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marithlizard · 4 years ago

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First Impressions of RWBY v8e13, “Worthy”

"Worthy", huh. From Watts' impassioned rant. So will this be Cinder's ultimate attack, and fall?

The tagline certainly suggests the plan is going to fail horribly; I just hope it doesn't take the population with it...

Oh, we're skipping back in time a bit! JNRE grappling with the problem of how to tell people to enter the portals.

Portal-space certainly looks cool. It reminds me of jewelry, the disks of the portals linked by golden strands, strewn across space. Specifically, it reminds me of the chain-jewelry that Ambrosius wears.

Most of them going ahead to warn Vacuo, smart. They're convinced the Academy there is "armed to the teeth" (how do they know, though?) , which helps explain why they chose it as a destination. And I'd thought about the major problem of feeding and housing X thousand refugees, but not the big honking wave of Grimm that will be coming their way with all the feelings.

Ren looks so proud of Nora there. And yeah, she and Jaune are the right choices to persuade crowds of people to walk into mysterious portals.

Emerald: oh my god, it's like a mandatory corporate morale-boosting meeting with you people EVERY FIVE MINUTES. Oscar: Yes and you signed up for it, so look perky.

That was a very bossy little silent display for someone half Emerald's height, Oscar. Like a headmaster to a student.

Question that will probably never be answered; how do they know where each of all those portals goes? They aren't labeled or even color coded.

Atlesian prairie dogs.

Whoa, and we're in Vacuo already! That was quick.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh crap. I'll take "Obvious-in-hindsight things I did not see coming" for 200, Alex.

Can't they just have them wait inside portal space? That's horribly dangerous, with the risk of falling off the edge, but probably better than a sandstorm.

OH NO. No, no they can't. When Ambrosius said "Do. Not. Fall." I didn't think it was foreshadowing random civilians!

They left Penny alone with the staff????

"Your little friend Oscar was right" about what? She's taunting them about having bugged all their scroll discussion, presumably. Which means she knows just about everything.

I don't know what I'm more surprised by - the prospect of the lamp question being used, or a sincere-sounding apology from Cinder.

Roman would've been tickled to know what his hat was being used for, I bet.

Watts looks more stunned by Jinn than anything else so far.

Jinn has to answer, but she doesn't seem at all happy about it. No small talk from her this time.

Cinder looks momentarily distressed at the sight of Emerald, but it's only a flicker.

....Uh. That's dark. I hope Bill called in sick today.

A happy Watts is not a good thing. And I'm impressed by how Cinder has bounced back and changed her tactics to be more diplomatic. Is any of it sincere? Doubtful, but it does the job.

oh my god, is Watts eating an apple as a deliberate reference to Death Note? That's hilarious. (Okay, it's not a potato chip. But I can't be the only one who instantly made the connection, and eating apples *was* a thing in that anime...)

ohhh no, this is bad. Shades of Beacon.

Kamikazebot. Elegant.

Annd Elm and Vine make a flying exit. They're going to be surprised by the state of the world outside.

Oh, shut up Jacques. Even Ironwood doesn't - well, maybe he does deserve to be stuck with you, but what a punishment.

Watts really is clever. I don't know what Ironwood will do, but it's reasonable to assume it'll be something awful. Will he really sabotage the evacuation out of spite? I know every time I've asked "but would he REALLY" the answer has been "Yup!", but this time.... this time I think we're approaching a classic Star Wars style atone-for-my-sins-with-my-heroic-death scene. Will the writers roll with the cliche or surprise me again?

They just left his guns on the floor outside his cell? I suppose they were in a tearing hurry and it seemed safe, but geez-

uh. what.

what

I'm certainly surprised, writers. But not in a good way. *cough* Moving on for now -

That's a very fetching disguise, Neo. And a nice fire tornado.

ohshitohshitohshitohshit

YANG!!

You can't do that. I mean, they can't do that. Can they? No.

So volume 9 will be the rescue mission?

Penny, you're not staying on task. That's bad. Get the effing relic to effing Vacuo.

Where *is* the staff? She must've done something with it.

Harriet is as crazy as her boss. Please don't let them join forces again.

Annnd all Watts has to do is autopilot the ship to the most damaging place possible. Which will be...I dunno. The Mantle crater, with lots of people still in it?

Winter, out of the loop. That must be so terrifying.

...oh. Now that's a showdown I hadn't expected. I don't know that she can solo him.

What on earth is the point of getting the staff now, Ironwo- oh nevermind. Completely insane villains are boring. I liked him so much more when he had a logical but diametrically opposed perspective.

"Oh dear"? I suppose Oz has been through too many catastrophes not to stay calm, but that seems excessive. (Also Ozpin never actually volunteers any plans or ideas anymore. He must’ve vowed to stay quiet and let Oscar handle everything, but also I suspect he’s lost all confidence in himself. And possibly was never all that good at crisis plans in this incarnation.)

They did clearly say one-way. I don't think this can be blamed on Ambrosius.

And here come the Grimm. Flying monkeys, your moment has arrived at last!

Er. ...Housing the refugees won't be nearly as big a problem if most of them are dead? I'm still totally unclear on how many people were in Atlas and Mantle, never mind how many have come through the portal vs. are in gatespace vs. are still back in the frozen north. The sandstorm conveniently obscures everything, so we could be looking at hundreds or thousands of casualties. Not much of a survival rate unless the Vacuo cavalry is right around the corner.

Oh duh, Watts is sending the bomb to the Vault. Which no longer strategically matters with the staff gone, but Ironwood is there, and who could resist the ultimate fuck-you of blowing him up with his own bomb?

Yep. That there was some penultimate-episode doom. It's going to take a bit for all this to sink in.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby v8 spoilers #rwby v8e13 #rwby v8e13 spoilers #rwby volume 8 spoilers

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catflowerqueen · 5 years ago

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Okay, I finished Hiveswap 2 in... basically all one go. I will definitely have to do multiple replays to get all the Steam achievements, but that can wait until I do all my actual work and projects. Thoughts and major spoilers below.

Well Hiveswap 2 was certainly interesting! I can see why it took so long to make, and why Friendisms had to come first. That game certainly gives some more background lore to certain situations, though it also kind of… gave me certain character expectations that I feel were left unfulfilled. Like… given it is Alternia, and Doc Scratch admitted to messing around with everyone involved via his whatever-it-was making people more open to befriending the reader, I guess I’m not entirely surprised how certain situations ended up? Just… severely disappointed.

As far as gameplay goes, I think that the item management system was a little better than in part one, and it was cool that you actually got to switch between playing as Joey and playing as Xefros, and that they each had different commentary when you clicked on things. There is also a replayability factor, which is nice. The music was also really cool, especially how you could tell that the same melody was being used in every train car, just changed up a little to better fit the “theme” of the castes present in the cars. And that even held true when it got a lot darker/more depressing during the final quest! I’m also extremely glad that there was a functional hint system, because there were times when I really, really needed it.

But the bee minigame came pretty much out of nowhere, and the formatting for the directions was horrendous because it gave them to you after the game already started. Not in a tutorial fashion, either! Which meant that I couldn’t really read or understand what was actually going on until I’d failed the game two or three times, making the whole thing really tedious. Also… I’m kind of annoyed at how little actually got carried over when you use the “import Act 1 data” function? Like… inventory was the same, and maybe there were some things I missed, but it didn’t keep the name I gave Dammek’s lusus! It didn’t even use the default name for that option, either, or even throw in a line about Xefros telling you what it’s actual name was at some point while you were fleeing, which would at least explain the discrepancy.

Then there was the jade and teal car… and oh boy do I have a lot of complaints against that car. It’s honestly the one I had the most problems with, from both a gameplay and story perspective. For one thing, it dragged on way, way too long—especially for a middle section of the game. It would have worked a lot better as an endgame thing, I think, just in terms of the way games and stories are supposed to ramp up the action as you play, so things get progressively harder as you go. While there was some nice foreshadowing of how depraved the purple caste really is during that section… like the early game foreshadowing for it, it only really works effectively if you know the source material.

I mean. I guess Xefros’ discomfort in general works and gives it more of a wham/gut-punch for those who don’t know the source ahead of time, but… still.

Anyways, the length isn’t my only complaint with that section. The story was very interesting, I’ll admit, but the execution was not very good, especially when it came to the evidence. Now, I know this is apparently a common complaint with Phoenix Wright games, which that section is based on—that there is a specific order and place you need to use specific pieces of evidence, even when logic dictates that there is a far simpler solution to the problem. Like… at one point you need to come up with a motive for Tegiri to be hanging out by the Jade lockers. Considering that the entire trial has to do with the theft of a “forbidden book on rainbow drinkers,” this is something you find out during the evidence collection phase before the trial even begins, and another piece of evidence collected clearly states (or at least implies extremely heavily) that Tegiri is into rainbow drinker stuff, one would think that piece of evidence would be enough for a motive, right? Wrong. Instead, you have to use a broken action figure… and then you STILL use the other piece of evidence to show that he’s into weird romance stuff and would have been interested in reading the book! And that’s not the only time stuff like that happens!

Not to mention the section in the middle where the trial takes recess. The dialogue implies that what’s happening is you’re getting the chance to collect more evidence and statements… but, no, what’s actually happening is that you’re supposed to be taking this time to accuse other people of actually being the culprit by combining two pieces of evidence. The problem is, it doesn’t tell you this is what’s happening, give you any warning that you won’t be able to talk to the people you’re accusing again if you combine the wrong evidence, or let you use any selection screen aside from the evidence ones when it would be extremely helpful to be able to check on the timeline or suspect section again in order to get a refresher on where everyone was. And one of the pieces of evidence is a diary—but once you have it in your possession, you can’t check the relevant entry again! It only says who the diary belongs to and that some of it is censored. And since there is reason to believe that someone else messed with the diary to implicate the owner, it would be very helpful to actually get to explore that further in depth!

I really do hope that this is a case where there are multiple different endings, since the way it left off on my playthrough left an extremely bitter taste in my mouth, especially in regards to Tyzias’s character, who I actually really, really liked in Friendisms! But here… I got the “Scapegoat” achievement (which is why I’m hoping that there are other ways to complete this section), with the end result being that even though we got our client declared innocent, we also got an innocent (or at least, one heavily implied to be innocent afterwards) person declared guilty—in part because our co-counsel did not inform us of the fact that she witnessed evidence being tampered with and, in fact, knew who the true culprit was all along. And while her “Experiment” was deemed a success—and, I suppose, was technically successful within the set rules and did actually follow the whole “innocent until proven guilty” thing—it just highlighted that legislacerators still don’t actually care about justice. She could have, at any point, chimed in about what she saw, but was more interested in “keeping the peace” afterwards than actually getting the true culprit. And, yeah, baby steps and all, but…

I suppose thematically it does work well considering what happens at the end of the game when reaching the purple car, but…

I just thought better of Tyzias, is all. Friendisms implied that she was a real revolutionary for change, and, yes, I know that this wouldn’t be obvious to someone who didn’t play that game and some allowances must be made for that, but… even so, it just seems really out of character, and I don’t think it can all be blamed on forgetting lessons they learned while hanging out with the Reader/those things not actually happening in this continuity, for whatever reason (though, given how Fozzer was acting, and the fact that Chixie brings up the whole “Mask” persona, I’m pretty sure that we can assume they all remember some things that happened… just in a way that’s vague enough that those who played Friendisms can catch the references while those who didn’t won’t be lost on what’s going on)

…And, in hindsight, the whole thing was probably unnecessary to begin with since the book actually got found before the idea off a trial even came up??? I mean, part of that is because Marvus suddenly wandered in and seemed very interesting in holding one, and they didn’t want to upset him, but… yeah, it’s definitely a case of “this all could have been avoided,” especially since the book is apparently only forbidden for the jades to read. But I’m willing to give that one a pass, since trolls are weird and there were various circumstances escalating the situation.

I still think that Tagora had something to do with it, given what we know about his infatuation with Rainbow Drinkers from Friendisms… but that never actually came up in the game? I see where there may have been an opportunity for it, but it wasn’t a very clear-cut one and, at least the direction my playthrough went—would have required the player to actually have done his route in Friendisms.

(EDIT: Apparently there are some different ways to do this trial, according to some things already up on Steam, but they are dependent on some very early choices in the game--which would presumably affect some other choices in later games, and which means that i’m going to have to do many different playthroughs if i want to see everything available--and it still isn’t likely to remove the taint on my feelings towards Tyzias. After all, I’ll know that such capabilities for ruthlessness remain in her character, whether or not they’re actively showing.)

Also, hero-mode Xefros looks a lot older than I thought he was. And apparently joey is old enough to at least be a Freshman in high school??? I thought she was still in middle school!

As for other characters… some I felt were still in-character, some weren’t. Like… for what little we actually saw of Karako’s personality, considering he doesn’t really talk, I thought he was fine… despite being extremely surprised he was actually on the train at all considering his youth and, well, what little personality we saw indicating that he doesn’t really do “civilization” much. But the twins… while they were spot-on amongst themselves (resulting in an extremely chilling and heartbreakingly well-done scene near the ending), they seemed a lot more vicious in regards to their interactions with others. Wanshi apparently developed a real cruel streak in this game, and, ironically, Tirona was actually a whole lot nicer and not actually a suspect of that trial, despite being put on the stand as a witness.

I was also a bit disappointed that there weren’t more of those clever fight scenes we had from Act 1, where there was puzzle solving going on mid-fight—there were only two of them, one being so forgettable that I pretty much only remembered it existed just this second, and only the last one was really clever. There was at least one, maybe two other points where it would have been really cool/creative if Joey could have solved things with dance in a battling format… but her use of her dancing shoes was only plot important at two points in the game—and that first point wasn’t even her doing actual dancing, but, rather, as a buildup for the bee minigame. And then she never even got to use her “bee dance” skills again. At least Xefros finally got to use his bat—but, again, it was only once where it was actually a useful tool. He did get to use psionics more, though.

And there was a plot point with Skylla that was pretty much completely dropped? I mean… they did bring it up as something that was still unsolved right at the end, but… well, hopefully this just means that they’ll actually solve it for real in Act 3, because otherwise there was a perfectly good opportunity for a solution that Joey had in hand, but which didn’t get utilized. The issue is that Skylla’s lusus is apparently sick. One would think that this means that, assuming you carried over from part 1 (and I would assume even if you didn’t because it looks like a lot of the problems would be game-breakingly unsolvable if you didn’t have certain items you would have picked up through a playthrough of part 1. I guess that’s something to test for next time), this would require you to use the bestiary and vet kit, right? Wrong: I tried that and nothing happened. Apparently, the solution is that you promise Skylla you’ll look for medicine further down, and use that as a reason that Marsti should move away from the door so that you can pass by. But there’s never actually an option for you to look for the medication.

…Now that I think about it, though, this would be the prime opportunity for some inadvertent (or intentional, as the case may be) foreshadowing from Act 1. Two opportunities, even, with one being far more obvious than the other. One could be that Joey makes some commentary about knowing exactly what to do, having seen a similar problem in her own “lusus”—her pet dog back home. The other could be that Ladyy isn’t actually sick, but is instead pregnant and having little lusus puppies—which would be a callback to that Puppy Surprise doll from Act 1 where Joey hid her keys.

Still. I don’t like the fact that it never got solved in this part. Also that Vikare didn’t really get to do much (despite how annoying and confusing I myself find him) and that we didn’t get to see Fozzer again on the train even though we got to see several others on the train who we first saw at the station.

I’m also wondering what’s going to happen in part 4? Obviously part 3 is going to be either the party or further attempts to reach the party (and the suddenness of what happened with the ending does lend some more seriousness to the whole “you only have eleven days before everything gets destroyed thing), but… I’d assumed going in that two parts would be dedicated to Joey’s story, and two to Dammek’s, but apparently that’s not the case? If Joey really does get four parts to herself… then what the heck is Dammek’s story going to entail? I mean… those monsters, obviously, and whoever Jude’s “friends” are, but… I don’t know. I feel like it’s going to be hard to top this.

As far as lore goes… apparently the maturation trials are not the same thing as the exile, since Zebruh mentions already having gone through his, yet he is still on Alternia for what is implied to be… at least two sweeps, I think it was? I think he said he went through them at seven, and Chahut is approaching 9 or ten and mentions being only a perigee away from leaving. So that’s interesting. I guess the maturation trials are the equivalent of a career aptitude test or something?

It does make me wonder what happens with the Jades, though. Unless there are more mothergrubs on other planets, what do they even do when they’re off world, since apparently they are specifically tested when they are a lot younger to see who actually is assigned to the caverns vs. just living outside with everyone else. I guess maybe they just get jobs that are slightly more prestigious than olives, but still under teals? That would at least make sense for the ones who weren’t assigned to work in the caverns. Though it does make me wonder about Kanaya a little bit—had there been no game involved, would she still be considered “special” like the jades from Hiveswap given what her lusus was, except that because of said lusus she had to live outside of the caverns? It was, after all, implied that virgin mother grubs and their matriorbs were extremely rare.

Also, considering how full this train was, and the caste segregation going on, I’m wondering why the train from Sollux’s route in Pesterquest was so empty, and how he could apparently just get on any car he wanted. I mean—sure, he ended up in a car that only had an olive on it, but considering they were literally the only other passenger besides reader, that may have just been a coincidence. It can’t have been that there were separate waiting platforms for the different castes, either, since everyone was mingling together in Hiveswap before separating by car. Is it just that everyone was going to the party, but the train otherwise doesn’t get much use, or something like that? Or did it have more to do with whatever the ramifications were for Trizza’s defeat? …Or possibly the fact that the attack on the train at the end just made people still extremely wary about travelling by rail even sweeps after the fact?

There’s probably some more lore I can touch on, but… honestly, the trial section left me so upset that I can’t really put much of that together right now. I think I was going to say something about how the Jades would also be a good source of keeping culture alive between heiresses, since apparently they’re actually charged with doing so… but it’s hard to tell how much of that culture is just jade culture specifically vs. the rest of Alternia. Or even how much of it was actually serious, rather than a thinly veiled reason to let everyone indulge in things like tabloids, celebrity magazines, and rainbow drinker books.

Oh, yeah, and I’m pretty sure that Diemen at one point implied that his hot dog was actually made out of someone specific, though I’m not sure at this point whether that someone was his lusus, or if it was a troll. Either way, if that’s true, then it definitely explains why he is so protective of that specific hot dog.

EDIT: I remembered what the other bit of lore I wanted to discuss was. Well. I mean, it might not be considered “lore” as such, but... it’s interesting that of the two major rebellions we know of, both were headed by bronzebloods--that being the Summoner and Dammek. At least, I assume Dammek is the one heading the current rebellion. I wonder it it’s just a coincidence, or if there is something in bronzeblood nature that makes them more likely to lean towards these sorts of reactions? We know Dammek’s breed of lusus apparently favors strong leaders, and given the blood color would only be seeking out other bronzes (except perhaps when they hit the “my charge just died/got culled” stage and go looking for someone else to adopt, given what is happening with Joey), but presumably the Summoner had the same lusus type as Tavros. I dunno, it’s just interesting to think about.

Anyways... Overall I did really like the game! I loved the tone, despite how depressing it got at times, and Xefros’ and Joey’s developing relationship is amazing. I look forward to part 3. Hopefully it won’t take as long to come out.

#homestuck #hiveswap #spoilers #massive spoilers

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lesbianalanwake · 5 years ago

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A lot of people don’t like Prey’s ending, and that’s perfectly fine. That’s probably a more normal reaction than mine. But I love it a lot, and I’m trying to analyze why.

- I had already guessed that Morgan was a Typhon, that Earth was fucked no matter what I did, and that something was VERY off about the whole thing. Those are plot points pretty heavily embedded in the story, especially if you take the time to explore and engage with TranScribes and emails. And picking up what a story is putting down and being right is such a rush. Probably 70% of my appreciation for the ending is simply that I fucking love being right.

I also like that it managed to catch me off-guard despite that, since I didn’t guess the extent. Despite the obvious beginning/ending framing in hindsight, nothing prepared me for the entire thing being a simulation. So it was a nice intersection of the high of being correct + genuine surprise.

- Related to that, I feel like it was earned and didn’t come out of nowhere. Like I said, the above plot points were not hard to guess, and a lot of things became obvious in hindsight. There were plenty of hints and foreshadowing, and the story and themes were structured to lead up to it, rather than being tacked on. I didn’t feel lied to. Instead, I found myself thinking, “Man, I was naive for not being MORE suspicious, when the whole game opens with a simulation in something called a Looking Glass."

- I like that it simultaneously acknowledges choice in video games (and that the emotional intent behind choices matter), while also taking the piss out of the concept. Video game choices are, of course, all carefully manufactured and can at best be described as “the illusion of choice,” and I actually think that’s a very valuable and necessary theme to tackle head on, particularly when you have a narrative both metaphorically and directly critical of capitalism and other social ills, like Prey is. And the illusion of choice as a theme isn’t tacked on, either -- it’s an essential question asked by the narrative.

- It’s an open door ending. This is a matter of personal preference, but I hate endings that close doors and leave nothing to the imagination. With Prey, you don’t actually know if original Morgan is alive or dead, you don’t know if the Operators are all that is left of those characters or merely proxies, you don’t know what original Morgan’s choices were, you don’t know if this human-Typhon hybrid will actually work out in the long run, you don’t know if Earth and the human race can be salvaged. Alex is no doubt still alive, but you can’t even be 100% sure that he’s actually there. Assuming you don’t murder everyone, you’re left with “We’re going to shake things up, just like old times,” which is not a particularly reassuring line, given what you know of old times and Alex’s lack of ethics. It’s all deliciously ambiguous and staunchly avoids telling you what to think or believe (aside from things like “treating people badly makes you an asshole,” which is fair), and that's exactly the kind of ending that I prefer.

It works to open the door for a sequel, but it also works entirely on its own, because it hands the narrative over to the player and says “you decide,” even while it’s taking the piss out of Video Game Choices. And as much as I sometimes lament the fact that we probably won’t get a sequel, I’d still rather have an open-ended and ambiguous ending than a sequel that can’t live up to it.

So I think those are the main points for me, regarding why I enjoyed the ending so much: me being right (always a great experience), the ending as a fulfillment of themes and motifs already embedded into the story, rightfully calling into question the nature of choice, and open-ended and ambiguous.

#prey 2017 #it's been loving prey hours these past few days for no reason #f: prey #*posts

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murasaki-murasame · 6 years ago

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Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 Episode 14: “That’s A Secret”

Me before this episode: “I’m a big strong adult who can DEFINITELY deal with watching Momiji’s backstory and the grave visit get animated in the same episode :)”

Me two seconds into this episode: *insert sad cat picture here*

Anyway this episode is dead even though it killed me and now I’m typing this from beyond the grave.

Thoughts under the cut.

Right off the bat, this episode actually gave us a new set of OP and ED themes, which I’d been curious about for a while. They hadn’t said anything about it for the longest time, and then they just announced it a day or two ago, lol.

The new OP is really going to need some time to grow on me. I can’t help but feel like it should have been swapped with the first OP, since this is where things keep getting heavier. I know there’s some people who disliked how slow and mellow the first OP was, but I loved it, and this super energetic one is kind of hard to get used to.

But the new ED is absolutely AMAZING and I love it. The song feels very similar in tone to the first ED, which is nice because that was also a really nice song, but the visuals are a real departure from basically everything else in the show. From what I’ve seen people seem a bit divided on how they feel about that as an artistic choice, but I love it. I really like how it seemed to be real footage of figurines and dioramas mixed with digital backgrounds and effects. Which reminded me a bit of some visual tricks used in Sarazanmai last season [fun fact that I definitely haven’t just been waiting for an excuse to bring up: the person who did the zodiac animal character designs for this series, Kayoko Ishikawa, is also the person who did the character animation designs in Sarazanmai!]. Though I think my favourite part is the very first shot of Tohru.

Anyway, even though I knew exactly what was coming with this episode, and it was more or less exactly what I expected, it still managed to take me by surprise with just how emotional it was.

For the record, this adapted chapters 23 and 24 of the manga, which were also adapted into episode 15 of the 2001 series. Which also means that the reboot’s just gotten to the end of volume 4 of the manga. I still think we’re looking at about 70 episodes total for the reboot, give or take.

It’s pretty interesting to compare this to the 2001 version, since it’s technically a less drastic difference than the Valentine’s episode, but it still highlights how the 2001 anime made the conscious choice to remove any foreshadowing or character development that hadn’t been resolved in the manga by about volume 8 or so, which is what was out when the 2001 anime was made. From what I remember of the 2001 anime version of this material, they did a really good job with the Momiji side of things, since they kept it pretty 1:1 with the manga, but their version of the grave visit chapter really suffered because so much of Kyo’s character development and depth got taken out across the entire original adaptation, which in particular really took out a whole layer of foreshadowing from this part. It was still fine, from what I remember, but it lacked the sense of mystery and intrigue that the reboot version has, and the whole scene with Kyo and Tohru at the very end of the episode was entirely removed in the 2001 version.

It’s a much less noticeable change than how the 2001 anime had to basically remove a whole chapter or so of content for their Valentine’s day episode since that part of the manga was so heavy with foreshadowing, but at least if you know where things go with the story in the long run, you can really notice all the intentional set-up going on in this episode.

I’m really excited for anime-only people to eventually figure out what’s going on and what exactly this episode is hinting at, especially since more people seem to be starting to develop theories about what they think’s up with Kyo and Yuki’s backstories and how they tie into Tohru and her mother. So I wonder how they’ll all feel about this when they can look back on it later.

I’m definitely biased since I’ve read the manga, and I’ve seen a lot of anime-only people still make largely incorrect guesses about what’s going on after this episode, but wow does a lot of this foreshadowing seem super obvious in hindsight, lol. It’s not a bad thing, but when you know what’s going on, you can really tell how heavily they’re hinting at stuff. In particular the bit with Yuki at the end made it seem really obvious that he’s the one who gave Tohru the hat, but I feel like that’s something that anime-only people might end up forgetting about compared to all the stuff going on with Kyo.

And on the note of that whole final scene, I loved the abrupt cut to the new ED. It was such a neat shift from how every episode thus far has ended with a relatively mellow and slow lead-in to the ED theme. And most [but not all] of the previous episodes had ended with fun and light-hearted scenes. So having this sudden and relatively surprising admission of guilt from Kyo and an abrupt cut to a new ED theme was really neat.

But of course, the True MVP [tm] of this episode was Momiji, our resident precious bunny boy. I’ve been bracing myself for this exact episode for weeks now, but oh man it still hurts so much. I know the reboot’s been really good with it’s dramatic moments, but I wasn’t expecting how intense and visceral everything about his backstory would be. I had to check back at how the manga presented it, and even though it’s mostly the same, the reboot’s a lot more explicit about showing that Momiji’s mother started engaging in self-harm after he was born. In the manga there’s one panel that shows her vaguely laying on the ground with one of her arms tied in bandages, but that’s about it. And in the manga, the bit with Momiji and his dad didn’t really have a clear setting, but the reboot makes it very clear that they’re at the hospital after his mother hurt herself. Which made it hurt all the more.

I also feel like they were a little more visually explicit with Tohru’s flashbacks to her mother’s death and her going to the hospital. That was also presented as a set of small and relatively vague panels in the manga, but the reboot went all in on making sure you knew exactly what was going on. Like always, I think both approaches work well for their different mediums, but I appreciate the reboot’s commitment to giving every scene a sense of time and place, especially when it comes to flashbacks. It gives it a very different feel to the manga at times, which helps it feel fresh and interesting.

Momiji’s backstory is pretty interesting and noteworthy, since even though we’ve already had tragic backstories in this series before, this is basically the first time where the series really starts to specifically explore and develop this theme of parent/child bonds, and how the curse plays into all that. I think that the way the manga handles the theme of being born ‘with a curse’ and how that impacts your relationship with your parents is actually my number one favourite thing about it, and something that I think it does almost perfectly. It’s a big part of why it means so much to me as a story. It’s not really something you see explored often in media, especially not with this level of nuance, and from as many different angles as this series looks at it from as it goes on.

Trust me when I say that I have A LOT I want to say about this whole theme of the story, and this is definitely where it first becomes a big part of it all, but specifically I’m waiting for the Kyo arc to happen later in this season before I really let loose all my thoughts on it. Pretty much like 90% of the main cast have different sorts of messy relationships with their families, and with the state of their bodies, but Kyo’s story is the one that speaks to me the most. Going by when I think the reboot will get to that part, I’ll probably spend most of my post on the season 1 finale talking about that, which would be a pretty fitting place to do it.

Though on the topic of Momiji, I do want to say that the scene where Tohru hugs him and they both cry together is one of the most memorable and hard-hitting parts of the manga. It’s such an raw and emotional example of the sort of acceptance and love that Tohru represents to the Somas. With how many examples we get across the whole story of the zodiac animal forms being a curse that the characters are hurt by, and which cut them off from other people, the image of Tohru hugging Momiji’s bunny form, and Momiji letting himself cry in his bunny form and be hugged by her, really just goes to show why Tohru is such a pivotal character in all this, and why she in particular is the one who manages to get through to the Somas so well.

Also, before I forget, people are talking about the whole debacle with his accent again, and my two cents on the matter are that he definitely comes across like he’s either a native German speaker, or he’s intentionally acting like one, and I tend to lean toward the former. Especially early on, he uses German very fluently and frequently, and there’s a whole running gag of him misspeaking simple phrases in Japanese, so either he’s genuinely more comfortable with German and not fully fluent in Japanese yet, or he’s trying to come across that way intentionally. It’s also worth noting that Momiji even says in this episode that his little sister ‘isn’t very good at speaking Japanese yet’. Basically I don’t think we’re really meant to question the in-universe logistics of whether or not it’d actually make sense for Momiji or his sister to speak German as their first language when it seems like they were both born and raised in Japan, lol. [And on the note of his sister, the short moment of her looking back at him while her mother pulls her away is another one of those little details that make it clear they’re setting up for way later scenes]

Anyway, this was an incredible episode, and it makes me really happy that they’re committing to adapting the entire thing, so all of the foreshadowing in this episode will be followed up on and developed.

#murasaki rambles #fruits basket

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nadziejastar · 6 years ago

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KH3′s Poor Retconning of Isa and Lea’s Relationship

So, first things first. Lea and Isa are my absolute favorite Kingdom Hearts characters. And that is saying something, since I love so many characters. I loved their scene in Birth By Sleep. I have seen some people say Isa was a douche, and that’s why Saix was evil and did not deserve redemption. I couldn’t disagree more. Only the closest of friends can bond thorough sarcasm that way. Underneath the sarcasm, it was obvious how much Isa was fond of Lea and vice versa. And yes, I do ship them for many story-related reasons, which I will get into. The novels describe Lea and Isa as “complementary opposites”, which is how I see them.

I truly thought that Isa was going to play a much more pivotal role in Lea’s character arc, like Roxas did. I was so excited to see him get saved. The set up was ALL there. I will be perfectly honest that I was disappointed in the way Isa was “redeemed”, as well as the sudden revelation that he became a villain all for the sake of a mystery girl that was never even once hinted at before. Most likely Skuld. Well, disappointed would be an understatement, really. And I want to write a detailed meta explaining why I was disappointed, why I thought that Isa’s character and backstory was heavily retconned and had SO much more potential, and why I LOVE the relationship between Isa and Lea so much. I really want to go into detail to do these characters justice that I feel canon didn't.

Roxas: What's it like having a best friend, Axel?

Axel: Couldn't tell ya. I don't have one.

When I first played 358/2 Days, the former friendship between Axel and Saix piqued my interest. It was surprising to me because they were nothing alike whatsoever. I had a hard time imagining how they could have ever been friends. Axel was so friendly and cool and Saix was so cold and mean. What did Axel see in Saix, I wondered. Whatever the reason, it was clear that the broken down friendship was a source of great pain to Axel. Although the game centered on Axel's friendship with Roxas and Xion mostly, the amount of attention Saix and Axel got led me to believe their relationship was important, too.

Talking to Roxas and Xion always brings back memories of my human life, back when I was a kid. It's a weird sensation. I ought to be able to share all this with Saïx, but I just don't feel like it anymore. It's strange, but I'm content with just missing what's gone. I'm not the one who changed. You did. -Axel

I could tell that Axel struggled to come to terms with what happened to his friend and his feelings about him. He clearly dislikes his change in personality, but doesn’t seem to know why it happened. He still tries to help him get to the top of the Organization, but questions why he even bothers. It left me interested to learn more and what impact this relationship would have on the story. But I still doubted whether Saix was going to switch sides or anything. I figured Saix was the foil to Roxas and the other "good" guys.

Axel: Nothing lasts forever, man. Least of all for a bunch of Nobodies. But you know, we'll still have each other...even if things change and we can't do this anymore. As long as we remember each other, we'll never be apart. Got it memorized?

Roxas: Ha ha, wow, Axel. That sounded ridiculous.

Axel: What? I thought it was pretty deep.

After playing Birth By Sleep, I was shocked at how different Isa was from Saix. Axel’s lamenting suddenly made perfect sense. No wonder he felt so confused and lonely. Saix is a completely different person from Isa. Compared to all the other Nobodies, he was by far the most different as a human. It completely changed my opinion of his character. After BBS, it was obvious to me that Saix had been Norted and was under heavy-duty mind control, like Terranort. When Axel said he did not have a best friend in Days, it was obvious that at one point he did.

Isa was not just Lea’s friend; he was his best friend. All of Axel’s quotes about friendship and love suddenly seemed a lot sadder with this context. I felt like Isa deserved to get saved and have his old personality and friendship with Lea back. And I figured this was going to be a crucial part of Lea's character arc. In hindsight, a lot of the things that Axel said to Roxas and Xion felt like they were about Isa as much as they were about Roxas and Xion. Summer vacation, laughing with friends, memories being baggage that never did him any good. And about being together when things change, even if it’s only in memory.

Sea Salt ice cream. The biggest sign of enduring friendship in Kingdom Hearts.

Both Lea and Isa had been trying to sneak into Ansem the Wise’s castle, and I always imagined that their involvement with Organization XIII was related to the Heartless experiments the apprentices were doing. It was a dark and intriguing implication that simply made too much sense. Not to mention quite tragic. It would explain why Axel talked like such a normal person in Days. Summer vacation, homework, and going to the beach. He didn’t seem like he joined the Organization by choice. I think this WAS the original idea, but was clearly changed by the time KH3 finished. Maybe it had to do with the cancellation of Birth By Sleep Volume 2. I don’t know. But here is why I think Isa's character got really butchered.

Xemnas: Our experiments creating Heartless were attempts to control the mind, and convince it to renounce its sense of self.

If there was any Organization member who seemed mind-controlled or lacking a heart, it was Saix. Bar none. Even Xigbar points this out. And of all the Nobodies, it was Saix who seemed the most desperately longing for a heart. Braig has been part-Xehanort for quite some time, and he was more than happy to become so. It almost sounds like Saix is also part-Xehanort in Days, but he doesn’t realize it. But Braig does and he’s mocking him over this fact.

It is my duty to expose what this darkness really is. I shall conduct the following experiments:

– Extract the darkness from a person’s heart.

– Cultivate darkness in a pure heart.

– Both suppress and amplify the darkness within.

The experiments caused the test subject’s heart to collapse, including those of the most stalwart. How fragile our hearts are! My treatment produced no signs of recovery. I confined those who had completely lost their hearts beneath the castle. -Ansem Report 2

After Ansem’s initial experiment, Xehanort started to regain his memory. He then attempted to gain 13 dark vessels to make the χ-blade. Not only do we know that the experiments were for mind control, but we also know that most subjects could not endure these experiments. If there were a subject who could actually endure them without collapsing, they would be very valuable to Xehanort. Perhaps that person would be labeled “Subject X”? The description of the failed subjects sounds kind of familiar, too.

My pilot studies used a handful of subjects, but none possessed the fortitude to endure them. Ultimately, all suffered mental collapse. I knew it would be a heavy blow to lose a subject as unique as she.

-Experiments of the Heart – Notes on Subject X, Excerpt 2

Strangely, there is a Subject X in KH3 who could endure what others couldn’t, although this subject apparently has naught to do with being a vessel for the χ-blade. This female subject was being experimented on before Xehanort regained his full memory. It’s most likely Skuld. But I would argue that "Subject X’“ was originally not Skuld, but Isa.

In addition to story reasons, there’s also symbolic reasons why I think Isa was originally supposed to get Norted during the experiments. Some may accuse me of reading too much into it, but I disagree. KH does like its symbolism. Sora, Riku, Kairi. Sky, land, sea. Terra, Aqua, Ventus. Earth, water, wind. The Greek letter χ is hugely symbolic. Saix and Isa are unquestionably symbolized by the moon. The moon symbol on Isa’s clothing is a waning crescent. I don’t think this is random, for reasons I’ll get to later. The reason I think it’s significant is this: It is the final phase of the moon, which wanes until the light is completely gone -- a new moon. In other words, it is the phase right before the moon is swallowed by darkness and the light disappears.

Axel: Bet you don't know why the sun sets red. You see, light is made up of lots of colors. And out of all those colors, red is the one that travels the farthest.

I personally think that Lea and Isa had a Sun/Moon symbolism motif going on. I always wondered if this specific quote had a significant meaning. It always seemed just a little too random to me. But now I think I get why Axel says it. Axel loved watching the sunset in Twilight Town. It was his idea to hang out there all the time. The sunset symbolism is similar to the waning crescent moon in a way. As the sun sets, light fades, which is symbolic of the forces of darkness.

As we know, there are 7 colors of the rainbow, as well as 7 Guardians of Light. If each of the characters correspond to a specific primary color, then Lea would definitely be red. So, he is actually foreshadowing himself with that quote. Red is the color which travels the farthest. He is basically saying that he is the one who will go the furthest for his loved ones. The Sun sets red which is Axel’s color. He is claiming the sunset as himself. The sun is the source of life, light and energy. Or I guess that’s how he sees himself, anyway.

Furthermore, many of Axel’s weapons in 358/2 Days are Solar based or relate to the Sun in some way. Corona and Prominence are Solar phenomena that only are visible to the naked eye during an eclipse. Prominence is one of his strongest as well. Ashes (relating to the Pheonix) and Prometheus are also associated with the Sun.

And almost all of Isa’s weapons are Lunar based and named after feminine things like the Goddess Artemis and a specific flower. One is also named Horoscope and incorporates the Cancer symbol in it. Only Axel and Saix have weapons named after two deities associated with the Zodiac. Prometheus represents Aquarius (which is Yang, or masculine) and Artemis represents Cancer (which is Yin, or feminine). I think this was definitely the inspiration for their personalities.

Xemnas: As your flesh bears the sigil, so your name shall be known as that of a Recusant.

According to Master Xehanort, χ is "a most ancient letter" that represents death and endings. The letter χ lends its name and form to the χ-blade, which features two Kingdom Keys crossed in an "X"-shape on the blade and Keychain token. Does this quote prove Xehanort/Xemnas marks people with the sigil, on their flesh, then gives them new names? Why is Saix the only character we see who has this mark on his flesh?

This sounds like the most obvious reason for Isa’s scar, in hindsight. He is marked as a vessel for Xehanort; a mark to signify the death of his old self as Isa. According to Nomura, people who have had Master Xehanort’s heart implanted in them will gradually be swallowed by it. The planted parts of the heart are captured rather than disappear. But Master Xehanort plans to control them completely. This was obviously very significant for Isa.

I have to give the series credit for its symbolism. The symbol x IS used as a symbol of death, among many other things. You see it in Egyptian pyramids and temples, where we find pharaohs buried with their arms and legs crossed in devotion to the sun god Osiris. It's also seen in the skull and crossbones imagery, and is a symbol of Nimrod.

In Christian art, the Keys of Heaven, are a pair of keys that overlap and interlock, creating an "X." The crossed keys represent the metaphorical keys that Jesus promised to St. Peter, empowering him to take binding actions in leading the institution of the Catholic Church. In short, they are a symbol of the Pope's authority. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says to Peter: "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in heaven". The crossed keys form an "X" which is the first letter of Christ's Name in Greek. Kinda looks like the X-blade, huh? So, Master Xehanort is only partly correct. X represents death, but also new life, depending on the circumstances. I bring this up to show why I don't think I'm THAT crazy for reading too much into certain symbolism. I think more thought is put into the imagery than people think.

Braig: "Which poor soul will it be?”

The Secret ending of Re:Coded made it clear that Isa was retrieved and taken to become part of the new Organization XIII without his consent. He had not even regained consciousness yet. Young Xehanort uses a name that starts with an "S", but it's kept it a mystery at first who is chosen. It is revealed later to be Saix. YX uses his nobody name, even though at this point in time he is recompleted as a human. It is also curious that Lea and Isa are wearing Organization robes, while the rest of the apprentices are wearing their normal clothes. If people are recompleted wearing the clothes they had on when they lost their heart, this is interesting. When did the writers decide that Lea and Isa were “apprentices”?

Lea: What a drag... Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?

After dreaming about Roxas, Lea wakes up, and the first thing he does is wonder what happened to Braig and Isa. The mention of Isa’s name is rather dramatic, as Lea hesitates and the music stops for it. He is clearly concerned about his absence with Braig. It seems like Lea is wondering if he will go back to the old Isa now that he has a heart. But they are nowhere to be found in the castle. In order to search for his friend he needed the power to move between worlds, and there is no way to do that other than to become a Keyblade Wielder. He saw a message recorded by Ansem the Wise in the past and, knowing it was dangerous, used the Corridors of Darkness once more to go talk with King Mickey and the others. Lea became a Keyblade wielder to search for his missing friends. Even after everything, Lea still seems to value his old friend and has some hope that he could go back to being the person he remembers.

He is quite shocked to see that his friend is now part of the New Organization XIII. Saix and Axel were not loyal to Xemnas. They had secret plans to take over the Organization, and Saix wanted to find out about the secrets Xemnas was keeping and why he was so interested in the Chamber of Waking. Moreover, Saix wanted a heart more than any other Organization member. Why would he then choose to become a Nobody again? It makes sense that Lea would be confused by this. Saix’s behavior is quite interesting, too. Master Xehanort smiles, glances at Saix, and he immediately leaps to attack Lea. It was like Xehanort knew that seeing his old friend would cause Lea to be startled and let his guard down. Saix stared blankly at Lea and no words were exchanged. Master Xehanort seemed to be in control of him, honestly.

Lea: You know, I was gonna come swooping in, Keyblade in hand! But I just couldn't get mine to materialize. Must be in the snap of the wrist or something.

When he gets back to Yen Sid’s Tower, he is brooding by himself. He seemed rather depressed at learning his friend was still on the enemy side. Later, he awakens to his Keyblade. I thought it was interesting that his Keyblade was named Flame Liberator. A liberator is someone who releases someone else from a state or situation that limits freedom of thought or behavior. It seemed to fit perfectly with the situation with Isa. Of course, Lea would be looking for Roxas /Ventus as well, but it sounded more applicable to Isa’s situation.

I was disappointed that there was almost no emphasis on Lea trying to save Isa in KH3. It felt like an afterthought when Saix randomly decided to switch sides. Not only that, but it was revealed that Isa simply chose to join the dark side and sacrifice his heart because of a girl. Which felt rather out of character. It was Isa who was reluctant to pick up “stray puppies”. And Saix hardly seemed like the type to carry a torch around for someone he only spoke to in the shadows, especially as a Nobody.

It seemed like the writers were desperate to shoehorn in a female character or something. It just felt so strange and totally inconsistent with all the previous storytelling cues. While we may be told that Isa and Lea did everything for this girl and that's that. But I still think the story was building up to something totally different originally: Lea liberating his friend from Xehanort’s control, and the emphasis on their friendship with each other. Not a girl who was never even slightly alluded to.

One of the final scenes we see of Isa shows him as a recompleted person with a brand new outfit. And he sports a new symbol on his clothing. And while it might seem all too obvious that the star is for Skuld, I see it much differently. I don’t think it was always supposed to be for Skuld, nor do I think it is just a random symbol to look pretty.

Most people today associate the crescent moon and the star as a symbol of Islam, but that is only a relatively recent development within the past 200 - 300 years and mainly used in countries that were part of the Ottoman empire. The symbol itself is much older than that and has been used in countries that are not Islamic at all. The conjoined representation of the crescent and a star has a long prior history in the iconography of the Ancient Near East. It represents either Sun and Moon or Moon and Morning Star, Venus.

Sun and moon joined together in a design symbolizes the union of opposites. Nearly in all the cultures throughout the world, the sun is a masculine figure and signifies strength and power. On the other hand, the moon is considered as a feminine figure and represents calmness and unflappability. The sun is the active principle whereas the moon is the passive principle. Therefore, the coming together of the sun and the moon is similar to that of the yin and yang or the good and the bad. They are complementary opposites, like Lea and Isa.

They also represent the fact that everything has a dark and a light side. Nothing in the world we have created is perfect. The essence of being human is the lack of perfection. There cannot be only good or bad in any person’s life. As the sun rises and sets everyday, every person has his days of glories and nights of darkness in life. Some people also believe that the union of the sun and the moon represents unity in diversity or the feeling of oneness.

It is also a romantic symbol of love, symbolizing an emotional and physical union. There is a beautiful quote that goes, "Tell me the story about how the sun loved the moon so much he died every night just to let her breathe". It is a quote not just about romance, but also about the sacrifices we are willing to make for those we love. Furthermore it represents a deeper expression of unconditional love. It is easy to love the qualities that reside in the light; our greatest challenge is also being able to love and accept those that reside in the darkness.

Lastly, I want to point out that the symbol Isa wears in the ending is not the waning crescent from before, but is now a waxing crescent. This is the first phase of the new moon cycle after a period of darkness. The waxing crescent phase is the moon's first step toward fullness. And it's a very visible shift — the moon is completely invisible (while it's new) until a tiny sliver is illuminated. Thus, a fresh start begins anew. So, I think the symbol on Isa's jacket is meant to symbolize the special bond he has with Lea. I don't think KH3's writing handled this well, at all. But that is how I see it.

#kh3 #kingdom hearts 3 #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts meta #kh meta #kh axel #kh lea #kh isa #kh saix #akusai #leaisa

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ettadunham · 6 years ago

Text

A Buffy rewatch 2x13 Surprise

aka dreams are a bitch

Welcome to this dailyish text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and point out / hyperfocus on one detail in it in 10-3k words. Or maybe go through each and every random scene I choose. Rules are fake.

And today’s episode is a rollercoaster of epic proportions, and one that represents a dramatic shift in the show’s general feel. Some of which will only become clear with the next chapter... Until then, let’s talk a bit about those Buffy dream sequences, shall we?

Well, you know what, let’s get a few things out of the way first. Like how weird I find how American television portrays Romani people, and how it literally has 0% in common with anything that has to do with the Romani people I know. That being said, the stereotypes we have of them are often worse in so many other ways, so... Yeah.

In less controversial news, Oz tried to ask Willow out, but she wasn’t available, so she asked him out instead. I’m proud of my last two braincells and how functional they are together.

You know who aren’t functional? Xander and Cordelia. Just... This is still not healthy, you guys.

Oh, and let’s not forget my favorite segment: out of context Wuffy.

Buffy: Once you get to a certain point, then seizing is sort of inevitable. Willow: Wow... Buffy: Yeah. Willow: Wow... Buffy: Oh... Willow: Wow! (Cut to them still walking. Willow stares at Buffy.) Willow: Wow. Buffy: Yeah.

I was wrong - those are clearly my last two braincells.

But what I loved especially about this episode were the dream sequences.

I already admitted that Nightmares used to be on my top 15, so it probably comes as no Surprise (haha, get it?) that I’m a big fan of the dream concepts. And I particularly like the dream sequences we get on this show.

Buffy’s dreams always have just enough of the subconscious and the prophetic entangled to make for an intriguing puzzle. Where does the subliminal end and the foreshadowing begin? Where do the two intersect?

In this case, there’s just enough of the surreal, the prophetic and Buffy’s anxieties to distract us from the real theme. The one that goes through the episode itself.

Buffy and Drusilla as mirror images of each other.

Watching the episode now, the parallels are glaringly obvious. They’re both having a party. Buffy even intercepts one of Drusilla’s “gifts” and opens it early, much like her. And when Buffy and Angel are caught, Drusilla also makes a comment about dreaming of this moment - reminding us that they can both sense the future.

(Which also makes me theorize that Drusilla could have been a Potential before she was turned. Just throwing it out there, although I’m sure that this is an already existing fan theory.)

The two most obvious visual cues to the connection between them in this episode comes from a transition (which is where the above screencaps are from), as well as Buffy’s second dream, where they both wear the same dress.

Not to mention the fact that Dream-Drusilla and Angel are on the upper floor of the place, where Buffy and Angel will watch from later on in the episode.

In hindsight, it all seems very obvious and even on-the-nose, but I admit, this stuff definitely flew over my head the first, or even second time I watched the episode. But that’s because it actually isn’t so self-evident. Once you notice the underlying message, it’s easy to find the details, but there’s a lot going on in these dream sequences in large. And since you don’t necessarily need to make these connections to understand the story, you often just won’t. At least not on the first watch.

Anyhow, the point is that once you understand how Buffy and Drusilla are entangled during the course of this episode, you also realize that Buffy’s dreaming about killing Angel herself. And essentially this is what happens - they have sex, which has a clear metaphorical connection to death. And he also loses his soul, so that’s another death. Two dreams, two deaths.

(One could argue that this foreshadows yet another one of Angel’s deaths... but more on that later.)

It also has a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy aspect to it. The reason why Buffy and Angel were so desperate to seize their moment was because they were both scared of losing each other. Which was at least partially the result of Buffy’s dreams about Angel dying - which was a warning about what was to come if they had sex.

Now, the theme of sex having consequences is admittedly a concept that’s been overused plenty, but you know what, I still love untangling the way this particular storyline unfolds. As in many other cases, I don’t think BtVS attempts to take a stance on something as much as it explores a theme for better or worse. Not to mention all the magnificently satisfying moments that comes out of this twist.

Also, hey, if you want to interpret what happens as Angel losing his soul because he had sex with a 17-year-old, that’s valid and no one can stop you.

That being said, it’s hard not to get lost in the epic romance that is Buffy and Angel, especially in this episode. And that’s what makes the turn so effective.

But I guess I should be leaving that for the next time...

Nah, who am I kidding, all I’ll want to talk about next time is the rocket launcher. As one should.

#buffy rewatch 2k19 #btvs talk #btvs

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sol1056 · 7 years ago

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How do I define a magic system, so it doesn’t seem like a god in a machine type of thing?

Rules, limits, consequences – and don’t make the story’s resolution pivot on magic. (That last one is probably the most crucial, really.)

You don’t have to explain the rules in the story, but they must be somewhat intuitive by virtue of consistency. If a character can only do X magic when it’s night, make very clear it’s night, the stars are visible, and never, ever break that rule. Some readers will miss it, some will put the clues together, but you’ll write with an assurance that will make pretty much all of them roll with the system as internally logical, just on gut instinct.

Limits are something that tends to get explained, because it’s useful for adding tension. Although you might not want to do a hard system (hard as in outlined and nailed down with very specific rules and limits; Sanderson’s novels are entirely hard magic vs Tolkien’s novels are soft magic), it’s still good to elucidate the limits so readers can get worried.

A limit doesn’t always have to be explained, but like rules, it should be implied by context. It’s like… we know from the real world about how fast a given kind of horse can go, so if a horse is written going twice that fast, some readers will call foul. And even people who don’t know horses will give you the side-eye if you have the horse running for days on end without rest (unless you have some kind of worldbuilding detail to handwave that).

So, a rule is what you can do, and a limit is how much you can do — and consequences are what happens if you do everything right, everything wrong, or something you shouldn’t, or do more than the limits say you’re allowed to do. Consequences will vary based on the situation and context, but they should always be present.

Consequences are simply the cost of doing a thing (anything, regardless of value or intent), and the cost depends on the metaphor you’re using to conceptualize the magic. If you think of magic like technology, well, there’s a cost in the time to learn it, and a cost in terms of what it, well, actually costs to purchase. But you don’t feel physically exhausted after using your phone, I mean, you might, but that’s not inherent to the phone.

If your metaphor is that magic is like running, then you’d have a physical cost like feeling drained or getting shin-splints, but you probably wouldn’t have a cost in terms of learning to put one foot in front of the other really fast.

My favorite metaphor for magic is treating it like a complex area of study. It takes concentration, checking your work, and the ability to think logically and clearly. You might have eye strain, a headache, or just feel dull-minded after an hour or more hammering at an equation. You won’t necessarily have a cost in outright physical exhaustion, and the monetary cost might be little more than the effort of getting a library card.

There are two reasons for consequences. One is that we’re dealing with a gaming-influenced genre, and a game gets boring if someone can power up to the point they can destroy worlds without breaking a sweat. Just like you’d expect a character to get exhausted if they push past their physical limit, consequences penalize them for pushing past a magical limit.

The other reason is that consequences are the best way to introduce (or raise) stakes. Take the rules (ie, only magic at night) and the limits (ie, cannot do it for more than ten minutes): what happens if someone tries to do magic for twenty minutes? Lose their voice, or hallucinate? What if they do magic during the day? Maybe they have nightmares? What if they do magic for longer than ten minutes and it’s during the day? They get all of the above plus go bald?

And then you put the character in situations where magic — during the day, for ten-plus minutes — is their only option for getting themselves or someone else out alive. If you’ve done your groundwork, the reader will be on pins and needles, knowing the character is choosing a path that’s going to have severe consequences.

Of course, then you do need to impose those consequences — or find some clever loophole in the rules and limits. Frex, a solar eclipse is one of the oldest ways around ‘only happens at night,’ but hey, it works, and it’s observing the letter of the law: the sun is gone, ergo, it’s not-day.

The last one is the biggest, and it’s one of the reasons authors like Sanderson rely on hard magic. It’s a lot easier for the reader to visualize (and recognize) the validity of those loopholes if they have a fairly solid idea of how the magic system works.

If, say, magic is like water, and the story consistently shows magic acting like water, the reader won’t see it as a deus ex machina but as a clever loophole to have the protagonist use magic that has the properties of ice. We know ice = water, so the final resolution to defeating the bad guy doesn’t violate our understanding of the metaphor.

If you look at older fantasy works (Tolkien being the biggest name, of course), the magic is usually soft. From start to finish, exactly what Gandalf can and can’t do, or how much he can do, isn’t explained (and I should note that he doesn’t do a great deal of it, either, which makes it harder because there’s no laundry list to derive rules or limits).

However, the pinnacle of both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings isn’t magic at all. In one, it’s a man shooting an arrow at a dragon; the other, it’s three hobbits in a volcano, and one falls in. (Note: there is an extremely subtle magic going on there, that’s foreshadowed quietly and explained very clearly, and that final showdown is internally consistent with the explanation given.) For the most part, though, the resolution comes from reasonable actors and their believable actions, so it doesn’t require we know more about the magic than we’ve previously been told.

If you feel the impulse when writing the resolution to have another character exclaim, “I didn’t know you could do that!” and the protagonist say in awe, “gee, I didn’t know, either,” you’ve just instinctively lampshaded your own deus ex machina. What you want is a surprise not for the unexpected but for the obvious, once the characters (and reader) have hindsight. Of course water has more than just its fluid state! The magic’s not been bent out of shape; we just hadn’t considered all the possible implications; now that we realize that, it’s obvious that was the best way to defeat the Big Bad.

That said, one of the most satisfying resolutions (admittedly also harder, but that’s what makes it satisfying) is when you have magic throughout a story… and the resolution is entirely independent of magic. In other words, if the reader hadn’t been so focused on the world’s rules and limits around magic, they could’ve realized every ingredient was right there for an incendiary flash-device that would blind everyone and allow the good guys to get away.

Granted, that’s a lot harder, because that means you have to come up with a way to get out of a (hopefully) really sticky and intense set of dire straits without being able to use Stuff You Made Up. Basically, you went through all the work of setting up this convenient system… and then setting it aside for the harder work of characters rolling up their sleeves and wading into the fight.

As a good example of that kind of magic-is-everywhere except the resolution, get a copy of Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers. There’s an anime version of the first light novel, from a few years ago, but the novels have been translated up through volume 6. Yamagata is an author who writes phenomenally tight stories; every single word and detail is a clue.

It starts off with a very D&D-like premise: six heroes are mystically chosen via a tattoo that appears on them, and they must journey across the land to fight the oncoming evil. The six meet up at a temple, and from there they’ll set out to battle. Except there’s two problems: one, a barrier’s suddenly appeared, locking them all in, and two, there’s seven of them, not six.

It’s basically a locked-room mystery, filled with magic and the usual tropes and a few totally unexpected twists that in hindsight were laid out perfectly. At least for the anime, rewatching meant catching a dozen or more clues in every episode, even in throwaway lines, and I’m told the light novels are all that times ten — and the resolution never lies in magic. It lies in something in the real world, some facet of geography or climate or physics.

That takes a lot of work, and it’s really a story where you have to work backwards from the end, to make sure every clue is laid down but just enough obscured by various red herrings. When the story makes sense backwards – each clue leads to another – then you’re ready to tell it forward. Hard, but boy is it satisfying to get to that conclusion.

#writing #fantasy #worldbuilding #sff #magic #sol explains things

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florencetheflowerfairy · 8 years ago

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Me, Mimi, and romance

It feels like a small, subjective thing, but something I deeply appreciate about Mimi Tachikawa is how uninterested she is in romance. Mimi’s arc culminates with her being independent and confident. Instead of any endgame romance, Mimi’s character is all about loving yourself.

I wrote a piece about growing up with Mimi and rediscovering her as an adult.

When I was a little girl, I loved Disney Princess movies. I loved them because they were cartoons for kids and girls got to be the protagonists. That part was valuable for me. But in hindsight, those movies were also harmful for me. I really bought into the notion that a girl’s happy ending HAD to be marrying a man.

I rewrote the Disney movies with my mom. I would dictate the stories from memory for her to write down, and then I would illustrate them. Looking back on those stories today, it’s striking how Little-Girl-Me was so good at always focusing on the women’s perspective. For example, my version of Sleeping Beauty showed how Aurora’s mother felt instead of her father. However, even if I sidelined the boy characters more than the original cartoons, I still always ended my stories with, “And then they got married and lived happily ever after.”

Little-Girl-Me loved feminine things, loved pretty things, loved artistic things, and she really loved girls and women. But she knew that marriage had to be endgame for girls and women, even if she wasn’t interested in romance herself.

Digimon Adventure is ostensibly not about romance. Until it is. The Sora x Yamato, Miyako x Ken, and even Taichi x Meiko foreshadowing is built into the show’s structure. And there are things I like about that, and some things I truly love and find romantic. But at the end of the day, this show is embarrassingly heteronormative to me now. The epilogue in particular does not hold up well at all, where everyone seems to have found their happy ending with marriage and ~1.5 biological children. It’s easy to understand why this was the socially acceptable happy ending for the characters, but that doesn’t make it less disappointing.

Still, Mimi Tachikawa manages to float above all that nonsense. It’s true that she doesn’t escape the epilogue, but Mimi’s endgame marriage and child feel particularly ancillary to her character arc. It was never important for Mimi to act like a “parent” like it was for Sora, or Yamato, or even Taichi. Instead, it was always important for Mimi to be loud and independent. And since Mimi wasn’t created to be any of the boys’ love interest, her character arc truly shines on its own. (I don’t mean that the other girls don’t shine, but all of the boys in the “canon couples” receive more development than their girl partners, and the “canon couple” characters all have parallel arcs.)

Above all, what fascinates me about Mimi is that she manages to be an awesome leading lady without having interesting relationships with the two main boys. Mimi is the least close to both Taichi and Yamato, but she remains a star, in spite of the fact that the show largely revolves around Taichi and Yamato.

When I started engaging with the Digimon fandom again three years ago, I was surprised at how popular Mimi x Taichi and Mimi x Yamato were. I understand better now, because I understand fandom shipping better now, but within the canon they remain two of the less developed relationships. And for me, something I LOVE about Mimi in the canon is that she isn’t defined by her relationships to the two main boys in the show. At all.

If Mimi had to choose between following Taichi or Yamato, she would strike out on her own. And I love that about her.

When I was a little girl, my favorite character was (usually) Mimi. I did love ALL the girls a lot, but I came back to Mimi the most. Now that I’m older, it’s easier for me to relate to Sora. She’s older, more responsible, and she struggles in silence. Sora also has more interesting relationships with Taichi and Yamato, and now that I’m older and I appreciate good writing better, I appreciate the boy characters more and their relationships with her.

But Mimi remains special to me, because I see Little-Girl-Me in Mimi. Someone who was unabashedly feminine and uninterested in romance or boys. She was like a Disney Princess in some ways, but her arc avoided the hetero romance that was inherent in Disney movies. Looking back, I wish that I had more heroines like Mimi, because Mimi still wasn’t enough. I turned out super shy instead of confident like her. And I still thought for a long, long time that I needed to marry a man to get a happy ending.

Not anymore though. Today, my OTP for Mimi remains Mimi x Mimi. (And my interest in her last-minute-designed son and offscreen husband remains at negative 1,000.) Mimi’s character shows how to be confident, feminine, and inspirational to others, without needing boys. (Jyou--the only boy I like shipping with Mimi--even tells her in the Dark Master’s Arc that she doesn’t need him to fulfill her role.) Mimi doesn’t need anyone’s approval. She loves herself.

To state the obvious, this piece is very, very subjective. I expect that your view of Mimi is probably different. It’s easy to project onto Mimi, especially since she’s such an empowering character.

Rediscovering Mimi, falling in love with her again, and learning from her as an adult has been a highlight of coming back to Digimon. I’ll always be grateful to Mimi.

#Mimi Tachikawa #Tachikawa Mimi #my analysis #my writing #Digimon Adventure #It's very late at night as I write this #but it felt nice to write #so I'll go ahead and post it

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ibroughtthisonmyselfpixels · 8 years ago

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Episode 4 Replies

Man, Spore is a lot harder than I remembered it being. How hard can it be to be a damn military city? Anyway, some replies now, the rest later when I’m surer there’s none left.

@jackssims replied to your photo “Divided. i.e. in a part in which several musicians normally play...”

The bold on execution tho ��

Foreshadowing taking to its most literal level: putting a bold shadow in the forefront

@cafesimming replied to your photoset “¦ Lorelei:Â â€œSculpting, then?â€ Lyra:Â â€œWhat?â€ Lorelei:Â â€œTomorrowâ€™s...”

me tbh

Sometimes, without prompting, it can be hard to remember that Lorelei is legally blind without her glasses - it’s just not at the forefront of her traits, as it were - so scenes like this help me as well as cause her pain

@tosimornottosim replied to your photoset “Catherine: “…the air is crisp. Rich with magic. I can taste it. The...”

C A T H E RNI NE

Catherine Axiom’s pseudo-evil twin: Cathernine

tosimornottosim replied to your photoset “Lyra: “Okay, is everyone ready?” Catherine: “As ready as I can be.”...”

Catherine: *brow furrowed* whats an art

Catherine: can you fight evil with it

jackssims replied to your photoset “Lyra: “Hmmm… Looking good so far on this end!” Katya: “Lyra, we have...”

I think you've got some clay in your hair, Felicity

See? There was already a clay explosion and Lyra didn’t even notice!

@sevenleafsimblr replied to your photoset “Eden Lee: *taps out in a rhythm on the clay as they work* Lavandar:...”

contestant bonding

Whistle Ear Worms While You Work

cafesimming replied to your photoset “Kira: “Okay, almost… allllmost…” Lavandar: “Nearly there, nearly...”

AWW

tosimornottosim replied to the same

A W W

Same Aww, just stretched out a little longer

@simstrations replied to your photoset “Toby: “And… there. Lorelei, I’m done with my sculpture! …at least I...”

Uh Scott, I know you were inspired by the entrance to the Mills College Art Museum but I thought you were going for unique?

I know we already had that private IM where I mentioned that his actually was unique, but I want to bring attention to this again cus I googled the museum and just

look at these sculptures !!

sevenleafsimblr replied to your photoset “Lorelei: “Yes… I think I’ve got it. I- the result, and the luck!” ...”

im proud of ginerva and their pedestal

It’s interesting how the most expensive sculptures on both sides were pedestals... I wonder if this is symbolic of something.

cafesimming replied to the same

WOOT

wait shit that means someones gonna die tonight

not woot

A Revelation, in Three Acts

simstrations replied to your photoset “Lyra: “Yours is definitely unique, Scott, but it’s also only worth...”

Betrayal! Betrayal of the highest order! You're supposed to be doing better than this Scott, I'm counting on you! (You are doing decent though Scott don't worry I still love you)

Me when I first saw that:

tosimornottosim replied to your photoset “Lyra: “Yours is definitely unique, Scott, but it’s also only worth...”

Catherine! You did it! You took all the fun out of art but you did it!

Catherine: What is this ‘fun’ you speak of? Is it the same thing as the ‘art’?

simstrations replied to your post “Scott’s Interview”

I was reading this over as a refresher and I have a comment for past me, a Harry Potter reference, really?

I’m not sure if it says more about Harry Potter or myself that I didn’t even catch that Barry Zotter was supposed to be a play on Harry Potter until you just there pointed it out... ^^;

cafesimming replied to your photoset “Lyra: “Well done on the pedestal, Catherine. I double-checked my...”

i like catherine a whole lot tbh

Respect for Paladins step in time

tosimornottosim replied to your photoset “Ginerva: “That’s more like it! Now you can have a better look at me....”

It's not a bother it's an accommodation is something I should actually remember thanks Lyra

Same TBH. When you’re already prone to feeling bad about needing things, the tendency of neurotypical and able-bodied people to either shame us for or try to steal our own accommodations is doubly irritating to say the least, so I wanted Lyra to Be A Countermeasure to that, however small

@futurecarrie replied to your photoset “Lorelei: “Hi, Lyra.” Lyra: “Heh, your next contestant up here too?”...”

Russian bb has the best insults

I know!! It’s one of the best things about writing people with other languages as their first tongue, being able to work out all the linguistic nuances. Have you heard “a penis from the mountain” before?

jackssims replied to the same

Poor Felicity (also what is with the trend of Carrie's sims going after mine in BCs lmao)

A rivalry as old as time... or at least as old as whbcx2

simstrations replied to your photoset “Toby: “Hm. Lyra and Scott over there, you and me over here, Lorelei…...”

I love it! So much. Now I'm going to sleep before I notice another picture pop up.

In Hindsight This Was Probably For The Best

cafesimming reblogged your photoset “Lavandar: “–this is what you’re offering ♩ I’ll take the rain, I’ll take–” Lorelei: “Lavandar?” Lavandar: “EEK!”...”

#❤️

jackssims reblogged the same

#Felicity is doing her best

The same post, two different creators, two very identical reactions~

cafesimming replied to your photoset “ohgod ohgod i’m gonna fffn…” *scuffling* Lorelei: “Nnn… what’s going...”

oh no

Fun fact: Toby’s transformation here wasn’t even planned on my part. Either I’d forgotten how quickly the moon cycle changes around and how close the moon was, or there was an error in the cycle settings, or whatever, but that completely took me by surprise. Still, given it provided its fair share of... chaos, it was a great thing to use to my advantage!

tosimornottosim replied to your photoset “Lorelei: “I’m j-just gonna… put your dinner down here. Y-you d’nt -...”

You're very Brave Lorelei

Lorelei: n-no, I’m a coward... but thank you for saying so.

sevenleafsimblr replied to your photoset “Lyra: “Okay. Let’s really think about this, Lyra. Let’s set this all...”

@ your tags: me too actually

I come up with half my best plot points and dialogue exchanges in the pool. ...granted, when I get out I can’t remember half of them,,,,,

futurecarrie replied to your photoset “Lyra: “Then again, there’s not that much between them, is there?...”

oh man the murderer's being pretty ballsy, throwing the victim right in the pool in front of Lyra jeeeeez

Well, technically behind Lyra, but let’s not split hairs

simstrations replied to your photoset “Lyra: “…Scott? Scott, how’d you…? Fuck!!”

Yup, that's what I thought. Great. This sucks. Oh well. (My exact reaction as I saw the notification pop up.)

Okay, a quick question to those of you who got this far... did I make it too obvious in Episode 3 that Scott was going to be first to die? IIRC I’d already played up to the end of the challenge and rolled for that first victim when I began writing that installment in particular, but I tried to keep the foreshadowing quite light on that score... IDK, I’m trying not to be ungrateful - I guess I was anticipating more of a reaction to the idea that Scott, having been accused in all but name, would die first, but then I’m set in my ways like that.

jackssims replied to your post “Episode 4: Divisi Credits”

Felicity you're doing great sweetie

Priorities

#autistichatkid #toxoplasmajuice #futurecarrie #harmoniouspixels #tosimornottosim #simstrations #sos mm bc

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legendary · 8 years ago

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Making a Comic Into (Virtual) Reality

A conversation with the creative team of Schell Games, who brought Grant Morrison’s Eisner-nominated series Annihilator to life as an immersive virtual reality experience.

Legendary VR was established to extend the worlds of our films in exciting new ways - as seen with Kong: Skull Island, Warcraft, and Pacific Rim. At the same time, the VR team has been at work on dozens of experimental projects pushing the boundaries of storytelling within virtual reality. When Legendary Comics published the psychedelic Annihilator series by Grant Morrison, we saw a fun opportunity to expand and experiment with a new medium: comic books. Annihilator had its initial run as a 6-issue series in 2014, following the character of washed-up screenwriter, Ray Spass, as he begins to lose his grip on reality, leading him on a mind-bending sci-fi adventure alongside of his own fictional characters. Hailed for its zany creativity and Frazier Irving's stunning artwork, Annihilator earned a Best Writer nomination at the prestigious Eisner Awards for Grant Morrison.

When deciding how best to tackle this ambitious experiment, Legendary VR partnered with Pittsburgh-based Schell Games to help them bring the comic to life. "I wanted to see how we could translate the uniqtue panel-by-panel experience of reading a comic into Virtual Reality without just creating an animated short. It was important to maintain the pacing of a comic book," said Ethan Stearns, Vice President of Legendary VR. "After we saw how Schell Games approached their title, I Expect You to Die, we became excited to work with them to merge these mediums. Grant Morrison's source material is so cerebral and has such wonderful character dualities. This allows you, as the viewer, to project your character into the scene and maintain the continuity of the narrative." Legendary Backstory had the chance to talk to Art Director Ben Greene and Project Director Tim Sweeney from Schell Games about the process of adapting Morrison’s surreal subject matter, what it was like to literally lift a comic straight from the pages, and the future of VR as a medium. See what they had to say and take a look at exclusive concept art and stills from the experience below.

Q: For starters, talk about what the concept of the Annihilator VR experience is for those who haven’t tried it and discuss how it relates to the source material.

TS: We took the first issue of the series and we isolated a few key moments inside that, putting you into the perspective of Ray Spass, the narrator inside the comic book. You get to experience his apartment, his meetings with his agents, his mental conceptions of the work he is working on from inside his point of view. Those are things he is working on inside the comic book but the environment and interactions are unique to the VR experience. It’s those things unwitnessed, implied, or obvious in hindsight that foreshadow things deeper into the series. BG: What was initially engaging and worked really well was the fact that it was comic material and especially since we were targeting the Gear VR, we knew what our limitations were. Because of that, we could say “Hey, it would be neat if we just kind of placed you in the center of all of this crazy activity.” What’s cool about the Annihilator universe is that it’s this kind of this constant head-trip and you’re never quite sure what’s going on. So, that was immediately inspiring to be in the middle of being able to play with transitions and elements within the environment that would morph and change and surprise you in a first-person way. You are there, you are present, these elements are there with you and this isn’t something you would get from an amusement park attraction or even a funhouse. We’re able to manipulate the space around you so organically, the material in Annihilator gave us a lot of room to play with for the experience.

Schell Games’ 360° concept art mock-up of the cafe scene, mapping out the full visual experience for the user.

Q: Can you take us through the process of how this came to be from inception to the final experience?

BG: It’s been almost a year and half now since we first had that meeting and there was a lot of great material being thrown around during that brainstorming session at Schell. Somebody pulled the Annihilator book out of the box and said “Hey, this is something new that Legendary has on its shelves that they’re really excited about.” So, right from the beginning it was sort of highlighted amongst the materials we had to look at. I think that Jonas Quantum was sitting there and maybe some Pacific Rim, all of which are neat, but Annihilator pushed the possibilities of the experience a bit farther and more immediately. There was just more to play with, more to daydream about and brainstorm over. There were many connections and we decided to attempt to pursue it in a roundabout way and let the guests organically experience it from the main character’s space and point of view. His sort of descent into madness and what that is like. TS: Ben put together an animatic of the experience that gave everyone a clear impression of how we were going to approach doing this. It was shot-by-shot thinking about how the visuals stack up and with the medium being so new and the headsets being limited in technical capabilities, You always are thinking about if this is going to be something that can actually be accomplished. There were several things that drew us to this property, one of which being that, at its core, it’s playing with perception and crossover between realities, like what VR does as a medium. The medium is all about virtual reality and playing with stories about virtual reality. The other thing is that most of the environments and scenes we are seeing are very familiar to people coming in off the streets. So even if the virtual reality is new and terrifying, you get a gentler introduction than if you were to just dropped right into a roller-coaster. BG: I think that for me, VR represents a doorway into providing experiences that you might read about in a comic or might watch somebody experience in a film. Yet, it’s in a way that puts you in a scenario that you would never have any other way of experiencing.

Q: If this is any indication, VR seems to be an interesting medium for comics to continue experimenting in that’s not at all like “adapting” the comic to film or TV. The Annihilator experience shows you can create a fully immersive comic book to step inside of. What do you think about the unique blending of these two mediums and are you working on anything else in this realm?

BG: We’ve kicked around several ideas and ways of approaching a combination of literature and the environment you experience that literature in. Different ways of breaking out of the sequential way of telling a story in this new space. Currently, we aren’t working on anything but it’s always in our back pocket. We like to show off Annihilator when we have guests that’ll come through and be curious about what is possible with VR. TS: I think there is something unique about VR being a newish medium and there are fewer expectations placed on it. There are certain things we can get away with because we can create things like an immersive 2-D environment and what it looks like. We don’t have to modify the original artistic vision of the comics to make it work with animation or live-action or to make it work with 3-D. There is a purer interpretation of the art at a basic level and that isn’t something that can be done immersively, sequentially, interactively outside of VR. I think people are more accepting of the novelty of it all because the medium itself is so new. BG: We try to be aware of what else is going on in entertainment production, especially in games. When we started to wrap our heads around this, we researched if others were doing something like this. We jumped on the internet, asked our friends and we found a couple things encroaching in the same direction, but nobody had really jumped into it and we felt that we had something special by how we approached it. The VR experience is another way of more deeply understanding the universe of Annihilator. Ultimately, I hope that other developers interested in VR and comics can look at Annihilator VR and be inspired by it to create the next step in that direction.

Q: One of my favorite parts of the experience is how interactive it is, utilizing the gaze function to not only advance the narrative but also to add some unexpected and strange details that really flesh out the world it takes place in. How difficult is it creating such an interactive story world as opposed to a more straightforward “on tracks” approach and how did you go about deciding what details to include in the environments?

TS: When we do an experience like this, we need to make sure the critical path is obvious. People shouldn’t feel like they are going to get stuck at any point. Once that happens, we say “what else makes sense to add interest to this?” A lot of what happens then is figuring out other things to put in. Some of those decisions are very late in the game, but every piece of the environment is sort of a blank page for us to brainstorm what in the property could fit there. BS: There’s no mobility, just 360 degrees of world. We didn’t want to beat you over the head with all the details. We took basically the first issue and brought in elements to each of the scenes that expanded the story in a more organic and discovery-oriented way. If you just went through the main path, you’d get the gist of the experience, but if you go through a few more times there are new things you have the opportunity to find. Typically, people find three interactions per scene, but in reality, each scene has five plus things to discover. Each one tells a bit more about the story, or at least builds on the character. Even details like when you are sitting in the office, like on the table is his license and business card that tells you a bit about who he is and what he does. We have this piece of paper from the hospital that says “brain tumor”, which sort of highlights the information available throughout the experience. The more you go through it, the more you begin to explore. We were finding people would discover more about what was going on, but it still maintains the mystery a bit. TS: It doesn’t need to stand on its own. This really is an introduction companion piece to the comic. All the questions that people raise, we expect them to be answered by picking up the book.From the standpoint of what is going on in the experience, you want to immerse yourself in the graphic novel and we tried to get that out through the VR experience.

Q: It seems like every time someone tries the experience, there are new details and easter eggs to find. What are your favorite easter eggs that might go unnoticed the first time through it?

BG: I have a favorite that is hidden in the environment. It’s more for your subconscious to pick up on. Annihilator has an unsettling theme throughout the book, and we wanted to make sure that there was a not-everything-is-right feel. If you are in Ray’s study and you look around, there is a bookshelf off to the left of the desk. You’ll see it a few times throughout, but something throughout the experience that I added is that behind the books are all the dead haunted faces from the space station. There are all of these cursed victims on that station with him and I put their faces in the shelf peering out between the books. If you ever catch it, it is unsettling. TS: (Production Manager) Jeff Outlaw’s favorite is in the Annihilator scene, if you poke around the left desk drawers, one of the little cute andcreepy creatures will emerge and warn you about the danger. That’s something few people get. Only a handful of people will see it. My subtle touch to realism is that the chair will rotate to catch up with you and squeak even though you can’t see your body in VR. BG: When we were building the scenes, audio was super important. It builds presence in VR which is cool because it takes you into these spaces. It can totally help anchor you in the scene.

360° concept art from Schell Games, laying out the experience’s space sequence.

Q: Where do you think VR is headed as a medium and where would you like to see it go?

TS: We are very future-facing as a studio, and there is a lot of on-the-horizon talk. I hope that the technology catches up with the intentions of the creatives behind it. I would hope that even if something were small, that we wouldn’t have to agonize over it. There is a lot of constraint working in VR right now, especially in mobile content. Between that and the adoption of it, I think that I just want to see all of that stuff thrive and grow and expand. I want it to drive the numbers and I don’t want people to worry about the constraints. BG: Even just general budget constraints and all of those concerns should ease up as players/guests start to increase and more people are using VR. There are a couple cool things recently where 7 hour long immersive games are used in VR and consoles. I’m interested to see the numbers from that and how that inspires next year’s VR development in similar platforms. There are lots of cool things happening, but I’m holding my breath trying to see what people jump on. TS: One of the things we try to do here is figure out the best strengths of the medium and leverage those to help. That’s an area where there is still uncertainty. What are people going to get into? What will they take from it? It’s the best period for experimentation because it is an open field right now. I think that it should continue that way for as long as possible to avoid things getting trapped. If you take a look at some areas of technology, we enter a cul-de-sac where the evolution has metastasized. I just would like to see mediums reach their full potential before they become very solid.

After all the hard work, the experiment between Schell Games and Legendary VR has paid off as the Annihilator VR experience is now available for download for Oculus and on Google Play. Grant Morrison’s Annihilator is available as a complete collection on Amazon.

#Worlds

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thecantabilelife · 8 years ago

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Favorite Quotes of Age of Youth (K-Drama, 2016)

Brief Review:

Judging from its title, I thought Age of Youth would have light & cute vibes resembling the bittersweet of youth ages. But, apparently, this drama is darker and a bit depressing. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, in fact, I am pleasantly surprised that this drama was dare to take sensitive issues in society (such as sugar daddy, dating violence, mistreatment at workplace) and pull it to an intriguing plot. All 5 main characters are flawed, and seem unlikable based on first episode, but when their layers are peeled off one by one, I start to relate to their stories. This drama is not just about a bonding relationship of 5 girls who live together in boarding house, or the characters that are described only as white & black – protagonist & antagonist. As a coming-age drama, Age of Youth offer more mysterious stories and complex characters, but still, can give moral values about how to overcome struggles and growing up. It’s such a pleasure to find an unconventional K-Drama like Age of Youth, a little gem of female centric drama with well-written story, and I can’t wait eagerly for Season 2. Yeay!

Ep 1

I thought that I was the only one who was holding back. I thought that I was the only one who felt uncomfortable at times. I thought that I was the only one who was being wary of others. I thought that it would be of no use, even if I did say something. I was scared that I would be hated if I did say something. I assumed that they’d laugh at me. In that way, I assumed that other people were completely different from me. I thought that they were ruder than me, and more reckless than I am. I thought that they wouldn’t care. I was being arrogant. Others are just like me. Other people are people, just like I am. They feel as uncomfortable as I do, and hesitate, just like I do. There are plenty of people who are as nice as I am. – Yoo Eun Jae

There are two kinds of secrets. Secrets that you can tell, and secrets that you can’t tell. Secrets that are okay to share at moments like these are secrets that are okay to be told to others. I have a secret that I can never tell. I’ve killed someone before. – Yoo Eun Jae

Ep 2

Lies may be similar to makeup. Just like one puts on makeup to hide their naked face. People use lies to hide the truth. I tell more and more lies as my makeup gets thicker. Since when did I start feeling that going out with no makeup on was embarrassing? Since when did I become so ashamed of the truth? Yeah. The truth is pathetic, sad, and pitiful, just like that. Because it’s truly painful when your earnestness is rejected by someone else. Acting cool, and acting as if you like the other person less and acting like you’re just joking. – Jung Ye Eun

Ep 3

I hate you because I’m jealous of you. I hate you because you have nothing to your name, and yet make me feel so poor. I hate you because you make me envy you. I hate you because I want to become like you, but can’t. So I can’t help but to hate you. That’s why it’s smell. There’s rotting smell coming from my envy. – Kang Yi Na

Ep 4

There was once a time when I longed to be special. I believed that I had a special fate in store for me and that my life would be different than of others. I told myself that I wouldn’t end up becoming average, no matter what. To be average means to be comfortable. To be average means to not catch anyone’s eye. To be average means to be boring. I’m even less than average right now. – Yoon Jin Myung

When I think that someone may like me, I become weak. And if I become weak now… it’ll really be the end for me. So… don’t like me. – Yoon Jin Myung

Ep 5

Breaking up with someone means that even if something good happens, you can’t be happy together. And that you can’t worry about them, even if something bad happens. The fact that you’ve broken up with someone means that you can no longer be curious about each other. The fact that you’ve broken up with someone means that the future that you’d imagined, with you being alongside them is something that you must give up on. – Jung Ye Eun

Ep 6

Friends shouldn’t photoshop the reality of their lives to one another. – Kang Yi Na

No incident starts out dramatically. Everything that happens in our daily lives is due to cause and effect. In retrospect, there were signs hidden everywhere. A small joke. A passing glance. The meaning behind a sigh that you thought meant nothing. If only I’d known what they’d meant, back then. But, just as foreshadowing only becomes obvious in hindsight, one only realizes the gravity of each passing second only after it’s gone. Thinking back on that day now… I may have set the stage for everything, despite not having any bad intentions. – Song Ji Won

Ep 7

You should be an independent woman who don’t need a man! This is the 21st century! – Song Ji Won *Ji Won is my spirit animal*

Ep 8

Everyone has their own circumstances to deal with. And until you know the circumstances they’re in, you can’t tell people how to live their lives. It’s not just Ye Eun. It’s Senior Kang and Senior Yoon, too. I’m sure you have something like that about you, too. Something that others can’t understand about you, but you can’t help. That’s why you can’t judge people willy-nilly… – Song Ji Won *Ji Won is so cool!!!*

I can’t quit. To me, this place is like a test. A trial run, kind of. If I can’t last here, I won’t be able to last anywhere. But if I can last here… I can last anywhere. I’ve decided that, on my own. So I… won’t quit this job. – Yoon Jin Myung

Sometimes, I want to cry out loud. I want someone to hear me crying. I want them to hear my cry, and tell me everything will be okay. I want someone to pat me on the back, and tell me that it’s not my fault. Sometimes, I want to throw a tantrum. At a person, or at my fate. And tell them, “stop it, already.” “Haven’t you done enough?” “Please, just spare me.” And… I’ll find hope, once more. – Yoon Jin Myung

Ep 9

I thought to myself, “Why are they all trying so hard?” Life is more fragile than a cheap toy. So how is it that they all consider their lives to be that precious? I’m curious. I thought about why everyone is trying so hard to move forward. Even though they don’t even know what awaits them. I felt like people who plotted out a point somewhere and worked hard to get there seemed strange. – Kang Yi Na

I thought that people only got lost when they tried to go somewhere and I thought that people’s lives only got hard because they set objectives. But staying in the same place for too long makes you lose your way too, it seems. I may have been… stuck underwater all this time. As I slowly sank downward. So… who was the one who’d held me back all this time? – Kang Yi Na *I truly can relate*

Ep 10

Humans are not such simple creatures. She wouldn’t have made a decision like that just because of one reason. Right? I mean, even if one final straw breaks the camel’s back, that’s just one piece straw we’re talking about. The reason is because of the crushing weight, not just that one piece straw… The same weight and responsibility as one piece of straw… – Song Ji Won

And I’d especially like to pray for Senior Yoon. Senior Yoon needs help right now. Please let me know how I can be of help to Senior Yoon. And if I can’t be the one to help her, please help her, God. – Jung Ye Eun

Ep 11

You said before that everyone has their own circumstances affecting what they do. I just felt like you, of all people, would understand why I did that. I wanted someone to tell me that… there was nothing else I could do in that situation. I wanted at least one person in this world to understand me. – Yoo Eun Jae

Ep 12

Living life diligently sure is a lot of work. Should I just quit? What if I just keep trying my best, but this isn’t the right path for me? Shouldn’t I try to find a different goal to work toward, as soon as possible? This is driving me crazy! It’s not like I’m going through puberty! Why am I worrying about what I want to be when I grow up, at this age, when other people have been done thinking about this a long time ago? – Kang Yi Na *Again… Can relate.*

I guess people’s memories really aren’t trustworthy. – Yoo Eun Jae

I want to do something capricious for once in my life. To be honest, I felt a bit nervous. It feels like I just jumped off a moving train by myself. – Yoon Jin Myung

Special Note:

Kang Yi Na and Song Ji Won are my favorite characters. Such a pity that the Production Team decided to not continue Kang Yi Na’s story in Season 2 (she maybe appear as cameo in 1-2 episode), because I love Kang Yi Na’s badass & tough personality *it’s so rare to find this type character in K-Drama land*. Whatever the reason behind this, I hope they can make a new great character as interesting as Kang Yi Na.

As for Song Ji Won, she is so cool and ultimately my spirit animal. She is like a glue in the squad, and I love that behind her quirky and weirdness personality, she is actually thoughtful and wiser than the other girls, and this is played brilliantly by Park Eun Bin. I am a little disappointed that her character is underused here, so I hope they can more focus and explore Song Ji Won’s story in Season 2, as she has so much potential and there are some unanswered questions in her arc. Hopefully, my wish will be granted :)

Please make a loveline for these cuties >.<

See you in Season 2 :)

-AquaMarine-

#Age of Youth #Quotes #Review #Korean Drama #Recommendation

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dingoes8myrp · 8 years ago

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Dawson’s Creek in Hindsight: 1.1

I’m rewatching Dawson’s Creek. I haven’t seen it since it originally aired. Here are my thoughts 9 years later.

1.1 - Pilot

This recap is long. It’s the kickoff and I have a lot to say about it.

A creek at sunset. A pretty nice house. Dawson Leery and Joey Potter are side by side on his bed watching E.T.

The opening scene, over-inflated teenage vocabulary aside, is great. It sets the tone for the entire show. This isn’t a story about teens inexplicably going to a night club on a school night (I’m looking at you, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). It’s established that it’s Saturday night and two childhood friends are hanging out in his room watching movies. That’s what me and my friends did at fifteen. It’s what me and my friends do now.

As Dawson switches over to the news, Joey gets up to leave, prompting the following exchange.

Dawson: “Where are you going?” Joey: “Home.” Dawson: “Spend the night.” Joey: “Can’t.” Dawson: “C’mon. You always spend the night.” Joey: “Not tonight.” Dawson: “Why not?” Joey: “I just don’t think it’s a good idea for me to sleep over anymore. You know?” Dawson: “No, I don’t know. Come on, you’ve been sleeping over since you were seven. It’s Saturday night!”

In hindsight, I’m upset Joey and Dawson don’t end up together. The bulk of this exchange is Joey confessing her non-platonic love for Dawson.

Two things are being established here. One: Joey and Dawson have been friends since they were kids and this is a long-standing routine. Two: Joey is breaking this routine for unknown reasons and Dawson is baffled and disturbed. We’re also being given insight into each of these characters. Joey has clearly thought a lot about Dawson and how things are changing between them. Dawson is oblivious, wondering why she’d think that. He’s much more comfortable talking about how Steven Spielberg was robbed of an Oscar than acknowledging Joey’s feelings (which will come back to bite him later).

Joey: “Things change, Dawson. Evolve.” Dawson: “What are you talking about?” Joey: “Sleeping in the same bed was fine when we were kids, but we’re fifteen now.” Dawson: “Yeah?” Joey: “We start high school Monday?” Dawson: “Yeah?” Joey: “And I have breasts!” Dawson: (laughing) “What?!” Joey: “And you have genitalia!” Dawson: “I’ve always had genitalia.” Joey: “But there’s more OF it!” Dawson: “How do you know?” Joey: “Long fingers. I gotta go.”

*Sidenote: this is the first of many instances in which the characters go to painstaking lengths within the dialogue to tell the audience “by the way, these characters are teenagers.” This is something that shouldn’t have to be pointed out and it miffs me every time they do it. This first time is forgivable because it’s the pilot and we’re setting the stage, but it’s the first of many instances.

This conversation further emphasizes the different headspaces of the two characters. Joey clearly feels that something is changing (or has changed) between them while Dawson insists everything’s the same. A gap begins to work its way between Dawson and Joey. This is the heart of our story.

Dawson: “Woah, Jo, don’t hit and run! Come on. Explain yourself.” Joey: “I just think our emerging hormones are destined to alter our relationship and I’m trying to limit the fallout.”

Joey being Joey, this is the closest we’re going to come to a love confession at this point in the storyline. She’s talking about his genitalia and hormones and their relationship, for crying out loud. She’s very nearly beating him over the head. His response?

“Your emerging hormones aren’t developing a ‘thang’ for me, are they?”

It’s important to note the mocking tone he uses and the Ben-Affleck-in-Gone-Girl-before-Ben-Affleck-in-Gone-Girl grin accompanying it. Joey’s dipping her toe into the waters of confessing her complicated feelings, and her target responds my mocking her. Naturally, her response is to attack him by pointing out a few flaws.

Joey: “A ‘thang?’ No, I’m not getting a ‘thang’ for you, Dawson. I’ve known you too long. I’ve seen you burp, barf, pick your nose, scratch your butt… I don’t think I’m getting a ‘thang’ for you.” Dawson: “So, then, what’s the problem?” Joey: “We’re changing, and we have to adjust or else the male female thing will get in the way.”

Again, Joey is drawing attention to the fact that something is different between them, at least on her end. Once again, Dawson is oblivious. And I don’t think it’s an act on his part. I think he’s genuinely oblivious to her strange behavior. Yes, he knows something’s off about her, but he has no idea what it is, and he doesn’t pick up anything she’s putting down to point him in the right direction.

Dawson insists they’re friends and that they should sleep in the same bed like they always do to prove it.

Are those Magic: The Gathering cards taped to Dawson’s headboard? Somebody answer this for me.

As Dawson and Joey settle in to sleep both of them are noticeably uncomfortable. Dawson finally says “Why’d you have to bring this up, anyway?” Now he’s thinking about it, too.

This is not my theme song. What kind of mind-fuckery is this, Freeform?

Note: I actually looked into this. The song played on streaming versions of the show is “Like Mad” by Canadian folk artist Jann Arden (source: IMDB). The original theme song I grew up with was “I Don’t Wanna Wait” by Paula Cole.

Joey sunbathes on a dock and is dragged into the water by a cheesy monster a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s revealed that Dawson is filming a movie he plans to enter in a festival. We meet the man behind the monster, their friend Pacey Witter. There’s an interesting dialogue exchange here:

Joey: (to Pacey) “You did it again, you grabbed my ass!” Pacey: “Like you even have one.” Dawson: “Guys, we are way behind schedule.”

Again, Dawson is completely ignoring Joey’s feelings. She’s very irritated, claiming Pacey groped her. Dawson’s only focus is on how this affects his film. To be fair to Joey, we’ll soon learn that Pacey has a habit of over-sexualizing and objectifying women. The fact that she says he did it “again” implies this isn’t a one-off. To Joey’s credit, Pacey was wearing a cumbersome monster costume, complete with awkward mask. It’s very likely he didn’t know what he was grabbing. I’m leaning toward this explanation because, given what we’ll see of him later in the episode, if he had grabbed her ass he probably would have made some macho crack about it. I’m more inclined to believe he didn’t intentionally grab anything and had a nose full of water while they were arguing, and therefore was annoyed she’d accuse him of that under the circumstances. The world may never know the truth.

This is also some nice probably unintentional foreshadowing, since Pacey later ends up dating Joey, much to Dawson’s surprise.

By the way, how did Joshua Jackson not drown in that mask? Is it just me, or does it sound like he’s delivering his lines while coughing up water?

Enter Jen Lindley.

Note: she arrives in a cab. No one picked her up to take her to her grandparents’ house. Nobody seems to notice this.

Dawson is the first to notice Jen. Pacey’s quick to follow his gaze. While Pacey and Dawson eagerly introduce themselves, Joey hangs back, regarding Jen with suspicion. Competition.

Can we talk about the clothing here for a minute? Joey is wearing shorts and a bikini top covered by a button-up shirt. Jen is wearing a dress strategically buttoned to show off both her legs and her chest. Granted, Joey is sort of in costume for the film they were just shooting, but Jen has no excuse. This could be part of her character. She was a wild child in New York and now she’s been shipped off to the grandparents to straighten up. The conservative, wholesome dress may not be her idea and the strategic de-buttoning could be her tiny way of rebelling.

Moving on.

Jen: “I’m Jen.” Dawson: “Oh, the granddaughter from New York, okay.” Jen: “Right.” Dawson: “Wow, you look… different.” Joey shoots Dawson a glare no one seems to notice. Joey: “Hi, I’m Joey. I live down the creek, and we’ve never met. Ever.”

The entire time Jen and Dawson are talking we focus on Joey, who is focusing on Dawson. It’s painfully obvious she’s jealous of Jen on some level. Jen points out to Dawson that they’ve met before and he hadn’t remembered. Although this is likely because they’ve both grown up since then, it also broadens Dawson’s obliviousness. It’s not limited to Joey.

Dawson: “So you’ll be going to school here, then?” Jen: “Yeah. Tenth grade.” Pacey: “Cool. Us, too.”

*Once again, we need to be reminded these are high school kids. Just pointing it out.

Joey makes very little effort to hide her displeasure at Jen’s arrival, or more importantly Dawson’s interest in Jen. Props to Katie Holmes for epic facial expressions.

Unfortunate “You gonna nail her?” discussion between Pacey and Dawson on their way into the Leery house. We get a glimpse of Pacey’s attitude toward women here.

Dawson and Pacey walk in on Dawson’s parents being all passionate on the coffee table and we learn Gail Leery is also the news anchor we saw on Dawson’s TV earlier. Dawson is mortified while Pacey sort of flirts with Dawson’s mom. Ew, right? This dude has issues. Again with the foreshadowing. More on that later.

We visit Joey’s house, indeed on the other side of the creek. Fun fact: I grew up near a lake and would have loved to kayak back and forth to someone’s house as a teen. My parents would not have been thrilled with it.

The Potter residence is cute, but modest compared to Dawson’s home we saw earlier. Here, we meet Joey’s pregnant sister, Bessie, and pregnant sister’s boyfriend, Bodie, who is the first black person we’ve seen in Capeside so far. We’ll learn later this is kind of a big deal to some people. Now we’ve established the unconventional family situation of the Potters. A stark contrast to the Leerys.

Ah, a video store. How retro. Remember the nineties? Notice the I Know What You Did Last Summer poster below the register.

Pacey has a back-and-forth Xander-and-Cordelia-esque conversation with the apparently popular/rich Nelly to establish he’s super unpopular or something. I don’t really know. Kind of a clunky, unnecessary exchange in my opinion.

Enter Ms. Tamara Jacobs, who immediately catches Pacey’s eye. Dawson remains professional, but seeing Pacey’s eagerness to talk to the woman, leaves him to it.

Sidenote: Dawson’s actually kind of a shitty wingman. He left Pacey to flounder while Nelly chewed him out, and left him to stammer his way through the Ms. Jacobs conversation. This isn’t obliviousness. This is deliberate.

Pacey makes a hilarious attempt to flirt with Ms. Jacobs, which she may be encouraging. It’s hard to tell. She makes a crack about The Graduate, which could either be flirting or a joke on her part, amused at seeing how bumbling Pacey is. The fact that she seems a bit flustered (nearly forgetting her credit card) tells me she might have been flattered and sort of encouraging him.

Dawson finds Jen sitting on the dock, a lovely silhouette. We get a sense of Jen here as she explains her grandmother’s the praying type. “I don’t do the whole God thing,” she tells Dawson. Jen asks about the handful of movies Dawson’s carrying.

Dawson: “It’s research. I’m making a movie.” Jen: “Really?” Dawson: “Yeah.” Jen: “Kind of young to be so ambitious.” Dawson: “Fifteen.”

*Again, we’re reminded via dialogue these two are fifteen.

Dawson shows Jen his room, which he refers to as his studio. He displays an unhealthy obsession with Steven Spielberg. Jen seems a bit worried by this. Dawson’s character can be summed up in his statement: “I believe that all the mysteries of the universe, all the answers to life’s questions, can be found in a Spielberg film.” Dawson has an unrealistic view of things, seeing everything through the lens of film. The visual of Jen looking out the window as Joey hides on her way in is wonderful.

Posters seen in Dawson’s Room: Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, The Color Purple, 1941, and Always (all of which he proudly points out to Jen).

Joey climbs a ladder to Dawson’s room, which makes me wonder if Dawson’s parents are aware she’s been spending her nights in their son’s room for the past several years.

Since Dawson has clearly planned a movie night with Joey, inviting Jen over was inconsiderate on his part, particularly considering her odd behavior the last time she was there.

Dawson, watching his mom anchoring the news, speculates whimsically that his mother may be sleeping with her co-anchor, Bob. Little does he know. It’s odd that someone so oblivious to most things would inadvertently pick up on that.

Interesting comment from Joey when she refers to Mr. Leery as “the perfect male specimen.” Dawson doesn’t seem to notice. I’m not sure what it means. I just found it odd for her to say.

We get a peek into Jen’s living situation as she checks on her sleeping grandfather, who’s just had heart surgery. Interesting foreshadowing here that, again, was probably unintentional. Jen sits by her grandfather’s bedside tracing the scar along his chest. Considering her eventual fate, this is eerie in hindsight.

Jen has breakfast with her grandmother, Evelyn Ryan, and it’s established that these two don’t know each other very well at all. Jen takes the opportunity to get all the dirt she can on her new potential friends, namely Dawson and Joey and what their deal is. Grams refers to Dawson as “trouble” and announces Joey has been “crawling in the bedroom window” of Dawson for ten years, which retcons Dawson’s earlier statement that Joey has been sleeping over at his house since she was seven. We’ve been reminded three times so far that these kids are fifteen, remember, so it’s not my fault I picked up on that slip. Grams doesn’t think too highly of Jen’s new friends. A funny moment as Grams nudges Jen to say grace at breakfast and Jen refuses. Grams asks “Is there some reason you don’t want to thank our Lord this morning?” Jen announces herself as an Atheist, which is hilarious. Poor Grams is bewildered.

Capeside High. Jen meets Nelly Olson, the one who ripped Pacey a new one at the video store. Very Cordelia-and-Buffy. Jen establishes she doesn’t drink or do drugs and she recently quit smoking. Dawson walks her to class. What a gentleman.

Pacey re-encounters Ms. Jacobs as his new teacher. That’s awkward. Jen sits next to Joey in class, trying to make friends. Also awkward. Ah, high school.

Hey, look! There’s another I Know What You Did Last Summer poster in the background of the classroom Dawson enters. He reveals his movie obsession isn’t limited to Spielberg as he rattles off some tid-bits about Hitchcock. Dawson attempts to be admitted to a film class, which he was denied due to seats being reserved for upper classmen. Dawson comes off entitled here, claiming he deserves admittance into the class simply because he’s passionate about it. A resounding no, and deserved.

Walking down the hall, Jen outright asks Joey if she and Dawson are more than just friends. So far, I love how Jen is navigating things. She’s respecting the fact that she’s a wrench in the works of an established dynamic of friends, and she’s going out of her way to be diplomatic. Joey insists she and Dawson are just friends even though we’ve seen she’s obviously mixed up about it. For someone so guarded around Jen, Joey’s quite open with her, saying her mother died of cancer and her father’s in prison. Joey reveals to Jen that Dawson likes her, very selfless on Joey’s part considering her budding feelings for Dawson. She’s still a good friend. She’s protective of Dawson while trying not to get in the way of his happiness.

Pacey attempts to flirt with Ms. Jacobs, which she seems a bit too amused by. Holy foreshadowing, Batman!

Pacey insists to Dawson he’s going to lose his virginity to Ms. Jacobs. He’s taken a few brief encounters and weaved them into a fantasy of epic proportions. Both Pacey and Dawson have established that they’re living in fantasy worlds. Pacey mentions he has three sisters. This makes his view of women a bit baffling.

Dawson sees Jen talking to a guy in a letterman jacket so we know he’s a jock. Seriously, none of the athletes in my high school wore their jackets all the time just because.

Dawson asks Jen to the movies, feeling nudged by another man’s interest. She accepts.

Dawson ambushes Joey on a bike to ask her to double date with he, Jen, and Pacey. Joey is not thrilled, but agrees. Again, she sacrifices her own happiness for Dawson.

Note: Dawson is wearing a New York Yankees hat. As a Massachusetts dweller, I object to this, since Capeside is supposed to be in Massachusetts. Clearly, that should have been a Red Sox hat. But, I digress.

Grams tries to manipulate Jen into going to church on Sunday. This is the first inkling we get that Jen has a checkered past of some kind. Grams thinks Jen needs church after what she’s done in New York. Jen mentions keeping her “rebellious nature” in check.

Dawson and his dad have an awkward sex talk in which Dawson reveals he’s based the importance of sex entirely on the fact that Spielberg doesn’t put sex scenes in his movies. Oh, Dawson. You poor boy.

Bess gives Joey adorable lipstick advice. This is one of my favorite scenes in the show, one of the few I remember even now.

Awkward walk to the Realto. Joey’s overly aggressive toward Jen and it makes Dawson uncomfortable and annoyed. Joey is likely embarrassed when Jen points out that she’s wearing lipstick, and her defense is to attack Jen’s hair color being unnatural. It just escalates from there. Oblivious Dawson is oblivious.

As they sit in the theater waiting for the movie to start Joey painfully watches Dawson debate holding Jen’s hand. Joey intervenes, asking Jen about her feelings on penis size. Again, I love how Jen navigates things here, quipping back but remaining cool. Dawson finally figures out something’s amiss and drags Joey out. Meanwhile Pacey ambushes Ms. Jacobs in a totally inappropriate stalker type scenario. Ms. Jacobs is understandably thrown, saying “I was only renting a movie” in a hushed tone (which implies maybe she wasn’t only renting a movie). Through a misunderstanding, Pacey gets punched by some dude. Hilarious.

Meanwhile, Joey flips out at Dawson in another part of the theater. Raise your hand if you didn’t see that coming.

Dawson: “What is your problem?” Joey: “My problem is that from the moment Little Miss Highlights showed up you haven’t said one word to me!” Dawson: “Crap! That is pure crap and you know it!” Joey: “All I know is that all your blood is rushing down when you can’t even acknowledge that another human being is even present!” Dawson: “I like her, okay? Sue me! I thought you were my friend. Where is a little understanding?” Joey: “Oh, I understand everything! I’m tired of understanding! All I do is understand.”

Joey reveals her frustration at being overshadowed by another woman who’s entered Dawson’s life. Dawson is surprised, despite all the signs that have led up to this. But, he’s concerned, at least.

Dawson: “Joey!” Joey: “Nothing penetrates with you, Dawson. You’re so far removed from reality you can’t even see what’s right in front of you.” Dawson: “What are you talking about?” Joey: “Your life. It’s a friggin’ fairytale and you don’t even know it. You just want conflict for that script you’re writing. Stop living in the movies. Grow up.”

Damn, Joey. A little harsh. This argument started with Joey’s murky feelings for Dawson and went down a hard road with Joey voicing resentment toward Dawson and straight up attacking him while he stands there bewildered. Instead of saying what she means, Joey deflects, which is frustrating in itself.

Dawson walks Jen home, saying “It was a really repulsive evening.” I’m guessing the date didn’t get much better. Dawson goes to kiss Jen and she interrupts, saying she feels responsible for how the night went. Dawson insists it was his fault. Grams appears in the front doorway to end the night.

Pacey walks along the dock, presumably on his way home. He runs into Ms. Jacobs, who feels bad about how things went. Pacey is bitter and throws a few jabs her way. He feels used by her.

“You’re a well put together knock-out of a woman who’s feeling a little insecure about hitting forty. So, when a young, viral boy such as myself flirts with you, you enjoy it. You entice it. You fantasize about what it would be like to be with that young boy on the verge of manhood.”

A shining moment for Joshua Jackson here. Well delivered. Like listening to Matthew McConauhey’s closing argument in A Time to Kill.

And then Ms. Jacobs kisses him! Who knew Pacey would be right? It makes his entire monologue go from the rantings of a whiney, pervy teen to a justified tell-off. By the way, that’s not how that’s supposed to go! Pacey’s not supposed to be right about this. Ick.

Dawson returns to his room and finds Joey in his closet. Very Lori Strode of her.

Dawson: “What is going on between us?” Joey: “I’ve no idea.” Dawson: “I know I have this incredibly perfect life and I completely underappreciate it.” Joey: “Yeah, you do.”

Unbeknownst to Dawson, his “life” has become a metaphor for his relationship with Joey. That makes the rest of this conversation very awkward.

Dawson: “I don’t want to lose you, Joey. What we have is the only thing that makes sense to me. When I saw you at the movie theater with that lipstick on I remember thinking how pretty you looked.” Joey looks at him, surprised. Dawson: “I mean, I ignored it. But I thought it.” Joey: smiles hopefully. “Yeah?” Dawson: “But that was it, Jo.” Joey is visibly disappointed. Dawson: “It didn’t go any further than that.” Joey: (recovering) “When I saw you going for Jen’s hand I… I mean, it’s not like I wanted to be the one holding your hand. I just didn’t want HER holding it.”

Again, Katie Holmes’s expressions say so much more than Joey’s actually saying. While Dawson’s trying to reassure her that he doesn’t see her as anything more than a friend, she’s hurt to hear that! It’s all over her face and Dawson doesn’t even see it. Or, maybe he does. When he says “But that was it, Jo. It didn’t go any further than that,” there’s a gentleness to his voice that suggests he may not know how she’ll react to hearing that. If he weren’t so damn oblivious I’d say he was trying to spare her feelings.

This leads to Joey insisting they can’t be friends the same way anymore because there are things they can’t talk about, asking Dawson when he “walks the dog” and how often. When he doesn’t answer, Joey leaves, upset.

To me, this comes off as Joey having a crush on Dawson and a) being overlooked for someone else and b) being told he doesn’t see her that way. Rather than confessing her feelings (that she may not be entirely aware of yet) she buries them and makes the problem about something else – first Dawson’s life compared to her own, and then this new person coming between them.

Then Dawson peeks out his window to answer Joey’s question, much to her relief. They can still be friends!

And then Joey sees Dawson’s mom making out with her co-anchor.

Dun dun dun.

Final thoughts.

While Joey is frustrating as all hell with her lack of communication, I relate to her. Who hasn’t had feelings for someone and not known how to say it? Who hasn’t been afraid of losing a friend if you tell them the truth? As she’s running from Dawson’s house at the end of the episode, she’s crying hysterically. She’s not just upset that Dawson doesn’t have a romantic interest in her (though that’s part of it). She’s mourning the loss of a friendship, of someone she loves dearly. Because she doesn’t know how to be friends with him anymore, which she states a number of times in a number of ways. All she knows for sure is things can’t be the same as they were “before.”

Dawson, you self-centered ass. I share a similar fondness for movies, but other than that I can’t relate to him at all. He’s just so selfish and completely oblivious to everyone around him. Joey is pouring her heart out to him and he barely notices until it gets in the way of his date with Jen. He knows nothing about Jen, who apparently has some kind of weird rebellious past he hasn’t even inquired about. He’s barely asked her anything about herself, actually, aside from her name and whether or not he’d see her in school. His buddy Pacey hits on his mom and a forty-year-old woman who turned out to be a teacher and Dawson laughs it off and gives a “yeah, whatever” type response. Dude, everyone around you is a mess. Get a clue!

Ohh, Pacey. I appreciate your sense of humor most of the time, but man, are you a pig. I defended you back there when Joey claimed you grabbed her ass, but who could blame her for thinking that, the way you talk to and about women? I think Pacey is starved for affection, so he’s seeking it out in all the wrong places. He puts on this macho air of “I’m gonna get laid!” but really there’s a sensitive person under there, as evidenced by his speech to Ms. Jacobs. He has a low opinion of himself, which isn’t helped by her manipulation.

Welcome to Capeside, where all the high school kids are in their twenties and video stores are still alive and well.

1.2 - Dance

#dawson's creek #dawson leery #joey potter #pacey witter #jen lindley #dingoreviews #dingometa

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 8 years ago

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Episode 46*: The Message

“Have a little have a little have a little faith in me.”

In the past, Greg Universe wrote songs that yearned for a life among the stars. Then he met Rose Quartz, and in a way, his wish came true. More than any other human on the planet at this point in the show, his life is full of cosmic wonder. But while he may be surrounded by aliens with literal magic, he’s not one of them. He tried so hard to fly, but he was thrown.

Greg is never more distinctly human than when contrasted against the Gems, and The Message highlights these differences more than ever before; he’s not even boring ole Greg here, but in Amethyst’s words, he’s Gregory. We haven’t seen the Gems so uniformly dismissive of him since all the way back in Laser Light Cannon, but this time we don’t just have to take Steven’s word for his greatness. He has proven to be competent and loving, capable of understanding his son deeper than any of the Gems.

This is honestly still a problem forty-odd episodes later. Sure, I buy Pearl having no faith in Greg. Even if we ignore her Rose-based dislike of him, here’s her perspective of his handiness: in Coach Steven, she saw his cruddy makeshift gym; in House Guest, she had to fix his van because he couldn’t; in Space Race, she saw his go-kart explode against a rock, and certainly didn’t see him help make a spacecraft; in Maximum Capacity, she confirmed that he’s messy, which hits her very core. Pearl is allowed to be condescending.

But Garnet and Amethyst? The former is super open-minded and practical, and the other actively enjoys Greg’s company. Both have participated in making music with him and know that he’s an expert with sound. Both know him to be someone who tries his best to fix things. Hell, all three of them know that his human duct tape solution to the Geode worked.

With this backdrop in mind, all three Gems react absurdly to his initial failure. Even Pearl, who’s most likely to want him to fail, is an expert in how the van functions and would understand the power failure. And his methods are clearly working before the battery shorts out, slowly shifting the senseless wailing into something that sounds vaguely like a voice. But instead of continuing down this path, the Gems give up the only lead they have. These are the same Gems that are bracing themselves for Homeworld after two encounters with Peridot and need all the help they can get, by the way.

The only conclusions we can gain from this is that the Gems are incompetent (which they aren’t) or that their stubborn lack of respect for Greg clouds their vision. Well, we’ve seen the latter in Laser Light Cannon, where, as a reminder, they assume a guy who keeps everything and loved Rose would’ve tossed something Rose gave him. But there, and here, this is nonsensical compared to their treatment of Greg in the rest of the series. Maybe Pearl would be petty enough not to recognize his value. But for Amethyst and Garnet to brush him aside ignores many episodes of rapport with him, and their knowledge that, oh yeah, he raised Steven by himself for years.

I’m not against the idea of the Gems having friction with Greg, but it comes up so infrequently that both of these episodes feel like oddballs. It would be easy enough to make this plot element consistent, but instead, the Gems (even Pearl) are far too cordial far too often with Greg for me to believe they suddenly see him as a total failure in The Message.

Like Laser Light Cannon, this tension does make for good conflict within the episode itself. Steven wanting to bring his two families together and prove his dad’s worth is a great problem to solve, and it lets Greg have a victory with stakes. But Steven Universe is a serial, and what works for a single episode doesn’t necessarily work for the whole. For a more extreme example, take House Guest: while I can’t stand Greg’s sudden shift to lying manipulator, it’s a perfectly decent episode if we ignore the context around it, which is that Greg never shows anything close to this sort of behavior elsewhere. But we can’t, and The Message shouldn’t.

One more issue before I get to the good stuff (because I promise, I actually do like this episode for all its flaws): it’s been a while since Lapis Lazuli flew back to the stars, and she hasn’t been mentioned since, so one of The Message’s duties is reintroducing her to the audience. This ends up being a mixed bag, because as much as I adore Steven’s song about her and our extended callback to Greg’s reaction to her ocean tower, it makes the sender of the titular message blindingly obvious. As soon as the Gems deduce the Wailing Stone is communicating from space, any viewer who understands foreshadowing (which admittedly excludes the show’s absolute youngest audience, but not school-age kids and up) will recall the focus on Lapis minutes earlier.

Considering the looming presence of Peridot in the wake of Warp Tour and especially Marble Madness, this episode could’ve easily led us to believe the green meanie was the culprit, with Lapis appearing as a genuine twist. As it is, her message arriving on the same night Steven and Greg happen to be discussing her (again, for the first time we’ve seen since her departure) feels contrived.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that the focus is on Greg and the Gems, and I understand that with only eleven minutes to spare it would’ve been difficult to do a genuine mystery plot justice while maintaining that central character study. But I’m tickled by the irony of an episode about a message being distorted by its medium getting distorted by the necessities of serialized children’s television.

Okay, so the good stuff. There’s a lot of it! Despite their out-of-character reaction to Greg, the Gems have fantastic interactions with each other: I get a kick out of the assumption that the Wailing Stone is a prank from Amethyst, and their different methods of trying to stop the noise are nice reflections of their characters. Steven and Greg are still great together, and Steven’s utter faith in his dad never gets old.

The music here is terrific. Greg expanding Steven’s melody about Lapis to express himself is inspired, considering they’re having a jam session before the episode picks up. I just love Tom Scharpling’s singing voice: I can’t imagine it’s easy to find so much oomph from the word “expertise,” but he nails it.

Even if its place within the serial makes some of the character beats ring false, the emotional truths underlying them are still done well. We feel how crushed Greg is, how hopeful Steven is, and the Gems’ full arc from discouraged to amazed to terrified. And Greg still gets to be a dad in an episode where he could just act like a buddy, calmly telling Steven to use his words when he gets too excited to communicate.

And dear lord, does Lapis continue to impress. With mere seconds on screen, the tone of the episode, and the entire rest of the first season, shifts into full crisis mode. It’s not just Jennifer Paz’s chilling performance, it’s the positioning of her small monitor to either fill the screen or surround itself with the Crystal Gems’ reactions. It’s the knowledge that the most powerful Gem we’ve seen so far is out of her league with Homeworld. It’s the confirmation that yes, they’re coming back to Earth.

And it’s Garnet, trying desperately to play it cool while her team falls apart. Her headspace is still pretty much the same as her initial reaction to Peridot in Warp Tour, but now she’s got to pull everyone together. It’s crunch time.

But not until we get Steven goofing off a little, because this is still a show that wears its heart on its sleeve and Steven’s humanity still matters when the going gets tough. Even if he’s actually a robot.

Future Vision!

Apparently Steven says “Hold the phone. Now give the phone to me” enough to worm its way into Garnet’s lexicon come Mindful Education.

As the Gems leap away, Steven notably fails to make such a leap. Combined with his fall in Rose’s Scabbard, it’s a wonder it takes so long for Steven Floats to pop up.

Lapis points out that Peridot knows Steven’s name, which shows that she paid attention to such things during their Marble Madness conversation; given this, is it really surprising that she kept a record of Steven’s friends that comes back to haunt us in I Am My Mom?

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

A personal hot dog this time: why oh why didn’t I name this section “My mind is the internet, I know every continuity mistake ever made on television”?

I guess you could read it that way…

When viewed in the intended order, The Message comes right on the heels of Story for Steven, with mixed results. While Steven and Greg’s musical van hangout makes for an excellent link between the episodes, as does the focus on Greg’s relationship with the Gems, Story takes place at the car wash and Message on the beach. Sure, Greg could’ve driven them over, but they still seem to be mid-hangout when The Message begins. This really should’ve been a more solid location connection given the opportunity.

This also would’ve been the third Greg episode in a row in the intended order, for whatever that’s worth (thanks to Shirt Club). The Message works as a culmination of a Greg trilogy, but honestly I like it better on its own.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Like sister episode Laser Light Cannon, I do enjoy this episode on its own merits. But its flaws are easier to see in hindsight, especially when you aren’t as caught up in resolving the initial Homeworld Arc as you are in the first viewing.

Top Ten

Steven and the Stevens

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Rose’s Scabbard

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Winter Forecast

On the Run

Warp Tour

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

The Test

Future Vision

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

No Thanks!

4. Horror Club 3. Fusion Cuisine 2. House Guest 1. Island Adventure

#the message #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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murasaki-murasame · 8 years ago

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Danganronpa V3 Liveblog Part 8 [Chapter 2 - Trial Success]

Not gonna lie, this chapter kinda kicked my ass, and it’s basically entirely my fault, lol.

Thoughts under the cut.

Just to get it out the way, I honestly came disturbingly close to failing the trial a second time. Mostly because it took me a weirdly long time to figure out which weak point to use the Alibis for Yesterday truth bullet on, and then to remember that the concentration feature exists after several failed attempts at shooting it. Oh and then the sword battle section happened and I started panicking all over again because I didn’t think we’d have anything else after that before the Argument Armament, and something about the logic of the argument made it take me a few attempts to figure out which truth bullet to use. I also kinda suck at the actual gameplay of the sword battle segments. And THEN I lost like over half my goddamn health on the Argument Armament itself because I continue to be awful at rhythm games. My next priority skill-wise will almost certainly be getting that other one that makes those parts a bit easier.

So yeah this trial was a complete goddamn nightmare, but I can only really blame myself for it. I feel kinda dumb in hindsight for having expected it to be easy and predictable.

I really do wonder if anyone else had as much trouble with this as I did. I can at least see how Kirumi makes sense as a culprit, and how if you had a correct idea of how the murder happened, she’d be very immediately suspicious. So I guess at least SOME people must have guessed it right away. But I still wound up getting stuck suspecting Kaito, and then frantically suspecting basically everyone aside from Kirumi.

I especially feel like a bit of an idiot for not thinking about the piece of black fabric. I guess I just assumed it was some random material used to tie the ropes together.

Before I talk about the motive and whatnot, I should talk a bit about the trial in general since I didn’t really do so last time.

One of the more immediately surprising things was that Angie started immediately suspecting and questioning Himiko. I knew already that she’s pretty callous in her own way, but I didn’t expect her to start openly questioning someone who she just befriended and recruited into her religion.

Tenko’s still growing on me more and more as a character. She’s pretty flawed and short-sighted, but it’s always interesting to see characters deal with stress and desperation. I hope she gets a chance to develop further as a character.

I still don’t really like Kokichi, but he undeniably works great as a Komaeda-esque character who stirs shit up. I don’t really know how to word my opinions on him. I think his personality just grates on me much more than someone like Komaeda. Also his expressions are somehow getting more creepy and off-putting as time goes on. I do like that he’s not a super-competent genius manipulator, though. The only person who doesn’t immediately ignore him is Gonta, really, and a lot of his schemes get torn down at some point or another.

Oh, and that reminds me, I’m surprised that Keebo’s audio recording feature never came up again in this chapter, but it makes sense, since nothing audio-related happened in the case. I can only imagine that it’ll be used at some point later in a case, though.

I’m also still really happy that Kaito was innocent. I feel pretty bad about suspecting him for so long. He’s still a really neat character. I like how straight-forward and honest he is about everything. He’s working really nicely as a foil to Shuichi, with how he knows how to be blunt and somewhat harsh if he needs to motivate Shuichi to overcome his emotional hang-ups and insecurities. And of course he’s still a bit of an idiot who’s not very good at actual detective work and mystery-solving, so he needs Shuichi to help him. And I feel like Shuichi’s one of the relatively few characters who responds to Kaito’s overall personality in a positive way, and who tries to stay on his side and work with him. It’s a nice dynamic.

As for the murder case as a whole, it’s almost insane how complicated it is compared to it’s relatively simple end result. It’s no wonder that it was the Ultimate Maid who was able to nearly perfectly pull it off. I knew in advance that I had no real clue exactly how the mechanism of getting Ryoma killed and through the gym window worked, but I guess I had most of the gist of it down. It was just specific details of it that I couldn’t work out.

Part of me was expecting my guess about Kokichi actually being the Ultimate Prisoner to play a part in the trial, but I guess it didn’t. It makes sense that they wouldn’t just get rid of his character this early. I’m not discarding that theory, though. It may not have played into the trial, but I still think that he is indeed the Ultimate Prisoner, and that Ryoma’s bathroom was actually Kokichi’s lab.

I’m slightly surprised that this chapter actually managed to give me even more trouble than the first one did, but I like it. It’s fun to play a murder mystery game that feels genuinely challenging.

Onto the topic of Kirumi’s motive, I actually quite like it. It’s pretty fitting for how over-the-top these cases can be in this series. I can see why other people might think it’s too much, but I really loved the idea that she had been enlisted to become the de facto prime minister to help improve the country. It raised a pretty interesting ethical conundrum, with how everyone began to feel guilty about sentencing her to death because it might mean dooming an entire country’s worth of people. I wonder if someone could actually volunteer to be executed in someone else’s place. I’m guessing not.

Like with the last chapter, I appreciate that Kirumi’s motives were completely understandable, and she still felt like the same person afterward. It was really hard not to feel bad for her. It would have been nice if she could have escaped, but obviously she was never going to be able to. That one CG of her screaming while running was really well done.

Her execution was also pretty difficult to watch. I mean, all of them are, but the ones that involve people being slowly injured, and having to actively move through a damaging environment, are always uncomfortable to watch. My only real issue was that it was kind of unfortunate that the signs that random shadow people were holding weren’t redrawn to be in English, so I can only guess at what they meant. I guess they were meant to represent protestors who were demanding stuff from Kirumi as the de facto prime minister.

It was also interesting how the execution used the concept of that one story I’ve heard before about a sinner in Hell being given a string leading up to Heaven to climb, that snaps before they get to the top. It makes a lot of sense that it’d reference a story all about Heaven and Hell, given that this chapter’s title is literally A Thin Line Divides Heaven and Hell, and we also had a few different vague references to the idea of the school being a sort of Hell. Which is getting me even more curious about the idea that maybe it literally is a form of Hell.

I should also probably say that even though I get why some people might find the idea of the motive videos to be a bit forced, especially the idea that Kirumi was the only one to get her own video, but the basic concept has been around since the very beginning of the series, and I think this chapter did a good job of twisting the formula a bit. It was also pretty obvious that Monokuma and the Monokubs probably designed it specifically so that Kirumi would get her own video and be driven to murder. So I think it’s totally fine.

Though on the note of Monokuma and the Monokubs, I’m intrigued by the way that they don’t all seem to be on the same page, and might be messing with the game in their own ways. I’m not sure what to make of it.

Obviously the whole ‘unprecedented crisis’ is foreshadowing for later plot reveals. I’m curious to see what’s up with all that. It’s reminding me a little of the whole scenario of Junko overtaking the world with despair. I guess we’ll learn about it later. It makes me kinda curious about why Kirumi would have elected to lose her memories like Shuichi seemingly did, if she was so devoted to her country.

I stopped playing immediately into chapter three, but I still saw a brief flash of some sort of news report showing meteors raining down, so . . . maybe that’s part of it. I have no real clue.

Anyway, on the topic of Ryoma, I probably should have expected that he was complicit in the murder and allowed himself to die. I think I kinda idly suspected it, but I never thought about it deeply since it wasn’t important to figuring out who the culprit was. But it makes sense. It’s both depressing and kinda admirable that he allowed himself to die in order to potentially save the entire country. And I like how it showed that Kirumi didn’t simply take him by surprise, but instead she explained her motive to him and gave him time to agree to it before attacking him. Not that she would have backed down even if she needed to fight him over it, though. There’s also the detail of how even in spite of all the emphasis placed on Ryoma’s apathy about life, he still resisted death in his final moments, as shown by the struggle he put up in the bathroom. I don’t think Kirumi was lying or anything about him genuinely exposing himself to her attack, I just think that instincts took over for him when he was actually facing imminent death. It adds an interesting element to this chapter’s whole discussion of the idea of ‘having a reason to live’.

I also like that Ryoma was actually hoping he could find a reason to live by looking at his motive video. It’s interesting that he wasn’t so apathetic that he wouldn’t seek a chance to live if he could discover one. Which isn’t that much of a surprise, I guess, since he said before that he was jealous of how everyone else had reasons to live. It’s also really depressing to think that he must have been genuinely curious to see who Monokuma would say is his most important person. Though we now know that there was literally nobody. I think that Monokuma went out of his way to give him a ‘blank motive’ in order to set him up as a victim, though. Ryoma probably technically had SOMETHING that could have been put there. We even saw in this chapter earlier that Kaito has a lot of respect for him from his old tennis club days, and that he was annoyed at him because he wanted him to regain his will to live. So there’s at least one person who cared for Ryoma in his own way.

Then there’s the implication of him having blackmailed Maki about potentially exposing her identity as the Ultimate Assassin. That was neat. Even though Ryoma’s more or less a good person, he’s still someone with an experience in crime, and he’s not above things like this. I was gonna say that I’m not sure how Ryoma or Kokichi knew her real identity, but come to think of it, Ryoma had her motive video, and Kokichi had also presumably seen them all. He was probably lying about having ‘just checked who had which motive video without having watched them’. So her motive video probably just made it clear that she was the Ultimate Assassin, and since they’re the only people other than her who would have watched her video, it makes sense that they both knew about it. Now I’m wondering exactly what her motive video showed. I wonder if we’ll ever see it. I’m kinda surprised, but also happy, that the motive videos actually played a pretty huge part in this overall case, in multiple ways.

I was wondering why Maki was being so defensive about her room, and why she was so tight-lipped during the trial, but now it makes sense. I kinda hope we can see her lab now that the truth’s been exposed.

It’s also pretty interesting that this already opens up the idea of someone outright lying about their talent, which makes me even more confident in thinking that Kokichi’s probably also lying about his talent. I guess she was probably setting up a false identity for herself in order to remain as unknown and unsuspected as possible. I wonder how she’ll act now that everyone knows her big secret.

Come to think of it, I remember people thinking that she looked more like a ninja or an assassin when we first learned about her, so I guess this twist makes sense. I’d forgotten about it though, so I didn’t see this coming.

I’m very curious to see how the story continues now. It feels like it’d be pretty difficult to motivate anyone to kill after how these two chapters went.

In a metagame-y sense, I’m kinda expecting to get a female victim and a male killer soon, after two cases of a male victim and a female killer. That’s about the extent of my prediction, though. I’m not sure who exactly I’m expecting to see die.

Before I forget, I’m aware that I apparently missed one or two ‘backdoor’ options in the trial, but I can’t really imagine where they could have been. I’d have to basically retry the entire trial, which I have no real intention of doing anytime soon. I feel like, in general, it’d be much easier to find those options in hindsight, when you know who the killer is.

Overall, I thought this was a really good chapter, even if I feel a bit ashamed about having lost right near the end of it the first time around. I really wasn’t expecting it to feel equally as difficult, if not MORE difficult, than case one, but it really did.

#murasaki rambles #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #danganronpa v3 spoilers

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