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stillness-in-green · 3 years

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No, Re-Destro Is Not Destro’s Literal Son

and

Yes, I Will Die On This Hill

I have a number of small, persistent quibbles with some of the widespread misapprehensions I see included in BNHA fanfic, quoted as fact in meta posts, even cited on the wiki. Quirk cancellation restraints, what the 20% quirklessness data point means in practice, when Kurogiri comes into existence relative to the time of the Shimura Family Massacre, things like that. My biggest one, though, is as the title suggests: the idea that Yotsubashi Rikiya is Yotsubashi Chikara’s son.

I don’t entirely know where this confusion comes from. As far as I can tell, the early scanlations didn’t get it wrong—one rendered the line in Chapter 218 about Destro having a child he didn’t know about as being children, plural, but otherwise, they were all accurate enough. It seems people just assumed that the child mentioned in 218 must be Re-Destro, who was, after all, right there on the panel. Even though the scanlations never said it, even though the official translation never said it, even though ample evidence in the manga disproves it, the idea still got around that Rikiya is Chikara’s son.

I have and will maintain that this is obviously wrong if you stop to think about it for even a moment, but unfortunately, most people don’t. The error can be found on less well-tended parts of the fandom wiki[1]; it’s in tumblr meta posts about the villains; it’s in fanfic.

And now, god help me, it is on the official anime website, too.

“Stillness-in-green, maybe you should consider that you might just be wro—”

I will face BONES and walk backwards into hell.

But if you want, you can come with me, and I’ll explain on the way. Hit the jump.

Dialogue + Narration

There are two places where the relationship between Chikara and Rikiya is explicitly addressed—the lead-in to the dinner scene in Chapter 218 and the fight between Clone!Shigaraki and RD in Chapter 232. If you include the Ultra Analysis databook, the number goes up to four: once each in Re-Destro and Destro Classic’s character blurbs.

Let’s take a look at each of those places, shall we?

The relevant Japanese text here is in the first narration box: 子ども, kodomo.

Kodomo is not gendered. It literally just means child. The key kanji is 子, ko. Like most kanji, it has a lot of potential readings, and you can add other kanji to it to modify it. Add 息 and you get musuko, son. Pronounce 子 as shi instead of ko, and you get a term that is frequently, though not exclusively, used to refer to boys. Add 女 to that reading and you get joshi, woman/girl. 子 is in a lot of words, many of them gendered! Used for kodomo as Hori does here, though, it does nothing to indicate a gender one way or the other.

Also too, it does nothing to indicate that Rikiya is the child in question; it simply states that there was such a child, somewhere in the world. Now, the natural assumption for anyone who knows how the graphic novel medium works and who understands basic literary analysis would be that the significant character we just met is, in fact, the child in question—except that everything else we learn about Destro and the original Meta Liberation Army here makes it entirely impossible.

I’ll do a full breakdown on why that is in the next section. In the meantime, here’s the next reference:

Here, we’re looking at the phrase the Viz translation renders as, “His blood runs through these veins.” The literal Japanese there is, Desutoro no matsuei chi o tsugu mono! In a literal translation, chi o tsugu mono means, “one who inherits the blood,” or, more loosely, “blood successor.” It’s matsuei—末裔—that’s the key word here.

Japanese has several words to express the concept of “descendant.” Matsuei is one word; the data book uses shison. So what’s the difference? Well, I’ll talk about shison in a moment, but I had an inkling of it just from looking at the kanji in matsuei—“end” and “descendant” respectively, leaving me with an impression of something like a final descendant or the terminus of the bloodline. Further research confirmed it: shison can refer to any lineal blood tie, but matsuei refers to a bloodline’s final inheritor, the person at the end of a long line of many, or even countless, generations. It’s the difference between being able to point to a grandparent and the kind of painstaking genealogical research that lets you[2] point to a famous royal from eight hundred years ago—matsuei is a word that very much assumes the existence of those countless generations.

So not only does Rikiya’s line there not imply that he’s Chikara’s son, but his specific word choice also tells us that he cannot be Chikara’s son. That’s, uh. Pretty conclusive, I would say.

Lastly, though, there’s also the data book. This is, perhaps, the actual closest you’re going to get to a manga equivalent of those character blurbs on the anime website, at least until such time as Hori deigns to give the MLA types character profile pages. (I live ever in hope.)

There are two relevant bits of text, one in Re-Destro’s entry, and the other in Destro Classic’s. The first describes how Re-Destro organizes the MLA as Desutoro no chi o tsugu mono: the same phrase he uses for himself in the manga, minus the matsuei. @codenamesazanka (the one who told me about the databook references among other citations, bless) rendered it as “Destro’s blood successor”; I have also seen it given as “the successor of Destro’s bloodline.” Note again, the lack of reference to a father/son bond.

Chikara’s entry uses that other descendant word I mentioned before, 子孫, shison. Notice that the term uses that ko kanji from kodomo before? As it does in joshi, 子 here reads shi. The other kanji, 孫, means grandchild. Thus, literally, grandchild-child—or, in the vernacular, simply descendant.

And then we have the anime website.

So, for comparison’s sake, the anime website uses 息子—the same combination of kanji that I said earlier gives you musuko, son. Heck, it even uses 父, chichi, for Destro—father. It’s as explicit as it’s possible to be, and I just don’t know why or how the anime website could fuck that up so bad when absolutely nothing in the manga describes the two Yotsubashis that way, and, indeed, one specific word choice actually rules out the possibility.

So, that’s all the manga says directly. It’s not the only evidence there is, though. In fact, the next piece makes it even more clear how colossally and impossibly wrong a father/son connection for Destro and his modern successor is.

Timeline

The long and short of this section is, “Since Harima Oji was Sako Atsuhiro’s great-great-grandfather, there is no possible way that Destro—who pre-dated Harima—can be Re-Destro’s father.” If you read that sentence and nodded your complete understanding and agreement, feel free to skip ahead to the last section. If you’d like the full explanation it takes to reach that sentence’s conclusion, though, read on.

So, aside from the word matsuei, the timeline is the most telling piece of evidence to my eye. I address it secondly rather than firstly because it’s less direct than the explicit narration; it relies on drawing conclusions based on things we’ve been told elsewhere rather than on the immediately relevant text. Oh, Mr. Compress’s relationship to Harima is explicit enough, but on what am I basing my claim that Destro predates him?

Regarding that, there’s no explicit year relative to My Hero Academia’s current events given for when Destro and the original Meta Liberation Army were active; the same is true for Harima Oji’s escapades. However, we are given some broad-strokes information, relative not to current events, but rather to the history of heroism as a legal institution in Japan.

We know that there was a widespread, lengthy period of chaos following the rise of quirks—called meta-abilities in those early years. At some point, however, people began to search for a way for meta-humans to live in peace with non-metas. The compromise that was reached was the foundation of professional heroism in Japan—while the use of meta-abilities would be legal in private settings, it was only by becoming licensed by the state as “heroes” that people could use their quirks in public.[3]

The legislation curtailing the use of meta-abilities—and the appropriation of a dead woman’s language to popularize a law establishing exactly the opposite of what she used that language to call for—is what catalyzed the rise of the original MLA. Thus, we can position Destro as being alive and active around the same time that heroism as a legal institution was being formed. Since we further know that he committed suicide in prison, we can assume that his child was conceived at some point prior to his capture. Ergo, Destro’s child, were they alive today, would be as old as Japanese professional heroism itself.

Next, consider Harima Oji, the Peerless Thief, a criminal who targeted the riches of “sham heroes.” We’re specifically told that he was active in the days in which the current system was settling into place—e.g. he only became active once the Hero System was established enough to have produced corrupt heroes. We’re told he preached reformation—he wasn’t just some pre-existing criminal who saw a shiny new target in heroes; he had specific grievances which he wanted addressed by the system, and which the system was not addressing.

The earliest Harima could possibly be active, then, is concurrent with Destro—Harima fighting against the corrupt people who had found their way into the new heroic institution, and Destro fighting against using the institution of heroism to oppress non-heroes. What I think is more likely, though, is that Harima came after Destro—Harima needed to have had time to realize what kinds of fakes had been drawn to this shiny new career path, maybe even to spend some time trying to change things the legal way.

I don’t suspect they were separated by very long—I would imagine Destro was easily within Harima’s living memory, and might well have influenced why he chose the path of protest that he did—but I do think they were separate.

Moving forward, then, Mr. Compress is four generations distant from his famous ancestor. Thus, even if you assume that Harima is of the same generation as Chikara, that’s what you’re looking at for Chikara’s child: someone who, were they alive today, would be old enough to be the great-grandparent of a thirty-two-year-old man.

Re-Destro’s probably a few years older than Mr. C, sure,[4] but that man doesn’t have Ujiko’s slow-aging quirk. Unless you want to start pulling theories about cryogenic stasis the story for some reason never saw fit to mention out of thin air, Re-Destro is in no way old enough to fit the bill.

This is backed up by one other piece of the timeline as well, and one more place we can look at language:

The small child at the center of the image is Rikiya, so young that he’s in schoolboy shorts for a meeting otherwise so formal that he’s been made to wear a tie. He’s, what, six to nine here, tops? And the adults speaking to him say that they’ve been in hiding for generations—代々, daidai, the kanji for generation followed by a kanji that just means, “See that kanji written right before me? Yeah, just read that one again.”

The original MLA was active for only a handful of years, and, per Chapter 218, they didn’t dissolve until Destro was captured. Thus, we can assume they have been in hiding since then, but not before then. With that in mind, this is another line that renders a father/son relationship impossible.

Remember, Chikara already had a child in the world circa his capture. If Rikiya were Chikara’s son, then Destro’s capture and his army’s subsequent dissolution could not have happened any farther back than nine months plus however old Rikiya was in this exact moment of his youth. Rikiya, who we see here as a child of less than ten.

Ten years in hiding doesn’t make one generation; it damn sure doesn’t make multiple ones.

Now, you could make theories about cryogenic statis that would explain this ludicrous discrepancy, sure. You could also theorize about e.g. artificial insemination,[5] or time stop quirks, or any number of other possibilities in the vast panoply the HeroAca world offers. The point is, though, that you don’t need to. There was, in the manga, no discrepancy that needed to be explained. It is only fanon misinterpretation and a glaring disinterest in the series’ villains from official sources that have presented this issue.

I’m praying that it’s all just a misunderstanding on the part of whoever maintains the website, and that the anime itself will render the relevant bits of dialogue correctly. Given the extreme cuts and alterations that My Villain Academia has been subjected to thus far, though, I’m sure you can appreciate my being concerned.

…So that’s the meat of it. The idea that Rikiya is Chikara’s son is wrong simply on the basis of what’s said in the text, and it’s doubly wrong on the basis of the timeline. There is, though, one other thing I think points towards Re-Destro being exactly the descendant he says he is, not a son playing down the connection out of humility or something. This one is a lot more headcanon-y, though, so I saved it for last.

MLA Social Dynamics

It’s quite simple. We have, in the MLA, a group of people that venerates Destro’s bloodline to an obviously unhealthy degree, putting up portraits of him wherever they can get away with it, tagging his successor with a “Re-” as if to invoke reincarnation or miraculous return, entirely willing to throw their lives away for what they think was his cause, and others’ lives if those others say anything too scathing about the words Destro wrote, quite as if they treat Destro’s memoir as some sort of holy writ.

They venerate Destro that much, and you’re trying to tell me that they wouldn’t just call a spade a spade and acknowledge RD as the son of their great leader? Come on.

Since long before I turned up the matsuei factoid in researching this piece, since long before Mr. Compress gave us such a helpful generational comparison, I’ve held the opinion that, given a group that holds their leaders in such high esteem, with such particular regard for bloodline, the only reason Rikiya does just call himself a descendant, rather than citing the specific term for what he is, is that the specific term is distant enough that it actually does sound more impressive to just say “descendant,” rather than something like, “great-great-great-grandson.” That kind of thing just begs the question, “What took you guys so long?” or, “You and how many other people, buddy?”

Mr. Compress may have the panache to carry off a line like that, but Rikiya’s a different story. If he had something so amazing up his sleeve as, “I am the son of the great Destro,” I have to think he’d just say it proudly, not fall back on the impressionistic vaguery of something like chi o tsugu mono. Even if I had no other evidence to work with, I’d think the same—all the evidence you need is right there in the character writing of who Rikiya and the MLA are and how they talk about the man whose dreams Re-Destro was raised to carry.

A closing note: I will allow that Rikiya is being overdramatic when he uses matsuei and its connotation of countless generations. There are a few other things we can use to trace the history of heroism—Ujiko’s age, and the 18-years-or-less periods that One For All was held by its pre-All Might bearers—and running those numbers leads me to believe that it is, in fact, entirely possible to count the number of generations between Rikiya and Chikara, and the number, while higher than one, is probably not all that high. Certainly matsuei is being more dramatic about it than is entirely warranted, hence the poetic flourish of the official translation’s, “His blood runs through these veins!” The theatricality only makes me fonder of him, however.

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FOOTNOTES

[1] It was changed and reverted on Re-Destro’s page at least twice before it finally stuck in January of this year. Chikara’s page took until July to be corrected, and it’s still wrong on various other subpages.

[2] Or your kids, if you have those. Only the last generation in the bloodline is the matsuei, but that’s a moving goalpost as long as the bloodline is still propagating.

[3] This summary of events combines what we know from both My Hero Academia proper and the Vigilantes spin-off, which I recommend to anyone who’s at all interested in finer-grained worldbuilding on Hero Society Japan than the main series makes time for.

[4] I personally headcanon him as 42.

[5] To which point I would refer back to the word kodomo, and note that that word choice indicates that Destro had a child in the world. Not a sperm sample kept in a freezer somewhere, waiting for the right would-be mother: an actual child. Some quick research on my part says that the farthest that term stretches is in using it to refer to yet-unborn children, fetuses still in the womb. Seeing as Japan doesn’t even allow inmates conjugal visits in real life, much less in a setting where villains are so dehumanized that Tartarus is an acceptable punishment for them, the line about Destro “having a child out in the world” takes us right back to a date of conception no later than Destro’s final night of freedom.

#boku no hero academia #my hero academia #bnha #bnha meta #yotsubashi rikiya #yotsubashi chikara #re-destro #destro bnha #meta liberation army #my writing #i have thoughts on the anime's nonsense too but #hahawow #that's gonna take a little longer to get coherent #preview: it's not about capitalism #it's about fear

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startrek-readerslog · 2 years

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“The Beginnings”by Annie Reed

Published Fan Fiction?

The first story on our journey is in an anthology of Star Trek fan fiction. There are actually 10 of these anthologies! Which is honestly wild. I am no stranger to fan fiction I have read and do read my fair share (would I be a young nerd on the internet if I haven’t?). The idea that there is published fan fiction that people got paid for???? I can’t believe it but I do love it. When I got the anthologies the first thing I noticed were the “rules” to enter the contest that got your work published and there were hilarious so I thought I would share my favorites. All of my favorite rules come from the “story disqualifications” section.

First of all no “ explicit sexual activity or graphic depictions of violence”, in AO3 terms no rated M or E fics

You also cannot create your own AU (alternate universe) where there is major character death that is unfounded in the show, the uncovering of long lost siblings, or any non canonical pairings. So there goes all the fun stuff!

My last and definitely favorite rule, popular tropes such as and I quote “hurt/comfort” fics (for those uninitiated this is a trope where one character gets hurt and another comforts them) . Damn there goes all the other good stuff.

So it’s pretty clear that these stories have to stick very close to canon or expand on pre-established stories.

The Author

Something fun about these anthologies is that each author is credited and also gives a little bio, so I wanted to take a moment to get to know Annie Reed, our first author. Her bio is sadly a little short but informs us that she lives with her husband, daughter, and a hell of a lot of cats. This entry is actually her third to get published (so we will see her work again!) it said in the blurb that it is her dream to become a full time author so I did some internet digging. It seems she has retired and now does write full time! If you are curious you can find her books here on Amazon, or you can view her blog here. It seems she still loves a short story anthology.

The Summary

Part of the reason I put off making this post even though I’ve had the book for a bit is that I knew this one was about the Borg and I wanted to get to the first Borg episode before I wrote about it. That way I had a refresher non Borg lore, because spoiler that’s what this one is about. It is written in an undated past and tells the story if the origins of the Borg.

It starts with a quote from Star Trek: First Contact (which sadly I have not seen) “I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Borg”. Long story short Annie Reed imagines the Borg as an attempt to cure an incurable virus that is ravaging through another world. One of the experimental treatments they try is using a kind of nanobot to go into the body and destroy the virus while repairing cells to a healthy state. The first person to try this treatment is a young woman whose grandfather is influential. The bots take their job a little too seriously and the young woman’s body has all of its broken bits fixed but turned inorganic. They “make perfect that which is imperfect”. The scientists who crafted the treatment were killed for the monstrosity they created, and they decide to kill her too. However she escapes and realizes that with her new body she can assimilate others, add their collective knowledge with hers and control them all by flooding their bodies with her bots. She assimilates her first world, her own.

My Thoughts

As stated I am no stranger to fan fic, I have even read my share of Star Trek fan fic, so I had no negative preconceptions going in to this, in fact I was excited! All in all I thought this was a quality short story. The author managed to build the Borg’s home world in a few short pages. She filled it will a society that believes in advancement and learning, and then tears it down a few pages later. I think Reed also makes the Borg Queen an interesting figure, and it is unclear whether or not she truly embraces what happens to her or if the bots reach her mind and make her okay with it. It’s this ambiguity that I thought was intriguing. On the beginning of the story she thinks about returning to her world’s version of university and just being able to walk and do tasks for herself again. When she begins the treatment and it starts to change her, replace her legs, unsnarl her fingers she loves the feeling but is terrified of her own body. Then there is a time cut and she seems to be at ease with her body and arrogant in its superiority. She uses a terminal in her isolation unit to learn all that she can from it, and this feels in line with her pre-transformation goals, but on top of that seems to be the nanobots desire to fix others too. Maybe her and the probes share her brain, her drive is for knowledge and theirs is for perfection. They coexist in her brain just as her body coexists with organic and inorganic. Honestly we could've started with a much worse story! There was this like subplot that was conflict between the Borg queen and her grandfather that I didn’t love, but hey you can’t win them all!

Overall I give this story a 6/10. Up next is “the Veil at Valcour”!

#Star Trek Fan Fiction #Annie Reed #Borg Queen #The Borg #Strange New Worlds VI #The Beginnings

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merigreenleaf · 5 years

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WIP Rambles Thing

It's been forever since I did any tag games, so I'm super excited that @bluemartlet tagged me in this! And @toboldlywrite asked to be tagged, too. I feel like such a weird writer, though, because everything I’ve worked on in the past five years has been the same series. So I guess if you forgot about dorks, here’s dorks! (There’s info about the characters here or here if you’re on mobile.)

1. Colorweaver (rewriting/editing the guh... 4th draft? Parts have been rewritten six times, but some parts only twice, so I guess that averages to a 4th?) Genre: These are all the same comedic contemporary high fantasy series POV: 3rd person close/limited, multiple POV; in the current draft there are 3 (Adair, Blythe, Dray) plus letters/journal entries from Rosalie Blurb: Adair Cerulean is an amateur cartographer with the ability to make his drawings have the semblance of life. Like the other creators who possess magic and channel this through art, Adair is a Weaver. Adair is in the process of working on the project that, once complete, would advance him in rank when he discovers it missing! As its new owner seeks out more Weavers, Adair feels a tug from his creation to follow. This pull leads him to a carnival where he meets a healer standing guard over a stricken performer. It turns out that his thief is more than a mere robber and there’s more at stake than just a stolen map. Will Adair get it back and stop the thief before anyone else is hurt?

2. Sentinel (writing the 3rd draft, but technically there have been 6 versions; the others were detailed outlines. This has been hard to nail down!) POV: Ditto; POVs are Adair, Blythe, Firedrake, and Rosalie who gets normal chapters in this one. Blurb: Adair has recovered his stolen map and acquired a new family who will -- with luck and a lack of imps -- protect him in the future. His elation is short-lived, however. The other artists refuse to accept his choice of sentinel-intended or his desire to help as magic in the capital city begins to go awry. When an enemy thought to be defeated returns to team up with someone from Adair's past, he and his family start receiving cryptic advice seemingly from the future. Caught between past and present, and hoping they don’t muck up said future, the dorks must decide how far they’re willing to defy authority, their own arcane training, and calendars.

3. Untitled (brainstorming 1st draft) POV: Ditto, although by this point I might throw in a 5th and add Camille into the mix. This book snuck into a previously-planned trilogy a few months ago so it’s the newcomer of this quartet. Blurb: Adair has been begrudgingly promoted and is now able to practice his cartography wherever he chooses. The dorks, along with their fledgling carnival troupe, are asked to travel to the neighboring country to check for anyone showing signs of magic. This is a cover to hide their real task of investigating the possible source of the arcane glitches happening back home in Concordia. They soon find out that Galanvoth’s plotting goes deeper than anyone thought. It’s up to the dorks to do their own kind of bizarre plotting involving disguises and a fake marriage trope to get to the truth. Will they be able to uncover the people responsible before the magical disruption turns into permanent damage to their home?

4. Iconoclasm (first draft started, but needs to be massively re-outlined) POV: Ditto and I have no idea who else might be joining by this point lol Blurb: As if the previous assignment wasn’t weird enough, a being straight out of history approaches the artists with a plea. There's trouble in his home and he asks that the help he once gave be returned. His only requirement is that the dorks be the ones sent, much to their dismay. Three of them are fugitives and Montglace doesn't exactly embrace outsiders with open arms. Fortunately there's a resistance brewing and those rebels are more than happy to accept strangers into their midst-- at least until they realize how strange said strangers are. When the dorks are forced apart, they begin to realize that they can never truly be separated. If they can find a way to weave their magics into each other and face their greatest fears, they just might be able to help bring down a stagnant and cruel mythos. And hey, if they can do this, facing their own people to tell them that they kinda broke artisan tradition (again) and mucked with magic (again) won’t be nearly as bad, right?

I have two more under the read more. :)

5. Shadowweaver (book 1 in the next trilogy. 1st draft is sorta started-- it was originally part of Sentinel before I pulled Gilly’s subplot out of it and moved her later in the series) POV: Still 3rd person limited, multiple. Likely Gilly, Grandeau, and Astra, but this trilogy is weird because it takes place in two points on the timeline with one of the MCs serving as a bridge and I’m not sure yet how much of Astra’s plot fits into the first book. (I introduced Gilly, Chell, and Ametrine here. Ametrine is the dorks’ adopted son, Astra is his younger sister [not adopted], and Grandeau is Gilly’s brother although she doesn’t know that yet.) Blurb: Gilly is a carnival performer, thief, and ghost-freer who shares these jobs with her roommate/best friend Ametrine. While the two of them are tracking down art that was illegally gained by a dishonest art dealer, the dealer’s sister catches Gilly in the act. She gets away, but is intrigued by this girl whose weak voice is oddly captivating. She finds herself drawn back and soon discovers that while Chantrell is confined in her own home, she isn’t as sick as she appears, nor is she as dead as people seem to think she is. Gilly is determined to find out the truth and, with Ametrine’s help, set her new friend free.

6. Sciamachy (book 2 in the next trilogy, brainstorming) Blurb: Chantrell has joined Gilly and Ametrine on their thieving and ghost hunting adventures; with her magical ability to produce any sound, Chell is the perfect distraction for the others’ heists. It’s during one of these encounters that Gilly notices a shadow that shouldn’t be there. Meanwhile Astra, twenty years in the future, notices the same thing. Someone or something is trying to reach out to the girls using the shadow magic they both share. Could this be connected to the elementals that Astra has discovered are being used to power Galanvoth’s inventions?

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I have other stories in progress or in the planning stages, but those are short stories, so I didn’t include them here. I have ideas for way more books because my plan is to make this a huge sprawling series that spans centuries and locations (and possibly worlds). Like I want to write one about the founding of Concordia and the Muses and my immortal character back when she was very young, and maybe more following that character at different points on the timeline, and one that follows the “antagonist” of Colorweaver, and... well, I’ve been working on this series for five years and I’d gladly work on it for another fifty. :D

I’m not sure if you’ve done this yet, but I’m going to tag @lynnafred @elliot-orion @lady-redshield-writes @homesteadhorner @perringwrites @joshuaorrizonte @thatwriternamedvolk @theguildedtypewriter and anyone else who happens to see this and wants to play because I’ve been gone WAY too long and I need a recap on what everyone is working on. So if you’ve done this before or have a similar post already shared, feel free to link me to it or tag me in it. No need to do a tag game, I just would love reminders of what everyone is writing. <3

#writing #writeblr #my writing ramblings #unexpected inspiration series #tag game #wip tag #blurbs are so hard #there are so many subplots going in these books that I could barely mention #like lizards #and gods #sort of gods anyway #I love how the dorks keep being dragged into things #because they can't leave well enough alone #and keep making really bad decisions that sometimes work out #I swear the only reason they survive their own stupidity to have kids later #is because they keep messing with magic in ways it's not supposed to be messed with #and because Adair's artisan bond makes them unkillable when the stupidity is individual #let's just not have more than one or two of them do something dumb at once okay?#ooo this is reminding me of a character world building thing I meant to share when I came back!#so all this tag rambling was useful lol #writing tag

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zombiescantfly · 5 years

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Words About Games - Unreal Tournament 3 (Epic Games, 2007)

Unreal Tournament 3 is nothing short of an utter embarrassment, incompetent at nearly every level, and a gross misunderstanding of a playerbase that was, at the time, nearly a decade old. I wish I could just leave it at that, but this is the first game I ever felt wronged by.

This was a franchise killer. UT3 flopped so hard that it took fans desperate for any sign of a new game ten years to make Epic even consider adding a new entry to the series, and even then it is, as of time of writing, on indefinite hiatus so the handful of developers assigned to it can make more Fortnite dances. But that comes later. Unreal Tournament 3 comes first.

The Unreal series was hardly a stranger to hard knocks. Return to Na Pali was a dull-at-best expansion pack while the much-maligned Unreal 2 missed the point entirely and has since slipped into laughable obscurity, and even the original Unreal Championship on Xbox had to be redeemed with a well-received followup. I played neither of those, by the way, it's just my understanding that the first one was bad and the second was good.

So what made UT3 the last chance? What about it was bad enough to kill the franchise that had gone toe-to-toe with Quake and lived to tell the tale? The real question is what the hell Epic was thinking.

Unreal Tournament 3 lacks a great many things. At launch, it boasted a meager six gamemodes, and even then only by virtue of splitting 1v1 deathmatch maps off of Deathmatch and into a new category called Duel. So, our gametypes are: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Duel, Capture the Flag, Vehicle CTF, and Warfare. That's it. No Bombing Run, no Mutant, no Invasion, no Domination (double or otherwise), and yet again, for some ungodly reason, no Assault.

I feel like I've done this before. What else did UT3 leave out? Facing Worlds! Yep, it's out again, and this time without a replacement. That's right, no Face 4 to make up for it. A new Curse map, a staple of the series since the original Unreal multiplayer, is also missing. Most of the character factions introduced in UT2003 and 2004 are gone, like the Nightmares, the Robots, the Juggernauts, the Mercenaries, the Gen Mo’kai, the Egyptians, and the Skaarj. You know, the Skaarj, literally the most important faction to the series at large. They're gone. Xan Kriegor, the Big Bad of every Tournament since 1999, the final champ who uses an AI setting above Godlike, who has his own spaceship where the ultimate match is duked out 1v1 in a truly brutal and awesome deathmatch? Gone.

But that's not the worst of it. Sure, they stripped out almost everything they'd spent so much time building up throughout character and map descriptions for three games, but even that wasn't enough. There has to be something else they could take away to really strip the game of its identity. The Flak Cannon? No, too easy. The Shock Rifle? Almost. Malcolm, the veteran of all the in-universe Tournaments and arguably the (human) mascot of the series? I'll do you one better.

They took away the Tournament.

They took away.

The Tournament.

Unreal Tournament 3 has no Tournament.

What do we have instead, in Unreal Tournament 3, if not a Tournament? Calling it Gears of War 1.5 is a good place to start.

Unreal Tournament never really had a defining artstyle to call its own, but it was still recognizable. UT99 had its harsh shadows and pockets of bright light on largely cool-colored maps, a very neo-industrial/tech vibe with a smattering of ancient temples thrown in there to call back to Unreal. UT2003 and 4 turned their tech maps into something a bit shinier overall, left a bit of industrial grunge in, had their fun with future space techno Egypt, and splashed a bit of East Asian architecture in one or two maps for good measure. Colors were bright, each map had an identifiable pallette, and it's hard to confuse one for the other.

UT3 came out after Gears of War, which means it looked like this:

Not helping matters is the new direction character design was taken, which basically boils down to taking Gears character out of their usual armor and putting them in UT styled suits. Malcolm’s there and he's put on about 200 pounds of muscle.

Man, just look at all those graphics. And it's a good thing there are so many, because otherwise how would we know what we're looking at when the dramatic cutscenes play?

Because since we have no Tournament in our Unreal Tournament game, we of course have to have a very dramatic story about a Krall invasion and this guy named Ronin’s quest to get revenge.

Let's unpack that.

The Krall invaded. The Krall, the mercenary/slave race kept on retainer by the Skaarj, are the primary antagonists, but not the Skaarj themselves. Ronin, an entirely new character made for this game, is the primary focus when actual series (human) mascot Malcolm is right there. And the whole thing is a heroic revenge story, not a Tournament.

I hate this game.

So UT3 forces a series of ladder matches across all of three gametypes into a narrative nobody asked for. If it had had anything to with the series’ history, it probably could have been acceptable, but it doesn't mean anything as it is. Matches are now short gameplay segments in between an overproduced narrative about revenge and retribution, and they're given wholly unnecessary context. Deathmatch is no longer literal bloodsport to entertain the masses but a gritty, brutal battle of attrition until one side wears down the other side’s respawner charges. Capture the Flag isn't a game, it's you taking a daring and gritty shot at capturing your ugly, inhuman enemy’s Field LAttice Generator to turn off their respawner. Warfare/Onslaught isn't a fun territory control match, it's a gritty and unrelentingly brutal comment on how war is hell, as you capture territory to destroy the Core that powers your gritty enemy’s respawner.

Do you get it. Respawners. Real war. Not a game anymore. No fun allowed.

Sigh.

This game came out when I was late into highschool, and was one of the first games I was super excited about. Back then I didn't actually play all that many games, tending instead to stick to a smallish library of my favorites. So when UT3 was announced, originally as Unreal Tournament 2007, I was hyped. It would be one of the first games on the brand-new Unreal Engine 3, and the handful of prerelease screenshots kept my attention for months with their unparalleled lighting and detail. Blurbs about the changes they were making excited me, talking about how they were putting a bit more speed back into the game to win over the holdouts who thought UT2004 was too slow. An entirely new roster of vehicles was going to sit alongside the existing ones, and a whole host of changes was coming to merge the best of UT99 with UT2004.

That's what they promised. What was actually delivered was an anemic blend of half-baked executions. People don't like double jumping and think UT2004 is too floaty, others like double jumping and think UT99 is missing critical movement options? UT3 keeps double jumping but makes the total jump height of both equal to a single jump in UT99, removes wall and air dodging, and adds a noticeable recovery delay after dodging from the ground. Cool, great.

People didn't like the weapon balance changes and replacements? Toss out the Assault Rifle, bring back the Enforcer, but make it just as inaccurate as the AR! Make the spread on the Flak Cannon’s primary tighter, but have its alt fire shell fall off even faster than UT99’s!

That's not to say all of the changes were bad. Believe it or not, Unreal Tournament 3 actually does have a handful of things I really like, which makes their presence in an overall worse game all the more painful. Vehicle physics are greatly improved, the new vehicles are amazing, Adrenaline is gone, the Rocket Launcher has its grenades back, a lot of the new weapon designs are superb, powerups are back on the map, you get a hoverboard on Warfare and VCtF maps, and I'm all out of nice things to say.

The game, visually, is a mess (see above). A new graphics engine means new effects to play with, but those effects here are bloom and more bloom. Players get lost in overstuffed scenery because the artstyle inherited from Gears of War is red on brown on gray. A more grounded overall concept strips a lot of identity from returning maps, taking them from space or exotic locales and putting them in a generic futuristic cityscape.

That's a small complaint, and totally worth dismissing, but it shows a certain lack of respect to the history of the series, to me. These are maps that have been iconic as a whole that have been repurposed to show off how many pixels can be crammed into a skybox. When Facing Worlds was eventually re-added in UT3’s first and only content update, it was transplanted from two opposing towers on an asteroid spinning above Earth and just set in the mountains somewhere in China.

If you're looking at it from a pure gameplay perspective then there's nothing wrong with the change. But it's just part of an inherent ignorance as to what players wanted from this game. We didn't want a weird storyline where we watch Epic mush per-pixel lit action figures into each other before graciously being allowed to capture the enemy’s Field Lattice Generator three times, we wanted to mush those action figures together ourselves as we climbed higher up the ladder towards facing the Tournament champion. We wanted to thunder across whatever alien landscapes the map designer thought up that day and add another piece to the expansive puzzle of the Unreal universe, not spend two-thirds of the game puttering around China or the generic scifi city.

Also, in going back to get those above screenshots, I discovered something I’d entirely forgotten: there are no map descriptions. The strongest part of that good old fashioned world building is just gone. No more short tales of a skyscraper built by a hubris-devoured crazy person, no more small insights into the shipping lines around this or that outpost, no more glimpses at all into the world beyond the game. For them to suddenly make such a big deal about the story, Epic sure didn’t care about anything beyond their cutscenes.

But I guess I'm getting ahead of myself. What else is in UT3?

Not a whole lot. With a lack of gamemodes came a lack of maps, though I suppose 41 maps was still more than you could expect at the time. The bonus pack that turned UT3 into the “Black Edition” (I have no idea) added 19 more and did, as previously mentioned, re-add Facing Worlds. Mutators are also lacking, with a fair chunk appearing just as basic gameplay tweaks - no hoverboard, no Orb (we'll talk about the stupid Orb), no powerups, the Arena mainstay, no Translocator (just a game setting in all previous titles), friendly fire (also a previous game setting), game speed adjustments (yep, was a setting before), and your basic Instagib/big head/super berserk mutators like you always get.

Gone are fun things like quad jump, vampire, big wheels, slow motion corpses, all the “other UT” mutators (UT Classic and UT 2003 Style if you recall), and vehicle arena. Remember, no fun allowed.

And I sure do wish there was fun allowed, because some things almost are. Warfare is the star here, or at least it should have been. Imagine: a map five times as large as the largest Onslaught map, still joined by paths of dozens of capture nodes linked together to create distinct fronts, laced in between guided objectives reminiscent of Assault scenarios. Completing these objectives grants you unique bonuses on your path to the enemy Core, if you can make it past the army of players and vehicles ahead…

That's what Warfare was billed as, but that's not what Warfare ended up being. What did it turn out as? Literally Onslaught again, but with an Orb now.

The Orb is a game-breakingly frustrating mechanic. Here's how it goes: the Orb spawns at a node you control. Someone can pick up the Orb and carry it around, shooting a giant pillar of light into the sky wherever they go. The Orb will instantly destroy and capture any enemy node it's brought to, and will be destroyed in doing so. The player carrying the Orb can't use any vehicle except their personal hoverboard.

The Orb either wins games outright or does stone nothing. See, both teams get an Orb, so what happens most of the time is that one guy uses the Orb to capture a node, then the other Orb is used to take it back. It's not like you can use it to get a sneaky capture, because of the giant pillar of light shooting into the sky and an icon on the minimap. The Orb is stupid, and proper control of the map makes sure that absolutely nothing comes from its presence. So good work Epic, you added another layer to a gamemode you already stripped back to exactly what we'd gotten before, and all that comes of it is absolutely nothing.

The new vehicles are cool though. Everything from UT2004 makes a comeback with a tweaked design, and new Necris vehicles are added as well. They're usually just an analog of an existing vehicle except with wiggly scifi tentacles, so you get a single-person hoverthingy and a VTOL jet with lasers and missiles, but they really outdid themselves with some of the other ones. Filling the spot of the main battle tank for the new vehicles is a giant War of the Worlds style tripod that can clamber over most obstacles and terrain. The light attack jeep spot is a laser-toting mini-walker that can retract its tendrils and roll around as a ball, squishing people on its merry way. Like I said, not all bad. Oh, but only one team gets them, and not all maps support their inclusion. So only mostly bad.

But they are all that's left of a much larger gamemode that had more and more stripped from it until they were left with literally just Onslaught but with the Orb.

And the bad things just kept coming, this time in regards to the music. New composers were brought in again, in the form of Jesper Kyd and Rom DiPrisco, and they make a total mess of the place. There are a good number of “remixes” present on the soundtrack, but where the musical genius Kevin Reipl took GoDown and made Hyperblast Redux, whichever of the duo made the UT3 remix of GoDown just added some modulation and a breakbeat. Or maybe the classic Foregone Destruction, where the UT3 version just adds some modulation and a breakbeat. Mechanism Eight? Modulation and a breakbeat. Skyward Fire? Modulation and a breakbeat. The classic Unreal Tournament theme itself? Modulation and a breakbeat. The instantly recognizable stage music for UT2004’s Torlan, SDG-ONS1? Surprisingly, a mold-breaker here: no modulation, only an added breakbeat. And someone wailing over it. I get that it's supposed to have a vaguely Middle Eastern or whatever sort of vibe, ‘cause the original did and Torlan itself was set in a dusty oasis sort of thing, but they changed the setting for UT3 to be more temperate so I really have no idea.

My point is that the music in UT3 sucks. Even past the embarrassing quality of the remixes, none of the original compositions are memorable. There's no energy, there's nothing that plays to the idea of the game, and there's no bombast. The music probably has its fans out there, but I'm about as far from one of them as you can get.

I’m also about as far from a fan of the game itself as you can get. When this came out, I was mainly confused as to how it could be so bad. It’s not like it was the first time I ever didn’t like a videogame, but for Unreal Tournament of all things to turn out so bad, I just didn’t really know what I was experiencing. UT3 was so bad that within a month I was looking up tutorials on how to use UT2004’s editor. A year or so later Epic put UT3 on Steam and added a content pack that turned it into Unreal Tournament 3: Black Edition (I still don’t know), but that added so little that it barely made a difference. Two new gamemodes that just amounted to new types of Deathmatch, a handful of maps, and that was it.

People made their own maps, sure, and I’m sure if I looked now I could find mods that make it a more bearable experience. But at the same time, I’m not really sure. Because see, UT3 didn’t just release on PC this time around, it also came out on PS3 and the Xbox 360. Epic wanted to bring the award-winning modding scene to those platforms as well, which means the entire process of modding and the number of things that could be modded was cut way down to adhere to guidelines from both companies as well as the much more limited space available on the console’s hard drives. I only ever looked into mods back around when the Black Edition dropped, and the most popular mods I remember from back then is just adding a Master Chief character model.

To say that Unreal Tournament 3 was a disappointment is perhaps the biggest understatement of this entire essay. I’m not going to rant on about how it was a betrayal of brand integrity or something, because I’m not entirely that naive, but the failure of this game to do as much right as its predecessors or even impress on any great scale meant a lot for the arena shooter genre. Id Software had bowed out and wouldn’t reappear with Rage until years later. Halo was wrapping up its trilogy to critical acclaim. Call of Duty was rapidly changing the face of shooters with Call of Duty 4. Fallout 3 was near, Bioshock had come out a year or so prior, and Gears of War 2 would cement Epic’s new direction.

There was no redeeming followup to Unreal Tournament 3. Nothing came out to add Assault or Domination or Bombing Run back in. It came out, bellyflopped, and Epic let it sit in the lovingly-rendered mud full of bloom and speculars that it landed in.

In the decade-plus since then, the face of shooters has changed again and again. CoD4 ushered in an unrelenting push towards modern-day settings, a small subset of shooters with RPG elements grew larger, Bungie made more Halo games and then Destiny, a whole indie subgenre popped up to try to let us relive the days of Doom and Quake, then a fantastic new Doom came out, and now everyone has a battle royale. Even Epic.

A few years ago on the official Unreal Tournament forums on Epic’s website, a group of fans formed a plan to make their own Unreal Tournament entry under a different name. Work started, schedules were made, and it caught Epic’s attention as so many remake projects do. But rather than end with a Cease & Desist like just about every other one out there, a few people from Epic expressed surprise that there was such a massive push and actually pledged their own support to the project. Unreal Tournament 4 was suddenly an official project.

It was a strange relationship, of course - Epic’s people gave it a place in their launcher and let it use their official servers, they signed off on all major updates and made everything nice and official, but the weapon, map, and character design was going to be on the community. We can get into the ethics of that some other time, but the point was this: Before all that long, there was a playable Unreal Tournament 4. Maps were using placeholder art and geometry, most of the weapons were just the UT3 models, there was one character model, and all you could play was Deathmatch, but it was coming along. And it did come along. The Enforcer, Link Gun, Flak Cannon, Rocket Launcher, and Sniper Rifle were all finalized and modeled, a few maps were finished entirely and look gorgeous (and play really well!), and more character models were added.

And then Fortnite got big.

Fortnite, a weird little Orcs Must Die-alike with building and survival elements, wasn’t much of a big name until Epic added a battle royale mode of their own, not too long after Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds swept across the Steam Early Access scene. What that meant for the UT4 project is that the handful of official Epic people who were getting paid to curate this giant mod endeavor were suddenly reassigned to work on something a little more immediate, namely Fortnite.

The long and short of it is that Epic killed Unreal Tournament twice in a row. There are still arena shooters out there. Toxikk is basically just UT2004 deathmatch with a shiny coat of paint (I played a bit, it’s okay but lacks a lot in comparison); Quake Champions is a perfectly fine hero shooter with a lot of balance problems and way too few maps, plus it’s Quake which means all the problems I have remain; Tribes: Ascend came and went just as fast as players in it moved thanks to a suddenly overaggressive monetization model; and lately I guess Dusk has its multiplayer which I hear is pretty healthy.

The arena shooter isn’t dead; no genre really can be, and I have firsthand experience with how much work can be done to keep individual games alive, but it’s certainly not a popular choice these days. If so much has happened to the shooter genre at large since Wolfenstein 3D came out, that much and more can happen again. More people are playing videogames than ever, technology marches onward, and maybe one day someone in the right position with the right resources will create something that finally puts the public eye back on the most classic of multiplayer shooters.

But until then, the decade of languishing that arena shooters have been the subject of is entirely Epic Games’ fault.

#unreal #unreal tournament #fortnite #epic games #epic #words about games #video games #review #unreal retrospective

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t-oresama · 6 years

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"A Celebration in Animation: The 100 Greatest Cartoon Characters in Television History" by Marty Gitlin and Joe Wos

Synopsis: Few morose thoughts permeate the brain when Yosemite Sam calls Bugs Bunny a "long-eared galoot"or a frustrated Homer Simpson blurts out his famous catchphrase "D'oh!". A Celebration in Animation explores the best-of-the-best cartoon characters from the 1920s to the twenty-first century. Casting a wide net, it includes characters both serious and humorous and ranging from silly to malevolent. But all the greats gracing this book are sure to trigger nostalgic memories of care-free Saturday mornings or after-school hours with family and friends in front of the TV set.

Published: 2018 (Lyons Press) Genre: Non-fiction, pop culture, ranked list Rating: 3.5 out of 5

WARNING: There are some spoilers in this review (they don't mention the ranking of the shows I'll mention, just the shows themselves). The cover of the book already spoils things in this regard, but just in case you want to read this yourselves, you may want to skip reading this review until then! :D

Reader Review: Okay, so at this point, I'm literally going to start making a new tag/sub-series of reviews called "judging a book by its cover", because yet again, that's what I did. Heck, I'll even go back to my old reviews and tag them as such I went back to my old reviews and tagged them as such. Working at a library is a blessing and a curse in this regard... Anyway, my allure to this book's cover came from Teen Titans' Beast Boy being smack-dab on it. And with my undying love for the original Teen Titans series, I was instantly curious as to what ranking he'd been awarded (THAT, I will spoil; it'll be in the tags). And I've always had a love of both cartoon history and countdown lists, so this book was right up my alley anyway.

Now, as much as the internet likes to make fun of WatchMojo on Youtube ("Top Ten Anime Betrayals" memes, anyone?), you have to admit that you yourself have watched at least one of their countdown lists, or a countdown list from someone else (ScreenRant, Looper, etc). There's something inherently interesting about putting things, specifically things we see in pop culture, in a ranked order, and the possibilities of the subjects of these lists are limitless so there's something for everyone. That being said, it drives me crazy when people get so mad or defensive about the entry order of a top 10/ top whatever number list, whether it's "How could THIS be #1???", "How could this NOT be #1???", "What about ___???", you get it. So going into reading this list of the top 100 cartoon characters in all of cartoon history, you really have to understand that these are the, albeit well-thought-out and industry-knowledgeable, OPINIONS of two people. This is not the Mayan calendar, the end-all be-all of lists. If anything, it prompts a dialogue, inviting you to hop on discussion train and talk about cartoons yourself.

Both Marty Gitlin, a pop culture author, and Joe Wos, a cartoon illustrator, have both the professional and personal insight of the vast history of cartoons. What is very apparent, though, is that these two have come together for more of their personal love of cartoons than anything else. This didn't bother me personally, because no matter how unbiased a ranking list claims to be, there's always a little bit of bias. The two authors try to base their rankings in fact more than personal preference, and for the most part they do stay unbiased, in both obvious and non-obvious ways (for example: there is one Disney character that ranks decently higher on the list than another Disney character, which was backed by reasonings both personal and professional by the authors, since the initial reaction from anyone would probably be "...Wait, really?"). Their choices do a great job in ranging from the dawn of cartoon history with "Crusader Rabbit" and "Astro Boy" to much more recent cartoons like Archer from "Archer", Tina from "Bob's Burgers" and Korra from "The Legend of Korra", all with the same logic applied to each for why they deserved to be recognized in this book, and not necessarily why they deserve spot number whatever (although they do emphasize the rankings DO matter, but it didn't really matter a whole lot outside of the top 20). I genuinely enjoyed learning about cartoons I wasn't too familiar with, getting little blurbs and fun facts out of it, and just generally getting into the heads of Gitlin and Wos. It's clear they did their research and really applied a lot of thought to this list. After all, it's hard with ALL the cartoons characters that have existed since the early 1900s to simply pick 100. Some liberties are taken for duos, like Sylvester and Tweety and Cosmo and Wanda, but it makes sense because some exist as foils of the other to play off of each other, and their partnership is what made them stand out individually in the first place. In that regard, it's more like a top 125-ish list, but again, the authors take care in making the reasonings make sense. Plus there's a foreword from SpongeBob voice and overall voice-acting marvel Tom Kenny, which is a nice treat that whets our appetite for what this book will unveil.

That being said, this book is very much a first draft that should have had some more time to be edited before release. It's enough sometimes to be overlooked; in the beginning of each new ranking, there's a bio for each character (Created by:____ Debuted in: ___ Voiced by: ____), but rather than a new blurb starting on a new line, there are sometimes two blurbs that exist on the same line. Again, not the worst thing ever. But then there are some that are just impossible to let go; there's literally a ranking (within the ranking) of Pinky and the Brain's most ridiculous "Take over the world" schemes, and there's randomly a line about Racer X of "Speed Racer" fame that is clearly not supposed to be in this ranking, let alone in this ranking's ranking. Consistency is also an issue. For a book about cartoons, there's a big lack of them in this book. Every ranked character, I assumed, would have its own picture to visually show the reader who the character is in a "show, don't tell" kind of way, but that was very much not the case for a large amount of characters. The most logical answer to this could've been that there were copyright issues where the authors couldn't obtain permission to use their images, but several Disney characters appear visually in the book, despite Disney being notoriously stingy about sharing their characters in mediums they don't helm themselves. And where we get a cartoon character visually for #1-45, we don't get any pictures at all for a straight 15 rankings afterwards. For a ranked list about a visual medium, I would've loved to have seen who they were talking about, instead of Google image searching who certain characters were (like I had no idea who Beany and Cecil were before this book, and had to provide my own visual representation). It's just an odd choice for a cartoon book to exclude... cartoons. Though what's more odd are some images they did include. There are a couple of weird choices of photos, like the French TV poster for "Pokemon" that says "Le Film" under a screenshot of Pikachu, and the tiniest picture ever of "Crusader Mouse" obscured by the title sequence. Again, Googling these characters myself showed me better results than the book did.

Finally and most importantly, character information is straight-up wrong. I know I said they do their research-- and they do-- and the authors are obviously not expected to know everything about every character offhand, but where they get tiny details and industry notes spot-on, they get the absolute simplest character information so unusually incorrect. There are two notable examples in my copy of the book. The first one is in Fat Albert's entry, where it states "Cosby Kid Tito is killed by a stray bullet intended for his older brother, who had joined a gang" (Uh... Fat Albert spoilers?). But it's actually Tito's younger brother Fernando who is shot and killed because the older brother who joins a gang is "Cosby Kid Tito". I know the piece is about Fat Albert the character and not Tito, but why bring this up if you don't even use the correct character to mention how progressive the show was to justify Fat Albert's place on the list? The second one is for the Powerpuff Girls regarding Blossom's physical description. It reads: "Blossom boasted light brown hair with a large blow and featured a short cape tied behind her pink dress and black belt." UMMMMMMM. I was so absolutely confused by this one line I had to look up various shots of her character model in case I somehow forgot that she had a cape, and to clarify, she absolutely does not have a cape (unless for specific episodes where's she dressing up outside of her normal attire). Did the authors think her hair was a cape? Did they mistake one episode where she wore a cape for the entirety of the series where she doesn't wear one? NO CAPES (CHECK OUT INCREDIBLES 2 IN THEATRES JUNE 15TH). Also... light brown hair? What adds insult to injury, besides the well-established fact that she has RED hair, is that this character description is written RIGHT NEXT TO A PICTURE OF THE POWERPUFF GIRLS TO PROVE THAT THAT IS NOT TRUE. Honestly, I'll give leniency where it's due for taking on the task of ranking and going in-depth on the origins and noteworthy points of a character, but no one prompted them to make this list. If you're going to talk in-depth about a character, fact-checking is your best friend. This is simple research, or simple picture-looking.

Overall, it's a fun book that helps you brush up on your cartoon history and send you into a state of nostalgia. I do wish there were more than the ten or so characters from Japan, Canada or the UK that appear on this list, but again, it's a book written in America that tends to look at the influence of said cartoons in American history, and asking someone to examine every cartoon character in the WORLD is a daunting, if not impossible task. I do also disagree with the fact that the list starts with #1 and descends from there. I find it more fun to build up to that #1 spot, because who really wants to read who #100 is when you know who #1 is already? I actually read this book backwards because of this, and found it much more satisfying to see the #1 spot by the "end". But I don't think there will be any dispute with who the top 30 or so cartoons are, but even if there are, that's the fun of ranked lists like this: if you disagree, just make your own list! It's all in good cartoon fun.

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tcsnextgen · 5 years

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How I met my Irish criminal, part one.

Ignore that bad title, I’m just sharing a little blurb that came to me and that I scribbled during my short offtimes at work today. I needed some more Vicrory and I also wanted to somehow shape out their first meeting a little, just for a start, and also for the fun of writing a bit of some of my older Present Gen characters. :D

(Settings/happenings are likely to change. This is, once again, really just a first rough scribble.)

________________

Vic meets Rory for the first time in Dublin. She has just turned 21, she grew up and still lives in Boston with her successful lawyer mom and it’s just likely that she’s in her last year of University or so, and she wants to take some time off and start exploring the world on her own. A classic scenario of some sorts (hey, I never said that my goal was to be super original, lol).

She’s on really good terms with her „aunt“ Charlie in Dublin. The two e-mail each other regularly and also talk via internet calls a lot, I think, and while Charlie offers to stay with her and Kieran (and Livie), I think Vic decides to rent a hostel room instead. She wants the whole student-travelling-overseas experience and not being pampered (it’s probably still James who pays for the trip, but hey, Vic works really hard and her stupid father swims in money and thinks she deserves it SO WHAT, logic has no place here). She’s confident and adventurous and looking forward to spending some time on her own in another country, but it’s still good to know that she has friends in town whom she can meet up with. So it’s settled. About four weeks in peaceful Ireland - a perfect plan!

Rory ‚travels‘ through the entire country and can also be found in England (and probably Scotland) at times but Dublin will be his 'base' (I just can’t see him staying in a small town like Galway for his purposes, lol). No one ever knows where exactly he is but of course he happens to be in Dublin by the time Vic is there.

(Charlie - who actually learned to drive properly over all the years, lol - insisted to pick up Vic from the airport and have her spend at least the first two days at their place so she can recover a little from her jet lag in a more familiar surrounding. Vic was happy and thankful for the suggestion so she agreed.)

SO, when Charlie pulls into the driveway to O’Connell manor, she already sees from afar that something is going on. There’s Kieran, seemingly arguing with someone in front of the house and, after another closer look, that someone turns out to be Rory. Charlie, having a rather bad feeling about this, parks the car and gets out. Kieran and Rory are indeed in the middle of a heated discussion but Charlie can’t make out what it is about. She will ask Kieran later.

Vic takes her backpack and gets out of the car as well and she overhears Kieran letting out a rather threatening sounding hiss, „Get to the fuckin’ point, Rory.“, and she can’t help but lean over a bit, to hear what’s going on, but Charlie urges her to come inside. Not before she drops a rather dry greeting, though.

„Rory. Great to see you.“

Rory grins at Charlie. „Right back at ya, gorgeous.“ He pauses for a second. His eyes wander over to Vic and he gives a little nod in her direction.

“Who’s that?“ he asks, his emerald eyes curious.

Startled because of the unexpected eye contact, Vic just stares at him.

It’s that moment.

(Her mom, Sophie, often jokes about how Vic was supposed to go through the ‘Attracted to Bad Boys/Girls' phase at some point but, for some reason, she never did. Sorry Sophie. Here it comes. Just a little later than expected)

It’s something about his attitude and his expression, Vic can’t really tell. The stranger named Rory isn’t tall. In fact, Kieran towers over him and yet Rory doesn’t seem to be impressed in the least. Despite his street tough looks, he is rather cute and has an adorable smile. Vic wonders why Charlie and Kieran are so tense around him. He seems easygoing and chill but she’s sure that the two know things about him she doesn’t.

And still. She can feel her heart beating faster. There’s something captivating about him, something that demands all her attention.

„No one.“ Kieran’s voice cuts into the moment. He sounds impatient and irritated.

„Oh c’mon Kiers, she’s hardly ‚no one‘. Show some damn respect.“ Rory insists.

„Yeah, I’m not ‘no one’ and I can speak for myself!“ Vic blurts out before Kieran can say anything but she instantly regrets it as she sees his stern expression.

Rory however cackles at the remark and flashes another bright smile at her and Kieran now gives her a bland little smile. „Now’s not the time to pull a James, Vic. You go inside, I’ll join the two of you in a second.“

His tone is not harsh or unfriendly but Vic still feels that it is probably for the better to drop the subject and go inside.

„C’mon, sweetie.“ Charlie nudges her. With one last glance, Vic spies how Kieran gives Rory a firm slap to the back of his head and she hears him hissing again, „Don’t even fuckin’ think about it.“, but she eventually goes inside.

Vic drops her luggage in the entry hall and lets Charlie guide her to the kitchen. She takes a seat at the kitchen table, stretching her long legs a bit.

“You want something, sweetie? Coffee? Tea?”

“Coffee would be great!” Vic smiles. She feels a bit tired now that she has a chance to relax and a little energy boost seems like the right thing. Charlie smiles and nods and as she turns around to get the coffee mugs, Vic decides to address what she had just witnessed. She is most certainly curious and simply ignoring the subject seems weird to her.

„Who was that?“ she eventually asks while Charlie pours the coffee, trying to sound as indifferent as possible. „I mean… if I’m allowed to ask?“

Charlie sighs. „As long as you ask me, it’s fine, I guess.“ She bites her lip. „It’s a bit of a touchy subject for Kieran. That’s Rory, his nephew.“

Vic had already spotted the likeness and she remembers a few moments just now, when someone had mentioned Rory’s name. There weren’t many. She knows almost as much about the several O’Connell’s lives as she knows about her own but she now realises that everyone hardly ever talks about Rory and apparently there is a good reason for that.

Vic decides to not pry any further but Charlie turns out to be surprisingly talkative, almost as if she had been longing to talk to someone about it.

„He’s a bit… difficult. Left home early, met some really shady and crappy people. We don’t really know what he’s doing but he sure ain’t doing good.“ Charlie presses her lips into a thin line and takes another peek outside the window. The spot where Kieran and Rory stood was now vacant.

„I’m sorry to hear that.“ Vic says as she hears the front door falling shut. „Must be hard.“

„It is.“ Charlie nods. „Well, I’m still hoping that someone’s going to give him a little nudge one day, one that points him into a different direction.“

„He doesn’t need a little ‚nudge‘, he needs someone to break his fuckin’ skull.“ Vic hears Kieran snarl from the entrance hall. „I happily volunteer.“ he adds, apparently more to himself because his voice now sounds a little lower, but Vic can still hear it and she can’t help but giggle to herself although the matter is hardly anything to laugh about.

„Darling.“ Charlie chides her husband, who now enters the kitchen. She glances at Vic and then looks back at him.

Kieran rolls his eyes. „You know I can’t get enough of you and your big heart, love, but y' gotta stop understating shit that doesn’t need understating.“ He ruffles Vic’s hair a bit as he walks by and gives her a smile and Vic looks at the two sharing a sweet kiss and hugging each other.

„I’m not trying to understate anything.“ Charlie mumbles against Kieran’s neck, placing another kiss. She pulls back and puts a hand to his cheek. „I’m just trying to not scare our girl here with crappy family stories.“

„Is the fuckwad gone?“ the husky voice of a teenage girl now calls from upstairs. All three of them now look into the direction where the voice comes from. Kieran lets out a cackle but his wife gives him a stern look and he bites his lip, albeit still smiling. „Sorry.“

„Olivia, language!“ Charlie calls right back.

16(/15)-year-old Olivia clomps down the stairs and heads to the kitchen. “Sorry, Ma, but you should really stop beatin’ around the bush at times. Everyone knows Rory is a fuckwad, including Rory himself.” She shrugs at her mother and then throws herself at Vic who happily returns the hug with a laugh.

Charlie gives her daughter a funny look, apparently at a loss at what to say in regards to that rather bold remark.

“It’s what I said.” Kieran mumbles out of his corner, now leaning at the windowsill with his arms crossed and Charlie rolls her eyes and lets out an exasperated sigh.

“Alright, I really don’t need you two teaming up against me. My house, my rules. You help Vic taking her stuff upstairs,” Charlie demands her daughter, “and you,” she now turns to her husband, “at least pretend you’re not enjoying the prospect of our kid turning into a total savage.”

“Ma, what the fuck?!” Livie looked at her mother, baffled.

“Yeah, yeah, shush now. Take Vic upstairs, your father and I need to talk about something.”

----

A few hours later, Victoria lays awake on her back on the guest bed in Livie’s room. Charlie had offered her the guest room in advance but Vic figured she would enjoy the younger girl’s company a lot and looked forward to having someone to chat about silly things with after a long flight.

That was before the thought of Rory occupied her mind. Vic felt a little bad for only half-listening to Livie’s ramblings but she couldn’t stop wondering about what had happened for things to turn out like they did.

“... thing is - it was so dull. I mean, ain’t that stuff supposed to be fun? Yeah, sure, his lips moved, my lips moved, we did all sorts of stuff if ya catch me drift, he had his hands in places any guy would dream of layin’ his hands on, I tell ya, but there were no fuckin’ sparks flyin’ anywhere and all I could think about was- Vic? You still listenin’ or have you passed out? Vic!”

“Oh. Oh. Sorry, Liv. My mind drifted off.”

“You tired? Sorry, once I start rambling-”

“No, I’m not tired. Not really.” Vic thinks about it for a second before she props up on her elbow, now facing Livie. “Liv?”

“Mh?”

“What happened?”

“What? What d’ya mean?”

Vic shifted a bit into a more comfortable position.

“With Rory.”

“Oof. I’ll be damned if I knew. All I know is that everyone turns to stone just at any mention of his name.” Livie makes a face.

“But why?”

“I don’t really know either. I think...” Livie bites her lip. “I think he’s doing some really fucked up stuff. No one ever tells me anything but I see it in their eyes. Which is all really weird because, well. Any time he talked to me so far, he was... nice. Really lovely, actually.”

“You called him a ‘fuckwad’ earlier.” Vic said, amused.

“Yeah, he seems to like that. No, kidding. I mean, I know he’s a bit of a creep and it really freaks me out how Pa acts any time he’s around and honestly, I think it’s better for everyone when he isn’t around. But he always treats me good, y’know? He never says anything bad. Asks how I’m doing at school and such. Treats me like an equal, actually. It’s really weird.”

“Sounds really weird. Does he live nearby?”

“I don’t know where he lives. Pa does. Town centre, I think.”

Vic isn’t entirely sure why she cares about it so much. It is none of her business after all but even those few moments with Rory earlier had left quite an impression on her. She feels a bit dizzy and decides that now is the time to distract her mind a bit.

She lets out a hearty sigh now.

“Okay, Liv. Sorry for not really listening earlier but I’m all yours now. Do tell me about making out with Corey Owens again, alright?”

Livie clicks her tongue and smiles. “Prepare for some steamy details.”

______________

There will be another part eventually, but it’s going to contain a rather suggestive bit and I’m going to post that on my pseudo-NSFW blog because of the folks here who don’t enjoy the thought of OCs screwing their brains out. :D I, however, am complete trash and thinking about OCs doing that kinda stuff is an essential thing in my own little trash world so yeah. Can’t wait to get to the trash part, lol.

#writing #rory #vic #vicrory #livie #rambling #fun fact: rory genuinely likes charlie!#a lot actually #that doesn't keep him from being a dumbass around her but he already loved her a lot as a kid #she always took some time with him when they visited the family #and he felt taken seriously by her #unfortunately one charlie (who was also out of town most of the time) wasn't enough to keep him from becoming a fuck-up #I love how this takes place in 2038 #it sounds so futuristic LOL

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danschkade · 7 years

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PAGE x PAGE MINI-ANALYSIS — “FIRST SIGHTING: SUPERBOY” from THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #500 (1993)

PUBLISHED: DC Comics, June 1993

SCRIPT: Karl Kesel

PENCILS: Tom Grummett

INKS: Doug Hazelwood

(After this point, I don’t know for sure who did what — this is just one of many stories in this king-sized issue, with only the script, pencils, and inks credited to this story in particular. However, Grummett and Hazelwood also drew the 40+ page story that makes up the bulk of the issue, and so it wouldn’t be the craziest thing to assume they did the duties on this story as well. Acknowledging that this is an assumption, those credits are:

COLORS: Glenn Whitmore

LETTERS: Albert De Guzman

EDITORIAL: Mike Carlin with Jennifer Frank)

Fun autobiographical fact: my mother bought this comic fresh off the stands, way back in the summer of 1993. A direct followup to THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN, this five and a half dozen page monster ran her $2.95, plus Texas state sales tax. I was all of three years old and didn’t know Superman from Peter Pan, so I wonder: did she run the numbers and figure, yeah, the son of a behavioral economics professor and an information systems management consultant was probably going to be the kind of serial fiction nerd who’d appreciate this comic? Did she take a gamble on the outside shot of it becoming a collectable? Or, Occam’s Razor: after all the media coverage about how DC Comics had killed the Man of Tomorrow, she saw the “BACK FROM THE DEAD?! THE MAN OF STEEL FIGHTS FOR HIS LIFE!” cover blurb and thought it might be worth the three dollars ten to find out how he did.

[Cover by Jerry Ordway]

In today’s mini-analysis, I’ll be looking at just four pages of this issue. I was flipping through it for the first time in years and appreciating it in a new light, owing to my newfound appreciation for the action-packed but emotionally intelligent storytelling of penciller Tom Grummett. The issue ends in four short stories that introduce the four infamous replacement Supermen; Steel, The Eradicator, The Cyborg Superman, and of course, my man Superboy — and it wasn’t until this read-though that I realized the Superboy segment was scripted by Karl Kesel, someone who does the same kind of clean, classical work with the writing that Grummett does with the art. Now, full disclosure: I’ve worked with Karl on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: GODS AND MONSTERS for Dynamite Entertainment, but I’d like to think that instead on biasing me in Karl’s favor, it just gave me a greater understanding of his scripting acumen. I’m sure you agree.

Since Kesel and Grummett are currently reuniting to resurrect their sci-fi adventure series SECTION ZERO on Kickstarter — more on that at the end of the analysis — I thought their four-page introduction to the Metropolis Kid might be worth an in-depth look.

THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #500 and all characters contained therein are property of DC Comics, reproduced here solely for educational purposes.

***

Before we start, this is the page that precedes Kesel and Grummett’s story (this preceding story scripted by Roger Stern with art by Jackson Guice and Denis Rodier):

So, this is what’s in our heads as we head into our next story, yeah? Okay. Onward.

PAGE ONE

The opening of this page has a couple hoops to jump through: it’s the start of this new four-page story, and has to introduce us to our characters and setup like any opening panel has to. But it also has to maintain the loose illusion of being a continuation of the main sixty-five page narrative; it can’t indulge in a splashy title page. And lastly, it has to execute a pretty acute tone shift from the darker than dark “Vengeance of Superman” vignette Stern and Guice just served up.

The path that vaults all hoops at once: Environment As Action. The blaring alarm at four in the morning, the scrambling troops (who in this first panel act more as setting than as characters), and a couple simple caption boxes letting us know what’s up. Background? Man, to hell with a background, we only got four pages for this thing — it’s all action, it’s all information, and it’s coming straight for us, right down to our super heroic focal point character making eye contact and shouting orders at us. This is How You Engage a Reader 101.

The rest of the page immediately, but smoothly, gets us up to speed. Who’s the Captain America guy? The Guardian. What’s his deal? He’s in charge of the Cadmus soldiers. Who’s the suit? Westfield. A reminder of the early hour — that’s clearly important, and Kesel doesn’t want us to forget it. What’s Westfield’s relationship to the Guardian and the soldiers? The wet blanket superior officer who commands authority but not respect. Who do we like more? The Guardian, because he’s a better leader and we’ve seen his face, so we connect more with him even though his face is now partially masked. Plus he looks like a cool superhero, while Westfield looks like your friend’s lame dad. And it all ends on a classic page-turn cliffhanger: “No telling who — or WHAT — is on the other side!”

Five panels in, and already we’ve forgotten all about “the Vengeance of Superman…”

PAGE TWO

Ballsy use of such a huge panel in such a short story. The muted, mid-tone coloring of the lab not only makes the Guardian stand out, maintaining him as our focal character for this scene, but also draws our attention to the small scrap of bright red Superman cape hanging on the shattered glass tube. Situating that scrap in the bottom right quadrant of the panel guides our eye clockwise towards the next panel. And just in case you didn’t notice the scrap on its own, Grummet uses Westfield’s eyeline and his outreached hand to draw an invisible line to it. Also of note: Guardian, the honest hero just doing his job, notices the big thing, the shattered tube — Westfield, who knows what’s really going on in that lab, is the one who notices the scrap first.

Guardian is super dominant in the rest of this scene. He picks up the scrap, taking physical charge of the evidence of Cadmus’ sketchy Kryptonian secret. He’s looking directly back at Westfield, who’s turned away from him and is making excuses; signs of weakness. Guardian continues to be the largest/strongest presence in panel three and again in four, where he aligns with our POV as we look up at Packard. Speaking of Packard, he’s rocking another very recognizable lame dad look. So far the two grown-ups we’ve seen who aren’t exciting soldiers or cool superheroes are stuffy, grumpy squares. This is what adults are like in this Superboy story.

Note how the room feels full of soldiers throughout this scene, even though there’s only ever one soldier in each panel. The smoke filling the room goes a long way to achieving this effect, suggesting unseen mass, and Guardian seals it by commanding “McFarlane” to “Have your squad search every inch of this place.” Great way to keep the scene full, but not cluttered.

PAGE THREE

As we change from interior to exterior settings, the page layout changes from the boxy, squarish panels of the previous pages to a series of page-wide horizontal panels. Nearly every panel is a good example of a different way to utilize this type of layout, starting with panel one: it gives us a nice wide establishing shot, clearly showing the geography of the tunnel entrance, the highway, and Metropolis beyond.

In panel two, the powerful left to right movement of Superboy punching the grate off the tunnel entrance is enhanced by how it utilizes all the vertical space, giving the feeling of focused power — like a bullet through a barrel.

In panel three, we see how well a horizontal layout helps us introduce a bunch of characters at once, with lots of non-active space on either side of them for everybody to get in a line of character-establishing dialogue. Kesel even sneaks in a nice little hint at the nature of Superboy’s powers. Notice that the Newsboy in the middle of the pack doesn’t get a line, but that’s fine, because he’s featured heavily in the next panel. No need to cram everyone’s moment into the same panel, which usually feels forced anyhow.

In panels two through five, the limited vertical space is employed to cut our freshly-minted Superboy into segments. By keeping us from seeing all of him at once, we build his mystique and the anticipation of the reader, not to mention helping us get a feel for the individual elements of his complex new costume.

PAGE FOUR

Ladies and gentlemen: a late but strong entry for best superhero costume of the 20th century. After teasing him for pages, we get this legitimately iconic reveal of our new Superboy — no matter what he says he is. We also benefit from how well Kesel and Grummett established the spatial relationship of Metropolis, the tunnel, and the highway, so that we don’t need to show any of the Newsboys to know we’re sharing their POV here. We’re so familiar with the space at this point, we inherently know that’s where we are. This composition is thematically strong, too — he’s throwing this last defiant declaration before turning back around and heading down into Metropolis, into whatever adventures await him there. It’s like a low-grade cliffhanger. It’s a promise of something exciting to come. This is how you introduce a character.

***

You can buy the full 65-page issue of THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #500 for the surprisingly low price of $1.99 off Comixology! It’s absolutely worth the read, containing one of my favorite Pa Kent stories ever.

Now, like I said -- SECTION ZERO!

Kesel and Grummett reunite to bring back the high quality old school team-based adventure comic — one of the few types of fiction that genuinely does work better in the medium of comics than it does anywhere else, and these guys are high in the top list of creators who can pull it off. If the Superboy pages above did anything for you, SECTION ZERO is totally on your frequency. Take a look:

Right?

If you want to read more preview pages and learn more about the project, I highly encourage everybody to check out the SECTION ZERO Kickstarter — it’s entering its last week and I so want to see this book on my shelf.

***

As always, feel free to check me on any mistakes I might have made, add your own commentary, or share similar examples of good comics done well. I’ll be back next week with a different, longer comic to peruse.

Be well!

PREVIOUS PAGE x PAGE ANALYSES:

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #69 (with Aud Koch)

THE SHADOW STRIKES! #13

PETER PARKER: SPIDER-MAN #13

BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES #17

#Superboy #Page x Page Analysis #Karl Kesel #Tom Grummett #Section Zero #Superman #DC Comics #Educational Purposes #comics

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sassybrit · 4 years

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Alternative-Read.com BCA

The “Alternative” Sassy Brit Book Cover Award 2020

Want your book cover featured? It’s free promo for a month and you get to win an advert on this site for a month. You’ll also be entered into the Book Cover of the Year Award! Click here to tell us about your book’s cover art and join in NOW!

(This link above takes you to a Google form where you can add your entry)

Contest Rules : http://bit.ly/ARcovers

The “Alternative” Sassy Brit Book Cover Award

JAN 2020 NOMINATIONS!

(Yes, January…we’ve had some issues putting this together, lol, don’t judge, please! :D)

A celebration of talent! Thank you to everyone taking part and all your entries. If you do not see your cover here, it is most likely going to be up for voting next month. Enjoy these beautiful covers. Everyone involved this month has been emailed to confirm.

Once you have picked out your favourite cover, scroll down to the bottom to find the poll, and have your say. Thank you!

Take Our Poll

Read the blurbs over at Amazon!

Want to find out more about the books you’re voting on? These links Amazon below will take you to their book pages on Amazon. I am an Amazon Affiliate. This is at no cost to you.

Turtle Trouble A beautifully illustrated rhyming story about pollution and recycling, about a turtle who gets caught in plastic waste, is rescued by a boy, who goes on to set up a beach cleaning group. For 3-7yrs. Endorsed by seven environmental agencies.

Dreams of Love: A Book of Poems and Short Stories Melodic and mystical, these tales and poetry of passion and romance amuse, and reveal the ecstasies and agonies of love and of passion.

The Dysfunctional Dance Of The Empath And Narcissist The Dysfunctional Dance Of The Empath And Narcissist takes an in-depth look at the unconscious patterns that keep individuals trapped in cycles of abusive relationships. It endeavors to raise people’s awareness to the ingrained programming going on deep inside and help the reader understand how they keep getting into these situations in the first place.

Shadowland Shadowland is a book about stretching your imagination into another universe that’s here on our own planet. You will discover creatures that live among the world’s population, without detection and what happens when ordinary people come face to face with them. It is an adult fantasy adventure that will have you entertained for hours and on the edge of your seat wondering what unexpected twist will happen next.

Assassin’s Choice Sassy Assassin sent to kill two hot warring Shapeshifters, becomes immersed in an age old prophecy that threatens to bring down the very same Paranormal Council that sent her.

Morocco or bust August ’69 A true story of seven friends, who back in 1969, decided to travel to Morocco in a clapped-out van, having been fed up with the miserable English weather.

Lost In Wonder I’m a poet and a writer from Central New York. My work consists of affirmations, quotes and poems of the divine nature. My work tells my story, it conveys each step I’ve taken in my journey towards personal freedom.

Rarity from the Hollow An award winning adult literary science fiction novel filled with tragedy, comedy, and satire.

yeht : they Miss Anthrop seeks the truth to see the lies.

Don’t Dance on the Toilet and Other Things I Never Thought I’d Say to My Kids With over 300 funny quotes and chapters like “The Baby is Not a Toy,” “Don’t Wipe Your Boogers on the Dog,” and “’Stranger Danger’ Means Not Tickling People at the Airport,” DON’T DANCE ON THE TOILET tells the side-splitting story of Teralyn’s two daughters: their adventures – their misadventures – and all the things she’s said to them, but never thought she’d have to.

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Choose the cover you want to win on the actual poll itself, and tick the box next to it.

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JAN 2020 Alternative Book Cover Award Nominees! Have you voted yet? #Vote for your favourite #BookCover now! [Ends March 20, 2020] @WritingWarrior2 The "Alternative" Sassy Brit Book Cover Award 2020 Want your book cover featured? It's free promo for a month and you get to win an advert on this site for a month.

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thejpfdude-blog · 7 years

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The Week in Anime (Week of 8/14/17)

Hello friends and welcome to another edition of TWiA! There’s a lot to get through, but first let’s head on over to...

The News Corner

This week didn’t have too much in terms of shocking news. The one thing I do want to highlight that came out this week is:

Violet Evergarden PV2

Mmm that’s good stuff. Not as amazingly animated as the first CM, but that was more or less done for the light novel so I don’t expect the whole show to be that level of quality. And even then the PV had some dang good animation, complete with some more information about the show. From the translation done here, one might think it has a big focus on romance. And that’s what I thought too, that is until I read another comment in the same thread that mentioned light novel spoilers but had a TL;DR stating it’s a coming-of-age story and not a romance. Good to know, otherwise I probably would’ve had the wrong expectations for it.

I’m not gonna lie though, I’m pretty hyped for this show. I’m trying not to be, but ever since the CM came out (which was the first glimpse of the show), my first question was “when?” (which has since turned into “how many days until January?”). I’m excited for the potential pairing between KyoAni animation and a great story considering the light novel won the Grand Prize award in the same yearly award that other light novel-turned-KyoAni shows like Kyoukai no Kanata and Chuunibyou only got Honorable Mentions in. Well, only four months to go. That’s not that long of a wait honestly.

Now before I get onto the rankings and awards, I want to write some blurbs about some shows I recently finished. Now some of these shows aren’t ones I finished within the last week, but I think it’s a good time to talk about them after having them stew in my head for a little. So let me start by talking about a show I might have an article on in the future...

Love Live Sunshine

With season 2 of this coming soon, I was determined to try and finish this show. And I did. So that’s nice.

On a more serious note, Sunshine was a nice sort of spin-off to the main Love Live anime. I think one of the biggest complaints I heard was that it was too similar to the original anime, and I can see that. The whole school-closing storyline was a bit too convenient, though it actually didn’t get resolved by the end of the season, so that’s something to keep an eye out next season. Another thing was the similarities of the leaders of each group, which I strongly agree with. I mean I wasn’t a huge Honoka (Honkers) fan in general, and Chika to me feels sorta like a ripoff of her (hence the reason I call her Ripoff Honkers).

But some of the other stuff wasn’t as bad to me. Like other than Ripoff Honkers (and Dia to an extent) I feel like each character is unique enough to be their own person, rather than be a clone of a previous μ‘s member. Sure there’s some obvious parallels that can be made. Ruby/Hanayo for shyness (which is even eluded to in the anime), Mari/Nozomi for being the memester, etc. But when I think of, say Hanamaru, I don’t think of anybody from μ‘s in particular, but about her zuras and her eating habits. Same schtick for the rest of them (except Ripoff Honkers). If anything, I like Aqours a bit more than μ‘s so far, if only because my favorite character from the Rabu Raibus is in Aqours (though favorite group is still a toss-up as of now).

Story-wise, I liked Sunshine a lot more than the original, if only because there was a minimum of the “power of friendship” stuff that the original had (like the final scene from the last episode of S1). And before episode 10 when the third-years joined the group, I actually liked how the drama didn’t feel too cheesy. Of course, that changed when the third-years joined, but it still wasn’t as cheesy as the original show, which was nice. Add in the fact that the slice-of-life scenes added some nice snark (making it less /r/wholesomememes cult-like happy), and in the end Sunshine > original (at least anime-wise). 6/10 overall, and actually somewhat excited for the next season in 2 months-ish.

Free!

Funny story. Actually not really funny, or a story: I had this on my list for some time, but it wasn’t until I visited my friend last week that we ended up watching the first 6 episodes of this show. And then from there I finished it a few days later, and now we’re here.

This show’s pretty famous for its manservice (fanservice of the male variety), and I’m not gonna deny that. In fact, I’ll confirm it: there were a lot of shots of those muscular sculpted bodies, toned to perfection.

...

Uh yeah. But other than that this show was actually pretty fun to watch. I don’t know how much of that is the fact that there was at least one main girl character in the show, who ended becoming one of my favorite girls and now has a place in my Favorite Characters list on my MAL profile.

But it’s really because in it’s core it’s a sports anime, and not of the shounen type. Like there’s competition and hype sports moments with none of the shounen tropes like explaining every single ilttle thing. It’s actually... like sports with just plain competing, which as a huge sports nut I’m down for. The races were pretty hype, and the drama between the characters wasn’t too out there (though the whole thing between Rin and Haruka seemed very ship-friendly).

So overall, a surprisingly good show, manservice aside. I’ll definitely be watching the second season of this soon (once I settle in to my new place). 7/10 would recommend for swimming shenanigans.

Teekyuu

In my quest to have Nisemonogatari be my 200th entry on MAL, I watched shorts/specials that wouldn’t take too much time to watch. So why not watch the famed 2-minute short known for having faster pace than the Roadrunner? Generally I don’t like fast-paced shows, but I think that this short does a really good job with itself. Content-wise this show is so freaking ridiculous and doesn’t take itself seriously. But it works for the most part, and it’s pretty hilarious. Though it’s technically about a tennis club, I think they only have tennis in like 3 of the episodes, with the others focusing on some other random subject.

If there’s one negative to this, it’s the pace. Because as well as they use it, it’s still super quick, and sometimes an episode goes by and I go “what just happened?” Still, it’s a stupidly fun show: overall 6/10, and definitely will be watching the next 8 seasons (no I’m not joking, the ninth season is airing right now).

Nisemonogatari

So that was an adventure. This was an interesting case study, considering these were the stories that Nisio Isin (the author of the light novel) never intended to be released. As a result this show ended up being probably the most controversial entry in the Monogatari series. And it showed: this version of Monogatari really ramped up on some questionable scenes. Before I get into the infamous scene this show’s known for, let me get into some other stuff I wasn’t really about. First, the bath scene in episode 4. I don’t doubt it was an important scene: in fact it’s probably one of the most important scenes in the whole of Monogatari. But it’s the whole showing a naked 8-year old girl for the majority of the episode thing that made me pretty uncomfortable. It’s funny looking at the comments of the rewatch thread, and people trying to explain why it wasn’t that bad. The most common thing I saw was that it wasn’t sexualized at all, what with Araragi not being pedo like he is with the others and the fact that there wasn’t any zoom-ins of the naughty bits.

Yet the problem I have with that is that at it’s core it’s still... a naked 8-year old for the majority of an anime episode. And I’m not denying what the people in that thread are saying: actually it makes a hella lot of sense. But it’s still a naked 8-year old. I’m not about that life, even with the deeper meaning and all that.

And now that toothbrush scene. That... was a thing. Yep, a thing. Indeed. A. Thing.

Sigh... that was honestly the most uncomfortable I’ve been while watching anime. I’m glad I live alone or else I would have feared a roommate or something coming into my room and seeing me watch that.

Now before you start telling me “deeper meaning” and all that jazz, I’ll just say this: my least favorite subject was English. The reason? I always had to be on the lookout for some deeper meaning, some symbolism, etc., instead of just enjoying reading. Now with the Monogatari series full of its more deeper themes, symbolism and looking deeper into events is very necessary. But looking past the deeper meaning this scene is a guy brushing his sister’s teeth while she starts getting sexually aroused, almost leading to a kiss in the end. That’s... also not my thing. Big time.

Well, that rant’s out of the way. Not counting the above scenes (as well as some of the other questionable stuff like imouto boob touch), I actually did enjoy this show. Monogatari’s slowly becoming one of my favorite franchises, making what should like a boring dialogue-heavy show fun and interesting. And now that Nisemonogatari’s out of the way I’m excited for what’s arguably the best version of Monogatari, Monogatari 2nd Season (kinda misnamed don’tcha think?). Overall despite above statements still a 7/10 show, with hope for the future.

Now that that’s done let’s move on to the good ol’...

Rankings:

1 (0). New Game!! (9/10) [5/12]

2 (0). Princess Principal (8.5/10) [6/?]

3 (0). Kakegurui (7/10) [6/12]

4 (0). Tsurezure Children (7/10) [6/?]

5 (0). Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season (7/10) [19/25]

6 (+1). Sakura Quest (5/10) [19/25]

7 (-1). Ballroom e Youkoso (5/10) [6/24]

8 (0). Centaur no Nayami (5/10) [6/12]

9 (0). Isekai Shokudou (4.5/10) [6/?]

10 (0). Nana Maru San Batsu (4/10) [6/12]

Awards

The Tangent Award: Centaur no Nayami

After 6 episodes, I think I have a general idea of why I feel like this show is off. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do like the show. Some of the scenes offer some nice commentary on the small issues that these people face (like the whole toilet thing) that some people may think is pedantic but I think is super interesting. Basically the stuff like the first few episodes of Demi-chan wa Kataritai (with the nice interviews and stuff).

The problem that this show has is that it goes through different scenes that seem jarring in transition. It jumps from one thing to a completely random thing, leaving me wondering how they even got to a certain point in the episode. Though in the end they’re able to show that the disjointed events are somewhat connected, the connection’s as fragile as Troy Tulowitzki (sports fan explanation: a baseball player who’s seemingly always injured, hence he’s called “fragile”). And in the end I continue on, wondering what I just watched for the past 23 or so minutes. I feel like there’s a better way to organize the episode, but I’m not really sure how yet. For now I’ll just continue watching, because despite questionable organization it’s still a mildly entertaining show.

The Not Comfy Award: Kakegurui

Yo but actually what was that episode. Return of masochist queen = return of fear for my life. This show isn’t high on my “comfy show” list, but after this episode it’s sunken even lower.

On a totally unrelated note, I’ve changed my opinion from slightly liking Yumeko to not liking her at all. In fact it’s kinda funny that my opinions of Yumeko and Mary flipped, and now I find Mary to be the better girl (if not best girl of the show). Seeing how she’s not just one of the crazies and actually seems kinda nice is reassuring to say the least (even if the crazy leaks out at times). The return of Suzui was also nice, considering he’s a good dynamic compared to the insane characters in the show. If anything, I’m curious to see how this ends, considering the pace so far and the fact that it’s one cour.

Best Episode of the Week: Princess Principal

After three straight weeks of New Game!!, we finally get a new show for best episode of the week. It was a hard choice, considering this week’s episode of New Game!! was very good. But Princess Principal wins out with a great episode about Dorothy and her life before being a spy.

I won’t go deep into the episode because I want to try to not have too much spoilers in these blurbs. But what I will say is that dang, these girls have good reason for being spies. Also that the end of this episode was pretty sad, especially considering Dorothy’s final line. Princess Principal’s been impressing so far, and I love the disjointed style of storytelling (with case 6 last week and case 18 this week). Next to New Game!!, this show’s been my favorite of the season. I highly recommend it even if you aren’t the biggest fan of CGDCTs or spy stuff.

And that’s all for this week! Thanks for reading! Just a quick announcement/notice: I’ll be busy next week preparing for school and moving into my new place, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I don’t have the time to watch the currently-airing shows. If that does happen I’ll mention which ones I didn’t get to, and if it doesn’t well then it’ll be business as usual. Anyway, thanks again and I’ll see you in the next post!

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