#plus there is a whole ass separate post about it already soo

[thewizardingtoad]

Time, Chess, and the Tower of Magic

(novel: 29-35)

(manhwa: 44-45)

I just reread the scene in the novel, and I'm kind of obsessed with it, but also am in awe of how well it established the dynamic between Desir and Zod, something that I feel like the manhwa didn't really do, so, I'm doing a bit of comparing under the cut.

Also, if you like these characters in the manhwa, then you should 100% read at least these few chapters, because, as I said before, they are amazing.

So the manhwa starts us off with how Zod is an "odd fellow", he's always been that, and how he lead civilization into a new era of magic, he's achievements are endless, and is Desir's irreplaceable friend.

Now, in the novel, Desir says that Zod accepted his request because he was intrigued by it. (True) He says that Zod single-handedly renewed interest in magic.

(Also, fun-fact: someone wrote a book about all of his accomplishments, and it's thicker than most encyclopedias.)

(Also also, in the manhwa he looks like 40, in the novel that's 30)

The next scene plays out almost the same, except that we learn, in the novel, that Zod has an 'archaic feeling to his words'.

While in the manhwa he's all nice, and smiley etc. novel!Desir points out that until the North Sea's rules are mentioned, Zod's so impatient to get on with the match that it can almost be heard in his tone, which for this old man is VERY impatient.

And then of course Desir drops the bomb, that yeah, he wants to play the Rule set that originates from Zod's homeland and n!Desir immediately points out how much more relaxed Zod gets from hearing that.

The chess match starts, and in both mediums Zod's like, this kid is pretty good, but he's still just a kid, and "[He's] too hasty with [his] moves"

Desir, when he's on the verge of losing, makes the bet. It goes in the novel as it goes in the manhwa, except that a) Zod's like, 'I know that everything you did so far was to make this wager, and I hope you see how suspicious you are.' and b) At this Desir's just like, 'Wow, you're very interested, huh? Then I won't tell you until I win.'

And then the whole 'you play like a whole different person' thing happens in the manhwa, 'oh, well, I played against him in the future so of course I know how he plays', 'I've been the same person this entire time' etc. etc.

So. That does not happen in the novel.

What happens instead is we get the explanation as to why is Desir losing:

He's been playing with Zod for 6 years, yes,

However, this Zod plays differently than other Zod

In the future, his play style is more aggressive

Now he focuses on counter-play and he's more reserved

And Desir deduced this in the first few steps in their game, and been sacrificing pieces since then to analyze Zod's play style.

And also, yes, Desir did figure the greatest mage of all time out in what? 20 minutes?

And Desir might be losing, but because of the time limit Zod's going to make some stupid moves, which Desir deducted will happen, then he makes even worse moves, and the next thing Zod knows is that he got ripped to shreds in 3 minutes.

In the novel, Desir mentions that in the last minutes of the match, Zod's straight up panicking over how bad the situation has gotten for him.

Then, when Desir mentions the trade, Zod tries to calmly explain to him why that's not possible "You're asking to exchange a bar of gold for a peanut"

Desir of course doesn't budge and after a bit of "bartering" it's clear just how fed up with this "boy"'s bs Zod is and reading this scene after the manhwa is kind of shocking

Zod expressed disdain at the boy's choice. "I expected you to choose more wisely. You've rejected my offer, and I can't accept your deal. With that, the negotiations are over." The man rose to get up from his seat.

(...)

"So you think this is a fair deal." The Tower Master was audibly upset by Desir's words.

And I'm very sad that this scene in this form didn't make it to the manhwa, because while we see Zod being dismissive and uninterested in Desir's idea before he sees it to himself, we don't see him being, well, like this.

Prideful, kind of cocky, and straight up offended that a mere student would even dare to suggest that his idea worth as much as support from the Tower of Magic, upset to the point that Desir has to actively put out 'fires' during the conversation so that it can progress.

Which is a beautiful way of showing us how, yes, Desir does know this guy, he knows why he's upset he knows what to say to get him to calm down enough to listen and also how to say it.

What in the manhwa is essentially just 'Well if I show you that my idea is worth it then it will be fine, right? Let me show you then.' in the novel is Desir going on first about how of course what he's saying is outrageous, and Zod is right to be upset, but shouldn't Zod know that impossible things are sometimes real? And then he starts explaining how 20 years old Zod Exarion becoming the Tower Master was an impossible feat, or maybe, perhaps, even more impossible, a student defeating him in chess! Which happened just now, and That is when Zod tells him to show him his idea.

This scene alone reaffirms to the reader, that Desir doesn't just know Zod as a tactician, but as a person, he knows how to talk to him, he knows how to talk sense into him, and that Desir did this enough in the past that this comes like second nature to him.

Zod being stone headed and stuck to his ways until Desir reminds him that he's been just like this boy in the past is also one of the most Old Person Thing TM Zod does in the entire novel, showing and not just telling us that the G is not just for show in that GILF he is actually old.

After that the "reveal" scene plays out pretty similarly except that Zod gets a bit more info out of Desir, one of them is that he didn't necessarily discover the technic but he "knows of it", and Desir lets the reader know that the person who discovered it was in fact Zod, just 3 years into the labyrinth, and as he starts explaining the theory Zod catches up extremely quickly, actually taking over Desir's explanation of how resonance is better than the enchant method.

When Desir mentions that he has more ideas like this, Zod tells his secretary to cancel every plan he has until he says otherwise, which is a very entertaining turn of events in my opinion.

So to wrap it up, while I love how the manhwa did this scene, (this is probably my favorite two chapters from it) I'm kind of sad that most of the little tidbits of building up the relationship between Zod and Desir, that would be important later got lost in adaptation.

[katsrnerstories]

BillDip SlowBurn FanFic Chap. 1

Bill had destroyed Dipper's mind.

It has been a few years since weirdmageddon. Since Dipper and Mabel defeated demons from hellish planes of existence and saved the world and their friends from soul and mind crushing madness.  

Dippers a freshman in college now. It was a moment that he had wished for for years. Highschool had been…

Well it wasn't the worst it could have been. Dipper hit a major glow up around the beginning of junior year (with Mabel's help of course) and life was a little easier. He was asked out on dates, went to a few parties here and there that people dragged him to, had some typical highschool fun in the city...

Until around that same time he started getting replies from colleges his senior year, he started to see Bill again. Every once in a while his mind would wander back to that summer, but it was always the good things or nightmares of the horrors they saw.

It started with just a little glimpse here and there. An eye in the back corner of his periphery, some yellow glimpse in a dark room. 

A ghostly hand on his shoulder.

But these things were nothing to the first time Dipper realized something was wrong.

Dipper saw Bill in his dreams. And those dreams were beyond nightmares.

He had had nightmares before. Nightmares of weirdmageddon were common for both dipper and Mabel. But these… these were real; as much as a dream could be.

Because of Gravity Falls, Dipper really wasn't afraid of a lot of things that would have scared him. The unknown was comforting to him. Maybe because it wasn't too unknown to him and Mabel.

But bill. During those nightmares, brought everything he feared to the frontlines. 

It had been a while since Mabel and him shared a room, so Mabel really didn't know about the fear Dipper experienced those nights. 

She was more focused on getting to LA.

She wants to be a criminal psychoanalyst. To look at the minds of people and figure how they tick. Criminals especially. 

Dipper could swear that Bill had done something to her to make her go down such a dark career path, but he couldn't say anything; he neither had a psychology degree nor was untouched by Bill himself.

Who really knows, it could have been anything else that happened to her in those hellish four years of highschool. 

She had moved away quickly after highschool ended to learn in LA. Of course they facetime and text all the time, but the separation was still felt by both of them.

Everyone missed her presence. Her positivity, her unique personality. 

That had transformed into something much darker come junior and senior year. She found out after a few failed boyfriends that she was not only Asexual, but that guys and even girls, can’t seem to give that part of a relationship up. Some even found it offensive that she felt that way.

Dipper went back to oregon. Of course he was in the city, but on weekends he would visit the Mystery Shack and Gravity Falls. 

Soos was happy to give him one of the rooms in the basement. Sometimes even Grunkle Stan or Grunkle Ford would visit. 

They decided shortly after Dipper and Mabel left that they would travel. Of course Ford's labs still sit under the mystery shack, but when Mabel and Dipper visited Soos the summer of their junior year Ford gave them full control of the labs (as long as Dipper kept everyone safe. Which he did too much annoyance of Mabel)

Soos and his wife at that time had just had a little baby boy, and now have a comfortable four kids, two boys and two girls (three of them were triplets) and run the shack not to much better than Stan did, with the same soul in the campy attractions and overpriced merchandise. 

Wendy is in her senior year at a community college in Oregon city, right around the same place Dipper decided to go to school. They hang out pretty regularly, just around weekly.

Robby left gravity falls as soon as he got his GED. Went for New York, looking for a punk career. He sends Wendy emails every once in a while about his music and where he's at. 

Shockingly, Pacifica stayed in Oregon, going to the same college Dipper goes to. They see each other, and after leaving her family, she found a lot out about herself and became a much better person. 

She found she loved a good smoke and art. Apparently, something she hid from the world was that she loved art. She was probably one of the best artists Dipper had seen. After she left the hell hole of her family, she became really chill. Calm. even nice. 

Her and Dipper have coffee pretty much every day. She was one of the only people who also knew what he had gone through.

And she was the only person who noticed as Dipper got worse and worse for wear. 

Bill had been particularly evil the past few weeks, taking much more joy in Dippers struggle. Long ago Dipper had just sort of given up on screaming for Bill to stop. But he always refused to make a deal with him to stop the fear. Not again. 

“Another nightmare again?” Pacifica asks, as Dipper requests 5 shots of caffeine in his already bitter caffeinated black coffee. 

“Yeah. it's getting harder and harder to say no every night. And honestly the empty dorm isn't helping.” 

“Why don't you just move in with me? I've got an extra room that's got your name written on the door if you want it.” 

Dipper almost accepted, but decided against it. It was kind of weird, no matter how good of friends they were, to live with the ex that made you realized you were gay.

It wasn't her fault, it was just…

He liked a different kind of ass, as Mabel had said when he came out.

No, the daily overpriced coffee meetup was enough. 

“Have you talked about it to Ford? Hes got to know something about it if he went through the same thing?” 

“I don't want to bother them with it. They thought they got rid of Bill that summer, we all did. Bills my problem now.”

Pacifica gives him a knowing look. She knew that he was breaking, but couldn't figure out how to help him. 

“Hows journalism?” Pacifica takes her coffee as she changes the subject.

“As boring as it ever is. Graphic design?”

“As confusing as ever.” Dipper takes a big sip from his steaming coffee. It's a briskly cold morning, enough he brought out his knit set Mabel had made for him on their 18th birthday. He had no shame in wearing it, and it in fact felt comforting today, to know that she was still with him in heart at least.

She never grew out of her sweater thing. She still makes sweaters, using it to get her to the next rent payment sometimes. Everyone can count on a big box with sweaters from her every Christmas here in Oregon. 

With their coffees in hand, Dipper and Mabel head off to campus. And once they made it there they said their goodbyes with a hug and went their separate ways to start the day. 

Dipper wanders into the lecture hall for his advanced maths class. People filter in as he types away on his computer. 

The students around him wanted to be scientists, economists, etc. everyone found it weird that a creative writing major was not only taking advanced maths, this early in the morning, but was killing it. His grades spoke for themselves. 

The class starts and Dipper still types away on his computer. He had been bored the night before as he was staving off sleeping and had read a chapter ahead in their textbook. He taught himself the three hour lesson that day in an hour. 

It was no doubt that Dipper took after his great uncle Stanford. Grunkle Ford told him at one point that Dipper reminded him of a young Dr. Fiddleford. Dipper didn't really like being compared to the scientist that started a whole cult under Gravity Falls before going batshit crazy himself for a very long time.

He only hoped that he wouldn't end up like him. He didn't want to be some crazy man who roams the town. 

Dipper had a story that he needed to finish for his next class. He had started to wear away the stories of Gravity Falls with his creative writing classes that he now had to actually think about what story to write. Mabel helped him out with the premise of the story last night. So he spent that class writing a simple flash fiction of one roaming the backrooms. (an urban legend Mabel had read about in an article somewhere.)

He found comfort in knowing that one thing did not exist to him. That one thing did not sit in the pits of Gravity Falls waiting for Dipper or one of them to unearth it.

The story reminded Dipper of falling through the endless pit just outside the Mystery Shack. A hole where they reminisced on days of the summer as they spent the day, or who knows how long, falling. they were all lucky that it was not, truly, endless. 

And quickly the story was finished and the class closed early. 

Dipper went for an early lunch. He scrolls through his phone, seeing Mabels three new instagram posts and all the other people she introduced him to. 

After Mabel found out Dipper was gay, she went on a mission to hook him up with some LA guy. Oregons not terrible with their acceptance, but it's not something to be very open about. Plus Dipper wasn't the kind to walk pride without someone like Mabel hyping the both of them up. Because god knows that she needs just as much hyping up with who she is as Dipper.

When he walks into his empty apartment, anxiety wells up in Dippers chest. Quickly he turns on the TV, letting it run as white noise as he makes his lunch. The apartment had been empty since his recent relationship ended. Dipper is glad it ended, as the abuse just got too much; yet it was bad for Dipper to be left alone with his thoughts. Especially in an apartment that seemed to hold so much sadness and bad memories.

Mabel, after helping Dippers style, had made him a whole cookbook for him. It had all different kinds of foods, but the main dishes all were healthy. She had gone on a fitness rampage her sophomore year and had never truly grown out of it. It was from a bad place, but she turned it to a positive. As she always does. 

She had told him that it was the first thing other than sleep to keep alive longer. She had made him promise that he would try to stay alive. 

At this point it was the only thing keeping Dipper alive. 

Bill had taxed his mind so much it was rare to find him not paranoid. Bill made Dippers anxiety beyond chronic, and the lack of sleep did not help his depression. 

That had developed after Pacifica. It wasn't because of the break up, more at the fact that she had helped him so much. 

She had accepted him being gay. She had helped him gain friends during their relationship, and she even helped him when money wasn't the best. 

All this caused his anxiety to get to his head. 

What if they think I’m evil for breaking it off with her? What if she'll never want to see me again? What if, what if, what if…

His depression had just gotten  worse after the breakup and dealing with being alone again. It was the reason Dipper stayed with someone like that for so long. 

All of the depression and anxiety ended up crashing down at the same time Bill Cypher ended up crashing into the picture. 

At that point Bill only came to terrorise Dipper a few nights a month. It was easier to deal with.  Now it's every night.

Dipper finishes making his food, sitting down in front of the TV to watch a show on Netflix. 

He had been getting through the true crime shows. He swore that eventually he'd eventually either run a show like it with Mabel or be one of the cold cases lost to the world. 

Yet within only a few minutes Dipper not only found himself asleep, but stuck in the mindscape. 

“Been trying to avoid me, Pine Tree?”

Dipper no longer was shocked by Bill's voice. In fact the more and more he heard his voice, the more and more it began to sound almost human.

[zachsgamejournal]

COMPLETED: Final Fantasy VII Remake

The task is done. FF7R is finished. And I hate it. Not in a “Why did I waste my money on this trash” way, but a “What have you done to one of my top 10 games” way. I feel like I read the book and am now watching the HBO show going, “well that’s not right…” If this were a review and I was grading the game, I’d give it a 7/10. Graphically, the character models are beautiful, but the repetitive and narrow environments can be shockingly low quality at times. The gameplay is pretty good. It’s definitely an evolution of Crisis Core, but when you’re in red health, and your best chance to cast heal is to go put yourself face-to-face with a towering monster...eh, it needed work. I liked the side quests, but they could be awkwardly placed. The characters are not what I remembered. That’s not necessarily bad, but at times I had a hard time understanding their motivations. The added sections and elongated sequences were a major pain point, which also affected the story. Ultimately, I think Final Fantasy VII Remake’s development team had an impossible task, and they did their best...mostly.

So, last we left off, we’re all hanging in Aerith’s old room. Super weird, since in the original the Turks capture the team and Avalanche faces President Shinra, face-to-face. This was a great moment in the original: “good try losers, but we got you!” Shinra...I don’t remember what he says, but it pisses off Barret. We’re then taken to prison cells where Cloud talks to different groups through the prison walls. You get some character development plus the awkward conversation of Aerith saying he promised one date to Cloud. Tifa overhears and is like “Well excuse me”.  It’s a good scene of the team coming together and much of the interpersonal drama coming out in the open. This is where the team truly coalesces. 

Remake, though...it’s awkward. We see more hooded ghosts and then freely walk out. Speaking of the ghosts, looks like I was almost right. They’re “Destiny” trying to make sure things play out. And they’re stupid. Probably gonna give them their own post. We then go to the Jenova container. Here, Hojo is using Jenova-juice to make monsters and shit. I didn’t hate this sequence, but it’s a whole new chapter and I was done. Like, we’re supposed to leave the cells and see a dead Shinra--not spend an hour plus wandering more hallways. It was neat how they took some of the weird monsters from the original and made them meaningful here as Hojo experiments. And I liked seeing Tifa and Aerith work as a team, developing a friendship, instead of a rivalry over Cloud’s affections. I’d almost prefer they had left romance out of it, just focus on everyone being friends. It’s fun having Red XIII around, and it was probably wise to include this new Hojo section so that he becomes a part of the team--since the game is about to end. But he wasn’t super defined as a character. He’s just kinda mopey. How did he get here, what did Hojo want with him? President Shinra is hanging off the side of the building. Barret talks to him, saves him, and then makes a few odd requests. Shinra grabs a gun and kinda challenges Barret on his ideals. This is all awkward. Barret’s past with Shinra is very personal. He’s not wrong to want to save the planet, but at this moment, Barret is much more “make Shinra hurt”. And since the remake doesn’t explain why Barret is this way, or show Barret as an unreasonable hothead, it’s just...awkward. Then we see Sephiroth kill the President. I get why they did this: very cinematic. But there was something startling about finding Shinra’s body in the original. Your main enemy/antagonist is already dead. Who killed him? Why? Are they a friend? All great and terrifying questions that are answered at the right times in the original. But since this is a partial-remake, we don’t have time for all that: so, stabby-stabby. Then they do the smartest change they’ve made in this game: you fight Jenova. It was always quite confusing in the original. Jenova was having to be transported by “Sephiroth”--so it always seemed weird to me that you fight Jenova. But then...Sephiroth was Jenova...kinda...need to check the wiki on that.

Then we have the boss fight with Rufus. The original handled this transition better. After finding a dead Shinra with the Sephiroth’s sword, Rufus’s helicopter lands. The gang does one of my favorite things and introduces themselves from their diverse backgrounds: Ex-Soldier, Flower Girl, Avalanche, Science experiment. Rufus is unimpressed and gives a speech about how he’s gonna be a bigger ass than his dad. It was a good intro to a new villain. Remake...it’s awkward. BUT I love how Tifa comes to Cloud’s rescue at the end of the boss fight. FINALLY the game recognizes how badass Tifa is. Cloud, ex-soldier, still needs saving. He can’t survive as a loner. And this moment beautifully illustrates that. Good move.

Before that, we do see Sephiroth carry Jenova out of the tower. But then there’s a flash, revealing a hooded figure with a tattoo. Think we saw this before. They’re really showing their hand here, but given the limited scope of the remake, I get why they had to. I’m mostly annoyed they didn’t do more set up. I know they showed Cloud’s neighbor being hooded, but I think they could have done more with this. I’m also curious if Cloud is going to have a tattoo under his shoulder armor??   Soo, I couldn’t wait to do the motorcycle event and end this thing. But we had to do a bunch of cut scenes...took forever. Then boom--we’re off. Similar to how the first sequence went, but the helicopter was a nice addition. I was impressed they did the boss fight purefly on the motorcycle. It kinda kicked my ass, I almost died. Luckily, I survived. Good fun. We get to the end of the highway and I’m ready to put down the controller and pat myself on the back. But then I’m allowed to move. As I walk forward, I see a “rest bench” to refill my HP/MP. Umm...this is concerning. I think we get a hint of Sephiroth--and so I imagine he will be the final boss fight. I’m ok with this, as it’s probably what needs to happen for the story. Instead, there’s this long BS about the Destiny ghosts and how they’re shaping the future and, for some reason I didn’t quite pick up on, we have to literally fight destiny. ...like...why?

So, huge interdimensional boss fight with an almost formless creature and its minions. Reminds me a lot of SIN from Final Fantasy 10. I didn’t like Final Fantasy 10. So I’m not liking this. I don’t get why we’re fighting Destiny, I don’t get how we can fight Destiny--like this is some bullshit I don’t need right now. While as intriguing as the debris-hopping is (reminiscent of Advent Children), I hated this stupid, tacked-on boss fight. I don’t see the point of Destiny being involved (gonna have a separate post about this). Then we defeat the stupid Destiny monster and still have to fight Sephiroth. Like, skip Destiny and just do an exciting interdimensional Sephiroth fight!!! I defeat Sephiroth...or a Sephiroth...and end up in an interdimensional space that reminds me of the final boss from the original. I imagine this is intentional. Sephiroth invites Cloud to join him against Destiny (very Vader/Luke) and Cloud says, “never”. Which is a little confusing, because Cloud literally just finished killing Destiny. And then the game closes with a cinematic I half paid attention to.

From what I can tell, Destiny Whispers killed Wedge for some reason, and Briggs is left alive. To hell with Jessie I guess? I did like Wedge coming back to help out. I love their choice of voice actor. But his inclusion has been an awkward ride.

As the game was ending, I was feeling...not great. I wasn’t really happy with it. But then they offered the Chapter Select. This changes things a bit. I can “control” my experience on a replay, and I imagine I can kinda punch my way through quite easily since I get to keep my equipment and levels. I may actually replay this game, but I still favor the original. A friend expressed a desire for them to truly remake the original--but I was on board for improvements. I recant that now. I wish they had stayed truer to the original and not tried to give me such an epic chunk.