#the mass effect series in a nutshell

[fandom-zoomer]

I think I may have come up with the best worst tma time travel “fix-it” au (imho)

Inspired by Ketakoshka's 'dread spawn' idea in their dread child jon series, Dribbledscribbles' origin story for the dread powers and extinction entity interpretation in their extinction!jon fic (and some more of the latter in their post-eyepocalypse fic too), as well as my own love for making unholy (aka fun) fusions of things and sandboxing eldritch interactions with the 'mundane' . . .

. . . I have created a post-canon, Somewhere Else, time travel ""fix-it"" story that I think might be unique (at least I've never seen any fics like it– but if I'm wrong then please please share the link!! or dm me if it's your own work hehe but no pressure!!)

(mag 160+ spoilers after this point!)

(i'm about to wax poetics here (hopefully coherently)—so you can read the story-ramble OR you can scroll to the TL;DR at the bottom to skip it & spoilers to read the nutshell & see if you're interested :3)

so get this...

The big Change happens right? But this time the Extinction is a bigger player in the game than canon, and ultimately deeply marks Jon throughout the eyepocalypse.

So when the finale happens, since Jon is now connected to the epicenter of the whole show, his 'death' and the panopticon's destruction has the simultaneous effect of baiting the Dread Powers into the Hole (via his voice in the spools of tape)– and also killing everyone trapped by the Dread Powers in the world via Jon the walking detonator thanks to being entrenched in the Extinction's influence. —Combining both his best and worst plans and realizing his worst nightmare: killing everyone and spreading the Powers to an unknown number of worlds to wreak even more havoc.

How did this happen?

Simple—but first some backstory for context.

The Extinction was more of a 'lurker', much less "outgoing" than its 'siblings'. And when it was "grandiose", well. . . it tended to leave no survivors. Thus its unrecognition by those like Robert Smirke or Jürgen Leitner.

To go back even further, the Dread entities were originally one cohesive entity with many faces and limbs. Its faces reflected the same developmental complexity as the sources of their manifestation. So those with the most diverse species feeding them held the widest capacities. Namely: the Hunt, End, and Extinction. But being a singular entity, it didn't mean much.

But as human species' family lines develop and grow more complex cognitive ability, more esoteric Dreads developed, and more faces become more complex. And the Extinction was right there from the beginning as more species died out one by one. Quietly. (...maybe? 👀)

Over time humans discovered the Powers and bonded with them, then started to classify them. From here, the Dread entity fragmented into Dread entities.

They developed their own 'consciousnesses' distinct from the hive 'mind' they once were. And, eventually, sapience. Self-awareness. Desires. Personalities. But they were still connected, part of the 'system'.

The Extinction and the Web (newer, but always sapient) are a quirky pair, the Web seeking control over everything and the Extinction seeking ultimate entropy and change upon its catastrophe.

It's hard to distinguish the Extinction exactly, its work misidentified for others with few under its own unique umbrella. Things 'unique' to it get missed due to being a misnomer and not getting clocked. (But that is the nature of the Dread Powers after all.. being a fragmentation of their original singular mass.)

...

The Extinction represents the fear of disaster that will bring about the end of everything—everything you know, love, need to survive. Everything you built, worked for, hoped for. The destruction of stories and of life, of the very history written by your land—your home.

Your community. Your society. Your species.

You.

Annihilated in totality.

The Extinction represents the fear of those that come after you to replace you—worse than you, different from you. Leaving you and your history and stories (the driver of your continued existence) forgotten forever. The fear of life moving on after you, ignorant and apathetic. Your story meaningless, irrelevant.

Your community's story. Your society's story. Your species' story.

Your story.

Erased and written over.

The Web represents the fear of being controlled, fate being out of your hands—by malevolent authorities out of reach, by abusive companions or relatives, by invisible forces far beyond the human comprehension. Spinning, winding, twisting, pulling each decision in your life made for you. Until destruction of the self by your own hand.

Your struggle for change futile. Your feet following the same path. Your fate determined for you.

You forfeit control—your feet march you to your bitter demise.

The Web represents the fear of being conspired against. Scheming, plotting, planning your downfall. The loss of everything you hold dear, worked for, bled for. Spinning, twisting, scripting lies about you. Your credibility falls to pieces, your world shatters, and your story distorts.

You are kept alive by the spreading of your story. And the people have decided to trust the manufactured tale.

You are forgotten—twisted into an image of something wrong.

...

Sometimes they're at odds. Where one seeks to manipulate the threads of everything endlessly, the other seeks to destroy it all so thoroughly, with such finality, as to mutate it– the schemes, the pawns, the gameboard itself.

Sometimes they're complementary. Where you watch as you lose everyone you cared for one by one, spiraling down a path darker into entropy, the irreversible nightmare, and wondering if you ever really had free will in the first place– if anyone did.

What if the end for you really was just another game to them? What if this wasn't their first round? What if you're just the next step in the grand scheme, larger than even your own universe?

Alright, now with that out of the way, let's bring back the question.

How did the Extinction change Jon, and how did this cause the altered result of the finale?

The Web has been there since the near beginning, pulling Jon along and guiding him to his next milestone in the plot. She had known the world would come to an end one way or another, and wanted to bring it about on her own terms so that she—they all—could escape it.

So when the Web saw what the Eye was doing, she had an idea. So she aided their acolytes, seeing her sibling as the perfect way to bring all of them together for the final step. And the Web set her own card onto the board: Jon.

Jon had a natural disposition for the Eye; from stubborn curiosity to the reckless pursuit for answers to even the coldest cases. Whether he knows it or not, his mind is a gaping maw for horrible knowledge—chasing after experiences disguised as answers to his burning questions so dreadful they leave scars on him like sigils of a looming doom.

While he has no affinity for the Web's machinations, he is still hers. She has no issue with guiding agents from across the court, she knows how to share. Especially when it benefits her. Jon archives each event, every little detail, with such care and readiness that he makes the perfect vessel to pull them in—to guide them out. He'd flourish best as her tool in the Watcher's sphere.

After the Watcher's Crown and the Dread Powers came into the world, the Extinction started to make its presence known. It seeped into other Domains and fed on the people's dread for permanent catastrophic change, on their fear of ruin and total desctruction. And as Jon traversed them and lived through their fear, so was he marked by the Extinction.

It seeped into his skin like oil and burned through his veins like acid. It tainted his trails with the radioactivity of human hubris and greed, twisting and mutating both the mundane and Dreadful as he passed. It closed its grasp on him with the tightness plastic rings and infected his Perceived routes with the stench of mountainous landfill and the thickness of city smog.

The Web and the Extinction had a complex relationship, but in this moment they guided the Archivist in synchronous song like a soldier being led to his final mission: dropping the nuclear bomb.

Did Jon know?

...

No.

The twines of manipulation layer labyrinthine over everything, above and below and through every angle and dimension. Even the Nigh-Omniscient Antichrist and his All-Knowing God will never fathom its depths.

He might never know that he helped start the Extinction's ritual: Raze the Earth.

Or that both the Web and the Eye knew and did nothing. (honestly, the latter's only there for the show)

So when Martin stabbed Jon and Melanie lit the gas mainline, the threads around the world snapped and the glowing light of humanity's greatest sins exploded over everything—

—and they prayed—

—and they wept—

—and the Dreads rushed out torrentially. (pulling a few strays with them)

Now for the part you were all waiting for (well I was)—the Heart of this AU

The Dread Powers and the ones who were dragged with them were transported Somewhere Else– a parallel world in a parallel universe. But they were. . . Changed from their previous/original selves.

The tag-alongs—Martin & Jon of course, but also Annabelle Cane, Oliver Banks, Simon Fairchild, and Arthur Nolan—replaced their parallels at birth, and gained partial or full amnesia to their past lives. But their personalities are altered, reflecting some aspects of their pre-finale personalities.

Except for Jon. Jon, the Pupil of the Eye, the Warhead of the Extinction, the Spools of the Web, the Archive of the Dreads and linchpin to their escape. . . was significantly destroyed in the center of the storm. He got it and so much worse—a stick so short its existence was inverted.

While they did get reach the new universe, they had to reconstruct their linchpin/Archive that they're still connected to so that his total destruction doesn't tear them apart as well (being an Extinction avatar that's now deeply connected with them, he's capable of "taking them down with him").

When Jon was reborn, he was literally thrown into the world like a meteorite, landing with an explosive blast that rendered the surrounding area a lifeless wasteland in moments. High radioactivity and a deathly curse left few flora or fauna returning before wasting away soon after. Those that 'survived' did so by being infected by the Extinction or Corruption.

It would permanently remain uninhabitable, and it would take months before the withered stillborn spawn of the sapient eldritch Dread Entities would crawl out of the jagged crater on its own, none the wiser to its tragedies.

TL;DR

The Web manipulated Jon's attempt to put a stop to the Entities' reign, utilizing the Eye's easy influence to help the Dreads escape the world and into a fresh new one before they were also destroyed in the Extinction's "Raze the Earth" ritual (set up by using Jon to weave toxic-filled veins throughout the world he was traversing that'll explode at once 'grand finale' style).

Jon, now deeply binded to the Entities' purest forms and still an Extinction time-bomb, was mostly destroyed during the trip to Somewhere Else and the Entities had to reconstruct him so his death wouldn't destroy them too. This led to Jon being reborn a near completely different being (with some of him preserved) as functionally the direct spawn of the Dread Powers, replacing his parallel counterpart from the new world.

[hostica-a]

𝓥𝖊𝖈𝖓𝖆 ; The Upside Down

I'm  due  for  a  big  old  rambly  headcanon  post  so  lets  do  it.  In  light  of  a  couple  updates  on  the  Stranger  Things  Writers  account,  including  them  promoting  Evil  Dead  as  relevant  to  Stranger  Things  in  some  way  and  recently  adding  a  picture  of   the  novel  "A  Wrinkle  in  Time"  for  the  same  effect,  the  brain  worms  are  wiggling  again !!   I've  personally  referenced  the  Evil  Dead  multiple  times  regarding  my  theories/thoughts/headcanons  on  the  Mindflayer  so  the  ST  writers  account  confirming  "some  part"  of  the  Evil  Dead  universe  is  reflected  and  taken  for  inspo  in  Stranger  Things  excited  tf  out  of  me,  and  the  content  found  in  A  Wrinkle  in  time  continues  to  further  add  to  my  personal  theories  on  that  in  particular  as  well. 

I  mean,  A  wrinkle  in  time  is  also  loaded  choc  full  of  religious  and  spiritual  themes,  tied  hand  in  hand  with  the  supernatural  and  science  fiction  and  I've  mentioned  that's  precisely  where  Stranger  Things  is  thematically  ( Although  the  fandom  doesn't  seem  to  believe  it. )  The  dark  amalgamation  of  religious,  cosmic  and  sci-fci  horror  is  genuinely  my  favourite  thing  about  Stranger  Things  as  a  series.  

Although  being  honest  my  PERSONAL  headcanons  and  portrayal  on  Vecna  and  the  Mindflayer  are  not  necessarily  meant  to  promote  Christian  values  or  Christianized  views  on   morality  or  good  vs  evil  as  is  the  case  with  a  Wrinkle  in  time. More  to  the  opposite,  actually. 

As  I've  been  over  in  another  headcanon,  personally,  I  more  display  the  Mindflayer  as  "god",  or  an  allegory  of,  rather  than  an  allegory  for  Satan  as  seems  to  be  more  the  case  with  "The  Black  Thing"  in  "A  Wrinkle  in  time"  and  could  very  well  be  the  case  with  Stranger  Things  canonly,  but  I  also  wouldn't  say  thats  what  Stranger  Things  is  going  for  given  we  can't  survey  season  5  or  how  anything  with  Vecna  and the  MF  is  going  to  go  just  yet.

But  none  the  less  I'm  excited  by  the  little  "updates"  and  the  "clues"  they're  giving  and  I  wanted  to  talk  about  a  few  of  my  insane  weirdo  takes  as  well  involving  Vecna  and  the  UD  specifically.

I've  surely  mentioned  some  of  these  things  before,  some  in  great  detail,  but  others  less  so, so we're gonna run over some stuff again. 

So,  essentially  as  far  as  it  goes  in  my  HCs  RN  Vecna  is  the  one  who  "shaped"  the  Upside  Down  to  look  like  Hawkins.  Like,  I  actually  have  two  theories  on  this  and  I  like  them  both  but  I'm  using  the  slightly  more  insane  one  for  my  own  writings  and  thats  the  one  I'm  mostly  gonna  be  rambling  about. 

As  far  as  my  headcanons  go  and  the  one  I'm  CURRENTLY  working  with  in  threads  and  such  is  in  a  nutshell  I  think  the  "yellow  /  red  world"  we  saw  Henry  and  the  Mindflayer  in  is  more  of  a  pocket  dimension  to  ultimately  what  became  the  Upside  Down.  I'm  probably  not  gonna  be  making  a  whole  lot  of  sense  here,  especially  if  you  haven't  read  my  other  HCs  about  the  Mindflayer  and  Vecna,  and  the  references  I  take  from  H.P  Lovecraft,  specifically  Azathoth,  Nyarlathotep  and  the  Crawling  Chaos. 

But  anyway,  essentially  the  Shadow  /  Cloud  mass  isn't  the  mindflayer's  true  corporeal  form.  Its  more  a  manifestation  of  the  mindflayer's  "Astral  form"  or  some  fragment  of  it  anyway.  And  it  was,  shall  we  say,  "trapped" in  this  "pocket  dimension"  before  Henry  linked  up  with  it  and  freed  it. 

Because  again,  taking  heavy  inpso  from  Azathoth  and  myths  surrounding  the  being  from  the  HP  Lovecraft  universe,  there  is  a  concept  that  Azathoth  was  somehow  "imprisoned",   although  as  essentially  the  creator  of   all  reality  it  can  never  really  be  contained  or  "stopped",  Azathoth's  omnipotence  remains  even  in  its  discombobulated  or  'unconscious'  state. 

And  I'm  very  much  going  for  the  same  vibe  with  the  Mindflayer.  Its  true  corporeal   form  is  simply  incomprehensible,  and  it  interacts  with  the  world  through  its  'dreaming'  or  'astral  form'. Another  fun  bit  of  info  is  if/when  threads  come  up  where  Henry  references  concepts  such  as  Inari's  Web  or  figures  in  creation  myths  such  as  the  Spider  Grandmother,  they're  all  actually  related  and  connected  to  the  concept  of  The Mindflayer  and  my  likeness  of  it  to  Azathoth.  The  mindflayer  is  a  thing  that  simply  exists  across  and  between  multiple  dimensions. 

Though  parts  of  it  have  been  "contained"  in  some  places,  although  how  it  got  trapped  in  some  places  I  haven't  decided  or  specified  yet  but  I  like  to  think  it  had  less  to  do  with  other  cosmic  deities   deciding  it  needed  to  be  stopped  and  more  to  do  with  its  own  "mindless"  hunger. 

So  anyway,  as  I  also  mentioned  and  continuing  with  the  weird  horror  theme,  I  portray  the  Upside  Down  as,  quite  literally,  a  living  organism,  ( I  have  done  a  pretty  lengthy  post  on  that  in  particular  floating  around  on  one  of  my  blogs )  and  potentially  part  of  the  mindflayer's  actual  corporeal  form,  a  bizarre  world  that  is  the  inside  of  a  gargantuan  deity  that  represents  all  reality.   

A  world  that  happens  to  be  sitting  parallel  to  the  "cursed"  town  of  Hawkins.  Where  Henry  originates  from.  Truly,  Henry  coming  to  live  in  Hawkins  was  the  worst  thing  to  happen  to  Hawkins   and  probably  the  world  because  Henry  was  born  "sensitive"  in  my  HC.  He  was  born  with  clairvoyant  abilities.  ( Its  been  suggested  Victor  could  have  been  somehow  "sensitive"  as  well  given  he  is  the  only  other  character  in  the  Creel  family  apart  from  Henry  who  had  the  sense  of  a  "presence"  in  the  Creel  house. )  

Due  to  Henry's  clairvoyant  abilities  he  was  able  to  receive  "transmissions"  from  "the  Mindflayer",  currently  residing  in  the  otherworld. It  was  because  of  the  Mindflayer's  influence  that  Henry's  powers  heightened  the  way  they  did.  You  could  even  say,  in  a  way,  it  gifted  him  those  powers  and  groomed  him  to  take  his  eventual  path  with  them.  Not  helped  by  Brenner,  and  the  Lab  at  all  of  course  because  they're  another  huge  factor  in  this. 

The  Mindflayer  "chose"  Henry  to  be  it's  intermedium.  And  I'm  not  going  to  say  the  Mindflayer  always  wanted  to  "Destroy  the  world"  or  that  its  "evil"  or  anything  so  "simple",  because  more  the  reality  is  that  its  just  "hungry."  It  rots  and  consumes  Hawkins  for  that  far  less  morally  aligned  reason.  Its  indifferent  to  humanity  and  morality  because  both  of  those  things  are  entirely  beneath  it.  ( As  Dustin  explained  in  season  2,  the Mindflayer  thinks  itself  superior  to.... Everything  and  if  you  are  in  fact  an  ancient  cosmic  deity  wheres  the  fault  in  that  logic  exactly ? )  Destroying  the  world  isn't  its  goal,  rather,  its  not  destruction,  its  renewal. 

Because  as  I've  also  mentioned   many  times  before  I'm  defo  taking  some  inspo  from  the  Legacy  of  Kain  series  and  the  depiction  of  the  entity  known  as  the  elder  god.  Essentially  the  Elder  god  has  an  influence  over  life  and  death  because  it  feeds  on  death,  or  rather  it  feeds  on  souls,  but  its  not  so  simple  because  by  feeding  on  souls  the  "elder  god"  also  "spins  the  souls"  back  into  the  "wheel  of  fate",  hence,  while  everything  is  destroyed  by  the  elder  god  it  is  also  renewed  by  the  elder  god.  It  is  essentially  the  "cycle  of  life"  or  "fate"  personified  as  a  monstrous  squid  like  abomination  that  resides  in  the  "otherworld",  that  is  depicted  as  a  dark/warped  version  of  normal  reality  full  of  monsters. 

AND  that  is  also  a  kind  of  aesthetic  I'm  going  for  here  because  I  think  it  works  and  LOK  is  just  another  thing  that  I  would  be  VERY  SURPRISED  if  the  Duffer  bros  and  the  ST  writers  didn't  actually  have  in  the  piles  of  inspo  because  it  def  has  so  many  similar  elements  to  ST  going  on  BUT  THATS  for  another  post. 

Because  ultimately  I  haven't  fully  decided  if  the  MFs  intentions  are  anything  beyond  "eating",  I  think  its  something  that  simply  EATS  and  eats  and  death  and  destruction  feed  it,  so  it  has  a  bit  of  a  habit  of  influencing  the  world(s)  around  it  to  create  death  and  destruction  again  for  no  big  reason  outside  of  this  is  its  nature  and  its  simply  hungry  but  part  of  its  feeding  leads  to  'renewal'  because  technically  it  is  reality  itself. 

Which is  also  Henry/Vecna  comes  into  it  for  me.  Because  as  the  human  intermedium  he's  given  this  a  human  element.  He  brings  the  "human"  side  in.  We  cant  fully  comprehend  why  and  how  the  mindflayer  does  what  it  does,  but  Vecna's  different.  He  was  human  once,  he  still  has  somewhat  human  goals.  In  my  HC,  Vecna's  aware  of  what  the  mindflayer  is  and  he's  heavily  on  the  side  of  "renewal".  Which  is  another  human  aspect  of  him;  he's  seen  the  good  and  the  use  in  this  unfathomable  omnipotent  thing  that  just  rots  and  eats  everything  it  touches.  Ultimately,  Vecna  understands  what  the  Mindflayer  is,  and  he  serves  it,  however,  he's  also  using  his  link  to  it  for  what  he  thinks  is  good.  He  wants  to  change  and  "renew"  the  world  and  the  Mindflayer  is  the  key  to  that.  Its  a  tool,  but  so  is  he.  They're  tools  for  each  other.  

The  Mindflayer  brings  about  judgement  and  destruction  onto  mankind  and  the  corruption  of  human  civilization,  allowing  Vecna  to  "reset"  it,  in  his  hopes  into  something  better,  meanwhile   the  Mindflayer  uses  Vecna  to  open  the  gates,  to  free  it  and  thus  supply  it  with  a  massive  supply  of  "food"  during  all  this  that  continues  the  unending  cycle  of  life  and  death  across  all  the  universe. 

But  I  haven't  completely  decided  how  much  of  Vecna's  goals  are  influenced  by  the  Mindflayer's  "corruption"  or  direction  because  I  also  think  that's  an  element  as  well.  Cos  for  example,  I  think  while  Henry  always  wanted  to  use  his  powers  to  make  a  change  in  the  world  I  don't  think  he  ever  wanted  to  destroy  everything  to  rebuild  it.  

Another  thing  I  personally  take  reference  from  and  will  be  VERY  shocked  if  the  ST  writers  aren't  as  well,  is  Silent  Hill,  which  I've  mentioned  a  lot  of  times  specifically  surrounding  the  link  between  Henry  and  Will  and  Alessa  and  Cheryl  and  the  similairties  I  think  there  could  be  there,  but  another  element  here  for  me  is  the  fact  Alessa  and  what  was  done  to  her  is  considered  the  catalyst  for  much  of  the  terrifying  shit  going  on  in  Silent  Hill  and  its  link  to  its  "dark  mirror",  the  other  world,  which  looks  near  identical  to  Silent  Hill  except  dark  and  twisted  and  full  of  monsters,  and  the  lapse  in  dimensional  barriers. 

( Also as a  fun  note  the  "otherworld"  of  Silent  hill  is  also  depicted  as  the  place  "god"  lives,  so  yeah ). 

And  this  does  in  fact  mirror  Henry  in  a  way  given  we  can  definitely  say  Eleven  pushing  Henry  through  to  the  Upside  Down  really  "sealed  the  fate"  of  Hawkins  and  brings  me  to  the  fact  that  yeah,  I  headcanon  Henry  is  the  reason  the  Upside  Down  was  reskinned  to  look  like  the  Dark  Mirror  of  Hawkins. 

Why ?  Because  he  wanted  to  build  his  own  world,  his  idea  of  a  better,  safer  one.  This  just  becomes  a  little  more  literal, supernatural  and  psychological  with  Vecna  and  the  Upside  Down.  There  is  a  heavy  "foreshadowing"  to  this  in  the  scene  with  Eleven  and  Henry  where  Henry  says  "We  could  reshape  the  world.  Remake  it  in anyway  we  see  fit." 

Henry  reshaped  the  Upside  Down  to  look  as  if  it  was  Hawkins.  And  I  wonder  if  a  part  of  him  did  this  to  find  his  way  home,  since  he  returned  to  the  Creel  house  and  seemingly  stayed  there.  We  also  know  Vecna's  version  of   the  Creel  house  and  the  actual  Creel  house  are  not  just  direct  copies  of  each  other  but  they're  also  apparently  in  the  exact  same  place  as  each  other,  and  a  lot  of  the  Upside  Down  could  be  seen  as  a life sized  "map"  of  Hawkins  in  a  way.

But  I  also  have the  headcanon  that  after  Vecna  reshaped  the  UD  for  whatever  reason  or  REASONS  he  did,  that  was  it  for  him.  He  exhausted  the  power  he  had   and  went  into  hibernation  mode.  This  feels  like  it  could  also  be  very  true  because  there  is  no  sign  of  Vecna  anywhere  until  the  back  end  of  season  3.   

And  I  feel  like  canon  could   have  explained  this  with  when  they  had  Will  mention  the  Mindflayer  doesn't  "activate"  its  minions,  so  to  speak,  until  it  needs  them.  It  wouldn't  have  necessarily  needed  Vecna  during  season  1,  because  Eleven  had  accidentally  opened  the  gate.  The  gate  was  "closed"  in  season  2  but  a  small  fragment  of  the  Mindflayer  that  had  been  expelled  from  Will  had  already  escaped  and  went  on  to  wreak  havoc  in  season  3.  

Season  3  apparently  follows  the  Mindflayer’s  attempts  to  kill  everyone  of  a  threat  to  it  ( Specifically  Eleven ) and  reopen  the  gate ,  which  fails,  and  then  suddenly  Vecna  comes  into  it  full  force  and  opens  the  gates  for  it,  and  given  the  way  the  D*ffers  and  the  writing  crew  have  worked  to  tie  S4  and  the  previous  seasons  together.  I  don't  think  Vecna's  absence  and  appearance  is  coincidental  or  that  Vecna  was  always  just  sitting  around  twiddling  his  thumbs  waiting. 

So  what  I’m  saying  for  now  is  basically  that  Vecna/Henry  made  the  Upside  Down  look  like  Hawkins.  I’m  not  giving  specifics  for  why,  outside  of  the  fact  he  had  a  longing  for  his  own  “ safe  world“  but  Hawkins  was  the  only  place  he  "knew"  to  based  it  off,  and  that  Vecna  also  wasn’t  an  “active”  presence  in  the  UD  or  the  initial  invasion  of  Hawkins  during  season  1-2. 

During  season  1-2  Vecna  didn’t  have  the  power  to  actively  participate  in  this.  He  was  drained  from  using  his  powers  to  reskin  the  Upside  Down  and  was  in  a  semi  comatose  state.  ( Although  he  is  still  present  within  the  hivemind  and  thus  had  some  understanding  of  what  was  going  on  through  the  mindflayer's  interactions  with  Hawkins,  the  party  and  the  demogorgons. )

The  mindflayer  officially  “reawakened  him”  due  to  needing  him  to  “reopen”  the  gates  and  he  could  do  this  after  the  Mindflayer  absorbed  Eleven's  powers  and  transfered  them  to  him  to  give  him  a  jump  start.  The  initial  opening  of  the  gate  in  S1  was  an  “accident”  that  occurred  because  of  Brenner’s  meddling  with  Eleven’s  powers  and,  to  put  it  in  a  very  oversimplified  and  condensed  way,  once  the  mindflayer  got  “a  taste”  of  the  real  Hawkins,  it. wanted  more  and  started  upping  the  ante  when  it  came  to  trying  to  “break  out”  or  rather  “merge”  Hawkins  with  itself/the  UD  and  perhaps  this  was  always  where  it  was  leading  to,  given  if  Henry  continued  to  use  his  powers  the  way  he  was  he  would  also  break  the  barrier  of  the  UD  and  Hawkins.  

So  I  also  wanna  say  Vecna’s  actions  of  reskinning  the  Upside  Down  may  have  ALWAYS  been intended  to  to  be  part  of  a  merger  between  Hawkins  and  the  Upside  Down  but  he  ran  out  of  juice  before  he  could  finish  the  job  and  it  just  so  happened  that  Eleven’s  contact  with  the  Demogorgon  finally  popped  a  big  enough  hole  in  the  barrier  between  the  UD  and  Hawkins  to  really  get  the  ball  rolling  on  things  again. 

Anyways,  like  I  said  I  do  have  OTHER  theories  and  tbh  I  constantly  think  about  the  way  the  Demogorgans  behave  in  the  VR  game  and  it  just  throws  me  out  on  a  lot  of  stuff  because  you  don't  know  how  disappointed  I'm  going  to  be if   the  writers  do  some  generic  shit  like  the  Upside  Down  was  just  an  alien  world  that  was  conquered  bc  teh  evils.  Like  that  would  feel  very  lame  to  me  and  hopefully  I'm  just  reading  too  far  into  the  few  seconds  we  got  from  the  VR  game  and  NONE  THE  LESS  my  own  personal  headcanons  seek  to  generally  disregard  whatever  canon  might  be  doing  with  any  of  this  anyway. 

[thevindicativevordan]

I’m sure you’d like to keep the details close to your chest but if you were to ever be given the opportunity to write for Superman, be it a mini series, a one shot, or even a full blown run, what would THAT look like? what would you wanna focus on?

Loads of stories obviously but just a few I'd love to write:

A Hush-esque story set inbetween Tomasi and Bendis' runs. Superman has plenty of origin stories but he lacks a "tour" of his modern day status quo. Hush itself might not live up to it's hype, but it's an easy entry point to "present day" Batman. It tells you the basic deal about Batman himself, his allies, his romantic interests, and his Rogues in one story with great art. Closest equivalent Superman had was Up in the Sky by Busiek and Johns, but I don't think that story works anymore given all the continuity shifts. Let me write a new one with Ivan Reis on art, placed between Tomasi and Bendis because that's the sweet spot where you've got a nice mix of "classic" Superman (he's married to Lois, living in Metropolis, working at the Daily Planet, Perry, Jimmy, Bibbo and Maggie Sawyer are all in Metropolis) and "new" Superman (Jon exists, they just came from living outside Metropolis and Supes needs to reconnect with the city). Easy set up to justify someone plotting a "welcome back" attack on Kal.

A space fantasy swords and sorcery story about Superman and Maxima on Almerac going up against Mongul during Superman's early years, about Year 4 or 5. Think The Warworld Saga, Star Wars, The God Butcher arc from Aaron's Thor run, and Mass Effect.

Elseworld based on the original pitch of Superman & the Authority, he's really been active since 1938, in the present his original allies in the Justice League were all killed off, and now the world is run by the supervillains, specifically Lex, Brainiac, and Ultra-Humanite. Clark has to put together a new team, the Authority, aimed at overthrowing their regime because while he survived the initial attack it left him reduced back to his early year power levels.

A honeymoon story where Clark and Lois celebrate their marriage by going sightseeing across the cosmos, with Lois aiming to write a book about all the alien civilizations she sees to educate humanity on what's out there. Would be from her point of view, and more of a romantic comedy. The Reporter's Guide to the Galaxy in a nutshell.

Supergirl (or maybe Superwoman?) story where she founds a lunar colony for herself and other exiles - human and alien - who don't have anywhere they belong. Show Kara attempting to build a "Krakoa" and having to contend with the realities of nation-building and intergalactic politics, with opposition from both Earth and elsewhere to her ambitions.

Superman meets Dead Space/Arkane's Prey in a Steel story that has John Henry Irons travel to an abandoned human space station in orbit around Saturn to discover why it sent a distress signal before going dark. Really want to position Irons as a "Man of Tomorrow" in his own right, explore the ways his tech has allowed him to evolve himself, while pitting him against a foe who serves as an antithesis to his beliefs.

Story focused on the House of El in the future where Ronan Kent is Superman and has to contend with the United Planets falling into a civil war between members.

[firstcurse]

Inspirations / blog canon recap.

I'm  due  for  a  big  old  rambly  headcanon  post  so  lets  do  it.  In  light  of  a  couple  updates  on  the  Stranger  Things  Writers  account,  including  them  promoting  Evil  Dead  as  relevant  to  Stranger  Things  in  some  way  and  recently  adding  a  picture  of   the  novel  "A  Wrinkle  in  Time"  for  the  same  effect,  the  brain  worms  are  wiggling  again !!   I've  personally  referenced  the  Evil  Dead  multiple  times  regarding  my  theories/thoughts/headcanons  on  the  Mindflayer  so  the  ST  writers  account  confirming  "some  part"  of  the  Evil  Dead  universe  is  reflected  and  taken  for  inspo  in  Stranger  Things  excited  tf  out  of  me,  and  the  content  found  in  A  Wrinkle  in  time  continues  to  further  add  to  my  personal  theories  on  that  in  particular  as  well. 

I  mean,  A  wrinkle  in  time  is  also  loaded  choc  full  of  religious  and  spiritual  themes,  tied  hand  in  hand  with  the  supernatural  and  science  fiction  and  I've  mentioned  that's  precisely  where  Stranger  Things  is  thematically  ( Although  the  fandom  doesn't  seem  to  believe  it. )  The  dark  amalgamation  of  religious,  cosmic  and  sci-fci  horror  is  genuinely  my  favourite  thing  about  Stranger  Things  as  a  series.  

Although  being  honest  my  PERSONAL  headcanons  and  portrayal  on  Vecna  and  the  Mindflayer  are  not  necessarily  meant  to  promote  Christian  values  or  Christianized  views  on   morality  or  good  vs  evil  as  is  the  case  with  a  Wrinkle  in  time. More  to  the  opposite,  actually. 

As  I've  been  over  in  another  headcanon,  personally,  I  more  display  the  Mindflayer  as  "god",  or  an  allegory  of,  rather  than  an  allegory  for  Satan  as  seems  to  be  more  the  case  with  "The  Black  Thing"  in  "A  Wrinkle  in  time"  and  could  very  well  be  the  case  with  Stranger  Things  canonly,  but  I  also  wouldn't  say  thats  what  Stranger  Things  is  going  for  given  we  can't  survey  season  5  or  how  anything  with  Vecna  and the  MF  is  going  to  go  just  yet.

But  none  the  less  I'm  excited  by  the  little  "updates"  and  the  "clues"  they're  giving  and  I  wanted  to  talk  about  a  few  of  my  insane  weirdo  takes  as  well  involving  Vecna  and  the  UD  specifically.

I've  surely  mentioned  some  of  these  things  before,  some  in  great  detail,  but  others  less  so, so we're gonna run over some stuff again. 

So,  essentially  as  far  as  it  goes  in  my  HCs  RN  Vecna  is  the  one  who  "shaped"  the  Upside  Down  to  look  like  Hawkins.  Like,  I  actually  have  two  theories  on  this  and  I  like  them  both  but  I'm  using  the  slightly  more  insane  one  for  my  own  writings  and  thats  the  one  I'm  mostly  gonna  be  rambling  about. 

As  far  as  my  headcanons  go  and  the  one  I'm  CURRENTLY  working  with  in  threads  and  such  is  in  a  nutshell  I  think  the  "yellow  /  red  world"  we  saw  Henry  and  the  Mindflayer  in  is  more  of  a  pocket  dimension  to  ultimately  what  became  the  Upside  Down.  I'm  probably  not  gonna  be  making  a  whole  lot  of  sense  here,  especially  if  you  haven't  read  my  other  HCs  about  the  Mindflayer  and  Vecna,  and  the  references  I  take  from  H.P  Lovecraft,  specifically  Azathoth,  Nyarlathotep  and  the  Crawling  Chaos. 

But  anyway,  essentially  the  Shadow  /  Cloud  mass  isn't  the  mindflayer's  true  corporeal  form.  Its  more  a  manifestation  of  the  mindflayer's  "Astral  form"  or  some  fragment  of  it  anyway.  And  it  was,  shall  we  say,  "trapped" in  this  "pocket  dimension"  before  Henry  linked  up  with  it  and  freed  it. 

Because  again,  taking  heavy  inpso  from  Azathoth  and  myths  surrounding  the  being  from  the  HP  Lovecraft  universe,  there  is  a  concept  that  Azathoth  was  somehow  "imprisoned",   although  as  essentially  the  creator  of   all  reality  it  can  never  really  be  contained  or  "stopped",  Azathoth's  omnipotence  remains  even  in  its  discombobulated  or  'unconscious'  state. 

And  I'm  very  much  going  for  the  same  vibe  with  the  Mindflayer.  Its  true  corporeal   form  is  simply  incomprehensible,  and  it  interacts  with  the  world  through  its  'dreaming'  or  'astral  form'. Another  fun  bit  of  info  is  if/when  threads  come  up  where  Henry  references  concepts  such  as  Inari's  Web  or  figures  in  creation  myths  such  as  the  Spider  Grandmother,  they're  all  actually  related  and  connected  to  the  concept  of  The Mindflayer  and  my  likeness  of  it  to  Azathoth.  The  mindflayer  is  a  thing  that  simply  exists  across  and  between  multiple  dimensions. 

Though  parts  of  it  have  been  "contained"  in  some  places,  although  how  it  got  trapped  in  some  places  I  haven't  decided  or  specified  yet  but  I  like  to  think  it  had  less  to  do  with  other  cosmic  deities   deciding  it  needed  to  be  stopped  and  more  to  do  with  its  own  "mindless"  hunger. 

So  anyway,  as  I  also  mentioned  and  continuing  with  the  weird  horror  theme,  I  portray  the  Upside  Down  as,  quite  literally,  a  living  organism,  ( I  have  done  a  pretty  lengthy  post  on  that  in  particular  floating  around  on  one  of  my  blogs )  and  potentially  part  of  the  mindflayer's  actual  corporeal  form,  a  bizarre  world  that  is  the  inside  of  a  gargantuan  deity  that  represents  all  reality.   

A  world  that  happens  to  be  sitting  parallel  to  the  "cursed"  town  of  Hawkins.  Where  Henry  originates  from.  Truly,  Henry  coming  to  live  in  Hawkins  was  the  worst  thing  to  happen  to  Hawkins   and  probably  the  world  because  Henry  was  born  "sensitive"  in  my  HC.  He  was  born  with  clairvoyant  abilities.  ( Its  been  suggested  Victor  could  have  been  somehow  "sensitive"  as  well  given  he  is  the  only  other  character  in  the  Creel  family  apart  from  Henry  who  had  the  sense  of  a  "presence"  in  the  Creel  house. )  

Due  to  Henry's  clairvoyant  abilities  he  was  able  to  receive  "transmissions"  from  "the  Mindflayer",  currently  residing  in  the  otherworld. It  was  because  of  the  Mindflayer's  influence  that  Henry's  powers  heightened  the  way  they  did.  You  could  even  say,  in  a  way,  it  gifted  him  those  powers  and  groomed  him  to  take  his  eventual  path  with  them.  Not  helped  by  Brenner,  and  the  Lab  at  all  of  course  because  they're  another  huge  factor  in  this. 

The  Mindflayer  "chose"  Henry  to  be  it's  intermedium.  And  I'm  not  going  to  say  the  Mindflayer  always  wanted  to  "Destroy  the  world"  or  that  its  "evil"  or  anything  so  "simple",  because  more  the  reality  is  that  its  just  "hungry."  It  rots  and  consumes  Hawkins  for  that  far  less  morally  aligned  reason.  Its  indifferent  to  humanity  and  morality  because  both  of  those  things  are  entirely  beneath  it.  ( As  Dustin  explained  in  season  2,  the Mindflayer  thinks  itself  superior  to.... Everything  and  if  you  are  in  fact  an  ancient  cosmic  deity  wheres  the  fault  in  that  logic  exactly ? )  Destroying  the  world  isn't  its  goal,  rather,  its  not  destruction,  its  renewal. 

Because  as  I've  also  mentioned   many  times  before  I'm  defo  taking  some  inspo  from  the  Legacy  of  Kain  series  and  the  depiction  of  the  entity  known  as  the  elder  god.  Essentially  the  Elder  god  has  an  influence  over  life  and  death  because  it  feeds  on  death,  or  rather  it  feeds  on  souls,  but  its  not  so  simple  because  by  feeding  on  souls  the  "elder  god"  also  "spins  the  souls"  back  into  the  "wheel  of  fate",  hence,  while  everything  is  destroyed  by  the  elder  god  it  is  also  renewed  by  the  elder  god.  It  is  essentially  the  "cycle  of  life"  or  "fate"  personified  as  a  monstrous  squid  like  abomination  that  resides  in  the  "otherworld",  that  is  depicted  as  a  dark/warped  version  of  normal  reality  full  of  monsters. 

AND  that  is  also  a  kind  of  aesthetic  I'm  going  for  here  because  I  think  it  works  and  LOK  is  just  another  thing  that  I  would  be  VERY  SURPRISED  if  the  Duffer  bros  and  the  ST  writers  didn't  actually  have  in  the  piles  of  inspo  because  it  def  has  so  many  similar  elements  to  ST  going  on  BUT  THATS  for  another  post. 

Because  ultimately  I  haven't  fully  decided  if  the  MFs  intentions  are  anything  beyond  "eating",  I  think  its  something  that  simply  EATS  and  eats  and  death  and  destruction  feed  it,  so  it  has  a  bit  of  a  habit  of  influencing  the  world(s)  around  it  to  create  death  and  destruction  again  for  no  big  reason  outside  of  this  is  its  nature  and  its  simply  hungry  but  part  of  its  feeding  leads  to  'renewal'  because  technically  it  is  reality  itself. 

Which is  also  Henry/Vecna  comes  into  it  for  me.  Because  as  the  human  intermedium  he's  given  this  a  human  element.  He  brings  the  "human"  side  in.  We  cant  fully  comprehend  why  and  how  the  mindflayer  does  what  it  does,  but  Vecna's  different.  He  was  human  once,  he  still  has  somewhat  human  goals.  In  my  HC,  Vecna's  aware  of  what  the  mindflayer  is  and  he's  heavily  on  the  side  of  "renewal".  Which  is  another  human  aspect  of  him;  he's  seen  the  good  and  the  use  in  this  unfathomable  omnipotent  thing  that  just  rots  and  eats  everything  it  touches.  Ultimately,  Vecna  understands  what  the  Mindflayer  is,  and  he  serves  it,  however,  he's  also  using  his  link  to  it  for  what  he  thinks  is  good.  He  wants  to  change  and  "renew"  the  world  and  the  Mindflayer  is  the  key  to  that.  Its  a  tool,  but  so  is  he.  They're  tools  for  each  other.  

The  Mindflayer  brings  about  judgement  and  destruction  onto  mankind  and  the  corruption  of  human  civilization,  allowing  Vecna  to  "reset"  it,  in  his  hopes  into  something  better,  meanwhile   the  Mindflayer  uses  Vecna  to  open  the  gates,  to  free  it  and  thus  supply  it  with  a  massive  supply  of  "food"  during  all  this  that  continues  the  unending  cycle  of  life  and  death  across  all  the  universe. 

But  I  haven't  completely  decided  how  much  of  Vecna's  goals  are  influenced  by  the  Mindflayer's  "corruption"  or  direction  because  I  also  think  that's  an  element  as  well.  Cos  for  example,  I  think  while  Henry  always  wanted  to  use  his  powers  to  make  a  change  in  the  world  I  don't  think  he  ever  wanted  to  destroy  everything  to  rebuild  it.  

Another  thing  I  personally  take  reference  from  and  will  be  VERY  shocked  if  the  ST  writers  aren't  as  well,  is  Silent  Hill,  which  I've  mentioned  a  lot  of  times  specifically  surrounding  the  link  between  Henry  and  Will  and  Alessa  and  Cheryl  and  the  similairties  I  think  there  could  be  there,  but  another  element  here  for  me  is  the  fact  Alessa  and  what  was  done  to  her  is  considered  the  catalyst  for  much  of  the  terrifying  shit  going  on  in  Silent  Hill  and  its  link  to  its  "dark  mirror",  the  other  world,  which  looks  near  identical  to  Silent  Hill  except  dark  and  twisted  and  full  of  monsters,  and  the  lapse  in  dimensional  barriers. 

( Also as a  fun  note  the  "otherworld"  of  Silent  hill  is  also  depicted  as  the  place  "god"  lives,  so  yeah ). 

And  this  does  in  fact  mirror  Henry  in  a  way  given  we  can  definitely  say  Eleven  pushing  Henry  through  to  the  Upside  Down  really  "sealed  the  fate"  of  Hawkins  and  brings  me  to  the  fact  that  yeah,  I  headcanon  Henry  is  the  reason  the  Upside  Down  was  reskinned  to  look  like  the  Dark  Mirror  of  Hawkins. 

Why ?  Because  he  wanted  to  build  his  own  world,  his  idea  of  a  better,  safer  one.  This  just  becomes  a  little  more  literal, supernatural  and  psychological  with  Vecna  and  the  Upside  Down.  There  is  a  heavy  "foreshadowing"  to  this  in  the  scene  with  Eleven  and  Henry  where  Henry  says  "We  could  reshape  the  world.  Remake  it  in anyway  we  see  fit." 

Henry  reshaped  the  Upside  Down  to  look  as  if  it  was  Hawkins.  And  I  wonder  if  a  part  of  him  did  this  to  find  his  way  home,  since  he  returned  to  the  Creel  house  and  seemingly  stayed  there.  We  also  know  Vecna's  version  of   the  Creel  house  and  the  actual  Creel  house  are  not  just  direct  copies  of  each  other  but  they're  also  apparently  in  the  exact  same  place  as  each  other,  and  a  lot  of  the  Upside  Down  could  be  seen  as  a life sized  "map"  of  Hawkins  in  a  way.

But  I  also  have the  headcanon  that  after  Vecna  reshaped  the  UD  for  whatever  reason  or  REASONS  he  did,  that  was  it  for  him.  He  exhausted  the  power  he  had   and  went  into  hibernation  mode.  This  feels  like  it  could  also  be  very  true  because  there  is  no  sign  of  Vecna  anywhere  until  the  back  end  of  season  3.   

And  I  feel  like  canon  could   have  explained  this  with  when  they  had  Will  mention  the  Mindflayer  doesn't  "activate"  its  minions,  so  to  speak,  until  it  needs  them.  It  wouldn't  have  necessarily  needed  Vecna  during  season  1,  because  Eleven  had  accidentally  opened  the  gate.  The  gate  was  "closed"  in  season  2  but  a  small  fragment  of  the  Mindflayer  that  had  been  expelled  from  Will  had  already  escaped  and  went  on  to  wreak  havoc  in  season  3.  

Season  3  apparently  follows  the  Mindflayer’s  attempts  to  kill  everyone  of  a  threat  to  it  ( Specifically  Eleven ) and  reopen  the  gate ,  which  fails,  and  then  suddenly  Vecna  comes  into  it  full  force  and  opens  the  gates  for  it,  and  given  the  way  the  D*ffers  and  the  writing  crew  have  worked  to  tie  S4  and  the  previous  seasons  together.  I  don't  think  Vecna's  absence  and  appearance  is  coincidental  or  that  Vecna  was  always  just  sitting  around  twiddling  his  thumbs  waiting. 

So  what  I’m  saying  for  now  is  basically  that  Vecna/Henry  made  the  Upside  Down  look  like  Hawkins.  I’m  not  giving  specifics  for  why,  outside  of  the  fact  he  had  a  longing  for  his  own  “ safe  world“  but  Hawkins  was  the  only  place  he  "knew"  to  based  it  off,  and  that  Vecna  also  wasn’t  an  “active”  presence  in  the  UD  or  the  initial  invasion  of  Hawkins  during  season  1-2. 

During  season  1-2  Vecna  didn’t  have  the  power  to  actively  participate  in  this.  He  was  drained  from  using  his  powers  to  reskin  the  Upside  Down  and  was  in  a  semi  comatose  state.  ( Although  he  is  still  present  within  the  hivemind  and  thus  had  some  understanding  of  what  was  going  on  through  the  mindflayer's  interactions  with  Hawkins,  the  party  and  the  demogorgons. )

The  mindflayer  officially  “reawakened  him”  due  to  needing  him  to  “reopen”  the  gates  and  he  could  do  this  after  the  Mindflayer  absorbed  Eleven's  powers  and  transfered  them  to  him  to  give  him  a  jump  start.  The  initial  opening  of  the  gate  in  S1  was  an  “accident”  that  occurred  because  of  Brenner’s  meddling  with  Eleven’s  powers  and,  to  put  it  in  a  very  oversimplified  and  condensed  way,  once  the  mindflayer  got  “a  taste”  of  the  real  Hawkins,  it. wanted  more  and  started  upping  the  ante  when  it  came  to  trying  to  “break  out”  or  rather  “merge”  Hawkins  with  itself/the  UD  and  perhaps  this  was  always  where  it  was  leading  to,  given  if  Henry  continued  to  use  his  powers  the  way  he  was  he  would  also  break  the  barrier  of  the  UD  and  Hawkins.  

So  I  also  wanna  say  Vecna’s  actions  of  reskinning  the  Upside  Down  may  have  ALWAYS  been intended  to  to  be  part  of  a  merger  between  Hawkins  and  the  Upside  Down  but  he  ran  out  of  juice  before  he  could  finish  the  job  and  it  just  so  happened  that  Eleven’s  contact  with  the  Demogorgon  finally  popped  a  big  enough  hole  in  the  barrier  between  the  UD  and  Hawkins  to  really  get  the  ball  rolling  on  things  again. 

Anyways,  like  I  said  I  do  have  OTHER  theories  and  tbh  I  constantly  think  about  the  way  the  Demogorgans  behave  in  the  VR  game  and  it  just  throws  me  out  on  a  lot  of  stuff  because  you  don't  know  how  disappointed  I'm  going  to  be if   the  writers  do  some  generic  shit  like  the  Upside  Down  was  just  an  alien  world  that  was  conquered  bc  teh  evils.  Like  that  would  feel  very  lame  to  me  and  hopefully  I'm  just  reading  too  far  into  the  few  seconds  we  got  from  the  VR  game  and  NONE  THE  LESS  my  own  personal  headcanons  seek  to  generally  disregard  whatever  canon  might  be  doing  with  any  of  this  anyway. 

[lasclvp]

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The first Mass Effect game still holds up remarkably well - visually, at least. Getting that many unique alien designs in a game in 2007 would have been no small feat, which means some corners had to be cut to make it possible. As a result, turians and asari don't have much in the way of fashion, all wearing the same outfits. There are also not too many of them in one place, with humans populating most of the game instead. Metropolis Ark 1 works with NKS and is compatible with KOMPLETE KONTROL keyboards, MASCHINE hardware, and third-party controllers. Now, with the benefit of modern hardware, a modder is set to change that.

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The LE1 Diversification Project has just released its alpha build, and replaces many of the human NPCs dotted around the game with aliens. A new update for Metropolis Ark 1 This is a feature update coupled with a small maintenance update, introducing the following changes: - the Capsule script was updated to 2.7.0 - support for the Native Instruments NKS standard (if you have compatible NI hardware) - miscellaneous small fixes Impo. Metropolis ark 1 reddit professional A professional program for dealing with sounds and music professionally.komplete 12 crack reddit Features of Komplete 12 Ultimate Collector’s Edition Crack In a nutshell, Komplete 12 Ultimate Collector’s Edition is an ideal choice if you really want to achieve something big in the audio and sound world. Metropolis Ark 4 (Orchestral Tools) Symphobia 1 (Project Sam) Symphobia 2 (Project Sam) Symphobia 3 Lumina (Project Sam) Majestica (8dio) Jaeger (Audio Imperia) Palette Symphonic Sketchpad (Red Room Audio) Vienna Smart Orchestra (Vienna Symphonic Library) Mikael 'Mike' Baggström T11:23:53+00:00. A huge orchestra, a choir, percussion, a grand piano, and a metal band with a single vision: Bold, loud, and breathtaking. These new NPCs also look much more unique than what you find in the base game, with new designs, and even a better gender balance. Metropolis Ark 1 features the loudest imaginable dynamics, ranging from mf up to fff. Ableton Live 11.1 beta adds Apple Silicon Support Baby Audio releases TAIP, an AI-powered tape emulation plugin. Related: Mass Effect 3's Ending Is Great, It's Just Not The One You're Thinking Ofįemale turians didn't appear in the series until a Mass Effect 3 DLC, but with this mod, they'll be hanging around the citadel just as the men are. AKAI Professional® Unveils the New MPC Studio: An Exceptional Modern Music Production Solution.

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The mod will also increase the diversity among the human population, by adding more women and people of colour.

[allegro-designs]

I have now watched @plinzer play through the whole mass effect trilogy which means it’s time to cry a whole bunch and also make a new Quarian version of one of my OCs (and also design a less human-looking Quarian design dangit) to cope.

Bryllowen A’Daragon the drow innkeeper rogue is now Brylo’Wenn nar Daaragon the sniper with cloaking abilities and an omniblade for melee combat.

[astrognossienne]

birthdays: 4 - the unabashed social climber

My dabbling in birthday numerology has resulted in a ridiculously viral and classic post on my tumblr that goes through all the birthdays. The total sum of all birthdays essentially adds up to a range of numbers 1-9. In that post, I provided snapshots of the personalities of these birthdays. Now, here, on my website, I shall expound further as to why I came to these conclusions. To continue this series, we'll get into my other least favourite birthday number: 4.

4, 13, 22, 31: humanitarians, romantic, penetrating, provocative, faithful, pragmatic, reserved, immature, nakedly ambitious, tries too hard to be omnipotent, controversy always seems to surround them, savage for no reason, prides themselves on being infallible but are utterly fallible, know-it-alls, critical, anxious, smart-mouthed yet very sensitive (almost too much so), proud, tries hard to be individualistic but in reality is just like everyone else, very shady, can be and is often very disrespectful, patronizing and egotistical, needs their ass kissed, due to their vast insecurity and inherent inadequacy they have a need to conquer others and if they can’t do so then they will try very hard to destroy them, wayyy too sensitive and resorts to being caustic and abusive when they’re hurt (which is all the time), tries too hard to act/look/talk hard, can be tough but sweet, can be quite judgmental, always working, likes to one-up people, needs control and is often very self-controlled, often fake, passive-aggressive, very opportunistic and savvy, great at making friends, very contradictory and hypocritical, often very talented and hardworking, competitive, inspires others, wants to be known as kind and great in everyone’s eyes, almost always supremely unlikable individuals, often downright repulsive, has low self-esteem and projects it on others, often has hidden motives, adroit in using people’s emotions for their own ends

I think I pretty much summed them up there. Those who have these birthdays (especially those born on the 4th and 22nd) are the ones who I'm the most indifferent towards and amused by, but in the interest of fairness, let's dive into the psyche of these people, because if nothing else, they're moderately interesting psychological case studies.

When I think of 4's, I think of the character Eve Harrington in the classic film All About Eve. They're hurt, bitter, broken, miserable insecure bitches and often have low self-esteem and inadequacies within themselves, but they cover it up with false "self-love" and "assertiveness" which is actually condescension, aggressiveness, cockiness, and arrogance. This is evidenced in their unabashed social climbing they do. All social climbing have one thing in common: they seek to increase the social climber status by attacking and taking status away from others. They revel in this, since in their mind it secures their power over others, which is very important to them. They're often sad cases with attitude problems. They can’t, or don’t know how to reconcile their pain in a healthy way, so they direct it back out in mean, cruel, and insensitive ways - hurting others just because they were hurt. This process works only briefly, and usually generates extreme guilt in the person, making them stop for awhile. But, the pain of their past hasn’t been healed, so once again they try to bleed off the pain by hurting someone by being mean or rude. It’s like draining the pressure in a boiler. They know they’re inferior and broken, so they take it out full force on the people they envy and those whose true authentic power that they want. They often say what they don't mean. They're also forces of nature, and they somehow always seem to draw deep emotions out of people, and a lot for people seem to be deeply drawn to them. Fours, in turn, are often drawn by those who know how to control their emotions and make them work for them as well as those who have a deeper well of emotion than they and aren't scared of displaying it.

They have the amusing paradox of being mean AND hypersensitive at the same time, but the key is if one feels that these people are actually worth the time you have to take to get to know them, ignore their natural walls, abnormal need for control, rudeness and meanness, and love them anyway. If one can get through to that hurting part and heal and love it, these individuals can be loyal and even amazing friends for life. (incidentally, it's for this reason that I always seem to see these individuals deeply connected to 2's, 5's and 9's because I think 4's sense in them a kindred spirit, or someone they can use this strange type of "love" on and still feel accepted. But I'll cover those numbers at a later date). It might seem crazy, but a common way these people try and pull their partner/friends close is by expressing anger (of which there is a lot of) and unneeded childish aggression, often ruthlessly attacking perceived weaknesses.  It usually works in the opposite way (unfortunately), but often underneath the anger is a strong plea for connection and love. The anger is a mask of protest about not getting that love. They like to create conflict and are very restless. They’re whiny and their edginess is based on their M.O. that "people want to hurt me; I must hurt them first to be safe". They’re often very petty and very small and are too selfish to show any real compassion for those going through a tough time or a tragedy, often pouring salt on the wound (although strangely enough, they're often touted as paragons of compassion and virtue).

They're not satisfied with the ordinary, and more often than not they do tend to lead extraordinary lives. They have an accessibility and a mystery at the same time. They can be calm and insanely disciplined. But they are also very fiery and passionate, and often make rash and headstrong decisions and can be very immature and insecure about themselves because of the need for balance that the number 4 suggests. They can also (only when seriously evolved) be inspirational, using their talents to move masses of people in a way very few can, such as Barack Obama (August 4), and obnoxious personalities like Beyoncé (September 4), her husband Jay-Z (December 4), and their friend Justin Timberlake (January 31 [another classic case of the low-level 4]). They are victims masquerading as warriors and use their victimhood as a weapon and other opportunistic tactics to cement their power. However, there is a lot of fixed-sign-esque (especially that of a Leonine/Scorpionic nature) ego associated with the number 4, and this requires everyone to bow down and kiss their ass. If the 4 doesn't get this type of treatment, then they'll destroy everything and everyone in their wake to assuage their hurt feelings and damaged ego, such as it is in the case of Meghan Markle (also born on August 4) and what she and her husband Harry are currently doing to the Royal Family.

Meghan tried to gain unconditional and total acceptance from them/England/the world. Since she didn't get it, she and Harry took their ball and went home" by backing out of the Royal Family and the duties associated with it and moving with their children to America, effectively cutting themselves off from Harry's grandmother, brother, and ailing grandfather. Which brings me to another point about 4's: they like to do things on their own terms, often alienating others along the way to satisfy themselves. Now that Meghan has had time to think about the "abuse" that she feels that she has received, she's going to get her ultimate revenge by trying to destroy the Royal Family with allegations of racism and mental/emotional abuse. Note: it wasn't a problem when they were courting, and it wasn't a problem when they got married, but since she didn't get the "kid glove" treatment she wanted, now they're a "racist family". I often wonder, if the firm/tabloids/press went after Princess Diana so brutally, as blonde-haired, blue-eyed and pretty as she was, what did Markle honestly expect? This speaks to the 4s often shocking naivety. Also, Markle kept referring to Kate Middleton in her interview, so that means that she's fixated on Kate as a point of envy. This is how hate and negative emotions will cause things to change and often unnecessarily so.

On the positive side (only when evolved), 4's can be active, hard-working, systematic, diligent, careful, objective, firm, introverted, serious, patient, reserved, thoughtful, sensible, analytic, calm, orderly and loyal. For those born on the 4th, 13th, 22nd, and 31st, this describes them in a nutshell.

[rossensimmons04]

The major difference in between both is that in chain growth polymerization, monomer particles are contributed to the chain one molecule at a time.Polymers are not limited to monomers of the same chemical composition or molecular weight and structure.In other words, miscible products normally form a solution not since their communication with each various other is extra beneficial than their self-interaction, but because of an increase in entropy as well as for this reason cost-free power connected with increasing the quantity of quantity available per component.The glass-transition temperature level (Tg) is a vital physical criterion for polymer usage, manufacturing, and also handling.

Especially solid intermolecular interactions happen when the deposits of the duplicating units enable the development of hydrogen bonds, as when it comes to p-aramid. organic polymer gives the effect of optically subduing makeup smudging.Their subsequently large molecular mass, about small particle substances, produces distinct physical properties consisting of toughness, high flexibility, viscoelasticity, and a propensity to develop semicrystalline and also amorphous frameworks rather than crystals.Many readily important polymers are manufactured by chemical alteration of normally taking place polymers.Prominent examples include the reaction of nitric acid and also cellulose to form nitrocellulose and also the formation of vulcanized rubber by heating natural rubber in the visibility of sulfur. Acrylates are composed of acrylate monomers.In the last case, enhancing the polymer chain length 10-fold would boost the viscosity over 1000 times.Increasing chain size additionally tends to reduce chain movement, boost strength and also toughness, and enhance the glass-transition temperature level (Tg). Polymer polymers can also be described as acrylates.They give a selection of quality coverings for a variety of entities in the industrial globe. Enhancement polymerizations usually are executed in the visibility of catalysts, which in specific cases exert control over structural details that have important effects on the properties of the polymer.Xanthan gum tissues, gum tissues, celluloses, as well as starches are commonly utilized ingredients not just in the all-natural cosmetic market yet likewise in food, pharmaceutical, as well as adhesives industries.Overall the chemical residential or commercial properties of a polymer are necessary aspects for designing new polymeric product products. Words polymer assigns an unspecified variety of monomer units.As arising functional POPs, Azo-POPs have actually been examined generally, although they are normally insoluble.A solitary macromolecule can contain numerous hundreds of monomers, according to the Polymer Scientific Research Knowing Center.Hermann Staudinger, a professor of natural chemistry at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (College of Applied Sciences) in Zurich, is the papa of contemporary polymer development.Polymerization is the technique of creating synthetic polymers by integrating smaller sized molecules, called monomers, right into a chain held together by covalent bonds, according to ThoughtCo. Film-forming acrylic copolymers are ideal for water-based cosmetics that call for a water resistant film with an outstanding abrasion characteristic.PTFE is a strong, high-molecular-weight compound being composed completely of carbon as well as fluorine.Several lamellae kind a superstructure, a spherulite, typically with a size in the series of 0. As Lord Todd summarised it in 1980, "I am inclined to believe that the growth of polymerization is possibly the biggest point that chemistry has done, where it has had the most significant result on day-to-day life". An initiator is needed to create the initiator varieties with responsive centers.The first synthetic polymers were in fact customized versions of these all-natural polymers.Another familiar isoprene polymer is rubber. Strong polymers such as PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) were presented right into aesthetic products more than twenty years ago.New technologies have been created to achieve really innovative products, with functional homes and applications.These systems make it possible for the synthesis of various polymer designs, consisting of direct, cyclized, branched and also star polymer chains, as well as crosslinked networks.In a nutshell, longer equals stronger.Our testimonial concentrates on polymers based upon methyl methacrylate monomer which has a spherical shape. The crucial difference between the two is that in chain polymerization, monomers are included in the chain one at a time only, such as in polystyrene, whereas in step-growth polymerization chains of monomers might integrate with each other straight, such as in polyester.They are likewise fairly stable at high temperatures.Nevertheless, synthetic monomers and polymers played a considerable function in the history of plastics, revolutionizing material scientific researches in the very early the twentieth century and consequently arising to play a noticeable role in the modern commercial economy.Acetal materials are extra like steel than are any other plastics and also are utilized in the manufacture of equipment components such as gears and bearings.Among the synthetic polyamides are the urea-formaldehyde resins, which are thermosetting.

[noxstellacaelum]

Clary STILL deserved her story

So, Todd Slavkin, the showrunner (along with Darren Swimmer) of Seasons 2 and 3 of Shadowhunters TV, just published a book about his time with the show.  It purports to be a BTS account of his experience running SHTV, with proceeds going to the Trevor Project and a couple of other charities. Sigh.  Every damn time I think I am finally through with this silly, pulpy show, I get pissed off all over again.   

The TL;DR version:  OH MY GOD CAN THIS MAN PLEASE JUST STOP???!!!!  SHTV had the IP rights to the 6-book Mortal Instruments Series.  Clary is the protagonist of this series:  Her journey is the scaffolding upon which the series’ narrative is constructed.  Centering Clary (and her love Jace) in what author Cassie Clare has described as a “girl power” story was an intentional narrative choice in TMI. So why, then, did Todd and Darren treat all of the female characters like garbage and erase Clary’s entire narrative arc in favor of bizarre non-canon plot twists and ancillary characters? Why did they encourage toxic fandom ship wars that pitted fans of Clary (and her love Jace) against fans of Malec?  We NEVER, EVER should have had to choose between representation of LGBTQ+ characters and stories and Clary’s narrative arc.  

Longer version:

First, credit where credit is due.  I am glad that Todd is raising money for worthy charities.  I am a long-time supporter of the Trevor Project, and the show and its fans have been loyal supporters of this organization for at-risk LGBT+ youth for years. Good for him for publicly supporting the Trevor Project once again.

Second, SHTV is to be commended for its racially diverse casting (casting choices for which Todd and Darren cannot claim credit, BTW, since they were brought on in S2) and for its commitment to representation for LGBT+ characters and relationships.  While the show was far from perfect in this regard, in my view -- I don’t think they got bi representation right with Magnus -- credit is due. 

BUT NO AMOUNT OF VIRTUE SIGNALING OR REPRESENTATION THROUGH MALEC CAN MAKE UP FOR THE MESS THAT DARREN AND TODD MADE OF SHTV, ESPECIALLY IN 3B AND THE FINALE. I have gone down this rabbit hole so many times, so I will just summarize here:

In a nutshell, every female character was hijacked.  

- For example, Mayrse seems to have existed in S2 and S3 solely to be punished for her S1 homophobia through a non-canon de-runing, then redeemed by becoming captain of the Malec ship.  In S3, in particular, it’s as though she has no other children. She does not realize that Jace has been possessed by Lilith.  She is never shown helping Jace deal with the loss and heartbreak he experiences first after thinking that Clary was killed by Lilith, and then after Clary’s memory is wiped. Literally the only moment that Mayrse and Jace appear together in the finale is at the Malec wedding -- when she (along with everyone else) neglects to realize that Clary is distraught because her runes are disappearing.  By the end of the finale, Mayrse is surfing in Brazil, worried about the effect of humidity on her hair, while Jace remains suicidal and grieving.  Seriously?!?!?!  Putting aside all of the non-canon fan service plot twists, have the showrunners ever met a mother?  No mother would ignore the pain and trauma that Jace experienced due to his possession by Lilith, or after Clary’s exile from the shadow world.  And, what does show Mayre’s treatment of Jace say about adoption?  For a show so concerned about representation, what about Jace’s story as a survivor of abuse and neglect?

Clary. What is there even to say.  

- For one thing, the show completely botched Clary’s love life.  First, there was the jumping into bed with Simon, her lifelong best friend, without any sense of struggle/ uncertainty about her feelings, followed by episode after episode of Climon shipping.  Book Clary is conflicted -- she doesn’t always treat Simon very well, but she’s 15 (in the books), and she’s dealing with her identify as a shadowhunter and her feelings for Jace (and the whole incest story line (which I am glad the show dealt with reasonably quickly)). Show Clary seems almost entirely unconflicted.  It’s as though sex with Simon was no big deal -- even though the show suggests that Simon (HER BEST FRIEND) may well have been her first sexual experience, and forgetting the fact that she’d clearly been falling for Jace (who she now thinks is her brother). 

-Second, the Dark Clary storyline is creepy, at best, especially regarding Clary’s sexuality.  Think about it.  Clary  does not sleep with Jace on the show until after Lilith puts the twinning rune on her.  (Despite having jumped into bed with Simon no problem.)  And then, full-on Dark Clary is shown going down on Jace in a club, and assaulting him, when he was grief-stricken and basically roofied. (Apparently, the only time women on the show get to be sexually assertive is when they are evil (read-Lilith) or possessed (Clary)).  None of this made any sense. 

-Third, the memory wipe is total bullshit.  In what TMI universe would Clary, the protagonist, be left alone on an NYC in a skimpy party dress, with no money, no identity, no memories of the past 4 months, no apartment, no mother, no father figure, no love of her life, no best friend, and no chosen family?  In what universe would her love Jace not have seen her runes disappearing?  In what universe would Jace have let Clary walk about the door sobbing, especially when she had just killed her last living relative to save the world, and after she had only just returned from the twinning rune/dark side?   In what universe would an angel have exiled Clary from the shadow world, and taken away her memories, after she saved the world?  Especially when literally every other character got to keep the Sight despite their bad acts (read, Valentine, Aldertree, Jace as the owl, possessed Alec after killing Clary’s mother, Sebastian/ Jonathan after mass murder ...)

Maia’s random Jace hookup. ‘Nuff said.

And finally, the Jace character was basically collateral damage for all of this.

- The show vacillated between blaming Jace for Magnus/Alec/ Malec problems (Magnus losing his magic to free Jace from Lilith) and erasing the parabatai bond between Alec and Jace entirely, especially in 3B, even though though the parabatai relationship is core SH canon.  Alec doesn’t realize Jace is possessed for most of 3A.  He tells Jace to suck it up in 3x11 when Jace is clearly grieving and suicidal.  And, he is shown mixing cocktails in Alicante with Magnus in the finale without a care in the world for Jace’s struggle in the year following Clary’s exile.  It’s all Malec all the time for Alec.  Yes, Jace/Alec have their ups and downs in the books.  But they work through them.  And, the parabatai bond is a source of strength for both book Alec and book Jace. With a couple of exceptions, this nuanced and lovely book relationship is lost in the show.

- In fact, the show deprived Jace of every relationship.  As noted above, Mayrse doesn’t seem to remember that Jace is her child in S3.  Alec is focused entirely on his relationship with Magnus most of the time.  Jace and Clary have basically no screen time as a couple.  And, no one really seems to give a shit. Not for Jace the son/sibling/parabatai.  And not for his mental health, or his trauma after a childhood of abuse and neglect.

After all of this, the wedding was just icing on the cake. Alec and Magnus’s marriage is well-earned in Clare’s books. They get married after five years of a healthy, loving, committed relationship.  They remain -- in addition to their relationship with eachother -- son/sibling/parabatai (Alec) and a brave and loving downworlder (Magnus).  None of this let’s get married the day after Jonathan’s mass slaughter and after Clary is forced to kill her last living relative, after three or so months of mostly unsuccessful dating.

I want to be clear that I LOVE the Malec relationship, and that representation of this relationship as loving, healthy and joyous has a great deal of personal meaning to me.  But I should never have had to sacrifice Clary (and her love Jace) to see a meaningful relationship between Magnus and Alec on-screen.  We ALL deserve nice things, after all.  Lifting up Malec NEVER, EVER mean we had to destroy Clary, Jace and Clace.

SO, I’ll be donating on my own to the Trevor Project.  Maybe someday Todd and Darren will reflect upon the damage that they did.

[myentertainmentthoughts]

Evangelion: I’m so conflicted...

Cool mech show!

Much ass-kicking!

Very sick!

And then...WTF?????

I’ve been keeping Neon Genesis Evangelion on my ever-growing, never-ending anime backlog for YEARS. I’m aware of the legacy and impact it has had on anime fans and culture, and how highly regarded it is. I’ve been told that it has deeper meaning and deeper themes than the typical anime - which sounds right up my alley. A chance to explore unique and strong thematic content using anime (arguably the one media form that is most plagued by stereotypes and tropes). What isn’t there to love about that? So with all of that in mind, I was quite excited to catch up and finally get on board. Yet, I was SO not prepared.

I don’t think any one CAN be, when going through it. Because Evangelion’s world building is rife with insane layers. Layers that are not apparent at all with just watching the content. I feel that creating something that is so hard to understand is inevitably divisive in its very nature.

What is the complication here? What is this anime about? Well... to loosely recap: Evangelion circles around a pseudo post-apocalyptic world in which these monstrous creatures named Angels come down to earth to cause mass chaos and destruction ALA Godzilla.

And this agency, Nerv has created these giant mecha robots named Evas to combat them. They get teenagers to pilot them and kick the shit out of the Angels. 

There’s a shadowy higher agency behind Nerv named Seele that are super mysterious. And shadowy. And mysterious. And shadowy.

It’s (generally) standard fare for a giant robot anime in premise. The format is even episodic in the same way that other robot genre animes are. In every episode, a different Angel comes down. The Evas have to find a new creative way to deal with the challenge of each specific one. Cutesy moments happen between the main characters that build their relationships with one another. Vague political maneuvering seems to be happening in the background with Nerv and Seele at all times. It all reads...until BAM!

MASS CONFUSION.

It’s largely within the last 2 episodes that this all hits, but Evangelion transforms and flips from a standard robot anime show into...”art”? But in a  Duchamp’s “Fountain”-it’s-not-a-toilet-it’s-really-art-because-real-art-is-just-perception-and-I-tricked-you-all-into-loving-a-signed-toilet  way. So in my not so humble opinion - not the GOOD kind of art.

When I finished watching the series, I thought I understood it. (Despite the cluster fuck of its 2 part finale) But after reviewing the content with online sources, and with friends who are fans of the series - even some of the most MAJOR plot points and storytelling had gone right over my head. Fans have explained to me that they watched the series young and at the time, many of Evangelion’s themes were lost on them. But what the hell was my excuse? I’m a damn adult. I just watched 26 full episodes of content. This shit got me SO damn lost - am I just...dumb?

Well. Turns out that I’m not dumb. Or at least not always dumb. Evangelion has actually gained quite a bit of noteriety for this effect that it has on people. I can now say that I’m caught up since I’ve seen the original series, End of Evangelion, and Rebuild 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. I fully get its larger overarching concepts and mythos. What is Adam? What is Lillith? What is the Human Instrumentality Project? All of what will sound like gibberish to the non-fan, I now understand. I get the religious references and the general messages that the property revolves around. And surprisingly - I like it all. I like the concepts a lot. It’s really HOW Evangelion gets there that is kind of......bullshit. There’s so much homework to do in order to get there. I had to have my friends sit me down and explain me through it. I watched YouTube videos that recap the series and its timelines. I’ve had to delve into all the character wiki bios. At what point is your story effective as a story anymore when you have to do so much extracurricular work in order for it to communicate?

And I’m not going to lie. Evangelion is kind of a chore - not a joy. Granted, much of the original anime series is entertaining, kick-ass, and thought provoking throughout. But even having to suffer the 46 minute finale and the 1 hour, 30 min run time of the follow up movie End of Evangelion (which is honestly - the worst thing ever) felt like an inescapable time loop that refused to die. 

I love this property! I’m pretty sure I also really hate it. And sometimes, I look back and still feel confused, even though I did everything in my power to grasp it all. All of these things are true. I’m just so conflicted...

But I think it’s exactly this polarizing effect that makes Evangelion one of the most interesting properties that I’ve come across. And I fully understand why it’s the quintessential anime for anime lovers. It pushes the storytelling in a way that I feel only anime fans would ever put up with. I would not encourage it as an anime entry point for any sane person. But I do feel that there is some merit in the emotional reaction it prompts from its viewers. Whether that’s “I love Evangelion so much!” or “I hate this stupid pretentious bullshit show so much!” - at least it can say it is wholly unique, and it provokes a strong reaction. Either way.

So........... What’s the take away? Do I recommend it? I guess. I strongly recommend it. To some people? To not watch it? Or to watch it? What’s the question again? What is life? What is existence? What is the human condition? What matters anymore? What is this review? (There’s Evangelion in a nutshell - LOL) PS) The Evangelion Rebuild Series is a totally different story in that it’s incredible throughout. Now please stick the landing...because if you don’t, I’m not sure that I have the willpower to do weird, incoherent endings. FOR THE THIRD GOD DAMN TIME.

[pigeontheoneandonly]

Continuing my Dragon Age / Mass Effect crossover series.  Part 4 here.  Also on AO3. It’s coming in at the very last minute, but this is also my (belated) contribution to Kaidan Week 2019′s AU Theme Day.  (@spectrekaidanalenko)

Part 5: The High Seas

Nathaly folded her arms over the rail and closed her eyes, filling her nostrils with the fresh sea breeze.  Maker, but she’d missed this.  Ferelden would always be home, but she’d said her goodbyes, and had no longing left for an extended stay.  For some people home was more of a necessary idea than a real place.

Or maybe her concept of home had shifted over the years, from a place to people.  Garrus and Ash and Liara— all closer than her blood kin.  The rest of the company, currently on march through Nevarra, a kind of extended family. Crotchety old-timers in place of nagging aunts, and dozens of cousins more her age.

“Nice, isn’t it?”

She opened her eyes, smiling as she saw Ash standing beside her, arms crossed.  Armor packed away for the meantime.  Her strength was evident even in a plain linen tunic and breeches, brawny arms and a broad back, glossy brown hair tied a practical knot, but she also looked easier, less intimidating than when armored. Relaxed.  

Nathaly turned back to the water.  “Very nice.”

Ash lingered on the gray swells of the Waking Sea.  “The way you take to the water, you’d think you were  a fish, not a shepherd.”

Her laugh carried. A few of the nearest sailors paused in their duties, startled by the sound, though Nathaly took no notice. “My mother had to drag me out of the swimming hole by my ear in the summers.  Kaidan and I practically lived there from the time we could walk.”

The sidelong glance she got in return had more than a little subtext, and a hint of trepidation.  “How is that going?”

“Pardon?” She wiped a loose lock of hair off her face, whipped free by the wind.

She jerked her chin aft, where Kaidan sat chatting with Liara.  “With him.”

Nathaly snorted. “I don’t know what you mean by ‘with him’.”

“You built up this moment for ten years.  That’s a lot of anticipation.”  She cleared her throat.  “And I can’t help but notice he was pretty quiet on the way up to the coast.”

Nathaly folded her hands.  Looking off to the horizon.  “You remember your first kill?”

“Trust you to be that crass.”  Ash made a sound of mild offense, joining her at the rail.  “It wasn’t pretty.  Not one you want to hear about, or I want to tell.”

“But you remember it, is my point.  You always will.”  She shrugged, hunching down.  “My first was older than me.  Everyone was older than me, then.  I threw up hours later, when that battle was over.”

“Everyone does,” Ash said.

“Everyone,” she agreed.  Thinking about Kaidan, briefly, his head in those bushes.  “But the moment, that moment, when he fell and it was my pike sticking in him, was the worst moment of my life.  All around me people were still fighting.  Attacking, dying.  Screaming. And I told myself that if I didn’t pick up that pike and keep going, if I died here because I couldn’t, then Kaidan would stay in that tower forever.  It’s a kind of slavery, you know.”

Ash snorted, but refrained from comment.  They’d had this argument before.  And Nathaly continued, unperturbed, for the same reason.  “And I picked it up.  I turned into this.”

“You turned into a person who could waltz into a Circle of Magi and set one free with hardly any notice at all.”  Ash turned to her.  “I cannot emphasize how baffled they were.  They questioned that poor guard for hours, wondering how Kaidan snuck by. They looked at the window and determined there was no way up or down.”

Her turn to tch. “I’m supposed to be proud that they’re idiots?”

“They’re not. Keeping mages is what they do.” Her stare turned harder, and more curious.  “What’s this about?”

She straightened, flexed her fingers around the railing.  Looked down at the deck.  Wondering whether to speak, and finally just blurted it out.  “I turned into someone he doesn’t like.”

That just annoyed her.  “He doesn’t get to judge.  He took your help readily enough.”

Nathaly tendered her an exasperated look.  “Ash. Come on.”

“This is your problem, and you’re turning it into his.”  She turned around and folded her arms, looking at her pointedly.  “I’ve known you… four years now?  Five?”

“Something like that.”  She turned back to the water, grumpy.

“You’ve never been with anybody.”

“That’s not even a little true.”

“Sure it is.” Then, over her protests, “You spend a night.  Two, if you’re in one place long enough.  You never leave your name.  You never leave anything.  I think you may be the only one in the entire company that’s never had any kind of shield-mate thing—”

“I don’t want to shit where I eat, so there’s something wrong with me?”

“You don’t shit anywhere, is my point.”  Ash pressed onward as Nathaly rolled her eyes.  “You keep that particular shelf in your heart scrupulously empty.  Because whether or not you want to admit it, you’ve been harboring this bizarre fantasy about a person you last saw when you were eight years old, and how it was going to be when you finally met him again.”

“It’s not like that.”  And she meant it.  Ash’s accusation was absurd.  “I didn’t have any expectations beyond getting Kaidan out of that abyssal shithole.”

She raised her eyebrows.  “But you hoped.”

Nathaly had hoped. But not the way Ash meant.  “He was my closest friend, going back to before I have memories.  Our mothers used to quiet us as infants by sticking us in the same cradle.”

“So you’ve said, many times.”

“I just wanted that back.”  And a little bit of the forlorn way she’d felt since Kaidan looked at her with such revulsion as they fled Crestwood returned.  “But we both changed.  Too much, maybe.  The Chantry stole it.”

“You’re so bitter.”

“They can all get fucked.  From the Divine on down.”

“That’s one way to cure what ails them,” Ash said, mildly.

Nathaly held her cross look a moment longer, and then broke, chuckling despite herself.  “I don’t know, Ash.”

“Talk to him.” She uncrossed her arms and pushed away from the rail.  “You won’t get anywhere brooding.  And you haven’t given him an opportunity to understand.  He’s spent most of his life in a place where every hour was spoken for, and they didn’t even have funerals.  Anyone who died just disappeared.  It was sanitary, but not particularly educational.”

“You’re probably right.”  She glanced, again, at where he sat with Liara, their conversation still as animated as before.

Some of her ambivalence must have shown, because Ash cleared her throat.  “You know, I have three sisters in Lydes.  Two married.  One… well, wild, our mother would say.  Abby.  She’s like you, you’d enjoy her.”

She quirked eyebrow.  “Bitter?”

“Appreciative of swords, and tops you have to tie her into.”  Ash grinned at her bark of laughter.  “More Orlesian dueling than real work.  Still.  What I wanted to say is this.  Nobody understood, when I took my vows.  We’re devout, of course, most families are.  But giving up your life to the Chantry?  Something else entirely.”

Nathaly tilted her head.  “How’d you make them understand?”

“The first time I got a chance to visit, I’d been gone over two years.  And it was strange at first.  Awkward beyond belief.  And then something changed.”  

“What?”

Her smile broadened.  She touched her shoulder.  “They remembered I was their sister.  I hadn’t changed.  You haven’t, either, not in the ways that matter.  But it takes time.”

“Yeah.” Then, as Ash began to walk away, “And thanks.”

She gave her a nod, and disappeared back below decks.  Probably looking for lunch.

Nathaly took a breath, and steeled herself.  Regardless of what Kaidan thought of her, they had a bigger problem.  

He looked up as she sauntered over.  She tried not to take his guarded expression personally, but it twisted like a knife every time.  “We’ve got another week before we reach Ostwick.”

Liara sat back. The wind hadn’t bothered her hair at all, protected as it was in its thick braids.  “What then?  Do you still intend to head north?”

“Rivain is our best bet.  No other place in the world is friendlier to mages.”

“Excepting Tevinter,” she pointed out.

Nathaly waved that off.  “Tevinter cares about rich human mages.  Does that describe our bunch?”

“Not yet,” Kaidan said, overly bright.  It took Liara’s gentle laughter to make her realize he was telling a joke.  

She blushed, but soldiered on.  “It’s going to be a long trip.  We can’t count on that mess back in Crestwood being our only fight.  And no offense, but…”

“I’m a bit useless at combat?” he suggested, dryly.  

“In a nutshell.” She nodded at Liara.  “She can teach you something about real combat magic later, not the kind they teach that assumes you have an army to defend, away from all the prying eyes aboard ship.  But she also knows that a staff is a very sturdy, very heavy length of wood that can be quite useful for hitting people.  I hoped she might be willing to demonstrate.”

“Of course—” Liara began, but Kaidan interrupted her.  

“I don’t want to learn a quarterstaff,” he said.  

Nathaly blinked. “Then what?”

“The way you used that sword is pretty impressive.”

“You… want to learn sword fighting?”  She couldn’t have been more startled if he said he wanted to fly to the moons.

“It’s a little less conspicuous.  And I said I wanted to trade down to a focus that’s more discreet.”

Liara gestured towards her.  “You couldn’t ask for a better teacher.  It seems a shame not to take advantage.”

Kaidan looked at her.  “I’m already beholden, but I could stand to go a little deeper into debt.”

Nathaly was certain her face was burning.  She had a brown complexion, darkened further by the sun, and hoped it didn’t show.  “When do you want to start?”

He glanced at Liara.  “How about now?”

The deck was clear enough.  She swallowed.  “Alright. Let me just… go find a pair of blades.”

He cocked his head.  “What’s wrong with yours?”

Liara chuckled. “Are you joking?  Hers might hesitate when it hit your bones, but for certain nothing else about you will stop it.”  Then, at his confused expression, “It’s enchanted.  To help cut through armor.”

“I guess that explains why it cut mail like a hot knife through butter.”

“A necessary expense,” Nathaly said, as though it wasn’t worth more than all the rest of her worldly goods put together and then some.  “Templars are armored head to toe.  I can’t rely on gaps all the time.”

And then she regretted saying it, as his face clouded, overcast by shadows of their fight with the three templars on the road.  Probably recalling the one she stabbed through the neck.  That particular opening, where the helm ended, was just so exploitable.  Nathaly was frankly shocked the templar order had never corrected it.

But then, templars generally did not see a lot of non-magical action, respected as they were throughout Thedas.

Whatever images floated through his mind, Kaidan only asked, “Why not put the enchantment on your dagger?  Seemed like you attacked with that more.”

She blinked. “That’s the smartest question anyone’s ever asked me about it.  Maybe you’re a swordsman after all.”

He smiled. “I think you’ve got an answer, though.”

“Three reasons.” She ticked them off on her fingers. “First, the dagger takes a lot more abuse.  I’ve broken them clean off before and it’s too expensive to replace.  Sometimes I have to leave it behind, because I threw it, or wedged it into something, and so on.  And finally, when I do manage a hit with the long blade, it counts for a lot more.  A person can walk away from a shallow stab wound.”

Ash joined them. “And don’t get her started about the virtues of armor— or lack thereof.  Here.”  She handed Nathaly a pair of wooden tie rods, used to hold smaller sails in place, and about the length of a long sword.  “I couldn’t help but overhear about this little experiment.”

Nathaly swung one, experimentally.  “Sure, this’ll work.”

She handed the other to Kaidan, who turned it over, a bit uncertain now that they were about to begin.  Sure enough, he tried to delay.  “What about armor?  If you can afford an enchanted sword, plate surely can’t be a stretch.”

Her nose wrinkled. “There are only two weapons that worry me.”

“Here we go,” Ash muttered.  Liara swatted at her.

“A longbow, and a mace.”  Ignoring Ash entirely.  “Maces do not care about plate.  They are specifically designed to negate its advantages, which leaves only avoidance. And the best way to do that is to maintain full range of movement.”

But Ash could not keep silent.  “You get full range in plate.”

“Almost. Not good enough.  And the weight slows you down.”

“Properly fitted, you don’t even notice the weight.”

“But you do,” Nathaly insisted.  It was an old argument between them.  “It adds its weight to yours.  Makes it harder to start moving, or stop, or change direction.”

Kaidan interrupted the nascent argument.  Not knowing them well enough to understand its good nature.  “And the longbow?”

Liara answered. “It’s arrow-catcher armor.  Lots of layers.  Leather’s tough, and she’s got a tight-woven silk lining under it.”

“Shit,” Ash said. “Everyone who can afford it wears silk underneath.”

He looked Nathaly up and down.  “You’ve thought all this through.”

“Your mind is your most important combat asset.”  She raised her stick.  “Let’s see what we have to work with, here.”

Hefting his own stick, he frowned.  “Feels light. Not that I know what a sword weighs.”

“It’s too early to care about that.”  She moved several steps, circling around him.  “The most important factors in a swordfight are timing and distance. Control those, and you’ll win every time.”

Kaidan turned in place, following her.  “What am I supposed to do?”

“Try to hit me.” She grinned.  “Show me what bad habits I need to beat out of you.”

“Is that an order?”  Smirking slightly.

“A fact,” she said, and lunged towards him.  Just to get things started.

Nathaly wasn’t trying, not really.  She only wanted him to react.  And he did. Scuttling backwards and tripping over his own feet.

She closed easily, smacking his arm with the rod.  “See. It doesn’t hurt.”

“Yet,” said Ash, who was clearly enjoying this all too much.  

A hint of irritation flickered.  “I should thump you, too.  A little reminder.”

She held up her hands in surrender.  “I’m good.”

“So I can get on with this?”  She raised her eyebrows.

Ash crossed her arms, put out at having her fun spoiled, but held her silence.  Shepard returned her full attention to Kaidan, who swallowed.  She offered a little guidance.  “Try again. This time, close with me instead of retreating.”

Kaidan raised the rod half-heartedly.  Skittish. She sighed, and threw her stick to Ash, who caught it easily, and then spread her arms wide.  “Fine.  We’ll try it like this.”

He bit his lip. “I don’t want to hurt you…”

Ash barked a laugh.  Her hands clamped over her mouth.  Even Liara looked a amused.  Primly, she said, “If you manage to so much as tap her, I’ll be very impressed.”

“I’m getting bored,” Nathaly said.

That did the trick.  Kaidan swung the rod at her like a baton.  She stepped smartly out of the way.  “Slow.  Try a shorter swish.”

“Feels more powerful this way.”

“Sure, but it’s all wasted because you can see it coming three leagues awa—”

He took two quick steps forward and flicked the rod.  She leaned backwards reflexively, feeling it whoosh past, and grinned.  “Better.”

“I feel so stupid doing this.”

“It’ll feel that way.  And then one day, it won’t.  It’ll just be natural.”  She nodded at him.  “Again.”

Kaidan hefted the rod.  “Timing and distance.”

“Yep.”

He came forward, half-skipping in what he surely thought was an attempt to move lightly, flicking the rod back and forth.  She retreated, half her concentration on how he was driving her towards the rail ringing the deck.  And noticing he wasn’t paying it any mind at all.  All of his focus on trying to land any kind of blow.

So he was completely unprepared as she slowed.  Nathaly saw the hope brimming in his eyes.  Unsure at first, more assured with every small delay in her steps.  No idea she was luring him in.

His eyes told her exactly when his confidence reached a tipping point, a small fraction before the firm way he planted his foot confirmed it.  She was already spinning out of his path when he committed to the lunge.

And kept stumbling forward when his rod found only empty air.  He had so much momentum, in fact, that he carried on several paces and half-pitched over the rail.

She grabbed at his shirt.  Underneath it, he was shaking from the close call.  “Whoa.  Hey.”

Kaidan took a big breath.  Then whirled, coming in with an overhand strike.  She only just managed to dodge.  A burst of laughter escaping her, the maneuver beyond clumsy but so completely unexpected and enthusiastic that she couldn’t help but enjoy it.

And he kept going. Sufficiently embarrassed or motivated by her trick to forget all his earlier hesitation.  All but running at her.  But she was tired of being chased.  It was a good moment to teach him distance went in more than one direction.

So the next time he swung, she waited for it to complete, and stepped close in a blink. Blocking any further movement of his arm.  As expected he immediately tried to retreat, but she kept pace, until he stopped in some confusion.

“You’re dead,” she explained.  His eyebrows knit together.  So she demonstrated.  Stretched out one arm to touch the stick.  “I would hold your sword here, with my own long blade.”

Then she took her other hand and moved it to his side, just under the ribs.  “You’re not armored, and no mage I ever met wanted to be, so I’d slide my dagger here.  It would be over before you knew it had happened.”

She raised her head.  Found her face only inches from his.  He was still a little shorter, he always had been, and his eyes were the same warm brown. Her breath hitched.  Just once.

“That sounds like your style,” he said, quietly.  “It didn’t occur to me until a few weeks later, but you waited for just the right moment to come to Kinloch Hold.”

“I wasn’t sure you’d come.”  She swallowed.  “I wanted to give it my best shot.”

“And then you closed the distance.”

Her mouth quirked into a half-smile.  “Exactly.”

He held her gaze a moment longer.  Then he stepped back and lifted the rod.  “Let’s try again.  I’ll get it this time.”

[actuallydisordered]

Introduction to Exploring The DSM-5

Hello and welcome to our new series, Exploring The DSM-5! This is meant to serve as an explanation of what the DSM is, why it’s used, and what disorders are covered in the DSM. 

What’s the DSM-5?

Well, the DSM-5 is the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is what clinical psychiatrists and psychologists use to make diagnoses, and code those diagnoses for insurance purposes, so that your health insurance knows what they’re paying for when they pay for your medications and therapy sessions. The DSM provides a way for professionals to communicate effectively and ensure they are using the same criteria to make diagnoses and treatment plans.

Why explore it?

The purpose of this series is mainly so that people understand exactly what each disorder entails. We’ll be exploring each category in the DSM-5, and some of the disorders will also be explored individually in depth. There’s a lot of misinformation and confusion about what makes a disorder a, well, disorder, and how these diagnoses are made. This is intended to help clear this up a little bit, and educate the masses a little bit better on how and why diagnoses are made.

What exactly is a mental disorder diagnosis? 

In a nutshell, a diagnosis is simply a name for a cluster of symptoms that tend to present together. Diagnoses are made when you fit enough criteria for a disorder - the amount and type of criteria required for the diagnosis differ for each disorder. There’s no one test, you can’t do a brain scan or a blood test and look for markers that way, it’s entirely based on observed behavior and reported symptoms. This is also why diagnoses can change from one mental health provider to another, as they may be observing different behavior, and/or the patient reports different symptoms. Diagnoses for mental health conditions are notoriously hard to pin down, and many disorders have overlapping criteria. Symptoms and behavior can also change over time, and therefore so can diagnoses. 

What, specifically, will you be posting about?

Each post will be an overview of each category in the DSM-5 that deals with specific diagnoses, such as Depressive Disorders, Feeding and Eating Disorders, Dissociative Disorders, etc. Occasionally a specific disorder diagnosis will be covered in depth, this will likely be reserved for the most common ones, as well as the ones with the most misinformation surrounding them. But if you want to see a specific disorder covered in depth, shoot me an ask or a PM.

What WON’T you be posting about?

I won’t be touching on a few categories, namely because either I don’t feel confident in my ability to talk about them, I don’t believe they should be included as a disorder, they’re not really “mental disorders” in the way we think of them, or they’re really only in there for insurance purposes. These include Elimination Disorders, Sexual Dysfunctions, Gender Dysphoria, Neurocognitive Disorders and Paraphilic Disorders.

How will each post be laid out? What can I expect to see in each post?

The posts are going to be intended to follow the layout of the DSM-5 as much as possible, starting with the name of the category, a brief explanation of the category, then jumping into the disorders inside of that category. Each disorder will include the disorder’s name, the specific diagnostic criteria, then a bit of information that condenses the rest of the information present in the DSM-5′s explanation of the disorder. That blurb will include the features supporting diagnosis, functional consequences, etc.

Where can I find links to every post in this series?

Great question! I’ll be updating the index of this blog every time a new post in this series is made, and you can find that over here. If you want to see a particular category, or a particular disorder explored in the next post, send me an ask or a PM and I’ll get right on it!

[anotheruserwithnoname]

The one problem I have with the Witcher TV series

I have yet to see the Witcher TV series but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it so it’s definitely on my list to see eventually. But I envy those who are watching the series without having first been introduced to the characters through the Witcher video games, especially Witcher III: The Wild Hunt, which I spent 6 months playing. This is a problem I encounter with most movies or TV shows based on games: I become so attached to the game version of the characters, it’s hard to accept a “real person” playing the role. The only solution, of course, is for the adaptation to be CG-animated in the same style as the game, and, except for a couple of experiments with Final Fantasy spin-offs, this never happens.

I will watch The Witcher, of course, and I certainly will judge it on its own merits, and as I say the word of mouth is terrific with it having the potential to fill the void left by Game of Thrones. But after spending 6 months in the company of Witcher III’s adult version of Ciri, one of the most dynamic female video game characters ever (voiced incredibly by Jo Wyatt), it’s going to be difficult to see someone else play her.

This applies to the other characters, too (though I think they pretty much nailed Geralt with Henry Cavill). But with Ciri the difference is they made her a occasionally playable character in W3, and gave her a very strong story arc of her own to the extent that I’m not alone in wishing she, not Geralt, was the central character in Wild Hunt, or was given a spin-off game.

I’m very glad to hear The Witcher is doing well, and it certainly isn’t the first video game adaptation to be a success, but in a nutshell my reaction hints at a reason why many video game adaptations fail: people want to see their games essentially replicated on the screen, and when that doesn’t happen, it becomes a hard sell. It’s why I don’t know if a Mass Effect movie would work, am kinda glad the Bioshock movie never got made, and feel that it would be pointless to translate The Last of Us, Detroit: Become Human, Half-Life 2 or Grand Theft Auto V into movies because they already are movies.

[kenshi-vakarian7]

10 Things About My WIP

Thank you for the tag @natsora

I’ll tag @rpgwarrior4824 @starsandskies and @obvidalous

I’ve already talked about other WIP, The Shepard Saga.  Here, I’ll talk about another future Mass Effect fic series, which is temporarily called, The Angel From Nowhere.  This is the first time I’ve ever shared this idea.

1) It’s starts off during the events of Mass Effect 2.   It just made sense to me to start there.

2) It focuses on one of my Shepards, Marc.  So yes, headcanons all around while still sticking with the core of the series.

3) The story will be told from two point of views.  Shepard’s and Miranda’s.

4) The themes in the story includes compassion, trust, overcoming obstacles, love, fear, family, and some dark themes I won’t go into details on at this time.  It also has some religious themes, which is actually an irony since the Shepard in question is an atheist (though he’s formerly Catholic).

5) The Shepard in question is a Paragon, Engineer, Earthborn, and War Hero.  Background in a nutshell.

6) Miranda is Shepard’s romance in this series.  He also had a previous relationship with Liara, so that will also be brought up.

7) As mentioned, some dark themes will be part of the story.  And yes, there will be trigger warnings once they are published.

8) Enemies to Lovers.  The main trope in the first story.

9) Likely will be a three-part series.  That’s still being debated.

10) The story likely won’t be published for a while.  It’s still heavily in the planning stages.

[nickarmstrongfilm]

Nurturing Nihilism In Paul W.S. Anderson’s Shopping (1994)

Paul W.S. Anderson is a filmmaker who has spent his career leaning into the artificiality of our cultural obsessions. If this is not evident enough from his countless film adaptations of video games — starting as early as his sophomore film, Mortal Kombat (1995), moving onto helming the majority of the massive Resident Evil franchise, and continuing with his upcoming Monster Hunter adaptation — then it should be clear from his heavy utilization of special effects. The majority of his work is also characterized by apocalyptic conditions, whether it be historical or fictional. In his debut feature Shopping (1994), the only one of these preoccupations that was not already in tact is the reliance on special effects. It is likely that this was due in part to budgetary constraints, this being his first ever film, however the fact that the film presents itself as a post-apocalyptic vision of teenage revolt without relying on the visual elements that denote a dystopian future in many of the film’s influences (including Blade Runner [1982] and A Clockwork Orange [1971], as Anderson mentions in the film’s audio commentary). Beyond being limited by his budget, it feels as though the film recognizes its present (1994) as the dystopia so many other films envisioned occurring decades later.

To establish its barren setting, the film opens on a series of shots depicting industrial buildings, pumping out fire and gas that saturate the screen. No humans are seen in this opening montage, we see nothing but acres and acres of metal until we’re introduced to Billy, who is being let out of prison. It is not clear what he had been locked up for until he is greeted by his partner, Jo, who immediately helps him steal a car. The film centers around these two characters, as well as their group of teenage friends, as they take part in the acts of “joyriding” and “ramraiding”, which respectively mean stealing vehicles for the fun of it, and driving said vehicles into the doors of a closed store with the intention of stealing from them. The common thread in all of their activities, though, is that they are forms of rebellion. All of the film’s teenage characters participate in smoking, stealing, drinking coffee, listening to techno and living recklessly, in general. The film depicts an intersection of nihilism and capitalism that is punctuated by all these actions, and what the film investigates is what purpose rebellion might serve within that intersection.

While many of these activities are unique to the film’s teenage characters, when we are introduced to the figures that embody everything they despise — such as Billy’s father, or really any authority figure — we see that they smoke cigarettes and drink coffee as well. Billy criticizes his father for “sitting on his fat ass and smoking all day”, when the only thing that differentiates the two of them is that Billy rebels in more public ways. Anderson co-opted a negative review of his film that called it a “reckless orgy of destruction” in the film’s marketing, but the film’s message becomes most clear in the many moments of reflection that come in between its very high-octane action sequences. It feels as though the cold, metallic landscape that these characters live in is what breeds despondency in relationships between humans, thus inspiring its younger citizens to destroy and rebel. However, it appears that it is not the desire to rebel that disappears as these characters grow older, but rather the publicity of the rebellion. Ever since it has been public knowledge that smoking causes cancer and, ultimately, death, the act of smoking has been a private act of rebellion that is fetishized in popular culture. It is a rather dystopian idea to consider that there is a product that neatly packages death with a warning that you should not buy it, and yet, it has been a staple in our society for decades. It feels as though everyone smokes in hopes of cutting their life short, and its feels like Billy (and the rest of the teenage characters) act the way they do in fear of growing up to reach that point of defeat.

“these will kill you” “I’ll take the chance”

The film is notably set in the ‘90s (“It’s the ‘90s, sex isn’t safe anymore,” Billy proclaims to Jo) but is not set in any specific city, despite begin a UK production. The film’s blanket depiction of capitalism’s effects on youth activities feels as though it intends on capturing the zeitgeist of the 1990s as it pertains to the UK, as well as the dominant North America. Though in raising that question of where rebellion fits into its intersection of nihilism and capitalism, the film also interrogates whether or not genuine connections have a place in that society. Billy and Jo spend the majority of the film’s runtime together, sharing a series of quiet moments in between their acts of rebellion. One moment that sticks out is an extended conversation the two of them have on top of a car they’ve stolen, in which Billy reflects on how he is too afraid to go back to prison but ultimately too afraid to escape the life he’s built for himself outside of it. It feels as though the two of them give each other purpose where nothing else does, and that love is the only pure thing that gives them a sense of excitement. However, their rebellion against their capitalistic landscape — that values metal over human connections — intercepts the purity of their love as well. If it wasn’t already clear from their most intimate moments taking place on stolen vehicles, against cold metal, it also manifests in their expressions of love. For example, Billy gives Jo stolen items as gifts, as tokens of love. Even in their need to disrupt capitalism, there is a reliance on materialism that feeds into a culture that ultimately doesn’t care if they live or die. Their relationship is never clearly defined, which is no doubt a result of viewing monogamy as a cornerstone of a life they’re so desperately trying to find a way out of. So when the couple end up crashing their vehicle through a line of police cars at the end of the film, laying dead in their car in front of a neon sign for a store called “RETAIL LAND,” it feels as though they’ve chosen to end things on their own terms instead of admitting defeat against a world that is unattainable to them, yet stares them right in the face as they fade away into the flames of their demolished vehicle.

If there’s any moment that could be considered an early tell that this is the work of Paul W.S. Anderson, it’s a moment that takes place during the film’s first car chase between Billy and Jo and the police. While the chase takes place, Billy drives the car and Jo casually plays a car chase video game in the passenger seat. We cut between shots of the stolen car they flee in, as well as the car within the video game that is marked “OFFENDER”. To a lesser extent, video games could be a contributing factor to their desperate need for excitement within the rather desolate landscape that they live in — especially if you consider that video games are mass produced by the same capitalistic institutions that are responsible for that landscape looking the way it does. Of course, as I mentioned up top, video games are of particular interest to Anderson, and it makes sense that the majority of his films — whether they’re video game adaptations or not — are set during the apocalypse. It is especially exciting to me when you can look back at a director’s debut film and see that the groundwork has been laid for the rest of their career, and that one particular sequence feels like Anderson’s career in a nutshell: from the artificiality of video games, to its apocalyptic conditions, to a general lack of direction for its characters. In Anderson’s own Pompeii, he uses digital 3D filmmaking to depict the genuine events of the destruction of Pompeii in 79 A.D. In many ways, that film’s doomed romance and the fragility of its central location matches Billy and Jo’s relationship in Shopping. Even Anderson’s Soldier (1998), in which Kurt Russel plays a genetically engineered soldier deemed useless by its makers, feels like an apt continuation of Shopping’s capitalistic society that moulds citizens only to push them out. What feels most appropriate to talk about in Anderson’s career, however, is the undercurrent of corporate evil in his Resident Evil franchise that tracks Alice’s (played by his wife, Milla Jovovich) reckoning with her identity in the face of an apocalypse that was directly created with the intention of killing everyone who wasn’t in line with the corporation’s values, especially since it does all of this through the lens of the artificiality of video game action.

In making a debut feature, it feels as though relying on your influences is a rite of passage. What tends to mark the work of a talented up-and-comer is engaging with the influences that you are employing, and as a dystopian depiction of our present, the film feels much more thoughtful than any of its influences. What feels most telling about a film like Shopping taking influence from a canonized classic like Blade Runner — and perhaps he is merely turning subtext into text, depending on how you look at it — is that it takes what feels like a staple in futuristic production design and tones it down to highlight all the modern elements of a vision we don’t anticipate becoming a reality until decades in the future. Ironically, Shopping’s 1994 feels closer to our 2019 than Blade Runner’s 2019 does. As for dystopian futures that drive teenagers to violent rebellion, ostensibly just for the sake of it, the film has a lot in common with Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Kubrick’s film leans further into post-modernism than outright dystopia in his depiction of a futuristic Britain, although as he depicts the film’s antihero Alex DeLarge descending into rebellion and ultimately being manipulated by the government into reaching a point of conformity that Shopping’s Billy and Jo would wince at, it feels as though it hinges on a boring sense of edgy nihilism where Shopping would instead probe and more deeply consider what feeds its characters nihilism and how it affects their personal relationships.  In spite of these more obvious influences on the film, I couldn’t help but recall Edward Yang’s Taipei Story (1985) with regards to the film’s central relationship. Yang’s film is an intimate portrait of how one woman navigates her work life and personal relationships in a rapidly shifting Taipei. The film’s main character, Chin, desperately tries to advance her life and find success while her boyfriend, a former baseball player, dwells on his past successes that he strays further and further from. I’m reminded of the film’s employment of sunglasses and cigarettes as a solace for Chin in a landscape that quickly shifts and remains powered by masculinity that refuses to change along with it. As stated above, Billy and Jo tend to avoid labels within their relationship, but it feels as though it is Billy who holds the most influence within their relationship. The nuances of their relationships and actions lie within their view of violent rebellion as their only viable place within their society, and how it is Billy’s masculinity and fear of conformity that keeps him from fully embracing his relationship with Jo in the way that she seems to long for. The fact that they are cornered into the outskirts of what capitalism deems a functional society is what forces Billy to make the decision that ultimately kills the two of them.

What feels most dystopian about these films that place equal focus on an alienating location as it does on its characters is that we are constantly shown a setting that advances without its citizens in mind, and as a result, we see our characters struggle to find purpose and are ultimately blocked off from feeling included within their own home. It’s for this reason that the teenage characters in Shopping insist on accelerating their youth, and the only tools they have to do so are handed to them by society. It is through these normalized and fetishized gateways to death that capitalism fosters nihilism within its youth.

[what2watch2night]

2018 on TV: What No One Is Talking About BUT Should; or the Best and Most Unique Shows of the Year. ( a.k.a What Happened to THE ROMANOFFS and "Possible Best Show of the Decade, If Not Ever" WESTWOLRD)

First, let's just agree that WESTWORLD had us on the edge of our couch/bed every Sundays and kept us going for hours down the internet-hole over theories and whatnot! 

People who love this show are truly the most passionate and committed kind, and not in a "GOT cosplay/meme style" as it requires a different kind of viewing that is the clear opposite of the "accepted pedestrian" way or entertainment as a sole purpose of 99% of shows (GOT not included), WESTWORLD 101% involvement is mandatory as it clearly wants to make you think as much as it want to wow you... In a nutshell forget popcorn or ice cream or even watching it with other people possibly distracting you; it is a case of "you blink and you'll miss" it in ts entirety, in fact it is the only time that we would rewatch episodes, or part of them more than once in order to check for clue we might have/probably missed! Thus an active viewing is not only recommended but it is the only way if you want to actually enjoy the groundbreaking experiment created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy... And that is why, on the other side, those who are looking to just watch a show passively/to relax will think this too brainy and cannot be enjoyed; hence they will not get it, like or care for it..Well this was perhaps not meant for them or  for a "mass consumption" but its reach is without limit as WESTWORLD is now truly part of the (pop)culture and the long-awaited season 2 made every episode an event! Each episodes gave us the highest quality in terms of technique and Art and there were themselves cinematic masterpiece. From the music & music supervision that was simply genius, the stories and clever imagination behind them were literally mind-blowing (and mind challenging/torturing!), the visual & seamless VFX were the finest of what state-of-the-art can produce and the acting was...so real or should we say surreal, that we are now forever in doubt whether Rachel Evans Wood is actually a robot! WESTWOLRD often draw comparison to its other home hit GAME OF THRONES and it really should not, as they both have very different attributes and comparing the achievement of bringing "inaccessibility" of a historical-ish fantasy world with dragons (Well, we've all heard those people who say they will never "get" into GOT or even try to because of... dragons ;| Well too bad for them!) and those of a surrealist/realist scify world(S); they both excel in their respective genres and beyond... Their are objectively and universally accepted as "the greatest" and although GOT might be more of a "commercial hit" maybe - or maybe not - because of the book, one yet has to admit that WESTWORLD defies all the norms and gave us something we've never seen before on TV (in a BLACK MIRROR /BANDERSNATCH way! ;) ).

The idea of a show excelling in its own field brings us to talk about the other grossly overlooked show of the year; THE ROMANOFFS. Brought to us by MAD MEN's helmer, Matthew Weiner, this offering is nothing like its creator previous show, which would have possibly upset some but was also a blessing in disguise as it is hard to reproduce the effect of a show like MAD MEN. THE ROMANOFFS is also something of a novelty for an anthology series as each episodes were not, or were very thinly, linked by a theme (one person in each episode was somehow a Romanoffs descendant...) but at the same time all entries acted as independent TV movie that, quite frankly, might be better (and better looking!) than most would-be Oscar nominated films... So, one has to ask oneself what the hell happened with THE ROMANOFFS?! All of stories it presented were quite unique or not commonly seen in this package, boasting an impressive cast of famous film & TV actors as well as talented newcomers, stunning visual - thanks to a combo of production design/Costume/hair/makeup (reminding us of the opulence of MAD MEN... Seriously those delicious color pallete in half the episodes!) - and a skillful direction topped by a mesmerizing cinematography. Again, some of these episodes were easily more refined than some award-season favorites such as GREEN BOOK (sorry not sorry!) The show final entry was quite something (AND WITH A TWIST!) but it is quite strange that some episode were left out of the award-race and will sadly nowhere to be found at the Golden Globes tomorrow ;( Such as the apparent fan favorite ‘House of Special Purpose’ featuring an excellent Christina Hendricks and critic favorite Isabelle Huppert, the spectacular Mexico-centric episode ‘Panorama’ ( imo even better visually than ROMA...) which was a wonderful postcard to the capital and with an ending giving us one of the best dream-like scene of the year, the actually set in Russia intense ‘End of the Line’ with Kathryn Hahn on top of her game (yep, in fact this one is worthy of an fyc acting, as opposed to PRIVATE LIFE which was interesting but meh...), and of course, the "lenghty for your viewing pleasure only" London based finale ‘The One That Holds Everything’ that provided not only incredible acting but a praiseworthy story (again with a twist!). It is certainly a shame and somehow baffling that some,if not all of, the episodes were omitted in various awards category, included the obvious best direction nod and evident best episode or miniseries... Alas some might say it was too ambitious for their tastes and would rather misread its prerequisite of grandeur (we talking about the Romanoff mystic after all!) for pretentiousness, thus would find it easier to just label this show this way or not judging it appropriately... It is quite upsetting for the THE ROMANOFFS enthusiasts as this is the kind of show we need in this day and age of binge; not since THE YOUNG POPE perhaps, we have seen a show with episode substantial enough in every second to make it a satisfying stand alone; and also because one could have watch 100 more like this ;)

Now that we stated the fact as to what were the undoubtedly best shows of the year, let's dive into other details that were underrated or quite simply omitted by viewers and voters of all kind...Or what you will not see at any ceremonies but that should be acclaim and recognized for their perfection! From PEAKY BLINDER (fair enough it got some BAFTA TV love) to Paper Boii to MOZART IN THE JUNGLE to the dance scenes in LEGION or POSE there were so many great shows, characters and moments this past 12 months that did not make the nomination cut. So what would have been the ideal nominees and winner in real, but mostly fictional, category for things that were exceptional and memorable!  (*From 65 seasons only... because one can only watch so much!)

OVERLOOKED PLAYER

POSE

WESTWORLD

BALLERS

MOZART IN THE JUNGLE

LUKE CAGE

DARDEVIL

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: APOCALYPSE

PEAK BLINDERS

BETTER CALL SAUL

ATLANTA

WORSE "PARENTING" OR CUSTODIAN

AMERICAN CRIME STORY THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE

PEAK BLINDERS

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: APOCALYPSE

BEST VILLAIN 

DIRTY JOHN

DARDEVIL

LUKE CAGE

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: APOCALYPSE

THE HANDMAID'S TALE

PATRICK MELROSE

THE MOST MURPHY-ESQUE 

POSE

BEST "DRESSED" OR WARDROBE

POSE

THE ROMANOFFS

AMERICAN CRIME STORY THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE

BEST DANCE OR MUSICAL MOMENT

POSE

LEGION

MOZART IN THE JUNGLE

LUKE CAGE

WESTWORLD

BEST USE OF LOCATION

YELLOWSTONE

LEGION 

WESTWORLD

THE ROMANOFFFS

AMERICAN CRIME STORY THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE

FIGHT

LUKE CAGE

WESTSWORLD

DARDEVIL

PREACHER

VISUAL

THE ROMANOFFS

AMERICAN CRIME STORY THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE

WESTWORLD

MOZART IN THE JUNGLE

POSE

LEGION

QUEEN SUGAR

MANIAC

BETTER CALL SAUL

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

THE HANDMAID'S TALE

MOST WTF

ATLANTA

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: APOCALYPSE

ROOM 104 

MANIAC

PREACHER

LEGION

X-FILES

MOST MISSED OPPORTUNITY 

MOSAIC

MANIAC

ALIENIST

THE FIRST

LITTLE DRUMMER  GIRL

BEST ENSEMBLE

WESTWORLD

THE ROMANOFFS

BETTER CALL SAUL

ATLANTA

POSE

THE HANDMAID'S TALE

AMERICAN CRIME STORY THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE

NARCOS:MEXICO

ROOM 104

QUEEN SUGAR

BEST QUOTE/LINE

POSE: I thought old age would mellow a bitch

THE HANDMAID'S TALE: Blessed be the frootlloop