#hidden only by saying 'narrative' instead of 'structure'

[weiszklee]

Recently watched this JohntheDuncan video, and it gives some great insights into what I too see as a very real and very worrying trend, of queerphobia in general and lately transphobia specifically acting as a sort of uniting cause for many rightwing groups, from neo-Nazis to Evangelicals to radfems to zionists to garden-variety conservatives to liberal capitalist institutions.

And I too don't think this uneasy alliance is a coincidence, and I too don't think it's just strategic either. All these groups really do pursue transphobia for its own merits, so to say. Transphobia is right at home in all these disparate ideologies. And it's easy to find examples of people migrating from one of these to the other, already made acquainted via transphobia.

But I don't think Duncan's ultimate thesis here is correct, that all these different ideologies are mere offshoots of some nebulous but all-encompassing historical force of white-supremacist cishet-patriarchal colonialist capitalism. I just don't think reality works like that. If you widen your view that much, all you're left with being able to say is either untrue or trivial. The goals and the role that transphobia plays in these groups is just too different, and you lose all this important specificity if you try to paint such a huge universal throughline for all of them.

Different groups adopting similar narratives just doesn't actually tell you all that much about these groups. Some narratives are just so convincing or so present within wider society for random reasons, that it's easy to land on them independently. So I can't give too much credence to Duncan's presented evidence of the presence of narratives around infiltrators and so on.

Trans people themselves are very capable of producing these very narratives as well, see for example transmedicalists and queer inclusionists accusing each other of being infiltrating agents of the patriarchy. And no, I don't think these accusations are expressions of white-supremacist colonialist capitalist brainwashing or whatever. It's just a pattern of thought people tend to fall into sometimes, especially under stress. And it's a pattern often fostered and exploited in the process of radicalisation, so we shouldn't be surprised to see it so prominently and loudly repeated over and over by so many different groups. It doesn't mean much. It especially doesn't mean that all these groups grow from the same root.

[thydungeongal]

Truth be told, I'm not resistant to XP/rewards being given out for, like, narrative-based triggers instead of just overcoming challenges. However, the D&D 5e DMG's presented method of milestone leveling is one of the worst ways to go about it in my opinion.

Part of the problem is that D&D 5e presents a choice between an XP system that only rewards combat (which, fair enough, has been the main source of XP since we, but even 3e and 4e had other sources of XP) and a system that removes all incentive structures altogether. Like, it feels like the game itself is reinforcing a false dichotomy of "combat play" and "narrative play."

There's a reason I like XP systems (albeit ones with much smaller numbies) even in my non-dungeon games: they make advancement objective and dependent on player choices instead of up to GM arbitration. Like, this here is an experience point system and it rewards player choice while keeping the XP numbers manageable (the hardest part of XP systems in my personal opinion is XP numbers being too fine-grained: once you start measuring experience in the thousands with very little gradation between rewards of a hundred and two hundred points, you know something's wrong):

And it reinforces the genre the game is going for. That's actually pretty much all there is to XP in the game, there's no hidden secret formula for calculating combat experience because the game doesn't care about fine-grained combat experience. It still gives recognizable incentives to the players with a bit of leeway for interpretation and ultimately rewards play. (By the way, this is from Against the Darkmaster: there are vocation-based sources of XP in addition to these.)

Anyway what I'm trying to say is that XP systems actually own.

[greeenchrysanthemums]

@thatlesbainmushroom and @jjlovesgoodies (hope you don't mind the tags, I was not sure how else to make sure you seen this<3) both said yes to hearing about my roomies zombie au, so here it is!! Though, I must admit that it is more of a half-baked idea than a fully thought out au. I'm not sure if I will ever actually write it, so it's free game with credit.

I suppose a TW is required before you read any further. It is a zombie au, so it is pretty grim. Mentions of death, blood, injury, and other apocalypse typical things.

Etho and Cleo were college roommates before everything went to shit. Cleo was a graphic design and arts student in her fourth year, while Etho was an engineering student in his second year. They have been together since the start, and were actually in their dorm room when the chaos started. Bdubs used to be with them, but they lost track of him (and his horse) months ago. They assume he is dead.

Grian was a first year architect student from a few towns over. His group consisted of his roommates, Jimmy and Joel, along with his work friend, Scar.

None of them had ever used a gun before the apocalypse, so it is none of their preferred weapon. Cleo has a baseball bat, Grian has a knife, and Etho has a machete. Etho and Grian both carry handguns but rarely use them. Cleo knows how to use a gun but does not carry one and would have to be in mortal danger to be convinced to use it.

Cleo is immune to the bite, something they found out at the beginning because a classmate had bitten her and she never turned. Though, this immunity would not hold any narrative weight. The world has fallen apart, there wouldn't be anyone left to try to find a cure from her anyway. They are just focused on surviving and trying to keep each other safe.

However, because of her immunity, she does take risks that Etho doesn't/can't. She used to be a real softy, not much a fighter who was all bark no bite, but she would do anything to protect Etho. She has many scars, from bites and scratches, because of this reckless behavior.

It would start with Grian having just been separated from his group and he's been wandering around the remains of a big city looking for them. He eventually gets overwhelmed by a hoard and ends up cornered in an alley, where he is then saved by Etho, who kills the zombies and offers to bring him back to his camp.

Grian says no and tells him he has to keep looking for his group, but Etho is persistent. Grian caves and agrees to go with him when Etho offers to help look for his missing friends; no strings attached.

The group traverses the remains of the burning world together for several months looking for Grian's group and slowly getting to know each other. Etho and Cleo share information freely, but Grian is more reserved. He only answers simple questions about his past. They barley know anything about this group they are trying to find. Instead of opening up as the months' pass by, he actually becomes more and more reserved.

He keeps asking why they keep helping him when they have no obligation to do so, especially since he's given them next to no information or reason to trust him, and they say why not? They don't have anything better to do than lend him a helping hand.

Grian leads them more and more northwest as time goes on, telling them that he was told to head in this direction to meet back up with his group, but still, they find no trace of them.

Around 6-7 months into traveling together, the group do a supply run in a mall that they thought was safe and end up getting trapped inside with no way out after Grian brings some kind of a display/structure down on top of himself on accident and it attracts a hoard that was hidden away out of sight.

They are very low on ammo, Etho was bit while getting Grian out from under the display, Grian was injured by the accident, and they're all too exhausted and malnourished to fight. They make it into a staff area, but there's no exit that they see, so they barricade the door. It is only a matter of time before the hoard breaks through.

Sitting inside of the small room, Grian admits to them that his group was already dead and had been for a while. He tells them that he had actually been ready to die that day Etho found him. He felt bad letting Etho's kindness (which was a rarity in this dying world) go to waste, so he went along with it.

He was just along for the ride at first, leading them on a wild goose chase while waiting for a chance to leave them, but then he grew to care for them. He never thought he would find friends again in a world like this, but, somehow, he did. They gave him a purpose, a reason to keep going. They made him want to live again. They made him happy. They made him laugh; something so simple and yet so important.

He didn't want them to leave him behind once they found out the truth, so he'd kept lying to them and pretending like he was still searching so that they would have a reason to keep helping him, a reason to have him around.

He was closing himself off all that time in an attempt to hold onto the one good thing in his life. He tells them that he's sorry, that he loves them, and that he's scared.

Cleo and Etho say they don't care that he's been lying, and that he's just as important to them as they are to him. They say that whatever happens next, they'll do it together.

And then in my mind it would end somewhat ambiguously/open ended as the zombie's break through.

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.221 thoughts

[That's a Helluva Cold Open]

or [Bad and Naughty Children Get Put in the Kessler Effect]

(Contents: narrative analysis - story structure; thematic analysis - friendship/growth/loyalty; predictions)

Title Drop TWO!!!

And we have a title!!! ... Again!!!

Admittedly it loses a little bit of its impact this time around, but David Evelyn couldn't have known Tozuka was gonna literally have Andy say "Undead Unluck" when Fuuko previously used furigana to technically say it

I also don't know if there was a way to avoid double dipping like this in English without losing the original meaning in the first place; previously, Fuuko said "Unluck" as the furigana for the "Undead" kanji, so she was literally saying both at once, just in a more subtle way that doesn't translate in English. If it were me and I knew this chapter was going to have Andy say Undead Unluck, I think I would have had Fuuko say "here comes my Undead," since it's clearly a reference to her usual catchphrase while also incorporating the new meaning, but it does come across a little weaker than saying Undead Unluck

I'm not here to gripe about translation choices, though, especially since, again, David made the most of what he was given and couldn't have known it would retroactively become repetitive. No one's at fault here, it's just unfortunate that it made the moment a teeny bit less special

Still, the idea that this is the beginning of the real story does make the timing of that title drop pretty appropriate; I think it's fair to say that a lot of us considered L100 to be a sort of prologue, as once we learned about the loops (and even before that in my case) it was pretty much a forgone conclusion that L100 would end in failure. L101 then seemed like it was the "main" story, but realizing now that the final enemy team was basically hidden behind what amounts to a cutscene gate makes it clear that all of the teambuilding of L101 was basically a crazy long training arc, the tutorial if you will

To put it simply, L100 was the intro of Symphony of the Night (fighting the final boss and losing access to the apparent main character), L101 up to now has been Dracula's Castle (the true main character gaining experience and equipment), and we've only just now reached the Reverse castle (the original main character returns, but so too is the true final boss accessible now after completing a few more challenges, including finding specific key items first)

To continue the SotN metaphor, the boss of the first half is also someone who should be on the main cast's side but is wrongly under the influence of the final boss and his minions!

Hard Lessons

As I expected, the focus of this chapter is definitely Ruin, though perhaps not quite in the way I expected

I figured that either the majority of the chapter would be dedicated to exploring his backstory or Andy would trigger a monologue by saying the right thing. What we got instead was Andy almost taking on a mentor role, using their similar experiences to relate to Ruin's life path and even celebrating it

In much the same way that Andy progressed from being a complete unknown to being "Captain," then "Undead," and finally "Andy" thanks to Fuuko's influence, Ruin went from being a scared, powerless child to "Unruin" and a follower of God thanks to the influence of Blood and Shadow. As I said last week, Ruin has no control over the flow of his life, just as Andy didn't until he met Fuuko

Just like Fuuko wanted to be for Tatiana what Andy was for her, Andy now wants to be for Ruin what Fuuko was for him: the culmination of "dumb luck," the one to turn that luck into fate, the one who can turn the bad hand that was dealt into a big win. All of the events of Ruin's life have led him to Andy here and now, and Andy is the one person who can show Ruin just how massively a person can change and grow when exposed to others

Mutual Growth

Andy gets to make this demonstration twofold: not only is his final attack, Bad Loop, only possible because he has Fuuko, but Ruin will only have the chance to escape it (or at least make the most of his time while caught in it) because Andy released Blood and Shadow and allowed them to go to Ruin's side

Sure, Blood and Shadow are still of the belief that Ruin's only hope for happiness is to defeat the Union and serve God, but based on the rest of the chapter, I don't think that they themselves are all that loyal to God in the first place. Their refutation that Andy's philosophy will help Ruin at first seems like propaganda for God, but I think it's more likely that the three of them have mutually come to the conclusion that this is the right path

After all, Blood and Shadow are the equivalent of Clothy, and it was Clothy who put his faith in them to help Ruin. Andy's partnership with Clothy allowed them to come to an understanding almost wordlessly, with Andy reading Clothy's expression easily and asking a vague question to determine the right course of action. If any UMA can recognize one that values a human over God, it's Clothy

It's also worth noting that Ruin already augments Unruin w/ his UMA pals, so it's not like he's completely unfamiliar with the concept of mutual growth, he just needs to recognize that there isn't really a difference between the UMA and Negators. Sure, they're shaped differently and born by different means, but they all manipulate the rules of the world in some way, and all of them have distinct personalities. I don't think there's a single UMA that's been portrayed as a totally mindless beast, just that some of them aren't given any dialogue to demonstrate their personalities

In a sense, they're all people. Ruin is just trying to create a world where the people he likes can live, and honestly he probably thinks that the Union is trying to kill them. Sure, sometimes they have to kill them, but...really think about why they have to. Who is making them kill the Rules?

God. God is the one letting Ruin's precious Rules be killed, and is even facilitating it. In fact, the idea seems to be that the ones who are targeted for elimination in Quests are the ones that are "expendable" to God's ideal world; is Ruin so bought in that it's okay for Rules to die so long as God says so?

Picking Sides

Given the kind of upbringing that we see Ruin had, it's not hard to see how he might accept something so cruel as just. As @wickedsick pointed out earlier in the week, Ruin's...father? Guardian? Owner? is specifically depicted in silhouette, lifting his foot to kick and stomp at Ruin while scalding him with steaming hot liquid, giving him almost exactly the aesthetic of Sun's descent during Ragnarok

I believe this is meant to demonstrate that Ruin views humanity as exactly the same kind of oppressive force that God is to the Union, but it's also possible that it's a symbol for how, as a Negator, Ruin will always be facing that sort of oppression so long as he refuses to ally with the people who are like him

As Andy says, Ruin is currently taking the easy way out; he's giving up his own autonomy to work under God, selling out everyone else so that he can cling to his own false idea of happiness. He doesn't have to think about the morality of his choices if he just goes along with what he's told, if he buys the lie that all of humanity is an afront to the world and not literally the point of its existence. The Rules of the world are crafted to prompt humanity to find "the greatest life ever" through suffering, and Ruin is an agent meant to provide that suffering. God doesn't have any intention of letting Ruin have a place in his world, as evidenced by the fact that he wrongfully believed Unruin would let him survive the loops. Therefore, Ruin is faced with two choices:

Stay the course and view humanity as the others, remaining in conflict with them only to ultimately be hurt and rejected by both sides

Join forces with humanity and rise against God, breaking the cycle and finding real happiness by creating a world where humanity and the Rules can support and guide each other

Bad Loop

The irony of Andy and Fuuko being the ones to put Ruin through an infinite loop of pain and death that he's capable of actually surviving is pretty interesting, as this is literally what he's always wanted from God but he's receiving it from humanity. Furthermore, by being forced to endure this torture, Ruin is being shown a microcosm of what Andy had to experience, both in the first several million years when he was simply drifting through space as a scrap of his own skull and in the remaining 4 billion where he deliberately planted himself on the surface of the sun. He is experiencing a fraction of the suffering he always wanted and being given the opportunity to really think about the implications of that

By being repeatedly buffeted with death, Ruin will have endless, rapid-fire opportunities to test, understand and improve Unruin, and eventually come to realize that even after all of that, there's a limit to what he's capable of. That's what happened to Andy; he learned everything there is to know about Undead as a standalone ability, and presumably had the time to consider combination techniques, but realized that no matter how hard he thought about it, the only things that would allow him any further growth would be inspiration in the moment or a perspective he isn't capable of providing

After all, Andy only knows everything about Undead. He knows a good deal about everyone else, but just like how Billy couldn't draw out the full power of any of his copied abilities, Andy can only coordinate so well with the rest of his team without first seeing how they've personally enhanced their capabilities. If Unstoppable is different now than it used to be but Andy doesn't realize that, it's just as much Top's responsibility to come up with combo ideas as it is Andy's

Ruin, meanwhile, still hasn't even reached the starting line where he actually knows how to use Unruin in combat. Right now he's just using Blood and Shadow as weapons and augmenting them with his infinite blood supply, but Unruin itself hasn't grown or changed. The problem is that he's still thinking of Unruin as a regenerative ability, as a lesser Undead, and hasn't determined what makes it unique yet. Once he knows how to actually use it, once he accepts his humanity and understands himself, he'll be able to max out his personal growth and begin his interpersonal growth, both with his UMAs and his future Union compatriots

Of course, the real question now is how long until that future arrives

The Final Saga

With Andy's declaration that the final fight is beginning, I've seen a lot of doom and gloom about the series ending. While UU is ostensibly not performing well compared to other Jump manga, it's apparently still selling better than a lot of top-sellers outside of Jump, so I doubt Shueisha plans to axe it

Even if that's not what people are worried about and instead they're just lamenting the knowledge that the end is in sight, I can't help but feel the opposite. In fact, I've never felt so glad to have a series I like declare it's intention to conclude - it means that it won't be forcefully dragged on

This review series was spawned by my opinion that Jump manga are at their peak at the four-year mark, and that they tend to lose interest after the six-year mark. While I'm sure I could love Undead Unluck all the same no matter how long it went, I can't deny the possibility that I would grow tired of it past that point. I became fatigued with Hero Academy despite how much I loved it from the beginning. Food Wars earned my respect by the end of year one but lost it a year or two before its conclusion. Aside from One Piece, I have no evidence of a weekly series holding my attention for so long without developing some feeling of negativity, so it's a valid concern that even UU would pass the threshold and begin to decline

I'm ecstatic that UU is approaching the end of its fifth full year. I love that this past year has been one of if not its best so far, but I'd be lying if I said I could see it doubling that. The story that Tozuka wants to tell has a specific number of beats that have been foreshadowed already, and while it will certainly have plenty of surprises within, it can't produce more indefinitely without deviating from the initial vision. While there may be some cuts or rushed plot points, it's clear that Tozuka is getting to tell the main story that he wants to get across, and that's all I've ever wanted for any Jump manga

With eight Master Rules to fight, the likely return of Seal, and the conflicts with both Sun and Luna on the horizon, there are likely at least 9 storylines to cover, depending on if any of the remaining enemies team up or if there are any more moments of downtime in between like searching for Artifact Heart

Even if we assume this is going to be like the Spring arc and each individual fight prior to the final battle is only like three chapters, that's 27 chapters right there, more than half a year of content, which would then lead into the fight(s) with Sun and Luna, which would likely be at least ten chapters minimum. That would put us ten chapters shy of a full year's worth, landing us in July or August, which is just six months away from the sixth anniversary

I don't know about you, but I could easily see Tozuka making the series last another year and a half from now to hit the six-year mark on the dot, which would give us plenty of time to explore all of the Master Rules, the underdeveloped Union members, the Gods, and give us a good capstone to Andy and Fuuko's relationship

Even if it's just the bare minimum, though, like I've always said, I trust in Tozuka. While the pacing is a bit fast at times, he's never failed to leave me with a satisfying story in the end; even the weaker arcs were a blast to read through the whole time, and I look back on every one of them fondly. I don't want the rest to be rushed at all, but Tozuka has a clear vision of what he wants, and I trust he won't waste any of the time that he's given

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[saturnaftertaste]

Now that jughead took the characters to the bunker to watch themselves I'm thinking about your post again about how the bunker is the only place that exists outside of the story

I JUST WATCHED THE NEW EPISODE. and like first i have to say i am aware the pre-mourning a silly little tv show on the cw about a red headed boy and his quirky friends sounds insane but that is what i was doing for the most part. so when the bunker scenes started happening i almost didn’t register it so caught up was i in the sadness of it all…

that being said…the meta-bunker allegations live on! something else that struck in between making that post and watching this episode is also how there’s an episode named “as above, so below” and that pop’s in riverdale exists as a safe haven (blocked the ghost train, survived the fog, jughead STARTED writing the story of riverdale there?) AND there’s a “great pop’s chocklit shoppe in the sky” i.e heaven for riverdale characters where jughead goes OUT of the story, again? why is it that whenever someone hides out in the bunker it’s always pop’s takeout that they’re surviving off of?

as above, so below, right? no other place in riverdale stays this consistent. archie’s house gets blown up, jughead is homeless, betty’s room changes configurations (and even structure) between s6 and s7, the babylonium goes from a large-scale casino to a small-ish movie theatre. hell, thornhill was burnt down in the first season and cheryl spent all of s5 keeping it in a state of flux. but the bunker and pop’s survive every season and every time skip, and they seem to serve their original purpose every time.

the bunker and pop’s are thematic opposites; the bunker is where people (and other things) go to die -> jughead “died” there, archie was hidden away to recover there, and the lives of everyone in riverdale “died” with the truth there. like it’s a living coffin it just keeps eating and paradox jughead is in there, outside the story, writing as fast as he can. pop’s, on the other hand, is where things survive -> like i said, tabitha seeing the diner be the only thing that survives the apocalypse, archie celebrating coming “back to life” after being on the run in s3 (root beer float!) the core four promising to meet at pop’s every year (trying make their friendship survive!) AND the gang beating percival there! even with everything bad that happens there - that time fred got shot, or kevin had the Divorce Dinner with his parents - people endure at pop’s. the comic books being sold out of there, the speakeasy being run under it, the white wyrm moving there after hiram’s takeover in s5.

that archie (and then the others) was in the bunker with pop’s burgers to watch his entire life flash before his eyes means something and i don’t know what exactly but it does. perhaps it is that now, like jughead, all of them became aware the narrative they were living - by being outside of the story, and by being aware of the story, they had a chance to be narrators too - they could choose to remember everything and change their lives forever, or they could choose to forget. i think it’s also important that the supercut by tabitha was viewed in the babylonium and not the bunker, because it means that them finding out about their greatest hits is part of the story, instead of a choice they had to make. maybe paradox jughead took mercy on the fictional versions of his friends and gave them the easy way out. the real truth of it lies in the bunker, but it’s now “buried” like jughead was/is/always will be.

[dpkronmiller]

COME ON BARBIE LET GO PATRIARCHY

Something was different.

Yes, here is a huge hit, female directed, female written and female starring - breaking just amazing records. The first live action comedy to break the top 20 biggest opening weekends. First female directed, written and focused film in that top 20. 162 Million dollar opening weekend. Indiana Jones by comparison only did $60 million domestically and that was cherished cinematic IP with a male protagonist. Mission Impossible didn't crack 100 million and it too had a male protagonist. And it wasn't a holiday weekend. Just another weekend dead in the middle of summer with a huge iMax sized competitor in the Nolan film Oppenheimer - which probably did benefit more from Barbie than Barbie did from it in large part thanks to the genius double feature marketing of Barbieheimer. And some people apparently only saw Oppenheimer because Barbie was sold out.

But wait - so the male starring films all under performed? And Barbie DOUBLED Oppenheimer's take??

And worldwide - it's made over $400 million dollars! Surpassing Jones and Impossibley beating Mission Impossible. Already. In it's first week of release.

Every male driven movie this summer, aside from the testosterone filled mustache of Mario, had weak turnout. Yet the narrative from the industry has been that female centered films don't have enough demand. That people won't turn out for a movie about women and girls and for women and girls.

Yet...here we are...Barbie.

But that's not what I mean by different.

The film is unique. It wasn't what I expected. I thought it might be a fish out of water story in the real world like Enchanted. Or have some quest component whereby Barbie would need to find the hidden McGuffin golden slipper or devise some magic potion to stop some great evil from shooting a laser in the sky, again. 

Instead I was met with fantasy. 

A film structured and written as if kids were playing with their Barbies but not just kids - as if kids were playing Barbie with their Moms and their Moms were using the toys to educate their kids on the suffocating yoke of the male patriarchy. 

But entire film felt like one long playdate with the truth.

From how Barbie magically moves to the ground or travels in between worlds - there's an active surreal quality where one action doesn't necessarily need explanation - she just is now on Venice Beach. She's just now in a white void. She's just now in Ben Shapiro's crawl keeping him from his precious beauty sleep.

But that's not what was different.

And though the film was almost a movie about Barbie AND Ken equally, with both having large arcs and equal screen time, where Ken wasn't just a supporting player but seemingly as much of a center of the movie as Barbie - with performances from Robbie and Gosling that were anything but plastic - but that's not what struck me as different...

Something happened in the theatre.

As the credits started to roll...

...normally everyone sits and maybe waits for an end credit scene quietly or simply slips out in silence...

...this time...

...as soon as the credits rolled...

...the whole theatre started talking, chatting, excitedly with each other, there was such a roar that you couldn't hear Billie Elish's whisper singing during the final song in the credits.

I've never really heard that before. That was different. Not Billie Elish’s whisper singing - will somebody please get that poor lady a throat losenge. 

The chatter. The audience was awake.

There was an excitement. An eagerness to digest what they just saw. A glee.

And it was mostly a female audience.

Well I did hear one man explaining what he thought and say the word existential just a lot - there's always one Ken.

But it was different. This film managed to do something new. And it's honesty and straight forwardness and clarity was refreshing. It didn't just speak in metaphor - it at times just out right said the thing that needed to be said - that men needed to hear. And said them several times. Why? Because, speaking as someone who walks between both worlds, sometimes you have to tell a man something more than once for him to get off his ass and take the damn trash out.

And yet it didn't end on women taking control. The goal wasn't vengeance or domination - the goal was acceptance and ultimately...equality. We just aren’t there yet. Huh...a realistic ending to a plastic world.

#barbie 

[nichenarratives]

Hurricane Heller 11

A Niche Narratives Fanficiton.

last | first | next

[TWs: Period typical antisemitism; graphic depictions of violence; gun violence; details of blood, gore and injury; minor character death (OC); murder]

11. Unsanctioned Retribution (Part 2)

It feels surreal, returning to the launderette knowing what is about to unfold. Mordecai pauses across the street from the crumbling structure as he's done a hundred times before, a hand on his lapel and the other pressed into his coat, a cool breeze shifting his popped collar against his jaw. He feels as if life is coming full circle, returning to the place he began as a different person, one with a much darker heart.

The first of many decisions he will make without Hashem's guidance, Mordecai rationally knows he should feel afraid; every decision before this was done believing his actions were sanctioned by God, almost predestined to succeed. Now he carves out his own destiny, with tools he's gathered alone, and Mordecai feels at peace knowing he's in control.

As the young feline steps off the curb, the street lamp above him flickers and dies, casting the young feline in darkness, an unheeded warning for what is to come.

He steps into the store with a jingle of the bell, drawing half a dozen pairs of eyes as the door closes with another jingle behind him. Unlike his first and many subsequent entries to the launderette, he walks unencumbered through the shop, a clicking of his loafers echoing in the suddenly silent space, eyes on his back as he keeps a casual, unhurried pace.

Rumours flowing around the newest recruit of Mr Savage's personal repertoire have already permeated through to each arm of his wider operation. The bookie turned torturer, a young man with impeccable manners to counterbalance a bloodlust he guarded behind closed doors. Mordecai hates those implications, yet they keep the enforcers effortlessly at arm's length as he heads through the back door.

Right where they belong; out of my way. 

As usual, the room is thick with cigar smoke, the gray fumes curling around a single bare bulb suspended above a table in the center. Mordecai scrunches up his nose in distaste at both the smoke and the smell of food scraps left to fester in the stuffy room. Fiores sits at the head of the table, working on a ledger, his gaze flicking up as soon as the tom enters.

Their eyes meet for the first time since the adolescent tom was headhunted for Savage. Former boss and employee at a stalemate, both finally on equal ground. Fiores closes his ledger and shifts his weight back in his chair. "Well look at that," he says sarcastically, the usual thick cigar belching smoke from between fat fingers. "Our Littlest Bookie finally came crawling back home."

Mordecai narrows his gaze and flicks an ear irritably, but he doesn't respond otherwise, back to the open doorway as the enforcers begin to gather and listen. He intends to let Fiores talk himself into a corner and the underboss obliges just as expected, pointing his cigar at the tuxedo. "You left me high and dry, boy. The guy Savage brought in was useless! I've been doing all your damn books since then!"

His voice level and hands still pressed into his pockets, the adolescent raises his chin intransigently. "With due respect, Mr Fiores, there was no opportunity to refuse Mr Savage."

"There never is, though it wouldn't have helped you to try," the overweight cat chastises, pausing to take a deep toke of his cigar. Dark smoke flows freely from his nose and mouth when he speaks again. "Heard you've made a real name for yourself though, eh? What is it now, the… Killer Kitten?" 

He chuckles at his own joke, enforcers joining in from the doorway. Mordecai doesn't rise to the bait, instead reaching inside his coat to a hidden breast pocket. Only his ears turn back to signify he heard half a dozen guns cock behind him before he extracts a photograph he lifted from the file on his  latest target. He holds it up between his index and middle fingers. "Do you recognise this young man, Fiores?"

Fiores immediately frowns, silencing any laughter from his goons with a discrete wave before leaning forward not to look at the photo, but stare the tuxedo down. "I highly doubt Savage sent you to question me, so I'm going to give you some advice; quit while you're ahead, Kosher."

When Mordecai holds his ground, the underboss sits back in his chair and takes another puff of his cigar. "He's not the type to look at ingenuity and think 'how can I use this' like me. He'll see you going rogue and cut you out like you'd cut out a cancerous growth." Fiores' frown morphs into a deep scowl. "I don't take kindly to bring accused of things by a damned kike, either. Think about that before you go on."

"This is the kid I interrogated today," Mordecai continues, unphased by the threats. He can still sense the guns on his back as he takes a few calculated steps towards Fiores to put the photograph down in front of him. "Savage put me on him because after being acquitted of some minor offenses, three of his coworkers ended up either incarcerated or dead, suggesting he's feeding the police information."

"What does that have to do with me?" The overweight man growls. "Why'd I know some poker-stacking brat?"

A tiny smile curls a corner of pale lips. "I didn't yet mention a profession," Mordecai clarifies; the man is framing himself at this point, making the tom's job far easier. He taps the photo with a claw, finally drawing the underboss' gaze down to the photo. "He worked at your casino, Fiores. You bailed 'some poker-stacking brat' out the same day he was charged, to make sure he ran his table that night. That's suspicious."

The bulbous man finally stands to face his accuser. Where he used to tower over Mordecai, they're now practically the same height, looking the adolescent dead in the eye as he speaks through grit teeth. "I can do what I want with my pay, boy. Not that it's your business, but I bailed him out because we were short-staffed. Your contrived narrative ends here."

"You bailed him out because he's your middle man," the tom refutes calmly, not even flinching as Fiores snarls and bares yellowed fangs barely six inches from his muzzle. "You feed him information, which he relays to the police, maintaining a degree of separation that protects your interests at the expense of another. You're a damned rat, Fiores-"

The punch comes fast and hard, clocking him square in the jaw. The scrawny feline stumbles back into the table with a grunt. Gingerly pressing a hand to his face, Mordecai looks up in time to see Fiores shrug off his suit jacket, letting it fall to the floor as he rolls his sleeves with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Get up, boy," he demands with a growl. "You want to insult me, you better be ready for a good fucking beating. Now get up and take it."

He always knew it could come to blows, but he'd assumed it wouldn't  be an ambush, and how naive he feels now, forced to use the table to steady himself. Without time to prepare or draw a weapon, he's a sitting duck; a scrawny kid with practically no fighting experience, which certainly shows in how swiftly his confidence drains.

Rough hands grab Mordecai from behind and pull him to his feet, shoving him back into the fray before he can object. He's thrust straight into taking a blow to his right eye; the tom hears his pince nez shatter before the punch connects with his flesh, the dull tok of meaty fist to skull before an explosion of pain and the momentum have him once again falling, this time jarring his ribs on the table before sprawling out on the floor at Fiores' feet.

Theres a sharp kick to the ribs and the underboss snarls. "Back off 'im," he commands his enforcers. Mordecai barely registers their shadows shifting away before he's flipped roughly onto his back and a boot planted squarely on his chest. Barely able to breathe, he grabs at the ankle and tries to dislodge it to no avail, Fiores putting his massive bulk onto his leg and looming over the younger tom. "Bit off more than you can chew, did you? Wanted my job too, hm? You greedy fucking kike."

He struggles under the immense weight as Fiores takes his time returning his cigar to thick lips, then casually pulling a pistol from his waistband. Emerald eyes widen as the barrel is leveled at his forehead and recalling his letter opener, the monochrome cat scrabbles in a pocket as Fiores pulls back the firing pin with a twisted smirk. "Looks like I get to tell old Savage his favourite pet wasn't house-broken. Lucky me."

Grasping the letter opener, Mordecai rips it from his pocket and plunges it into the underboss' calf. 

Fiores screams and jerks backwards, pulling the trigger as Mordecai rolls to the side. Red hot pain sears down the lad's cheek as the bullet skims flesh and melts fur, but there's no time to acknowledge it. Down one weapon, he goes for his last - the switchblade in his boot straps - flicking it open with an audible snick just as Fiores yanks the letter opener out of his leg and slings it across the room.

Enforcers rush in, only to retreat as their boss turns his snarl on them, wordlessly demanding they adhere to his previous statement; back off, he's mine. Mordecai steadies himself on shaking legs as they face each other down. His right eye is already swelling shut behind the empty lens frame, cheek and jaw on fire, entire body shaking with adrenaline as the underboss levels the barrel with his chest, taking a limping step closer. "Hold fucking still, boy."

Mordecai does the exact opposite, diving towards the table at his right. Another shot ricochets dangerously close to his heels as he stumbles full-body into the table and overturns it for makeshift cover, clutching his switchblade to tightly his knuckles turn white. There's not enough space for the table to be effective cover - all Fiores has to do is limp closer, and he'll be a sitting duck - but it bides him a moment to think.

A third shot goes clear through the table, barely an inch from his hip. The tuxedo feels the air heat up, singing his fur tips as it passes, making it clear he can't stay there. He needs to disarm Fiores, but there's no obvious way to do that, time ticking past far too quickly with the click of a fresh chamber being loaded. 

If it's useless as a shield, perhaps it can be a weapon.

With no time to plan anything more elegant he pivots on his heel, grabs hold of two of the table legs and pushing back to his feet, charges the wooden table in the direction of the last bullet, using as a temporary battering ram. There's a yell of surprise and yet another shot through the table before he crashes into Fiores. 

The underboss falls flat on his back with a heavy huff of air as Mordecai flies over the table, landing a few feet away, the dull thud of a forgotten third weapon hitting his hip bone as his switchblade ricochets away. Disoriented and dazed, he tries to get back to his feet using the nearest wall and hisses when his left leg burns with pain. He doesn't looks down though, struggling to focus through a pounding headache and squinting through his remaining, crooked spectacle lens, attempting to locate Fiores.

Out of nowhere, Fiores grabs him by the neck and shoves him back against the plaster. He squeezes Mordecai's throat so tight the lad can't draw breath, his attacker gleeful as the adolescent struggles beneath his grip. "Your luck's run out," Fiores informs his prey. "Better use those last words to pray for forgiveness, though I doubt your God wants your soul back, after all you've done."

The monochrome feline pulls uselessly at that thick, meaty hand for a few precious seconds. He's suddenly very afraid to die, desperate to survive this encounter, when he recalled the tool he kept as a failsafe that knocked painfully into his hip before. Still clawing at the man's hold with one hand, he scrambles in his coat pocket and fumbles the handle of his last resort with the other, struggling to grasp it as his brain is slowly deprived of oxygen.

Dark sport dancing before his eyes, he finally gets a good grip on the claw hammer and swings.

His first strike is uncoordinated and clumsy, smacking Fiores not in the temple as planned, but the cheekbone, creating a resounding crack that echoes through the tiny room. Taken by surprise, Fiores releases his throat and stumbles with a scream of agony, pressing his hand to the fractured bone as his instincts put distance between him and his attacker.

Mordecai sags against the wall and sucks in breaths, lungs burning from the almost-fatal defect, but he doesn't wait for his head to clear. Still unsteady, limping slightly on his left leg, he follows Fiores the couple of feet he managed to put between them and taking aim this time, Mordecai strikes the man square on the temple with his claw hammer. A splatter of blood mists the tom's face and Fiores is knocked to the ground.

Fuelled by adrenaline, his near death experience and years of bitter resentment, Mordecai straddles the groaning man and slams the hammer onto his head again, and again, and again. Each hit sprays the adolescent with fresh blood he barely feels speckle his face and clothes, his weighted tool crushing the man's skull until his temple is concave and he no longer breathes.

Only then does Mordecai stand, letting the hammer drop to the floor from his shaking, bloodied hand. He stares at his former boss' corpse almost disbelieving, processing his first willing murder from an abstract perspective; it doesn't feel entirely real and yet, he can feel the blood crusting rapidly in his fur, the scents of iron and flesh thick in the air.

When he glances at the gawking enforcers, they recoil from the unarmed Kosher Butcher, not daring to approach the unhinged killer in their midst as Mordecai removes his pince nez to inspect the damage to the frames. Frowning deeply as he feels their twisted state, he sighs and replaces the bent specs on his muzzle, turning to the nearest enforcer with a chillingly cold stare.

"Contact Mr Savage," he orders calmly, glancing back down at Fiores' as he runs a now steady hand through disheveled hair and readjusts his suit jacket. "Apologize for the lateness of correspondence on my behalf, then emphasise the import of the call; that Fiores has been forced to resign."

[the-apocalypse-is-upon-us]

assigning umineko characters a place in the prince-princess-witch trichotomy: part 1

Beatrice: the witch (duh) in more ways than one. Even if as a magical creature she exists outside of human hegemonies, she still has power in the hierarchy of Rokkenjima as its second master of the night and the legends surrounding her alongside Kinzo's tirades reaffirm her 'existance' as a powerful presence on the island. Her attitude is also brash and stated multiple times to be 'undignified' , going against the expectation of a ladylike attitude that the princess archetype is supposed to posses. Even still, she is second to Kinzo as she rules over the hidden and less noticable domain of the island where she doesn't have power over the 'human' domain where her power in the hierarchy would actually played a part. This coupled with the fact that Kinzo's shows of affection towards her are blatantly objectifying and twisted to fit what he thinks she desires shows even clearly that the only way she could have gotten a substantial amount of power is outside the human realm ruled by Kinzo. She can't have power as Kinzo's "princess" but she can have some power as Rokkenjima's witch, even if that narrative is passed on through Kinzo, which shows that she still can't fully escape the patriarchal power structure of the Ushiromiya family. She exists as a scapegoat responsible for great boons(the hidden gold) and great ills(things being mysteriously missing and found, people getting hurt for doubting her existence,the Rokkenjima explosion accident) and this goes doubly so in her relationship with Shannon and Kanon.

Shannon: Through and through she is presented as the archetypal princess; demure,romantic,in a position of servitude that she has to "grin and bear it" ( just like Anthy) and having a prince of her own who wants to marry and "rescue" her from her life of servitude, willing to even go against his family for it, George. Of course,George's vision of a marriage is him working and her staying home but still taking care of the house and their children, keeping her role as a servant but without herself earning money. But as servant in the role of a princess, the only way she can see herself liberated from Rokkenjima is through a prince, especially considering how she saw herself as "furniture", less than human. And that's how Beatrice comes in. She tasks Shannon to destroy a mirror that supposedly keeps her powers locked up,promising that in this way she will be able to love and be loved "like a human". There are also multiple remarks made by Beatrice ridiculing George and Shannon's "pure love" and how men are sex- crazed pigs, putting her as a witch in direct opposition of the prince-princess narrative even if she "helped" create it.When Beatrice starts the massacres and corners Shannon and George she calls Shannon "furniture" and says that she was the one responsible for their love and ,in response, Shannon retalietates saying that she is human and activating a 'magic' forcefield powered from her love, even if Beatrice does defeat her in the end. Here we see Beatrice continuing to be a dual scapegoat; she is responsible for both Shannon's happiness with George and their deaths, preventing them from getting married. This is also a parallel to EP 7 , where "Shannon" is revealed to have had feelings for another "prince" with the wish that he will take her from Rokkenjima, Battler, but due to his absence that relationship stays unfulfilled. In order to take the pain away and help "Shannon" to move on, "Beatrice" takes her feelings instead. In both cases Beatrice is deemed responsible for taking or giving an abstract concept of love to Shannon which keeps their place in the trichotomy intact; in taking the feelings, Shannon can be the pure, faultless princess and Beatrice can be the cruel witch who turned out that way because her prince didn't come while in giving the feelings, Shannon can resume the role of a princess wanting to be saved by her prince and Beatrice can be the witch in that she gave Shannon her magic and simultaneously looking down on the relationship between a princess and a prince with scorn and wanting to separate them because she was jealous that she couldn't be loved the same way, putting the prince-princess relationship as natural and the people that despise it as bitter.

Kanon: He is presented both as a prince and a princess. In his relationship with Jessica he is always trying to fulfill the prince role by protecting and taking care of her. He also has a more assertive attitude, serving as Shannon's backbone and standing up to Beatrice almost immediately. But he is also a princess due to his status as a servant; when he isn't alone with Shannon he presents more passively not only to the family but to the other servants as well and taking his own servant role very seriously. His relationship with Jessica is reminiscent of Utena and Anthy(the first time we see him he is even tending to the roses)in which Jessica/ Utena have the best intentions but still have a great power imbalance with Kanon/Anthy, not noticing at first their interior complexities and if they order them to do something, they are obligated to do it regardless if they want to or not.Kanon does love Jessica but he openly turns down her feelings to "protect" her: he thinks of himself as furniture, less than human and incapable of love, with the result of any relationship with Jessica ending up in tragedy. Him wanting to protect her is an obvious extension of the prince role.But Shannon thought the same and she was given "love" by Beatrice, something that she tells Kanon and hopes that he also gains love that way. However, Kanon sees Beatrice and the love she offers as an illusion,a temptation to violate both the role of the prince(protecting Jessica from his forbidden feelings) and a princess(overstepping his boundaries as a servant," furniture"). Even if Beatrice is offering him a way to become Jessica's "prince" he denies it . Beatrice becomes a way for Kanon to scapegoat his feelings for Jessica to someone other than himself to create distance. In the end though he does fail to act as a proper prince/ furniture for her as she jumps in and takes the final blow to protect him.

[tanadrin]

Yes, the details say it makes the most sense for our hero to be at the center of the action because of his relationship with the beacons, the Protheans, Vigil, and Liara, but it’s more dramatic if he’s central to the story because he’s a famous badass superspy who came back from the dead to Save Us All.

Yes, the details say that we should be working for the council, but it’s more dramatic to have us working for a mystery man with glowing robot eyes and a hidden agenda who has a crazy space-throne room that would strike Palpatine as “perhaps overdoing it a bit”.

Yes, the details say that improvements to the Normandy should be part of an in-between game retrofit, and that Cerberus as presented in the first game is barely able to run a lemonade stand much less act as a galaxy-spanning superpower, but it’s more dramatic to have the ship blown up in the opening and replaced by this shadow organization.

Yes, the details state that saving the entire galaxy from the Reapers should be our priority, but it’s more dramatic to fight against bug-faced collectors who are threatening humans, and kidnapping your friends.

Yes, it’s ridiculous that Joker and Dr. Chakwas would leave their highly respected positions with the Alliance and sign on with an actual terrorist organization with the blood of hundreds on their hands, and who may be personally responsible for the worst thing that ever happened to Shepard, but the story is so much more dramatic if our friends come along!

Yes, the details (and common sense) dictate that people ought to stay dead, but it’s so expedient to establish our new villain by having them kill the main character.

(You can put sarcastic scare quotes over the word “dramatic” in the previous paragraphs if you need to. It’s okay. I understand.)

So much of the debate here centers around whether or not these events “made sense”. How did a generic terrorist organization – one with no narrative build-up in the first game – bring someone back from the dead? How did they build this ship? Why did your loyal Alliance crew abandon their lifelong careers to work for this terrorist organization that was blatantly behind some atrocities that Shepard dealt with in the first game?

But these questions are a dead end. You end up arguing over codex entries, which are maybe kinda supported by other codex entries, and this one thing that guy says if you pick the right question on the dialog wheel. And if you do an item-fetch sidequest then Chakwas gives you a new excuse that’s slightly less implausible than the excuse she initially offers. And then there’s a link to some forum where some guy has constructed twenty paragraphs of fan-cannon that “explains everything”.

We act like this would be an acceptable way to start act 2 of a story and the only problem is that the writers forgot to properly fill out the right codex paperwork. But this approach to establishing a new status quo is brutal hack job with no sense of pacing, build-up, pay-off, or structure.

In the first game, the codex was a reward, a place where lore-hounds could go to get a deeper understanding of the world. In the second game, it was where they stuffed all their retcons and excuses for whiners who didn’t like working for terrorists instead of trying to save the galaxy.

(x)

[booksandwords]

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Read time: 1 Day Rating: 5/5 Stars

The Quote: You wrote of being in a village upthread together, living as friends and neighbours do, and I could have swallowed this valley whole and still not have sated my hunger for the thought. Instead I wick the longing into thread, pass it through your needle eye, and sew it into hiding somewhere beneath my skin, embroider my next letter to you one stitch at a time. — Blue

This Is How You Lose the Time War (henceforth Time War) was such a stunning read. A surprise to me as well, I picked this up for its cover, animals to fill a prompt, I really didn't expect such a wonderful story and characters. A joyous way to spend several hours. I did read this is a single sitting between about 11 and 3 in the morning (woo disrupted sleeping patterns). Despite the time of night I was reading this easy to follow, something I was slightly concerned about. The only thing I missed until long after I should have caught it was the seeker following both Blue and Red through time and space as they read their letters.

Red and Blue are the book's protagonists, not their real names (we never learn those). Both women are time-travelling agents for opposing factions in a battle to create the ideal timeline. When the story starts they are both aware of each other already, both can sense each other moving upthread and downthread (the terms used for moving in the timeline) Red is an agent for the Agency, getting her orders from the Commandant. Citizens of The Agency are grown in what I see as Matrix-style tanks of liquid. Blue is a player for the Garden, receiving her orders directly from the Garden. Citizens of the Garden are grown in a garden bed. Red is more brutal in her style for making changes to the thread, Blue specialises in subtly. Though as different as they are they do have similarities. Both of them hate Atlantis, both see the beauty in the world and both are more isolationist than their people would like. Their letters to each other are hidden in creative and fun ways. Volcanos, tea, traditional paper and animals among others.

I really enjoyed the style. Time War is written in a combination of letters and third-person narrative following each protagonist in turn. This is a joint write between Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar, as I guessed while reading each author wrote a character. Max Gladstone wrote Red's letters and her reactions, Amal El-Mohtar wrote the same for Blue. They had agreed on a broad outline of the plot structure before starting but the emotional responses to the letters are organic (source: Strange Horizons). This is key to why the writing works so well. Gladstone and El-Mohtar give Red and Blue different voices befitting their different backgrounds. At least at first, I found that Blue had a beautiful mind and Red had a beautiful language. Eventually, their presentations are evened out as their trust develops and their relationship depends. Their letters are so sweetly flirty sometimes seemingly knowingly, sometimes not. The nicknames Red and Blue use to address each other range from funny to cute. There is a practical purpose to them but they are still really cute references. Some are more easily recognisable than others.

I usually ignore endorsements/testimonials/'puff-quotes' on books but I noticed one on Time War after I'd finished reading, it's from Madeline Miller, author of Cirice (more importantly I would say the legendary The Song of Achilles).

This book has it all: treachery and love, lyricism and gritty action, existential crisis and space-opera scope, not to mention time travelling super-agents. Gladstone and El-Mohtar's debut collaboration is a fireworks display from two very talented storytellers.

I like this quote because for once it does a halfway decent job of summarising the story and my feeling about it. I really do recommend this if the blurb appeals to you. It does a brilliant job of creating a world and really likable characters.

I could add so, so many quotes to the review here. I will try to refrain from going overboard. • "And then we'd be at each other's throats even more." Oh, petal. You say that like it's a bad thing. — It's just the way Blue writes this because both of them know this competition is part of them. (Blue, p.36) • Atlantis sinks. Serves it right. Red hates the place. For one thing, there are so many Altantises, always sinking, in so many strands. — The whole Atlantis thing makes me smile so many time travel books venerate Atlantis, and have it as a point in time to go back to a save. This book is very much is just it fails in every strand, why do we bother? (Red, 47) • We make so much of lettercraft literal, don't we? Whacked seals aside. Letters as time travel, time-travelling letters. Hidden meanings. — Should I explain the whacked seals bit? Red's last letter was concealed in a seal Blue had to kill to access it. (Blue, p.53) • I like writing to you. I like reading you. When I finish your letters, I spend frantic hours in secret composing my replies, pondering ways to send them. — This is intended to be reassuring to Blue and it is. There is also something so romantic about this. (Red, p.82) • There is a small hill from which can watch the sun set over the Outaouais River; every evening I see a red sky bleed over blue water and think of us. Have you ever watched this kind of sunset? The colours don't blend: the redder the sky the bluer the water, as we tilt away from the sun. — This is just such a visual description. It is in a letter from Blue while she an embedded operation, as she is for probably 1/3 of the book. This is what she does to remind herself of Red. (Blue, p.88) • I want to say, now, before you can beat me to it—Red, when I think of the seed in your mouth I imagine having placed it there myself, my fingers on your lips. — I'm not going to spoil this one. It is just a beautifully intimate quote. The longing is so plain to see. (Blue, p.125) • I'll be sent, no doubt, to undo the damage you've caused. And we'll run again, the two of us, upthread and down, firefighter and fire starter, two predators only sated by each other's words. — Does this just feel like a mix of want and content to anyone else? Red knows what she wants to be on the treads facing off against red, and she would be content with that... if she couldn't have more. I also really like the names she uses. (Red, p.128) • "You root in the air, my epiphyte. It's no hard thing to trace the new growth to you, singly." — I had to look up epiphyte, I should have guessed it was a botany term. "epiphyte: a plant that grows on another plant, especially one that is not parasitic, such as the numerous ferns, bromeliads, air plants, and orchids growing on tree trunks in tropical rainforests." It does kinda suit Blue. (Garden, p.145)

[bonesandthebees]

Incoherent Stars ramble it is. I’ll at least try to stick to the 3-part structure of the chapter. So have the first batch: Wilbur and Niki’s reunion. And when I say that I mean that I’m first going to take about the start and build of the chapter because of course I am. I think the correct term is narrative distance. It’s the slow building of surroundings and zooming into Wilbur.

I started out wondering what planet we were on, thinking it might be Zephys IV since the first description is that it’s cold. Then there’s sand and a desert so maybe Sólsid, but that would be hot instead of cold. Then eventually it’s mentioned that this is a far-out planet. So Outsector, which is where Niki is.

And that’s the point where the realisation that you kept them separated for three years kicks in. Tbf, that’s kind of on me for assuming Niki could make her way back herself. I figured she would hear the rumours that they were alive and make her way back to them. It never occurred to me that her ship might have crashed and she was stuck. But I think that’s what happened.

She did hear the rumours, but she couldn’t get out. Wilbur and Tommy were fine, but she couldn’t get to them. She expected them to come find her. I’m wondering how long it to her to give up on that after learning they were alive. Because she clearly had no idea how well-hidden she was. She’s trying to hide from two major planets/empires and doing a decent job, jet some irrational part of her brain probably expected Wilbur to find her sooner if he was truly looking for her.

(1/10)

-🌲

YEAHHH so glad you picked up on the narrative distance going on there! so firstly I wanted the start of the epilogue to feel very movie-esque, seeing several blurry figures walking through a sandstorm on a desert planet, you slowly zoom in and see the figures look a bit familiar with their scarves covering their face and get an idea that they're royalty, but you don't know for sure who it is until jack says wilbur's name

also keep in mind, even if niki could've made her way back herself, the only rumors she heard was that eldingvegr got taken by the antarctic empire and that prince tommy and wilbur were alive (not fine. she never heard they were fine. just that they were alive. there's a difference). she didn't know anything more than that. she really wasn't sure what the brothers relationship with the antarctic empire was, so obviously she had no clue if it was just another essempi situation. she also still has themis looking for her. so yeah, if niki wanted a way back, she probably could've figured it out. but she had no way of knowing if she was going to be safe the second she left her desert planet.

she definitely hoped that if tommy and wilbur were more than just alive and they were actually doing well with the antarctic empire, they'd find her. so when they didn't, she was torn between wondering if it was because they didn't want to find her, or because they literally didn't have the freedom to do so

[myaffirmai]

How Positive Self-Affirmations Can Transform Your Life

Introduction

In the hustle and bustle of modern life, it's easy to become overwhelmed by self-doubt and negativity. However, within each of us lies the hidden power to transform our mindset and, consequently, our lives. Positive self-affirmations are a powerful tool to unlock this potential, enabling a journey from self-doubt to self-belief. By integrating positive self-affirmations into your daily routine, you can shift your perspective and harness the power within you to create lasting change.

The Neurological Impact of Affirmations

Rewiring the Brain: The Neuroscience of Self-Affirmations

Positive self-affirmations work by rewiring the brain, leveraging its inherent neuroplasticity—the brain's ability to form new neural connections. When you consistently repeat positive statements, you strengthen these new pathways, diminishing the impact of negative thoughts. This transformation is not just psychological but deeply rooted in the brain's structure. Tools like myaffirmai can help you craft and track these affirmations, ensuring they are as effective as possible.

How Positive Thoughts Create New Neural Pathways

Every thought you have triggers a set of neural pathways. Negative thoughts reinforce negative pathways, while positive thoughts build positive ones. Over time, with consistent practice of positive self-affirmations, you can shift the balance in favor of positivity. This change helps in reducing stress, increasing resilience, and fostering a more optimistic outlook on life. Myaffirmai provides guided practices that make it easier to establish and reinforce these positive neural connections.

The Art of Affirmation Crafting

Sculpting Your Reality: The Craftsmanship Behind Effective Affirmations

Creating effective positive self-affirmations is an art that requires careful consideration and intention. Affirmations should be specific, positive, and present-tense. Instead of generic statements like "I will be successful," opt for "I am successful in all my endeavors." The latter not only feels more immediate but also more believable. Myaffirmai offers templates and customization options to help you craft affirmations that truly resonate with your personal goals and aspirations.

Infusing Affirmations with Emotion and Intent

For affirmations to be effective, they must be charged with emotion and intent. Simply repeating words without feeling will not create the deep impact necessary for change. When you say an affirmation, visualize it, feel the emotions associated with it, and believe it to be true. Myaffirmai provides visualization exercises and techniques to help you imbue your affirmations with the necessary emotional energy.

Embedding Affirmations in Everyday Life

Morning Catalysts: Kickstarting Your Day with Affirmations

Starting your day with positive self-affirmations can set a powerful tone for the hours ahead. Dedicate a few minutes each morning to recite affirmations that energize and motivate you. This practice can help you approach the day with a positive mindset and clear intentions. Myaffirmai offers morning affirmation routines that you can easily integrate into your morning rituals, ensuring a strong start to your day.

Affirmation Anchors: Tying Positive Thoughts to Daily Activities

One of the most effective ways to maintain a positive mindset is to anchor affirmations to daily activities. For instance, you can repeat affirmations while brushing your teeth, commuting to work, or during lunch breaks. These moments become triggers for positivity, helping you maintain a consistent affirmation practice throughout the day. Myaffirmai can send you reminders and suggestions for these affirmation anchors, making it easier to stay on track.

Nightly Narratives: Ending Your Day with Affirmation Reflections

End your day on a positive note by reflecting on your accomplishments and reinforcing your affirmations. This practice can promote restful sleep and prepare your mind for the next day. Evening affirmations might include "I am grateful for today’s experiences" or "I release today’s stress and embrace peace." Myaffirmai offers evening routines that help you wind down and reflect on the day, fostering a sense of closure and gratitude.

Amplifying Affirmation Effects

The Symphony of Mind and Body: Movement-Based Affirmations

Incorporating physical movement with your affirmations can amplify their impact. Activities like yoga, walking, or stretching while reciting affirmations engage both your mind and body, creating a holistic practice. This combination can help you internalize affirmations more deeply and feel their effects more profoundly. Myaffirmai offers suggestions for integrating movement into your affirmation routine, helping you develop a dynamic and engaging practice.

Sonic Affirmations: Harnessing the Power of Sound and Music

Listening to audio affirmations can be a powerful way to internalize positive statements. Record your affirmations and play them during your commute, workout, or relaxation time. The auditory reinforcement helps embed the affirmations deeper into your subconscious mind. Myaffirmai offers audio affirmation tracks that you can customize and listen to throughout the day, providing a constant stream of positivity.

Affirmations in Action: Visualizing Success Stories

Visualization is a potent tool to enhance the power of affirmations. As you recite your affirmations, visualize yourself achieving your goals and embodying the qualities you affirm. This mental imagery reinforces the affirmations and makes them more tangible. Myaffirmai provides guided visualization exercises that complement your affirmations, helping you create a vivid mental picture of success.

Navigating the Affirmation Journey

The Affirmation Audit: Evaluating and Evolving Your Practice

Regularly reviewing and adjusting your affirmations is crucial to maintaining their effectiveness. Conduct an "affirmation audit" to evaluate which affirmations are working and which need tweaking. As you grow and your goals evolve, your affirmations should too. Myaffirmai provides tools to track your progress and modify your affirmations, ensuring they remain relevant and impactful.

Breaking Through Resistance: Conquering Inner Doubts

It's natural to encounter skepticism and resistance when starting with affirmations. To overcome this, start with affirmations that feel authentic and achievable. Gradually, as your confidence grows, you can introduce more ambitious affirmations. Myaffirmai offers evidence-based techniques to help you build trust in the process and overcome any initial doubts.

The Long Game: Sustaining Momentum and Growth

Sustaining an affirmation practice over the long term requires dedication and consistency. Make affirmations a non-negotiable part of your daily routine, just like brushing your teeth. Myaffirmai offers scheduling and reminder features that help you maintain a consistent practice, turning affirmations into a natural habit.

Unique Success Narratives

From Shadows to Spotlight: Personal Stories of Transformation

There are countless stories of individuals who have transformed their lives through the consistent practice of positive self-affirmations. From overcoming anxiety and depression to achieving professional success and personal fulfillment, these narratives highlight the profound impact affirmations can have. Myaffirmai features real-life testimonials and success stories that can inspire and motivate you on your journey.

Unexpected Outcomes: Surprising Benefits of Consistent Affirmations

Beyond the obvious benefits of improved confidence and reduced stress, consistent affirmation practice can lead to unexpected positive outcomes. Many users report enhanced creativity, better relationships, and a deeper sense of purpose. Myaffirmai shares these surprising benefits and provides insights into how affirmations can positively influence various aspects of your life.

Conclusion

Positive self-affirmations are a powerful tool for fostering a positive mindset and achieving lasting change. By integrating them into your daily routine, you can enhance your mental health, boost your confidence, manage stress, and improve your overall productivity. Tools like myaffirmai provide comprehensive support for creating, tracking, and enhancing your affirmation practice, ensuring you get the most out of this transformative technique. Commit to a daily affirmation practice today and embark on a journey toward a more positive and empowered life.

[keithlederhaus]

Empathy in Action: Building Connections Through Understanding with Keith Lederhaus

In the realm of social work, empathy stands as a cornerstone, a guiding principle that shapes interactions and interventions. It's not merely about understanding someone else's emotions but delving deeper into their experiences, perspectives, and circumstances. Empathy in social work is about actively listening, acknowledging, and validating the feelings of others while striving to comprehend their lived realities. It's a catalyst for building meaningful connections and fostering positive change in individuals and communities alike.

The Essence of Empathy

Empathy, at its core, is the ability to step into someone else's shoes and see the world through their eyes. It goes beyond sympathy, which involves feeling sorry for someone, to a deeper level of understanding and compassion. When social workers embody empathy in their practice, they create safe spaces where individuals can express themselves freely without fear of judgment. By actively engaging with clients' emotions and experiences, social workers like Keith Lederhaus establish rapport and trust, laying the groundwork for effective intervention and support.

In the context of social work, empathy serves as a bridge between diverse backgrounds, cultures, and identities. It allows practitioners to navigate complex dynamics and power structures sensitively, recognizing the unique challenges faced by marginalized and vulnerable populations. Through empathy, social workers empower clients to reclaim their agency and voice, affirming their dignity and worth as individuals deserving of respect and dignity.

Cultivating Empathy Through Active Listening

Active listening is a fundamental skill that underpins empathetic communication in social work. It involves not only hearing what someone is saying but also paying attention to their non-verbal cues, emotions, and underlying needs. When social workers practice active listening, they demonstrate genuine interest and empathy, fostering a deeper connection with clients. By paraphrasing, summarizing, and reflecting on clients' statements, social workers convey understanding and validation, affirming the significance of their experiences and feelings.

Moreover, active listening enables social workers to uncover hidden narratives and perspectives that may shape clients' behaviors and decisions. By tuning into the nuances of language and emotion, practitioners gain insight into the root causes of clients' challenges, paving the way for targeted interventions and solutions. Through empathetic listening, social working enthusiasts such as Keith Lederhaus create a collaborative environment where clients feel heard, valued, and supported on their journey toward growth and healing.

Empathy in Practice: Strengths-Based Approach

In social work, adopting a strengths-based approach is pivotal in cultivating empathy and empowering clients. Instead of focusing solely on deficits and problems, this approach highlights individuals' inherent strengths, resilience, and resources. By recognizing and building upon clients' assets, social workers foster a sense of self-efficacy and hope, instilling confidence in their ability to overcome challenges. Through empathetic encouragement and affirmation, practitioners co-create empowering narratives with clients, reframing obstacles as opportunities for growth and transformation.

Empathy, coupled with a strengths-based approach, allows social workers to partner with clients in a collaborative journey toward self-discovery and fulfillment. By celebrating clients' achievements and milestones, practitioners reinforce positive behaviors and reinforce a sense of agency and autonomy. Through this holistic approach, social workers including Keith Lederhaus honor the dignity and worth of every individual, affirming their capacity to navigate life's complexities with resilience and determination.

Overcoming Barriers to Empathy

While empathy is a fundamental principle in social work, practitioners may encounter various barriers that impede its expression and application. These barriers may stem from personal biases, cultural differences, or systemic factors that hinder authentic connection and understanding. Recognizing and addressing these barriers is essential for fostering a more inclusive and empathetic practice environment. Social workers must engage in continuous self-reflection and cultural humility, challenging their assumptions and prejudices to better serve diverse populations.

Moreover, systemic barriers such as institutionalized discrimination and unequal access to resources can exacerbate disparities and undermine efforts to cultivate empathy in social work practice. Addressing these structural inequities requires advocacy, collaboration, and a commitment to social justice. By challenging oppressive systems and advocating for policy changes, social working enthusiasts like Keith Lederhaus create more equitable conditions that foster empathy, inclusion, and solidarity within communities.

Empathy in Crisis Intervention

In times of crisis and adversity, empathy becomes a lifeline for individuals and communities grappling with trauma and uncertainty. Social workers play a vital role in providing compassionate support and practical assistance to those in crisis, serving as a beacon of hope and resilience. Through empathetic presence and active engagement, practitioners help individuals navigate overwhelming emotions and make informed decisions in the face of adversity. By validating and normalizing their experiences, social workers empower clients to access their inner strength and resilience, facilitating the process of healing and recovery.

Empathy in crisis intervention goes beyond immediate relief efforts to address underlying needs and systemic issues that contribute to vulnerability and hardship. Social workers collaborate with clients to develop personalized plans and access resources that support their long-term well-being and stability. By fostering a sense of belonging and community connection, practitioners help individuals rebuild their lives with dignity and purpose, transcending the impact of crisis and reclaiming their agency.

The Transformative Power of Empathy

Empathy serves as a transformative force in social work, driving positive change and promoting human flourishing. By embracing empathy as a core value and guiding principle, practitioners cultivate meaningful connections and empower individuals to navigate life's challenges with resilience and dignity. Through active listening, strengths-based approaches, and crisis intervention, social workers such as Keith Lederhaus create inclusive environments where all individuals feel seen, heard, and valued. As we continue our journey in social work, let us uphold the spirit of empathy and compassion, building bridges of understanding and solidarity that transcend barriers and transform lives.

[ducavalentinos]

What is your personal Top Ten of Borgia nonfiction books, and why would you choose them?

Ohh, ok, I don’t think I have a top ten??? but let’s see how this goes! lol I'll separate it in two sections: non-fiction books about the Borgia family as a whole and non-fiction books about individual members of the family (tbh just Rodrigo and Cesare), I’ll focus on secondary sources, but let me know if you also meant/want primary sources :))

Non-Fiction Books about the Borgia Family:

The Borgias: The Hidden History, G.J Meyer

His book has some flaws, which I’ve talked about here in the past so I won’t get into it again haha, but overall I do think it is a decent bio about the Borgia family. He did made an effort to present something new, and he does have at least a little bit of critical thinking about the sources which created the history of the Borgias as we know today, and also like I said before, I adore the structure of his book, how he intertwined the chapters about the Borgias with chapters about papal history/other noble families, it’s an engaging and interesting read.

The Borgias, Ivan Cloulas

Ok so, although his book reads like a gossip magazine with many unsubstantial claims, I feel I have to include him on this list only because his book begins with the Borgias from València and it goes back to Spain, with Juan’s son, arriving at Francisco de Borja, most commonly known as St. Francis Borgia. It’s one of the few books about the Borgia family where you have a more detailed account about these family members, and I like some of his thoughts about the descendants of Rodrigo Borgia and their shared similarities, being employed in different ways. It also has a cool chapter analysing the history of the Borgias through the centuries, I don’t agree with some of his conclusions, but I really enjoyed reading that chapter, so yeah.

The Borgia Chronicles: 1414-1572, Mary Hollingsworth

The reason I like her book is maybe precisely why some people don’t, I suppose, it is dry and it mainly sticks to presenting the information available about the family, instead of sensationalistic writing with a high dose of personal judgments and claims/narratives which don’t have enough (or any) evidence to back it up. That within the Borgia historical literature is a rare thing to find, overall Borgia authors seems more interested/concerned about showing the reader what they think about the family, and the many mysteries surrounding them, than actually laying out in an objective manner the historical material available, andletting the reader reach their own judgments and conclusions about it, you know. Hollingsworth, for the most part, tends to do the former in her book and refrains from doing the latter, so yeah there might be some mistakes iirc, and it’s not a book for everyone, but I do like it, and I find it a decent source to check/compare info about the Borgia family in the english language.

Non-Fiction books about Rodrigo Borgia, (Pope Alexander VI)

Material for a History of Pope Alexander VI, his relatives and his times, Peter de Roo.

The reason this one is on my list is because no matter how much we may agree or disagree with his presentation of Rodrigo, his life and his papacy, there is no denying he gathered an extensive, if not the most extensive, historical material about Rodrigo/his family and it’s amazing to read it. I also think he lays out his arguments in a very coherent way, attaching his evidence alongside it. His thought process is not all over the place, which is something I appreciate a lot when reading historical bios. He also does not throw Cesare under the bus in order to defend Rodrigo or explain his actions, De Roo is as just with Rodrigo as he is with Cesare, which it’s another rare thing to find with Borgia authors, especially Rodrigo’s authors.

Non-fiction books about Cesare Borgia

Cesare Borgia: Duca di Romagna, notizie e documenti raccolti e pubblicati, Edoard Alvisi.

I don’t even know what else to say about this biography without fangirling all over again lol, I’ll leave some of my thoughts while reading his bio that I posted here and here :)) and I will complement by saying it is my one and only favorite Borgia biography as well as the best one made about Cesare imo. Every time I remember Cesare has such a high quality historical work about his life, it warms my heart and I feel so grateful to il signore Alvisi, God bless his soul for the necessary, honest, historical work he did there.

Cesare Borgia: La Sua Vita, La Sua Famiglia, I Suoi Tempi, Gustavo Sacerdote.

The reason I include him is mostly because of his research, like it happens with de Roo, it is impossible to deny his excellent research about Cesare. Combined with Alvisi’s, you really do have all the available historical material about Cesare’s life, and it was great to be able to absorb so much information in an in-deepth way. I don’t have a good opinion about him as an historian, or as Cesare’s biographer, but as a researcher he is one of the best I’ve read, and the way in which he exposes his research should be the standard for any historical work imo. He was incredibly meticulous and made it a point to present as much of the official documents in their integrity as possible, instead of just selective bits. His bibliography is also a thing of beauty, super organized and thorough.

The Life of Cesare Borgia, Rafael Sabatini

The reason is, really, that I love his writing and his sense of humour. He is dramatic, but my kind of dramatic perhaps lol, and he rightly addresses the big double standards when it comes to the Borgia family (while they lived and even more so after their deaths, until Sabatini’s own day), as well as points out the flaws within the main primary sources about them, most of all: Cappello, Guicciardini and Sanuto, with a justified wave of indignation + amazing sarcasm which for me is satisfying to read. His examination of Gregorovius’ view and claims about Cesare, for example, it’s truly one of his best moments, so yeah, I have a fondness for his bio, even though I am aware of its flaws, and I mostly disagree with his personal view about Cesare as a man and his politics.

El Princípe del Renacimiento: Vida y Leyenda de César Borgia, José Catalán Deus

So, putting aside that I love reading in spanish and I find the spanish section of the Borgia historical literature quite interesting, actually, the reason I included this one is because, as far as I know, I think it is the best one in the spanish language about Cesare, it carries much of the flaws and vices of his historical literature, yes, but I do think it a decent bio. Also it was an important book for me when I read it at the time, because it made me re-think much of the claims and presentations made about the Borgia family by the previous authors I had read, and go deeper into the historical material to see if there was any evidence for it. I think much like Meyer, Catalán Deus also attempted to deliver something new, and advance in a way the way Cesare’s historical figure has been studied and presented, and I appreciate that effort, it’s one of the books I check info from time to time, too. Ps: it’s not on my top 10, I don’t like the book as a whole, but I can’t help but to add on this list Marion Johnson’s The Borgias, for one simple and superficial reason: the artwork is soooo pretty 💖 it’s hardcover with quality pages and beautiful coloured images, and to this day it is the most beautiful bio I own about the Borgias, so I had to say something djsdjsdjs, excuse me here. Andd I think those are it, anon?? it’s possible I might be forgetting some, I spent such a long time reading about them, it’s hard for me to remember all of the books, especially with my bad memory lol, but if I remember other ones later, I’ll reblog this and add to this list! Thank you for sending this ask, and I’m so sorry for the time I took to answer it! :( I hope you still see this <33

[thedeadhandofseldon]

The Anti-Mercer Effect

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And I bet a lot of you do too.

[familyagrestefanblog]

Ml Meta analysis: Adriens current absents, season 4 structure and theory on whats to come

Here I am back again with my endless rambling.

I'm just as worried for our cat son as everyone else (maybe even more) which is why I tried figuring out for my own sanity why he is so absent currently.

Upfront I wanna warn yall that I wrote this post in one rush this night and therefore had no time to do alot of editing. So things can probably get a bit more messy than usual but I tried to write it clearly, while writing 2 other ml essays as well. This is the one drawback of having so many episodes in such a short time, I have no time to write my posts x3 I had another theory planned for before Optigami airs but I don't think I can manage before tomorrow.

But let's not waste any more time. Grab a snack and here we go:

It's 2am right now but I think I just realized why Adrien/Chat Noir is being sidelined so much recently.

Sure, yes, it'll come into play in the very obviously set up Ladynoir drama later on but what I wanna talk about now is more the structure of how s4 is most likely written in terms of both Marinettes and Adriens side of the story. And then deep dive a little on why I think so.

You see season 4 is now reaping what has been built up from s1-s3, but this also includes that you have to take the time now to properly recreate the new possibilities out of the loose pieces of the broken status quo.

Seriously, season 4 has to handle and reinvent ALOT. The show got now officially announced to have 7 seasons, which is exactly the amount of seasons Astruc said they have story for. I couldnt find the official tweet from Thomas himself but I one from another source:

And now look take a look at the possible shows structure:

- s1-s3 was the first status quo and built up everything so now they can pay off after pay off while...

-... S4 is now the transitional season where the old status quo gets left behind as we work towards the new one.

-I have nothing to proof this of course, but in the same sense it would now make sense that s5-s7 where/are planned to play out under the final status quo. If I'm not wrong at first the show was under contract for 5 seasons, which would mean that after the transitional season 4 there was only 1 season of the final status quo for sure. Still, done right it could have been worth the wait. But this isn't where Miraculous will end. The show actually got the 7 seasons the creator wanted and THIS is how I think the long term plan makes the most sense. Nothing all too complicated but still hella effective in its execution.

But now back to our two main characters, because Marinettes and Adriens development are the two aspects that will raise the show to the intense heights of the s5-s7 status quo.

From s1-s3 Marinette was the active player but she was hardly involved with the actual PLOT of the show, since most of the plot and backstory of the show lies directly with the Agreste family. She only started to get her own plot when she literally created a new one by getting involved with the miraculous lore, because the closest Marinette got to the Agreste plot was "The collector".

Adrien in the other hand was always literally right in the middle of the plot but he wasn't enough of an active player to bring us further either.

Season 4 is now going to add the missing parts for both of them and as the very beginning of the season showed us: there are going to do it SEPERATLY.

This is why "Truth" and "Lies" have been structured the way they are (One Marinette-centric the other Adrien-centric). Yes, Marinette and Adrien are meant to end their story victoriously together, but they are simply not the people they have to be to become such a powerful team. Certain aspects of their journey they have to do... basically disconnected from the other one. The "Miracle Queen" endcard shows it quite nicely as well where they are heading now: away from each other.

Obviously the season started with Marinette growing into her new guardian status including everything miraculous related, since she is the main lead and because the new ways the episodes can now utilize everything Miraculous need to be established first before we deep dive into the messed up Agreste mystery.

So while I totally agree that it is annoying to get so little Adrien/Chat Noir content currently I also understand the practicality behind it. As I said, before s4 Marinette was the active main character who mostly didn't really have her own plot. So now adding her plot aspect and have her ACTIVELY figure everything needed out means that right now Marinette/Ladybug is the active focus main character who is solving a huge part of her s4 character arc. That simply drowns out Adrien as the currently still mostly-inactive secondary main character who, yes, may be right in the middle of the shows emotional + villain plot/lore/backstory, but that side of the story simply isn't in focus at the moment.

And I gotta say, I'm kinda glad they're doing it this way. Because I'm gonna be honest, when the season starts giving us Adrien/family Agreste episodes like "Lies" and "The collector" (in this case "Gabriel Agreste" for example) again, I don't want the narrative to be forced to spend time with something guardian lore based just because they didn't took their time to do it earlier.

So, as we see on the s4 episode raster "Gabriel Agreste" is episode 9. Honestly, I expect most of it (especially the ones near the beginning, so ep. 5 included) til that episode to be Marinette based the way everything else til now did (besides Lies obviously and Guilt trip didn't hardcore focus on Marinette/Ladybug either and that's because it's after "Gabriel Agreste") in the spirit of "Truth". It's just the needed set up from Marinettes side of the story and I can live with that.

Because we actually saw the change after "Gabriel Agreste" already in "Guilt trip".

I don't know why some people pretend like Chat almost cataclysming himself after hearing how guilt-eaten Nino is for Adriens sake isn't a huge indicator that the episodes afterwards will not only acknowledge but also DEAL with Adriens/Chats situation and problems. Remember, we are talking about CHAT NOIR here not Adrien Agreste. The show has always portrayed and acknowledged ADRIENS issues very straight forward and with the proper seriousness (especially when it comes to his family), whereas Chat Noir was often mostly used for comedic purposes with some exceptions of his problems being properly delt with (since Marinette/Ladybug was mostly oblivious to them, since Adrien keeps them hidden so well). But now in "Guilt trip" LADYBUG was confronted head-on with just how much negativity Chat has inside and how quickly and extremely he drowns in it.

Sure, correct, the episode also has his negativity "washed away" rather quickly by Ladybug opening up to him on how important he is to her

But this is in character for both of them as "Lies" very clearly showed us that the way BOTH OF THEM behave here is where the problem lies. There Ladybug was freaked out after Chat threw his life away once again but quickly accepted Chats very direct avoidance of the confrontation, since he seemed to be alright to her.

Something I also find noteworthy here is that Ladybugs dialog is "Seriously, you need to stop doing this to me!", which is.... a VERY Marinette-centric way of acknowledging the problem.

It completely shifts the issue away from Adriens extremely alarming self-harmful/suicidal tendencies and instead only calls out how it affects Marinette (whose feelings here are definitely valid, don't get me wrong!). It showcases perfectly how unaware Marinette still is of her partners inner tumult at that point and also parallels how Marinette called Adriens life "perfect" at the beginning of the episode (This is no shade towards Marinette, in general the entirety of "Lies" is about showing us just how harmful Adriens Chat Noir persona actually IS to him so these two moments of her being oblivious to Adriens and Chats immense problems very much fits into that episodes narrative and sets up what's about to come. I still have an entire essay in the making for "Lies" but, guys, it's just getting longer and longer. I suck xD).

So the fact that an episode after "Gabriel Agreste" brings this scenario back, just a little different but ALOT more revealing of Adriens immense problems to his partner, is VERY telling. Besides other things it tells us that this happens at the beginning of the arc that deals with (at least) Chats issues since Ladybug is still way too quickly too ready to accept her partner as "completely fine" again just because Chat makes it seem that way (while some negativity increasing guilt bubbles still to stick to him.).

And yet, others have already pointed it out that Ladybug IS noticing what Chat wanted to do and reacted accordingly...

she just didn't speak of it the way it is because it overwhelmed her, which calls back to Ladybugs "You have to stop doing this to me!" dialog.( For a great breakdown of her dialog HERE is a link to @flightfoot​ post)

In "Lies" Marinette was way too stressed by her new guardian role to even consider Chats side of it and therefore only spoke of her own, but in "Guilt trip" she's already past that stressful arc. So here she is immediately able to recognize Chats suicidal action for what it is, come to his (much needed) aid and lift her partners spirit the best she can by emotionally opening up to him (which is something we KNOW is incredibly hart for Marinette).

The difference between her reaction in "Lies" and in "Guilt trip" shows that Marinette has her guardian role already mostly handled and is now mentally able to be there for others again, so the extremely Marinette-centric "Truth"-like episodes are mostly passed. Now the episodes can bring Adrien/Chat Noir more into the game again and even shift to "Lies" - like episodes because MARINETTE can pay more attention to him again and isn't faced with something new, important and overwhelming Miraculous related every step she takes.

And THAT is extremely fair from a narrative standpoint.

---

I really need to stop elaborating so much on these posts because I'm only NOW actually getting to the point of where Adriens journey will disconnect for a while from Ladybugs. Sorry guys.

Okay, to understand where I'm going with this I will have to quickly explain how I always saw Chat Noirs place in the Ladybug+Chat Noir vs Hawkmoth war ever since s1.

Because here is the thing: Adrien wasn't able to truly leave the battle field ONCE since the origins. Marinette was completely out of Hawkmoths and Gabriels reach once she detransformed, which balances out her basically being the personification of the good sides force. And Gabriel literally decided whenever or not the battle is even ACTIVE right now! Besides that he is in complete control of his own actions and environment, which gives him all the necessary time, safety and downtime he needs to act as the personification of the evil sides force.

Marinette and Gabriel always knew when they were safe and off the battle field, but ADRIEN never had that and it left him LITERALLY right in the middle of both Ladybugs and Hawkmoths sides.

You see, because before Adrien became Chat Noir he basically was part of Hawkmoths side just by default. He was born into this family, that's his father and lost mother and everything he knows. Adrien didn't/doesn't even have to KNOW that he is part of Hawkmoths side, he's his son at some level he just IS! And I'm not saying this as anything negative, Adrien coming from Hawkmoths side is literally the reason why he became Chat Noir!

Because whereas Gabriel is having the time of his damn life as evil terrorist, created out of tragic and sinister circumstances, ADRIEN on the other hand couldn't handle his families environment and very same circumstances anymore and accepted the role as Paris' hero to escape his heritage for a while.

Keywords being: a WHILE.

Something unique about Adrien I always loved is the fact that he is the villains abused, isolated and overworked SON, who becomes a hero to escape his depressing life and YET it was never Adriens intention to LEAVE IT. Adrien merely wanted to use his time as Chat Noir to let of some steam and breath freely while doing some hero work so he can go back into his civilian life and try to one day successfully ment his broken family. He couldn't handle the current situation anymore but he still always saw worth in his family/father. I have SO MUCH respect for that!

But him not intending to leave his family and instead regaining strength as Chat Noir to continue to hold onto it came with the downside of him not being able to fully become part of the good sides people/force either. Hence why Adriens/Chats place always felt so lost in comparison to Ladybugs and Hawkmoths clear positions. He's caught in between their extremes trying to balance out BOTH at the same time. What an impossible task!

So he couldn't put in the same focus as Ladybug into being the good sides force because he is literally burned out from his civilian life on Hawkmoths evil side. But he also couldn't be involved as an ACTIVE member of his fathers evil force, because he chose to find refuge in his friends and as a hero on Ladybugs side.

Adrien unknowingly is part of BOTH the shows two extreme moral sides of good and evil and this season we will see Adrien/Chat Noir grow into his own within BOTH sides as well.

Because he simply couldn't have done so right away in s1. Now after 3 seasons Chat Noir is more than solidly established as one of Paris Heros and his time with Ladybug, the other heros and his normal friends helped him greatly to find his place on the good side. "Lies" set this up as Chat Noirs arcs starting point that now he has to stop connecting "being heroic" strictly with following Ladybug (as Marinette is the STAND IN personification for the good side, she's still a flawed human being like everyone else and not the ultimate force of perfect and good. Big difference.) just as he has to start looking past his fathers sympathetic moments/qualities to see that Hawkmoth isn't a 100%, inhumane monster just because he is the stand-in personification of evil in their fight, but the man he calls Father and still needs to be taken down. (I talked about this in more detail on THIS post)

Adrien has to seperat himself from Ladybugs path and focus on his family and I believe it'll start with the much dreaded (but expected) Ladynoir fight.

Funnily enough, what I'm talking about was actually already set up in "Frozer" I just didn't remember that for a bit. In "Frozer" we saw Ladynoir having a fight which caused Chat Noir to go his own way in the episodes battle.

I always found it interesting that the episode didn't had Chats decision, to not follow Ladybugs lead here, turn out to be a huge mistake. Almost every other show would have done so but now I think I understand. This episode and s2 in general SET UP the s4 conflict, s3 LEAD UP to it and now s4 DELIVERS it.

So what happened in "Frozer" is a direct parallel to what about to go down:

Ladynoirs fight will cause Chat Noir to not simply  follow Ladybugs side anymore the way he used to, but note, he DOESN'T leave the good side AND they make up again in the end after Chat saves Ladybug from the akuma. He just does things on his own because he isn't on great terms with her for a while. "Frozer" showed Chats decision to not only NOT be a mistake but also a necessary part of defeating the akuma, just the way it'll be in s4. Damn, Adrien breaking away from Ladybugs side, the way she (unintentionally tho) did at the beginning of the season, to focus more on himself and his family will be the game changing factor, when Adrien will have his completing arc where he goes from "not active character within the villain/backstory plot" to "ACTIVE character within the villain/backstory plot".

And we already saw with Marinette how many fast breakthroughs we get through these completing arcs. Which is also a reason for why Adriens/ Chats arc comes later in the season, because BUDDY. Once Adrien starts to actively uncover his families mystery and fathers secrets Gabriel is SCREWED! Adrien will gain the needed inside knowledge that complements Marinettes Miraculous power; and reunited they can take on whatever the hell kind of scale the Agrestes plan actually is.

So how to end this post? My biggest intention was to raise hope for everybody (myself included lol) who is right now very concerned and upset about how side-lined our boy is at the moment. But I prefer doing so in a way that actually works with canons context instead of sugarcoating what I don't like. And Adriens/Chats current position I definitely do NOT like but accepting it as realistic outcome from s1-s3 and set up for the escalation for both Ladynoir and his home situation gives it the proper purpose and pay off (narrative and character wise) that it SHOULD have.

Basically, the endcards of "Truth" and "Lies" show it perfectly.

It looks like ShadowMoth is turning a blind eye towards Adrien/Chat Noir because of Ladybugs new guardian status and "greater importance". But Gabriels tunnel vision on Ladybug will leave him vulnerable to his own sons secret actions against him and Gabriel won't see it coming until its already too late.