#the story itself isn't really linked with war but what I feel about it is

[karlyuchka]

I wanna share a little story of what happened with me on evening of 23th February 2022. Approximately 10 hours before full-scale invasion.

A long time I was visiting french classes in Kyiv (in Institu français) and I was returning home in late evening. The road was taking like an hour, bus ride was forty minutes.

I entered the bus like always and saw that it was almost full. Also I heard arguing. Apparently there was a drunk man in the back of the bus and a woman didn't wanna sit near him (understandable tbh). Even though he was drunk, he wasn't really doing anything, so I said that I would sit with him.

Then we started talking (wich isn't really good in the bus and we probably annoyed people around, but no one actually complained). I don't remember who started this conversation, but it was extremely interesting actually.

Before we departed the driver also said that this man didn't pay, which was weird because the driver didn't do anything to throw the drunk dude out.

So I asked him why and how he didn't pay and he said that he actually took part in war in ATO zone, so he can use public transport for free. He even showed me documents that prove it. At first I actually wanted to take it to examine closer, but then he said that no, he wanted only to show it.

I also thought that he was together with another man who was sitting near him, but no I was wrong.

He also gave a weird thing to hold, I forgot how he called it. It was black, kinda small, but very heavy for its size. So basically a type of dumbbell.

Then he talked about life in general and for someone who was drunk, he was extremely articulated and things that he said were actually pretty deep.

Sometimes when I do nothing I suddenly remember him and wonder what happened to him and where he is now. He already went through war, he was drunk in the late evening and the morning he wakes up he discovers that full-scale war started? What did he think at that moment? What did he feel? Did he join the armed forces the second time? I don't even know his name, but I can't help but wonder and worry about him. I don't know where he lives. Is he even alive right now? It's crazy how much I think about someone who is almost unknown to me. He probably doesn't even remember how we talked...

I just hope he's okay right now...

[genericpuff]

also love how you described aphrodite as a war goddess in your family tree chart!!!

ahh thank you! I know it's very divisive as to whether or not Aphrodite is a war goddess, much of the sources on Aphrodite Areia seem to be predominantly linked to the Spartans, whereas Hellenism worshipped her primarily for love, sex, and fertility, which is what she's widely attributed to today while her connections to war have fallen to the wayside.

But I personally love the duality of her being a goddess of both love and war, as both come from places of deep desire that are often intersectional - many men have gone to war and died in the name of love, and many more still have experienced the pain that love can bring. In that way, though you could argue that she may not have been specifically worshipped as a war goddess such as Athena or Ares, you can't really separate war from what Aphrodite truly represents - desire.

I know by default many people will say that Aphrodite is the "greatest goddess" simply because of the superstition that comes from worshipping anyone else more than her, but what makes her so powerful and respected is love itself, an emotion and state of being so pure, so twisted, so painfully human, so universal regardless of the context in which it's being experienced that it can be used as any amount of justification for both the greatest heroics and the cruelest betrayals. Love is a paradox, simultaneously worth living for and worth dying for, an overwhelming joy for another being that can be felt instantly but just as quickly turn foul. Paris was gifted the love of Helen, which initiated a ten year long war on Troy; Odysseus persevered for 20 years in the name of love, sacrificed six of his own men for love; Orpheus defied death for love, and brought about his own downfall in love; Hades abducted his bride out of love, inevitably dooming the Earth to death and decay for half the year at the hands of a loving mother grieving for her lost daughter.

Even when Aphrodite isn't physically present in a story, she is there in the actions of a story's characters made out of love and desire, and she is as inevitable as the Fates and the passage of time. Aphrodite is a goddess of love and war because love is war, and so to try and separate her from war feels like a severe underestimation of the power she possesses over mankind more so than any other god or goddess. Though you could argue her domain over human emotion and their consequential actions limits her in her influences unlike that of the primordials or Titans, without man to worship them or perceive them or tell stories of them, then what is left of gods? Unrequited love and desire.

[cripplecharacters]

One of my characters in a fanfic is Harriet Hook, daughter of Captain Hook. I was going to have her lose her left hand in an assassination attempt, where someone tried to burn down her house with her brother and sister in it as collateral. The door was barred shut with planks of wood, and, long story short, the fastest way she could get out left her hand severely burned and lacerated, with several shattered bones. If they had access to modern medicine they might have been able to save her hand but, because there wasn't even a way for them to keep if clean until the skin healed, the best they could really do was just amputate it. Like her father she replaced her hand with a hook (having one hand and no hook would make being a pirate kind of difficult,) and then she went from there. I just have a few questions.

Is it reasonable for her to be more angry about the assassination attempt than upset about her hand? Her father has been getting around fine with his hook for her entire life and he raised all three of them with either one hand or a hand and a hook, so she knows it's not the end of the world and that she has a good source on how to adapt to it. She's just more pissed that someone tried to burn her alive.

She later becomes a queen after the war (the war is why someone tried to assassinate her, because she's leading an uprising.) Would it make sense for her to either keep the hook or just go without rather than get a fancier prosthetic? She'll have the option but she already knows how to adapt to life with hook or with just one hand, but a fancy prosthetic, she's never seen anyone with those so it would be uncharted territory and I was thinking she'd prefer to just stick with what works.

Does this fall into the accident trope? I know it happened because someone was purposefully trying to kill her and she purposefully injured her hand because it was either that or let her siblings die and her children grow up without their mother, but it might still count. If so, is there a way I can make it better? I don't want to be disrespectful.

I get this is a long ask and you don't have amputee mods. Hope you all are having a great day!

Hello asker,

Making a note before my answer that we currently do not have any mods who are amputees!

So, to answer your question in parts:

Is it reasonable for her to be more angry about the assassination attempt than upset about her hand?

Yes, this makes sense. People can have a lot of complicated feelings about their disabilities, and to me it makes sense that one of her feelings about the event that caused hers is that what upsets her the most is that someone tried to kill her. Injuries do suck, but when they're caused by someone else's carelessness or malice, knowing or thinking about that can definitely be more upsetting than the injury itself. (Not that it has to be – different people will have different feelings about their respective injuries.)

Would it make sense for her to either keep the hook or just go without rather than get a fancier prosthetic?

Yes, this is definitely something many people in real life do. Here is a link to a post by cy-cyborg on why not all amputees use prosthetics, which also addresses that not all prosthetics work best for all people. In general, people like to stick with familiar things. If she has adapted to using just one hand or one hand and a hook, it makes sense that she could choose to continue doing so. "If it ain't broke don't fix it" type of situation. And as a character decision, her father's use of a hook as opposed to any other kind of prosthetic might influence her decision as well.

Does this fall into the accident trope?

When it comes to upper limb amputations that are not congenital, trauma is one of the more common reasons for them. Trauma (by which i mean physical trauma to the limb) is often accidental, so this isn't necessarily an inaccurate reason for your character to lose her hand.

So while it is an accident, I don't think that makes it automatically a disrespectful portrayal. In fact, your ask makes me think that it is a pretty respectful one. She has adapted to life with her injury and a hook is a common prosthetic even today. I think you've got some good character building blocks here!

Hope this helps,

– mod sparrow

[astrababyy]

https://www.tumblr.com/astrababyy/738088417973420032/one-thing-i-really-liked-about-feyre-in-the-first

This post of your makes me wonder if SJM wasn't a onetrick pony and respected her own stories and actually wrote characters and not tropes of girlboss ™️ what would've feyre's character trajectory looked like? I'm interested to know what do you think her arc would've been?

I sometimes feel like the problem isn't even Feysand being a ship it's SJM molding Feyre (& nesta) so they are similar to their bat boy mates. Because like there's S&B with darklina being it's most popular ship. Sure it's not endgame and that's because Leigh didn't completely change Alina's whole personality to fit the darkling. Alina got to keep the characteristics that made her who she is which is what made the chemistry between the two interesting too unlike in SJM's stories where she obliterates her fmc's entire personality to fit their male li and in doing so it ruins any appeal in the "ship" itself. Feyre/Feysand and Nesta/Nessian are both examples of that.

hello, anon! i rarely ever receive asks regarding meta or characterization so thanks so much for this lol <3

as i stated in the post you linked, i do believe that feyre's natural arc would've had some sort of internal conflict regarding both her trauma from under the mountain and her being turned into a faerie. i feel that rhysand's comment about her "human heart" could've been emphasized better in the second book and would've served as an interesting contrast from rhys, her established mate in the story. their morals are vastly different from each other; how does this change their relationship? would feyre accept him for who he is? would she judge him, scorn him, try to help him?

especially in regards to the impending war, i think feyre struggling with her newfound fae instincts, being different from who she used to be, and trying to reconnect with who she used to be while accepting who she is now could've been very profound and paired well with her struggles with the trauma she faced from under the mountain.

the major issue with feyre's characterization is how she was molded to become rhysand's partner, rather than being able to fit with him naturally and seamlessly. the same issue occurs with nesta and cassian's relationship, where her character has to be altered just to fit in with the person cassian is. in feyre's case specifically, it got worse as the books went on. feyre gradually became less and less alike to her old self without a clear reason for why she was changing in that way. as i stated before, her becoming a less violent-averse person due to her faerie nature is understandable and would've been a wake-up call considering her transformation, but feyre becoming less empathetic and understanding of the plight of the lower classes, becoming so much more okay with spending money carelessly, supporting rhysand's frankly corrupt government structure, etc. are all ooc.

feyre, as a character, had a lot of potential and could've had that transition into becoming this warrior queen without losing all her morals and beliefs, becoming a vessel for the pro rhysand agenda. it's truly unfortunate that her character had to devolve in the way it did.

[horizon-verizon]

Hotd is the trenches of white feminism because why else is it that most of the time when I see someone who actually understands why trying to change it to a story where both sides are wrong is actually both irresponsible and impossible, they so often turn out to be a bipoc woman? Why are we the ones out here having to defend white women and even the men around them from other white women who so often claim to be feminists and why is this also true in real life? I'm tired.

When the ASoIaF fandom itself is entrenched in white feminism with no real public acknoledgement of how/why people got the conclusions they did bc everyone wants to avoid being honest and just be either sexist/racist OR deny such things motivating some of the writers' decisions or other fans' feelings abt such and such...

the next fandom for the next TV/film adaptation will inevitably follow. And worse bc HotD is the hub of male gaze and misogynoir-baked-into-the-writing that reinforces it all.

I have had to explain how male gaze is different from "female gaze", how it has always been about trying to make subordinate a woman's true perspective AND agency for male-viewer excitement and confidence. To make the female subject no longer subject or actor as the male. How it constructs a pleasure in seeing female subjects subordinated, that that is its inherent purpose and function.

ANOTHER LINK

Not about "who is hot", or "looking with disrespect", or "what makes men attracted to women" like female gaze is supposed to be about "what makes women attracted to men" or gets them hyped or whatever. This, what I just described people have done/said about male gaze vs female gaze, is a complete misunderstanding AND attempt to redefine what male gaze is/what it has always really been about to distort the unnatural desire to see female objectification as "natural".

Something that neoliberal capitalism has tricked many people, inclu women, into believing like it has tricked girls into thinking sex work isn't as dangerous and "a big deal" bc you're making money being a commercial product of a patriarchal society.

I will repeat: male gaze, as a theory/application/criticism/observation of patriarchy in film/media was about how & why women are agency-less/mitigated objects for the male-centered or male-as-the-actor/subject story.

In the male gaze, the "woman" is not "the maker of meaning", but the "bearer of meaning".

And Laura Mulvey was a white, "mid" class woman...and other white women can't even get this shit in their fucking brains for more than three seconds.

I, too, am tired.

Now, of course we can understand how both sides went into a war that ravaged an entire realm in under 3 years. how it lead to the end of dragons before Daenerys. How we can seem to chalk it up to noble people being typically selfish nobles...however, what makes this unique is the fact that it could have been entirely prevented if sexism itself did not exist. That Rhaenyra was a woman mattered and defined the entire trajectory of the greens' moves & motivations & confidence into usurping her in the first place. This is just basic fact. Not even Maegor's war w/his own nephew (Aegon the Uncrowned) was this devastating!

(LINK#1 & LINK#2, both by zaldrizer-sovesi) The Blackfyres came from xenophobic, [likely] ableist, desires for self-aggrandizement and have a lot to do with ideas of masculinity and power: bastard given a ruler's sword by the past one vs nonmilitant legitimate ruler who invites the "Other" into his court--using such things already in the society for one's one advancement. If we can acknowledge that, why can't we acknowledge the same for Rhaenyra/the Dance and sexism?!

Why do we need to subordinate that under "both sides bad", instead of the other way around? Again, Condal and many HotD "neutrals" have argued that "both sides bad" is the "point" of the war...which, it it actually were, then what is the goddamn point of it if it can be subsumed under "oridinary" nobles' wars?!! What is the point of the Dance or even adapting it at all? bfr!

[eihwaz-y-d]

Twin Skeletons

Part III

Beginning Previous Part

People who wanted to be tagged8: @queenieofsouls @my-mom-calls-me-rat

If anyone else want to be tagged just say something! I'm done with the exam so here the next part. Enjoy! I also figured out how to hide a link in the texts so I can link to whole story together. Yeahy.

Again: I know nothing and do what I want.

His instincts are at war with each other. On one side he wants to cry and hug the male before himself and be held in return. Once this person was safety and home and family. But on the other side his core is screaming and raging because this sword killed him once, his hands hold the sword that killed him, his blood is on this blade and hands. And then there is a there is a third side, the human side, the living side, that doesn't understand. 

He can't remember, he does not understand. Danny feels like he is being ripped apart and for a moment he wonders if it will feel like this if his parents ever get their hands on Phantom. 

He doesn't understand and doesn't know what to do. He wants to scream and wail till it will despair (or at least till the building will collapse around them). He wants to flee, to run and hide till its safe again, till he can't be hurt again. He wants to fight, to protect himself, to let it never happened again. He can't decide what to do so he doesn't do anything, he just bites down on his hand to prevent himself from wailing, hides his eyes behind his hair and other hands and hopes he will soon know how to ask the question that are burning on its tongue without the danger on bringing the building down. 

The temperature is rapid falling, Damian could see his own breath ( it's summer, he should be able to see his breath useless some villain has done something again) and the frost is climbing the window. And while everything grows cold and freezes, the boy, clone, the Doppelgänger, his brother Danyal is having some kind of breakdown. That does not go like he hoped he would. He hoped to get some answers and maybe the breakdown is an answer in itself but one Damian can't properly interpret. 

"Are you familiar with the name Danyal Al Ghul? Or Damian Al Ghul?" 

The teenager rips his hand out of his mouth, blood flows freely from where he bit on it. 

"You killed me! You shoved this damned sword through my heart! Why do I remember something that is…. That is….. It isn't impossible, or? It did happen? Who are you?! What do you want from me?!" His voice is strangled in his fear and rage. But there is also a gruesome echoing growl in this teens voice that triggers some part in Damian's brain that lets him feel like prey. He takes instinctive a step back before he really can deliberately think about it. So much for that doppelganger theory. 

His heart tighten in his chest. It's only a clone. It can only be a clone. 

Danyals clone is pacing by now. One hand buried in his black hair and still asking questions. Strange behavior for one of mothers clones, maybe it was a failure? Just like Danyal once was? But why him? Does he really need to kill his brother again? 

" Why did mother made you?" 

" 'made me' pff, that's one way of saying it. I don't know. Maybe my birth mother just wanted some fun? But maybe she…. Still makes no sense. Ugh, my head is killing me." The clone mumbles the last part to himself while rubbing his temple. 

He really looks as if he was in pain. If Damian is careful he can give the clone a quick and merciful death, not like the first time. It would be easy, his defense is down and Danyla was easy to kill back then. Damian carefully grips the hilt of his sword again, trying not to draw any attention to the movement.

 The clone has his back turned on him, it couldn't be any easier but why isn't the clone dead already? Does he hesitate because it's not himself he would kill? No, the only reason he hestial is because he needs to know what his mother is planning. That is the only reasonable conclusion, not because of guilt or grief.

" That's not what I meant. Why not stick with clones of me? Why make a clone of Danyal?! Answer me! What is her plan?"

Danyal's head snaps back to Damian, his eyes focus back on the sword and for a moment he looks confused. 

" A clone?" Then a hysterical laugh burst from his shaking form while tears runs down his face. 

" You want to kill me again? Oh Ancients, how many times do I need to die. " 

" just one last time. don't worry, it will be quick." 

" Yeah, no. Sorry assassin dude, I'll pass."

"Are you making fun of me?! Danyal was easy to kill the first time back then, now would be no different!" 

" If it really was so easy, then why am I still here and not six feet under?"

Without a warning Damian draws his sword and strikes in one fluid movement but the clone moves faster to avoid the blade. He makes the move to strike again but Danyal's clone just moves into his space and grabs his arms. They are close, Damian can feel the cold radiating from Danyal copy, Danyal was always a bit colder. Danyal twists his body and throws Damian over his shoulder. Damian hasn't even crashed into the ground before Danyla is running. 

Danny run. He did not know where he was or how to go back to the hotel but he needed to get away, to have a freak out somewhere far away, where he can't hurt anyone but in a city this big he wouldn't find a place. And so he ran.

His core is in conflict, on one hand his core recognised Damian as something safe, something he needs to protect but on the other hand his core is terrified and screaming because this ninja person killed him once. And this can't be right, it shouldn't be right because before today he never meet Damian, didn't he? Why does he even know the assassins name? 

Everything is confusing and his Headache only gets worse,, it would kill him if he wasn't already dead. And so he run till his instincts started to calm down, till it was safe again -at least as safe as one could be in a city like Gotham- only to realize that he still has no clue where he was. 

Danny was absolutely and hopelessly lost. Checking his pockets only proves to be a pointless effort, he left his mobile phone together with his wallet at the hotel. The little shade was also nowhere to be found. 

But on the bright side he probably lost his would be killer. 

Still, this is Gotham city, the chances of being mugged by the next person he finds are way higher than that the person would help him. 

Looking up towards the sky just lets his core sink further, there are no stars and no moon, only heavy depressing gray. 

Okay, Danny think, what else could he do? Going ghost is out of question, this is not his city and he really doesn't want anyone seeing phantom here where he is not supposed to be. Going ghost should be the last resort. 

Looking for the police station is also out, he doesn't know where he is or where to find it and asking people will probably only end in a mugging. Maybe he could looking for a police officer on patrol? Looking around Danny doubts he is somewhere, where the police would be patrolling regularly. But maybe he could find one of the bats, they are suppose to be heroes, hero's should be able to at least tell him where he is and where to go but he also knows first hand how dangerous a civil person running after a hero could be, not only for himself but also for the hero and besides that, he does not want to be on the radar of the greatest Detective -little does he know that he already is- he does not need someone else trying to figure him out or worse, hunt him down. 

Maybe he could find some store or fast food joint that is still open but Danny doesn't know how late it is or if any store would be brave enough to still be open, he doesn't know much about how living here would work. But in Danny's opinion this is the best he could have thought of. Jazz would be proud of his growing self-preservation skills. 

Not 10 minutes later he gets involved in his third mugging attempt. The thrill of being threatened with a gun or a knife is getting old pretty fast. 

" I have a pretty bad night so either you use your pretty little gun you have there or you let me go but I swear by the ancients if you shoot, you should pray that you hit your mark or you’re gonna regret-" the rest of his sentences get stuck in his throat as a strange feeling seize him, it feels like his ghost breath but not quite right, it's wrong and twisted and not unfamiliar.

The vigilante from the museum is here.

Edit : Next Part

[consistentsquash]

5 meta recs for monday

the humanity of creators by @danpuff-ao3

A brilliant short essay on parasocial relationships/separating creator and art.

Creation is such a personal, vulnerable experience. Art, music, writing, etcetera. Creation itself is deeply personal, but so is the experience of those creations. It creates a point of connection, in a way. Connection to the creator, connection to other fans. But experiencing these works does not mean you know the creators. You know a piece of them, perhaps, but not the whole of them.

 

Must-know for Japanese fandom: the meaning of "proship" and the concept of "proshippers" in Western fandom by Maromi

Really well-written essay about Maromi's experiences with antis. Especially love the perspective of cultural differences and how folks can use literally anything to harass you if you are making some problematic art. Link is English translation of Maromi's actual essay in Japanese.

Proship-antis (hereafter referred to as "antis") began to claim that the "pro" stood for "problematic," and expanded their scope beyond a specific ship war to instead begin attacking all "proships." As the definition of the word became muddled, the number of young antis increased, especially among teenagers, who would attack people who supported any kind of problematic ship. This has sometimes escalated to bullying, to the point that one might become a target for harassment if they don't prove that they aren't a proshipper, or might be ostracized for not putting "proship DNI" in their profile. It's also used as a tool for racism―asking someone whose primary language isn't English whether or not they are a proshipper, and if they can't prove that they aren't, they may become a target for harassment. (This is what happened to me.)

  Mumbles by eldritcher

A really poignant look at fandom changes esp HP slash fandom changes. Incisive and resonates a lot.

LJ fandom was criticised often for its cult of nice that was a facade hiding all manner of nonsense. There’s truth to that, but what I’ve seen in the days after I find magnitudes more unappealing. The polemics of identities conducted so effectively and continually in modern fandom and fandom-adjacent publication genres is quite extraordinary. It's wicking out voices and stories, and it’s become an exercise in walking on eggshells. New authors, or new to English authors, or authors unfamiliar with or uninterested in Anglosphere cultural discourse, may not be able to do what I could do in the aughts, because of everything they’ll have to fear tripping on. 

  House elf plotline: A Critique of Author Choices by @ashesandhackles

HP meta in 2023??? Trust me! I really liked this meta and definitely recommend reading it even if you don't normally go for meta. It's just an incredible summary + observations of the worldbuilding. Definitely one of the most objective metas I have read in HP. You should actually think about posting it on AO3, @ashesandhackles.

With a character that had this much thought and agency in Chamber of Secrets specifically because of what it meant for house elves as a whole (and one whose presence made Hermione excited in GOF and hope that other house elves look at his example), one must ask ourselves: why?

  cringe by lierdumoa

The Revenge of the Pearl Clutchers That's what "cringing" is. It's pearl clutching. When the pearl clutchers turned cringe into an adjective, they turned a reaction into an accusation. The pearl clutchers don't want to take responsibility for their own kneejerk emotions. They want to blame YOU.

I feel like there's a lot of folks who are trying to reclaim cringe. But some newer folks are kind of missing the history context behind a lot of fandom vocabulary like this.

[silver-wield]

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review Chapter 4!

Okay, this collection of posts will be filled with spoilers, including clips and screenshots, so if you don't wanna see things, then don't look. Some of the things I'm gonna highlight will include references to Remake and other sources to link with the overarching plot. This is a straight path playthrough with no sidequests or extra content.

Now you know, let's go!

Chapter four is a meaty fucker. Once you discount all the waffle you can do with sidequests and other random things, chapters 1-3 aren't actually that long and involved story content wise. Chapter four is really the start of the bulky content. And I'm gonna summarise most of it because I'll be here all day otherwise.

Okay, once we cross the plains and reach Under Junon, we're basically thrown into the fight with Bottomswell, although it's not called that anymore and icba to recall what its new name is.

The battle itself is pretty fun and makes full use of Tifa's flight capabilities if you know what you're doing.

The plot has been changed slightly. We don't rescue Priscilla, but instead it's Yuffie in trouble. Our buddy, Mr Dolphin, has his moment at the end with a combo and he comes back into play later when we climb the electrified tower, which I honestly thought wouldn't happen because it's pretty cringe originally, but they made it work so I can't complain.

Once we've dealt with Bottomswell and made it back to shore, we find the mayor giving Yuffie CPR. Now, I noticed Cloud scrutinising the procedure, so I'm suspicious about this coming back at some point in part three. There was originally a draft of Tifa giving Cloud CPR that didn't make it into the game, so it's possible they're planning on doing something with the idea.

Anyway, we save Yuffie and get a hilarious bit between her and Barret. I honestly love their dynamic. She's such a kid and he's got so little patience for older kids. I feel bad for future teenage Marlene 🤣

After we agree to meet Yuffie, it's back to the inn for some convos and rest. This one with Barret amused me. Cloud knows he likes the limelight and plays along with it. This detail also comes into play later the GS when Cloud's defending Barret to Dio.

On the way to his room, Cloud overheard a strange voice coming from Aerith's room. This is the first hint that Red isn't exactly what he seems to be. We also hear more about the whispers and what happened to them both. This is actually interesting. What exactly did Sephiroth need to steal from them?

This chat with Tifa is non-optional, unlike the others, and delves deeper into their relationship and her suspicions about what he remembers. They have a heart to heart, but aren't quite on the same page, which leaves them both a bit downcast.

Next morning, Yuffie intrudes to let the group know she's been hired to kill Rufus at his inauguration. She escapes and they're left to pursue her and hide in plain sight as troopers. But they also want to talk to Rufus about whether they're actually being hunted.

But before all that, Cloud has to go hopping off the back of a dolphin to climb the tower. And yes, he looks smug when he's done because he's a lil shit 🤣

Meanwhile, we get some snippets leading into part three's storyline in Wutai with EC's Glenn making an appearance. Rufus literally killed him, and going off what he spoke about, it's possible he's actually just Sephiroth in disguise and using Glenn to stoke war and gather more dead souls in the lifestream to corrupt it. But we won't know for sure until part three.

After the failed assassination, Cloud splits up with the others and finds himself stuck with some of the platoon he was directing in the parade. You have to keep them alive to succeed at this part.

At the end of the gauntlet is a rematch with Roche. And after you kick his ass, he helps you get to the dock to board the ferry.

Cloud reunites with his team and has picked up a few stragglers. And Yuffie. Who's in disguise as a robe. But that's for chapter 5.

A lot happens plot wise in this chapter, but most of it is set up for part three. Rufus mentions he's read Cloud's file, so that'll be interesting. There's also the plot with Glenn and stuff with Roche. And that's before we even get to Sephiroth.

[draquus]

Tears of the Kingdom spoilers ahead:

I am playing TotK for the second time now, and I'm sad because it's a somewhat disappointing experience. The first playthrough, I was really drawn in by the story, and the experience of exploring the depths.

Now, all the tension of the story is just completely gone, because it was all dependent on believing Zelda's sacrifice was a profoundly meaningful thing. But the way the story ends, it just...isn't. She gets to go back, doesn't even remember being a dragon at all. Link gets completely fixed up with no consequences.

I am not, and this is important, complaining about it having a happy ending. I think Link being able to save Zelda is a really important thing, and it wouldn't have been a game I could fully enjoy if he hadn't. I just wish it felt earned. I wish he had to sacrifice something (like, you know, his arm). I wish there had been some connection between him and Raru and Sonia to justify their being able to fix things at the end. Were their spirits trapped somehow, and his freeing them gave them the ability to actually help? (Yes, that is the plot of BotW, but at least it's a plot). I wish Zelda's sacrifice left some mark on her, whether physical or emotional. I wish we had a better sense of how long she was in the past. It kind of seems like it might have been a year or more, but it also feels like about a week. I spent my whole first playthrough motivated by the deep sadness and pity evoked every time i saw the Light Dragon in the sky, but now I just can't make myself care.

And like, I get it, some plots just don't have as much tension when you know how they end. But the whole game is kind of like that. I have no desire to re-explore the Depths, because now I know there's almost nothing there. Once you realize it's just an inverse map, with few points of interest and a lot of repetition, the motivation is just gone. The sky is even worse. I was getting sick of it even on the first playthrough. There are no biomes; there are repetitive enemies, repetitive puzzles, and no story. Part of what made BotW so enjoyable to play and replay was how every new place told you something about itself and its history. For example, the broken guardians were a constant reminder of Link's failure, but they weren't just there. You could see why some outposts had survived, an why others hadn't, just from the placement of the dead (and sometimes terrifyingly alive) guardians. You could see the tragedy of a failed last stand, or a forgotten victory against all odds, written in the world around you. I played BotW at least six times, and it only felt a little overly familiar when I had basically memorized everything. I can't fault TotK for not being that level of amazing (BotW is in a league of its own), but I feel like it doesn't even try.

Now, don't get me wrong. TotK is still a fun game. It's just all the things it does best (the weapons, the building, the different abilities), are not really the things I love about Zelda. I did enjoy the actual dungeons, but they were mostly too short and too similar to the divine beasts. Only two of them (wind and lightning) really had interesting story elements. The things I love about Zelda games are the stories, the puzzles, the atmosphere, and the characters. This game seemed like it had all those elements at the beginning, but none of them really came through in the end.

Also, there is nothing about Raru and Sonia's child. Like, it's fine that he/she is not a major player, but we need to know why. Is it because it's a baby? Who has this baby, and why do we never see Raru & Sonia (the Good Parents) actually taking care of their child? Is (as seems more likely) their child already mostly grown and maybe having adventures somewhere else? Then why is he/she not at all involved in the Imprisoning War? Like, again, I can think of several answers to these questions, but there needs to be at least a hint.

Anyway, I do want to reiterate that this is not a bad game. It's just a frustrating mix of fantastic pieces that don't quite come together.

[deathdxnces]

one thing i really enjoyed in sisterhood of war was the way the environment was portrayed. the story doesn't make ionia seem less magical, or even paint it in a more somber sort of way; instead, it makes it clear how alien that is for the people not used to it, and how nightmarish it can turn when the land is alive and does not welcome your presence there.

"gentle rain that glittered and shone with every color of the rainbow" isn't a description that would evoke horror. even the next part, which gets more into things not being the same way they naturally are in other places isn't inherently negative. "some of the drops struck the ground as rain should, others winked in the air like tiny stars, dissolving in a mote of light with the soft chime of a distant bell" is still pretty imagery, even though the "as it should" makes it clear the character sees it as unnatural. what i like the most is that, despite it all being described in a way that evokes beauty and magic, there's no wonder in how that's looked at — instead, that's followed by saying the noxian soldier hated ionia, and that the land haunted her even in her dreams. it's not even just the war, or the ionians; it's that the land itself is a source of so much discomfort that it bothers her even in her sleep.

unlike arrel, erath (the character in this excerpt's pov) is in ionia for the first time. she fought during the invasion, but he's young and only recently became a soldier, and his perspective is that of someone seeing all of this for the first time; it's not as negative, but it's still portrayed as dreamlike and unreal. it's all so different from what he's used to he starts to extrapolate what may or may not be, because if everything is so surreal, why wouldn't the sounds be trees calling to each other instead of animals? and i love the idea of how much the noxians don't understand ionia and don't know how it works and that its magic becomes frightening as a result.

i mentioned it before in a post about the blade dancers (i'll link it here if i can find it), but in zinneia's art, she and a bunch other dancers are mixing their costumes and what seems to be illusion-related magic to create a certain effect, and when you look at the whole, it seems there's part of a woman and a giant insect thing (which makes the noxian soldiers wary), but when you look closer, it's just a bunch of other dancers there.

and i'm bringing it up because i think it plays right into that idea of exploiting the fact they understand so little and do not know what to expect. it's making use of that to fight back, distracting and turning it into a likely surprise attack of sorts, that won't happen the way the soldiers would be expecting, since they're looking at it like a beast and not a number of fighters. and i'm especially fond of them using the noxians' ignorance about magic against them when magic is supposedly at the very center of why noxus wants ionia so badly (one of irelia's lines is they came for our magics. they'll pay with their lives). it's just neat they turn the thing noxians supposedly wanted and use their lack of understanding against them.

going back to how the noxians perceive ionia, after a while into their journey erath is already clearly Not a Fan of ionia. to someone familiar with noxus, ionia is seen as unnatural and bizarre. but i think that, more than just the difference in how these two places work, that is deeply tied to how unwelcome they are in ionia. i doubt someone originally foreign, but accepted by the land, would regard it the same way, even if things were seen as odd at first. i like to think even in the moments the land isn't outright trying to murder the noxians they still never get to feel comfortable because the spirit's presence makes them feel this place doesn't want them there.

and speaking of ionia making noxians miserable, it's noted throughout a good portion of the story that it's constantly raining, making things harder and more miserable for them (imagine the effect when it isn't a small group of people, but an entire army trying to march under incessant rain and unreliable soil c:). erath doesn't think that's purposeful, but we know the climate is also influenced by the spirit, and the story itself suggests that (but we'll get there).

they seem to get a break from that, and erath even feels like he can appreciate the land more (it's not unnatural, unreal or bizarre; now it's "wondrous", "breathtaking", filled with "graceful harmony"). i just really like the detail that, despite that, he still looks at it and feels like an outsider; capable of seeing the beauty in it for a moment, yes, but not part of it, purposefully left outside of this melody that is beyond his ability to experience.

i like how this also highlights the difference between noxian ways and ionian ways, and how influenced by the environment some of that is. to the noxian soldier, the need to make a fire leads to the idea of a simple solution: chopping the necessary wood. he has the notion trees are living beings in the same way we do, and is kind of terrified at the prospect even the trees could try to kill him (he ends up just picking up fallen branches, which work just as well, but that he wouldn't have looked at if not due to the fear of retaliation). ionians learn to respect the life and the spirits around them; they do not cut trees, not because they are afraid of the consequences, but because they respect them as living beings. the trees are convinced to grow in a certain way and entwine with others to shape a house; they're not just taken for the materials they can provide. and even though all that is certainly influenced by their respective environments (noxus not being anywhere near as alive as ionia, being a harsh land where survival was difficult vs ionia being so magical and alive and how its people know that's simply the way of things), there's no way both sides wouldn't be astonished by the other's approach.

the text doesn't state that, but the impression i got (and the reading i like to do of it) is that the break in how miserable the weather was, allowing the noxians enough respite they started to get somewhat comfortable, would've been purposeful on ionia's part — because it's when they're no longer expecting that the river flooding happens, except it isn't just a river flooding, it's a living river trying to murder them. i also like that in this case, that's a much more terrifying display of ionia's magic. where the other descriptions show even the beautiful is unsettling to those who see it as unnatural, this part shows ionia is also capable of being ugly and furious and brutal. it's scary, it's cursing its invaders, it's enraged. i'll not get into it re: irelia and how justified she feels in her own hatred and rage because of how ionia deals with noxians but. yeah.

right after they escape the murderous river, the weather gets miserable again, which definitely points to how the spirit of ionia influences even the weather, and also the reason why the period of good weather the noxians get seems like a purposeful trap. as soon as the attack is made and fails, things go back to how they were before (even worse, actually, as this is a much fiercer storm), with the sun vanishing in minutes. tell me this isn't ionia pissed off they didn't die :/ it is. i know it is

but my point is i greatly enjoy that all of that portrays how alive ionia is and how much it influences the lives of people in it, at the same time it shows that all of it is at best surreal to the noxians and at worse bizarre, unsettling or downright frightening. it's no wonder several passages also highlight the noxian soldiers being very wary and spiteful toward magic. but that's a discussion for a different post.

[elibean]

Hi....If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

no need to apologize! this is a great question, thank you for asking! i think i'll go with anime just 'cause it's easiest (i have a MAL and rank every series i watch from 1-10). i originally had movies in here but i think i'm gonna cut them out and just keep it to series and ovas. and "why do you love them" is an AWESOME question I never get! i don't know if i'll be able to explain myself well, but I'll try!

fullmetal alchemist ('03). why? this was pretty much my gateway anime. it's been over 10 years I believe since I've last seen any of it, so it's entirely possible that my opinion has since changed. but i definitely have nostalgia goggles on for it, and i know it is actually good, too haha

2. natsume yuujinchou (specifically seasons 6, 5, 4, and 3). why? some seasons of natsume i have rated higher than others, apparently. natsume is a special show. due to the nature of how long it is, there is the drawback that sometimes it feels like it repeats itself and tells similar stories. but even then it is just such a good story of found family and finding love after a life of strife, and it's just. very good. (i do think it should end soon though before it feels like it's just recycling old stories)

3. made in abyss. why? season 1 still stands out to me above the movie and 2. it was such a special experience. the art, the animation, the background art, the music, it all comes together to create such a fascinating world. the weak point would definitely be its characters, but even then everything else comes together so well that it doesn't really matter. it has one of the best first episodes of any anime (when the sun came up over orth and the music cued in I knew I was hooked) and I also adore season 1's ending; if the show never got a continuation, it could have ended right there and I would have been content (not a lot of other anime can say the same about their endings!).

4. steins; gate. why? it's also been a very long time since i've seen this one, so possible my opinion has changed. still, I remember being super interested after the first episode, and the following 12 that people tend to critique as being "slow" or a "slog" never really felt that way for me. there was always something fun and interesting going on. i compare this one with link click a lot, just because people tend to go the magica route and i firmly believe steins;gate is the better time travel show (though lc isn't over yet so maybe an unfair comparison. still it'd take a LOT for lc to reach anywhere near the heights of steins;gate to me). when okabe goes back over and over to try and save mayuri, i just remember being absolutely floored. really good stuff.

5. vinald saga. why? it's just such a well constructed story. and the author's comments about not wanting a world with war is so interesting, given how violent the first season is. it's really interesting to watch thorfinn grow and change (and i never understood the hate that he was too violent or annoying or a brat? he's just a kid who's lost everything, cut him some slack jeez). i love the last shot of season 1, corny as it is-- all the memories reflected on the dropping knife was great. and askeladd was one of the best villains i've ever seen. he's not even ~morally grey~ or anything; he's pretty strongly in the wrong, but his thinking and motivations and everything are so interesting and compelling. i don't think it's perfect; there are flaws for sure (i wasn't the biggest fan of how in s2 canute just. decides to turn his ships back after a small conversation with thorfinn lol) but it is very good.

6. this boy cuaght a merman. why? ok this one objectively does not deserve a 10. it's a 30minute ova about a boy falling in love with a merman. that's it. it's not incredible or amazing or ground breaking. buuuuuut it's my favorite soubi yamamoto ova and i adore soubi yamamoto and so she's getting a place on this list. she is responsible for animating, storyboarding, backgrounds, directing, etc etc everything in here, it's incredible (and she was only like 25, or something when she did it. fucking bananas). i love her please go check out her works (besides crystallization)

7. noragami. why? ok again probably not objectively THAT good, but this is one of the first anime that got me to read the manga, and here I am some 10 years later (ok a little less than 10 years because I didn't start reading the manga the year it started publishing, I think). noragami's MANGA is incredible and amazing and wonderful. but I do believe (much against the popular opinion amongst noragami manga readers) that the anime is also amazing, and YES that includes season 1. the crew behind it really loved the manga I feel (at least the director did, and there's proof for that) and adapted it faithfully and well. noragami is a story of found family and of turning your life and fate around, and it's very good.

8. she and her cat: everything flows. why? this one is only 4 episodes, 8 minutes each. it tells a story of a 20-something (actually she's still in college iirc) who lives on her own with her cat, and is trying to be an adult. but it's told from the cat's perspective. it's so sweet; the cat comments on how she "grooms herself" (brushes her hair, puts on her interview clothes) and "looks pretty" and things and it is just so great. i love the line (not a direct quote) "she opens that heavy door again today and heads out. on the other side of that door is a somewhat unforgiving, somewhat cruel world. but she's doing her best to learn to love that world. and i love her for that." just....so good (also the show made me cry)

9. yuru camp. why? second iyashikei on this list! SOL/iyashikei is actually my favorite genre of anime, generally speaking, but it can be hard to do it well. yuru camp ABSOLUTELY does it well. i read a commentary once ages ago, about how one of the great things about yuru camp is that the girls are allowed to just... be girls, and it always stuck with me. there's no fanservice, and these girls really feel like real characters who exist. there was another commentary (maybe same one?) about how rin is this introverted, more lonesome character, but she enjoys the solitude. but what's cool about yuru camp is she is never forced to change or become more extroverted; her friends accept her for who she is, nadeshiko will invite her out but not push her, and then sometimes she does go out! and she changes and becomes a bit more social, but never gives up solo camping. AND the more extroverted, outgoing character INSTEAD comes to embrace solo camping! what a cool idea, executed amazingly! so the characters are a strong point here, but the banter and camping is a lot of fun too. i still haven't watched the movie, but i'll get there eventually!

10. odd taxi. why? this one is 100% on the writing. it is so clever and quick-witted, it's a ton of fun to watch. i've never watched any other anime like it. the mystery/thriller aspects are a lot of fun too, and i remember reading reddit threads and theories on this one as it was airing. what was so cool is that they plant subtle hints that you can ABSOLUTELY catch if you have sharp eyes (i likely wouldn't have if it weren't for reading others' theories) and you can know things before characters do. lot of fun.

--

wow this was so much fun to write up! thank you so much for the question!

[isntthatwrite]

sweetener,

happy birthday, sweetener! love you fr

brief astro moment- midnight chart for sweetener. i could say a lot here but mostly living for the moon jupiter conjunction in scorpio harshly squaring mercury in leo while also trining neptune in pisces. i think everything i'm about to say is a testament to that- expressing pain, sharing feelings hard to process, transmuting/alchemizing, romanticizing, hyperbole. plus libra venus for pretty packaging.

i enter the space first and foremost as a top 0.1% fan of ariana grande (as of 2023, we'll see how i fare this year). i stand here firmly. i also believe that some may say she has some "more influential" albums, some songs might be ""better"" (whatever that may mean), so on and so forth. this isn't the point. this is strictly a love letter to sweetener. not an album review, not lyrical analysis, just from the spirit.

summer 2018. summer of In My Feelings - Drake, Nobody - Mitski, The Middle - Zedd, I Like It - Cardi B/J Balvin, One Kiss - Calvin Harris/Dua Lipa, Make Me Feel - Janelle Monáe etc etc. grounding us all in collective memory. other notables: Meghan and Harry royal wedding, Anthony Bourdain's passing, Aretha Franklin's passing, Black Panther, A Star Is Born, Crazy Rich Asians, netflix Queer Eye reboot, Beychella, i googled an article of 2018 pop culture moments so i am surely forgetting essential lore but we will have to move on

the story truly begins with the release of sweetener's first single "no tears left to cry" on april 20, 2018. hours into taurus season 2018, if anyone was counting. a little about me and where i was on april 20th, 2018.....

finishing the spring semester of my 3rd year of college

preparing to start my 2nd of 3 co-ops (akin to an internship, for the uninitiated) for the 6 months of late summer/fall 2018

feeling an enormous internal pressure to have a substantial creative outlet

Very Very Sad (multiple reasons)

spring 2018 semester, i went a bit rogue with my coursework and i created one mega final project that connected every class i took that had a fairly open-ended final paper/project. i did a geographical, sociological, historical, and political analysis of graffiti vs street art (what's permitted, what belongs to each, styles, criminalization, media representation) in new york city. i explored so many angles and talked about so much material and learned and created on repeat for WEEKS and then april 20th hit and i had to turn everything in in the next few days. it would all be over. peak of my creative agony and i was also engaged in an emotional cold war that would go on to affect me for Years after. i certainly had several tears left to cry. as i had not cried any of them just yet and wouldn't for a while.

while coping with this creative blockage, i turned my attention toward having more agency in my dating life. i was distinctly unhappy with how my romantic affairs had been going, deep in shame and insecurity, and wanted to meet people and figure out what my deal was. i saw a tiktok a few months ago that posited that many of our crushes/situationships are actually people who should've been our creative partners, we just don't always have the language to express this (or even identify ourselves as artists). this framing opened the world to me - not just this statement itself, but drawing this link between flirty/sexual energy and creativity really opened my eyes. i could tell there was a distinct connection. spring/summer of 2018, it was emotional agony, but i was exploring and creating as i could. some painting first dates, always punctuated with "i'm not really an artist but this could be fun!" it was humble, but it was hugely liberating, in its own way.

Other important Sweetener dates:

"The Light Is Coming", ft. Nicki Minaj, was released on June 20, 2018 as promo with pre-orders - released following my yearly emotional cold war of a family vacation (you may be sensing a theme here...... repression....).

"God Is a Woman", the album's second single, released on July 13, 2018 - the end of one of my first weeks of co-op. i was such a professional mess, i had too many managers in that role, lots of personalities to learn, lots of material to learn quickly. outside of work, i was bravely embarking on a new relationship while the emotional cold war was at its peak. multi-layer mess.

the full album was released Friday August 17, 2018 - the week before that year's fall RA training (yearly ego death), i was also moving in to what would be my absolute favorite apartment of college

"Breathin" was the third and final radio single from the album, released on September 18, 2018 (post album release) - right after my philly trip. for some reason, every trip i've ever taken to philadelphia has wounded me on some emotional and physical level. even my 8th grade class trip. philly and i seem to have some sort of spiritual beef. astrocartography hasn't shown me anything relating to philly but i know something must be off. emotional pain so profound and unnamed that i had stomachaches so bad i couldn't stand.

late summer 2018, i was very close to getting a tattoo which would have involved both The Fool tarot card and the Queen of Swords tarot card. spontaneity, new beginnings, and adventure meet logic, balance, and rationality - definitely speaks to the inner conflict i was in at the time. i was on perpetual pursuit of the new and fun while overly worried about presenting fairly and without too much emotion. i knew i was capable of feeling very deeply, but i was pretty shut off to this part of myself. i think i had convinced myself that i was able to do this, but certainly not many people believed it. many witnessed my "subtle" loss of the idgaf war. even the people i only very briefly dated! i think my most common feedback from people i met was that i seemed very disconnected. worth noting that the tarot tattoo i actually ended up getting years later is the death card.

this album and i were moving in such stunning parallel at times and i couldn't even recognize it then. i was so out of touch with myself. to continue on for a bit as an ariana grande historian - there was a lot of pain in her life at this time! her relationships (there is a whole song on this album named after pete davidson), fame, even a bombing at one of her concerts the year prior, all while having to put on a smile and a show for the public. and these are just the things the public knows about! there was a lot going on and she could not slow down and digest (she talks about this in interviews as well, not just my own speculation) and i think this comes out in the music. there is something alchemical to me about sweetener. if i was big into music production, i'm sure i could go into analysis about how she layered so much (sonically) in the songs on this album. or vocal techniques. or who knows. i was so frazzled at the time, i don't think i could've evaluated any of this. the grander theme through the album, however, is this alchemy for the self. through anxiety and relationships and disaster and heartbreak and pain you haven't even fully felt yet, you keep yourself going. listening to this album kept me going! i could not put into words how much it kept me going through the worst of it. now, 6 years later, i make my best attempt to put it into words. journal excerpts below -

there is a sentiment sometimes, that the feelings you feel and cannot express will be enough to kill you. as they say - is it better to speak or to die? and sometimes the speaking kills you too. everyone says what they observe and deduce would be true, but i can never fake a feeling. painfully honest, despite my best wishes to prove myself otherwise, i knew what i knew. and what i knew was so divinely painful because it comforted me with the same familiar gut-wrenching story. sometimes, falling in love and repeating a pattern can be indistinguishable to you in the moment when you are not willing to be vulnerable. you show up, you play your part, you define love in the same way you always had. and it never actually was love. any of those times. it was so easy to induce the agony and call it what you wanted it to be. and it would never make it so. it always felt like lying. like you could tell yourself it was love, but if anyone asked you, you knew it wasn't the truth. love would never do this to me. but telling the truth would be worse! never been in love would be an excruciating defeat. i would know nothing of the world if this were true. i would be a bag of flesh and bones with nothing to give, nothing to tell, nothing to offer. doomed. unknowing. separate. alone. i had to feel like i understood, best case, i had to prove it somehow. work hard and that would make it so. turns out, no matter how hard you work, you cannot create what you won't let yourself feel. so you listen to people you have no doubt in your mind knew about love.

all i wanted was to be swept off my feet. for everyone to know it, too. girl who was and had been in love. wha a romantic title! i would prove my worthiness to writing dramatic lines about the depths of the human heart. anyone could relate to me, because they too had participated in the delicious agony and ecstasy of romantic love. i would be seen and heard and in no way alone. ever forward into time and space as one who was part of the lover's world. the lover's world shouldn't have felt so far. i was anxious, i was avoidant, i was whatever kept me out. and at the end of the day, it all felt the same and i admitted to none of it. if you always ask for something in the place you know it will never exist, at what point do you recognize that you'll have to leave? and if you really wanted it, why wouldn't you go where they actually offered it?

when you use powerful and descriptive words, you'll never have to convince anyone of the depth of your feelings. even though talking about your feelings is certainly not the same as feeling those things. speaking in hyperbole does not excuse your actions and certainly does not make you feel better about your path. but sometimes, it's the only thing you can think of to get you through. to verbalize such a pitiful misery that it becomes a performance and vents off some of the subterranean steam. i do not have to recognize the depths of the pain if i speak incredibly dramatically of my inner world (which i had no contact with at that time) to my audience of zero while listening to the alchemist's album. maybe i could get out. maybe it would be fine and no one needed to worry. maybe all love would be true and mutual and if it was really there, it could never escape me. maybe i could create the world where love was a beautiful fantasy that just happened upon me and swept me up and held me above the surface and i would never come down. the pain and the grief were gone when i spoke their name, and now i was fully enveloped in the world of What Can Be. the world where i love the glamorous merely for being glamorous, i feel what i name, i move with respect for who i am. i am not afraid and i am not forcing anything. if the show is beautiful enough, it will be believable and that will make it true.

at the end of the day, happy birthday sweetener, and thank you for saying and expressing what i couldn't.

[clouds-of-wings]

Marinating in Beloved Antichrist (as I still kinda do) makes me think, recently, of this post which I have already praised so many times. Because the way BA ends, its narrative, its "message" if you will, is so totally secondary to me to the way it paints the heyday of Seth's reign.

The story ends badly. Seth's reign leads to total disaster. It's not entirely his fault and the narrative doesn't assign blame to any one party, so one could read it in multiple different ways in fact. But emotionally, to me, it doesn't matter, because I don't think very much about the end of the story. What my imagination attaches itself to is how this utopian society would be, how it would feel to live in it. Seth and Helena in a beautiful garden, dreaming of the future. The mothers who are able to move on from their grief over dead children after publicly getting closure. My own headcanon of Seth's gleaming retro-futuristic Art Deco New Jerusalem (yeah, I know, involved, but that's how I imagine it, it's not too far off from the canon, and I enjoy it a lot). Seth liberating humanity from the shackles of pain so they can finally flourish instead of fighting stupid, meaningless, unnecessary battles against poverty, sickness, the idiotic wars of unenlightened rulers.

(Honestly, I think of this when the bus isn't super full for a change and I feel like a citizen, not like cattle that's being transported... I bet under Caesar Seth the buses are never over-full! And they're free! And they have big levers you have to pull for them to stop, because steampunk! Okay, I'm getting side-tracked now...)

The reason why I link the post above is not because I think Seth is a conman or like Tyler Durden or because I think the creators of BA want us to think Seth is bad but fail to do so (I think that's probably the last thing they want to do tbh). I link it because both stories end with defeat but in both stories it doesn't really matter. It's just so much more tempting to focus on when things are going well, and both stories spend more time portraying how things are going well for a long time first, with the defeat being just a small part of the story, one that registers intellectually but not emotionally. (At least for me - I don't really have anyone to compare notes with on that.) In BA that might actually be the point. I'm not saying the narrative is intentionally subversive media criticism (that's my own compare-and-contrast to other stories like Fight Club), but it glories in Seth's ascent and reign, not in his downfall. I mean there are three songs about how fascinating Apollonius is, an entire song just about the temple palace, Seth holds so many grand speeches - the glory of his reign is the point I think. Maybe the fact that it all breaks apart in the end only serves to accentuate that glory.

[leeyanyanyaaan]

afterthoughts for kh3

guess who's not sleeping again =w=

listen, i really enjoyed the kh3 experience, mostly bc of my bias for kh in general, the fun new additions like exploring in the gummi ship and cooking w remi, and especially graphics wise it was very visually pleasing to play through, but if i have to be honest, some things just put me off ESPECIALLY with how the story went (but its kh what else should i be expecting 💀) and some of the game mechanics.

if you asked me what my favorite of the kh games were, i'd answer kh2 and khbbs (with the addition of the main title games too tho haha). only i hated grinding on bbs and the powers were absolutely insane LMAO

but the video in the link actually covers a lot of stuff really well; as much as he disses the game the guy makes a lot of good points and feedback for his criticism in ways it could've been done better or how the previous games have done it.

honestly just ignore me i just want to put my thoughts somewhere LMAO

DISCLAIMER: This is purely subjective opinion!

If my opinion opposes your own, all I ask is for uhm... no knives please? ;w; and by no means do I intend for anything that I've said to offend or hurt anyone :"(

Gravity - This. Right off the bat he already points out one of the game mechanics that's been... well, come to my attention? I DEFINITELY noticed how KH3 has become way more aerodynamic. I feel like one of the reasons why, that I think he doesn't state, is because from the beginning we already have so many skill moves that it felt like we were already midgame lol (it's probably the wall climb and airdiving). But yeah, Sora's floatiness is pretty obvious, like, he just has a lot of airtime. The one thing I really wanted and hoped would be in the game would be a ground slam, like the one in Genshin. I mean tbf sometimes the more aerodynamic mechanics helped in fighting but only for the typical crowds of mobs; for bosses they can get annoying and get me more caught in attacks easily (then again, I'm not the best blocker OOF)

Attractions - Okay, for my case, the attractions was a great way to keep my baby sister entertained AHAHA she would always ask me "Ate! Ate! Do the unicorns! Do the teacups! Do the pirate ship!" with the addition of the Disney characters that she's a little more familiar with (cough Frozen and Monsters Inc cough) she always liked watching me play =w= but otherwise I'd usually ignore the attractions LOL. He absolutely called me out there tho AHSDJASKBD but I did not realize they were DisneyLand attraction rides until at least three rides where I pieced it together LMAO. I can see his point about its disjointedness from the gameplay and his ideas make sense but IMO I also think that saving the attractions for boss battles would work too like the train, eg. the Pirate Ship for The Caribbean? It also kinda makes me sad how The Carribbean was the only world to stay consecutively for the three title games :"( then again, it is a nice refresher to see the newer Disney/Pixar films in the game and I liked how way more fleshed out The Carribean was this time. Plus IMO the way they tied in the concept with the possible "New Seven Hearts" and the reason for why the characters could be a new heart of light actually made sense to me, so I didn't mind it too much... except that concept kinda just gets dropped in the end so 😐 (I mean, I get that they needed to purpose for the Disney worlds to still remain, but seriously, this isn't the first time KH just decides to drop a plot point when it's no longer relevant ToT)

The Original Worlds - !!! THE FACT THAT WE DIDN'T HAVE RADIANT GARDEN 😭😭😭 WHERE DID IT GOOOOOO I WANTED TO SEE THE RESTORATION COMMITTEEEE but I mean... idk i guess we still got to have Winnie the Pooh and Remi? and Scrouge and the triplets were still there too (but no more DisneyTown.) I guess I liked that there was more to do in the Keyblade Graveyard with the labyrinth? ig? The war itself... it kinda felt underwhelming 😥 then again, in terms of combat it really pales in comparison to BBS (even tho bbs was super op oof)... that game really gave me a challenge especially with Vanitas :") as for Scala ad Caelum... this is something that plays more to UX, doesn't it? (sidenote: I got so jelly when all the UX players got to be in the final attack 😭💔 by the time I wanted to download UX it wasn't available anymore :") and even when I did see it I haven't even gotten past KH1 first so... yeah) I wanted to explore the world but I forgot that the save data would be just before the final boss battle so I was stuck going on round 2 :") at least I got the secret movie I guess? Though I may just need to play through the post-ending save data a few more times to discover more things.

The Enemies - Like he mentioned about the unique special moves for each mob... Yeah, I really preferred KH2 and BBS's game mechanics over KH3... as cool as all the starter skills we got was, the battles, especially for the bosses weren't nearly as challenging as the past two days (remember when Mickey had to save our ass?). Back to when I mentioned Ventus, you really needed to think out a game plan and actually dodge or block attacks, you couldn't just tackle him head on especially because levelling up and grinding in BBS was terrible. Even though there were insane killer moves (which, IMO while yes they look too way OP for KH3, they were really cool!) not even that would've been enough, at least, not for your first 1v1 against him.

LMAOOO THE WAY HE DISSES BBS AT THE END 😂😂😂 fair enough though, i'm well aware bbs isn't part of the best games of the franchise, but then again, a big part of why bbs is part of my favorites is A. Aqua my waifu <3 and B. the storyline :") (fun fact, I even made a stand-alone BBS!AU for OCs with two of my old friends even though they knew nothing of the franchise! I only got them to skim through a BBS gameplay video and it was coherent enough for them to understand, me only needing to fill in the role of light and darkness LOL) BUT. I'M SO SO SOOOO HAPPY THEY'RE BRINGING BACK THE REACTION COMMANDS FROM KH2 TO KH4!!!! IT WAS MY FAVORITE MECHANIC IN KH2 BOSS FIGHTS! and probably in RPG games in general, the reason why I favor the first of the One Piece: Pirate Warriors series is because of the action commands and just how much more game mechanics there was in comparison to its predecessors.

One more thing I'd like to mention is the underwhelming performance of how scenes were carried out technical-wise... I mean, at this point I know it's nothing new but come on! The least they could very do is add subtle BGM to help carry mood if they're going to have empty spaces in between dialogue 💀 I know that they only added the Frozen songs for the marketing 🤡 but hey my sister liked it. Dialogue wise if I didn't like it I would just rewrite it in my memories 🤗

So now that game mechanics are covered, let's talk about plot :) warning though that uh I might be hazy on some details of the story by now, especially as half of the games I didn't have I watched gameplays of, so my understanding might be more limited than your average avid KH fan. I'm literally hanging onto this understanding by a thread ToT also it's three a.m. and my bestie insomnia is sleeping over <3

Like I mentioned above, what I did like about the plotline was how the New Seven Hearts were introduced and gave purpose and reason for each of the chosen Disney/Pixar worlds... UNTIL IT JUST BECOMES IRRELEVANT BY THE END OF THE GAME ToT but I mean, at the very least, it did make journeying through the new worlds more enjoyable? Well, for me at least. It's probably the Disney child in me talking 🤭 plus the fact that I played with my baby sister by my side.

But just as I was finally starting to get some sense of the plotline, it felt like by the end of KH3 they kinda just... dropped the ball. Rushed the plotline? Forced even. Especially in terms of Kairi.

I feel like we were robbed of Kairi's character. What was the point of her training to become a keyblade wielder if she was only going to be a damsel in distress in the end? It really only felt like she was just there to be the push Sora needed whenever he fell into... darkness. and only that. Literally. If Kairi was going to save Sora, couldn't it have been done at the very least, physically? With the keyblade? Show her strength? (pls i wanted badass kairi so bad and where she physically saved sora for once ajsdbkas)

The Keyblade War in general was so lacking :( like, when I said I rewrite scenes I didn't like in my head it was most of the keyblade war. It's probably harsh of me to say this, but I feel like they just didn't put in the effort the story deserved, for the keyblade war at least. Especially what were supposed to be emotional and moving scenes, they just didn't have impact they were trying to convey. The way the characters were thrown into despair felt so cheap, and they barely did much to turn the tables either. I don't know. I guess I was just expecting more because of the concept of "war". Literally, at the very least, they could've shown more reaction and action when they were under attack? As overdemanding this sounds, if they're able to program visually high quality combat mechanics for the whole of the game, why not for the cutscenes? Though this might be my lack of knowledge in the game development side of things.

And then the ending? Kairi's disappeared and now Sora's going after her...? (Update: just quickly watched a summary of Re:Mind. So Sora's gone because basically he messed with the Laws of Nature/Keyblade magic so Sora's disappeared to the Human World/Quadratum as punishment... I think? Well, I guess there's a little more closure now, albeit it feels like they've found a convenient loophole to bring back Kairi 🤡 KH Lore still not making any more sense as always LMAO) Like, is this really how we're concluding KH3? What about the Heart Hotel gang? The vessels? Like, hooray everyone gets to have a happy ending and be reunited but is this book closed end of story for them? The Heart Hotel played a big role for Sora and his powers and the story (I think I saw a tumblr post talk about this). I'm just- I dunno... no closure? I don't even know what to expect for Kairi in KH4. I know Riku is gonna be following Sora, but I feel like Kairi deserved way more than the role of the damsel of distress and the shining light for Sora. Is she really just gonna be yet another Shonen Female Lead with Wasted Power?

But I myself don't think I'd know how to connect the events of KH3 to the Quadratum in KH4 with a different ending. Maybe they should've played more on the idea of Sora falling to darkness, since they've emphasised this a lot (and well he's in the "afterlife" now). They seem to have the Heart Hotel sorted so they'll probably only be briefly mentioned as like voices or shining lights in Sora's depths of despair from now on. And again, I'm still hazy on certain parts of the KH lore, so I'm not sure how the Foretellers, Luxu and Master of Masters will tie in either (though do note that I haven't played beyond KH3 yet so maybe there's answers in the preceding games).

I dunno. Maybe it's just my sleep deprived braincell not processing information XD

Anyways, I'll just be here hoping for the story to continue to unfold and for the release of KH4 :D I'll also try to navigate my way around the rest of the games that I need to go through for lore. It's nearly four a.m. so I'll try get some shut eye now =w=

[Overall score: 8.5/10 ⭐]

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Can I just say that one of the things that I really enjoy about Twilight Princess is that while other LoZ games have Link kind of on his own for his journey (Hero of Time was basically running around in apocalypse land with a bit of guidance from Sheik and trying to singlehandedly free the sages, Hero of the Sky and his Zelda were basically solely responsible for ending a war that could obliterate the entire earth with help from the mighty Groose himself, and the Hero of the Wild was literally on his own trying to reverse a calamity that everyone else had grown accustomed to), this Link isn't fighting alone. He's literally a kid who is trying to find the children of his village, gets yanked into the insanity, and then stays because he's helping Midna. But he's not the only one trying to make a difference! There's a Resistance! There are other rulers and players trying to find their place in all this (like Prince Ralis) who are willing to help! It's a team effort, it feels like Hyrule itself is trying to fight back against the evil trying to obliterate the land! And Link's father figure is involved too!

I know the other Links have some support - Gaepora can be helpful sometimes with knowledge (though not much, and tbh while I like him he totally isolates Link by making sure barely anybody else knows to prevent mass panic), and Impa guides BotW Link a bit, but none of them are actively doing anything to assist. They're just kind of there for points in the story to guide you in the next direction. Rusl actively tries to find the children, including Link, and he actively is working with Telma and the others to get Link where he needs to go. I don't know, it just seems so much more involved in this game, like you're fighting alongside others in a fortified effort, rather than you just exploring Hyrule alone while everyone else cowers or doesn't even notice what's happening.

[copperbadge]

I think I found the Justin Hammer experience in Foodieverse). It's the mouth that seals it... https://everywhereist.com/2021/12/bros-restaurant-lecce-we-eat-at-the-worst-michelin-starred-restaurant-ever/

I've been tagged in this story a couple of times and I've kind of been waiting to discuss it because I knew once it started making mainstream news that the Bros folks would have to respond. Which they did, with an amusingly overwrought essay by one of the chefs (link below in the Today article).

More than anything I'm curious about a lot of context we don't have. Geraldine DeRuiter, who wrote the initial essay, is apparently experienced in fine dining, so the meal must have been pretty bad, because a) this looks like a lot of stuff I've seen featured on high-end and moga restaurant pages before, b) some of the dishes (the rancid ricotta, edible fish paper, the cuttlefish gelatin) have been on the restaurant's facebook page as featured dishes, so they've been around a while, and c) extremely long meals composed entirely of tasting flights with no main isn't...like, super weird, at that level of dining. (Although apparently they got 27 courses when they expected 13, so that's...certainly something.) So it appears that this isn't a question of culture conflict, that DeRuiter knew what she was getting into.

That being the case, I believe that the food itself must have been truly awful. Absolutely the issue with the allergens -- just plain not feeding a person with allergies -- is really out of this world bad. Restaurants at that level generally either happily accommodate dietary needs or completely refuse to even consider it and state so loudly and repeatedly so you won't go there. To say you will do it and then not do it is the kind of thing that can lose you a Michelin star, because exceptional service is a part of the rating. But given that some of what was discussed was reasonably to be expected given the dining situation, like...that must have been some really bad food.

So that leaves me to wonder what the deal with the restaurant itself is. Are they dealing with a service/labor shortage like much of the world? Did something happen to the chef and someone else filled in? Or did something go drastically wrong in the kitchen?

I feel like Today did a really good job of covering the story and to their credit reprinted the essay by Chef Pellegrino in its entirety per his request. What stood out to me in the article was that the essay was written by Chef Pellegrino, but DeRuiter didn't go there to eat his food -- she went there because she'd heard great things about one of the other chefs, Isabella Poti. One does wonder if perhaps she had the night off and has been rather carrying Bros on her own for a while.

But the behavior of the waitstaff suggests that this is a more structural issue, that either something has gone very wrong at Bros very recently, or that it's a long-term case of the emperor having no clothes, of DeRuiter just being the first person to point out that "rancido" dish, which has been on the menu as far back as summer 2021, is rancid cheese. (It looks like it's actually cheese in a rancid butter sauce.)

One even wonders if perhaps the greater level of attention we've all been paying to food service because of the pandemic has allowed a certain class of diner to finally puncture the flimsy pretenses of upscale restaurants. Certainly Pellegrino's defense of his food as something that asks complicated questions and doesn't serve up shallow "boring great master in a museum" meals does not incline me to think he's considering the nutritive or flavor value of his food. But it's not like I haven't seen that precise level of pretention before in plenty of Michelin-star restaurants (everything Grant Achatz does comes to mind). What he's saying is not new if you pay attention to high-end dining and the critic-chef forever war that plays out in newspaper reviews all the time. Perhaps we're just simply done with eating figurative bullshit?

Or something else is going on. I'd love to know what.

Overall, I do think it's important to remember that while it's not good to serve bad food, to ignore allergy requirements, or to write nonsense about it once caught in the act, these are human beings playing out a truly minor drama on a fucking world stage. Whether or not Bros is a bad restaurant, I don't know that it really deserves the worldwide scorn being heaped on it. There's a story there that I want to see, but I don't want to see these people tormented by millions of twitter users in the meantime. So while I think it's fair to discuss it and I hope I've done so fairly here, I want to remind everyone that when you do, it pays to be civil, cautious, and kind.