

The Anti-Mercer Effect - Or, “I think we proved it can be fun, you can have a good time with your friends. And it doesn’t have to be scary, you can just work with what you know”

The Mercer Effect basically constitutes this: Matthew Mercer, Dungeon Master of Critical Role, is incredible (as are all of his players). They’re all professional story-tellers in a way, remember, and so Critical Role treats D&D like a narrative art-form, and it’s inspiring. Seeing that on Critical Role sets impossible standards - and people go into their own home games imagining that their campaigns will be like Critical Role, and the burden of that expectation tends to fall disproportionately on the DM. And the end result, I think, of the Mercer Effect is that we get discouraged or intimidated, because our game isn’t “as good as” theirs. (And I should note - Matt certainly doesn’t want that to be our reaction).

So the Anti-Mercer Effect is two things: it’s D&D treated like a game, and it’s inspiring but not intimidating. And Unprepared Casters manages both of those really freaking well. Because they play it like a game! A UC arc looks just like a good campaign in anyone’s home game. They have the vibes of 20-somethings and college students playing D&D for fun because that’s who they are (as a 20-something college student who plays a lot of D&D, watching it felt like watching my friends play an especially good campaign). They’re trying to tell a good story, sure, and they always do. But first and foremost, they’re trying to have fun, and it shows, and I love the UC cast for it.

And that’s the other half of it: it’s inspiring! It’s approachable; you can see that Haley and Gus put plenty of work into preparing the game but it also doesn’t make you feel like you need hundreds of pages of worldbuilding to run a game. Sometimes a cleric makes Haley cry and she gives them back a spell-slot from their deity! That’s fantastic! It’s just inspiring - listening to this over the summer, when my last campaign had fallen apart under the strain of graduation, is why I decided to plan and run my new one!

That quote from Haley Whipjack that I used as the title for this section? That’s the whole core of this idea, and really, I think, the core of the podcast.

The Mercer Effect is when you go “that’s really cool, I could never do that.” But Unprepared Casters makes you look at D&D and go “wow, that looks really fun. I bet I can do that!” And I love the show for it.

And I bet a lot of you do too.

[chrisodonline]

In which I unwrap a little from “Mother” and also tie in past seasons’ of G Callen character development AND character insight shown and implied...

This episode was all about parallels -- and they were well done. Parallels in TV episodes are nothing new, and you see them as handy ways to tie storylines and characters together, either from within the show itself or with references and homages to past literature and media.  They are a great tool for new writers, and for good reason. People expect themes to episodic and serial presentations, and they help keep formulae from being just straight formulae. ECO and Babar definitely leaned into them, but with a lot of thought. 

I do think the parallels between Akhos and G were supposed to make us think as well as make G think.  Akhos definitely thought they were two sides to the same coin. Hetty had concerns they were, in a way, as well. It was setup to put Hetty in continued crisis thought and self-reflection that has started recently -- but you saw seeds in past seasons.  It’s still very in character.  The beauty of the ep was that it didn’t actually lean all the way into the parallel. It was more explicit in noting the parallel of Akhos and G, but mainly because the dialogue was coming through to display the aforementioned mentalities of our Baddie of the Week and Mother Hetty. (Mother was also the very specific nickname/codename given to the CIA during the Cold War, and I just kept thinking about that. I’m sure that was no coincidence.)  Sam also had a little dialogue that floated this -- in this ep and in recent ones.  

Anyway, what the episode demonstrated was a reinforcement that G and Akhos? Actually two very different people. And it’s not that they ended up on two different sides of a forked path after Hetty’s modus operandi of intervening with lost souls. It wasn’t even anything about what Hetty planted. G was never going to be Akhos, Hetty or no Hetty.

Before I get into the ending parts with G and his fantastic dialogue, we’ll look at the speakers of lines that contributed to the “Akhos = what G could have ended up as.” Akhos himself belabors the point. Akhos is extremely misguided, and approaches things from an embittered POV. He has also lied to someone who is loyal enough to him to go to the HQ of a government agency.  There’s an entitlement aspect to him, and also someone who refuses to accept any of his actions or mistakes as completely of his own doing. It was all “nurture” to him. He wasn’t a full-grown adult or anything at some point capable of making his own decisions.  If anything, saying he was ruined and fallen shows that he has a pretty darn clear understanding of morality.  You can’t fault a person for not being mentally healthy or having emotional issues. But he knows right from wrong. He did wrong. He’s not the voice of reason in all this. He has a skewed view of things, and we’re not supposed to walk away thinking, “Man, Akhos was a deep guy. He’s super smart. He had it all figured out.” He tried to kill Hetty, then G, and tried to blow up Deeks and Kensi. He’s not...a good guy. He’s not on the side of right nor is he right about things. He ends up killed by Hetty.  If this were a novel, well, a traditional novel -- let’s say -- Akhos’ ending up killed in a very bloody fashion and coming out the loser -- big time -- with his men taken out and plots being foiled all over the place pretty much enforces his worldview and ways of life are not ones the author subscribes to nor are they trying to get the audience/reader to subscribe to them. 

Hetty is another person who muses this, and she does it not from her usual confident stance.  She isn’t Hetty the Purveyor of Wisdom.  She is Hetty the Mother, specifically Hetty the Mother, who is going through common paternal guilt mode. She’s questioning her decisions, how it’s affected her children, etc. She isn’t Hetty the Orator. She is Hetty the Doubter. Sage!Hetty is a voice we’re supposed to listen to.  Confused, guilt-ridden, confidence-bruised is not the Hetty we’re supposed to listen to. It’s her at her most human, not her most all-knowing. 

Sam? Sam is your favorite aunt. He meddles at times, but he always cares. He might get a little personal, but you know you can go to him with whatever horrible thing you think you did, and he’d give you a look before helping you out and guiding you back and giving you the best hug you’ve ever gotten. He’s also a worrier. Sam’s just worried about his friend, and this is probably his gateway into deeper discussions because he knows G isn’t up for the really, really deep ones.

So, we’ve established that these aren’t necessarily the voices we need to put full faith in -- for the ep that is.  (Hetty and Sam know what’s what very often.)

The episode is smart enough to let G speak for himself. He doesn’t do it often, and that’s been a big point in some of his plots. He gets deep here, and he drops his guard. It’s Hetty, and he’s often done it with her. However, he also knows she needs to hear what he has to say. It’s all true, so he’s not lying out of kindness. He’s being honest. He doesn’t do this because Hetty showed him a magic, fun path. He may have ended up on this super specific path because of Hetty, but he was always going to help people. He doesn’t do this because he feels like he has no choice. He does it because he sees the good it does. It allows people to live their lives. That’s all he wants. He wants people to live outside of violence. He has every reason to doubt the good in people. He’s seen the worst in this job, and he saw it before the job. He had abandonment issues not knowing who he was and if he was ever wanted. He had to live with that on top of not only encountering horrible, cruel people, but being left in their charge. Time and time again. His childhood was full of horrible things and horrible people. But he also saw good, innocent people -- his fellow foster kids. 

Sam, Kensi, and Deeks usually mention at least one personal relationship when talking about doing the job, though they also love helping others and explicitly note. In the 11th season, with G’s acknowledging he is no longer a lone wolf, that he does have people close to him, and seeming to be okay with, he still talks with distance about the people he saves. He’s tried the “normal” things beyond the found family: girlfriends, a niece and nephews, steady dwelling places, staying in a job for a while, etc.  He still sees himself as separate from the “normal life.” From the world he saves. The world is full of other people living their lives, not him. He’s not bitter about that. In fact, he kind of misses the aspects to being fully solo. (See? Already very different Akhos. Not bitter. Not feeling entitled to something better or throwing blame around.)

G Callen has had emotional growth in being able to trust more people and let them in. He’s allowed himself to make connections.  Morally, though? He’s still the same person. Because he was never evil. And he never would be. Don’t get me wrong. He’s no saint, and he’d be the first to tell you that. He lives in the gray, though. Always has, and always will. He might have ended up in a different system if he stayed in juvie or kept going back. Even if he never went and ended up in organized crime or on the “wrong” side of the law because that was sort of his only options, or seemed like it, he’d be a total Arkady. (Maybe more...understated, shall we say?) He has the natural skill set and aptitude for organized crime, but you know he’d be helping people one way or another. Probably even be a CI.  He’s clever, and always has been. But he’s never been evil. He might go dark at times, but all these characters have. 

Again, Akhos feels like so many things forged him.  He takes no responsibility for the forging he did of himself. Trauma and horrible experiences do not forge us. That’s a misconception. It permanently affects you, in ways you sometimes don’t understand. It can affect your physical health. It can dig into your DNA. It’s not what makes you you, though. Survival is not a creator of bravery, it is a product of it. (I do want to note here, that the lack of survival does not mean there is an absence of bravery. There is no victim-blaming here.) 

G Callen was impacted by cruelty and tragedy. He got scars from them in various ways. He may have not wanted to get close to people or let them get close to him as a result. However, that doesn’t mean he didn’t care about them. G Callen didn’t go into this life because Hetty told him to or offered it to him, and made it sound like a trip to Disney World every day or like constant 80s training montages. The G Callen who went from agency to agency because, even though he hated the structure, he wanted to do the job. (He also says he left the CIA because the thought they were too shady.) He could have been a private investigator. Or just left and did something less kickass-y.  Something without any rules or bosses.  But he stayed. He didn’t stay because of Hetty. He’s super loyal to Hetty, but he’s also super stubborn.

G Callen sat there tonight and told Hetty that she didn’t fail him, that she didn’t fail any of them, that he does this because he wants people to be able to live their lives and that the world is worth saving. That’s why G Callen has always done this. That’s why when he sees kids in trouble, he doesn’t do what Akhos does and go “Oh, woe is me! You think you have it bad! Look at what life and the people in it have done to me! Aren’t you lucky to still have a parent who might be upset you die in a bomb blast!” G Callen has the opposite of the crab mentality.  He wants to make sure everyone else makes it out of the bucket, usually feeling like he has to stay in it himself -- no matter how often Sam tells him he can come out of the bucket. 

G Callen will always live in the gray, but never the dark.  He knows he’s not meant for a life in the “light.” He’s okay with that. He doesn’t double-down and go and live in the dark, taking down everyone with him. He wants to save people from the dark, no matter what it means for him. 

G Callen is still very often that hurt, little lonely boy who just wanted a family and to be loved and know who he was. To be safe. He was well into adulthood before he knew any of that, really.  He even says as much to Nadir back in “The Seventh Child.”  You find people who make you feel safe. He has talked about the team being family, and he said it tonight. He’s gotten all of that. That stuff is newer; however, he has always wanted other people to be safe, too. His hands are far from clean, and he can be extremely lethal and detached due to his training -- as seen tonight, as well.  But he’ll always help people. It’s who he is. It’s why he does what he does. In the “Matroyshka” episode (another nice maternal name, there), he reacts very strongly to his father calling him a good man. He doesn’t feel like he is, but he wants to be. 

G Callen lived through horror after horror, and he was still never going to approach Akhos-level evil. That’s not how it works. I realize the episode itself seemed to be pushing that more than it didn’t, but it was just having a discourse and exploring things through dialogue and plot -- as good TV does. G Callen would’ve said in his moment of deep honesty with Hetty if she did anything that might have led him to be Akhos.  I know there’s an argument to be made about whether or not Callen is self-aware, but what this ep and the ones before it have shown us is that he so very much is self-aware.  He’s more self-aware than he gets credit for because people mistake behavior changes as a guaranteed result of self-awareness.  (Behavior changes are soooo ingrained. They are nearly impossible to change permanently. It is very serious work and doesn’t signal a lack of attempts to make those changes.)

Anyway, that went even longer than I intended. I could go on and on. Clearly. I just wanted to put it out there that G Callen was never at real risk for becoming an Akhos, and the episode didn’t end with that notion, either. At least not to me.  

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Episodes 16-30

Insert COIN to Continue.

If Ex-Aid hadn't clicked with me in its first 15 episodes, it's with much joy that I come here to say that I think I finally get this show and I'm here for it!

Yes, I still have quite a few of problems, and a lot of the complaints I had in my previous post are still present in here, but my enjoyment of the show has only been growing more and more with each new episode I watch to the point where now only very few aspects of it still annoy me really hard and I can let go of things more easily like, for example, the weird dialogue and the comedy style that while are still aspects that I don't like but that now I can get past that without being bothered.

Honestly, what bothers me the most is that I didn't know the show had such a clear break into two parts and that I divided the episodes for the reviews in a way that will make a bit weird to talk about, especially in this post. I didn't expect episodes 1 through 23 would end up being a big arc, with episodes 24 onward being kind of a different thing, a step-up from the previous arc. But oh well...

Since these episodes were clearly divided into two separate arcs I'll do the same here and comment on them separately.

This first part, going from episodes 16 to 23, are a bit weird to comment on because even inside them there's also a mini division we can make, episodes 16, 18, 19 and 20 are like a mini-arc to give Brave and Snipe power-ups while 21, 22, and 23 have more like an end game plot going on, and episode 17 is kinda just hanging around there, a bit out of place that usually would be considered a filler but that introduces a character that is used later on so while we can't completely disregard that episode we also can't really put it in the same basket as the others.

The first portion is the weakest of this whole section, being completely honest I don't remember much about it, I know Brave and Snipe get their asses kicked and they lose his gashats and that was pretty cathartic, but then Genm did his thing again and gave them Level 50 power-ups and I was a bit disappointed, not really in aesthetic levels or powers, like I don't care for Snipe's but I love how Brave looks and I think is really cool that he can command a troop of minions, my biggest problem is that the power-up is in one of those double gashats with that ugly circle thing and they have to share it but the division isn't really fair since Snipe has been keeping it for way more time than Brave did. But oh well.

Oh also during this part my hate for Kuroto was constantly raising, I really despise this man and whenever someone wipes the floor with him is like I'm having an overdose of serotonin because he's an awful human being and that's what he deserves and seeing him being fucked up brings me a lot of joy.

The mini-arc of episodes 21 to 23 is when things start to get interesting as we see the plot unveiling mysteries and the gears grinding in incredible speed making these three episodes feel like the end of a season. Now, as interesting and exciting that it was to watch this climax payout I do have some problems here. My biggest one is that, once again, they made Emu WAY too special, now he's not just a doctor, a genius gamer, and patient 0 from the game illness, but he's also the reason why Kuroto is like this nowadays, and different from what we thought he's been incubating this virus since he was a little kid because Kuroto is such a shit human being that he sent an infected game to a kid because apparently, he thinks only him can be a game developer in this world and come up with ideas for games. And yes, this is very in-character, Dan Kuroto would really do stuff like this, is the fact that they make so many things focused on a single person that bothers me.

Another thing I have a problem here, although it's a much smaller one if compared to my previous point is just how convenient it was for the show to put a way to reprogram the virus in Kiriya's computer. I think my problem here is just how easy they got the information, you know? They knew from that detective that Kiriya was digging up something and Hiiro decides to look for information and in the first place he looks he just happens to find his computer and the files in his research were there. Again, it's a minor thing, but I felt like I had to comment on this.

One thing that I really enjoyed in this mini-arc was Kuroto's plan to avoid the Ministry and still get data in his hands by infecting himself with the virus to appeal to Emu's emotions. Again, a very in-character decision and the way it played out was very fun even though it was pretty clear he allowed himself to be caught seeing how easy it was for them. The way things escalated leading to his death was also pretty good, it's a bit annoying that his death gets reverted only a few episodes later, for a show that is constantly talking about doctors dealing with death having a death be reversed is a bit counter-intuitive.

As a result of this conflict, we get Ex-Aid's Level 99 power-up, and while it's cool that is a gashat he made it himself and that he used Kiriya's driver after his was fried up by Genm, holy jesus how ugly is this thing. It's so huge and bulky most of the scenes with him moving have to be done in CGI because that looks like hell to walk on wearing it. This just isn't the ugliest power-up of this season because Snipe still has the worst designs, but oh gosh.

After episode 23 we enter in the Kamen Rider Chronicle arc, where being led by Parad they gather data from the missing games by reviving Graphite and brainwashing Poppy, and Ex-Aid becomes a light novel with a battle royale/survival game that actually kills people when they get a game over (or upload them to the cloud and erase their physical bodies apparently because now they're saying those people can be revived).

Attempts of joke aside, while it's not anything new that they're doing here I do like how they implemented the concept in the story. It's pretty cool having regular people acting up as the players while the Riders we follow are like special NPCs that drop rare items when defeated, it's a fun gimmick and it's also a way to the villains to put another obstacle to the riders without having to do much.

I think what I liked the most in this plot was the mini-arc they had for Poppy, up until this point I didn't really have a strong opinion on her but what they had with her in these episodes was pretty cool. To begin they gave her a pretty dope song, at first I questioned what they were trying to do there but when we get to know that her whole singing scene was part of a brainwashing process it turns things really interesting. But is the journey of her freeing herself from this brainwash that really does it for me, when she starts remembering memories from the person that she took over she gets in this existential crisis and it gave us some great moments, I really like that scene in episode 28 when she's there trying to tell everyone AND herself that humans and bugsters are enemies and Emu puts himself in the line kinda with a wake-up call for her, it was pretty awesome. I feel like she also got way more agency after the events in that episode and I hope they keep that with her. Oh, we also got Kamen Rider Poppy which wasn't a thing I necessarily needed, but that was still pretty cool.

But because not everything can be flowers I have two major issues for this part as well, the two are things that I already mentioned so I won't take too long with them. The first one is obviously the "making Emu too special" thing since it gets established that Parad is the bugster that Emu incubated for all those years and that Parad is actually Emu's "second personality". Again, it's a cool concept, and there's one episode in which Parad gets control of Emu's body and they have a fight between each other while in Ex-Aid's Level 20 form and it was cool as heck, is just the fact that they keep adding layers to Emu like he's the center of the entire universe that makes me feel kinda iffy about it.

The second aspect I don't like is the reversibility of death. I get that this is a show for kids so they would come up with a way to bring everyone that died in Kamen Rider Chronicle because this doesn't seem like the type of show that would just obliterate a lot of people out of existence like that, my problem is with bringing back characters that have some sort of impact with the characters. Yeah, so far we only had Kuroto and he's back but not really since now he's a bugster and Poppy can keep him under control with her drive, though let's be honest this won't last too long, but they're raising the possibility of bringing Hiiro's girlfriend back and I'm sure they would try to bring Kiriya back too and is this thing that I feel like it goes against some of the messages this show is trying to pass to his main character. Emu is constantly facing death and as a Doctor he will face it many times in different contexts and part of the process for him to learn how to deal with this he needs to feel the effects of mourning for those who passed away, but when you bring people back from that while it doesn't revert what he went through makes it feel like death isn't as serious. This is a thing Rider likes to do a lot honestly, I mean look at Ghost, and it never sat with me well, but I feel like in this season in especial, as I mentioned, it's very counter-intuitive.

And I believe that's all I have to say for now. I feel like I'm way too repetitive, and that's a problem I should work on, but I have to say this again, I'm still having my problems with Ex-Aid but these problems aren't cutting down my enjoyment of the show and I'm really excited to see how all of this will come up together in the end. If you have anything to say about my comments or these episodes please let me know in the comments, I'll be very happy to have other people insight into this show. Stay healthy, stay safe, never stop resisting, thank you so so much for reading and until the next time. See you in the next game!

[scribbling-salmon]

Hey! So, I always have this problem where I have one or two side characters I've developed well and I LOVE LOVE LOVE, while meanwhile my protagonist seems kind of flat, more of a means to and an end than a rounded character. Any tips on taking a main character that mostly exists to serve the plot and spicing them up a bit?

Hi! Thanks so much for the ask!

So, I think this is quite a common problem – a lot of the time, the main character is a means of grounding the story and making it accessible to the reader (see: Arthur Dent, Harry Potter, Bilbo Baggins), whereas the side characters are able to remain caricatures because we only see the surface of them. 

First of all, maybe have a look at your main character from an outside perspective – if you met them, what would you notice first? Do they have any defining traits, a funny voice, a certain saying, a jaunty walk? How are they different from you and the other characters around them? This doesn’t always mean flaws! Or, it can mean flaws, but not necessarily the grand ‘hubris’ that a lot of traditional main characters have. Are they forgetful? Selfish? Grumpy? Uptight? 

(This can also help to avoid a Mary Sue – is this character essentially you with a different face? Are they, as you say, a means to an end rather than an actual person?)

People are complicated, too. Their flaws can change from moment to moment, they can do things without reason, they can think horrible things and say things they don’t mean. Although this sort of changeability doesn’t always lend itself to more artsy fiction, it can be fun to inject a little chaos into your character.

Give your main character a chance to make choices. Some stories fall a bit flat because the writer sees the action as something that happens TO the characters rather than BECAUSE OF the characters. Arthur Dent, for example, is a perfectly ordinary man, and the only reason he ends up on a spaceship is because he’s a stubborn bastard who lay in front of a bulldozer to prove a point. His agency is as much a part of the plot as the events are, if you see what I mean.

Let them be idiots – Victor Frankenstein is perhaps one of the most infuriating, annoying, stuck up, intricate and compelling main characters ever written and it’s because you’re encouraged to see him as separate from yourself, to judge him and scorn him and hide behind your hands as you read what he’ll do next.

I guess my main point is, try not to get caught on the word ‘relatable’. The more you conflate a character with yourself and your reader, the less rounded they become. The separation between the reader/author and the side characters is often what makes you love them so much, so give a little bit of that distance to your main character.

I hope this helps! Feel free to add to or disagree – these are by no means universal rules, and I am by no means an expert, but I wish you the best of luck in creating an interesting and unique main character!

[digikate813]

My Little Pony Re-Watch: Episode 51 & 52 A Canterlot Wedding

*I’m just going to be up front here. This is the episode, that made me a brony. This is the episode that made me realize how great My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic really was. For a long time, it was my favorite episode. So of course it’s one of the most divisive episodes in the whole series. So we’re going to approach this differently. Rather then go over events individually, I’m going to stick to talking points more in the style of my video reviews. If i didn’t we’d be here all day. So let’s do this.

*A big complaint about this episode is how Twilight’s brother, Shining Armor, kind of comes out of nowhere. Maybe it’s just because I grew up with a lot of sitcoms, where siblings kind of appear out of nowhere with no previous establishment, but I just kind of accepted Shining Armor’s existence. Though it would have been fairly easy to introduce him sooner. Between the Grand Galloping Gala and Twilight holding her birthday party in Canterlot, it is weird in hindsight that he was nowhere to be seen during all of that. But again, it doesn’t really bother me.

*And i like the touch that his cutie mark is a shield and his most powerful spell appears to be a protection spell able to encase the entire city of Canterlot. It just adds more to my working theory of how talents and magic work.

*Twilight does have a bit of a right to be mad that she wasn’t told about this wedding until days before it’s supposed to happen. But hey, maybe that message that got burned in “Dragon Quest” was the announcement, idk.

*You want to sum up Pinkie Pie in one moment? The confetti sneeze. That is all

*Another criticism of this episode is the other character that appears out of nowhere, Princess Cadance. Now i don’t think the existence of another alicorn comes completely out of nowhere like many claim. Because there was that illustration in “Hearts and Hooves Day” that shows us other alicorns exist besides Celestia and Luna. And as far as we know, they’re all princesses. So this doesn’t break the lore necessarily, but I will agree that this at least was poorly established.Then again the show was never great at presenting Cadance’s role in the world, as we’ll go more into in the next episode.

*I will admit that her supposed love spell is both underutilized and morally questionable, but that’s not a discussion for this post. I think Silver Quill has covered everything on that topic.

*I used to hate the “Sunshine Sunshine Ladybugs Awake” rhyme and dance, but now that they don’t do it anymore, I feel a bit nostalgic towards it watching this again. Is that weird? It feels weird.

*And personally, I think the mystery behind why Cadance is so different from how Twilight remembers her works. Because while Twilight may know Cadance, we don’t. And therefore we can’t really tell what exactly is wrong even when the show tells us something is off. It’s not obvious what’s going on on your first viewing is what I’m saying. We’re just taking Twilight’s word for it that, if nothing else, Cadance has changed a lot. Being dismissive, insensitive, and hypnotizing her fiance to stop asking questions. But that last one probably isn’t that big a deal.

*The rest of the girls may be a bit too dismissive of Twilight’s feelings on the matter, especially after what they learned in “Lesson Zero” but Twilight does have a tendency to exaggerate and be paranoid. So I do get why they wouldn’t just take her word for it. It’s something that they could easily brush off as Twilight being Twilight and not as a red flag.

*Plus not Cadance is pretty good at being manipulative. Getting rid of her old bridesmaids so the Mane Six could fill in. Such a gesture makes it easier for the girls to get wrapped up in the planning and see Cadance in a better light instead of listening to Twilight. 

*Lyra speaks! That is all, but when a famous background character finally talks, you acknowledge it.

*I love this episode, but Spike playing with the cake toppers constantly is a really lame way to keep him out of the story.

*Twilight confronting Cadance the way she did might seem like a dumb move, and maybe it was. But keep in mind. Twilight has tried alternatives. Her friends wouldn’t listen to her, the princesses are busy guarding the city, and when she tried to talk to her brother about this, she saw Cadance put a spell on him. She’s in crisis mode here, and wants something done to stop her. So she takes action into her own hooves. The only problem with this plan is that Twi doesn’t really have, proof that Cadance is evil. 

*How much this plan backfires is kind of devastating. Even Celestia scolds her for this stunt! By the way the facial expression on Twilight when that happens is one of the saddest faces in the series.

*Then we get a really sad reprise of the previous song, but all anyone cared about was the cute little pointy pony style. It’s crazy how popular this style became! Some fan animation series are made just in this style. It is really cute, I’m just always blown away at just how popular it got, and still is.

*One of the best things to see reactions to in regards to this episode is when not Cadance engulfs Twilight in a ring of fire and sends her to the depth of Hell to cover her tracks! Okay it’s not Hell, but still. It was the best cliffhanger from the show for a while.

*How has the show never used these caves beneath Canterlot since this? I know there’s a line where they say that most ponies forgot these caves even exist, but could you imagine if maybe,  the Diamond Dogs wanted to get down here or something? There’s potential to use these caves again, and I’m shocked the show hasn’t.

*And here’s where we learn what’s going on. That Cadance was replaced by an imposter. Now I knew what was going on because I knew who Queen Chrysalis was. That’s what led me to watching this episode. But the story is clever at revealing this twist. There are hints to fake Cadance’s true identity, but since we don’t know Cadance, we wouldn’t notice things like her magic looks different, unless you were paying very close attention to the flashback.

*Ah, This Day Aria. I’ve said that this is quite possibly the moment that sold me on the show for good. And i stand by that. The Disney Renaissance vibes you get from this gorgeous duet are powerful. Between the villain celebrating maniacally and the hero racing desperately, it creates tension and an amazing contrast, performed by the same voice actress. There’s even this clever bit in the melody of contrasting between an Authentic Cadance and a Deceptive Cadance. Everything about this song is marvelous! It’s a beautiful moment to watch play out, and a great way for us to see what the real Cadance is like. I love everything about it!! Obviously.

*I don’t think the way Twilight and Cadance escaped the hypnotized bridesmaids should be as funny as it is, but it is. It’s so funny.

*Queen Chrysalis’ reveal is epic! Her design is incredible and eye catching, her voice s sinister and distinct (I really miss that modulation though), and the introduction of Changelings into this world is such a great concept! The only part that’s kind of weird is that they never say Chrysalis’ name in the episode itself.

*Celestia finally gets to do something and fights back! Only to be immediately defeated. This is one of the most controversial scenes in the episode and i get why, but as far as the moment itself goes, I don’t really feel the same way. In the moment it’s a way to show just how much of a threat Chrysalis is while giving Celestia some agency. For the sake of tension, it works. No what bothers me is the larger trend this started of Celestia getting her flank whooped whenever possible. 

*And I get why Chrysalis was surprised it worked. She would have had to take on Celestia eventually, but she might have figured she’d have her army with her by that point. So being able to get the job done herself gives her more of an ego boost in this grand plan.

*And do I even need to comment of the Mane Six battling the changelings? It’s AWESOME! The combat is exciting, there are a lot of funny moments, and between the return of the Party Cannon and using Twilight as a weapon of mass destruction, Pinkie is a master on the battlefield.

*This episode is also unique by being the first two part episode where the major threat isn’t defeated using the Elements of Harmony. Giving a great twist on expectations that I think gets taken for granted.

*Another major point of contempt with this episode is that Chrysalis just stands there and lets her enemies plot to defeat her. And I get that too. I do, but to me it’s not, completely unjustified. After all, Chrysalis’ plan has gone without a hitch. She’s managed to stop anyone in her way at every turn. Now that she’s taken away all major power, why should it be any different now? She’s deluded by her success and doesn’t see a way she can be stopped.

*The only way she is defeated is by something she wouldn’t expect. True and pure love. The changelings manipulate others to gain power from their love of the person they’re impersonating, and Shining Armor was their latest victim. Not believing his own sister because he’s literally being controlled by someone who says they love him. And it’s not Twilight or any of her friends who break that curse, but Cadance. The one who truly loves him. Simply by being there and expressing how much she cares about him. Add to the fact that Cadance’s magic centers around love, something Chrysalis might not have known, and you get an even bigger power boost. It’s pretty cool when you see it at first  and beautiful when you think about it any deeper. 

*Plus I love cheesy stories where love and friendship and bonds that make us stronger save the day. It’s really my jam and why i stick with the show. And this is one of the best demonstrations of it’s power.

*And the fun little trope twist of the princess saving the knight in shining armor. And then it’s both of them together that stops the villain.

*I know everyone’s made this joke, but because one of my most well know loves is Pokemon “Looks like Team Rocket’s Blasting Off Again!!”

*Hey Twilight and Shining Armor’s parents are back! And they still don’t get any lines. Hooray!

*Props to Dashie for pulling off a Sonic Rainboom so flawlessly!

*Luna?! Where the hay have you been??!! Okay this is another complaint about the episode but this time I have to agree. Where were you??? The only props I’ll give here is that at least they acknowledged she exists. Unlike Return of Harmony.

*I personally think Twilight should’ve gotten more of an apology from her friends, but at least the message still comes across. Not only is there the power of love in it’s toxicity and purity, but also Twilight journey to persist even in the face of doubt. If something seems suspicious to you, especially when it effects the ones you love, pursue it. Investigate and see what you can do to help. And it’s because of Twilight’s actions that she’s able to reunite her brother with someone who genuinely loves him. You might not be able to save someone you love from someone who is just using them on your own, but you can do your best to find someone who can help them. Twilight may not have technically saved the day this time, but she played a very important part.

*Ending with a fun reception with a really catchy song and the reveal that Vinyl Scratch’s eyes are magenta and not red. Breaking the hearts of fan artists the world over... And isn’t that what we should really take away from this episode?

Screw the haters. This episode is amazing! I should really do a full video on this one because I truly love this episode. If anything, the criticisms has made me realize in other ways why I love it so much, and why it sealed the deal for me on this whole magical pony thing. So I suppose I should be grateful for that. There were a lot of other things I could have mentioned, but again, these are just supposed to be short thoughts. Like I’ve said, this is the episode that made me understand why so many people loved this show for little girls, and i will always be grateful for that. Next Time: The Crystal Empire!

[thedeadflag]

Hey, I'm creating a campaign for a couple of friends, and it's my first time DMing, so I was wondering if you have any tips for me :))) P.S.: I loved this chapter of your fic so much, I really missed your writing :)))

Yay! That sounds like a lot of fun, I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun :D

I’ll leave some links below to some great videos/articles with advice (because there’s honestly so much to say that I could go on for ages and ages), but for now…

* Two-Way Communication is Critical

This is arguably the second most important piece of advice, and one that ties into almost every piece of advice I could theoretically offer. Pen and paper roleplaying (whether there’s actual paper or not, of course) is a form of interactive storytelling with player created narratives. It’s not a top-down hierarchy where a DM designs and plots out everything, and the players follow along all wide-eyed and obedient with no agency of their own.

You are all playing a game together, even if your roles are different. Collaboration is key. That requires communication both ways.

This is especially vital when creating a new campaign, regardless of scale, because it’s immensely important to start with the right foundation. What kind of game do your players want to play? What are they looking for in the game, what do they want to get out of it, what interests them about roleplaying, what are their expectations? 

From there, you can establish a basic idea of what sort of campaign to set up, what dynamic(s) to focus on, etc., because if you’re designing a campaign purely around what you want, your players might not be able to get on the same page. At the same time, you need to make sure you’ve got what you want in there as well, because you need to have fun as well.

After that, it’s best to approach players about character creation. One major newbie GM/DM mistake is letting players completely create characters in a vacuum. This is less than ideal because without a setting/context, (A) players tend to shift focus and invest in what they can get details on, generally the mechanical aspects of the game. Not a bad thing, necessarily, but you don’t want players branching off in wildly different directions and investing in those possibilities heavily mechanically to where you can’t really find a workable middle ground. Think a character who is out to be the biggest min-max munchkin wizard or cleric, contrasting with a character who is designed to be useless in combat but excellent socially and in skills, contrasting with a character who is built virtually entirely around being one cog in a phalanx wall who is also a vampire that cannot travel during daylight, contrasting with a character who has a lot of skills and feats invested in their profession as a farmer.  Lots of directions there, and not necessarily one way to get everyone what they want.

So it’s best to head them off at the pass, introduce them to the working concept of the campaigns as you’re developing it. Brainstorm collectively as a group what kind of place you all would like to have in that world, what kind of adventure seems like it could be fun, and from there, come up with an opening scene for the players to build their characters into. Again, collaboration is great, bounce ideas back and forth with them, have them bounce ideas off each other, find a way for character creation to mesh with all of your goals as a group and then you won’t get caught so easily in the traps of players getting invested in being the single star in their own show rather than an ensemble cast. Get them excited to buy into the group dynamic and the adventure ahead of them.

And when you get into having sessions, talk to players between breaks, after sessions, keep tabs. Ask them what they liked and didn’t, ask them how they felt about the session, what’s exciting to them. Understand that character behaviour and decisions are manifestations of play intrigue and excitement, so use that line of communication to your advantage

Use that feedback and shape your campaign to it. One example of my own I sometimes bring up was a World of Darkness campaign I ran set in the late 1800s. My best friend grew heavily suspicious of an NPC in town that honestly was pretty unimportant and largely a placeholder. After two and a half sessions of him keying in on the NPC and his character investigating him and all sorts of sneaky shenanigans, I decided to flesh the NPC out and work him into the narrative more. I didn’t make him the big bad villain my best friend predicted he was, but I made him worthy of my best friend’s suspicions and paranoia if with a twist or two my best friend didn’t expect.  While we never got to fully get through that narrative arc due to schedules conflicting too much to keep on with that campaign, it was an enjoyable narrative turn that rewarded his efforts in-character and his excitement outside of character.

If you have a player that’s excited and invested, play on that. Make the most of that. There’s nothing better as a DM than winding down a session and players spending the next while geeking out about how much fun they’re having and where they think things are heading. An open ear and open lines of communication are more more important than any notion of sticking to a set plan.

Related video (x)

* Do Your Research, But Don’t Buy In Too hard

Not much to say here. Research what you need, but don’t over-prepare. THis is the DM’s version of “Kill your darlings” more or less, because you’re going to have to toss away cool ideas that your players just aren’t biting on. That’s okay. Don’t spend tens of hours writing all this intricate backstory for items, or NPCs, because chances are it’s not going to be as great for the players as it was for you during brainstorming that. Give yourself the tools to create your world, get the basics, have a key pieces that can be malleable and dynamic in their ability to adjust to player actions/decisions, let your player’s characters be the center of your story, and build your world around them as they go. I mean, fi you want to go all out on worldbuilding and lore, then go for it, but just understand that all fo that needs to be supplementary to the campaign. It’s used to set the stage, not steer the ship, that’s the job for the characters

It’s the same for creating characters. Have a backstory, but don’t have 6 pages of backstory. It’s not necessary, it can hamper the ability for their character to grow and experience meaningful development/experiences in your campaign, and that can hinder the group dynamic and the immersion of the group and individual player into the game.

One note-taking bit that some DMs do is create session recaps, or something similar (see here for example/breakdown, maybe watch the full video for some great advice at encouraging roleplaying and engagement, and the importance of notetaking). In one of my old ones, I photoshopped an old newspaper with a variety of stories, some involving their escapades, some involving clues about important NPCs, some providing hooks for upcoming possible narrative plots. That worked well in the campaign I ran around a single city area, but that sort of thing can help increase excitement and indulge your urges for creation without railroading players. Sometimes I’ll start a session asking players to recap collectively what they’ve done recently before providing my recap from the perspective of the world they impacted. That can help with investment, getting them to see how their characters are perceived, the impact and consequences of their decisions, etc. The latter of which is something I write up directly after each session while things are fresh in my mind. All the major involved/affected NPCs have a perspective developed on what happened, and I use that and player commentary/character behaviour to help guide the campaign forward. Cause and effect is a simple and helpful way to think about ongoing conflict in campaigns.

And a recap can help with bookkeeping, so players aren’t constantly interrupting asking if they received X item last session, who X NPC is, etc.

In which case note-taking is important (x)(x). Having a strong platform for notetaking is important too if you’re going digital. Google Docs, Scrivener, notebook.ai, liquid story binder, etc. There’s a boatload of great tools out there, so find one that works well for you whether in-session or post/pre-session

Related video on research: (x at 6:48, but the whole video is excellent)

and the most important advice of all

Have Fun

Seriously. Pen and Paper roleplaying is meant to be fun. If you’re not having fun, change things up in the direction of what IS fun, screwing the consequences and previously well crafted plans. 

As said here, Fun > Story > Rules. 

Past that, getting your feet wet in one-shots is probably a good way to understand how to do things and give yourself and your players a trial run before kicking off a larger campaign. That way, you can work out some kinks, develop chemistry and learn to read the players, get comfortable with improv, etc.

Those are some basics to really work on accepting and exhibiting, and it will take time so be patient with yourself and your players. 

Also, check these videos for some help because they are very good and informative, and provide a lot of A+ quality information on how to run a great campaign and get started

I know that’s a lot of videos, but they all have value. Some address the same things as other videos, but sometimes slightly different perspectives on the same points can help really fill out an understanding of certain topics, issues, concepts, etc. And a lot of those videos linked have other videos on their channels that are really informative and useful, too

Anywho, feel free to hit me up with questions if you’re struggling with anything, I’d be happy to help however I can!

[chrismaverickdotcom]

Mavademics: Male Gaze through Visual Signifiers in Comic Art

Last week I saw an image for a cover to a Popeye comic. This version, drawn by Steve Mannion featured Popeye and Bluto with exaggerated vein popping musculatures and Olive Oyl reimagined as a sexy femme fatale in the style that, at least to me, is most close evocative of Salma Hayek‘s character from Deserpado. At the time I thought it was an upcoming series that reimagined Popeye in a modern context in the same way as recent series have done with Flintstones, Scooby Doo and Snagglepuss. I was intrigued and excited. I wanted to see what they were going to do with it. I’ve since come to learn that it was actually an older variant cover to Popeye Classics, IDW Comics‘ series of reprints fo classic Popeye adventures. I’m actually a little disappointed by this, because I was totally interested to see where it would go, but even without a new series to back it up, the image did make me think of some issues that I am working with in my dissertation that I figured it would be worth floating here in my blog to see what people’s thoughts were. In other words, it’s time for another fun round of everyone’s favorite game, “let’s comment on Mav’s dissertation research!”

Namely, I am interested in the fact that when I posted the image to Facebook, the main criticism that people jumped on immediately was the obvious sexualization of Olive Oyl. My friend Cenate pointed out that “A curvaceous Olive Oyl is just so strange. My brain can’t process it.” and a lot of this is because, as in the words of my friend Steve, “Admittedly I expect comic book bodies to be unrealistic, but man, my whole body is in pain just thinking about how deformed and twisted Olive’s skeleton must be. Either her left knee is twisted ninety degrees or she has a goat leg, likely both given the appearance of the silhouette of her right leg…” And while that’s true, my counter argument was that I find it interesting that this is what their attention is called to despite Olive Oyl never being particularly anatomically correct traditionally, and Popeye and Bluto also being extremely non-proportioned in they image. That is, I find it interesting but not surprising. In particular I see it as emblematic of the usage of male gaze in comic art. That is, here I am referring to “comic art” as an art style (or really set of styles collecting a series of like visual tropes) as opposed to the physical media (comic books), or the common genres most often associated with that media (superhero fantasy).

First, I think it’s worth defining the idea of “the male gaze.” I am not using it in the common internety way, of just saying “its bad to portray women as sex objects.” There’s an important conversation to be had there, but that’s not really where I am going with this. At least not directly. It’s an obvious connection that follows, however. When I am using the term I am doing so more in the vein that Laura Mulvey does in her original essay that introduced the term, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. Specifically, at least here, I am concerned with the techniques by which the art style uses the media to portray female characters as sexual objects inviting a voyeuristic gaze, in contrast to make characters being depicted as subjects capable of active agency, rather than the ramifications of doing so. In her essay, Mulvey focuses on the specifics of how this is done in classic cinema pointing to the manner in which the woman, who’s primary purpose is to-be-looked-at, rather than progress the actual action of the plot, must necessarily freeze the otherwise progressing action of the film in order to invite the audience to partake in the voyeuristic pleasure of admiring her body. Since Mulvey is concerned primarily with classic cinema, she uses examples like Rear Window and Marnie. But I’m a comic book geek, so I’m going to offer Ming the Merciless’s hypnosis of Dale Arden in the cult classic Flash Gordon:

Note that when Ming takes control of Dale, everything else in the film stops so that people can just look at her. No one attempts to save her. The extra-diegetic lighting in the room inexplicably lowers so that the audience we can more easily ignore Flash Gordon and the others and focus on Dale as she runs her hands up and down her body and dances for Ming’s (and transitively our) amusement. She’s fully clothed, and in fact, is far more erotically dressed in nearly every scene that follows this in the film, and yet this scene is inherently sexual. Her movements and slow semi-orgamsic moans expressly tell the viewer that this is about sex, however her explicit lack of consent and even awareness of what’s going on key us to read that her personal sexual enjoyment, or lack thereof is entirely irrelevant. Even Flash, her love interest in the film, who is very much aware of the fact that his girlfriend is being psychically sexually violated against her will, can’t help but acknowledge that looking at her as an object (her explicit purpose in the scene) is “sensational.”

That is not to say that the sexuality on display cannot be germane to the plot, or that even doing so makes it a bad narrative. After all, in Rear Window, Mulvey’s key example, the voyeurism inherent in watching is central plot of the film. This can also be seen in the actual scene from Desperado that I compared Olive Oyl to in the first place:

Here, we’re actually given far less time to focus on Carolina(Hayek) as an erotic object. In my head, before I rewatched the scene, I remembered there being far more time to focus on her than actually occurs. She is introduced at a key moment in the action as the Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) is being pursued by his adversaries. She does not freeze the action, but instead is inserted into it because of her sexuality. She is explicitly scantily dressed to key the audience in to the fact that her sexuality is important. We don’t get much time to focus on her bare midriff, flowing windblown hair, or the fact that her tight shirt is tied to frame her boobs — approximately five seconds while other things are going on — but we are entirely aware of them. Moreover, the car crash that happens as she carelessly walks across the street keys us in to the fact that men are so distracted by her beauty that they can focus on nothing else, and her laugh at the event tells us that not only is she used to this sort of thing, but she enjoys it. Immediately after this, we have all action occurring in slow motion as the Mariachi is transfixed by looking at her, so much so that he (and we) almost ignore the the armed assailant whom we all know is coming to kill him. And yet, from this point onward, Carolina is one of the key characters of the film. But she is defined by her sexuality because the tropes of filmmaking tell us to define her that way.

So that takes us back to the Olive Oyl image. Obviously she is sexualized. But the question becomes why… and how does she command specific attention in the image beyond what the other figures do. After all, Steve commented that “my whole body is in pain just thinking about how deformed and twisted Olive’s skeleton must be. Either her left knee is twisted ninety degrees or she has a goat leg, likely both given the appearance of the silhouette of her right leg…” but Popeye’s suffers from much the same issue, his left leg is raised higher than should be possible with out a dislocated hip. His elbow has been relocated to the bottom of his oversized forearm, which should be breaking both his underdeveloped bicep and shoulder from the sheer weight of support. Given the the relative length of his right upper arm, we must assume that his left lower arm has been severed from the occlude left bicep. Similarly, Bluto, whose left arm is more massive than Olive’s entire frame, appears to be missing a right arm entirely, unless we as readers are to assume he has a congenital birth defect causing an underdeveloped arm, which would then call in to question why Popeye is attacking a disabled man. In a sense, Olive may actually be the most realistically proportioned figure in the entire image.

She is also more realistically rendered than her classic interpretation, a wiry, frail woman with joints that seem irrelevant to the points at which her body is capable of bending. While the new interpretation of Olive, with her ample bosom (again, like Hayek’s framed in a tight, low-cut, midriff exposing blouse), skirt clinging tighter to her legs to suggest her crotch, and leg pointed suggestively to expose her new 4-inch heel Fuck-Me Boots, the classic Olive isn’t actually that far behind. It’s true that Olive was never classically visually depicted as having a body that is conventionally sought after as attractive by women of the current era or her 1919 origin, she was always a sex object. She is designed to be a flapper (hence her hair and skirt), a stereotype that has as much sexual connotation at the time as it does now. It’s just that the specific style that E.C. Segar used when drawing her and the other Popeye/Thimble Theatre characters wasn’t designed to “realistic” so much as expressive. She frequently made it clear from her posture and actions that she was extremely horned up almost all of the time. In fact, a LOT of Popeye strips are pretty much about Olive basically wanting to fuck whoever pays the slightest flattery to her. It’s one of the reasons Bluto and Popeye hate each other. When she is not actively seeking amorous attention, she is the perpetual kidnapped damsel-in-distress from Bluto, who desires her sexually.

The sexual aspect of the Olive Oyl character was so prevalent in the 1930s and 40s that she became one of the most common characters featured in Tijuana Bibles (NSFW, seriously… DO NOT click to enlarge this image unless you really want to see a raunchy, rapey, bisexual, anal threesome between Olive, Popeye and Wimpy that your grandfather or great grandfather probably jacked off to at some point during the during the war… I mean, who are we kidding, we all know you’re going to click on it, but you’ve been warned). While the authors and artists of Tijuana Bibles are generally anonymous, it is widely believe that many of the underground artists creating the pieces were employed by day as the regular artists or assistant artists of these very same strips. So while they are certainly not officially sanctioned, they were very much understood as part of the comic culture of the time in the same way sexualize fan art that you might find on DeviantArt, or commission from an artist at a comicon is today. And Olive became a favorite of these because she was understood to be an innately sexual character.

So if we return to the Mannion cover we see some very specific elements at work that call attention to this sexualization despite Olive taking up comparatively little space in the composition. Obviously, the clothing choices are designed to present a sexualized image consistent with modern 21st century fashion choices. Her her hips, boobs, and legs are extended in such a way as to accentuate her femininity as much as possible. While the other characters are more dynamic, she is positioned in front of them, signaling her importance to the composition. Finally, she is the focal point of a golden spiral, the visual instantiation of the golden ratio, φ. In layman’s terms’s Popeye and Bluto are positioned relative to the rest of composition to form the beginnings of a spiral that causes the eyeline to drift towards a specific focal point, as you follow the action. In this case, specifically you are drawn closer and closer to her torso, which continues the spiral which is now framed by her boobs and crotch. Mathematically, you the image literally signifies to you “tits and pussy, right here kids.” Like Hayek in Desperado, she seems both completely aware and totally disaffected by the effect her sexuality has on Bluto and Popeye behind her. She knows they’re there, but this is regular occurrence for her (and it is) so she is happy to mind her business and rejoice in her function, to be looked at as an object to drive the action rather than a participant in and of herself.

Again, I’m not making a Frederic Wertham argument here. I’m not so much arguing that the objectification inherent in the image is “bad.” In fact, in this case, I think it’s used particularly well. But the argument is more in the fact that it is commonplace enough to have become a specific visual trope. I actually went to the comic book shop, Phantom of the Attic, yesterday to count how many female sexualized covers there were. From a pure blatant eroticization stanpoint, of the 216 covers that were on the shelf yesterday, only eight had covers that I think your common viewer people would claim were blatantly eroticized towards a male gaze, far fewer than I would have expected, honestly (and way less than would have been the case in the 1990s comic boom). However, 42 of them used golden spirals to draw the focus to an at least mildly sexualized female character or body part. While some of these make sense tonally or narratively, (as is the case with the Red Sonja/Tarzan cover pictured below), others (as in the Hit-Girl cover) seem almost incidental but for the fact that because the character is female, the focus on a sexual characteristic must be sexual.

In particular this becomes complicated by the manner in which we view an eroticized male vs an eroticized female, is is the case in two similar bondage covers that happened to be on the shelf, one for Spider-man and another for Breathless. The female cover takes on a much more erotic connotation despite being effectively identical to the male. This appears to be a function of the cultural view of feminine vs. masculine sexuality as portrayed in art. Clearly the sexual aspects of masculinity are as exaggerated, if not more so, in Popeye and Bluto than they are in Olive in the Mannion image, but it is Olive that appears to draw our attention, not only because of the focus of the spiral, but because we are more predisposed to notice the woman as sexual object than the male.

So anyway, that’s what I’m working with right now. I’m curious as to people’s base opinions and thoughts. This may possibly get worked into a future episode of the podcast… which reminds me… I want to end on a cheap plug. Check out my podcast, VoxPopcast which I do with Wayne Wise, Katya Gorecki and whoever else I happen to rope in that week. Subscribe on iTunes and Facebook and leave reviews and comment and all the things that will make me famous so I can just think about sex in funny books all the time. You know…  for you.

Laura Hudson, Cenate Pruitt, Jessica Keller, Vox Popcast liked this post

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Mavademics: Male Gaze through Visual Signifiers in Comic Art was originally published on ChrisMaverick dotcom

[curriebelle]

Episode Ignis Feels Like Fanfiction and That’s a Good Thing

Ok so I’m having a Thought.

You know when people say something reads “like fanfiction”, and it’s meant to be a criticism? The phrase is one of those intangibles, one of those agreed-upons, where no one can define it quite accurately but everyone thinks they know what it means. Usually it’s a combination of deviation from the original tone, bleaching out character flaws and complexities, a lack of understanding of nuance, and a reverent or worshipful attitude towards old characters, moments, settings, and iconography (and iconography is just the Stuff. Star Wars iconography is lightsabers, wookies and Jedi robes).

That’s a pretty reductive description of fanfiction of course, because a lot of fanfic - whether it’s well or poorly written - doesn’t necessarily follow those patterns. Weirdly enough, saying a sequel or reboot reads “like fanfiction” often implies that the writer doesn’t understand something about the source material - that they’re oversimplifying, or they’re fanning about while failing to understand what a “good” sequel would actually require. And that’s pretty ironic, because fans - obsessive detail-hoarding, secondary-character-worshipping pastiche-crafters that they are - often know the source material better than anyone, sometimes better than the creators themselves, and they are very aware of what they are erasing or changing when they move Marvel into a fluffy coffee shop AU. 

But I’m kind of digressing, because my point is that “this feels like fanfiction” shouldn’t be seen as a criticism, but rather as a gut feeling that we need to unpack. Sometimes it leads to legitimate criticism that, while worth addressing, actually has very little to do with fanfiction. And sometimes it leads to this weird 4:30 am conclusion: Episode Ignis is when “this feels like fanfiction” should be deployed as a compliment. Spoilers onward, for both Episode Ignis and FFXV.

I’m talking specifically about the alternate ending, here, which is tantamount to an FFXV fix-it fic. In this version Ignis averts the tragic ending of FFXV, and though he prepares to sacrifice his own life to do so, it ends up costing nothing. Ignis survives with even prettier hero-scarring than he gets in the regular plot. The episode fills in a sizable story gap after Leviathan knocks Noct out, and closes a few additional plotholes (I wondered what happened to that one obnoxiously overdesigned Imperial guy: turns out Ravus stabbed him). It spends some time with likable characters (Ardyn, yeeee) and underdeveloped characters (again, Ravus). Ignis gets roughed up and drenched, loses the glasses, and I’m 90% sure the animators made his eyes bigger in the cutscenes for extra pretty. He gains maximum plotline power, and Adam Croasdell voice acts the shit out of some sassy comebacks and anguished screaming (ok, this is unrelated, but when he’s doing the regular stormbind combo, it sounds like he screams FUCK in one of his battle grunts and it makes me laugh every time). He can liberate Altissia more or less by himself, and that’s before he drives a goddamn speedboat away from pursuant megarobots. So for anyone calling Mary Sue, yes, Ignis dives headfirst into that. He basically becomes Magic James Bond.

The whole episode is also pretty blatantly queer-coded. We get a very cuddly flashback to kid Noctis, and Ignis’s vow to stand at his side. Ignis is monomaniacal when it comes to finding Noctis. Noctis eiher drops the l-word, referring directly to Ignis and the freshly fridged Lunafreya (I’m still salty about that one, sorry), or says Ignis will always be in his heart depending on the ending. There’s a fantastic gifset going around of the official couples in previous Final Fantasies (Squall and Rinoa, Tidus and Yuna) declaring the exact same thing Ignis does in the alternate ending. “Rinoa, even if the world turns on you, I’ll be your knight”. “There’s no way I’ll let Yuna go”, even if I have to break all the rules of your stupid religion. Even if it costs my own life, I won’t let you take Noctis away. The queer subtext here is one of those things where it’s purposefully vague - just enough emotional evidence and physical contact that you can read romantic feelings there if you want, but just short of an actual romance to leave interpretations open. If you’re convinced Noctis and Luna were in love, Episode Ignis probably won’t debunk that.

So Ignis and his Episode are both powerful, emotional, pretty, potentially kinda gay, and ridiculously awesome.

And honestly, it is phenomenal.

Episode Ignis is a blast to play. His combat style is very fun and quick and fluid and flashy, and the grappling hook in the first portion makes you feel superheroic. Killing Ardyn, meanwhile, makes you feel godlike. It is an incredible surge of adrenaline to take on armies and deities by your lonesome. The gameplay and narrative reflect each other here, just like they do in the base game. FFXV seems happy at first, and the combat is pretty entertaining with all the goofy combo-attacks, but that game is a tragedy. It’s all the more tragic by how fun it is to begin with, and by the end it is painful to play. Characters get older, places fall apart, people die, and you have to escort Ignis around for a chapter while he grows used to being blind and Gladio constantly bitches at you for walking too fast. The photo mechanic is introduced to break your heart later, to show you how fleeting youth and pleasure can truly be under backbreaking destiny.

And in retaliation, Episode Ignis thrives on the power of Fuck You. Long commutes by car, mundane in the moment but peaceful upon reflection decades later? Fuck You, I have a grappling hook. Sections that force you to walk slowly through a dungeon and think about what you’ve done? Fuck You, I’ve got two daggers, lightning teleportation and button-mashing hands. Musings about the ravages of time, and aching nostalgia for youth? Fuck You, Ignis is prettier than ever. A tragic ending pre-ordained by prophecy? Fuck You, Ignis is going to re-write that fate by being clever, patient, and brave enough to sacrifice his life, but double Fuck You, he gets to live as well. Bullets flying, health bar low, multiple explosions and Atlas Ripped decking airships in the background? Fuck. You. It’s time to make some fucking soup.

With all that in mind, it makes sense that people might accuse Episode Ignis of being tone-deaf, of being fanfiction in all the “bad” ways - it neglects the nuance of the original, and papers over complex themes so everything can end up hunky-dory, but I still think that’s too easy.

Here’s the thing: Episode Ignis can only exist as fanfiction - or as alternate-ending DLC, I guess. FFXV is the story of Noctis and his story has an ending and it’s horribly, horribly sad, but it’s also what the story is built around. You might find it too depressing or too grim or you might find it just right, but it is well-structured. FFXV is careful with its themes and patterns and foreshadowing.

Because of that care, Ignis screwing Ardyn’s plans out of whack and saving Noctis from his fate couldn’t occur in the main game. FFXV is not about Ignis. It’s about Noctis. And the gameplay, built as it is around creating nostalgia - photographs, long car rides, camping, friendship - wouldn’t work if the ending wasn’t agonizing enough to make you long for the good old days. Maybe Noctis didn’t have to die or maybe he did, but the ending of FFXV was always going to hurt.

FFXV is an emotional project, and that project is to make the player painfully nostalgic. With that intriguing goal achieved, Episode Ignis exists as a response, and it can never really be more than that. It’s an ending I like better, but it is an alternate ending.

If you think about it, Episode Ignis didn’t need that alternate ending. It could have existed perfectly well as a companion to FFXV, filling in a much-needed blank (and without the alternate ending that’s exactly what it does). But in making a response to FFXV instead, they challenged a lot of assumptions FFXV needed to make in order to tell its story. FFXV assumes its prophecy is the only answer, as do its characters. FFXV yanks a great deal of agency away from Ignis, Prompto and Gladio when it asks them to sit still for a decade and wait for their friend to die without hunting for an alternative

Why can’t they try something else? Why can’t they defeat their nemesis on their own terms? I mean, who the heck does Bahamut think he is, anyway? Who says the ending can’t be happy, and the future can’t be bright?

Those are exactly the questions a fanfiction writer would ask. FFXV created those questions, and Episode Ignis addresses them, but in a way that acts as more of a breach than a closure. It’s one route to a happy ending - so maybe there are more. This is also the reason I brought up the queercoding in Episode Ignis. If there is any genre that needs a complete overhaul from grimdark tragedy into happy endings, it’s the scourge that is the modern queer romance story. There are so many of those bloody stories ending in anguish or separation or suicide or displeasure, and not nearly enough fairytales. Having a tragic ending overturned by the power of queer love is an insanely empowering experience, and that’s probably why you see so many posts about how Ignis’s gay love can pierce the veil of death and save the day. Episode Ignis didn’t need its queercoding any more than it needed its alternate ending, but the two make sense together: both of them are stories that people are absolutely aching for.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything quite like this - a company actively revising their story, overturning its mood, questioning its plot, granting a completely different ending, and then asking fans to pay 6.99 for it. It’s different from alternate film endings, because those are DVD extras and one always wins the theatrical release. It’s different from re-imaginings or adaptations because Episode Ignis is...just not quite that. It can’t exist on its own, unlike most remakes. Video games are always fluid texts to a certain extent, but now developers are even relinquishing the solidity of lore and cutscenes. It’s so odd.

At the decision point of Episode Ignis, you can use R1 and L1 to flip the camera back and forth, moving between a shot of Ardyn and a shot of Ignis. It’s a tiny, insignificant moment, one that almost feels like a mistake - like maybe the developers couldn’t figure out how to stage a normal shot-reverse-shot. But that moment became an oddly powerful synecdoche for what Episode Ignis was to me. If you want to look at this story from a different angle, well, go for it. Here’s another place you can point the camera. Maybe the sun will rise over there too.

[creative-type]

The Problem with Ichigo Kurosaki

Back when Bleach’s final chapter came out, the one thing that perplexed me most about the omnishambles that was the last arc was that Ichigo had taken over the Kurosaki clinic. 

I’d long-since given up on a satisfying end to the series and was following out of morbid fascination more than any sort of interest. I’m not a shipper and the glacial pacing and empty pages killed any spectacle that might  have been entertaining enough to cover the massive flaws of the series. I entered the Quincy arc with no expectations and still managed to be surprised by how little thought and effort Kubo put into his product. There was no personal investment left, so I didn’t care enough to get upset over how things ended up.

But Ichigo taking over his father’s clinic...that was a surprise. And through that I came to a startling realization that after almost 700 chapters and 15 years I still knew nothing about Ichigo as a character.

I want to be careful when writing this, firstly because as a self-admitted filthy casual I’m not nearly as familiar with Bleach as I am with most other things I write about. Secondly, while it’s a nice bonus I don’t think that every story necessarily requires a deep, super nuanced character driving it. 

I’m gonna use One Piece as an example here because I think it fits well. Luffy isn’t a complicated dude. He’s well-rounded with clearly defined dreams and goals, but ultimately he’s your basic Shonen power fantasy. What sets One Piece apart from almost every other manga in existence is its world building, and by creating Luffy the way he is, Oda has made a main character that facilitates the exploration of his world.

Ichigo starts off well enough for the protagonist of a monster of the week-style battle manga. I think it’s pretty apparent that Kubo wrote Bleach by the seat of his pants, because a lot of early details don’t match what we see later in the series.

...

...

...

And, again, this type of writing can be done, but it has to be done carefully because without forethought it’s really easy for plots and characterization become a muddled mess. 

Early Ichigo stood out from other mainstream manga protagonists. There’s a mature edginess to early Bleach, and a strong aesthetic that highlights one of Kubo’s greatest strengths as an artist: drawing really cool shit. Ichigo isn’t a hyperactive goofball, in fact he gets pretty good grades and is generally regarded as being a reliable - if grumpy - guy. His backstory isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but again, having a main character that’s hellbent on protecting others is exactly the sort of protagonist that can drive a monster of the week-style story.

More importantly, at this point in the story Ichigo has agency as a character. In chapter 2 of the series, Rukia demands that Ichigo fulfill her duties as a soul reaper while she’s out of commission. He initially says no, but quickly changes his mind when he sees a cute kid almost get eaten. Ichigo agrees to help, but on his own terms. In his own words, he’s only paying off a debt. 

Fast forward to chapter 25. Ichigo has survived his encounter with Grand Fisher and had a nice little heart to heart with his dad. He makes the above declaration, effectively choosing to continue on as a soul reaper even after Rukia regains her powers and his “debt” is paid. 

What makes the Grand Fisher fight effective is that it highlights how much growth Ichigo needs to undergo, not as a fighter but as a character. It is vitally important for a battle manga not to have fights for the sake of fights, or even because they’re demanded by the plot. A good fight conveys story and develops characterization - a clash of ideals as much as swords. 

The problem is that this doesn’t really go anywhere. Ichigo’s gotta protect them all nature suits shorter, one-off arcs but isn’t suited for the long, sprawling epic Bleach would become. The scope of Bleach’s world and story expanded, but Ichigo stayed the same. Or rather, he devolved into something lesser. 

Ichigo’s goal to protect those he cares about is problematic in two ways:1) it requires someone to need protecting, and 2) it’s reactionary. This limits how much influence Ichigo has on the plot as a whole. It’s no wonder that the Arrancar saga is copied wholesale from the Soul Society arc because rescuing people from danger is literally the only thing Ichigo ever shows interest in doing.

Instead of taking the time to develop Ichigo as a person, Kubo instead has to create increasingly-ridiculous ways for him to play a part in the plot. This has the unfortunate side effect of making Ichigo literally everybody’s pawn to be used and manipulated in whatever way it takes for the story to get from Point A to Point B. I would think by the time Yhwach comes around he’d be sick of it, but all Ichigo is capable of doing is react, react, react, often looking very surprised when someone plays him like a fiddle yet again.

And maybe to compensate Kubo gives Ichigo a mishmash of powers and abilities, but ironically the more things that are added to Ichigo’s moveset the less unique and special each one becomes. 

It’s kind of like mixing colors. Red and blue together make purple but if you add yellow and green and orange along with it, in the end all you’re going to have is a brownish sludge. Ichigo starts the series as a human-shinigami hybrid. For the sake of brevity, I’ll call this version of Ichigo a humigami. As a humigami he has basic swordsmanship, immense spiritual power, and the ability to follow spirit ribbon thingies to find people. So far so good.

But with the introduction of the Soul Society and the massive influx of characters, Ichigo is no longer The Special. Kubo has two choices here: further develop Ichigo’s shinigami powers or add something new into the mix. Kubo elects to do both, and Ichigo gains his hollow masks AND learns bankai in a matter of days. 

Now a human-shinigami-hollow (humagollow for short), Ichigo saves the day only to get curb-stomped by Aizen. The post-Soul Society chapters would have been a good place to do some old-fashioned character development, but while there is some nice closure chapters nothing really changes before the next major arc kicks in.

Put yourself in Ichigo’s shoes here. You’ve gone through the gauntlet to save a friend from her execution, witnessed the slums of the afterlife, fought several life or death battles against an organization who keeps, among other things, genocidal maniacs in their employ. You’ve seen corruption, you’ve seen conspiracy, you’ve seen a totalitarian regime that insists on following the letter of the law over common sense and justice. You’ve lived your entire life striving to protect those weaker than yourself and the last several months sending spirits to what you thought was a peaceful, idyllic afterlife.

Would you leave the Soul Society in good terms? Would you consider them allies and fight their wars? Would you be okay with leaving your friend, who you risked life and limb to save, in the very environment that wanted her dead just days before? Would you not have questions and demand answers?

Apparently not, if you’re Ichigo Kurosaki.

Fast forward again to the introduction of the arrancar and visored. It’s about this time where Ichigo loses everything that made him unique as a character. A whole host of characters are introduced that have a mix of shinigami and hollow powers (which, despite ostensibly being antithetical to one another are functionally identical) and it’s revealed that Ichigo isn’t even the only shinigami in his family. 

Isshin’s fight verses Grand Fisher becomes especially egregious when we the audience get this little tidbit about how all high-level shinigami compress their sword’s spiritual power into a smaller form

because back when Ichigo first showed off his bankai one of the notable things about it was that it was kind of tiny - a direct contrast to how most releases worked. 

It’s the same for all of Ichigo’s other attacks. His bankai is supposed to boost his speed to incredible levels, but he’s constantly out maneuvered by enemies, the surprise attack from behind being a Kubo specialty. His main ability is nothing but a giant energy slash, easily replicated by a shinigami’s kido or a hollow’s cero.

By having Isshin steal the Grand Fisher fight from Ichigo, Kubo robs his main character of a chance to show off how he’s changed since the early part of the series and robs him of his uniqueness as a fighter. The fight itself is not good, memorable, or fun enough to counterbalance how much the author is crapping on its protagonist, a trend that unfortunately gets worse as time goes on.

Anyway, through training Ichigo becomes a human visored (hisored) and goes off to Hueco Mundo to kick ass and get his ass kicked in about equal measure, and once again questions are brought up, if not explicitly than implicitly through the course of the narrative, that are never even addressed.

1) If it weren’t already obvious, the Soul Society cements itself as being absolutely terrible by its treatment of the visoreds. Are they really the good guys here, and why is no one trying to reform their more archaic and barbaric practices?

Unfortunate Implication: Ichigo is willing to ally with complete assholes to accomplish his goals. The whole “protecting those who can’t protect themselves” schtick only applies when people he cares about are in danger.

Conclusion: Ichigo is kind of an asshole, or at least apathetic to the plight of others, a direct contrast to his characterization thus far

2) If hollows are impure spirits, and high-level hollows spirits who have evolved by consuming countless others, would it not be in the best interest of Nel and other “good” arrancar to be purified? Is it even appropriate to think of hollows who have evolved as individuals or a conglomeration of all the souls that have been consumed? Are hollows inherently evil, or has the Soul Society’s understanding of the hollow/non-hollow spirit dynamic been flawed this entire time?

Unfortunate Implication: Either Ichigo doesn’t think through the logical conclusion of having hollows as allies enough to question what he’s been taught about hollows thus far, or he’s okay with leaving countless spirits in an impure state and damning them to a miserable existence of insatiable hunger and denying them access to the proper afterlife/reincarnation cycle

Conclusion: Ichigo isn’t as smart as he’s presented to be, or he’s okay with making friends with the very monsters he’s sworn to destroy...as long as they’re cute and helpful

This is what I mean when Ichigo devolves as a character. By the time the Fullbringer arc rolls around (for those keeping score at home, Ichigo has gone from hisored to fullbringer back to humigami) Kubo has built a world full of shades of grey, but continues time and time again to have Ichigo play it as if it were black and white. The reveal that Ichigo is, in fact, a quincigami is just the icing on the cake, stealing the one thing that made Ishida unique only for it to go absolutely nowhere and confuse an already muddled backstory.

All of these changes in power and the complete disregard for the moral quandaries brought up by the story mean that any change in Ichigo is superficial, like a skin change in a video game. He might look cool and give his attacks spiffy names, but it’s all an excuse for Kubo to draw him in different outfits because once again, all Kubo really cares about is drawing really cool shit. Everything else is secondary. Nothing has to make sense. Who cares about Ichigo’s hopes and dreams and desires when he can have two swords that he’ll never use in battle. Oh, it’s the epilogue and Ichigo needs to be a grown up doing grown up stuff...might as well make him a doctor. It was good enough for his old man, right? It wasn’t as if he said anything against taking over his father’s clinic some day.

Then again, Ichigo never said that’s what he’d like to do either. Almost 700 chapters and 15 years went by and Ichigo never once said what he wanted to do with his life when he grew up.

And that, my friends, is a problem.

[ginnyzero]

Booktober Week 2: Fave Books!

Welcome back to Booktober! Booktober is a month were I’m talking about books, specifically books in the horror/paranormal genres. Anything with ‘horror’-esque creatures counts and as long as they are books. No television shows. Or movies. Books!

If you want to also do Booktober, I’ve placed prompts on my twitter and on my tumblr.

Back when I was first getting into things that were considered more horror and paranormal, things like urban fantasy books were still in the horror section of bookstores. Only later were they moved off into science fiction and fantasy. (I don’t know why, but that is the way it was.) I’m not going to talk about ‘classic’ horror books right now because that’s week four.

Horror to me has always been described as a creepy uncomfortable sensation that can also be fascinating. It’s not necessarily to scare you or make you jump. It’s to grab your attention and make you uncomfortable. If that is the case, to me the best horror books would be Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels books for many, many reasons.

Anne Bishop calls herself a writer of dark fantasy, and she is. On the other hand, the first books of the Black Jewels deal with a lot of issues that are meant to make you uncomfortable. There is a lot of kink like age gaps, and blood giving with vampire and demon imagery. And there is also sexual slavery, castration, child abuse, pedophilia (mostly not shown,) and lots and lots of death. Granted, this is all shown to be horrible and bad. It’s still uncomfortable and horrible. A huge arc of the first three books is the child heroine growing up to defeat the awful people who are the root of the problem. Not that the problem goes away entirely because those awful people had followers who weren’t as awful but could be in the right circumstances.

Men and women both suffer in the books, as well as talking animals. So, obviously, I do not recommend those books to people who love fantasy without a very long conversation about what dark fantasy when it comes to Anne Bishop actually means. However, if you put them into the lens of horror, they fit rather nicely.

I went in unaware for a plane trip between California and New York (a red eye) and ended up devouring the first two of them pretty much nonstop in a way you can’t look away from a train wreck. Fortunately, the last book does have a triumphant ending. Then the later books are ‘softer’ unless they’re the prequel book, but they can still stray into ‘dark’ quickly.

For actual Dark Fantasy of hers, I prefer the Others series. It’s an interesting take on werecreatures and if werecreatures were actually the dominant life form on Earth rather than humans. I really enjoyed the first three books for their characters, world building, and storytelling style. They’re more slice of life than ‘oh we must defeat the big bad.’ The fifth book though left a very bad taste in my mouth as it took a major step back for our main character and going ahead to see if the sweet romance between her and the wolf shifter was going to happen, I just can’t justify it to myself. Which is sad. Because I really enjoyed the set up and the storytelling as a ‘slice of life’ style writer myself. (This happens a lot to me with series. You’ll notice this is a trend.) I’d use Anne Bishop’s storytelling in the Others as a comparison book for my Heathens series.

One of the book series I enjoyed for the world building more than the longer overall story that I found first in the horror section but was actually kitchen sink urban fantasy was Kim Harrison’s “The Hollows” series. The titles first intrigued me being they were takes on Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name movies and the concept of two women running an agency to solve magical problems sounded really cool to me. Unfortunately as the series progressed it was less about solving magical problems and more about how special the main character was and how messed up her social life kept getting with the final pairing obviously chosen for ‘hotness’ reasons rather than it actually making sense to the narrative.

Look, if it had stayed Rachel and Ivy solving magical problems as they both actually learned from their mistakes and being bad ass and Rachel ended up with the vampire guy who actually respected her and didn’t keep her in a cage like the Fae guy did, I would have gone along with it. It didn’t.

The world building though, I put ahead of something like the Dresden Files because the Hollows worked with the idea the “masquerade” keeping everyone secret had been ripped away and how does a world look if vampires, werewolves, and witches and little Fae have to all co-exist with each other. (The pixie was my favorite character and she did him dirty too.) Werewolves needing extra high basketball hoops and vampires blacking out their basement windows to sleep downstairs. Magic was used more frequently too as Rachel used charms, and circles, and potions on a regular basis.

Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy Dresden for his research into creatures and such. However, at some point, it became less about witchcraft in general and more about Harry shouting invocations at everyone. Gritty Harry Potter style.

Paranormal Romance exploded after urban fantasy became popular. Sometimes, it can be hard to tell the difference between the two except that paranormal romances sold in the romance section have unabashed sex, while urban fantasy sold in the science fiction and fantasy section tend to not. I think the best paranormal romance I came across was Thea Harrison’s Elder Races series. My favorite has to be the first book Dragon Bound with Pia and Dragos. None of her other couples quite captivated me as much as those two. Pia gets herself in a mess and even though Dragos is extremely overbearing, she doesn’t take his nonsense and does what she wants anyways. She needs his strength, and he needs her magical abilities.

The Elder Races series also uses a lot of races I don’t really see in other books, like Medusa. (I’m pretty sure it was her.) Which to me was really cool. I mean the definition of Wyr meant everything from dragons to gryphons on top of wolves and whatever. The Fae were pretty standard Fae for books. I wish her other couples had grabbed me as much as Pia and Dragos. I really would enjoy a series of the adventures of Pia and Dragos. At least they got like three books and several short stories.

Let’s talk about visual books and interactive storytelling to wrap this up. And for manga, I bet you’re going to say ‘Hellsing’ and yes, I did enjoy Hellsing as much as the next person, but no, I’m going with Judal’s Vampire Game. In Vampire Game, the Vampire is trying to get revenge on the reincarnation/soul of the guy who killed him and ending up in the body of a kitten who is taken in by the teenage princess who is this guy’s ancestor. Instead of holding this revenge plot against him, the princess who hates her family decides to help. There’s lots of shape shifting and there are monsters and I didn’t really expect the ending. It’s funny and the princess is a lot smarter and cleverer than her caretakers give her credit for. It was put out by Tokyo Pop and I’m not entirely sure if you can find it anymore. But if you can, I definitely recommend it.

The web comic that I’ve stayed with the longest that involves paranormal and some horror elements is definitely Girl Genius. Girl Genius is considered a Gas lamp fantasy and has definite steampunk elements. It also has werewolves, monsters, mad science, scary ghost like creatures everyone runs away from, eldritch abominations, and the talking emperor of all cats. I know it’s rather a huge deal given how many Hugos it’s won and all, but it’s still one of the comics I still keep coming back to because they keep delivering a good story.

On the interactive side of storytelling, I’m going to stray away from World of Darkness and talk about Firefly: the RPG instead. Yes, Firefly/Serenity has a role playing game! I actually have both and Firefly book has more backstory and lore than the Serenity book, but the Serenity book does a better job of summarizing the elements of the series that are important such as ship as character and the big damn hero crew.

The reason I put this under horror and paranormal even though it is a scifi western is space is pretty scary and reavers and the Blue Sun Corporation with their Hands of Blue make it more so. You could really play around with the horror elements of just being in space, being lost in space or your engine going out like in Out of Gas. And then there’s the different planets with the mining and what else is Blue Sun up to? There’s a lot of wiggle room to make the game and story extremely terrifying and horrifying that didn’t get explored as much in the series or the movie. (And given some of the stuff that’s come out after, maybe it’s a good thing.)

Now some of these recommendations you might be thinking “How can these be your fave? You didn’t like the story completely!” Look, if we’re going to talk absolute faves all I would do is rave about my books and that is just no fun. Plus, I don’t have enough books to cover all the bases. There may be things in these books that I didn’t like, that you might not mind. These are things I’ve read and are traditionally published I can recommend over other things.

Next week, I’m going to talk about more books and specifically about creatures. What books have I read that do creatures the best, in my opinion!  You can join in too. Here is an image, use totally optional. Happy Booktober and happy reading!

[schirdotblog]

Examining Disgaea 5′s Writing

Okay I swear I write about things that aren't Disgaea sometimes. I mean, I was working on a script for a video about Super Cloudbuilt recently and I've been writing blog posts about the things I've learned by actually trying to making games over the last few weeks, and I might write a bit about some things I really like about thecatamites's philosophy on game design soon, and I've got other plans in the works too.

But no, instead today I have to write about Disgaea again. This time it's because I want to understand why it is I feel that Disgaea 5's writing is borderline insufferable while finding Disgaea 2 to be really nice and fun.

Now, to understand this feeling, I went and looked at a couple of random midgame cutscenes in Disgaea 5 and took screenshots and video of them. Then I went and re-read the dialogue with the perspective I've gotten from trying to write characters talking in my own games. With a full maybe 20 hours of dialogue writing under my belt, and a couple thousand character-talking hours from playing D&D, it's safe to say that Dunning-Krueger is in full effect here. You have been warned.

In the opening cutscene of Chapter 6, after the reveal that General Bloodis is actually Goldion, Killia reveals to the rest of the party that he used to be Goldion's apprentice. Zeroken is shocked. Killia says that he had fought his way to becoming the Overlord of Cryo Blood, and then had his first defeat at the hands of Goldion, who he then trained under. Seraphina says that Cryo Blood was ruled by Tyrant Overlord Killidia, and asks Killia if he's the same person. Killia responds in the affirmative.

Now, this is just some really rough exposition. It gets even worse in a minute, but this is just really fucking hamfisted. Setting up Killia as the former apprentice of the apparently now-turned-evil big bad is dumb. Killia's been a more-or-less willing participant in this shit without needing to have that established. It's setting up the endgame reveal that Killia and Void Dark trained together under Goldion and that Void Dark's doing this conquering nonsense to resurrect Lizerotte, who Killia liked I guess? But at the same time it doesn't really at any point feel like Killia wants to be involved in any of this. Usually I find that if I'm writing a character who has no desire to be involved in a story, it's better to just toss 'em out and write someone who does. It makes writing feel less like dragging a cat around, and usually winds up making a more likeable character who does things of their own volition, which tends to make the plot way more fun as a consequence. And how can I tell that Killia is the sort of character that has no real reason to be there? I can tell because Killia has to be forced into the plot against his will. He's kidnapped and put into Seraphina's pocket dimension at the start of the game because reasons. This is the sort of plotting I tend to run into in a GM's first tabletop game. Can't figure out how to make the party get together? Lock 'em in a cell together. Fuck it. It's lazy and, frankly, bad writing.

Now is it necessarily a bad thing to have a reluctant protagonist? No, not at all. You just have to give them a reason to be there. I think that's what the writers are trying to do in this scene, but they don't understand that 'giving someone a reason to be there' is writer speak for 'giving someone a reason to take action and do things'. They're suddenly revealing that oh, actually, the main character has a personal relationship with the villain because of his lengthy and tragic backstory. You know what'd be way easier and more effective than this weird set of interlocking personal relationships? Having the main character go "Hey, fuck that guy! We need to stop him!" That'd at least make it seem like the character has some kind of emotions, agency, volition, or investment in what's happening. As it stands though, our main character's involved because he was kidnapped and then revealed to have some kind of intertwining cosmic relationship with the events happening in the story. But again, that's a lot of things that would really help elevate the story if the protagonist, or really anyone else in Disgaea 5, had any amount of say in what things happen.

Like okay, let's rewrite the last few scenes real quick here, just at a broad level. Let's keep the plot beats too, why not. So maybe instead of having Seraphina serendipitously shoot the bad guy's one weak point to reveal that secretly he's also this other guy who secretly trained the protagonist in the past, he just fucking beats the party's collective asses and they book it the fuck outta there. Maybe a quick "shit this guy's too strong, we have to leave, now!" as we fade out.  We fade back in, with the party moping around talking about how they're too weak or some anime shit. Someone brings up needing to get stronger. Killia says that he knows a place they could train; his home world. The chapter would then be spent gradually revealing that Killia was the Overlord there and hinting at bits of backstory. Killia would show some initiative, and you could end the chapter with some Prinny saying they've heard a rumour of Bloodis's weakness and residence. The reveal is that Bloodis still lives on the old training grounds where Killia used to train, and the next chapter's spent there. Show the player cool things and don't just exposit at them. Wow! What an idea.

But no, we're leaving the fantasy land of halfway competent storytelling now. Back to the real game, what actually happens is that Usalia expresses shock and fear on hearing that Killia is Killidia, Red Magnus expresses shock and a desire to fight that immediately evaporates when Seraphina shoots him, Christo says Killia's not an ordinary demon after all with all that magic potential energy he's got, Usalia's surprised that Killidia and Killia are the same person again, and god this fucking cutscene has nothing happening and doesn't end jesus fu- oh good I guess Killia's expositing about some technique he learned and how he's betrayed his master again and fuuuuuuuuuuck this is so fucking boring I think I'm in hell.

So here's the thing that's getting my goose, alright? The story's saying these things and trying to create this tightly interwoven plot where the major players are all related in some way. But then the worlds you go to are just completely unrelated to all of that. General Bloodis's base is some random place, as are the five preceding worlds and the seven following ones, with maybe two exceptions that've been manhandled. They're video game worlds that have no story significance and do nothing besides serve as an irrelevant backdrop. Remember how the first world you went to in Disgaea 1 was the castle of a rebellious servant of the former Overlord? Remember how that showed how little of a fuck anyone gave for Laharl, while also showing how much the demons respected the previous Overlord, and how that set up things to come? Remember how Rozalin kept trying to lure Adell into deathtraps and actively tried to subvert the progression of the plot? Remember how that was the basis for the development of a trusting relationship between those two characters? Remember when the characters had clearly-defined motivations for taking action in the story, and personalities that had sensible reasons for being there?

Yeah, neither does Disgaea 5. None of these characters have any reason to be doing anything here. Their personalities are paper-thin, and all the dialogue comes across as a personality trait reacting to a plot point, rather than a person reacting to something that just happened.

So I guess to answer the question I started writing this for, I don't like Disgaea 5's story because it feels like the plot's happening at a bunch of cardboard cutouts with a single character quirk each. I dislike the story because it falls into the amateur mistake of confusing backstory with personality. It tells us about all of the things that happened to the characters in the past and says 'see? That's who they are' without showing us any of those things. The characters are apparently doing things in the story, but it never quite feels like any character's making the choice to do those things for reasons internal to them personally. It all feels bland and hollow because none of these characters seem like they have any sort of emotional investment in the things that are happening.

[howlsmovinglibrary]

The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli

*I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

To be honest, I didn’t really expect much from The Last Namsara, beyond the fact that the artwork on the stall at YALC was incredibly beautiful, and it had DRAGONS in.

So when what I ended up with was one of my favourite books of 2017, it was a pleasant surprise, to say the least.

The Last Namsara is a wonderfully lyrical book, half epic fantasy, and half fanciful fairy tale – and I mean this literally, as the book alternates between the main character’s narrative, and the retelling of the Old Stories, the myths of her kingdom. It follows Asha, a dragon slaying princess, whose past mistakes have earned her the title Iskari, after the Goddess who is associated with death and destruction. The novel starts out as her redemption story, as she plans to atone for her crimes and escape her arranged marriage by bringing her father the head of the First Dragon. But as the corruption of Firgaard is slowly revealed it becomes about Asha redeeming not just herself, but her entire country.

In a slightly different format, I’m going to recount what I loved about this book, but then go into an issue with the novel which I think needs to be disclaimed before people decided to read it. I want to be as honest and representative of it as possible.

What I loved about it:

Asha. Asha is amazingly well rounded female character, by which I mean ‘my smol angry baby’. She’s a fighter, which means she could easily fall into ‘strong female character’ territory, but while it’s fun to watch her punch things (in particular her dick of a fiancée), the story goes into much more detail than that. She's ruthless, irate, and guilt ridden, and watching the book explore the conflict between the hard, cold mask Asha tries to uphold and her own doubts, sadness, and pain, was incredibly interesting. I loved watching the way she developed over the course of the novel, having to unlearn a lot of assumptions she has made about her life and her country, and to in its place learn to place her trust in other people.

The mythology. From the initial story about Namsara and Iskari, I was hooked into the world. The power of stories and the place it holds within Firgaard is such an interesting one – from the way they got told and then retold in a new light, to the destabilising power they wield, to the fact that can be used to lure dragons, as if they hold a literal magic. I loved how enchanting the stories themselves actually were, painting a bigger, sinister picture in each localised telling, and how this was reflected in their role in the story. (I’m now going to go read aloud in a wood somewhere and see if I call a dragon).

The writing. This book is, to me, reminiscent of Uprooted, in that it has a lovely descriptive style that seems very otherworldly and almost like a folk tale. There is a lot of repetition, from the text level, to motifs that reoccur throughout, and the imagery is amazing, both deceptively simple and slightly hypnotic.

The dragon came, slithering out of the red-gold silt like the treacherous thing it was. Sand cascaded down its body, shimmering like water...while it's slitted gaze fixed on the girl who summoned it. The girl who'd tricked it with stories.

...Hell, there was very little I didn’t love about this book. The plot is a gift that just keeps on giving, going far beyond the point where I expected it to conclude, and filled with interesting concepts, from the toxicity of dragon burns to sacred flames to epic histories of heroism. The writing was arresting, and I found myself barely breathing during certain scenes. And I also really enjoyed the love story, which I felt was written beautiful, but this is now what I need to focus on – I will try to give minimal spoilers, but I think it’s something that needs to be discussed before you decide whether to read the book.

Disclaimer: The Last Namsara features a romance between a slave (Skral) and a member of the master class.

Normally, this is a big NO for me, and I recognise that this comes weighed down with a lot of problematic literary and historical baggage, particularly when written by a non-POC author. I did not know when I started reading that this would be a feature of the book, which is why I wanted to people to know before they decide whether to read it or not.

What follows is spoilers, but may help you make a decision:

Torwin and Asha are never romantically involved while Torwin is a slave. In fact, bar their first interaction, they only ever interact once Torwin has escaped slavery and is freed.

Torwin’s master is Asha’s betrothed, and he abuses both of them. I’m not going to pretend that one type of abuse undoes another, but it at least means they start out as allies, both subject to systematic oppression, and places them on a more equal footing.

Asha’s interactions with slavery are forcibly deconstructed and changed. As a member of the ruling class, and in fact one of its higher members, Asha has a lot of privilege that she is forced to unlearn. Now, no book should get a cookie for helping its protagonist learn not to be racist, but the book is very interesting in its use of point of view. From the first few chapters, it becomes clear that Asha’s country is corrupt and oppressive, even if Asha can’t see it. The fact that her weapons can only be used ‘to right wrongs’, that killing dragons is a wrong and freeing Torwin is a right according to the blades objective morality, signals from the get go that, even if Asha’s narrative focalisation does not condemn right away, the world and the book in no way sanctions what happens in Firgaard, including slavery.

In this vein, Torwin repeatedly calls out Asha’s racism and privilege. He calls out that she refuses to call him by his name. He calls out her naivety in believing that slavery can be miraculously stopped overnight. He calls her out for her deliberate distancing and dehumanisation in the first few chapters. While he may fall in love with Asha, at no point does he let her position of power go unnoticed by either party, and he deliberately deconstructs her perspective and fights her at every turn.

Extreme spoiler.

Torwin has a lot of agency in the story, moreso than Asha does, initially. He is the leader of a slave rebellion, and is instrumental in a revolution of which Asha is entirely ignorant of until it happens. Whereas Asha is quite passive in the first half of the book due to her own ignorance, Torwin actively influences her and people around her to have more of a prominent role in instigating change.

Extreme extreme spoiler.

Asha decides later in the book that all the slaves need to be freed, in order to appease the objective morality that I mention above – basically to get dragons back on their side. Obviously, this is a white saviour moment (even if the cast don’t necessarily seem to white). This is when I started to take issue with the book, and begin to feel uncomfortable. However, what I find interesting is that barely a chapter later, Torwin calls her out on it. He calls her out on using it as a tool without truly understanding the experience of slaves, and for being naïve in thinking it will fix all the Skral’s problems overnight. I like that he basically lampshades her white saviour moment, and identifies as such – and I think it shows that, while the author is exploring problematic content, they are at least trying to do it sensitively (whether they succeed or not is a judgement I will leave for own voices reviewers).

Extreme extreme extreme spoiler.

Torwin gets ‘given’ to Asha as a soulmate in the final chapter of the book, in line with the mythological workings of the world. Asha flat out refuses to accept, saying she doesn’t want that kind of power over him, that it’s unfair to do it without his consent, and that the god in question is just placing Torwin into a new form of slavery just after he has escaped another form. This shows a lot of self-awareness, both on the behalf of the character, and on the author behind her. Again, no cookie for unlearning racism, but at least by this point it makes clear that both characters will only enter a relationship as consenting equals, which is an important point to make when attempting to write a slave/master romance.

Obviously, as a white reviewer, I cannot excuse this romance and say ‘it’s fine’. I think it certainly has problematic elements that mean I’m very conscious of giving this book a positive review, and I think the final judgement should be reserved for own voices reviewers. The white saviour moment was the key action that made me extremely uncomfortable, and I’m glad that it was throughly deconstructed, and was done so in Torwin’s voice.

A large proportion of this book is amazing. I love the world and its mythology, and the dual perspective in which it is written, where you see the world as it objectively is, then as it is seen when filtered through Asha’s narrowed and privileged perspective. I like that these two perspectives are both there, and both clearly different. I also have to be honest and say that I really enjoyed it, and I think lots of people will enjoy it too. 

While some problematic tropes regarding race and slavery are used, I don’t personally think they go unquestioned or without severe interrogation. But obviously, I'm not the authoritative voice on that. I think, given the trajectory of the latter half of the book, more will be done to interrogate these ideas further in the second book, and that it can be enjoyed with both the reader and author being aware that those tropes are present.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

[sapphireorison]

Hokay. So. ACOTAR, ACOMAF, and ACOWAR. I finished them. A bit ago. And then I forgot to actual finish this write-up.

I enjoyed them! I have a great many thoughts and it will take a while to unpack them. Fair warning: I’m an editor and some of this is critique. These books hit a good number of my buttons and I legit cried in several different places, so they receive a rec from me. Just--I love to interrogate what I read as well as enjoy it. 

Spoilers to follow. :) 

:rubs hands together: 

Just in case my readers have read some but not all of the books, I’m going to be trying to split thinguses all up. This is difficult b/c I read them mostly back to back and I have a hard time splicing out storylines when I do that. Thank goodness for book summaries. 

Book 1: A Court of Thorns and Roses.

I loved the concept of eternal Spring at the Court, and I love the fact that Feyre is so driven. She makes shit happen, throws herself head-first into...not the best plans, let’s be real, but she’s sympathetic and we get a really deep glimpse into her head with the first person PoV. Her crap plans are also very interesting from a character growth standpoint, because she’s flailing around trying to figure out how things work and still willing to dive into the shit half-prepared because she thinks she needs to. I respect that in a protagonist. The supporting characters, Lucien and Alis, are also a lot of fun. I also thought the worldbuilding was fun in that the fae actually use their glamour for pretty much everything, and that there are festivals and rhythms to life. The estate feels very empty on purpose, but the life of the characters seems to extend beyond the page and I quite like that. 

One thing I found very interesting was that, as the book goes on, Maas slowly finds her stride. The end of the book is better than the beginning (and the second book better than the first, but that’s getting ahead of myself). Maas’ strength is in interaction person v. person and person v. environment, but until the environment is established, her people can’t properly interact with it. We’re missing too much and the clues aren’t actually clues that a reader can put together--or even recognizes as clues. ‘Ah yes this is a mystery’ isn’t...isn’t helpful. The world doesn’t *quite* exist before it’s explained, which is a bit rough when it’s explained at the rate of ‘clueless newbie in an information-averse environment.’ I speculate that a reason why her series are so popular is that she does very well with cumulative worldbuilding. Or, rather, working within established worldbuilding. When she’s establishing it herself, it’s a little wonky until it takes hold.

I mean, I enjoyed the whole ‘masque masks stuck to everyone’s faces’ thing but it wasn’t incorporated emotionally and then they just pop off. The resolution of that arc factored into the climax but the focus had shifted away almost completely at that point. That’s partially because we get three or four character anchors, and not a lot of secondary and tertiary characters to populate the emotional background of the story, so there are precisely two people she knows/interacts with from Spring Court there Under the Mountain and they’re narratively busy. Plus, masks are a major, ridiculously romantic imagery thing. The decadence. The finery. The masks hiding everyone’s true intentions. But without keeping them important, they don’t have the impact I think was intended.

When Maas DOES incorporate something emotionally, she’s good, imho. See anything she does with tattoos. It’s personal, a body transgression with a dab of body horror, it’s visible and has a major impact on her day-to-day attitudes and the images she strikes in this book and for the rest of the series. I ended up caring very much about that damned tattoo. 

On another note, I was /deeply confused/ at the totally blasé attitude the Spring Court had most of the book towards the fact that Feyre had murdered the fuck out of that fae. Like. I didn’t get the vibe that 'something must be going on for everyone to not be beyond pissed off at me.’ I got the the ‘wow, things are moving really fast and everyone’s reactions are a little weird because the main characters need to be together’ vibe. Which turned out not to be the case in, like, any sense, but it was still very distracting. Also, I’m just like, “There is a lot of emphasis on love in this book, but I’m not actually feelin’ it anywhere.” Maybe it’s my aromantic ass talking, but there was a lot of emphasis on the sustaining power of love that didn’t really...okay. I think it’s fair to say that I don’t *get* why love was a driving force for most of the tail end of the book when there were other perfectly valid reasons to take action and/or survive. The main character spent most of the end of the book in an altered state of mind and fixated on an emotion that wasn’t being actionably reciprocated, so that when she won things I was very excited, but when she was floundering in between I stopped being able to quite access the character.

It’s a bit of a left turn at the end into sexy villainess territory, and the altered state of mind thing--like I get why it was done on a narrative level (tho I consider it a bit of a narrative cheat), but it’s also sort of extremely iffy on a ‘future romantic interest’ level.  

Overall, though, I liked a lot of the interpersonal play between characters and how the edges don’t always meet. And I like the sense of ‘no, don’t do it! why are you doing this?!’ and ‘yes, do the thing!’ that I as a reader felt depending on the decision that Feyre had to make, and most of the time those character choices were nicely in character. 

Book 2: A Court of Mist and Fury

Well. I was spoiled by tumblr for this one, so I knew it was coming, but EVEN SO I was still a little ??? that Tamlin was straight-up the villain. On the one hand, the first book WAS a riff on a Beauty and the Beast narrative, so this is the ‘Beast’ subversion book that digs into the abuse and depression narrative. Which--I actually didn’t mind. The oddest thing was Tamlin going from a very poor fit for a boyfriend to legitimately abusive, which I take to mean (as is alluded to in later bits) that his experience Under The Mountain just...broke him. I was actually watching in the first book for ‘abusive’ cues, and they were little red flags that seemed to have been incorporated into the fabric of the story in the traditional-love-story sense that only in contrast and context analysis appear as big red flags. 

So...that’s interesting. Because it was very much a sense of exacerbated personality, without necessarily the seeds of the abusive relationship being developed as such. Even though :waves vaguely at Rhys: that dude’s presence was at least planned, and the mating bond was present at the end of the first book. So yes, it seems abrupt, and I can’t decide if it’s an abrupt that fits or not.

And just as an addendum, I’m not actually interesting in redemption stories (as I know there’s all sorts of discourse surrounding Talmin on tumblr), so I didn’t mind him being the villain and staying that way. 

The strength of this book, imho, is its tight focus on healing from abuse. It’s a very specific narrative, very in-depth, and very personal. Feyre is such an emotionally-driven character, and it’s her emotions--conflicting a lot of the times--that are cracked open and chewed-upon. And, actually, it’s her emotions that, well, it’s not that they provide /continuity/ but they actually carry the book. Whatever she’s feeling at that particular moment is encompassing, and it eclipses a lot of the book’s continuity errors and world-building...holes. At least for me, it did, and that’s part of why I enjoyed the story as much as I did. Worldbuilding is my /jam/, so the emotional resonance has to be engaging for me to enjoy a book without a solid foundation.

But part of the recovery-from-abuse narrative is that there’s a lot of emphasis on consent--or at least there’s an attempt at it. Everything at Feyre’s pace as much as possible (a convention broken only for plot, if I recall correctly.) Even if, most practically, there is a lot of organizing Feyre’s life and she doesn’t have a lot of actual control over it, she feels like she does. She is able to accomplish things again and accomplishing those things isn’t a panacea for her depression, but it certainly helps. 

What boggles my mind, with respect to the consent thing, is that Feyre very much has no control over her emotions at the best of times, not when she’s vulnerable. But that Maas adds the mating bond/soulbond nonsense. 

Okay. FULL DISCLOSURE. I...read soulbond fic. I *enjoy* soulbond fic. But I’m very picky about my soulbond fic. For the most part, I consider it to be a good part manipulative drek where people are attracted to one another for no apparent reason with an automatic love that spans lifetimes. 

Which, you know, romantic. (Says the aro lady) But my point is, that the soulbond fics that I really enjoy are the ones that really grapple with the idea that, okay, you didn’t /pick/ the soulbond. You were destined, and that destiny means you had little-to-no free will, consent, or agency in that choice. You feel encompassing...something for a person. Is it love? Is it healthy? And I understand that some people really, deeply enjoy the idea of destiny and the idea that this bond to someone in your soul means you are inherently lovable no matter where you came from or what you’ve done. I, however, resent even the hint of fate, so exploring how people deal with that (beloved) + (fate) thing is simply deliciously fascinating. 

However, in context of a recovery-from-abuse narrative it’s, uh...wow. Feyre doesn’t have a choice but to fall in love with this man. For a healing narrative making an attempt to be about giving her choice once more, a soulbond inherently removes that consent *especially* because it’s kept a secret. Feyre doesn’t know what’s going on and can’t make an informed decision about. 

But I think what completely flummoxed me was the fact that Feyre’s emotional response to finding out that she had a soulbond was *relief*. ‘Oh, it’s not actually me moving on from the abuser I sacrificed so much for and forming this crazy-strong attachment to this man in what I consider a betrayal of my former love for my abuser.’ She’s happy it’s not her fault. With one soulbond, her conflict over moving on is wiped away and resolved, even when moving on and forming a strong emotional attachment/falling in love with another man is, uh, perfectly natural. especially for someone who runs so much on her emotions as Feyre, even if maybe there’s a bit of concern that Rhys might be a rebound because he’s helping her heal (as not everyone can handle both healing-phase relationships and then the transition to stable-established). I mean, it’s an understandable response for her to be like ‘oh, thank fuck,’ but, um, that’s the end of it. She’s done feeling any conflict because she has cosmic permission to move on. 

And tbh, that’s...not an issue with character responses imho. It’s an issue with how the world is built and what function the soulbond serves within a narrative that attempts to emphasize consent...by resolving part of the conflict by make it fate. 

So that’s a thing. XD

Anyways, I am definitely of the opinion that this second book was stronger than the first, both emotionally and world-buildingly. And just...the visuals are wonderful. I think out of everything, I loved the visuals the most. 

Book 3: A Court of Wings and Ruin

The most recent (last?) book in the series, a Court of Wings and Ruin is by far and away the most solidly established book with respect to the worldbuilding and pre-established character. At this point, the world has accumulated enough that there are repercussions, politics, and things moving and shaking. The narrative expands from tight-focus on specific relationships to an epic continent-spanning conflict with multiple cooperating factions. 

It’s, uh, quite a jump. 

But first let me just...bang my fists on the table and chant: High Lady Feyre. High Lady Feyre. High Lady Feyre. The simple fact that we get to see her be High Lady and that she embraces it. No matter how the execution of her being High Lady falters, it’s viscerally pleasing that the intent is for her to be a partner. She has a powerful position, a seat at the table, and (although her inexperience is, er, a liability, uh) the ability to change the tide of the epic shenanigans going on all over the place. 

Also. Nesta. My love. She shines in this book. I just. I think it says a lot about what your favorite character in any particular book is, and for me, it’s hands down 100-percent Nesta. She’s just so angry and complicated and she lashes out and hurts people and even in the previous books when she’s being stubborn or antagonistic-y and Freyre is pissed off and hurt by her...I just kept thinking to myself: is she supposed to be my favorite? Because she’s absolutely my favorite. 

Like, she’s reserved as fuck and ready to cut into people and eat their hearts, and was dragged into Feyre’s bullshit literally kicking and screaming and basically sinking into the Cauldron while flipping the world off. And then she rips part of the Cauldron’s power out with her teeth. Plus, she develops a thing for the one who is clearly the hottest boy character (sorry Rhys, I have a type). I mean, she couldn’t be set up any more perfectly as my favorite character. 

Like. I like Feyre, but to be quite honest, I don’t GET Feyre. (I don’t recall if I said that in part one, but whatever, this is part three and a whole different book.) I just...Feyre is emotional to the point where I lose hold of her, because I’m not the same personality type. I can feel what she feels because that’s Maas’ forte as a writer, but that’s about as far as my sympathy goes. I /feel/, but I don’t understand why she acts the way she does on those feelings. 

What I do find interesting is the trope evolution of the soulbond thing. It’s like Maas walks it back. It’s a mating bond and it’s physical. It’s not necessarily a ‘meeting of souls’ or ‘one true love’ thing, because there have been crap soulbonds in the past, but a signifier that elf-y genetics decicded they’d create good bebs. Which...holy het, batman, for one, the implication being that only reproducing couples will ever matebond. And two--that’s...a marked difference from the second book. There’s also some confusion as to whether the mating bond is destiny or a result of love. Because more than once it’s referred to wanting the mating bond to snap into place (implying that love can come first), and more often it’s shown that the mating bond is destiny. It’s never clarified if it’s both, or Feyre’s mistaken, or what. Or if it can actually be cancelled, or if it becomes only cancelled for one because it’s ventured by one? Or if there’s an attempt to snap it into place and...

Basically, book three just confuses the shit out of the issue of the soulbond from the straightforward trope-dancing of the second book to attempting to address edge cases without actually clarifying anything. 

There is one point, though, where I’m sort of...the series started as one thing and has morphed into somthing entirely different, and the style it’s written in can’t quite support it yet. Namely, there’s a scene where Feyre does a bit of psychic eavesdropping to relive a scene we would not otherwise have gotten to see and just...

That, my friend, is cheating the first-person narrative. It’s invasive, and debatably out of character, and is handle with a ‘sometimes we suck, and we just have to get over it’ conversation, and the invasion is never elsewise addressed. It’s just, like. An errant scene. It’s worked into things, but in such a way that the value of the scene is debatable for as much damage as it causes the narrative. 

Which flows into the fact that the narrative can’t sustain the epic battle thing. There’s a deus ex machina at the end, even though it’s not the thing that wins the day. Like, there’s an entirely character PoV and narrative thread that’s just...left out. For three books. Which is a limitation of first person without careful plotting. But the whole end with reinforcements and Lucien and the firebird Queen? Not out of the blue, but like...a whole different book. 

And the last thing that I think is interesting that *doesn’t* touch on the Black Jewels trilogy, is part of the inspiration for some of the fae mythology, namely the Black Cauldron. 

Or, more rather, the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, upon which the Disney movie the Black Cauldron was based. The Chronicles themselves are based on Welsh Mythology, notably the Mabinogion. But the Chronicles have the three witches in the swamp (the three death gods?), the fair folk, the land of death with its control of the Cauldron with the power to create an unstoppable army. Of a living sacrifice jumping into the cauldron of their own will being the only thing to shatter it.

(And, hilariously, I did a search for what Maas herself said about Prydain since I was gonna ramble on about it, and it really does seem like they were a major inspiration for her. I found a twitter thread where she laments that he used all the really cool antiquated names for all the places she wants to use. If you wanna see what she says about it, pairing the author names will give you direct quotes from her saying how much inspiration she drew from them.)

It’s just that even though Eyrian and Illyrian are very similar, Illyria is the name of a Baltic country back in antiquity. And her naming conventions for the races aren’t complicated. The angel-people are Seraphim. The falcon-people are Peregryn. She uses a lot of possibly-Greek-inspired words for her mythological faerie people. So while I wouldn’t say Illyrian is a coincidence, it does fit with her rampage through her favorite things, pulling in disparate (and sometimes clashing) elements and knitting them together as she slowly builds her world the best she can.

To me, this feels like a hodgepodge of inspiration, though I know that a lot of people knock the books for tasting very strongly of Bishop’s work. I’d argue that, Prydain and the aforementioned Welsh mythology and Greek references are as much an influence on Prythian as Kaeleer and Terrielle are, at least in the worldbuilding aspects. She even says in interviews that they’re her inspiration. She’s enthusiastic about them in a charming way (I say as an editor of new, baby authors who have this sort of love for their inspiration, too.)

But ‘what is inexpert but honest homage and what is are you sure this isn’t fic’ is a discussion for...later. That I’m half done with. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish and post it sometime soon. :)