#great art fun writing solid characterization

[archipithecus]

Friends at the Table is a podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, fun interaction between good friends, and asking "what if X was Y? what if W could do Z?"

anyways here's a non-comprehensive selection of some times FatT asked good hypotheticals

(spoilers for Autumn in Heiron, Marielda, Winter in Heiron, COUNTER/Weight, Twilight Mirage, Sangfielle, and some Bluff City i think) (i know Spring, Partizan, and Palisade must also have good "what if X was Y?" but i'm still catching up) (this got way long so i'm putting it behind a readmore) (shoutout to Search at the Table at https://curiosity.cat-girl.gay/ for letting me do this) (also to Transcripts at the Table for writing this all down in the first place)

KEITH: What if I was a snow...hawk… ART: What if you're like, a Dr. Seuss animal? KEITH: Yeah! What if I was a star-bellied sneetch?

KEITH: (laughing) What if the bird was a can opener!

AUSTIN (as Zaktrak): It's like, what if a, what if a factory or train or a windmill could read a book?

AUSTIN (CONT.): And then he, he looks up, he actually has like a very… his build is kind of like, angular and… not thin in terms of like, weak? But he has a sort of… androgynous character about him, in terms of his like, what you would think of as like his body structure. And… very beautiful blue eyes. He’s sort of like, what if David Bowie was super black.

AUSTIN: And that's kind of like, the picture you get of her, is like, What if Fero was like, 30% less hyperactive? Still way more hyperactive than everybody else in-- the world? (laughter) but like, just a little more in tune, with the world.

AUSTIN: What if fire was matte?

ART: What if a—what if a 90s after school special needed some graffiti

AUSTIN: Yeah. He asks you, um... watching what unfolds, and there's, there's, it's--and this is the fuckin' nerdiest thing I'm ever gonna say; it's like what if A-ha's Take On Me was an AMV? Was an anime music video?

AUSTIN: Ali’s character, how did she describe her character, “what if Han Solo used to be Beyonce?”

AUSTIN: It’s like, what if the American government was just another American company?

AUSTIN: It’s like what if holograms did gifs, basically?

ART: You how like Han Solo’s always talking to the Millenium Falcon, but what if the Millenium Falcon-- AUSTIN: Could talk back? ART: Had a chance of, yeah, of deciding he was angry.

SYLVIA: For example. Like just p - yeah, what if they have psychic assassins there. Oh! What if this planet’s an alien? What if this planet is a psychic assassin? Which is a great sentence I just said.

AUSTIN: Yeah, I should note that this is also like "What if the Super Bowl was attended by high fashion models?", right?

AUSTIN: We don’t get a lot of elderly non-binary people. And so Saint Auger is like, what if someone you knew from Portland was 82?

AUSTIN: It’s almost like, what if a crown could be a dunce cap?

AUSTIN: It's like- what if there was a really enterprising twelve year old, who like, [laughs] made a physiology- uh, person- a physiology like, model, but with dirt and rocks and sticks. Also there's no face, the face is also just one of this solid black rock plates.

AUSTIN: And again, there’s just light streaming in through—I think this room is mostly, like, does not have a huge window, but it does have little eyelet windows at the top of the, towards the ceiling, that run horizontally along the room, and just like, bright—it’s almost like, what if colour could be shadow? Do you know what I mean? Like, what if instead of it being that a shadow crosses your face, it is this prismatic glow that moves across the group of you as this thing crawls around this space station.

AUSTIN: It’s like white and blue, there are stars, it- you know, I think that the- it’s, it looks like the way you might imagine like, what if the UN had spaceships?

AUSTIN: What if you mixed your- your selfhood, with the notion of wings. Or the notion of flight. Not just flying. That’s where we’re going.

AUSTIN: This giant battleship that’s like ‘what if a millipede instead of legs had guns and what if it was all around it’?

AUSTIN: This thing is like the size of like a major city. This thing is like, what if Manhattan was a battleship. And instead of buildings it had guns. Except now they’re made of weird black glass.

AUSTIN: The first time he showed up I described him as what if Canderous Ordo decided to have a robot body one day? And slowly began to replace it.

AUSTIN: There’s a little— Yes, it’s like what if a cow— what if Christian Slater was playing a cowboy from New Jersey, and also was Canderous Ordo. And also he eats through his hands.

AUSTIN: There is just this like… I think it’s just metal unfolding across space. Like, at some point Volition just kind of spat out a, a, almost, it looks like a cloud of ink but instead of ink, it’s metal. And it’s just unfolding indefinitely in space like a huge— like what if Akira, what if at the end of Akira when Tetsuo turns into a weird flesh monster? It was that but various types of metal, just like bubbling all over the place throughout space, and I don’t know how you deal with that! But suddenly in the middle of the Mirage there is just this, this ink splatter, this, this gaseous, you know, spread of metal.

AUSTIN: And it’s like — again, it’s like a pistol — it’s like what if a pistol was also like a curved sword, like almost like a scimitar or something?

JANINE: What if we do a live show, but the only live show we ever do is at Bakucon?

ART: Um, let me tell you, this is a nice coat, you guys. Um, I think it’s sort of like what if… What if a leather duster jacket was like an ephemeral idea.

AUSTIN: It’s like … I think the way I described it was, what if there was a Companion Cube that could have its corners pulled apart and in the middle is a weird glowing sphere?

AUSTIN: He has this dope, like, “What if the Millenium Falcon was a deep V?” Instead of just that little bit at the top, it goes really deep down. Or like, “What if Pacman was really long?” You know what I mean?

AUSTIN: Okay. You find him like, rolled under the bottom of his, uhh, or like on a, it’s not rolled under, he’s on like a little, like cart that has a pneumatic lift, or it’s like, it’s like a, it’s like a robot that walks around. It has like- it’s like a Boston Dynamics- like what if a Boston Dynamics, like four-legged robot was also a thing you laid on top of? Like one of those carts that goes underneath a car, to repair it. You know what I’m talking about?

AUSTIN (as Morning’s Observation): [exhales thoughtfully] Like what if milk was a solid.

AUSTIN: But it still has that ribbony-quality? [chuckles] It still has the sound of fabric rubbing on fabric? But is definitely amplified a great deal, probably? And also, we know it’s sharp, so there’s probably some… sharpness to it? You know… there’s probably, like… what if a ribbon could be a sword you pull out of a sheath?

AUSTIN: And also, Saint Sommer is a big lion man. Saint Sommer is, like… Skein. And is a big… a big… like, a big lion man. Not like Lion-o from Thundercats. Like… what if Scar could… had a big human body? Was, like… What if Scar was cut?

KEITH: And it sort of like, snap! Like, that, it's like… when we were talking about what the sound it makes, I was picturing… what if folding a blanket sounded like sheet metal?

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah. I don’t know I think it’s like, I think this is very much like, what if the Venom symbiote was made of thread, right?

AUSTIN: So maybe it's like a- like imagine, what if a mop could just mop by itself.

AUSTIN: I won’t talk more about that stuff, but you already saw the big picture of “what if Connecticut was a space ocean,” so, you have at least some context there.

AUSTIN: It’s huge. It’s the size of a continent, right? It’s “What if South America was a big circle?” It’s “What if Europe and Eurasia was a big circle?”, constantly cast on this planet. And, you know, from space it kind of looks—not flat necessarily, right, because it’s a curved planet, it’s a sphere, or spherical, but, you know, it’s flat.

AUSTIN: It’s like what if Texas stood up.

AUSTIN (as Morning’s Observation): “What if cars brought things to you instead of bringing you to things?”

AUSTIN: It’s just like a very bright, colorful—like, what if Steven Universe did the Sailors of the Ark? What if that team did it? It’s very good.

AUSTIN: It’s like what if it’s a can opener that does that. Like a living can opener like. Grrrngaaah! I’m going fucking open holes in things! Grrngaah!

AUSTIN: Imagine that they're almost- in my mind they're like what if a martini shaker was a piston.

AUSTIN: It's like what if you could package a sunset, y'know? Into like a cube

AUSTIN: I can't believe we started this recording by looking at pies [KEITH and DRE laugh] that make me hurt and ended with ‘what if all foods could be jelly juice?’.

AUSTIN: I saw a big buffalo picture and I was like what if that was a person, that looks cool.

ART: But what if some of these skeletons are like, sick of this shit?

AUSTIN: I think I pitched this show as like: what if Ghost in the Shell but-but magic and witches instead of cyborgs and stuff?

JACK: So, out come this nascent organization who we’re calling Shapeknights. Who are -- I think the easiest way to say it is “cowboys for trains?” They are, like -- what if instead of the cowboy riding alongside the train on his horse, he was corralling the train? Or he was trying to understand the train, or was trying to --

ALI: I think Marn, herself is a little bit more like—like what if a capybara was a siamese cat?

KEITH: Yeah. So, I wholeheartedly recommend this movie, but if not, if you don't know what I'm talking about with the goggles, at least look at that. ‘Cause it's a good image. It's sort of like, what if you had a jeweler's loupe that had a jeweler's loupe that had a jeweler's loupe?

ART: It’s like, what if the antagonist won the Mummy movie right, this is what happens-

KEITH: What if instead of one, big, beautiful hat I have two small, beautiful hats?

KEITH: Like what if they made headphones just for being cool at a party?

KEITH: What if you make pizza by opening the box? That it was an empty box until you opened it.

AUSTIN: What if insects were made of teeth?

JACK: She’s the fuckin’ person of the train. She’s like what if a train could output a person.

KEITH: What if the train was a nice train?

ART: What if a Madame Tussauds came to life?

AUSTIN: What if fire could be a ghost?

AUSTIN: Looking through this here, sounds like what you wrote here was “What if a dolphin was like a velociraptor?”

AUSTIN: They’re hitched. Yeah, they've been hitched. Three of them have been hitched. And I said horse, but I want you to imagine is what if…what if a shrimp were a horse?

JACK: You sort of just like rise up the slope. It's a bit like what if a train was an escalator.

AUSTIN: What if Beyonce was Poison Ivy?

AUSTIN: All my cards on the table, Millennium Black is like what if Blade stopped being a vampire hunter and started being a casino owner.

AUSTIN: He's sort of like what if Alex Jones wasn't terrible

[gffa]

I adore your batman stuff very much. I recently read the Wayne Family Adventures, and now I really want to read some more. Do you have recommendations on comic lines to follow?

Hi! I'm glad you're having fun with getting into comics and enjoying the posts around here, it's always nice to have new blood (or returning blood, in my case)! <3 I would give a gentle caution in that Wayne Family Adventures is sort of in a class of its own in a lot of ways, the characterization is much softer and fluffier, while the mainline comics are darker and messier, the characters are definitely not always as nice as they are as in WFA. That's no shade on either of them, just that I want to give a quick warning that if you're stepping from one to the other, the culture shock can sometimes be more than you're expecting. (And also keep in mind that comics are a shifting landscape, there's no one "true" version of many of the landmark moments of characters' lives, you'll see events often retold, you'll see comics that later get retconned, you'll see comics that are in different continuities/set before or after a universe-wide reboot, etc. Don't worry about it, just recognize that you're reading a story to enjoy that story, not as Hard Continuity!) That said, some of the lighter comics that I think would be fun if you're looking to come over from WFA are:

Li'l Gotham is a cute parody series that's super adorable, has some lovely art, and is nice little self-contained stories that are humorous. It's not in mainline continuity and it's even softer than WFA, but it's deeply charming and it's a fun, quick read.

Super Sons (2017) by Peter Tomasi is in mainline continuity and it's focused on Damian Wayne and Jonathan Kent becoming friends, bickering all the while, and getting into hijinks. It tends to lean more humorous and cute, so it's a nice stepping stone up to regular comics.

Robin and Batman (2022) by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen is a good litmus test for whether you might like regular comics--it's a short 3-issue mini-series focused on Dick's early days as Robin and the complicated, thorny relationship he has with Bruce about it. It's one of my favorite, it balances what a terrible gremlin he was with what a little angel he was and the emotional beats are painful in the best way.

Robin: Year One (2000) and Batgirl: Year One (2003) by Scott Beatty/Chuck Dixon and Marcos Martín/Javier Pulido are good places to start for both characters, and hold up okay considering their age. The art is a bit stylized in a way I really like, it lends it a charming old-fashioned vibe while still being pretty to look at, and there's some solid character moments in both.

Nightwing (2016) by various (starts with Tim Seeley, but it's been several authors by now) is one of my go-to recs, I think it's a great jumping on point, has a lot of really nice art, and often tells fun stories, as Dick has some of the best connections to various other characters in the universe.

Nightwing (2016) by Tom Taylor starts with issue #78 and is a great jumping-on point and Taylor's writing is just very light-hearted, action-packed, quippy, and fun. Starting here saves you from having to slog through some of the worse arcs of Dick's series, you get Bruno Redondo's fantastic art, and you can feel the affection for the character, the author and artist love this character and want to make him very cool, as well as they love his relationships with other characters, so you get good Bruce guest appearances, Babs appearances, Damian appearances, Wally appearances, Jon appearances, etc.

Robins: Being Robin by Tim Seeley and Baldemar Rivas was a fun self-contained mini-series that had all the Robins working together and I don't think it should be taken super seriously as a case story, but it had some quality banter, some hilarious moments, and a great look at these chaotic gremlins all shoved into a mini-van together to go solve a case.

Batgirls (2022) by Conrad Michael W./Becky Cloonan and Jorge Corona is focused on Babs, Cass, and Steph as a trio and being adorable together, with some humorous moments, cool art, and fun Batfam moments. It's nice that they get the spotlight and the chance to shine (it's their book, so they get the majority of the cool moments) and it's not super-long and you can jump right in.

Batman: The Knight by Chip Zdarsky and Carmine Di Giandomenico is a "Bruce travels the world to learn the skills he needs to become Batman" and I'm really in love with the way Zdarsky writes a Bruce who is deeply complicated, messy, coming from a place of loving deeply, but also this man has twenty seven different flavors of fucked up trauma going on in that hell brain of his. Zdarsky's current run on the main Batman title has been my jam, but that's a bit of a darker leap than this one, and I think this one is a great way to get to know Bruce Wayne as a character.

Batman: Urban Legends volume 5 has a story called "The Murder Club" that is basically "Thomas and Martha Wayne are time traveled into the future and see what's become of their son, they're not thrilled about it, but come around when they see the people that love him so deeply--primarily Dick, Damian, and Alfred." and was an absolute BANGER for me for feelings, gorgeous art, and some great character moments.

Batman/Superman: World's Finest (2022) by Mark Waid and Dan Mora is an absolute knock-out, it's Bruce and Clark in their early days of their friendship, where Waid is one of the best writers in the industry for how fun his stories are but also how well he knows the characters, Mora's art is often THE portrayal I think of when I think of the characters, and there's a ton of bonus guest appearances from various characters across DC's universe. Also, I am biased, Dick tags along a lot, as he's still Robin at this point in time, and it's a great dynamic between the three of them.

Batman: One Bad Day: Mr. Freeze by Gerry Duggan and Matteo Scalera was easily the standout of the "One Bad Day" stories for me, it's set in the early days of Bruce & Dick as Batman & Robin and it has ADORABLE sunshine gremlin baby Dick Grayson, a genuinely touching story about Mr. Freeze and his wife, and some beautiful art.

Year One: Batman/Scarecrow (2005) by Bruce Jones and Sean Murphy is a fun look at the early days of Scarecrow, but also has absolutely banger baby Dick Grayson content, there's a scene where Bruce literally just grabs him by the scruff of the neck to haul him out of the way of a crowd about to stampede and it's the funniest thing because that 12 year old could destroy your face with his fists but also Bruce can literally pick him up one-handed. There's some great banter in there and it's just a super fun dynamic.

As you make your way through this list, keep the author/artist and year listings in mind, as often times there are multiple series under the same title and some are more relevant to what you're looking for right now than others. Like, there have been three different volumes of "World's Finest", but I want to direct you specifically to the 2022 version because I think that'll work better for you. Similarly, Nightwing 1996 is one of my faves, but I think the 2016 version will work better at drawing you in right now. This is definitely biased in favor of my faves, but I honestly think they work for good jumping on points for someone new to comics and who's coming from WFA and might not want to get into the messier stuff of the mainline comics right away. Hopefully, you'll enjoy these and anyone else who wants to transition from WFA to reading mainline continuity comics, feel free to join us! Yeah, comics fandom can be a bit of a pill sometimes, but genuinely there's a lot of really fun moments to love and the characters are so much more fun when you're reading their stories with all the history and depth behind them!

[rassicas]

(I don’t feel like rewriting it cause it mostly gets across what I’m trying to say but the first paragraph is just a rant stemming from liking splatfest law as an idea, preferring a more malleable understanding of cannon, and how even good non contradictory things the NOA translators do are often discredited for not being simply 100% accurate [cause it’s often more interesting when it’s not imo] so sorry in advance)

I get being the jp translation lore purist and translator is like your entire brand but I feel like some of the “misconceptions” are just popular headcannons or not bothering to check the NOA translation against the JP one for every line. (Revising this it’s literally only splatfest law this gripe applies to I was just feeling ranty) I get really hammering on the “no there aren’t any more mammals” one because that is an important contradiction but when they don’t directly contradict (like splatfest law [again this entire paragraph is just the product of me thinking splatfest law is a fun idea and specifically disliking it being framed as a “misconception”]) it feels kinda weird to treat taking the translation you have at face value as a “misconception.” (Specifically when it doesn’t contradict established cannon or alter characterization in a major way [this has actually just become a mini rant about how treating any information exclusive to translations as non cannon on the simple basis that the JP translation is the only true cannon is something that I personally am conflicted on {wow the mentally ill genderfuck homestuck prefers a mailable and more flexible idea of what is “cannon” who would have known}]) <=(writing these parentheses sets made be realize I’m kinda just spinning a word salad over one specific gripe)

I also cannot view the Frye thread yet so perhaps there’s more of a thesis to it than Frye not being confirmed to be a vampire squid like them being some other species of squid but it seems like a stretch to include that as a “misconception.” Is your underlying argument is that no cephalings inherent traits from specific aquatic ancestors? Is this just to say the art books and interviews have nothing that directly confirm it? (All of that to say what was the reasoning for including it on the misconceptions list?)

Looking back at the list now those two specific ones are the only ones I’d like to know the reasoning for including (this was not well thought through before I started typing it) all of the other ones I definitely get including and have solid sources to back them up and are good to put out there as definitely not backed up by cannon. The list is over all very swaggy and a great resource I’d just like to hear expanded thoughts and reasoning behind these two being it.

The reason for the "splatfest law" inclusion is how often i'd see it brought up among fans, taken seriously, and incorporated into genuine theories about the future of splatoon's plot (i saw this in theories about splatoon 3's plot, and now i see it with side order).

if it's just a localization funny moment then the odds of it potentially having bearing on the plot/worldbuilding of a game made by japanese developers is next to zero. for people like me who put highest importance on the JP side and want to seriously speculate on and understand splatoon's canon, people want to know what is and isn't just a product of localization! funny thing, i was also a hardcore homestuck fan but i am Like this (obsessive over the established Lore) and have always been. i think its my brand of autism LOL Different pieces of media are going to have different standards to how they treat their canon. individuals will have their own standards to how much they want to adhere to that canon and how they define it. splatoon is looser in some places but parts of it less so once it becomes plot relevant. "splatfest law" is objectively funny and if you believe it based on how you perceive what is splatoon's canon i cannot and will not stop you. i personally choose to believe its not actually part of their legal system and something people will say in-universe as a joke. as for the frye thread you should read it before jumping to conclusions about what point i was making with it. I'll go and post it after this. What happened was that right after frye was revealed in the nintendo direct, someone made a thread speculating that frye was a vampire squid, with points of evidence being that she has fangs (all inklings have fangs and weve seen different shapes of them) and long ears (we've seen normal inklings with different shapes of ears), and then the rest of the "evidence" being based on stuff that was intended to be based on her connection to eels or indian culture. this thread blew up and soon after people were stating, with certainty, that frye was 100% intended to be a vampire squid. it is one thing to headcanon something, but its another thing to tout it as fact, which is what was happening.

[birlwrites]

How goes Bloodfinch! Are you at the stage of writing parts yet? Is there a particular area of writing (dialogue, point of view etc) that's particularly fun with it?

And another hopefully answerable but somewhat generic question (to give you the power of surprise yet if you want it!): what person and tense have you gone for? or have you varied it according to a pattern of your own design?

If there's stuff to say about the process of writing concerning what brings you joy (and not further worldbuilding/plot details necessarily that I'm sure time will reveal) it'd be interesting to hear it!

Also, as a side note, you said you very much identified with the sliding meme of your opinion on your skills varying. Hence, I desire to communicate that I think you're consistently brilliant! I am curious why you feel that way though, as I was shocked it was somewhat widespread (I have days where things don't go so well writing, naturally as consistency isn't quite how it works as an area, but find my faith in my skills is rather solid and veers only between "I'm fine at it I suppose?" to "oh yes, it's an area of skills I've worked on that I'm good at" with more sporadic bursts of "I'm a genius! I'm so great at this!" never reaching more despairing "I'm hopeless, utterly hopeless").

it goes well!!! i'm having fun!!! i'm nearing 2.5k now - i had a longer draft, but had to frog that since i decided to start the story in a different place. i'll probably grab and reuse snippets of it later on though. and the outline is complete!! i'm hoping that it'll be similar to lachrimae in terms of time it'll take me to write, although unlike lachrimae i'll then do at least one round of editing once i have a full draft, plus then i'll need to do like. layouts and get cover art and stuff

finch, the pov character, is a singer, and i'm having a WILD time being able to write a very highly trained singer - her tutor (dulceis) definitely has. some traits in common with. certain singing teachers i've had. just wrote a line about dulceis standing on the opposite side of the room from finch yelling 'WHERE ARE YOUR CONSONANTS I CAN'T FIND THEM' and. yes

it's first person present tense and it'll stick to that - normally i'm a third person present tense writer by default, but i'm going for first person here because a) we are VERY deep inside finch's head and b) that was the best way for me to make clear that despite her calling herself finch, that's not what other people call her

i also just created yet another saint today, the sea-saint, who's associated with the sea (duh) and those who make their living from the ocean (sailors, fishers, etc), AND ALSO rhetoric, poetry, and all of the word-arts. the sea-saint is associated with fluidity (duh), impermanence, but also a certain type of control - navigating uncertainty. there is a story about the sea-saint calming choppy waters just by speaking to them and persuading them to settle. they're represented with a wave, a seashell, or a siren (this tends to be the less positive side of the saint, representing fickleness, hunger, and misleading appearances)

oh and i also just wrote up a little story about the origins of bloodfinches, because i was going to type up my handwritten notes but writing up notes was boring and writing up a story that conveyed the same information was far more interesting - so perhaps i'll post that! in a different post though, so it can just be its own thing instead of being buried in this response

naturally from finch's pov i also get to go wild with the auditory imagery which is fantastic, and i'm also having a great time with introducing original characters - even though i work with very, very, very, very, VERY minor characters in hp fanfiction, so minor that in many cases i am inventing characterization out of wholecloth, people still already have certain impressions about characters' appearances, personalities, and general vibes. that is not at all the case with completely original characters and figuring out how to introduce them and convey impressions of them is SO MUCH FUN i forgot how fun it was

i think that the reason my perception of my own writing tends to swing back and forth wildly is because i associate it with ease. words are flowing? plot details are blooming? everything feels great! but if i am not living up to my own expectations, if trying to write feels like banging my head against a wall, or if a scene isn't coming out the way i imagined it and i don't know what the problem is, or i DO know what the problem is and it's going to be a shitload of work to fix, or if it's not connecting with readers the way i thought it would, then i do have a tendency to spiral

logically, i am a fairly confident writer, but emotionally, i'm of course more inconsistent, and emotions tend to rule the day when it comes to how i'm feeling about my skills at any given moment. fortunately, i'm at least aware of that, and i know that feeling like it's hopeless means a) it's not actually hopeless, my brain just likes to latch onto worst-case scenarios, and b) it is well past time for a break

a central issue here is that i often expect very high levels of productivity from myself, and so then even if i know it's time for a break, i then am fighting a separate battle in which i have to convince my brain not to beat me up over needing Break Time, and it all leads to me staring at the wall wishing i could put my brain in a washing machine

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (28 Jul-3 Aug 2024)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 Limited Release (rageprufrock) - 63K, modern XMFC AU - established cherik, FBI agent Erik, Charles being Charles, everyone hunting for domestic terrorist Shaw - really excellent fic, I really dug these versions of them

😊 Damn your love, Damn your lies (purpleweekend) - 66K, modern steddie, eddie's a rockstar who falls for bartender steve (who has no idea who he is) - the central conflict is 100% eddie not telling steve who he is - I was on the fence about this bc eddie doesn't just omit info he actively constructs a double life (which is usually my hard line) BUT the writing was solid enough that I wanted to see how it played out & overall i think the author succeeded - we're in Eddie's POV so we know WHY he's doing these actively dumbass things and he does grovel an appropriate amount for forgiveness - still YMMV on this topic

😊 Fer-de-Lance (Nero Wolfe #1) (Rex Stout, author; Michael Prichard, narrator) - looking for some kind of comfort read, decided to start NW again. Once again reminded of the wonderful '30s slang phrase 'Lovin' babe!' (as an expression of astonishment) which I really wish would be reanimated

🥰 Second Best (Nejinee) - 51K, buddie omegaverse - "Eddie has convinced himself that helping Buck through his heat was perfectly normal behaviour between friends. It didn’t mean anything." surprise! Eddie is WRONG. LOL. Enjoyable.

😍 ain't really quaint (quietnight, silentwalrus,) - aka Farm Hell (44K) this was my 4th? reread of this, this one for stucky bookclub. Still absolutely hilarious. Such a great mashup of MCU/comics into an absolutely fascinating & solid alternate timeline. Incredible characterizations, fantastic art and legit some of the funniest lines ever written in this fandom.

🥰 Smash & Grab (RELIC #1) (Maz Maddox, author; Kirt Graves, narrator) - pink punk dino shifter (utahraptor) + buttoned up paleontologist + menace from ruthless dino collector = silly fun adventure romance road trip. What a fun romp, the book equivalent of Romancing The Stone or Lost City or a National Treasure movie. Absolutely absurd but extremely enjoyable

😍 Not Easily Conquered series (dropdeaddream, WhatAreFears) - FINALLY reading this absolute classic in this fandom. And I absolutely get why! Even though I knew it had prose that knocked your socks off, I was not prepared. Womb to tomb, sweetheart. It's hell to love a fighter. So far I've read the first two stories: A Long Winter (35K) which is Steve's alt timeline life and The Thirteen Letters (35K) which is Bucky during the war, writing the letters

💖💖 +29K of shorter fic 💖💖

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Taskmaster - s13, e3-8

Um, Actually - s9, e12

Smartypants - s1, e8

Monét's Slumber Party - s1, e2

Adventuring Academy - "Reunion with the Cast of Escape from the Bloodkeep" (s1, e13-14)

D20: Never Stop Blowing Up - "Meet the Santangelos" (s22, e6)

D20: Adventuring Party - "The Penthouse Suite" (s17, e6)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

You're Dead to Me - Minoan Civilisation

The Sporkful - When Celery Was More Expensive Than Caviar

Re: Dracula - July 29: Another Tragedy

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Road Trip Week: Where to Go

WikiHole - Gossip (with Joel Kim Booster, Beth Stelling and Jake Cornell)

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Outtakes: What office tradition is on the way out?

Re: Dracula - July 30: Last Night

Pop Culture Happy Hour - We're talking songs of the (Brat) summer

⭐ Today, Explained - Is your refrigerator running?

Short Wave - The Curious Case Of The Supermassive Black Hole

Vibe Check - Things Are Getting Weird

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Time Bandits maps contemporary vibes over a cult classic

Switched on Pop - Why Chappell Roan is the sound of 2024

Re: Dracula - August 1: That's What it Be

Death, Sex & Money - Olympic Legend Greg Louganis on Outliving and Outperforming Expectations

99% Invisible - The Art of the Olympics

⭐ Decoder Ring - Standing Up for Sitting Down

Films To Be Buried With - Chiwetel Ejiofor

Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - The Sound of Apple

Re: Dracula - August 2: One More Gone

Dear Prudence - My Friend Told Our Friend Group That My Boyfriend Sexually Assaulted Me. He Didn’t. Help!

Dear Prudence - Prudie Plus: Is There A Polite Way To Not Invite My Friends’ Transphobic Husbands To My Wedding? Help!

Welcome to Night Vale - Detours

Welcome to Night Vale - Bonus Episode: Hey There Cecil

You're Dead to Me - Robert Bruce

Re: Dracula - August 3: I Know the Secret Now

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

"A Bar Song (Tipsy)" [Shaboozey] Radio • Familiar

"Victoria's Secret" [Jax] Radio • Familiar

The Aquabats

Chappell Roan

Presenting The Offspring

Pop-Punk Party-Starters

Energy Supermix

My Mix #2 (White Zombie, Iron Maiden, Dio)

[amazing-spiderling]

for the fandom ask game: 5 6 11 16 23 24

something you see in fics a lot and love

I really love seeing Foggy sort of leap-frogging over his panic and anger and confusion in moments of crisis to get right to the part where he works on being helpful. That, "We are going to fight about this later, but right now I need to stop that bleeding" sort of thing. Foggy is absolutely allowed to have emotions and fall apart in a crisis, but he has a good head on his shoulders and certainly after a certain point he's had to learn to compartmentalize just to survive being in Matt's life. I think it's comforting to imagine having a friend or partner like that- I guess it speaks to the idea of there always being an undercurrent of love. No matter what else is going on in the moment, no matter how furious or scared or worried the events taking place right now make them, they do not supplant the love that is at the basis of the relationship. I just think that's neat.

something you see in art a lot and love

When artists really have fun with the clothing, paying attention to details and making things really specific. When someone really pays attention to drawing a certain kind of shoe- I'm just... yeah, that's the good stuff. :)

if you’re a writer or artist, what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

Well, I'm a little bit of both- but I guess a fic sprang to mind first so I'll answer for that. (tw for fictional CSA mention btw) So, as I've not-so-casually mentioned, one of my first big/long term fandoms was Metal Gear Solid. And I know that some of the memes from that series have escaped containment, and to the outsiders it might look like "Call of Duty but with the occasional zany moment" but it does have a lot of story (too much, some might say XD) and intricate character relationships and lore and, ugh it's just SUCH fertile ground for art and fic and all the things that make fandom great. But, it *does* also very much appeal to gamer dudes of the usual type. And normally this is fine, the transformative fans and the archival fans largely keep to their own fandom spaces- but sometimes there is crossover that rubs one group or the other the wrong way.

One such case is that there is a character who has an "affair" with his step-mother, but I put that in quotes because when the dust settles, it turns out this happened when the character in question was 16. There is TERRIBLE fallout from the event (family trauma, suicide, estrangement) and the game plays it all straight- this is something that broke the already fragile family to pieces. BUT for a long time, the joke was "haha character banged his stepmom". Which. Ew.

Anyways, I always really wanted to write a story that sort of expanded on those events, not the actual relationship/abuse/fallout, but more the events that precluded it, mostly what made the character an easy target. (Isolation, otherness, a lack of confidence in who they were as an individual). Basically, I wanted to really tell a story that treated the matter with the needed level of seriousness, if only to say, "hey, this isn't a punchline, this is a traumatic experience".

I ended up watching, "The Graduate" a few times as sort of... research? Partially for tone, partially because the themes and characterization in that movie matched the vibe I was trying to go for in my own story. (I can't help but think that Kojima, known for referencing movies in his games- might have had it in mind due to some shared imagery.) This was maybe the first time I did something like that, watching a movie to pick it apart for nuance in tone, as opposed to looking at it for canon events, timelines etc.

So that story ended up being, "Surface Tension", which first appeared in the "Metal Gear Solid: Lost Years" zine, and then eventually got posted to AO3. It's not my best reviewed fic by a long shot (understandably, it's a difficult subject material and not shippy or anything), but it's one that I can say I am proud of.

a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

Wow, this one is tricky for me- I feel like a lot of fans are way more detail oriented than I am when it comes to canon. I'm always the one in awe when people are like, "Oh in episode seven, this one song is playing in a car as it drives by, and that's significant because it came out in 2013 and that was the year that..." and i'm just like "you guys know the names of songs?"

I guess to that end- I always liked the line in, I think it's season 1 where Matt says it's a "90's Top 40" kind of guy. I think it's really funny because people characterize him as having... well, let's just say "better" musical taste, but like, no. That dude would bop his head if you played the Spin Doctors.

the fandom you’re curious about because of a mutual

I have no idea what's going on in the Trolls fandom, and at this point I'm afraid to ask. But they all look like they're having a great time.

how has fandom positively impacted your life?

I've made so many friends, and as someone who doesn't get out as much as I'd like (especially as an immunocompromised person in the middle of a pandemic), my fandom friends are so, so important to me. I love the feeling of having a group of people who love the thing I love and being able to waltz into a space and say, "Hey, who wants to do this crazy thing with me?" and have even a few people say "Yeah, let's fucking GOOOO". ^^

I also think I wouldn't write nearly as much if it wasn't for fandom, and writing has certainly gone a long way towards helping me become better at unraveling the balls of yarn in my brain and making them into sweaters and scarves, as it were. I think a lot of the time when you write, you're practicing empathy- because you're forcing yourself to see the world from someone else's perspective. Maybe the character you're writing about had something in common with you, maybe that's what drew you to them in the first place, but identifying that also helps you understand more about yourself *and* how you relate to others. So I like to think that writing has helped me relate better to other people, even the ones I disagree with, and made me more able to slow down and ask, "well, why does this person feel/think that way?" Storytelling is so important for a lot of reasons, but that's a big one for me.

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Biweekly Media Roundup

- Avatar: The Way of the Water (Movie) - My brother was hyped to see this so I went with him in my first theater going experience in a while. I’m not really qualified to talk about the problematic politics of the film, so personally my pros were stunning visual effects and environments, interesting alien designs and lore, and some fun whale bonding, while my cons were the dragged out length (especially in the extended whale hunting and ending action scene), mostly flat characterization, and some weird character decisions regarding the character “Spider” and the way people interact with him. I do think this was a bit better than the first one since the focus was on the alien characters and the Ocean tribe was a bit more interesting than the forest one, so I’m glad I saw it, though it’s more of a spectacle than a lasting experience. So uh in short I don’t care much for the story but I’d love to see the concept art designs.

- Glass Onion (Movie) - I’m not really sure what I expected from this but I liked it quite a bit. It kept me guessing on the mystery, I liked the protagonist, there's some fun dialogue, and who doesn’t appreciate a “fuck the rich” message. You don’t have to see the first one to watch it so if you’re in the mood for a fun mystery check it out. I don’t say this about most things but I’d be cool with this becoming a franchise, just Blanc solving various mystery’s and humiliating rich assholes in his funky little outfits.

- Chainsaw Man (Anime) - It’s so good to finally find another show that fits in with the flavor of weirdo casts as JJBA, Golden Kamuy, Dorohedoro and the like. I genuinely don’t know where the plot is going next which makes for a great watching experience, and so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I like each new freak they introduce to the main cast. Makima still has my heart as the gaslight gatekeep girlboss that she is, and the Devil designs are really cool, I can’t wait for the season finale tonight. 

- Spy X Family (Anime) - Definitely one of my favorite anime this year, super wholesome, lovable characters, great comedy and reaction faces, stunning animation, this show’s got it all. My one complaint is that some of the more over the top side characters really overstayed their welcome but for the most part the cast was very solid and I could definitely see myself doing a rewatch in the near future for some easy catharsis. 

- Mob Psycho 100 (Anime) - The end of an Era, Mob is definitely one of my fave animes of all time and some of the best messaging and best written child characters I’ve ever seen, I’m going to miss it but I’m glad it stayed strong to the end and wrapped up in a thematically cohesive way. Cheesy as it is I believe that the excellent execution of Mob’s “deep rooted message of self acceptance and self worth that tears down the ideology that only ‘naturally talented’ people have a place in society and instead gives worth to everyone regardless of who they are because it is our impact on our fellow people and our ability to be a good person that truly matters” (as the Shrek meme says) has made me a happier person. 10/10 essential watching for all anime fans.

- Project Eden’s Garden (Video Game) - Several youtubers I like put out reviews and or/ playthroughs of this fanmade Danganronpa game, so I did a watch through of the prologue. It’s intriguing so far, I like a lot of the character designs and had fun trying to figure out their animal influences, and thought the writing was pretty solid for a setup. I’ll defenitely watch more when it comes out, Danganronpa isn’t for everyone but I always have fun trying to predict each cases victim/killer and I doubt this’ll change that.

- The S Classes That I Raised (TV) - Trying to resist the urge to just read the webnovel given how much joy I find in the weekly updates but I’m pretty into this one right now, very excited to see what new little creatures Han Yoojin will befriend. 

- Sense8 (TV) - Started this old supernatural drama about 8 people living all over the world whose minds become psychically linked. It is very interesting to see the diverse stories set across various cultures and with 8 separate plots happening there’s always something interesting in each episode. I do wish there were less sex, like I’m not sex negative or anything but uh I’m here for the plot and there's just a lot of sex scenes that make watching it with my sibling a little awkward. My favorite stories so far are Nomis, Suns, and Capheus while Rileys and Wolfgangs are a little eh. 

- Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (Webnovel) - I would fit right into the world of ORV because much like all the characters in it I cannot stop thinking about Kim Dokja and how badly I simultaneously want to punch him in the face and give him a hug. Stupid little rat boy.

I also watched Hook (movie), Predestination (movie), Groundhog Day (Movie), along with my normal amount of various youtube videos.

Listening to: Holy Water by Michael Ray, Hell’s Coming With Me by Poor Man’s Poison, Red Flags by Tom Cardy, Rasen by jon-YAKITORY, Waiting On A Miracle (Encanto OST), Soon You’ll Get Better, New Romantics, and Anti-Hero by Taylor Swift, I Really Wish I Hated You by Blink 182, Fallout by Marianas Trench, Shoutout to My Ex by Little Mix, Lent by Autoheart, Therefore You and Me by si-o, History Hates Lovers by Oublaire, Tot Musica by Ado

[disaster-j]

Sorry for randomly crashing your inbox but just wanted to shout somewhere that Theory of Love is one of the best Thai BLs and I don’t understand why it doesn’t get more love and attention. It’s a near PERFECT execution of the classic friends to lovers romance narrative. Delicious angst, believable conflict and redemption, strong chemistry and characterization, great actors, solid production and an actually coherent script. But it gets less praise than demonstrably worse shows. I don’t get it!

First of all! Don't you ever apologise for giving me an opportunity to talk about my faves that's like the best thing ever 😤

Secondly, you are so right about this. It's something I've noted before, both wrt TOL and other queer romances, but they just don't get as much recognition for their quality and/or rep compared to shows and movies in other genres. It's the romcom effect. Something a lot of people have been pointing out for a long time, but most people don't want to acknowledge, is the fact that romcoms and any works that fall under the romance genre in general are constantly considered inferior to other more "serious" genres by both fandom and academic critics. There's this belief that pain and misery is intellectual and happiness just isn't. Which is the stupidest thing ever.

For as long as romance has existed it has been looked down upon as a genre and, like most things, this stems from misogyny. Because women writing about being loved and cared for the way they want to be in reality is apparently something to belittle. Women getting brutalised, violated, murdered in unnecessarily graphic scenes? It's intellectual, it's realism, it's art! Women being loved and cared for and having their sexual and romantic desires fulfilled? Oh please, read some real books 🙄

And as mediums of storytelling evolve to represent other minority groups, the same sentiments bleed into criticism of those media as well. Representing queer misery is art. Having queer people exist in a world where their main problem is unrequited love? It's fun but there's no "substance." As if representation can only be good if it focuses on the bad things done to us by society at large. I, personally, am sick and tired of this narrative. I don't want more artsy "intellectual" stories that are just 95% suffering with a bittersweet or ambiguous ending. I just want to see queer people be able to enjoy their queerness. It shouldn't be too much to ask for.

This is why Theory of Love is, and will likely always be, one of my favourite shows of all time. Not just because the story is really well written and executed, but also because they go out of their way to normalise queerness. By which I mean that every single character's sexuality is seen as just another fact about them. The narrative very pointedly never questions their sexuality, and depicts how it can be fluid in a very light, wholesome, enjoyable manner. Every single character truly enjoys their queerness and is accepting not only of themselves but those around them too. These people are queer, they accept themselves, their friends and family accept them, there's no pain related to coming out. It's freeing and it makes all of their lives so much better. And sure, it may not be the most realistic portrayal of coming out ever but gods isn't it so fucking hopeful? Don't you just watch it and think, damn the world could really be like this one day. I hope I find myself surrounded by people just like this one day. It's aspirational.

So yeah, TOL is one of the most well-written and well-executed thai show I've ever come across, and I could write a whole essay on how amazing the writing and execution is if prompted, but even if it wasn't isn't it enough that it gives us a kind of queer rep that is just completely enjoyable? Shouldn't it be enough to just have a silly story about same sex relationships? Why isn't that alone enough for it to be considered good, especially when it's a story that has touched so many of our hearts?

[citadelspires]

The Ghost And Molly McGee: First Impressions Post

The Ghost And Molly McGee: First Impressions Post

Hello everybody, and welcome to my first impressions of The Ghost and Molly McGee! If you've been following me for a while you'll know I have been beyond excited for this show, more so than I have for any other shows premiere I can think of. So I'm sure you're wondering, did it live up to the hype? Oh yes my dear friends, all that and more. I'll try to keep this as spoiler free as possible, my goal here is to get people interested in watching it themselves, that said get ready for a lot of this to be "yeah its good" cause trust me y'all its. Good

The Story

While Im sure some people would disagree with me as far as animated shows go, I'd say a good story is central to a good show. Whether your show is an expansive tale with deep lore or a lighthearted fun affair, you've still gotta keep people interested, and while Molly McGee is firmly in the latter, the story is already full of character and charm in just two episodes. The setup is simple as can be: Molly's a friendly kid who's sick of constantly moving and never keeping friends, Scratch is a ghost whose house just got moved into, now theyre stuck together and we get to watch as the grumpy loner Scratch gets worn down and will one day admit that yeah, maybe he could use a friend. Its simple but its very sweet, and I cannot wait to see all the places it'll go.

The Characters

Obviously our headlining crew are the titular Ghost and Molly McGee themselves, and oh boy theyre a treat. The show is doing a very artful and interesting thing with their cast so far, in my opinion, with the way theyve characterized their leads. With Molly's joyful outgoing personality and Scratch's lazy annoyed attitude theres a solid chance that even if you dont like one lead, you'll find a bit of enjoyment from the other. That being said I think both characters have a lot going for them!

Molly, joyful and cheerful as she is, succeeds in a place I feel a lot of characters of her style fail. Yeah the perpetually cheerful friendly character is usually more the type for me to have a lot more issues with than not, but thats where Molly comes in with what I consider to be the trait that sets the good versions of that character style apart from the bad: Molly is not perpetually happy. And dont mistake that for me saying being happy is bad, but we see in tgamm that being happy isnt easy, and that's what I appreciate about Molly. She may be bright and extroverted and super friendly, but she works for it, she can be pretty down at points, and she works through her feelings and addresses them, and then works to get her positive outlook back running. It's that show of humanity that makes her happy joyful outlook and vibe so believable, shes a joy to see.

Meanwhile Scratch is a lot easier to identify with, for me personally. He's a loner, an apathetic lazy guy who doesnt like having to do work or talk to people. But everyone needs someone around, no matter how much they may deny it, and Scratch is hard on the deny. A social outcast even among ghosts, theres a small part of him that feels a little sympathy for the lonely little girl so desperate to make friends. Already we can see the two have a lot to learn from each other, and I cannot wait to see it happen across the series.

Now beyond the two title characters we've already seen great things from the rest of the cast. I won't spend quite as much time on them as the dynamic duo but I would be remiss to write out an impressions post without mentioning how excellently everyone is characterized. From body language to dialogue to character designs the show is full of little moments that help you get to know the people in this town, be it the mcgees themselves or the students at molly's school there exists already a decently sized handful of characters with tangible personalities, even in just two episodes. I feel with what I've seen so far that with what I sincerely hope will be many more episodes to come, the crew of tgamm have the skills to make this town feel truly full of real and genuine characters.

The Animation

Oh wow the animation. Believe me when I say that the animation of this show is incredible. The base artstyle is already excellent, even in stills and screenshots its unique and colorful style is probably my favorite artstyle of the currently airing big name animated shows. But once we add motion to that? Wow. Just. Wow.

Everything in this show is animated so fluently and well, its a joy just to watch. Movement is smooth, characters have their own quirks and body language, and the character designs are all built in mind with being excellently animated. Trust me each character is designed so uniquely and with such personality. The designers of this show did not cut any corners, the town is populated by individuals you can actually pick out of a crowd and remember, and I cannot wait to learn more about all of them.

And, speaking of characters, I absolutely cannot talk about the animation without bringing it up. While the whole setting and relationships may be defined by Molly, animation is where Scratch shines. The crew behind this show held nothing back, keeping Scratch's design consistent while still managing to constantly play around with the limits of what they can do animating a ghost, and trust me the limits are far off. Between what they can do with Scratch himself and the way they use the animated nature of the show to play with his effects on the world around him theres something colorful and new happening every episode and you can just feel how much fun the crew is having with him. Its like Scratch is silly putty in a world made of clay.

The Music

I saved this one for last because I was really excited about it in the leadup to the show and it is exactly as I hoped it would be. The Ghost and Molly McGee has both a theme song with full lyrics, something dreadfully absent from modern animated series like Amphibia and The Owl House, but it also brings back having at least one musical number in the actual content every episode (And yes I mean every episode, not just once in the 20 minute timeslot). Music takes the stand with tgamm and every piece is so good. I really cannot overstate how incredible it is to have an animated series with so much respect for song again. The songs are super catchy and fun, and with the absolute banger of an opening and the presence of Tally Hall's Rob Cantor I have nothing but excitement for the future of Molly McGee songs.

In Conclusion

Why are you still reading this? You should be watching The Ghost and Molly McGee!!!!!

[celestemagnoliathewriter]

13. What feedback did you receive for your writing that stuck with you?

17.Tell us a fun fact about your current WIP.

13. I actually got a really confusing comment today that sticks with me at the moment mostly because of how frustrating it was - this is it, verbatim.

I don't usually do detailed reviews, but I felt this needed one. The story mechanically is a solid 10 I think I have only found 1-2 hiccups with how things were written grammar wise or spelling. I think you did a great job with characterization all who you wrote you wrote well and even broke up plot with minor living so it doesn't feel like going from plot point to plot point. Your premise is interesting and I feel the story as written Is likely a great point for new people to dive into fanfic. But and this is the only but, I can't continue as there is nothing keeping my interest. I have read too many fanfics with outrageous premise, daring intrigue, etc that it feels mundane. Its basically treading the same ground as the original but with a stableish home life and someone else solving the plot mostly. Which is just not able to keep my interest sorry.

This review was really frustrating to get because it felt more like it should've been a private message than a review...oh well. I've gotten negative reviews before, but this one just seemed so unnecessary - like "felt this needed one" but proceeds to tell me "sorry not keeping my interest." Don't know why that had to be said, but whatever.

17. This is much more fun. Fun fact about current WIP!

My current WIP, Call Me Edward, has been an unexpected joy to write. It started off as a little worm of an idea but has transformed into a joy of relationships and characterization. I loved my time traveling Tonks story, but Call Me Edward I think is going to be #2 in my heart for what I've most loved writing so far.

Anyway, fun fact about it - I'm getting art commissioned for it!! I followed @evesaintyves's idea and commissioned @rielles96 for a portrait of Teddy Lupin with his pet bow truckle, Puck, but with his blue hair and Hufflepuff robes. I am so, so excited to get cover art for this fic. I cannot wait until it's all done!

Thanks again for the ask!!

[hopeymchope]

How would you rank the 18 Class Trials from THH, DR2, and V3 from worst to best?

This is... virtually impossible for me, lol. Comparing the trials from each game to each other?

How about I just rank them within each game? That'll make it a little easier for me to deal with...

DR1

6) 5th. It's driven by lies and ultimately rushed to its end before the characters can draw any solid (pointless/meaningless) conclusions. So of course it's last for this game, and it’s probably last for the entire series as well. If there are any saving graces to this trial, it’s the surprise when your closest ally is willing to let our protagonist die... and that this trial contains the fake/bad ending route.

5) 3rd. Although the main culprit is pretty obvious from the jump, it requires some surprising twists to explain how everything got to be the way it turned out. But did I always find those twists plausible? Errrrm... not really. 

4) 2nd. Pretty good trial that's hurt for me by the fact that there'd barely be any need for a trial at all if a certain third party didn't dick around with the evidence for no reason. Also, the dual nature of Toko is an incredibly predictable reveal. Without those two aspects dragging it down, though, this could easily go higher.

3) 1st. Sure, the major hint given and, subsequently, the eventual culprit are pretty obvious, but this one establishes so much about how the trials work and how much the details you observe will matter that it’s still pretty fun that first time around. The initial surprise of the first victim makes for a great way to keep you invested in the trial experience. This trial is damn near iconic now, so it feels almost mandatory to respect it.

2) 6th. DR1 still has the best "final trial,” easily. SO MANY great reveals, and they all totally work for me. Nothing rings false or disappointing, and it also features Makoto finally coming into his own and taking the lead. I nearly labeled this my top pick for DR1, but...

1) 4th. It's easily the most emotionally dramatic/satisfying for me, and there’s something weirdly inspirational for me about Hina’s incredibly harsh stance during it. This one GOT ME IN THE FEELS, and in part that was because I saw so little of it coming. After the more predictable elements of the first and third trials, this felt like the writing was firing on all cylinders. 

DR2

6) 2nd. You have to accept a couple leaps of logic to make this trial keep flowing, and the fact that trial is ultimately reliant on someone noticing a candy that’s very small and hard to see while the person is also in a stressful situation and they are groggy from being drugged/asleep and it necessitates the person retaining this seemingly useless detail inside their brain .... that’s always bugged me.  The “escape route” conversation even retroactively raises questions about the first trial. Oof. On the upside, the reveals it brought us about Fuyuhiko and Peko were incredibly important, satisfying, and legit surprising turns. And it’s pretty cool how it’s basically a two-for-one combo trial because you have to solve the Twilight Syndrome case before you solve the current case. 

5) 3rd. Other people have pointed out the leaps of logic and missing pieces of this trial, but at the same time, the candlelight hanging is so intense and the ultimate reveal of the culprit is such a brutal turn that I have to give it some props. The culprit’s primary plan is ultimately one of the most ingenious in the series, IMO, and definitely one of the most twisted/fucked-up, which earns it some points. 

4) 4th. This is probably the single murder case in the franchise that I understood the absolute least about when entering the trial, for better or worse. On the one hand, that made it really fun to see the mystery gradually unfurl, but on the other hand, it made it tough for me to provide the right answers at certain points in the trial, leaving me fumbling. A big part of those issues was how it was initially hard for me to wrap my head around the nature of the funhouse via the provided 2D graphics... but once I eventually got there, I had to respect the creativity that went into devising such a “weapon.” Also, it can be hard to tolerate Komaeda in this trial. He’s even more of a know-it-all-but-reveal-none-of-it jackass than ever before, and his turn towards overt cruelty towards the others (and Hajime in particular) left me raging. The culprit reveal is good, but the motive does beg the question of why he didn’t just come forward from the jump.

3) 6th. There are a lot of great reveals in the final trial that totally reframe how you see the characters, and some of them are deliciously twisted. There’s also a ton of great dialogue provided, and in retrospect, it’s actually sort of neat to have one endgame mastermind reveal in this franchise that doesn’t involve the “They were hiding among us this whole time” trope. All that plus the surprise return of our surviving heroes from the first game! However, this is also where they officially reveal a core element of DR2 and its setting that I've never liked. This knocks the trial down a few pegs for me. Of course, by the time you reach the trial, I'm sure 99% of players have already figured that particular "twist" out. There’s adequate evidence to predict it in the first freaking chapter, and I know this because I DID predict it in the first chapter of my initial playthrough... which further hurts the supposed “reveal” of the island’s true nature when it comes around. 

2) 1st. Probably my favorite of the “first trials,” there are lot of components that go into this one. There’s a combination of two premeditated killers plus one spur-of-the-moment accidental victim, there’s a satisfying (though admittedly maybe too easy) reveal of the killer being one of the most unpleasant people to be around during the first chapter, and I really dig how audio became a very important component of the mystery due to the total blackout. This is also the part of the game where we learn just how twisted Komaeda really is, which is HUGE both in terms of its immediate shock factor for a total newcomer and in terms of its impact on the game as a whole. Of course, since it’s a “first trial,” it can’t be too complicated... but they still manage to confuse so many of us with “MEAT ON THE BONE” :P

1) 5th. Again, I will almost always give the most emotionally intense one the top slot. The “traitor reveal” is obviously THAT MOMENT in DR2. I also love how this one used the strange internal logic established early in the game RE: Komaeda’s luck to develop the eventual solution. And forcing us to make use of evidence gathered in multiple locations outside of the immediate site of the body/murder? That more complexity of that type that I see relevant to a trial, the more I appreciate it, and this one has loads of that stuff. Although I guess the investigation isn’t technically part of the trial itself... but it’s still very relevant to it. 

DRV3

6) 4th. I found this whole trial to be just... extremely predictable. Maybe it’s because I was so far into the series that I’d gotten used to its tricks by this point, but this was the most predictable trial for me since the first one in the first game. The whole looping/rollover map setup of the VR? Obvious. The murder weapon? Obvious. Our culprit’s ongoing confusion at everything discussed? Obvious. There were only a couple of points I didn’t have already figured out when I walked into the trial room, and those turned out to be basically irrelevant (such as the bottle of poison). The eventual motive is at least a surprise, but I also found it hard to accept that this culprit would really kill people over it. Overall: Super lame. 

5) 3rd. Another double murder trial, and once again one murder overshadows the other. The séance murder is definitely clever. Sure, you know the culprit pretty early on, but the methodology is the good part. However, the real fascinating one for me is the art lab “locked room” murder. Going into the trial, I couldn’t fathom how they were going to explain that one, and I found the answer both smart and satisfying. It’s funny to imagine how many times the culprit had to try that stunt with the lock before it actually worked, heh. This is probably the best of the three “double murder” mysteries in the series, but the trial isn’t as emotionally affecting as the 3rd trial in DR2 to me. Moreover, the trial loses points for the most infuriating Hangman’s Gambit of the series and especially for the motive reveal. When the killer’s motive can be boiled down to “they’re basically just a psycho serial killer,” it’s not very interesting.

4) 6th. The first part of the trial, which deals with re-assessing the first case? It’s pretty damn on-point. That leads to the mastermind reveal, which... isn’t great, really. It’s not a terribly interesting character to make the mastermind, they have no interesting motives or characterization to unevil, and they’re ultimately just a pawn behind another, off-screen group of masterminds. But then things get uproariously funny to me. The metatextual stuff is just so goddamn ridiculous. It’s frustrating and annoying how much of our not-mastermind’s explanation is clearly full of lies and half-truths that we’ll never have complete answers on, but that’s also part of what makes it all fascinating. We get to swap protagonists like four times! There’s a fake-out Game Over! These are really cool things. But it all leads down the road of our protagonist arguing that fiction does affect reality (yes, good), that fictional people can still matter (definitely) and that... fictional lives are equal in value to real ones? Uhhhhh slow down there, champ. That only works for YOUR universe, where fictional people can be made out of living, breathing individuals. But in light of the metatextual stuff you’re surrounded by, you kinda sound silly AF right now?

3)  2nd. Look, this is still incredibly irritating to me. Also, if you go down the alternate “lying” route at one point, you are forced to accept that these piranhas were somehow trained to only eat dead things, which is just... so deeply dumb.  But what is good is the entire ropeway conceit (which is a very significant part of the trial!) and the idea of the partition inside the tank. This was a murder with an elaborate, intelligent plan that is very well-executed. And the motive reveal? It’s one of the best in the series! I respect that stuff. (If I had the right to toss the execution in as part of the soup, I’d say that it’s also one of the series’ best. Let’s call it the icing on the cake.)

2) 1st. The writing that made this trial work is undeniably clever. The way the narration told us exactly what was happening without really telling us what was happening? It was a masterstroke of both great writing and perfect localization coming together. When it becomes clear during the trial what is about to happen, it’s a huge shock. The transition to another protagonist with the lights flickering out and back on is beautiful. Even the core concept of a protagonist who was willing to step up and try to kill the mastermind immediately is just deeply interesting. And obviously this one made my emotions run high. HOWEVER! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Kaede Akamatsu was a more interesting, unique, and compelling protagonist than Shuichi Saihara ever was. Ultimately, the protagonist-swap, no matter how well-written, was a mistake because they shifted us from a unique character with an interesting new perspective to a character who is, in many ways, “Makoto Naegi with even less self-esteem.” Yes, I know he has aspects that make him distinct as his own person, but there’s still just too much there that feels like we’ve done it before, and he never fully escapes from that. It feels like a massive waste and a huge missed opportunity to ditch Kaede like this. Now, if they had just done the protagonist swap in reverse — making us start out with Shuichi before flipping things over to Kaede — we could’ve had ourselves something amazing here.

1) 5th. I know I decided that I couldn’t rank all among each other, but if I did do that, I feel confident that the 5th trial in DRV3 would rank very high indeed. You go into the trial unable to even determine who the victim was due to the fact that two people are missing and there was nothing left of the body that spoke to an identity. Going into it, you naturally figure that one of the two missing parties has to be the victim and the other one is probably the culprit. But even with just two friggin’ suspects, the amount of turnabouts in the case that made me rethink all my assumptions was insane. Sure, the explanation for how the person inside the Exisal can maintain “character” is pretty damn thin, but once you get past that, I don’t think there’s a single false note in the trial. It even breaks unprecedented ground by continuing into another Non-Stop Debate after everyone has already voted. And of course, it culminates with a lot of intense emotion. Even the execution is emotionally satisfying! ..... although I’m not sure if I should count the execution as part of the trial, but hey, still. As far as Dangan trials go, the fifth one in DRV3 is basically a masterpiece.

[shealynn88]

Fic Writer Questions

Tagged by @fandom-hoarder .  Thanks so much!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

121

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

257,052 (over 20 years)

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Yuletide is responsible for most of the one-offs, my main fandoms are Supernatural and Veronica Mars.  Otherwise, I’ve written for Angel, Blade, Bones, Buffy, Constantine, Daddy Long Legs, Dancing With the Stars, Dead Like Me, Dexter, Elektra, Firefly, Friday Night Lights, Good Omens, Grimm, Haven, Heroes, Sherlock, Teen Wolf, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Fault in Our Stars, The Guardian, Travelers, Tru Calling, Venom, iZombie

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Bottle of Red (Venom (Movie 2018)) (2060 words) - Anything Venom is way more popular than any of my other stuff.  You Venom fans are THIRSTY.  And I love you for it.  :D The Little Death (Teen Wolf (TV)) (3058 words) - TW fans, ALSO thirsty, and I love YOU for it.  I’m still not 100% with the characterization here, but I think it’s def. closer. The Light Will Guide You Home (Supernatural) (4622 words)  Destiel - I’m really proud of this one - AU, tentacle creature Cas with feels, and it’s what got me into the original  works anthology I’m in--Add Magic to Taste, with Duck Prints Press! What the Mark Demands (Supernatural) (1305 words)  Wincest - one of my favorites, honestly.  Pure smut, but there are feels.   Paved With Good Intentions (Supernatural) (2837 words) Wincest - Soulless Sam still gives me happy chills, okay?

More questions answered below!

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to.  Sometimes I’m overwhelmed and I don’t, but I always, always, always treasure them!!

6) What’s the fic you’ve writtenb with the angstiest ending?

When Living is Another Kind of Dying (Supernatural/Heroes crossover)(767 words) - I love this one.  It’s super old, I wrote it on LiveJournal.  But it’s solid, it imagines a world where Dean goes to avenge Sam and gives Peter That Scar.

7) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I mean, a huge number of my fics end happy.  But I’ll say this because it’s also based on happy, sexy art and that’s awesome:

Adulting 101 (Supernatural) (2988 words) DCJ - A sweet AU where Dean meets Jimmy in Sioux Falls and then meets Cas and doesn’t know what to do...until he does.

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I think they’re all sort of equally crazy, probably?  Here, have most of them:

Playing Dice in the Dark (Supernatural/Good Omens)(2927 words) Destiel - Dean and Cas are Crowley and Aziraphale.  Follow them through the ages.  There is some dark, torturey stuff handled in a lighter, Pratchett-y way.

Phoenix Out of Blood (Supernatural/Heroes) (7583 words) Gen - early season Sam and Dean meet 5 Years Later version of Claire Bennett and they go on the run.  A lot of feels, historical Dean/Jo, honestly an underappreciated fic.  :)

Of Squints and Vampires (Angel/Bones) (2653 words) Gen - a very old one and not fantastic, but still fun.  A demon gets shipped to the Jeffersonian.  I did this for a doppleganger group a million years ago.

Drown Out the Clamor of Silence (Buffy/Tru Calling) (2681 words) Harrison/Faith - I loved this one, so dark and weird!  Harrison meets a girl who looks like his sister but isn’t, and it ends up being both traumatic and healing, somehow.  Another one for the doppleganger group.

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Ah, yes.  I wrote my first dark Wincest, full of non-con on both sides (demon!Dean), and people had massive issues with my tagging of who topped and who bottomed, which I found hilarious since it was rape, all the way down, but apparently who puts what into who was the main source of anger.  I don’t tag for topping and bottoming anymore.  

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

So. Much. So much smut.  I don’t know what kind?  the smutty kind?  Usually with feels?

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nah, I’m not that big.

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Once!  It was a Veronica Mars fic, five million years ago. 

14) What’s your all time favorite ship?

I can’t.  I just can’t.  There are too many.  Spuffy, Weever, Destiel, Wincest...anything trust based and a little fucked up is right up my alley.

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Grimm Series - I started this, and loved it, but I lost track of the series.  It was going to be fairy tale based, Juliette/Renaud and Nick/Monroe endgame.  I love the beginning of it.  Maybe I’ll get back to it, it was so fun, and honestly, pretty darn good.

16) What are your writing strengths?

I write a good sentence.  I think I have good flow and good characterization for the most part.  I’m solid when it comes to smut.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot.  All the way, I’m terrible at plot and not great at pacing.  BUT, I’m actively trying to improve and I think I am!

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Depending on the situation, either type it in the other language and have the response show what it meant, or type it in italics and then ‘he said in Russian’ or whatever.  Is it right?  I dunno.  I don’t do it very often.

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I wrote fanfic for a high school assignment for Farenheit 451, which I’m fairly certain was brilliant, and then the first time I knew what fanfic was and did it on purpose, it was for the TV show, Witchblade.  It was so long ago, I think I posted it on a forum and I don’t know where it is anymore.  

20) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Can one choose a child?  Gah.  There are so many, honestly.  If you get this far and want a rec, I’ll rec you one based on your interests, just send me an ask.

[before-whatgod]

How I Would Fix the MCU Movies (in chrono order)

Black Widow is mentioned but there are no spoilers! also this is super long sorry lol

CA:TFA

--More time with the howling commandos- instead of a montage with their battles with sit with them and feel their struggles. we feel not only capt’s grief but everyone on the team when bucky ‘dies’. idk would have loved to see more of a band of bothers bond 

Captain Marvel 

--I saw/read somewhere that her story could have work really well with a similar structure as CA:TFA and i agree. they were so concerned with making carol look powerful that they forgot to give her the fiery/badass personality we were promised. there was too much telling not enough showing 

Iron Man 

--Literally Nothing. Perfect. Great Intro to the series. 

Iron Man 2 

--again really solid movie i wish the villains were a bit more developed by tbh this is my fav iron man movie 

The Incredible Hulk 

--babes i dont even remember this movie its super cool they keep rossi around from it tho. hes literally the only thing the mcu kept from this monstrosity i would keep a similar plot structure but with mark ruffalo and a better script and tbh a better evrything. cannot tell you where to start with this jesus   

Thor 

--would have liked to see of the personality thor has later on in the timeline line- but it is interesting to think maybe he developed his humor and friendliness from his time on earth, idk this movie was kinda dull? i mean everything is dull compared to ragnarok and better compared to the dark world so idk how to fix that- maybe less of chris’s weird screaming- definitely less of chris’s screaming 

The Avengers 

--honestly love this movie-great set up to the team dynamics wouldn’t change anything. i love the nostalgia i get from watching this  

Iron Man 3 

--another movie i dont really remember but? this is the one with the bunny right? i feel like after iron man 1 the quality of tony’s enemies has gone down hill but i could watch rdj do anything so overall good experience 

Thor: The Dark World  

--besties what even happened in this movie like, jane babes what are we doing. loki is as amazing as ever tho. but like ‘oh no lokis dead again whatever are we going to do’ i would simply through the whole thing away- keeping jane going to asgard, loki being dramatic, and the relationships of the asgardian gang we get to see. also the reality stone thats pretty important 

CA:TWA 

--I. Love. This. Movie. my fav in the whole timeline. can you tell im a capt girl? literally the best wow won’t change a thing 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1

--so! much! fun! i love their family dynamics and tbh i love peter quill (we all did until pratt was a dick but) 

Guardians Vol. 2 

--I wasn’t obsessed with this movie but I cant quite figure out how i would change it- it was visually beautiful and emotionally beautiful but idk something felt off until the very end 

Age of Ultron 

--hot take- i really like this movie. i like how it completely changes the direction of the series and makes the mcu feel so real, like the friend ship seen- i would have like more clint so his character arc in endgame would have been impactful i dont hate the farm family but man i sure dont love them jesus but yea i love the dialogue and the only thing i would really change is clint’s involve meant. also helen cho deserved to have a bigger part in the mcu 

Ant-Man 

--super fun! i feel like this movie is great the way it is- a familiar super hero movie when the series was starting to get pretty dense with the lore wont change anything 

CA:CW 

--i read somewhere this movie was originally going to be steve and sam and the rest of the squad finding bucky and i was robbed. over time the mcu starting telling us how great steve and buckys relationship was instead of showing us. like men can show each other affection marvel that is a thing that happens but tbh i loved this movie- i would change a lot but i still really enjoyed it 

Spiderman: Homecoming 

--its so cute i love it but I miss andrew garfields peter- he felt more like the comics but besties i love this movie and tom i would just change how ton is characterized to be more comic actuate but also maybe not idk 

Doctor Strange

-- tilda swinton owns my heart and sole. but imma be honest i saw this in theaters 3 weeks after a horrid concussion and i remember none of it and thinking about it makes me sick (love head trauma) so imma just leave it how it is 

Black Panther 

--nothing. its art. 

Black Widow

--I’m writing this around an hour after I watched the movie and tbh I dont know how I feel about it. I dont love it yet but im not quite sure why yet- its most likely the pacing it felt a little rushed to me but idk yet ill be able to gather all my thoughts in a later post prolly 

Thor: Ragnarok 

-- to think i can even dream to improve on anything taika waititi is putting bad karma into the universe. that man is a genius. you can feel just how comfortable everyone is in their characters which makes for a great performance

Ant-Man and the Wasp 

--the breather we all needed after iw but i dont think anyone really loved it- no idea how to fix it but yknow it was just bland 

Avengers: Infinity War 

--I loved it. I loved it so much. obviously there are some bad things here and there but i would not change a thing 

Avengers: Endgame 

--I hated it. I hated it so much. obviously there are some good things here and there but i would not keep a thing. 

(I have in fact written an essay about said topic bc i felt so passionate about it i did not know what else to do)

Spiderman: Far From Home 

--I dont know something was off for me with this one- again I think it was a pacign issues but I am not sure how I would change it 

I might do the tv shows in another post- but if i do those i want to include the netfilx marvel tv shows as well as the agent carter and agents of shield series(es?) 

anyway thank you for reading all of this if you did!

[moviemunchies]

Alright I love this movie so I don’t know how objective of a review I can write. I have fond memories of this movie--we went and saw it as a class trip in middle school, and ever since it’s been one of my favorite fantasy films. I mean, yes, it totally came out when it did and padded its battle scenes out more because it was cashing in on the crowd of kids what like Lord of the Rings but that doesn’t make it bad, does it?

So, first things first-- no, The Chronicles of Narnia is NOT an allegory. Stop saying that. 

Anyhow I imagine most people who read this blog know the story, but if you don’t: during World War II the four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are sent to the countryside manor of Professor Kirk. While exploring the house, Lucy comes across a wardrobe, and within the wardrobe she enters another world called Narnia. Soon enough, they all make it there, but it turns out that there’s a prophecy about them, and the tyrant that’s taken hold of Narnia and cursed it with eternal winter, the White Witch, wants to kill them.

Also, one of them betrays them to the White Witch for the promise of supremacy over the lot of them. To be fair to poor Edmund, he was magically drugged, and he didn’t know she wanted to murder anyone.

So our siblings must seek out Aslan, the Great Lion and true king of Narnia (who is totes Jesus, still not an allegory) and end the reign of the White Witch!

Like I said, I have seen accusations that this was Disney’s cynical attempt to cash in on Lord of the Rings but aimed at children. And I don’t know that it’s wrong to say that, but it’s also short-selling this movie. I mean yes, a lot of this movie was filmed in New Zealand, and WETA Workshop did the effects for this movie.

But you guys know that WETA will work the shiz out of the effects and props, right? The level of detail on the design in this movie (and the sequels) is INSANE and look, I didn’t think that they’d go this hard on designing a story that many people think of as a souped-up children’s fairy tale, but they did and it is GLORIOUS. There are plenty of little details that you may have missed the first time watching that you pick up if you’re paying attention. Like you know that in the final battle Jadis is wearing Aslan’s mane on her collar?

[I have some of the concept art saved on my computer, btw.]

The character arcs are also great developments/additions? They’re not all true to the books, and I do kind of miss that. But I do understand WHY those changes were made. For example, in the novel Edmund’s dickishness is mentioned to be a result of the terrible school experiences he had (Lewis didn’t much like the English education system). Here, to tie it into the other characters his acting out is in large part because his father’s been absent during the war, and butting heads with Peter.

Skandar Keyes is a fantastic Edmund. He gets better in the next movie, but in this one he conveys a lot of the conflict within Edmund, so that he’s sympathetic as the movie goes on, even if he does a lot of things that are pretty terrible (for a child, for the record--it’s not that he really gets into a lot of grade-A evil).

Peter’s characterization is made much more explicit as the older brother who is sometimes a little too hard on his siblings. I think William Mosely does a fairly good job. He gets annoying as an older brother sometimes, but that’s the point, and it makes sense how he and Edmund would be butting heads.

Probably to act as foreshadowing for what happens to her later in the series, Susan is the skeptical one, the logical one, the one asking questions about what the heck is going on and trying to make sense of it all. I think they lean a little too hard into this at times--she starts telling Peter to put down his sword when they’re surrounded by wolves. Otherwise I like that she has a much stronger character arc than in the novel, and Anna Popplewell does well with it. I mean, she’s still pretty likable, and you can see that she is someone trying to achieve the best for her family.

Georgia Henley’s a great Lucy. It would be very easy for this role to be annoying and it’s not, it’s quite lovable. Lucy’s very young and innocent, and in some stories this would play against her, but in this story (both book and movie) it’s kind of her strength? She’s endearing, she’s lovable, and that’s what you need in Lucy Pevensie.

Also we should probably talk about how the child characters are aged up a bit. Of course, this being Hollywood and trying to do action scenes with a twelve-year-old would be… unwise, I get it. But it is a bit weird that Peter and Susan are being sent off to the countryside when, even allowing for Dawson Casting, they’re old enough to stick around their family. They’re not really children. I don’t mind, but it is a case against it as an adaptation, and it works a bit against the logic of the film.

Also Tilda Swinton is having a ball as Jadis, the White Witch. She doesn’t really look like the character description, but she’s fantastic as a cruel and haughty queen, and really, no one does weird ethereal and near inhuman beauty like Tilda Swinton. She apparently had so much fun with the role and the people at Walden Media liked her so much that they put her in the next two movies with whatever scrap of justification they could grab.

Liam Neeson voices Aslan and does a good job. Don’t know if there’s that much that makes him stand out other than needing a serious actor to do the voice. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know if there’s anything in this film that makes Neeson a better choice than any other particularly famous actor.

[Apparently for one of these movies, Neeson took his family on safari to “prepare for the role” which is silly but hey if you can take your family on safari and excuse it as a work trip, why not?]

Final word before the sendoff: the CGI in this movie is still pretty good? It’s not perfect--watching it this past time made me think how something about the Beavers still looks noticeably artificial. But they still look fairly realistic. And I know it’s been said before, but the animal characters in this movie are incredibly expressive despite also looking like real animals, a trick that seemed impressive then, but after _The Lion King_ remake came out a couple years back, one of the defenses of the lack of expressive characters in that film was “Well we wanted them to look realistic!”

And DISNEY, the studio that released both movies, did THIS one FIFTEEN YEARS EARLIER, and also WITH A LION, and managed to make Aslan convey facial expressions and emotions through impressive CGI! WHAT THE FUDGE!

If you like the fantasy works of C.S. Lewis, I imagine you will like this film, unless you’re very strict about adaptations being close to the works they’re inspired by. Even then, I think it’s a pretty good adaptation, and that the changes made are those that make for a better cinematic viewing experience. If you’re not as familiar with the source material but you like fantasy, and children’s stories, you’ll probably like this movie.

Like I said, I have seen some people accuse this movie of being a lower-tier Lord of the Rings cash-in. I don’t think that’s the case, but if you’re very interested in serious fantasy and war stories, this movie’s not going to work for you. I don’t think there’s any blood at all in the film; if there is, it’s very little. Which considering the amount of action and the battle sequence in the climax is maybe a bit egregious.

I think it’s a good movie and a pretty solid adaptation of one of the foundational texts of the modern fantasy genre. Take a watch.

[the-nysh]

At what point in the story you started liking Garou as a character? What was his first impression on you and how did it changed later as the story progressed?

Oooh! What a GREAT question, I’m so glad you asked! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (Cause yes, my perceptions of him certainly did change over time! And that’s one of the fun things I love to see happen with other opm fans too.) So let’s see…*pulls up a chair and shovel to dig thru nearly 5yrs of archives* where to begin~

It was definitely a gradual process (so buckle in, this is gonna be a looong chronological trip thru memory lane. About 3500~ words!)

First impressions

Early on (and cause I’m skeptical to most new characters who I don’t ‘know’ yet), I remember feeling kinda like ‘huh? Who the heck is this guy? This wannabe Hiruma-lookalike (recognizing some of Murata’s recycled Eyeshield 21 char design elements for him) with some silly double Vegeta hair? The hell does he think he’s doing??’ Beyond being kinda incredulous about him, I honestly didn’t really give him much passing thought or attention either, and definitely not anything on a deeper level yet. He was just kinda there (I suppose?), but also out there forcefully (cockily and somewhat annoyingly?) inserting himself as the ‘villain’ into the story at times (which wasn’t really my thing), seemingly WAY in over his head with reckless antics and overambitious about what he was claiming to be and challenging himself to do (which I thought seemed both ridiculous and ironic to set up like that when characters like Saitama exist to directly check/refute his aims).

So at the time I wasn’t fully ‘on board’ or invested much in his story/concept yet cause I hadn’t really seen him…define himself (beyond those first impressions) into his own fleshed-out character. Because he still kept reminding me too much of other characters (I even heard him with Hiruma’s voice) rather than breaking out on his own. Murata’s early art also had yet to really evolve and settle him into his own distinguishable ‘face’ for that matter too (he would though later, when he’d draw ‘Garou’ recognizable as himself and not like…‘Hiruma’s shadow’ anymore). So with all that coming in, it’s hard to ‘see’ or genuinely ‘like’ a char at first when they haven’t done much yet to distinguish themselves from others and grow into their own. (Oho, how time will tell~)

This impression of Garou hadn’t really changed much and continued all thru the Metal Bat fight, by the way. (I actually caught up to the manga around the time Murata introduced MB with the centipedes and was about to start his fight with Garou. Events which weren’t on my highest priority to see either, cause I still mostly preferred seeing Saitama + Genos interact instead.) But on a surface level, I at least knew Garou was fun/impressive to watch and his excitable/feral energy was infectious and entertaining (Murata really knew how to hype him up too), but other than that, I’d yet to really ‘like’ him on his own (enough to talk/blog about) still.

I first eased into reblogging stuff with him back in Oct 2016, which included the first reblog of his back muscles (lol) appreciating how Murata drew him facing Watchdog Man so ksjggh that part of the story (when Murata was teasing their fight) was also when Garou starting having a presence on my blog. :O

First turning point

However, I distinctly remember the first ‘aha I see now’ point in understanding him better was when I did a second reread of the webcomic. (I don’t exactly remember when that was, but probably sometime during the tournament arc when the pace was kinda dragging, so I prob reread the wc around then for fun.) It was around early-April 2017 when I later admitted that (in the tags):

I’ve come to really like Garou, a second read of the webcomic made me fond of him, of his background and ideas he wished to set out and change, his heart was in it and he had his set of morals, but he was young and brashly took the wrong path, I really want to see him return someday now that he's learned better

Cause following the big webcomic reveal at the end of his arc (when Saitama calls him out), going back thru his entire story again you could totally spot all the consistent hints and signs (from both his backstory and actions) ONE sprinkled the entire time, making everything revealed about him true, and not suddenly sprung up outta nowhere. It was finally like ‘aaah, I understand what’s up with him and can sympathize where he’s coming from. Yes that makes sense. :O’ However, this clarity/acknowledgment had yet to shift from simply ‘seeing’ or understanding a thing as knowledge, to actually feeling it (connecting on a deeper/personal level) later. That’ll remain a big distinction.

May 2017, I first started writing some early meta break downs about him, starting with his end-arc parallels in Suiryu’s despair moment and from this, there was acknowledgement how all ONE’s manga additions (up til then this was still all tournament arc stuff) were only building further context towards what’s to come much later on in the webcomic.

June 2017, I started posting stream coverage about him (vs Watchdog Man stuff when he intercepts King and Saitama.) Around this time I also admit this kinda stuff in tags ‘goodness how I love that this nerd has a soft spot for that kid (truthfully he's not monstrous at all)’ for appreciating the manga’s wholesome extra Tareo moments.

Second big turning point

Around Sept-Oct 2017 was when post content/stream coverage kinda started exploding during the whole vs A/B heroes + shed fight. This whole sequence, following the tournament arc, was the first big long-awaited return back to the wc’s script (with style!), but with significant expansions (esp to his character) never seen before. In particular, the bullet shielding moment was changed/revised from him simply standing there in the wc, to Garou protecting Tareo in the shed.

Truly awesome and moving because dang, he selflessly put his life on the line for that ‘Garou the determinator fending off the impossible while protecting a kid ;o;’ Firmly standing up to (injustices) and revealing his solid moral core, like wow, what a guy. <3

Murata’s stream output picked up significantly back then too (compared to his slower pace drawing the previous arcs), so I also admitted: ‘gosh been cheering for Murata's hard work just like Garou's in-chapter determination!’

But also cause this whole fight was like the first actual, legit demonstration (shown, not told) of Garou’s prodigious fighting skills, intelligence, tenacity, resourcefulness, perseverance, etc. Like this is what he’s actually capable of when pushed to the brink; testing the actual quality of his character (showing his true colors) and allowing those merits to shine while under unfavorable, difficult, and desperate conditions. And all impressively done in a way to make the audience both believe it and root for him (presented from his side much like a protagonist? Wild! 8D) It was extremely thrilling and badass (truly that whole shed part was brilliant, narratively and spectacle-wise. As I’ve repeatedly gone back to write about many times and again. :’D) My impressions of Garou around this time:

yoooo boi see I really like Garou, the wild prodigy determinator with a misguided goal, going all out and demonstrating his talent and prowess (even tho he gets in over his head), PROTECTING CHILDREN WHEN HE PRETENDS HE DOESN'T CARE, omfg what a softie (as Saitama would say) :'D, yaaa see he was never a 'real' monster at all, Saitama can see straight through him, and what he REALLY wants to achieve

Dec 2017, first started getting some sporadic Garou anons after the whole epic manga spectacle vs Genos + Bang + EC fight with everyone.

Jan 2018, back when Garou was captured in the MA base and then left to his own devices above ground…things started getting really interesting. Including noticing ONE’s more careful (or perhaps more transparent?) approach to writing Garou’s manga portrayal this time around. Different and more nuanced from the wc for instance, so there were many fascinating contradictions and complexities to uncover (break down meta-wise) about his convictions, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and how he applied those thru his actions and behavior (revealing decisive acts of character). This was when @gofancyninjaworld also started joining in to discuss and explore Garou’s ongoing dilemma with his goals and mindset. “His heart is in the right place, but his means are not, because at his core, he’s not a monster.” I admitted ‘Garou’s one of the most well-written characters in the story, I feel.’ And I was really looking forward to all the significant changes ONE was doing to make his manga story all the more defined and cohesive than it already was in the wc. That made things extra engaging (when there’s a desire to look deeper into things for fun and excitement for more).

Third turning point

Feb 2018 Oooh man. It was around here, (when Garou saves Tareo from the bullies and confronts RR and Bug God) that I was really starting to feel that shift happening (the impression of him turning into something more), so I had to comment on his ongoing characterization presented thus far (budding into a well-rounded, 3 dimensional character) and how ONE was (re)writing him in a more personal, sympathetic light that made him so easy to root for and genuinely likeable. I was fully AWARE of this happening and what both Murata and ONE were doing to increase his appeal. Admitting the more they revealed of him the more I was falling deeper for him, and fully welcoming it by narrative design. (Like alright let’s goooo! 8’D) Cause it was obvious how much differently and expansive he was getting portrayed vs the wc (with much less moral ambiguity). I said:

“Garou’s not simply a rogue, prodigious teen going on a spiteful rampage with an overconfident, slasher smile. Consistently, he’s been shown what really makes him tic: what gets him serious, passionate, sincere, and desperate – things that force his hand to either fight or defend against, with standards and ideals that he’d put his life on the line for. All of it is great: a variety of expressive emotions and definitive acts of character that all build towards the whole. Which we’re then left to ponder exactly what that is. Is he truly a villain or a hero? Is he really a troublemaking bad guy or actually a misguided ‘nice guy’? The answer isn’t so black and white; it’s more like a mix of ALL of the above. And I LIKE that. As ONE has presented him, Garou is Garou, and not really someone to align or classify as simply one or the other. He’s in that kind of delicious gray zone where he’s getting put to the brink to show his true colors. And it’s so GOOD and refreshing to see.”

That plus the manga showing his deeper bond with Tareo, his gruffly protective qualities (ok but that’s kinda hot?) and a more sincere showing of his morals (which he refused to budge on no matter what anyone else ordered him to do), brought on all the feels. :’)

Stream coverage + ch commentary devolved to like unintelligible screaming, with some ‘man he’s so fucking cool,’ or ‘damn protective Garou’s SOO good,’ or ‘I swear the more Murata draws of him the more I fall for him like wtf,’ or even the flat out ‘GODDAMMIT MURATA ;A;’ types of suffering reactions, ahaha.

At this point I was all ‘bring on the Garou appreciation; he deserves it; I have a mighty NEED’ but was kinda annoyed/frustrated with the fandom cause there was hardly any recent fan content of him (relevant to his current plot progression, it was all suspiciously dry or old ship-related content I wasn’t interested in cause the plot had moved on, so I was like omg where is everybody, hello?!) It was already a dry spell in between seasons so overall fan content was slow anyway, but it seemed like there were so few actual fans of him (to my confusion?!) So I started making my own content (beyond just the stream coverage and ch reactions/commentary + meta) with the expression posts appreciation.

March 2018. U-uhoh, things (and posting frequency especially) were starting to escalate. His reaction to literally getting backstabbed by the monsters and losing Tareo (his quiet but seething controlled feral rage) definitely had me feeling™ things.

Final nail in the coffin

April 2018 Oshit;; Garou forcefully storming and bulldozing his way thru the MA base, his awesome BIG DAMN HEROES moment rescuing Tareo from Royal Ripper, to his hilarious absolute tsundere™ moment denying it (before running into Rover and immediately protecting the kid again) pretty much destroyed me. This was also like the first time I’d seen ONE make a character go full tsundere mode and pull it off in a genuine comedic way (with the classic ‘it’s not like I came here to save you or anything baka’ line and all) so pfft, that was so much endearing icing on the cake. :’D

At this point someone even asked me who’s my favorite opm character, to which I was all, ‘Garou’s current manga content has been on fire so he’s been quickly skyrocketing into my favs (if he wasn’t there already)!’

But then Murata soon dropped THIS ‘protect the child’ page all with perfect timing, and I was…fucking doomed.

'sugoi ojisan' was pretty much the moment of instant death for me ;A; my constant reaction to the streams has been that gaijin 4koma meme with laser heart eyes for emphasis, and I'm pretty much losing my ability to articulate much beyond screaming at this rate

Garou’s behavior could then be summarized as ‘a very stubborn and in denial asshole tsundere little shit nerd. <3’ But there was classic ONE heartwarming irony in there too, cause Garou hadn’t fully ‘lost’ his battles either…during those critical times where he actually assumed the role of the ‘hero’ for Tareo instead. (Oho~)  

basically Garou is a great character, the more you look into how ONE has built him the more meta af it gets

May 2018 (the long-awaited debut of the wc ‘scarf’ vs Rover towards Garou vs Orochi’s epic wtfshitstorm) lolwhoops~ I finally made the inevitable back muscles compilation while also writing longer, more in depth meta posts about him.

Murata delivered some of the best stream content we’ve seen of him. (Completely on FIRE, both literally and figuratively. And looking back, this was probably some of the most fun Murata’s stream sessions ever got. :’D Was awesome to be a fan tuning in during this time.)

even Murata was doodling chibis of himself freaking out in the margins XD

Delivering content from the pose of peak badassery…to dropping stream doodles of peak heartwarming/cuteness (Garou & Tareo in suits) on the fans for good measure.

bam Murata’s out to kill us with his art ...Murata can you like -maybe- chill? ABSOLUTELY NOT

Basically Murata knew exactly what he was doing, always delivering and servicing the fans (drawing the coke bottle was a fan suggestion too) yet also remaining a huge tease~

Towards S2 and beyond

June 2018, following the Orochi fight, Garou was put on a bus and absent from the manga for a while, so I went back revisiting older content again (rereading the manga for fun) and realizing/noticing/wondering stuff I hadn’t really caught about him before like…oh no why is he cute?? Was he always this way or had my eyes finally opened after everything??? (Cause aside from him being a little shit or a cool badass, he was also a complete dork and a nerd, and an oblivious dummy, and just…that was so…wtf endearing, a full package of fun to enjoy.)

But we soon got clips of Midorikawa’s voice reveal (from the opm drama cd) and all hell broke loose among the resident Garou fans. 8’D Especially cause his voice was ‘dark/smooth/mature/sexy’ as opposed to a higher-pitched, unhinged teen voice many had expected (remember that old Hiruma voice I first thought for him? So interestingly many fanboys were disappointed with this deeper voice casting). But also cause Midorikawa said “I’ll do my best to make Garou even more charming than before,” so we were excited to see Garou’s popularity spike even more cause of s2.

Aug 2018, the s2 key visual revealed with Garou prominently featured up and center and I WAS NOT PREPARED!!! I remember having like a full hyper-incoherent breakdown because of this so…yeaaaaah. 8’D I was all rationalizing,

If anything it’s all Murata and ONE’s fault that (the hype and appreciation for him) feeling’s grown even stronger. He was already a thoroughly fun walking meta source, but the manga made his softer/compassionate moments much more obvious (than in the wc). Just watch as this badass dorky nerd becomes even more hugely popular than he already is!

April 2019 was his anime debut…coincided with his post-arc WEBCOMIC DEBUT AFTER 5 FUCKING YEARS (before he even returned in the manga even) IMPECCABLE timing from ONE, holy shit people lost their minds. Including Murata, who had to draw him too! With all that and the anime airing (adding even more wholesome cute Tareo interactions not seen in the manga), fandom participation (+anons) really started to kick off.

I remember seeing the influx of new fans and how so many (who didn’t ‘know’ him yet either) would unironically label him as genuinely ‘evil’ or a ‘heinous villain’ at face value, which….uhhhhhh were the kinda takes that were hard to take seriously, but I appreciated how ONE’s writing allowed the readers to see and think for themselves as the narrative revealed more (rather than believing everything the characters said or claimed), so it’d only be a matter of time until they ‘saw’ the truth about him too. :’)

May-July 2019 the anime continued airing with fandom activity popping, until August when he finally reappeared and ‘awoke’ in the manga! ;A; After like an entire full year of him mia too. This was also the time frame when all the thirsty (and interestingly meta-hungry) Garou anons started (finding me???) regularly chiming in with fun participation. I was grateful though, cause they prompted certain takes I couldn’t have come up with on my own, and allowed me to think, examine, and explain things much more closely and thoroughly than I had ever posted before. (Yaaay~) Such as looking into just what IS it about him?!

“Garou wouldn’t be as compelling, engaging, and appealing as a character without (all) those other interesting layers and nuances to talk about too! :D It’s even better that way! Cause Murata can draw everyone looking drop-dead gorgeous and conventionally attractive, so just having a pretty face and impressive muscles isn’t enough to make him stand out in a special way from the rest of the cast. Already all those things (about him) are certainly impressive, so just what is it about him in particular? (That makes him unique.) The fact Garou has all that AND those other compassionate & interesting qualities to him just makes it the icing on the cake for a complete, well-rounded package. The fact we can know him, for all his feelings and attitude why he behaves and acts the way he does, such as when he’s contradictory, troubled and tsundere-like sometimes, to hardcore and badass other times, to softer and empathetic to fiercely righteous, protective and determined other times, and all portrayed in the way he’s capable of the range (and makes us feel) the entire spectrum of emotion too. …Like whoa (I could keep going but I’d be preaching to the choir at that point aha), all that only enhances what’s already there. In this way, I feel the Garou we’ve come to know by now is much more endearing and appealing than the one we were introduced to at the start. Because as he appeared then, he may have seemed like just another wannabe thug-of-the-week we might not have given much passing thought & attention to. But now…uhoh, you could arguably say he’s grown to the point he’s almost taken over the rest of the manga (within good reason!) by challenging our perception of who’s even the active protagonist. :O Who keeps us engaged and tuned in to see more. Buaha, just what the hell happened?! Now that’s quite the impressive feat from both ONE and Murata to create a character with a lasting impact like that!”

…So that’s what happened. :’D In my opinion, I feel Garou’s best moments where we (or really, I) got to know him better (shed scene, Elder Centipede aftermath, dine n dash, rescuing Tareo, all up towards his fights vs Rover & Orochi) mostly only happen until after s2 so… Since those were some of my absolute fav manga moments (which only enhanced my perceptions of him), those’ll be the moments I’m really looking forward to see animated in s3. But most of all, I’m hoping to witness some of that same ‘aha!’ gradual realization process happen to newer fans who come to appreciate him too. :’3

[secretlystephaniebrown]

More Robin 80th Thoughts

Overall on the Robin 80th, I’ll say that Dick and Jason had the best stories, with Steph in the middle, and Tim and Damian tied for the worst ones.

“A Little Nudge” by Marv Wolvman: a solid story with nice art by Tom Grummet. A good look at the character, his growth, and some lovely insight into the difference between himself and Bruce.

“Aftershocks” by Chuck Dixon: I didn’t want to like this as much as I did, but I really, really did enjoy it. For all of his political conspiracy right-wing bullshit, Dixon can still write well, and the ending was legitimately sweet.

“Team Building” by Devin Grayson: a fun, lighthearted Titans romp with emphasis on Dick as a great leader, and the Titans as a strong team and friendship.

“The Lesson Plan” by Tom King: *deep sighs*. I never was really into Agent 37/Agent Grayson stuff. I don’t like Tom King’s writing. And this one was easily the weakest of the Dick Grayson stories. It doesn't make sense why it’s here, to be honest, except that Tom King continues to be DC’s golden boy even after he tanked Batman. Also, Dick just ending up in a weird sexy costume halfway through the story was just. random as fuck.

“More Time” by Judd Winnick: Winnick can be really hit or miss for me, but I was always going to be hype to see Dustin Nguyen art, and holy shit did this one hit me hard. I love the sweetness to this Jason characterization: showing Jason as a child as a sweet, intelligent, thoughtful kid, rather than as the rebellious, angry kid who lead to his own downfall that we see a lot of. It had the strongest emotional core for me of any story in this collection, and it’s easily the one I’d buy as a solo issue, if they were being released that way.

“Extra Credit” by Adam Beechen: do you hear me sighing again? Because I am. I don’t like this characterization of Tim as some sort of hyper-competent student when in his past he was a class-a “ace the test, never hand in homework” kind of student, the art was meh, and really all it did was lay out that... Tim is Robin. Literally all of them did those things, except I guess Steph didn’t get to tick the leadership box, and that’s because DC sucks.

“Boy Wonders” by James Tynion: *deepest sigh*. Well. Here we are again, aren’t we Tynion? I have so carefully avoided you since I dropped Detective Comics. So, what do you have for me? Ah. That. Well, that was a shallow, surface level interpretation of all of the male robins and their characters, continuing your weird insistence that they all have no overlap at all, and you left Steph out for some reason, even if you do get a pinch of credit for including the only Cass cameo in this entire book. I don’t agree with the fans who think Tim is as-badly-done-by Tynion as Steph and Cass were, but I really do think his characterization is shallow as all hell, and I just don’t enjoy his style. Sorry James. I think you mean well.

“Fitting In” by Amy Wolfram: already covered it, but I’ll reiterate it again: an okay book with brilliant art, good characterization marred by a weird need to remind us that Steph is the girl Robin who can’t just wear someone else’s costume.

Sidenote though, this weird blurb of Steph in the history part of the back of the book fills me with rage.

Really? Not even bothering to show her in costume, instead showing her kissing Tim, and characterizing it as a dark period in Tim’s life instead of a high point in hers? Oh, fuck you DC.

Some generally good pinup art and group shots throughout the issue though. I guess I’ll take the bright side here.

“My Best Friend” by Peter Tomasi: Have I mentioned sighing? Super Sons is cute, but really, I find myself really pulled out of things by some weird things in this issue: Lois Lane, notorious mis-speller acting like she’s qualified to edit a paper is the mildest of them. This story just really reminds me that Tomasi is kind of... bad, about acknowledging adoptive families? The art by Jorge Jimenez was cute enough though, so I’ll give it that.

“Bat and Mouse” by Robbie Thompson: yeah so I have no fucking idea what was happening in this issue. It’s a tie-in to something that I haven’t read, the art is so goddamn hideous I honestly thought we were doing some sort of weird flashforward to an old Bruce bc his face looked so lumpy, and it honestly was just so-off-putting I didn’t want to finish it. TBH I’d probably rather they had skipped forward to seeing Damian as a grown up, because I strongly dislike this idea of tying this story into a different comic. Most of the others, even when they were referencing other events--Cataclysm for Dick, the launch of Rebirth ‘Tec for Tim--felt self-contained, like you could just pop in them without having read the other books or events to understand them. This one really felt bogged down, and didn’t flow, and the art really didn’t help. I can’t emphasize enough how much I didn’t like that art lol.

All in all, a book with some serious highs and lows, but one that I enjoyed in concept, and am glad ended up published, at the very least.