#reader reactions to how the plot was tied up in the final arc like i do not remember a lot of it but it was really complex and detailed

[mybrainproblems]

Do you ever think about continuing ALYNA? Especially with AoT ending? ALYNA really was a brilliantly well thought out piece of writing. I still reread it every now and again. Thank you for sharing it with us. Hope all is well with you!

Oh nonnie, this is actually such a lovely ask to get.

I will be honest and say that every so often I do think about ALYNA but the story is dead by virtue of a series of extremely unfortunate events; mental health issues, work issues, people being unpleasant in my inbox, the notebook with all of my plot notes sustaining heavy water damage (mostly the latter)... I think at some point I must have thrown out that notebook since I didn't find it when I was moving a few months ago (and I did actively look for it). Enough time had already passed by the time my notes got destroyed that I didn't remember a lot of the final arc which was like. The "tie everything up" arc (-_-;) so there are some vague bits that I remember but I don't have the motivation to try and remember or think up a "new" way to wrap it all up. However I do remember exactly what the epilogue was and where everyone ended up. I feel like saying that and not sharing it is kinda cruel but there is this tiny tiny part of me that always thinks that someday I will finish it and I don't want to spoil the plot... that I will likely never write. Sorry about that, nonnie.

It's funny bc I only know aot ended since I followed one last final blogger who was still into it but also I stopped reading the manga in fall 2015 and have no interest in engaging with it again. From what I understand it took some ideological Turns that sounded really unpleasant.

And super seriously while I don't want to engage with the fandom this was a nice message to get and I appreciate it a lot. Pretty much the only asks about ALYNA that I've been getting for literal years are berating me for not finishing it and somehow performing a bait and switch for discontinuing before I got to the ereri of it all by readers who went into it knowing it was incomplete. So yeah. This was such a nice ask to get like I never think about the fact that ppl might continue to reread it bc why would anyone want to read or reread a discontinued fic? So nonnie, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for sending this and being kind.

(And I'm doing well, I hope you are too.)

[shoezuki]

Tommy's prison/revival arc isnt well written actually

Anyways ive been wanting to talk on it a while for a bit here but havent had the Time or like. The thought to. But im gonna go off now.

First off im gonna say im ASSUMING this stream and plot of tommy being in the prison with dream is written entirely by tommy and dream. Wilbur May be involved in the latest stream but im not sure.

Bringing tommy back to life after only three days of him being dead did practically nothing to progress plot, the characters, or audience's understanding. In fact i feel that it damaged Other characters' potential and plot and already established plotlines.

The 'development' aspect

A really, really easy way to see if anything has changed or developed through an arc or plotline is to straightup just compare the 'beginning' to the 'end' in terms of the barebones situation. So;

Beginning: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream, his own abuser who has hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. He's terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

End: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream after being killed then revived by him, his own abuser whos hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. Hes terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

Okay. This is simplified obvious. But the point stands. ALTHOUGH the troupe of 'going back to the beginning' is common in the heroes journey its. It doesnt work here. Has tommy learned anything? Has he changed as a character? Is the severity of their situation any different? Have we, as the audience, learned anything new?

Im going to expand on that last point because i think it has the strongest potential argument. Technically for progression in literature and development of plot/characters, things can Change without them being Aware as characters. It can change just by the audience's perception changing or being challenge.

Slight example: i've been reading a webcomic called Your Throne. Its a fantasy/political drama about a noble lady who entered a competition with another noble lady to become the empress. The main lady lost despite her being a better fit, and the comic starts with the main lady trying to assassinate the empress. Its assumed and stated by the main lady that she 'ruined her life' and so thats all the readers know. However, later in the novel we see flashbacks to the competition itself and find that the two ladies were extremely close friends, neither wanting anything bad for the other, but it was the emperor himself who manipulated both of them for his own agenda. Those flashbacks gave us an entirely different idea of who the real antagonist is and completely changed the two main ladies' relationship. THAT is how the audience's understanding of the plot and novel can be used to change the entire story. We dont get such here though

Some things that were brought to light during tommy being dead/revived:

Dream is capable of reviving people infinitely

This was already implicated and assumed. The book dream has being a means of reviving people has been around Technically since schlatt's death. This just 'confirmed' what was known

Time works differently/feels longer in the afterlife

This doesnt really impact much beyond emotions and implications. If we had more insight into what the 'afterlife' is like beyond nothingness perhaps so. But really it just makes it so wilbur being dead for what feels like 9 years and tommy having been dead for 2 months appeal to emotions.

Wilbur is evil

This one fuckin sucks i cant lie HSKSHSISSGEGDV. Like i was gon go on bout it and i will but it jus sucks. We have nothing to go on besides tommy's word, no examlles of what Horrible things wilbur said could make tommy assume this, etcetc. Ill most likely make a seperate post on how this feels like we're just going to get 'wilbur is a horrible villain' type with him. But still. I feel wilbur Not Being Good isnt a new development.

Dream is going to revive wilbur

This doesnt feel new either, part because phil had wanted to revive wilbur before (ill get to that more later) and that tommy had kept dream alive/initially imprisoned him with the idea of him reviving wilbur.

Dream believes wilbur will break him out of prison

Okau this makes no sense to me actually. I cwnt understand How exactly wilbur would be able to do this? Or why dream believes he even Could? Mans been dead for like 9 years and all we Know of the afterlife is that its black... nothingness. How would 9 years of that make wilbur capable of busting the prison open?

So. Yeah. All in all this plotline hasnt done anything new, developed things, or altered people's perceptions. We just ended up back at square one. Back to tommy being traumatized, dream being 'evil' and horrible and doing villain monologues, and them being stuck together.

Other characters and plotlines

Im pretty damn sure tommy's revival fucked up a LOT of other characters' plotlines and potential development. Honestly i feel this has a lot to do with the writers not communicating with other ccs well enough. But Ill talk about specific characters from least to most fucked over in my opinion:

Sam

He's the best off. He hqd been there during tommy's death, had been close to tommy, had majorly blamed himself and his own mistakes for tommy's death. His grief and self hatred was actually really heartbreaking and well done. The attached character of Sam Nook being unaware of tommy's death and simply waiting for tommy to return was a really good parallel to sam's own grief and anger. like it really snapped sam the guy who cares for tommy and wants to do Right by him back together with him as the Warden of the prison. Mixed personal life with 'just business'.

I feel it wouldve been nice to have him like. Have more time to grieve properly and come to terms eith tommy's death and his own involvement/influence over the events. Him finding tommy alive again Could be a means of him like. Facing his own grief head on if done well.

Ranboo

Mostly in the context of him and sam's argument do i feel it got screwed over. The weight of them yelling at each other and trying to find who to blame and the implications that Maybe ranboo was the one who caused the security breach that closed down the prison on tommy just.... doesnt hit so hard anymore. Because how can there be blame and arguments and a 'who done it' mystery when tommy popped up all fine again?

Puffy

I dony know much of her involvement or how she found out tommy died (besides metagaming shhhhh) but i saw her monologuing of how they 'failed' tommy and like. Her whole 'he was so young we the Adults failed him' spiel is like........... inconsequential? Now??? Like no dont worry he died but hes alright now.

Philza

BET YOU DIDNY EXPECT TO SEE THIS FUCKER!!!!!! But actually though i want to talk bout how this ties into phil. A LOT. for Zalbr ❤. But also because i see ppl tying phil to tommy's death n like nah shutup u doin it wrong. Ill go off more in a Wilbur Post. But essentially: i dont like that dream is now going to revive wilbur. I feel they arent going to tie philza into this Despite phil having originally been trying to revive his son and studying on it and Attempting and Failing. But now suddenly dream can just. Say some magic words and Poof wilbur lives? So we're just going to Kill philza's revival attempts plotline and leave that hanging? This made his efforts seem pointless and Wack like oh why didnt you just Say The Magic Words phil????

Niki

I feel really bad for niki. She hasnt been able to do a lore stream during tommy's 'death' (she tweeted she wanted to but her computer wasnt working) and considering her entire character.... that shit is important. We seen it with Jack Manifold how tommy's death impacted Him considering he literally wanted tommy dead. And since niki is in a similar boat to jack of trying to kill tommy and it being her Only goal...... thats extremely important.

BUT. i feel there wasnt any communication. Did she or anyone even know tommy would be revived? Did no one consider they could At Least let her do a single stream on it? Like jack manifold????

We couldve gotten a Really good niki lore stream. I genuinely was so excited for it and i dont regularly watch her. But we seen it with jack manifold which is why i dont feel he got screwed because mans genuinely did So Good he could pop off with anything n i think it works in His favour. But now........ for niki. Canonically she never even knew tommy was Dead. So its like nothing even happened for her. Is she just supposed to continue on trying to kill tommy with no progression?

What i think would work

This is more me being like 'hey @ the dsmp writers let me in' type speculation sbosegussgs. But i was thinkin on a Really easy way to 'fix' this without rewriting lore and the streams.

Dream should kill tommy again now that he's been revived and Leave Him Dead.

More development for the characters who are affected by his death Especially niki. More time for grief and self reflection and development

A chance for the audience to figure out what the 'afterlife' really is.

Dream is supposed to be smart and a master manipulator or something right? Why doesnt he use being able to revive tommy as a bargaining chip with sam for his own freedom?

The audience would now Know dream's intentions with tommy better, that this death isnt 'final', but we could still see other characters' grief and reactions and coping without it feeling cheap. Ive seen some 'but people dont know tommy is alive so hes still dead in their mind' but that sucks imo.

We'd know more on dream's ability to revive people and that he can just Do It on a whim (which i think sucks but hey im trying) but no one else would know this canonically

Okay. Im done. If you read this. Thankyou. I love you. Hmu.

[the-nysh]

I don't mean this as a dunk on Deku when I say I wish his writing worked as well as Kacchan's does but I know Deku writing has to appease so many outside forces & work with the pacing for the big structural moments - almost in a meta way Deku, as the franchise hero there is more pressure on him to appease JUMP/fans standards, carry most of the action and work with Horikoshi's pacing to get through the plot so it doesn't feel like the character is getting to breathe because its always onto (1/2)

(2/2) the next story beat. Whereas Kacchan can disappear for ages and reappear showing off some new development and a loads of new moves, but it feels earned because it fits his personality and work ethic to do it, its always consistent and connected incrementally building off when we last saw him but plausibly enough time passes that we buy he's reflected and changed. It feels like Deku doesn't get that luxury, I would feel like 306-319 could have been handled differently to take in Deku's(2/3) (3/3) Mental decline. Don't get me wrong, its all captured in what we get especially adding up the small signs through the whole story but it (maybe I am bias) doesn't hit the same emotional highs. The details are there, the consistent driving force is there and yet I still feel Deku is robbed. Maybe its the generic lines that go with emotional highs, or how condensed his growth has become or i all the times its teased emotional introspect with Deku only to skip over it because its for this(3/4) (4/4) low point, but it was so choatic, with distracting elements - very often Deku's big moments are against villains (as well his friends) and how he's learning from it but also mixed in with other character stories. Deku the biggest character we spend the most time with, so I feel he could have had more spent with him emotionally. I am trying to figure out why Bakugou (whose not in the story as much) has better writing, is it the connection to his origins? But Deku has that too.

Ah :O yeah, I can see where you’re coming from, because I too, wanted to see more emotional beats with his inner thoughts. Most of the time Deku remained silently...impassive in a way. (Including his expressions getting literally masked.) Making him often difficult to read. Like c’mon, what are you actually feeling?! (Like during Gran Torino’s cape scene??) Let us know! Only for the scenes to move on without that breathing room, and we’d only get the reactions from other characters - receiving perceptions of him more thru their eyes, rather than us gaining more insight on Deku’s personal thoughts (and mental state) directly.

Which I think is much of what other Deku stans wanted to see from his ‘solo’ arc: for him to gain that extra focus to define more of his psyche and ‘individuality’ as a character. And yet...I feel it ties back to Hori’s description of him too, where Deku silently (& darkly) bottles things up to bear the burden alone without complaint. And this is perhaps that ‘stage’ in Deku’s story he finally wanted to illustrate, from ideas originating back from his beta designs. However, we also get those SJ restrictions on top of it, where the mc is purposely more of a ‘blank slate’ for reader relatability, but then ironically, Deku became less relatable to me as his path spiraled... So, I just honestly don’t know why or what happened there (might need to ask more Deku fans about it), but the one thing I do know is that the emotions from Deku’s side are incomplete. :O And I’ll be waiting for Deku to be more openly honest with himself (to be more selfish for himself for once) in response after finally hearing Kacchan’s feelings. :’)

[rosiethorns88]

Queen of Nothing Thoughts / Reflection on the Series

Many people are asking me, so I’m pooling them here. I’m not a writer or a reviewer, just a reader. :)

SPOILERS AHEAD:

First, an expectation summary:

- Overall, the book hit all of my high notes and succeeded in its story telling to me, personally. Holly has a pattern with climax building reflected in all three of her books that I really enjoy as a reader. There are shocking moments about two-thirds of the way in each book that feel like climaxes, but after the sudden burst and fall out, it slowly builds up again to another and greater peak. I find the early upsets and expanded conclusions of the final acts to be really satisfying to unfold, page by page. Cardan and Jude are two fascinating characters and the friction their personalities cause with one another make for some satisfying sparks. The whole cast of characters are colorful and the world building is rich, and I enjoyed the escapism the entire series brought to me with each visit.

- I was completely satisfied with the pacing, because it worked for the story at hand. Madoc was making his move and allies from all over Faerie were seeing Cardan’s control over his court wane in his wake. Both Jude and Cardan had to move and move fast to get themselves in a position of defense. In fact, the one act that I feared may have dragged on the longest, Jude’s ‘entrapment’ at the camp, actually moved forward quite quickly and kept my interest once Grimsen and the Ghost entered the mix. To spend time tying up every frayed thread with other non-player characters before the end would have lessened the urgency of story’s impending conflicts. Let’s get Jude and Cardan settled and to their honeymoon first before we chat about Nicasia’s love woes over tea.

- The Jurdan reunion was great, I love how it reflects the previous books with them having to first play act with each other again. Though I was hoping for it to last a bit longer with Cardan stringing Jude along in her disguise. I was really excited for Jude to play switch-a-roo as Taryn, but didn’t expect it to end so suddenly. It would have been a great call back to the circumstance of Cardan’s being tricked at the end of The Wicked King.

- The fact the Cardan was so involved with Jude’s runarounds: the rescue attempt from the palace, the actual rescue from the camp, his tag-alongs with her questing. It made all of their interactions very satisfying as it was expanding beyond the verbal throw-downs they only had before. I’ve seen many people complain there were not enough Jurdan scenes, but y’all. We barely had a breath of their interactions from the 1st and 2nd books compared to QoN. I was thoroughly pleased.

- The fact that Cardan indulges in Jude’s political nature and wears it proudly like a brooch when he’s addressing his court. He’s basically like, “I’m here to be my witty and sarcastic self; she’s here to be her just and vicious self. We complete each other.”

- CARDAN REUNITES WITH HIS DOOR! This was my favorite reunion scene as it was one of the many world building elements I enjoyed from the first book. Cardan’s playful and endearing greeting to his door at Hallow Hall was such a thought provoking element - I could only imagine as he grew up at the hall, he had little things or persons to befriend. And with the revelation of Cardan sneaking out human servants in the night, it makes sense he could get away with it with this unique friendship. I’m so glad this was a payoff.

- Madoc - I love Madoc. SO MUCH. He’s such a rich character, it’s so hard to call him morally grey when his character is so colorfully rich. Every chapter I either put an extra tick on his ‘I hate you so much’ or ‘I love you so much’ tally. He’s so true to his nature as a red cap, yet still so loving and caring for his family. He truly shows his hurt and conflict in his anger towards Jude after he finds she has betrayed or outwitted him. I reflect back to The Cruel Prince, when Jude was reminiscing how she and Madoc would play a board game of strategy (like chess) and have to interrupt it. All day, Jude would think about her possible moves and his possible moves, so when they returned to the game, the entire strategy had changed. This is how they interacted all through out the novel. Every thought and move was predicted, then challenged, then overturned before they could even meet face to face again. It’s amazing how there are no villains or heroes in this story; Jude and Madoc’s conflict were just an ever spinning tornado of their own morals and loyalties and ideals.

- Ghost & Taryn redeemed! I must admit, I was completely shaken by the Ghost’s betrayal in TWK, and did not expect him to be a redeemable character, though I did expect him to be involved somehow. I’m a little less satisfied with how quickly Taryn changed her spots back, especially with the build up from The Lost Sisters novella, and wish that Locke wasn’t killed off-screen. I can believe what she said happened, and that she was unhappy with the situation, but for it all to be delivered in one sitting as a monologue, it didn’t sink in for me for a while. I didn’t expect to have a redeeming arc for either of them, nor expect hints at their possible relationship, but it all fell into place nicely. At the end, I felt that the Ghost deserved to have his freedom, and that Taryn was appropriate to hold him to it.

- The Bomb and The Roach! I was happy for them to find their happily ever after, but Noooooo I didn’t want the Roach to be fridged! The Roach x The Bomb x Jude x Cardan interactions produce the best lines in the entire series and I was super sad to see the Roach exit so early. But from the little we received, it was a delight.

- Nicasia, Valerian (his curse), Locke - to me these three didn’t have the conclusions I was hoping for, but there may be open lore left to explore for Holly. I do understand why others insist that the last book be split into two and expanded upon, but the book was sharply focused on Jude and Cardan’s predicaments. Nicasia, Valerian and Locke all had unfinished stories and conflicts with both of them, but they were past issues that weren’t actively affecting the plot, and so I wasn’t troubled by their absence. But I’m hoping short stories or expanded lore in other Holly-verse novels may touch upon them.

- Vivi / Heather - This side plot got a little more attention than I expected, even though I didn’t appreciate the decisions both Vivi and Heather made (just as Jude didn’t).  I was actually expecting Heather to take the route that she did, but just a little bit further than where she ended up. I love that she went completely Hermione on the group, but really wasn’t helpful in the end (which is ok). However, I think the true recourse for Heather’s involvement was intended solely for Vivi. By Heather experiencing Faerie a second time with the expectations of the terrors it offered, she was able to see other facets of the world Vivi has ties too, which is why she gave Vivi the second chance to reintroduce it to her in a better light.

- Oak / Oriana -  I find Oriana such a delight as a character, but I don’t know why I always forget she exists until she appears on page. Which is appropriate, as she makes herself seen and be heard when she wants to. I love how helicopter parent she is with Jude even though she’s made it clear that she barely tolerates their familial ties. Still, her ability to parry Jude’s rebellious and un-lady-like behavior with her witty retorts gave us some of my favorite scenes from the previous books, and I enjoyed their brief reunion under the same circumstances at the camp. Oak, on the other hand I felt was underused as a character, and instead, justifiably used as a political object. Oak and Oriana’s relationship made for an interesting divisiveness between Team Madoc and Team Jude, that I think was an important factor, but ultimately Oak didn’t have much to do in decision makings in the QoN like he did in TCP. However, I feel this is because his character arc begins at the end of this novel with the new character ex-Queen Suren. And whether or not that story makes it onto a page, I can accept that his story was left open-ended to begin here.

Regarding Jude:

I think it’s important to highlight Jude’s development with her feelings toward Cardan - specifically with her reaction toward her exile. I wouldn’t say she’s an unreliable narrator, more so, she’s an unreliable romantic. Jude is the ‘DON’T Notice Me Senpai’ main character who throws red flags up for every action Cardan does.

A very popular theory about Cardan’s exile was that Jude would be able to pardon herself since she is part of the crown as queen. When that turned out to be true, I saw a lot of disappointment from readers with the obviousness of it - but that’s because it was obvious to ourselves, and it always has been. Cardan’s wordplay is a defining trait for his character and there have been several scenes where we the reader are completely in the know when he’s doing it and are charmed by it right along with Jude. During the exiling, Jude is not in the know and is blinded at first by her stupor as a newly wed and then later with her doubt in Cardan’s feelings for her as she flat out admits to herself that the crown pardon could be a loop hole.

This is what makes the rose garden scene such a great turning point - because they both realized they fooled each other without knowing it and are both distressed by each other’s reaction. Their trust in each other was becoming more brittle as it grew, until they realized they both could no longer play their old schemes against each other without risking that trust breaking.

All throughout, Jude has been judging and second guessing everything he does while she scrambles across this political chess board. Deny his feelings, manipulating her own feelings, pushing and pulling and advancing further to the top before her desire for power and her desire for Cardan meet at the peak. And here, between the possibility of losing the power she gained or condemning the feelings she found, is when she finally has to make that choice for herself, when she had viable reasons to go either way. With the way she struggled for both, she earned that right to choose.

Favorite moments / quotes:

- Cardan flinching at Jude’s indirect confession while she was disguised as Taryn - and Jude wholly unaware of the implications.

- Cardan relishing in his cleverness about the exile, while Jude is like WTF and they’re completely clueless about each other’s reaction until in the later rose garden scene. - Cardan’s ‘Jude, DON’T!’ - seriously, listen to the audiobook, you can hear the fear in his voice as his murder wife runs off to battle. And because we the readers can hear that fear, while Jude doesn’t, makes it more heart breaking.

- Madoc alluding to Jude (as Taryn) about Cardan’s berserk mode when he tried to prevent Jude’s capture at the palace. And of course, Jude denying it (psh)

- Cardan doing the grunt work in Jude’s camp rescue, and getting socked in the stomach for it - hah! And of course, The Roach preening he warned him.

- Cardan subconsciously protecting Jude from the arrow trap

- Jude scaring off a faerie guard with mortal menstruation.

- “Do not touch her. She is my wife.”

- How LONG have I waited for Cardan to finally witness how much Jude mutilates her body from her fights, and then for him care for her himself in his bed was just an extra mountain of whipped cream with sprinkles on top. (remember, she hid from him her hand stabbing, her self-poisoning, her leg injury from Locke’s attack, the details of Valerian’s attempt to murder her TWICE, the details of her torturous time in the undersea, etc. Let him know your WOES, woman! Y’all need to cash in some empathy points!)

- Jude having no choice but to wear Cardan’s clothes

- SLAP

- “Maybe he’d like to hear me scream.” exchange. And the hair touch!

- MY DOOR!

- The Ghost spider scrambling up the wall towards Cardan, and Taryn whiplashing him. Poor baby!

- Cardan intrigued by Slushies and Gummy Worms

- Cardan privately reprimanding Randalin about Jude and him scurrying out of the room in a panic. WHAT WAS SAID? CARDAN WAS SMILING.

- Freakin Cardan confessing and cutting her off at the door.

- Jude taking the time to panic, to mourn and to plan after the transformation. I felt giving too much haste toward a ‘Disney-true-love-spell-breaking ending’ would have ruined the direness of Cardan’s sacrifice.

- That fingers-digging-into-her-back hug.

- Tight pants, t-shirt and a Lopsided paper crown.

[a-student-out-of-time]

Twisted Sister Arc Review Part 1

Hi guys I’m the Anon who does the reviews around here…guess you could call me the Review Anon? Wonder what the lore behind me would be…anyway that doesn’t matter! Point is, I have an Arc to review and Jesus is this a big one. So big that A) I’m doing submissions (with permission from the Mod of course) and B) I’m splitting the review into 3 parts. Heavy Arcs are Heavy and a LOT of stuff happens here so let’s get right into it!

So, the parts of the Twisted Sister Arc are first the Massacre, second is the Mindwipe and third is the Prison Break. Last one doesn’t start with M but I’m not doing rhyming here, but that’s enough time wasting let’s get right into it~

Massacre

Easily the darkest part of the Arc but given the Arc is basically Kanade being a Slasher Killer here, what do you expect? While Danganronpa is a franchise about murder, and we had serial killers in it both canon and fanon the nature of the Killing Game means that a full-blooded mass killing akin to many slasher films hasn’t really occurred in the franchise before. This makes Kanade’s bloody rampage here even more disturbing, as while we have had mass killings before, see Mukuro’s rampage through Giboua Middle School in Killer Killer, those are established as backstory drops for the characters, we never actually see one being carried out in action. And going back to that massacre, Mukuro only did it because Junko thought her sister’s killer intent might have slipped and it’s to prove to her she is still a killer, but here Kanade is killing for cold blooded revenge. And she doesn’t just kill a bunch of randoms as she brutally murders Iroha, Peko, Akane, Nekomaru, Sonia and Kokoro very brutally and very effectively. I knew something was up given that the entire school went into lockdown and all the fighters from Class 77-B were geared to fight Kanade to the death, and Kanade is such a pansy of a fighter that Sonia beat the living shit out of here, and Syo was taken down by the QC, and we all know how terrifying Syo is. But once the bodies started to drop, I knew that the first time that Hajime would reset on purpose was coming up and there were so many questions. Who set Kanade up for this? Someone had to be helping her…. but who and why? Juu could have let her out but he couldn’t have supplied Kanade with her tools and intel (more on that later) so it has to be someone else.

Within the darkness of this timeline there is of course your heroes. There are those like Peko who got a lucky shot on Kanade which set a chain line of events leading to Kanade’s death, Mikako who made Kanade’s injuries worse and Kokoro who stabbed Kanade in the eye. But those small victories led to total loses as even if Peko didn’t die, she would be crippled for life and moreover she failed to protect her classmates from Kanade’s wrath, and Mikako lost her mother, just as she started to finally connect with her. You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned two names yet, and that’s because they deserve their own paragraphs, I am of course referring to Nikei and Hibiki.

I’m gonna start with the next person who attacks Kanade and that is of course our Journalist boy here. To say this day has been terrible to him would be a massive understatement as one minute he is suffering an energy crash from downing one too many Red Bulls and having lewd thoughts, to running faster than if he happened to be in Mexico (Seriously, if you happen to be a journalist just don’t go to Mexico) to Hope’s Peak and thanks to Ankle Effects, arriving alongside Hajime to a bloodbath. There’s his constant refusal to accept that Iroha is killed, even though we as the audience knew that given Iroha tried to stop Kanade as soon as she arrived at Hope’s Peak and that Kanade was seen by Sonia and co chopping up security guards, the likelihood of her survival was next to none. This carries on from the conversation Nikei had with Yoruko in the previous Arc where he still believes he is dangerous and that he doesn’t see the other Voids as friends or equals, but rather he took the role as leader because he wanted to have power for once in his life, something he alluded to in the Void Theatre during Chapter 5. However, his reaction to Iroha’s unknown safety, and eventually the truth that Kanade really did butcher the poor painter, proves otherwise. While Nikei’s relationship with his fellow Voids canonically won’t get revealed until LINIQ decides to get around to doing the Onmake mode, in which one of the stories in that is going to be about Void pre Mikado- with someone, most likely Nikei, being the POV character, here the fact his first thoughts upon finding out his ‘little sister’ is dead is to disregard the no-killing rule and just beat Kanade to death, proves that he does care about his fellow Voids, but is in several layers of denial. Out of all the Voids, Nikei is easily the most guarded and paranoid of the lot, and while the others have loosened up around Hajime and co, Nikei still has a lot of inner demons he has to deal with before he could truly open up to the rest of the QC. And Kanade chopping his right hand off, doesn’t help matters though I do give Nikei credit that unlike in the OG timeline, where upon his right hand been blown up by his exploding gun, he just broke down crying, here, he tries to carry on the fight regardless, or he would have had the other person I need to talk about didn’t show up. This is pretty important to establish that while most of the Voids now are pretty far removed from their canon selves and are unlikely to regress back in that, Nikei is still closely tied with his bastard canon self and more work needs to be done for him to detach from that.

But moving on from someone who needs to get some work done, let’s move onto someone who has seen the natural conclusion of their character development, Hibiki! Ever since Hajime and Chiaki rescued Hibiki from her twisted sister (*rim shot*) back in July, she has been making a ton of progress, firstly coming to terms with what Kanade did and her true nature, developing friendly healthy relationships with Class 77-B, the QC and of course a romantic relationship with Hajime. It seemed kind of cliché for Hibiki to fall for Hajime but then again a) Danganronpa can be cliché at times and B) As a Danganronpa Protagonist Hajime cannot turn off his swag. Then there is her officially joining the QC, learning how to fight and being a complete and utter badarse and a caring lover when needed as she confronted Hajime back when he died the second time. We all knew it was only a matter of time when Hibiki had to confront her sister and when Kanade broke into the school, we saw fully, how much Hibiki has grown in the past 3 months. The old Hibiki would have curled up in a corner terrified, crying and probably going into the Puppet State. Here though, Hibiki’s FIRST THOUGHTS upon finding out that Kanade is more dangerous now is to done some armour and get some weapons, and face her sister head on with no hesitation. All without going into the Puppet State at least once, which probably means that its more or less gone now. Kanade tried to talk her sister out of fighting her, but Hikibi isn’t buying Kanade’s insurance anymore and a fight breaks out. If this ever gets animated or becomes a visual novel, I would love to see the Hibiki vs Kanade fight animated as its brilliant, its epic and it’s just so satisfying to see Kanade getting the living snot beaten out of her. You could argue that Nikei’s mauling of Kanade was like that but there, Nikei was more or less in grief due to Iroha’s death and the whole thing was as painful to watch as the final fight in Captain America: Civil War, not saying what because spoilers ahoy. Here though is a glorious battle, as Hibiki gets to deliver justice onto her demonic sister and it is SO SO satisfying, given that a reset happens shortly afterwards.

And sadly, with that, we come to easily the weakest part of not only this part of the arc, but the arc overall, Yasuke’s multiverse theory. It could be written better, and even the Mod agrees that the way it was presented shouldn’t have been the way it worse, that having Umeko throw some ideas at Hajime and him coming to the conclusion that they might have been living in a multiverse be better narrative then Yasuke be like ‘Oh hey I am suddenly an expert on Time Travel now’. It would make Hajime breaking his no kill rule that much more impactful as he doesn’t have the excuses of not only Nikei’s who was currently going through a mental breakdown, and in the current plot where Yasuke more or less planted the seed of doubt in Hajime’s mind. Yasuke still has a role to play in this arc but during the Massacre timeline, I feel like he could have been removed entirely from the plot and not only would it have made no difference, but then most readers wouldn’t be complaining about it as much as Yasuke being a general A-hole wouldn’t tick them off. I’m not saying ‘THIS IS AS BAD AS ONCOMING STORM’ as that Arc was just a giant clusterfuck of a mess, and aside from this one part, the arc is very strong overall, but I will give criticism when due. I’m not mentioning my thoughts on Yasuke as a whole here because he’s more relevant in other parts of the Arc. However, Hajime killing Kanade and himself at the same time is brilliant and seeing Kanade begging for her life as Hajime throws her out of the window is so satisfying given not only all the crap she has been dealing up until that point, but also because in SDAR2, she was 100% fulfilled with the events at that point and given it was HIBIKI who was begging for her life then, let’s just say karma is a bigger bitch then Kanade is.

And that concludes the Massacre part of the Arc as Hajime kills himself and Kanade at the same time and he goes back to just before Nikei started to have indecent thoughts. No time to look at the 3rd page of the national newspapers’ boy, we got a serial killer to stop! And with that I’m stopping here as the Massacre part is finished. But this review is far from over, this is just here because otherwise my, the Mod’s and everyone else’s brains won’t be able to process all of this. Stay tuned for part 2 when we cover Kanade’s capture, a scrum debate among the QC and a bold move by the Mod which I do wish will come up more! Until then, Adios! - Review Anon

//Part 1 of 3

//Finally get to submit these

[newmayhem]

Reading and ranking the entire Den of Shadows series

Check out my other Den of Shadows reviews HERE.

After a year such as this one, I wanted to close it out with something fun so I spent the past month marathoning the entire Den of Shadows series- rereading the original quartet and then reading for the first time the new TDOS books. I was originally going to post reviews/reactions for each book, but that got too cumbersome. Instead, I’m doing one big post of my personal ranking so I can discuss each book and talk about the series as a whole.

Spoilers for the entire Den of Shadows series below.

Personal Ranking

I based it on several different criteria but mainly: 1) How much I enjoyed it, 2) Writing/storytelling quality, 3) If there was anything glaringly ‘problematic’ (which I’ve found is usually a big factor in how much I enjoyed it), 4) How it fits in context of the entire series.

9. Shattered Mirror It hurts to put this one last on my list because Shattered Mirror was my intro to The Den of Shadows and to ahar’s work. Reading this again as an adult was frustrating because I can see why I loved it the first time around and how most of that doesn’t hold up today. Sarah was a great main character who deserved so much better than the ending she got. It was just wall to wall rape culture and misogyny. I hated Christopher and how he was a creepy pedophilic stalker framed as a romantic hero, I hated how Nikolas got some copout backstory so he would look like a good guy even though he beat a girl to death for rejecting his brother, and I hated how Nissa was enabling both of them. I really hated that this was meant to be a racism/prejudice metaphor because that doesn’t work out when the ‘oppressed’ group does actually harm innocent people. Aside from that, I felt like the pacing was really off- the events unfold over the course of a little over a week and we’re supposed to believe that after hanging out with them twice Sarah’s developed a bond with these vampires strong enough to override the prejudice she’s been raised with since birth (and that Christopher’s in love with her). And then there’s that whole anti-climax when it turns out that the ‘villain’ was Kaleo all along, but instead of having the book end there, there’s another 20 pages where we have to watch Sarah get attacked and changed against her will and then have it framed as a happy ending. I did like that she decided to not stay with Christopher in the end, though.

8. Midnight Predator I was actually surprised by how much I liked this one because I didn’t remember anything from it at all except for like, two scenes and some character names. It felt more mature in writing style, thematic content, and aesthetics. I also liked that we got a main character who was a little older and that the world was, for the most part, very removed from the human world. It was a good way to close out the original quartet in that it touched on a lot of the themes that had been explored in the books previous. That said, I had a lot of problems with how the issue of slavery was handled and also with how victim-blamey the moral of the story turned out to be. It just didn’t sit right with me that at no point did anyone bring up the idea of, you know, ending slavery at Midnight, which Jaguar had all the power to do. I hate that we were supposed to be sympathetic towards Jaguar and treat him like a good guy because he doesn’t abuse his slaves (for reasons that center on him) like everyone else does when he easily could just...not own slaves. Tying in with the victim blaming stuff, it felt like we were supposed to be satisfied with Turquoise freeing herself but being ok with letting slavery continue. And the big character arc that leads to her getting revenge on Daryl was framed as her ‘not letting herself be a victim anymore’, which is an objectively terrible take on this issue. Aside from that, I also had issues with the pacing here. We were promised a story about Midnight and a mission to assassinate Jeshickah, but all of that goes out the window in an anti-climax about two thirds of the way through the book (and two days into the timeline), and then the rest is a plodding montage leading to a very abrupt end. I also didn’t like how Daryl was supposed to be the real villain of the story but was also portrayed as a snivelling idiot that no one liked anyway, because that lessened the impact of Turquoise finally getting up the courage to kill him.

7. Demon In My View This was a good followup to ITFOTN in that it struck a balance between being standalone and having ties to the previous book. That said, I found the tone to be surprisingly more immature. I mainly didn’t like how the main character and the antagonist were handled. Jessica, while being a great reader insert/power fantasy, wasn’t very interesting because she didn’t go through any character development or have to sacrifice anything, but still got everything she wanted in the end. Fala was too much of a buttmonkey and her motives were too weak to be taken seriously. It also didn’t sit right with me that she’s the only canonical woc so far and she’s being portrayed as this incompetent cartoon villain even though objectively, like, she does have a point. But I do love the introduction of my favorite underappreciated side character, the ultimate MVP: Caryn Smoke!

6. Token of Darkness This book had a lot going against it, mainly in that it’s the most disconnected from the other TDOS books in terms of not only characters and setting, but also with introducing beings that hadn’t been mentioned before (in text, at least). I think especially as one of the new TDOS books, it would’ve helped to at least offhandedly namedrop some people/events/places. My second problem with this book was that everything felt very underdeveloped. I loved the new characters that were introduced, but I was disappointed that we didn’t have a lot of time to get to know them. I would’ve liked to see Cooper actually start training under Ryan, I would’ve liked to learn more about the LeCoire family and what it means to be a sorcerer. I also just wanted more Delilah because she’s such a fascinating character (I loved her reckless and unapologetic ambition). Kind of like ITFOTN, I felt like this lacked an Act 2. I think the story should’ve started earlier so we could see more of the investigation part of it, so we can get all the characters together earlier and have them working together (while Delilah has her hidden agenda on the side) to figure this out and build towards that climax. Even with the pacing and development problems, this is higher on the list because I just really enjoyed it- it was light and fun and I hope we get a chance to see these characters again.

5. Poison Tree This was something that I really wanted out of a new TDOS book- it delved deeper into parts of the world that had been mentioned before- the Bruja Guilds, SingleEarth, the Mistari, and all of that serves to set the scene for Promises to Keep. The concept was this cool deconstructed/reconstructed whodunnit story. It was more complicated than the typical TDOS plot, so I appreciate the ambition. That said, the execution wasn’t great- I often had to pause and go back in order to keep the facts straight and figure out who knows what, which was distracting. Another reason why this didn’t rank higher was that for some reason, I didn’t connect as much with these characters as I have in other books. The pacing was odd, I didn’t like that it came to a point where everyone had figured the main part of the mystery out, but instead of going directly to the climax, it took a detour into relationship drama, which slowed down the momentum. I think it would’ve made more sense to put Sarik and Alysia into a situation where they were forced to work together (rather than that brief but drawn out thing with Sarik and Christian). There would’ve been more tension, conflict, and forward momentum, and because they’re the two leads that were supposed to be focused on, it would’ve felt less like a detour.

4. Persistence of Memory This was a very good return to TDOS. It feels very familiar in how the new characters fit into the world. It struck a good balance between introducing new characters and having them coexist with concepts and characters that we’ve heard of before. I felt the same spark while reading this as I felt when I first read the original quartet. Like, this entirely new book made me feel nostalgic, and that’s not to be underestimated. I really loved the two protagonists and I was very invested in both of their stories. I particularly loved Shevaun because her struggle with her fear of becoming human again is one that we don’t often see in vampire fiction. I also think both she and Adjila are the perfect embodiment of beings who’ve been around for centuries and just don’t have the same morals and boundaries that humans do. I don’t normally read these books for the romance, but both canon ships here were really well done and believable, and also paralleled each other in an interesting way. And I loved the oddly wholesome focus on found/chosen family. Also, this gets extra points for everyone dunking on Alexander every time he’s mentioned.

I didn’t rank this higher because I wished Erin was more involved in figuring out what was going on with her. I didn’t really like that after a certain point, it felt like Sassy took over as protagonist. Still, I really enjoyed it, the ending was very satisfying (I loved that it was a straight up happy/optimistic ending instead of a bittersweet or abrupt one like most of the TDOS endings had been so far).

3. Promises to Keep This was a bold ending to the series. It took a lot of guts to basically blow up the world that you spent nearly 20 years creating and I admire that. It was a really engaging story that truly showed the full extent of what ahar was capable of as a writer at that time and the full extent of what a TDOS book could be. I think this time ahar really nailed the pacing (which was something that had always been a bit shaky in the past). We got to spend enough time with Jay and get to know him (it was a good choice to have the protagonist be a character we’ve met before but could still get to know more). I liked seeing everything we’ve learned from all the previous books come together and come into play. And I especially loved that our MVP Caryn got the HEA she deserves. The little epilogues at the end were fun to read (only, I’m mad we didn’t hear anything about Risika. Especially because she does get mentioned (and we finally know that 1) she found out about what happened to her mom, and 2) she and Kaleo have active, ongoing beef over it)). It really felt like a finale, but at the same time, it felt like a new beginning and I can’t wait for new books in this post-Promises world.

This could’ve ranked higher, but I did have a problem with Brina. In terms of personality, etc., I loved her and she was fun to get to know, but I can’t get past the whole slave owner thing and how that aspect of her was handled. I wished that her character arc was more about realizing that enslaving people is objectively bad rather than having her keep pointing out Jay’s incidental hypocrisy as if it weren’t a false equivalence. Her happy ending just felt a little unearned- the only real ‘penance’ she performed wrt being a slave owner was a tacked-on apology during the ritual and a sentence about how she freed her own slaves (again, no mention of whether or not all slavery has ended), and even though she was turned human, it’s not framed as a great or permanent loss, and on top of that she also gets witch powers.

2. In The Forests of the Night I admit, this ranking is mostly based on nostalgia...but it’s still a very solid book to kick off the series, set the vibes, and introduce us to this world and what kind of series this will be. It’s not the best of the series in terms of writing quality, plot, or scope, but of the original quartet, I think ITFOTN holds up the best. For a YA book of that era, especially one written by someone of its own target demographic, this felt very mature. It wasn’t trying to talk down to its audience and that meant a lot to me. It showed me that YA could be dramatic without being overwrought, serious without being an ‘issues’ book. It tackled questions of identity, morality, faith, power, and freedom, all framed within a fast-paced revenge story. Most of all, Risika is such an interesting, complicated character and her journey was both relatable and entertaining. Of all the endings in this series, the ending of ITFOTN was the most satisfying for me in that the main character had to change and sacrifice, and in the end she got what she truly deserved even if it wasn’t entirely happy. My only complaint is that we don’t see more of Risika throughout the series, especially when there’s clearly more to her story.

1. All Just Glass The TDOS books are fine as standalones and it’s cool that each one makes it feel like whoever you’re reading about is just a small part of a bigger world, but All Just Glass shows how good it can be when we go deeper into a particular story and give it more time to develop. That said, I don’t think it would’ve been as good as it was if it was written right after Shattered Mirror. There’s a very clear improvement in writing quality and storytelling that can only come from 10 years of experience.

While it didn’t fix all the problems I had with SM (mainly, I would’ve preferred it if Sarah didn’t go back to the Ravenas in the end), AJG made a great choice in shifting to a different, more cohesive theme and illustrating it across a compelling ensemble cast. It cleverly plays on our expectations of the Vida line that were based on the limited scope of SM in order to show that contrary to what we’ve seen previously, this is actually an institution that’s in decline. The Vidas aren’t this great power ruling over the rest of the Macht witches- they’re actually these fundamentalist/extremist outliers who are on the fringes clinging to the ‘old ways’ while everyone else kind of does what they want and their decline is directly related to their obsessive adherence to tradition at all costs. What’s so great about this is that it’s not just a sequel, it’s a subversion of SM that also sets the tone of the new TDOS series in anticipation of the inevitable end.

General Notes

I loved reading these all back to back and watching ahar grow as a writer, watching the world unfold right before my eyes.

It was interesting to see the difference between the two series. I found most of the books in the new series to be generally more engaging because they’re based around a central mystery (What’s the connection between Erin and Shevaun? Who is Samantha? Who attacked SingleEarth? Who’s the shapeshifter?). I also liked that rather than shy away from mentioning technology and trying to pretend that it doesn’t exist or that we’re still in the early 2000s, ahar really leaned into it and in doing so, made the stories feel more realistic.

The original quartet was very aesthetically cohesive, it was a series of vignettes that purely aimed to explore a particular piece of the world. The new series, however, felt cohesive in that each of the books is building towards the end and showing a piece of the puzzle that sets the scene for PtK (PoM gives us more about the Tristes, ToD gives us the elementals, AJG and PT are about groups that are on the decline with their fates based on whether or not they choose to align with the rising power of SingleEarth).

On kind of a petty note, I wanted to mention how much I hate all the new covers (both for the new TDOS series and for the re-release of the original quartet) and I was really disappointed in how low-effort the marketing was for the new series. Even just reading the synopsis for PT and PtK was painful because they seemed slapped together at the last minute like no one cared. I think it was a real missed opportunity to draw in a new audience because they were coming out just as the YA boom, particularly in vampire fiction, was happening.

The biggest takeaway I got from this marathon is a huge respect and appreciation for this extensive world and cast of characters that ahar built (and then had the courage to entirely upend). I know mainstream attention isn’t everything, but I just really hope ahar gets their flowers because this is a great (and highly influential) body of work that’s so different and even ahead of its time.

Anyway, that’s my take on the series. I might make this re-read an annual thing because this was fun. Also, as I was reading, I made sure to note factual info about the world and the characters, so I’ll be making new additions/edits to the reference materials soon.

[thegeminisage]

hey liz i've been thinking a lot about story structure lately and i wanted your take on how you decide what structure your stories will have? i know there's that "you have to do what your story needs and tells you to do" thing but these bitches dont ever tell me anything they just multiply so. thoughts? - bma

(as an aside, i don't know whether involving medium would change many things but it may be worth considering. mainly i think medium is just a matter of arrangement and that the story would be for most intents and purposes the same no matter how you choose to tell it. i guess you could argue that structure is arrangement in itself and intrinsically tied to medium but i sort of feel like it is secondary arrangement, if at all? like if you consider time as an element to outline -- the time IN the story (how things happen to your characters) is not necessarily the time you’re telling the story IN (how you are telling your reader that things are happening) aka internal chronology doesnt equal your work’s pacing? or should it??? does this make sense? i dont think so. i am sorry.) - bma :|

NOOO dont be sorry ur making total sense

i think there’s 3 thots to unpack here (medium, structure, & chronology) & i’m gonna start with medium bc it’s easier. im also putting it behind a cut bc it’s gonna get just stupidly long and rambly. i’m sorry in advance if it’s not helpful to you, i have a lot to say for someone who has never taken even one single class on writing and as a result doesn’t know jack shit (there’s a tl;dr at the end dont worry)

about MEDIUM: 

so like ok i’m just some goof-off with a HS degree who writes fanfiction but In My Very Super Qualified Personal Opinion, i don’t think that most of the time medium is intrinsically tied to STRUCTURE of the main storytelling arc...i think the art of storytelling itself is distinct from the medium you choose to tell the story IN. this post puts it better than i ever could but basically for me, i feel like the story itself is sort of the raw, malleable concept, and the medium you choose to tell it in is how you convey the information??

like in a book, you can say “she forgot her keys” and in a film you have to show her smacking her forehead, heading back into the house, and swiping her keeps off the counter. you can’t TELL in film, you have to show. similarly i regret every day i cannot perfectly describe a facial expression with words when i see it so clearly in my head. for audio-only podcasts that are dialogue heavy out of necessity you have different limitations than you would for, say, animated music videos with no dialogue at all. games allow for more interactivity and exploration while sacrificing accessibility, tv shows allow for more length while sacrificing, uh, a big hollywood budget...medium affects the kind of story you can reasonably tell which is why some stories are better suited to one medium than another. i think trying things in other mediums is a good way to stretch your storytelling muscles but with enough skill nearly any story could be told in any medium. i think when trying to decide on a medium you just gotta weigh the pros & cons and what you feel comfortable with/what you think would be most effective/what would evoke the strongest reaction

re: structure:

firstly “do what the story tells u to do” is a little silly like...the story isn’t sentient. come on. that’s like “i can only write when the writing gods inspire me” there are no writing gods! inspire yourself! it’s all in our weird messed up brains! ok anyway.

this is, again, just how i do things, and i am 700% self-taught so take it with a grain of salt, but when i sit down and start blocking out a story from scratch i don’t...actually consider the big structure at all! sorry if that’s not helpful to you. i like to make a list of everything i want to happen, and then put it together in a few different orders to see what looks best. and when i’m finished, whatever i have just like...IS the structure i go with, with perhaps minor tinkering to make it flow more smoothly. (i think this might be in the same spirit as “do what the story tells you” with less bullshit and more Agency Of The Writer.)

for long and more complex projects, i actually usually have several lists - one list of stuff that is, for example, the Action Plot (the kingdom has been cursed, i’m tracking down my serial killer sister to bring her to justice, i’m running from djinn who wanna kill my dad, i’m trying to bring my dead not-boyfriend back to life). then i have another list for Character A & Character B’s romance or whatever. and maybe a even another one for solo character development (magicphobic prince learns to love magic, former werewolf hunter figures out his family is a cult, half-demon learns to embrace his own nature). and as many lists as we need for however many Main Characters and or Plots/Sideplots

how i order the lists: individually first. don’t mix them together to start with. when deciding the order of an individual list i like to, for example in a romance arc, use escalating intimacy. “A and B have dinner together” is naturally gonna go way sooner than “A and B kiss” or “A and B talk about A’s angsty backstory” because that’s more satisfying. draw it out, good/important stuff last, dangle that carrot so we have a reason to keep reading! for singular character development, it’s basically a straightforward point A to point B...if i want my guy to start hating magic with everything he is and end up being very comfortable with it, i have to put “reluctantly uses magic to save his own life” WAYYY before “casually using magic to light torches and reheat his cold stew.” 

the tricky part for me is when i’m done with these lists and then i need to mix them together To Pace My Whole Story. (this is usually why i wind up with a rainbow colored spreadsheet.) i don’t like to put too many things too close together because then the pace feels uneven. even if my Action Plot is only a thinly veiled excuse for romance and character development, i still don’t want to focus on a romance for 30,000 words and then go “and oh yeah in case you forgot Serial Killing Sister is still coming for your asses.” the more sideplots and major character arcs you’re juggling the harder it is to get an even distribution, which is my main concern always

and like, generally, whatever i have when i’m finished...is my structure. (sorry.) 

i don’t know much about the classic 3-act or anything like that, but i usually can divide them up into 3-5 big arcs based on story turning points. sometimes i take a scene out of one arc and put it in another because it fits better and i like for my shit to be organized, but usually by the time i’m finished with all that, that’s what the final story is mostly gonna look like. (there have been a few exceptions when i realized i needed extra scenes/changes while i was MID-DRAFT and let me tell you that murders me EVERY time. it happened on the merlin fic i’m currently posting and that was like my own personal hell.)

this is also where thots about chronology come in:

i think time CAN be an element of this if you WANT it to be, but it doesn’t HAVE to be. if you want it to be, i would consider it just another “list” like character development or the romance arc. 

i usually plot without considering Time very much...to me, it’s all down to the events you want to show, and however much time it takes is the byproduct. if you want to show something from a character’s chilhood but then tell the bulk of it when they’re adults, that’s one thing. if you want to show a scene from their childhood, teenhood, young adulthood, etc, that’s a different kind of pacing?? i usually do it this way so i can regard time like wordcount: it takes as long as it takes. 3 days or 3 years, a 1.5k drabble or a 100k epic...overall, my LARGEST CONCERN is that even distribution. in the same way that i don’t want one chapter to be 30,000 words when the rest are 10,000 words, i personally am not a fan of huge timeskips offscreen

(because this where i think someone’s own internal chronology DOES matter...this is just a personal preference, as a reader i have a hard time really comprehending, say, a year timeskip or a 10yr timeskip when all i did was turn one page. like, a year is such a long time. i can’t even begin to describe how different i am now to how i was a year ago. it’s the same for character development. time IS development and as a writer i’m not really comfortable having that take place offscreen - for main characters, at least. it’s just too jarring. a little prologue with something happening 10 or 20 years ago is usually fine, but for the most part, i’m not a fan. ...i can do one chapter per year a lot easier than i can do two chapters in childhood and the other 8 in adulthood. of course you can play with this a LOT with nonlinear storytelling, which is a whole other very cool thing, and someone skilled in their work can keep me sucked in no matter what, but imo if you don’t want to risk throwing your reader out of your work it’s better to keep things steady)

HOWEVER sometimes time IS an element u wanna consider outside of just making sure your shit is evenly distributed...if your heart is moved to tell a story in a specific timeframe, over a year, or from solstice to solstice (this was almost the timeline for my merlin fic and then i changed it), for the first six months of a friendship, or even a huge journey in the span of a single day (toby fox had a lot of success with this one lol).

i think it can help to choose a start and end point for your chronology the same way you do for character development (prince goes from hating magic to being ok with it, story takes place from ages 8 to 25, or from new year’s eve 2038 to 2039, whatever) - that way you can keep your distribution even, if that’s a thing you want to do...even if you have a lot of skips you can still note what happens offscreen to make it work better in your head? like, if you just make it another List, another column on your spreadsheet, when you’re in the early stages of organizing you can be conscious of it and make sure it’s playing into the story the way you want it to

anyway these r my thots im SOOOO SORRY this is so long lmao. brain machine broke today which is why i had to ramble more to explain myself. the tl;dr in case ur brain is melting out of ur ears & u didn’t sign up for an essay:

imo medium is totally distinct from storytelling tho ofc some stories are better suited to some mediums

structure? i don’t know her. i plot w/o regard to structure and then if it looks funny i mush it into a more structurally sound shape

my main concern when structuring anything, including time, is an even distribution of Events and a steady rate of escalation

structure to me is just what i have when i’m finished plotting. i’m sorry one day i’m gonna take a writing class

internal chronology matters to me personally because i have a little bit of time blindness but maybe not to everyone, i know many very successful stories where they disregarded that entirely to no ill effect

writer’s block isn’t real! everyone just needs more rainbow spreadsheets

thank u for asking I HOPE i didn’t make you regret it too badly lmao and that at least a little of it was helpful!! 

[midnight-in-town]

Is there anything in the flashback arc of AnE that you've found particularly notable or surprising? I've been pleasantly surprised by how likable Yuri is and how successful Shiro used to be at picking up girls.

Hey Anon! And same for Yuri, I absolutely love her when I couldn’t stand her in the anime, which is why I’m really enjoying this huge flashback! 

Tbh, Yuri was a question mark I was really scared to ever see being addressed in the manga after what the anime showed us of her character. She’s barely mentioned for so long too that when she’s finally hinted at for the first time…

I remember the fandom’s huge (positive) reaction to that. 

Then we got ch89, which was the first time we saw her in the manga thanks to Shura’s flashback…

and the fact that she and Shiro seemed to have these complicated romantic subtones between them pleased me a lot, so I stopped being scared of manga!Yuri possibly being too similar to anime!Yuri. 

The current flashback presents her as a kind-hearted, strong and brave woman, which is something I will never dislike anyway, even if me loving her will just make it really harsh for my heart when she is to die. :/ 

So yeah, Yuri is amazing and I love the fact that Rin, who was so scared to know anything about her since he could guess this wouldn’t be a happy story, came to love her too almost instantly. 

But I’m scared to witness Rin witnessing everything that has yet to happen. T_T

Otherwise, besides Yuri who was really one of the biggest mysteries, I don’t think the flashback brought us anything surprising since it is all about tying the different plot points. I do think we’re in for surprising plot twists, but in my opinion it will be about how the twins came to be born and the Blue Night mainly.

Like, clearly, Shiro decided to raise the boys because he loved Yuri. He may have tried to justify it differently to other people, just like Mephisto, because presenting the boys as weapons for the Order was the only way to guarantee their survival, but this is about Yuri first and foremost and I love how the flashback is slowly building up to that…

Because I think these conclusions are something that Shiro was told by Yuri as she died, or something that he came to understand by himself after she passed away and he decided to raise the twins for her (or for both of them and as a huge ‘fuck u’ to Section 13, idk). 

And that’s why this whole flashback is killing me. Satan may be the twins’ biological dad, but the main reason the boys are who they are now is because Shiro and Yuri loved each other (and actually I have trouble understanding why some readers see Satan/Yuri in a positive light, but this isn’t the point).  

It’s @blueexorshit who made me realize that as Satan claims that Yuri belongs with him, she hesitates a second before saying okay because…

…she thinks about Shiro and I died inside when I read that.

One thing I think some readers (Satan/Yuri shippers mainly) may have gotten wrong is that Yuri didn’t go to Satan or said “okay” about staying with him because she’s in love with him. I mean, sure, she still sees him as Rinka, a precious friend

but what she’s after by literally sacrificing herself is…

saving people from him. Because for her that’s what an exorcist’s job is all about (see her argument about that with Shiro in ch102) and also because that way she can protect all the other people she cares about (like Rick and Shiro of course).

Anyway, sorry, I don’t know why I turned this answer into a Shiro/Yuri essay, but… wait actually I think that’s what I found the most surprising about the current flashback. xD I was expecting answers obviously, but of the same tones than those Mephisto gave to Lightning and Suguro before. 

Instead, Sensei decided that her answers were to be given by focusing on what sort of dynamic went on between Satan/Yuri/Shiro. So I really wasn’t expecting to have so many feelings about Shiro/Yuri or to realize that the fact they loved each other…

…basically led to the whole plot of this series, even if they were out of luck and that didn’t end happily for them.

It’s both beautiful and tragic and we’re not even there yet. ;_; Even Shiro picking up girls that you mentioned is something that we got a throwback on, since he clearly stopped doing that (maybe by the time he started to fall in love with Yuri) + years later he also advised Shura not to do the same (ch78).

Everything is being tied together and I love that and the way Sensei chose to show it to us (and Rin). Still expecting plot twists though, as I said (like Yuri running away because she realizes her sons are to become vessels or because Satan will try to kill powerless!baby Yukio, idk, anything or even how this all ties to Mephisto’s plans), so there may be more surprising answers coming towards us. We’ll have to see. :)   

Amongst other things I found particularly interesting was the focus on Shemihaza out of all the Grigoris, since I believe like many others that it is related to Shiemi’s arc, as well as the introduction of almost all the other Baals (we’re only missing Beelzebub), because this is also relevant to the current timeline that Rin left behind for a little while.

I’m also very curious about seeing Angel in the past, or what this guy…

was up to, being by Lucifer’s side to protect him, since we know Mephisto and Lightning are still after another traitor who helped/still helps the Illuminati. 

And the thing is, I don’t trust that Jeremiah dude in the slightest considering how happy he is to see Shiemi again when he’s literally robbing her of her freedom in the present timeline…

As for Arthur, I don’t believe in his amnesia explanation and that’s why I want to see what happened to him. 

If he truly was a Lucifer clone of Section 13, then he has a lot of reasons to pretend not remembering anything while plotting his revenge against Mephisto and the higher ups. His distaste of Shiro doesn’t help his case, since we know that Shiro ended up taking Mephisto’s side by choosing to raise the twins. 

It was also very interesting to understand where all the guys who helped Shiro raise the twins came from…

and finally, I’m curious to find out if Shura being “abandoned” by Shiro is pre or post Blue Night, as in:

did he really jump on the first chance he got to leave her behind?

or did he realize Yuri was right and maybe, as he got the Koma sword and the order to kill Yuri/Satan’s kids, he decided he couldn’t get her involved?

or did he decide to leave her behind because he took on raising the twins and getting Shura involved was out of question there again?

Because I do think that Shura ended up being like a daughter for Shiro, she was really like an introduction to him becoming the twins’ father, so him leaving her behind (which created a lot of resentment in her) might have a more significant side to it. Or not, we’ll see. xD

Aaaaand I think that’s it! Sorry for rambling. ^^” I hope this answers your question. 

Have a nice weekend Anon! :))

[fae-fucker]

Review: The Songbird’s Refrain

by Jillian Maria

When a mysterious show arrives in town, seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Brighton is both intrigued and unsettled. But none of the acts capture her attention quite like the blue-eyed woman. Locked in a birdcage and covered in feathers, the anguish in her voice sounds just a little too real to be an act—because it isn’t. The show’s owner, a sadistic witch known only as the Mistress, is holding her captive. And she’s chosen Elizabeth as her next victim. After watching the blue-eyed woman die, Elizabeth is placed under the same curse. She clings to what little hope she can find in the words of a fortune teller and in her own strange dreams. The more she learns, the more she suspects that the Mistress isn’t as invulnerable as she appears. But time is against her, and every feather that sprouts brings her closer to meeting the blue-eyed woman’s fate. Can Elizabeth unlock the secret to flying free, or will the Mistress’s curse kill her and cage its next victim?

Full disclosure without the fancy wording: Jillian straight up gave me a free copy of this book, and I’ve followed the development of this novel since pretty early on because it sounded like it was My Jam. Spoilers: it was, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be honest with my opinions! With that said: Jillian, don’t read this. And also, holy shit congrats on writing a book, we stan!! <3 But seriously, don’t.

This review contains vague character spoilers to serve as examples. No names are mentioned.

The Writing

Having read a couple of early versions of the first chapters of this book, I can’t express enough how amazing it is to read it in its final form, how far it has come from the days when an early draft was posted on a tumblr page which the author coded herself. That’s not to say the early versions of it were bad, but I don’t want to undermine and deny how far it has come and how polished it is.

As you all know, I’m not a huge fan of overly flowery prose because it often takes me out of the experience, and luckily, I can’t remember a single time I thought something was overwritten or took me out of the story. 

The writing is evocative without being flashy and Elizabeth has a clear, wonderful voice that feels fresh and easy and intimate at once. The dialogue feels natural and I’m honestly impressed with how characters rarely swear despite being in terrible situations, and how it never felt like a copout or like the author was censoring herself for the YA age range. 

Probably a weird thing to point out, but my characters swear constantly and I have no idea how to stop them from doing that without making it very silly, so props to the author for succeeding where I would definitely fail. 

The Characters

Oh my what a smörgåsbord of fun people! I won’t dwell too much on this section because the mystery is very much tied deeply into the characters themselves, and I don’t want to spoil things before the book is even out.

Elizabeth is a bean. She’s self-aware and relatable without losing her own individuality in the process. I hated seeing her suffer but loved watching her grow stronger through it. She has standards and opinions yet she doubts herself on nearly every step and all I wanted to do was to reach through the pages and give her a slap and go GIRL, YOU A STAR. She’s what a YA protagonist should be, in my humble onion. My only complaint would probably be that she’s a bit too self-aware for a reglier teenager, but it makes sense for the story and the premise and the growth she goes through, so I don’t think it’s something that ruins her in any capacity. Maybe she’s just way more clever than I was at 17, lmao. 

The Mistress. What can I say without saying too much? Man, what a villain! Like, damn! Yes! Gurl! Yes! Terrifying! I hate her absolute guts! Every time she was in a scene I wanted to crawl under a blanket and bring Elizabeth with me to protecc her. This woman’s aesthetic and evil-ness rivals a Disney villain, and like, not in a bad way, but in the best way. The panache with which she does all her evil shit is just *chef kiss* I wanted to do violence to this woman but I knew if I’d existed in this story she’d absolutely destroy me if I looked at her wrong, and I think that’s what my ideal villain archetype is. The Mistress is deliciously, stylishly evil. You read the book half because you want Elizabeth to win, and half because you want, nay, NEED to see the Mistress lose. Some might say they need a villain to be more complex or whatever, but I’m firmly in the “evil people exist and evil antagonists are fun to write if you do it properly” camp, and here it’s done properly, IMHO. The Mistress doesn’t need a sad backstory or a complex motivation to be an effective, intimidating, and interesting antagonist. 

I also really liked Madame Selene. At first I found her to be kind of cliché as a mystical fortune teller, but there’s actually a very interesting spin on that trope in her character, and I found her to be endlessly interesting as a result of it. I can’t say much more without further spoilers, but let’s just say there’s a reason she’s all cryptic and weird and refuses to speak plainly. My biggest gripe is that she didn’t get as much screentime as I wanted. I just need more of Madame Selene.

I honestly can’t say I found any of the other side characters to be lacking (even Bridget, whomst I need to strangle, was fun to hate), but I will say that my favorites were definitely one of the couples. The older one especially.

I will also repeat that I love Elizabeth. Very much. I love Elizabeth twice. Ahem.

Anyway, special mention should be made that the cast is quite diverse despite being fairly small. I didn’t expect anything less from Jillian, of course, but I just wanted to point it out for those who had doubts. 

The Negatives and the Mehgatives

Because oh yes, it ain’t a review by Eff if they don’t complain about shit.

Now, some of these are things that aren’t necessarily bad, but others did feel like they were in the way of making this book as good as it could be. I usually split my reviews further up into “worldbuilding” and “plot”, but since I don’t feel like I have enough to say about those to justify their own sections, I’ve decided to just throw them in here. 

The worldbuilding is sparse, and that’s fine for this genre and this specific story. It plays out (mostly) in the reglier world with sort of reglier people, so I wasn’t expecting Tolkien levels of depth going in (in fact I find Tolkien levels of depth to not be necessary more than half the time but that’s another discussion). I got glimpses of some very interesting things that I’d very much like to see more of, but it feels more like stuff that would fit an “extended universe” sort of series and the lack of more supernatural/unique elements felt fine and didn’t really bother me.

Now to the less than good stuff. As much as I enjoyed the progression of the plot and Elizabeth’s character, and the steady flow of hints and developments felt elegant, I did feel like the mystery was a little bit predictable, and the foreshadowing a bit on the nose, especially in the very beginning. (Elizabeth’s shoulder scar was mentioned probably half a dozen times more than necessary.)

For example (mild spoilers, skip to next paragraph if you want to avoid), there’s a section where a character is taken away and Elizabeth hears them scream. After that, she keeps mentioning how that character is definitely, 100% dead, there’s no way they survived, they’re totally a corpse now, someone dig a hole and find a coffin. I thought it made sense for Elizabeth to feel fear and grief and assume the worst, so I’m not as bothered by it as I would’ve been in a worse book, but it did feel a bit like she was trying to convince the reader more than like she was mourning.

The foreshadowing being on the nose and the mystery being predictable are sort of intertwined, and I think it’s probably the book’s biggest flaw? That said, if you don’t consider yourself super savvy with writing and storytelling techniques, you might not pick up on this stuff at all. I also liked the plot despite finding it predictable, so if you’re not really interested in a super complex mystery but are interested in a good story, you’ll probably find this intriguing enough. 

The second biggest flaw of the book is the ending, in my opinion. It felt a bit rushed, and I would’ve liked to see side characters tied up as neatly as the plot itself. Not ... in a sexy way, yikes. I mean their arcs and stuff. There’s one in particular I felt was lacking, where I would’ve wanted to see more of a reaction and conclusion to something terrible that happened before. The character in question was pretty important during the whole middle of the book, and in the end they’re just sort of glossed over and exit the narrative, literally. The ending is supposed to be sort of open, I think, so I can respect that, but it could’ve been open while still feeling complete, ya know?

And the romance ... Well, let’s move on to the next bit, shall we? 

The Gay

Full disclosure: I’m straight. Well, that’s the word I use, and some might disagree with it because I’m nonbinary and say my attraction to men would make me “queer”. But that’s the word I use for my general thing, not my sexuality specifically.

ANYWAY. This is all fluff that I’m using to ease you into the real point: I’m, like, not into reading wlw romance. Or mlm romance. At all? I’m not against it by any means, go wild my dudes, and I hate 90% of all “straight” romances because straight people largely can’t write love for shit.

I’m saying this because I think there’s a lot of fellow straighties out there thinking they’ll be made “uncomfortable” by the gays or that it’ll make them question their sexuality and stuff. And 1) lmao cowards 2) I get it, it feels “”””weird”””” and you don’t relate but like 3) stop being a lil bitch and open your mind.

If you’re a straighty and you’re curious about this book but think that the lady-kissing is spookie, I’m here to inform you that yeah, romantic love between women is heavily, and I mean heavily, tied into the main plot. But it’s not really a book about homosexuality or homophobia. It feels natural, and normal, and is never made out to be a Thing, except when Elizabeth speculates about her parents’ reactions to her coming out. It’s not a book about TEH GAYS specifically, it’s a book about love, that just happens to be between women. If you can accept that and go into it with an open mind, like I did because I am Very Woke, I think you’ll find a new appreciation and perspective for romances that aren’t straight.

Now, back to the actual book. The romance in TSR is frustrating to me because one of them is amazing, so amazing that even I, a filthy man-lover, found it melting my heart. It’s lovely, it’s beautifully written, it’s got a gorgeous aesthetic and an excellent pairing with plenty of warm and fluffy chemistry without shying away from their sexuality. I loved this relationship and I wish there was a book just about these two ladies. It’s honestly #romancegoals. 

The second one is ... not that. It felt sort of rushed and like it was constantly trying to justify itself. It wasn’t instalove, but it also sort of was? I can’t explain it without spoiling so you’ll have to read it for yourself. It could have something to do with the fact that the other couple are teenagers and the previous one are adults so their relationship felt more mature and established, but both get roughly the same amount of screen time and I’m quite frankly baffled by how differently they’re handled.

Given how dark and honest and real most of this book was (despite the magic stuff), it felt really jarring to have the second romance be so empty.

To its credit, I was very much rooting for the teen couple. I even imagined how they’d meet up and fight the villain together. If their ending had been just a little bit more open (as opposed to the general ending, which I wanted to be less open lol) and their romance not quite as definitively sealed, I think I would’ve loved it too, because it would’ve fit better with the tone of the rest of the storytelling.

As it stands, I think the different romantic relationships shown in this book are interesting and show off different dynamics and are a good starting point for important conversations baby wlw (and other romantically inclided peeps tbh) might want to have. Yes, even -- and possibly especially -- the abusive ones. 

This story has a lot to say about love and I think it’s important stuff people need to hear nowadays, especially YA audiences.

The Conclusion

If you’re looking for a paranormal YA mystery with a bit of gore thrown in, complete with a lesbian protag and a diverse cast, self-contained and tasty like a very small hamburger, The Songbird’s Refrain is well worth your time. 

It’s got a great romance, an excellent protagonist, an unsettling atmosphere, a fun villain, and a genuinely touching story dealing with important subjects like healthy love, abusive relationships, and self-worth.

If you’re not a fan of one aspect of this book but the rest seems appealing, I think you should go for it and maybe realize as you’re reading that it doesn’t matter that much because the rest of the package deal is excellent.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Marvel Team-Up Volume 4 #3 Thoughts

And so comes the end of this arc and I guess Eve Ewing’s whole run???? Didn’t know this was an anthology team up title jeez.

Did it go out with a bang or a whimper? Well...a bit of both.

...And by both I mean there were literal bangs in the issue so the whimpers...you get it...

 Okay so for starters the cover lies again like in issue #1. The cover promises us Peter in Kamala’s body with spider powers and Kamala in Peter’s body with Inhuman powers.

And in the issue we get...the same shit from the past 2 issues, standard Freaky Friday.

It’s less bad here than in issue #1 though. Issue #1’s lie was actively reductive to the reading experience. Here it’s just artistic licence and really the idea of seeing Spidey with Kamala’s powers and vice versa is only good for a strong visual. If Peter in Kamala’s body got the same power set it’d seriously undermine the creative legs of the Freaky Friday dynamic in the first place. So a quick cover for an eye catching visual is good enough.

Moving on...this issue is kind of the weakest instalment in this already kind of shakey arc. If you turned your brain off you could kind of enjoy issues #1-2 but the creative energy in this issue was waning a lot.

You can tell this because once the Jackal, the villain of this arc, gets defeated the issue continues for over 11 pages. Over 11 pages of restoring the status quo.

And when I say restoring the status quo I don’t simply mean Peter and Kamala inevitably swap back, I mean they swap back and also forget everything that happened, leaving you wondering what the point of any of this was.

Kamala will go forward in life never knowing the impending dread of job interviews or unpaid bills and Peter Parker will never remember the pain and discomfort of a period or the sweet taste of cotton candy lip gloss...okay maybe for both parties forgetting this ever happened isn’t the worst idea.

But the issue could’ve been mitigated if Ewing had just restructured the story a little bit so that the swap lasted way less than two days. In fact even if they forgot what happened wouldn’t it raise big red flags that 2 days have elapsed within which they remember nothing?

Even putting this aside the story continues the trajectory of having a lot of small problems that add up. Some of these don’t break the issue per se but the numeracy of them adds up to an over all lack of thought and planning put into the story.

Let’s talk about one example I actually forgot to bring up in issue #2. So in the first issue when the Jackal showed up and declared Rosario’s Polly tech would be useful in his cloning experiments my first thought was ‘how’? But I let it slide because maybe the story would elaborate.

And in issue #2 it did but having Spidey throw out a theory, and in issue #3 we got that theory confirmed.

The plan goes like this. The Jackal’s wants to use Rosario’s tech alongside his cloning tech to create clones with the consciousness of another person.

When that happened my thoughts Digivolved from ‘how?’ into ‘why?’

Like...okay, the Jackal has a God complex.

OBVIOUSLY.

Even shitty BND era writers picked up on that.

This would definitely come under the remit of playing God, but even during the nadir of the Clone Saga (we call that Maximum Clonage kids) you could just about see the method in his madness. It wasn’t rationale but it added up within his warped logic. He wanted to destroy life on Earth and replace it with the life HE created.

Cool.

Now in this story he wants to...basically transfer someone’s mind into someone else’s body, but not even their actual body a copy of their actual body.

What possible purpose would that serve?

I could KIND of see it if he wanted to transfer people’s minds into clones of their own bodies. Like what happened to Xavier after he was infected with the Brood.

But into a clone of someone else’s body?

That’s some Underpants Gnome level planning.

Not to mention can’t he basically already do that?

He created the Carrion virus IIRC which genetically reprograms the infected subject into basically believing themselves to be Miles Warren. He was also able to update Ben Reilly’s memories so they’d match Peter Parker’s. If you can do that then surely you could already put someone’s consciousness into a body that isn’t theirs? Or at least the scientific leap from one to the other isn’t that huge.

Another rather significant issue with the plot revolves around the Isotope Genome Accelerator. Yeah remember that? The thing that separated Peter and Spider-Man back in Spencer’s opening arc.

Remember how it heavily implied to explode in ASM v5 #5 and thus merge Peter and Spidey back together? Apparently not. It was either undamaged or got rebuilt apparently. Even better it has plot convenience powers now. It’s used to swap Peter and Kamala again.

So just so we are clear the Isotope Genome Accelerator’s scientific applications include:

-          Irradiating shit

-          Irradiating house spiders to the point where biting people gives them spider powers which may or may not include organic webbing

-          Removing super powered mutations (see Spider-Man: the Final Adventure #4)

-          Temporarily ‘masking’ super powered mutations (see above)

-          Separating people into different sides of themselves (and also maybe creating different clothes for them too?)

-          Swapping people’s minds which is somehow an extension of the latter application

-          Copies and/or transfers the super powers of one person to another (we’ll get back to that)

Holy shit this thing can do everything short of toast bread!

Good lord...the issue tries to explain that it’s ability to separate people into two different entities is how they’re going to affect the swap but...that doesn’t make a lick of sense even by the already bullshit science in play.

How is physically separating the thrill seeking adventurer from the responsible everyman out of the one person (or in theory the man from the cannibalistic lizard monster) remotely similar to swapping the minds of two people?

What did it separate both minds from both bodies and then...they just snapped back to where they belonged?*

This isn’t even mentioning how for what is presumably a gag the Accelerator also apparently gave Rosario Kamala’s powers. How? Why? Does this mean Kamala lost her powers? Does it mean the Accelerator copied her powers into Rosario?

Never explained who fucking knows the Isotope Genome Accelerator is the plot device that just keeps on giving.

There are other lesser contrivances in the issue that are contrivances nevertheless.

Remember how I said in issue #1 how it’s weird that everyone is so concerned about destroying Rosario’s polly device because surely she has the plans to another one? Well this issue confirms she does, she has schematics to another device.

Which raises two big questions.

a)      If the device is going to make all the difference in swapping Peter and Kamala back...why do they need the accelerator? Why the drama and tension over that, they could just build another device and swap back easy peasey

b)      Why was there any tension over destroying the device in issue #1 and thus kicking off this whole arc’s premise?

Another piece of technological contrivance comes from the chip Peter off panel implanted in his brain ages ago without telling the readers. So apparently it was useless all along because it’d only work if whoever was trying to mind swap with him also had a chip.**Oh and it’s eroded away any how.

This is a mind bender this one.

We have a non-Spidey comic by a non-Spidey office establishing Spider-Man did something major that was very smart and very obvious provided it was possible (which we were never led to believe it was in Spidey stories proper). That same non-Spidey comic upon establishing this plot device then uses it as a possible explanation for the scenario it’s setting up. Then in resolving that scenario reveals the plot device wasn’t working, never was going to work, wasn’t a factor in the first place and thus paints Spider-Man as stupid.

WTF!

WTF was the point of the anti-body swap chip then?

You might as well have never had that in the comic and thereby not made Spider-Man storytellers look dumb for not considering that or made the character look dumb for not considering it enough.

Just lose that plot point altogether and nothing changes.

Everything else wrong with this issue is less egregious, it’s smaller things that further spell out the lack of attention being paid to the story.

They range from minor stuff like typos to pretentious narration at the start of the issue.

Not only pretentious by the way but pointless given how they forget what happens and it doesn’t seem to serve the story. It pays lip service to us as people accepting our good and bad traits but...that hasn’t got anything to d with this story in the first place. Also after 2 issues of talking out loud NOW thought captions are a thing?

Let’s see what other shit is wrong with this issue.

Oh right, Rosario has been tied up and conscious in her office at ESU (on a weekday no less) all night but NOBDOY heard her calling for help in all that time? Or she didn’t try yelling before Peter and Kamala conveniently showed up?

Not to mention Kamala says her spider sense (which wasn’t working in the last issue for no explained reason) is alerting her to maybe getting the right location for Rosario but...didn’t they have her office listed? Wasn’t that what they were following? And why would the spider sense (from her and Peter’s POV) tingle if there wasn’t any danger the issue implies it’s the mere fact they’re zeroing in on Rosario.

Other smaller problems include Peter complaining that teens are so mean as though this is a revelation. Peter...Parker...is learning teens can be jerks....um...did Ewing not read Amazing Fantasy #15...page 1...?

Similarly talks about how he’s learned to focus on the problems of the present and not worry about the future. My kneejerk reaction to that is to call BS, Peter clearly does fret over the future.

Final little complaints Spidey bangs on about his knees not hurting when Kamala in his older body never brings them up and seems fine. Aaaaaand there is a line of dialogue from kamala about how the Jackal doesn’t understand that humans are more than bodies and stored ideas yadda yadda yadda,. But like...from her point of view the Jackal never said any of that shit. I guess maybe she’s right but she shouldn’t know to be right if you see what I mean.

I’ll finish off with a little positivity.

The art was lovely again.

Spidey owning Jackal with Kamala’s powers was bad ass.

Spider-Man acting the older mentor figure to Kamala was awesome, just wish it wasn’t undermined by him being in her body when he was doing that.

So all in all...this arc is very unimpressive.

You know how online, maybe on tumblr, maybe on CBR, maybe on Google images or scans daily you see a selection of pages from a comic book story? Basically the highlights?

Yeah if you were to experience issue #1 and #2 like that that’s how I’d recommend experiencing this story.

Reading or God forbid buying it is highly NOT recommended.

*Shit now I think about it the way Roasrio’s device was explained it doesn’t even add up to being able to mind swap. It turns the mind into data and stores it. Okay...how does that mean we’re swapping the minds of two meatbag humans with no mechanical storage device or interface involved?

**Even though again Doc Ock DIDN’T  swap minds with Peter he uploaded a copy of his mind into his head and vice versa, Peter’s real mind was still in his body the whole time but buried.

[zonamievents]

ZoNami Analysis: The Orange Island Arc and First Impressions!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my new series of posts, where I discuss every Zoro and Nami moment to have ever occurred in the entire series of One Piece. Any scene can merely be friendly, but perhaps we can uncover a hint of something more between them as we go through it all? Let’s find out on this journey together!

Also, I am aware that koukihime has done a similar series on her website, zoroxnami.weebly.com. However, I wanted to perform my own analysis of Zoro and Nami’s relationship, so please bear with me if there are any accidental similarities. Thanks!

Today’s topic is how this ENTIRE arc solidifies Zoro and Nami’s relationship moving forward. First impressions are important, and though Oda-sensei likes to play with how we preceive someone vs how they really impact the story in later arcs, the simplicity of the beginning of the series tells us a lot about how these two are meant to be critical players in the Mugiwara crew, and in each other’s lives.

Picking up from where we left off, Zoro has just stepped in to save Nami’s life from Buggy’s crew! Nami is in great disbelief to find that an infamous pirate hunter like Roronoa Zoro is actually the other half of Luffy’s pirate crew.

As she stands there mistified, Buggy questions if Zoro has suddenly appeared to take his head. Though Zoro tells him that isn’t the case, Buggy instigates a fight and in a matter of seconds, it seems as though the pirate captain was taken down instantaneously. Disappointed and confused, Luffy, Zoro and Nami can’t understand why his crew starts laughing after their boss’ defeat, only for Zoro to learn that not only did he underestimate Buggy, but…

Buggy also has a Devil’s Fruit that allows his body to separate at will.

Luffy, Zoro and Nami know they need to escape, but the situation looks rather grim. However, leave it to Zoro - who now has a stab wound in his left side - to flip an entire canon over and aim it at the Buggy pirates!

After the canon shoots, it is Zoro AGAIN with his inhuman strength lifting the cage that Luffy’s stuck in and trying to carry him down off of a rooftop and onto the ground! Nami is just in awe as she follows them, and though she apparently knows the name ‘Zoro’, it seems she is unaware of just how powerful he truly is.

Nami starts to lose her wonderment when Luffy later picks a fight with ShuShu the dog. But she still brings Luffy the key to the cage so he can get himself free. Defeated for the moment, Zoro sleeps off his injury while Luffy gets himself into even more trouble! Zoro is woken up when Buggy fires another one of his Buggy Balls at the building, and somehow survives the impact so he can join the fight once again!

As the story progresses and the two crews face off - with Nami finally agreeing to ‘cooperate’ with the Straw Hats - Buggy faces off against Luffy, and Cabaji challenges Zoro. At one point in their battle, Cabaji intentionally aims for Zoro’s wound from earlier, and Nami calls him out for such a cheap trick.

And she calls him out on it again, but the third time Cabaji tries to attack his wound, Zoro not only blocks him, he decides to make that particular injury seem a little less interesting…

...by cutting himself! It disturbs even Luffy that he does this, but the tactic works and Cabaji is now focused on the overall fight rather than targeting Zoro’s obvious weakness. Of course, this only makes Nami worry about him more.

Nami leaves the scene shortly after that to go and get the map of the Grand Line that was most likely lost in the explosion. She sneaks off and promises to join up with Luffy and Zoro again if they manage to survive. However, the fight ends up being so engaging that she watches it from the distance before achieving her goal!

After avoiding an enraged Buggy when she steals his treasure - and after Luffy’s inevitable victory against Buggy - Nami groups up with Luffy and the sleeping Zoro and as he wakes up, Zoro says he doesn’t think he can walk. To which Nami replies…

And that’s the major highlight, or theme, of this arc: Luffy and Zoro are meant to show off how powerful they are together, and just how otherworldly their strength can be. Even though this is a Zoro and Nami-centric post, I just want to point out that everything mentioned above happens in order and nothing plot-centric is skipped over. A great deal of Nami’s impression of this crew revolves around her reactions to Zoro’s heroism and just how brutal he can.

But what does this mean for ZoNa?

Why summarize this entire arc and say that it’s worthy of more love from the ZoNa community?

What does the Orange Town story really highlight for us ZoNa fans!?

It shows us that this is where Nami realizes how integral Zoro is to not only the crew, but her survival too. It isn’t meant to impress us as the reader because we’ve already met Zoro - this entire meeting is meant to wow Nami into feeling safe with them.

Before she became a Straw Hat, Nami traveled the seas alone. Why bother getting any sort of outsider involved in her village’s problems? Her willingness to join the crew wasn’t simply because of her dream, but it was because she knew that she needed them to stay alive if it meant she ever encountered someone like Buggy again. Remember, Nami explicitly states in this arc that she thought Devil’s Fruits were nothing more than a myth that pirates tell themselves. For her to see both Buggy and Luffy in action in the East Blue - which she knows is statistically the weakest of all four - means that Nami needs some strong partners in crime if she plans to finish her mission of saving Cocoyashi.

Given her methodical nature, it’s only logical to tag along with such irrefutably strong men to guarantee success. And that’s the perfect way to highlight yet another ‘opposites attract’ aspect of the ZoNa relationship!

The Left Brain vs The Right Brain.

It’s a concept most of us are familiar with: each half of your brain specializes in a specific area of your personality. If you’re more instinctive than strategic, you’re Right Brain is probably your dominate half. If you prefer to plan out your day rather than letting events unfold as they will, than you’re a Left Brain thinker. At first glance, some would call Nami emotional and spastic, but us fans of the character can agree that she is one of the most intelligent and well thought out members of the Straw Hat crew.

Zoro, on the other hand, is a reactionary character. Where Nami would try to concoct a solution, Zoro would prefer to make his own based off of what he feels is best. Though a stone-cold type of character, even his choices in battle come from training that taught him how to hone his instincts in order to guide his body to dodge attacks and execute strikes successfully.

Now, why does this matter?

Because neither one of them is solidly using only one side of their brain.

Together, Zoro and Nami create a proper middle ground - known as the Wise Mind in the example image above - that create a viability for each other. Where one lacks, the other exceeds expectations. Both are impressive characters, but what we get from this arc is the root of Zoro and Nami that truly show the significance they bring out in one another based off of their mere functionality.

In the very first post of this series, I talked about how Nami was the navigator and Zoro works as a protector; this first introduction they have clearly provides the foundation for Nami’s perception of Zoro as the person she ends up relying on the most from here on out. Essentially, their relationship works itself into a very popular theme: the Beauty and the Beast.

If you look at Belle from the Disney version of the tale, she is smart, well-read and cunning. She knows when it’s time to run away and when she needs to step up to the plate, to risk her life for either her father or for the Beast himself. She yearns to have more than the life she leads and it causes her to seek adventures beyond herself. Though her wits can get her into trouble sometimes - and even put her at odds with the Beast - she manages to to prove herself as a worthy partner to stand next to the Beast.

On the other hand, we can look at the Beast himself. He’s very stern, off-putting at times, despite the kind-hearted individual inside. Though others may comment on his brash personality, the Beast stays true to himself but starts to warm up to the idea of having Belle around. The Beast even saves Belle more than once and her respect for him grows when she sees how selfless he can truly be. He isn’t the easiest characters to love in his own story, despite being a clear protagonist. He always has his own goal in the back of his mind and thinks about how it involves the lives of those around him. He’s also the first to tell you he isn’t ‘a fool’.

There is a fantastic, oldie but goodie fanfic written by SF Kitty called “Beauty and the Beast: One Piece Style” from 2006 that shows how fans of ZoNa have picked up on the notion that there are evident ties to this Disney couple, and for good reason! It’s a popular concept that has worked out for many other fictional couples, because each couple acts as the other half to their partner - like the Left Brain meeting the Right Brain to make a Wise Minded couple! And though this arc is summarized simply in this post, I believe that the intention of this story allowed for Zoro to show off his beastly attributes to a rather shell-shocked Nami, just like the Beast does when he saves Belle from the wolves in the Disney adaption of the tale.

Mind you, Nami isn’t as smooth as Belle when she comes back to help Zoro and Luffy, but the similarity exists and that’s good enough for me! 

[snkpolls]

SnK S3E03 Results (Manga Reader Version)

The poll closed with 563 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated! 

Please note that this is the results of the manga reader poll. Anime only watchers are suggested not to read if you do not wish to be spoiled about certain events! Anime only viewers, click here to view your poll results!

Rate the episode

84% of users rated the episode a 4 or 5 this week, compared to 64% last week. This episode had less action, but was full of key character moments that manga readers were excited to see animated.

So far it's my favourite since it follows the most the manga but with some bearable adjustemements. If the episodes will be like this from now on, I'll be completely satisfied and could get over all the changes in the first two episodes.

The adaptation is doing well, but of course manga readers(me included) about some bits being changed and rearranged. But on the other hand they might come me up with something unexpectedly good. I won't forgive them if they don't give shit machine tho.

It’s starting to feel more like the arc I love

It was great, I'm having trouble deciding which episode is the best of this season yet. I thought the second one was the best, but then I remember the premiere and now, once again, I am thinking about the 3rd one being the greatest. The quality this season is off the charts.

Compared to episode 2, episode 3 was quite uninteresting

I think it must have been boring and confusing for Anime-only's

This episode was appropriately paced for an episode full of flashbacks, and honestly I think it paid off to get the backstories of Erwin and Historia in one showing to avoid conflicting with the future action episodes.  I don't have much else to say- I can't really be critical because it was a pretty good episode, adaptation-wise.

Which of the following moments were your favorite?

Hange taking their anger out on the table and Levi walking in on it is the winner here! The closest runner ups were seeing Levi’s wanted poster and getting Erwin and Historia’s backstories. We all agree it was nice to see many of these things in color animation finally!

Hange's scene where she blames her table destruction on a cockroach? Totally relatable. And I loved that Levi kinda teased her for it.

I have been waiting for Erwin's back story for AGES and was not disappointed! Kidwin was as heartbreakingly adorable as expected (that nose!! The sad bby at the funeral!!)

I liked all the topics they addressed that had been previously skipped (Historia and Erwin’s pasts). Also, while the sequence of events have been changed, I’m looking forward to how they are going to pan this out.

Erwin has great ass.

Hange's tableflip scene was amazeballs, man I love her!!

Pixis in a suit. Pixis in a suit. Pixis in a suit. Pixis in a suit. Pixis in a suit. Pixis in a suit. Pixis in a suit. Pixis in a suit. Pixis in a suit. Pixis in a suit. Pixis in a suit.

The conversation between Erwin and Pixis gave me thrills. I thought it was going to be boring, but it was very well shown.

My girl Hange's time to shine in this episode! I want her "BAAAKAAAA" as a ringtone asap

Who drew it better: WIT or Isayama?

51% of respondents thought the OG drew it best. Isayama can finally sleep at night. Funnily enough, the anime only respondents preferred WIT’s version!

Who has the best reaction to Historia’s backstory?

Sasha took the lead as she paused licking at her soup bowl to listen to Historia’s story. Connie was easily the next runner up with his dumbfounded expression. We weren’t surprised to see Springles win this one!

How cute was baby Historia?

The vast majority of respondents just wanna pinch those cute little cheeks (and probably take her home, treat her to some hot cocoa and love her properly).

And baby Historia was the cutest omg! That lil nose and her lil blush! I'm crying bittersweet tears here.

How could anyone possibly look down on and abuse such a precious little bean like baby Historia?? Alma's so pathetic…

Baby Historia is the cutest thing I have seen in anime. She is so adorable and sweet! I would love to hug her so much! She is just too cute! <3

Child Hisu is ADORKABLE

How cute was little Erwin?

While this is a tiny bit more spread out than Historia, the majority of respondents were also enamored with adorable kidwin and are ready to adopt him at any time (and probably give lots of hugs too!).

BABYWIN!!!!!!!!!

Young Erwin was def my fav bighead-bigbrows!

I love Erwin so muchhhh my precious baby is so cute and handsome at the same timeeeee I just want to hug him and never let anything bad happen to him againnnnn

The episode was dialogue heavy with a lot of character backstories and plot exposition. What type of episodes do you tend to prefer watching?

In general, respondents don’t mind if an episode has a lot of action or if it’s a bit slower with some good plot developments. What matters is that we keep moving forward and that it’s entertaining, right?

About episode type: Tense conversation ready to break into action at any second, like when Kenny and Levi were talking in the bar.

It was a nice change of pace after all the fights in the first 2 episodes but I'm looking forward to the action  coming back next episode

Did Flegel really stay in that alleyway the entire night?

We asked this mostly for fun and respondents didn’t disappoint. The majority believe that he did stay in the alleyway the entire night, but plenty of you had some fun commentary (and sass) to provide us all with some laughs:

Based on how the events at Erwin's went, I'd guess that Reeves was killed nearing dawn and it hasn't been that long.

During the night, he went to slay all of marley and came back in the morning, Flegel for president!

Oh crap, I didn't even notice that. Part of me wants to say maybe he left and came back, but that really doesn't make much sense if he's trying to not get caught. No doubt the Interior Squad would have surveyed the area a little before getting the body ready for a public reveal to frame Erwin.

He took one long leak

He went to get sour cream and came back

Slept in a trash-can then went for a morning stroll

insert Schroedinger's cat analogy

No clearly Annie came and rescued him

Somehow he knew Commander Handsome will be there, so yeah, he stayed. I would stay too <3

no, he crawled up the wall like a spider and slept on the rooftops dont worry

On a scale of 1-5, how distressed are you about Eren being tied, gagged and drugged?

Most respondents seemed unconcerned or indifferent to Eren’s current situation, but those who are distressed were pretty vocal about it:

PLEASE MAKE SURE THE POOR BOY GETS SOME WATER???  The little scene with his in-and-out of consciousness is very distressing to see!

I pray that Eren gets a happy ending; I feel SO stressed for him

Who has the best hat?

Connie’s sunhat took the lead! But we agree that all hats are good and that everyone was looking fab.

HAT HAT HAT I'm really hoping that from this point on, they will follow the manga more closely again, as I am not super impressed by the current shake-up in event order but most importantly HAT HAT HAT JEAN GOT HIS HAT.

The hats!!! The hats are so good!

Love his top hat but lost half his lines for it

JEAANNN'S HAAAT

How many flashbacks within flashbacks is too many?

Half of respondents appreciated the Inception reference and just want to be flashbacked into oblivion. Okay but seriously, there were some who got a bit confused by WIT’s use of flashbacks for some of these scenes. We hope you’re holding up okay during current manga chapters!

bit weird to slow it down this much when the first 2 episodes were so action packed, 2 flashbacks in one episode is a bit much if you ask me. the episode didnt give you any break or a few seconds to let the information sink in.

I was confused by flashbacks in flashbacks. I don't lke that type of stuff and I got feeling that they were traveling in time :/

How do you feel about the rearrangement of events after this episode?

45% are still tentative and not ready to judge the situation just yet. However, a good 37% combined are either content or are already finding they like the changes better. It seems the optimism is starting to improve overall!

Dont remember much of the order of events in this arc, as long as it all makes sense its fine. I trust Isayamas judgment

I prefer the manga’s order, but I am content, BUT I’m still waiting for more episodes to make a final judgement, BUT  I’m still very confused with where they are going with this.

I want to slap the whole WIT Studios and Yams but u know im okay for now.

Same story, different medium. Pretty neutral, happy I don’t know word for word what’s going to happen.

So I was very very nervous about the changes and pacing, but them taking the time to slow down and let the emotional weight of Historia and Erwin's backstories sink in is just what I needed to calm down a bit. I still have some preferences with the manga, but I'm sated to the point of watching and waiting without making too much of a fuss.

Some changes do make the action flow smoother, but im not happy that the studio decided to cut out Reeves-Levi wall bonding and L's squad 2.0's doubts on killing people

Rearrangement? Who cares? Erwin on graveyard was pure sex how was I supposed to thino about rearrangments???

I think the anime is doing a good job restructuring the arc, and is preserving its internal consistency quite well. But I am upset about some of the things that got removed, so I don't quite like the anime's retelling.

The rearrangement was understandable, however until I can look over the whole arc, I wouldn't be able to give a fair opinion on the execution of this season.

How do you feel about Historia’s absence when the Survey Corps proposed she needs to be queen?

As with the previous question, nearly half of voters are not yet ready to judge how the changes will affect the arc overall. 35% of you guys think it was a bad choice on WIT’s part. It’s probably safe to say we’re all on our toes wondering how WIT is going to handle this plot development as they move forward!

I hope we can still see the Levi smiling moment at the end of this arc despite the absence of these scenes.

I prefer Rod being the one to push the idea of her royalty into her, and I still think we'll get a moment regarding Levi's will to accept a different kind of hell and pushing Historia to make a choice in some other way later.

It didn't have a huge significance to the plot but it gave both Historia and Levi some good characterisation.

I feel a mixture of "I need more episodes" and "It was a poor choice".

Had to be done for an action packed start the season but I'm disappointed as it is an important scene for Levi's development

It was a poor choice that broke an important chain of events, it was Levi who had to force Historia.

Ralph called Hange a devil after they were locked up. Was this good foreshadowing to current manga events?

71% of respondents believed that this was good foreshadowing! We suppose one nice part of the anime being as behind from the manga as it is, is that we can recall these older moments that manage to have thematic relevance to current events.

I think Hange being called a devil was amazing foreshadowing, but also in a sense that, by overthrowing the current system, they are unwittingly putting themselves in the exact same position as the old government and its cronies were in with almost exactly the same problems and solutions available to them, the poor things just don't see it yet.

After this week, do you believe future episodes are now going to be more faithful to the original chapters?

50% of voters are confident that WIT is mostly headed back toward the linear timeline of the manga, with maybe small bits and pieces shuffled or omitted. 28% aren’t feeling as optimistic about it, however. But 18% are confident we’re back onto the strict manga timeline.

I'll have to wait and see all the episodes. No point trying to guess, only to be disappointed. Isayama authorised the changes, let's see what his new vision of these chapters!

I believe they will be faithful more than just "a little bit."  It seems the PV is a good indicator of that.  The Historia rising up to be queen is definitely going to be handled differently and there is no way around that.  But I'm ready, Wit!

im still trying to grasp what they trying to do of the pacing and the moments and i still hope the upcoming eps will make sense of all that cuts and flashbacks.

They'll have to do something different with Levi and Historia's 'discussion' about her becoming queen. I wonder if it will happen later, and someone else will do Reeve's line about him being a scary but good man? It would be interesting if someone like Mikasa does it.

Leaked episode titles PROVE they are gonna butcher up the cave scene

Maybe yes, maybe not. It all depends on Isayama and WIT, so let us wait for episode 41, shall we?

Which scene from the PV are you most looking forward to this week?

The largest group are most looking forward to Jean testing whether or not they can trust Marlowe and Hitch (please give us the stick WIT!). The close runner up is Levi interrogating the MP with the nice mustache and a case of foot-in-mouth. Literally.

I'm totally excited to see Marlowe and Hitch!

Central MP HQ next week?!?! Hoping for some new action scenes.

GIVE ME HITCH AND MARLO RIGHT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW

everyone in the PV is hot (yes pulverized erwin is still included)

Which group of characters are you favorite?

“All of them” wins as the good neutral vote.

I never know how to answer the which group is your favorite question because my fav is 104th + Annie (sans RB). So I'm always answering sans RBA which is unfair to Annie.

Where you do primarily discuss the series?

Additional thoughts on the episode?

A little bit better, but not enough. But overall I'm satisfied and I enjoyed it.

All in all, a very nicely done episode. I like how the story is coming together, all the different elements in the manga are there, just in a different order. I had high hopes for this season and so far I am not disappointed!

At this point I have absolutely NO clue where they are, or what's going on. The manga was less confusing for me.

Damn cockroaches, always ruining Hange's day.

Earlier I was really salty about Levi having to hold Mikasa back everytime it was mentioned that Eren was kidnapped, but later I noticed that instead of Mikasa being cool with it immediately like she was in her manga, in the anime they are slowing her development down to make it more realistic and believable(Levi had to physically restrain her the first time around, while the second time he just had to talk her down) so I still have faith it wit. I am still a little angry that the "That wasn't how I raised him." scene was cut though. It was an important Mikasa-Armin moment. But oh well! At least we got to see Jean in his glorious fedora!

Felt well-paced, I do like that they are tweeking things to make the anime feel more smooth.

Hanji looked like a snack throughout this episode shes so hot oh my god I’m so gay

Baby Erwin and Historia are wonderful, and I really like that they put two very different parent/child relationships on display here. Erwin's devotion to his father's theories, and the closeness to their relationship paralleled the neglegence Alma showed towards Historia - and in the end, the parents meet the same fate, offed by the Interior Squad."

Both Historia and Erwin's backstories needed stronger direction. Also, just a nitpick, but the soundtrack they used when Sannes told Hange "good luck" was an extremely weird choice. It was a very grim and ominous scene yet the music in the background didn't reflect that.

Pixis' lack of opposition was annoying. It seemed like he was just there so that Erwin had someone to talk about his backstory to. In the manga his red-line of no blood being spilled and his willingness to stay with the nobility if they had unknown but good reasons for their behaviour increased the stakes a lot.

I love the consistent tension buildup and the music choices that just compliment it. Sawano has been on a roll with the new tunes, and the way old ones have been used has been fantastic. Attack on D for Erwin's flashback is a choice I didn't consider, but I'll be damned if that wasn't a great call.

I just want to protect smol Historia and precious little Kidwin

Loving the development for Erwin. People need to realize that he isn't some cold hearted badass. He has feelings too ya know!

Thank you to everyone who participated! We’ll see you back on Monday! 

[recentanimenews]

The Asterisk War: Quest for Days Lost

By Yuu Miyazaki and okiura. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Melissa Tanaka.

Another volume of Asterisk War brings along with it more of the same, and honestly these books are so short I frequently wish that Yen had decided to omnibus them, especially since the plot to this volume is essentially “more tournament arc”. Nothing particularly surprising happens – even the cliffhanger ending is signposted from the moment we meet the sweet innocent girl who’s the victim of it. There is cool fighting by tactics. There is cool fighting by unlocking the next level of abilities. There are also Saya and Kirin, whose fights we don’t see until the final chapter. I have a sneaking suspicion how that will turn out, but it’s also part of the cliffhanger ending. So yes, nothing whatsoever new here, but as always the prose is readable, it’s not too offensive (though there are a few stereotypes), and fans of this sort of thing will eat it up like candy and then move on.

One thing I did like is Julis (who is reminding me more of Rin Tohsaka every volume) managing to get Ayato to have a reason to fight and win that isn’t just “well, I guess I’ll help her achieve her goal”. The drive to succeed, to surpass, to go beyond your limits requires something to strive for in these sorts of stories, and given that Ayato is, if I’m being nice, sot of bland it’s especially important for him to have this. He’s on a quest to find his sister, but there’s always been an undercurrent of “she must have had a good reason” that’s stopped him from really investigating. If the tournament ends next volume (which it looks like ti’s shaping up to do), I expect we’ll get more answers, though whether we get his sister is another matter.

Both major battles in this book are against students from Chinese Stereotype Academy, aka Jie Long Seventh Institute. We get both a noble fighting pair who are simply very good at what they do, and a team of twins who are very good at what they do but are also jerks. They don’t cheat per se, but they hammer on weaknesses and love to break their opponent. Dishonorable is a good word for them. Needless to say, Ayato and Julis fight against them near the end of the book, and the fight is probably the best part of the novel, even if, once again, the lack of surprising things happening is clear. If I were to tell you that the twins have a reaction that’s basically “This… this CANNOT BEEEEEE!” towards the end of the fight, I’m sure you would just sigh and nod.

Kirin and Saya are here as well, and Saya gets a flashback that shows off her childhood with Ayato, but honestly it’s harder to develop these two as their personalities are naturally passive – likely that’s why we didn’t see their fights till the very end. In any case, this volume of Asterisk War may not convince uncertain readers to keep going, but it also won’t make them decide to drop it once and for all. It’s still the equivalent of having a Peppermint Patty for dinner. Tasty, but you really want a lot more.

By: Sean Gaffney

[bforbookslut]

ARC: Fallen Flame by J.M. Miller

This ARC was received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I have given this book ☆☆☆. As I received it in e-book format, I estimate the number of pages to be 300 – 500 pages. It belongs to the Young Adult Fantasy genre. J. M. Miller self-published it. It will be released on 19th June 2017. I would definitely recommend this to a friend or purchase a copy of my own. The synopsis reads: “Nineteen years ago, on the island kingdom of Garlin, a girl was born. With charred skin as rough as rock, Vala was instantly feared. For how could one be scorched by magic when it had perished ages before?

Recognizing an asset, the royal family welcomed her on their Guard. Her detail: the prince.

To watch. To protect. She has grown with him, lives her life for him.

When the high kingdom’s princess comes to assess the prince, assassins of rival courtiers come to claim his life. One nearly succeeds in his mission. But with shadowy movements and charred skin like her own, Vala knows he is not like the rest.

As threats to the prince continue and questions about Vala’s life begin to rise, she faces a fear worse than fire or water, worse even than losing him.

She fears finding out who she truly is.”

[may contain spoilers]

Imagine a rollercoaster: it starts out slow and there’s a climb and you’re kind of confused because when it starts the climb seems to go nowhere and you’re just anticipating a drop. And right when you peak at the top, there’s the moment when you just take a breath and survey your surroundings from high above. And then, your stomach drops.

That’s what Fallen Flame is like.

The first in a trilogy, Fallen Flame is narrated by Vala who is born with an affliction where her skin is charred, rough and burnt. A quick summary, shit goes down for both Vala and Garlin when she’s dismissed as Prince Caulden’s lead guard and demoted. Loyalties come into question, so do intentions and identities. Then, there’s this mystery man who talks about magic and gets Vala’s lady bits all in a fuss. And death.

But trust me when I say, the plot twist was bomb af. You’re going to want to stick around for it.

And that’s what makes Fallen Flame so great. It has a really intriguing plot that made me not want to put it down (although I read it slower than I normally would). It’s a little bit of a cliché with the female heroine discovering something about herself that can make a big difference in her life and a small, minute love triangle and the new, bold and encouraging suitor. Miller made a great choice at telling the story from Vala’s point of view in first person because it’s important that we view the world from Vala’s lenses in order to fully appreciate what comes next from her devotion to the prince, her conflicted feelings of belonging and of course, matters of the heart. It also means that instead of growing with the plot, readers grow alongside Vala into her big girl shoes.

And when she finally gets there, there’s a sense of extreme satisfaction like “YAAAAS  GURL”. I wrote in my Kindle notes, “I hope Vala gets to wear a beautiful flowy dress and walk around in boss ass heels”.

This choice, however I would say, was a slightly poor one for Miller. Miller has a way of writing in passive voice that seems more suited to telling the story from the omnipresent point of view. Furthermore, while writing in first person, readers learn very little about Vala’s feelings and her thoughts. She mostly narrates what is going on around her which isn’t bad but there were some scenes that were reduced to quick throwaway line such as how Vala and Haidee repaired their relationship and got closer as adoptive sisters. This might be rectified in the final version as I am reading an ARC. But it’s a minor issue that I quickly got over once I got sucked deep into the plot and was desperate to know more (and mostly desperate for more about Vala and Xavyn. How can you do this to me????? Give me more sexy times).

It’s painfully obvious that this is the first novel of many because Fallen Flame is a novel of expositions. I found myself wishing often that the pace would pick up and that something would happen. Xavyn, who is the mystery man, mentioned in the synopsis did not even make an appearance until about Chapter 6 and they only properly interact in Chapter 9. It’s a little too slow for my pacing but I can see why the choice was made.

The cover, lordy, is beautiful. And ties right back to the story. You know how you get books with covers that don’t really connect. Well, this one at first seems like it doesn’t and then blows you away. I have a new appreciation for it.

Finally, I didn’t want to say this at the beginning of this review because I save the best bits for last but Fallen Flame is giving me Throne of Glass vibes especially bringing in the fae folklore and the question of identities. I cannot say too much without giving away the entire novel but trust me when I took a moment of step back and was like

It was that good. I wasn’t going to give Fallen Flame a stellar rating because it was honestly too slow but damn, girlfriend, that shit literally made me stop reading for a couple of minutes. So, you’re going to definitely want to stick around for that. Worse part is, I can’t wait for Fallen Flame #2 now!

If you’ve stuck with me this far and you’re planning to read it, please tell me how you liked it or didn’t like it. Did you also find the pacing too slow? Did you get blown away and had the same reaction or did you already anticipate it? Did you find Vala bomb-diggity af? Did you wanna learn more about Caulden and Xavyn? See more Vala-Xavyn sexy times? Come into my inbox~!

[jostenneils]

Post- ACOWAR thoughts

i finished my first read through less than an hour ago,, this is going to be a mess of thoughts and reactions probably not in much of any order. 

SO MANY SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

yikes this got way too long

okay wow. this entire book was a wild ride. i have to say, overall, i really did love this book. I’ve seen an overwhelming majority of posts being all disappointment,  and there definitely are some problematic parts, but as a whole i think the book was fantastic.

okay here’s the mess of my initial reactions…

lets start with the character arcs/developments -I LOVED seeing further into how the inner circle works and interacts together. ACOMAF showed a huge part of that of course, but when you remember that these people have been together for over 500 years…. what we’ve seen is just a small glimpse. And throwing feyre into the mix added even more change to everything that’s happened to them.  though it was sad too read at some parts, i like the inclusion of the tension and arguments between characters. The court of Dreams really is a family and family is never perfect. The both work perfectly together and don’t because they all have different views and ways of planning. I personally felt this was well done.

-Those redemption arcs. Honestly, it got a bit to repetitive. Jurian’s arc worked. It was an actual plot twist and was a good change in the narrative. Then we had Tamlin. IMO theres not really a way to redeem him after reading first hand through feyre’s pain ands effect on her.(I think this is also part of why it’s different than with jurian??? idk)  After everything from past books, his behavior at the meeting with the high lords, and everything small in-between, i think most readers already had too much hatred to possibly makes him a good character again. If anything it helped show feyre completely moving on from what he had done. 

-OH. and then there was her father. i knew he was somehow going to show up at the end because of how often they mentioned his “mysterious trading voyage” but it just seemed so rushed and it didn’t really make sense?? I fell like it would’ve been better to just give the girls closure from him in a different way instead of forcing him into the war.

Some things i loved:

-that feysand reunion. come on, we gotta talk about it. actually having to wait for ACOWARs release after reading ACOMAF made the anticipation for this all the more real and i LOVED IT. Rhys of course makes his entrance and the way feyre (and rhys) just were HIT with emotion.. ugh it got me you guys. i love them.

-Feyre’s reveal in the spring court. i think we all were waiting for that moment and (though it caused problems later) her plan and scheming were just so great to read and watching her blow up on ianthe was SO. DAMN. WORTH IT.

-speaking of spring court shenanigans, was anyone else obsessed with the scene with the big ceremony when feyre set it up so it looked like she was blessed by the mother or whatever when the sun rose???? it was just so well crafted i was flipping out

-NESTA AND AMREN; WHAT A POWER DUO

-AZRIEL. EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM. AZ.  i was so so happy we finally got to see more of him and learn about his character. i just want to protect him ilhsm

-Mor being bisexual!!! i can’t ignore that it was not handled in the best way, but i was so excited by this. i  didn’t really like how she only thought she could tell feyre though, like it felt so out of character for her to mot tell rhys or cassian. ( there really was just a lot of internalized homophobia and some bi stereotyping involving the high lord that was such a yikes) I really hope this is furthered explored in the spin off books

–speaking of the spin off books, a LOT of loose ends with relationships and such I’m expecting will be tied up in those. from what I know its the same characters but with new POVs?(I think?) i think he biggest criticism i see is it didn’t feel like a true conclusion,but honestly its not. This book wrapped up feyre ad rhys’ main arc and story- and it accomplished that. But the next books are going to go deeper into everything else… what happens next, other relationships, ect 

i have so much more i want to talk about but this is already way longer than it should be and I’m supposed to be studying so I’m gonna leave off here feel free to drop in my asks if you want to discuss!!

[asoiafuniversity]

Below the cut is a panel discussion on the magical disability trope in fantasy and sci-fi. The discussion was taken from disabilityinkidlit.com.  The panelists are Kayla Whaley, Natasha Razi, and Corinne Duyvis. While this is a general discussion, it is relevant to A Song of Ice and Fire.

The final category we’re working with is “magic co-opts a disability and redefines it.” [...] this is where the narrative explains that magic is the root cause [...] For example, in real life, we may think that autism is a natural human variation; the story will explain that, actually, autistic people act differently because they were affected by something magical as a child [...]

Natasha: Regardless of the cause, these tropes usually start by depicting a character as disabled, and then reveal the magic after the fact, often as a “shocking twist” moment.

Kayla:  [...] they’re relying on assumptions that the (abled) audience is going to bring with them. Disability = magic. That’s one effect of these tropes being so widely used: audiences begin expecting it, so the author doesn’t even have to make it explicit.

Natasha: [...] it’s often about a character having ~mystical knowledge~ that they can usefully share with the protagonist.

Corinne: I feel like a lot of this might be writers seeing “strange” disability stuff and having their imaginations take over. Ohhh, interesting, how could I use this? Such a fascinating plot element! [...]

The “fascinating plot element” bit actually ties into one of the big things that annoys me about this trope. A lot of the time, it’s a huge plot device, and it’s kind of cheap. The magical person is disabled (and this goes particularly for “unreliable” neurodivergent people) because then you can make them completely overpowered. You’ll be able to use the ability when it’s convenient, but you don’t have to explain why the character doesn’t just wave their hands and fix it all. Because they’re disabled! They probably don’t even realize what’s going on, or have no clue how to access their abilities consciously. Gag. So it’s something that conveniently enables plot yet provides a convenient obstacle at the same time.

Natasha: I think that ties into the running issue of disabled characters being sidelined. Because these characters are often minor parts, their roles can be shrunk down to their disability and the related magic. Obviously this isn’t always the case, but I do think there’s a strong correlation between how minor the character is and how much they exist as a convenient plot device.

Corinne: Right. Who needs character arcs or development, right?

Kayla:  For sure. Having a disabled character be ​˜magical˜​ often reads as a justification of their very existence. Because what else could a disabled character possibly bring to the table? So they become objects, plot devices, obstacles, mysteries, etc.

Corinne: Justification sounds about right. And that’s sadly not too far from what we see in real life: If you’re going to be disabled, you’d better have some kind of amazing talent or be super amazing and saintly to make up for all the trouble you are. It’s got to be “balanced out.”

Kayla:  And that’s where these tropes extend their reach into real life in horrifying ways. Disabled people—in fiction and outside of it—aren’t allowed to simply ​be​ disabled.

Natasha: “You’re depressed? You must be really artistic, right? You’re autistic? I bet you’re super organized and smart. You use a wheelchair? What an inspiration to us all!”

Kayla:  A family member once told me he thinks all people born with disabilities are also given “special gifts” to make up for it. Not exaggerating.

Corinne: Gross. I mean, I’m not surprised, but come on.

Kayla:  But to tie it back to these specific tropes, that what they ultimately say. That exact same thing.

Corinne: And I think that’s why it’s often harmful. If that’s the only context you see yourself in—a plot device, thinly developed, only tolerated or involved because of your useful magic … ouch.

[...] So how can it be used without being gross? [...]

Kayla:  I think it really all comes down to execution. What role does the character play in the narrative? Are they treated as a full character with an arc, development, etc.?

Natasha:  Also, it’s a matter of how the disability is treated—is it just there as a gotcha? Does it receive the same respect that we hope a real-life disability would receive?

Corinne: I think one of the things that bothers me personally is that, even when everything else is handled respectfully, and even if you have a pseudoscientific explanation, the idea of disability being inherently connected to magic can imply that all these disabled people work the same? This isn’t entirely related, but I remember that the third episode of the TV series Haven frustrated me immensely. To quote Wikipedia: there’s “an upheaval at the local psychiatric hospital involving something that causes the mad to become sane and vice versa.” Like it’s a switch you can flick on and off. But often disability is much more nuanced. It differs in symptoms, cause, severity, presentation.

Kayla:  Yep, and I think one of the easiest ways to avoid that particular trap is to have more than one disabled character. That way you can ​show​ variation and explore how the magic might affect different people (even with the same disability!) in different ways. And from a writing perspective, that’s likely going to lead to a richer story. [...]

Corinne: Right. I think the root of the disability matters in terms of representation and implications—if all your disability is caused by magic, what does that say about real-life disabled people? do they not exist? is disability only OK if it’s got a magical reason?—and that’s why we’re discussing these ways to avert it. 

[...] whether you’re using the experiences of marginalized people to be ~symbolic~  and ~allegorical~ or just because its practical/neat/dramatic for your story, you’re still ​using those experiences​ to serve your story. The least you can do is acknowledge and respect the people you’re drawing from, instead of just taking the juicy parts for your story and your privileged characters.

Kayla:  Which … just don’t. Please. Just don’t do that thing.

Corinne: [...] Can linking disability and magic instead just mean disabled people get to do/be something really cool in sci-fi for a change?

Kayla:  My immediate reaction is: but why can’t disabled people get to do something/be someone cool in SFF ​without being magical? Why aren’t they allowed to exist in those worlds and have those adventures unconditionally? If kids read these books and come away feeling empowered, then AWESOME. I always want disabled kids to feel that. But we should have ​more.​ What these tropes offer isn’t enough; it’s just all we’re used to getting.

Natasha: Yeah. Like, if a disabled person feels empowered by reading about a magical disability, it certainly isn’t my place to tell them they’re wrong, but I do think it’s significant that that’s all we get in terms of empowerment. [...] I really want more stories where characters are magical and disabled and these things are clearly unrelated.

Corinne: I’ve often seen people talk about superpowers like, “well, of course this blind character has visions/superhearing/etc., it’s a world with superpowers, should they just not get to play?? You’re the ableist one for suggesting disabled people shouldn’t be superheroes!” But, like, the blind character could have flight, superstrength, teleportation … ? There are tons of options that are in no way tied to blindness. I absolutely want disabled people to be part of these adventures and magic and get to do cool things But the execution just matters?

Corinne: [...] It feels quite disrespectful and further adds to disability as inexplicable, scary, fascinating, other. [...]

Natasha: I think that brings me to one of my biggest problems with the depictions of magical disability, and disability in general—it’s often intensely othering, either by implying that disability is ~different~ and ~mystical~, or by implying that disability has no place in this story, but centaurs do! [...] Also, please​ do not reduce your disabled character to a plot device. Don’t just have them exist to provide mystical information or a convenient deus ex machina [...] Give the character an arc, make them an actual character.

Kayla: Yes! Give them agency, a personality, an actual role in the story.

Corinne: In addition, there’s a difference between saying “they have this power because,” and creative use of an ability, like Toph using her earthbending as an assistive tool.

If your character or those around them perceive negative effects of magic as a real-life disability, do what you can to make clear to the reader that it’s not the case. Drop hints, try not to lead on disabled readers about potential rep.

Natasha: Be thoughtful. Be purposeful. Don’t just do the obvious, because the obvious usually reflects a hoard of internalized biases.

Corinne: Try to aim for unusual power combinations, ones we haven’t already seen a hundred times before and that don’t conveniently cancel out the disability. Deaf character with superspeed! Autistic character with ice powers! Witchy wheelchair user!

Kayla:  And recognize that, with as few portrayals as we get, every single one matters so very much. The choices you make as an author will have real-life consequences (positive and/or negative, depending) for your disabled readers [...] And understand that many of your disabled readers might come into your story wary. We’ve been hurt, erased, dehumanized, etc. time and time again.

Natasha: Also killed. Can’t forget killed.

Kayla:  I think what this all comes down to is recognizing what has come before, the problems with what’s come before, and being intentional about not adding to that. It comes down to questioning your own assumptions and reasons for writing this particular story.

It comes down to treating your disabled characters with the humanity that they (we) deserve.

[source]