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anneapocalypse · 2 years

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Dragon Age: Asunder

Crosspost. Originally posted on dreamwidth on 06/15/20.

A religion without ideals is tyranny.

–Divine Justinia V

"This is our power. We may unleash great destructive force, or we may control it. It is a choice we must make wisely, for this power can bring great suffering to others."

–Wynne

Asunder is the third novel in the Dragon Age universe, written by David Gaider and published in 2011. It takes place after Dragon Age II and before Inquisition. As a story, it deals with the growing tensions between mages and templars at the White Spire in Val Royeaux and across Thedas, and also explores some of the intricacies of magic in this universe, particularly with regard to Fade spirits.

At this time, following Anders' attack on the Kirkwall Chantry and the ensuing battle between the mages and the templars, the College of Magi has been dissolved. This means that the First Enchanters from the various Circles are no longer allowed to convene, effectively isolating the Circles from one another. At Val Royeaux's White Spire, a series of murders has drawn the attention of the Seekers, with Lord Seeker Lambert arriving to personally oversee an investigation.

Meanwhile, our old friend Wynne arrives at the White Spire about to embark on a mission to save a friend of hers from possession. She enlists the help of Enchanter Rhys and Knight-Captain Evangeline.

So yeah there's a lot going on in this story, and though it's not immediately clear how all the threads connect, they definitely do. There is also a plain old civil war in Orlais as well as the mage-templar conflict, with a lord looking to depose the Empress and take the throne. This is really only a vague backdrop in Asunder; we'll learn all about it in The Masked Empire.

Spoilers follow.

Rhys, Cole, and the Nature of Spirits

The arcs of these two characters are so deeply intertwined that I don't feel I can really separate them.

It turns out the main character, Rhys, is Wynne's son. This caught me by surprise as I'd totally forgotten that Wynne even had a son, but it's actually established in party dialogue in Origins. Rhys himself is a "spirit medium," and communicating with benevolent spirits is a particular talent of his and part of his research, though he has been forbidden from pursuing that research any further since the Kirkwall incident and the templars tightening restrictions.

Spirit healing is a particularly interesting specialization to me because if you read the Codex entries, you learn that this magic is specifically drawn from spirits perceived to be benevolent or at least nonthreatening—spirits of compassion, hope, faith, and so forth. Templars are wary of it, but it's not forbidden. Wynne held this specialization in Origins, as well as being the first character we meet who was bound (some might say possessed, though that's up for debate) by a benevolent spirit, which had saved her life in battle at Kinloch Hold.

I did not know Cole was in this book! I also did not know Cole was a SERIAL KILLER. Now I'm still early in Inquisition, so that information may be in there and I haven't gotten to it yet, but it was a surprise for me. This sure makes it interesting that he's a companion in the game, and also perhaps does not make a great case for benevolent spirits.

Cole calls into question what Rhys knows about spirits and about his own abilities. We ultimately aren't given a definite answer for why Rhys couldn't sense what Cole truly was, whether Cole was influencing his mind the whole time, or whether it was simply Cole's sincere belief that he was human that made him manifest as human to Rhys.

I kinda wish the development of Rhys and Cole's friendship had been shown in full and not just summarized, though I realize there probably wasn't room for it. Nevertheless, I though it was really interesting. Rhys is certain Cole is not a spirit—that if he has, Rhys would be able to sense him as such. But if you've met Cole in Inquisition, you already know that is in fact what he is, though as is revealed in the book's epilogue, there was a real Cole, a boy brought to the tower and forgotten in the dungeon where he died, alone save for the spirit of compassion who stayed with him and comforted him in his final hours. The Cole we meet is described as a young man, around twenty, so a bit older than I'd read him for in-game, and not a child.

Rhys also could not sense the spirit in Wynne. It seems that once a spirit has bonded to the soul of a mortal and they have become one, the spirit cannot be sensed in the same way. Presumably Rhys also would not have been able to sense Justice, had he met Anders. I am curious, then, whether Cole the spirit possesses any of Cole the human. It does not seem like he possessed his body, as Justice possessed Kristoff's, and I'm not sure that it's possible for a spirit to possess the soul of a mortal once they've died. It's very possible Cole is just a different case but it did make me wonder.

Hedge Magic

Cole is, or at least appears to be (and the human Cole probably was), what is called colloquially a "hedge mage" and formally "arcanist derangement." If a mage is left untrained and never learns to consciously channel their power through spells, their magic will express itself in involuntary and unpredictable ways—some of which may not even be immediately recognizable as magic.

Who is actually considered a hedge mage seems to depend on who you ask. The Chantry stance seems to encompass just about anyone trained outside the Circle&,mdash;the Chasind "witches," for example, or Avvar shamans. The wiki even lists Morrigan as a hedge mage, which to me seems frankly ridiculous. Morrigan possesses unusual abilities, most notably shapechanging, but based on the way Morrigan uses magic in Origins I think it is clear that she knows spells, and has great control over the magic she wields. Morrigan wasn't trained by the Circle, but she absolutely was trained. Morrigan and Cole aren't remotely in the same category to me.

Blood Magic

The story raises some interesting questions about the nature of blood magic, which I'd like to write more about later, but I'll cover it in brief here. Knight-Captain Evangeline, a templar at the White Spire, finds the use of phylacteries to track mages a little too close to blood magic for her tastes, "A bit of hypocrisy in the name of the great good" as she puts it. We actually see Evangeline use a phylactery in this game, by holding it and concentrating to "channel power" into it, causing it to glow brighter the closer it comes to the mage whose blood it holds. This definitely does seem like magic. I don't know what else it could be in the context of this universe. Templars are not mages but they are using magic which says some interesting things about the nature of magic and of lyrium specifically.

Similar questions have been raised in this series about the use of darkspawn blood by the Grey Wardens, and whether the Joining is a form of blood magic. My question is this: does anything involving both blood and magic fall into the category of Blood Magic? Or is Blood Magic specifically the practice of drawing mana from the life force contained in blood? Because see I would tend to say the latter, which would mean that neither the phylacteries nor probably the Joining qualify. But this does raise interesting questions about the nature of magic either way. One could also argue that demons are drawn to the spilling of blood in general, and so any spell or ritual involving blood will attract them, and this is what qualifies them as blood magic, not the act of drawing mana from the blood specifically.

The Circle and the Chantry

It turns out that Pharmond's research on the Rite of Tranquility was sanctioned by the Divine herself, who is actively looking for ways to change the Circle. This provides some useful context for Inquisition!

From Evangeline's point of view, we are told that "Once upon a time the Chantry had considered the idea of a mage rebellion unthinkable as well." I… highly doubt that this is true. That may well be the official stance, and Evangeline may well believe it, but I'm certain they've always been aware of the possibility. You don't create an order like the templars to maintain control of people without the awareness that they may resist that control.

It is pretty clear at this point that the Circle as it currently exists is not working. Asunder works well to highlight that even in the absence of the kind of egregious abuses we see in Kirkwall, locking up grown adults and treating them like children who can't control themselves does not foster safety. I've argued that some kind of checks on magical power are probably necessary to prevent abuses of that power and I still think that, but I also think that under the existing system, the templars have far too much power over other people, and that kind of power will lead to abuse.

The Seekers

If the Seekers of Truth are supposed to be overseeing the Templar Order, they seem to be doing a pretty abysmal job of it. Like where were the Seekers for the entire ten years before Anders' attack on the Chantry, when Kirkwall's troubled mages and templar abuses were known even outside Kirkwall? What were they doing all this time? Was Kirkwall a wake-up call that they hadn't been doing their jobs?

Lord Seeker Lambert reveals to us that he once served in Tevinter, where he was at one time sympathetic to mage freedom. What he saw there convinced him that mages will always take as much power as they can get by whatever means they deem necessary. Tevinter seems to have that effect on people. :P

Honestly, the Lord Seeker's case against Rhys—that he is under the influence of a demon who has caused him to forget what he's done—is so convincing I almost believe it. And it's almost true, but the stinger in the Epilogue is that it really was Cole alone, and not Rhys, who committed the murders, even though Rhys is still afraid he did it. This is made pretty clear when Cole kills Lord Seeker Lambert, proving that he did not need to possess a mage to carry out the murders.

It did not escape my attention that we have a different Lord Seeker in Inquisition than the one in this book, and because of that I predicted that Cole was going to kill Lambert before the end—and I was correct! Hilariously, it also took me most of the book to figure out that Lord Seeker Lamber is the guy on the cover. He's not really a main character, so I'm not sure why it was him. Rhys and Evangeline would have made more sense to me, or Rhys and Adrian, or even Wynne and Pharamond.

Tranquility

The twist on Wynne's possessed friend Pharamond is that he's Tranquil—and therefore shouldn't be able to be possessed at all.

The official word on the Rite of Tranquility is that it severs a mage's connection to the Fade, removing their desires and emotions so that they are no longer susceptible to demons and can no longer perform magic. Tranquil still possess free will and problem-solving abilities. Most Tranquil, if asked, will express contentment with their state.

However, we also have two canonical examples of Tranquility being reversed. In DA2, during the failed attempt to rescue Anders' former lover Karl, contact with Justice temporarily undoes Karl's Tranquility. Karl begs Anders to kill him rather than let him become Tranquil again.

Then here in Asunder, we have Pharamond.

Pharamond has been conducting research which has revealed to him what the Rite of Tranquility really is. The Tranquil are not immune to demons, merely undesirable to them, since without emotions and desires they cannot give a demon the experiences they crave. But a Tranquil can be possessed. They can even make contact with spirits under the right circumstances, and if a spirit touches the mind of a Tranquil, it seems their connection to the Fade may be restored.

This seems consistent with what happened with Karl and Justice; that it was only a temporary effect was probably related to Justice's unusual state, stuck in the physical world and bonded to a human.

Pharamond, as a result of his experiments, manages to reverse his own Tranquility. A restored Pharamond describes Tranquility as being like a dream, in which you know something is off but you cannot act other than the dream allows. This is certainly a chilling description. Pharamond, like Karl, ultimately would rather die than become Tranquil again. I think it's safe to say that regardless of how pleasant or unpleasant Tranquility is, it fundamentally changes a person, removing a vital part of who they are.

But despite how Pharamond describes Tranquility, we have the word of another Tranquil to consider. A Tranquil who chooses to aid the rebels later on remarks that "Obedience is prudent. To interpret it as a lack of free will would be an error."

Wynne

Wynne definitely feels like Wynne, but I'd agree with Rhys that she has changed, and I'm not surprised she has—it has, after all, been ten years, and the Wynne we met in Origins did not even expect to be alive ten years later. Seeing her through Rhys's somewhat distrusting eyes, I even wondered at some points if she was lying about their mission.

That Wynne acquired a taste for dwarven ale while in Orzammar delights me, as does her ongoing friendship with Shale, who also appears in this book!

As a sidenote, it took me reading this book to notice that Wynne in the game does not have a British accent like most Fereldans. Her voice actor is American.

It is noteworthy that Wynne is pro-Circle, in that she voted against the Circle breaking from the Chantry. It should also be noted that even pro-Circle mages do not tend to support templar abuses of their fellow mages. You might say they are reformists rather than total abolitionists. I bring this up because it is a contentious point in Inquisition concerning certain companions, and I think it is important to acknowledge that mages can be pro-Circle and pro-reform.

As the story progresses, we find Wynne pushed further and further to the side of the rebel mages, in large part to save her son's life. But it is revealed that her aspirations may have been a bit more radical all along than they initially appeared: after learning of the results of Pharamond's research, Wynne sent Shale to notify the nearest Circle and had them send word to every Circle in Thedas. I don't think she was hoping to start a war, but to give the Circles vital knowledge and bargaining power. Alas, things did not go as peacefully as she'd hoped, yet Wynne still contributed to the fight in a meaningful way.

It was nice to see Wynne herself struggle against temptation, in her desperation to save her son. It's not clear what actually would have happened had Wynne been able to use the staff Evangeline destroyed, but given the way Wynne acted while wielding it, I suspect some kind of demonic influence. (While there is no canon to confirm this, I also suspect this might be the Malign Staff that can be looted from a Hurlock general during the Battle of Denerim, which fits the physical description. The Corrupted Magister's Staff would also fit, but the Malign Staff specifically reduces willpower, which would make the user more susceptible to demons.)

In the end, Wynne sacrifices herself to save Evangeline, the templar her son loves, feeling that she is fulfilling the purpose for which the spirit of faith kept her alive. It's a good end for Wynne, and in its own way her death also supports the mage rebellion. Rhys is asked to take his mother's place in the Aequitarian fraternity, and by casting his vote to fight for their for freedom, it is he tips the balance. I actually teared up a bit when Rhys gave his speech, which is not simply about fighting but about letting go of their past assumptions about magic and everything around it.

Fiona

So Fiona is already Grand Enchanter at this point, elected fairly recently, and her election was so controversial due to her staunch Libertarian leanings that the Chantry reacted by disbanding the College of Enchanters so that they could no longer convene.

Reading this book, I really wanted to know why and how Fiona ended up returning to the Circle, because last we saw Fiona, she was a Grey Warden who had all but sworn she would never return to the Circle. And granted, it's been thirty years, so I wasn't questioning that it could happen, only the why and how. All she says in the book is "I came to the Circle from the Grey Wardens because I saw something had to be done."

From a Doylist standpoint, it was hard not to see this as purely a move to make "Fuck the Divine" Fiona important in Inquisition, because, you know, people like to hear familiar names. (And given the role the Wardens play in Inquisition, I wasn't sure why Fiona couldn't have been just as relevant as a Grey Warden, especially since she is now immune to the Calling.) The logical in-universe conclusion seemed to be that Fiona returned to the Circle for the specific purpose of pushing the Circle to secede from the Chantry and start a revolution.

The book offers no answers to this question. I checked, the wiki, however, and it seems that dialogue with Fiona in Inquisition does offer an answer. Apparently after the events of The Calling Fiona was not only immune to the Calling but cured of the Taint altogether—she was in fact no longer a Grey Warden, and due to her unique immunity, she was unable to re-take the Joining. And so, expelled from the Wardens, she was sent back to the Circle, where she decided she could do more good. I find that a satisfactory answer, and it seems to show some real character growth on Fiona's part.

Divine Justinia V

With my Fiona questions answered, I have one major lingering question, and it's about Divine Justinia V, formerly known as Revered Mother Dorothea of the Lothering Chantry. (And we're not going to get into how this poor woman appears to have aged 40 years in 13, because this post is not about the games.)

Divine Justinia is sort of a peripheral presence in this story but nonetheless an important one. Nothing directly comes of the attack on her by a solo mage early in the book, but it's pointed out later that said mage could never even have gotten out of the tower, nevermind anywhere near the Divine, without some templars at the very least looking the other way—and more likely actively facilitating.

At this time, Divine Justinia is a fairly radical voice in the Chantry, to the extent that I'm curious how she came to be Divine in the first place. Her election is said to have been controversial. Though it is suggested in Dragon Age II that Justinia is considering an Exalted March on Kirkwall to restore order, in hindsight perhaps we cannot be sure she would not have favored the mages or at least sought a more equitable resolution. It turns out to be Justinia who sanctioned Pharamond's research in the first place, and everything we see from here on paints her as a radically pro-mage Divine.

So how'd she get elected in the first place? This is really about more than Justinia herself; it points to a growing liberal streak within the Chantry leading to enough Grand Clerics willing to support a relatively young and pro-mage Divine who was not even a Grand Cleric herself.

The Doylist part of me says that Mother Dorothea ends up Divine because the writers really wanted Leliana to stay relevant enough to be in every single game, even when it meant overriding the player choice not to harden her in Origins (though you can always argue that if the Warden didn't harden her, some later experience did). But while I strongly suspect that's the case, I'd still like it to make sense in-universe, and maybe it does.

The wiki tells me that the previous Divine, Beatrix III, named Dorothea as her preferred successor, and though the Grand Clerics do have the power to overrule that appointment, traditionally they usually don't. Apparently, not enough of them found Justinia radical enough to veto, because she was elected Divine despite controversy. So why did Beatrix favor Mother Dorothea? I'm hoping to learn more about Beatrix in Dawn of the Seeker, the animated film about a conspiracy against the Divine which Cassandra helps to foil, and which I hope to watch soon!

Miscellaneous Lore

As our heroes trek across Orlais, coming in contact with common people along hte way, we are reminded that because most mages are taken to the Circle at a young age, your average person rarely has contact with a mage, and has little experience with them beyond what they're told.

Apparently the Black City is supposed to be the only constant in the Fade, visible on the horizon from any point in that realm. I will have to keep an eye out in the games from now on and see if it actually is.

This book (and The Masked Empire which follows it) makes a point of describing elves as having "strange alien eyes." It seems like the books are really leaning into DA2's redesign to make the elves look Different.

You're going to see the word "conclave" thrown around a lot toward the end of this book so I think it's important to note that we're not at any point here talking about the same Conclave at Haven that is destroyed at the beginning of Inquisition. A conclave in this context just refers to a gathering of mage leadership.

Final Thoughts

Asunder is a complicated story, but all of its threads really do come together in the end and I think it offers a great prelude to Inquisition as well as fascinating exploration of how magic and spirits work in this setting. Most important, I think, is the theme that Rhy's speech at the end highlights: there is so much the characters of this world do not yet understand about magic, spirits, the rites and rituals they have come to depend on, and the very nature of their world. Most of the major characters in this story have their beliefs called into question in one way or another, leading many of them to admit that they know far less than they thought they did.

It was a great read, and I really enjoyed it.

#dragon age #dragon age asunder #dragon age wynne #dragon age rhys #dragone age cole #dragon age evangeline #dragon age fiona #anne does dragon age #blunders of thedas #dragon age meta

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carriagelamp · 4 years

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Book Review - Summer Summary 2020

I didn’t get around to doing an individual post for the books I read in June/July/August, so I decided to choose a dozen that I read over the summer... I’d separate the wheat from the chaff for you so to speak. Though like you’re about to find out, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were all good by any means...

Crave

My girlfriend got this for me to “tide me over until Midnight Sun”. Between you and me, I think she was taking the piss. Anyway, Crave is very... standard fare paranormal YA school romance with the added flare of being written by an adult erotica writer, meaning the rhythm and tone of this novel is fucking bonkers. If you want to read the novel without reading the novel, just take Twilight and the entire Vampire Academy series, shove them in a blend, and force down the sludge you get from that. Normal Average Girl Goes To Secret School In Alaska For Vampire, Werewolves and Dragons. That’s this book. It is so big and so so so bad. I finished it out of spite, please don’t do that to yourself. Unless you are really craving (hurr hurr) some top tier trashy paranormal romance, in which case... no judgment.

The Last Firehawk

The Last Firehawk is a Scholastic “Branches” series, written for beginning readers (grade 1-3ish, depending on the child’s reading level). It has short stories, big text, and awesome pictures on every page. Guys. I unironically am adoring this series. It’s simple and is introducing children to a number of classic elements in the fantasy quest genre, but it is so charming. Friends Tag and Skyla discover a firehawk egg, and species that is supposed to have disappeared long ago. When Blaze hatches from it, the three are tasked with going out and finding the magical ember stone which was hidden long ago by the firehawks and which could be used to defeat the evil vulture Thorn and his dark magic... I read the first two books to second graders who ate it up and read the next four books because I personally wanted to continue the series. If you have young readers in your life (or just want a fun kid adventure) then please try these they’re the literary equivalent of nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie.

Lupin III: World’s Most Wanted #3

All the kind people that still follow my tumblr and haven’t tried to murder me because of my Lupin obsession are not going to be surprised by this one. I finally read one of the manga for this series and honestly I’m delighted. Somehow even hornier than the show, but hilariously funny. I felt like I was reading a more adult version of Spy Vs Spy. It’s a bunch of short, individual bits/adventures with lots of visual gags and an artstyle that is really different and delightful.

River of Teeth / Taste of Marrow (American Hippo series)

I’ve talked about River of Teeth before, but I finally finished the American Hippo duology and need to sing its praise. This is an alternate history series composed of two novellas that explore the question What would have happened if the States had decided to import hippos as livestock...? Anyways, my pitch for you: queer hippo cowboys. That’s all it took for me to read it. You have a gay gunslinger who loves his hippo to death, a nonbinary explosives-expert / poisoner who is the main love interest, a fat con artist who spoils her hippo and is the only voice of reason in this entire series, and a latina mother-to-be who is the scariest assassin in the entire series and is obviously scheming. The four of them are brought together on a job to deal with the Mississippi’s feral hippo problem.

IT’S A QUEER HIPPO COWBOY HEIST NOVEL GUYS I DON’T KNOW WHY I’M STILL TALKING AND YOU HAVEN’T JUST GONE TO READ THIS YET.

Petals to the Metal (The Adventure Zone series)

The graphic novel adaptation to the McElroy family’s DND podcast The Adventure Zone. Most of you are probably aware of this? It’s a great adaptation, it hits all the important beats, shows off the characters really well, and still gets lots of good gags in even while condensing entire arcs into single book stories. This one is probably my favourite so far just because Petals to the Metal was one of my favourite arcs in the show... but you can also see how the art has improved and the chaos of the race is fun to see drawn out.

If you like The Adventure Zone but haven’t tried the graphic novels yet -- would recommend! If you’ve always wanted to listen to The Adventure Zone but don’t have time for such a long series or struggle to focus on podcasts then pick up the first book of this series (Here There Be Gerblins) and try reading it! It really is an enjoyable adaptation.

Pony to the Rescue (Pony Pals series)

I continued my April/May theme of reading old-school chapter book series to combat Covid Brain Fry, so I picked up a few Pony Pals books. I read these as a kid and always enjoy them -- there’s just something so appealing to a child about having a horse. It gives your child characters a level of independence and ability to explore that you wouldn’t get otherwise. These books definitely read young, but they were nostalgic to revisit.

Small Spaces

A really cool middle grade horror novel I picked up. Maybe it’s because I live around a lot of corn fields, but farm/scarecrow themed horror absolutely does it for me. One evening, after seeing a woman try to destroy a strange, old book, eleven year old Ollie doesn’t stop to think, instead stealing the book and running. That’s how she becomes wrapped up in the strange, sinister story of a cursed family and creature called the Smiling Man that seems to live out in the foggy fields. While unsettling, Ollie tries to remind herself that it’s just a story... but this becomes more challenging when her school bus breaks down one day out their own set of fields, and a fog is rolling in...

“Avoid large spaces. Stick to small.”

Snot Girl #1 - #2

A Canadian graphic novel series by the creator of the Scott Pilgrim series! I love his work so I decided to give Snotgirl a try, even though it’s not generally my genre. I’m glad I did! First book took a while for me to get into, but by the time I hit the second I was really wrapped up in the mystery and character development. Snotgirl is about Lottie, a self-consumed fashion blogger whose biggest struggles are dealing with her allergies, frustration with her fellow-blogger friends, and how entirely her self-esteem is tied to her “beauty” and how people view her. But everything shifts in strange and horrifying ways when Lottie starts taking a new allergy medication, meets a new friend... and then witnesses that girl’s death. Or does she?

Seriously, or does she? I have no idea, I need to read the third book. This book is full of intrigue, complicated relationships, murder (or not?), and a healthy dose of magical realism to keep you guessing. If you like slice-of-life, crime, and abstract reality then this series is world a try. Plus the art is gorgeous.

Summer Wars #1 - #2

I recently rewatched Summer Wars (still one of my favourite movies) and decided to read the two-book manga adaptation. It was a really neat little adaptation. The creator of the movie gave the writer free range to tweak things to fit better in a manga format, which means some movie elements were allowed to fade into the background, whereas other aspects were fulled into the forefront and fleshed out to a greater degree. It was very cool, it kept the same story but gave you new things to think about which I wasn’t expecting. Reading this as a stand alone works just fine, but honestly if you’ve never watched the movie Summer Wars you should give it a try! It’s a great mix of slice-of-life, sprawling family dynamics that I relate to a little too well, cyber adventures, and fantasy. Super feel good.

This One Summer

Okay, last graphic novel, I swear. This One Summer was... weird and intense. It’s a coming-of-age Canadian graphic novel that follows a pair of pre-teens who meet up like they do every year at their family’s summer cottages. You see them both in the awkward phases between childhood and growing up to become teenagers, as they’re confronted with things like maturity, friendship, self-esteem, family problems, and sexuality. A beautiful read, but probably the heaviest out of all the books on my list.

Wild Thornberrys Novelization

I rewatched The Wild Thornberrys movie with my girlfriend earlier this year, and decided I wanted to hunt down the chapter book novelization because I’m kind of a sucker for novelizations. Honestly, this was about what you would expect from the era. 90s/00s novelizations, especially young novelizations, are generally just a transcript of the movie without much thought or effort put into them to make them anything but. That’s what this was. It was fine, and it really let me revisualize the entire movie, but honestly you’re probably better off just rewatching the movie unless you also really deeply love The Wild Thornberrys.

The Willoughbys

I saw that Netflix had done a funky looking adaptation of The Willoughbys and I decided I needed to read the book first before watching the movie. This was a little bizarre, I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Over all, I think it was a net-positive experience. It’s an obvious satire on classic children’s novels, especially the likes of Mary Poppins (real Mary Poppins, not the Disney version) and while a little heavy-handed, it does a Series of Unfortunate Events vibe that redeems it. The story is about a group of horrible children (The Ruthless Willoughbys) who decide they are sick of their parents and would rather become Worth Orphans... and to do that, they’re going to have to dispose of their inconvenient parents, obviously. Conveniently their parents are also sick of having children and decide to do away with them as well. The Willoughbys sets up three (or four?) different subplots that are gradually woven together through a series of schemes and exploits. It’s definitely more ruthless (hurr hurr) than the Netflix version, which tried to make the children more sympathetic, and in some ways I think that’s a definite point in the novel’s favour. I’m not sure I would go out of my way to recommend it, but it was a fun romp if you want something short and off the wall (and a lot more fleshed out than the Netflix version).

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thetakenpokemon · 4 years

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@askiceboundlopunny

Linda@Miyako: The dragoness wears a smirk as she approaches the legendary hybrid. “It seems a normal lopunny is difficult to find these days. You’re the third one in a row that I’ve seen with something to set them apart from your kind. But if someone told me that there was one of you out there that had THE dragon of ideals in their blood, I would have called them crazy. And yet here you are.” She stated as she tried her best to mask the excitement in her tone.

Her tails swayed back and forth behind as she placed a hand on her hip. “Now I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care to see just how much of their power you inherited for myself, since I’ve always dreamed of a fight with zekrom since I was a kid. But I can wait for that until after I hear how you ended up with it. Was it something you were born with, did you earn it through a test, or something else?”

She leans in a little with an eager look in her eyes. “Of course if you want to just have a spar instead I’d be more than fine with that too.”

[PoV: Miyako]

And here I was thinking that I’d have to go out of my way to talk to someone, but it turns out that someone seems to be taking the initiative. When I turn to address the source of the voice, I realize that I need to look up in order to even match the gaze of the person.

Wow… She’s…really tall…

She asks about the frequency of Lopunny hybrids, but here’s the REAL question: What is with Mienshao hybrids being so ridiculously tall?!

I thought Nynette was pretty big, but this girl here looks to be taller than her by a good couple of inches. This is definitely something I need to tell Nynette when I get back, since I can only imagine the surprised look on her face when she learns that she’s not the tallest of her species anymore~

...Not that I can NOT tell her, since…it’s impossible to hide information from her to begin with.

Sure Yinomi can always detect lies, but you can simply just not speak when around her. Nynette? She has Yinomi beat since that Mienshao can literally just rip the information from your mind. I suppress a shudder and focus back on the current Mienshao before me.

As she continues to speak, a grin widens on my face. “You got that right!” I exclaim with a laugh when she mentions about me having the blood of Zekrom in my veins. I couldn’t help but puff my chest, feeling pride swelling within me.

When she asks me a question soon followed with a challenge to spar, my red eyes glitter with excitement. The opportunity to fight? Sign me the hell up, it’s a rarity that I ever get to find someone who’s wanting to have a throw-down! Usually I have to force my ‘sisters’ to fight me!

Just as I’m about to accept her offer, I remember the reason on why I’m actually here. It…wouldn’t be a good idea to participate in any fights - even if they’re a friendly spar. I don’t think Iniko or Zenoclio would be very happy about it…

Yinomi wouldn’t be happy either, but I don’t give a fuck about her opinions. It’s the others that I’m worried about.

Visibly deflating, I let out a sigh and rub the back of my head. “Any other time I would’ve accepted that offer to spar in a heartbeat. I don’t believe my ‘sisters’ would be very happy if I were to start fighting with the locals, even if it’s consensual.”

As for her question? I think about it for a little while. Sure they said that there’s no actual reason to withhold information about our origins, is it really worth the risk? She’s asking about how I came to be after all…

…

Oh what the hell, it’s not like she can use it against us to begin with.

“For how much of Zekrom’s power I have...” I start. “I have most of it? All of it?” I scratch my head in thought before ultimately shrugging. “There’s not really any other Zekrom of decent caliber that I can make a comparison, but seeing how strong I am? I’d like to think that my power is one-for-one~”

“Now, in terms of how I became part Zekrom? I continue, unable to contain my laughter. “To be blunt, this isn’t really common knowledge. Then again it’s not a secret we’re keeping either, but more on the fact that it’s lost knowledge - lost to history, that is.”

I look at my clawed fingers, the black talons causing arcs of blue electricity to dance between them as they touch together. “I wasn’t born as a hybrid. I was just a standard Lopunny, having two standard Lopunny parents. Nothing really special about me if I’ll be honest.” I look back up at the purple Mienshao. “I actually was transformed into what I am now after discovering Zekrom’s Power. It infused itself into my being, transforming me into something that can properly bear its power.” I gesture to my entire self. “As you can see quite plainly, making me part Zekrom is the solution.”

I pause, realizing I should probably further elaborate since this might give her the wrong idea. “...Not that I was actively looking, I had no idea what I discovered when I first ran into it.” I continue before pausing again, recalling details that I haven’t had a need to recall in a…long while. “Well, I guess that’s kinda wrong too. I guess that I should say that I was…drawn to it without my knowing?”

Hmm, I guess memories can be rather hazy when you haven’t thought on them for a while. Not to mention it HAS been a long…long time ago since that fateful event…

“Sorry, trying to sort thing out.” I sigh again, shaking my head before crossing my arms. “To summarize: it chose me. It pretty much subconsciously guided me to it, and transformed me into what I am now. Went from your run-of-the-mill Lopunny into the rabbit who bears the power of the Dragon of Ideals~!” I grin widely at her, trying my best not to come off as TOO proud of my circumstance.

Well, I am kinda proud of it…

“’Course, I’m not the only one who’s part Legendary.” I say somewhat absentmindedly, scratching my cheek. “My other ‘sisters’ became a hybrid the same way, where they were chosen to become bearers of the power of their respective Legendaries.” I give a nod. “And that’s pretty much it on that matter.”

Now that I’m done answering, I decide to inhale strongly through my nose. The scent of the Mienshao filling my nostrils, answering one question about her that I was kinda bothering me.

I couldn’t help but offer a fanged grin. “…Gotta say... Ignoring the fact that the whole power thing needs to choose you, you most definitely don’t need it. I can already tell that you’re extremely formidable as you are~”

I start walking in circles around her, using my hands to occasionally lift her ribbons or tail to get a proper look at her body. “Quite obvious that you got dragon blood in you, I can smell it~” I purr. “Strong body, potent power, honed killer’s instinct…” To say that I’m impressed would be an understatement. “Girl, just by looking at you? I can tell that you’re an apex predator wherever you go~”

Man, I really really REALLY want to fight her. People in the outside world are rarely this strong - with the exception of the really powerful Dragons and stuff. I can only imagine how much fun I’d have…

I stop right in front of her, ending my somewhat personal inspection. “You know? I really like you!” I laugh. “Sure you being really strong and part-Dragon does contribute to it, but you wanna know the biggest factor?” I tap the side of my head, my grin growing wider. “It’s because you’re really idealistic~ Yet that’s not all! Not only do you got big goals and dreams, but I can tell that you’re making those dreams a reality, seeing how I can practically smell the power radiating from you!” The more I speak, the more fired up I become. “You say that you dreamed of fighting against Zekrom when you’re little? The mere concept of fighting a Legendary is something that others rarely think of. Hell, even those born in power would almost never entertain the idea of going against one.”

Maybe... Just maybe...it wouldn’t hurt to have one teensy, weensy little spar…? I mean, it shouldn’t be THAT big of an issue, right…?

No! Bad Miyako! You have a mission to focus on! Fighting can come AFTER you’re done!

...

It wouldn’t really hurt if it lasted for like a minute or so…right...?

…

I shake my head, trying my best to rid myself of those tempting thoughts. If I caved in now, I definitely would get chewed out by the others.

With my head at least partially clear, I remember something that kinda flew passed me. That specific thing would be called introductions.

I look at her sheepishly. “So... You got a name?” I rub the back of my head again. "...Even though my experience in the outside world is a bit on the limited side, I know for a fact that meeting someone like you is a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” Well, not that it really applies to me to begin with. “So not knowing your name would really suck.”

I jab a clawed thumb at myself. “If you want mine, you can call me Miyako! Miyo also works, since that’s what my friends refer to me as~”

Well, more like that’s what my ‘sisters’ call me, but that’s besides the point. This girl? She’s already my friend, and she has absolutely no say in this.

#askiceboundlopunny #ask #miyakoloprom #submission

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clevercatchphrase · 4 years

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2020 Year Review~

2020. Pretty unique year, don’t you think? It’s the first year since 2002 to have only two different digits in it. After 2022, this won’t happen again until 2111. Yep. Absolutely nothing more interesting than that.

Anyway! It’s time I reflect on my 2020, look back on my yearly goals and rant about things that happened to me this year. I made a post like this last year, where I went over my 2019 goals and talked about what I accomplished and what I didn’t, and it’s only fitting I do the same again this year. Read more under the cut for a random stream of consciousness ramble!

So, first things first, let’s look at my 2019 goals;

Finish paying off that last student loan

Put more stuff on my redbubble

Illustrate my own fan fics

Sew at least one stuffed animal

Make an enamel pin

Read one new book a month

Write one page a day/Complete at least one new fan fic

Learn Python or C# for the game I want to make

Finish fully scripting Ghost Switch

Boost my patreon

Paying Off My Last Student Loan: Going down the list, I am proud to say that I FINALLY paid off all my student loans! (and not a moment too soon. The last payment I made was literally days before the first quarantine rolled out). It took me roughly 4 years on my part-time paycheck to pay off all my loans, and once I finished, I had no money to my name (literally; I had less than 1k as emergency money in case of car troubles or health issues). Heck, I’m STILL living at home as a save up for a place of my own. Finally paying off all my student loans DID activate my secret 2020 new year’s resolution, which was to adopt a cat! I did this too, literally a week later! She is the best thing that’s happened to me this entire year and I love her so much and she is the snuggliest cuddle bug I’ve ever met. I’m so happy she’s in my life now~

Put More Stuff On My Redbubble: ah ha ha ha… I thought I did this, but then I went and checked, and it turns out-! I did not. I made art I intended to go on my redbubble, but haven’t put there yet. They are all drawings of some OCs from a game I want to make, but because I haven’t progressed on making the game this year, I never got around to putting more stuff related to it on my redbubble. At the time of writing, there are 7 days left in December, so I guess I could go and put it up on my redbubble right now, but without context on where the characters are from, there wouldn’t be much point, now would there?

Illustrate My Own Fan Fics: Another goal that I was so stoked to actually do… and then just didn’t. Gee, I wonder why I couldn’t find the energy or motivation to do it this year? Truly a conundrum. (Hey, you know what? If Ghost Switch counts as a fan fiction in a visual form, then I am doing GREAT on this goal. 2.5 years in, 1 of ~4 arcs done, and still going steady~)

Sew At Least One Stuffed Animal: Okay, I have a valid excuse for not doing this one. I even knew which stuffed animal I wanted to make, and had the pattern drawn out and everything, but I had no money for materials because I had just paid off my student loans. And then, by the time I did have enough money again, quarantine was in full effect and I couldn’t go out to the fabric store. I’m still trying my best to stay out of public places even if the rules are laxer now, because I don’t want to catch the plague even if everyone in my goddamn city thinks and acts like the problem is over already. Even if they’re all wearing masks, even if they’re staying 6 feet apart, I still don’t want to risk it. I will stay inside until health experts give the all clear, and when that day comes, then I will buy some fleece and make a plush.

Make An Enamel Pin: I ACTUALLY DID THIS ONE. TWICE! Halfway through quarantine, I was feeling anxious and depressed about my job and how they were planning to have me work with the public despite climbing infection rates and positive covid cases. I didn’t quit then, but in a desperate move to try and become self-sufficient, I went to madebycooper and made two enamel pins based on some butterfly dragons I drew last year. They’re on my etsy store now! I even went out of my way to open a P.O. box just to start a small business! I haven’t sold a single pin yet, and I’m actually really nervous to sell my first because I don’t trust the efficiency of the postal system thanks to the actions of the GOP that really screwed them over this year! (If you would like to see my enamel pins, click here!)

Read One Book A Month: I did this! With dragon books I bought a couple years back! In fact, I read FOURTEEN dragon books, and still have more books for next year to read! The 14 books I read this year were:

The Hive Queen

The Poison Jungle

Wings Of Fire Legends: Dragonslayer

Dealing With Dragons

Searching For Dragons

Calling on Dragons

Talking to Dragons

The Bronze Dragon Codex

The Brass Dragon Codex

The Black Dragon Codex

The Red Dragon Codex

The Silver Dragon Codex

Dragon Strike, and

Hatching Magic

To be honest, I had read The Red Dragon Codex years ago when it first came out, but completely forgotten what it was about. I remembered liking it, and I knew the reading level was on the lower side, but the whole dragon codex series was pretty good! So far, the Silver dragon codex was my favorite, and black dragon codex was probably the worst! Hatching Magic was also really slow and bad and had plot points that went nowhere, but the book was written in the 80s, so I don’t know what I expected. The Dealing with Dragons series was very charming and great for the most part, save for one line in the last book that really rubbed me the wrong way, and all the Wings of Fire Books go above and beyond in this third arc. The second legends book could be a little tighter, though (sky and wren are the best duo and I want a book solely about them, but I honest to god do not care about leaf and ivy’s stories.)

Write one Page of any story every day/ complete at least one fic: I… did this? Okay, I kinda cheated near the end of the year. I was keeping up the one page a day thing for the first four months, but then the world went to shit and my schedule and habits got disrupted and I fell off my good track record. I completed 7 out of roughly 12 one-shots I had planned for this year (my goal WAS supposed to be one short a month, but… you know how it happens) I kept trying to catch up on this goal all year, but the days kept piling up…. Until November hit. I managed to write over 250 pages for Nanowrimo, and I consider this goal a win. 365 pages of fiction in total, which averages out to about one a day~. SHUT UP IT COUNTS.

Learn Python or C# for the game I want to make: Another goal I didn’t have the mental energy to commit to this year. Truly a mystery to where all our willpower went in 2020.

Fully Finish Scripting Ghost Switch: still haven’t done this one yet! The Snowdin arc is completely planned, but I just haven’t gotten around to getting the other areas. I’m not worried, though. I know all the major plot points I gotta hit, it’s just weaving them together in a way that flows nice is the final task. I’m not too worried though. I don’t expect to finish the Snowdin arc for another year and a half, at the bare minimum.

And my last goal of 2020, Boost My Patreon. I did this at the beginning of the year, but then very intentionally stopped about a third of the way through. It didn’t sit right with me to tell you guys to donate to me when suddenly EVERYONE was financially strained from layoffs or being furloughed. I told my patrons the same, and if you ever need to stop donating to me to take care of yourself first, then by all means, please do. I would feel much better knowing you’re using your money to see yourself fed and housed instead of given to me (where it is pretty much only used to buy gas for my car, honestly)

Welp! That was all my goals for 2020! I achieved 4 out of 10 goals plus 1 secret goal! Pretty much the same ratio as last year, but now this time I can blame all my failures on the pandemic! I don’t feel so bad about myself anymore~

ON TO 2021!

I have 11 goals for the new year, again some rolled over from this list, and some from even older years. They are, in no particular order;

Read 12 new books (roughly 1 book a month)

Finish the first draft of 2019’s Nanowrimo project and rewrite it

Script TDV

Finish Scripting Ghost Switch

Build A Comic Buffer

Sew 1 Stuffed Animal

Finish 1 Song Comic

Make another Enamel Pin

Finish 2 short original comics (this one counts as 2 goals)

Finish the 5 remaining one-shot fics

Now to go into depth on each one, more for my own sake, really. I want to know exactly what I have planned for each goal this year, and sometimes just looking at a short list doesn’t capture all the smaller details.

1)Read 12 new books. Same as last year! I The only difference is I might not be able to make it all dragon-related books. (I try my hardest not to buy from amazon anymore, but half-price-books doesn’t always have the obscure stuff I’m looking for)

2)Finish 2019’s nanowrimo project. If you read my 2019 year reflection, you’ll notice I said I wanted to do some original writing. And I did! The story I wrote for nanowrimo back then was a story I’ve been toying with since 2017, but it was only last year I finally got pen to paper. Now, you may find it odd that the keyword says “finish”. You may think, “but isn’t that what you’re supposed to do for nanowrimo?” and to that I say, WRONG! I wrote 50k words for nanowrimo, but the draft was only about halfway complete. I was kinda discouraged about what I had written last year, because I didn’t like how it was coming out, but I did manage to get it half done. Now it’s time for me to bite the bullet and just finish the thing so I can finally revise it and make it into something I DO like. (It’s still gonna be hella long, tho. That’s what I get for trying to write an epic fantasy, I guess.)

3)Script TDV. TDV is the abbreviation of the game I want to make. I… still need to do so much for this project OTL… In addition to getting the story solidified, I still need to draw art and game assets, and learn how to code for it, both of which are no small task. I keep having some sort of new year’s goal related to this on my list, and every year I just don’t hit this one. Will 2021 be different?

4)Finish Scripting Ghost Switch. (Or at the very least, get the waterfall arc completely written out). I have a plan to break this down into simpler steps, by focusing on just one arc for a month or two. Every major arc has 2 to 3 parts, broken up by flashbacks, and if I can just finish one section a month, then I should have the entire thing scripted by the end of the year. It’s not a difficult pace, but seeing if I stick with it will be the real challenge, as it is will all my goals it seems.

5)Build a Comic Buffer: I’m actually working on this one right now! Since I paid off my last loan and got a new job this year, my current Patreon goals are kind of out of date. They had all been centered around me paying off that last loan, and working towards full-time employment, but those are both completed now! So instead, I would love to get to a place where my patrons could read pages at least a week ahead, and to do that, I need to build a buffer. And since I’m working 5 full days a week now, I can’t afford to fall behind. But you can’t fall behind if you constantly stay ahead! I would like to have… a 10 to 12 page buffer. That’s roughly 3 months’ worth of pages to always have on hand in case I get swamped with work, or something. Right now I currently have a buffer of 3, which will cover me for half a January, which is better than not having anything at all, but still not the best. (ultimately, I would love to have a buffer so big, I could queue them up for the whole year. Wouldn’t that be something?)

6) Sew one stuffed animal: same as last year. ASSUMING the plague gets under control in 2021, I don’t expect to get to this goal until the summer at the earliest.

7)Finish 1 song comic: I have 7 song comics planned. One is a gift, one possibly for wandersong, one is a collab that’s currently in the works, but I’m waiting on a friend to do their part before I can continue mine, 2 are UT related, and 2 (well, technically 3, but one is the collab) are KH related. It’s one of the UT ones that will probably get finished, if I’m being honest. It’s completely story boarded, and now I just need to ink and color it. I would like to get it done for UT’s 6th birthday, since I made a song comic on the fly for the anniversary this year, and it was fun, and I’d like to do it again! So, look forward to that next september~

8) Make another enamel pin: I have a dolphin design I’d like to make because dolphins are cute, if not little murder machines. (need to save up some expendable income first, tho. THESE THINGS AIN’T CHEAP TO MAKE.)

9 and 10) start and finish 2 original short comics: I’ve got some comic ideas I want to do, but I need to get them written out first. I don’t think either would be too long. Each maybe a couple “episode’s” length, if envisioned on a website like webtoons or tapas. They’d both be heavy in allegory, but not overly drawn out (hopefully)

11)And lastly, Finish the 5 remaining one-shots I had planned for this year but never got around to. I’m going to try to write one every other month. Pure self-indulgent shipping fluff. If I finish these 5, then maybe I’ll ask other people for more prompts and ideas, which I’ve never done before. We’ll see how it goes~

Also, Like last year, I’d like to look at everything that’s happened to me this year, though to be honest, I’m not sure how much I remember/how accurate it’ll be. God, I don’t even remember what January was like. Who was I back then? Who were we all back then? I guess I’ll start my yearly retrospective in march because, heh, god we ALL know what started happening in march.

Firstly, I paid off my last student loan! Then a week later on March 18th, I drove half an hour out of my city to adopt a cat and I love her and it was the best day of this year for me. Spring break is just beginning this weekend, but the attendance at the zoo is shockingly low this year. Apparently, a lot of people watch the news, and they’re all taking precautions about social distancing. I wasn’t too disappointed. Fewer people at the zoo, the easier my job is for me. I was looking forward to getting some free overtime on spring break, since I’m broke after paying off that loan, and I’m a cat parent now and have a furry child to feed. Monday rolls around. My manager calls me and tells me that the zoo is going into lockdown until further notice. I worry for the birds I take care of, but understand it’s for everyone’s safety.

For two months I sleep in and watch way too much YouTube. I join a couple writing discords. I have nightmares about my birds escaping their enclosure and I dreamed one of the security guards I really like at the zoo gets covid and has to go to the ER. I woke up really upset.

I started and finished BBS for the first time. I also replayed and finished KH2 final mix for the first time. It had been about 5 years since I last played KH2 before my PS2 died, and it was like coming home~ I also finished tearaway, and played and beat Ryme for a second time (which I can’t remember if I did that last year, but it was a fun experience regardless)

Mid-June, and I’m allowed to start going back to work, be it on reduced hours. The zoo is still closed to the public, but I’m loving it! I get to work with full-time keepers and do full-time keeper things. It’s so much fun not having to deal with the public. August starts to creep up and there’s a rumor that the zoo will be opening to the public again, which I’m not stoked about. I don’t want to go back to standing in one exhibit all day, talking to guests who don’t listen to the rules or to me. 2 of my younger coworkers (who had both only been there a couple of months) get chosen for full-time positions, while I get passed up which really pisses me off. My other 2 coworkers quit when they think we might be reopening because they cannot risk catching the virus due to at-risk family. I am now the last keeper in the interactive bird exhibit.

I keep working, the zoo slowly opens, but with me as the only interpreter in our interactive bird exhibit, we can’t open because I can’t run the entire exhibit by myself. So my exhibit stays closed. September comes and goes, and then October starts. Now there is more serious talk of opening my exhibit before the end of the year because the zoo expects to bring in larger crowds for the Christmas lights event in November/December. I ask if I get hazard pay or health insurance since I’m doing full-time hours until they hire more staff. They say no.

I immediately start searching for a new job feeling incredibly indignant/hurt/slighted/insulted/used/abused/ALL the negative feelings at my job. I had been there for 4 years, but never got a chance to work full time, while the two newest hires who had only been there 2 months both got moved up. I can’t help but feel they were holding one mistake I made two years ago against me and never wanted to give me a chance. (that, or they knew I was reliable when it came to showing up for work in such a volatile position that sees a lot of new faces, and they didn’t want to bother going through the process of hiring someone new) I don’t want to risk my life working around guests who don’t wash their hands and don’t properly distance. I don’t want to gamble with my health when they won’t offer me health insurance because I’m part time.

Mid October, I get an interview for a full time job and get hired on the spot. I peace out at the zoo 2 weeks later, literally 3 days before they planned to open my exhibit to the public. It was a close call for me to escape before they opened to the public (and pettiness was only partially the reason I dipped out so close to opening). Sorry new hires who are now in charge of the bird feeding exhibit. I taught you the best I could in the short time I had. If the managers are struggling with what to do with one less person, I can’t say I feel bad. I can only hope they delayed opening/closed you down again for your own safety. You are not lightbulbs. I really hope the higher ups stop considering you as replaceable as one. Will I go back to the zoo to visit? Probably. But not for a year at least.

I started my new job the very next day after I quit the zoo, and have been there ever since, (which isn’t that long yet, tbh. Christmas day was my 2 month anniversary). It’s full time, but it’s also a small business, and everyone’s hours this year have been on the short side due to the plague. I understand, though. They don’t want us to work if they can’t afford to pay us. Everyone is nice enough, though some people smoke and it’s hard to avoid them with how frequently we have to go in and out, and I really don’t want to get lung cancer, sorry not sorry, please and thank you. Also, with such a small team, gossip is certainly harder to go undetected, so it’s a relief knowing people don’t talk behind one another’s backs.

I participated and beat my 4th nanowrimo in a row, I made TWO apple crisps on thanksgiving, and made baklava on Christmas and both of these recipes were my first time making them, and they both came out adequately! I voted the first day of early voting, and I did an art trade/collab with two of my friends for my birthday! (normally we would have done monthly “art days” where we get together and do art projects for fun because we’re adults and we can spend our time together however we want, but the plague said otherwise this year) We drew pokemon and it was fun! (hopefully I can show you all the results soon. At the time of writing, I’m still waiting for the last two colored parts to get back to me)

I reached 100 pages on my undertale comic, and finish the first arc out of…! (im not sure. It’s either going to be 4 or 5, I haven’t decided yet)

Over all, I managed to stay healthy as far as I know. I wasn’t as productive as I wanted to be this year, but then again, who was? (don’t answer that. I don’t need that kind of comparison in my life right now)

Will 2021be any better? Honestly? I don’t think so. Not right away, at least. Just because a new year is about to start does not mean the slate is completely wiped clean. The change of the calendar year doesn’t magically make all our current problems disappear. Covid will still be here and cases will still climb when January starts. Small business will still be strained when the month rolls over, police will still go on murdering innocent civilians and getting away scot free, amazon and disney will still be monopolizing all consumer goods and media, and I can’t help but feel like there’s an impending shit show about to go down on inauguration day. I do hope things will get better, though. It’ll be arduous and unpleasant, but I do hope things will improve, because sometimes hoping is all you can do.

Good night.

#long post #new year's resolutions #year review #year retrospective

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auburnflight · 5 years

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Story Structure and Focus in FE: Awakening vs. Fates

I wasn’t familiar at all with the premise of Fire Emblem before my friends nudged me into playing Fates. I didn’t know how all the games in the series were connected (or weren’t). So now that I’ve started playing Awakening, of course I’ve had to get used to completely different characters, settings and timelines. I Given that the gameplay and premise are similar on a surface level (i.e. you’re playing through strategic battles in a broader war and there’s probably a dragon somewhere), I think one of the biggest differences I’ve had to get used to is where their stories place their focus.

I got really used to delving deeply into individual characters in Fates, and to seeing how the conflicts in their motivations affect the emotional aspect of the story. So my connection with Awakening wasn’t as immediate, and it confused me at first. I haven’t completed Awakening yet, so I can’t form as complete of an impression as I can for Fates. (At this point, I’ve played through Birthright once and Revelation twice--I don’t think I have the skill or the emotional strength for Conquest.) But after playing through 15 chapters of Awakening, what I’ve gathered is that Awakening is more plot-driven in structure, where Fates is more character-driven. Given that I don’t have much background on Fire Emblem as an overarching whole, these are the places where I noticed the differences most:

Main Plot

In both titles, the flow of the war makes up the main part of the narrative structure. Primarily in Awakening, though, most of the dialogue and cutscenes leading up to battles center on concrete events: important locations, encounters, and occurrences that turn the tide of the war in one direction or the other. And the means through which Robin helps drive the plot forward typically involves the strategies they devise.

Meanwhile, the plot of Fates has more of an emotional pitch that places importance on Corrin's internal conflict and how it drives interactions with other characters. As the player character’s decision on whom to side with determines the rest of the plot, we see more emphasis on the tension among the characters whom Corrin considers family than we do exact details of the war's course. Expressions of regret that Corrin must fight those who were previously considered kin, and cutscenes that really play up this inner turmoil, are common. Differently from in Awakening, war is simply the setting, while family (whether blood-related or found) is the central theme.

The Revelation route of Fates, out of necessity, becomes somewhat more plot-driven than the other two routes. in order to explore multiple nations and expand upon the events of Birthright and Conquest, it features a considerable amount of locations and occurrences that become the new area of interest. It thus becomes more outwardly similar to Awakening in structure than the other routes are.

However, in spite of this, I found in playing Revelation after Birthright that the continuity and logic of Revelation's plot felt significantly weaker. Perhaps this is inherent in the premise of Revelation—Corrin is attempting the insurmountable task of bringing together two nations in the heat of a deeply ingrained conflict, while dealing with a third element that would not have appeared in the previous routes. Where this creates noticeable disjointedness and massive leaps of faith in the linear plot, it's driven by the aim of befriending as many allies in a single storyline as you can, against impossible odds. Naturally, the characters whom you’ve worked so hard to befriend become more of an area of interest.

Fates also places more importance on learning about the characters' individual motivations. In Awakening, bosses are often introduced briefly, without any backstory or particular reason to be fighting them aside from the nation with whom they are allied. Meanwhile, in Fates, the characters who appear as bosses in the main storyline are often characters Corrin knows already; they are deeply integrated into both the emotional and the plot-related aspects of the story, where issues of trust and betrayal are forefront.

Gameplay Structure

The drive to learn more about characters' individual arcs in Fates is also reflected in the structure of gameplay between main plot points. In Awakening, the glimpses into individual characters are limited to support conversations and a randomly generated set of "events" in the barracks. Comparatively, these are few in number and variety. In contrast, the castle setup of Fates is highly individualized and enables in-depth exploration. Outside of battles, the player can freely walk around in a dedicated space that they customize. Other characters actively appear in that space, and further conversations and backstory tidbits can be found by choosing to spend one-on-one time with them. There is much more room to explore the development of individual characters and interact with them, in a more freeform manner, and in far more different contexts than allowed in Awakening.

Support Conversations

Finally, I noticed going from Fates to Awakening that support conversations on the whole are treated very differently. Support conversations in Awakening tend to be longer, and the three* tiers typically connect in a single story with a traditional structure: exposition, conflict, resolution. Characters may have quirks that give them “quick reads,” allowing the player to determine how they participate in a plot driven by events, without their backstories overwhelming too much of it. Conversations have a strong focus on what is physically happening, which means that getting a read on how the characters are thinking and why is often not as easy or immediate. But in an intentionally plot-driven approach, where you’re more concerned with the war’s overarching events and main players than with any one side character, this approach is more efficient.

(*or four tiers. On top of the previous points, relative to Fates, support is just plain HARD to unlock in Awakening. I haven’t yet unlocked S between any two characters except where the one was forced in the course of the story--so I can’t yet comment on how those are different.)

Support conversations in Fates may not always be as complex in comparison, or as connected in a linear fashion (many still are, but several are not). Instead, the characters typically have distinct ways of acting and thinking that are revealed and then investigated further, whether or not this creates a single connected plot. Each conversation integrates how characters are feeling and why. This makes it easier to become emotionally invested in the individual characters (whether you love them or decide you really dislike them). For characters who have a notable or immediately visible quirk, the “quick read” remains important without neglecting deeper levels of character development, even if this means the literal events that take place are more nonsensical, or seem less relevant to the main plot of the game itself.

As an example, a version of Gaius appears in both Awakening and Fates, offering a direct comparison of the approaches between the two games. In the former, Gaius’s sweet tooth is what motivates him to join Chrom’s band (upon the offer of candy), and what leads to many escapades that occur in his support conversations with other characters,. But it’s not given much weight in other aspects of his character. Meanwhile, in Fates, the corresponding character Asugi’s pursuits of sweets, a sort of instant gratification, is placed in conflict with the more long-term, wide-scope question of fulfilling one’s duty to family and to society. This conflict influences Asugi’s relationships with other characters throughout support conversations, including his parents, in a more layered fashion.

Conclusion

Obviously, a character-driven versus a plot-driven approach is not inherently stronger or weaker--it really depends on the person experiencing the story. As someone who is drawn more toward characters than plots, and for whom Fates holds a lot of sentimental value in being my introduction to the Fire Emblem series, I personally found that it was harder for me to become interested in Awakening. But being able to articulate why has helped me stick with it long enough to get to the really good parts. Perhaps having different play styles even has something to do with it, too.--I’m not much of a gamer (Fire Emblem had and still has a massive learning curve for me). I usually prefer to read, and to read stories that have lots of character development! So to me, on the rare occasion that I pick up a new game, a reason to care about the characters is just as important in getting me to stay with it as the gameplay experience itself is. Now that I’ve unlocked enough characters to choose to play with who I like, and the character-driven questions (like who Lucina is) are becoming more consequential, I’m excited (and dreading) to see where it goes!

#fire emblem #fire emblem fates #fire emblem awakening #text #analysis #happily a spoiler free essay!#long post

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difficultycheck · 7 years

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Review: Princes of the Apocalypse

by Colin Padgett Arnold

After running it for seven months, my home table has made it through the first four dungeons of Wizards of the Coast’s Princes of the Apocalypse, an adventure book for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. This comprises the book’s first act and covering roughly a third of its content. I figured this was as good a point as any to reflect back and review the book thus far. Specifically, I’ll be covering Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6, & 7 as well as Appendices A, B, & C.

Some quick notes for bias and control. I am a fairly experienced GM with most of my experience running games spread over D&d 4th Edition, 13th Age, and Dungeon World, and experience playing in just about everything else. The players consist of two experienced role players and table top gamers, two experienced creatives who have none the less never touched an analog role playing game, and one inexperienced player with impeccable comedic timing - a fine mix of sagely wisdom and fresh perspectives. The party is made up of a cleric, a paladin, a ranger, a barbarian, and a warlock. Suffice it to say, they are running a surprisingly balanced party with one more player than ideal for the adventure, but not enough to have to necessarily change anything prewritten. I won’t be detailing the specifics of how my players have played through the adventure, but if you’d like to follow my group’s exploits against the elemental cults then you can find us at #Kru.

Addendum: when I originally started writing this the group was seven months in, now we’re a whole year. A combination of me putting off covering the appendices and summertime simply being a busy time of year for me professionally had this just not happen! In a few weeks they’ll be through Chapter 4 with several more Side Treks under their belt. However, I won’t be covering that chapter in depth. Each of the dungeons in Chapter 4 are impeccably well designed and where the game really shines. The problem is, it’s also where the game becomes infinitely mutable. While you can run each of these as a highly tactical dungeon crawl, players can also get by them largely through skulduggery and diplomacy or, my favorite, using a cataclysmic weapon of the cults introduced in this chapter along with a myriad of spells and abilities to upend the sand box. My players have done all three, including clearing a dungeon entirely by leveraging a character’s backstory and the character arc we’ve been building to destroy it in a handful of encounters. Chapter 4 will be truly different for every single group that plays it, especially if the dungeon master is heavily integrating their players’ characters and backstories.

At a Glance

Princes of the Apocalypse is a heavy tome at 256 pages, brought to us by Sasquatch Game Studio. Its lead designer, Richard Baker, has had a prolific career in game design running Forgotten Realms development during the early 2000s, working on D&d since it’s TSR days, and writing a number of other games and novels. Princes was specifically written to bring the classic Temple of Elemental Evil storyline and concept into 5th Edition and to create a more free form foil to the previously released Tyranny of Dragons story line. The adventure sees you going on a hex crawl inspired by the classics to take down four cults devoted to elemental magic in a sleepy frontier valley. The scenario is structured into three acts, each one delving into a deeper layer of dungeons controlled by the elemental cults and is designed to take a party of four adventurers from level 3 to 14. It also contains two short adventurers to take a party of level 1 characters up to the book’s starting point.

On the whole, I’m on the fence on how effective Princes is at being an exploration game. Taking place in the Dessarin Valley just inland of Forgotten Realm’s Sword Coast, the meat of the adventure takes place in a measly ten hexes of a sum nine hundred and ninety hex map. Occasionally the book proper takes you out of this clump, and the adventure’s side quests are all far reaching into the rest of the valley. However, I’ve had to very heavily bait the party to any part of the map that isn’t the small neighborhood of scrub hills the elemental cults are based in. Not because they don’t want to explore the world, but because comparatively the distance to any extra location is two to four times the distance between the town Princes starts you in and the cults themselves. The game certainly is a sandbox as every situation has a number of vectors to approach from and contexts to find it in, but I rarely see my players tempted off the major roads and landmarks.

The cults themselves, who at the start are organized in four surface level strongholds, seem to have been designed with a “correct” order in mind, with each one being balanced around a party level one higher than the last. While a smart party could certainly take down the level 4 or even level 5 dungeons right out of the gate, the “final” stronghold is filled with a number of enemies capable of casting Fireball. A level 3 or 4 party simply doesn’t have the mechanics to deal with or throw back that kind of firepower. Likewise, each stronghold has an entrance to that cult’s corresponding Act II dungeon and each one feels like the natural place to proceed in the moment. This does, however, land the party into dangers designed around a party 4 levels higher than they are.

I feel like Princes has two separate games inside it, just playing with the same elements. You can certainly run the game like Tyranny of Dragons or the Starter Box, with a lightly railed plot where the party goes around kicking in doors, one dungeon at a time. The surface text almost expects it. Each of the main villains of Act I’s “how to role play” blurb ends with “and then they probably just attack the party.” If you want traditional, heroic, storm-the-dungeon fantasy then Princes has you, which is weird because that’s not what it says on the tin.

A smart party that approaches Princes like a sandbox game will do perfectly fine in Act I as long as they at least half expect to get in over their head. That level 6 dungeon with all the Fireball casting mages? It’s a rickety tower in disrepair with spotty defenses that, if players have a mind to, could just be burned down with minimal effort. Every cult has a fairly easy way to infiltrate their ranks with a subtext that the players might even seriously join one. And the NPC villains are certainly more fun to play in Act I when they’re more concerned about their rival cults than this band of adventurers loping through the valley.

Ironically enough, the things that have helped motivate my players to range far away from home and the cults themselves have been trying to scrounge up resources, aid, and solutions when they’ve bitten off way more than they can chew. I think where the genius of this design comes in is when you run it as a sandbox for players that haven’t learned how to approach one. Yeah, I’d prefer if all four of the “Haunted Keeps” where on more even difficulty with each of them having some threats that were particularly too much to deal with. But looking forward to Acts II and III, I’m hoping that the rather large disparity of letting a party walk into a dungeon twice their level at the start of play is to help teach players how to scout, retreat, and really think about when they should fight, talk, or completely circumvent a problem. Princes really does present you with an exquisite chess set to play around with, even if the directions themselves are rather straightforward. There are relatively few cues for how to use the NPCs and their resources outside of letting the players roll up on dungeons, but each cult and character’s motivations are clear, concise, and interesting. I’ve honestly been surprised how easy it’s been to go off book with this adventure and have it still feel seamless to what’s already there. Any game master with a little experience willing to play back and forth with their players will find a fun way to run it.

Whew, that was a long glance.

Chapter 1: Rise of Elemental Evil

Simple enough, the first chapter gives you a sweeping backstory for the adventure. Four cults each drawn to a different Prince of Elemental Evil (supremely powerful beings who are each King of an Elemental Plane and associated with air, earth, fire, and water respectively) have taken up residence in some ancient castles on top of an ancient Dwarven city on top of some spooky Underdark caverns. A diplomatic mission to Waterdeep gets kidnapped by these cults, which kicks off the whole adventure. Chapter 1 details the philosophy of each cult and their elemental master, along with the history and motivations of each cult’s Prophet - the leaders that are ultimately going to be your big villains at the end of the game. Out of any of the story set up, I think the character write ups on the Prophets are the best things in this book. I’ve been so anxious to introduce them, I’ve been giving my players short aside scenes to build them up between major events. Every one of them has something akin to the Sending spell to start a real dialogue with the player characters, though it’s unlikely they’ll be on the cults’ radar until after Act I.

For players, there’s a list of several adventure hooks to give characters a reason to join the adventure. Some are cryptic rumors to help lead the party to any of the first four dungeons. Some are connections or bounties to encourage a character to seek out and deal with certain mid level villains in the cults’ chains of command. Some help reveal hidden information about the dungeons that lay beneath the valley, and a few even point all the way to the final dungeons. Regardless, each hook is a hint and a set of criteria for the character to receive 2-4 inspiration points. A little advice: don’t give out the adventure hooks that won’t pay off until the end game. If you plan on making your players stick with character deaths, you’ll need them to help fold in new characters. If you like to play fast and loose with character death so that it only happens when it matters to the story and characters, then you can always assign new, relevant adventure hooks at the start of each Act.

If you’re a big fan of Forgotten Realms, 5th Edition’s focus on Faerun’s faction system makes an appearance in this book as well. Each faction has an investment tied up in the delegation that goes missing at the start of the game, and each is represented by agents across every settlement in the valley. If a player would like to start as a part of a faction they get an easy in on the adventure, but there’s no additional benefit. My group elected not to start with any affiliations, and has still managed to frequently interact with them. The book leaves plenty of room to encounter the various factions at your leisure, and they feature in several of the Side Treks.

Chapter 2: the Dessarin Valley

Princes is set in the Dessarin Valley, a frontier wilderness off the Storm Coast of Faerun. Chapter 2 details the various towns, villages, and settlements throughout the valley, provides random encounter tables, and contains a helpful map of the whole region and all the various hidden fortresses and goodies. The most in-depth attention is paid to Red Larch, the town the adventurers start in.

Red Larch is a tiny little crossroads town with about twenty or so major businesses and locations for the players to interact with. It has everything from competing caravan carpenters and an adventurer supply shop to agents of every major player faction and either a spy or lead for every cult. Each location has an entry describing it’s look, business, and the key NPCs that reside there. Some also have entries for leads relating to the cults’ business in the area (Rumors of Evil) and secret agendas concerning the townsfolk for an optional side quest (Trouble in Red Larch). Of particular note: the local temple hosts shrines to any god imaginable and is manned by a single priest who is relieved every two weeks. The initial NPC is a contact for The Gauntlet faction, and getting the players involved with rotating clergy can give them a more personal connection to the outside world and the powers and resources of Waterdeep, the nearest major city, without having to abandon the adventure to actually go there.

The other half of the chapter details exploring the valley. Every major settlement or location has a quick description, details on any NPCs that might be found there, and a summary of why in the world the players would even want to go there. Mostly this details which faction can be found where, what can be bought, and whether or not the place is tied up in a side quest. All the locations have some nice flavor but, again, they are all particularly out of the way.

Aside from distance, my only real complaint is that the valley is inhabited overwhelmingly by humans, and humans end up being most of the cultists as well. Feel free to spice that up as you see fit. I certainly like my fantasy to be a little more fantastic, and you have plenty of room to add in things without out-shining some of the crazy stuff the cults will bring to the table.

A note on the scale of the map: the book’s scale says 1 hex = 10 miles, while the errata for the book says 1 hex = 4 miles. I’ve been operating under the errata’s listing but using The Alexandrian’s guide for traveling a Hexcrawl. Even ignoring terrain types, this travels a little slower than rules as written 5th Edition. However, even when running 5th Edition’s travel times, 10 mile hexes make most locations a week or more away, which doesn’t always match up with cues and notes throughout the book.

It does, however, match up with the math for random encounters. Princes’ random encounter check will have you encountering something every 3 or 4 days which is perfect for 10 mile hexes but with 4 mile hexes leaves the players mostly alone in the wilderness. If you go with 4 mile hexes, which I highly recommend, either roll double the twenty sided dice when doing random encounters or just throw in one whenever you deem it appropriate.

The biggest thing this adventure is missing is some kind of random weather or event table. The book frequently mentions how the Elemental Planes are affecting the valley, changing the weather, and disrupting daily life. Aside from the random encounter table, the cults themselves, and a few events keyed off of hitting checkpoints like clearing dungeons, Princes largely leaves it up to you to narrate. I would have loved to have a few prewritten tables for flash fires, thunderstorms, or earthquakes just to remind myself to remind my players the huge stakes early in the adventure.

Chapter 3: Secret of the Sumber Hills

One of the most important parts in this section is right on page 41 in a grey text box. This little box lists the level around which each of the four major dungeons are designed around, and suggests letting the players gain a level every time they clear one of the haunted keeps. This is fine if your players are clearing the scenario cleanly and easily. However, if your group embraces the sandbox aspect a little more or really likes tracking experience, take note: the math for experience in this adventure does not match up to rules as written. Raw experience for a four person party comes a few hundred short even with side quests under 5th Editions rules of only rewarding experience for killing, routing, charming, or otherwise neutralizing another creature. So feel free to throw them some extra exp for role playing, story events, creative problem solving, or whatever.

The first section gives details on how to get the players out the door. Details from any of several factions come in that an important diplomatic delegation has gone missing in the Sumber Hills, your own little neighborhood of the Dessarin Valley. A variety of clues can be found in Red Larch which can lead the the party around the local area in a simple investigation with a few combats. At the very least, the clues should get the party started and lead them to the Water, Earth, or Air cult dungeons. Just after this is a section titled “Cult Reprisals” with encounters to run after each dungeon to point them towards a new target. The Air and Water cult encounters expressly include directions to their bases, and fairly easy to find information in the Early Investigations lead directly to the Earth and Fire cult bases. If all else fails, the Air cult’s Feathergale Spire is visible on the horizon of Red Larch.

Of the four dungeons, Feathergale Spire is the most scripted. The party can walk right in, socialize, go on a quick hunting trip, and get back in time for the game master to figure out how long they want to stretch this one out. The air cult here is the easiest of the four mechanically, but strategically as a tower in the middle of a canyon with knights mounted on vultures it’s the hardest structure to assail by force. If they can charm their way through the front door, which is an easy task, they shouldn’t have any problems. The unit gives you two named NPCs: a rather blank knight named Savra who’s pretty easy to take in any direction you want, and the tower’s captain Thurl Merroska who will be an easy way to make the players distrust any NPC of authority they meet for the rest of the campaign.

The second dungeon, Riverguard Keep, is located on the major river of the area. The book recommends playing it out as a mercenary group attempting to renovate the castle to protect the river from pirates, who they secretly are. Fairly quickly my players gathered more than enough information about the local river pirates and the water cult that trying to keep up the deception would have been ridiculous, and this was the first place they visited. Mechanically, the keep throws a lot of bodies at the party which could be overwhelming, but there’s only a few spell casters spread out over the whole dungeon. This dungeon’s named lieutenant is a Genasi river boat captain that your players are just as likely to meet on the river or in the port of Wormford. Their leader Grimjaw can be particularly troubling depending on how much you stick to the rules as being a Wereboar leaves him immune to most early forms of damage and capable of saddling one or two of your players with lycanthropy for their next couple of levels. Goldenfields and Summit Hall are two religious locations that should have a high level cleric with remove curse, should you need to point your players towards one.

The Stone Monastery, the Earth Cult’s base of operations, is the first problematic dungeon as far as order goes. The abbey contains four gargoyles which can be particularly tough without some strong magical damage. And while the Earth Cult’s base enemy monk is fairly easy to deal with, they have two other unique enemies with strong defenses, strong attacks, and some very good spell casting. The dungeon itself has some specific notes about what to change if the party leaves and returns to take the cult down another day, which is likely to be the case. The monastery gets three named NPCs. A friendly Lich has been living in the building since it was his family home and can drop some exposition about the area’s history. A rather boring priest is there to greet visitors and possibly induct the characters into the lowest level of the cult. Lastly, the abbess of the monastery is Hellenrae (or, as my players have taken to calling her “Literal Actual Toph Bei Fong.” A blind, no nonsense, female kung-fu master who can see through vibrations in the very earth? Yeah, checks out.) Probably the most dangerous thing about the Stone Monastery, though, is that the entrance to it’s Act II counterpart is right in the basement and only needs a key that the party can pick up from either leader on site. Equally frustrating for dungeon masters: depending on how you approaching looting, the Earth Cult’s priests and guards all wear splint and plate mail. Granted, it’s all made out of magically shaped stone as opposed to metal, so if you do allow your players to upgrade their armor this early you can at least saddle them with the awkwardness of constantly looking like Earth Cultists.

The last dungeon, Scarlet Moon Hall, is a burnt out hill with an old wooden tower and a flaming wickerman where some long lost druids are performing some kind of a sacred right. Fantasy Burning Man’s mechanics do a lot to compartmentalize all the various forces in the area, and many of the camps around the hill are druids and adventurers come to see the supposed ritual that can be recruited to the parties cause. This is great because between the giant fire elemental in the burning giant, the hell hounds, the fire cultists with magically flaming swords, and the several priests capable of casting fireball twice per day Scarlet Moon Hall throws some heavy punches. The big boss is Elizar, a fire themed druid who can summon smoke mephits from his tobacco pipe and possibly the most fun I’ve had running an NPC in this whole book. Princes’ NPCs have only the minimum of text to motivate specifics, but Elizar is the only one depicted coolly taking a drag in front of an explosion.

Chapter 6: Alarums and Excursions

Here we have the side quests. The first set includes a number of small excursions into the wilderness around Red Larch and two dungeons. Designed to take a party quickly from level 1 to 3, I feel like it gives new players a very nice crash course on combat, exploration, and investigation without bogging things down too much for experienced players. The first dungeon focuses on a necromancer who can net the party an early wand of magic missile. While the quest does end with a perfect moment to pass around a piece of paper with the Elemental Evil logo drawn on it, it never really ties back into the deeper machinations of the book. If you happen to start your party at level 1, be prepared to tie this back in during Act III somehow.

The second dungeon is wrapped up in a conspiracy controlling Red Larch. It’s dungeon directly hints towards the ancient Dwarven city which makes up Act II, and helps throw a little action to endear the party with the townsfolk of Red Larch. The aftermath shows a number of town elders in the pockets of the Earth cult, and leaves you to elevate whatever NPCs the party has really taken a shine to to be their reliable home contact when they come back. The villain of this dungeon, an Earth priest by the name of Larrack, makes a perfect recurring villain if your party happens to kill all the other cult captains. I’ve personally got a soft spot for the village idiot, a half-orc named Grund who spends most of his time pickling, and elevated him up to a major supporting character for the party.

The rest of the chapter is devoted to what it calls Side Treks, largely one shot style side quests. These are fun romps to try to entice the party off to the four corners of the valley. All of them net new equipment, opportunities for allies, or magic items, so don’t worry about the challenge for experience if you’re running by the book’s estimates of leveling up after each major dungeon in Chapter 3. Do try and keep an eye on the recommended level for each as they’re meant to be peppered over the whole adventure. The Vale of Dancing Waters is an adventure designed for a party at level 8 that’s particularly easy to accidentally run for a party of 3rd level characters poking around in the early game.

Chapter 7: Monsters and Magic Items

While there are some wild magic items made for this adventure, you really don’t come across many of them early on. For the time being, you really want to look at the sections on Monsters and NPCs. Every cult has a more physical, warrior thug and a spell caster priest that make appearances. Some even have two! Enemies inspired by the Monk character class make a big show. All of the spell casters have heavily elemental themed spell lists, and might have some particular inspiration if you have a sorcerer in your party. The most interesting of all of them is the Water cult Fathomer, a second spell caster that can transform into a watery serpent.

Largely, I don’t really like 5th edition monsters. Either their complexity is so simple that it comes down to how many attacks they get with their multi attack, or you’re tracking an entire spell list for them (I highly recommend the 5th Edition Spellbook app found in the iTunes App Store and Google Play. It contains every spell available through the Players Hand Book and Princes of the Apocalypse, and lets you organize individual spell lists for characters. And it’s free). Some of the lower level enemies have once per combat abilities or special circumstances like the Crushing Wave Reaver’s double damage to unarmored enemies. The Assassin ability along with sneak attack damage plays a recurring role in many NPC enemies in the Side Treks, which is good because it’s potentially fatal no matter what level it shows up in and does a great job at teaching why players should start combats on their own terms instead of charging into every situation head first. Combats that don’t involve spell casting enemies largely become boring, however, and the Black Earth Guard’s plate mail leads to some particularly slogging combat as the party levels up. At the very least, Princes adds a large number of spell casting enemies to the game, something I found sorely lacking in the Monster Manual. If your players really need a challenge, I’d suggest playing around with how enemies from different cults can interact mechanically under the narratively plausible idea that the cults are so fed up with the player characters that they’ll actually work together to try and stop them.

Appendices A, B, & C: The Good Stuff

Appendix A details a new player race for 5th edition: the Genasi. Listen, there are one hundred different articles out there talking about the optimization standards of the Genasi and their sub-races. Who cares? Do you want to play an elementally powered humanoid? The peasant version of a Djinn/Jeanie? Do you want to have rock skin, flaming hair, fin ears, or just constantly float a few inches off the ground? Do you want to have jewel colored skin and magical abilities regardless of class choice? Genasi are amazingly fun to play and for once you have a setting and adventure that neatly ties them in regardless of how Tolkienic you like your fantasy. Each cult has a major Genasi NPC to pit against the party as well. Beyond that, if you pick up the free player supplement for Princes, you’ll get Aaracokra and Deep Gnomes as well. Aaracokra can fly, which is considered the most broken level 1 ability in the whole game. Take that as you will.

Appendix B adds a slew of particularly elemental themed spells which are included as part of 5th Edition’s free content. Druids, Sorcerers, and Wizards make out with the most additions, the first two getting the most thematically out of having more elemental spells. Each element gets their own Prestidigitation/Thaumaturgy style cantrip to control an element. Frostbite, Create Bonfire, and Thunderclap are all cantrips worth considering for build optimization period, if that’s a thing you’re into. Regardless of if you’re playing Princes of the Apocalypse or not, the added spell list does a ton for filling out spell lists for characters that just want to cast Ice spells and nothing else, or whatever element happens to take a player’s fancy.

Lastly, Appendix C describes how to take Princes and apply it to different settings. Mostly focusing on transplanting the campaign into Darksun, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, and Eberron, this section details a lot of focus on how to pick the region your players will explore and exactly what function each player faction is supposed to bring to the story. Even if you intend drop Princes into a wholly original setting or just keep it in Faerun, seeing four more takes on the adventure’s context helps understand what’s supposed to be important and what isn’t.

Final Review

All in all, this is one of the best pre-written adventures I’ve ever run or played. My biggest complaints are a somewhat mundane cast of races and a lack of a full service for weather and elemental effects in the overworld, which are things that are easily changed and designed at home. Princes’ set piece dungeons are so tightly designed, inspiring, and well notated that any dungeon master should have plenty of time and energy to fill in whatever gaps the book leaves in their play style. As for length, a focused and effective group of players could finish this adventure in around a year with weekly sessions, though there’s plenty of room for role playing and side content to keep a group content for even a whole two years. This ranks up there with the best games I’ve ever been a part of.

Thanks to Peter Tesh for editing.

#review #dungeons and dragons #dnd #d&d #Princes of the Apocalypse #Elemental Evil #prewritten adventure #adventure module

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digitaldog1o1 · 7 years

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Relationships I Want Explored More in Dragon Ball Super

*and by relationships, I don’t really mean romantic (unless specified) - I more or less mean their dynamic

**there is no particular order, just when I think of them

***many of these assumes that the Universes will not be permanently erased as well as there being the possibility of travel between the Universes without the assistance of the Gods

Caulifla & Hit :: Caulifla is a character who needs to be shown why she should respect someone before she gives them any sort of deference. Yet it seems like she has taken to Hit. We don’t get a chance to see them meeting (like with Cabba and Goku) and I imagine she was just as rude to him, but Hit’s colder demeanor probably made Caulifla know to at least take caution, if not back off. But they don’t have a cold relationship. We see in small bits during the tournament that there is a respect between the two of them and I wonder if it can go past the Tournament of Power/Universal Destruction arc.

The Universe 7 Saiyans & the Universe 6 Saiyans :: so I find it interesting that there is a parallel between the three Saiyans fighting for Universe 6 and the two whole Saiyans/one half Saiyan fighting for Universe 7. Caulifla and Goku are both carefree individuals who love a challenge. While Vegeta started as a villain, he has developed into a character with his own sort of honor code which makes him like the honorable Cabba. Some people have made parallels between Cabba and Gohan, but I see more of Kale as Gohan’s Universe 6 counterpart. She doesn’t seem to enjoy fighting, revering her more aggressive “sister” (kind of like how Gohan has always looked up to Goku (and Piccolo)), but she has a hidden, raw potential that gets drawn out of her by rage. I would love a future arc where they all have to team up (and maybe even include Goten & Trunks) and their similarities and differences are on display.

The Universe 6 Saiyans :: I would love for a filler episode where we see kind of “a day in the life”-style scenario with Cabba, Caulifla, and Kale. Do they go back to their normal lives or do they start training together to get stronger or maybe there is a “villain of the day” thing where they teamup. Maybe it can be a mini-filler arc (like the Jelly-Vegeta episodes earlier in the series).

Universe 6 :: speaking of which, maybe just have a mini-filler arc with Universe 6. I would love for Vados to train Caulifla, Cabba, and Kale like Whis trains Goku and Vegeta. But while Whis took up training them of his own volition, Vados is probably forced to train them by Champa, who sees what Goku and Vegeta can do with god-like training and wants to see if his Saiyans have the same potential. And Hit and Botamo and Magetta and the Namekians we haven’t seen yet and that boar-guy can all be there too. But not Frost. never Frost.

Piccolo & the Universe 6 Namekians :: this is for-sure coming soon... why the hell would we have Universe 6 Namekians in the Universe Survival Arc/Tournament of Power would be to have Piccolo interact with them. My prediction is Piccolo & Gohan tag-team vs the two Namekians. My other prediction is that Piccolo will only be 1-1 against them - he will eliminate one, then get eliminated himself by the other, and be avenged by Gohan.

Piccolo & Pan :: I just need more of this.

Piccolo & Chi Chi :: no I don’t ship it (hardcore Gochi since I first watched original Dragonball here)... but it is interesting that by the Cell Games in Z, she seemed to just accept that Piccolo was a big part of her son’s life and during the Buu arc, she wasn’t mad that Piccolo was training Goten (and Trunks) so much as how hard he was pushing them. And while she gets freaked out by Goku and Satan’s fighting/martial arts love wearing off on Pan, she doesn’t seem to mind that Piccolo is Pan’s guardian when Videl & Gohan are away. I just want to know more about what dynamic the two of them have that makes them tolerate each other.

Piccolo & Goten & Trunks :: if their fathers won’t train them, then Piccolo should get them in on Gohan’s new training. Those poor boys are being left behind when they are shown to have so much potential.

Goten & Trunks :: can we just have more of them in Super please? and I want more them as individual characters (especially Goten), not just Gotenks.

Goten & Trunks & Marron :: if we don’t get a “what happens why 17 is away from his island” episode, I will be so mad. And if Marron doesn’t have a moment to shine, even if it is inadvertently disrupting a poaching, I will be just as mad as if the episode never happened. Also, maybe 18 (and Krillin... and Piccolo, trainer of children [albeit, half Saiyan children]) can start training Marron so she can take on her dad’s mantle as strongest pure human? While the Tournament of Power is introducing many female fighters/humanoid fighters with a feminine appearance, it still doesn’t know quite what to do with the female characters it has (aside from Bulma, I think Bulma has always been utilized well). Marron, Pan, and now Bulla gives them the opportunity to show how women are an integral part of the future generation, but since Pan & Bulla are infants, Marron is the only one who can be immediately fleshed out and making her a third option in the Goten & Trunks dynamic is a good start (kind of like how Piccolo, Krillin, or Bulma is used as a character to balance out the Goku and Vegeta dynamic).

Goku & Goten and Vegeta & Trunks :: they need to train their sons. Goku has actually shown interest in training Goten but Chi Chi has stopped him but has been more open to Goten training in the past. And with Goku and Vegeta possibly exploring different universes in future arcs, Goten and Trunks need to be prepared to hold down the fort with the remaining Z warriors.

Beerus & Shin & Old Man Kai :: I want to see more of the dynamic between the Gods and what kind of relationship makes for a successful universe. While all the other Kaoshin & God of Destruction pairings seem to have some working dynamic, Beerus and Shin are clearly dysfunctional, as they were both quick to blame each other when they found out Universe 7 is the second worst Universe amongst the 12. Also, apparently it was Beerus who sealed away Old Kai after they got into a fight, so Beerus does not play nice with his Kaioshin counterparts. This meant Shin never had a mentor in how-to-be-Supreme-Kai until Gohan unleashed Old Kai and his lack of experience shows. But Beerus does not seem to be well-liked by anyone. The other Gods of Destruction don’t even seem to care for him, including his own brother, Champa. And since Shin was never properly made a Supreme Kai, the other Kaioshin seem to largely ignore his existence. Thus for Universe 7 to be successful moving forward, they need to build a working relationship as they have isolated themselves from being able to have allies across Universes (though Goku’s natural ability to turn enemies/rivals to friends may make this impossibility possible). And I want to know more about Beerus and Old Kai’s past relationship.

Beerus & Bulma :: she just does not back down and neither does he. And while he could just destroy her or the whole planet, he seems to understand Bulma holds status amongst Earthlings, therefore can get him whatever delicacy he desires. I also wonder what Beerus would be like with Bulla. Gohan doesn’t really have a relationship with Beerus to warrant him having to interact with Pan, but considering Beerus visits the Briefs a lot, it provides for the comedic opportunity of Beerus (and Whis) holding a baby.

Android 17 & the Kamikaze Fireballs :: if there is ever an arc where the Universes have to team up, I hope there is a sequence where the Fireballs have to tag team with Android 17

This is it for now. I may think of more later. Overall, I am immensely enjoying Dragon Ball Super. Z was never a great show, but it is the first show I can remember being enthralled by (and great by kid-me standards) and I can still watch any episode with my nostalgia goggles tight. Super is just a reason for me to continue fangirling and find new things to fangirl over. Even when it is less than Super. At least it is not GT (I watched the first three episodes and decided I didn’t need to watch anymore -- I am definitely one of the people praying GT is retconned/proven not to be canon).

#dragon ball super #dragonball super #dbs #relationship dynamics #as of ep 104

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willreadforbooze · 5 years

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Hello fellow boozie readers!

If you haven’t heard about #Booziebookathon, it’s our week long readathon we host every year! It starts on July 27th and runs to Aug 3rd. Check out all the details here!

Sam’s Update:

What a whirlwind of a week. It felt like I didn’t get much reading done, but apparently I did. It’s also Medieval-a-thon!!! Check my TBR here.

What Sam finished this week:

Medieval-a-thon Cape: Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao: This is the follow up to Forest of a Thousand Lanterns. I thought I’d like this more than the first one but i just didn’t. This felt very collect-the-objects to me, and I just could NOT get into it.

Medieval-a-thon Crown: The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang: This was so good. So so good. So many content warnings, but so good. I don’t want to say too much here cause Drunk Sam wants a shot at it first.

What Sam’s reading now:

Medieval-a-thon Breastplate: The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi: Listening on audio, and I’d forgotten that Will Wheaton narrates it. I am not very far, but I already love it.

Medieval-a-thon Daggers: Eclipse the Skies by Maura Milan: I’ve been dying for this since Ignite the Stars and I am v v excited. We were selected to be a part of the blog tour for this by Caffeine Tours so I gotta gets my reading innnn.

Ginny’s Update:

For once this is a pretty short list of things (Sam you’re welcome? There aren’t too many things to find). I might have fallen back into playing an ungodly amount of Skyrim so the reading has been cut a little bit short. That being said, I still managed to knock out a few things. And of course bought some new books because I have a problem and that problem is the book tree in my room is looking lopsided from my pulling random books out of it to read and I need to rebuild it. If you’re going to rebuild something you might as well make it bigger!

Currently Reading:

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi: I’m like two pages in so I don’t really know whats going on yet but Sam loves this.

Beyond the Empire by K.B. Wagers: My review for the first book just came out (see it here!). This is the third book in the series and very short synopsis, Hail has to continue being her badass self.

Finished

Midas Flesh by Ryan North: This was billed as a comedy and while parts of it are funny this book was dark as fuck! I was not expecting it. Still the book is interesting, the fallout of King Midas turning everything to gold was really interesting to think about far far into the future. The artwork was great. I thought some of the characterization felt rushed and for whatever reason I wasn’t super drawn into the story.3/5

A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian:This book was cute, all about people trying to figure out how they can live their lives in a society where they don’t really fit without giving up themselves. I really enjoyed the end and I liked the dynamics between so many of the characters. Hartley’s friends/house people were delightful, and I loved Sam’s brother and bestie. 4/5

Minda’s Update:

You may have heard the news—I’m pregnant! So all the booze is staying on the shelf for the foreseeable future

and you’ll only get Reviews for Two

️

What Minda finished:

Gravemaidens by Kelly Coon – Once I got started I could not put this book down! It was so so good. My girl Kammani made some mistakes, but she really came to a reckoning before it was too late. Stay tuned for the official review and thanks again to Net Galley for the ARC!

What Minda is reading now:

Tiger Queen by Annie Sullivan – Wasn’t enjoying as much as I thought I would, so was jumped by Gravemaidens. Still liking it though!

All the Water in the World by Karen Raney – An ARC I picked up at ALA dropping 8/6 about mother-daughter duo overcoming some major challenges.

Linz’s Update:

Oh just all the things happened this week, and I drank more than I meant to but at least some reviews got done? Just one more week til vacay…

What Linz read

The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal: Debut historical thriller and also a love story. I got an advanced copy at ALA and I LOVE this book. I’ve already lent it to a girlfriend. Review def to come.

The Heartwood Crown by Matt Mikalatos: Got an ARC from BookCon for this sequel to The Crescent Stone. For me, this was definitely a different book from Crescent Stone, but I really enjoyed it and I love the direction the series is taking.

Bunny by Mona Awad: Kinda like Mean Girls, but Lindsay Lohan is a grad student in an exclusive writing program, and the Plastics are far more into developing their Work and the Process than wearing pink on Wednesday. Oh also it’s real dark and weird. Review to come as well.

What Linz is reading now

I finished Bunny yesterday and I’ve spend this morning repeatedly staring at my bookshelf trying to figure out what to read now and what to hold on until Booziebookathon. I need a librarian. And a nap.

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,

Sam, Melinda, Linz, and Ginny

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 9-14, 2019 #willreadforbooze Hello fellow boozie readers! If you haven't heard about #Booziebookathon, it's our week long readathon we host every year!

#Wrap Up

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spicynbachili1 · 6 years

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How to update the classics for modern audiences with Dotemu

From Legacy of Kain to Detective Pikachu

We stay in a time when most individuals forty years outdated and youthful had been introduced up adoring media that was designed to operate as toy commercials, childhood companions, and near-religious texts on the identical time. After I noticed Michael Bay’s Transformers film in theaters all these years in the past, I felt like I used to be seeing a lifelong good friend who I revered with virtually holy ranges of affection “remodeled” right into a crass collection of explosions, butts, and exploding butts. It’s nonetheless the worst time I’ve ever had in a movie show. Any enjoyment I could have derived from the senseless popcorn charms of the movie had been destroyed by my very own expectations.

That is the story of a complete technology of children, now in early or mid maturity, seeing the faces of manufacturers they’d grown to like became one thing else. The Lion King, Pokemon, Thundercats, Mario, She-Ra, and Sonic are only a handful of different +20 12 months outdated franchises which have simply acquired, or are about to obtain, whole make-overs which may be interesting to new audiences, however have left at some prior followers chilly. It does not must be that means although. It is potential to make everybody blissful. Dotemu is proof of that. Their contemporary takes on Wonderboy, Windjammers, and Streets of Rage have been almost universally praised, even when adapting to new mediums and tremendously altering character designs.

I reached out to Cyrille Imbert, CEO of Dotemu, to ask for his or her ideas on 2D vs. 3D animation, retaining the spirit of a franchise with out bringing its dated baggage together with it, and much more. This is what he needed to say.

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What does it take to replace a traditional recreation for contemporary audiences, with no AAA price range to work with, in a means that brings the essence of the supply materials ahead whereas leaving the outdated design choices behind?

It’s a troublesome course of as you may think about. Particularly as even when you attempt to be as impartial and logical as potential, there might be subjective choices. Our greatest solution to keep away from that’s to essentially focus on about all of the design concepts between us but additionally with followers, family and friends and get everybody’s opinion. As followers ourselves, we attempt to get the essence of what makes a traditional recreation nice and to maintain it in any respect price. From there, we attempt to collect info from our personal expertise and from web communities, about what would have been higher or ought to have been prevented within the authentic recreation. We set up a listing of these defaults and see how we are able to change them and whether it is technologically possible.

For Windjammers, the menus from the Neo Geo model had been virtually nonexistent so we thought it could be good to fully redo them, and that will additionally give the chance to present extra choices for gamers to customise their expertise and assist them perceive how you can play. The apparent addition was to have the ability to compete with anybody worldwide as Windjammers is a recreation that reveals its full potential when two human minds problem one another. Nonetheless, we determined to remain true to the unique inventive course in each side: menus, gameplay, advertising and marketing, and so on. It’s quaint, however that is actually what makes this recreation so distinctive as properly. It’s 100% a part of the core expertise and essence of the sport.

It is generally assumed that polygon-based graphics price way more to supply than conventional “dot artwork” sprites, however often one thing like King of Fighters 13 comes alongside to disrupt that notion. It is a good looking recreation that used polygon fashions for the bottom animations for every character earlier than drawing over them with 2D sprites, presumably as a result of animating with polygons was the inexpensive technique. What are the variations within the artistry, and price, behind “dot artwork” graphics, hand drawn animation and polygon-based visuals? Are there methods to mix the strengths of all three visible kinds that carry out the most effective in all of them whereas lowering the over all manufacturing bills?

That’s an excellent query! The reply is complicated because it is dependent upon various factors, the primary one being the gameplay and the digicam. I might say that the most affordable graphics are 2D pixel artwork in low decision, as a result of you may work actually fast and don’t want extra assets than one or two individuals. However certainly, if you get to greater resolutions and full HD in 2D, like LizardCube did for Surprise Boy: The Dragon’s Entice for instance, it turns into tougher and tougher. Certainly, as you’re animating body by body and by hand, you higher be an excellent artist and know the place you’re going. As a result of if you wish to change a colour, add a bit of armor or a tattoo, you’ll must do it yet again. 3D is nearer to sculpture/cease movement. So if you wish to change some elements of your character or object, it’s means simpler as you don’t have to transform every body by hand. Combining two strategies could be a good center floor, however once more, it actually is dependent upon what you’re aiming for by way of international inventive course. It gained’t be as clean as a 2D hand drawn animation, however it should really feel extra alive than primary 3D. I’m not an enormous knowledgeable on that although.

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Enjoying 20-ish 12 months outdated video games like Avenue Fighter III: third Strike, Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Steel Slug three reveals that the craft of 2D animation in video games might have peaked years in the past, at the least in my view. Why do you suppose these three video games have but to be topped, even by the cleaner wanting, however typically much less expressive tiles from fashionable studios? Or do you suppose that the three retro video games I discussed have certainly been outclassed by more moderen titles, and the actual subject is with my rose-tinted glasses for the previous?

These three titles are certainly the most effective references for online game 2D animation, and that is what we love at Dotemu. You can additionally add Castlevania SoTN simply with these masterpieces. These are form of video games that will make no sense to remake graphically. They’re already good. I might say that they haven’t been topped just because they’re on the high, so don’t fear about your glasses! However there are some video games which are very near that degree and Arc System Works are undoubtedly going for it. Try DB Fighters Z, that is actually spectacular, even when it’s not 100% 2). Ori and the Blind Forest, Machinarium or the Vanillaware productions are proofs that we nonetheless have very expert groups doing nice video games. Cuphead is top-notch as properly.

However again within the day, 3D was not an possibility, so when you needed to do the most effective recreation you needed to have the most effective 2D artists. That’s it. That is undoubtedly what we’re going for with Dotemu and The Arcade Crew. We’re in love with stunning 2D animation and we’d like to contribute.

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In the event you may work on any I.P., with an infinite price range, what would you make?

Hardest query ever. There are such a lot of prospects! Currently I’ve been desirous about Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen. It didn’t aged properly graphically however I bear in mind being fascinated by the environment and story of the sport. With stunning 2D HD graphics and fashionable gameplay mechanics it may actually be superior.

I’ve heard from quite a lot of great game artists who’re pretty put off by the look of the subsequent Pokemon film. What’s your tackle the newly launched trailer for Detective Pikachu, and what would have you’ve gotten executed with the artwork course for the movie when you had been in cost?

To be trustworthy, I personally have by no means been an enormous fan of Pokemon, even when I can fully perceive the success of the video games and universe. So I haven’t got a lot of a way for a contemporary tackle that license. We will discuss Star Wars and the current tackle the IP for hours if you need, however I in all probability gained’t be capable of identify greater than three Pokemon. The film seems to be attention-grabbing, however it appears that evidently it actually will get removed from the unique IP and takes quite a lot of liberties with it. It seems to be like a distinct story in a distinct universe, which could be a genius transfer or a complete failure. Pokemon is such a mass-market license, it have to be tremendous onerous to fulfill all of the several types of followers. So long as the IP isn’t just there to promote tickets and merch although, I’d say why not.

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recentanimenews · 6 years

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Peter's Spring Anime 2018 Premiere Recommendations

It’s that time again. This article comes a bit late, but we had an extended set of premieres that just finished up the end of last week. Spring 2018 is an absolute monster with some of the biggest anime making their returns in new seasons and side-stories. Your time budget is probably tight by now so even a 3-episode test is a big ask. With that in mind, here are my Top 5 (plus a few shoutouts) recommendations for the season!

My Hero Academia

THE KIDS ARE BACK! Although this is a premiere recommendation and My Hero Academia got a bit of a slow start, I have to put this up for the few remaining who haven’t starting watching this yet. You’ve probably caught onto the hype and it’s absolutely real. I honestly couldn’t be more excited since this season is when things start to get real. If season 2 was comparable to Naruto’s chunnin exam, then season 3 might as well be the Sasuke retrieval arc. The part of the story that really cements its position in the pantheon of shonen. BONES have proven they know what their doing after two sterling seasons so I have no doubts they deliver a spot-on adaptation with animation highlights we’ll never forget.

Golden Kamuy

My expected #1 coming into the season. I picked up the Golden Kamuy manga last year and have been eating up volumes as fast as it comes out. This series is unbelievably good and has fantastic execution on multiple levels. I’ve already written about its horrific violence and creative culinary focus but the series is also an intensely researched historical fiction on a period of Japanese that isn’t often portrayed and including the indigenous Ainu population which don’t show up often in anime.

It’s also ridiculously funny, with great character chemistry and some of the best face warping I’ve seen since Konosuba as each member of the central group tries to choke down the unfamiliar cuisine of the others culture. Golden Kamuy basically does everything and it does it all really well. I didn’t catch anything alarming in the first episode and so far I’m digging the voice acting, so at this point I’m just early anticipating the show rolling out some of the early plot beats.

HINAMATSURI

The biggest surprise for this season defies definition. Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid but swap dragon maids for psychokinetic daughters? Mob Psycho 100 except, in this case, the mob is the literal mafia? Yakuza member Nitta suddenly finds himself taking care of the mysterious Hina, a psychic girl who emerges from a portal in his living room and lands directly on his head. What starts as coercive caretaking through the threat of the psychic destruction of Nitta's prized antique collection becomes a more equal relationship as Hina discovers that Nitta is actually an pretty decent guy.

Where this is going, I have no idea, but this show is ridiculously funny with some of the best comedic timing and voice acting I’ve seen in maybe a year. The animation is also shockingly good, with psychic powers and kung fu fights that are fluid and smeary with lots of hand-drawn special effects. I can already tell this anime is going to be the one I most look forward to every week. Whether it becomes more goofy or keeps its nice slice of life tone, this series has already shown a deft hand and I’m ready to follow.

MEGALOBOX

I think we all had high hopes for MEGALOBOX and its premiere delivered. It’s one of those anime you just have to experience to really understand, but it doesn’t feel like it should be a hard sell, taking boxing to the highest possible stakes by strapping metal arms onto the combatants capable of allowing their fists to break the sound barrier. It’s a crazy production from backgrounds to character designs to voice acting, everything feels carefully crafted. Even aspects of the show I may not be as onboard with like the forced low resolution (I guess to give it a classical feel) make it clear this anime has a defined aesthetic vision.

There is a lot of material out there talking about its connection to Ashita no Joe and recurring themes, which is great, but, if you haven’t seen or even heard of Ashia no Joe, don’t worry about it. This story absolutely stands on its own and looks to be carefully modernizing many of the major themes of the original work so that it will feel fresh. Instead of Joe, I’m experiencing Cowboy Bebop flashbacks after two episodes, with the hard luck main character Junk Dog and the dead on bohemian dystopia aesthetic and half jazz/half hiphop soundtrack.. This anime is gonna brutal and beautiful.

Caligula

I have high hopes for this series after the first two episodes. It’s still building up the mystery but, safe to say, it involves some high schoolers caught in a digital world created by a beneficent vocaloid named “muse” who seems to either lack an understanding of what she is doing or is being manipulated by a third party. It’s also done some interesting things with audio, upping muses’s music to an oppressive volume as her minions close in and then dropping it for dramatic effect. Following three different groups of students who have awakened to their situation makes me think it has something planned.

Comparisons to PERSONA5 are natural, both for the content and the fact that the anime is based on another JRPG with a story written by Tadashi Satomi, the author of Persona and Persona 2. At least at this early point, I’ve found Caligula more engaging than P5, of course that may be because I already know what happens in the later. If it keeps its current pace it could be the sleeper hit of a very busy season. Just the fact that it managed to stand out at all is pretty exceptional.

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It feels absurd putting some of these down here, but even in a season with so many flagship series, the studios in Japan have found a way to pack even more quality anime around the seams. If you’re into action, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online and FULL METAL PANIC! Invisible Victory have shown promising premieres, Steins;Gate 0 has already delivered some suspenseful twists in its first two episodes, and both PERSONA5 the Animation and Last Period: the journey to the end of the despair have shown up with great game adaptations. Also, Food Wars! The Third Plate… Good luck, everyone.

This season is jam-packed with blockbuster titles, so take care of yourselves and enjoy all the good content. If you’ve discovered any other hidden gems that didn’t make the list then give it some love in the comments!

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Peter Fobian is Features and Reviews Editor for Crunchyroll, author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight, writer for Anime Academy, and contributor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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pixelbitesgames · 7 years

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Ultra Hello and MEGA Good Morning!

Game: Rune Factory 4 Played On: 3DS Format: Physical Release Year: 2013 Developer: Neverland Co. Publisher: XSEED Games

What can I say about Rune Factory 4…. Well, not too much since I've never actually played the it. One thing I can say about it though is that as a farming simulator/ RPG type game it’s not exactly my cup of tea.

It is however one of my wife’s favorite genres so she happily agreed to play through it to completion and tell me all about it along the way. So the following will be mostly based on what I took away from our conversations during and after her play through.

I initially picked up Rune Factory 4 as a Christmas gift for my wife and wrapped in what I can only assume was the most extravagant and beautiful wrapping paper (complete with bow). Now, it’s been a couple of years but I believe she played through to the end of the first story arc before I unceremoniously tore her away from it to play something else with me. This of course led her to shelf it for a bit.

When it was recently dusted off and taken for a spin again my wife definitely seemed eager to restart her character and play through the game in its entirety.

Presentation

My impressions of the game just based off of its front cover are definitely positive. I love the anime-esque artwork and it reminds me of many of the fantasy anime I've watched like Log Horizon or Sword Art Online.

The game logo is very fancy and that amazing dragon in the background definitely draws me in and makes me want to give this game a try.

Wait, does that white haired guy have horns or really fluffy ears?!

Now, I consulted my wife and she informs me that he is the male equivalent of my beloved monster girls (Monster guys? Monster boys?) and he’s half horse….alrighty then….

Honestly, I'd say just based on the box art I would want to try this game out myself especially knowing it was developed/published by XSeed Games. I'm a big JRPG fan and like Atlus or NIS, XSeed is known for it’s great Japanese ports.

The back cover displays more of the beautifully drawn anime artwork showing some more characters and also a few farm animals/monsters.

The in game screenshots are vivid and colorful and JRPGish and make me want to play the game all the more. But am I prepared to plummet headfirst into a magical world? Do I have what it takes to be the new ruler of Selphia?

Although I’m generally not a fan of farming sim games (a la Harvest Moon) the fact that this has dungeon exploration and RPG elements certainly intrigues me. And we can play as a boy or a girl!!!!

Not gonna lie but I’d totally play as a girl just to try and win the heart of horse guy from the front cover.

Inside the game case is equally exceptional in displaying the bright and colorful anime-esque game that is Rune Factory 4.

I really love how they utilized the 3DS game case design and displayed chibi versions of each character in those little holes. I gotta say XSeed knows what they’re doing. Even better is the increasingly rare full color booklet insert.

The 34 page booklet included with the game acts as a mini strategy guide giving you lots of background story, small tips on things like the basics of gameplay and short run downs on each bachelor and bachelorette. Did I mention that XSeed really knows what they’re doing?

The Game

Rune Factory 4 is a looooooooong game. It’s right up there with Disgaea and (insert another long game) with a potential level cap of 50,000. Even after playing around 150 hours my wife only reached around level 196 and this is after a great deal of grinding on her part just to be able to survive and complete the third and final story arc of the game.

Now like most games of this type you can continue to play long after the story ends. Since there is an exorbitant amount of stats, skills, runes, magics, weapons and tools to level up, as well as a never ending supply of dungeons to conquer. There's certainly plenty of things to keep you busy while you slog your way along to reach that enormous level cap.

My wife says she enjoyed the game immensely and would definitely continue playing it sometime or even restart a new character. If you are a fan of this series or this genre she gives it a two thumbs up and highly recommends it.

There are rumors floating around about a 5th installment and that will be an instant buy for us for sure. We do own the 3rd of the series for the Wii and haven't played it yet but that's what this blog is all about amirite?!

Social Media Stuff

As we conquer each game look out for let’s play videos on my YouTube channel PixelBites and let me know what you think!

We’ll occasionally do live gaming sessions as well. Keep an eye out and stop by my Twitch channel at PixelBitesLive when we do!

You can also find the entire list of games in my collection on

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flauntpage · 7 years

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Space Jam: The NBA’s Gravity Era Welcomes the 2017-18 Sixers

The Monstars were well ahead of the analytics curve in that they made all nine of their three-point attempts against Michael Jordan’s Tune Squad back in 1996. Even though they lost, the Monstars merit some credit for the modernity of their approach to the game. (Yes, someone from Harvard charted the game from Space Jam.)

Gravity – in basketball terms – wasn’t really a factor in Space Jam, as Jordan’s team didn’t attempt a single shot beyond the arc and still somehow beat a gang of efficient aliens with a crew of cartoons. The Monstars also jumped like 40 feet in the air, so even the Isaac Newton version of gravity wasn’t a factor in the premise.

What do I mean by gravity? In a basketball context, gravity is the propensity for defenders to be drawn to certain parts of the floor based on the quality and quantity of shooting threats. Dumbed down (for me, not you), gravity is the manifestation of how defenders respect specific shooters and scorers on the floor.

ESPN Insider Tom Haberstroh detailed elite gravitational players back in 2014, and unsurprisingly, Stephen Curry led the league in this inventive metric. You’ll catch shit from your coach if you leave Curry too much space, which might be 10 inches. Kyle Korver was second in the gravity index that season, with Klay Thompson third. It’s the fear factor, sans Joe Rogan, of modern pro hoops.

As Haberstroh details, “by tracking how the defense shifts at every instance in the game, gravity score attempts to quantify how much defensive attention a player receives when he’s off the ball. In other words, a player’s gravitational pull on the opposing defense.”

When I was a kid watching players like Shaquille O’Neal dominate the paint, while also witnessing increasingly tall and proficient ball handlers like Grant Hill and Penny Hardaway excel, I was convinced the NBA floor would one day become too small to accommodate the size and speed of the NBA athlete, and thus game. How would the floor not become clogged? This was a valid concern for fans who spent their formative years watching the Knicks and Heat fill the floor Royal Rumble style into the late 90s. I also wondered how dragons have sex, but that remains unresolved.

Innovation was the resolution to my concern (the NBA part, not dragon boning); the floor didn’t need to be expanded by square footage, the players had to expand their shooting range in order to open up the floor.

Some have deemed the modern trend of NBA offense the “space and pace” era; teams are increasingly unafraid to push the tempo (as in increased possessions and working quickly with the shot clock) and even less fearful of jacking a high volume of three-pointers. Mike D’Antoni’s Houston Rockets epitomize the extreme usage of this trend, while the Golden State Warriors are perfecting the use of space as a weapon with dynastic results.

The Rockets led the NBA last season with 46.3% of all of their shots from the field coming from three-point range, an NBA record for such allocation by a wide margin. In 2013-14, the Rockets paced the league with 32.9% of their shots from beyond the arc. The league-wide shift in shooting volume from three-point range isn’t adhering to a linear path, as savvy teams are rapidly realizing how influential floor spacing has become in the Golden (State) Era of the game.

It’s telling that D’Antoni, the architect of the Seven Seconds or Less Suns, was a short-lived assistant for the Sixers in the 2015-16 season. The Sixers badly want to excel in employing an effective space-and-space agenda, with an increased emphasis on the space element. The team hasn’t had many quality shooters – or gravity creators – during Brett Brown’s tenure in South Philly, but he’s had the team lofting from beyond without hesitation for several seasons now. Over the past three seasons, the Sixers have ranked fourth (in 2014-15, 32.1% of the 76ers’ shots were from three-point range), eighth (2015-16, 33.3%) and seventh (2016-17, 35%).

The Sixers sank 33.9% of their shots from beyond last season, 25th in the league, and yet were just 0.4% shy of the Warriors in their market share of three-point attempts. Imagine what might happen when, I don’t know, the team invests incredible short-term cash into an elite shooter like J.J. Redick and long-term draft capital into a gifted shot creator such as Markelle Fultz. Good things happen on the NBA floor when volume and efficiency converge.

The magnetism of a quality shooter such as Redick is apparent when using a new metric know as “Spacing Rating.”

A fellow NBA nerd named Nick Sciria developed Spacing Rating by incorporating three-point efficiency and volume into a formula. By his own admission, the model is “more of a rough draft than a final thesis,” but Sciria does offer a cool tool to help us tinker with how certain lineups around the league might fare in regards to the quality of collective gravity. (This reminds me of when I use the preset substitution changes on NBA 2K and select the “shooting roster” so I can jack three-pointers on every possession like I’m D’Antoni on the sticks.)

The way the Spacing Rating formula works in regards to results is that it spits out a percentile for how “good” a given five-man lineup is at creating spacing relative to the league.

So, for example, the Warriors’ lineup of death: Curry, Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green, earned a 100% factor in the metric. There just isn’t a lineup in the world that demands more respect from all over the floor. A Clippers lineup featuring Redick ranked 11th in the league in Spacing Rating, per the chart below.

Last season, the Sixers’ top gravity gang ranked 20th in the league in the 67.7th percentile of Spacing Rating and included Sergio Rodriguez, Gerald Henderson, Robert Covington, Ersan Ilyasova and Joel Embiid.

Sciria evaluated the 76ers’ potential playing the space game in a recent video breakdown. We slid into his DM’s in order to get additional Sixers-specific intel.

“Given that Brown’s scheme is one that produces a high frequency of three-pointers,” Sciria wrote. “I think Philly’s offensive spacing will be a bright spot this offensive season. The Sixers have a great combination of shooters (Redick/Covington), playmakers (Fultz/Simmons/Dario) and a big with a ton of inside-out gravity (Embiid) to collapse the defense.”

“I haven’t seen anyone look into the numerical aspect of inside-out gravity in the public sphere,” Sciria told me. “Which is why I can’t really add that aspect to the Spacing Rating at this time. I know players like Gobert and Embiid have that type of impact; you could *see* it when you watch their games.”

The impact of Embiid as a shooting threat beyond the arc and as an inside-out spacer (drawing additional defenders on the block) is simply massive. Just look at the chart above and marvel at Memphis’ newfound spacing; it’s all about Marc Gasol’s ascent as a shooter. It took Gasol nearly a decade to develop such range, and yet Embiid’s prodigious touch simply arrived. Stay healthy, Jo.

Let��s test how the Sixers’ potentially main lineups for 2017-18 might fare using Spacing Rating as a predictive measure of sorts.

It’s difficult to assess how Fultz’s three-point shot will translate to the pros, but thanks to another hoops nerd named Andrew Johnson, we can approximate this transition and assume Fultz’s 42% clip at Washington results in a rate around 34 to 35% in the league. This rate might even appear generous when we consider Fultz didn’t take many deep three-pointers in college and often toed the line, but given his effectiveness in a small sample from pro range in Salt Lake City this summer, the sweet stroke could capably survive the transition.

It’s even more difficult to approximate the quality of Ben Simmons’s range from beyond. Although, according to this video, he’s matched the Monstars by going nine-for-nine from three-point range. That’s all I need to see. But really, Simmons doesn’t need to be a proficient three-point shooter to garner gravity, as a player such as Dwyane Wade ranked among the elite gravity factors in 2014 despite sub-optimal efficiency from beyond.

In another piece by Haberstroh examining Wade’s outlier status as a gravity asset, the star himself was a bit perplexed, “I don’t think anybody has ever called me that term, a floor-spacer, before,” Wade said. “But honestly I’ve always known that I’m a floor-spacer, just in a different way.”

This different way manifests itself in Wade’s unique off-ball cutting skills and dynamic handle and passing abilities, elements Simmons might be apt to pursue in lieu of becoming an efficient shooter. Every player claims some degree of gravity, and for Simmons to mimic Wade’s ascension as a spacing weapon during his prime, his ability to create plays off the dribble and cut to the basket could prove valuable for the Sixers’ space aspirations. Simmons might not need to become a respected shooting threat to be treated like one if his game is as dynamic as some suspect.

“The increased playmaking this season might be one of the biggest factors in Philly’s spacing improvement,” Sciria wrote. “As guys like Simmons and Fultz can ‘move’ the defense by forcing them to help and creating holes and gaps–space!–in the overall defense.”

Now to the entirely assumptive final portion of this spacing appraisal for the Sixers.

Since Sciria’s tool doesn’t include rookies in its database, as it’s based on last year’s shooting results, I’m using Jrue Holiday as the comparison for Fultz, as the former Sixer shot 35.6% from three-point distance last season for New Orleans on a healthy 4.2 attempts per game. This might be a lofty correlation, but Fultz’s efficiency at a truly high volume in college demands some credence.

For Simmons, he of the three three-point attempts at LSU, I’m using T.J. McConnell as his mannequin for this exercise, he of the 20% three-point clip last season in a still ball-dominant role. I honestly sorted last season’s results by NBA players who have awful shooting rates from beyond, yet averaged at least four assists, to find some approximations for Simmons’s skill set. It’s not the savviest assumption, but holding Simmons to 20% from beyond the arc at just 0.7 three-point attempts per game, as McConnell did last season, appears viable when considering his NCAA sample.

This approximated Sixers lineup, one including facsimiles of Fultz and Simmons that we haphazardly concocted, scored in the 76.6th percentile in Sciria’s tool. Truly the 76ers. This rate would rank in the top 15 of all gravity lineups last year.

As for the bench mob, there are some creative ways to weaponize shooting and playmaking from deeper into the roster and rotation.

Feel free to play around with this tool with some imaginative Sixers’ lineups. I don’t know who made the lineup below, but maybe a certain disgruntled superstar in the Midwest reads Crossing Broad in mid-September.

We are speculating because it’s a speculative time of year. The season is right around the bend. It’s not long until we learn how much gravity Brown’s imaginative offensive agenda and the coalescence of this new space-friendly roster might create.

Space Jam: The NBA’s Gravity Era Welcomes the 2017-18 Sixers published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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