#like a thematic mismatch

[blood-starved-beast]

Not dissing on anyone in particular but it's interesting to see people trying to retroactively justify or otherwise "call out" on the fact that Melinoe has no connection to her birth family. It's the Point I'd say. And thematically, she's likely never coming "home" for real. Cause it was never home. Can no longer be home and all.

[liauditore]

how many belts and buckles does she need someone save me.

[neosatsuma]

I finally made a Durge and I stuck with the white dragonborn, and when I couldn't decide between blue eyes and red I said "why not both? :)" which. is very Symbolic of her struggle I must say, but it also means she kinda. looks like this

[thevalleyisjolly]

So, having made his way back onto the ship where the TARDIS is, why did the Doctor not use the TARDIS to travel back to the time he left Madame de Pompadour in, instead of using the fireplace window that has been repeatedly proven to be extremely unstable and unpredictable with the time dilation?

[tossawary]

There has to be a term already for when stories accumulate this... "narrative debt" that they end up not paying back. When stories fail to stick the landing when it comes to character development or thematic development, a mismatch between what the beginning of the story apparently constructed and what the final scenes ultimately ended up being.

I want to compare it to "The Empty Mystery Box Problem", almost, where the story lays on twisty element after twisty element to pull you into some great mystery, only to ultimately reveal that the writers never had a cool explanation for any of this and were pretty much just jerking the audience around to keep them watching for as long as possible. It has a similar feeling of investing your attention, only to get nothing satisfying and to feel betrayed for caring.

There's a disconnect between author and audience. A sense that perhaps the author, who has their own visions in mind, is not even aware of what they ended up depicting in the execution. As an audience member, I do sometimes have to ask myself, "Was I just projecting my own arcs onto this while the author wanted to do something different? Am I upset just because I didn't get the resolution I anticipated?" And sometimes I come to the conclusion that, no, if the author always intended for the story what they claimed, then they did it badly, and the parts that I found resonant were definitely there, just... perhaps done accidentally and/or carelessly.

Like, let's say that there's some show that ends up depicting a protagonist who has substance abuse issues.

The show repeatedly shows the audience that the protagonist feels dependent on alcohol, we see lots of shots of them drinking, often at very inappropriate times. As the plot goes on, the show even appears to be showing us the consequences of this addiction, in that the character's relentless over-drinking apparently negatively affects their job performance, their love life, their relationships with friends and family. The character is miserable, perhaps even explicitly expresses some of their depressed feelings, and it seems obvious that taking a known depressant is a big part of this tangle. There may even be some looming threat that if the protagonist doesn't get this issue under control or get help, there will be even more serious consequences.

So, we've spent aaaaall of this screentime dwelling on this obvious character problem, but then... well, one way for the story to handle it poorly is to just not handle it. It's just never really addressed. A potentially great character arc about someone struggling with addiction just fizzles out because the plot climax takes up so much space that you think... maybe the writers... somehow forgot that they made unhealthy alcohol dependence an enormous part of the character's life? Maybe???

Like, there's not even a visual cue at the end that the character is now making an effort to tackle their addiction or something. There's not even a single line of dialogue in the epilogue to tell us that the protagonist went through rehab and they're sober now or something. What you may have read as a very serious problem just vanishes overnight. A story element that ate up aaaaall that screentime just never gets any satisfying resolution.

I'm not saying here that I need to see the story handhold a character through the rehabilitation process. It's not a requirement that all characters overcome their addiction by the end of the story. Sometimes, a story ends a little sadly, yeah, or is an outright tragedy. Sometimes, one problem is solved and another sticks around. I just think it's disorienting when I THOUGHT that the story was trying to actually say something about substance abuse, they spent all this fucking time showing us scenes that revolved around that element, and it turns out that the writers were like, "Oh, yeah, I guess! We weren't really thinking about that as a serious problem. We mostly just had the protagonist drinking all the time because it looked cool, and I guess that part ties in pretty well with how they were fucking up their life, actually, but we dropped it because we didn't think it was important."

The OTHER way for a story to handle an arc like this poorly is to do a total reversal at the end. The author is not only blissfully unaware that they have been telling a nuanced story about substance abuse until now, they don't even think that addiction is real. The ending yells really loudly: "Not ONLY is this character's drinking actually NOT a problem! It helps them save the day! And also every other character has been super mean to them about this; everyone else needs to grovel at the protagonist's feet and apologize for saying super mean things like, 'Don't you think it's inappropriate to show up drunk to a child's birthday party?' Because the WORLD would have ENDED if the badass protagonist hadn't been doing the objectively correct thing of being hammered all of the time."

At which point, the only thing to do is leave the show behind, because caring about it is a waste of time. But it's hard to stop thinking about it because the show paid all of this time... into a narrative element that felt SO obvious and crucial and like it was going somewhere... and it was an accident??? Like, the story was good when it was making all of these interesting promises, until the end came around and it turns out that it couldn't pay the bills and/or never had any intention of paying.

"The Empty Mystery Box Problem" except the box is wide open the entire fucking time and there's cool stuff in it, but the writers apparently aren't paying attention to the box or what they're putting in it!?!?!

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I feel like Unparalleled Aeons and Far Out songs stands out to me is how both members were given equal screen time (Given they are two). Because I guess the issues with the songs is how they have small amount of time for some. Well I don't blame some not just the number of members but also how some of them aren't professional singers like

Notice how the rest of the songs, the way housewarden sings like being the main singer (make sense on who is twisted version they are) the rest being like back-singers but still have some good solos. Meanwhile, the way Idia and Kalim sings doesn't feel like Jamil and Ortho are back-up singers nor them being main singers but like partners with equal parts. When I listened to the other songs, I can't tell who's who while the Ignihyde and Scarabia I can tell.

I don't hate the songs, but you can't help but notice that makes it interesting. Overall, I love all songs that have their motifs, themes, and lyrics. It's kinda sad these songs couldn't be use in modern Disney that much.

[My personal ranking(s) of the dorm songs here!]

I definitely feel like Far-Out and Unparalleled Aeons had the most evenly distributed lyrics of all the songs. As you said, maybe it was more challenging for the composer to balance larger groups, or maybe the composer was limited in how he could write the songs due to some VAs being less skilled with singing. However, I also have to wonder how much of this was intentional??

These are dorm songs, right? And the VAs are singing in character. So to me, it feels like the songs are storytelling too, telling us about the dynamics of the group through their performances.

Looking back on it, the two most balanced songs belong to the dorms where its members are the most deeply intertwined with one another. Kalim and Jamil are locked into a toxic codependent relationship due to their families' history. Kalim relies on Jamil to do practically everything for him, while Jamil is stuck in a servant position he wants to break free from and always forced to play second-fiddle to Kalim. Idia is constantly haunted by Ortho's death, and Ortho plays a huge role in providing support for his older brother's mental faculties (encouraging him to get out of his room and mingle with peers). Ortho is very reliant on Idia for much of his own identity and presence at NRC (prior to book 6), only allowed to be there because he was registered as Idia's + Idia provided tech support for the school. Idia also designed many new forms (gears) for Ortho.

Many of the songs are structured to feature the dorm leader--which I'd argue is thematically appropriate, as I will soon get into. I have a pretty bad ear too, but I was surprised at how many of the voices I could distinguish. The card soldiers, Silver and Sebek, and Epel and Vil were the only ones I couldn't quite make out. There was enough variation for me to tell the others apart, especially Savanaclaw (no way would I mistake Ruggie for Jack or even Leona for Jack).

Every song not only has its own genre, but also its own vibes. I like that Twst can be its own thing and not necessarily kowtow to Disney's more traditional musical roots. I personally wouldn't want these to be incorporated into modern Disney film or TV productions. When Disney tries to do this, it ends up sounding so tonally dissonant or mismatched with the rest of their OST(s). ... Anyway, here's a very brief analysis of each song's arrangement + some lyrics and how they're divided up-- (MVs not taken into consideration; I unfortunately don't have the time to analyze every frame and how it lines up with the lyrics.)

Heartslabyul's Obedience is interesting in that it is very symmetrical with its vocal pairings. Cater and Trey sing with one another while Ace and Deuce sing with one another. The third years are deliberately paired with each other, while the first years are deliberately paired with each other. Trey and Cater, the original loyalists, have lines about "[playing] your cards right" and how their ruler is looking righteous and smug. Meanwhile Ace and Deuce, the rebels, sing about not being "caught" by their dorm leader's gaze. It's not until the second half of the song where they mix things up (Deuce with Trey, Ace with Cater), but it's still very predictable with the blends (always a third year with a first year). Trey and Deuce, the more level-headed duo, bring up setting the table, while Cater and Deuce, being more of the "hide your true feelings"/"avoid responsibilities" duo, "[hide] behind a smile" and warn to not "get caught with your tongue sticking out". This goes along with the song's theme of following the rules to a T; all the card soldiers are in place! You can even say that the song starting off with the rhythm of a military band indicates the song coming up will be regimented and structured. The only part I would say outright "breaks" this rule is when Adeuce sing with Riddle (around the middle of the song?) but in a way, that also makes sense given that those first years rebelled against Riddle in book 1, but eventually come around in book 7 to become his supporters. Then they of course all chant together for the English portions ("Yes, your Majesty!", "My pleasure, my Queen!", "As you wish, my Queen!") where they express their devotion to the Queen, indicating that these phrases are something "[the Queen wants] to hear". (Riddle chants with them too, to show respect for the rules.)

I think the true chaos of the song comes in the second half. Trey and Cater mention running through a maze and how the Queen's righteousness breaks at that moment, then Adeuce elaborate it scatters like cards. Riddle remarks how this--the twisting maze--"[hides] the true colors of [his] heart". This parallels how there was an elaborate chase through the rose maze in the depths of Riddle's book 7 dream, obscuring his loneliness.

You definitely get the vibes that although everyone has their little solo, Adeuce, Cater, and Trey are there to support their dorm leader. Riddle gets about the same amount of lyrics as the others, but his parts are more embellished and have more vocal flair to them. The lines specifically assigned to Riddle also feel like he's the Queen welcoming you to his territory full of his followers ("This is the path to the Queen's rose garden", "The cards are lined up and awaiting their (next) orders", etc.). The lines assigned to the card soldiers seem intentionally designed--as if the cards are reminding you of the rules so you don't upset the Queen.

DIADEM is reflective of the relationships between its dorm members too, but the relationships are very different than Heartslabyul's. The song begins with Jack singing, followed by a line in which he and Leona sing together. Then Ruggie has a solo line, which is also followed by a line in which Leona joins him. It's only AFTER Leona has already shared lines with Jack and Ruggie that he belts out his own solo, which stresses that they will continue to roar, no matter how many times it takes for their message to be heard. This gives the impression that he swooped in to support Jack and Ruggie with their own parts, just like a benevolent king or mentor figure/senpai might do for his people or mentees/juniors. This is also what Leona essentially does for his dorm in book 2. Then once Leona makes his own declaration, they're all able to sing together, united as one. It's like he uplifted Jack and Ruggie to join his rebellion.

There's an interesting part in the chorus where Ruggie and Jack break away to sing (without Leona) about fate and laughing through the hard times which. Has some heartbreaking implications when you consider that Leona expressed as late as book 6 (and is strongly implied in his book 7 dream as well) that he sees hope in others, but not himself. So??? Him NOT joining Jack and Ruggie in singing about laughing through difficult times seems pessimistic. Around the middle of DIADEM, Leona shouts out commands ("howl" and "roar", respectively), each of which is punctuated by Ruggie and Jack joining him with the English phrases "BEAT DOWN" and "DO MORE". These come off like a leader rallying his allies, and those allies responding with chants for their cause. This is especially the case because right after we get Ruggie declaring that his blood is boiling (ie he's pumped now) and he's eager to destroy a future that has already been decided for him. Then Jack enters, saying that he, too, wants to tear down an unjust world. There is NO Leona in this part, it's ONLY Jack and Ruggie, who have been newly emboldened by his words. The song really highlights how much the juniors are motivated by their strong leader.

In Heartslabyul's song, you get the sense that everyone else exists to prop up the Queen/Riddle and try to keep each other out of trouble by reciting the rules. In Savanaclaw's song, you can see how Leona encourages his dorm members and they react by taking to the words that lift their spirits. Both dorms' members are showing deference to their dorm leaders, but in different ways.

Entanglement opens with Jade imploring the listener to spill their secrets to him. Then Floyd comes in, continuing the charade. Azul takes over from there. This framing makes me think of Octavinelle's usual schemes--that is to say, the twins advertising Azul's "services" and then finally introducing us to him, this supposed "wish granter" (a procedure described to us in book 2). The order of the characters' presentation slots in nicely with this: we start with the more polite and unassuming twin luring us in. Once Jade has set the bait, Floyd, the more conspicuous brother, feels safe to step in and really talk up what Jade laid out in the beginning. Only after both twins are pitched Azul does Azul actually show up to make his offer. Jade and Floyd make up the majority of the chorus, singing together to coerce the listener into making a decision, even framing it like the decision is being made exclusively based on YOUR free will ("It's all up to you"), when really, it's not. Azul shockingly says very little solo in the chorus, only "Now, go on, we're all ears", before the twins join him and they urge you to share your wish with them.

The latter half of the song gives Poor Unfortunate Souls energy; it features Azul telling the listener they won't find a better bargain than this, then Jade saying they're drowning in their own desires and finally Floyd putting on the pressure to close this deal. Azul then mentions paying a price and how his rules are reasonable, which is very similar to how Ursula demands her a toll be paid (how it isn't "asking for much", etc.). The twins also very characteristically warn you what will happen if the contract is broken ("punishment", "squeezing", "no escape"), like the potential consequences if Ariel cannot get the kiss of true love from Eric. Overall, Entanglement reads as the extended experience of you being roped into a Bad Deal.

Far-Out opens with Kalim (the dorm leader), with Jamil (the vice) following. This pattern of Kalim first, Jamil second (which reflects their dynamic in general) also occurs when they speak English in the song; Kalim gets his verse about the magic carpet first, Jamil gets his verse about treasure later. The dual nature of Kalim and Jamil is also made apparent here: Kalim is allowed to fly "whenever [he] wants", while Jamil is only allowed to "dream" about "treasure whenever [he] wants". When the two sing together, this duality persists: "good and evil intertwine", "[falling] into a sea of ecstasy", the part where they list several people of different social standing, etc. The one time when Jamil sings before Kalim is at the beginning of the second verse, before Kalim mentions a scarab flying in front of him. This comes off as if Jamil is leading the way for his dorm leader, like some puppetmaster dangling his puppet and tugging it along by the strings. I think it's very telling that Kalim's opening line is about describing the scorching heat of their homeland but Jamil's opening line is about... TEMPTATION??? Hilariously on-the-nose, seeing as how Jamil is the one with the literal mind control UM and he describes a serpent in the night with sharp eyes in the lyrics to Far-Out (literally describing himself). Meanwhile, Kalim's UM chant seems to be referenced, as he talks about singing and dancing. Both Scarabia boys sing about "giving in" together, but as the song goes on, the framing of the lyrics makes it clear they're "giving in" to different things. For Kalim, it's "the heat" (a stand-in for Jamil's mind control), which is made apparent by Jamil immediately saying "indulge in this feeling until it takes over" and Kalim later says he is "captivated by the heat". For Jamil, it's "treasure", something he repeatedly indicates as wanting to take throughout the song. For example, Kalim sings about endless riches, and then Jamil has a solo line where he says "if you desire it, take as much as you want"--and his dream in book 7 shows him taking all that was once the Asims'. They're both venturing to a metaphorical oasis to seek relief, but seem to be distracted by things along the way ("heat", "treasure", etc.).

Kalim mentions a golden scarab crossing his eyes in one line, and while this is an obvious Aladdin reference, it also makes me think of Jade's one golden eye interrogating him in book 4; this would be another time in which Kalim is taken advantage of by others. First by Jamil, then by Jade. At the very end, Kalim sings about undoing shackles (most likely referring to Jamil's) while Jamil sings about a party (of which Kalim throws many of) that will eventually exhaust. The other Scarabia character is at the forefront of each boy's mind, and it is also where their respective desires (friendship for Kalim, freedom for Jamil) derive.

La Volonté is French for "will" or "willpower", which is a huge theme in the song. Unlike the other songs so far (which open with a solo or duet), La Volonté begins with all members of Pomefiore singing about their "one and only wish", and how they intend to immortalize their beauty. This is fascinating in that all three of them have very different personal goals (Epel wants to be strong, Vil wants to be seen as a "hero", Rook wants to pursue beauty), but they sing in unison anyway, because this validates all of their goals as being "beautiful".

Rook, the most secretive of the trio, mentions a heart locked away in a box, then Vil joins him in speaking of a truth entering his ear--like in book 5, when Rook convinces Vil to go with the more unconventional picks for the VDC/SDC auditions. In one of Epel's solos, he tells of sweet poison dyed in crimson, which is wording that is very close to his UM name. When Vil joins him, they sing, "A little more, a little more...", which makes me think of how Vil intends to "perfect" Epel into a weapon to use against Neige in book 5. The fact that Rook sings about their goal "[being] within reach" is ironic, given that it's ultimately his vote that decides NRC's loss.

Though this song starts off with the Pomefiore boys together, this is definitely one of those songs that centers the dorm leader over the others. There are many parts where it's just Rook and Epel singing ("Let all freeze", "[...] grant eternal slumber", etc.) and Vil joining in later or getting a solo after them. The first "waltz upon white snow" invokes the image of Vil standing over the cold body of his fallen rival Neige, but later on Rook and Epel join in singing about this. I wonder if that's an intentional callback to book 7, when they delved into Vil's dream and found Neige... dying. It's Vil singing somberly about all the hands that seek to pull him down (all his haters, all the people who assume he is as evil as the villains he plays), not knowing "the worth of a true star" (ie himself). It's Vil issuing the order for your breath to still (as if your breath has been stolen away by him; this is also the beginning to Epel's UM chant). And, most importantly, it's Vil vocalizing to end the song--a song which, need I remind you, started off with ALL of Pomefiore singing. Now Epel and Rook have stepped back, allowing Vil, the "true star", to command the stage.

Oftentimes fans—and even the Twst characters themselves—will compare Riddle and Vil on the basis of strictness. This also holds true for the compositions of Obedience and La Volonté. Both songs have their respective queens front and center, but La Volonté is definitely moreso than Obedience. Maybe it’s Vil’s celebrity status that has him commanding the spotlight? It could also be that Rook and Epel are simply more inited under a common front (“beauty”) whereas the card soldiers are more selfish and follow Riddle’s rules as a means to avoid punishment for themselves rather than truly subscribing to his strictness.

Unparalleled Aeons has Ortho starting us off, and it's framed kind of like the middle of an argument between the Shroud brothers?? He seems to be addressing Idia, asking if he will shut himself away again, only for Idia to respond that "[he's] just one soul" and that "[he's] the problem". The fact that the song begins with Ortho and not Idia--the dorm leader--makes me think it's symbolic of many of Idia's social problems "originating" with the original Ortho's death. This would go well with the theme of persisting despair in the early verse. In any case, they continue to have this back-and-forth, with Idia stating that he has known dreams are hollow for a long time (likely a reference to his backstory and how he's destined to be Director of S.T.Y.X. one day, whether he wants to be or not). The two later on talk about sulking in the Underworld, which is something Idia notes is a common trait between him, his father, and his grandmother--previous or current heads of S.T.Y.X., and what awaits him too.

The chorus has both Shrouds singing, and it is very much structured around the book 6 disaster in which they attempt to open the gate to the Underworld, unleash Phantoms upon the world. They reference their "happy end" and Cerberus's engine revving up--perhaps to call attention to Phantom!Ortho, the third "head" and sibling to the Shroud brothers. Idia sings about how his loneliness spawned into genius (could he mean how his grief led him to invent a new Ortho?) too. In another verse, the Shrouds declare they will "rearrange the cosmos" and Ortho jeers about heroes that arrive too late to stop them. They're almost gleeful in the "whirlpool of {swirling) souls", full of despair and chaos as they finally realize their shared dream. Hilariously, Idia and Ortho shout "FEVER TIME", a special state that grants temporary advantages in games--indicating that, at least to the Shroud brothers, they see this all as one big game.

At one point, Ortho has a solo line about how a happy ending with tears is crueler than being forever alone. Is he talking about bittersweet endings here? Does this not describe book 6's conclusion--an ending in which Idia is forced to say good-bye to one brother, while also embracing another brother? Idia gets his own line about having all of the cheats and going at full throttle, which paints the image in my head of him putting together that cheat tool and delivering the weapons + armor to Silver and Sebek via magiwheel in book 7. Ortho's solo line in the chorus mentions entertaining trials and tribulations, which I think calls back to book 6, when he tested each of our little groups with mini games. Unparalleled Aeons is simply packed full of internet lingo and gaming slang, all being weaponized to taunt the listener.

The Shrouds lament about how they've been "forsaken by [...] Fate", then make reference to the Fates cutting a Thread of Life, sending them crashing towards "The End". They also later call to attention knowledge of past, present, and future, which are concepts associated with the Fates too. The cut life might be the original Ortho's death, or it could be Phantom!Ortho finally moving on, and thus Idia pushing past his grief. The chorus wraps up with Idia whispering "Welcome to the Underworld"--very fitting, seeing as I recall him uttering a similar line when welcoming the OB boys to S.T.Y.X. HQ (the domain he will rule in the future) for the first time.

Unlike Far-Out, which has an insidious vibe due to the clashing nature of Kalim and Jamil’s parts, Unparalleled Aeons allows Idia and Ortho to be on the same page. It really feels like a Final Boss and his top-ranked henchman scheming together to destroy the heroes.

Capricious Calamity is technically another song which centers the dorm leader, but not in the same way that La Volonté does. In La Volonté, Vil has many solos, whereas in Capricious Calamity, Malleus is the subject of the song, the one being praised and worshipped (using archaic terminology). Given that Diasomnia seems to be a cult of personality around Malleus, this direction makes sense--and the choice to open with Sebek, THE Malleus fanboy, singing about his master's radiance shining brightly in the night, also makes sense. Sebek also closes off the second verse, declaring "unending tribute" to Malleus.

The first verse slowly evolves with a new character added per line. First there's only Sebek, but then it becomes Sebek and Silver together. It gives the vibes of wandering into an old castle and running into the ruler's guards who are evaluating you before you may be graced with their lord's presence. Lilia (the eldest and most experienced of them all) then gets a brief solo before making way for Malleus. It feels like Lilia showed up to announce their prince's arrival, and how all should make way for him. And of course the first thing Malleus says is that he "knows not of celebration"... This is followed up by Silver mentioning that Malleus "wishes for a miracle" (to be invited/included). Then Silver, Sebek, and Lilia speak of this as a transgression which warrants judgment. Again, Lilia concludes this verse with the line about judgment, which harkens back to earlier, when he seemingly "announced" Malleus.

Malleus leads the chorus once Lilia has summoned him. He calls himself an omen that comes with the lightning (his signature), then his dorm members chant that all shall kneel before his green light. Disembodied voices join in, echoing that the listener should give their entire being to the thorns. It paints the image of loyal knights kneeling before their king and beckoning others to do the same in order to quell his rage. This is also the note that Capricious Calamity concludes on, which just further drives the message home.

Silver starts the second verse, noting Malleus reflected in the dark skies. (Sebek begins the first verse, and Silver he second; the two youngest in Diasomnia are also the "start"--the start of, perhaps, a future where fae and humans can live in peace together.) When Sebek joins Silver, they sing about how Malleus, even at his lowest, burns brightly. These phrases paired together, said by the first two of Diasomnia to "awaken" in book 7, make me think of them staring up in horror as Malleus's draconic form takes to the skies. They're terrified and in awe of his might. There's a part where Malleus and Lilia share a line, commenting on a commotion and the cries of the weak ringing out. These two, the strongest in Diasomnia, remarking on this... It calls to mind their battle within Lilia's dream, or even Lilia intervening when Malleus (as a dragon) intends to strike Silver and Sebek down.

At the very end, Malleus announced another omen, this time harkened by spreading thorns rather than lightning... thorns, like the very ones he summons to drag us all into a deep, deep slumber--the trap he sprung in book 7. I think it's telling that it's Silver that joins Malleus in song before the entire dorm sings together. This duo sings about an aurora that is overtaken by the abyss. Is this meant to be a reference to Silver and Malleus's final confrontation, and how Silver refused to slay Malleus at the crucial moment?

It’s really interesting to compare this song to DIADEM, the two performances featuring a prince. In Capricious Calamity, Malleus is propped up by his dorm members—but in DIADEM, Leona is the one propping up his dorm members. This really speaks to (and feeds into) the idea that Malleus and Leona are opposites of one another. A prince worshipped by his people and promised the throne. but still left lonely and emotionally unfulfilled… versus a prince scorned by his people and forbidden from having the crown for himself, yet he’s surrounded by people who look up to him and trust him to lead them… OTL

[dailyadventureprompts]

Homebrew Mechanic: Battles of Attrition

I think we can all agree that there’s something a little wonky with how d&d’s combat system changes between the early and mid/late game. Heroes go from being rightfully cautious about danger to being outright banal about it, confident that their accumulated power will be enough to dispatch all but the most outstanding foes.  The traditional solution is to put them up against stronger enemies but in my experience these mismatched encounters are a failing proposition: combat just gets more swingy and there’s only so many high level threats I can throw at them in a short period of time before it begins to strain credulity.   

While a lot of folks (Especially the OSR crowd) have taken the stance that 5e is broken because of how much it empowers players, I think the real fault lays with the lack of systems that exist to provide challenge outside of anything related to the damage based tug-of-war that is combat.  I think a lot of those systems were part of the non existent “exploration” pillar of the game before Hasbro realized they could make easy money selling the game in its unfinished state and gutted it along with the development team. 

Thankfully, I and other homebrewers are around to do what the megacorporations cant, namely have some original thoughts and try and figure out a way to add challenge back to the game without resenting those playing it for having fun. 

TLDR:  Trying to make our games challenging by upping damage numbers in combat is a losing proposition, in no small part because that part of the game is DESIGNED around the heroes winning. Instead, we up the overall difficulty by making them temporarily weaker with systems like sickness, stress, exhaustion, & item degradation. All of which I have details and guidelines on below the cut. 

First and foremost let me state some of my goals for these “attrition systems”, so we can all be on the same page. Whenever I make homebrew rules I try for something that’s going to require little to no paperwork on behalf of the players and can be seamlessly implemented into my DMing style. It’s not about realism, it’s not about punishing players, this is a way for me to add mechanical depth without bogging down the machine entirely. 

Attrition should be largely non-permanent.  The 5e audience invests a lot in their characters both emotionally and mechanically, so it won’t do to pile on debilitating debuff after debuff to the point of making a character useless. 

There should be an inverse relationship between the severity of the affliction and how long it lasts. Think in term of encounters, days, or weeks, (with the understanding that an attrition that goes on for long enough becomes a questhook in itself) 

The exception to this rule is if someone hits 0 hitpoints. I’m outspoken in my stance that characters should only die when it’s alternatively appropriate, but the dm is at liberty to inflict thematically devastating setbacks in the unlikely event that the party DOES suffer losses in the damage tug of war. 

We want to be sparing with how much attrition we throw at the party at once, so as to not create a “death spiral” where failures compound upon one another and make getting through the adventure impossible. 

In most cases suffering Attrition should be something the party is able to avoid by being fast/lucky/cautious/clever or whatever else the encounter requires. It’s there to add weight and consequence to their actions, and as a factor for DMs to build scenarios around. 

Exhaustion:  Unlike a lot of the other changes made in Oned&d, I actually quite like the overhaul of “each point of exhaustion is a cumulative -1 to all d20 rolls and spell dc, beyond 10 is death” as it allows us to play with exhaustion far more readily as an attrition. 

Every night you don’t rest in a haven (a safe comfortable place)  you need to make a con save or take a point of exhaustion, with the ruggedness of the environment determining the DC. Characters with the survival skill or natural explorer feat don’t have to make this roll. Only rest in a haven removes exhaustion at the rate of one point per night (though spaces like a luxury inn or a peaceful glade watched over by friendly fey may restore more)  

Hitting 0 hp and then being healed gives you a point of exhaustion. Nothing’s going to tire you out like getting magically defibulated so now everyone can stop complaining about healing word spam. 

Poison:  For our purposes, the “poisoned” condition as written  is too severe. Disadvantage on all attacks and ability checks is downright punishing for anything other than a single battle. Instead we’re going to make it work like charmed, where there’s a baseline effect for the purposes of resistance, but the status of each poison is dependant on the source.  

Poison falls in the “ short term big effect” side of attrition, specifically undermining a player’s ability to do most things since most effects end on a successful save or at the end of an encounter. Long lasting poisons should have more minor effects than the default poisoned condition, only applying to a few types of rolls or having a bane-like effect that makes judging the odds just a little bit more difficult.  

This makes poison great to use for dungeons and short-ranging exploration where the party is likely to face multiple encounters in one day. 

Diseases:  4e aced the design of these maladies by treating them as a contained skill challenge with their own CR  with various stages: stage 0: you were cured, stage 1: you suffered the initial effect, stage 2 or 3: you suffered a severe effect, with the final stage (3-4) being some effect that made the disease permanent.  When you got a disease it was usually stage 1, and you (usually) saved for it at the start of each day. Beating the DC by 5 or more meant you went down a stage (closer to 0), where as simply succeeding meant it stayed as bad as it was. Failing meant you got sicker, meaning a character could bounce up and down in wellness as an adventure went on. 

Diseases are best for longterm adventures, and often undermine one particular aspect of a character ( healing, actions assosiated with a particular stat).  Counterpoint to poisons, diseases should start out fairly gentle and then get worse the longer they’re left alone, leading to eventually devastating effects.  

Curses:  While borrowing the mechanics of diseases, I’d have curses be specifically weirder in their effects. The sort of thing that can make up the central hook or b-plot of a whole adventure.  This should also mean that curses are the hardest for the party to stumble into, but also the hardest to shake. 

Item Degradation: Detailed in a previous post HERE, the long and short of it is that item degradation is a form of player driven attrition that gently curbs their overall power level. If they go too hard, use their best items recklessly, get involved in needless fights, then they’re going to be in worse shape by the time they reach the final challenge. This was supposed be the idea behind HP/limited class abilities per day, but attrition systems cover that better IMO. 

Stress:  The psychological counterpoint to exhaustion,  I’ve already talked about Stress HERE. I tend to only use stress in horror themed adventures and campaigns, as it builds upon 5e’s optional “madness” system which fits the theme when gothic terrors and eldritch abominations but less so with the game’s usual heroic fare. 

Hunger & Supply:  I made a super lightweight system based off this idea of “depletion die” for potions and other consumables, check it out, it’s lightweight and fantastic.  Using this kind of system gives us another avenue to challenge our party, lengthening or shortening their lifeline as they lose supplies and seek out new caches. 

Thinking environmentally:  Part of the fantasy of being an adventurer is travelling to dangerous places and living to tell the tale.  We’re denying our party that fantasy if we don’t follow through on the threat the idea of these places imply.  You should risk sickness if you go into a swamp, sewer, or jungle, thirst should be a factor in desert exploration, just like freezing is for mountain and winter expeditions.  That’s to say nothing of magical hazards; cursed landscapes that drain your will to live dead marshes style, alchemical smog in a steampunk industrial zone, fading into nothingness as you approach the edge of existence.  

Figure out the natural hazards, make your party aware of the danger, and then build your adventure around the fact that they’ll need to save against the hazard each time they take a long rest.. Do they take a detour if it means having a safe place to camp? Is there a resource they need to manage along the way? Could encounters expose them to further dangers or make their current exposure worse? Keeping these ideas in mind especially when you’re planning a wilderness exploration adventure should give you lots of ideas to fill up those encounter tables. 

Adding insult to injury:  Giving enemies the ability to inflict attrition in various forms makes otherwise trivial  enemies a credible threat even to a seasoned adventuring party. As an example,  A party might breeze through a fight with some monstrous spiders ( or even ONE regular sized spider, if you can imagine) , but that spider encounter doesn’t need to be the most dangerous thing ever if their next encounter is a navigation challenge fording a river and a few of the heroes are still groggy thanks to the slow acting poison in their systems.  

In this way you can use attrition based battles to soften your party up for greater challenges, long after their HP totals and healing ability have outpaced the damage a single trap/encounter can do. 

Artist

[bluiela]

Some of the many stuff that shows gwyn is a luring lightsinger is just a crack theory

(like 100s made by them for HOFAS which was no where near canon)

No Direct Evidence in the Text

The term "lightsinger" appears only once in ACOSF, in a throwaway line about dangerous creatures in Prythian’s folklore living in the bog.

There’s zero relation or parallel for Gwyn and them. Lightsinger don't glow or sing, and Gwyn doesn't appear as friendly people to eat fae for sports, it’s purely fan (Gwyn haters) speculation just to save their already sunk ship. And to explain Azriel behavior for Gwyn (internalized misogyny much?)

SJM has never tied Gwyn to luring, manipulation or anything, unlike other characters (ianthe, the Cauldron, the bone carver, weaver or even Bryaxis etc).

Gwyn’s Character Undermines the Theory

Lightsingers are described as deceptive, siren-like beings who lure people to their doom and to eat them for funsies.

Gwyn is:

A survivor of trauma on a path of healing. (her backstory mirrors real-world assault survival).

A devoted priestess who deeply respects her sisters (she was very grateful for them to give her a home and loves the services and so on yk the obvious stuff)

A Valkyrie, symbolizing sisterhood and resilience.

Turning her into a predatory creature would contradict her healing arc and reduce her agency.

Azriel’s Shadows Don’t Fear Her

If Gwyn were a lightsinger, Azriel’s shadows would likely flee or resist her. (like with cauldron and Koschei)

Instead, they sing, dance for her and play with her breath suggesting attraction, not antagonism.

Compare this to how his shadows retreat and "skitter back" from Elain, which shows actual incompatibility. (they react same with Mor who isn't his endgame) (they also sensed and reacted to cauldron and koschie so they would also know about a luring LS or it would be a big plothole)

It Would be repetitive

Making Gwyn another "beautiful but deadly" (OG Amren and other characters who are good questionable in the beauty department are the weaver and the bone carver and bryaxis) female would feel repetitive, especially when her current arc is about reclaiming strength without losing gentleness.

Thematic Mismatch

Gwyn’s story is about breaking free from victimhood—not hiding a secret, monstrous nature or being one unknowingly.

If she were a lightsinger, her trauma could be twisted into "See, she was dangerous all along!", which implies victim-blaming narratives.

SJM’s Writing Patterns Favor Simplicity

SJM’s mates/fated bonds are usually straightforward (e.g., feysand, Nessian’s, huntar, rowaelin, ruhnlidia is obvious). The guys who have obvious mate hints are mates. The clear contrast shows how Gwynriel is obvious.

While the lightsinger theory is fun for speculation, it lacks textual support and clashes with Gwyn’s established character. The narrative leans more toward her being a genuine, kindred spirit to Azriel—not a luring predator.

[brutalisttarot]

Pick An Image:

What To Expect in the first half of 2024

Pile 1

There will be a resolution to something you are avoidant of. Either someone will speak for you or you eventually step up to speak out on something that helps clear miscommunication or an unsolved case. This could also potentially be a glow up. People may start looking up to you, you’re gonna come off as more attractive, in touch with your femininity right after you get your word out. You guys may overall grow thicker skin to express yourself and be happy about it.

The thematic card I got for you is: Higher Perspective. Very fitting for this reading. I offer paid readings via Tumblr messages so feel free to check out my pinned post for private personal readings if you’re interested :)

Pile 2

You will have a new beginning, or may be starting something new, however this is going to feel very unsuitable for you because it makes you focus on the downsides/negativity. It gives me the vibe that you guys really like this but don’t actually deserve the opportunity or it’s simply not for you in terms of skill set or it’s just a mismatch with you. I see that this could potentially be a love one if not an object/ project/business/hobby. This can lead to a lot of hopelessness but the thing is, it really requires a lot of hard work, in which it’s most likely that you recover this and try working on it again. The more you work on it, the universe will send you an external opportunity or it’s going to happen out of the blue to you and not directly from you. This is going to be given to you, very likely from a friend/person you know of quite some time or longer. There is a lot of competition regarding this situation/drama even, however either you or someone is going to plunge in and stop the ruckus. You will feel the need to only take/keep what you have and be more reluctant to accepting offers that affect you emotionally.

The Thematic Card I pulled for you guys is the universe. Remember that you don’t have to control your life to the largest extent because sometimes the universe can help bring other things to your attention. I offer paid readings via my Tumblr messages so feel free to check out my pinned post for private personal readings if you’re interested :)

Pile 3

Someone else is going to seize an opportunity from you. They could be a feminine water sign. Or someone who’s emotionally strong. The first half of 2024 is going to be enjoying the pleasures of life or daydreaming/fantasizing about getting dethroned or dwelling in negativity. You guys could be stuck in a rut, I’m recommending you guys who feel this way during this time period to reconsider and find something new that motivates you. It’ll help a lot, to get away from anxiety, lack of self-worth, this is a sign to rebuild your empire.

The thematic card I got for you is: The Sage. Knowledge and willpower, the answers are in your hands. You will gain wisdom from your experiences, failures and build on it to become a professional over time. There is no need to worry or overthink too much loves! I offer paid readings via Tumblr messages so feel free to check out my pinned post for private personal readings if you’re interested :)

[dr-futbol-blog]

Grace Under Pressure, Pt. 1

The episode in which McKay spends most of his time having a discussion seemingly with his own hallucination gives us a lot of insight into his mind. Grace Under Pressure (S02E14), the title a reference among other things to Ernest Hemingway's definition of what courage is, once again separates Sheppard and McKay, and it is really rather obvious that they spend the entire episode trying to get back to each other. The episode is also thematically so similar to 38 Minutes (S01E04), where the action likewise mostly takes place within a malfunctioning jumper, that it may serve as another confirmation that the episode would have worked best after the mid-season finale (between The Eye and The Defiant One). This is clearly the best time in the season to have this kind of claustrophobic character study that deals with the fall-out of events of more action-heavy episodes that the characters have not had time to deal with.

As the episode opens, we find McKay on a jumper doing some kind of tinkering, alone together with an older pilot that we have never seen before. Given his age, it is possible this man has the authentic gene and had been chosen for the expedition because of that rather than for being the best of the best when it comes to piloting. And given that we never saw him on the original staff, he must be a newcomer and hence someone that Sheppard had personally chosen for his command. While we do not know how he wound up chauffeuring McKay now, it might also be that he had been personally chosen for this particular mission by Sheppard given that he seems to be trying really hard to make nice with McKay, to engage him in conversation.

Griffin: So, let me ask you something. As a scientist, does it bother you that most of your work, no matter how brilliant, will eventually be considered misguided? 'Cause that would bother me. McKay: I'm sorry?

If we recall, we ended the previous episode with Zelenka telling McKay to not even speak to him, this being a common occurrence in the life of Rodney McKay. This pilot seems to be enough of a chatterbox that McKay is actually attempting to use his abrasive personality to get him to shut up for a moment because he can't think with the man's mouth going off. We do not know what the man's personality is like on the usual but based on what we see him do the brief time that we get to know him, it is rather obvious he had to have been ordered by Sheppard to do two things: to engage in friendly conversation with McKay and to safeguard him with his life. And this is not the first time we see a pilot behave this way toward McKay when for one reason or another he is not being piloted by Sheppard. In The Siege (S01E19), on a mission that Sheppard had wanted to join McKay but had been unable, the pilot Miller acted both friendly and protective toward McKay -- and in both of these cases, it is doubtful McKay himself was what inspired these feelings in the people under Sheppard's command.

We cannot be sure how long McKay and his chauffeur have been alone together but apparently they are returning from the mainland so it must have been at least some hours, and definitely long enough for what McKay sees as the man's inane chattering to have started chafing on him. Later on, similarly alone together in the closed space of jumper, Zelenka asks Sheppard to stay quiet and not bother him while he is working because he cannot concentrate, which seems to upset Sheppard somewhat. There is clearly a mismatch here because McKay has learned how to work while Sheppard is talking his ear off and Sheppard likes talking to McKay while he is working away, but Zelenka is not McKay and Griffin is not Sheppard.

Also, while Griffin is probably just being curious and making small talk, he is, likely inadvertently, undermining McKay's entire profession and professional career, and although he is not wrong, it is also not something that McKay cares to be thinking about. Worrying about his legacy is not going to help him save the city, knowing that one day everything he has accomplished is ashes and dust is doing nothing to give him incentive to keep pushing. Riding that Nobel wave has brought him nothing but pain. And again McKay displays that Canadian politeness, telling the man he is sorry when he is not sorry at all and actually means that he wants him to stop talking.

Griffin: Well, given enough time, everything's pretty much proven wrong, right? McKay: No. Griffin: Everything from the Earth being flat, to the sun revolving around us. McKay: Well, if you wanna go back hundreds of years! Griffin: Scientists get it wrong more times than they get it right. Take the tomato.

Griffin is waxing philosophical and McKay's Engineer's mind is not really interested in pursuing this line of thinking. However, try as he might he cannot stop himself from engaging just because he thinks the man is being so offensively stupid when he is not really even wrong. Having spent over a year in the city of the Ancients and more time than that studying the technology of the Ancients, McKay knows better than anyone else how little they actually know about the universe and how limited their understanding of the science of the Ancients is. They have revolutionized science many times over and most of his colleagues back on Earth are basically working in the equivalent of a flat Earth heliocentric model because they have to keep their discoveries a secret from the general population. And McKay himself is proving old paradigms wrong all the time. But he feels defensive here, thinking that the man is accusing him of being wrong when McKay's entire identity is constructed on him being able to use his knowledge and expertise to earn approval from people.

The mention of the tomato is interesting here, especially in the context of this particular episode, and we may note that the word is given room to breathe here, there is a clear pause after Griffin mentions it that is meant to give the audience time to chew on the thought. To give the audience the chance of wondering why they are talking about tomatoes in the first place. In gay slang, tomato refers to a gay man that comes across straight either unintentionally or by design -- straight-passing. Tomato is often erroneously considered a vegetable because it looks and tastes like one where it is actually a fruit. Relevant to what happens later is that McKay has been projecting straight guy who is offensively and lewdly interested in women in the military context so long that it has become a second nature to him. McKay, contracting for the military, has been forced to or has chosen to project the image of a straight man and hence he is what is called a tomato in gay slang. This whole conversation is so out of place that if it was not meant to remind us of the fact that McKay does this, I do not know what the point is.

McKay: Excuse me? Griffin: Well, after the conquest of Mexico in 1519, tomatoes were carried eastward to Europe, where they were believed to be poisonous. McKay: Shouldn't you be concentrating on what you're doing? Griffin: I've got it covered. You worry about you.

Griffin waxing poetic about the tomato is enough of a non sequitur that he seems to jam McKay's brain entirely for a moment. Of all the things that he thought he would be having a conversation about today, the conquest of Mexico was not among them. What Griffin is telling him may be correct but it is not altogether fair. Tomato is a part of the nightshade family and in Europe, nightshades such as henbane, deadly nightshade or Belladonna and mandrake were mainly used in witchcraft and in poisoning people, and hence them having been cautious with the new plants is reasonable. Also, tomatoes are toxic. They contain three different kinds of toxins: tomatine, solanine and antropine, and eating unripened tomatoes or the green leaves and stems of the plant can be deadly. It is not that they erroneously believed tomatoes to be poisonous but that they are delicious enough to eat regardless. The reward is worth the risk. Griffin seems very confident in his opinion where the scientists studying the tomatoes had a more nuanced understanding of the concept.

Now, Griffin is actually there only to fly McKay around as he checks to see whether the jumper has been fixed to the extent that it can be taken back into rotation but instead of telling him to shut up and focus on the flying, McKay is still being polite about it, trying to get the man to understand that he needs to stop talking on his own. He asks him "Shouldn't you be concentrating" when he means "Please concentrate." And this may be relevant for later because the pilots are connected to the jumpers via a neural interface and everything that they think (even subconsciously, as we saw during Condemned S02E05 -- and this may well be the same jumper that had been shot down then) has tangible, physical effects in the real world. McKay has been spoiled by flying with Sheppard because before now, he had not even had to be worried about something going wrong because of the pilot's mind wondering. This man seems to have the kind of cavalier attitude toward safety and security that McKay cannot stand in people working for him, and although Griffin does not seem to be among the people working directly under him, he is definitely planning on having a talk with Sheppard about this later on.

McKay: I am worried about me! This is the first flight this thing has had since it was shot down and repaired. It deserves all of your attention. Griffin: It made it to the mainland. If anything was gonna go wrong, it would have gone wrong by now. It took the Italians and the Spaniards to realise that tomatoes are, in fact, delicious. McKay: Good for them.

So, there are a few jumpers that have been shot down but given that they said that the jumper shot down with Markham and Smith in The Brotherhood (S01E16) was "lost," the jumper that Sheppard flew into the hive in The Siege (S01E20) got done blown up, and the jumper that Ford had stolen was not shot down (and whether they were ever able to retrieve it or not, we do now know), there are not that many options for which jumper this is. The likeliest candidate for which jumper this is is the one shot down on the prisoner colony in Condemned (S02E05) that they may have been able to retrieve after the planet was culled. The intensity with which McKay says "shot down" suggests that he had very much been on the jumper when it had been shot down and he was not looking for a repeat experience in the form of a crash landing here.

But let us note the fact that even though McKay says that he is worried about himself, and he certainly is, he is also worried for Griffin and for anyone else that might use the jumper later. He, too, is a worrier which is what Sheppard had told Ronon in the episode in which this jumper had been shot down. Relevant to what happens in this episode is this: Sheppard's final command when the jumper had been shot down had been for it to protect McKay by any means necessary which we can see in the fact that he was the only one of them that survived the crash with nary a scratch on him. And because he had thought that they were going down, Sheppard had thought that really hard. Ergo what we have here is a malfunctioning jumper with a single focus on keeping McKay safe from harm.

Griffin: Columbus was Spanish. He figured out the Earth was round. McKay: He was Italian. Griffin: So I wonder what it is that makes Spaniards so good at debunking bad science.

While Griffin seems like an honestly inquisitive guy who is interested in how the world works, McKay is able to debunk him using high school history and while as an Engineer he might have some passing interest in how they had navigated their ships to the New World, he has little interest in sciences so soft that he does not even consider them science, like history. There is a parallel hiding in here to the Lanteans essentially being colonizers that have taken over the City of the Ancestors and, although we do know of what kind of pathogens the earthlings brought with them, unleashing the wraith on the unsuspecting populations of this galaxy is sure comparable to the genocide(s) committed by the Europeans. Griffin confidently recites common misconceptions, the least of which is not Spain's reputation of being at the cutting edge of science, least of all the kind of science that McKay cares about (but some of the most famous historical gay scientist of the Early Modern Period were Italian, as it were). And because the man is so confidently wrong and beholden to his beliefs, it is difficult for McKay to get a word in edgewise, and there may be a metaphor here.

Griffin: You're not Spanish, are you? McKay: Oh, yes, of the Barcelona McKays! Now, if you don't mind... What is it? Turbulence? Griffin: The inertial dampeners on this thing should smooth that out.

That Griffin means well is displayed here and while McKay seems frustrated to no end, by asking him if he is not Spanish the man seems to be saying that he believes that McKay is great at debunking bad science. He believes McKay to be a great scientist. To him being Spanish was high praise and he wanted to extend this to McKay. Also, by engaging McKay he shows us that he is not merely having a monologue but is actually having a conversation with McKay, how ever much he might be wishing for the pilot to shut up. This is somewhat ironic, given how he himself had been talking about his hirsute aunt and Margaret Thatcher to everyone's chagrin when the jumper had originally gone down.

Also, McKay seems to take offense at being thought of as Spanish because of his obviously Gaelic name, displaying again the ambiguous feelings he seems to have toward his own ancestry and probably also that at least his father had taken pride in it and had wanted to pass this pride unto his son. And the fact that McKay clearly took offense at what Griffin was saying is not necessarily unrelated to the jumper suddenly malfunctioning. It is not in reaction to Griffin because he seems to be calm and in control so it must be McKay's own sudden outburst, the fact that he seemed to be in distress and his stress levels were probably spiking that made the jumper try to resolve the issue in the only way it could think of, which was by taking it down.

Griffin: What the hell? McKay: Right drive pod's intermittently switching to reverse thrust. Griffin: Cut it. I can drive with just the left pod. McKay: It's not recognising any of my commands. Griffin: Brace for impact. McKay: What? Griffin: We're going down! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

And so they lose control of the jumper and go down. There are a few important points here. For one, it had been the jumper's left drive pod that had originally been damaged so Sheppard must have been trying to bring them down using the right drive pod, short bursts of reverse thrusts slowing their impact. He did not do it consciously because he too had lost control of the jumper before it went down, but it is rather clear that his final command had been to keep McKay safe -- and the jumper had managed to do that using the right drive pod. Here, the jumper is attempting to recreate those conditions because by doing it, it had managed to protect McKay previously. Also important is that both here and later on, the jumper refuses to acknowledge McKay's commands when they go against this prime directive of keeping him safe. While it is the jumper malfunctioning that gets him into this mess, the jumper itself is also working extra hard to keep him safe and alive.

Continued in Pt. 2

[freakinator]

actually i should lay out all my theories so i can get back to them later and see what i get right and wrong lmao

the server takes place in snapshots

uu and tsftlt are connected particularly in the multiversal aspect

each pov is their own reality

each "thematic switch" is its own reality (prey!parrot is different from scavenger hunt!parrot is different from prison!parrot is different from civilization!parrot)

spoke broke the fabric of reality of the server and each spoke ep signals a different reality

when spoke activated the world tearer is when the multiversal aspect of the series started, when he activated it it split the universe into one where it worked and one where it didnt which lead to even more tearing because of how weakened the fabric of reality is. we kept following the one that failed but the multiversal tearing keeps affecting orbital!spokes reality

each ep is its own reality but still runs in a linear timeline

spokes reality is the only consistent universe while parrot and wemmbu keep switching

the first session is the only one that occurs in the same time period, after that spokes pov becomes a prequel to the others

pze was the first and for a long time the only actual civilization on the server due to how expensive it was to maintain as well as the fact that the server being hardcore meant you had to be someone Really charismatic and persuasive to convince someone to become a guard for you, it became easier (tho it was still really difficult) to convince players to have kingdoms after pze became established as a powerful faction and showed that factions had their worth if you were determined and loyal enough

pze and invisible mafia are cults

wemmbu, parrot, and spoke are admins

jamatoP was never meant to be on the server but spoke having admin privilege let him whitelist him without telling anyone

zam used to be in the master builders but quit once he had so many excess resources that he decided to build his own kingdom

zam and clown have a similar relationship to ls s2 pre-series which slowly turned similar to s3

whenever mutinyduo are referencing lifesteal it means theyre getting along

whenever havocduo are referencing lifesteal it means theyre Not getting along and that parrot wants to kill himself/spoke

ls is connected to uu indirectly

ls is connected to uu directly

uu takes place in a reality where ls got disbanded after wormhole and this is the server they decided to make/join after

parrot is the only thing keeping the server/multiverse from completely falling apart somehow

minute is either never showing up or is gonna join as a clownpierce fanboy turned mercenary whos trying Really Hard to prove himself to clown

the server is slowly going from improv logic to scripted logic (not mechanics, in the characters' minds theyre acting perfectly normal, just that the rules and logic of the server is slowly turning that way)

spoke was the first post-launch invite and because of that he kept feeling left out/turned away by other players who were already in the smp mid-game which prompted him to invite his friend jamato without telling anyone

spoke was the first post-launch invite and because of that he kept feeling left out/turned away by other players who were already in the smp mid-game, jamato was the only one who took spoke in cause he felt pity for him

the reason rek is so famous is cause he was the first one to find the stronghold, leading to an early smp mid-game cause there was already an end fight when everyone was still in mismatched mostly iron armor. zam wasnt able to join the first day which is why he got bullied cause everyone felt like acting toxic from the high of having shulkers and elytra so early in the game while zam was still naked and early game

before wemmbu started getting obsessed with zam he basically only logged in for sessions

pre-series parrot logged in pretty consistently but tended to keep to himself and only really went out of his way to meet players during events (tho ppl still visited him somewhat often, mostly without permission lol, cause of how easily accessible his base is and how fun he is to mess with)

uu as a whole is a pastiche/commentary on the mcyt fandom (at least their side of the mcyt fandom)

duping fucked up the economy of uu so hard that stuff like The Wonders and PZE used to be considered Really impressive and important but are now considered normal esp after the wonders got blown up

clown took up building in-between fights and doesnt really care if they get griefed cause to him theyre nothing more than time-wasters

tsftlt!parrots grandma has multiversal knowledge, the totem in the vid was hers and is what keeps ther universe stable and safe from multiversal threats. its also what allows the invaders to travel through dimensions rather than as a fuel (planet was actually the fuel and also is the only one who can properly navigate through dimensions), what does this have to do with uu? nothing directly but this theory was spurred by this comment in spokes 1st ep:

[marley-manson]

Well I succumbed and watched the Pilot and first ep of Due South last night.

Really struck me how central the theme of Fraser's estrangement from his father is in the Pilot. Fraser mentioning that the last time they spoke was Christmas, essentially saying that the only times they speak are presumably brief calls at holidays. Gerard responding with a platitude - "I guess the more you know someone, the less needs to be said" - but it becomes quite clear that Fraser feels he doesn't know Bob at all, and has to learn about him through his journals.

And yet they're cut from the same cloth: "I always thought your father was the last of a kind. I was wrong - you are." And this is tied to the mountie stereotype lol.

Bob and Fraser both repeat the lines, "You're going to shoot a mountie? They'll hunt you to the ends of the earth," and they're both wrong. No one wants to pursue Bob Fraser's death except Fraser, and no one's happy with Fraser for solving the case because it uncovered corruption. He gets exiled for it. Bob and Fraser are the only mounties who "always get their man," lol, and it's because of Bob's neglect in the course of duty that Fraser follows in his footsteps and becomes so similar to Bob. He idealizes his father and wanted to grow up to be just like him - we can see that admiration in the drawing of him he finds in Bob's things that he made when he was a child eg, or in the song Superman that plays while Fraser reads his journal in the diner. But he doesn't know him. And he pursues duty above all else because he has nothing else of his father.

And then you have Ray, who seems to exist as the opposite of Bob. If there's one thing Ray is, it's there. He is there for Fraser to hunt down suspects, to invite him to a loud family dinner, to save him from an explosion, he tracks him down to apologize for being dismissive, to invite him to dinner, and he flies to the Yukon when he can't reach him by phone. In the diner scene in particular he's directly positioned as a contrast to Bob's absence both in life and death. Fraser is alone trying to understand his father through his journals (looking for something "he missed" ie his dad), and Ray joins him, ending the thematically significant song montage, and eases his solitude. Fraser says he doesn't have family, and Ray shares his own with him.

And after the pilot case, there's nothing drawing them together except friendship. They're not a mismatched pair of cops assigned together who have to learn to get along, they work together unofficially because they can't help but spend every waking moment together.

Bob represents absence and Ray represents presence, distant admiration vs actually knowing someone.

And I'll probably have more to say on that as like, poles Fraser is caught between, if/as I rewatch more of the show. Ray's position is a little muddy especially because pre VS he buys into Fraser's image to an extent, as pointedly examined in Heaven and Earth. But again, more on that another time.

[isfjmel-phleg]

I dislike the love triangle in this book for a variety of reasons (why does there have to be one at all, simply because our heroine happens to be close to two boys? what purpose does it serve besides contriving Love Drama? it's not even like she must choose the one who best embodies who she must become or anything that serves a thematic purpose--she knows from the start which one she loves, and the other one is just an annoying obstacle to the endgame romance), one of which is that it completely destroys the boys' friendship with each other. Here, they're romantic rivals and openly, childishly hostile to each other, with little indication that they were ever really friends even in childhood. The friendship that exists among all three children in the original book--it's never just "Mary and these two mismatched boys who are tolerating each other because of their separate friendships with her," but the boys are friends with each other too--is one of its most delightful aspects, and to lose that alters the characters themselves. I'm not saying that there isn't room for difficulties in the friendship as they all enter adulthood. But replacing a dynamic of mutually caring bonds among relative equals with two guys who dislike each other competing for the prize of the heroine does not effectively serve Burnett's themes even in the context of adult versions of these characters.

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2023: #02 & #01 (Finale)

02. CZECHIA Vesna - "My sister's crown" 10th place

Decade ranking: 5/116 [Above Daði Freyr, below Käärijä]

Finland over Czechia seems like a no-brainer. Some midcarding bitches vs ~K*Ä*Ä*R*I*J*Ä~ come on, how hard can it be? Who is Czechia even for?!

ME, motherfucker. This entry is for ME, and FOR ME ALONE!!! and since this is MY ranking, that made the decision very difficult. It took me MONTHS to settle who to put at the top.

Vesna are often cited as one of the more overrated acts in the year. Overrated by whom? Who overrates Vesna? Isn't 10th a correct placement? i've met NO ONE who would even consider putting them as high as second? - and I obv don't count since it took me AN ETERITY to out myself as a Vesna stan!!

I'd counter that Czechia are THE MOST UNDERRATED by the fandom (not by placement - that is Slovenia, as always) and absolutely deserved all the good things that happened to them ^_^

So obviously, there are multiple factors at work here. The song is a fantastic earworm. Like, defo one of the best in the year? In terms of sheer replayability, "My Sister's Crown" is on the same level as "Edgar" (studio only :-/) and "Carpe Diem", and you know how much I value those. The song has four languages (including Bulgarian) and none of them clash. The lyrics are quotable and fun. This is a track with ATTITUDE and ZEST, that managed to criticize the war in Ukraine without beating us over the head with it via a poorly hidden, clumsily written political message. The song is SMART, and respects its listeners.

LOVE'S NOT A MONEY BAG BLOOD'S ON YOUR GOD'S HANDS YOU CANNOT STEAL OUR SOULS

However, going into the year, there were issues - Vesna were messy and dissonant, and the six girls often gave the impression of competing against each other for attention. They were not a UNIT. Although "My Sister's Crown" was always one of the best songs, many (including myself!) were sceptical it could come together.

And it did, spectacularly.

See, one of the things about this year is that the good performances and good songs were often mismatched. Albania, Estonia and Poland had great on-stage glam-ups, but they were severely hampered by the songs being what they were. Other countries such as France and Austria had good songs, but required really good acts to tie them together, and failed or, in case of say UK, has good acts that were performed badly.

If you made a Venn Diagram between the best songs and the biggest growers, there wouldn't be much overlap. Except for Czechia.

To quote Matteo Lane's pearl of wisdom; if there's only ONE GAY, everything gets done! Ahmad Malloun was the One Gay and channeled his bossbottom energy to fuss Vesna into shape. Suddenly, the girls were harmonious and disciplined and that made all the difference. Suddenly, Czechia had an act with a clear vision - Six women united visually through their outfits. Vesna had become a UNIT, united through sisterhood.

SESTRO KRASIVA OI TI SILYNA HOROBRA JEDINA KORONA TVOJA

It really doesn't get mentioned nearly often enough how amazing the Czech staging was. Sure, Loreen and Käärijä, both top notch. But this is my personal favourite of the bunch. It's a visually stunning, avant garde act that fits the music, that fits the thematics, that pulls you in and tells a story without overtly complicating matters. They start as a group of angry hexaplets and then burst into joyful sororian rapture at the end. The staging is both aesthetically pleasing and intuitive. They hit the gold standard for acts that everyone should try to strive for!!

There are times where I wonder whether I really should rank Vesna above Käärijä. My Sister's Crown fully morphed into a me-coded entry. And perhaps, if and when I watch 2023 again, I may do exactly that. For now though, I've decided against it. The argument for Finland is less complicated, so I went with that. And now for the winner of this ranking I am sure NOBODY saw coming ever:

-------------------------------------------------------------

01. FINLAND Käärijä - "Cha Cha Cha" 2nd place

Decade ranking: 4/116 [Above Vesna, below Chanel]

It's Käärijä, bitch.

I rest my case for ranking Finland first. I don't think anyone argues this as invalid? Good, let's pick it all apart because if there's anything Käärijä deserves, it is being talked about. 😉

So um, where to start? Maybe it's best to start with the song - "Cha Cha Cha" was that rare 1-in-500 entry. I always say that novelty always tends to become stale over time - once in a blue moon however, it endures. "Cha Cha Cha" is a novelty song that is also an excellent song in its own right, and it stil holds up very well. It's a fun song to listen to, even without all the circus and theatrics.

The circus and theatrics though, omg <3 Talk about a DELECTABLE act, once again. This is yet again an example of how staging compliments the song and makes it digestible. Cha Cha Cha is entirely in Finnish with only a few loan words tossed in - difficult to get into on paper. The staging however, brings the plot points home.

The song's about wanting to overcome anxieties to dance? So break from the crates

Confront the inner Dance Demons that harass your psyche

make your way to the dancefloor while dodging decapitation via errant wires.

and then, when you overcome all fears transition to that godly, campy key chance, ride your them, having overcome your inhibitions.

AND I GALLAVANT ON THE FLOOR LIKE A CHA CHA CHA AND MY ANXIETIES HAVE NO GRIP ON ME NO MORE

The act is BRILLIANT. The ballroom dancers with their creepy pearly-whites, the dorkopotamus choreography, the styling, the overwhelming sense of triumph once the key change hits... It's the same deal as Vesna and Loreen, just a handful of visual cues that visualize the song's themes (anxiety, rather than sisterhood or desolation) are easy to understand and don't further complicate matters. THIS is how it's done. This is how you Eurovision.

The magical ingredient that tied it all together was the man, the dad bod, the bolero himself - Käärijä. Talk about a personality so massive everything gravitated towards him. It's hard to put the extent of his likeability into words - he's just so disarmingly himself. The key here is that Käärijä doesn't see himself as anything special. To him, he's just "boy from Vantaa who likes queen Loreen". He's just self-aware enough to realize the effect he has on others, but not self-aware enough to understand what exactly endears him to so many people. So when Käärijä plays up for funsies, he magnifies all aspects of his personality which makes him... even more endearing. 😍

(it's the same magic dust that has people flock to Baby Lasagna this year, really.)

It's rare to have a contestant who managed to completely warp the meta around him to this extent. It's even more rare that the contestant in this position then loses the competition. I remember telling my friend André, who was behind on NF news, that Käärijä had won UMK, and he replied with an innocuous "great, I haven't been this excited for a contestant since Verka!". I think I realize in that moment, that was to be Käärijä's destiny. Verka was the Hot Favourite in their year, the breakout star of 2007 - and Verka placed second to a more competent entry (Molitva <3). It was in that moment that I knew that Käärijä's inevitable fate was to come second to Loreen.

And I feel like, we all knew deep down that was where we were headed. We all wanted Käärijä to win as much as we did, because we knew that he would not. He was blissfully cruising towards a loss, and that was too much of an injustice to accept it and not manifest a reality where he beats Sweden.

It even got to a point where some people are now retroactively trying push the notion Tattoo is better than Euphoria (that statement is more offensive than anything I've ever commited to print or speech, including the one time I called Lesley Roy frumpy on cam <3) and the best entry ever (excuse you?) largely because it beat Cha Cha Cha.

So if Käärijä is this great, then why the doubt? Why only fourth for the decade (for the moment)?

Well, it's same deal as Cornelia for me. The best live of Cha Cha Cha that we received was the first one, at UMK, and every other performance we've had since then was not as good. The one in Eurovision had terrible vocals and slightly less impressive staging compared to UMK. I know right? The ESC staging did MORE and yet accomplished LESS. They got rid of all the wrestling references? Where's the close-up at the end? The arena? THE LIFT?

Sure, these inaccuracies didn't detract from my personal enjoyment of Cha Cha Cha. They however did allow for Käärijä to fall behind far enough behind Loreen in the jury vote so that he could no longer catch up with her in the televote, like a death by a thousand paper cuts.

It was a great live, but it wasn't great enough to win. Eurovision Käärijä was not Käärijä at his best, while Vesna without question gave their best performance in the Grand Final. Hence my doubts.

However, I ultimately went with Käärijä anyway because he did something Vesna could not - he gave a concert in my city, and I attended. HE MADE ME LEAVE THE HOUSE AFTER DARK. And god, if you've not been to a Käârijä gig before, absolutely fucking go if you're able to - IT'S CRAZY IT'S PARTY is the perfect catchphrase for this hyperactive, sexually amorphous, adorkable gremlin.

He was his unadulterated self, slapping his belly only vaguely aware of his sex appeal, swooning over a group of Slovene attendees because they reminded him of The Love Of His Life Bojan Cveticanin, ripping one of his merch t-shirts in half and then wearing it as a jacket, airdiving a wayward balloon that floated its way on the stage. The music was also excellent. Exposed to to the FULL scope of Käärijäness, made all the good memories of the 2023 preshow flow back, how could I not rank him anywhere other than first? Maybe I will change my mind and rank Vesna first in a few years from now, but for now, let's savour him while he's still fresh in our minds.

REMINDER THAT THE 2024 ROSTER IS GREAT LARGELY THANKS TO KÄÄRIJÄ.

REMINDER THAT HE WOULD SO WIN ANY FUTURE EUROVISION IF HE WANTED TO:

(May I just name this as my fave song from the 2024 nf season MAY I????*)

He WAS 2023. He WAS Eurovision.

He may have lost the contest, but he has won life. (and paid his taxes.)

ALL RISE FOR THE BEST ACT OF 2023!

The RANKING (completed)

"Novo, Bolje" was my fave 2024 NF also-ran. Obv.

ADDENDUM: ABOUT ESC2024

Yeah, obviously i'm not going to do a pre-show ranking. With all the poison and controversy going on, it's just not the right time. I delayed this ranking specificially so that I wouldn't be temped to do the 2024 one later. (Unlike a certain broadcasting institution, I possess a modest amount of insight, foresight and self-awareness. 🙂 )

Hopefully, ESC 2024 goes down without too many incidents, and I'll able to start my post-show ranking the week after the Grand Final.

See you there, hopefully, if Eurovision isn't dead and buried by then! 💚

[inocennt]

in your own words, describe the story suburban legends is trying to convey

aaaa i'm so sorry it's taken me literal months to answer this 😭 this is just such a Fascinating song and i realized i did not have many pointed thoughts on it at the time, so i wanted to properly sit down and try dissecting it and put as many thoughts as i could into it

On its own, I think Suburban Legends tells a story sort of similar to imgonnagetyouback: this sort of undefined, on-again off again relationship that is sort of romanticized within the narrator's mind as being a "quest" to conquer. imgonnagetyouback feels like it has more history to its story, while Suburban Legends feels a bit newer and rawer, but ultimately, I think the gist of their arcs is similar.

I will admit, I don't particularly find this general interpretation of Suburban Legends to be all that interesting to me just on its own. However, I am extremely obsessed with how many lyrical and thematic parallels there are to other songs--especially to ones written after 1989. A few days before TTPD came out, I made a playlist chronicling a narrative that (at the time lol) I felt might be relevant to fathoming what we might hear about in TTPD. I also wrote up a breakdown of said playlist, because even though it included like 4 hours worth of songs, I made it in large part because I could not stop thinking about the sheer amount of parallels between Suburban Legends. I break them all down there, but some of my favorite ones are:

"You were so magnetic, it was almost obnoxious" vs "your magnetic field" and "it's gravity keeping you with me," in addition to this general idea of magnetism in the first verse also paralleling the themes of songs like Invisible String, Glitch, and Willow

"I didn't come here to make friends" vs "I don't want you like a best friend" and other friends-to-lovers type lyrics that tie into the magnetism theme ("I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this," "We were supposed to be just friends")

"I broke my own heart cause you were too polite to do it" vs "I broke his heart cause he was nice" and "I pushed you to the edge, but you were too polite to leave me"

The second verse using the setting of high school as a metaphor for becoming a public power couple trying vs the high school metaphors/setting of Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince and the Folklore trilogy

These parallels (among many of the others that are a bit too intertwined in the playlist to break down here lol) are a big part of what compels me about Suburban Legends in the context of her discography post-1989. It feels like it slots perfectly into the relationship breakdown that preludes TTPD, specifically in how it echoes the same sort of nature of how the relationship came together in Reputation and Lover. This sort of cat and mouse, will we or won't we undertone of behavior, coupled with an underlying sense of this inevitable, fated pull. We were born to be suburban legends. Our mismatched star signs would surprise the whole school. You were so magnetic it was almost obnoxious. Somehow, this was always destined to happen.

And that makes considering the ending of this song all the more interesting.

Because there's a sort of Cardigan-like premonition running throughout the entire song. You kiss me in a way that's gonna screw me up forever. I broke my own heart cause you were too polite to do it. You don't knock anymore, and I always knew it, that my life would be ruined. All of these feel very "I knew everything when I was young" to me. Which is definitely apt for this song; "suburban legends" as a concept in and of itself plays on the idea of an "urban legend," a form of modern folklore. They are propagated via word of mouth and the waves of popular culture, not tangible, scientific proof--which again highlights the inevitability of the central relationship. (Small additional side note about "urban legends;" though not all of them are inherently based around horror and the supernatural, those are still very common themes of many well-known urban legends. Which, taken in conjunction with how she is positing her relationship with this person as being a "suburban" legend, draws an implicit line between the gossip regarding their relationship, and the horror undertones of urban legends, indicating that there is some sort of component about the relationship which is to be feared. Which just! Food for thought next to songs like The Albatross, Blank Space, Slut, etc)

Ultimately, that Cardigan-like premonition isn't enough to deter the narrator from pursuing this relationship. Despite this story ending with her leaving, despite this only being a temporary moment in time and not something that would last forever, she still sought to pursue it. Because as depicted in the second verse, her fantasies about what could be consume her so fully, she is incapable of letting it go, even though she is well aware that she will likely be "screwed up forever." She simply cannot let any "what if?" come to pass. Which is just the quintessential theme of so much her discography, truly, and why TTPD ultimately became the powder keg that it is.

And if I may go on a bit of a self-indulgent diversion for a moment.... I once again must highlight how this feels like an evolution of the aftermath of the Speak Now narrative, and how the impact of those experiences affect the narrator's choices and behavior in the aftermath. Though I've been going insane about how well you can use Suburban Legends to analyze and enhance that storyline of Reputation through TTPD, I also think there's room for interpreting it in the opposite direction, and seeing how it reflects the mindset of the narrator at the time of Speak Now/Red:

"You had people who called you on unmarked numbers in my peripheral vision. I let it slide like a hose on slippery plastic summer, all was quickly forgiven" vs songs like Foolish One, Superman, Babe, Girl At Home; calling back to themes of infidelity/lack of commitment on the part of the muse, and the narrator's tendency to forgive and forget in the face of being personally hurt (you could also thematically tie Innocent into this, of course).

"You were so magnetic it was almost obnoxious, flushed with the currency of cool. I was always turning out my empty pockets." vs songs like Dear John, The Story of Us, Foolish One, Treacherous, All Too Well, I Almost Do; connecting directly to the prior themes of forgiveness and calling back to that running theme of being so completely taken in by someone that it feels like fate, or a gravitational pull. Comparing the muse to something rich and out of reach ("flush with the currency of cool") in opposition to her ("my empty pockets") in order to highlight how unaligned they are vs the age/experience/maturity gap explored in Dear John, Foolish One, and All Too Well.

The entire second verse being her living in a fantasy of being able to be a public relationship with this person, specifically in part because she gets to spite everyone who doubted her ("our mismatched star signs would surprise the whole school") vs Ours.

"You'd be more than a chapter in my old diaries with the pages ripped out" vs Foolish One and Superman, and the distance she depicts between her and the subject of those songs in contrast to the relationship she wants with them; the way the reality of the diary in Suburban Legends contrasts with the fantasy of the class reunion, and also how the association of a diary with childhood contrasts with the association of a class reunion as something attended by adults later in life. The way this yearning for a fantasy out of reach and pairing childhood with the yearning for adulthood is simultaneously depicted in Foolish One (and later, The Manuscript): "Maybe someday when we're older, this is something we'll laugh about over coffee every morning while you're watching the news."

"I know that you still remember [...] when you told me we'd get back together, and you kissed me in a way that's gonna screw me up forever" vs, once again Foolish One. And also the implications of "I know that you still remember" vs All Too Well.

This was a very broad spiel because I am completely incapable of ever doing anything succinctly, lmao. But ultimately, I think that Suburban Legends' story is generally straightforward on its surface. To me, it's a song about being consumed by the best possible fantasies presented to you by a relationship and indulging in them despite the shaky foundation of the dynamic. To me, it's shaking hands with songs like Treacherous, IKYWT, I Can Fix Him, etc. in how it depicts a scenario of someone seeing the red flags in a relationship, but choosing to pursue it anyway, because being haunted by the "what if" would hurt more than the actual pain of the relationship ending.

Because at least that's something she knows will happen. At least that's something she's in control of. This time.

[centrally-unplanned]

Watched a bunch of stuff last night, including the Alita OVA from 1993! I thought it was a lot of fun, the thoughts:

--- It did the "obvious" thing of adapting the romance arc with Yugo of Volume 2 as the core, while blending in the events of Volume 1 as sort of backstory and setup as opposed to their own story. This arc is Alita at her most humanized in the early parts of the manga, and its the plot that centers Zalem as the untouchable overlord city most effectively. Any short adaptation is gonna choose this - part of why James Cameron (lol) did the same thing!

--- Speaking of, the manga does not actually have any particular focus on Alita's eyes, but the anime definitely has more than one shot where it establishes them as thematically special. Given that the James Cameron film is famous for going full CGI on Alita's eyes, and he knows about the property from Guillermo del Toro passing him the OVA as opposed to the manga, I think I can see the chain of events that lead to that (ill-fated?) decision.

Her eyes are pretty amazing in the OVA, so I get it! As my previous reblogs showed lol.

--- I think I can break apart the manga into three "concepts": the setting as cyberpunk dystopia, Alita as a character dealing with identity issues as an amnesiatic combat robot, and shounen fighting & levelling arcs. The OVA heavily focuses on the first part, ditching almost all the shounen stuff - its fight scenes are quick and focus on violence & bodily destruction over strength or "fighting techniques", etc. This is great for me, obviously! But it also, almost accidentally, ditches most of her identity issues? Because its less than an hour long, and needs to do a ton of worldbuilding - including even adding in a new character from Zalem to help with that - and is doing Yugo's entire arc, you really don't have time left for Alita's struggles. Yugo actually gets more "inner depth" than she does! She commits to being a bounty hunter, then after that she is pretty much just In Love while Yugo goes through his detailing of his past and collapse.

I'm not saying it doesn't work, it does as a story. Just interesting for something that is known as very "protagonist associated" to have an OVA where she is barely the protagonist.

--- While no Urotsukidoji or anything, this is another one of those OVAs where its reputation, particularly in the west, is as a hyper-violent, gory OVA? And like so many it really isn't. People get decapitated, don't get me wrong, buts its never lingers on those moments. Instead they serve as tone setters for the crapsack world or just are part of the action sequences.

I think in general the OVA era rarely made horror/gore films the way some other mediums/industries did? There are exceptions of course but in the end anime is trying to do too many other things; beautiful animation, focus on character designs, often being adaptations and so doing the plot of those more complex stories, erotic content for audiences that aren't *that* fetishistic on average, and more. All of these priorities compete for space in comparison to having endless jumpscares and blood splatters. So far my track record for watching the famous "gorefest" or "~crazy~" anime is that every one of them is tamer than the rep suggests, and I believe this medium/genre mismatch is why.

--- The biggest question I have around Alita in general is why there was never any more anime? Its weird, right? Its a famous property from a beloved genre, it had a hollywood film for some crazy reason, things like Ghost in the Shell got multi-season anime after all. Why no feature film remake in the 2000's? Why no 13-cour in the 2010's? I don't have an answer to that yet.

Why the initial OVA was so minimal is at least partly answered by Kishiro here:

MNS: Many fans have wondered, why were only 2 anime OAV episodes produced in 1993? YK: It was based on the plan proposed by the animation production company. It might have been better to turn down the plan and wait for a better adaptation proposal to come up, but back then, I couldn't afford to review the plan coolly. At that time, I was still serializing the work and was so busy that I wasn't ambitious to make it into animation.

Essentially he took the "deal on hand", not offering much, because he didn't have the time, money, or business savvy to work the industry for a better proposal. 100% understandable. I don't think the OVA did too well? I can't find a lot of sales figures, but the comments I see are in the "respectable" range, and it didn't get quick or expansive rereleases over time.

More broadly, and again speculative, I think maybe Alita overall isn't that successful? Like sure Kishiro is still out here releasing more sequel manga to this day somehow, but when I look at the "media mix" its just really sparse. No big video game adaptations - it has a PlayStation game in the 90's - it has like a drama CD and a novelization? No big merch waves or tie-ins. I am betting the big anime production committees just don't think its a hot enough property to sell that great. Wouldn't be a bad idea or anything, but not one you have to do like idk Chainsaw Man.

In the western fandom spaces its quite well known because of the idiosyncrasies of licensing history, the weird James Cameron factor, and I think a general fascination with anime cyberpunk; the west eats up any of the older cyberpunk properties for its aesthetic in a way that can blind people to the reality of that just being a subgenre in Japan at the time. Alita might just be niche enough that it not getting any wider anime adaptations is no grand mystery.

(But I hope to dig into this question more)