#kobb tl;drs all over the place

[kobbers]

tag game (Horizon)

I’ve seen this go by from several of you now, so I’mma just do it. My usual rules apply, please steal it and do it if you want, and if you want to mention me so I see it, that’s cool. I like seeing my pals geek out over stuff. c:

1. ride or die ship (your otp): I don’t typically ship, in general. Speculative romance isn’t really how my brain works, and I’m still attached to aroace!Aloy anyway. The closest I typically get to shipping is when there is a couple in canon, and I find them cute instead of feeling neutral about them. But that’s really not OTP energy, is it :d

2. most annoying ship: <_< not the drama bait

3. second favourite ship: (The two canon relationships that have made me go “oh, cute c:” - Varl/Zo and Avad/Ersa)

4. favourite platonic relationship: Aloy/Everyone, and I’m serious. Her going from being friendless and outcast to being able to lean on a growing community of close pals is the best I hoped for her, even if I don’t like the way Guerilla framed/paced it in HFW. As a concept it is great and I’m all here for it.

5. underrated ship: from my frame of reference, most of them probably?

6. overrated ship: :[_no_]

7. one thing i would change in canon: Oh geez, just one. uhhhhh. Well, the biggest problem I have with HFW is rooted in the fact that the Zeniths show up way too early in the story and cause a bit of a plot pileup. So maybe make them game 3 antagonists, and let a bunch of the secondary issues resolve around that change.

But also. Justice for my boy Varl.

8. something canon did right: HZD is one of my favorite games of all time for a myriad of reasons, but I’ll say the way it elegantly broadens Aloy’s perspective and goals from a chasing very personal quest to a facing down a global threat. The way the mystery of the Old Ones unfolds - while we have a reasonable guess from the very start at the reason for their demise, the actual details of what happened are still interesting and emotional as we discover them. The way Aloy gets some of her questions answered at each major story mission stage... but other big ones surface to lead her to the next one. It’s just really well done and manages not to clash too hard with the open-world design along the way (since all the real urgency shows up close to the end). I’d love to see Guerrilla recapture this energy for game 3.

9. a thing i'm proud of creating for the fandom PLEASE BRAG ABOUT YOURSELF I WANT TO SEE/READ YOUR ART: ...this is dumb but I’m actually still the most pumped about my stupid Monster Hunter music/Horizon machine edits, even if they have rather niche appeal. A sampler of my favorites (I’ve done ~19~ of these and need to get back on it):

Thunderjaw - Glavenus

Tallneck - Zorah Magdaros

Slaughterspine - Alatreon

Burrower - Chameleos (MHR)

Otherwise, I am also still fond of this little one-shot I wrote to explore the Banuk perspective on the Derangement a little.

10. a character who is perfect to me (wouldn't change a thing): There are a great many, but I’ll always hype up Naltuk. He’s just a guy trying to do science, and I wish him all the best.

11. the character I relate to the most and why: I think it’s probably Varl, honestly. The in-between place of spirituality and opening up to a broader world. The laid-back personality but fierce drive to do the right thing. At least, I hope I can be a fraction of the amount of Solid Dude that Varl is.

12. character(-s) i hate the most and why: The Zeniths. I’m still cranky about their general handling (though not necessarily their premise!), so I can hate them in both a Doylist and Watsonian way.

13. something i've learned from the fandom: I don’t know if I’ve learned anything notable, but I’ve met some cool friends here and that’s pretty neat c:

14. three tags i seek out on ao3: I actually don’t browse much fanfiction, though on the rare occasions I do, I filter by Gen and just scroll looking for premises that hook me. I like when other people are as interested in poking at the worldbuilding as I am.

15. a song i strongly associate with my otp/favourite character: Here, have a song I randomly heard on the radio recently, and immediately associated with Varl/Zo.

[kobbers]

(criticism for the Mass Effect and Horizon series below the cut; slightly rambly)

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I sometimes like to indulge in media analysis video essays while working on art, because it can help corral my brain when I need to focus for lengthy chunks of time.

An interesting one I watched a couple months ago proposed that many of the problems people complain about in ME3 actually started in ME2, and I found myself nodding along with most of it. The discussed problems weren’t even ones I’d never recognized before in ME2; it was just a little eye-opening to have someone focus on them and tie it all together into a “compare with ME3, contrast with ME1″ kinda way.

What I didn’t expect, however, was my brain continually pinging on how Forbidden West exhibits many of these very same flaws, the primary one being a willingness to sacrifice consistency with pre-established rules and tone in order to solve short-term problems or engineer a dramatic moment. I wonder how much of this (in both cases) can be attributed to Corporate Daddy rolling up to the new successful IP and worrying too hard about drawing in and wowing new customers.

This comparison flared up again during another video I watched just this week, where the author argues Legion and the geth were done dirty in ME3 - pointing out where the stated character motivations and logic quietly did a 180 under the hood. and where some slight retconning robbed the geth-quarian conflict of some complexity. It was like the writers that handled the character in 3 didn’t properly understand what had been established, and couldn’t commit to the alien thinking... yet we know it’s not a simple case of Writer Bad because there are beloved characters that these same folks did do well! It ended with a little side helping of Higher-Ups Mandating Nonsensical Things Because They Are Awesome).

And I just... man. Too familiar.

I hope Horizon 3 can get itself back together on this front, but so much damage has been done already. =_=

[kobbers]

Got some scattered Watership Down thoughts, most of 'em related to the upcoming miniseries.

First of all, I'm not one of the people crying doom over the report that it's not going to be as violent as the 1978 film. The life of a rabbit is hard, but you don't need to spill gallons of tomato soup like the film did to get this across. It was a bit over the top for me, tbh. A good adaptation should have some blood, but it doesn't need to be EVERYWHERE to capture the necessary spirit. Also if they go for a more realistic style, you won’t need as much blood to get the same effect anyway.

One of the first things I noticed was castings for lady rabbits! Clover! Hyzenthlay!! ...Strawberry?? Hm. I am of course all for diverse castings, but you really have to be careful with this, with THIS particular story. It's kind of crucially important that the initial main characters are all male. However. Strawberry is picked up during the journey and isn't one of the original refugees from Sandleford, so the rabbity lack of planning still can carry through, even if the lack of an absolute (”No does - not one!”) sorta weakens the idea a bit. The bucks still know they are going to fight terribly over one doe, even if they probably don't understand inbreeding. Side note, I am 1000% a fan of the Efrafan does getting some expanded attention, please?

Another thought related to the general issue of throwing in female rabbits before Efrafa. Either you take the edge off the Need that powers the Efrafan half of the story, or you have to fridge the female canon foreigner you’ve added. And that creates a problem all its own - the thing that bothered me most about the ill-fated “Violet” from the film was that her death undermines the whole reason the rabbits actually accept Hazel as their chief. Here is a rabbit who is otherwise unremarkable, but he manages to get a ragtag band of hlessi from old to new home, a journey of a couple miles iirc, without losing a single rabbit. It’s impossible and Hazel actually assumes they’ll lose one or two along the way, but he pulls it off. And then outside of that one line where they call “Violet” by name (to announce her death), she’s never mentioned again. Not even given the courtesy of being verbally remembered by the rabbits who are suddenly struck by their shortage of ladies.

4 episodes, 4 hours - fun to think about how to break them up:

From the beginning up through Cowslip's warren. (story: The Blessing of El-ahrairah)

Watership Down, the Honeycomb, Captain Holly, Kehaar. (story: The Trial of El-ahrairah)

Efrafa discovered, first delegation leaves, Nuthanger Farm, the delegation returns and plans are made. (story: El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inlé)

Bigwig's mission, the battle of Watership Down, epilogue. (story: Vilthuril’s El-ahrairah tale :3)

Casting looks good so far, for the actors I recognize. My favorite character is Bigwig, and I am looking forward to hearing John Boyega’s take. Loved the 1978 film voice actor (Michael Graham Cox) a lot. I wonder who will be his Kehaar?

Always worry over the CGI aspect. Could be amazing, could be terrible. The film was kinda weird that way. The animation wasn’t always stellar, and the designs weren’t exactly pretty, but they were Right. And very rabbity. You could tell they’d done their rabbit homework with those drawings. CGI... seems rather less forgiving than hand-drawn when it comes to endearing awkwardness like that. Especially if they want this thing to look realistic, I dunno.

they’re having another stab at watership down and there’s going to be enough time to cover the story properly and alkdjfahldkfhl <3 potential!

[kobbers]

It's late and I'm relaxing darnit

so I'mma do this Redwall meme by shiftingpath

1. Which is your favourite book?

Mossflower, with Martin the Warrior a close second and Salamandastron rounding out the top three.

2. Have you read/reread the whole series/how many have you read?

Oh geez, I don't even know how many times I've read any given book. I've certainly read them all, the most recent 5 (give or take a couple) only once, but the first half of the series many many times. The last time I went on a Redwall binge (a couple years ago?) I read the first 5 or so in publication order. I actually recommend that to anyone who hasn't - the way tidbits of history are hinted at in one book, only get to be fleshed out a book or two down the line, was unexpectedly cool. :B

3. Favourite hero(es)?

I'm going to restrict it to one or I'd be here all night. When anyone asks my favorite single character, I always say the Mask. He's an interesting fellow, pretty odd compared to your average goodbeast plot-device character, and with a lot more implied history. (but I'm also gonna cheat and throw in Martin, Gingivere, Felldoh, and Thrugg as some other characters I really like >:U)

4. Favourite villain(s)?

Two easy picks for this one - Ferahgo the Assassin, and Verdauga Greeneyes. Ferahgo was super smart and generally freakin' dangerous, and headed probably the most impressive siege on Salamandastron in the series. I loved Verdauga because while he was clearly a villain, he wasn't cartoonishly unreasonable like many later Redwall villains were. He ruled Mossflower with a firm paw, but unlike Tsarmina he understood the value of mercy... even if it was only just enough to keep his subjects from revolting.

I'll also toss Ruggan Bor in here, not because he necessarily ranks with the previous two, but because he always stands out to me, for whatever reason. This Juska chieftain was only present for the very end of Taggerung, but he had quite a presence. He was interesting, skilled, and most of all smart enough to lay down his sword when his pride probably demanded otherwise. I salute you, sir.

5. Least-favourite character?

Whoof. Well, to be honest a lot of the villains from the latter half of the series go here, for me. Especially after Taggerung, the vermin leaders just get incredibly stupid and nonthreatening. So off the top of my head comes two extremely annoying foxes: Plugg Firetail and (ugh) Badredd.

When it started out, Plugg Firetail wasn't so bad. Kinda generic fox pirate captain, check. And then we find that he's silver with a bright red tail that he's incredibly proud of, and has his lackeys hold a light to it when they attack at night. Which is an incredibly weird mental image, and feels like it's trying too hard to be cool. But then Plugg's precious tail gets chopped off and we have this disturbing comedy where he tries to glue it back on with resin and it keeps falling off and ow ow ow ow I can't even take this seriously.

Badredd was simply the nadir of Redwall villains. Tiny fox, butt of everyone's jokes, becomes the leader of a vermin band through unlikely means, decides to mount a campaign against Redwall, fails more miserably than any other band in the history of ever, loses the leadership he never should have had in the first place, and survives to skulk back into the forest with the other survivors. That whole subplot was an utter waste of time.

6. Most delicious food described?

Hmmm. The grayling from the first book was actually pretty delicious-sounding. I can't remember many others off the top of my head - it's easier to remember the list of things that got eaten a lot than the individual descriptions. I kinda started skimming the feast bits after a while anyway, because I just can't get that excited about food. X)

7. Coolest/most enjoyable moment?

I've actually had a mental storyboard of this scene for years, accompanying soundtrack and all. It's the climax of Taggerung - a book I felt could have been so much more, if it had simply stopped to consider the main character's feelings once in a while. This one scene gets me pumped every time I think about it, though - I'll start talking about it at length next paragraph, so spoilers ahoy for anyone still going through the series.

The scene is preceded by Tagg getting knocked out and captured by Redwallers, who (judging by his tattoos) assume that he's part of the vermin crew making demands at the front gate. He wakes up locked in the cellars and talks with his captors through the door, trying to set them straight. In the middle of this, Tagg learns that his friend, Nimbalo, is being held hostage by the vermin. He freaks out and starts throwing himself against the door, demanding to be released, and despite the adults' wariness, one young squirrel unlocks the door and tells him to go save his friend.

Tagg wastes no time, sprinting upstairs at full speed, literally running into into his birth mother (without knowing who she is), and finally reaching the Great Hall. Knowing he needs a weapon, Tagg (still running) scans the room and finally sees one on the wall - the sword of Martin the Warrior, on display above the great tapestry. Without even slowing down, Tagg gathers himself and leaps, grabbing the sword off the wall and continuing his mad dash as soon as he hits the ground. Redwallers automatically shy away from this tattooed beast charging toward the main gate, but the young squirrel from downstairs has followed Tagg and shouts ahead for them to open the door.

From outside, the vermin see the gates beginning to open, and suddenly Tagg bursts through, charging straight for Vallug, the ferret who killed his otter dad. Vallug is quick and sends an arrow straight into his chest, but Tagg keeps coming, his first strike taking his enemy's head. The vermin scatter, and Tagg follows them into the forest, completely ignoring his injury.

Now. If that isn't the raddest thing, I don't even know what to tell you. Felldoh's duel with Badrang is darned close, though.

8. Saddest/ most tragic moment?

Sunflash's poem about Skarlath, I can't even.

9. Did you watch the animated series?

Yeah, it was okay. The "Redwall" season made me angry because they added that travelling circus bit when they already had to cut huge chunks out of the original story. Shaaaame. Otherwise it wasn't amazing, wasn't terrible, and it did improve each season (girl Pallum aside). I also quite liked the theme song.

10. Do you plan on playing the game?

I backed their Kickstarter, so that's probably a safe bet, yes.

11. Do you have any Redwall OCs/fanbeasts?

Yeah, I had a few. Dakkan used to be one, though he was really boring in the Redwall 'verse because I was young and a terrible writer. Only his name and species remain in his current form. I also had a few vermin characters that were pretty fun.

12. Best name for a character?

Hmmm, I don't even know how to approach this one. Off the top of my head is Skipperjo and Rillflag. I just like the way they sound. If it wasn't butt o'clock I could probably give you loads more. X)

13. What character would you like to see further adventures of?

The Mask... though it would be "prior adventures" that I'd prefer to see. And speaking of "prior adventures," I think I'd also like to have them for Verdauga.

14. Who has the coolest fighting style?

I'm drawing a blank on any really "cool" fighters (aside from y'know, every boxing hare ever), so I'm going with Finnbarr Galedeep. Twin swords, double the style. and yes, also a tree..

15. If you were in the Redwall universe what sort of animal would you be?

It's no secret that my favorite Redwall critters are the otters, but I probably wouldn't end up as one of them. More likely a squirrel or a mouse, because they can be more reserved and less overtly warlike, but willing all the same to step up when things get tough.

The End. And if you've gotten this far, bless you.